This, of course, is a very long-winded — Dickensian, if you will — manner of apologizing for leaving you hanging. But then again, I sincerely doubt you lacked for online entertainment in my absence from the blogosphere. There are, as I've discovered, other baseball blogs out there. Besides, the mini-hiatus gave me time to come to a few epiphanies about our 2011 San Francisco Giants, and damned if I don't feel a little lighter in the shoulder region. I'll share them with you now in the stead of another cookie-cutter midseason report...
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| © 2011 Associated Pres |
There's really no getting around it: Outside of one or two players, the Giants absolutely suck in clutch situations. Near dead last in sacrifice flies, bottom of the heap in runners scored from third with less than two outs, and don't even ask about our runs per game. They get a decent amount of hits, and they even work a few counts here and there, but they don't get 'em over, and they just can't seem to get 'em in — at least not before the seventh inning. But is one guy (and I'm talking about Carlos Beltran here) really gonna cause a sea change in our team approach to hitting? And would it be worth the cost in personnel and treasure?
Fact of the matter is, beyond the obvious need to upgrade production and defense at the catcher position, the Giants need to get more out of the guys who carried them through a rough and tumble second half last year. Yes, I'm talking to you, Andres Torres. It's gonna take more than one night of brilliance to convince me that you are "back". But that double over Ludwick's head was pretty sweet in a nostalgic kinda way... In all seriousness, if you don't recognize Torres is the straw that stirs the drink, we're not watching the same team.
And let's not forget, this lineup is missing its most professional spark plugs (Fred Sanchez) and its chewy caramel core (Buster Posey). Aubrey Huff has completely reverted to his odd-year self. Cody Ross only recently got hot after starting the year on the DL. And Pat Burrell is on a milk carton. Yet this team is 4.5 games clear of the D-Backs with the third-best record on the Senior Circuit. If you're looking for answers, I'd direct you to the Stranger Than Fiction section, where you'll find the titles Return of the Panda, The Arm of Vogelstrong, and Rise of Nasty Nate.
I get a little sick writing these words, but it's becoming all the more clear to me that it's true. The time has come to let Dirty go, and I really don't care what we get back for him. Ryan Vogelsong swooped in like Superman to save the Giants' pitching staff in the wake of Barry Zito's foot injury — and post accident stress syndrome — and he's going to save them again by making it easier to cut ties with everybody's favorite work in progress.
Jonathan Sanchez is a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma. You simply don't know what you're going to get from him start to start, and that just isn't cutting it anymore, particularly with the Giants playing a lot of low-scoring games. His stats aren't terrible, but they're not superlative either. And the walks have started coming back to haunt him, just like we always feared they would. The lack of focus is obvious. The lack of confidence is troubling. Sooner or later, opposing GMs won't want to take the risk of wasting prospects on a lost cause. But the iron is still lukewarm...
Meanwhile, Ryan Vogelsong is born again hard and shows no signs of slowing down. We'll learn a lot as he begins facing N.L. West teams for a second and third time, once they've had a chance to see him and make adjustments. But if he keeps on shining, I don't see how you can't look at moving Dirty to another market. Maybe it'll wake him up. Maybe he'll turn everything around. Maybe he'll come back and stick it in our face. But I'm willing to take that risk, because he ain't getting any better here.
#3 - Barry Zito, on the other hand, is here to stay.
Regardless of what you think of Barry Zito and irrespective of his stats from here on out in 2011 and beyond, there's no way you're dumping that salary on anybody and getting anything of merit in return. And there's no GM worth his salt who'd jump at the chance to add him to their rotation. Like it or not, winning or not, Barry Zito is here to stay, and given his history, I'm confident in predicting he'll continue to pitch like a solid fifth starter and average 200 innings a year for the remainder of his tenure with the team. If he performs at a higher level, we'll call it icing on the cake. But the sooner we all admit that NOBODY should be paid $18M a year to throw a baseball, the healthier we'll be.
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| © 2011 Associated Press |
Okay, I can understand how you might think this is not exactly news. Bear with me... I'm a passionate fan. I chew on my cap. I throw inanimate — and sometimes quite animated — things at the television. I wear losses like a scarlet letter. I bleed orange and black. And while I haven't lost any of my piss and vinegar, I'm noticing it takes an awful lot more to bring them pouring out than it used to.
This team may be the most frustrating selection of men or women to ever set foot on a playing field at the professional level, but the sheer laughable insanity of their championship run — and seemingly every single game since — puts out the fire of my anger like a cool glass of lemonade. I walk on a cushion of confidence, and I brush off defeat with a shrug. For we are the champions, and can't nothing take that away.
BTW...
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| © 2011 Associated Press |
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| © 2011 Associated Press |
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I don't know what it is about me, but I get hella emotional over the dumbest shit. Case in point: that Carl's Jr. commercial where the robot tries to eat the chicken sandwich. I know it's supposed to be funny, and I understand how most people think it's just stupid, but for whatever reason, it gets me down. Maybe it's my underlying frustration with the limits of the physical world. Or perhaps it's only pent up frustration from my neverending battle with ennui...
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Mat Latos... STFU. See? I just couldn't stop myself...
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| © 2011 Associated Press |
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