Before this season began, I would have never expected our beloved Giants to be 3 games under .500 going into May. Our young players are getting the job done and things definately look promising...even for the remainder of this season!
Now my question to the rest of the fans is how much of Barry Zito's dismal season can be blamed on him and how much can be blamed on poor defense? I've done some research and after looking at the numbers, we're one of the better defensive teams in the league and #2 in strike outs (202) in the MLB, but we're also top 5 (112) in walks and have a very high OBA (.271). I know Zito has a very high OBA (something like .449) but look at the starters who are having success this season: Tim Lincecum and Johnathan Sanchez are both averaging over a strike out per inning and Matt Cain is just under a strike out per inning. Zito has never been a strike out guy always relying on good defense behind him to make plays. Just kind of curious as to what everyone else thinks.
We can't blaim our defense for Zito being so bad. Zito has just been terrible, poor defense or not.
Speaking of, if Zito would at least be 3-3, we would be at .500 right now, in second place.
Honestly i never expected us to be any good either, but it's been fun so far, hopefully we can continue to play good ball and stay close to .500 for the rest of the season! Or to make it even better, why not be over .500!
Well not entirely all though they havent helped. Actually it's Zito's 85 mph fastball and that sorry excuse for a curveball everyone's just waiting on and pounding. Other than that I am just as happy about the Giants being where they are. I hope they can keep it up especially Cain and Lincecum who have been outstanding so far.
Let's forget about Zito for now. The Giants are finally making the right moves by taking him out of the rotation and playing the younger guys.
The Giants lead the majors in shutouts and stolen bases...I like the way the team is progressing. I wouldn't be surprised if they struggled in the second half since the younger guys aren't used to playing 162 games. But I like what I see so far.
Next year, we get rid of the contracts of Aurilia, Durham, and Vizquel. Hopefully, guys like Velez, Bowker, Ortmeier, Lewis, Burriss, and Sanchez continue to get better. You never know...with a few good offseason moves, the Giants could be a contender next year!
The difference between Zito and the other three is that Cain, Lincecum and Sanchez can all strike guys out. They also aren't throwing beach balls up to the plate for guys to hit on the nose. When Zito is on the mound the defense doesn't even have much of a chance. Thank God Boch took him out of the rotation for a while.
I'll tell you what, when the Giants got rid of Barry Bonds and had all that extra money they should have gone out and picked up a big name player. Instead they sat around and did nothing. It is sad to watch your team go down the crapper because management doesn't want to make some moves and get the right people in the organization. So I don't think Barry Zito is to blame, I think it is management. I guess you are all wondering what I would have done. Well instead of having Miguel Cabrera going to the Tigers he would be a Giant right now. Obviously there are other needs but they need an all-star type player.
But we didn't sign Cabrera (and that wouldn't necessarily have been a good move anyway), so let's forget about the past and look ahead.
This thread is about the team that we have now and what a nice surprise they've been. If you want to be negative and rip management, start another thread.
Hey kids, Cabrere was traded to the Tigers, who gave up soem high end prospects to get him and Dontrelle (who is ver-valued anyway), we dont have too many of those sure things outsided of Lincecum and Sanchez.I argued in spring training that we should not throw Sanchez into a trade package for Casey Kotchman, glad we hun onto him.
We did not need big time free agents now, we need for these kids to play all season and see if they produce. If Bochy had his way, Brian Roberts would still be starting. At least Fred Lewis has proven himself and we are gettign Velez, Burress, Bocock and Bowker all on the field. Let's get Shierholz up and play Ortmeier for god sake some more...
I have noticed that our defense is making about an error every other game, which seems a bit much. However it's hard to blame defense for 6 runs in 2 innings (Zito's final outing) don't you think?
Zito's well past his prime, and maybe, now that he's in the pen, he won't do much more damage.
