It's the first of May, Matt Cain still doesn't have a win, and the
San Francisco Giants are in first place in the NL West. Something
about a gift horse certainly appears to apply here.
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| Petit's his name, not who he is. |
Of course, this is not entirely how it first appears. Cain would
have most likely gotten his first win of the season on Tuesday night,
but apparently sliced a finger on his throwing hand while making a
sandwich in the Giants clubhouse a couple hours before the game.
Yusmeiro Petit made the spot-start, Angel Pagan led off the game with
a home run and Buster Posey also hit one in the first inning,
and the Giants won it 6-0. A bit of bad luck for Matty C. During the game
broadcast the Giants said Cain would “possibly” make his next
start, and Mike Krukow, former 20-game winner, immediately said that
there was pretty much no way that would happen. Kruk's explanation
was that Cain can't even throw until the wound is healed and that's
three or four days right there of not throwing, so missing two starts
and even three is a bigger likelihood. I'll believe the former
pitcher before I believe the club trying to spin some bad news for
their 100-million-dollar man. (Note: the Giants said Cain “
wouldn't miss his next start." I'll believe it when I see it.)
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| "Phew, I get another chance!" |
On the subject of pitching, last week in this same space I said,
very clearly, that
Ryan Vogelsong should be taken out of the Giants starting rotation, after a dismal end to 2013 that was complicated by
injuries, and a very bumpy start to 2014. I'm not going to sit here
and pretend Ryan made a great start just to show me up, I'm going to
sit here and say that Vogey made a great start because he knew the
same thing I did- that if he didn't, he was close to done. The injury
to Cain gave him a few more starts to step it up, because the guy who
would probably have taken his place was Petit. And he's guy who
spot-started for Cain and will now be the one who takes Cain's place
for the short-term, and not Vogey's. I have no doubt that the Giants
are continuing to look for a replacement for Vogey- Kruk and Kuip
referenced an interview with Giants general manager Brian Sabean
where he said you can't pull a guy out of the rotation “until he's
made at least six starts,” and Vogey's sharp seven innings came in
start number five- but he's got to prove this week's outing was the
norm, and not the exception.
I wish I said this next line: somebody on Twitter said that Sabean
needed to trade for a third baseman named Brandon, so the Giants
could have an all-Brandon infield. They're just a third baseman away,
with Crawford at short, Hicks at second, and Belt at first. And while
Brandon and Brandon are doing very well at the plate and in the
field, Brandon is really have a tough time of it recently. If that
made sense to you, congratulations. If not: Crawford and Hicks have
back-to-back Sunday walk-off home runs for the G-men and are keeping
themselves in the lineup because of more than their defense. The guy
having the problems at the plate is Belt. SF manager Bruce Bochy gave
Belt the night off on Tuesday because he was nothing but an out at
the plate the entire homestand and put Buster Posey at first. That
situation is fine if it happens once in a while, but if it continues
to happen we're entering the “we don't want this to happen”
scenario I noted
in my Giants season preview (scroll down a bit,
to the “if Buster starts playing first because Belt can't hit the
ball, this season is going in the tank” part. Actually, don't
bother, because I just told you the scenario. Anyway).
The other guy pushing at the plate is the Panda man, Pablo
Sandoval. The non-Brandon in the Giants infield came to the plate the
other day with a couple of men on and less than two outs and was back
to his old tricks, flailing at the forehead-high fastball for strike
three. It has been like this for more than a couple of weeks. Panda's
manner at the plate just doesn't seem very comfortable. He's pretty
easy to figure out in that regard, or maybe I've just watched him
enough over the years. I can tell when Panda's in a groove and when
he's not, and it's more that just about batting average. I'm not
alone in this, most Giant fans can also see it, in addition the
broadcasters. Maybe it's because Pablo is thinking too much about
that
100-million dollar contract extension he wants (this is the last
year of his contract). I'm certain he feels that if Hunter Pence can
get at 90-million dollar contract, he can get well over six figures.
To which I'm sure Brian Sabean and the rest of Giants brass came back
with, “Uh, have you looked at what you've done for us in the past
two years? Since blasting three home runs in one World Series
game in 2012, you've been super out of shape, injury prone, and if we
could harness the wind created by your swings and misses we could
power the lights at a middle school for at least six months.” So
Panda is not comfortable at the plate. He's made some real nice plays
at third to start the season, but did make an uncharacteristic boot
in the San Diego series. I can't remember exactly what happened- I do
seem to recall it was above average in the difficulty department- but
he charged the grounder and it went off the heel of his glove, and it
was a play he should have made. Since the report came out that he
wants at least 100-million, the miscues at the plate and in the field
have become more pronounced.
On the flip side, it's nice to hear Duane Kuiper mispronounce
Michael Morse's name as “Michael Morris” only about two dozen
times a game instead of the six dozen he was doing at the beginning
of the year. This really does grate on me, it's like hearing somebody
finish a sentence with “at.” Look, if you say “Where you at?”
you are horribly botching the English language. First of all, never
end a sentence with a preposition. Secondly, the reason you're adding
a preposition is because you're skipping a word, and it would sound
even worse to not use the preposition and just say “Where you?”
Even though it would be less wrong, grammatically speaking, than
“Where you at?” The proper sentence is “Where are you?” No
“at”, include the “are.” Going back to baseball, as soon as
Kuip says “Morris” it seems like Mike Krukow immediately jumps in
and says “Morse” about eight times in the next sentence just to
counter him. And then Kuip will call him “Morris” in his next
sentence. It makes me cringe. Every time. Anyway, Morse/Morris
already has more home runs (6) than all the Giants left fielders had
in 162 games last year (5). Yes, really.
Looking ahead, the Giants have their longest stretch of
consecutive games this year, 17 in a row, so their next day off is
May 19
th. Three in Atlanta, then three in Pittsburgh,
including a 9:35 am Pacific time start on getaway-day Wednesday so
they can play four at Dodger Stadium starting next Thursday. That's
immediately followed by seven back at Phone Company Park starting
with three versus those same Bravos and ending with four against
Miami, where maybe Brandon Belt can continue the Brandon Sunday
walk-off streak on the 18
th. And perhaps Matt Cain will
have a win by then.
photos courtesy: sfgiants.com, newsday.com, sfbay.ca, csnbayarea.com
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