San Fran picks up Ryan Garko today. Great move. They need offense badly. Giants with Lincecum and Cain as their 1-2 punch could be problematic for other teams come playoff time. Nobody in the majors can touch that.
They could have traded for me and it'd have been an upgrade over what they have. Their offense is woeful -- almost across the diamond.
Last year I would have agreed with your statement. They aren't a powerhouse this season, but definitely improved with Sandoval coming to life in these past 2-3 months. Rowand .276 Winn .277 Sandoval .326 Garko .285 Molina .260 Renteria .252 Lewis .257 Uribe .282 If Garko can be a clutch run producer, the Giants will definitely factor into the playoffs.
The averages do no justice. The problem is there is no slugging. It takes a lot of singles to score runs. Call me a homer, because I am a Braves fan, but I like their club a lot better for the Wildcard just in that the pitching is much deeper. Jurrijens: 2.67 ERA Hanson: 2.95 ERA Vazquez: 2.98 ERA Kawakami: 4.04 ERA Lowe: 4.20 ERA With the hammer, Soriano at the back end with his 1.54 ERA. And Lowe's #'s are skewed by a 4-5 start stretch in late May to early June where he was flat awful. He'd be in that 2.90 range if you took out that 3 week stretch. Frankly, they have a decision to make, because Tim Hudson is off the DL in 2 weeks and is throwing darts in the minors, so who goes to the pen? I'll take 5 very good starters over 2 great starters and the rest wildcards like the Giants have. Cain: 2.27 ERA Lincecum: 2.45 ERA Zito: 4.68 ERA Sanchez: 4.92 ERA Johnson/Sadowski both have identical 4.81 ERA's. In the postseason, I take the 2 aces, but we're not in the postseason yet.
Lincecum down to a .230 ERA after what was essentially a shutout had it not been for a fielding error. Just for kicks, let's take out the stretch of good pitching for Lowe in the past few weeks and balloon his ERA over 6.00, shall we? I've tried to skew stats that way in the past, nice try. I do give Atlanta credit for getting rid of Francouer. You guys now have somewhat of a chance. I still don't know why Tim Kirk-chin has never come out with the fact that Francoeur is the only player on record to have a lower OBP than his batting average. It's mathematically impossible, but he accomplished it a few seasons ago.
Derek Lowe - Atlanta Braves - Split Statistics - MLB - Yahoo! Sports Lowe was great except for a bad June. It's not skewing stats if you mention when you say it that he had a bad June. Even a math whiz like you can see that in 3 out of the 4 months, he's been very good. And Kurchin won't ever say it, because it never happened. I don't know why people here seem to think so, when just a simple trip to Francoeur's splits can prove it never happened -- never came close to happening, either. For that to happen, he would have had to have a season with literally 0 walks. I'm not a Math major, but: Jeff Francoeur - New York Mets - Career Statistics - MLB - Yahoo! Sports the OBP looks higher than the average in every season to me.
Wow, I am stunned you couldn't see the utter humor in my statement about Francoeur. You really are a Braves fan to go defending him like that. Pretty funny stuff. I like Lowe in the post season, he is nails. He showed it again last year with the Dodgers. And that's all that matters, get it done come playoff time and Lowe does it better than most.
Boston ups the ante for Halladay. They are offering up No-hit machine Buchholz, Stud OF Westmoreland and AAA P Bowden. I put my money on Boston right now to get it done. Halladay has rejected signing long term with Toronto and wants out. Toronto knows they must salvage this before it's too late. Trade Buzz: Boston adds Buchholz to Halladay offer - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
Oh, I agree. But it was the only thing readily available at my fingertips, and I surely wasn't going to look up OBP and SLG for 8 batters on the Giants. Still, not the worst lineup you'll see. They are still another run producer away from being a legit lineup, however.
