San Francisco Giants Starting Pitching Preview

By Kalen Patrick

The biggest strength of the Giants through the 2 recent World Series Championships has been the pitching, will this trend continue as the Giants look to defend the title this season? Ultimately I think the Giants will get another very strong season from the pitching staff.

THE CORE OF THE GIANTS STARTERS (RYAN VOGELSONG, MATT CAIN AND MADISON BUMGARNER)

Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner are pitchers #1 and 2 at the top of the rotation. Matt Cain is the ace of the staff and Mr. Consistent (consistently very good), while Bumgarner provides similar stability for the Giants. Bumgarner did have some control issues leading up to the playoffs last season, but judging by his amazing performance against the Tigers in the World Series, these were fixable problems for him. He is a confident, heavy throwing pitcher, who is developing and refining his pitches. He will have another very good season. The 3rd pitcher of the rotation in my opinion is Ryan Vogelsong. Wow what a story he has been. The Giants will look for another strong year from Vogelsong, and I see no reason as to why this wouldn't happen.

WHICH TIM LINCECUM WILL SHOW UP IN 2013?

The 2 big question marks on the remaining projected starters are Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito. Zito overall had a pretty solid 2012 regular season, some surprisingly good starts, the expected rough patches that left your face in your palm and then the average Zito type games (5-6 innings with 2-5 runs allowed). Something happened to Zito in last years playoffs and he had the biggest game of his career against the Cardinals winning in St. Louis. While Zito will never really earn the money he has made, I expect another solid outing this season. Probably finish 13-13 with an ERA around 4 or maybe a little higher. As good as he was in the playoffs and World Series, this is Barry Zito after all and over the course of a season he will have quite a few terrible outings I'm sure.

Tim Lincecum, well he may just be the biggest question mark in the Majors. 2 time Cy Young winner, who last year had the worst ERA for a starting pitcher (who met the innings pitched to qualify). The 2 biggest issues with Timmy were his fastball and his confidence. His fastball has lost 4-5 MPH since his Cy Young years (95/96 to 91/92). Timmy was able to use his higher velocity fastball to set up hitters with his deadly off-speed pitches. With his decreasing velocity, this clearly effected Lincecum's confidence as he battled control issues all year and he couldn't strike people out nearly as efficiently as before. Not only this, but he was very hittable which led to his inflated ERA. While I do expect a bounce back year from Timmy, he will not regain Cy Young form, maybe become a 3.4-3.8 ERA type pitcher, middle of the pack. I am making a prediction right now that this will be Timmy's LAST SEASON as a Giant, you heard it here first!

Check back for further posts about all your favorite San Francisco based Sports Teams

Over and Out

San Francisco Giants Race to the Playoffs

By Kalen Patrick

We are entering the final stretch run leading up to the 2012 Playoffs and just as expected there is a close race between the rival San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers. As of today, the Giants hold a major advantage, as they own a 5 game lead over the Dodgers with each team having 20 games left to play. I'm a big Giants fan and the last thing I would ever want to do is jinx my team but I find it very hard to imagine a scenario where the Giants don't win the division. Lets take a look at some of the reasons why.

If the Giants play .500 ball and go 10-10,the Dodgers would have to go 16-4 over their final 21 games in order to just draw even. Now don't get me wrong, crazier things have happened (just ask the New York Mets), but the Dodgers (even with all of their additions) have showed me almost nothing to prove they can play at the level they will need to. Adrian Gonzalez really hasn't been the force in the lineup that the Dodgers had expected, Matt Kemp is battling injuries, Eithier, Victorino and Ellis have not been difference makers. The Dodgers Ace Clayton Kershaw is an absolute beast, but after him, they have to send out pitchers who have been overachieving all season (Capuano and Harang) along with Josh Beckett and Joe Blanton. Just looking at the roster, I don't see a team that can go 16-4 when you factor in the teams the Dodgers will be facing.

THE GIANTS - DODGERS RIVALRY IS ALIVE AND WELL IN 2012

The Dodgers remaining schedule is significantly more difficult than the Giants. The Dodgers have a 4 game series vs the St. Louis Cardinals, then go on the road to take on the Washington Nationals and Cincinnati Reds, who own the NL's best and 2nd best records respectively. The rest of the Dodgers games are within the NL West. In comparison, the rest of the Giants schedule is against NL West opponents.

The Giants are going to need some major improvements from certain players if they want to not only wrap up the NL West but make some noise in the playoffs too. The Starting Pitching must improve significantly, Vogelsong has been getting shelled lately, Zito is someone you can't count on for a strong performance, Lincecum has rebounded to have a very steady 2nd half of the season. Most importantly both Bumgarner and Cain have to be better, even in tonight's game for example, Bumgarner's line was 4.1 Innings with 5 ER allowed. Not good enough. Secretly the Giants offense has been carrying the load due to the struggling pitching staff.

BUSTER POSEY IS MAKING A STRONG CASE FOR NL MVP

On offense, surprisingly its been Pablo Sandoval and Hunter Pence who have been struggling. Sandoval's season average has plummeted to .276, while Pence is hitting a measly .260. Pence, as of late, has at least shown some power but Sandoval has been a disaster since coming back from injury in Mid-August. He has only 2 extra base hits, no HR's (last HR on July 8th) Batting around .230, Slugging .275, On Base % around .295 in that time. These are garbage numbers for your supposed number 3 hitter. Can't consistently win when your 3 and 5 hitters are not performing up to expectations.

On a positive note, Posey has been playing at an MVP caliber, Pagan and Scutaro are making Brian Sabean look really good, Joaquin Arias and Brandon Crawford get timely hits and last but not least Belt has been very good, in his last 10 games he has 2 HR and 12 RBI, all season has been seeing the ball well with his ability to draw walks leading to a .361 OBP.

If I had to bet, I would put my money on the Giants making the Post Season, I could see them winning the 1st round of the playoffs, but I just can't see the Giants winning the NLCS on top of that. Giants would most likely have to beat the Reds and then the Nationals to get to the World Series and unfortunately I don't see that happening, but then again, once you get in to the playoffs, ANYTHING can happen. That's it.

Over and Out.

The Giants CAN Win Without Melky

By Kalen Patrick

Over the last few days there has been a lot of pessimism and "the season is over!" talk among Giants fans. Heck I was probably one of them when I first heard the news about the Melky Suspension. Now that it has sunk in and we are moving on from it, I still look at this Giants team and I still see a team that can Win and make the playoffs. Before I get in to the lineup, lets talk about the pitching.

The pitching is absolutely playoff caliber, even with the struggles of Tim Lincecum and the usual struggles for Barry Zito.Cain, Bumgarner and Vogelsong have been so good that it limits the damage the other 2 starters are doing. I know I have been saying this all season but if Timmy can pitch the rest of the season at a 3.5-4 ERA for the rest of his starts I will take that. Zito is Zito and if we get a Win when he takes the mound that is a huge positive. Lets not forget the bullpen cause those guys have been doing their jobs for the most part. Led by Romo, Affeldt, Casilla, Mijares and Lopez, it is very solid. Again definitely playoff caliber. Now lets get done to brass tax and talk about the lineup without the MelkMan.

The main guys replacing Melky are gonna be Gregor Blanco and Justin Christian. I have more faith in Blanco considering his amazing defense, and he isn't terrible at the plate either. Christian is still a big question mark in the majors. One of the most underrated trades of the season so far has been the trade the Giants pulled off to get Marco Scutaro. In the 20 games he has played with the Giants his line reads .330 BA .360 OBP 2 HR's and 18 RBI. Now that is production right there. Another great trade that gets forgotten is the one for Angel Pagan too, he has been very solid leading off for the Giants with a .283 BA .333 OBP and considering he usually leads off he solid production with 46 RBI and comes with some power hitting 7 HR's. The way I see the Giants lineup going forward you will have Pagan leading off with Scutaro batting 2nd.

POSEY, BELT AND SANDOVAL - ALL 3 WILL BE KEY FOR THE GIANTS

Then you have the big boys of the lineup. I imagine Bochy will go regularly with Sandoval hitting 3rd, then Posey and then Pence. Both Panda and Posey just gotta keep doing what they are doing and that will be fine with me, I absolutely expect Hunter Pence to get hot soon. He had the big HR to essentially win the game against the Rockies a week ago, but realistically he needs to be better, he needs to be much better with regards to his Power and Average. Hitting only 1 HR in 16 games, batting .211 and his OBP at .250 is unacceptable. I think he can and will improve upon this by leaps and bounds, and the Giants need it in the worst way.

Brandon Belt is a guy who has come on lately, he has an impressive OBP of .361 which isn't bad considering his mid-season struggles. Belt should get better as the season rolls on, Arias, Crawford are OK options at the end of the order. Ultimately the point I'm trying to make is that knowing the Giants pitching being as good as it is and with the lineup having some nice options the Giants CAN win without Melky.

Over and Out.

The Melk has Gone Sour

By Kalen Patrick

Wednesday, August 15th, I wake up and start thinking of the afternoon game for my Giants vs the powerhouse Washington Nationals (that's still weird to say). I was feeling confident after yesterday's win, we finally had THE lineup we have been waiting for. Then, in a flash, a tweet by Ken Rosenthal changed everything " Just announced by MLB: SFGiants' Melky Cabrera suspended 50 games without pay after testing positive for testosterone." 

As a die-hard fan, I went through the usual list of emotions, First: Denial "Hey maybe the report is wrong! It has to be wrong!" Second: Sadness "We are screwed!! No playoffs!!" Third: Anger "F**k Melky! He is a cheating piece of S**t!" Finally: Accepting Reality, we no longer have Melky for the rest of the regular season, we can start looking at names as to who can replace him. I like Gregor Blanco but he shouldn't be an every day player. Other names float around, and an interesting one is Alfonso Soriano from the Cubs, but the Giants wouldn't go near him unless the Cubs eat a significant portion of his contract. 

WHO KNOWS WHAT THE FUTURE NOW HOLDS FOR MELKY CABRERA

Ultimately the whole situation just sucks. Plain and simple. After yesterday's game confidence was sky high, we beat the Nationals, we have our lineup and things were looking great. Now we have no Melky, Timmy got beat up by the Nationals today, and confidence is near an all time low. 

Going forward this season either one of two things will happen, the Giants will let this drag them down and they will get to the finish line gingerly, maybe ending up 3rd in the NL West with a record slightly over .500. Or else the team can rally around this, play the whole "Nobody Believes in Us" card and make a great run to the playoffs and beyond. Obviously I am hoping for the latter but right now the former is firmly stuck on my mind. I just hope Bruce Bochy and the Giants can think as positive as possible about the whole situation.

Until Next Time....

San Francisco Giants Update

By Kalen Patrick

The Giants are back at it, and for the most part it is all good news, however, there were some early scares surrounding the team. Early on both Tim Lincecum and Ryan Vogelsong reported back pain, that seems to have been more about knocking the rust off as opposed to anything serious. Brian Wilson right now is still a concern and the status on his elbow still seems up in the air. It does appear that he will be more than ready to go when the season starts.

Looking at the hitting side of things, the big concerns were how Buster Posey was gonna look and what kind of shape Pablo Sandoval was would come in at. Again, both appear to be in tip top shape and ready to go. I do agree with Bruce Bochy's approach about Buster Posey avoiding plate collisions if at all possible, probably not worth the risk especially when you consider the serious lack of depth behind Posey at Catcher.

GIANTS WILL BE RELYING HEAVILY ON PABLO AND POSEY FOR OFFENSE

In other notes it appears that Bochy has a good idea of his outfield. Bochy wants Melky Cabrera to play LF, Angel Pagan in Center and for now Nate Schierholtz in RF. This now leaves Question Marks about Brandon Belt and Aubrey Huff, and who will play 1st base. If I know Bochy he will go with the guy who is hot at the time. As the season rolls on and if Huff isn't doing well, I would expect Belt to get a lot of the AB's and Huff to be more of a pinch hitter.

WHATS NEXT: A more in depth preview of the season will be coming shortly and a full report on what to expect from the San Francisco 49ers this offseason. Also keep an eye out for posts on all the other goings on in the world of Sports.

TIMMY'S BACK! Who I Thank May Surprise You..

By: Michael Marino

Tim Lincecum became Tim Lincecum again during Thursday's 2 to 1 victory over the Twins. His 12 strikeout performance through 7 superb innings is more than just an amazing performance on the mound, it's an extreme  confidence boost for the 2 time Cy Young Award  winner who has been, to say the least...less than himself lately. 

Lincecum notes that his success today was due in part from pulling old words of wisdom from his Father and also former man behind the dish, Bengie Molina. While there is no arguing that we need not to challenge whatever pulled him in the right direction again, I have a few ideas of my own.

First and formost, Tim Lincecum is a competitor. When put to the test he is an amazing athlete and more importantly the caption of a World Championship team. The true person i'm thanking for Lincecum's path to Lincecumness is Ryan Volgelsog. With a microscopic ERA, which dropped to a 1.86 against the Twins on Wednesday Volgelsong's pitching is among the best in all of baseball.  And with another start, All Star worthy.

A starting pitching staff works off one another in unison, feeding of one another and wanting to push the staff to the next level. I for one believe that the Ryan Volgelsong story is what is pushing Lincecum back into predatory mode, and for someone with back to back Cy Youngs and a World Championship under their built that's saying something. 

Reviewing the Day in Sports

What a busy Monday in Sports, you don't hear that too often, but today was jam-packed full of action. From the Stanley Cup Finals, NBA Head Coach  move and a bunch of Baseball, I'd say that is a great day. Lets get this started

NHL Stanley Cup Finals
The Boston Bruins were down 0-2 in the series to the Vancouver Canucks, I love hearing all the sports radio talk about how the series is over blah blah blah. Well guess what? Boston comes in today and kicks the Canucks ass 8-1. This game looked like it would be another nail-biter after the 1st period was scoreless, but then it was all Boston. By the end of the 2nd period the game was essentially over as the Bruins scored 4 goals. I was extremely glad to see the Bruins get back 1 game in this series. As I wrote in my post "NHL's Time to Shine" I really think Hockey needs an exciting 7 game series to get momentum going in to next year. I was glad also because I do have a soft spot for the Bruins, as much as people would say that all 7 games need to be close, I disagree, I think a blowout game like this can be great. It brings a lot of National attention when you hear a score of 8-1 in the Finals, people will come flocking to check it out when they hear these kind of scores.

Expect an action packed 7 game series between the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks

Going forward in this series I do expect nothing less than an exciting 7 game series. I do think that the Bruins will eventually come back to win this series. Timmy Thomas looked great in goal tonight and can build on this and get hot, whereas Roberto Luongo, uhmm not so much. Hockey comes down to having a hot goalie and being able to eek out some goals. Boston to me has the advantage at goalie, while the Canucks have some great players in Kessler, and the Seguin twins, I think Boston will be able to get enough out of enforcer and talented Zdeno Chara, also guys like Mark Recchi and David Krejci are more than capable of getting the job done. Lace up your skates, put on pads, because the next 4 games are gonna be a heavy hitting, bumpy ride.

Mark Jackson lands with Golden State
The ESPN game announcer and former NBA Point Guard Mark Jackson has become the next Head Coach of the Golden State Warriors. Just when I thought the Warriors couldn't get any dumber, they go and TOTALLY REDEEM themselves. Well I don't know if I will go that far but I recently watched Dumb and Dumber and what to put that line in my blog somewhere. I really think this is a wait and see hire. You can look at the good and bad points to hiring a guy like Mark Jackson, he doesn't have any Head Coaching or Assistant Coaching experience in the NBA, however, he was able to play the PG position extremely well, which is essentially the coach on the court. One thing I did like hearing from the Warriors brass was that they are committed to surrounding Jackson with a great supporting cast.

     Does Mark Jackson have what it takes to be the Warriors Head Coach?

The Warriors seem determined to lure Mike Malone from the New Orleans Hornets to add to Jacksons staff. A guy the Lakers are reportedly very interested in and have already interviewed. Mark Jackson will do a great job with both Steph Curry and Monta Ellis (assuming neither are traded), and according to ESPN experts, expect the Warriors to play much better defense with an up-tempo offense. I like the sound of that. While I am a bigger Bulls fan, the Warriors being the local team are definitely my Western Conference Team. I want to see the Warriors be competitive, I want the Bay Area to have a winning Basketball team but changes not just to the coaching staff need to be made.

Look, I as much as anybody love watching the Curry - Ellis combo but I just don't know if it will ever work. This will be the first challenge of the owners and new coaching staff, what to do with these two players. Do you keep both and hope they can form a winning Guard tandem? Or try and build a more conventional team? I will touch on my opinions of this in a future post. Leave comments on what you guys would wanna do with the Warriors if you were in charge?

MLB
Here come the Detroit Tigers! The Cleveland Indians had a great great start to the season, and by all means are still having a good year being 8 games above .500 with a record of 33-25. However, their once huge lead in the AL Central is all but gone now that the Tigers have been playing excellent ball. The Tigers crushed the Rangers today 13-7 lead by Brennan Boesch who has 2 HR's, 5 RBI and went 5-6, to improve their record to 32-27. The Indians once had an 8 game advantage, it's now down to 1.5 games and this will be an exciting race all through the Summer. In other news the Milwaukee Brewers just completed a 4 game sweep of the Florida Marlins in Florida. Zack Greinke had an outstanding performance for a Milwaukee team which has been red hot as of late.

Tim Lincecum is a World Champion, 2 time Cy Young Winner and now has 1000 K's in less than 5 full seasons. Impressed?

Would like to end off by Congratulating Tim Lincecum by getting his 1000th career Strike Out today. The Freak joins some big company by getting his 1000th K, in only his 5th year in the Majors, and we all know he has a lot more of those to come, not only this year but for the foreseeable future. Matt Cain is only 31 K's away from reaching 1000 himself, next up for the Giants will be Jonathan Sanchez who will probably get there by the end of the 2012 season. That's all for now, I am out.

Thanks for reading, be sure to check in on the blog daily, vote on the polls, add comments, follow the blog and also spread the word. I appreciate all the help.

San Francisco Giants - Show Me the Money

The San Francisco Giants are quite a mystery, they have in recent years given out god awful contracts. Yet in 2010 they were able to win the World Series, and this with their 2 highest paid players essentially being on the bench or non-factors in the playoffs (Barry Zito and Aaron Rowand). However, it doesn't stop there, in 2011 not much has changed, they are still paying outrageous money to Zito and Rowand, and lets not forget Mark DeRosa who has been one big injury with the Giants. Furthermore, so far in 2011, Miguel Tejada and Aubrey Huff have been underwhelming to say the least, and this year they are earning a combined $16.5 million, with a stat line of .210 AVG 1 HR and 16 RBI for Tejada and .219 AVG 5 HR and 24 RBI for Huff. Just awful production for what these guys are being paid*

Now lets take a look at the team as a whole. The Giants are 8th in the Majors in payroll, thus we know that the owners are willing to spend quite a large amount of money and they are. Unfortunately as I have pointed out, the majority of the money is going to the wrong people. It is almost mind blowing how the Giants could win a World Series, with so much money basically being flushed down the toilet. Lets take a look at the 5 worst contracts currently with the Giants. Barry Zito, Aaron Rowand, Mark DeRosa, Miguel Tejada and Huff. We have already taken a look at the numbers in the Tejada and Huff contracts. Let's now combine all 5 of these players contracts. The money those 5 players are making is, get ready for this, a whopping $54.6 MILLION. For this incredible number the Giants are getting: "6th" starter on the team (Zito), 5th Outfielder (Rowand), walking injury (DeRosa), backup caliber SS (Tejada) and a way under performing 1B (Huff).

      Barry Zito has been one of, if not the biggest Free Agent Bust in recent history

I am no expert when it comes to Major League contracts, I don't fully understand exactly how the arbitration works, or all the increments of how a contract is formed but I will do my best with where I think that money should go once it's off the books. Let's take a look at the guys who absolutely have to be re-signed long term by the Giants: Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval and Brian Wilson. Now I don't wanna get in to too much detail as I could probably write an entire book as to where the money should go. So lets focus on the previously mentioned players the Giants must re-sign (in my opinion). For the sake of simplicity, lets assume that the contracts will be given out when they are needed and they can be structured to be front loaded or back loaded. I will just give the average salary the player will earn each year. Basically what I will be doing is, using the $54.6 million in bad soon to be finished contracts to re-signing the stars on the team. Here goes.

Tim Lincecum - This year earning $14 million, I think Timmy gets a contract approximately the same as Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee. Maybe a 6 year $123.6 Million contract, average salary = $20.6 million. So an increase of 14 to 20. So we take $6.6 million off the total. Now we have $48 million of the total left.

Matt Cain - This year Cain earns $7.33 million, next year he gets $15.33 million. I think Cain will get a contract along the lines of 6 years $92 million, therefore an average of $15.33 million and an $8 million increase over this years contract. So now the total is $40 million left.

Brian Wilson - Fan favorite Brian Wilson makes $6.5 million this year, the top closer in the game Mariano Rivera makes $15 million/year, I don't think Wilson will quite get that. I think Wilson will get something like a 6 year $69 million contract. Making an average of $11.5 million/year and therefore an increase of $5 million leaving $35 million left on the total.

            The Giants future will be in good hands by keeping this trio intact 

Buster Posey & Pablo Sandoval - Both of these guys are making around $500,000 this year and are currently hurt, Posey for the year and Sandoval is scheduled back in the next 2 weeks. Both are major faces of the franchise, and are destined to be part of the heart of the order for a long time. Posey and Sandoval are to the Giants, what Mauer and Morneau are to the Twins, except the Giants players are younger and have just as much if not more potential. I think you basically throw the rest of the $35 million at these guys. Again to compare to the Twins, Mauer is making $23 million/year and Morneau $15 million/year, I think the Giants can get Posey locked up at an average of $20 million/year and Sandoval if he can prove to stay in shape and hit well, could get up to an average of $15 million/year. Both of these guys will hit .300+ AVG, 20+ HR and 90+ RBI for the next decade. 

We can argue about the numbers, we can argue about the years, I was just giving examples of what the Giants could give these guys. The main point I wanted to show here was that the Giants can and should use the huge sum of money they currently have invested in minimal impact players, to lock up all their stars. Not only are these players extremely talented, but they are all so charismatic, AT&T gets sold out regularly to see these guys play, they are in essence, Giants in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

*Wrote that prior to the game today, where Aubrey shut my mouth by hitting 3 HR's with 6 RBI