It's no accident that the Giants are 24-33
Warren Greshes at the Merc-News Giants Talk blog has an excellent blog post called "Why the Giants can't score" on the San Jose Mercury-News site that delves into why the Giants are such a lousy team on offense -- the roster itself is fatally flawed. He doesn't say that Brian Sabean should be fired RIGHT NOW. So I will. Here are his key points -- (boldface is mine)
-- Before the season started, I thought like most everyone else that this would be one of the worst offensive teams ever, but I was wrong. The Giants are 9th in the NL in batting; 2nd in both doubles and triples, 4th in stolen bases and in the month of May, sixth in OPS.....yet the Giants are 15th in the NL and 28th in the Majors in runs scored: Why?
-- Then I saw it. With the bases empty the Giants are hitting .273 with a .332 OBP and a .445 slugging percentage for a .777 OPS, 3rd in the NL! Now look at this: With runners in scoring position, the Giants numbers are .234/.312/.319/.631, dead last in the NL by .068!
-- If you think the “Scoring position” numbers are bad, let’s look at “Runners in scoring position and 2 out.” The numbers are .209/.285/.299/.584, again dead last in the NL.
-- Why is this happening? Here’s my theory: There is not one player on this roster who has ever been known as a “Big RBI guy.” In fact, there is not one 100 rbi season on this roster and only two 90+ rbi seasons: Aurilia in 2001 (batting in front of Bonds who hit 73 HR’s that year) and Durham in 2006 (batting behind Bonds and his .454 OBP).
-- There is not a single Giant who, before coming to the Giants, was a middle of the order hitter. Wynn and Durham have always been top of the order hitters. Rowand and Molina normally hit in the 6th or 7th spot; Aurilia, 2nd, 6th or 7th; Castillo, bottom of the order and Bowker and Lewis are rookies.
-- Over the last few disastrous seasons the Giants have gotten into the bad habit of asking players to be more than they’ve ever been. For example, Michael Tucker, nothing more than a decent platoon player being asked to play every day. Mark Sweeney, a career pinch hitter, becoming a platoon player. Pedro Feliz, a bottom of the order hitter, asked to bat 5th and sometimes higher and Steve Klein, a good situational lefty was asked to get righties out; shrewd.
-- Before the season started, I thought like most everyone else that this would be one of the worst offensive teams ever, but I was wrong. The Giants are 9th in the NL in batting; 2nd in both doubles and triples, 4th in stolen bases and in the month of May, sixth in OPS.....yet the Giants are 15th in the NL and 28th in the Majors in runs scored: Why?
-- Then I saw it. With the bases empty the Giants are hitting .273 with a .332 OBP and a .445 slugging percentage for a .777 OPS, 3rd in the NL! Now look at this: With runners in scoring position, the Giants numbers are .234/.312/.319/.631, dead last in the NL by .068!
-- If you think the “Scoring position” numbers are bad, let’s look at “Runners in scoring position and 2 out.” The numbers are .209/.285/.299/.584, again dead last in the NL.
-- Why is this happening? Here’s my theory: There is not one player on this roster who has ever been known as a “Big RBI guy.” In fact, there is not one 100 rbi season on this roster and only two 90+ rbi seasons: Aurilia in 2001 (batting in front of Bonds who hit 73 HR’s that year) and Durham in 2006 (batting behind Bonds and his .454 OBP).
-- There is not a single Giant who, before coming to the Giants, was a middle of the order hitter. Wynn and Durham have always been top of the order hitters. Rowand and Molina normally hit in the 6th or 7th spot; Aurilia, 2nd, 6th or 7th; Castillo, bottom of the order and Bowker and Lewis are rookies.
-- Over the last few disastrous seasons the Giants have gotten into the bad habit of asking players to be more than they’ve ever been. For example, Michael Tucker, nothing more than a decent platoon player being asked to play every day. Mark Sweeney, a career pinch hitter, becoming a platoon player. Pedro Feliz, a bottom of the order hitter, asked to bat 5th and sometimes higher and Steve Klein, a good situational lefty was asked to get righties out; shrewd.
posted by Big D at 12:02 AM
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