I have decided to give my own opinion on how the starting lineups should shape up for the National league in the 2014 All-Star Game in Minnesota.
National league starters:
C- Johnathan Lucroy.
He has been the most consistant hitting catcher so far in 2014. He may not have the catching skill set that Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, but he has vastly improved the past few years. Many people make the argument that Molina should be the starter because he has so many gold gloves, world series rings, and so on, but that has nothing to do with the All-Star game. The game is supposed to show the best players at each position from both leagues so far that year. It boggles my mind why what Molina has done the past few years has anything to do with his All-Star appearance this year. I do appreciate what Molina does daily, he is the best fielding catcher in baseball. Lucroy however is hitting .330 8HRs 39RBIs .403 OBP. Molina is batting .284 6HRs 27RBIs .334 OBP. Evan Gattis should be considered heavily for backing up these two as he has had an amazing June.
1B- Paul Goldschmidt
This one was easy, Goldschmidt has been a consistant hitting machine as he has done for most of his young career. Being a Giants fan I have gotten a few looks at him and he has impressed me greatly. He leads all of baseball with 28 doubles already this year and is hitting .301 15HRs 53RBIs .381 OBP, on a team that at the moment is going nowhere, but he that has not stopped him from continuing to produce. The sneaky choice that should be also considered is Justin Morneau of the Colorado Rockies who has turned it on of late and is driving in a ton of runs 57RBIs this season.
2B- Chase Utley
After having a super fast start for the seemingly ageless Utley, he has come back to earth in the past couple months, but he has continued to gather hits which convinces me he is deserving of the start at 2nd base. He is batting .293 5HRs 34RBIs 41Rs .354OBP. I also believe that Dee Gordon should get a strong consideration because he is stealing bases at an unbelievable pace, he has 40 steals through 74 games this season.
SS- Troy Tulowitzki
This was by far the easiest choice of any of the NL starters, Tulo has been the best hitter in all of baseball to start the 2014 season and just does not stop hitting. He is hitting .351 18HRs 45RBIs 60Rs .443 OBP. He has been producing steadily for the Rockies who were in the thick of the NL West race before hitting a wall a month and a half ago.
3B- David Wright
He is the easy option in the NL for third base, he has been consistant for the Mets and despite the Mets woes of not making the playoffs, that has not stopped Wright from taking that role as the face of the franchise. He is batting .278 6HRs 40RBIs .334 OBP.
OF- Yasiel Puig
The Dodgers young star has been just continuing to hit and drive in runs ever since he got called up last year almost mid season. He has had fantastic offense and defensive help for the Dodgers. Batting average has been the name of the game for Puig ever since he broke into the big leagues, and has been a hitting machine. He is batting .313 11HRs 45RBIs 40Rs .402 OBP.
OF- Andrew McCutchen
The NL MVP only a year ago has just picked up where he left off last year for the Bucs, hitting for average and power, drving in runs and then saving them with his stellar CF defense. Arguments can be made for Carlos Gomez, who has had a great year in CF for the Brewers, but Cutch has been pushing the envelope and producing a little more. McCutchen is batting .315 12HRs 48RBIs 41Rs .420 OBP.
OF- Giancarlo Stanton
This man has unreal power, he can hit balls farther and harder that you will ever see, but he is not just power, he has been hitting for average and has locked in that 3 spot in the lineup for the Marlins and keeping them in the race in the NL East. He is hitting .307 20HRs 58RBIs 54Rs .399 OBP.
Sleeper pick for All-Star game:
Casey McGehee- newly acquired third baseman for the Marlins who spent all of last season in Japan trying to get his swing and production back has done so. He has the chance to be the first player since 1944 to have 50RBIs by the All-Star break with only 1HR.
As far as the Giants are concerned, it looks like it may be Michael Morse who has the best shot at the All-Star game, especially with Pagan bitten by the injury bug. For pitchers it should be Madison Bumgarner and Tim Hudson, maybe Sergio Romo and hopefully Jean Machi who has had an unbelievable year in the Giants pen.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Friday, June 20, 2014
The June Swoon
It is that time of year again. It's June. Historically that is when the Giants season usually hits a wall and it is hard to explain why they are losing the way they are. This year they have reached an all new low in the month of June. The Giants are currently on a 5 game losing streak and have lost 8 of their last 9 games. The biggest effect this drop has had is in the standings, while the Giants still maintain their first place mark, the lead over the Dodgers which was 9.5 games has now diminished down to 4 games heading into the weekend.
The Giants seem lost right now, and it all began last week when the Nationals came into town. The Giants were riding a 4 game winning streak and were 21 games over the .500 in their record. (42-21). Nothing could seemingly go wrong for the revitalized Giants team with their starting pitching on fire and an elite bullpen that was working at incredible pace. Even the offense which the Giants have had little of the past few years was scoring, and scoring a lot. But as baseball people always say, it all will even out.
Coming into the series against the Nationals, the Giants had only lost one series in the past 5 weeks. The Nationals made them come back to earth. They smashed the Giants in the first 3 games of the series behind incredible pitching done by Stephen Strasburg, Doug Fister and Tanner Roark. The Giants could barely score any runs and the Nationals were doing nothing but score runs and attacked the Giants starters. Tim Hudson (Mr. Consistant) put an end to this madness in the last game and the Giants avoided a rare home sweep.
But the Giants unfortunately cannot pitch Hudson everyday.
When the Rockies came into town for the weekend they had been struggling. They were once in the thick of the pack for the top spot in the NL West but tanked in the month of May dramatically. Now they were treading water and trying to get any wins they could. This began the worst series I have seen the Giants play in some time.
Friday: Giants were winning 4-2 in the 9th inning, Lincecum pitched well and the bullpen held up the two run advantage. Enter Sergio Romo, 20 for 22 in save situations, one of his blown saves had come against the Rockies. He gave up 2 straight singles, then a fly out by dangerous hitter Wilin Rosario, but Angel Pagan made an ill advised throw to third and both runners moved up. Later with the bases loaded DJ Lemahieu hit a base hit and for no reason Pagan threw home and the runner moved up to second. The amout of mental errors made by the Giants in this inning was astonishing. They went on to give up 5 runs and lose 7-4.
Saturday: Giants are winning 4-3 in the ninth inning thanks to a good comeback by the G-men and great bullpen stoppers to keep the them ahead. Enter Sergio Romo. I was at this game and was very surprised to see him come in again. HUGE MISTAKE. He got the first two outs easily, everyone was happy, then a harmless 2out single by Charlie Blackmon. Then on a ball left up by Romo to Brandon Barnes he hit a ball between Pagan and Pence that Pagan for some reason decided to dive for, which to this day I still do not understand, and he hit and inside the park home run and the Giants lost 5-4.
Sunday: Just when we thought it could not get worse, the Giants were up 7-4 in the 8th inning when the bullpen gave up 4 runs and the Giants lost 8-7.
After the insane weekend against the Rockies where the Giants had 3 wins in the bag but managed to squander the lead late, they headed to Chicago. It did not get better there. Matt Cain got smashed in game 1 and the offense was shut down by John Danks. Then the matchup that many people were looking for in game 2, Chris Sale against Tim Hudson. Two pitchers having amazing seasons so far. It did not go well. Hudson had his worst start of the year and got hit hard by the White Sox and the Giants were put to bed by Chris Sale.
So now the Giants head to Arizona to see if they can dig themselves out of this hole of losing. The only bright spot from this entire two weeks has been Jean Machi who has continued his amazing season. He has pitched 31 innings and has only given up 1 run. 5-0, 0.29ERA. Unreal.
The Giants seem lost right now, and it all began last week when the Nationals came into town. The Giants were riding a 4 game winning streak and were 21 games over the .500 in their record. (42-21). Nothing could seemingly go wrong for the revitalized Giants team with their starting pitching on fire and an elite bullpen that was working at incredible pace. Even the offense which the Giants have had little of the past few years was scoring, and scoring a lot. But as baseball people always say, it all will even out.
Coming into the series against the Nationals, the Giants had only lost one series in the past 5 weeks. The Nationals made them come back to earth. They smashed the Giants in the first 3 games of the series behind incredible pitching done by Stephen Strasburg, Doug Fister and Tanner Roark. The Giants could barely score any runs and the Nationals were doing nothing but score runs and attacked the Giants starters. Tim Hudson (Mr. Consistant) put an end to this madness in the last game and the Giants avoided a rare home sweep.
But the Giants unfortunately cannot pitch Hudson everyday.
When the Rockies came into town for the weekend they had been struggling. They were once in the thick of the pack for the top spot in the NL West but tanked in the month of May dramatically. Now they were treading water and trying to get any wins they could. This began the worst series I have seen the Giants play in some time.
Friday: Giants were winning 4-2 in the 9th inning, Lincecum pitched well and the bullpen held up the two run advantage. Enter Sergio Romo, 20 for 22 in save situations, one of his blown saves had come against the Rockies. He gave up 2 straight singles, then a fly out by dangerous hitter Wilin Rosario, but Angel Pagan made an ill advised throw to third and both runners moved up. Later with the bases loaded DJ Lemahieu hit a base hit and for no reason Pagan threw home and the runner moved up to second. The amout of mental errors made by the Giants in this inning was astonishing. They went on to give up 5 runs and lose 7-4.
Saturday: Giants are winning 4-3 in the ninth inning thanks to a good comeback by the G-men and great bullpen stoppers to keep the them ahead. Enter Sergio Romo. I was at this game and was very surprised to see him come in again. HUGE MISTAKE. He got the first two outs easily, everyone was happy, then a harmless 2out single by Charlie Blackmon. Then on a ball left up by Romo to Brandon Barnes he hit a ball between Pagan and Pence that Pagan for some reason decided to dive for, which to this day I still do not understand, and he hit and inside the park home run and the Giants lost 5-4.
Sunday: Just when we thought it could not get worse, the Giants were up 7-4 in the 8th inning when the bullpen gave up 4 runs and the Giants lost 8-7.
After the insane weekend against the Rockies where the Giants had 3 wins in the bag but managed to squander the lead late, they headed to Chicago. It did not get better there. Matt Cain got smashed in game 1 and the offense was shut down by John Danks. Then the matchup that many people were looking for in game 2, Chris Sale against Tim Hudson. Two pitchers having amazing seasons so far. It did not go well. Hudson had his worst start of the year and got hit hard by the White Sox and the Giants were put to bed by Chris Sale.
So now the Giants head to Arizona to see if they can dig themselves out of this hole of losing. The only bright spot from this entire two weeks has been Jean Machi who has continued his amazing season. He has pitched 31 innings and has only given up 1 run. 5-0, 0.29ERA. Unreal.
Monday, June 2, 2014
Aces square off in St. Louis: Madison Bumgarner vs. Adam Wainwright
In the second game of a 4 game weekend series in St. Louis, aces were set to square off. Adam Wainwright had not given up a run in his past 20 innings pitched, and last week won the pitcher of the week honors in the National League. Madison Bumgarner has been solid all year for the Giants, he was coming off of a 7 inning, 10 strikeout performance against the Twins.
The game went much differently that people would have expected. The new Giants revamped offense did not care when they heard the streak Wainwright was on not giving up runs. They took it to the righty in the first two innings, taking advantage of Wainwrights lack of getting ahead and poor location of all his pitches. The Giants got one in the first on a base hit by Mike Morse on a pitch that was supposed to be away but came over the middle. In the second inning he got two quick outs and then got ahead of Brandon Hicks 0-2, Hicks stayed diciplined and worked a walk in a spot that he usually strikes out. That became the key play in the second inning, because Bumgarner came up next and hit base hit on a poorly located fastball by Wainwright to a good hitting pitcher. Angel Pagan then wasted no time and took a hanging first pitch curveball and slapped it up the middle for an RBI. Then Hunter Pence stepped up, and on a 2-1 pitch Wainwright tried to fool him on a curveball but Pence saw the movement and went with it and absolutely crushed the ball to the third deck in left field. Another poorly placed breaking ball by Wainwright who is known for his amazing curveball. On the other side of the script Madison Bumgarner lived up to the billing, he was superb. As opposed to his counterpart, Bumgarner had pin point control all night long which led to 6 strike outs looking by Cardinal hitters who were left guessing. That is an unusual total for him because he normally strikes people out with his wipeout slider and devastating cutter, but he was working the corners of the strikezone all night long. Bumgarner finished with a similar line as he did last Sunday, 7 innings, 3 hits, 1 walk, 10 strikeouts. Wainwright was unable to make it through the 5th inning and finished up with 4.1 innings, 8 hits, 7 runs, 1 walk and 4 strikeouts. By far his worst start of the year.
San Francisco 9, St. Louis 4
W- Bumgarner (7-3)
L- Wainwright (8-3)
The game went much differently that people would have expected. The new Giants revamped offense did not care when they heard the streak Wainwright was on not giving up runs. They took it to the righty in the first two innings, taking advantage of Wainwrights lack of getting ahead and poor location of all his pitches. The Giants got one in the first on a base hit by Mike Morse on a pitch that was supposed to be away but came over the middle. In the second inning he got two quick outs and then got ahead of Brandon Hicks 0-2, Hicks stayed diciplined and worked a walk in a spot that he usually strikes out. That became the key play in the second inning, because Bumgarner came up next and hit base hit on a poorly located fastball by Wainwright to a good hitting pitcher. Angel Pagan then wasted no time and took a hanging first pitch curveball and slapped it up the middle for an RBI. Then Hunter Pence stepped up, and on a 2-1 pitch Wainwright tried to fool him on a curveball but Pence saw the movement and went with it and absolutely crushed the ball to the third deck in left field. Another poorly placed breaking ball by Wainwright who is known for his amazing curveball. On the other side of the script Madison Bumgarner lived up to the billing, he was superb. As opposed to his counterpart, Bumgarner had pin point control all night long which led to 6 strike outs looking by Cardinal hitters who were left guessing. That is an unusual total for him because he normally strikes people out with his wipeout slider and devastating cutter, but he was working the corners of the strikezone all night long. Bumgarner finished with a similar line as he did last Sunday, 7 innings, 3 hits, 1 walk, 10 strikeouts. Wainwright was unable to make it through the 5th inning and finished up with 4.1 innings, 8 hits, 7 runs, 1 walk and 4 strikeouts. By far his worst start of the year.
San Francisco 9, St. Louis 4
W- Bumgarner (7-3)
L- Wainwright (8-3)
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