Short Thursday Schedule Makes for a Quick Roundup
Posted by John Autin on June 3, 2011
A selective sampling from the June 2 slate:
Giants 12, Cards 7: After snapping a 3-week HR drought last night, Aubrey Huff hit 3 HRs tonight.
- It was the 1st 3-HR game of his career, the 6th in the majors this year, and the first by a Giant since 2004 (J.T. Snow). Before tonight, Huff had 5 HRs in 201 AB. The Giants had season highs of 4 HRs and 12 runs.
- SP Lance Lynn made his MLB debut for St. Louis and got through 5.1 IP on just 62 IP, with 5 Ks, no walks and a HBP. But he allowed 5 runs on just 4 hits, including Huff's first HR.
- Jonathan Sanchez was his usual wild self for SF. He matched Lynn with 5.1 IP but took 103 pitches to get there; he walked 6 and fanned but 1, yet earned the win by allowing just 3 runs (and getting lots of support). There's something about 6 walks and 1 strikeout: In the past 3 calendar years, there have been 8 starters who won while allowing at least 6 walks with no more than 1 K; each of them had exactly 6 walks with 1 K.
- Colby Rasmus hit a grand slam for the Cardinals.
Twins 8, Royals 2: Fresh off the best game of his career (1 hit in 8 shutout IP), Anthony Swarzak earned his first win of the year by holding KC to 2 runs over 6 IP.
- How unlikely is Swarzak's presence in a MLB rotation this year? In 22 starts at AAA last season, Swarzak had a 6.21 ERA -- the worst of any International League pitcher with at least 100 IP.
- Meanwhile, Royals SP Sean O'Sullivan remains a complete mystery, as in: Why is he here? Tonight's whipping -- 7 runs on 8 hits in 2.2 IP, in his 33rd career start -- pushed O'Sullivan's career big-league ERA up to 6.01. Season by season: 5.92; 6.11; 6.92.
- And how the mighty are fallen: Joakim Soria, recently removed from his longtime closer role, tossed 2 mop-up innings tonight with the Royals down by 6 runs. On the bright side, Soria retired 6 batters in a row, something he hadn't done in a while.
Nationals 6, D'backs 1: Jordan Zimmermann had his 6th straight quality start in the win; he has a 2.87 ERA in that span.
- Is there no justice? Micah Owings has now made 3 straight appearances in relief without coming to bat even once! But at least he's pitched well.
Mariners 8, Rays 2: A funny thing happened on the way to the pitcher's duel between King Felix and Big-Game James: Someone snuck the baseball out of James Shields's glove and put a gopher there instead. Shields served up for 4 HRs and 8 runs in just 4 IP. Felix Hernandez fanned 11 in an efficient 7 IP.
- Rookie Carlos Peguero hit 2 of Seattle's 4 HRs. Now all he has to do is fix that 22-3 K/BB ratio. Peguero is a free swinger who has amassed 350 Ks in just his last 2 years in the minors.
June 3rd, 2011 at 1:49 am
I saw the Seattle game and had my first look at Peguero. This guy is an absolutely intimidating physical specimen (6'5", 245) and it's all muscle.The bat speed he generates is just incredible. He hit one to dead centre on a cold, wet night in Seattle and it just shot out of the park on a line - 425' to 450' easy.
Later, he had to pull in his hands on an inside pitch and golfed it foul down the line. But the contact he made - the camera panned over to the seats down the first base line and then just stopped - must have been 4 or 5 seconds before the ball dropped out of the sky into the seats about even with the foul pole. It so impressed the TV crew, they cued up a super slo-mo replay of the swing - how often does that happen on a foul ball 40 feet wide of the pole.
He's going to be something to watch if he can make enough contact to stick.
June 3rd, 2011 at 2:59 am
Good to see Shields back to his old self
June 3rd, 2011 at 4:13 am
I've been watching Peguero.
He's got that "windmill" action as he prepares to hit, which is pure Willie Stargell. And he may have as much power. He does not get cheated on a swing.
Possibly more impressive was the screamer he crushed into the right field corner a couple of weeks ago, just beyond the fence. Not a high arching shot, but an absolutely smoked line drive that reportedly never got more than 40 feet off the ground during its quick journey.
I shudder to think of what might happen if he ever lines one back through the box.
With consistency, he could be launching tape measure drives out of every ballpark in both leagues.
He also runs hard on every ground ball. He has come within a step or two of beating out a couple of routine grounders to the second baseman.
While he looks a bit awkward in left field, he has already taken away one homer with a leaping catch at the fence. His arm is strong and true.
June 3rd, 2011 at 4:34 am
re: Felix Hernandez: You know that you are officially big time, when you K 11 in 7 innings, and JA refers to it, as an 'efficient' outing.
Wow.
June 3rd, 2011 at 10:42 am
@1, Doug -- "[Peguero's] going to be something to watch if he can make enough contact to stick."
I'll bet he's fun to watch, and thanks for the report. The odds against him making it in the majors are, I would suggest, staggering. His career minor-league K/BB ratio is 4.5 to 1, combining a low walk rate and an astronomical K rate (41 BB and 183 Ks per 600 PA). He's walked a bit more in the higher minors (AA-AAA), but also struck out more -- 59 walks and [gulp] 191 Ks per 600 AB.
And in the majors so far, 23 Ks against 3 walks in 66 PAs.
Except for very young hitters who race through the minors, K/BB ratios do not tend to improve going from the minors to the majors; if anything, they get worse. For instance, Ron Kittle, another "specimen," had a passable 2.1 ratio in the minors (including a fine 109/74 season at AAA), but had a 3.2 K/BB ratio in the majors.
Tony Armas is the only player with a career K/BB ratio of at least 4 to 1 who lasted long enough to hit 200 HRs in the bigs.
And of the 121 players with that high a ratio who got at least 1,000 PAs in the majors, only 2 managed an OPS+ over 100: Bo Jackson at 112 (now there's a specimen!) and Armas at 103.
There are exceptions to every rule, and Peguero might prove to be one. But he's 24 and has over 2,000 PAs. He'll need to learn quickly in an area that he hasn't really progressed much in over the past 5 seasons.
June 3rd, 2011 at 10:55 am
@6, Nash Bruce -- Not exactly the King's first time at the rodeo, right? It's a long season and he's gonna do a lot of notable things; I have to pace myself or I'll run out of superlatives. And after all, he was better 2 starts ago when he whiffed 13 without a walk.
It was an efficient outing -- 97 pitches, 64 strikes.
June 3rd, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Thoughts:
Giants: What a time to run into a Rookie reliever that management wants to see how they respond. The Giants hitters eyes must have lit up at the sight of Cleto ( I almost typed Cueto, because you know, they found his twin ). 99mph cheese, but Freddy Sanchez looked like Big Mac on that swing. Absolutely crushed it.
To be fair, Cleto's next inning when he started throwing breaking balls was much better and you can see that he does have good stuff potential. Now only if he would stop chomping the chewing gum.
Seattle: Man, 11K's and cruising, the Mariners pulled King Felix after 97 pitches! I get the 'we're up big, don't need it' and teams are carrying more pitchers, but the perception I see is that managers end up not having pitching options because the guy is tired from pitching the day before, etc.
Felix pitches every 5th day. He's got time to recover from an inning or two more. The guys they brought in may not be available tomorrow when the game goes to 13 innings or the starter is out after 5, etc.
Oh well. Would have been nice to see if he could pass his career high in Ks at 13. As an aside though, loved the 'King's Court' fans supporting him!
June 3rd, 2011 at 3:36 pm
Ichiro is looking very tired. Went 0 for 5, only one ball out of the infied, and had 3 very weak grounders.
Based on this game, not looking like he's ready to turn around his swoon.
June 3rd, 2011 at 4:41 pm
@7
I was at the Giants/Cards game last night. Nutty game. Lynn looked great through five. His line does not reflect how he looked. The Cardinals have made it clear that they are willing to trade D for offense, and it shows. At least four playable outs ended with hits or FCs instead of DPs. It was a messy defense behind the starter. He averaged 11 pitches an inning through the fifth, which is pretty much perfect in my book.
Cleto is raw. This was evident from his first IP, where he turned Giants players into...um....Giants. San Fran put up a five-spot on him. La Russa came out, talked to him for a minute, and everything went fine. Next inning was just fine. But you can't walk the first two batters you face and expect everything to be great. Even with the number of pitches getting hit, I think his balls to strikes in the 7th were WAY too in the favor of balls, and Giants batters were taking anything that wasn't right down the middle. To great success. Ridiculous long balls aside, the double that was hit had eyes. He'll be good, if he can learn to mix his pitches properly and get his location control figured out.
Sanchez look pretty much worthless, with an exact opposite situation--benefiting from defense to make up for less than stellar pitching.
Rasmus -- well...he gave up on a long-fly ball to center. But he did it a triple and a GrandSlam, so I can't argue to much.
Note to Aubrey Huff: Please remit payment for your slugging increase c/o St. Louis.
June 3rd, 2011 at 5:03 pm
@9, Michael -- Thanks for the "live" report
I find the success of Jonathan Sanchez over the past year-plus rather puzzling. From 2010 through last night, Sanchez has a 3.19 ERA (125 ERA+) in 263 IP despite averaging 4.7 BB/9 -- the highest walk rate among the 94 pitchers with at least 200 IP in that span, 13% higher than the next-worst BB rate (Gio Gonzalez).
There's virtually no difference in Sanchez's BB, SO and HR rates for 2010-11 compared to what he did from 2006-09, when his combined ERA was 4.81 (91 ERA+).
June 3rd, 2011 at 5:49 pm
@9 - Yes, that Sanchez double was an odd play. Like Costas and the other announcer on mlb.tv noted, it seemed like both the LF and CF thought it was 30 rows back..
Lyn looked good for the situation, he just looked a little tired at the end - plus the defensive woes you mentioned. Despite all of the injuries and Pujols slumping, the Cards are in first place...and that's all that matters.
As a giants fan, I'm in the same boat: I'll take first place! However...
a) Not looking forward to the next 10 mediocre Aubrey Huff games
b) There is a reason Mota is NOT put in in save situations 🙂
June 3rd, 2011 at 7:54 pm
@11, Cheese -- I sort of wonder why Mota is put in any situations.
Since 2005, there are 157 pitchers with at least 200 relief games. Mota ranks 147th in ERA+ (93). His SO/9 and SO/BB are well below the mean, and I don't see any particular area of strength -- his platoon splits are level, he doesn't generate GIDPs or eliminate the long ball, and he's pretty easy to steal on. His combined WAR in that span is minus-0.4.
I know he works pretty cheap, but the Giants had him on a 1-year, $750K deal in 2010; he posted a 4.33 ERA / 94 ERA+ in a modest 54 IP; and they re-signed him at a raise to $925K.
He's not awful (as he was in his full year with the Mets), but I don't get the attraction.
June 3rd, 2011 at 9:02 pm
Yeah, I don't know.. For a team who's strength is pitching, he sticks out like a sore thumb.
Here was their (predominately) 2009 staff:
6 CL Brian Wilson
7 RP Brandon Medders
8 RP Bob Howry
9 RP Jeremy Affeldt*
10 RP Merkin Valdez
11 RP Justin Miller
13 RP Sergio Romo
I do know in '09 Romo wasn't Romo yet (young, 109era+, 1.206, lowest so/bb ration, etc.). We had Renzler in the minors, but if I recall correctly and a quick internet research is correct, the thought of going into 2010 with young, inexperienced guys prompted the giants to look for a veteran. I believe Mota had a career 3.89 era (and coming off 3.44 w/ Dodgers) and as you stated was cheap. (Of course he's gone 4.00+ since with the Giants)
As for why they signed him for this year? No idea. I don't recall the free agent relief class, but after Soriano was signed by the Yankees, was it not enough quality guys + inflated costs? They resigned him for more money despite not a great season for the Giants in '10. Maybe it was reward for 2.1 scoreless innings against the Rangers? 🙂
June 3rd, 2011 at 9:18 pm
@5
"Bo Jackson at 112 (now there's a specimen!)"
Bo could break bats over his thigh when he struck out. Can Carlos Peguero do the same? 🙂 Sorry!
Send Peguero to the "Carlos Zambrano School of Bat-Breaking on Body".
June 3rd, 2011 at 11:04 pm
OT: They just interviewed the Giants' Brandon Crawford's mom on CSN, and immediately after she 'caught' a foul ball ( one of those bounced off hand and shot up 4 rows ). Wild.