Lots of talk is always made of a team that carries momentum into the playoffs. Pitchers usually have the biggest impact on a game, so I was curious to see what the recent trends have been with both team's pitchers. Here's what I pulled for each scheduled starting pitcher in their last 28 days (via BR):

Hudson hasn't faired so well lately, but his home splits are good so it works out for ATL that he's pitching game 3 at home. I didn't realize that Sanchez has better road splits, so that works in favor of the Giants.

For game one, Lowe's splits in favor of the Giants (small sample size, etc.):

• Night time game
• On the road
• Demuth as umpire
• 6+ days rest

And Lowe's splits not in favor of the Giants:

• Lowe's ERA this year at AT&T Park

Any way I slice it, runs seem like they'll be tough to come by for either team. Looks like more torture is on the horizon, I just hope we're on the right side of it.

Apologies if some of this has already been discussed in some of the other mid-season posts.

And now for a few random notes:

Team pitching-

We lead the NL in strike outs, and we also lead the NL in walks.

Team ERA (3.46) is currently lower than last year's (3.55).

The last time team ERA was 3.55 or lower was 2002. Before that, it was 1989 (3.30).

Jonathan Sanchez-
Pre-season McC prediction for Sanchez:  
ERA: 3.97
IP: 174
K: 181
BB: 80
HRA: 16

Mid-season numbers:
ERA: 3.15
IP: 100
K: 98
BB: 51
HRA: 8

His ERA has gone down for three years straight while also increasing his number of innings pitched - he’s definitely improving. Too many walks this year though. Please throw more strikes.


Hitting-
Aaron Rowand and Pablo Sandoval:

Everyone knows both guys are really struggling. It’s pretty obvious Rowand and Sandoval aren’t patient enough at the plate so I looked up the average number of pitches they see per plate appearance and compared to the Giants team average and the league average:

Rowand: 3.41
Sandoval: 3.43
League average: 3.83
Giants average: 3.73

And here’s another telling stat. Percentage of strike-outs that are looking:

Rowand: 6% <---------- seriously?
Sandoval: 9%
League average: 24%
Giants average: 21%

Please quit swinging so much.

WAR notables-
Huff: 3.2
Torres: 2.9
Team WAR: 8

Team runs scored-
2006: 746 - 6th worst in NL (-44 run diff)
2007: 683 - 2nd worst in NL (-37 run diff)
2008: 640 - 2nd worst in NL (-119 run diff)
2009: 657 - 4th worst in NL (+46 run diff)
2010: (midseason): 341, just below NL average (+34 run diff, projected for +68)

Team runs allowed-
2006: 790 - just above NL average
2007: 720 3rd in NL
2008: 759 - just above NL average
2009: 611 - tied for first in NL
2010: 307 - 2nd in NL (projected for 614)

Where are they now? (a quick look at the players who were on the Giants’ radar before the season started)
ordered by WAR:
Matt Holliday: .305/.380/.527 - 14 HR, 44 RBI - WAR: 3.0

Adrian Beltre: .334/.371/.535 - 12 HR, 54 RBI - WAR: 2.9

Russell Branyan: .266/.333/.507 - 13 HR, 33 RBI - WAR: 1.9

Marlon Byrd: .306/.351/.476 - 9 HR, 37 RBI - WAR: 1.8

Jason Bay: .271/.357/.432 - 6 HR, 44 RBI - WAR: 1.5

Johnny Damon: .271/.362/.412 - 5 HR, 24 RBI - WAR: 1.0

Scott Podsednik: .296/.343/.364 - 3 HR, 34 RBI - WAR: 1.0

Kevin Kousmanoff: .266/.301/.385 - 8 HR, 40 RBI - WAR: 0.4

Mike Cameron: .274/.325/.389 - 2 HR, 11 RBI - WAR: 0.3 (123 plate appearances)

Rick Ankiel: .210/.275/.419 - 3 HR, 9 RBI - WAR: -0.1 (69 plate appearances)

Nick Johnson: .167/.388/.306 - 2 HR, 8 RBI - WAR: -0.1 (98 plate appearances)

Hank Blalock: .254/.319/359 - 1 HR, 7 RBI - WAR: -0.1 (69 plate appearances)

Miquel Tejada: .277/.310/.370 - 6 HR, 33 RBI - WAR: -0.2

Adam LoRoche: .251/.331/.460 - 13 HR, 54 RBI - WAR: -0.3

Xavier Nady: .238/.311/.369 - 4 HR, 19 RBI - WAR: -0.8 (148 plate appearances)

Mike Jacobs: 28 plate appearances
Jermaine Dye: N/A (LOL)
Carlos Delgado: N/A

I may have missed one or two guys.
And the free agents we ended up signing:

Aubrey Huff: .295/.381/.545 - 16 HR, 50 RBI - WAR: 3.2

Juan Uribe: .251/.323/.440 - 12 HR, 46 RBI - WAR: 0.9

Pat Burrell: .305/.389/.524 - 5 HR, 11 RBI - WAR: 0.3 (95 plate appearances w/Giants)

Bengie Molina: .257/.312/.332 - 3 HR, 17 RBI - WAR: -0.4

Mark DeRosa: .194/.279/.258 - 1 HR, 10 RBI - WAR: -0.6 (104 plate appearances)


I’m getting too tired to include all the pitchers.


A few conclusions from all this:

1. I think it makes sense to trade Sanchez for the right hitter. Do not want: Hart Want: Braun, Bautista, Fielder, DeJesus, or Pence (in that order)

2. Rowand and Pablo need to swing less. (I really don’t know how we’d do it, but if we could get rid of Rowand that would be so great. Pay part of his contract in a trade for another outfielder?).

3. I’ll take a +70 run diff. In 2003, we finished 2nd in the NL West with a 91-71 record and a +80 run diff.

The Giants are a good team, and I look forward to seeing what happens in the second half. I really hope Sabean doesn't mess the bed.
Go Giants.

Well, not usually. There's Jim Bunning, and I think Curt Schilling has mentioned something about possibly running for a senate seat, but I digress. 

This has been bugging me ever since the final Cy Young results were announced. Every time someone brings up how close the voting was for last year's Cy Young, they always add how Wainwright and Carpenter "split the votes" which helped Lincecum win. 

GAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!! It doesn't freaking matter that they're on the same team! It's an individual award, not a team award. Teams aren't limited to receiving a certain number of votes. They're not politicians running for office in the same party. Put another way: if Wainwright and Carpenter were on different teams and had the same stats, they (theoretically) would have received about the same number of votes, right?

Is there something I'm missing? Is it some kind of psychological thing the voters get sucked into? Is it a tarp?