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tedfordfan

Mar 14, 2008 Dec 23, 2009 15 856

Cal grad & Giants fan, living outside DC. The Nats are kinda growing on me, like my friend's goofy but nice younger brother.

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Turns out, over the course of the last 3 years, he hasn't been the worst defender in all of baseball. There have been 4 worse.

about 1 month ago Giants_baby_crying_tiny tedfordfan 6 comments 0 recs

"This season is a perfect example of how pitching and defense win baseball games," center fielder Aaron Rowand said. "Our offense obviously is not the greatest, but it's not terrible, either."

Wow. Just... wow.

Discuss.

2 months ago Giants_baby_crying_tiny tedfordfan 23 comments 0 recs

Quoted by Broshius. Wow. Just wow. How about some of those quotes that didn't make it into the article?

3 months ago Giants_baby_crying_tiny tedfordfan 33 comments 1 recs

Opinions on Bumgarner


Has Bumgarner's status fallen this year a bit?

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52 comments  |  0 recs

Pill and Bond make it at 1B and 2B respectively. Bumgarner gets ignored. NO STRIKEOUT STUFF!!!! Hopefully this provides some of that "you-dissed-me" motivation that athletes find so... well... motivating... and MadBum comes back to post a K% of over 30% in the PCL next year.

3 months ago Giants_baby_crying_tiny tedfordfan 5 comments 0 recs

Giants Organizational Philosophy

This is pretty much speculation based on some selective quotes (which I don't have the inclination to look up right now) and my own ruminations- so take this for what it's worth.  It's prompted by the recent Shawon Dunston quote in the SI article about Kung Fu Panda.

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28 comments  |  0 recs

On Trading Alderson


It seems that many people around here want to trade Alderson.  And there are a ton of legitimate reasons for wanting to do so (including injury risk, which is always a concern).  But among them is not the idea that he's a back of the rotation starter at best (AT BEST I TELL YOU!).

Poll
What do you think is the most likely career path of Tim Alderson?
A solid #2 starter for many years.
31 votes
A solid #3 starter with a few years of greatness thrown in.
120 votes
A perfectly average major league starter for a decade.
78 votes
A #4 starter who gets lucky occasionally and has some good years.
15 votes
A #5 starter who struggles to keep his job in a rotation after his arbitration years run out.
5 votes

249 votes | Poll has closed

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158 comments  |  2 recs

Giants' Fan - Trade Inquiry

Given the fact that the Giants have lots of quality pitching and no hitting; and the Nats have quality hitting but no pitching, they are logical trade partners.  I know the value of the Giant's arms, but want to know more about what Nats fans think about their bats.  Specifically, I want to know the value of two: 1) Nick Johnson and 2) Ryan Zimmerman.

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20 comments  |  0 recs

Why is everyone surprised?

The vitriol over Brian Wilson is, to me, quite honestly, shocking.

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26 comments  |  1 recs

Deeper Prospectin'

Though I appreciate the optimism surrounding our hitting prospects (I did, after all, author the fanpost trying to cheer everyone up a few weeks back), I wonder if it is sustainable.  Thus, I decided to look a bit deeper at the stats.  Yes, yes - I know - small sample size.  But I thought I'd take a look and see if there was anything interesting.

Now I am, by no means, a super-stat guy.  For that, go to Chris (aka, Xanthan - or 00110101110111000101010101001 among friends).  But I do know a little bit and thought I'd share what I found out.  I got the stats from www.firstinning.com.  If you know that these stats are unreliable or know of a better site for getting these stats, please let me know.

Would someone please give guidelines for what is average in each of these stats?  Here is what I general look for (although you have to look at all the stats in conjunction with one another):

K% > 20% is bad.

BB% > 10% is good.

LD% > 20% is good.

BABIP = .12 + LD% (roughly)

ISO > .200 is good.

 

Here are the stats:

Name (BB%     K%     ISO     BABIP     LD%)

Angel Villalona (2.3% / 14% / .244 / .438 / 18%)

Nick Noonan (9.6% / 28.8% / .209 / .500 / 17%)

Buster Posey (17.9% / 16.1% / .283 / .441 / 20%)

Conor Gillaspie (20% / 16.4% / .091 / .353 / 14%)

Roger Kieschnick (6.1% / 24.5% / .066 / .344 / 24%)

Brandon Crawford (9.8% / 23.5% / .279 / .464 / 7%)

Thomas Neal (9.1% / 36.4% / .108 / .450 / 24%)

Ehire Adrianza (8.6% / 14.3% / .096 / .200 / 8%)

Wendell Fairley (14.8% / 33.3% / .087 / .143 / n/a)

Jackson Williams (20% / 23.3% / .083 / .412 / 19%)

John Bowker (17.4% / 15.2% / .079 / .355 / 24%)

 

What jumped out at me:

- Pretty much all of the above hitters have been lucky with balls put into play.  The only exceptions are Kieschnick, Adrianza, (probably) Fairley, and Bowker.

- Kieschnick is hitting the ball hard.  He has contact issues (high K%) but is drawing a few walks (although I expected more).  I think the power will come.  I'm surprised, because I wasn't very high on him.

- I was high on Thomas Neal, but he's been luck with balls in play (although he has at least hit the ball hard when he makes contact), is striking out a ton, not hitting for power, but drawing a few walks.  Pick it up, Tommy.

- Bowker is in the same boat as Kieschnick, but is drawing a lot more walks and striking out way less than he has in the past.  Long live Bowkermania!

- Brandon Crawford is getting absurdly lucky on balls put into play.  He's not making solid contact and is striking out a bit too much - although his walk rate is decent.  Noonan and Villalona are also getting luck in balls put into play, although they are at least making pretty consistently good contact.  On the plus side, all of them are showing excellent power, and Noonan is drawing way more walks than he has in the past (although his is striking out a lot more as well)

- Buster Posey is awesome, but a tad lucky.

- If Jackson Williams keeps it up, he'll be a very good backup catcher to Posey for the next decade.

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