Baseball’s Halfway Questions/FeedCrossing.com

By Max Frankel, Sean Morash

This time, I thought we would have a little fun since today is the official half-way point of the year for 15-out-of-30 teams (the Giants being one of them). Here is another Feed Crossing article from two writers who made some insightful midyear predictions.

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It’s the unofficial halfway point of the MLB season.   How many of you knew that after tonight 15 of the league’s 30 teams will have played at least their 81st game, remember that 81 is half of 162?  That means its time for the typical midseason questions (surprises etc).


Most Surprising Team? 

Sean:  For me this has to be the Twins.  I know we think about surprises as generally positive things but I’m most surprised by the total ineptitude of the Twins thus far this year.  If you had told me at the beginning of the year that the Twins would be in fourth place, and have a 34-45 record at the halfway point, I would have called you an idiot.  They have to win 11 straight games just to pull within a half game of the slightly less surprising Pirates!


Max: It’s got to be the Pittsburgh Pirates. They’re a game over .500 and only three out in the NL Central. That’s pretty good for a team that hasn’t had a winning season since the Hoover Administration. Charlie Morton has 5 more wins than he did all of last season, Jeff Karstens’ ERA is below three, and Kevin Corriea has 10 wins. That’s surprising. (Honorable Mention: Seattle Mariners)



Most Surprising Player?

Sean:  Lance Berkman.  Berkman looked old, fat, and washed up at times last year when



he hit .248 with a career low 14 homers. This year? He’s been one of the best hitters in the game. On pace for 36 homers, and a .295 batting average, .404 OBP, and he’s playing a serviceable outfield.

Max: David Ortiz. I know it’s strange that we both picked resurgent veterans but I’m truly surprised by Ortiz. I honestly thought he was washed up. After the starts he’s had to the last two seasons and the the general mediocrity of last year as a whole, I though this year would be obvious evidence of a decline. Instead, Ortiz looks rejuvenated. His swing is back and pitchers just can’t get him out. He’s batting .307 with 17 HRs and even has his first stolen base since 2008.

Most Suprising Move:


Sean:  Cardinals release Opening Day closer Ryan Franklin.  Franklin played his way out of the closer’s role and then out of total usage for St Louis. He had an 8.36 ERA over his past 10 appearances (spanning 48 days) and really was bad, but to completely release a guy who was an All-Star closer in the past and has racked up some 92 saves over the past three years seems like the wrong roster move.

Max: The San Francisco Giants sending Brandon Belt Back to the minor leagues. It’s not surprising that they did it, it’s surprising that they had to. A lot of people thought Belt would be an impact player for San Francisco this season and really bolster the team. The Giants believed that so much they forced their top power hitter to change positions. Belt will be back, but early this season just wasn’t the right time for him.

Most Surprising Surprise?

Sean: The Year of the Dominant Pitcher.   We knew offense was down last year and we knew that was a trend we may see going forward, but the difference has been astounding.  Run scoring is down over a half a run per game from last year and over a run per game from 2009.

Max: I don’t know what to say. I don’t even understand the question.

Most Awesome Thing?

Sean:  Logan Morrison calling out Brian Sabean for Scott Cousins.  Part of the quote:  “It’s ignorant, it’s inappropriate and he has no idea what the hell he’s talking about.”  LoMo silenced most of the criticism and baseball nonsense that surrounded Cousins’ hard-nosed play that unfortunately ended in the Posey injury.  We had no-no’s and three home run games, but we have that every year.  Not every year do we have scandal like this.

Max: On June 20, Tim Hudson of the Atlanta Braves pitched 8 innings of shutout, two-hit baseball and whacked a two-run home run in route to a 2-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. For some reason, that reminds me of the story about Sandy Koufax waving in his outfielders and then infielders before striking a batter out to end an inning. Awesome.

Favorite Stat: 

Sean:   Cliff Lee had more RBI (2)  in June than runs allowed (1) and he had 42.0 IP.

Max: The Yankees are 2.5 games up in the AL East (Yeah!! Woooo!)

Lamest Thing

Sean:  The Phillies are in first.  Count me among those who root against the Phillies.  I make no bones about it and I was kinda hoping that the Phillies would get the Miami Heat treatment this year but they’re treated like
 everyone else and still have the best record in baseball.

Max: Josh Hamilton, Josh Johnson, Buster Posey, Albert Pujols, Shin Soo Choo, Derek Jeter, and Carl Crawford, have missed or are missing extended time this season. Those guys are so much fun to watch that baseball is slightly worse without them in it. Get well soon guys, if not, for your teams than for the fans.

Be sure to visit Off The Bench for more great baseball articles.

Link:  http://maxfrankel.com/?p=1229

San Francisco returns to the "Giants' way," ends five-game losing streak with 5-1 win

Vogelsong pitches seven solid innings to lead the Giants to victory.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
MIN	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	6	3
SF	0	2	0	0	0	1	1	1	-	5	7	1

Vogelsong pitches seven innings to earn his fifth win. Photo courtesy of Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

By Vince Cestone

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants took a five-day vacation from working on their original blueprint, but they got back to old business--good pitching and timely hits.

The Giants looked to improve on their poor start last night, where Madison Bumgarner gave up eight runs in just one-third of an inning pitched. The only out he recorder in the first inning was a strikeout to the Minnesota Twins' pitcher Carl Pavano.

Ryan Vogelsong (5-1), the Giants' new-found ace, pitched seven innings of one-run ball to earn the 5-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins at AT&T Park. With his gutsy pitching performance, the right-hander lowered his earned-run average to 1.86.

The Giants' offense scored at least five runs in a game for the first time since last Wednesday in Arizona, when they beat the Diamondbacks 5-2. Since then, they scored just nine runs five games, not including tonight's game.

Eli Whiteside (2-for-4) was Posey-like with three RBIs. Two of them came on a second-inning triple, giving the Giants a 2-0 lead.

This is all the offense the Giants would need. Still, San Francisco tacked on.

In the sixth inning, Whiteside singled home Nate Schierholtz, increasing the Giants' lead to 3-0. San Francisco tacked on lone insurance runs in the seventh and eighth innings.

The Giants' bullpen, which worked 8 2/3 innings of one-run ball last night, were perfect in two innings tonight.

Minnesota righty Nick Blackburn (6-5) pitched a quality game but was the tough-luck loser. In his six strong innings of work, he gave up three runs (two earned) on just four hits



Game Thoughts

By Chris Bissell

The Cinderella story continues for Ryan Vogelsong, helping the Giants end a five-game skid with another brilliant outing. He allowed one earned run while going seven strong innings, recording his fifth win of the season (5-1 overall).

Vogelsong has now made a total of 11 starts this season and is currently sitting at a 1.86 ERA with a WHIP of 1.07. While he doesn't strike out batters at the rate of Tim Lincecum, it's remarkable how well Vogelsong simply commands the strike zone, locating nearly every pitch--and making it look easy.

During his tremendous run through the 11 starts, Vogelsong has amassed the following:

- nine consecutive starts with two earned runs or less: second-longest, single-season streak by a Giants' starter since the team moved to San Francisco in 1958, with 10 of 11 starts in that same category

- Back on May 8, Vogelsong retired the first 15 Rockies he saw en route to a 3-0 victory. He's the second pitcher this year to have multiple perfect-game bids of 4 IP or longer. Jaime Garcia has three.

While Vogelsong is not qualified in terms of innings pitch, that 1.86 ERA would be tied for the Major League lead with Josh Beckett, and would be the NL lead over Jair Jurrjens (2.11 ERA).

Vogelsong is currently sitting at 72.2 innings pitches, and in order to be qualified for the ERA lead, he would need at least 6 1/3 IP in his next start to become qualified (Giants would be at 79 games, and in order to be qualified, a pitcher must have a total innings pitched equal to or greater than the amount of games his team has completed)

Vogelsong has certainly made a case for himself to make the All-Star team, assuming he becomes qualified and doesn't turn into Jonathan Sanchez between now and then. The dilemma is that Bochy most likely can't select both Vogelsong and Lincecum because all three of Philadelphia's aces (Halladay, Lee, Hamels) are All-Star worthy with sub-three ERA's and 100+ IP, not to mention Lee is posting a sub-1.00 ERA in June.

The All-Star game isn't what matters, and to Vogelsong, he can only hope that the dream continues.

Chris's Tidbits

- Aubrey Huff went 1-for-5 tonight with an RBI, and while people continue to describe Huff as in a slump, he has a line of .324/.364/.563 and an OPS of .927. The Giants have been waiting for Huff to heat up and contribute, and this month has looked pretty promising while Sandoval has continued to struggle since returning from the disabled list.

- Andres Torres has been pressing too much and Bochy acknowledged that as the reason why Rowand has been seeing more starts. While it hasn't been said much, 2010 is starting to look more and more like a career year. No one in that front office knew what to expect from Torres.

- Sergio Romo hyper-extended his knee after recording his one out tonight, but he said he should be ready to go tomorrow. It could be more serious and open up a spot for Zito in his return, but I doubt it.

- I posed the question to myself earlier about Brandon Crawford, asking how low his average would get before Bochy was forced to give up on him. After thinking about it, I'd have to say pretty low, with the options Bochy currently has. I asked the question based on the idea that great defense is needed, but to what sacrafice of offense? Bill Hall should be at 2B because of his plus power potential, and the fact that he's no worse a hitter in terms of average than Manny Burriss, or in defense. Miguel Tejada is currently hitting better than Crawford, but outside of 3B, Tejada is far from decent defensively, so at this point, Bochy's choices seem to be limited to Crawford, Crawford, and Crawford at SS. 



Giants Blurbs


By Vince Cestone

Barry Zito is likely to return to the hill when the Giants play a double header in Chicago. Ryan Vogelsong took a perfect game into the fifth inning, only to be broken up by Michael Cuddyer. Brian Wilson's last appearance was a week ago in Arizona. Tomorrow, the Giants' Tim Lincecum (5-6, 3.39 ERA) will take on Brian Duensing (4-6, 4.82 ERA) in a 12:45 p.m. matinee.