All's Quiet on our Western Front
I come to you now a bit calmer and cooler than earlier this week, but I warn everyone that we are far from the woods' exit. I am not short changing a series victory over the improved Nationals. Obviously a sweep would have been better, but with our recent showings we can't take anything for granted. This was a nice little bounce back series. We even snuck in a come from behind victory, apparently the tenth time we have done that so far this year, despite the fact that I usually feel like if we don't score first we are dead in the water. If you can come off a 1-6 roadtrip with a series victory, though, it is something to be celebrated.
Now comes a real challenge. The Giants are an absolutely abysmal 4-12 versus their intra-divisional opponents. There is no other way of putting it. Just stick the record out there and look at the stymied face it creates. If you count the west coast period (you know, include the A's) then the Giants are an even worse 4-15. The schedule makers have gone out of their way it seems to make us earn our way out of this dinge. We are now faced with 6 straight games against NL West opponents, including the Diamondbacks who just rocked us for 21 runs in 2 days. The Rockies are coming in after them, and, oddly enough, we took 2 out of 3 from them in our initial meeting of the year. It is the 2nd straight time they will be coming into AT&T, as they have yet to play our host. Good thing, otherwise our record may be even worse. If we are able to finagle 4 out of these next 6 then we are back on track heading to Pittsburgh. A worse record means that there are some problems that we might not be able to overcome. If your own division becomes a black mark on your schedule you can kiss the postseason goodbye. To almost a team the qualifiers will get there having played either close to .500 ball or better against their divisional opponents. Its not easy, I realize, as this is now far away from being the worst division in baseball as it was labeled as recently as 2 preseasons ago. However, I think the Giants are the class of this division, and I expect them to act accordingly.
Time for some whining? The baseball world needs to calm down about Ubaldo Jimenez. He is off to a monster start, but that's all it is, a start. National analysts have taken to calling him the "best pitcher in baseball." Excuse me? I realize Timmy has had a few sub-par outings, but he is the two-time defending Cy Young Award winner. Also, I believe Roy Halladay still plays. I wonder how you can be the best pitcher in baseball, and yet not even the best in your league. We can dip into the AL too, if you'd like, as just off the top of my head I would rather give the ball in an important game to C.C. Sabbathia, or Josh Beckett. I have seen Ubaldo pitch, and what I see is a lack of control. It is pretty hard for hitters to hit the ball when they don't know where its going, and he has taken advantage of it. The second time around the league will adjust. Or maybe he will adjust, and then we can go ahead and crown him, but this is a quarter of a season we are talking about here, hardly a trustworthy sample.
I look for Timmy to school him on Monday and for our hitters to defend Timmy's honor. Usually an effectively wild guy spells trouble for us, but for some reason we hit good pitchers well. I look for that to continue. I forgot to look to see if we catch Dan Haren in this next series,but if we do look for us to light him up, too. As for the no-names we will face, well your guess is as good as mine.
I'll be here, keeping the faith.
(Feel free to comment, or email me directly at realisticgiantsfan@yahoo.com)
0 comments:
Post a Comment