This is the first time I have ever posted a message of any kind on any internet site, so please bear with me if I break some kind of nerd-rule I'm not aware of.

Has anyone else noticed that it seems like our hitters are completely inept against young pitchers? Before the start of last night's game I went on the inter-web to see who the starting pitcher for Baltimore was, and finding that it was a rookie I immediately decided not to watch the game. It turned out that my inkling was correct, we got shut down pretty badly.

I don't watch every Giants game, but I watch probably somewhere between one-third to half of them, and it seems like at least this year and last year every time we go up against a pitcher who is either a rookie or pretty fresh in the big leagues, we get dominated.

Does anyone have any statistics that would prove or disprove my feeling? And if it is in fact the case, any guesses as to why? My initial thought was that with a lot of old guys they get set in their ways in terms of relying heavily on scouting reports as opposed to taking what the pitchers give them. If this is the case, I would think that pitchers with little track record would be particularly difficult for our team.

I'm very happy with the success we're seeing this year, but it continues to frustrate me when young pitchers with very little experience just shut us down time and time again. My rule of thumb this year has been if the opposing pitcher has been in the league 2 years or less, I don't watch the game.