After salvaging a game against the Blue Jays, the Giants face the...
Oh, come on. Again? This is as bad as the 59 games against the Padres. Except, well, the Giants haven’t lost every game against the Astros. Heck, they’ve done quite well. Maybe the Astros are composed of what physicists call "antihairston," a relatively new discovery in the world of science. It sure would explain a lot.
The Astros were pretty miserable offensively the first two times they met the Giants. How have things gone since then?
Pos | Age | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | OPS+ ▾ | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
RF | Hunter Pence | 27 | 67 | 270 | 253 | 38 | 68 | 11 | 1 | 10 | 31 | 7 | 4 | 17 | 34 | .269 | .315 | .439 | .754 | 101 |
1B | Lance Berkman# | 34 | 55 | 229 | 198 | 23 | 47 | 11 | 0 | 6 | 29 | 2 | 1 | 31 | 46 | .237 | .341 | .384 | .724 | 95 |
2B | Jeff Keppinger | 30 | 64 | 264 | 243 | 27 | 69 | 19 | 0 | 1 | 22 | 1 | 1 | 17 | 18 | .284 | .330 | .374 | .704 | 90 |
P | Felipe Paulino | 26 | 13 | 29 | 24 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | .292 | .346 | .333 | .679 | 85 |
UT | Jason Michaels | 34 | 43 | 75 | 73 | 8 | 17 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 13 | .233 | .253 | .411 | .664 | 76 |
CF | Michael Bourn* | 27 | 68 | 284 | 251 | 42 | 63 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 21 | 6 | 29 | 54 | .251 | .331 | .315 | .646 | 76 |
C | Humberto Quintero | 30 | 45 | 145 | 139 | 9 | 35 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 35 | .252 | .278 | .367 | .645 | 72 |
LF | Carlos Lee | 34 | 68 | 278 | 260 | 28 | 58 | 9 | 1 | 10 | 38 | 1 | 2 | 14 | 32 | .223 | .263 | .381 | .643 | 71 |
C | Kevin Cash | 32 | 20 | 61 | 54 | 3 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 13 | .204 | .271 | .333 | .605 | 62 |
IF | Geoff Blum# | 37 | 50 | 122 | 114 | 8 | 26 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 14 | .228 | .279 | .281 | .559 | 52 |
C | J.R. Towles | 26 | 17 | 51 | 47 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12 | .191 | .235 | .319 | .554 | 48 |
3B | Pedro Feliz | 35 | 63 | 240 | 226 | 15 | 50 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 22 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 23 | .221 | .246 | .296 | .542 | 46 |
3B | Chris Johnson | 25 | 8 | 22 | 22 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | .227 | .227 | .318 | .545 | 45 |
SS | Tommy Manzella | 27 | 58 | 206 | 186 | 13 | 40 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 56 | .215 | .262 | .258 | .520 | 41 |
P | Wandy Rodriguez | 31 | 13 | 26 | 23 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | .261 | .250 | .261 | .511 | 38 |
OF | Cory Sullivan* | 30 | 57 | 71 | 64 | 6 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 18 | .188 | .257 | .234 | .492 | 34 |
Team Totals | 30.8 | 70 | 2534 | 2318 | 236 | 540 | 98 | 8 | 40 | 224 | 34 | 17 | 158 | 432 | .233 | .284 | .334 | .618 | 66 | |
Rank in 16 NL teams | 12 | 15 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 16 | 14 | 7 | 16 | 15 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 |
Good. God. The thing about this offense that gets me is that there isn’t a single Eli Whiteside or Travis Ishikawa on the Astros. That is, there isn’t a player with a handful of fluky-good at-bats in a small sample. There isn’t a guy on the Astros hitting .350 in 12 at-bats. It’s a simple equation. Have more than a single at-bat this season for the Astros? Then, yeah, you’re having a pretty bad year. Enjoy Aaron Rowand’s hitting this year? His .220/.261/.382 line is close to what the Astros team is hitting collectively. Imagine: Aaron Rowand taking every at-bat of every game this season for your team. Now you have the Astros.
Where I felt overwhelming pity for the Orioles and their plight, though, my pity for the Astros is tempered just a little. Old divisional rivalries die hard.
Hitter to watch:
Hunter Pence is having a Pablo Sandoval kind of season: competent for stretches, but largely disappointing. I would trade quite a bit for Pence, though, so it’s probably good I’m not the GM of the Giants. He looks like a bug-eyed marionette, trying to convince you to join a sketchy religion, but I still think he has a peak in him that will transcend his .282/.346/.472 with 25 homers from last year. His BABIP is low, low, low, and he’s about to start getting really expensive in arbitration. He’d be a pretty sweet player on whom to buy low.
You’d put Pence in left or right, Torres in center, Burrell and Schierholtz could split the last outfield spot, Huff would play first, while Posey caught, and Rowand and Molina would be on the b..a.sdfhahahahaha. Couldn’t keep a straight face. What an acquisition of Pence would really do is push Posey to the bench or minors, so while Pence would be good on a 2011 Giants team that doesn’t have Molina, he probably doesn’t fit just yet.
Pitcher to watch:
Wandy, oh Wandy. Wandy Rodriguez has regressed like few other pitchers in the league this season. His walk and strikeout rates are back to where they were in his first two seasons with the Astros, and his ERA has spiked accordingly. I will absolutely not make a reference to my last-place fantasy team, on which Wandy Rodriguez is absolutely killing me, because people who talk about their fantasy teams are boring. But, man, Wandy. You are a full diaper right now. My fantasy season, which I will not talk about, is shot already, so here’s hoping that Wandy gives up another eight earned, just for giggles.
Prediction:
The Giants are facing Roy Oswalt and Brett Myers, who are both having pretty good years, so if the Giants get too cocky, they’ll outnotscore the Astros.