First, I’d like to point out how bizarre it is that not only do the Giants have two off days in a row, but that first of those off days was on a Sunday. What’s going on with the schedule? Why wasn’t there a game yesterday? If there were a game, I’d think I’d remember that sort of thing.
It’s hard to come up with material after an off day, so I’ll bring up a completely random topic. Like, oh, the bullpen. The bullpen has made great strides this season in the all-important statistical category of not having Armando Benitez (NHAB), but the overall performance has been a little spotty. Brian Wilson’s been fine, non-save situations aside, Jack Taschner has done well as the lefty specialist, and Keiichi Yabu has generally done well in the traditional moppy set-up role.
I’ll also make a little admission: I don’t mind Tyler Walker in this bullpen. He can strike guys out, and his walk rate is one of the best on the team. He’s just been a little unlucky, or, at least he’s just chosen the exact wrong times to be awful. Alex Hinshaw is as fun to watch as anyone else in the pen, even if his control is a constant struggle.
So there have been acceptable-to-good spots. There has also been Vinnie Chulk. Billy Sadler is usually an adventure, too. Here’s the problem: If the Giants want to make a change, they’ll either have to pull someone up directly from AA (Sergio Romo, Osiris Matos, or Justin Hedrick), or they’ll have to bring up someone who is struggling in AAA, as they’re all struggling in Fresno. Even if the familiar names (Randy Messenger, Scott "Jason Voorhees" Munter, and Brad Hennessey) might normally tempt Brian Sabean, they haven’t done anything at all in AAA to indicate they’d be an improvement on either Sadler or Chulk in the short-term.
There isn’t an easy solution, but I’m not sure there’s a huge problem, either. Open bullpen thread, which is totally unrelated to whatever happened during yesterday's non-game.