Before the Rangers series started, my unique brand of knowledge and expertise was sought by the Dallas Morning News, who don't just ask anybody to comm...
I emailed two Giants bloggers the same set of questions and both were kind enough to get back to me. Grant, from McCovey Chronicles, and Chris from Bay City Ball talked about the Giants.
Bloody heck. I felt so special for a short time.
At any rate, they asked about Matt Cain. My answer:
Same pitcher, more run support. That's the bulk of it. His fastball ranges from 91-95, and his curve and change are temperamental. His command comes and goes. All of that should tell you just how good that fastball is. It's a hard pitch to pick up. When he's throwing it a) for strikes and b) in the mid-90s, he's almost unhittable. That's what was going on in his last start against the A's.
Watching tonight...I'm not so sure. He sure seems like he has that certain je ne sais Cain that he's only hinted at before. Sure, his performance with runners in scoring position doesn't seem sustainable -- for example, Jarrod Saltalamalachhicala had a great at-bat with RISP, only to hit a ball 153 MPH right at Randy Winn -- but there's something comforting in the way Cain quietly goes through a lineup a second and third time.
In the latest issue of Giants Magazine, I penned a little love letter to Matt Cain. Because I have to write the danged things two months in advance, I was a little worried about it. What if Cain had a rough May? What if he had four straight appearances with six-plus walks? My fears were a little justified, as the column seems just a little out of place. But it's because Cain's been so good. My appeal to appreciate Matt Cain comes off as a "Hey, you know what's really useful? This water stuff we're all drinking"-kind of column.
Matt Cain: Good.
I wrote this right after Cain left the game, about sixteen hours ago. I was going to throw a prediction in about winning on a wild pitch that our intrepid cleanup hitter thought he could hit, but it was just so obvious.