What’s up with www.espn.com? It’s defaulting to its mobile format.
And unsurprisingly, they don’t. Giants lineup goes hitless between the 3rd and 13th innings; and the bullpen blows 2 saves in one game – what’s the record for blown saves in a game? 
In the past 2 games, Lincecum and Cain combine for 14 IP, 1 R, 3 BB, 15 Ks…and 0 wins.
Nope.
It is hard to imagine two more excruciating ways to lose than the Giants have the last 2 games.
Lincecum and Cain both went 7 innings, giving up 1 (Tim) and 0 (Matt) runs.
Yesterday the Giants should have taken the lead in the ninth, but poor base running on a hit, followed by a double play, took them out. The Cubs then walked off in the ninth.
Today was much worse. Wilson blows the save in the ninth, the Giants take the lead again in the 13th, only to let the Cubs walk off for the second straight day in the bottom of the 13th.
Just to pile on my beloved Giants: Pat Burrell got the hat trick, with 3 strikeouts. Leadoff hitter Andres Torres went 0 for 6 (dropping his average to .222), including the Golden Sombrero: 4 K’s.
They are seriously hard to watch.
A sweep of the Brewers was a nice bonus. The Yanks just love inter-league play for some reason. They have a really great record, the best in fact since the start of it and of course in the World Series version too.
I would just like to point out two things:
- It is now July 1st
- The Pittsburgh Pirates are 2 games out of first place in the central, having played 2 games less than the division-leading Brewers and Cardinals.
That is all.
He wasn’t ripped off last year. Quit that. You haven’t seen a Cy Young caliber pitcher in a while. Right now, that’s Verlander.
In the AL right now, there are 4. Verlander, Shields, Beckett and Weaver are all pitching their brains out. I’d give the edge to Shields, but he’ll implode by the end of the season.
[walks out on limb]
I’ll take CC this year (for consistent great performances, durability, big game experience).
This would include last year, as well as the next few years.
[/ walks back to safety]
Hope this doesn’t count as a hijack, but three major league teams have now posted videos supporting Dan Savage’s great “It Gets Better” project. The video from the World Champion Giants was the first “It Gets Better” video from any top-tier professional sports team.
San Francisco Giants
Chicago Cubs
Boston Red Sox
Huge kudos to all three teams. As a Giants and Red Sox fan, I’m very proud that both of my teams are leading the call for acceptance and tolerance in a traditionally homophobic sports world. We’ve come a long way (though there’s obviously plenty left to do)!
This year? He’s got durability. His big games have usually resulted in his poorer performance (he’s 0-2 against Boston this year, and has 2 good games against first place teams (Texas and Milwaukee). The rest of his good games have been beating up on losing record teams. Shields is heads and shoulders above CC in big games (hell, Big Game is Shields’ nickname), has gone the distance six times already (including 3 in a row), and has better individual performances.
Ah - I see. You only look at Wins, don’t you?
It’s been fun watching the Royals new hitters not completely struggle as they begin facing MLB pitching. It’s also been a bit painful watching their starting rotation take the mound (really, we’ve gone to a 6-man rotation?!). But one of the highlights has been watching Alex Gordon finally get rid of his case of the yips. He’s hitting really well, and his fielding has been absolutely unbelievable. His UZR is 5.0, and he already has 13 assists from left field.
Verlander is an interesting case this year.
Look at his mainline stats, and he’s off the charts. Best WHIP of any starter in the AL, an ERA of about 2.30, the most strikeouts, and currently more innings pitched than anyone else. For those who count Wins as an important Cy Young stat (i don’t), he also has the most in the majors, tied with Sabbathia.
It does seem, though, that he’s been a little lucky this year. Verlander has one of the lowest BABIP numbers among starting pitchers: 2.24. The only starters with lower figures are Beckett and Humber. Verlander’s career BABIP is .290, and the major league average BABIP generally hovers around .300.
Verlander’s Ground Ball percentage hasn’t changed very much from previous seasons (40.7% this year; 42, 41, 43, and 44 over the past four seasons), and it doesn’t seem like he’s radically changed his pitching style in any way that would contribute to a lower BABIP, so it seems reasonable to conclude that his very low 2011 BABIP is mainly due to luck and/or fielding, and will likely tend to revert back towards his average over time.
This is not something that would likely hurt him in Cy Young voting, though, and i’m not even arguing that it should. Right now, if i were voting, i’d probably give it to Verlander, although Shields is a very good candidate. Still half a season to go, though.
As someone who kept Liriano over Shields in his AL-only league after watching Big Game just torch my ratios last year, I’m a little bitter at how dominant he’s been. I’d vote Verlander both because he’s been so good, but there’d also be a small element of how good he’s been the last few years (but always just behind someone else’s ridiculous season a la Felix/Greinke).
You see? It’s obvious by your comments that you don’t
Tex with a 2-run double in the first!
Of course I don’t. I don’t judge individual players by a team stat. Why don’t you judge catchers by Wins? Or shortstops? Why punish or reward a player by the amount of runs his team can produce, *especially *in the AL where he has zero affect on that? Greinke would have won 24 games in 2009 with the Yankees to CC’s 19, and Felix would have won probably 25 last year. Wins are meaningless for individual players - it’s a team stat desperately attached to pitchers for people unwilling to look at a handful of other categories that don’t take much effort to understand.
Actually, Munch, i think he was saying that you don’t see, not that you don’t look only at Wins.
Hmm…maybe. I certainly hope so. But looking at the Cy Young field in the last couple years, I can’t see any other explanation for wanting to vote CC first. He’s been an absolutely great pitcher - but there have always been at least 3 pitchers every year in the last couple I’d have voted ahead of him. Other than the usual “wins are the coolest!” argument, I’m not sure what else he has to hang his hat on to set him apart.
I agree with you, and CC is definitely not in my top three or four for the Cy Young so far this year. He’s 20th among AL starters in WHIP, and 13th in ERA. About all he’s got on anyone else right now is Wins, and that just doesn’t cut it, especially when you pitch for a team that scores more than a run a game over league average.