Results tagged ‘ Javier Lopez ’
GIFPost: Pitching and Defense from Game 3 of Giants-Dodgers
The game ended 5-3, but the Giants had plenty of moments where their pitchers and their defense came through for them. Tim Lincecum had a stretch where he looked stellar, and then other moments where nobody knew where his fastball was going. After Jose Mijares loaded the bases off of a weak hit, a line drive, and a curveball for a HBP on Mark Ellis, George Kontos came in to save the day on what was deemed the biggest hit in win probability added for the Dodgers on this Matt Kemp double play:
Could Pablo Sandoval thrown home or to second and got the second out? Debatable. He did do the smart thing by getting two sure outs: one at third, and one at first as the Dodgers would score what would be their last run of the night.
Javier Lopez came in next to face Adrian Gonzalez and thought Buster Posey had received this well enough to get that 2-2 call. Ump didn’t though.
So he decided to throw his 3-2 pitch and strut off.
“Dah! Dah! Dah! Dah! Dah! Dah! Dah! Dah!”
Matt Kemp went 0-for-the-series and Chad Gaudin was more than happy to be a contributor to the cause, and also had pretty good control in Wednesday’s outing.
Next we turn to the defensive baseball porn. You could get lost in this play. Carl Crawford chops the baseball to maybe-brother-maybe-relative Brandon Crawford and the rest is just Golden
I mean, look at that handsome defense
Even from that angle I get lost in his beautiful eyes
And one more angle for good measure
Solid.
Sergio Romo got to face two Team Mexico teammates in Adrian Gonzalez and Luis Cruz. The first two guys made their outs, and it was time to make the new Dodger shortstop silly.
Good game, Luis Cruz, but not even close.
The Giants have an off-day today, then engage with the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday at 1:35PM PST at home in front of what I’m guessing will be three straight sell-out crowds.
The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!
Bryce Harper after the sky fell on the Giants’ season, ending all their hopes at ever winning again
The Giants got swept by the Nationals and could be a whole 1.5 games back of the Dodgers by the end of the day. The black and orange have lost 5 of their last 6, and the Giants are lucky it’s July before the break so that they have time to figure out what the heck they need to do. Here’s what I think some big complaints will be following tonight’s game:
#1: We have a closer problem
The people are right: we have a problem with the title “closer” because it’s a very flawed concept that is based off of the need to get saves, which is a stupid stat in and of itself for reasons I’m not going to dive into here. I personally do not know whom Bochy thinks is his best reliever is, but I know who it is and he bailed the Giants out of the 7th, and threw up a 0 for the 8th inning.
Here are some stats between Romo and Casilla coming into today’s game to help me prove my point for why Sergio is better than Santiago:
Even if you hate sabermetrics, I know you can see a difference in ERA, and K/9.
For those wondering how these two do versus left-handed hitters. Romo has been platooned by Bochy, but it’s not like that’s Romo’s fault. He does just fine, as you can see in his wOBA against.
Keep in mind you may not want to use your best reliever in the 9th, as the game might call for it in the 7th, like it did tonight. Too bad we don’t have two Sergios though we could’ve used the second one in the 9th.
#2: We lost because of Brandon Crawford, and Brandon Belt should’ve had that
To put the game on Brandon Crawford, while understandable in the moment, is pretty unfair. Should Brandon Belt have had that extremely low throw by Crawford? Yes. Does that put the game on those two? No. This was as team of a loss as team losses get.
Pablo Sandoval was 0-for-2 in 2 opportunities with the bases loaded.
Brandon Belt and Joaquin Arias left Angel Pagan on 3rd with 0, and 1 outs, respectively in the 7th.
Matt Cain made a huge mistake to Ian Desmond by leaving one up when Buster wanted it down, which really re-started the Nats’ rally.
The Giants left 11 men on base.
Casilla made an error on a sacrifice bunt, and you never know how the game would’ve been different.
#3: We would’ve won if that play had been executed!
You don’t know that, and I don’t know that.
#4: Bochy lost that game for us.
For all Bochy does, I don’t think he lost this one for us. With Cain and his 6.2 IP done with, Bochy brought in Affeldt to play the percentages, no problem with that. Affeldt doesn’t get anyone, so instead of Penny, Bochy brings in Romo. Definitely no problem with that. In the 9th, Arias moves to 3rd, Crawford moves to Short, Nate goes to RF, I’m fine with that. Casilla in the 9th, for the whole 9th — with the mess Casilla got himself into, if Bochy wanted to get into a platoon game with Javier and Penny, that bullpen wouldn’t have lasted extra innings very long if they would have even made it, so I didn’t have a problem with that. My biggest problem was with his lineup having Christian 1st and Theriot 2nd, and it worked out tonight. This means it could become the lineup vs. LHP, which makes me a little sad.
In closing…
Some will disagree with the things I said and that’s fine. Remember, this is one game, and there’s 79 games left, and this team may look way different 30 days from now.
Season in Review: LHP Jeremy Affeldt
This may have been the most important thing the lefty did all year
2011 Stats: 3-2, 2.63 ERA, 67 G, 61.2 IP, 3 SV, 54 K, 24 BB, 3.69 FIP, 7.88 K/9, 5 HR allowed
While the world tries to make out the logic that is Brian Sabean signing two lefty relievers in 2 days for about $9.25MM, let’s take a look at one of the two he signed! Already talked about how good the other one was, and because he got signed for $4.25MM, it was only logical that since Affeldt has some better stats here and there he should be paid more than Lopez, right guys? Right!
Jeremy Affeldt is a pretty good reliever, and even if he hit the market he would’ve been paid like one. Consider that he had a .144 BAA against LHH. Good, right? Hellz yea! That equated to 13 hits in 90 AB, but he did allow 7 BBs (grrrrrr…). What’s interesting is he saw more ABs against RHH mainly because he’s better than Lopez at getting them out. With a .248 BAA against RHH you’re just using him because you know you’re going to see 1 or 2 LHH in the inning, or because is sweeping curve and changeup is just flat out MONEY that night. We’ve seen and remember those nights.
Fun with choosing your stats: Jeremy Affeldt in his 25 AB’s with a full count held hitters to a .080 BAA. Nice! In 11 ABs with the bases loaded he held hitters to a .091 BAA! Sweet! However, his BAA was at its peak when the game was within 1 R at .277 (not nice 
) Affeldt saw the bulk of his work in the 7th and 8th innings at 24.1 IP and 21.1 IP in 32 and 31 games, respectively and he’ll hold that role as long as there’s a power righty in the bullpen or someone with a no-dot slider in the bullpen. This was only his 2nd season with an ERA under 3 (the other in 2009 with a ridiculous 1.73 ERA in 74 G) so we’ll see if he bounces back up above it in 2012. If it does, I’d expect that to be the end of Jeremy in the Bay. I’m expecting it to hover around 2.90-3.00 this year.
2012 Status: 7th/8th inning reliever/set-up man. Not just a LHH specialist, but can be.
2012 Projected Salary: $5MM in his final year.
Season in Review: LHP Javier Lopez
One of the heroes in 2010, Javy was solid in 2011 and was rewarded with a 2 year deal
2011 Season Stats: 5-2, 1 SV, 70 G, 53.0 IP, 6.79 K/9, 4.4 BB/9, 2.72 ERA, 3.16 FIP
162 Games and Javy Lopez showed up in 70 of them. Granted as those 53.0 IP show you, he wasn’t called on to do a full inning’s work in all of those. If he seemed a little off from 2010, it’s because he was downright insane during his time after the trade from the Pirates to the 2010 Champs. Seriously, he posted a 1.42 ERA in 19.0 IP and 27 G with the Giants in the regular season in 2010. But then again, that 1.42 ERA kinda summed up all of the Giants pitching in late 2010.
He made about $2.3MM in 2011 and now there’s news that the Giants have extended his services to an almost doubled $4.25MM a year for 2 years. Will he be worth it? Probably, but I don’t know I would’ve gone higher than $3.5MM for a middle-reliever that also acts and performs as a set-up man (sorry, Rafael Soriano). He’s great against LHH (.163 BAA, 1 XBH allowed in 104 PA in 2010), but for not being the primary guy to set things up for B-Ri, I’m not sure how big of a fan I am of the size of the contract.
Safe to guess Javy will perform though. It’s pretty hard to not allow ANY HRs in a season and just 1 XBH. That XBH was in a game that had more of a 4-run differential, too. The homie had a 1.05 ERA in the 8th inning showing up in 40 G and 25.2 IP. 3 ER total. That’s amazing. In 2011 though, and I know it’s a small sample size in 9, and 7 G, respectively, Javy had a 5.06 ERA against both the D-Backs and the Padres. He did though, have a 0.00 ERA in 8 G against the Dodgers. With the NL West having the potential to be extremely much more dangerous in 2012, he will have to be better next year, but there is something to be said for the difficulty of consistently performing against the same opponent.
2012 Status: LHH Specialist to be used the 7th/8th inning
2012 projected salary: $4.25MM
Pitching is Our Priority
How much will Timmy make in 2012?
2011 is over for the San Francisco Giants. If you were like me, you celebrated midnight and changed the calendar to 2012 because the off-season has officially begun for the 2010 Champs. It’s no secret that what got the Gigantes to the ticker-tape parade was a wall of pitching dominance and timely hitting by gentlemen who would not shine the same way in 2011. The first order of business going into this off-season as Sabes said, is the pitching. With that said, let’s take a look at who’s on the list for 2012, arbitration eligible for a pay raise and who may be donning a different uni by the time Spring Training breaks:
Set Salaries in 2012
- Barry Zito ($19MM in 2012)
- Matt Cain ($15.333)
- Brian Wilson ($8.5)
- Madison Bumgarner ($450K in 2011, controlled through 2016)
- Tim Lincecum ($14MM in 2011, 2 years of arbitration left)
- Jonathan Sanchez ($4.8 in 2011, 2 years left)
- Ramon Ramirez ($1.65 in 2011, 2 years)
- Santiago Casilla ($1.3 in 2011, 2 years)
- Sergio Romo ($450K in 2011, 3 years)
- Ryan Vogelsong (Under Team Control)
- Jeremy Affeldt ($5MM option that could be declined)
- Javier Lopez ($2,375MM in 2011, Free Agent)
- Guillermo Mota ($925K in 2011, Free Agent)
Hey Boss, Get Us Some Help Please???
Rmph,rhmsklham...smrbkjlgnmp...mhrpsh!
