First Half Review Part 1 – Midseason Grades

Title explains it all, I’ll be rating various aspects of the Giants organization based on their performance so far at the midway point.

Starting Pitching: B :: It’s just been that. Most of the season we’ve gotten just “B” performances daily. Despite Matt Cain’s insane stretch of starts where he was nearly unhittable for 6-7 starts, he’s cooled off of recent, like the entire staff. Tim Lincecum hasn’t had his Cy Young stuff much this year besides the occasional start where he’ll have his 2008-09 stuff. Zito was the best starter on the Giants for about of month. Throughout AT&T chants of “Barry! Barry!” rang for about a month but Zito since has been inconsistent with his starts. He either has it or he doesn’t, nothing in between. I honestly do not think highly of Jonathan Sanchez at all. By far he is the most inconsistent starter on the staff and most of the time his starts take a turn for the worse. So if other teams are so “crazy” about him, go get ‘em. And to finish up Madison Bumgarner, Tim Lincecum, and Matt Cain 3-4 years from now will be the best 1-2-3 starters on all of baseball I have no doubt about it. Wether they will have the offense to support it remains to be seen.

Offense: C+ :: Now if the grades were based on the past month, I give it an A-, maybe even a solid A. But overall this year the Giants offense is no force to be reckon with compared to the Dodgers, Rockies, and yes probably the Padres too. Losing a game when your pitcher gives up 1 hit all game is inexcusable, that probably lowered by grade by half. A large factor in this grade is double play. Yes those two words have been the dagger in the heart for Giants fans this season. While it may have gotten better of late double plays have probably cost the Giants at least 2 wins this year. Pablo’s struggles at the plate have hurt this team too, but he’s lucky guys like Torres, Huff, Posey, Uribe, and even Burrel to an extent have come along to give the Giants the lift they needed just to stay in the race.

Bullpen: B:: I’ll  tell you right now without Brian Wilson this bullpen is a C+, being generous. I’ll start positive, the Giants have the second best NL Bullpen ERA, 3.17, behind only those pesky Padres. The Giants have the least amount of earned runs allowed for any bullpen in the NL and they also have the most saves for any Bullpen in the NL. I’m sure you know where I’m going with the negativity. The Giants lead all of Major League Baseball in bullpen walks. The Orioles, Pirates, Astros, Royals have all allowed less walks in their bullpens. Enough said. Just to compare here, the Giants bullpen has walked 133 batters. The Padres bullpen has walked 80 batters (53 less batters), The Rockies bullpen has walked 83 batters (50 less batters) The Dodgers bullpen has walked 106 batters (27 less batters) Those differences have cost the Giants wins and possibly a chance to make the playoffs.

Manager/Coaches: B :: Front Office: C- (pending trade deadline):: Bochy at the helm of this ball club has been quite a roller coaster ride. You love him one day, you hate him the next. I criticize Bochy for sticking with his veterans too long as most people do, but he seems to get the message by sitting Rowand and Renteria more often. But if Bengie was on this team still I’d put my money on it Posey would catch Bumgarner and Cain only, no disrespect to Bengie but it was time for a change. Bochy occasionally will stick with his starters too long or not enough but for the most part he is good. (Except for this  game.) Front office gets an F if no significant (Hart, Fielder or Dunn) deal is made. F for failure to support the best staff in the NL West

Bench: B+ :: I’ll keep it short and sweet with this one. Travis Ishikawa is the reason the bench even gets a B even though he’s started of late. I don’t like Eli Whiteside for anything more then a backup catcher, not as a pinch hitter and certainly not a pinch runner. I love Burrel as of now as our starting right fielder, I like him as a pinch hitter just not as much because of his ability to strikeout more then you’d like. I really like schierholtz as a utility kind of bench guy. He’s fast, he is a /good/ hitter, and he is a heck of a fielder. Most people argue he should be starting to see what he’s got but as far as I’m concerned who’s worse then Nate thats starting everyday in the outfield? And I really like having Eugenio Velez on the roster but I guess I don’t see eye-to-eye with most people on that issue.

Overall Grade: B