World Champ Giants Off to a Rough Post Season Start

To this point, the Giants' post season has consisted of losing their World Series hero, then another hero to the Dodgers and in return have signed a trio of baseball geezers. With all due respect to Aubrey Huff and Pat Burrell for their contributions to the Giants' World Series season, the two can't be counted on to provide that much production again. Then, when Juan Uribe was lost to the Dodgers, the Giants replaced him with the aging Miquel Tejada. What's next? Are they going to trade for Ivan Rodriguez?

Aubrey Huff had a wonderful year in 2010 and with his $3 million salary was the steal of the year. His ..891 OPS made him one of the most productive hitters in the National League. But it's not hard to forget that his OPS the year before was .694. Huff did have a great year in 2008, but he was basically league average for the four years prior to that. There is simply no guarantee that he can produce like he did on a  regular basis. And this year, after his Series swoon contract was signed, he won't be a bargain this year either.

The terms of Burrell's deal haven't been announced. Fortunately, it appears to be a one year deal. So there isn't much risk involved there. Burrell can be helpful as he takes a lot of pitches, gives you good on base numbers and he still has some pop in his bat when the ball accidentally hits there. But he's a drag in left field and he wears down when he plays every day. He's a role player at best and should get 300 at bats.

The Miguel Tejada deal was just depressing. Tejada has bounced around now for several years. Again, the deal is for only a year, and his salary will be earned just playing shortstop because of the positional bump. But the guy is long past his prime, is not close to being the player Uribe is and his fielding will affect guys like Matt Cain whose strong suit is pitching to contact.

Thus, the Giants are centering itself with a core of old guys that may or may not be helpful this year. Huff will likely hit. Burrell will likely struggle and Tejada will offer little. If it wasn't for Buster Posey, this story would seem to suffer from a lack of Geritol.

Look, we all get that the Giants live and die with their pitching. They throw the ball from the mound as good as anybody. But the team can't always count on only pitching to carry the day. The line up and the fielding has to have some dynamic talent, not a bunch of old guys. Cody Ross is a nice player and all, but when he's your second or third best position player, that's kind of scary.

Who knows. It's easy to speculate in November and to question a team's strategy. The proof will be in the season the Giants have while defending their title. This Fan just isn't getting it though.

Key Decision Helped Defeat the Giants

Sometimes decisions that seem like no-brainers come back to haunt you. The Giants don't have much of an offense. Everybody knows this. And so far in this series against the Braves, the offense has come down to Pat Burrell. While everyone else was futile in the Giants' line up, Burrell had gone two for three with a three-run homer and a double. His batting heroics had helped give Matt Cain his 4-0 lead.

But then Burrell was removed for a pinch runner after his double in the sixth. As it turned out, that was only the half way point in the game. The Giants never scored another run and the Braves came back, tied the game to push it into extra innings and eventually won on an Ankiel homer in the eleventh.

Burrell is not God's gift as a fielder. He's pretty slow on the base paths. Giants' manager, Bruce Bochy had made this move all season as his starters usually carry the day and his bullpen closes the door. But that didn't happen on this night and Burrell's replacement, Nick Schierholtz, got two at bats and was just another cog in what became the Giants' anemic offense. Schierholtz struck out and flied out in his at bats. Of course, there is no guarantee that Burrell would have fared any different than Schierholtz did, but wouldn't you rather have your team's most dynamic threat up in those at bats instead?

The Giants' pitching is fabulous, but they need all the offense they can get. It might be in Bochy's best interest to let Burrell stay in the game because this is the playoffs and one big hit can make all the difference.

Comeback Players of the Year

One of the best awards in the post season is the Comeback Player of the Year Award. The award is one of the best because it celebrates the underdog, a player that overcame obstacles to have a season nobody expected. It's one of the bluest collar awards of them all and Fans dig that. We love those stories where a player overcomes and is again successful. Each league has two obvious choices this year. The National League has Pat Burrell and the American League has Bruce Chen. Let's start with Chen.

Bruce Chen capped off his year on Friday night with a 7-0, complete game shutout against the Tampa Bay Rays on a night when the Rays are fighting for the best record in baseball and the AL East title. Chen gave up two hits and two walks and struck out seven. The win finishes his season with a 12-7 record with a 4.17 ERA. It was only the second time in Chen's career that he won more than ten games. Chen's season wasn't ace-like in any shape or form. His WHIP is a hefty 1.4+. His BABIP (.289) suggests that he was a bit lucky. In eleven of Chen's starts, the Royals scored six or more runs for him and obviously, his record during those games was 8-0.

But that's not really the point. The point is that Chen has pitched for ten different major league teams. He pitched in five games in 2007. He was out of the major leagues the entire 2008 season. He pitched (badly) in just 17 games for the Royals last year and here he is making 22 starts and 32 overall appearances covering 140 innings and he won twelve of his nineteen decisions. After all these years, he gave the Royals a league average pitcher and there is a lot to be said for that. If the Royals had two or three more guys like him, they would have been a much better team. This is a guy who played for parts of 13 seasons in the minors and parts of 12 seasons in the majors and he never quit and he came from nowhere this year and gave the Royals their best pitching performance this side of Zack Greinke. That's your basic definition of a comeback player of the year.

Pat Burrell was famous once. He was the golden boy of the Philadelphia Phillies. His good looks combined with average seasons of 28 homers a year with 91 RBIs, a penchant for getting on base helped him become an idol in the city of brotherly love. His average numbers there would be even better if you threw out 2003 which was so bad it had to be an outlier. He hit .205 that year for gosh sakes. But he had a big contract with the Phillies. He never was much of a left fielder. There is no DH in the National League and the Phillies decided not to prolong their relationship after the 2008 title season.

Burrell signed with the Tampa Bay Rays who desperately needed a DH. Burrell seemed perfect. Everyone thought it was perfect. But Burrell just didn't perform. He had a horrid 2009 there and his OPS+ was 81, easily the lowest of his career (including that horrid 2003). He came back in 2010 with the Bay Rays and it was even worse. After 24 games, his OPS+ was down to 73 and the Bay Rays couldn't take anymore and they released him.

That was one of the best things to ever happen to the San Francisco Giants. Burrell's slash line with the Giants: .264/.364/.507. He's had a 130 OPS+ with the Giants. And he along with Buster Posey have completely changed the Giants' line up and it has carried the Giants on the brink of a NL West title. He has a 1.018 OPS when there are runners are in scoring position with two outs. Burrell has an .892 OPS in high leverage situations. His WAR is the highest he's had since is 2005 season.

Who knows why Burrell didn't hit in Tampa. Perhaps he never could get the handle on the DH thing. Perhaps he's a better player in the National League (sort of like Javier Vazquez). Whatever it is, he's been reborn in San Francisco and he's probably (almost certainly) going to the post season and may get to face his old team. Now won't that be fun? He is the NL Comeback Player of the Year.

Giants Winning on the Shewd and Cheap

The Giants have been long known for throwing away money. The Barry Zito deal alone will go down in history as one of the most overpaid contracts. They threw $9 million at Edgar Rentoria (or Rentashortstop if you will). They way overpaid Aaron Rowand. And all that spending got them was a great pitching staff and a feeble offense that couldn't get the job done. In a striking contrast to their history, the Giants may well have bought another pennant, but this time on the cheap.

If the Giants beat the Padres again, they will have closed the gap that seemed impossible to close just a couple of weeks ago. And if they do, it will be on the backs of cheap players like Pat Burrell, Aubrey Huff, Jose Guillen, Andres Torres and Buster Posey. The latter has simply killed the ball since he was called up. His success allowed the Giants to finally end the Bengi Molina years in San Francisco. Posey, of course, as a high draft pick, made a good bit of money to sign, but he's still a better value than Molina. Posey has already racked up a WAR (wins above replacement) of 2.1 in just 85 games. Molina's BEST FULL season in WAR was 2.3 and Molina made over $6 million that year.

Pat Burrell has been outstanding. Left on the scrap heap by the Tampa Bay Rays, the Giants scooped him up on the cheap since Burrell is still making $9 million off the Bay Rays, All Burrell has done for the Giants is hit 15 homers in 244 at bats and has driven in 40 runs in 76 games. His On Base Percentage is .377 and his OPS+ is sitting at 137. That was a pretty snazzy pick up. In hindsight, if the Bay Rays had simply stuck Burrell in the line up every day and left him there, he would have been better than anything they've used as DH since. The thing is, according to Baseball-reference.com, Burrell is playing his best outfield in years as well. So that's another 2.1 WAR on the cheap.

Aubrey Huff has had a very underrated career. He's been a really good offensive player for a very long time. Last year was his worst year since 2005 and he still managed a combined 15 homers and 85 RBIs between the Orioles and Tigers. Unfortunately, he didn't do anything for the Tigers in their stretch drive last year and he found himself as a free agent. He ended up signing with the Giants for an unbelievably cheap $3 million. What a bargain! Fangraphs has rated Huff's performance in both the field and at the plate at $20.4 million this year. That's quite a return on the investment. Huff is closing in on 300 career homers and his career should be a lot more appreciated than it is.

And you can't forget the impact Andres Torres has made on this club. His defense is amazing and his offense is cooking along at a 117 OPS+. He is making $426,000 this year. That's near minimum and according to Fangraphs, he's been worth $21.8 million with his defense and his hitting. Incredible.

There is one more shrewd move that helped propel the Giants to the brink of winning the division. The front four starters of the rotation will all make 30 or more starts this season. That's a remarkable run of health. Their fifth starter was Todd Wellemeyer, a pitcher who has had some decent success, but really isn't a great pitcher. Wellemeyer made 13 unsuccessful starts and then the Giants turned to Madison Bumgarner. Bumgarner was not an unknown for the Giants as he was their first round pick in 2007. He made his debut last year and was effective in his ten innings of look-see. This year, since his call up, he's made 14 starts and he's been delightful. He has a 124 ERA+, a 2.65 K/BB ratio and he has won five games for the Giants. His control is excellent for his age and he gives you quality starts.

The Giants' pitching has been the story for years. Not only is their rotation good, but they may have the best closer in the National League this side of Billy Wagner (Brian Wilson). But they couldn't win at pitching alone. Earlier in the year, the Padres beat them regularly by beating the Giants at their own game. Since those early days, the additions of Posey and Burrell as well as the steady beat of an Aubrey Huff having a great season along with Andres Torres' great defense and good offense have changed the dynamics of the rivalry. No longer is it a battle of pitching staffs. Now the Giants can get some offense. And for once in the Giants' history, they got that offense cheaply.

What Hustle Will Do

As someone affected by the current economy, this writer is appalled by the lack of hustle the lucky few who play in the major leagues display on a nightly basis. A few posts ago here in the FanDome, the topic was Craig Monroe, a fringe player in the majors who hustled his way out of a job in MLB due to his lack of hustle. After watching the Bay Rays play the Phillies tonight, both sides of the hustling spectrum came into full view.

First, let's consider the situation the current American League Champions find themselves in. Currently six games out of first, the Bay Rays have three teams in front of them: The Red Sox, the Yankees and the Blue Jays. All three are strong teams. At this point, if they have any chance for the wildcard and the playoffs, every game matters. So one would think a sense of urgency would permeate the team. The game tonight did not show the urgency except for a young guy named Ben Zobrist.

The game with the Phillies was close. Pat Burrell put the Bay Rays ahead 2-0 with a homer against his former mates. Garza and Blanton were terrific the entire game. The Phillies drew within a run with a homer of their own. While all this was going on, Carl Crawford hit a line drive that looked like an atom ball. As such, Crawford just jogged toward first, probably thinking he was going to be out. But the outfielder misjudged the ball and it went over his head. Only then did Crawford start busting it and decided to try to leg it into a triple. He was thrown out. If he had hustled right away, he would have been there easily. To make matters worse, the next batter doubled but did not score.

Later, B. J. Upton came up and hit a flare to short right field. The replay shows Upton jogging out of the batters box and nonchalantly trotted toward first. The first basemen and the second baseman ran to get the ball but both came up short and when neither could make the catch, they both overran the ball forcing the right fielder to have to come in and pick it up. Upton didn't run until the ball dropped and fortunately made it to second. But if he busted it from the beginning, he could have been at third. He should have been at third.

Crawford then singled to shallow left and Upton had to hold at third. If he has hustled, he would have scored on the single. Aybar was up next and hit a shallow fly to left the Matt Stairs caught on the run and easily threw Upton out at the plate for a double play. So if you are keeping score, that's two opportunities in a tight game blown by lack of hustle.

But that's where Ben Zobrist comes in. Pena got hit by a pitch moving Crawford to second. Zobrist then worked a walk loading the bases. Burrell is next and was ahead 2-0 in the count. Everything was in his favor but Burrell blew it and grounded to short on an inside pitch. Zobrist busted as hard as he could toward second and when Rollins flipped to Utley, they both expected it to be the last out of the inning. But Zobrist running as hard as he could, beat the throw. Safe! The run scored making it 3-1 but he also prolonged the inning. A single and a double followed and broke the game open to 7-1.

Zobrist, who has turned out to be one of the biggest pleasant surprises of 2009, gets it. He takes nothing for granted and works hard on every play. Crawford (which is a bit surprising) and Upton don't get it. They played the game like a part of the entitlement generation and cost their team two runs.

To a displaced worker now trying his darnedest to make his new company work, Zobrist is a hero.