Post by Rog on Sept 4, 2014 2:10:14 GMT -5
Here is a quote from Alex Pavlovic today:
I know fans go up and down with the times, but in the down times, Gregor Blanco took a disproportionate amount of the blame. I can't tell you how many tweets and emails I got from people who wanted him cut. Not benched, but rather flat-out released. Well, Blanco has finally turned it around, and the timing couldn't be better. He's got 16 hits in his last 41 at-bats. "He's making better contact and he's a bit more aggressive"
Pavlovic goes on in the same discussion to likely make a "what have you done for me lately" judgement. He points out that Buster Posey has 26 hits in his last dozen games, raising his average to .302, just 11 points behind league-leading Josh Harrison. That's the truth, but then he goes on to add "There's a better than even chance Posey wins another batting title." He could wind up being right, but that's a tough opinion to defend.
Pavlovic does go on to show a heat chart that shows Buster hitting over .500 over most of the plate during that time, and also hitting over .500 in several areas OFF the plate. What I seem to have been seeing is Buster owning the inside of the plate as well as I've ever seen him and seeing pitches well enough that he rarely swings and misses anymore. He's back to his old hot trick of fouling off pitches until he gets one he hits hard. He's also not rolling over the outside pitch as much, although that still seems to be the way he makes a fair amount of his outs.
Buster has hardly struck out during this stretch, fanning just three times -- none in the past half dozen contests. In fact, the entire Giants team struck out just 14 times in 27 innings in their three regularly scheduled games at Coors in this series.
Buster has averaged over 2 hits per game despite going hitless in two of the dozen contests. He has a 5-hit game, a 4-hit game, 3 3-hit games and 3 2-hit efforts. Oddly, he has 5 hits once and 3 hits three times in the past six games -- but went hitless in the two others. In the three games in which he suffered a strikeout, he went "only" 4 for 12. In the games in which he didn't strike out, he went 22 for 42. In the games in which he didn't strike out or go hitless, he went 22 for 34.
Half of Buster's 26 hits have gone for extra bases, including 6 doubles, 6 homers and a triple. As they mentioned on the telecast today, the Giants now lead the league in triples with 41, and both Hunter Pence and Brandon Crawford (!) have hit 10. With one more double and one more home run, Pence will have 30 doubles, 20 homers and 10 triples.
We have talked about how many Rockies are out of the starting lineup, but -- in part because of Coors Field, no doubt -- the position players who started today's game are hitting .410, .316, .312, .311, .296, .284, .263 and .261.
Even with the many injuries, it's not all that easy pitching to the Rockies at Coors.
I know fans go up and down with the times, but in the down times, Gregor Blanco took a disproportionate amount of the blame. I can't tell you how many tweets and emails I got from people who wanted him cut. Not benched, but rather flat-out released. Well, Blanco has finally turned it around, and the timing couldn't be better. He's got 16 hits in his last 41 at-bats. "He's making better contact and he's a bit more aggressive"
Pavlovic goes on in the same discussion to likely make a "what have you done for me lately" judgement. He points out that Buster Posey has 26 hits in his last dozen games, raising his average to .302, just 11 points behind league-leading Josh Harrison. That's the truth, but then he goes on to add "There's a better than even chance Posey wins another batting title." He could wind up being right, but that's a tough opinion to defend.
Pavlovic does go on to show a heat chart that shows Buster hitting over .500 over most of the plate during that time, and also hitting over .500 in several areas OFF the plate. What I seem to have been seeing is Buster owning the inside of the plate as well as I've ever seen him and seeing pitches well enough that he rarely swings and misses anymore. He's back to his old hot trick of fouling off pitches until he gets one he hits hard. He's also not rolling over the outside pitch as much, although that still seems to be the way he makes a fair amount of his outs.
Buster has hardly struck out during this stretch, fanning just three times -- none in the past half dozen contests. In fact, the entire Giants team struck out just 14 times in 27 innings in their three regularly scheduled games at Coors in this series.
Buster has averaged over 2 hits per game despite going hitless in two of the dozen contests. He has a 5-hit game, a 4-hit game, 3 3-hit games and 3 2-hit efforts. Oddly, he has 5 hits once and 3 hits three times in the past six games -- but went hitless in the two others. In the three games in which he suffered a strikeout, he went "only" 4 for 12. In the games in which he didn't strike out, he went 22 for 42. In the games in which he didn't strike out or go hitless, he went 22 for 34.
Half of Buster's 26 hits have gone for extra bases, including 6 doubles, 6 homers and a triple. As they mentioned on the telecast today, the Giants now lead the league in triples with 41, and both Hunter Pence and Brandon Crawford (!) have hit 10. With one more double and one more home run, Pence will have 30 doubles, 20 homers and 10 triples.
We have talked about how many Rockies are out of the starting lineup, but -- in part because of Coors Field, no doubt -- the position players who started today's game are hitting .410, .316, .312, .311, .296, .284, .263 and .261.
Even with the many injuries, it's not all that easy pitching to the Rockies at Coors.