Marty:

I am provoked by your A’s report card.

Can the Giants be far behind? So here goes.

Fans Click Read More for another terrific analysis of the Bay Area’s other team, the SF Giants, penned by baseball expert, Ed Stern.

Thanks Ed,

from Marty LurieRespecting the pitching:

I was at the game last night, saw Foppert pitch. He didn’t throw more than two or three bad pitches in 7 innings. Gave a good hitting club one run over those 7 innings. The night before Ainsworth gave Colorado two runs in 7 innings, having given them only one run a few days ago at Coors. In that game he had them hitting in the ground consistently, which is the way to beat the Rockies at Coors.

If the way these two have been pitching the past few times out is an indication of how they are going to perform the rest of the year the team is in good shape for starters. Moss is a problem. He throws too many pitches and at times seems unsure of where his next pitch is going to end up. Three and two on far too many batters. Rueter has just finished throwing 7 shutout innings against the Rockies. He is now 6 and 1 and in typical fashion continues to give the team wins in the vast majority of the games he starts. In three games Colorado has now mananged three runs,total. Tomorrow they face Schmidt, who has become a dominating thrower. It looks like a sweep.

Worrell has taken over the closer role in the absence of Nen. No one, including management, expected him to be as dominant as he has been. In the beginning they were talking of a closer by committee. It quickly became clear that, in Worrell, they had a closer who may not fit the stereotype but who could do the job. He is always around the plate and knows how to pitch. He has an e.r.a. of 1.53 and has not yet blown sky high in a given situation as so many of the stereotypical ones do on occasion.

Nathan started great and recently has had his problems. There is not enough of a track record on Nathan to predict his future but there are encouraging indications that he may be a welcome addition to the bullpen based on his earlier success this season.

Eyre has given the team a left handed presence in the bullpen which has been needed and has done just about eveything that has been asked of him. Zerbe is up and down from Fresno frequently which is an indication of his unreliability on an everyday basis. Perhaps Christiansen is the answer but we won’t know that until he gets off the DL and throws a few times. Brower, the throwaway in the Hernandez trade, gives them two or three innings when called upon.

Every team seems to need a pitcher in garbage times and Brower fills that bill. Occasionally he has been called upon in moments of stress and has come through. He doesn’t hurt the club.

Rodriguez is an interesting story and more about that later. Overall, if the youngsters hold up, the rotation may be a great deal better than one could reasonably have anticipated at the beginning of the year. The catching is much better than could have been anticipated.

Santiago is a 39 year old marvel who is having a career year at a time when 39 year old catchers usually have been put out to pasture a long time back. Torrealba has been a consistent .300 hitter this year, on the infrequent occasions Alou decides to give Benito a rest.

Snow is still the best defensive first baseman in the game, still can’t hit left handed pitchers, but ,with Galarraga around, doesn’t see too many of them.

Durham is no Kent (the Giants could use someone who continues to knock in runs the way a Hall of Famer such as Kent does) but, in his own way, Durham has provided them with a first rate ball player. He is fast, is much better defensively than we were given to understand from the manner in which the A’s DH’d him last year, has range at second, makes the double play and hits well and in the clutch.

Now, to the left side of the infield. Quickly, after the start of the season it became apparent that this was a problem area. Aurilia isn’t the ball player he was in his career year a few seasons ago. He has never been a shortstop with much range but he was hitting with power and often. Today, he still has little range, is not hitting and ,when he gets the bat on the ball, too often it results in a double play. Compounding the evil, he is hitting in front of Bonds and after a couple of hitters who have been getting on with regularity. This produces the unwelcome sight of leaving Bonds standing there with the bat in his hands and no one on base.

Alfonzo, at third, is hitting ,226 and gives little indication that it is going to get much better. He has a big contract ,over three years, and it will be a bitter pill to swallow if he turns out to be another Bernard. Perez has done all that could have been expected of him. He has filled in for injured players admirably, has hit reasonably well and is a major league infielder at whatever position he is called upon to play. Feliz shows signs of finally coming around as a hitter recently, with home runs in three successive games. Can the Giants play Feliz and Perez in place of Aurilia and Alfonzo? Tough call but it may come to that.

In the outfield, Bonds is, by his own admission, slowing down. Despite that, he has an on base percentage of almost .500, remains a constant threat to the other side, hits a long ball just often enough to scare them and the team looks a great deal better when he is in the lineup.

Grissom is the surprise of the year. The Dodgers thought so little of him that they platooned him last year, thinking he couldn’t hit right handers and then dumped him. He is hitting right handers and left handers with frequency, running the bases well, playing a strong center field and doing everything that belies his 13 years in the majors. He has secured the lead off spot despite the return of Durham who had it sewed up until his injury and was doing a great job there before being hurt.

What is there about the Giants that allows these oldsters, Bonds, Santiago, Grissom, Galarraga to play at Pac Bell as tho they were fifteen years younger?

Cruz, in right, is a puzzle. He started the season hitting well over three hundred, with power. For the past month, he can’t buy a hit, particularly when there are runners on base. He has been dropped down to the 8th spot and hits into double plays with the frequency exceeding Aurilia. Unfortunately, the Giants do not have another outfielder on the team who deserves to be playing on a contender. Bernard has three hits in 26 at bats, Rivera has 9 in 50 at bats. These are not simply slumps from which one might hope they will recover. Each of them has a track record of not being able to hit major league pitching over a well established period of time. Oh, well, maybe Rivera’s base running skills will make up for it. Seriously, perhaps Sabean can do something about this by mid-season.

Finally, the manager, Felipe. As is well known by now, this was a no-brainer when it came to select a replacement for Dusty. Alou has done everything which was anticipated. He runs the ball club unquestionably, with the respect of the players. He handles the day by day on- field strategy as well, if not better than Dusty. He is not beholden to any player and plays those who are producing ,where in the lineup and when, it is most appropriate.

A word about Rodriguez, by way of example. Rodriguez had fallen on hard times. Formerly,the most respected set-up man in the league, he had for the better part of a year been unable to pitch back to those days. It apparently reached a culmination not so long ago when he blew a game in late innings by a horrendous performance, which the team thought, rightfully,it had won. The next picture one saw was Alou, in the dugout, with Rodriguez, talking to him. One could not overhear the conversation, of course, but the body language was interesting. It was clear that he was not berating him. If that was the case,he could only be giving him some encouraging words, in a situation where the player was obviously grieving. This impression was reinforced a short time later, when Alou threw Rodriiguez into a set-up spot in a game where good pitching was needed. Rodriguez did well and since then, over the past few weeks and up until today’s game Alou has used Rodriguez in the same fashion he was used when he was acting as Nen’s set-up pitcher in the 8th innings. Rodriguez looked today and has looked for the past few weeks, like the pitcher he was over a year ago. This is a pitcher the Giants badly need. It may be Alou’s best moment the entire year.

All in all, the Giants look like winners, once again. The Dodgers, a short time ago winners of ten in a row, who had erased a 7 game lead of the Giants and were in a tie for first place, collapsed. In one week’s time they find themselves 5 losing games behind the Giants. The Giants, on the other hand, when they lost their big lead, didn’t collapse. They went out and have now won five in a row, beating Arizona and Colorado, the latter having just come off a series where they beat LA badly. The Dodgers aren’t winners, the Giants are and the rest of the division is out of the race.