Allow me to set a scene for you: down 3-0, the Giants are in need of a rally. With two outs and one on, John Bowker absolutely clobbers an inside pitch clear into the Cove, putting the Giants within one run and waking up the hometown fans. The very next inning, Sergio Romo comes in to bail out Kevin Correia, and ends up surrendering a two run single to put the Cubs ahead 5-2. In the bottom half of the inning, Carlos Marmol strikes out the first two hitters on 6 pitches, only to walk Travis Denker, give up a single to Fred Lewis, and on the first pitch a three-run game-tying homer to Ray Durham.

Onto the top of the 8th we go with the game knotted up at 5 all. In comes Tyler Walker, ready to set down the Cubs and keep the momentum in the Giants’ dugout. Well, no not really. Then up comes Mike Fontenot, he of 5 home runs on the season and a .399 career SLG. Fontenot proceeds to crush a Thighler Walker pitch over the right field bricks to put the Cubs up 6-5, a score that would stick as the Giants would fail to score off of the very mortal Bobby Howry, and the other-worldly Kerry Wood to cap off an exciting, but disappointing night.

Now as the raving Giants fan I am, this game wasted my yelling capacity, as I was fortunate to witness the drama from the view box in section 315.  Witnessing my third loss in a row, I’ve become convinced that I’m severely cursed in my choice of Giants games this year. As a superstitious type, I’ve eliminated the reason for these losses as being my choice of t-shirt, my sweatshirt, my jeans, and of course my lucky boxers. Again as the superstitious type, there must be something I’m doing wrong, because this losing while I’m present simply can’t be the fault of the Giants themselves. Nevermind the fact that in my last three Giants games I’ve seen Kevin Correia twice, and Barry Zito once.

Nope, there is absolutely no way that there’s any other reason than my presence. The bad luck baseball gods sense my presence upon entrance to Willie Mays Plaza, and automatically rob Barry Zito of his usual pinpoint control and blinding velocity. I recommend that no one attend the game this Friday against the Dodgers if they want to see a win, as I’ll be in attendance in section 317. If you do go, feel free to bring your silver crosses and holy water; it won’t hurt my feelings.

In devotion to the greatness that is Real Matt Cain, I’m going to gloat to my heart’s content. That is, until tomorrow night when Kevin Correia violently drags us back down to a world full of average pitchers that really aren’t that impressive or interesting to watch. Then we’re right back into deep space with Tim Lincecum and Jonathan Sanchez. Following those two starts, we’re dragged to the depths of hell by the pitcher whom I shan’t name (hint: his name rhymes with Scary Neato). It’s a vicious cycle that quite frankly has severely damaged my psyche to an extent where it can only be repaired through years of rigorous therapy.

More on topic, the Giants small-balled a big-ball team to death, albeit a Cubs team without Aramis Ramirez or Alfonso Soriano. Coming off a forgettable 9-2 loss at the hands of Barry Zito and the Cubs, Matt Cain came through in spades to help erase the memory of June 30th completely from our minds and to replace it with happy memories of puppies, kittens, and ass-kicking pitching performances.

Outside of the pitching performance, there were still kudos to be given out. Fred Lewis stealing home on a double steal was especially exciting. F-Lew’s double to deep center following his baserunning escapade topped off a damn good offensive night, as Lewis ended up scoring the Giants’ only two runs. The offense’s 2 run explosion wasn’t the only upside of the night though. With two outs in the 8th inning, Mark DeRosa hit a high hopper to the left of Jose Castillo, who dove parallel to the ground, got up, and threw a one-hop seed to first while falling forward.

After His Holiness Matthew Cain did his part to contribute to victory, Brian Wilson came in. I feel like a broken record saying this, but Wilson made it interesting as usual, displaying his ability to not pitch a 1-2-3 9th inning. Mike Krukow stated it better than I could ever, saying that Wilson “definitely puts some butter on the muffin.” You go Brian Wilson–you keep on buttering that muffin. Just remember, if you ever, ever take a win away from Matt Cain, I will…be very unhappy and might consider writing a strongly worded letter. Watch out.

Zito’s latest struggles came in a game where the strikezone was next to non-existent for a better part of the first five innings.  Now I don’t know much about new-fangled pitching mechanics and them darn statistics, but I know that when a pitcher who struggles to throw strikes is getting squeezed by an umpire, nothing good can come out of such a situation.

During the early stages of the game, Kruk and Kuip were having a pretty damn insightful discussion about the fan dynamic and Zito, truthfully stating that the fans want to be able to root for him, but at the same time he needs to earn their praises.  As former players, our esteemed announcers know what it’s like to go through rough patches (although probably none as rough as Barry Zito’s), and as such are good sources for such insight.  I know I don’t speak for a whole fanbase, but personally I would love to be able to root for Zito on a daily basis; I was excited to see him pitch well in Cleveland, and am happy to see him starting to strike people out.  But a baseball fan’s love is fickle and unpredictable, and constantly must be earned.

In defense of Zito, there’s no shame in losing to the 1st place Cubbies, but it’s painful all the same, especially when you hear more cheers than boos when Mark DeRosa homers.  I’m fairly convinced that Cubs fans outnumbered Giants fans at the ballpark tonight, with some Giants fans converting midgame, realizing that after a century of futility, the hapless Chicago team might be in line for, dare I say, a World Series.  If the Cubs do end the season with a ring, that leaves the Indians and the Giants as the two most painful, heart-wrenching Major League franchises left to rot in their World Series-less squalor.  One by one, our partners in misery are leaving us (see Red Sox, 2004 and 2007).

All that aside, I’m seeing two Giants games this week; one against the Cubbies on Wednesday, and then against the Dodgers on Friday, so I have something to be looking forward to as the Giants slog through a four game set against Chicago.  While I’m a bit unhappy to be missing Lincecum’s start by one day (he goes Thursday), Kevin Correia will have to be fair compensation.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an effigy that bares a striking resemblance to Barry Zito that I’m going to grant a robotic strike-throwing pitching arm to.  Thanks to the powers of voodoo, don’t be surprised to see Zito throw right-handed from hereon in.

With the Giants one game over the halfway mark for the season, I’m going to hand out some first-half awards to our boys in orange…

• Best Quote: “I don’t need to lose weight” –Bengie Molina

Not much to be said here.

• The Rod Beck Award for Coolest Facial Hair: Sergio Romo

Romo’s moustache wins this one narrowly over Jonathan Sanchez’ meticulously manicured pseudo-goatee, and Brian Wilson’s enormous soul patch, while Tim Lincecum doesn’t qualify, as he has yet to grow stubble. Also given consideration were Randy Winn and Aaron Rowand.

• The Pedro Feliz Trophy for Best Job At Not Being Pedro Feliz: Jose Castillo

Sure he hits into a ton of double plays and doesn’t take that many walks, but for whatever reason I find myself not feeling the same frustration for him as I did for Feliz in his time with the Giants. Maybe it’s the post-Feliz hangover, but I’m OK ignoring the nearly identical slash stats of Pedro and Castillo (.264/.315 /.428 vs. .266/.319/.429 respectively). The fact that we’re paying Jose much less helps a little too.

• The Robb Nen Award for Best Reliever: Brian Wilson

Wilson’s appearances rarely ever fail to induce worry, but in the end he gets the job done, going 21 for 23 in save opps. This makes him our first legitimate close since the Nen Era, only much more…ahem…adventurous.

There’ll be more awards to come as I think of them, so feel free to make suggestions in the comments section. Giants-Cubs up next starting tomorrow so cross your fingers, close your eyes, and mutter to yourself; a position that I affectionately like to call the Giants Fan.

The final two innings of the game were the usual hijinks of the Giants’ bullpen as Tyler Walker and Brian “Adventureman” Wilson made it interesting as I yelled obscenities and sweet nothings directed at my TV set in hopes of seeing Lincecum get a well-deserved 9th win of the season.  Everything was working for The Franchise tonight, with his impossible 80 mph curveball working with his 96 mph two-seamer and 85 mph changeup, all weaving together to make the Athletic’s hitters look foolish for a better part of the night.

Towards the end of the game, Mike Krukow mentioned that the Giants have the chance to have three pitchers with over 100 K’s by the halfway point in the season, with Lincecum well over the century mark, while Jonathan Sanchez and Matt Cain aren’t far behind.  Baring this in mind, also know that first rounders from ‘07 Madison Bumgarner and Tim Alderson are mowing down Minor League hitters.  A Lincecum/Sanchez/Cain/Bumgarner/Alderson (in Hypothetical Giantsland, Barry Zito has been traded to the Yankees) combo in a few years could present the best 5-headed monster of a rotation in recent memory.  5 homegrown products, all young, and all of ace-caliber.

Now of course in Hypothetical Rainbows Puppies and Unicorns Giantsland, everything goes to plan, no one gets injured, and everyone lives up to their massive potential.  Someone could blow out an arm along the way or simply not live up to the hype, but all said, there’s a massive pot of gold waiting for the Giants on the other side.  Buster Posey (assuming he signs), Connor Gallaspie, Angel Villalona, Bumgarner/Alderson, Rafael Rodriguez, Nick Noonan, et al are on the way, and the rules of probability state that with this many prospects, at least some of them will pan out.

Gameday has officially received an update. More importantly, you can now view pitch F/X data in 3 dimensions. This update represents an unbelievably cool new way to see how pitches move. We live in exciting times my friends.

Get it here

While I have been pretty critical of Zito here at Giants Cove, I can still admit I’m happy to see him pitch well.  I will never root against a player to perform well, and Barry is no exception.  That said, this last start was encouraging, but still must be taken with a grain of salt.  One start does not a good pitcher make, but if he can string a few starts like this together, I’d be more than prepared to throw a parade in his honor.

So, what could be the explanation for such a sudden turnaround?  Baseball Reference provides some insight into the matter.  Believe it or not, Zito actually had a very effective month of May, in which he sported a shiney 3.49 ERA, and where opponents hit just .282 off of him (down from his season number of .313).  Another interesting tidbit, is that he’s been absolutely terrible at home, sporting a 7.34 ERA, compared to his road ERA of 4.64. 

Delving even deeper in Baseball Reference’s splits page, I found an interesting anomaly.  On ground balls, opposing batters are hitting .308 against Zito, while they’re managing a mere .192 on fly balls, a differential I couldn’t find with any other pitcher as a comparable.  Most pitchers’ differential swings the other way, with opponents hitting better on fly balls than grounders, with a few exceptions, but none with such a big gap in either direction.  So, what could this signify exactly?  Coupled with his .345 BABIP, maybe, just maybe, Barry Zito has been just a little bit unlucky this season, especially considering Kevin’s conclusion that the Giants’ defense ranks in the cellar.

Now of course I know that the drop in velocity and the control problems are also a huge factor in Zito’s troubles, but having a sub-average defense behind a guy who hasn’t been striking out a lot of hitters is a recipe for disaster.  With the exception of Omar Vizquel, Giants infielders aren’t exactly defensive wizards if you catch my drift.  Jose Castillo and Ray Durham have pretty limited range, while John Bowker is still learning the position over at first base, leading me to believe that Zito’s suckyness this season isn’t all just him being sucky.

It’s entirely possible that all this is the silver-lining on a cloud of Barry Zito suckitude, but I’m of the belief that guy at the age of 29 can’t be in this violent a decline without involving some mitigating factors.  Yes, he can’t strike people out anymore, and yes his fastball is in the low 80’s, but with hitters putting more balls in play against Zito now more than ever, the possibility looms that more contact by hitters into an infield with limited range could equal the sucktastic season that Barry Zito has had so far, which in a sense would partially absolve him.  Sure, why not?

1. Tim Lincecum: Standing at 4′11, 94 lbs., everyone knew that his and Matt Cain’s starts this year would be a highlight, but the 13 year old Lincecum has outperformed even those expectations and is pitching like a Cy Young candidate. Keep it up Timmy; you keep striking out hitters, and Matt Cain’s mom will continue to provide the juice boxes and orange slices. When asked about his success so far this year, the 7 year old Lincecum responded, “I wike to pway basebaw and stwike people out.”

2 . The not-that-sucky-but-still-kinda-frustrating-offense: Bengie Molina is having a career year as a catcher at the age of 34, which is amazing in and of itself. Aaron Rowand started out on a tear, but has since regressed. Dave Roberts’ injury blew open the doors for Fred Lewis, who’s not only been a huge contributor to our offense, but also to my fantasy baseball team. Jose Castillo has outhit Pedro Feliz this year for much less money. All in all, this offense could have been much worse, so I consider us blessed to be hitting this well-ish.

3. The not-that-sucky-but-still-kinda-frustrating-bullpen: The bullpen meltdown in Kansas City was unfortunate. It was the Hindenburg of all bullpen meltdowns this season. As such, I’m going to completely erase such a traumatizing experience from my memory, bottling up the emotions until such a time when I lash out at my TV set with a baseball bat if and when the Giants blow another game like that. With that said, Brian Wilson, while still a bit of an adventure on the mound, is 20-22 in save opportunities this year and is striking out more than a batter an inning. Tyler Walker has emerged as a legitimate setup man, while Alex Hinshaw has put on a display with his above-average strikeout stuff. As for the rest, Vinnie Chulk, we hardly knew ye.

4. Garlic Fries: Living in Seattle for a better part of the last year, I needed to somehow get my baseball fix. I went to a few Mariners games and all in all it’s a nice ballpark with middling to average food, as I tried their garlic fries and frankly was not impressed. I went to a Giants game the first week I came back and remembered how much I loved our particular brand of Garlic Fries. So much so, that I’m willing to grant our Garlic Fries capitalization, while the 29 other ballparks in baseball settle for lowercase garlic fries. While ballpark food might be insanely overpriced, it’s still damn tasty if I do say so myself.

5. The Draft: The Giants came away from the ‘08 Draft stacked to high heaven with big-time contributors for the future. Buster Posey profiles to be a star at the Major League level, who I like to believe can hit 25-30 HR entering into his prime, while last year’s top draft pick Madison Bumgarner (aka MadBum) is blowing away hitters in his first pro season. Pitchers, hitters, you name it, the Giants Minor League System has it*.

*Really mostly at A-ball with a few exceptions named Pablo Sandoval and Matt Downs.

So how have the Giants fared this season in terms of fielding? Not so well. The Giants have posted the 5th worst DER (which is the ratio of outs to balls put in play) in the NL. However, perhaps you attribute this crappy performance to the Giants pitching. After all, balls thrown by Barry Zito have a tendenacy to leave bats at a velocity similar to girls at a singles bar fleeing from my little brother (who looks like the unwholesome love child of Otis Nixon and Sam Cassell) However, hardball times can parse that data as well. The Giants pitchers have created 1 less out than expected (-1) whereas the Giants defense have created a 2nd worst in the NL and 5th worst overall -20 outs. Simply put, the Giants defense sucks and makes the pitching look far inferior to its actual quality.

The Giants are a team built on pitching, defense, and speed. Unfortunately, their pitching has proven underwhelming and their defense has been a major detriment this season.

I was lucky enough to get tickets for Zito’s start on Wednesday, and was promptly disappointed as our main man proceeded to give up five runs in the first two frames against the Tigers.  From my seat in row 00 in the left-field bleachers (right above the Bud Light sign), I was treated to a terrible game on a beautiful day, as the offense couldn’t muster that big hit in the clutch, while Barry Zito was just being Barry Zito.  Other than that, there’s not too much to be said.

There’s been talk of the Giants hiring recently fired pitching coach Rick Petersen to come in and fix Zito as a “special assistant” to Dave Righetti, but this is just about as likely to happen as Hillary being Obama’s VP.  Barry Zito is not a quick fix away from being an effective pitcher anymore.  Rather, he needs to radically change everything he’s doing now.  He needs to learn a sinker to keep the ball out of the air, he needs a delivery that utilizes more of his body behind his fastball, and he needs to have a long sitdown with Jamie Moyer so it can be made painfully clear to Barry what he needs to be.

If none of this happens, you can bet that Zito’s not going to magically improve on his 5.84 BB/9, or his 4.86 K/9.  Opponents are hitting .313 off of Big Z, with a BABIP of .340, which suggests he’s either giving up hard contact, or getting really unlucky.  The other path the Giants could take would be to do what the Tigers did with Dontrelle Willis and option Zito down to A-ball to “find himself,” which at this point isn’t a bad idea.  Whatever happens, this man is simply not a Major League level pitcher anymore, which makes his paycheck that much more painful.