MVN - Most Valuable Network

The Opposing Viewpoint: San Francisco Giants (Part 2)

Welcome back to The Opposing Viewpoint, the place to learn more about the Mets’ opponents from the bloggers who write about them. After taking three of four from the Phillies in a dramatic fashion that probably shortened all of our lives by a couple of years, the Mets return home to face the Giants. San Francisco was not expected to contend this year because of its subpar offense, but thanks to a strong rotation that includes Sports Illustrated’s latest cover boy (as much as I’m not looking forward to watching the Mets face Tim Lincecum tonight, it’s a treat to watch him pitch, and I can’t help but be a little jealous of those attending tonight’s game) and the down year from the rest of the NL West (the Dodgers and Diamondbacks are each a game under .500, and that’s good enough to be tied for the division lead), the Giants find themselves just five games out. Today’s guest, Nick Cannata-Bowman of MVN’s Giants Cove, discusses what he’d like to see his team do at the deadline and tries to make sense of a strange split:

A lot has been made of how home-field advantage is stronger this year than it has been in the recent past. The Giants stand out as something of an exception to this rule - they’re a .500 team on the road, but 11 games under that mark at home. What explanation would you give for the team’s road success/home struggles?

There really seems to be no clear explanation for the Giants’ home woes.  Historically, our team has been lights out at AT&T Park, but this season for whatever reason we just can’t function normally.  Maybe it’s the fact that our hitters are bad enough as it is, and a pitcher’s ballpark doesn’t help much.

San Francisco has one of the stronger rotations in baseball, but Barry Zito hasn’t come close to earning his considerable paycheck. Have you seen anything from him to make you think he can turn things around?

Funny that you’d mention that, as Zito just had an ace-like outing against the Dodgers in which he went 7 innings, gave up two runs, walked one, and struck out a whopping 10 hitters, his most in a game since 2006. His curve ball was sharp, his changeup was good, and his fastball was miraculously in the upper 80’s, topping out around 88.  He truly looked like an ace, and gave us some hope for continued improvement, as he’s 4-4 after his 0-8 start.

The Giants are in a strange position in that their overall record isn’t very good but they are within striking distance of the division lead. What moves would you like to see as the trade deadline approaches?

As the trade deadline approaches, I don’t expect any huge moves, outside of Rich Aurilia/Ray Durham types being dealt for prospects.  Sabean knows that there’s no point in acquiring rentals, especially at the expense of a promising young core ready to come up in the lower minors.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 3:21 am and is filed under The Opposing Viewpoint, Barry Zito, Rich Aurilia, San Francisco Giants, Ray Durham. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.