47-47

Once again the Giants are at .500. GiantJim over at McC pointed out the other day that the Giants have been at .500 15 times this year, now 16. But unlike all theose other times, this trip to .500 feels like a glorious revival.

The Giants season hit its lowest point in Monday's 10-1 loss to the Brewers. Normally I check the score from my computer every night continuously, being without even radio up here. That night I stopped checking. I didn't even read the recap at the end of the night. Even from here I could tell something had gone horribly wrong and I wanted no part of it.

But Tuesday night they won in probably the best way possible (besides a Braves-style drubbing), a one-run game were Jamey Wright did exactly what he is supposed to do, mainly suck just enough to give the offense a chance to eek it out. Which they almost didn't. They went 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners. But they got just enough to win.

And Mando of all people pitches a 1-2-3 ninth for the save. Really, these are the things a winning team does. Forgetting all the crap about clutch hits and such, they actually did what was needed to win a very loseable game. We'll see if this continues or if last night was more a one night stand then the start of something wonderous and new. Even if it is, I have a feeling we could be tearing up our team pictures and crying with our friends in a bar by September.

This time next year...

Trolling the series of tubes we call the internet, I stumbled across the official logo for next year's All-Star game, which should be for Giants fans very similar this year's for Pirates fans. A team hopelessly out of contention, not knowing which way to build, with one lone representative getting cheered above and beyond the call. Or a bunch of wine-snob CEOs will gobble up all the tickets and live blog the luxury box menu (I know, which will be different how?).

I guess we'll see. Hopefully our represntaive will be Jason Bay, too.

Stephen A. Smith: Dumbest Human Being Alive?

The only reason for the question mark is this.

This is what Stephen A. said on his show today, after I unfortunately forgot the A's/Red Sox game had ended as I flipped back from the Colbert Report, about the Bonds situation:

Nobody needs a best friend or an ex-girlfriend coming at them to the point that the Federal government is coming at them. It's garbage.

Yeah, that's what this is about. Barry's ex was spreading heinous lies and the government decided to intervene, to find out once and for all what size Barry's testicles really are.

Stephen A., how are those cheese doodles?

Bull P*N

Coming into this season, the Giants seemed to have a semi-solid bullpen. It wasn't supposed to be great, but a collection of decent to mediocre castoffs and veterans were supposed to bridge the gap to Mando, and he closes the door. Needless to say...

A lot of scorn and ire and other fun words have been heaped on the pen of bull of the Giants. Looking at the stats though, it's not that horrible. It's not good; but like much of the Giants this season, the bullpen is trying as hard as possible to be mediocre. Unfortunately, the bullpen is underperforming just enough to make life hard on the rest of us.

First off, Giants relievers have thrown fewer innings than any other NL team. Many have noted how crazy it is that Flippy, of all people, has the least-worked pen in the NL. Last year he had 511 relief appearances notched, more than any other manager in all of baseball. No one else even cracked 500. This means either the starters are much better, the relievers are much worse, or that he's been sleeping through games.

It'a probably a combination of all three. Compared to last year, he's making about one less move a game and is leaving the starters in for about a half inning longer. And once he makes a move he's sticking with it longer, though the difference is only about one out.

Last year there wasn't a whole lot of difference between the starters and the relievers, though the relievers were the better of the two. They gave up fewer hits per inning (8.89 to 9.17), fewer homers (.75 to 1.04), and most of the other rate stats are almost identical. Really, neither was great, but the relievers were slightly above average and the starters slightly below.

This year it's switched, but the starters have put more distance between themselves and the relievers so far. The starter HR/9 is much better (0.91 to 1.00 for relievers), though their SLG are almost identical (0.403 for starters and 0.406 for relievers). The big difference is in OBP, at 0.326 for starters and 0.356 for relievers. BB/9 is huge (3.45 to 4.63). This translates into a WHIP difference of 1.34 to 1.54 and an ERA difference of 4.16 to 4.70.

And so it is the death by a thousand pin pricks. The relievers are giving up a lot more singles than the starters and more walks, leading to more runs even though they have a better XBH%, 0.28 to 0.34. So Flippy is leaving the starters in longer than last year and making fewer changes.

Thanks to Dave Pinto and the Baseball Musings Day-by-Day Database.

Extra: I noticed two things looking trough the numbers

1. I want San Diego's bullpen
2. Cincinnati is weird. They don't walk anyone, but they can't stop giving up hits. The pitchers aren't so much accurate as they can't convince people not to swing.
   

Oh no, it can't be!

A night when Mando nails down a 1-2-3 save, right through the heart of the Dodgers no less, seems like a perfect time to remind everyone just how bad he is right now.

A lot of the problem has been that he straight up isn't doing the job of a closer. He's only closing out two out of three saves. And when many people off the street could do your job 80% of the time (Walker, I'm looking at you), two out of three sucks it dry.

His 2.11 ERA looks great, so why does he suck so hard? Not that far below the surface lurks the evil peripherals, those nasty things that actual show how good a pitcure is. Damn them. ESPN's little closer report is actually good when trying to compare the susposedly elite reliever, or at lleast the other guys doing Mando's job in the league.

Strikeouts are normally important to a reliever's success. Mando has a K/9 of 6.64 right now, which puts him in the bottom of the closer list, but close to Mariano Rivera's 6.60. So why does Rivera close out 90% of his saves and Mando doesn't?

The next stop is strikeouts per walk. Now Mando can't even see Rivera, mostly because Mando has buried himself at the bottom of the list. That's dead last of the 32 teams and their 32 closers. Worse than Travis Harper, Joe Borowski and anyone else who decides to show up. At 1.25, its almost a walk for every strikeout. At the top of the list is Joe Nathan, at 10.00. And I'm not mentioning that because it's Joe Nathan, but because it shows there is someone pitching 10 times better than Mando right now.

And that leaves Mando with the second worst WHIP (1.62) of all closers, only behind the previously mentioned Harper, and the fourth-worst OPBA. SO how does Armando give up all these hits, have so many blown saves and keep his ERA so small?

Well, two of his 4 BS have been in relief of someone else. That means half of his BS ended up with no runs charged to himself, but he still got tagged with a blown save. Just once again proving that saves are completely meaningless. But I digress...

And that brings me to my conclusion. Armando is the Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Man. He is large, tubby and from far away looks like he will delight you and love your children. Up close he crushes you, your children and steps on churches.

Brian Sabean: I couldn't help it. It just popped IN there.
Lunatic Fringe: [angrily] What? What just popped in there?
Sabean: I... I... I tried to think...
Rich Draper: LOOK!
[they all look over one side of the roof]
Sabean: No! It CAN'T be!
Fringe: What is it?
Sabean: It CAN'T be!
Fringe: What did you do, Brian?
All -at-once: Oh, shit!
[they all see a giant cubic brown head topped with a baseball hat, Fringe looks at Sabean]
Sabean: [somberly] It's Armando Benitez.