Just a few quick thoughts on last night’s 4-3 win over the Cubs…

The Kid is Alright

Let’s play everyone’s favorite game, Name That Pitcher! Below are the stats since the beginning of 2011 for three of the game’s best left-handed starting pitchers, see if you can guess who they are.

Pitcher A: 278.2 IP / 3.17 ERA / 269 H / 249 K / 60 BB / 3.4 WAR

Pitcher B: 315.2 IP / 3.16 ERA / 304 H / 304 K / 84 BB / 9.0 WAR

Pitcher C: 298.0 IP / 3.23 ERA / 258 H / 280 K / 86 BB / 4.5 WAR

Those are very impressive numbers across the board for each and being that this is a Giants blog I’m fairly sure you can guess who at least one of these pitchers is. If you said Pitcher A was Madison Bumgarner, you would be correct. Pitcher B is none other than Bay Area native and Yankees ace, CC Sabathia. And Pitcher C is Tampa Bay Rays ace David Price.

This is obviously not a perfect comparison, mostly because Sabathia and Price play in the best division in baseball, the AL East and they are confronted with the DH as opposed to getting to face the pitcher. However, when you consider that Bumgarner will not turn 23 until August while Sabathia is 31 and Price is already 26, I believe you have to start talking about Bumgarner as one of the elite left-handers in the game.

Sabathia recently signed a 5-year extension worth $122 million that will take him into his mid-30’s. Seems like a reasonable deal for one of the best pitchers in the game right? Well not when you compare it to the deal Brian Sabean and the Giants gave Bumgarner who signed his own 5-year extension worth $35 million and includes options for 2018 and 2019. That my friends, is what you call a bargain.

Giving Bochy A Break

Lots of Giants fans and certain members of the media are roasting Bruce Bochy this morning for his decision to yank Bumgarner in the 9th inning last night despite a 4-0 lead and the fact that he’d only thrown 102 pitches. I am not one of those people, and here’s why.

For most of the season, really since Brian Wilson got hurt, Bochy has had a maddening tendency to leave his starter out there one inning too long and on more than a few occasions it has hurt the team. Whether he doesn’t fully believe in his bullpen or if he’s simply trying to show confidence in his starting pitcher, it’s something the fans and media alike have gotten on his case for.

So last night, when Bochy decided to pull the plug on the masterpiece being constructed by Bumgarner, I was ok with it. Up four runs against one of the worst teams in baseball, I did not see the point in stretching out your 22-year-old stud any longer than he needed to be, and with Santiago Casilla coming in the game I figured all would be well. What transpired next, an Alfonso Soriano homerun and a Casilla injury, was not Bochy’s fault, just simply the stuff that can happen in the crazy game of baseball.

Ultimately Bochy was damned if he did, damned if he didn’t in that spot, as there is little doubt in my mind that people would have been up in arms if he had decided to leave Bumgarner out there and it took him another 25-30 pitches to get out of the inning. Giants win, Dodgers lose, let’s move on.

Easy There Fella

During last night’s game, CSN Bay Area’s Andrew Baggarly tweeted this:

Let’s hold off anointing Joaquin Arias the starting second baseman when Pablo Sandoval returns. Ryan Theriot is showing some serious life.

In the interest of full disclosure, I follow Baggs on Twitter and I love his work. I think he’s insightful, funny and generally a quality baseball writer. That said, what you just read above is one of the most ludicrous things I’ve read in quite some time. Blind squirrel, here is your nut, please enjoy responsibly.

Yes, Theriot has five hits in his last seven at-bats, but we’re talking about a 32-year-old with as much extra base power as Manny Burriss (i.e. zero) and diminished range at second base. He’s not very good, simple as that.

What scares me most about this is that while the idea of Theriot playing anything like every day at second base is terrifying, Baggs is probably on to something here. We all know how much Bochy loves his veteran players (see: Huff, Aubrey) and if Theriot manages to keep hitting for another week or so I could easily see a situation where Bochy decides to make him the every day second baseman simply because his age starts in “3”.

I’m scared folks and you should be too.

I Like Brett Pill

I do, I really do. Having a right-handed bat on the bench who can play a couple positions in a pinch and has legit homerun power is something every team in the league would like to have. But this notion that he is somehow superior to Brandon Belt when there is a lefty on the hill is laughable at best.

After last night’s 1-for-4 effort which included a GIDP, Pill is now hitting a cool .189/.259/.358 against lefties this season. But apparently the fact that two of his three homeruns have come against them is enough to keep running him out there any time a lefty not named Cliff Lee or Clayton Kershaw is on the mound.

#freeBelt, that is all.