Well, I was going to write a rejoinder to Christina Kahrl and Joe Sheehan on the DH...basically, it's what I said last week: I would like to re-establish the difference between the leagues, and the DH is a part of that, along with separate umps (preferably with the different styles of chest protectors!), different balls, separate league offices for stuff such as suspensions...the whole thing.
(In fact, I'm open to other suggestions. The AL used to have a different curfew rule; I assume they don't have that any more, so I'd want that back. What else would work? Different rainout rules, with the National League having the traditional one and the American League the new one? They shouldn't be too radical; it should be fundamentally the same game. But I think it's fun to have differences).
But forget about all that: I have to just enjoy four Giants games without a single earned run against the starting pitchers. How about that! And Barry Zito! I don't know where it came from, and I'm not counting on it to last, but right now he's a pretty good pitcher.
The funny thing about last year's team was that it sure seemed like a pitching and defense team...but the numbers tell us that it was actually a team that was good at scoring runs, and it was all a park illusion. Still, it's been a long time (outside of a stray spot start or two, and there haven't been all that many of those) since the Giants ran a starting pitcher out there who was clearly not good enough to be in a major league rotation. At least, I don't think that's been the case with Lincecum; he always feels to me like a mystery and an adventure, not a guy who shouldn't be out there. Zito was, for a while, but not recently. Looking back...Surkamp actually had six starts in 2011. Wow, I forgot all about Todd Wellemeyer, 11 starts in 2010. Really? I guess so. More in 2009 and 2008...basically, until Bumgarner was called up, the 5th starter slot was for a long time. And sure, there were plenty of times when Jonathan Sanchez was a big question mark at best. But still, relatively few Wellemeyers and Joe Martinezes and stuff like that for a long, long, stretch.
Okay, that's it for this time. Baseball season, everyone.
The one thing I've learned from the Giants broadcasters is how closely the Giants follow the scouting reports on their opponents, to set defenses but especially to select pitches, etc. Zito seems a particularly good student.
ReplyDeleteGiants broadcasters sont le meilleur dans des travaux sur le terrain. Ils ont le sinchronization très bon parmi eux. Le jour passé je regardais la rencontre de France Baseball sur l'Internet et le Giants a gagné le jeu. Elles sont très bonnes.
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