Posts Tagged ‘Aubrey Huff’

Giants hitters rake Bucs while Sanchez dazzles…

Jonathan Sanchez threw 11 K’s and pitched a shutty today in a Giants 6-0 victory today against the Pittsburgh Pirates. If you’ve watched Sanchez pitch his last few starts you know that like last year, he’s either on it or off it. Today he was on it – capped by striking out the side in the 4th by asking Milledge, Jones and Doumit to politely take their seats. Despite some bases loaded trouble in the top of the 6th, Sanchez was nothing short of an inhospitable filth pig today. What a rude man.

On the other side of the house, I had to stick my foot in my mouth after Eli “Silverfox” Whiteside hit a three run homer in the bottom of the 2nd, driving in Bowker and Uribe after their singles. I still think Posey needs to get up here but I guess I’ll save that post for one more day.

And, how about your boy Aubrey “Ring of Fire” Huff? After a deep ass, triple’s alley triple last night which would have been a HR in any other park, he does the same shit today but with different results. I don’t remember the count but with no outs he launches one toward the 421 mark and the carom sends it way past McCutchen into the inner part of the outfield. Bananas. Flannery waves dude home and we’ve got our 4th in the parker of all time at AT&T. I’m sure Huff was thinking “WTF” when he finally caught his breath. Actually, you can tell he thought it was funny but later in the game, when he launched almost as far but a little more to the right and it bounced off the top rail, you could tell that he was sort of annoyed. After all, hitters get paper for launching the long ball and it’s long been a sticking point when we try to get real hitters to come play for us. Maybe this is grounds for a second post. Anyway, you’re here Huff so suck it up!

Finally, nice to Rowand finally go yard today and get something done with a 2R HR in the 5th. Love him or hate him you gotta respect the effort which half of this game called life.

Tbox and I will be coming at you from Chavez Ravine for Saturday’s day game against the Dodgers followed by Monday’s game from Petco Park against the Friars. We’re 7-2 — keep ‘em rolling boys.

DeRosa walks…

Simply put: the 2009 Giants’ lineup was riddled with a lack of plate discipline that made the lineup look like 7 year olds at tee ball practice.  Pre All Star break, the Giants ranked dead last in walks and second to last in OBP in the NL. 2009 wasn’t new – we were also dead last in both categories for the 2008 season. Carney Lansford was fired and everyone from Damon Bruce to Joe from Stockton to your mom couldn’t shut up about our offensive woes.

When the trade deadline came along and everyone, including myself, clamored for that One Big Bat thinking Barry part deux was the solution. Winding up with a wounded Sanchez and a shackled Ryan Garko the situation only improved slightly after the All Start Break. Still we were anxious at the plate and getting mocked by opposing pitchers.

2010 off season – enter Mark DeRosa: the most important move we made in the offseason (besides the Timmy signing). While Aubrey Huff hits for more power (34/108/.313 at his peak), it’s DeRosa whose patience has contributed more runs to each of his teams’ efforts. A simple comparison: in 505 AB with the Cubs in 2008, DeRosa managed to score 103 runs compared to Huff’s career high of 96, also in 2008 (on 93 more AB’s). Another measure: that same year, DeRosa’s OBP of .376 was still higher than Huff’s career best to date of .367 (with 131 more AB’s – 636 in 2003).

After seeing the team in action this weekend (all 13 innings Friday!), it’s clear there has been a shift in how we approach the plate. While we have a lot of work ahead of us (the Braves’ Hudson and Kawakami each averaged 10 around 10 pitches per inning) we’re improving in this area, finally. Both Bowker and DeRosa took walks on Friday after being down 0-2. Huff’s walk ended up scoring the tying run Friday and despite our loss on Saturday, we cajoled Derek Lowe into a career high 7 BB’s. DeRosa is contributing much more than his .212 average would leave you to believe. He’s reminding his teammates that there are a lot of fish in the sea and not to get suckered by the first thing that worms its way into McCovey Cove.

The Giants are 3rd in the NL in OBP and 5th in BB’s and on to something with a 6-1 start.