Melky Cabrera to the Giants Has Been the Best Offseason Move so Far - A Bleacher Report Article

The Giants trading Jonathan Sanchez for Melky Cabrera didn't get the most publicity this off season. But it is paying off in ways that even the most optimistic Giants fan couldn't have pictured.

I wrote about it in Bleacher Report.

You can read the article HERE.



   

My brilliant analysis of the Royals and Giants trade

The Royals sent Melky Cabrera to the Giants for Jonathan Sanchez and minor league left hander Ryan Verdugo.

Now I have many Giants fan readers (and not just my dad.) And I got a lot of e mails and text messages asking "What do you think of the deal?" or "Why haven't you talked about the trade?"

I guess with a few days to think about it, I have to supply my amazing and insightful breakdown of the deal.

I have no clue.

Seriously. How can ANYONE have a clue if this was a good trade?

Jonathan Sanchez? Sure he has talent. He's left handed. He's under 30. He won 13 games a few years ago and threw a no hitter a few years before that.

He also has had a grand total of one, count em, ONE noteworthy season as a big league pitcher. And even THAT season he could be agonizingly inconsistent. And only once did he post an ERA below 4.

And he did that in one of the best pitchers ballparks in the game. I felt the Giants should have traded him after the 2010 World Series when his value was at its peak and Bumgarner could take his spot in the rotation.

Instead Sanchez had an injury plagued 2011 and they HAD to deal him now or else they'd have nothing. 30 year old injury plagued pitchers don't fetch what 29 year old injury plagued pitchers get on the market.

Will he pitch well for the Royals? Or was he a flash in the pan?

I don't know. Neither do you.

They got Melky Cabrera who is better than anyone else in the Giants outfield. He had career highs in homers, RBI, stolen bases, batting average, OPS, OPS+ games played and plate appearances. He was OK with the Yankees for 4 years, lousy with the Braves for one before flourishing with the Royals.

Did he find himself?

Did he have a fluke good year?

Is he well suited for Kansas City?

Who can honestly say?

But he IS going from the American League and their many hitters parks to the worst hitters park in the game. Will that derail him? Or will he launch drives into the gap and stretch them to triples?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Thrown in for good measure is Ryan Verdugo. He had two very good seasons in the Giants farm system as a relief pitcher. So naturally everyone thought he'd make a great starting pitcher. (Classic Joba Chamberlain syndrome.)

He was eh as a starter for the Double A Flying Squirrels of Richmond. So naturally the Royals will probably keep him in the rotation. He's 24, left handed and has a pulse, so he will pitch for the next 20 years.

Basically this is a team swapping question marks. The Royals needed an arm. The Giants needed a bat.

Who got the best of this?

Who got the worst?

No clue.

And it is hard hitting analysis like THIS that you can only find on Sully Baseball!

Two inert objects collide

Both the Giants and the Pirates have been stumbling.
The Giants have lost their last three series, including a sweep by the Reds, and allowed the Diamondbacks to have realistic playoff hopes.

Meanwhile the Pirates have dropped 10 in a row and turned their surprising playoff run and reenergized fan base into a collective screaming of "When do Steelers preseason games start?"

So a pair of slugs collided at AT&T Park and somehow the Pirates of all teams came to play.

And with Jonathan Sanchez pitching Game 3 of the series, the Giants had BETTER win tomorrow!

The Pirates have circumvented Lincecum and Cain... meanwhile the Giants had better send a nice big fat fruit basket to the Astros and the Dodgers for keeping the Diamondbacks at bay.

Arizona is tied in the loss column with the Giants.
The Giants are three in the loss column behind the Brewers for the honor of avoiding the Phillies in the Division Series.

Hey World Champs... you are Giants, but right now sleeping Giants.
If you nap too long you might be playing golf while the pennant goes through Arizona.

Jonathan Sanchez should start today... and here's why

The Giants should take Sanchez's sorry arm out of the ice pack and throw him today... against Cliff Lee.

And I am kind of serious.

Right now they have Lincecum going up against Lee. It could be a wash. Two awesome aces, neither had their best game in Game 1.

And Lee knows that a win tonight could help him get that $100 million contract in the off season.

So I am basically going back to the logic I used in the Yankee series regarding A. J. Burnett.

If you need a start from Jonathan Sanchez, have him throw three innings tonight... Romo throws 2, Casilla throws 1, Mota throws 1, Ramirez throws 1 and Affeldt throws 1. Each of those pitchers is rested.

And if the Giants lose, they have an off day to rest the arms and have Lincecum throwing Game 6 and Cain Game 7 at home against Wilson and Lewis. Advantage Giants in both games.

I guess what I am saying is, if you HAVE to throw Sanchez, do it when you have two games (and two aces) to spare.

It's not going to happen. But it's worth saying it NOW instead of a second guess.

A scary Halloween thought for Giants fans

Want to hear something that should send chills up the spine for any Giants fan?

Game 7 starter Jonathan Sanchez.

Pretty spooky, eh?

Better win these games!

Who is my dad more mad at? Panda or Sanchez

When Pablo Sandoval grounded into a double play in the second, my dad who had been predicting Sandoval wetting the bed all day, just shot me a look that dripped of the phrase "I told you so."

He's been saying that Rowand should be the DH. And so far who can argue.

When Jonathan Sanchez walked Molina with 2 outs, my dad kept saying "He's going to let up a 3 run homer and put the Rangers right back into this series."

Of course he was right and now wants Sanchez cut from the team.
He wants his uniform returned and have the security guards remove him from the stadium.

Maybe even activate Zito.

The game is young... but my dad's anger? So far, he sounds pretty accurate.

Giants fans... this glass is HALF FULL

Before Giants fans go all nuts about losing that game the other day, let's pull a Superman and spin the world backwards and go back in time.

Let's spin in alllllll the way back ONE WEEK!

If I told you as the NLCS was about to start that the Giants would be still alive after 5 games, I am guessing you would have ALL TAKEN THAT, right?

Most experts, including me, had the Giants losing in 5 games. So being ALIVE after 5 should be feeling pretty good.

If I told you the Giants would only need to win ONE game in Philadelphia, you'd all take that too.

If I told you Sanchez and Cain would be on full rest, you'd take that in a heart beat.

And if I told you that Roy Halladay would not be starting EITHER of the last 2 games, you'd probably thought your soul was sold.

The Giants are AHEAD of schedule.
Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, thought the Giants would be up 3-1 in this series.

Keep proper perspective. The Giants, if they win, will have pulled off one of the great upsets in recent baseball history. Don't act upset that it could take longer then 5 games to pull it off!

Giants passed a lot of tests

Well, both Cliff Lee and Tim Lincecum passed their tests today with flying colors... and both former Cy Young winners gave their team the right to have visions of pennants dancing in their heads.

But man oh man did the Giants as a team show the NL West they are for real this weekend.

They were 2 back (3 in the loss column) when they showed up at Petco.
They leave tied (1 back in the loss.)

Remember when their starting pitching went AWOL?
Here's how they did this weekend.

Matt Cain - 8 innings. 8 ks. 1 walk. 5 hits. 3 earned runs.
Jonathan Sanchez - 5 innings. 4 Ks. 7 walks. 1 hit. 0 earned runs.
Madison Bumgarner - 7 innings. 4 Ks. 0 walks. 3 hits. 1 earned run.
Tim Lincecum - 7 innings. 9 Ks. 1 walk. 7 hits. 1 earned run.

That means the average start this weekend was...
6 2/3 innings. 6.25 ks. 2.25 walks. 4 hits. 1.25 runs.

And that run total includes a garbage time home run in the 9th that Cain let up to Ryan Ludwick.

The Padres are stumbling against any team not called the Dodgers and are about to face a freight train called the Rockies.

And the Giants are going to host the "dead from the neck up" Dodgers.

The Padres could be in third place by the time they leave Denver.

Keep this up Giants.
There are other tests coming up and none of them are written exams.

18 of 21 Giant Starts

Let’s take a look at 18 of the last 21 games the San Francisco Giants have played and get a sense of their rotation.

We’ll take out one bad start by Jonathan Sanchez and two bad starts by Todd Wellemeyer and average the starts from every other game between Tim Lincecum’s win against Atlanta on April 11th to Barry Zito’s solid game against Florida earlier tonight.

The average starters line for 18 of the next 21 games has been…

6.87 Innings pitched, 1.4 earned runs, 2.27 walks and 6.78 strikeouts.

That’s nearly 7 innings a start and less than a run and a half per for an ERA of 1.89.
That’s nearly 3 strikeouts for each walk.

And along the way they gave Adam Wainwright and Roy Halladay their first losses.

Lincecum went 3-0 in that stretch (with two gut wrenching no decisions.)
Zito went 4-0 in that stretch (with the bullpen blowing a game for him in LA)
Both Cain and Sanchez had some hard luck losses tossed in with some dominating wins.

And even Wellemeyer threw a 7 inning gem.

And while it isn’t a huge sample, it IS more than 10% of the season where you are getting quality innings, not giving up walks and getting nearly a strikeout an inning.

What I am saying is… GIANTS! YOU HAVE SOMETHING VERY VERY SPECIAL GOING ON HERE! GET ANOTHER BAT! GET ANOTHER RELIEVER! YOU COULD WIN THE NL PENNANT!!!!!

How many teams out there are as loaded as this team is in the rotation?
When will the National League be this evenly matched again?

Put it together NOW.

Here are the lines of the pitchers


1. 7 ip, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K (Lincecum) W
2. 6 ip, 3 ER, 3 BB, 1 K (Zito) W
3. 6 ip, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K (Cain) ND
4. 8 ip, 0 ER, 3 BB, 11 K (Sanchez) W
5. 6 ip, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7K (Lincecum) W
6. 7 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K (Zito) ND
7. 6 ip, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K (Cain) ND
8. 7 ip, 1 ER, 3 BB, 10 K (Sanchez) L
9. 7 ip, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K (Lincecum) W against Jaime Garcia
10. 8 ip, 0 ER, 3 BB, 10 K – (Zito) W against Wainwright
11 5 ip, 2 ER, 1 bb, 4 K – (Cain) L
12. 5 ip, 1 ER, 5 BB, 6 K – (Sanchez) – W against Halladay
13. 7 ip, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K – (Wellemeyer) - W
14. 8 1/3 ip, 2 ER, 1 BB, 11 K – (Lincecum) - ND
15. 8 ip, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K (Zito) - W
16. 8 ip, 0 ER, 3 BB, 8 Ks (Cain) - W
17. 7 ip, 3 ER, 1 BB, 13 Ks (Lincecum) - ND
18. 7 ip, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4Ks (Zito) - W

THE GIANTS (COULD) WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS (COULD) WIN THE PENNANT!

The Giants won a big game today.

Oh Sully, you say, there ARE no big games yet. It's early. It's May 1.
Nope... they won a big game. They beat the Rockies.
They took the first two from the Rockies and later today can go for the sweep.

Why is it so important? Because it could turn out that the Rockies will probably be the Giants biggest competition for the NL West title... and winning games head to head NOW are games they won't have to catch up and win later.

Yeah, I know the Padres are in first place. That won't last. Remember how the Blue Jays were in first place at this point last year? Exactly.

The Dodgers are a bit of a mess and won't be able to get reinforcements provided the divorce heard round the world plods on.

And Arizona just isn't clicking yet.

The Giants and the Rockies will probably be the class of the NL West.
And guess what? The Giants have one thing that virtually no other team has:
4 kick butt starters.

As of now, Lincecum, Cain, Zito and Sanchez is the best 1-2-3-4 in the game.

And in a short playoff series, Lincecum could neutralize any other ace in the game (including Halladay or Wainwright) and have the better pitchers in the other games.

In other words... and bear with me... the Giants could find themselves in a great position to possibly... dare we say it?... win the National League Pennant.

But in order to do that, they need to bring in two players:

An outfielder and a reliever.

They don't need a superstar outfielder... just one who isn't an automatic out and can get on base for Sandoval to knock in.

And they don't need an All Star closer... just an effective arm to give Bochy another option late in games.

Most teams are searching for solid starters or a big bat.
The Giants have all of that.

They need a little bit of depth and to avoid injuries.

But they should make those moves NOW.

Try out a few guys from Fresno, see if Jermaine Dye is available... and then see who can be traded for.

This is a strange situation where the division is winnable, the league has a lot of parity and the Giants are holding 4 Aces. Fill in the holes now and go for it big time.

You'll never know when things will align in the Giants favor quite like this again.

The Giants and Lincecum won tonight

It was another solid win for the Giants tonight... they took 2 of 3 from the Cardinals and now won the first game from the 2 time defending NL Champion Phillies.

And their pitching has let up a total of 4 runs during those 4 games against some pretty potent bats and today Tim Lincecum got a big boost with the win.

Wait a second Sully, you say. Lincecum didn't pitch today. It was Jonathan Sanchez who got the win with a 5 inning effort that lowered his season ERA to 1.85.

Sure... but the Giants teed off on Roy Halladay, giving him his first blemish on his Phillies resume.

He got his first NL loss... and going into the game he had led up 3 earned runs in 33 innings pitched.

Tonight he let up 5 runs in 7 innings pitched.

Yeah it was his first blip... but Lincecum has yet to have a blip.

And as I wrote earlier, this NL Cy Young race has all the makings of a down to the wire staring contest... and each blink will count.

So has Lincecum taken the lead? Oh maybe.

Dirty trick on Sanchez

The guy pitches 7 innings, lets up 1 hit, 1 run and strikes out 10... and he gets the loss?

I know the Giants aren't exactly the 1995 Indians in terms of fire power, but are you kidding me?

The Giants weren't facing Roy Halladay or Adam Wainwright.

They were facing Mat Latos. Yeah sure he's a talented pitcher... but score 2 runs off him.

(In truth I wonder what kind of traffic this blog post title will get me. And if you don't understand why, consider yourself lucky.)

Not So Dirty Sanchez

The second Sanchez struck out Everth Cabrera to seal his no hitter last night, I called my buddy Greg Lee, the second biggest Giants fan I know (after my dad.)

I assumed he was somehow following the game. He wasn't.

I said "How about Jonathan Sanchez?"

He said "Did he win?"

I said "He threw a no hitter."

There was a pause.

Then Greg said "Shut... up."

That pause said it all and illustrates the repercussions of Jonathan Sanchez's no hitter.

As I wrote last night, Sanchez was the least likely Giants starter to do this.

But imagine this scenario Giants fans... what if this gives Sanchez confidence?

Derek Lowe threw a no no in 2002 and wiped away a horrific 2001 to have a Cy Young worthy season. And NOBODY's confidence was lower than Lowe's!

People have never doubted Sanchez's stuff, it was always his head that seemed screwed up.

What if his head is now screwed on tight?

Can you imagine a pitcher with his stuff and thinking right in the #4 spot in a rotation?

Lincecum is probably winning the Cy Young again.
Cain is a legit All Star.
Zito has been up and down but pitching better recently.
Sadowski has pitched well since being recalled.

And then Sanchez (with Randy Johnson lurking on the DL.)

They already have a 2 game lead for the Wild Card and with that starting staff they are not going on any prolonged losing streak.

Now... Giants fans... allow yourself to imagine that rotation in a short playoff series.

If pitching wins series, who could beat San Francisco in a best of 5 series that has Tim Lincecum pitching twice?

And then has Matt Cain lined up with the other team's #2 starter and either Sanchez, Zito, Johnson or Sadowski against another team's #3 or #4 starter.

Will you allow yourself to imagine them not just being happy with the post season but actually having the arms to pitch into October?

I know Giants are tormented and underratedly so.

But let yourself imagine a long October in China Basin... and who knows? Maybe last night was the turning point.

A suggestion to the Giants...

Bring Jonathan Sanchez's dad to every game. 

Seriously... 100% the games he's seen his son start in the bigs, he's thrown a no hitter.

Now of all the pitchers on the Giants rotation, he's the last you'd pick throw a no no.

Lincecum, Johnson and Zito all have Cy Youngs on their mantle and Cain is an All Star... and Sanchez can write "trade bait with potential" on his tax return.

I would have expected a no hitter from Jonathan Winters before Jonathan Sanchez.

His dad shows up... and suddenly he becomes another ace.

Seriously, put him on the payroll and have him show up to the rest of Sanchez's starts.

Right now the percentages look pretty impressive. And the magic number for a Giants playoff spot is 75. (Zito's number.)