♫ U P R I G H T B A S E B A L L ◱

The title of this post comes from a Bruce Lee movie—“Return of the Tiger”—which I have admittedly not seen and have little interest in actually seeing.  That said, the actual return of the Kung-Fu Panda is something that Giants fans have universally been looking forward to since he went on the disabled list in late July.  I’ve checked several times throughout the day to see if Pablo Sandoval will be activated today but there’s still no solid news although there is plenty of innuendo and insinuation that today will be the day.  Most people expected him back either yesterday or today and Sandoval’s personal twitter account tweeted “Thank you San Jose for the hospitality - I felt great and ready for tomorrow - Let’s go Giants #PANDAMODEON” last night after his game with the Single-A San Jose Giants ended.  I assume he meant to write “pandamonium” as a play on “pandemonium” unless he was referring to an odeon where ancient Greeks and Romans gathered to perform early musical theater in which case I don’t follow.

My strong hunch is that Sandoval will return to AT&T Park on the active roster tonight.  When he does come back, I’d imagine that one of the lesser right handed relievers—Brad Penny, George Kontos, and Clay Hensley—or lefty, Jose Mijares will be sent down to make room for him although there’s an off chance that either Joaquin Arias or Brett Pill might get nudged off of the active roster.  My money is on Brad Penny since the Giants currently have thirteen pitchers and only twelve position players—most teams carry eleven pitchers and thirteen position players with the last spot up for grabs.  Of the eight relievers on the active roster, there are five righties and Penny is usually the last one off of the bench, he’s certainly the pitcher I have the least faith in with the game on the line although he seems to be a good inning eater.

The move really depends on what skipper, Bruce Bochy plans to do with the infield when the Panda comes back and who he thinks he’ll need in the bullpen until September 1 when rosters are expanded.  Washington has four lefties and three switch hitting position players on their active roster so it’s 50-50. Bochy is notoriously hard to read and sometimes his decisions regarding who gets playing time and who stays on the active roster seems capricious at best.

There has been a mini-debate raging through Giants fandom for the last few weeks regarding what the Giants should do with their infield when Sandoval returns.  Since the signing of Marco Scutaro at the edge of the trade deadline, the Giants find themselves in the enviable position of sporting too much infield talent.  That said, each guy brings something different to the lineup and the defensive structure of the team so I’ll give a quick run through of the contenders.

As I wrote earlier today, Brandon Belt hasn’t been getting a whole ton of love from Giants fans this season but he has stabilized his offensive game and shown some strong improvements since ending a terrible 2 for 50+ streak nearly two weeks ago.  The thing that many people overlook when they peer through his offensive statistics is that he can generally be counted on for a quality at bat.  Even if he ends up striking out, he makes the opposing pitcher work for it, fouling off pitches and laying off “come get me’s.”  He’s also a solid defensive first baseman and with his large yet gangly frame he’s able to get to balls that some of the other options at first might not be able to.  I personally like Belt at first given the choices and I think he has the ability to really start heating up as the Giants go to work down the stretch.

Brandon Crawford has been the regular starter at shortstop but he doesn’t give the offensive support that impatient fans have come to demand over the last season and a half.  His defensive play is joyously outstanding 90% of the time and dismally bleak 10% of the time.  Like Belt, there are some people out there that would like to see someone who is more offensively inclined to assume his starting role but Crawford has also shown a lot of improvement and he can force scoring opportunities from the bottom end of the lineup.

Ryan Theriot is a heckuva character, he’s got the energy of Pat Burrell during the 2010 season, running around and punching his teammates after walk offs.  His defense is strong at second base and he does a good job of holding down the latter part of the middle of the order, coming through with punchy singles in clutch moments.

Marco Scutaro is a jack of all trades type who can play second, third, and short and I’ve even heard that he has been taking a few reps at first.  He’s been pretty outstanding for the Giants since he joined after Sandoval’s injury in late July, sufficiently filling in the Panda’s clown sized shoes at third.  He’s generally hitting second in the lineup and he’s been doing a great job there, moving Angel Pagan over or getting things started himself.  At his age—he’s 36—his defense isn’t quite as strong as most of the other candidates but the Giants sure could use his bat.

Joaquin Arias is sort of a stop gap and defensive substitute.  He plays shortstop well and he’s picked up third base fast where he’s made most of his appearances.  His offensive prowess is sub-Crawford but even he still has the ability to get things done in the clutch and he’s probably the second or third fastest Giant which comes in handy as a pinch runner when Sandoval represents the tying run on first or second unless they install an oxygen tank at third.

Brett Pill comes in from time to time as a pinch hitter and has been platooned with Belt on and off throughout the season at first base.  He hasn’t gotten a lot of playing time but his offensive numbers are fairly solid.  That said, Buster Posey generally gets a start a week at first base and Belt has been heating up so Pill’s role will probably continue to diminish throughout August and into September barring an injury or a rough patch for Belt.

Aubrey Huff is still on the DL, who knows when he’ll be back.  He probably won’t factor much in the rest of the season although I can see him making some pinch hitting appearances in September.

All of that taken with a grain or two of salt, the following is what I would personally recommend if anyone ever thought of asking me:

1st: Belt should be the regular starter with Posey taking occasional starts when he needs a day out of the crouch.

2nd: Theriot should be the regular starter although Scutaro should be worked in so he plays the majority of games, splitting his time between 2nd, short, and a little third.

SS: Crawford should be the go to guy but Scutaro should take a few games.

3rd: Panda all the way unless he needs a breather, in which case Scutaro should take the start.

Now there are the people who want Sandoval to continue playing first as he had been doing when he was injured but I think that’s just absurd and should only be employed if the Giants find themselves in dire offensive straits in September.

The Giants came up with a very respectable series split in St. Louis to finish their road trip 5-2.  Madison Bumgarner got penned for the loss today despite a very solid outing, allowing three runs on three hits and a walk with seven strikeouts over the course of six innings.  The third run came after a blown call when Jon Jay was called safe when stealing third.  The replays showed that Joaquin Arias got the tag down on Jay a good four inches before he reached the base but the umpire’s view was obscured by Arias and Allen Craig followed up with a sacrifice fly to score Jay. The final score was 3-1 as the Giants failed to cash in on a several opportunities throughout the game.  They didn’t look quite as fierce at the plate as they have been as of late but I find no reason to be concerned.  Adam Wainwright did a good job of mixing in his off speed pitches as he went through the Giants lineup for the second and third times before going to the fastball late in the count and it didn’t appear like any of the Gyros hitters were able to get a good reading of him.  Since the Dodgers have the day off, they picked up a half game on the Giants and now only reside a game out of the lead with each team slated to play 50 more games.

Jon Jay was almost a sure thing with a single for the Cardinals this series, going 10 for 15 and raising his BA from .284 to .308 in the process.  However, only one of Jay’s hits was for extra bases—a double off of Bumgarner which set up the opportunity for the controversial call at third today—and the Gyros were able to limit him to two runs during the series.

Games like this always make me wish I was somehow given the power to spread a few runs around throughout a series.  The Giants won with 14 to spare last night, laying the bat heavy on the Cardinals while Ryan Vogelsong gave a lights out performance.  Hunter Pence produced two big RBIs in his first two at bats when the game was still in question and Marco Scutaro came up with his third career grand salami in the top of the 9th to shore up the win and help the Giants beat the spread by 16.5 runs. 

Bruce Bochy’s new left handed toy, Jose Mijares, came into the game in the bottom of the 9th and although he allowed two base runners, he got out of the inning clean and finished off the shutout. The Giants picked up the Venezuelan born Mijares off of the waivers from Kansas City and put right handed reliever, Shane Loux, on the DL to free up a space on the 25 man roster.  This gives the Giants bull pen three solid lefties along with Jeremy Affeldt and Javier Lopez.  Lopez is more of a leftie specialist while Affeldt and right hander Brad Penny are probably the closet things the bull pen has to a long reliever although I wouldn’t want to see either of those guy pitch more than two innings.  From what I can put together about Mijares, he sort of falls between Lopez’s left hander dominance and Affeldt’s ability to take over for several innings if need be.  This leads me to imagine that Mijares will be the third leftie off of the bench but it still adds depth to the bullpen and gives Bochy the ability to play his favorite, three card monte-esque game of matching up pitchers against batters in the later innings.

One thing that I noticed and was particularly impressed by during this road trip was the Giants ability to get their lead off man safely on base to start each inning.  In Colorado, the lead off man reached safely 15 times out of 27 innings—.556—and in St. Louis, he reached 13 our of 36 innings—.361—for a grand total of 28 for 63—.444. The Giants also were impressive in the 1st and 9th innings of the games, scoring at least one run in the 1st inning of the first six games they played and scoring in the 9th in four games.  First inning runs are important on the road because it allows the starting pitcher to take the mound with the lead which helps to settle some of the pregame jitters. 

The Giants are set to face the Rockies again, this time at AT&T Park.  Since the All Star break, the Gyros are 4-6 at home—they swept the Triple-A Astros before being swept by the Dodgers and dropping three of four to the Mets after a strong road trip.  During the same period, the Giants are 9-4 on the road against some fairly contentious teams. 

Tim Lincecum will get things started for the Giants against fellow right hander, Tyler Chatwood.  The 22 year old starter had a decent outing by Rockies standards against the Giants on August 5, giving up one earned run on two hits and four walks in 3.1 innings pitched.  His ERA sits at 6.61 and his WHIP is at 1.96 so the Giants would do well to continue their offensive trend of getting the lead off man on base and scoring early, especially since the Rockies have an awkward four man starting rotation and they cap their starters at or around 75 pitches.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to wish you a Happy Lincecum Day tomorrow and the troubled right hander will be able to pick up his third straight win and quality start.  One thing that has gotten overlooked during his rough season is that Lincecum has still been able to register strikeouts, racking up 139 Ks which puts him in the top ten in the National League.  Lincecum’s post All Star break ERA is currently at 2.48 so I strongly feel like I’ll be writing a post in the coming weeks entitled “How Timmy Got His Groove Back.”  With a guy like Lincecum, the mental game plays so much into how he pitches and it’s been clear that he’s over thought his delivery and pitch selection.  I think it’s just a matter of getting comfortable with his velocity and his battery mate and he’ll find himself in the League’s elite pitching corps again.

A lovely thing to note is that the Dodgers lost their series against the Rockies, winning only one of three.  The Dodgers were completely blanked on Tuesday night which has to be embarrassing when the Giants put up 35 runs against the same team.  In the last week and a half, the Dodgers have done away with a lot of the older guys that had kept them competitive while Matt Kemp was out on two extended trips to the disabled list—Tony Gywnn Jr. and Bobby Abreu were designated for assignment and Juan Uribe was dropped down to the Minor Leagues-.  The hired guns that they’ve brought in have been fairly productive but they just weren’t able to get it done against the Rockies at home for whatever reason.

This weekend the Dodgers will face off against the Marlins on the road for Hanley Rameriz’s home coming and the floundering Diamondbacks will head home to face the Nationals after today’s series finale in Pittsburgh—they currently lead 6-3 in the top of the 8th and if they hold on, they will sit four games behind the Giants.