Phillies Coming to Town, Hide the Woman and Children this is Going to be Trouble

The Phillies are coming to town and I feel like it could very well be trouble for the offensively challenged Giants. The Giants won the series against the Cardinals while scoring only 6 runs. The teams run per game has crashed back down to earth after the fast start and unless some guys start to get hot it is not likely to return to that level.

Another big change from early in the season is that the offense has struggled to put together strings of hits. This team isn’t going to win a lot games with the long ball and will rely on stringing together 3-4 hits to score some runs. As we saw in the Cardinals game on Sunday the team had 9 hits and 3 extra base hits but failed to put them together to score any runs.

They did not follow through on their winning formula (good pitching and timely hitting) at all and it showed with them getting blanked. This will not cut it as the Phillies lineup will be a hard one to keep from scoring runs even with the Giants pitching staff and if they want to have a chance we will need to get those hits together and not spread out.

I look at the Phillies lineup with envy. At almost every position the Phillies hitter is head and shoulders above the Giants hitter.

C: Carlos Ruiz vs. Bengie Molina: This is probably a toss up, Ruiz is regarded as a good defensive catcher and has the ability to get on base and take a walk. Bengie has some pop but is slow as molasses. With a gun to my head would probably take Ruiz, I can’t resist the .341 OBP for his career and can not fathom getting a .439 OBP from a catcher that he so far has posted this season

1B: Ryan Howard vs. Aubrey Huff: This isn’t even close even at his best Huff doesn’t match up with Ryan Howard. You can mark him down for 40+ bombs a year and nice triple slash of .270/.360/.570. I would die to have a guy like that in your lineup everyday.

2B: Chase Utley vs. Juan Uribe: Juan Uribe has been solid for the Giants but Chase Utley is otherworldly probably the best second baseman in baseball. Not close again.

3B: Placido Polanco vs. Pablo Sandoval: I pick the Panda, the best Giants hitter and the way he can square up pitches is pretty amazing. I enjoy watching the kid play I hope you can sustain that for a long time in the orange and black.

SS: Jimmy Rollins/Juan Castro vs. Edgar Renteria: If this were 5 years a go I would have picked Edgar unfortunately it is not. Even Jimmy Rollins back up is better then the current Renteria who looks like he did last season after cooling down from his hot start.

LF: Raul Ibanez vs. Mark DeRosa: This one is kind of close but I would still take Ibanez. DeRosa’s wrist issue is sapping his power to the pull fields and it looks like all he can do is hit the ball the other way. Not exactly what you want from your 5 hitter.

CF: Shane Victorino vs. Aaron Rowand: I would take the flying Hawaiian over Mr. Gamer. He is much more of a true lead off hitter has similar pop and will steal you 25-30 bases a year.

RF: Jayson Werth vs. Nate Schierholtz: Werth has been hot to start the season and over his career has been an above average right fielder. Nate is still kinda young but I think is more of an average right fielder. I would take Werth, and maybe the Giants can over pay for him next season in Free Agency to play right field for us.

So one out eight position players that isn’t very good and spells trouble for the series.

Monday, April 26: Roy Halladay (4-0, 0.82 ERA) vs. Jonathan Sanchez (1-1, 1.86 ERA)

Roy Halladay has had no trouble moving to the National League. I suspect that he will have little trouble with Giants lineup after spending all that time facing the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays. This will make him feel like he is making a rehab start in AAA. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Giants shut out with the way that they have been hitting. Even if Jonathan Sanchez manages another one-hitter I am chalking this one up as a loss, might as well rest the starters and get ready to go after Jamie Moyer tomorrow.

Tuesday, April 27 Jamie Moyer (2-1, 5.00 ERA) vs. Todd Wellemeyer (0-3, 8.16 ERA)

Hopefully the Giants bats come alive against the ageless wonder Jamie Moyer. He is the kind of guys that has given the Giants fits the last couple of years, a crafty lefty who get’s the over eager hitters to hit weak groundouts and flyballs. Hopefully Bam Bam can work some magic and get the guys patient again.

If the Giants do pull out a win it will have to be a slug fight because we have Wellemeyer up there and I would put money on the over for cove shots if the line was at 1.5. Hopefully we can get 5 innings with less than 4 runs; I think that would be a moral victory even if it doesn’t lead to an actual victory.

Wednesday, April 28 Cole Hamels (2-2, 5.11 ERA) vs. Tim Lincecum (4-0, 1.00 ERA)

Lincecum is awesome and on that alone I think that the Giants can win. He has some magic that he brings the best out the Giants. Every time he takes the ball it feels like a victory and we may be leaning on him to be the stopper again if the first two games go as I think they will.

If the Giants can score 4 or more runs per game I think that they can win the series, when they score 4 or more runs this season they are 8-2. It is a pretty good bet that the pitching can hold up its end of the bargain as the team has only given up more than 4 runs 4 times and 3 of those belong to Wellemeyer.

Predictions:

I really only see 1 win in this series anything more will be icing on the cake. I hope to see some improvements from the offense because it will be needed because up next is the Rockies and it would be good to get an early series win against a division rivals.