Cain Making An All-Star Sized Performance

Over the last couple weeks with Tim Lincecum's struggles Matt "shotgun" Cain has been the Giants bright spot. Here is the line on Cain, over the last four games he has started he is 3-1 with a 0.53 ERA with three complete games and and two shutouts including a 1-hitter against Arizona. In the one loss he gave up one run that was not earned and he pitched a complete game of 8.0 innings at Oakland.

As of right now Cain is out pitching the back to back Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum who seems to have lost some of his mojo. I like how Cain is stealing strike one with the Curveball and finishing off hitters with the Fastball which seems to have increased in velocity and has pinpoint control. He is taking a big step forward from the already superb pitcher that he was last season.

Matt Cain keep up the good work.

The Giants Four Horsemen

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has watched the Giants this season but the Giants have four really good starting pitchers (and one that will cost you 50 bucks at the bar to forget).

Tim Lincecum has been dominate again. Barry Zito has continued his resurgence that he showed in the second half of last season. Matt Cain hasn’t been as sharp as last season but has still been an above average pitcher who has been well Cained (Cained: a term named after Giants’ pitcher Matt Cain who often pitched beautifully but is stuck with a loss or no decision after a lack of run support) this season. Lastly Jonathan Sanchez who goes tonight has also been Cained this season (see one hitter and a loss) but has thrown two of the best games of the season for the Giants and deserves a whole lot better.

Barry Zito good pitcher?

It has to be the socks that have changed the way Barry Zito has pitched this season. He is off the best start to his career ever even better than his Cy Young season. He is 3-0 with a 1.32 ERA and a 2.52 FIP. I don't expect this to last all season but if he can give us 30+ starts of solid pitching with 3.5-4.0 ERA I would call this a good season. Keep the sock magic going.

Zito over his career has tended to be a slow starter and has been better in the second half. I couldn't imagine him being much better than the current stretch that he is on.

Between Zito and Lincecum at the top of the rotation have accounted for 7 the Giants 10 wins. That is good and it is not like the next two pitchers in the rotation can't deal either.

I am still feeling good after last nights game. The formula was perfect great pitching and timely hitting. I feel a little bad for Adam Wainwright who pitched pretty well too but the Giants karma on these games was bound to turn. Maybe there is magic inside, if the Giants can stay at .500 on the road things will look good for this season.

Let's go Cain, another win would be icing but it would be a big confidence boost before another tough series against the Phillies.

Tim Lincecum is Good

He came in dressed in orange and he saved the Giants season. If they had lost a fifth in a row I know that it would have lead to a unrecoverable tailspin and before long we would occupy the cellar.

Our hero came through for us on this one. He didn't have the best stuff but you would never know it looking at his line. 7 innings 6 hits 1 earned run 3 walks and 8 strikeouts. For 120 pitches he battled his command more than he battled the Cardinals, a lesser human couldn't do what he does.

The Giants offense scored 4 quite runs, they weren't particularly sharp and had only one extra base hit and that was Andres Torres double to lead off the game. I would normally write something about how this reminds me too much of the last few seasons where the offense was unspeakable but I am in too good a mood and I will take 4 runs just about any day of the week as long as it is not fifth stater day.

I loved the Orange Friday, I have to admit that I was nervous about the jerseys but they looked nice and were a nice change of pace. At least they aren't all black, they are truly unique in the mostly bland baseball world and are a nice nod the Giants of old. I give this my blessing as well as the orange billed caps, I like playing up the orange.

Let's go Zito keep the mojo working.

In other news the Dodgers lost to the lowly Nationals which makes them my second favorite team at the moment.

The Evolution of The Freak

Over at Fangraphs Dave Cameron has written a nice piece on the growth of Tim Lincecum as a pitcher. I have to say that I agree with most of what he has written. When Tim first came up he was a flame thrower with a plus curveball.

He has evolved into a near unhittable force with 4 pitches that he can and will throw in any situation. The first big change was the development of the changeup. This put him into another catagory, this off season he came back with a slider and a began to work back in the curve which was one of his bread and butter pitches early in his career. The guy has become a complete pitcher, he has lowered his walk rate while maintaining a high strike out rate. His velocity has fallen some since he made his first appearence lighting up the radar gun but he has only gotten more effective.

Here is a nice little piece from the fangraphs post:

The first pitch Tim Lincecum ever threw in the major leagues was reported to be 99 MPH on the Giants stadium gun (we don’t have Pitch F/x data for that performance, unfortunately). He then proceeded to hit 100 three times in his first big league inning, showing the velocity that had gotten him drafted in the first round, even as scouts were concerned with his command, delivery, and workload. In that first year, Lincecum’s fastball averaged 94.2 MPH, the seventh hardest fastball in the game, and he threw it 67 percent of the time.

You don’t need a best fit line to see the trend in that image. His velocity has been steadily falling since he arrived in the big leagues, and through his first three starts this year, his fastball is averaging just 91.7 MPH. He has thrown 312 pitches this year, and only three of them have topped 95. He now throws about as hard as Matt Harrison and Clayton Richard. But, this is the crazy thing – it hasn’t mattered at all.

The guy might be a little less freakesh then when he first came up, but he is even more the face of the franchise.