Wednesday’s Lineups and Pre-Gamer: No More Cincy After Today!

Six games in, and the Giants finally got their first victory over the strong Cincinnati Reds of the NL Central, and now will get one more chance to recreate those rare feelings of a 2013 win against Cincy. Dusty Baker has written this down for today:

Jul 10, 2013; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Cincinnati Reds pitcher

pitches in the 1st inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. The Reds beat the Brewers 6-2. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

I will always remember Mike Leake for being the guy out of Arizona State to go straight from the Draft to the big leagues, not a common sight these days at all. Leake’s 2.79 ERA may be a little deceiving with his 4.10 FIP and he might have his career low .259 BABIP to thank for that. The former Sun Devil has allowed six homer runs in his last three starts/nineteen innings of work, which is hopefully a good omen for a team like the Giants that has hit the third-fewest home runs in the majors at 63 (Royals 62, Marlins 59). Here’s how he has been using his pitches in certain scenarios in 2013:

Another guy who has a lot of pitches and will relatively use four or five of them in certain scenarios. Come on opposing pitchers, can’t you just use two or three pitchers and make it easier for the team I’m rooting for? The sinker is the pitch that hitters will see most often, followed by the cutter, then it tends to become more of a guessing game overall.

New member of the 1,500 managerial win club Bruce Bochy has made this his game four lineup:

No need to worry about franchise player Buster Posey, he’s just getting a day off. You’re going to enjoy Bochy’s comment on Jeff Francoeur at the bottom of the article.

The Chadmiral has a 2.15 ERA, but his peripherals aren’t as extreme as Leake’s are to suggest there’s as big of a regression coming up. In his 71.0 IP of work, Chad Gaudin has a 3.02 FIP and a .253 BABIP with the latter being more of the indicator that Gaudin has been a beneficiary of good defense/good scouting reports, like Leake. Or maybe both of them are doing some masterful jobs in pitch sequencing and keeping the hitters off balance. Gaudin’s 2013 pitch usage:

Fastball-slider with a pretty good reliance on said breaking ball against RHH, and will add a change up to the mix against lefties as well with the sinker being sprinkled in to the LHH, but put into the RHH’s head. Gaudin has had three outings since his injury, and the hits allowed from his first start back: 4, 3, 3, with walks allowed being 1, 4, 0. Very acceptable for the Giants, whom have seen their starters struggle in 2013.

Other news and notes:

Good luck to College World Series Champion Vander Tuig in doing good work in the California League tonight.

Don’t get too far ahead of yourselves with that last tweet by Mr. Ritzo, though. Vander Tuig is no Tim Lincecum, at least from what I’ve heard about them out of college.

You get a spot start! And you get a spot start! Everyone gets a spot start! Good luck to Adalberto Mejia tonight in Salt Lake, jumping two levels up. More Fresno news:

As for Ryan Vogelsong and his work yesterday:

…and his next start on Friday:

Here’s that Jeff Francoeur quote I was telling you about:

Jeff Francoeur has definitely proved he can put up a negative fWAR in multiple seasons. I love that his wRC+ in Fresno was 8, small sample sizes be damned.

Guess which gangly outfielder from outer space is mentioned in that article?

And your hairy news for the day:

The Beard Tour continues, and I remember that Brian Wilson was signed to $8.5MM in 2012. Sure the Giants need bullpen help, but is that where you want your money going? Like others have said before, I think his best fit might be somewhere else, like in Detroit.

The last game between the Giants and Reds in the 2013 regular season will begin at 7:15PM PST.