San Francisco Giants player of the month: Buster Posey or Madison Bumgarner?

Before the 2014 season began, any Giants fan would hope this would be the question every month. Buster Posey, glorious catcher and sometimes first-baseman for the San Francisco Giants, with his amazing swing had a fantastic month of June in the batter’s box. Not to be outdone was fellow first-round pick Madison Bumgarner, snot-rocketing the competition and giving the Giants a chance to win every game he appeared in, even if the team decided that the motto for this month would be that unfortunate “June Swoon” one. The 10-16 month of June and 4-15 run to finish it has all of a sudden put the Giants in a first-place tie with the not-much-loved Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles. Bringing it back to happier topics, Posey and Bumgarner were great, and I believe one was better than the other. In deciding whom was the Giants player of the month for the month of June, let’s take a look at what they did:

Buster Posey aka Captain America

• Twenty-five games and 100 plate appearances
• .362/.380/.532 slash line, .381 BABIP (team leader)
• Twelve extra base hits (team leader) — two home runs and ten doubles
• .394 wOBA (leader on team)
• 160 wRC+ (first place for Giants)
• 1.1 fWAR (winner of Giants)

Madison Bumgarner aka Bumgardner

• All five June starts went at least six innings (only starter to do that)
• 36.0 innings pitched was second only to Tim Hudson‘s 37.1 IP
• 2.96 FIP second to Ryan Vogelsong‘s 2.50
• 3.00 ERA second to Yusmeiro Petit if you want to count his 12.2 IP and 2.25 ERA into the equation
• 20.9% K% and 5.8% BB% second to Vogelsong
• 3.19 SIERA (team leader)
• 70.2% LOB% first among starters
• 0.6 fWAR second to Vogey by 0.1, very close

Is a better question “Was Vogey better than MadBum for June,” because those numbers seem to be providing an argument for it? I still lean Bumgarner due to the dominance of his longer outings. Overall, while the Giants starting staff had its bumps in the road, they still gave the team plenty of opportunities to win the games they played, so whether it was the defense or the bullpen, sometimes the team just couldn’t squeeze out a “W.” So, after much debate with myself, I believe the June player of the month is:

Jun 25, 2014; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants first baseman Buster Posey (28) hits a two run RBI double against the San Diego Padres during the seventh inning at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Hooray! Buster Posey! Brandon Crawford and Hunter Pence were also honorable mentions for the batting side of June with their productions. The team really needs Angel Pagan and Brandon Belt back, as in a not-so-shocking turn of events, depth has been an issue and the bullpen’s issues have really been magnified of late. While I would love to have Buster carry the team, we know he can’t do it all in every game. The Giants will kick off July by welcoming the St. Louis Cardinals to town, a team that did not help the Giants out by losing three of four to the Dodgers this past weekend. It’s like the Dodgers are good or something.

Agree with my player of the month selection? Have a nominee for someone else? Want to vent? Let us know in the comments below!