Marty, some thoughts three weeks into the season. Wise men
frequently say that statistics often lie. These, however, don't.,
When Lincecu.. pitches the Giants record is three and zero. When
someone else takes the mound the team is four and eleven. Lincecu...'s
era is 1.57. Including Lincecu..'s era the team era is 4.62. Zito,
for instance, called the "ace of the staff" a few days ago by the
local press headline writer, has yet to win a game and has an era of
4.50.
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This is a striking picture of what some regard as the club's
strength, if any aspect of the team can be described as "strength".
Lince***** and Cain, disregarding Cain's latest poor outing as an
unlikely aberration, constitute the strength of the rotation. One
positive note respecting the pitching has been the emergence of
Wilson as their closer with a record of 5 saves. The hitting remains
pitiful. The team's average is .234. They have just designated Davis
for assignment, a move the local press calls a "surprise". Why
anyone should have been surprised is difficult to understand. Davis
has never shown major league hitting ability. He is a fine
outfielder and on the relatively few instances he is on base, he is a
threat to steal. Unfortunately, no one has yet found a way to steal
first base.
The young players they are counting on to make the year an
interesting one, even though it is conceded winning team efforts will
be few and far between, are still a long ways from demonstrating that
they can hit consistently. Velez has a hole in his swing that the
opposition is capitalizing on. If he can overcome this he will be an
exciting player to watch. It is unlikely that there is a player with
more speed on the basepaths that Velez. Lewis is promising but
whether he can consistently hit has still to be demonstrated. Bowker
has broken in with a vengeance but he has only had 17 at bats. Wait
a while longer before calling him the coming Musial. Bo***** is a
major league shortstop in the field but Roy Nicely was a better
hitter. Even with the attention he is receiving from the hitting
coach he can't get the ball out of the infield on the few occasions
he manages to make contact.
Aurilia has seen his best days. It's time to separate him from the
team. Durham may recover some of his former ability but at the
moment he is hitting under .200. He wouldn't be missed.
At their present rate the Giants are going to end up, as has been
predicted since spring training ended, with over 100 losses come
October. Not a happy picture.
