Names Change Year to Year but San Francisco Giants modus operandi the Same in 2014
Don't be surprised to see the underdog San Francisco Giants continue to plow through better opponents ala 2010 and 2012 playoffs and as they just crushed the Pittsburg Pirates in the one game playoff. And, don't be surprised to see in the starting lineup players like Joe Panik and Travis Ishakawa who you wouldn't have imagined starting a playoff game even two months ago. It's typical of the Giants to find what they call 'lightning in a bottle' as they did with unlikely peopleas Cody Ross-and, for awhile, Jose Guillen in 2010, Marco Scutaro and others in 2012 (not to mention unlikely past contributors such as 'over the hill' players Andres Torres Pat Burrell, Aubrey Huff, Ryan Vogelsong and even Barry Zito who somehow become late season sudden stars for the Giants. We've seen Sandoval in 2012 playoffs against Detroit hitting three homers in one game in 6 in the playoffs, which is many homers as he had hit the entire season through August;similarly for Ross hitting 8 homeruns in his short month-plus stint with the Giants -again, as many as he had hit the whole prior season!
Ishakawa is the latest example of a late season player to 'magically' start hitting
once with the Giants. Ishikawa was hitting just .206 with Pittsburg before coming
to the Giants in July. The 30-year-old is batting .274, a figure he hasn't reached
since playing with - ha! - the San Francisco Giants in 2008, one of two years he hit that high,
the other 2006 also with the Giants . On top of that, another confounding sign is that the Giants have stopped striking out, or at least cut them way down, as in the Pittsburg game when, other than the pitcher, they only struck out four times against hard-throwing Volquez and relievers
The question becomes, what exactly is in that 'bottle' as in 'lightning in -'? We certainly
hope our doubts can be assuaged but seeing similar scenarios of mediocre player after player come to the Giants and suddenly, if not star, boost his numbers significantly while perhaps and likely adding to an uneven playing field favoring the Giants. (Yes, other teams may have some similar players in situations but not to the volume and duration of the Giants (going back to Bonds with 23 KNOWN PED users, not to mention those giving indication of using).
Posted by: |