Wow!! And people think I'm harsh. How does Matt Cain go from ace to chump this fast? We're not even out of April yet. I guess if Barry Zito can go from chump to ace during a similar time-frame, maybe you need some sort of counter-weight to keep the universe from spinning off it's axis or something. Good Grief!!
from Yahoo Sports:
San Francisco Giants - Team Report - MLB - Yahoo! Sports:
Player Notes:
RHP Matt Cain can no longer be considered the ace of the Giants pitching staff. He put his club in a big hole Tuesday by surrendering run-producing hits by Paul Goldschmidt in the first and third innings as the Diamondbacks built a 4-0 lead. The Giants have yet to win with Cain on the mound this season (0-5), and here's one big reason why: In his last 17 innings, he has surrendered six home runs, including the two-run bomb by Goldschmidt in the third inning Tuesday.
'via Blog this'
For a little historical perspective, Matt Cain is still a pretty neat story for the Giants. I'll bet Billy Beane wishes he could replay this draft story referenced below.
Oh well, maybe someone will right an ex-post facto retrospective of Moneyball or something. Hmmm.....
from foolsandsages.net:
http://foolsandsages.net/2012/06/15/on-matt-cains-perfect-game/
Through it all is Matt Cain. He is known for his steadiness and long tenure with the team. As part of the requirement of being a Giant, Cain must have an animal counterpart; his is a horse. True, he was an All Star twice, but he was never considered a starter. He was thought as “good, not great.” Even those who pioneered the idea that, hey, maybe a pitcher’s win-loss record isn’t the best way to evaluate a pitcher point to his sub-par FIP and xFIP to substantiate that “good, not great” claim.
There’s a book out there, a book about baseball economics that masquerades as a tome of sabermetrics, which touts the benefits of drafting college players over high school ones. This book – let’s call it Moneyball – goes at length to describe the Oakland A’s 2002 draft. In this draft, the A’s have two first round picks sandwiched around the San Francisco Giants’ first round pick. Here is that entire draft sequence as written in the book:
Note the handwritten inclusion of Matt Cain. Normally, I do not write in books – it’s distracting and feels wrong – but this was different. The Giants made their pick. What a simple, innocuous filler. It was almost like the Giants’ pick was inconsequential to the narrative, that Billy Beane and Co. were so wise to take Joe Blanton and John McCurdy. Yet here we are, ten years and ten days after that draft. Joe Blanton is in the majors as a fifth starter with a career 4.33 ERA. John McCurdy never made it past AA. Matt Cain threw a perfect game.
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