What a difference a week makes for the Giants

Standings

NL West

Team	W	L	Pct	GB
LA Dodgers	16	8	.667	--
San Diego	14	12	.538	3.0
San Francisco	12	13	.480	4.5
Colorado	11	13	.458	5.0
Arizona	10	14	.417	6.0

This story should kill and bury the "Why doesn't Buster catch Timmy" question once and for all. First off, to say that the question shouldn't even exist, the Giants announcers put that one to bed early in the game by noting that it was the first time in a year that Posey caught Lincecum. The odds of that happening over the course of about 30 of Timmy's starts randomly are astronomical. 

from mercurynews.com

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/giants/2015/05/03/extra-baggs-finding-bits-sea-glass-box-scores-past-posey-catching-lincecum-etc/

The game story delves into Tim Lincecum finding success by reestablishing his fastball, which he ditched far too quickly in his previous start against the Dodgers. I won’t belabor those points here, but two more things bear mentioning.

Buster Posey doesn’t allow Lincecum to ditch his fastball too quickly, and perhaps that’s one of the reasons he caught him today. Here’s what Posey had to say about Lincecum’s eight shutout innings against the Angels:

“To me he just did a nice job keeping them off balance. He elevated when he needed to. He threw offspeed ahead in counts. He did a nice job.”

Does he prioritize establishing the fastball?

“I think it just depends in how he’s feeling, just like any pitcher, and how the lineup is reacting.”

Would he like to catch Lincecum more?

“I’ll do whatever the skipper wants me to do.”

The other point has to do with Lincecum’s defense, which has rescued him in starts both good and bad here in the early going. It was very tidy Sunday, and Panik even had Albert Pujols played perfectly twice to take away hits up the middle. As Panik mentioned, those plays don’t happen when the pitcher is all over the place. If you’re expecting a slider away, you can anticipate where the ball will be hit. But you can’t do that if the pitcher is liable to throw a floater down the middle. Panik was able to make those two plays on Pujols because Lincecum was executing his pitch plan well. And he was able to do that because he was able to establish his fastball, and expand the plate from there.

Lincecum’s offspeed pitches always have worked better when he’s throwing them out of the zone instead of trying to steal strikes with them. He can win by throwing junk. But he can’t be a junkballer, if that makes any sense.

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Posey's terse response must indicate that it is not by his choice and maybe the question bothers him as much as the perception that he, in somebody's opinion, cannot catch Timmy. That assertion is patently absurd. Posey caught one of Timmy's no-hitters and now his best game of this year. These things don't happen by chance. 

And Buster not catching Timmy for 30 straight games does not happen by chance, it happens by design. 

I don't much care whose choice is it for Buster not to catch Timmy, the coddling needs to stop. It's hurting the team.  The offense isn't good enough to trade Buster's bat ( or net Brandon Belt's bat, if Posey moves to 1B  )in exchange for Sanchez's bat. And I'm not all that sure he's a better defender, blocker or signal-caller than Posey. So where is the gain in the trade-off? Rest Posey when he's tired, not when Timmy pitches. 

When Sanchez was hitting .275 or so the cost might have been minimal enough to get by. Those days are long gone. Anyone seen Sanchez's bat lately?

And BTW, I do believe it's Timmy's choice and the coaching staff have coddled that choice for too long. Tell Timmy he's not good enough to demand a personal caddy. Win another Cy Young Award.

Timmy had a problem listening to his Dad about his mechanics and now the coaches are a bunch of dumb bunnies who don't know who the best catcher for him is. Timmy probably didn't eat his vegetables as a kid either. 

Enough already.

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Other reasons on offense to forget April include the Giants’:

• 3.0-runs-per-game average, lower than every team except Philadelphia 
• 174 runners stranded, most behind Boston
• .219 average with runners in scoring position, third lowest in the National League 
• and 21 double plays, most in the NL.