Chris Heston joins a list of all aces, no jokers; Matt Duffy is great at No.8 - Giants Extra

The Free Matt Duffy!!! campaign continues, with increasing intensity as nights like this continue to pile up on his side of the ledger. He's hitting over .300 after last night. Chris Heston has been perhaps the second most dependable starter on the Giants at this point. It may be a bit early to label him an ace, but to say he goes from a bottom of the rotation starter to potentially a top of the rotation starter ( a solid 2 or 3 ), I am comfortable saying that. Let's see a couple of more quality starts strung together first.


from Giants Extra:
Extra Baggs: Chris Heston joins a list of all aces, no jokers; Matt Duffy is great at No.8; Hunter Pence hits a Vegas jackpot - Giants Extra:

But other than that one pitch, it is hard to be more dominant than Heston was at Minute Maid Park. It’s all the more impressive that he threw his two-seamer, curve and changeup for strikes one start after the San Diego Padres peppered him for 11 hits in five innings.

Quite simply, Heston had tremendous stuff and he stayed aggressive in the strike zone. It is not easy at all to strike out 10 and go the distance on as little as 111 pitches.

Here’s proof. We’ll take that list back a little further beyond Bumgarner, Kershaw and Tomlin. Here’s every pitcher in the last 25 seasons who threw a CG and met the 10-K, 2-H, 0 BB criteria on 111 pitches or fewer:

2015: Chris Heston
2014: Madison Bumgarner, Clayton Kershaw, Josh Tomlin
2012: James Shields, R.A. Dickey, Matt Cain
2009: Cliff Lee, Jonathan Sanchez
2007: Erik Bedard
2006: John Lackey
2005: Roy Halladay
2004: Matt Morris
2001: Curt Schilling
2000: Pedro Martinez
1999: David Cone
1996: Curt Schilling, Jeff Fassero
1991: Terry Mulholland
1989: Dave Stieb

There are plenty of Cy Young Award winners on that list. There are a few future Hall of Famers, including one who will be inducted in July. With the exception of Tomlin and Sanchez (from his no-hitter night), all of them were rotation aces at one point in their careers, and most were established No.1s for the better part of their baseball lives. They made lots and lots and lots of money.

What’s the point of all this? Well, in 25 years, you can count exactly one middling pitcher (Tomlin) who got lucky on a random night and had a start as dominant as the one Chris Heston threw against the Houston Astros on Tuesday.

The kid might not be a future Hall of Famer. Nothing in life is guaranteed. But performances like these are not flukes. His talent is genuine, and he has the ability to be a huge asset to the Giants rotation for a long time.

'via Blog this'

Before last night, the Giants were 16-16. About of 1/5th of the season in the books. On the hitting side, we are starting to see some trends develop, still a mix of surprise and shittiness, leaning more towards shittiness.

In terms of Isolated Power - ISOPOW = ( SLG% - Avg. team average is about .125 ) 
Brandon Crawford @ .212 leads the pack (still a surprise)
Justin Maxwell .169 (pleasant surprise, Not Michael Morse, but the glove gets love)
Gregor Blanco .147
Andrew Susac .143
Buster Posey .130 (yuk!!)
Joe Panik .129
Joaquin Arias .125
Brandon Belt .118 (yuk!!)
Casey McGehee .107 (yuk!!!)
Matt Duffy .091 (before last night)
Angel Pagan .083 (WOW!!)
Nori Aoki .084 ( no surprise )
Hector Sanchez .064 (WOW!!)

In terms of plate discipline and control of AB's, I have two pet metrics.

• Discipline ( OBP-AVG ) 
• Ratio BB/K

Discipline ( team average is about .070 )

Crawford .104 (respsect or better discipline? Who cares as long as it continues)

Belt .086 (no surprise)

Posey .084 (still respected)
Aoki .079
Blanco .079 (pleasant surprise)
Susac .073 (pleasant surprise)
Maxell .063
Panik .060 (thought it would be better here)
McGehee .046
Duffy .037 (surprise to the low side)
Pagan .022
Arias .000 (yuk!!)
Sanchez .000 (yuk!!)

BB/K Ratio ( team average is 0.45 )
Posey 1.15
Aoki 1.00
Panik 0.85
Blanco 0.58
Crawford 0.50
Susac 0.50
Belt 0.48
Maxwell 0.33
Pagan 0.28 (why he's better in the 3 hole, but needs more pop)
McGehee 0.28 (yuk!!)
Arias 0.00 (yuk!!)
Sanchez 0.00 (yuk!!)

The surprise is that Duffy is remarkably close to McGehee across these metrics, yet Duffy @ .273 Batting Avg. versus .179 for McGehee. BABIP luck in play? Apparently Bochy thinks so. It just boggles my mind that McGehee can crap the bed for a month and a half, but let a rookie have a bad game and a half and they grab some pine. Did the organization learn nothing from the Dan Uggla Experience which begat Joe Panik? Maybe lightning does strike twice.

Free Matt Duffy!!!

Amazing that Pagan is hitting so high, I hope it continues. Posey and Belt have to start popping the ball before Pence gets here because he cannot be expected to jump right on the moving train and produce power.

I don't know what to say about Arias and Sanchez except trade bait. It seems as if Posey and Susac can both catch Timmy as well as (or better than) Sanchez and we can't afford the drop-off in offense Sanchez currently gives you.

On the pitching side, if BB/K is a good go-to metric for hitters, then the inverse should work on the pitching side, right? Let's see. The average K/BB   is 2.44

K/BB Ratio - WHIP Avg.
Bumgarner 5.25 - 1.10 .235
Romo         4.50 - 1.16 .200
Lopez         4.00 - 0.65 .154
Kontos        3.00 - 0.95 .203 (pleasant surprise)
Heston        2.90 - 1.30 .282 (pleasant surprise, don't crown him an ACE yet)
Petit            2.33 - 1.18 .219
Casilla        2.20 - 1.26 .250
Hudson       2.11 - 1.33 .289 (could go either way)
Vogie          2.00 - 1.44 .263 ( has to get better )
Lincecum    2.00 - 1.19 .228 ( maybe he's figured out how to pitch to contact )
Peavy           1.75 - 2.09 .353 ( yuk !! )
Machi           1.11 - 1.40 .220 ( he's a nail biter )
Affeldt         0.50 - 1.50 .267  ( pitches to contact and lives to tell about it )

The Big Four in the bullpen have kept the staff together, buying time for the starters to get their act together. You don't want to wear them out though. Cain and / or Peavy have to get back in the mix and start producing. If not, Vogie and Hudson have to hang in there and get better.

From the farm, perhaps Okert can come in and provide some bullpen innings from the left side. If Romero finds the magic, he can help short-term, otherwise maybe it's time to throw Ty Blach (LHP) or Clayton Blackburn (RHP) into the deep end of the pool and see what happens. Of the two, I think Blackburn could provide quality innings, but the Giants are more in need of starter help from the left-side.