Giants Team Report 08/05
August 05, 2003
1 starter is out for the year possibly. The shortstop is out for 3 weeks. The 1b has spent time on the DL on and off all year. The RF is hitting under .200 with RISP.
But the Giants have a 12 game lead, on the strength of their depth. This is great for Giants fans, not so great for for Giants player Fantasy owners. With bench players neifi perez, Pedro Feliz, and Andres Galaragga ggetting spot starting stints due to injuries to Rich Aurilia and JT Snow and Ray Durham, keeping track of who's starting can be a pain.
Local Spin
Whoever Alou plugs has success. Its remarkable: Yorvit Torrealba, Feliz, even Neifi Perez. Even an AAA catcher with no MLB experience steps in an hits Grand SLam. Its incredible. Sadly, none of these guys will help your fantasy team because their starts are sporadic.
What you CAN count on, is that Jason Schmidt isn't going to rack up too many more Complete Game Shutouts, because they'll be resting their rotation as much as possible, and refrain from stretching out their starters. So beware of the effect a big lead will have on the Giants, they will be overly cautious with any injuries
The most recent acquisition, Sidney Ponson, has yet to throw a pitch for a Giant, and debate rages on. Some say they overpaid for a guy having a career year, but looking at his numbers, his oppoonents' batting average (OBA) is about the same as its always been, hes simply been giving up fewer homers and getting more ground balls. This means he's simply learning to use his stuff more effectively. Remember, Ponson was brought up at an early age, perhaps too early, and this affected his stats. Now that he is on a quality team, with #1 rated defense and a pitchers park behind him, I expect nothing but success.
Injury Update
Kirk Reuter may possibly be out for the season, although recent MRI (two of them) have come up negative for anything serious, so he may yet get starts in September. Watch him closely, he has typically been a September pitcher, the more tired he gets, the more sink his pitches have.
Rich Aurilia is out for 3 weeks.
Ray Durham is day to day, and can start playing again any time now, but he's being protected because of the Giants big lead.
