Sergio Romo – Giantspod

Episode 130: Buster Pipped

Daniel Zarchy — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 04:08:56 +0000

Episode 130: Buster Pipped

In the hundred-and-thirtieth episode, Thomas and DannyÂ recap the series against the Dodgers and Rockies, Brandon Belt’s contract extension, Trevor Brown’s hot bat,Â and Buster Posey’s good friend Hunter Pence.

Click on the image below to find it on iTunes:Â

You can also find it on theÂ RSS feed, or by clicking on the play button below. We look forward to your feedback, either by commenting here on the blog, emailing us atÂ giantspod@gmail.com, or ourÂ Twitter feed. Go Giants!

Episode 116: Miracle on the Hudson

Daniel Zarchy — Sun, 15 Jun 2014 02:34:26 +0000



Episode 116: Miracle on the Hudson

In the hundred-and-sixteenth episode, Thomas and Danny gloat about their conquest over MLB Advanced Media, enjoy the excellent Giants season so far, anticipate Brandon Belt’s return to the lineup, Tim Hudson’s Cy Young chances, and Sergio Romo’s recent struggles.

Click on the image below to find it on iTunes:Â

Episode 97: I Only Look Intoxicated

Daniel Zarchy — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 02:50:42 +0000



Episode 97: I Only Look IntoxicatedÂ is out!

In the ninety-seventh episode, Thomas and Danny talk about the reinforced Giants bullpen, Sergio Romo’s brush with the TSA, the Giants Way, rival signings, and basketball.

Click on the image below to find it on iTunes:

Go Giants!

Giants Closer Poll

Daniel Zarchy — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:22:25 +0000

[poll id=”18″]

What is Sergio Romo?

Daniel Zarchy — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:30:42 +0000

In 2011, Giants fans saw Sergio Romo put up one of the most impressive relief efforts in recent memory. In 2011, the 28th round draft pick pitched in 65 games, allowing just eight earned runs and 34 baserunners in 48 innings. He finished the year with 1.50 ERA and 0.708 WHIP, and even pitched a reliever’s perfect game: between July 6 and August 6, Romo pitched ten perfect innings in a row. Along with his excellent strikeout rate, he almost never surrendered a walk, and his K/BB Â was literally off the charts.

But you all know how good he is. Still, not all was well in the land of the sliders. Early in the year it became clear that Bruce Bochy was using him selectively, sometimes for just one or two batters, instead leaning on other relievers in situations that could normally have used some Romification. As the season wore on, what started out seeming like Bochy mishandling began to seem more like selective use because of an injury; these suspicions were confirmed when Romo hit the DL in August, and reports of his elbow issues and his trick knee entered the public consciousness.

Looking at Romo’s numbers, it’s easy to forget how fragile he is, and it’s not a huge stretch to say that his effectiveness could wane if he were pushed to pitch more often. Romo was one of four Giants relievers to pitch in more than 60 games last year; Romo’s 48 IP was miles behind Ramon Ramirez’s 68.2 IP and Jeremy Affeldt’s 61.2 IP, and even behind so-called “specialist” Javier Lopez, who pitched 53 IP. Romo averaged just 10 pitches and 2.2 outsÂ per appearance, and he pitched for more than three outs just four times, lowest among those relievers.

Now, with news coming out of Scottsdale that Romo’s elbow is a “little cranky,” according to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle, it seems like we could see a familiar story in 2012, and we could see his role change a bit. There’s plenty of hard-to-understand science talk about the terrible things that pitching breaking balls can do to one’s arm, and Romo seems like he’s not immune.

Since 2008, Romo has been one of the game’s top relievers. Among non-closer relievers, Romo led the league in K/BB with 5.63, and was fourth in ERA with 2.33. Still, he’s never been a workhorse. Since 2009, Romo’s first full year in the majors, he has pitched just 144 innings. Among pitchers who pitched in more than 120 games since 2009, with an ERA below 3.00 and and fewer than 20 saves, Romo was 17th out of 23 in innings pitched. If you include closers in the mix, Romo is 29th of 37. He pitched 62 innings in 68 games in 2010, but that’s looking more and more like an outlier. Romo is, simply put, not built for stamina.

This year I’m prepared for Romo to pitch very well, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him used carefully as something of a one- or two-out specialist. Romo pitched extremely well in limited time last year, and can be counted on against righties and lefties when needed. He still fills an extremely useful role on a team, and should be a crucial reliever in the late innings.

However, I’m not sure that the 8th inning is his anymore. Given Brian Wilson’s own stamina issues and Wilson’sÂ own predictions that he’ll be limited this year (thanks to Mark Purdy), I doubt that Bochy will want Wilson pushed into situations that necessitate a 4-out save. Affeldt, who has shown multi-inning stamina in the past, could end up as the 8th-inning guy, with Romo pushed to the 7th. That way, if Romo has to leave in the middle of an inning, Affeldt could come in to clean up, and then stay on in the 8th and save Wilson for the 9th.

We’d all like to believe that the best relievers should pitch in the most crucial situations, but we should be prepared for Romo to fight his health issues all year. Luckily, with this pitching staff, I think we’ll be okay.

The Giants Don’t Need Brian Wilson

Thomas Todd — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:30:29 +0000

People who throw things for a living (quarterbacks, pitchers, RussellÂ Crowe) don’t check under their beds for the boogeyman- they look forÂ Dr. James Andrews, whose very mention conjures images of torn ligaments and career-ending injuries. Giants closer Brian Wilson has crossed paths withÂ The Good Doctor twice- once for Tommy John surgery at LSU and onceÂ last August for elbow inflammation. Though the prognosis wasn’tÂ serious and no surgery was required, The Bearded One faced just fiveÂ batters in the remaining six weeks of the season. The ChronicleÂ reportedÂ last month that Wilson’s rehab will have him ready for most of springÂ training, but questions remain about how effective and healthy theÂ three-time All-Star will be. The answer to these questions, in myÂ mind, is one of dismissal: the Giants don’t need Brian Wilson.

With all the offseason nonsense of Carlos Beltran this, Ryan TheriotÂ that, and Buster Fever in full effect, it is easy to forget thatÂ Wilson struggled with both injury and control in 2011. By everyÂ metric, Wilson failed to deliver the type of performance that GiantsÂ fans became accustomed to in 2009 and 2010. Let’s break down threeÂ stats. The first number will be his combined 2009/2010 numbers and theÂ second will be from the 2011 season. Strikeouts per nine innings: 10.8Â to 8.8. Walks per nine innings: 3.2 to 5.1. And finally, hits per nineÂ innings: 7.5 to 8.2. The 2011 numbers collate to a 1.473 WHIP,Â Wilson’s worst mark since his rookie season. The uptick in hits isÂ just as disturbing, as Wilson relies on missing bats more than anyÂ Giants player other than Sergio Romo, who might as well be throwingÂ pebbles at batters holding wet noodles. Call it regression, call itÂ elbow tenderness, call it Taco Bell-itis, call it whatever puts you toÂ sleep at night. My sinking feeling is that Brian Wilson will never beÂ the same again. But here are three reasons I’m not all that worried.

-The Giants starting pitchers are innings eaters. Lincecum, Cain, andÂ Bumgarner all threw over 200 innings and Vogelsong would have sniffedÂ 200 had he started the season in the rotation. The fifth spot isÂ dicier with a likely Zito/Surkamp carousel, but fifth starters areÂ expected to eat innings like supermodels eat cheesecake- sparingly. As a result,Â the bullpen was fresh for all of 2011, even with Rip Van Romo sleepingÂ through half of it.

-The bullpen is deep. Let’s just start with the right-handers. TheÂ LEAST reliable arms are Guillermo Mota and Clay Hensley, who are moreÂ than capable of putting up league average numbers. Santiago Casilla,Â who closed when Wilson went down, had a 206 ERA+. TheÂ lefties are where things get interesting. The Giants picked up JeremyÂ Affeldt’s $5 million option and Javier Lopez signed a 2/$8.5 deal. TheÂ blogosphere nearly rioted with OMGGGGGIANTS andÂ NOBELTRANTHEVIEWFROMTHISLEDGEISQUITENICE. Even Grantland’s Jonah Keri evenÂ came on the show andÂ condemned the move.Â But I’mÂ starting to see that maintaining bullpen depth was essentially theÂ Giants buying Brian Wilson insurance. Brought to you by Geico orÂ something.

-Heath Hembree. He’s still a thousand long bus rides away from aÂ closing gig in the majors, but with Wilson becoming a free agent inÂ 2014 look for Hembree to give the Giants a reason to let Wilson walk.Â But Hembree walks too ma—-LOOK AT THOSE K RATES!!! And PodcastÂ Survivor Kevin Goldstein says he has closer makeup. And that oneÂ should believe in such things. So there.

Now that I have all of you really angry at me, let me say I love BrianÂ Wilson. I root for Brian Wilson. I even like his antics. The Beard.Â The Bell. The Finger Pointy thing. He just plays a very volatileÂ position and canÂ derail at any moment.

I’m just glad we don’t need him as much as we think we do.

Post-Game Notes: Improved First Half, Romo’s [usual] dominance, and more

Chris — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 07:18:30 +0000

This was just one of those games, where you have no choice but to tip your cap to the other pitcher. Today that was Ryan Dempster, who simply had everything working while dominating the Giants offense through 8.0 IP and only surrendering 1 ER on 6 hits.

Tim Linceum picked up where he left off against the Twins, striking out 9 batters through 7.0 IP and only allowing 5 hits. It seems as he’s gotten through this season’s “August 2010” with the two consecutive solid starts, and it’s a relief for everyone.

It’s hard to pin this loss on any one person, especially since the offense that showed up with 19 runs in the double-header yesterday. Clearly Dempster is nothing special, but when you combine his above-average performance with a less-than-average offense, this is the result you often see.

The Giants managed to tie the game in the 9th when Mike Quade questionably pulled Dempster, who was at 86 pitches and had only surrendered those 3 hits. It was a solid at-bat by Pat Burrell, combined with a more-than-crucial mistake from Tony Campana, and likely the biggest hit of Emmanuel Burriss’ MLB career.

Bochy turned to his bullpen, which has been statistically the best bullpen in June (1.73 ERA) and ultimately extremely reliable. It didn’t turn out that way today, but you also can’t pin the loss on Sergio Romo.

Romo’s above-average pitches consist of a slider, a slider, and a slider. NotÂ surprisingly, that’s the only pitch Aramis Ramirez saw; he looked dazed on the first two, sat on the third one and just got it out enough into left field, and that’s all she wrote.

The Giants are 3-23 when out-hit by their opponent and 2-31 when they trail after 8 innings. While we all remember the miraculous comeback wins that the Giants have had this year, but almost every time they’ve gone into the ninth losing, they haven’t battled back.
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– Today’s game was the 81st of the season, marking the official half-way point of the season. The Giants are nowÂ 46-35, compared to last season’s 41-40 andÂ 4th place in the NL West, 7.5 gamesÂ behind the Padres. It’s surprising, considering how much worse the offense is from last season, but it goes to show that teams can get accustomed to playing certain ways, and the Giants have gotten used to it, especially considering thatÂ 82% of their games are decided by 3 runs or less.

– I’m starting to get to the point where I can no longer contest Bochy’sÂ decisionÂ to playÂ Rowand over Torres. Not only is Torres hitting .229, but his .330 OBP is well below average for a lead-off hitter, and he has had no plate discipline as of late. Over his last 10 games, Torres is hittingÂ 4-for-30 (.133) and has been putting up below-average at-bats. Rowand’s splits don’t favor the argument to start everyday (.397 vs. LHP / .177 vs RHP) but he’s hittingÂ .257 over his last 10 games and is putting upÂ solid at-bats when you compare them to Torres’ at-bats.

– Despite the loss tonight,Â Sergio Romo has been the GiantsÂ best reliever so far this season, at-least statistically. Romo has posted aÂ 9-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio (36 K’s, 4 BB) which is 2nd-best in the MLB behind Kyle Farnsworth of Tampa Bay. While he’s been mostly used against right-handed hitters, he’s been dominant in his role, holding such hitters to anÂ 8-for-65 mark (.123), 3rd best in the NL.

– The schedule is now starting to favor the Giants, with 6 of their next 12 games and 13 of their next 19 will come againstÂ opponents that are below .500.