Monday: Giants 1-5 A’s

Tuesday: Giants 4-1 A’s

Wednesday: Giants 6-3 A’s

Did you know that the Giants have the third best record in the National League? Whilst many of us expected them to have a reasonably competitive season behind their stellar starting rotation, I don’t think anyone expected this; in the second week of the season, ESPN had them ranked forth from bottom of their power rankings.
So that’s nice to see.

However, it’s a trio of young A”s pitchers that I wanted to speak about today, Trevor Cahill, Vin Mazzaro and Gio Gonzalez, who started for the Athletics over the three days of this series. Cahill was easily the most impressive; he comfortable worked seven innings, with just a solo home run shot marring his line. His big worry coming into the season, the number of batters he was going to walk, has proved to be something that he’s been able to cope with; he really does represent a bright spot for Oakland, and will surely be a star in the years to come.

As I mentioned the other day, this was Vin Mazzaro’s second go around against the Giants (and, unfortunately for him, Tim Lincecum, who pitched another complete game). The Giants certainly seemed as fit they had a better handle on him, jumping out early to a four run lead with two each in the first and second innings. Mazzaro settled down after that; hopefully he’ll have been able to take something from the experience. Ultimately, none of these young pitchers will be able to rely on their unfamiliarity to the batters they face for long; it’ll be their raw stuff that counts.

Which brings us to the mystery that is Gio Gonzalez… lights out at AAA, but eminently hittable at major league level. During his call up last year, he was walking too many, but that, thankfully, is less of a problem now. There seems to be two possible reasons for his struggles – either his pitches are not hittable at AAA, but are not good enough to play in the big leagues, or that his stuff is good enough, but he makes mistakes that are hidden in the minors because the hitters there are not good enough to take advantage of them. I’m not enough of an expert to know, but the announcers last night were saying that he was ‘wild in the strike zone’; in other words, whilst he is throwing strikes, they are too centered out over the plate, which allows major league caliber hitters to jump all over them.

He’s still a potentially valuable player, so let’s hope he can work it out.

So, the A’s have an off day today, before the Colorado Rockies come to town. They’ve been on fire of late, and have pulled to within a couple of games behind the Giants. For the A’s, it will be a chance to see Houston Street and Carlos Gonzalez (fan favorite Greg Smith is in the minor leagues), who the A’s dealt to the Rockies in return for Matt Holliday.

Go A’s!