It's no secret that I love Omar Vizquel. He's amazing in the field (even having lost a quarter step at the age of 41), and shows great hustle and dedication to the game. But this season, he's been the suck at the plate. We can blame it on his pre-season knee surgery or the fact that he's a hundred years old, but it's a fact that he cannot hit the ball much.
I'll never suggest that we trade or DFA him, though. I agree with those who say that his career has been far too distinguished for him to be unceremoniously dumped in what is likely his last season.
Nonetheless, he should be sitting on the bench a lot more.
I bring this up because of the latest comments from Big Head Bochy about Vizquel's play after the All-Star Break.
But first, a little background. Back at the end of June, Omar was hitting .156. Bochy met with Vizquel, and Vizquel told Bochy that it was okay to bench him to play Manny Burriss more often. The idea was that Burriss would not just start against LHPs, but he'd get some starts against righties, too. The result? Omar plays 9 of the next 12 games, leading into the All Star break. Manny starts in 3 games. Hmmm. It doesn't look like Omar was sitting much. His BA dropped as low as .148 during that time, and leveled back "up" to .159 by the break.
Now we come back from the All-Star break. Omar starts in 2 of the first 3 games after the break. On July 22, both Bochy and Sabean sit down with Vizquel to tell him that he really really really will be playing less in the second half, so that Burriss can play more. Said Bochy at the time "In a week or so, Burriss will get more playing time." (Presumably the one week time frame referred to the approaching non-waiver trade deadline.)
As described by Janie McCauley (AP), "Bochy has said this before, but this time sounded more serious about actually doing it."
In the first four games after that discussion, Omar played in three and went 5 for 10, including 3 hits in Thursday's game. The result? Vizquel was in the line-up again on Friday and Saturday (that's starting in 6 of 8 games since the break). Bochy's comment? "He's swinging the bat well. I just wanted to get him back out here."
Bear in mind, 4 of Vizquel's 8 hits came against the hapless Nationals, so context is important here.
I don't know what it will take to get Burriss some more playing time. It would appear that Bochy and his never-ending love for the veterans will keep predominantly in the line-up, as a result of Omar's small-sample size decent showing over the last few games (mostly against a craptastic team) after a lengthy break.
I guess what it comes down to is the fact that even if a well-rested Vizquel can get a few cheap hits, he is not performing as well as Burriss can at this point. He may be one of my favorite players, but I think it's pretty clear that he's not the player he was. Time to prepare for the future.
Free Manny Burriss!
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I went to my 2nd Giants game of the season on Saturday night. My friend (with row 5 seats) invited me because he hadn't seen Tim Lincecum pitch yet. As expected, we witnessed a pitcher's dual. Around the 5th inning I noticed both pitchers were racking up high pitch counts. I not-so-boldly stated, "They'll pull both pitchers after the 7th." Sure enough, they did. The Diamondbacks scored 3 in the top of the 8th and the rest is history. Both of my friends wanted to kill me for defending Boche's decision. They wanted The Kid to go for a complete game. "They used to throw 150-200 pitches back int he 20's", they argued. "Yes, but this is the present and nobody throws over 100 anymore", I said. "So, what..The Kid has great mechanics, we read it in SI", they said. "You've got to trust your bullpen", I said.
And there lies the problem.
And so much for the Giants baseball in 2008, unless another free ticket happens to find it's way to me.
Yeah, but Tim shoulda gone one more inning. He had good stuff, and wasn't fatigued. (Now for the game before, he shoulda been pulled a lot earlier than he was).
The real issue is that Walker should have been pulled after it was obvious he didn't have any good stuff. From the first few pitches you could tell that he was gonna be in trouble.
Bochy's big head apparently has very little brain inside.
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