Giants' Free-swingers not Likely to Change
Stan McNeal - SportingNews.com
Jul 08, 2009
Of all the notable first-half stats -- Albert Pujols' 31 homers, Zack Greinke's 24-inning scoreless streak to start the season and Ryan Zimmerman's 30-game hitting streak among them -- none stands out like this one: Bengie Molina's three walks.
And one of those was intentional.
The Giants' catcher and cleanup hitter has worked one walk since May 15. Subtract the intentional pass and Molina has walked once every 150 plate appearances this season. Major league walks leader Adrian Gonzalez averages a walk every 5.3.
"I'm one of those guys who swings at everything," Molina says.
A veteran scout agrees: "There's never been a pitch too low for Bengie Molina."
Molina isn't the only Giant hacker. As a team, San Francisco has walked less and taken fewer pitches than any team in the majors. They went three consecutive games without a walk earlier this season and have 28 games with zero or one walk. Edgar Renteria, Pablo Sandoval and Randy Winn share the team lead with 23 walks, but that's no better than 143rd in the majors.
"We have a lot of free-swingers," hitting coach Carney Lansford says. Sometimes it's frustrating, but I have to understand what we have."
Ah, the conundrum. If Lansford preaches too much patience, he can mess up a hitter's mind. If he doesn't say enough, his eager beavers will swing even more. No wonder coaching can be confusing.
Consider a game against the Cardinals last week. Adam Wainwright held the Giants to one run in nine innings while striking out a career-high 12, many on pitches that would not have been called strikes.
"At some point, you have to figure out what a pitcher is trying to do. The guy was throwing curveball after curveball in the dirt, and we kept swinging. We pretty much beat ourselves," Lansford says.
A few minutes later, Lansford credits Wainwright for throwing a great game. "Good pitching will always shut down good hitting," he says.
Lansford is having success reaching his prize pupil, the 22-year-old Sandoval. Sandoval has emerged as an All-Star finalist and one of the N.L.'s leading hitters with a .332 average, not bad for a guy playing Class AA this time last year.
As Sandoval's average has climbed, pitchers have started working around him. Though against his nature, he is letting them. More than half of Sandoval's walks have come in his past 20 games. Ask him today if he'd rather get a hit or walk and he answers, "Same." A noted jokester, he insists he is serious.
So is Lansford when he says he regularly reminds Sandoval to swing at good pitches. "Every day before every at-bat," Lansford says. "It's frustrating as heck sometimes. But he's gotten better."
Lansford knows not to go overboard. "You can't take away from Pablo's aggressiveness. He's always been that way," Lansford says. "But look at the guy. He was in A ball last year, and now he's an All-Star as far as his offense goes."
Molina is a different case. He is a veteran who always has wrestled with the concept of working counts. "As a player, you hate swinging at a bad pitch and making an out," he admits. "Most of the times (when you do) you get fooled, or you're aggressive. You see a slider coming down in the zone, and you think, 'I've got it.' All of a sudden it dives. Shoot, popup."
Don't expect Molina to change. He leads all major league catchers with 44 RBIs, and his 10 homers tie him for the N.L. lead among catchers. "All I have to do is not think about walks," he says. "If I don't walk and I get 95 RBIs, great. If I walk 30 times and get 30 RBIs, then I'm pissed. I want to help the club score runs with RBIs. That's my mentality."
The Giants would benefit from a more patient approach (as well as from the addition of legitimate slugger, something they're seeking as the July 31 trading deadline approaches). They lack power and are forced to manufacture runs. Though last in walks, they're fifth in N.L. batting average and 12th in runs -- up three spots from 2008.
"We're not losing games because we don't walk," Lansford says. "Sometimes it hurts being aggressive, a lot of times it helps. I think we're doing a lot better than anybody expected this season."
No doubt. A first-half stat that rivals Molina's meager walk total for surprising is the Giants' win total. Pegged as an also-ran in their division, their major league-best pitching staff (3.53 ERA) has led them to a 45-37 record that is second-best in the National League.
And winning, not walking, is what matters.
Stan McNeal is a writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at smcneal@sportingnews.com.
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