The Giants lead the league in GIDP's (ground into double plays), this after getting rid of "Double Play" A.J. Pierzynski.
Today, they hit into four dp's against the Marlins. The culprits? Deivi Cruz, Pedro Feliz, Lance Niekro, and Edgardo Alfonzo. Bonus points if you can figure out a common thread in three out of those four hitters.
If you said Absolute Lack of Plate Discipline, then pat yourself on the back.
It turns out that I'm just too lazy to find out a firm correlation between the Giants' tendency to hit into double plays and Brian Sabean's admitted disregard for statistical analysis -- which leads him to not mind having players like Cruz, Feliz, Niekro, Pierzynski, Marquis Grissom, Alex Sanchez, Neifi Perez, et al, who do not see many pitches, do not walk, and who pretty much try and pull everything...leading to the aforementioned double plays.
This should be almost criminal with the example of Barry Bonds in front of his face every day, and how powerful it is to have someone simply be on-base as much as possible.
It isn't simply that the Giants shouldn't have any players on their team without good on-base skills, plate discipline, and willingness to go the other way with the outside pitch, however, it'd be nice if so many of these players didn't happen to bat in the middle of the Giants order game after game. We've seen enough innings ended and rallies killed by these kinds of players hitting in the 3-5 spots in the order, don't y'all think?
By the way: Feliz, 3rd in all of MLB in GIDP/Niekro, 2nd among all MLB rookies in GIDP/Ray Durham, 5th among all MLB 2nd baseman in GIDP.
Niekro I will give a pass to, because his SLG makes up for his lack of OBP. If you're ISO SLG (Isolated Slugging percentage -- true indicator of how powerful a hitter is) is well above 200 points, well, you can be a free swinger (Niekro's is 251). Nobody else on the Giants has an ISO SLG of even 200 points.
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