Giants Bring Out Brooms for Rockies

It's Mother's Day and the Giants gave the best gift they could to all of you moms out there, their 5th victory in 6 games. Even on the holiday, I just had to get something up after the huge win Sunday that completed the 3-game sweep of the Rockies and moved the team to within a game of first place.

First, I wanted to touch on Ryan Vogelsong a bit, who I'm now dubbing "The V" by the way, and his brilliant start vs. a powerhouse of a ball-club. Giants fans were a little on the fence with Vogelsong after his rough outing in New York, but I think today's game was a so called "game changer" for the 33 year-old. Let's face it, he's no spring chicken, and doesn't have the upside the other 4 starters do, but still, he's giving better quality outings than his injured predecessor Barry Zito was (just click on his link and look at the hideousness he was bringing to the mound), and I root for Zito. Now "The V" just made his 5th outing of the year, and his numbers blow Zito's out of the water. After the 6 1/3, 1-hit winning effort Sunday, Vogelsong now sits at 2-0 with a 3.05 era, 0.97 WHIP with 17 K's and 7 BB's in 20 innings of work for 2011. MLB Odds Didn't give him a shot in this one and look what he doesHe almost reminds me of an older Matt Cain the way he attacks with fastball after fastball and has control of it. He keeps this up and Zito has to comeback as a long-reliever/spot starter, unless (fingers crossed) there is another injury to the starting rotation. I know he's making $17 million, and it would be a shock to the career and reputation of Barry Zito to be demoted to the pen, but that's what has to happen if the Giants want to sure up that 5th rotation spot.

Now, don't get me wrong, Vogelsong allowed just 1 hit in his 6 1/3 innings, but he most certainly had some help behind him with the on his side. Most notably that nice over the shoulder catch by Cody Ross off the bat of Ian Stewart that if Aubrey Huff had been in right field for, would have most certainly been extra bases, and most likely a Rockies run or more. Cody didn't just do it with the glove either, it looks like his stroke has finally come around after missing the end of Spring Training and the first 3 weeks of the year. The Boss went 2-3 with a 2-run homer and an RBI single, accounting for all 3 of the Giants runs. A big reason this offense has been in such a rut is because Ross has not been swinging the bat like he did last fall, but he's 3 for his last 5 now with 2 extra-base hits. He's always been a bit of a slow starter anyway, but I think the game he had today ( he made another nice catch after being moved to LF on that foul ball late in the game) was one that he'll feed off of and it wouldn't surprise me to see him take off from here. Nate Schierholtz has had some nice games and deserves a role, but let's not fool ourselves, Ross is this team's right fielder, and I expect him to be there 90% of the time here on out.

Roster Moves Expected: The Giants will finally get leadoff man and speedy center fielder, Andres Torres, back from the DL for Tuesday night's tilt with AZ. It's an easy decision as to who gets send down to make room for him, Darren Ford (actually, Ford has done some positive things up here with his legs), but the question is how the playing time will get divided. Some people think Schierholtz should play everyday, and Aaron Rowand has been swinging one of the better bats on the team (2nd on active roster with .271 average). I think Boch will indeed mix-and-match more with the idea of Nate and ARow getting more PT, but I expect the first unit to play most the time together. I would also like to see the forgotten man, Mark DeRosa (look what he was doing before getting nicked up), get some time at 3rd base when he's ready to play.