Giants' Fantasy Baseball Interview

This year, the Giants Baseball Blog started a monthly interview with the Fantasy Baseball Hot Stove Blog, in which we here at the GBB answer various questions regarding the Giants' players value in fantasy baseball. Here is the final interview of the fantasy season, done Monday @ http://fantasybaseballhotstove.blogspot.com/:

FBHS: I had no idea until I read your blog. Barry Zito has been dealing of late. His last five starts he has a 2.32 ERA as you point out. I'm still not convinced though. He is Barry Zito after all. Give me one reason why he will be able to keep putting together quality outings.

GBB: Well, I'm not too sure he's going to sport an era in the low 2's for the rest of the second half, but Zito's clearly in a rhythm now, one that Giants fans have yet to see him in since he crossed the bay. His velocity is up from 85 mph on average last year to around 88-89 with consistency this year. It doesn't seem like much, but I think that's making a big difference in how his other pitches are beeing percieved by hitters. He's striking out more batters and keeping them off the basepaths. He just seems like he's throwing with a lot more confidence, and is getting himself out of jams when he needs to. Zito's always been a second half guy as well, so I would expect him to continue being strong down the stretch, just maybe not as strong as he has been over the last month. He's made the loss of Randy Johnson a lot easier to swallow too.

FBHS: Despite the fact that Bengie Molina has taken some steps back from last season, Pablo Sandoval has put up some really solid numbers. Do you think if Sandoval was protected better that his overall numbers would see a jump or would his approach at the plate and the way pitchers attack be the same?

GBB: I think Sandoval has done a terrific job putting up numbers in a lineup that is pretty hard to do so in, but yeah, if he had more protection, his numbers would undoubtedly be even better. For some reason, Bruce Bochy insists on hitting Bengie Molina fourth, even though he has an OPS under .700. I would like to see the lineup shifted around a bit and Molina dropped lower in the order, where his measly OPS and pathetic base-running abilities wouldn't be as magnified. The thing is though, the Giants don't really have many better options at that spot. They would like Ryan Garko to take off and maybe take that slot, but he's still slowly learning the National League. I still am expecting to see some sort of lineup change eventually though. Maybe Sandoval into the fourth spot and Freddy Sanchez into the three hole? Anyway, it should be something to keep an eye on down the stretch.

FBHS: If only the Giants had left Eugenio Valez with the big club through June and July he might have had Joe D's record. He has a hit in every MLB game he's appeared in dating back to May 19th. Now he's hitting lead off. He has some serious value as a run scorer there, but another issue of interest to fantasy players will be how much he can run. Is he a green light guy or are the Giants more cautious with him?

GBB: Velez has been amazing since his recent promotion, but he really didn't show a whole lot up here earlier in the year, or during his showcasing last season. He also lost his green-light permission last year with some baserunning blunders. He's got tremendous speed (was something like 19-20 in sb attempts in the spring of 2008), but he has yet to master the art of baserunning fully. He's been on a tear with the bat though and is really sparking the Giants at the top of their lineup and I think the steals will come as long as he stays in the lineup. The Giants don't have a team built for the home run, so they need to play little ball, and Velez really is the epitome of that. He's also flexing a bit of power (2 home runs over the weekend at AT&T Park) which is a bonus on-top of that average and on-base percentage!