Friday, May 16, 2008

The NY Media and fan's obsession with scapegoating Jason Giambi

I love how the mainstream sports media is writing articles about the "struggling first basemen in NY".
(I hate to pick on Borden, because I like his coverage, but this is just a perfect opportunity to get on my soap box for a minute).

Carlos Delgado has an OPS + of 78 and Giambi is at 116.

Giambi's OPS is 16% better than the rest of MLB

Derek Jeter? 103
Jose Reyes? 96
Robinson Cano? 60

But yea, Giambi is really the guy to call out here.

When will sports writers stop looking at batting average as the end all and be all statistic?

Giambi has scored 16 runs and driven in 20 runs. Hideki Matsui has scored 16 runs as well, but has only driven in 18.

C'mon media, lets not play scapegoat with Giambi here because he is batting under .200.

From a subjective standpoint, I can't tell you how many line drives I have seen Giambi hit this year right at people. I am not letting him off the hook for the balls that would have been hits if not for the shift, because that is his own fault, but it is something to consider as well.

Thankfully, Giambi notices this as well :
"I'm not striking out so I know I'm pretty locked in," Giambi said. "It's just a matter of getting some hits, getting the ball to drop for me. I've got to stop hitting the ball at people. I know what I can do. I know I can make it happen."
Perhaps he is aware that his BABIP is a ridiculously low .141. Even in his dispicable 2004 season, his BABIP was .223.

Please get a clue people. Jason Giambi is not the problem with this team, no matter how many steroids or HGH he took in the 90's and early 2000's. The guy has been playing hard every day, and has been playing the field every day when nobody thought he could. Even with an under .200 BA because of bad luck and hitting into the shift, he is still one of the most productive Yankees.

IF he stays healthy, he is going to end up being one of the top run producers on this team all season long. Just wait and see.

For the final time - Giambi's average is low. He isn't struggling. Struggling was Robinson Cano in April.

Giambi has not changed his approach, he is getting on base and slugging the ball. Giambi simply is hitting into the teeth of the shift and hitting for a bad average on balls in play. Giambi was struggling a few years ago when he was on the cusp of being sent to the minors.

In Giambi's own words:
"I can't think about that - I'm not thinking about that at all," Giambi said recently. "I just want to focus on taking good at-bats. I just want to do what I can right now and the rest of that stuff will take care of itself."
I am not excusing Giambi for batting below the Mendoza line, trust me. He gets paid 26 million this year to bat below .200. That is inexcusable at best. Sadly, Giambi has been one of the Yankees most productive hitters, .180 average or not. That is why the Yankees are a sub-.500 team right now.

And now, a picture of Jason Giambi with a group of Asian girls.

The image “http://yogibrewer.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/jason_giambi_1.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
found that on a blog called Yogi Brewer. True Story.

UPDATE: After further research, it has come to my attention that when Jason Giambi gets into an extremely bad slump, he rocks a thong and it fixes everything. Another true story. Gotta love the big G.

Talk about it in the NYYSI Forums!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I started to write a "me love Giambi long time" joke here, but aside from the over-the-top racism, I just feel like it's something that a typical Yankee fan would do...if he knew the difference between a blog and the ESPN.com comments section.

Anonymous said...

By BA alone, you can argue that Giambi's season has been about as good as Robinson Cano's (which of course is not true).

I remember discussing with Ross whether Giambi is aware of how good he is from a sabermetrics angle. Based on his quote, he is, and that's a good thing.

Also, given his past troubles, I think if there's a guy who can withstand a little booing during the pursuit of continuing to be a very solid ML hitter despite his BA, it's this guy.

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