Stray Thoughts on Tonight's Giants-Rangers Game

The Giants beat the Rangers tonight 6-4.  Sergio Romo picked up his first win of the season.

I got I chance to see Romo pitch on TV for the first time about a week ago, and I saw immediately why the Giants are so high on him.  He has one of the sharpest vertical right-to-left breaks on his slider that I’ve ever seen.

Most pitchers with great sliders have a a pitch that breaks sharply across and down.  Romo’s slider breaks more sharply across without as much downward movement.  Just as importantly (or even more importantly), he seems to have command of the pitch.

Pitching in relief, where hitters don’t get to see a whole lot of him in any one appearance, makes him even more tough to hit.  He can throw his slider in a way that no hitter anywhere thinks is going to be a strike, and it moves enough to come back toward the plate.

A pitcher with command of a pitch that has unique movement can be dominating in relief.

Also, Elvis Andrus, the Rangers’ 20 year old shortstop: believe the hype.  His .265 batting average and .709 OPS don’t seem impressive until you remember that he is a 20 year old shortstop.

Also, his defense though the first 66 games of the season appears to be the best of any SS in the AL.  His fielding percentage is only 7th out of the nine shortstops in the AL that have played regularly.  However, his 5.48 range factor (chances per nine innings at the position) is almost a play per game better than the No. 2 SS (Erick Aybar of the Angels, who has a 4.51 range factor).  Andrus is also tied with Marco Scutaro for the league lead in double plays with 46 in almost 119 fewer innings played at SS than Scutaro.

On top of his obviously enormous physical talents, Andrus has Omar Visquel, baseball’s best defensive SS of the last twenty years, to mentor him.  If Andrus can avoid injuries, he’s going to have a great career before he retires.