After his 3-for-4 game against the D-Backs last night, Melky is now hitting .376, with a .420 OBP and a .556 SLG (.423, .454, .658 in May). His third hit in that game was his 50th of the month of May, which broke Willie Mays' May record of 49 hits in 1958. If Melky gets two more hits in tomorrow's game, he'll have set the Giants' record for most hits in any month (albeit a record currently held by Randy Winn).
Melky couldn't have timed this rampage of a month any better. When Pablo Sandoval went down a little less than a month ago with a hand injury, many people were pessimistic about how the month of May would go for the Giants', in both the run and win columns. But thanks to Melky's historic month, along with other solid hitting performances from guys like Angel Pagan and Buster Posey, and pitching that's been pretty good, the Giants have gone 14-9 since Sandoval got hurt. If Tim Lincecum can turn things around, the Giants' upcoming months will look even brighter.
-------
Although it's a little early to make statements about who won a trade made in the most recent offseason, it's hard to see the Royals ever ending up on the better end of their November deal that sent the Melk Man to the Giants in exchange for Jonathan Sanchez and minor-league pitcher Ryan Verdugo.
I don't know much about Verdugo, so I don't want to claim too much about his future. And whether or not he's a highly-touted prospect, you never know how good he'll actually be, but if Verdugo's (unlikely) future stardom is a trade-off for Melky going nuts at the plate (hopefully for more months than just this May), I think Giants' fans will take it, especially considering that pitching (both in the present and the future) isn't the something the Giants are too worried about.
Sanchez has been a mess in his six starts this season and, at the age of 29, isn't likely to fix his control problems and become the elite starter he's had the potential of becoming. I feel bad for him because his no-hitter on July 10, 2009 was one of the best Giants' moments in recent years, and, although he struggled for most of the 2010 postseason, was a big key to the Giants getting there (he had by far his best season as a starter, including a gutsy performance on the last day of the regular season that resulted in a Giants' win that cliched the division).
Melky definitely won't continue hitting at this pace, but if he can hit somewhere around the numbers he had last year, the Giants will be more than happy. It is still only May, but Giants fans have to believe -- in the next couple years when they look back -- that their team won that aforementioned trade. Hopefully, Melky will continue to hit like an All-Star and, in doing so, haunt Royals fans even more than he already has.
Poor Royals fans.
No comments:
Post a Comment