Beane Experiment

In looking at some basic tenants of SABR style gameplay, the Giants have are at the bottom of the barrel in the cumulative Beane Count, which ESPN uses to rank teams on walks given, walks allowed, home runs hit and home runs allowed. The Giants have issued 53 free passes this year, second worst to the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League, who have walked 54 batters.

But the Phillies hitters have at least walked 54 times themselves, whereas the Giants group has only worked 36 walks., while striking out 101 times, second worst in the league.

When you look at the Giants staff, there's at least some reason to smile. The club has struck out 108 batters, more than any other staff in the league.

A lot of walks and a lot of K's say one thing: high pitch counts. Indeed, the Giants are in a statistical dead heat for the highest pitch totals per plate appearance in the National League.

This of course means the Giants pitchers are trying to be extremely fine, likely the result of having the second worst run support in the league. Because it's an expected result that the team will not score more than three runs in a game, the pitching staff compensates by trying to end things with the K, which means lower percentage pitches, and higher walks. Cain leads the way in this regard, hurling 4.08 pitchers per opponent's plate appearance, the highest mark of his career. Bochy needs to settle him down a bit or one of two things will happen: Cain gets hurt, or Cain throws the fewest innings of his career. Neither is a good option.