Know Your Foe #8: Giant Challenge Awaits Rox in San Francisco

San Francisco Giants (12-9, 1.5 GB, 2nd NL west)

Friday-Sunday: 3-game series @ AT&T Park

Rockies' 2009 Record against the Giants: 8-10

Rockies' 2009 Record at AT&T Park: 2-7

No team has outscored its opponents in the National League this season more than the San Francisco Giants.  Does anyone think that will last?  The Rockies have done well in their own right, just four runs behind the Giants.

Bruce Bochy's offense has been surprising to say the least.  Their team wOBA is .339 (10th in MLB) following a season that they were the worst in the majors.  The Mark DeRosa and Aubrey Huff signings were a success!  Not really, at least yet. DeRosa and Huff have been the weakest links in the lineup.  It's the rest of the bats; with the exception of the Panda, we can expect each of those hitters to regress to the mean and continue to regress down, down, down.  This is not an above average offensive team.  

As the Giants have cooled (losers of 6 of 10), Edgar Renteria has as well.  He had seven hits in their past series, but he hasn't posted an extra base hit since the fourth game of the season, walking only three times since.  As for pitching, the Giants are 2nd in staff ERA and FIP and 3rd in xFIP.  Barry Zito's ERA is three full runs less than his xFIP, and Jonathan Sanchez has managed an ERA that is half of his xFIP.  Can we see some regression this weekend, please?

It will be an incredibly difficult series for the Rockies to steal on the road.  We miss Tim Lincecum, but we also miss Todd Wellemeyer, so this is a fair sample of their pitching strength.  Battered and bruised, the Rockies will turn to two rookies with two combined career starts between them on Saturday and Sunday. If Aaron Cook's sinker has indeed been found, tonight is an even matchup.   If the Rockies have any designs of stealing the series, they had better win tonight.

More after the jump.