A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

I couldn’t catch the entire game last night, I bounced in the 7th. I woke up and did my “read the blog” thing to find out what happened. Ugh. That move has turned into bad luck for us, it always seems we suffer some type of excruciating loss when I do that…..

It was nice to read the Merc and see that several players stopped by Ross’ locker to offer support, it sounds like this was just a freak play that could have happened to anyone…….

Brian Wilson is your closer who is strong as an ox. He’s an all star. You bring him into that situation every single time. I’ve got no problem with that move whatsoever. Dirrrrty is always a pitch away from disaster anyway. Did anyone want to see him lose the game in the 9th? Exactly. The 9th inning is Wilson’s in a situation like that, period……..

The only good thing that ever comes from me missing games like this is that it doesn’t leave the same pain in my soul that watching it would have done…….

After impossibly giving up that lead our guys really showed me something yesterday– They didn’t waste much time either, did they? They steamrolled the bottom of the 7th and re-took the lead in like 2 minutes. Very professional win and a fun game to watch……

The Dodgers really got their money’s worth on that 50 mil they gave Manny, didn’t they? The first year he gets busted for steroids and loses 50 games. This year he happily picked up his player option and proceeded to incur about 12 calf injuries throughout the season. When I first heard he was White-Sox bound I actually thought it might help the Dodgers along the lines of when the Raiders ditched Jamarcus (No)Muscle. But with the McCourt’s divorce case starting TODAY I think that circus will be enough to bury the Dodgers who are pretty much buried as we speak……

We’ve got 31 games left. Is 18-13 doable? I’m not too worried about the WC or the division. Either is fine. And San Diego has to deal with a 10 game road trip in the middle of September just as their young pitching staff is maxing out on their innings pitched for the year. Plus we get ’em for the final  3 of the regular season. With Philly focus and marching toward their usual spot in the post season I think the division is still our best shot at making the post season this year…….

Not much to say about this weekend series– Zito was predictably awful. I can’t wait to hear the excuses from his boyfriend Michael Urban. In some ways this is his worst year in SF of all the four. He’s just unraveled at a time when the team needs him the most. That bomb he gave up to make it 9-1 was  a batting practice pitch…..

Every starter we have is pitching like shit right now… Giants are -230 to win today, the D-backs are +205. Jesus, if you were a guy who bets this game how can you realistically put money down on the Giants with that +205 hanging out there for the taking?

And I’m tired of this “Uh oh, we’re in a hole again” right off the bat in the first inning. The energy just gets sucked out of the team with every roped bomb. F-that, you’re in a hole, don’t freaking give up in the first inning! That’s what if feels like they’ve been doing lately. Power through it, persevere. This is the freaking DBACKS……

Tim Lincecum Whip: 1.35

League Average: 1.35

Wow, that’s a frighteningly quick fall from the top we’ve seen from Timmy. And he’s just kinda felt average this year, hasn’t he? Another loss against another #3. Most of us knew going in that Enright didn’t do anything spectacular with the ball but we still couldn’t do anything with him. That goes back to the theory I floated out there a couple of weeks ago: the team loses their collective focus when Tim pitches. I compared it to the Zito starts during his first year with us. Disagree with the theory if you must but try to use a valid argument instead of “No, that’s not it”.  When Zito was sucking and everyone was wondering what was wrong the team would take the field tight and everyone’s eyes were glued to the radar gun. Same thing is happening with Timmy. When the focus is on something other than your job (hitting) AND you aren’t playing loose, bad things are going to happen to your offensive production. Let’s look at the number of runs scored in Tim’s last 5 starts (all losses):  0,0,2, 2,2.  Remember, those are the runs we have scored in those games WHEN HE’S BEEN IN THE GAME. In some cases, like the Cubs loss, we scored some runs after he was chased…..

And that’s my main point. Scoring 6 runs in 5 games for the guy is ludicrous. But when their are questions about your effectiveness, when no one seems to have the answers and there’s 8 guys standing out there hoping, waiting, PRAYING that the “old Timmy” will show back up, I am telling you, that’s a misplaced focus and THAT’S the reason our offense has sucked so bad the last 5 games that he’s pitched…..

His 7.82 ERA/ 1.82 WHIP/ and .311 batting average against him in August didn’t help much either…….

Baggs wrote an interesting piece today at the Merc. It’s a comprehensive piece on what Tim and Pablo need to focus on this off season. It suggests that they are having down years as a result of their bodies (Pablo too fat, Tim not conditioned correctly).

Now I love Baggs, I think he’s the best beat writer we have by a mile. When they pan to the writers at the games, Baggerly just LOOKS like he’s about 10 times smarter than everyone in that room. But I think that article is off base. It’s not that I don’t think Panda should lose weight or that Tim shouldn’t work on his conditioning. They should. But the deficits in their respective bodies don’t explain the problems they’ve had this year…..

His velocity has dropped from year to year and the theory is that he’s not conditioned correctly to handle the rigors of a 162 game season year in and year out. Couldn’t it be better explained by the fact that he’s thrown the third most pitches in baseball over the last 3 seasons? This guy weighs about as much as my left bicep, how much conditioning is he gonna have to do to keep up that type of pace at the Cy Young level we’re accustomed to? Baggs uses Oswalt as a comparison but Tim looks like a dwarf compared to Oswalt. A buddy of mine saw Tim at a restaurant in SF last year and couldn’t believe how tiny he was. And forget his listed height and weight, there’s no freaking way he’s 5’11, 170. This dude just doesn’t have the body to throw that many pitches every year no matter how many squats he does or how many miles he runs. And as he ages it’s only going to get worse…….

Panda’s problem, as I’ve identified many times, is nothing more than focus. He was going through a tough emotional time at the start of the year and struggled through that for most of the season. Quite simply, his focus wasn’t 100% on the game of baseball and in this game, if you’re even at 95%, that’s going to ruin you. He hit .330 with the same body last year and I think he’s a little thinner this year. Yet now he’s swinging through hit-me strikes that he killed last year? No way. And as we see him coming out of his year long fog, the “time heals all wounds” theory is making more and more sense. I’d worry about Pablo’s weight as he hits his 30’s. Right now, it’s not as big of a deal as it is for him to get his head straight. And it looks like he’s well on his way to doing that right now just in time for the stretch run……..

Could Tim get stronger/better conditioned legs? Sure. But if he doesn’t start locating his slower pitches better, he’s screwed. And Pablo is already showing that he’s finally got his focus back. Lose some weight, sure. I’d rather see him lose some *dead* emotional weight in his head……..

I’ve had to do a lot of driving this week, I’ve been catching more of the Idiot and Mac show than usual in the mornings. One of them is gone for the week, not sure which one. Anyway, the remaining idiot has spent a lot of time this week saying he’s getting a TON of emails from fans that are upset about Timmy’s hair and identifying that as his main problem. I know we give him grief about his hair but does anyone here think it’s contributing to his recent streak of mediocrity?

Personally, I don’t think that has anything to do with it and can’t believe there are fans out there who think his hair has become his downfall. But Mac (or Murph) has been talking about it all week. Obsessing on it, really…….

Timmy’s got bigger fish to fry than how often he visits his hair stylist. Tomorrow’s pitcher is Barry Enright. Besides pitching very effectively this year (he’s a “6 inning guy” with a nice ERA of 2.73) he’s also the guy who was 2 for 2 against Tim on July 25th. I hope he’s devised a plan to somehow get Babe Ruth out……

Here’s why Tim has had problems recently: The fact is, Tim isn’t pitching THAT badly. He’s often pitching good enough to give his team a chance to win. But his starts have become a distraction and it’s affecting the focus of the team. That’s why they aren’t hitting in his starts. Everyone is watching the radar gun instead of focusing on their job. I’m expecting the same thing to happen tomorrow–Tim pitches ok but still loses to an inferior pitcher who appears better than he is against our unfocused group. The same thing used to happen to Zito starts a few years ago. I know it seems like I’m giving Tim a free pass here, but I’m not. I’m just raising the possibility that other things are contributing to his recent string of losses. Loose teams who play tight behind you, a tightness YOU brought on with your less-than-CyYoung performances, are not known for being  very productive offenses. Once everyone stops looking at the radar gun (including Tim) and once he gets better location with all his pitches, THAT’S when he’s going to come out of this and start winning games again. His fastball is gone, at least for the rest of this year and at least as we once knew it to be when he first came up. Everyone needs to accept that and just start playing good, focused baseball again……

After that pathetic, team-wide, lay down on Sun these last 2 games have been awesome.  I was stunned to read that this is the first back-to-back double digit runs scored at home since 1973.  That’s crazy. Of course it’s hard to get to 10 runs in a baseball game but is it 37 years hard to get their consecutively? The Yankees probably do that at least a couple of times a year…..

Did anyone catch Barbieri crying about moving the fences in yesterday? His argument is that good hitters don’t want to come here because of the dimensions. I don’t think for a second that the Giants would consider altering this perfect park so I’m not worried about Barbieri’s rant. There isn’t a reason in the world to move the fences in. In fact, I would argue that a triple into the alleyway is MORE exciting than a homerun– will the guy get to third? How many runs score? And then the play at the plate! And so what if Huff has lost a few bombs at AT&T.  His home OPS this year is .906. Last year his home OPS was .784. I think he can live with the dimensions. And I was at that inside-the-park job he had earlier this year, it was one of the most exciting plays of the year…….

I’ve argued this point before. Sabean drafts backwards. He focuses on pitchers because that’s his thing and his results certainly can’t be questioned. But he would have no problem signing FA pitchers to pitcher here. Pitchers love ATT. He gets rebuffed by the big boppers, but if he DRAFTED hitters they would have to play here. And most hitters find out that ATT is NOT death to a bat. OPS’s and batting averages usually go up at ATT because of the big outfield, the fielders simply can’t cover the ground they can at other smaller parks…..

Ted Sillanpaa still sucks……

For whatever reason, I am not able to cut and paste this into today’s thread. But Twin has set up another contest: Pick the total number of wins for the season. Tie breaker is total runs scored for the year. Email your picks to twinfan1@hotmail.com. He’s giving away another custom built computer, everyone is eligible. He can post the specs later today…..

I shut down the old blog and have any comments that get posted there now coming to me first for moderation. Amazingly, people still try to post there almost every single day though I haven’t approved even one comment there in months. Anyway, this was an interesting comment I got last night. Anybody read this guy? He gets bent pretty easily, doesn’t he…..

this is what he was responding to that I wrote last March 23rd….

“Tuesday, March 23, 2010
The Final Roster Spots…..
Some guy named Ted Sillanpaa wrote an article in The Bleacher Report that suggests the last roster spot is going to shake out of this group: Bowker, Ishikawa, Velez, Torres, Posey, Frandsen and Lewis. I dunno, how can you trust an opinion from a guy named “Sillanpaa”? That name sounds made up. I haven’t played out a “fantasy roster” ..”

Then this was the post he tried to make last night:

“Gee. Can’t imagine how your blog died.
The last name came with my family from Finland. And, the Giants final decisions did involve those guys. Thanks for giving me and the friend who somehow found this a laugh.
Ted Sillanpaa”

My question:  his *friend* found this? Right. $10 says this dude sits around all day doing google searches of his made-up name  and then desperately reads anything that anyone has written about this chump. I still don’t know who this guy is or if he’s a real person. He’s probably a bot. Two flaps down to this Sillanpaa character……

Torres CF
Posey C
Huff 1B
Burrell LF
Guillen RF
Sandoval 3B
Uribe SS
Sanchez 2B
Cain RHP (9-10, 3.11)

Big (flavor) Happy Birthday to AlleyKat……

So Cody Ross, come on down. Sorry, no explanation points.
After looking at this a little more carefully, I’m much less enthused. Baggs thinks he subs for Torres against lefties and maybe that’s true. But we simply have nobody to leadoff (al our high OBP guys are toads–Huff, Posey, Burrell) if it goes down like that. And let’s forget Rowand already. He of the .291 OBP shouldn’t be leading off for a little league team. I guess Ross subs for Guillen if his re-injured quad won’t let him go. But otherwise, Guillen is playing is playing everyday. You never know though, Guillen could be the guy to hit the DL to make room for Ross. He’d probably handle that very well, dotcha think?

Plus Ross will be 30 this year, I thought he was younger when I first head of the pick up……..

I dunno, 4th OF, whatever, come on board…….

Welll, he wasn’t horrible. He wasn’t all that great, either. Bottom line is that Lincecum got out-pitched again and we get another L for his *efforts*.  Unfortunately, Tim’s starts are starting to feel a lot like the “Zito starts” from his first couple of years with us. Tight. Everyone on edge. All eyes on the MPH board. That’s not the way we want this team playing during a pennant race. Tim’s starts are not only ineffective, they’ve become a distraction to the team…..

Speaking of Zito, today we get to lean on him for a critically needed quality start. Ugh……

Those were the last two games that we saw some “Back-to-back Cy Young Action” from Timmy. On the 7th he won the game with a 7 inning, 4hit, 10K game. The next week he complimented that gem with a complete game shut out of the Mets. Since then…….eh.

This is HIS time. We needed him last week and the week before and he failed. Hell, we really need him every time he takes the mound. But today WE NEED HIM!!!! Dirrrrrty and MadBum just rose from the dregs of the bottom of the rotation to right our rudderless ship. On the road, no less. Chris Carpenter is just a man, he’s been hittable this year, certain games easily so. I’m not worried about him in the slightest…..

But I am worried about the man we are sending out to the mound. It’s put-down-the-bong-STFU-time. No more excuses or new wind ups or pretty long, wavy black  hair. Storm the hill  like the two time CY winner you are and win this goddamn game…….

Dirrrrty saved us yesterday and now we turn to MadBum for another necessary step-up stud performance. This Dirrrrty/Bum exacta  feels preferable to a Lincecum/Cain debacle, doesn’t it? Not sure where Zito fits in, he’s a shaky 3, I guess. We don’t really have a NUMERO UNO  these days, as is evidenced by the starting staffs stunning failure to ever notch a win for themselves. Dirrrrty is the only guy to “stand out” in the win column with his bounty of two over the last 3 weeks. That’s freaking pathetic…..

This is a dangerous time for the team with the starting pitching laboring on the edge of unreliable and marginally competent. But Dirrrrty’s performance last night can’t be understated. It was huge, maybe the best start of the year for one of those 5…….

I thought we matched up well with Philly but they easily took 2 from us. I feel the same way about St Louis, I think we match up well with them. Regardless of what happens tonight, the spotlight will be squarely on Timmy tomorrow. We can’t win this thing without a #1 to carry us the rest of the year. Dirrrrty isn’t a #1, despite his 2 (two) victories over the last 17 days. Mr Cy Young is that guy. Or maybe he’s not, we’ll find out soon enough…….

They’ve hit 4 bombs in the last 2 games, that’s nice. But that’s not enough. Way too many “1-4,0-4’s” in the boxscores. And our pitching has come up ant-small so far. Dirrrrty may or may not need to pitch a pearl today–the way he’s been pitching I’d expect a line like 5.1inn/4ER/4BB/7K.  Bottom line is, regardless of what Dirrrrty does, we need to HIT the baseball. For hits. Lots of them. Ducks on the pond. Clutch hits. All that jazz….

This has been a horrendous 2 game swing, every facet of the game has been worthy of averting your eyes. But it’s 2 freaking games out of 162. The team isn’t trippin’ on it, you guys shouldn’t either. Join Denny on the ledge if you must, but don’t jump. Yet….

We sort of played right into their hands last night, didn’t we? Got 2 quick ones and then it just felt like we didn’t keep coming. The pitchers pitched defensively, too. You don’t try to protect a 2-0 lead in that park, you put your foot on their throat and keep hitting and hitting and hitting….

Ray has been marginal, at best, since he got here…….

Since May 16th Zito has won two games….And it’s not a lack of run support, he’s given up plenty of leads over that stretch…….

Blanton is just a *guy*, he’s an innings eater. He’ll give up 2 runs in the 1st while eating a couple of  ham sandwiches on the way to 6 or 7 innings of ho-hum pitched ball. We need to be aggressive against this team, in their park against this average-ass pitcher…….

One *over* in the books, 2 to go….

The Dodgers are done, man. Their collapse really is astounding when you consider the talent they had on that team to start the year. But Kemp got Hollywood-on-the-brain and decided it was more fun to date Rihanna than it was to work on his game. The broken thump slowed down Ethier. And as I said a few weeks ago when I watched him warm up, Broxton is hurt (though they say he’s fine–curious when he’s lost 5 mph off his fastball)……Either way, watching them go down with Torre fanatically pulling strings that are attached to nothing is funny as hell…….

Big series begins for us today–they’re all big from here on out. For some reason I feel like we are going to hit just fine in Philly. If our pitching holds up we could easily win 2 and maybe all 3. Still, I’m taking the over in all three of these games no matter what the number……

That feels pretty good, right? Ugh. You know it’s a tough times when I’m happy we don’t have to see Lincecum pitch in Philly……..

Krukow thinks we lost 2 of 3 to San Diego because we didn’t get the breaks and they did. That’s a crock, of course. Many times you make your own breaks, you force the issue. You make the plays. San Diego does all those things. We didn’t and we are lucky we didn’t get our asses swept this weekend…….

Time for Guillen to do his thing in that Philly band box. Everyone was trippin’ on him yesterday, and he definitely made a bonehead move and he disclosed that he’s  a slow runner at this point in his career. But he also had the best hit of any Giant yesterday, except Posey. We need him mashing the ball. Sabean didn’t trade for him so he could steal you a bag now and again………

Tues we see Zito V. Oswalt. Zito has pitched better against the Phillies than Oswalt has against the Giants. Cainer goes against Blanton on Wed and while Cain does own a 7.20 ERA (o-2) vs the Phillies I seem to remember one of his first starts was against them in their yard and they blasted him. He’s obviously a different pitcher today. Dirrrrrty takes on Hammels on Thurs, and again, Dirrrrrty has better numbers vs them than Hammels has vs us. All in all, I like the pitching match ups……

I can’t shake that question and can’t imagine this place if we hadn’t won that game. And yet I still don’t know how we won it. We had no chance to win. Yet when we went extra innings I was CERTAIN we were gonna win it. Doesn’t make sense, I know….

Our bullpen has quietly turned into one of the most reliable cogs on our team. 4 innings of no run ball yesterday, 3.2 innings of no run ball the day before. And it’s been EVERYONE…….

The ONLY thing I’m worried about today is that Timmy tries to hard. Just let it flow, baby. LeBlanc isn’t a chump but he’s totally beatable and Tim’s lost to a few guys like this in 2010…

Regardless,  today is huge. Not a must win since we have several more games against the Padres this year, but if Timmy is going to be a part of this TODAY needs to be his day. Very few of the Pads hit him even moderately well….

So maybe the guarantee game needs to come from someone a little, I dunno, maybe….better? It worked for Namath but not too many other guys over the last 40+ years. Dirrrrrrty pitched how he usually pitches and we left 11 men on base. So much for shit-talkin’…..guillen starting will take the focus off the “sweep talk” and that’s a good thing. Dude mashes, when he makes contact. He’s not a “pie in the face guy” so don’t try that on him. He’s going to be a great stretch run addition…..

Burrell is the first ever 3 straight game POTG. Again, thank you Tampa Bay…….

Tonight’s game is everything. As I posted a few days ago, I LOVED Dirrrty’s bold prediction, especially after that tough Atlanta series. Now he gets to go out and set the tone. If we dominate the Pads tonight, his prediction will be in full swing to the wire at the quarter pole. If he gets knocked around and if the overrated Richard cobbles together a goodie, Dirrrrrty looks like a chump and, more importantly, we prove we are the same team that this toothless bully has been beating up all year long. All or nothing.  I love it……

Of course I saw none of it up in the Idaho mountains but the last 50 or so posts from you guys told me it was a “great win”. I’m only changing the date on the POTG, obviously. We go up 3-0, then it’s tied 4-4, still we find a way to win. Gutty team performance to take back the lead and the win, that’s what playoff teams do….

I’m 110% behind the Fontenot pick up. I haven’t read what others have said about it yet, will try to later this morning. He was already taking time away from Theriot before he was traded to the Dodgers. I remember when those to came onto the scene, the Cubs felt like they had found their middle infield for the next 5 years. But, sometimes things don’t always work out as planned. Fontenot will be fine, I was actually a little surprised by how few SB’s he had but maybe I was thinking of Theriot. Regardless, we gave up NADA and now have a legit mlb option to plug into 3rd or 2nd and Bochy won’t feel hamstrung to have to play Pablo or Freddy all the time…..

Losing to the Dempster’s and Jurrjen’s of the league isn’t anything to be ashamed of. Unless you’re the 2 time CY Young Champ. Why would a 2-time defending CY champ need a *new delivery* mid season anyway? I don’t doubt Tim’s effort one bit, but this is not where we want to be in August with our ACE….

Kinda bummed that Renteria is ouchy again–this means we will see a lot more Franchez who will be released this Winter if Burriss proves he’s healthy and productive……

With Willy Aybar DHing for the Rays I can’t help but wonder how Tampa Bay, desperately in need of a *bat*,  feels about sending checks to THE BAT every month…….

If you’ve never done it before, try this on games you can’t finish watching: wake up and just head straight for the blog, rewind the pages till about the time you checked out, and just read what happens through the words of you guys. The first thing that stuck out was the ‘418’ comments so I knew it wasn’t a simple ending. Anyway, while you don’t totally understand the details of what’s gone on you definitely figure out the outcome and feel a flavor of emotion that you aren’t going to get from Schulman or Baggs. Fun to do, I’ve done it several times…….

Have we finally reached a point where it makes logistical sense to go to a 6-man rotation through 3rd/SS/2nd/1st base? Renteria and Uribe are healthy, their version of it anyway, there’s no reason to play them every day. Sandoval and Franchez SUCK and there’s simply no time left to hope they play their way out of it day in and day out. Travis doesn’t and shouldn’t need to play every day. And now we’ve got Burriss, too. That’s a lot of flexibility……

I’m going to be on the road for the next week or so. I’ll keep new threads going and should see all the games but I won’t be around as frequently. I’m not going to be able to send out warning shots regarding blog etiquette, I’ll probably just quickly delete posts, or mini-threads, when it calls for it. Please just move on to a new topic if you start seeing posts or blocks of posts disappear…. 🙂

This will be unpopular, but I like Jonathan Sanchez’ bold words after yesterday’s game: “We’re going to play SD and we’re going to beat them 3 times. If we get to first place, we’re not looking back. We are definitely going to make the playoffs”…..Hell yes, say it again, louder this time! And to make this bold claim even more impressive, Dirrrty had the balls to say this on the heels of the team looking so awful in Atlanta. I’m surprising this wake up call came from him, he’s not exactly a visible team leader. But I’m glad he said it. The Giants needs a reminder that this is August and they are in a pennant race. Freddy Sanchez doesn’t know what the hell is going on right now, he’s usually booking his Winter vacation around this time. The team has to play the rest of the season with a belief that they aren’t just good enough but that they WILL BE WINNING this thing. No other mental approach makes sense. Forgot all that “locker room pin up shit”– The Padres have been kicking our ass all year, I LOVE IT that they are now hearing an attitude from us— kinda reminds me of Rocky in Rocky 3 during the 2nd fight with Clubber Lang: “Ain’t so bad! Ain’t so bad! Ain’t so bad!!!!”…. Pin those comments up on every locker in SD for all I care…….

Manny Burriss getting recalled today (according to Baggs). No big surprise, especially since it will likely be The Todd who gets bounced. I would be more excited about Burriss’ arrival if I felt confident that speed was still a major part of his game but I think he isn’t going to be back to full physical and mental strength until next year. Either way, if his arrival sends Franchez to the bench a little more, I’m all for that……..

I didn’t make it POTD, though I should have.  On the last thread, Zumie made a good point:

“zumarust said, on August 8, 2010 at 11:23 pm (Edit)

The thing that is the bad thing on any of these blogs is grating repetition. Soph, at the Splash, is horrible, but even more horrible because of the repetition. If someone has a criticism, make the criticism and then MOVE ON to other things, or come back to the old thing in a new creative way. This is why TF is so good at this stuff. I see people all the time talk about him never criticizing the Giants. Say what? The dude shares his criticisms of the Giants; he just doesn’t keep repeating the same criticism over and over. He moves on with the unfolding events.”

I’d like everyone to remember this. The Flap isn’t The Splash, thank God. Let’s not act like the posters still left in that tumbleweed town……

Those are the number of hits we’ve had in each of our last 4 games. That 8-hit game looks like an offensive explosion, doesn’t it? I said this before yesterday’s game, with Buster’s bat cold it seems like the rest of the team got iced down, too. Yes, we’ve faced some decent pitching lately but I think this is just more about one of those team-wide slumps EVERY team goes through several times a year. Right now there’s just no one to ride with everyone scuffling. Posey DOES look tired. I’m not sure what a day will do but it couldn’t hurt. Unfortunately he’ll be getting it on a game we really would like to win. Oh well, if he’s dragging, he’s dragging…….

Speaking of guys who need a break, Freddy Sanchez needs to sit. For a long while. He’s reminding me of what we’ve seen from Rowand the last couple of years. Bochy is waiting for him to snap out of it but there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight. And what do we get from Kruk and Kuip? Nothing but fawning over him for how he handles routine ground balls at 2nd. Just ONCE I’d like to see them break down a vet’s hitting with some honest analysis……

It’s done in two easy steps, actually:

Step one: Don’t get any hits in the 9th inning, tie the game. Check.

Step two: Don’t get any hits in the 11th inning, take lead. Check.

Simple.

We are seeing what happens to this offense when Buster Posey isn’t hitting…..

With Renteria sidelined with his latest injury we are once again staring at a depleted bench. Baggs wondered why we are still carrying 13 pitchers and decided it’s because Romo is the only one with an option. What was the point of trading for Ramirez  if they are going to hold on to Casilla? In fact, a better question is, why did Sabean trade for Ramirez in the first place? He’s pitched 1/3 of an inning since he got here and he’s redundant to Casilla (or vice versa). So we end up trading for a guy who we don’t need and who doesn’t pitch, meanwhile our bench languishes with three healthy players….I don’t know, seems kinda stupid to me……

It came up here last night but I truly am surprised that Sandoval is catching so much heat from the regular beat writers and team reporters for his failure to get to third base yesterday. I want to be clear, I never ONCE criticized his play in last night’s game. I wish I had paid more attention to the replay, but I don’t remember him getting an especially bad jump. He seemed to have a little trouble getting started but hustled the entire way. And he was only out by a whisker…….

True, Pablo is overweight. Everyone seems to want to talk about this and point to it as the reason for his failures this season. But I would argue that we really aren’t giving enough credence to his personal issues. I don’t know all the details but we know that he took a leave a couple weeks ago to finalize a divorce at home….

Pablo’s poor numbers can’t be attributed to simply his weight. How do I know?  Look to the OPS…..

Pablo’s OPS, by month, going back to last year:

4/2009: .790

5/2009: .839

6/2009: 1.203

7/2009: .856

8/2009: 1.010

9/2009: .852

10/2009: 1.471

4/2010: 1.008

5/2010: .617

6/2010: .645

7/2010: .597

8/2010: .750, so far……

What I see from looking at this guy’s OPS from month to month is, obviously, a huge drop starting in May of this year. To me, that indicates one of two things: either he’s got an undisclosed injury or his focus suddenly shifted somewhere else…..

I’m going to assume it’s the latter. Pablo walks around as of he doesn’t have a care in the world, “Mr. Happy-go-lucky”. If I could play amateur psychologist for a moment, I think that’s his way of deflecting his feelings about his personal life. I suspect a psychologist would call that “denial” or “compensation”.  And, while it’s not an unusual approach to dealing with the stressors of life, it’s probably not the most healthy. If his focus has been elsewhere, and I think it’s easy to argue that it has, that would be a better explanation for his poor year. His weight? He was fat last year and raked. In fact, he might even be a little smaller this year. The pitchers finally figured him out? Hardly, they pitched him the same way last year once they realized he swung at everything. This year he’s missing the balls he raked last year. To me, that’s focus. And if you’re a major league baseball player, your focus has to be 100% on your trade. So far this year, his has not been……

He’s a 23 year old kid who had a bomb dropped on him in May, of that there can be almost no question. He hasn’t dealt with it very skillfully, certainly not from the emotional side. I hope he’s getting the help that he needs. If his OPS this month is any indication, he’s started to move on a little. It’s heartbreaking to assess a human being’s personal life through his month-to-month OPS. Almost ridiculous, really. But the theory I floated today makes more sense, to me, than the “fat theory” or the “Pitcher’s have figured him out and he hasn’t adjusted” theory……..

Not because it will tell me something about the Giants. I’m hoping to learn more about the Braves. Simply put, I just don’t think the Braves are as good as their record is.  Everyone is jizzin’ about Heyward but the dude has hit ONE home run since the end of May. They’ve got a good catcher and Prado has been a stud at the lead off spot for them this year (though we miss him during this series).  They’ve got a solid bullpen and maybe 2 starting pitchers I’d want on our staff. Chipper is held together with rubber bands and Glaus (like Heyward) hasn’t done much after his hot start (no HR’s since June)….

I dunno, I just don’t get the hype about the Braves. Do they still do that dumb chop? I guess we’ll find out……

The Todd makes his glorious return to the team today with Bautista *walking* his way out of town…..

I think we win 3 of the 4…….

Anyone got anything to bitch about? Wanna get something off your chest about this team? Detail all of Bochy’s shotcomings? Bash the line up? (cause you just freaking KNOW that Whitey’s gonna be in there today)……

Well, Freddy Sanchez, god bless him, proved to me that he can, in fact, hit a ball farther than 200 feet. Although that could have just been the thin air in Denver so the jury’s still out on that…..

That strikeout by Renteria in the first inning really had me doing a slow burn. Outside of that, I got nuthin’…..

Ha, kidding. Tonight is nose-to-the-grind time. I don’t think Colorado is a better overall team than we are but they do play extremely well in their park 35-18 (who doesn’t, right?). This is a time for Dirrrrty to step up. He has never pitched well against Colorado, either in their park or ours—6.25 ERA and 1.71 WHIP in COl (he’s even a little worse than that in SF V them). It’s not the hits so much as the walks, he’s 23 free passes in 31.1 innings in Denver. That tells me he’s tripping on the park a bit and trying to be too fine,  living on the corners. Dude just need to trust his stuff……

Despite the lack of confidence I have in Dirrrrty tonight, the TEAM couldn’t be heading into this series with more confidence. No one is in a major slump and we’re getting contributions from pretty much everyone on the team. Lopez is probably going to appear in both 0f these games. It’s nice to know the bullpen has been revamped in a positive way as we head into this tricky little 6 game road trip…..

Man, “Hello driver’s seat”….At least in term of the Wild Card and the NL West. I know SD is still ahead of us but I am telling you, they are not to be feared. Admittedly, I didn’t think they’d last this long.  But the ace in the hole in the innings pitched their young pitching staff is accumulating. Latos and Richard are going to be putting on innings in September that those arms haven’t seen before. And the Pads aren’t going to be led through Sept by Garland and Correia. We probably steamroll them before Sept 1 but I’l certainly take it when the season ends, too. And the teams underneath us in the NL West just don’t inspire me. We’ve got the upper hand on everyone right now, as far as I’m concerned…..

Cain finally gets his first win against the Dodgers. He’s now 1-8. But his career ERA vs them is only a half a run worse than his career ERA against everyone else. 1-8 is not a fate this guy deserves……

Someone on the last thread compared Burrell’s Bomb to Brian Johnson’s and I think that’s close. It’s not the same but it’s close…….

Javier Lopez and Ramon Ramirez– I won’t bother posting their stats cause you’ve probably already seen them and they’re underwhelming anyway. But I am totally cool with these two pick ups. Or didn’t any of you catch Bautista’s latest charity work in yesterday’s game? This bullpen, *save* Brian Wilson, has been living on borrowed time for months. It’s a wonder they haven’t lost more games for us. I don’t care one whit about losing Bowker and Martinez. And we simply HAVE to have a left hander down there right now. And by “right now” I mean for the rest of the season. Everyone is dreaming about the return of Runzler and Affeldt but neither has been reliable this year. Lopez is better than what we have now, I’ll take it.  And Ramirez? Whatfreakingever. Can he throw a strike with a baseball to a major league baseball hitter? That’s all I need from him and word down at the snack shack is that he can perform this rare feet. Bye Bye Bautista…….

A good buddy of mine made it on to the field for the after-game season ticket party thing. Lots of players signing autographs and everyone eating and drinking– say what you will about Baer but he knows how to throw a party. Anyway, Chris had THE man of the hour, Pat Burrell, sign this autograph for the blog:

translated: "To oneflapdown77.com Keep it Up. Pat Burrell"