Breaking this Series Down Old Skool Without Numbers
I’m sorry but that was just too many days without baseball. And there’s not much we can debate or analyze since that’s all been done ad nauseam. But from a completely general, no numbers analyzed perspective, this is how I see these two teams matching up.
Starting pitching: This area starts and ends with the Giants. We have the best starting 4 in baseball…..Edge: Giants
Relief pitching: again, the edge goes to us. Atlanta had a significantly better BP than the Phillies. Edge: Giants
Closer: Wilson > Lidge. Lidge had a good season but he’s not the dominant guy he was in 2008 and he’s only pitched once in the last 2 weeks. He can turn bad quicker than one of Huff’s game worn thongs….. Edge: Giants
Experience: Obvious Edge: Phillies
Hitting: the fact is, our offense is a million miles away from the “De Rosa/Rowand/Bowker” opener. Top to bottom our guys can hit a bomb or a critical hit at any given point in the game. And our hitters get better when we go to their park, there’s get arguably worse when they come to ours. Edge: Even
team speed: big edge to the Phillies (108 sb’s > 55 sb’s). I’m counting on Posey showing off that cannon early in the series to gun down some base runners and hopefully make them think twice about running wild on us…..Edge: Phillies
defense: I haven’t watched enough Phillies games this year to have a feel of how their team defense is but we are near the top of the NL in fewest team errors with 73. The Phillies are behind us with 83. Edge: Giants
So there ya go. I don’t think you could argue too much of what I’ve posted above. Then how is it that the Phillies are considered such huge favorites by the National media? Answer: Ignorance and hubris. Guys like Keith Law and his band of cronies, who write stuff just to get noticed, were wrong about this team all year. They were wrong about them last year. WE are the experts of this team, not them. And this doesn’t have anything to do with being a blind fan, I pretty much nailed my win predictions in 2007 and 2008 when they sucked.
I don’t have a prediction on this series. It could go either way. A clutch hit here. A huge mistake there. But my friends, what I do know is that *glory and destiny* are but 8 wins away…….
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
I have to go Lopez and Wilson as the #2….Lopez is now in Utley’s and Howard’s heads. That battle will determine how this series goes and I like our chances…
I really like my 22 runs and 8 homer prediction for Twin’s pool…18 more runs and 6 homers to go. We will hit two of Oswalt tomorrow…
Torres will be in tomorrow, as he should be. Possible Rowand will get a start against Hamels.
Rowand just 3 for 15 vs Hamels, 3 for 17 vs Oswalt. Gomez stays and plays.
And leave Cody alone in 8th. don’t go changing shit. I like our shit the way it is.
There are some Splashnutz ripping the choice of Timmeh for tonite, should have saved him for tomorrow, then Giants would be up by 2 after tomorrow. Insanity on display…
Pretty fair night for Bonehead.
The Shitholtz PR move was a beaut. NO way Burrell scores on that hit, even with Victorino’s throw being up the line a tad. The Bat was dead meat. “Bonehead” pushing all the right buttons. Nothing new really, Bochy’s been pushing those same buttons all year long.
jeez, stix, i’m drinking here! you got me shaking my head just to wrap it around the words.
i’m sure it’s very nice.
Dissed and dismissed by the ‘experts’, the Giants have already achieved the split they needed facing the Beast from the East. Has the best from the West really been seen yet by those phanatics?
They caught a look at the Freak, as several have pointed out here, not on his “A” game and also experienced some bullpen dominance. They also got a taste of the stinger in the tail and that string of professional ABs from the heart of the order. You could see it in the faces of the hometeam phans in those last two innings, looks of worry and apprehension and “can this be happening?”
One game does not a Series make, but now its the hosts who absolutely, totally, definitely need to fight for a split tomorrow. Even their scorpion strategy with Ruiz as the stinger in the 8-hole got one-upped tonight by
the accidental Giant, who does seem to be making a fair to adequate case for getting that contract tendered.
Though their Swede in the bullpen, Ryan Madson, was pretty much as advertised, he was well matched by Sabean’s trade deadline coup , Javier Lopez, right now presenting a national audience with a nice case for Situational Lefty of the year. Comparing closers wasn’t even close. Nicking that 8-hole stinger was not at all as dramatic as Lidge crawling all over that ledge, jamming 3 bases with his lack of control and saved only by a couple of putrid A.B.s by the top two of the lineup.
Tonight’s game had a definite edge to the Giants, despite the best efforts of the homeplate ump in the 9th; national media cheerleaders; towel-waving phanatics adding wolf-whistles to their classy repertoire; and the advantage of playing in the Phillies home bandbox. Major momentum for the orange and black.
Sunday, October 17th is exactly two weeks before Halloween. You don’t suppose one of these teams has a Drrrrrrty trick up its sleeve ~ like another Ace, perhaps?
there you go again.
where did everybody go?
I can’t remember who it was, but some Phillies lefthanded hitter near the end of the game ripped a ball down the rightfield line that looked like a hit at first, to tie the game. It fooled Joe Buck, who said “There’s a ball into rightfield!” The dude blew the call, and freaked out Giants fans for a second. It was a foulball.
Buck and McCarver called a good game tonight, certainly an upgrade on Stockton/Brenly….
Oh
My
Tim Lincecum was amused by wolf whistles from crowd. “I was just thinking, I must really have a nice butt.”
A nice butt, a flirtatious fastball, a cute curve, a seductive slider, and a comely change.
Tim’s Post game interview in the hoodie was hilarious.Half of Pennsylvania wondering what the hell just happened to us. How does a spacey little skater dude shut down our Phillies and manly Roy Halladay?Classic
Watching that Uribe RBI single again. I think Burrell might have finally crossed the plate right about now. That throw from Victorino wasn’t all that far up the line. Ruiz snags it, stops by to tell Derryl Cousins he knows the name of a good optometrist, argues, gets tossed, and still has time to tag out Burrell.
“Bonehead” 1, Unca_Charlie Manuel 0
ROFL!
Cousins behind the plate was an utter abomination, for both sides. I don’t want to see that tool calling balls/strikes again. Does Charlie Manuel speak English?…
Goddamn was Cousins brutal behind the dish. He even added some salt to his own wound when he prematurely punched out Rollins when it was only strike two. Pathetic and embarrassing, not the best 1-2 combo in the world.
Oh
My
Gentlemen (question mark)?
I think we have ourselves a baseball team
Looking ahead to tomorrow…the only Philly with any success vs Dirrrty is Victorino. Sanchee OWNS both Rollins and Werth. Only thing to watch for as usual will be his walks. The Phils batters avg. 1 W for every 6 ABs vs Sanchez. Throw strikes!
Dan Iassogna will be behind the dish tomorrow night. He has a pretty liberal strike zone. 39/78 in walks/gm 18/78 strikeouts/gm and 67/78 in runs/gm. Lots of called strikes should be beneficial to Dirrrty.
Damn, we could go up 2-0 tomorrow. That sounds fanfuckingtastic just thinking bout it.
Look at this article from Philly. No respect, none. I hope I see more of these after the next few games.
http://tinyurl.com/29pc4c9
I love it. Go Giants….
Woke up to this one on the radio. Cody Ross spelled backwards = ssor ydoc
Looks like Sorry Doc to me. Don’t be sorry Cody, Doc had that shit coming.
I’m still riding the high off of last night’s win. Can say it enough–that was just one fantastic baseball game. It just had everything. The play on the field, the excitement from the crowd, the drama, oh the drama. And finally, the outcome. For if it not for the outcome that would have gone from the best baseball game I’ve ever witnessed to the goddamn worst in a nanosecond. I honestly can’t image how guys like Wilson can remain so calm and composed in those pressure-packed situations while I sit here and watch, and slowly go to pieces.
One humble request for tonight: please, NO Whitey, and NO more torture.
Besides watching their ace get slapped around for 4 earned, Wilson had to demoralize Philly fans. 4 outs with 4 Ks, including Rollins after falling behind and Victorino to end it…..after Gomez stifled the big lefties Utley and Howard. Sit down and STFU.
Cody Ross to Doc Halladay,I’m your Huckleberry!