Lightning in a Bottle
I hate to bring even the slightest flavor of negativity into this *Vast Winter of Bask*, but if you believe that we caught “lightning in a bottle” last year, and you also subscribe to the theory that lightning is hard to catch (at least in a bottle) then shouldn’t we all be a wee bit concerned that Sabean is basically putting the exact same team together from 2010? Huff, Burrell, now Fontenot…I mean come on, we are all sitting here in unison nodding our heads up and down in gleeful approval with World Series drool dripping down our chins and we’re really not stopping to think about “what if”. What if last year was just a random year the way it was for the White Sox in ’05 or the Cardinals in ’06. Does anyone remember the ‘Sox even PLAYING in ’05? How about their opponent, the Houston Astros?
I guess my point is, I hope Sabean has an open ear at the Winter Meetings coming up this week. The point is to always try to get better, not stay the same. And if he tries that bottle/lightning trick again, it might not work out so swimmingly……..
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Have some more coffee, ferchrissake. He didn’t have a lot of what won it for them until midyear and later. Why the fuck would he dump Lopez, Ramirez, Burrell, Ross, Fontenot… these guys were IMPROVEMENTS, capiche? And the “lightning in a bottle” analogy is not appropriate-it would apply if he shit canned Huff and signed Pena for 3 million…
Honestly Flav, I could not care less what this team looks like, we are world champions baby!!!
I am not at peace for just this off-season, I am at peace for life. I don’t care if we ever win again. I am not griping about Sabean the Angel and whatever over the hill vet he brings in or BrilliantHead for whenever he fails to put a runner on and let’s the go ahead score from second ever ever ever ever again.
I say give each of them 10 year deals now!
Actually, I was that way for the most part before we became WS champions . . . Just the way I live my life. However, the Giants winning it all reminded me of the importance of enjoying the moment in all aspects of my life. Besides, you can’t control anything (people, places, or things) except two things – your attitude and relationship with God (or whatever is greater than you).
I would have been happy if we had the exact same team as we ended the season with….I don’t expect we catch lightning in a bottle again nor do I expect we will repeat.
If this does not work, I am just as happy going into 2012 with an outfield of Belt-Ford-Torres and infield of Panda-Crawford-Bond-Huff….
We won the World Series . . . In short, any expectation is a preconceived/premeditated resentment waiting to happen, consequently more reason to stay in the moment . . . or “Vast Winter Of Bask.”
If I were a worrier, it would be the pitching I’d be concerned with. As others have noted, the starters were injury free. And the 5 here are the 5 they’ve got, there is not a MLB ready starting pitcher in the system. A couple injuries there and they have real trouble..
A season ending injury to Posey or Huff wouldn’t do wonders for the chances either.
I’ve no problem with the same cast. A full yr of Posey, Burrell, Ross, Sanchez, Fontenot, DeRosa, Lopez and Ramirez should be a good thing. Tejada should also be an upgrade over Renteria and Pablo should benefit from the experience of last yr.
I posted this on the Splash. This is freaking December, 74 days till SP. The Giants don’t know how good or bad Pablo and De Rosa are going to be. We won’t know till SP. give the doomer talk a rest, enjoy what we alll waited 52 years for!! I wore my WS hat to work today. Sabean did his work through out the 2010 year, he will do that again. We could do the what if’s from here till spring training. What if Tejada has some sort of a freaky carreer year. What if Pablo comes back to his 2009 stats, What if De Rosa shows that it has been just injuries the last two years and he has a carreer year. So enough with the doomer talk.
Yeah, Singletary and the Niners have provided me with enough angst and bouts of angina to last me to the spring. I won’t worry about the Giants till then. But worry I shall. Especially when Pablo waddles in at about 22 stones. Which, coincidentally, is exactly what Bill James has him pegged for in lbs. Or was that his average?
I’m cool with things so far. The one thing I”ve already mentioned is the continuing lack of speed on the club. Torres is it. I’d like an OF guy with some speed to complement Torres, but looks like it won’t happen. The changes some are looking for are already internal — De Rosa and a rejuvenated Panda. May happen, may not. If they do, that’s not bad. I’m with Oracle, too, on his take on the pitching. Two injury free years in a row with the starters would be probably a reach for most squads, yet we’ve basically already had that, and Wilson, too. Three in a row seems to be asking the gods for too much. I’ll ask anyway…
Sure, I didn’t think the Bat and Font were coming back, but its not like they are blocking better guys on the farm or anything. Would you prefer Burriss, Bowker, and Bocock?
Miggy for Uribe? They are saving $$$ there. And they certainly ain’t going after Carl Crawford or anything like that, so . . .
Enjoy. Bask. Whatever. The guys they are getting are one year deals, so, they’ll shit-can them as necessary if better options present themselves . . .
As for non-tendering Velez, whatever. The guy is not going to suddenly raise his baseball IQ by 50 points. He is not even close to an everyday player, and probably never will be. Maybe somebody will take him in, but fuckinA, he’s 28, not 20. At his age, he should have developed those raw skills far more than he has. Fontenot is just another utility insurance guy piece for Bonehead to play his puzzle with. Whatever. He’ll back up Franchez, maybe some at third. If he were a RH batter, he probably doesn’t get a contract. Schulman said he might do some SS, I can’t see it — we saw that once or twice already, he doesn’t have the arm for it. I think his signing basically says Burriss is not expected to make the squad…
Of all the starters, Timmy is the biggest concern, if concern is even warranted.
Bummie and Cain are the prototypical big stong farm kids who look and act like they can throw 250 innings a year. Zito (miss some starts, please?)? He doesn’t miss starts, but he doesn’t win enough either. Sanchez has a fluid delivery that doesn’t seem to stress his body that much.
Tim? He of the violent delivery? For all the talk around his pitching style, he hasn’t missed many starts. I can only remember maybe 2 missed turns in his 3+ years. He figured out that he has to stay on top of the conditioning last year after stalling in August, so he’s aware of that now.
They don;t HAVE to get bit by injuries. Conditioning is key . . .
Why is Timmy always the biggest concern when it comes to health? Just because he’s smaller? The motion is designed to prevent stress on the arm and shoulder…He’ll probably outlast them all.
Hence, “if the concern is even warranted” . . .
Really, Snarkk? You’re going to keep calling Bochy “Bonehead”?
I’ll weave it in and out. Like I said before, it’s a term of endearment. Gotta keep him honest for those days next season when he does something like pinch run Whiteside for Posey in a tie game with the Rox. It WILL happen…
One thing Sabes can do is get another catcher. Yeah, he’s young, but I don’t want to see Posey for more than 135-140 games with the mask on. I’d like to see him at first about every 7th or 8th game. That means El Presidente has to go, his swiss cheese swing is just not on. They need a guy who puts on the gear that can at least make contact with the damn ball…
Crap, I didn’t realize Velez was 28 years old, so yeah dump the guy, even though Torres isn’t exactly a rookie and look what he did. But normally at 28 if you have not figured it out you never will.
I’m not worried about Posey catching everyday— hell, he got STRONGER in the PS and that was after catching 45 of the last 46 games. I would like to see someone other than Whiteside backing him up but I’m not bent on it– there are a lot of Whitesides out there and if they aren’t ever going to play it really doesn’t matter much who is backing up Posey…..
Panda . . .
Non-tendered ex-Giants or SF farmhands: Velez; Paulino; Lewis; Frandsen and Threets. Actually, Ronnie Paulino, who was with the Giants for about a full day, would be a fairly significant upgrade over Whiteside. Seems i recall he even won a game or two for Florida with his bat. If there are no hard feelings, why not?
“By no means are we going to be stagnant,” Sabean said Thursday.
Oops: Left out Jeremy Accardo, non-tendered by Toronto. Most on this list were signed by SF scouts during the Magowan years and while Sabean was still attempting to build a team around Bonds.
Yeah, Kevin, Torres had the chops defensively. it has always been about his offense.
Velez? Well, he couldn’t be more inconsistent no matter where he is or what he’s doing . . .
He does rock the shades, though . . .
I would jump on Paulino for backup catcher. Figuratively, that is…
BF, Posey struggled down the stretch run. He was 7 for 50 of his last ABs of the reg season, or something like that. He did well in the PS because I think he got some rest during the long off periods. Plus, I want his legs to stay fresh the next coupla years, he’s eventually, I hope, going to play another position. His bat is too important over the next decade to grind him down behind the dish…
3-5 Years and Posey will be fielding another position
Accardo was the next Mariano Fucking Rivera, remember? The world ended when he went to Toronto…
There are several catchers who would be an upgrade on Whitey, a couple of them live across the street here…
I’m not sold on Fontenot (if Whitey is gone he could become NO FonteNOt). My guess is he is more insurance for DeRosa being an infield back-up than SS. Whatever, Sabes has proved me wrong many times, so I’ll wait and see it unfold.
It seems we have too many OFers signed so I guess Nate (out of options) or Rowand will be what is shopped around this winter. Ishi (out of options) right now is our left handed bat off the bench, so I imagine he stays even playing one position, unless we get a left handed bat to fill multiple roles.
Injury to any pitcher is always a concern, right now Bum is the one I’d be the most concerned about. I’m sure the Giants will be careful with him, after all the innings he pitched last year.
It would be nice to see Ishikawa get a shot. If he tears it up in ST can he force his way into the LU? With Huff and Burrell both coming back probably not.
If Ishikawa isn’t getting any run and Belt is on the way why not take a look at Cust? Left handed stick, Nice pop and OBP.
Any news on Ross? I see that he’s been tendered but seems pretty quiet on that front.
the problem with Cust, where do you play him. He’s horrendous at every possible position they could play him….
Sabes wouldn’t touch Cust with a ten foot Adirondack…
Yeah dude is horrible with the leather but if Ishikawa is getting 1-2 innings a week then he’s pretty much just filing the PH role and his glove is negated. Bochy can handle the details.
I would rather see Ishikawa stay. It just seems more and more that the org has settled their thinking on him and don’t see him as an every day player.
Seems like Travis could start somewhere. A bad team. Lotsa guys get their shot that way. They wouldn’t get much for him so they may think he’s more valuable in his 2010 role than he’d fetch in trade. If somehing happened and they had to start him, there wouldn’t be that big a drop off, factoring in his defense..
RIP Ron Santo. Never saw him much since he was mostly a Cub, but he had the stats to be a HOFer at the third sack. Bit of a buffoon in the booth and on the mike, not my cup o’ tea there, but by all reports a helluva guy. Sad day for baseball and particularly the Cubbies’ fans…
Giant Head’s 7:26 nailed it for me. I’m at peace for life. Tack on a few more years to Zito’s contract, bring back Edgar for 2 more years, raise the beer prices at Red’s—whatever……
nothing could wipe the smile off my face these days.
Satisfied? fuck that. It was so exhilarating, I want to go through it all over again. And they still have some scores to settle. Angels, A’s and Yankees. Anyone of them will do.
Good to see Torrealba won’t be in the NL west.
See the other page if you want medical news.
wow, I’m surprised big flavor flav is getting down on the giants having almost their entire world series team returning…..oh and um, FUCK SF GATE AND THEIR TROLLS.
Thank you.
-David
Keith Olbermann, a political commentator, who also knows baseball (he use to be a sports analyst/announcer), said on his show, Countdown, (paraphrasing here)
“Ron Santo was one of the 10 best 3rd baseman of all time and the Hall of Fame didn’t induct him into their ranks . . . they should be ashamed.” He included them on his “Worst Person” (institution) list tonight.
Absolutely agree with Keith.
Tough loss for Univ. of Arizona. Two missed extra points. And they lost to Dennis Erickson! Say what you want about Erickson, he’s still coaching. He didn’t quit the profession like Mariucci.
Jim Mora, Jr. quit coaching, too, didn’t he?
On MLB network, Sandy Alderson is being brutally honest talking about his new team, the Mets. Yikes. He’s not promising a quick fix.
Chris Haft suggests the Giants will carry 12 pitchers.The first 11 are easy,Lincecum,Cain, JSanchez,Bumgarner,Zito,Wilson,Ramirez,Casilla,Lopez,Affeldt,and Romo.The 12th spot is likely going to be Dan Runzler.”We have Runzler on the cusp of doing great things”.Sabean said.We love to have the depth,but I can’t say we want to start the season with Runzler in the Minor Leagues.That’s what you have to juggle.”
So who are the lucky 13 postion players? Posey,F Sanchez,Tejada,Huff,Sandoval,DeRosa,Torres,and Ross could be the starting 8 most days.Just signed Font,and Burrell make 10.Whitey and Rowand round out a dozen.So number 13 comes down to Scheirholtz or Ishi.With Belt waiting in the wings.My guess Nate stays and Ishi is gone.Things can shake out differently,but I’m almost certain Ishi won’t be on the roster for the Giants.They simply don’t need a backup 1B when they have Huff,Posey,Panda,Belt and perhaps even DeRosa to man 1B.
Interesting facts: In last 13 years over 60% of the NL teams have made it to the WS – only 3 repeats; Phils,Cards, and our SF Giants. Every team from NL west has made it cept for the eff’n dodgers -yes! So if we were to repeat this upcoming season I’d be more surprised then I was when the jints won it all this year. The fact we can enjoy watching our “heros” almost intact for another season is a huge bonus. If we make playoffs this year I’ll be estatic….. my only want this year is to kick the dodgers ass.
I will also be ecstatic. I look at this year as a victory lap sans Uribe, who I will miss
flav
haven’t read the comments on this post, but…I dont agree. not the same team as all these guys didn’t play even 1/2 a season and after the rotation and bullpen had their issues and resettled; I think his is already a stronger team. and to think that we went and won the world series w/o him doing much of any is pretty remarkable!! and I think a couple of our minor league guys will be contributors this year. I like the gmens depth and talent!!
peace flav,
rd