The Padres Suck Worse than I Thought….
Ok, ok, we lost yesterday’s game to them—one dumb inning that was bungled by the home plate umpire. Our bullpen sure stepped up after Bumgarner departed, didn’t they? 5 scoreless. Of course, the Padres can’t hit. At all. Here is the current batting averages of their *top 7* hitters (using the word “top” just feels wrong):
.176
.154
.143
.154
.214
.222
.188
Cam Maybin is the big lumbar at .222……
Obviously, batting averages are subject to wild swings at this point in the season, but Murderer’s Row they are not…..
Timmy should toy with them……
Now, if we still can’t hit, continue to play shitty defense and make mental mistakes we can probably expect to lose another one in the 2-1 range.
The Flap Fantasy Baseball League Standings
| 1. | NO Whitey | 121 | 1.5 | 12 | 7 | |
| 2. | Flavor | 93.5 | 12 | 6 | 7 | |
| 3. | Clowns R Us | 93 | 8.5 | 7 | 6 | |
| 4. | Bladerunners | 91 | 10 | 10 | 8 | |
| 5. | PawliesPandas | 89 | -10.5 | 2 | 7 | |
| 6. | Unca’s Army | 88.5 | -5.5 | 8 | 7 | |
| 7. | Giant Head | 82 | 8 | 5 | 10 | |
| 8. | IrishGiants | 75 | 0 | 4 | 4 | |
| 9. | Tizzle | 66.5 | 0 | 11 | 5 | |
| 10. | NoTalent | 60 | -1 | 9 | 8 | |
| 11. | Ferretball | 58.5 | -9 | 14 | 3 | |
| 12. | CrazyDiamonds | 55.5 | -7 | 1 | – | |
| 13. | Berra’s Bombers | 44.5 | -1.5 | 13 | 7 | |
| 14. | Dirt Bags | 32 | -5.5 | 3 | 6 |
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Told you we would be lucky witha split….
No worries. I’m pretending it’s just a couple of bad series in early August, when a slump doesn’t seem to hurt quite as much as ‘stumbling out of the gate’. Obviously statistically it’s all the same at the end of the year, but it doesn’t feel quite so bad in this little land of make-pretend.
GH— lucky to get a split implies that we might have trouble hangin’ with the Padres. The Padres did NOTHING to win the game yesterday. They scored in one inning and that was because of a bullshit strike zone and Bum’s idiotic throw. We beat ourselves yesterday, the Pads didn’t beat us….
A loss is a loss is a loss. The one clean game they played, they won.
It’s these crazy start times that’s screwing these guys up.
3:35 again?
the start times don’t screw up the other team, too? classic, chuckles.
Christ, I guess I need to use the sarcasm font.
or try sarcasm
LQTM
yes but..Kruk on post game said he thought Pads made themselves better up the middle defensively with Hudson Bartlett and Maybin, and are basically the same team anyway; good pitching, D, and speed on the bases. Their goal is get to the 7th with the lead, and they have genuine shut down pen…the set up guys might be better than Bell.
Everyone has said last couple Sf needed the “one big bat” in the middle of the order, and they wound up winning it all without one last year. Pads had the one big guy, and almost made it, so now they are trying it without. And I’m sure feel pretty good right now after outdueling STL and SF.
West coast ball, I think Zum said. How is Boston’s bash LU working out so far?
And as far Belt’s hitting, I hope his teammates pick it up too. I’m not making excuses for the kid, but the seasoned vets in the LU haven’t generated much either except for the blowout Saturday and a few solo HRs.
Pads won’t be within a dozen games of the lead. Likely no one will. If I have to talk you fucks off the ledge all year again, I’m charging you this time.
I’ll give that a POTD . . .
At least it’s nominally baseball related.
I think the Giants start only proves that it’s tough to beat a team fielding more than nine guys. The Giants, so far have been the ones helping the other team win. Since I don’t see this as a trend, I’m not that worried. When these guys start getting fired up the slow start will be forgotten, well, until someone has to look it up next year.
Judge made the right decision in the Bonds case, barring the garbled “secret” hail-mary tape. She’s considering tossing out a bunch of the other flimsy evidence too, before handing the thing over to the jury. I dislike Lance Williams, one of those Chron reporters who profited mightily from the illegally leaked GF transcripts, but his story today is pretty clear, and wry:
“After prosecutor Matthew Parrella said the government had no more witnesses, lead defense lawyer Allen Ruby told Judge Susan Illston, ‘If Mr. Bonds testifies, it will be tomorrow.’ He was smiling when he said it.”
Defense rests. No witnesses called. Why bother. They’re up 3-0 in the ninth. Time to bring in Wilson and close this thing.
SF is starting to hit, they’re just not stringing them together.
Having broke camp with Belt I would think they’re going to give him some time but it is hard to see how he doesn’t get caught up in the numbers game. Besides he can’t be a legite Giants prospect without experiencing his fair share of Operation Dick Around.
On Belt, they will have a tough decision when Ross is back. Fairly simple: they’ll either sit Burrell or option Belt, Huff will go to LF or back to first. Yeah, others aren’t hitting either, but they’re vets have hit here. The argument that a demotion would destroy his confidence doesn’t wash. What would destroy his confidence is continuing to hit a buck twenty…let’s hope he makes it moot by picking it up..
He’s probably got about two weeks, plenty of time.
It’s always possible that the extra time in AAA last year gave Buster exactly what he needed to rip into the big leagues the way he did. Belt should not waste time on the bench, that’s for certain.
Buster was held back in Fresno due to his defense, not his offense.
It would be the opposite with Belt if it happens.
Buster was sent to Fresno for more than one reason, chuckles. He got his ABs in there, didn’t he? Of course, he did. Then he came up and launched into a hitting streak. Maybe, must maybe, he wouldn’t have been so ready at the mlb plate without the AAA innings first. So spending time in Fresno isn’t necessarily a bad thing for a good rookie hitter. See how easy it is to put 2 and 2 together?
Xoot, the point is, they held back Posey to work on his defense.
What part of that don’t you get?
They knew he was a hitter when they signed him, Xoot. They immediately went to work on his catching skills.
He was very rough defensively during his callup in 09.
Yeah, but his hitting was great during his call up in 2009, right? .118 .118 .118 .235 -38. Oops! (Interesting string of numbers there for the BA/OPS/SLG, ain’t it, chuckles?) Feel free to repost this in your saracasm font.
sorry, that should’ve been “BA/OBP/SLG” I sure don’t want to foster any additional confusion.
Buster played in 7 games (17 ABs) in 2009. He was there mainly just to hang around.
Ask 1,000 baseball folks, including Bruce Bochy and anyone in the Giants org, and they’ll all tell you the same thing. Buster was sent down to start the 2010 season to work on his defense, his pitch calling, and his handling of pitchers.
“Posey, who was drafted by the Giants No. 5 overall in 2008 out of Florida State, had a .463 slugging percentage, .357 on-base percentage and a batting average of .321 in spring training. But it’s no secret that the Giants, despite lauding Posey’s improvement almost daily during spring training, want to see better pitch-calling from the Lee County native, who will stay on with the team until Sunday, but will then report to Fresno.”
We all remember that stuff, chuckles. You’re missing the point. Maybe, just maybe, while he was tuning up his skill calling pitches for AAA pitchers against AAA hitters (and, of course, waiting for the Giants to figure out how to budge Benji out of the way), Buster was getting ABs. Lots of them. Perhaps that prep helped launch him into the 2010 hitting streak we all enjoyed cheering on. Perhaps he would not have been so impressive at the mlb level right out of ST. In any event, as my original reply post explained, the point is to keep guys like Posey and Belt off the bench and in the batter’s box — whether in SF or Fresno. (I’m very pleased, by the way, to see that attempted some research.)
Try not to forget your words, Xootie. Bad form.
Thank you for the clarification, Cap’t. Obvious. Their situations are only similar in that regard. Neither would be called up to sit. They did it with Buster in 09 just to give him a look-see.
The point remains true. Buster was sent to Fresno to work on his catching.
He had a ton of AAA ABs in spring training. He didn’t need much more to prove himself that he could handle it. Put it this way, skippy. If Posey was as good a catcher as Belt is defensively at 1st base, they wouldn’t have signed Bengie. Buster would have gotten the job from the get-go. They nknew he was the real deal as far as hitting goes. They KNEW going in to the season that Buster wasn’t ready to to be a major league catcher. Ergo, Fresno time.
He needed work at mastering the art of catching.
Answer this. Why did the Giants sign Bengie last year?
After Buster’s poor showing at the plate in 2009, the Giants had to hedge, so they signed Benji before ST. 😉 (Look it up, Corporal Chuckles. Look it up.)
I have work to do, chuckles. Gotta go. But, again, I am glad to see that you attempted to do some research. Now, feel free to carry on your argument with the straw man you’ve jumbled up. You clearly need the exercise. (Also, you might ask BF if you can erase that post of yours that put all your weight on Buster’s alleged poor showing in the squat in 2009. It looks kinda funny in the same sub-thread with your attempt to discount his 2009 showing because he only got into 7 games.) And, as always, feel free to re-post any of this in your saracasm font.
Bullshit, Xootie. You really think they signed Bengie because of Buster’s 17 ABs in the 2009 call-up? Good one, skippy. Have some more kool-aide.
They signed Bengie to catch until Buster was ready. Bengie was going to mentor the kid, but Bengie wasn’t on board with that. Hence Buster’s move to 1st until the team could trade him.
Feel free to revise history, sport.
Gee, I check back chuckles and I find you’re still throwing pebbles at your straw man. You see that smiley face with the winking eye next to that post of mine? That means you have to THINK about it, Corporal Chuck. At least for a second or two. It’s not as foolproof as saracasm font, but damn, man, it should be chuck proof.
Sorry, i don’t respond to gay-ass smiley faces.
You sow confusion for a living. Carry on. . .
It still doesn’t undo your bullshit. Posey was sent down to hone his catching skills. That’s it, skippy.
Talk of straw men and and all the other blather is merely babble to deflect from the simple fact that Buster was sent down to work on his catching. Yes, he hit in AAA. He hit in ST as well. They weren’t WORRIED about his hitting. They were worried about his catching.
He’s not doing much but the club as a whole is sucking at the dish. They’re missing that breakout hit that it seems like Uribe was providing the last couple of years. For a guy hitting .118 Belt is having decent ABs, leads the club in walks and is tied for the RBI lead. That said, I don’t think riding the Shame Train to Fresno will hurt his confidence
He’s hitting the ball, it’s just not dropping in for hits. He’s not striking out a ton (3) and he’s taking walks (4). bochy knows all of this and isn’t going to bounce a guy down to AAA because the batted balls aren’t falling in for a couple of weeks. Remember, Bochy is the guy who fought to keep him on the OD roster, he’s not going to give up easily unless the dude is flailing away with a bunch of strike outs every game…..
I agree. Bochy loves the kid and seems to have really pushed to keep him. How about being a fly on the wall for the conversation Bochy and Sabean had regarding whether or not to keep Belt?
I think Ross is really the missing piece though. Locking down RF and all.
Somehow SF is worse than my FL team at the dish. I don’t know how that is even possible.
strikeouts are the key–if he’s hitting .118 but isn’t striking out a lot that’s not an issue–the hits will fall when they fall. If he’s not walking and k’ing all the time, that would show that he’s over matched and give them reason to bounce him down….
To do List
Plane ticket – check,
Place to stay – check,
a lot of cash – check
Opening day ticket – check and double check
Let everyone know you’re coming to town, so they can leave and say fuck you Bozo – yeah, ahh check.
OK, I’m ready.
you just here for Opening Day?
And to see some friends. I might go to the Saturday night game but I have a 6Am flight back Sunday, so it might just be one and done.
Wilson’s back and Casilla hits the 15. Also, Ishi cleared waivers and will head to Fresno.
I’m headed to the pharmacy.
Per KNBR: Wilson up, Casilla onto DL. Ishi has cleared waivers, back to Fresno. Somewhat surprised nobody else wanted Ishi’s wares….
Well, I missed the report on Dennis headed to the pharmacy…
Like I said, he has a couple weeks. Good at bats, or what I call ( in honor of you guys) “Garkettes”, only go so far. He’ll have to hit.
When they put the kid on the opening day starting nine you can bet that they planned on giving him a lot more rope than 17 freakin’ ABs. Kid gets a couple liners to drop today and suddenly his average goes up by 100 points and we’re back to talking about Belt being a regular for the next decade.
They will, he has a couple weeks.
He starts through the month at least. As it is he’s tied with Buster and Huff on OBP and he’s got a better slugging pct than either of them.
And unless Burrell has 15 HRs by the time Ross gets back, he’s going to the bench. So far he’s been Belt without the speed, defense, walks or potential.
Surprised Ishi cleared too. I thought there would at least be interest as a LH bat off the bench.
None of our prospects destroyed AAA pitching as much as Ishikawa.171 AB, 19 doubles, 16 HR, .310 BA, .737 Slugging, 1.!07 OPS. Just something to keep in mind. It’s not easy to distinguish between a MLB hitter and a AAAA hitter.
See B if you’re interested in a medical update.
Ishi clearing waivers has to mean he’s obviously not as valued by the rest of MLB, as he is by a lot of Giants fans. But, it does confirm he was valued properly by Giants management, based on the fact he was the guy DFA’d for Belt. If Belt somehow doesn’t prove soon he should continue to be up, that would be awkward — Ishi and Belt at Fresno. Ishi would have to go to the OF, I would think, or they’d just have to trade him for a bag of balls to clear the spot for Belt. And, that doesn’t even include Pill in the conversation, he’s down there at 1B, too. This is a situation that shows again why in the next CBA they need to include trading for draft picks as part of the overall picture…
I’m a little surprised to see Ishi clear waivers. He’s obviously got some valuable skills. I guess teams are pretty stocked at 1B in their systems right now….
I’m glad Travis cleared , he’s a decent player and I’m glad he is still in our organization and will at least be an expanded roster call up late summer
DH is used in AAA, is it not? Using this this to denigrate Ishikawa is typical. He’s a GG caliber defender and career .290 pinch hitter..it could be our gain that he was passed on. Pill is a non-issue, he’s now just a roster filler.
I imagine that Ishi may become part of a package trade, although I’m not sure what we would trade him for. I always wanted that guy to do well and I think he will. I imagine other teams didn’t want to drop someone off their 25 so soon after getting them set.
Good point. You claim a guy off waivers and keep him, and he has to go on the 25, I think.
Man, as bad as the Giants looked on defense Sunday, the Cubs are managing to look even worse today. Gave up an inside the park home run when the CF missed a dive and the LF bobbled on the backup. Then Soriano dropped a fly ball and two bad throws later the batter was at third.
It’s a lot more fun to watch when it isn’t your team.
UF . . . Yeah, I’m not watching the Cubs and Dbacks play, but I can sense from my Fantasy League Stattracker that the Cubs and Dempster (grrrr . . . he is on my FL) are flailing away out there. Someone please explain again why they are called the “loveable losers?”
We had some discussion here and on the splash early in ST about the possible effects of the cold, wet, windy weather they suffered for a while in AZ. Could be wreaking some havoc. Of course, the Red Sox were in Florida, however.
This can’t be good news for Ishi. He has to want to go to a big club and play, somewhere, somehow. It’s uncool having played and won a WS to being thrown onto waivers. Waivers is waivers, and he wasn’t claimed. That’s a fact. If any other team assessed his value as higher than someone they’ve got, he’d been claimed and a deal made. Later, as injuries develop and players prove less than expected across MLB, the Giants may get some interest in him from other clubs…
You feel better now?
I never felt bad. Ishi is a decent, not special player. He now has a WS ring, that’s something. Your continued fascination with him is obviously not shared by Giants management. He was expendable; stuff happens…
CF Torres
2B Sanchez
RF Huff
C Posey
3B Sandoval
LF Burrell
1B Belt
SS Tejada
P Lincecum
I’ll have to bite my lip, and I know Stauffer is a RHP, but the way the Gamer has hit so far, I’d have given him a start today…
Give “Rohand” a start? I shoulda picked up something for you at the pharmacy. You must be sick.
One WS championship in the bag is a drug you can’t get at Walgreen’s…
Off day tomorrow. Makes some sense to finish this trip with the same basic LU they’ve used so far. (Moving Pablo in and out, and Tejada up one day were the only variations in the first 5 games, that I recall. Pretty stable.) If the bats don’t come alive, I wonder if Friday afternoon could bring a different look.
yesterday’s game had the elusive hit with runners in Scoring position. These will come to pass also. Xoot, I don’t see a change since it is going to be opening day at ATT and the banner being raised and all.
Here’s a link to a good description of the waivers process via BaseballReference. Though after reading it, I still don’t know the answer to whether after a DFA and waiver claim, the claiming team has to put the claimed player on its 25. I don’t think so, I think it’s just to the 40, but I can’t pinpoint it in this stuff. Maybe somebody else can…
http://tinyurl.com/3lr4ech
not a bad POTD, Snarkk:
“One WS championship in the bag is a drug you can’t get at Walgreen’s…”
Here it says they have to place the player on the team’s active roster and pay a waiver fee.
If a team claims a player off waivers and has a viable claim as described above, his current team (the “waiving team”) may choose one of the following options:
* arrange a trade with the claiming team for that player within two business days of the claim; or
* rescind the request and keep the player on its major league roster, effectively canceling the waiver; or
* do nothing and allow the claiming team to assume the player’s existing contract, pay the waiving team a waiver fee, and place the player on its active major league roster.
If a player is claimed and the waiving team exercises its rescission option, the waiving team may not use the option again for that player in that season. If no team claims a player off waivers after three business days, the player has cleared waivers and may be assigned to a minor league team, traded (to any team), or released outright.
I’m not sure if the new team can place the player in the minors if a trade was made, but otherwise it looks kinda like the Rule 5.
That’s right. On the active roster, which means the 25.
I’ve never paid attention to this as it never happened before in San Francisco but how do the players who are no longer on the team like Rent or were sent down to the minors like Ishi participate in the WS ring ceremony? If at all? Or do they just get the rings mailed to them? Or do they get that little green or orange form left on their door and have to come out and pick them up at the post office?
Don’t they sometimes give them out when the player’s new team visits?
I would think with Ishi, they’d invite him to the ceremony since now he’s still in the Giants organization. I think he could miss a coupla ABs in Fresno for that…
That’s possible. I really don’t know. That would mean Rent would have to wait till June to get his
Huffster with extras . . .
Pithcing around Posey . . .
Buster!!! That’s more like it.
Uh, maybe not . . .
2 run dinger for Buster . . .
Guess that AAA work paid off last year . . .
Wait a minute. I thought you said…never mind
lol . . .
kostaz has the game today: http://www.justin.tv/kostaz003
We hit for the cycle and GIDP that inning. Giants baseball: we fill up the stat sheet.
Torrez tripled??? I missed that.
Fruckie tripled w 1-out to get it started.
Well, that’s one way to keep the defnse out of it . . .
Very cool of the Giants to set up a fund for Brian Stow
Who’s messing around here. When I hit refresh I get a message Hello World 😀
Now it’s gone ./ . .
Timmeh has no-no stuff today.
Yeah, just saw tht. And the page is screwey . .
Nice pick by Belt.
It’s gone now.
Someone hijacking you, Flav?
It’s just your bullshit clogging the works, chuck.
Spooky.
Can’t waste any more of these opportunities.
Huff hesitated and got nailed . . .
Burrell not making a good case for himself so far. ..
7 k’s in 3 innings . . .
Maybe he gets 21 today . . .
And I’m NOT posting too fast . . .
Alright, they have improved MLB game day, now they post videos, got to watch Huff’s double and Posey’s homer!! Yahoo
That is good to here about game day. I like that site. Sounds like bats are coming alive.
the back ground is a picture of a ball park now! Looks cool.
There you go Huffster . . .
Good to see the other team fumbling the ball around . . .
Huffie giveth, Huffie fucketh up . . .
Christ, that’s 2 outs for Huff on the basepaths. Cost ’em 2 runs . . .
What sophomore slump?
Great crowd sounds. Almost sounds like the game is at Pac Bell. Hell, It’s mostly SF hats behind home plate.
Wow, 7 innings/13ks!
He’s at 105 pitches, they’re up 8-1, think you have to unfortunately take him out here…….
Can we politely agree that Timmy is on his game tonight with those 105 pitches, 3 hits, one run and 13 K’s? There will be many treats from our Rotation this season. This one is a step in the direction of his third C.Y.
again, this line up he’s facing is a fucking joke. Aside from Hundley (the dude who hit a bomb off him) every single hitter in their LU is mired in the .100’s……
Guess we can agree that Wilson is in serious need of lubrication ~ whether its arm, elbow, shoulder, hand or head. He’s clearly rusty.
Dang stix, the way this inning is going, we’re all going to be in need of some serious lubrication.
This is a joke, right? Tying run stepping up to the plate and we make another call to the pen.
Give me a reason to declare this fucking season over on April 6. I dare you.
Can’t even get 1 out!!!! WTF
Good thing Wilson is getting healthy, hate to have to guess every night who can/could get the job done. Obviously Affeldt could not get the job done tonight.
Just another example of why you NEVER bring in your closer in a non-save situation. Needs the work my ass. Nothing ever good comes from it. Never. Pitch in the minors if ya have to. Unbelievable.
Now about that Padres L.U., Flav. That 7-run lead proved to be a nice (and necessary) cushion. Both highly touted BP’s blew up tonight. It’s still early April. Main thing: We won.
If that inning impressed you, I don’t know what to say. Wilson might as well have been an AAA pitcher tonight. We played them in 2 games and they managed a rally in exactly ONE inning out of the 18. The 3rd yesterday wasn’t a Padre infused rally, Bumgarner and the ump gift wrapped that for them. So I don’t think that a team with 7 starters batting in the .100’s who mounted one inning of offense in 2 days is all that intimidating. But that’s just me…….
The Padres do suck. They’ll be fortunate to beat out AZ for 4th. It took a little longer than I hoped but I told you proles all last year that the Giants would run them down. This year will be an EZ division win.
Right now, no one is as bad as Tampa. Hitting .136. w/7 runs in 5 games.
Dennis, that was the perfect time to bring him in after the long layoff- they bring him in in a save situation, they likely lose the game. I can see I’ll have to help you all year again..
It’s not like Wheezy got completely lit up. He had the walk and that second hit was a broken bat dribbler, and even then he got two outs. I suspect Bochy had a pitch count on Wilson, otherwise he would have finished it. But I guess it wouldn’t be a Giants April if we didn’t have something to blow way the fuck out of proportion.
We’ll leave that to the Red Sox fans!