Beating the Rockies Fairly Handily
The Rockies aren’t very good. When I watch them hit on the road it’s just a revolving door of underwhelming hitter after underwhelming hitter. And they’ve got the exact same record this year on the road as they do at home so I think they are missing a piece or two, intangible or otherwise……
I’ve made no attempt to hide my support for Burriss. He’s gets shit for his defense but he’s playing out of position every single game he starts. I think if he got some consistent time at 3rd or SS he could field adequately enough to provide good value to the team–I just love him near the top of our order. Obviously the Panda is coming back soon and Crawford has SS until he gives it up but line ups have a way of working themselves out. I think Burriss could still be a big piece of the puzzle for us this year…….
How long does the Eli Whiteside Death March go on for? Sabean has got to be on the phones, right? I still think Cervelli would be a great pick up. Give the Yankees one of our lower level left handed prospects (Hinshaw and something else?) and they’d probably do it. He doesn’t give you any power but he can hit better than Whiteside if given consistent at bats. We just can’t keep running this stiff out there………
The Brandon Crawford Story is really getting interesting. When they showed a replay of his mom catching a foul ball, something I’ve failed to do in probably 200+ attended Giants games, I decided that this guy has got *it* and could vie with Voggy for “Feel Good Story of the Year”…….
Not sure if we get this game in today. As I type this I’m looking out the window at a grey December morning. It’s Haiku weather…….
The Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings
(Berra’s Bombers inches ever closer to the unthinkable: 13th place)…….
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
The bunt hit was a beauty…now all the 3b have to move in, and you’ve got room on the left side to hit the outside pitch either up the middle or in the 5 and a half hole, as Kruk calls it. Just read where the SS is cheating you, and hit it where he ain’t.
Base stealing is a work in progress I guess…first time up sanchez took two strikes waiting for him to go and he never did. second time he got picked off. Third time up sanchez says fuck it and swings at first pitch. I’d just give him the green light and urge him to be more aggressive,
His D isn’t very good, anywhere that I’ve seen, and SS is probably worst position for him. 2B and the OF might be his best spots. If he can keep the OB up, yeah, he can start a lot of shit. Otherwise, he’s a glorified velez.
I have to give Boch props for moving Franchez to third in the order…did not think that would work…sets up nicely for Reyes-Torres-Franchez…
Last sentence, what I meant is if Burriss offense returns to earth and he doesn’t hit well, there are too many liabilities. If he is .240 speed guy with no pop and defensive shortcomings instead of what he is hitting now (.333), SF has too many offensive issues to keep both he and Ford around.
Prez….the pitchers have his back. SF has a significant investment in bucks in those guys, and they seem comfortable with him behind the plate. Bat him 8th and forget about it…an XBH seems a lot to ask. But yeah, sabes i’m sure realizes what (little) he has going at this position.
How long does the Eli Whiteside Death March go on for?
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Funny
Remember too, the inning he got picked off was also when the rest of the team figured out the kid for the rox too. They had 5 hits in 6 guys up btw he and whitey … if B doesn’t get himself picked off, maybe SF scores a bunch earlly, turns it into a laugher and makes Tracy go deep into his pen.
Matt Cain am the man
I don’t see Sabean doing anything now to upgrade at catcher. After Posey went down, the price on anything even marginally better went up. Don’t see NY or any contender trading their backups, unless you really sweeten the deal. Maybe someone will become avail at the deadline, such as a high salaried dump. But I think they still win the division with Eli.
Burriss has surprised me. I never thought he would hit. If he does stick, they probably option his good buddy Ford.
Great blog yesterday and a great win to boot! Last week wringing our collective hands about who what when where or how and then the rooks show some sparkle. I love this team. they are home and in first and panda should be back and a field manager that has a group of balls to juggle, just the way he likes it. Crawford is indeed in magic land now. WTG Gigantes!
And yesterday’s blog? don’t we all just sit around waiting the news of the new inclusions in the Oxford and ask, just like Pawlie, “what is up with that word?”
Or, “how did bwheezy get out of that jam?”
together we are Giant.
And then there is the fantasy league where orbofwisdom is the feel good story of the season. Lucky 13 and like Apollo 13 – going to the moon.
this morning, I’m all things Orb-o my man, and it feels SO GOOD!!!!!!!!
Burriss could end up being the solution for the catcher dilemma. Him or Ford. Both have become intriguing trade prospects. Some team in need for speed wile possessing a decent backup and a good prospect in the pipeline might be eager to pull the trigger on such a deal. Of course, we must not overlook our our prospect in Hector Sanchez, whom Twin feels is soon due to make the jump from San Jose to Richmond. Question there is whether he could make the long leap this season.
Haiku weather, good one, Craig… hopefully just now without the haikus… Burriss and Crawford are still question marks, of course, but damn, it’s nice to see some potential there. I actually will be somewhat surprised if Crawford loses the starting SS position for this year. Then Pablo comes back… Fontenot maybe doesn’t even come back. And Tejada? Yeah, Burris might be a “.240 speed guy with no pop and defensive shortcomings”, but that’s better than Tejada has been. Miguel’s been making contact, maybe he’ll still contribute.. but watching Ford do his thing, which I hope he can do again soon, having Burriss’s additional speed would be even better. Two really big ‘ifs’ right now, but fun to watch.
Does Bochy dare reinsert Tejada in at 3B today after Burriss’ three hit night?
I dare you, Bochy. I triple dog dare you.
He did. CF Torres, 2B Burriss, RF Nate, 1B Huff, LF Ross, SS Crawford, 3B Tejada, C Stewart, LH Bum.
It might also be true that they can indeed win the division with Whiteside, but they would need more offense from the catcher’s spot in the post season. I think that’s Sabean’s next big move, and I’d guess it comes well before the trading deadline. But that might not be Sabean’s thinking, and I trust Sabean to do the right thing.
Crazy pic of Cainer up there on the POTD shelf, Flav. My first thought on seeing it was that it was a shot of the H.S. Homecoming Queen candidate who got exactly one vote. Of course, i’d not be the one to say that while facing the Horse.
On this day in 1974, the Cleveland Indians played the Texas Rangers in the infamous 10-cent beer-night game. Just one week earlier, the two teams had played in Arlington on a cheap-beer night. For some reason, the players were as rowdy as the fans — dirty hits on the basepaths, bean balls, etc. — and a brawl eventually erupted on the field. Tempers were still hot on June 4 when the teams met again. Average attendance at Cleveland that year was 8,000. More than 25,000 showed up for the suds. The crowd’s aggression toward the Rangers players escalated inning by inning, as the dimes poured into the Cleveland coffers. Hot dogs and beer rained down on the visiting players. OF course, everyone knows that in the end both the Rangers and the Indians ended up protecting each other on the field against the vast, drunken mob. An oft forgotten detail, however: The riot really got going in the bottom of the ninth when Rangers players wielding bats stormed out of the dugout and rushed to protect one of their outfielders from a fan who was stealing his hat. Leading that armed charge was the Rangers manager, a feisty little guy from the West Berkeley flats, one Billy Martin.
Compare ATT rates now to that day, I could have 90 beers instead of just 1. If I brought a buddy, I could have 89…
outstanding post on extra baggs by carl steward. i thought he did a very nice job making the case for burriss. it’s exciting to see the club get younger and faster. i don’t see dumping whiteside. his average sucks but he’s had a couple of big hits over the last couple of years. and those are the hits you need in the post-season.
Well, Bochy took me up on my triple dog dare. He put Tejada back at 3B (at Fruckie’s expense).
Looks like somebody’s tongue is stuck to the pole…
CF Torres, 2B Burriss, RF Nate, 1B Huff, LF Ross, SS Crawford, 3B Tejada, C Stewart, LH Bum.
Wow, if that lineup generates runs, there are going to be a lot of Rockie fans heading to the ledges.
That lineup will put the fear of God in the pitcher, for sure.
Bumgarner, that is…
I think it is pretty cool. Unless Tejada is out of his slump and Stewart is someone other than his numbers indicate, basically the Giants 7-9 hitters are almost automatic outs. If the Giants beat the Rockies today, Rockies fans will be asking “We can’t beat a team playing with 21 outs?”
oops, bad math 18 outs.
So I still want to know how Burriss looked at 3rd. I listened to the game on the radio, so I would like to know if he looked. The radio guys weren’t sure what to make of the play he made on that hop in the 9th, seemed like they were questioning how he played it, but were glad he made the play. Steward on extra baggs blog glowed about the play.
What did you guys think? I would like to know, since Burriss’ handling of 3rd seems to me to be the deciding factor for how patient Bochy is going to be with Tejada’s hitting woes. If Burriss can back up Sandoval, I just don’t see Tejada getting much playing time at all later in the season.
Bochy’s very happy w/ Burriss. Per his conference last night, Burriss was “fine” at 3B last night. Calls him his “super-sub” that he’s comfortable with handling 3B, 1B, SS, OF.
He only got one chance- a fairly tough grounder in the ninth. Held my breath but handled it fine. I still think Fontenot or Tejada will be released. Despite his defensive deficiencies, he’s simply more valuable than the other two. And if you heard Bochy’s press conference, it sure didn’t sound like Burriss was in trouble.
He caugh a foul pop as well . . .
The LU is hardly much different from what scored 29 against St. Louis. How could it be? Give it a rest.
agreed–they basically just subbed one shitty catcher in for another. Otherwise, pretty much the same…..
actually if they keep BUrriss they might as well just let Font go. He plays all the same positions that Font does, maybe even one or two more. And he gives you something Font doesn’t: speed. Font makes nothing, I could easily see them dfa’d him after he gets off the DL—
I still wish they would keep Font over Tejada. Font can still hit homers, and I don’t think Tejada can, and Font gets on base at least as well or better than Tejada.
I don’t dislike Tejada, but hope is that Burriss’ ability to back up 3rd makes the Giants able to make a decision based on offensive merit, rather than Tejada’s ability to back Sandoval up at 3rd.
Tejada’s check is 6X heavier than Font’s. To the Giants, that means a lot in weighing roster moves…
Still failing to see why Tejada fist-pumps and hotdogs enthusiastically when he does even the simplest of things, like walking to 1B.
I heard an interview about a month ago on KNBR with a guy who has known Tejada since he was a kid in the DR, and has followed his career. Tejada is an emotional player. When he’s hitting well, he pumps himself up, he feels like a contributor, and his fielding gets better. When he’s not hitting, he gets down on himself, presses, and his defense suffers. The current situation where his O and D suck seem to fit that pattern, and does not bode well…
NOAA says rain will start tapering off shortly after noon-o’clock. Should be no worries for the game.
NOAA? WTF is that? The weather report I’m seeing looks like rain all afternoon in The City. We’re catching Kung Fu Panda 2…….
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — they’re like the CIA of weather. But that’s not important right now.
The old-timer sailors I know rely on NOAA, so I figure they’re pretty good. Otherwise, these sailors wouldn’t be old-timers.
NOAA is a pretty good fed agency, with an important mission. One of the few that hasn’t been totally politicized. Palin would probably want to gut it, but she’d be OK with it after you tell her it built the ark…
NOAA is the only place to go for weather. All other sites and all TV guys basically recycle the info from the NOAA. TV guys depend on the NOAAThey have all the info you need. I work in the mountains, and I have to know the weather. NOAA is the shit.
Go here: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/sto/
Click on the place you want a forecast for, click and look at the forecast. If you want to know what is going on with the forecast, go down the page and click on the “forecast discussion.” It takes a little while to figure out the lingo, but basically you read the real time forecast discussions from the on-duty meteorologists.
http://www.windguru.cz/int/index.php?sc=63
By far the best synthesis of worldwide reports. The “Marina Green” report for the Bay Area is always right — rain, clouds, waves and wind. And it’s easy to read.
The pride of Danville in the 3 hole will be interesting.
With a bunch of players coming off the DL soon, I think the Font/Tejada/Burriss/Burrell/Zito/Ford/Belt roster decisions of who leaves/goes may be decided by somebody going on the DL, rather than DFA. Between Ford and Burriss, itz Burriss for his versatility, and he still has the speed. Tejada has contributed virtually nothing all year, Burrell is close behind, but I doubt either gets DFA’d. I think they like Font, he’s a gamer, adds good chemistry to the club. He might stay on the DL with a relapse. Belt goes down, they weren’t playing him anyway B4 the wrist, he needs to get everyday ABs. They need to stop jacking him around, leave him in Fresno until September…
The Zito decision is toughest, because he’s the 6th best starter and the 8th best reliever. If there’s no injury, I’d suppose Mota goes….
If Belt is sent down I would think Fontenot stays. He gives more versatility than Tejada and a LH stick off the bench.
mrmrbill, I agree on the styling from Tejada. It would make more sense if dude was doing anything but otherwise it’s just annoying.
Yeah, with Casilla back, Mota becomes expendable. Esp after the walks and the granny . . .
When Zito comes back will they use him to lighten the load on Bumgarner and the starters in general? Maybe a 6 man rotation for a couple fo turns?
Tejada is busting his ass, not “styling”..
You see Buster’s statement? Stupid. Every time someone opens his mouth, the Giants look worse. Talk to the dipshit and issue a joint statement and move on.
I just read it. Who’s leading PR and writing this garbage for the Giants? They’re overpaid. Buster’s been away from the team, so he “hasn’t been aware” of other messages Cousins left for him? What, Baer doesn’t have Buster’s cell number? And it “isn’t necessary to have a conversation with him [Cousins] at this point”. Sounds like John Edwards talking about his ex-mistress. They’ll catch crap for this, too…
He got HBP the other night and did the “double fist pump” as he reached 1B.
“Styling” or “busting his ass,” you make the call? I guess you already did. Unbelievable.
That’s the one I was talking about — forgot it was a HBP. Now for style, maybe if he caught between the seams with his teeth, then maybe…
*You’re* unbelievable. This has been deemed acceptable, so: STFU. A 24/7 doomer, you’re worse than any Spash troll or doomoron.
I’d rather have Mota than Zito. Zito will be an immediate downer when he comes back, if he gets onto the field. In no way does he deserve to come back and start. Vogelsong should stay until / unless he gets hammered in 4 or 5 starts, and I doubt he’ll get hammered that way. The karma that Zito brings to the field is negative. There’s just no two ways about it. They don’t need that, don’t need him. His injury stint has been a joke. With the slight foot sprain excuse, they’ve had him basically in storage for 6 weeks doing an extended spring training stint to try to figure out how to get his fastball speed to an MLB level. If they have not succeeded, then he will be worse than useless, and they might as well just put him on the 60 day DL and activate him in September, but don’t use him…
Hey, he can still shag balls. So he’s got that going for him. Which is nice.
“Gunga galunga…gunga- gunga lagunga.”
Tell ’em that after he drives his next ball into a ten-thousand foot crevice, right at the base of this glacier.
“I haven’t even been aware of any other messages he’s left for me”
No PR dept. would write that. The “he’s” gives it away. Fucking Fla. State education. Apparently, the Giants can’t force either Sabean or Posey to stick to a script. Not that big a deal, though.
He’s trying to pump himself up, the writers who know him know this. You’re both FOS on this.
There is now exactly zero sympathy for Posey outside of SF. “Too bad, but” is the gist of it now.
As well there should be NO Whitey sympathy. Would you feel sorry for the Rox if Tulo got busted up at 2B on a DP attempt? Of course not. I’d allow crying in baseball before I’d allow sympathy. Nobody cares.
I would feel for any player who was injured. Any human being would.
I see styling you see bustin his ass but none of us see production.
Well put. Now the rest of us gentlemen can go rest our sphincters.
Call it whatever you fucking want, he’s hustling. Everyone knows his production isn’t there.
The thing that’s irksome about Tejada is, he gets very excited for very little production.
Posey doesn’t want to talk to Cousins. So?
EVERYONE needs to STFU about it, and let it fade to the background.
and the pride of Danville leads off with a double, bet he has been practicing that hit
Making the next statement on behalf of the Giants will be veteran ball dude Leonard Herzstein…
Posey’s statement was worse than none at all.
my best reliever embarrassing himself playing the As for gawds sake.
Looks like you won’t have to worry about him for awhile.
streamers: kostaz003 no-go. One here, but it’s not K&K: http://www.justin.tv/furbmeister2011#/w/1293160176
Hey, Flav. Later today in the 6th at Hollywood…Ms Sp Wt; #2, Kisses for Kate 15-1 on the ML. Been working steady for her debut and hails from a barn that’s been known to have them ready at first asking. M. Garcia up to ride. No Gomez, he’s on the 3 horse.
Box it with the 4 for a No Calif exacta.
Every possible angle on the Posey injury has been examined throughout the baseball world. MLB had a chance to really re-examine these collisions at the plate. But I doubt anything changes.
Nice hit for Tejada. I guess if I am going to rag on the guy for not being able to hit the ball hard, I ought to give him credit when he shortens up and gets it done.
Jesus H. Christ. If Stewart is our only alternative to NO Whitey, then we are in trouble. Quick sand!
are you guys being forced to watch the fox feed?
Yes siree, Bob (Ed!) We over here on the left side of the pond are no better then you blokes on the right.
How’s Princess Kate being received? I like that girl.
Her sister has been all the gossip news. she got a bum lift.
Kate seems to be handling the royal treatment OK.
When the current Queen steps aside I wonder if they will skip Chuck and go straight to William? If he has finished Military Duty flying helicopters.
Why would anyone give a rat’s ass what he does when he actually gets on?
2on2outn2innings
Duane must be on holiday; hadn’t heard Dave until a few days ago. With Jon and Mike you got a good team announcing.
the Fox guys just said that Stewart has suited up with 5 teams in his 29 ML games. 3 with SF
Huff bailed out the rook there. Nice tag. NOT! He missed ’em. But will take the gratuity.
Yeah, the way I saw the replay, he missed the tag by at least 6″. We’ll take it. The umps have a proclivity to making a play complete when a player (Huff) makes some extra or unique effort. Bad form to call the runner safe when a cool DP generates more applause, especially when you have no clue whether the tag was made or not. Just point your finger to the glove and look like you saw the whole thing…
Yikes- that Rockies baserunner almost took one in the head from Crawford. The runner’s gotta get down.
it almost looked like his throw went wide to huff BECAUSE he wanted to throw close to the runner!
I got the fox feed with KNBR going. What? is that the third string announcers on Fox?
they pointed out that tejada’s at bat showed the difference of then and now. Then Miguel would have hit those fastballs for extra bases. Now? foul or single.
that is the most empty seats I have seen this season. Did the rain scare ’em off or is there a sale on at the wine bar?
Just the sight of Chris Rose makes me long for Amy G…
I can picture Amy G. talking to Tom Arnold on the “Best Damn Sports Show Period.” So tell us, Tom, is it true that your sexual relations with Roseanne led to people bringing their own sacks to the grocery store? There had to be a bag shortage after you two got done.”
Panda update: Because of the threat of rain at San Jose, Pablo won’t play tonight. He’ll go tomorrow at AAA Fresno, 1st game of DH.
Shit. Crawford needs to know thew runner and situation; eat that ball.
Very nice grab by Burriss, btw. 2B seems to be his defensive calling.
This is becoming a (bad) habit for Gomez. Better check his pharmacy. Unacceptable.
Uh, Torres caught napping. That doesn’t help…
The Fox announcers are atrocious. Torres gets picked off, so one says “that took the air right out of the crowd”, just as the crowd starts into chanting “Let’s go Giants!”…
How bout that clown! Stay hot.
102-67: Pitch count in Bumgarner’s favor. Eighth and ninth should feature Rox BP. Cody is more than lukewarm. Crawford gets his first demerit in the field and like several others, has not solved Jhoulys.
If El Presidente starts generating more passed balls, he’ll start to lose his lustre, meager that it is. What happens at catcher if he got hurt in extras, since they already pulled Stewart? I have no idea who emergency catcher is — Burriss?…
Mark Grace really nailed that one, huh? Runner advances to third, so Affeldt will be less likely to use the big curve. And then he throws, what, four in a row?
That goes down as a routine 6-3 in book. But there was nothing routine about that play from Crawford. Nice charge and throw. Kid’s a keeper. Pen’s gotta keep this thing close…
Dammit. Kid hit the ball real hard for the final out. I hate Houston. He’s a goddamn clone of the Eck. Check out his delivery — same shit.
Bum is the new Cain. No run support whatever.
This lineup was pathetic today, as advertised…
belt to the dl with hairline fracture in wrist.
Looks like Bochy called you first. That’s OK, I was on the other line with John Sadler who told me Twirling Candy is still upright and the blinkers he took off will arrive in Chuckles’ barn in no time…
Twirling Candy wins the Californian and pays… 2.80 2.20 2.10
I think I’ll take those numbers for our bullpen ERA…
Well this is NO Whitey good…Bruce Bochy just announced Belt’s going to the DL with a fractured wrist, Connor Gillaspie will be called up. And the hits just keep on coming…
Bummer for Belt. Hope it is a minor one, assume it is since they missed it the first time on xrays. Post game radio show is pissing me off. They’re going on and on and on about how Bum made a mistake not properly pitching around Tulo, that Bum got a curve up that Tulo raked to shoo in the 2nd and winning run. But, that was the ONLY earned run he allowed. You give up one earnie, you should win the freekin game. Talk more about the real reason SF lost — they couldn’t score, AGAIN. Bum has had less than 1.8 rpg support so far….
That’s why I tip my Seattle Slew ball cap even more times than not when it comes to our lack of offense…It’s a shame our starters have to pitch under the guise that they’ll receive 2 or 3 runs that game. That’s pressure. I don’t care who ya are. Knowing it’s always gonna be nip and tuck has to wear on a guy. Our starting 5 are top notch, I wouldn’t trade ’em for another. BUT, they’re only human. Score the poor chaps some runs…
Great. Now Johnny Bench is chiming in on the Posey play.
Johnny’s full of crap on his opinion on what happened. He’s saying Posey was blocking the plate, but he was not. He is right though, about Posey being more vulnerable to injury by being on his knees…
it sucks for Belt but he was really in an unnecessary holding pattern since he got called up. Ross and Schierholtz have the corner OF spots locked up and at best all he was going to do was spell Huff at first for a few days. Seems like a complete waste of an option to bring him up here to do that, if you ask me…..
and I agree with Twin: dumbfuck response from Posey. The Giants need to step up their media game if they’re going to deal with the National media. Doing it for a few weeks during the PS is one thing but when you are the WS champs you are getting followed and watched for the entire 162. They can’t have these off the cuff dumbass responses that, frankly, have been bush league for both Sabean and Buster–get a media team to work with them 24/7…….
I still remember twin’s pic and caption:
Stingley got a worse deal.
The same fucking guys who scored 29 in St. Louis.. Gillaspie? You’d have to think that does spell the end for Miggy-you don’t call up another 3rd baseman with Panda due in a week unless Tejada is done. Otherwise it would be Travis, Pill, Neal…they don’t need Conor. Unless….
and what about the showtime deal, shouldn’t that have taught them some media savvy?
123 years since ‘Casey at the Bat’ was published in the Examiner. we really are a great baseball town
Chuckles- Crawford had lots of time, the play wasn’t to eat it. He rushed it. Also, a good first baseman makes that scoop 90 percent of the time, the throw wasn’t that bad. Of course, Huff made a great play earlier….
Torres was totally asleep he had zero clue that Tulip was breaking behind him..
…Pretty obvious that MLB will do nothing. Byrnes did nail that-even the NFL has moved to protect their players. There will one day be a truly catastrophic injury- even with this one- if Cousins’ head is in a slightly different psition, he never walks again..
can we just let it go? I’m truly tired of the subject. If something actually, you know, happens, that might be one thing.
Why don’t you offer something else then? Got anything?
It’s still being talked about because the Giants just released their 14th statement- take you beef to them.
there’s lots of stuff to talk about and i’ve been actually pretty active lately talking about them. and i don’t think any of them are about posey being drilled. though i may have said something when it first happened. i’m talking about us, the flap. let the media do what they do. there’s no way to stop them. but unless something actually happens, and i don’t mean someone else commenting, let it go. you’re as bad as espn was with favre.