Why Aren’t More Super Fast Guys Good at Baseball?
I had a buddy call me yesterday wanting to know if I thought Burriss or Ford were worth picking up off his waiver wire in a fantasy baseball. He’s desperate for sb’s and isn’t much of a Giants fan so he was wondering if I thought they’d be able to pick up a few random sb’s in the coming weeks (he called me before Ford got sent down). Anyway, I told him I didn’t think either can get on base enough to ever get the chance, though Burriss might get his pinch run vulture sb opportunities now and again. At least before he gets sent down to AAA, which will probably happen soon.
It got me to wondering, why aren’t more of these super-fast guys good at baseball. I mean, they obviously are good enough to make it to the major leagues, but their speed doesn’t seem to ever translate into something dominant or even playable at this level. Why is that?
My theory is that speed is like a drug for scouts. They see it, they love it, they take it in even though they know it’s probably not good for them in the end. And the Fords and Burriss’ can definitely use their speed to motor through the lower levels. But I think it masks certain major gaps they have in their overall game–they can’t hit for power (or at all), they have no intuition or baseball knowledge, they can’t bunt or take a walk. Why can’t they at least learn how to bunt or take a walk? Basically, the game doesn’t come easy to them; except when they get to kick that gift into high gear. The problem is, they don’t get the opportunity to go full speed that often. Put another way, once they get to first base they turn into Rickey Henderson. It’s the “getting on first base part” that’s the problem….
It makes me think that when you are talking *best player of all time* you almost have to include Rickey in the discussion. Ok, maybe not *Best Ever*. But 297 bombs coupled with 1,406 stolen bases, man, that’s a mind blowing exacta…..
XOOT actually won the vote for “Post of this Voting Period” but I gave it to Bill2 because I didn’t think Xoot would want his call out of Murph on the main page for such a long period of time. Of course, if he doesn’t mind I will slap it up there, it would just need a few edit corrections….
and just for the hell of it…
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Will the Giants be the first reigning World Series Champions without a starter in the field for the All-Star game? Will Brian Wilson will be the only Giant on the All-Star roster?
Someone research that:)
When Henderson retired he held some pretty major records; walks, runs, steals and probably some others I can’t think of right now. He was a real student of the game which allowed him to keep swiping bags when his speed diminished but he also had a ton of athletic talent that the Ford and Burriss guys are just missing. Henderson was not the best ever but I would put him in the top five. Ruth, Mays, Aron, Henderson,Bonds. Long live The Ricky.
Bash game ended the speed era of guys like Vince coleman, moreno, ron leflore when guys would steal 90 bases a year. Plus, young guys that can run well and hit for power are going to dump the speed game as they get older and become middle order hitters, like bonds did. too much injury risk for all the $$$ these guys get paid by the club, also. Nowadays middle IF guys like Uggla and Cano are all the rage. and the mays/aaron types, true 5 tool players, only come around so often.
Comes down to contact and bat control for faster players. If you are LH, hitting the ball on the ground to the left side or a line drive in front of someone is your best ticket on base besides a walk. At the lower levels you can get away with stuff hit to fielders of lesser ability and still get on; at mlb it’s not gonna happen. Less dink hits, too, and the improved quality of pitching means less walks, so you have to show you can hit your way on base to take advantage of your speed. And as even Ford found it, stealing bases at mlb level is about a lot more than pure speed.
Look at it this way too….a guy who has pop, even if he strikes out a lot and doesn’t have a high OB, can last in mlb. Soriano is a great example, but even a guy like Reynolds is still playing and over in Balt has 13 HRs, even tho he is hitting .217. If he was a speed guy hitting .217 with no pop, he never sees light of day.
Altho byrnes didn’t seem near as obnoxious sunday with miller, I thought it was pretty cheesy of the broadcast planners to include all the highlights of byrnes career. I mean, Miller worked with Morgan and Hershiser, guys with HOF credentials from the playing field, and if he had to sit through their highlights every broadcast he’d never be able to call the game.
One of Byrnes best known stats was his epic meltdown drought that one year with the A’s, when he went like 9 for 90.
Something else that brought about demise of the speed game was when Astroturf stadiums went out of fashion, and the Ozzie Smith’s of the world had to figure out a different way to try and get on. He was a .220 stick with the Pads whose stats suddenly rocketed upwards dramatically by pounding the ball onto the Turf in STL.
Just a note about the Splash-whatever the motive of the people who caused yesterday’s carnage- it worked. Congrats.
By merit, it’s Wilson and Vogelsong but Ryan’s win total will be a hindrance. A couple more would help..Tim and/or Matt might be selected with a couple more wins as well..Whitey is a lock, of course..
Craig: Correct my Murph/Mack post and put it up, if you like. What’s the guy gonna do, sue me? Of course, Bill’s post looks real good where it is, so don’t stand on ceremony.
I’ve been out for days now. Wtf happened on the splash?
I think they made soph the moderator
Well steroids has a lot to do with the speed players, all of a sudden you had 2nd basemen and SS popping out homers. Base stealing and bunting be came a lost art. I mean look at Torres, I think he should be able to bunt for a base hit. Bret Butler was one of my favorite Giants, the corners always had to play in, and he could hit a homer every now and then.
Yeah, Butler made infields pay attention. Though it feels he got caught stealing as much as he stole. Probably not but it feels that way. A little too much God talk, though.Made Travis sound like an agnostic
Yeah, he’s one of the only guys in all of sports-dom who blamed God for a loss.
Something along the lines of “I guess God wasn’t on our side tonight . . .”
He and Reggie White are up there in the pantheon of completely missing the point. . .
Coleman was another Busch Stadium creation. At least Ozzie was a HOF shortstop, Coleman just wasn’t a real ballplayer. Wasn’t he the one injured by the tarp in the ’87 NLCS?
Although he had a lot of dog in him, Rickey was a helluva player. It was entertaining stuff catching his act from the LF bleachers in Oakland in ’89-90, always interacting with the fans between pitches. Then he’d come up and either hit a HR or completely mess with the pitcher’s head on the bases. Unfortunately, Rickey is not well regarded by New York fans, especially Mets’ fans. But during his time with the Yanks, he provided a nice chunk of those monster RBI seasons by Mattingly.
Is Ford gonna be back any time soon? With this offense, they can’t afford not to have his speed late in these close games. That’s why I was little surprised Burriss didn’t try to steal in the 9th on Sunday, or at least go on 3-2 to Pablo. This is a team that can’t wait around for something big to happen because right now it ain’t happening.
Yeah, Coleman got hit by the rolling tarp and got a sprained knee. A low-point in groundskeeper history.
Ten cent pop today . . . I can hear the shorts beginning to cover while the train leaves the station once again. All aboard! Ha.
Disregard that last post . . . Too many windows open (including a financial blog I belong to).
Thanks for the clarification. I was puzzling over that cryptic message. It was like one of those code phrases from WWII movies. “Papa Bear is with Mama Bear at the OK Corral. I repeat- Papa Bear is with Mama Bear at the OK Corral.”
😉
I thought there was a run on RC Cola.
Ted: that was some classic Tap you laid down late last night…
Any word on acquiring a catcher? We need someone NOW–George Kottaras, George Costanza, George Mitterwald, George Sauer. Ronnie Paulino, Alex Trevino, Mike Pagliarulo, The Great Mephisto. Hector Sanchez, Hector Cruz, Hector Camacho, Hector Elilzondo, Hector, son of Priam and Hecuba. Somebody. Anybody. Grab your mitt and take the Willie Mays Expressway to Willie Mays Plaza. Genuflect as you pass the Willie Mays Statue and enter through the Willie Mays Gate. Take the Willie Mays Escalator to the clubhouse and report for duty blocking balls in front of the Willie Mays Wall.
Thanks Dawg. This post is funny but it kind of gives me the wilies
. . . Lee Trevino, Gran Torino, Gram Parsons, Alan Parsons, Alan Alda, Aldo the Apache, Apache Ant, Adam and the Ants, Alien Ant Farm . . .
“Who’d win in a wrestling match, Lemmy or God?”
“Lemmy.”
“BZZZZZT!!”
” … God? ”
“Wrong, dickhead! Lemmy *IS* God.”
..saw an interview with Lemmy once where he said he never goes to the beach cuz “the sand gets in my foreskin.” Anyone remember the “Young Ones” show on MTV in the 80’s? The episode featuring Motorhead was epic. I should try to youtube/hulu that when I get home. Any of you who have not had the good fortune of checking out the video for the Motorhead song “Killed by Death” (greatest song title of all time) should do yourself a favor and give it a go.
Actually I really should’ve voted for MrMrMrMrMrMr; meant to. My chad was hanging. It hangs no more.
On a more serious note, last year in June, I sent a private note of utmost Doomerness to Blade, virtually giving up on the season. In June! Must’ve come after a particularly ugly loss. In June! THIS YEAR, this year, our chances depend on what sleight-of-hand Mr. Sabean manages. Because we are a distinct and distant long shot with this band of non-hitting brothers.
Only thing cool about the A’s series was seeing all the masks of one of my fav actors of all time..godzilla, who more than held his own in scenes with heavyweight (in more ways than one) actors like raymond burr.
Just got a text from my son, who works at the Daly City In-n-Out Burger that someone from the Giants just came in and bought 25 Double Doubles to go “for the Giants.”
You can’t find this kind of high level insider 411 anywhere else but at The Flap….
Sounds like just enough to feed the starting rotation (insert rim shot here)
Dawg, awesome. Whereabouts in DC is this?
during one of my stretches of poverty, I worked at Serramonte on the the other side of the fwy from the Mall as a part time second job. My car, which was purchased for less than $500 and some controlled substances, went out on me one day in the weirdest way. It had a console auto shifter on the floor, and one day the shifter would not change any directions, just moved sloppily up and down. The part that moved to drive etc. was on the bottom of the car, so I had to start it in park with emergency brake on, go under the car and move the part into drive or reverse, then hop back in and release the brake to move. Try doing that one in the rain, in dress slacks and shoes…eventually I just took the bus from DC to Mtn. View.
Sullivan and Washington.
TF, is there someone I can call at SF Gate to complain to?
You really can’t be serious.
About being banned, rt.
Fresh, it won’t make a difference. I’ve sent e-mails to VK and he now just deflects them to the Canadian team. The response from them is that they can’t find issue with anything that BarryForever or Soph say and that their comments are actually confusing to them. The best way to send a message is to stay away from the Splash.
concur with swickman — the meaningful for them will be seeing a drop in usage stats, which they certainly do analyse and take more seriously than user emails about “this” or “that”.
There’s no one at sfgate that will do anything because the clown responsible for all of the recent madness already works at sfgate.
Hopefully those Double-Double burgers will spark some offense into the boys. Usually those burgers just spark stomach cramps for me.
Hey WillieD—you have any takes on the upcoming NBA draft? I’m curious to see who the Kings get at 6. I wouldn’t mind them going after Mychal Thompson’s kid that high.
Also curious to see where the controversial kid from San Diego (Jeremy Tyler) who dropped out of high school to play overseas ends up. He was huge bust overseas his first year, I think did a tad better this past year. Real talented, big kid, saw him play several times in person for San Diego High. Doesn’t handle adversity real well, had a real bad attitude on the court at times in HS.
I’m hoping he’s matured a bit and can make a team. Was scheduled to go to Louisville out of HS until he dropped out.
Will, I got a kick out of your car story. I’m sure we all have some epic piece-of-crap car stories in our past. A long time ago, one of my first cars was an 8-cylinder Dodge Dart gas-hog with a lot of power, that had one unfortunate quirk, a carburetor that didn’t work right, that I couldn’t afford to fix at that time. I had to keep a little gas can in the car to pour a little bit of gas directly into the carburetor to get the car to start. I would leave the hood up after I’d poured the gas in, I would turn on the ignition and a flame would shoot up out of the carburetor and the car would start, I would get out and put the hood down, and I was on my way. Crazy, in retrospect.
My epic car story, from the last five years actually, involves attempting to drive my 1999 Ford Contour, stick shift version, while holding onto the driver’s door which kept swinging open because all the moving parts were frozen, and ergo not moving, ergo the door would swing away wildly on any turn. I am technically carless, as we speak..
delete that extra “full stop,” [that’s for you, Edddddd]
Yeah, 60’s Darts were notorious for carb problems. My buddy’s slant 6 needed a pen shoved down the throat of the carb to keep the butterfly valve open in order to to start the car. Lost all the hair on my arm when it backfired a 3′ flame out of it.
Thanks, Swick.
NP Fresh! I did take mailorderbride’s advice and sent an e-mail to sportinggreen@sfchronicle.com outlining why I wouldn’t be stopping by the Splash any more. I’d think about ten similar e-mails would prompt them into investigating what the heck is going on at the Splash.
I was banned for no reason also.
Take it as a sign and just stay here. Why go someplace else where they aren’t talking about baseball?
I never ever read Splash comments, for probably close to a year.
At the college WS, congrats to the Cal Bears for winning today; they eliminated Texas A&M 7-3. Cal lives to play again Thurs. vs. either S. Carolina or Virginia in yet another elimination game. And, their head coach, Dave Esquer, was just named this morning as NCAA baseball Coach of the Year. Awesome season for these kids after the program was on life support. Go Bears!….
I bought a Porsche 912 for a song back in 1980, British racing green. Bad clutch cable (finally had to take it to Pacific Heights specialist that looked like a hospital inside to get it fixed), but otherwise pretty cool. Great gas mileage (4 cylinders), easy to tune up, handled beautifully. I was broke, but I was also able to do all work on it myself, and I found a Porsche-only junkyard in Emeryville where parts were plentiful. Terrific little car. Then one day I parked in front of a West Berkeley post office, and went inside to wait in line to pick up a box of books for my girlfriend. I’d been there a good ten minutes, when I heard the sound of a crash outside on San Pablo Avenue. A young guy ran into the post office and shouted, with strong emotion in his voice, “Does anyone own a green Porsche?”
I knew I shouldn’t have read your post Xoot . . . I just bought an immaculate 2000 BMW Z3 M Roadster w/35k miles on the odometer and it does 5.2 seconds in 0-60 MPH. Hopefully, reading your post wasn’t bad karma.
blade, things come, things go. Especially in West Berkeley.
concur with swickman — the meaningful thing for them will be seeing a drop in usage stats, which they certainly do analyse and take more seriously than user emails about “this” or “that”.
Good yahoo column showing base stealing/caught stealing stats for teams, catchers, and pitchers . . . Pudge looks REALLY good right now.
http://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy/blog/roto_arcade/post/Let-s-review-some-caught-stealing-stats?urn=fantasy-wp4105
The Giants ended up with an odd blog on their team website- the blog “The Veteran and the Rook.” Mark DeRosa and Brandon Belt, two guys now on the DL.
Blade– good article. Too bad Whitey didn’t make that list (the bottom of it). Am I crazy in thinking that a catcher who still has a cannon arm also can still hit? Seems to me that once the arm goes so would the hitting. They aren’t really related I guess, it just *seems* that way….
Btw- I don’t what your family situations are, but they’re all probably better than the O’Neals.
Ryan O’Neal on the Piers Morgan show last night:
O’Neal: “I’m so glad Griffin is completely out of my life now. What a relief.”
Morgan: “But he’s your own flesh-and-blood son.”
O’Neal: “I don’t know….I’m thinking about getting a DNA test.”
Ryan O’Neal said that Griffin has been arrested about 40 times. And you all might vaguely remember that Griffin was driving the boat that was in the accident in which Francis Ford Coppola’s son got killed.
Ryan was estranged from daughter Tatum for about 20 years. Ryan was not invited to her wedding to John McEnroe. The marriage that went down the toilet because of her drug problems. McEnroe ended up getting custody of the kids.
O’Neal’s son with Farrah Fawcett, Redmond O’Neal, has been in and out of trouble on drug charges.
Flav, I just checked out Pudge’s stats and three things are readily apparent: 1. Washington is being judicious in his use (only 98 ABs); 2. His BA is only .224 . . . Again, this is with 98 ABs, i.e., 5-6 more hits and his BA is .300; and, 3. He actually has “heated up” since May 25, raising his average 20 points and having a 3 hit game against St. Louis last Wednesday.
My point is that he can still hit, but he needs to be rested periodically. His value IMHO is defense, mentor to pitchers/younger players, and pitch/clutch hitting.
Anyone see the last few innings of that Rockies/Indians game last night? The Indians got ripped off on a bad call at secondbase. The Indian had clearly stole secondbase, but the ump called him out. Indians’ broadcasters got pretty ticked off at the ump. It ended the rally, and the Rockies ended up winning by one run.
Saw it Zum and agree.
Flav, I just picked up a couple of SB guys off the waiver wire for my fantasy team. You might suggest Corey Patterson or Nyjer Morgan – both guys have surprised me with their production this season. They’re also both batting second on teams with high-powered offenses (Patterson right in front of Bautista and Morgan right in front of Braun), so their chance of scoring is good if they can get on base.
Swick–actually I have Morgan on all 4 of my teams. I keep waiting for the sb’s to come. Brewer manager has made good on his promise to let his players run wild. Morgan just hasn’t gotten the message I guess but he could easily steal 40 if he put his mind to it
I guess that’s the problem with batting in front of Braun, Fielder and Hart, right? You hate to run yourself off the basepaths when those guys are coming up to bat. Still, Morgan had 34 last year (in 136 games) and 42 the year before (in 120 games). The steals will come. He’s sitting on the bench vs. lefties, so there will be ample opportunity for him to pinch run late in those games. He does get caught more than I would like, though.
Even if he doesn’t steal, his avg, obp and runs should all be contributors. Plus, he knocked a HR the other day that I wasn’t expecting. So far, I’m super happy with his contributions.
My opponent had Cuddyer the other day and that piece of crap killed me with 3 SB in one game. He’s probably not available in your buddy’s league, but if he is, your friend should snap him up immediately.
Hope there was some extra BP on the off-day. We got a reeely big shooo tonight, featuring:
CF Torres
SS Tejada
3B Pablo
1B Huff
LF Ross
RF Nate
2B Hall
C Whiteside
Bumgarner
Unrelated to baseball – I know Ted knows movies inside and out, but you all should remember that creepy actor who played one of the guards in the Green Mile . . . the one that wanted to kill the mouse. I’ve never rooted for a mouse, much less a rat ever, except in this movie.
Anywho, he doesn’t just play a creep in movies, i.e., this dude (Doug Hutchison), who is 51, just married a 16 year old girl (which also makes him a pervert in my book). I thought that was illegal, but apparently not in Las Vegas . . .
Creeeeepy. I just looked and as long as you’re not in a position of authority (teacher, professor, head coach, etc.) it’s legal to marry someone at 16 in Nevada. But Age of Consent laws are all over the map even in California. Yes, age of consent is 18 here in California but the extent it’s prosecuted depends on wheth the child is under 16 or if the adult is under 18, etc. etc. Nothing’s simple.
Nonetheless, creeeeepy
A lot of the Splash shit has been taken care of. For those who do post there, do not repond to BarryForever under whatever user name he’s using. I’ll try to take care of it, he’s now banned again, and I’ve tried to have some of the unfairly deleted comments restored.Oh,and….
Crabby’s Back!
It wasn’t Vlae who helped you, was it? He has not been particularly helpful for me in the past couple of months….
I helped me ( and helped some others). I’m leaving it at that.
Tejada back in the 2-hole AND back at SS? They ought to fucking ban Bochy from the Splash.
And WTF are the new acquisitions that were forthcoming? This is the SOS warmed over again. Just what did Sabean do on his off day?
I got word his was spotted over at the Olympic Club. He’s not gonna find a catcher on the Lake Course.
I told you.
I take that back. Sabean’s been hard at work. Giants just signed free-agent C Max Ramirez to a minor league deal and assigned him to Triple-A Fresno.
I think that move was made on the 3rd hole…
Did you know that Bumgarner has made 15 starts at AT&T and has just ONE (1-7) victory? Yep. Pretty shrewd move on my part to p/u Bum in my other two FL just in time for tonight’s start. Move over Sabean…
Grab a nice brew! Life is too short.
I must say, TF, yer ‘failed coup’ comment to OSF had me laughing . . .
And yeah, some of my posts magically reappeared.
Thanks . . .
I thought you wouldn’t be caught dead on the Splash. My how a guy changes his mind what’s left of it. BLEEP!
For the Reyes watchers out there — don’t get yer hopes up: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/06/21/sports/s154746D41.DTL
Crawford makes that play NO problem. Tejada is a goddamn joke at SS…
There was the second out IF Crawford was starting. Fuck this.
Can’t blame that 0-2 cripple served up by Bum on Tejada. This is getting ugly. That fucker Sabean better be on the goddamn phone.
This is goddamn embarrassing.
What. The. Fuck.
Jesus H. This is awful.
For all the spectators that missed batting practice before the game.
Reminds me of a game I went to yr’s ago at the stick. 9-0 Mets before I even took my freaking seat.
Good thing there’s no DH.
I want a whole new fucking team by tomorrow.
Ooops. At least I won’t be up late tonight. Watching baseball, that is.
Too bad this isn’t golf. A snowman on the first isn’t a good way to start.
There goes that ’10 quality starts in a row’ deal . . .
IS SOMEONE DRIVING A TRUCK ON THE UPPER DECK?!? …. (sorry, just needed a distraction from this simulated version of baseball)
Holy shit. I haven’t even turned on the game yet, I just checked Yahoo sports and I am looking at a line for BUmgarner that is almost impossible to believe. Were all those hits hard?
Ropes.
No, not all of them. But Bumgarner was throwing some highly hittable stuff up there.
I missed the first 2 batters.
2 of the first 3 were grounders that a SS with good range would’ve had. The rest were smoked, including a few on 2-strike counts.
3 of Tejada’s 5 career hits vs Pavano came back in ’05. Matters not.
Give all starters the rest of the night off; g’night, fellas. Put in Team B. From Richmond.
Now see, this is why you have Zito on the team—to trot him out during games like this. He’s absolutely languishing in the minors right now. This is what his calling is!
I didn’t see any of this but I’m assuming Bumgarner handled all of this with a calm poise and controlled attitude….
This would be a perfect situation to throw Zito out there the rest of the way.
I totally agree this would be perfect for Zito: no pressure, get some work in, and PRESTO, a sweet W after we chip away (yeah, like I’m really saying that). DON TAUSSIG, where are you now?
Zito’s busy shitting bricks, thinking “oh my god, they’re gonna need me back in the starting rotation. I’m gonna have to work for my money again. oh my god.”
Loo– you have nailed it: THE REST OF THE WAY. Can you imagine the runs the Twins would score tonight if Zito was just left out there to finish the game? They might score 40 tonight. And would there really be a more tolerable time to watch a Zito implosion? I’m all about embracing disaster, I’d watch that with a demented grin on my face and be almost cheering for the Twins (I do have Capps, NIshikawa and Mauer on most of my teams)….
Let’s look on the bright side: no BBs from Bum.
Keeping with the positives; 22 of his 25 pitches were thrown for strikes.
So let’s do a little math to distract us from this disaster. By my count, his ERA for the night was 216.00. His Whip was 2.43. But there is always a flip side and I’m nothing if not born positive. He didn’t walk a batter and he tallied one K. For you fantasy guys, think about what Bum did to his owners tonight. All that carnage. One K to cry yourself to sleep with. ugh….Who had him in our league?
See, there’s the FL fallacy. “He tallied one K.” No. He struck out an AL pitcher.
1 K of an AL pitcher means nothing to the overall stats. Fantasy baseball is the perfect mix of stats and the game. You should understand it before you comment on it……
I have two tickets to the Twins game on Thursday. If you are interested in going, please let me know either here or via message at the lowly SFGate. It’s free :> The seats are behind home plate in view box.
I don’t read the Splash anymore so I will assume others here know who you are. Don’t show up here with bullshit or false offers or this will be your last day of posting here…..
It’s a genuine offer, but don’t worry. It’s not necessary to threaten me off the bat. I won’t be posting here again.
Anna, you can post here or not, that’s your call. It just seemed like a strange offer to people who you don’t know.
BF: Mailorderwife’s a regular on the splash. Great Giants fan, refugee from the recent warfare there. I believe I can vouch for her.
I appreciate you vouching for her, and that’s good enough for me. I just found the offer odd and I like to try to get in front of the bullshit before it hits the fan here. Shit, if she wants to give tickets away I’ll raffle them off tomorrow. Her call…..
Thanks Xoot! Got your message :> And yes, Mr. Flav. Feel free to raffle them off. These are my season tickets so it’s all legit. Thanks!
I will. Thanks for your offer, it’s a dim light on the horizon of a horrific game. I’m sorry if you took my original post as rude. I’m responsible for managing this place and I don’t let it get out of control like that idiotic Chronicle blog….
Hold on, hold on, you fucking doomers. Let’s look at the numbers. Has Bumgarner EVER given up 8 runs in the first third of the first inning of a game and lost? The facts don’t lie. Never happens. (Why do I suddenly hear a medley of Desolation Row and Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues in my head (“and your gravity fails and negativity don’t pull you through”)?
love those songs; hey, who the heck knows? maybe Twins get sloppy and we win! If we do, we are magical.
don’t say I never warned you
John Shea tweeted that Jayson Stark is saying MBum first pitcher in the live-ball era to give up 9 hits before recording 2 outs.
Except MBum never recorded two outs.
I stated it wrong: “without getting at least 2 outs,” it said (what does AT LEAST mean? that’s metaphysically puzzling). Oh. And Madison Bumgarner is trending worldwide on Twitter.
It’s even worse than that: we’re taking the enormous Schwanzstucker up the wazoo.
Stl could use some bullpen help (as they cost me another W tonight). I wonder what it would take to get Theriot from them? Not sure how his D stacks up but could it be worse than Tejada and he can well, you know, hit.
Ha, that’s fucking amazing. And I MISSED it! I’m still struggling to comprehend how Bumgarner’s fantasy owners world wide are dealing with the carnage on their pitching stat line…..
That would include me. I don’t even wanna know what kind of ugly number he put up for me, probably something approaching minus-temperatures in Antarctica.
I picked up Bum just this morning in both my ESPN leagues. I think it’s funnier than shit. The Kiss of Death has nothing on me…
just remember: Don Taussig. His ghost or karma must be atoned for. In 1958 [this was in the Mays bio, making me feel comforted I’ve not been in a psychotic fugue all these years). Giants at Seals Stadium, losing 11-1 to Pirates. We score 9 runs in the 9th. Guess who makes the last out? (Hey LOOO, he’s a NYC boy, I believe.)
I’d like to see a nice 20-14 game. Let the rope out and just hit the shit out of the ball. Who knows, It might jump start our offense.
Unfortunately, what usually happens in games like this is that everyone goes into auto-pilot mode and mails in the rest of the game. It’ll probably end 10-2 or something like that…..
Burrell hits a 2 run HR in the bottom of the 9th . . .
When was the last time the Giants used a position player to pitch? And who is our most likely candidate for that job tonight?
this came up recently and I can’t remember whom they had warming up for this eventuality…maybe Masanori Murakami…but seriously, one of the announcers mentioned it (13-inning game??) and I can’t recall who.
Pawlie: Are you not fascinated by the career of Nick Testa? Very Moonlight Graham….
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/testani01.shtml
Loooo, all I can gather is that he played one game, as catcher, made an error, and no ABs? Was he your uncle from the Bronx?
It’s just inexplicable to me how that would be his only appearance. It was April. It’s not like he was a late season call up. And he’s still alive. It was a bizarre and memorable game, too:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN195804230.shtml