Paying Your Dues Paying Off For Some
Remember Phil Nastu? Well, most of you Flappers do. And I’m sure Nasty’s family does. Apparently Baggs does, too, as he gave The Nasty One a shout out in his blog column today. I find that fairly gynormously ironic that Phil Nastu was the poster boy for our random retro-Giant of the Week 2 Winters ago. He was THE guy who stood for the big leaguer who almost no one remembered. I cranked called his house. His brother came to the blog and invited us to meet them at a game and buy their cheap asses a beer. Remember?
And what struck me was how it all intertwined with last night’s LU. I’ve said many times that I can’t remember another position player story like Andres Torres— a guy who doesn’t have a break out year till he’s 31 and would likely have never gotten a 2nd opportunity if it weren’t for Sabean taking a flier on him. Do you ever wonder how many guys like that are toiling in the minors who, if just given a chance, could do what Torres did last year? And he got paid, too, with a salary (2.2 mil) that will help him take care of his family. For a guy who has said publicly that he didn’t have shoes for a few years as a kid, he’ll probably be able to make that dough go a long way…..
Next connected twist: Justin Christian starts in CF last night. At the same age as Torres was last year, playing the same position with a similar skill set, and carrying a similar story as Torres– the forgotten minor leaguer who stuck with his trade, finally getting a shot at the Big Leagues. Actually, there a probably a lot of “Christian’s” who get 40-50 at bats at this level. But how many of them go “Torres” on the league? Christian would be the second to do so……..
And who’s hitting a few spots away from him? Brett Pill. Mr. 27 Year Old career minor leaguer who has been passed over more times than Chuck in a Whore House. And what’s he do? Bangs a bomb, A BOMB, in his first at bat. The smile on his face as he rounded third was priceless. And his family looked like they had just won the lottery…..
Who knows, that could be Pill’s last HR he ever hits and Christian might end up telling his kids one day about a couple of random September starts he got with the Giants in the final year he ever got a shot up here. Or maybe they go “Torres” on the league and find a way to will their way onto the team next year. Who knows?
I just found it amazing that you’ve got as Baggs blog reference to Nastu (a Flap cult character), on the same day you have Christian starting in Torres’ OF spot with Pill hitting his first HR in his first at bat after 2796 at bats in the minor leagues. There is some weird karmic connection to all of that….
And it’s a good kind of karma. Christian and Pill have ridden a thousand bus rides down there. They get called up for the last 22 games (maybe 24 or so for Pill). The mlb minimum is $414,000 a year in 2011. That will score them in the $58,000 range for the rest of the season. Hey, it’s not *Torres Money* but it’s a start. And you KNOW those guys need that kind of a payday. I couldn’t be happier for them, and I hope they are the type of guys who stopped long enough to appreciate this opportunity and that they honor every single second that they’re up here. The high fiving, bear-hugging Pill family looks like they aren’t missing a moment of this September ride……..
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Maybe this is what was needed, an infusion of hunger. That’s an element that has been missing from this team this year. A couple of starving minor leaguers come up and get scrappy. Unlike the rest of the team who have been like a bunch of fat cats with full bellys laying around picking their teeth, the Giants have been playing some rather uninspired ball since the Posey injury.
As noted below, they played better ball after Posey went down. Quite a few of the thrilling walk-offs came afterwards. August is when it went south, as the many subsequent injuries finally caught up with them.
Just a rewarding experience for these guys, to be a performing part of mlb team, in the clubhouse, flying back to bay area after tonight, in a pennant race, etc.
I was two blocks away from home when Pill struck the big one…pretty cool to hear Miller call that. Only thing he was unsure was whether it stayed fair.
Surkamp looks like your typical #5 guy to me. Just like his other start, the other guys whacked a number of hard hit balls last night, but he managed to hold onto the last lead SF got him. Edlefsen impresses me as a keeper for pen depth. Full on bask game, complete with Dbax pen meltdown, thx to my HS alum Tulo.
Who can forget Natsu. The crank call, the brother posting. I remember that was some funny ass shit.
Passed over more times than Chuck in a whore house.
Flav, that lead was gold baby. Gold.
haha, yes that one just sort of wrote itself, right?
And WillieD: I think the reason the announcers had a little trouble calling it fair or foul was due to how hard he smashed that ball. There was hardly any time to get even a few words out. That ball was not going down when it hit the wall, it was still traveling along the laser path that Pill sent it on out of the box……
I remember that. I got Nastu’s phone number for you. Too bad I don’t have access to that software anymore.
too bad indeed. Nasty would probably appreciate today’s thread…..
Chuck responds with a vigorous BLEEP YOU!
check out this quote from Shea’s article on A’s game last night at home vs. Royals:
“If Michael Taylor singles to center for his first big league hit and hardly anyone is around to see it, does it count?” It happened in the 9th, ” announced” crowd was 12K at the start, yadda yadda. Later, Shea says:
“Taylor is used to bigger crowds, having played for AAA Sac….Thursday, in Taylor’s last game for Sacramento….he played before a Raley field sellout crowd of 14,014.”
Phil Nastu’s transaction history:
November 22, 1976: Signed by the San Francisco Giants as an amateur free agent.
December 12, 1980: Traded by the San Francisco Giants with Joe Strain to the Chicago Cubs for a player to be named later, Jesus Figueroa and Jerry Martin. The Chicago Cubs sent Mike Turgeon (minors) (August 11, 1981) to the San Francisco Giants to complete the trade.
Actually they played very good ball for over two months after the Posey injury, better than before he went down..It wasn’t until August that everything caught up with them. You can check the record yourselves.I’ll do it only if my veracity is questioned.
You have to wonder how the team scored 7 just the day before without Pill and Christisn.
No need to check the records. I remember that as well. Even Miller, Kruk and Kuip kept bringing it up throughout June and July. Just a second consecutive shitty August
Nice memory for Pill. I hope he makes more.
Sabes told Baggarly on 8/30 that he thought Pill had a “base hit swing”.
Well, last night’s blast off the 2nd level of the Supply Building wall WAS a type of base hit….
4 of ’em
Pill hit a HR. That doesn’t disprove anything Sabean said about him. As I said last night, he is not considered a prospect, although he and any fan would obviously like for him to prove them and the scouting reports wrong. This was hardly a Sabean-only opinion- he’s not on any “top” list. He was removed from the 40-man last year. Obviously his numbers this year demanded they at least give him a look, and they are. Just don’t expect that he’s now the first baseman. Belt willl be heartbroken at your fickle ways…
Ahhh. Bit of basking again. Nice to catch the good vibes. Hungry is a term i’ve used more than once to describe career minor leaguer callups. Hardly original with me, just an overall good term which accurately describes the plight and the hopes of guys who have slipped through the cracks for all too long ~ in some cases. Not being a stats geek at any advanced level i’m not about to do it, but it would be interesting if someone who is into those things would do a stats and player profiling search through the minor league mountain to pick out an overlooked player all-star team of guys who just might excel if given sufficient opportunity in The Show. Though he whiffed with three bags full and two outs last night, Jesus Guzman, who had a brief career with SF, has done well for the Pads since they took a flyer on him.
Matt the Horse this afternoon vs Aaron Harang for the Dagos. Judging from his pic on Yahoo Sports, Harang is no time soon gonna win a beauty contest. He’s not quite butt pimple ugly, but doesn’t miss the mark by a whole bunch. Plucked from the Reds, of all the improbable sources, Harang has pitched pretty well for S.D. this season and has a nice W-L record. Some guys just seem to get the run support, i guess.
First one was a much needed laugher. Last night got a bit tight at the end with Casilla going all Wild Man from Borneo on us after he gave up that sizzling double. Today’s matchup could be a a bit of a nail-biter with Cain and a revivified Harang locking horns. Maybe Christian, Beltran and Pill will make the difference once again. Though he had been heating up lately, Cody Ross was a big stink 0 for 5 in the cleanup spot. Anyone wanna bet against Pablo returning to his accustomed slot?
Hoping there’s a Broomhilda siting today and that the newly humbled Snakes slither outta Denver with their tail between their Ouroburos. Do the Rox have it in em to be spoilers? They sure were that for the Giants in ’93 when they cost SF the West by not winning ONE game vs Atlanta.
I wouldn’t have a problem with Pill starting again, but I suspect it will be Huff. Christian will probably be in though, and Crawford as well. Maybe even Belt.
Flav, another superb intro. Wish I had seen Pill poppin’ that first career dinger, but work got in the way. Also didn’t realize until I read Baggs that Christian played some with the Yanks in ’08. Now I can’t wait to quiz the diehard Yanks fans at work to see if they remember this guy from the only season the Bombers missed the playoffs in the post-strike era. My guess is they won’t.
Torres got a nice raise, but his performance value in 2010 was 26.5 million. Huff’s was 23.4. The others in double figures were Posey, Urbe, and Burrell ( position players). This year only Pablo is double figures ( 17.8, so far).
I was hoping to get some votes on whether you think they can still take the West, only have two ( Ted, yea; Chuck ,nay) There’s a link on the right. Remember, they only need to pick up 3 games in the next 14 to go into AZ 3 out w/ 6 to play. This is totally doable…
Got it . . . Thanks Twin.
From Baggarly:
Bochy was planning to start Huff and Belt tomorrow, not Pill. But he’ll sleep on it.
Pill the Thrill is in..
Christian CF, Fontenot 2B, Beltran RF, Sandoval 3B, Ross LF, Pill 1B, Cabrera SS, Whiteside C, Cain P
Musta been some kinda sleep that Bochy had, to ditch both plans, H. & B.
Whorehouses are your domain, flav. When you say you are going to Reno, you really mean Sparks . . .
wink wink, nudge nudge . . .
. . . Besides, when did whores become particular (other than the amount of money)?
Flav must be talking about the men’s whorehouses he frequents . . .
It was a joke about just how impossible it is for him to score with a woman. it was a joke, one that I’ve kept going for years now. I’m sure chuck would do fine in a whore house 🙂
If you can’t get laid in a whorehouse…turn your dick in
So I am about to head over to Twin’s poll and I’m going to vote yes due to one, single fantasy that I have: Beltran stays hot and Pill and Christian, being new to the league and working with a still unwritten big league book on where to beat their swing, get hot and stay hot. Remember, even the scouting report that is on them now is off minor league pitching and most mlb pitchers aren’t going to spend too much time in the first week to 10 days worrying about where their holes are. Huff, Ross and Torres mostly stay on the bench and watch us rip off 10-12 straight wins. We sweep AZ in their yard. A most improbable celebration ensues…..
Pill and Christian have to play to stay hot. That’s a big assumption with Bochy filling out the card. Why Cabrera gets starts now is beyond ridiculous. His klanking D is a huge downside. Crawford should start every game to get the best glove out there, spelled by Cabrera once in a while. Crawford’s OPS is nearly 50 points higher than Cabrera, BTW…
Giants have only 3 players listed as on the roster of the Scorpions in the Ariz Fall League. Crawford, Panik, Brown. My reading of the rules says each of the 5 MLB teams on each of the 6 AFL squads contributes 6 players each = 30 on the roster. The other 4 teams on the Scorpions have up to 7 players. Anybody with an idea re: where’s the rest of the Giants?..
http://mlb.mlb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=l119&t=t_ros&cid=544
Maybe the roster isn’t filled out yet. You have a theory? This sounds pretty catastrophic.
They could try this today and make I-5 really interesting:
Today in Baseball History, Sep 7, 1903: “A year before the first subway line is completed, the Brooklyn Superbas, later to be known as the Dodgers, play their cross-town rivals in a two-stadium, same-day doubleheader. The first game played in Washington Park begins at 10:30 am with 9,300 fans watching the visiting Giants win the opener, 6-4, and later that afternoon in front of 23,623 patrons at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan, Brooklyn wins the second game, 3-0.”
… and, this is probably more relevant to what needs to happen now:
Today in Baseball History, Sep 7, 1916: “The Giants defeat the Dodgers 4-1 to start their major league record 26-game winning streak. The ‘Jints’ start the span two games under .500 and make up nine games in the standings, but remains in fourth place during the entire streak.”
Win 26 in a row and not pass anyone? Ouch.
Funny thing is, my son asked me yesterday what the longest winning streak was . . .
Now I know.
Yeah, that kinda puts an exclamation mark on futility. 2011 will be a walk in the park!
Huff has not been Pipped. Christian probably has a better chance of getting regular starts than Pill, he certainly has a much more complete “toolkit”.Teams really do know about the cababiities of their guys. Hell, Ransom won a game for AZ with a late HR and was released about a week later. If Pill gets freaky Bowker-like hot he’ll start a lot in the OF probably more than 1B, other than that, just don’t get all het up, most likely it will be against LHers.
He’s been Pilled, not Pipped.
Wouldn’t count on that, Chuckles.Funny how folks still get mesmerized by those PCL numbers. Take a look at the PCL batting leaders over the last few years. You won’t find many future major leaguers, very very very few.
Hey, it just sopunded good. I hold no illusions that Brett Pill is the 2nd coming of Buster Jesus.
Otherwise, he would have shown up earlier . . .
He’s closer to Scott McClain than Buster Posey.
And last year Rowand got Vungoed which is a little more onomatopoeic than Pilled and Pipped…
onomatopoeic
We could have had a poll on whether Rowand would get picked up this month. I said no. Others said yes.
In fact, the ’11 Giants have or had several players that may never play MLB again. Rowand, Tejada, Burrell, Whiteside, Stewart, and Cabrera.
I think Zito’s contract gets him at least another couple of starts next season, or this season if the Giants don’t make the playoffs.
Rowand got Burrelled more than Vungoed.
Huff’s dugout reaction to Pill’s home run mirrored my feelings about the Giants these days – casually following a meaningless pitch to a rookie and suddenly having his head jerked in the opposite direction as the ball left the yard. Something worth watching, or just the cause of a stiff neck?
Did you see how he greeted Pill in the dugout? It was amost touching, really. He cradled Plll’s head in his hands, a very genuine congrats, I thought.
Good to see us giving aawy baserunners this early . . .
Hey Flav. Got a new blog going.
ninersforever.com
How you going to get the word out to your old followers that weren’t dickheads?
I don’t know . . .
Sounds hush…..hush……shhhhhh…..
Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ummm okay, the list shortens quite a bit from yesterday: how many have hit a HR in their 1st MLB game, followed by another in their 2nd?
ssweet
Bochy says he’ll sleep two nights on the next decision..
Hey rest of the line up — just hit the EZ button.
Pill-ory those Padres.
Amazing, isn’t it? As they were saying, Cain is 26. He’s younger than Timmy. Younger than Pill. Younger than Yungo. Hard to believe.
Chuck– I’ll check it out when I get home. You gonna moderate this one?
Looks like The Piller wasn’t just satisfied with his single MLB bomb. San dawg has been at both games and is blowing up my text message box with pill celebrations
Yeah, I will . . . . . .
Hey, Pill has company … the only other Giant (SF or NY) to hit a homer in each of their first 2 MLB games: c’mon down, John Bowker! 😉
that’s what I thought
Why not take a shot at the all time record for most games with an hr in a row. Mattingly right? 7 or 8? Gotta keep playing the dude till he stops raking…
For many years, Dale Long held the record, something like 6 in a row. Being left-handed, I’ve always been fond of Dale Long because he played some 3B and C.
It’s been a while. Way overdue. For a haiku:
Cain steady as rain
Pill pulverizing the pill
Fontenot ballet
I like it…on radio listening to this one. How bout:
Fuck maybin
Guzman can fucking hit
Fuck this inning
It’s not technically correct, but I’m dealing with that fine
perfecto…..what the hell happened? Two outs, looking smooth, and boom. Let’s get one back, and add a few more.
Now I know what to send for Christmas: http://blog.chron.com/celebritybuzz/2011/06/keanu-reeves-plans-haiku-collection/
Hard to beat Zombie Haiku, which my daughter-in-law gave me for Christmas last year.
They brought Pill up last week, during a game, and he was a kid in a candy store, excited to be there, and not afraid to show his excitement.
They had no business sending Pill on that.
Yeah, I couldn’t figure out if he was slow, or the throw was so perfect, or what — but it was not fun to witness. At least no injury. A rally crusher.
It was very shallow.
Sam dawg is putting that one on a shitty at bat from Burrell— says the Pill man-crush is still in tact!
Wow. 6th out on the bases today?
Dodgers get to play a DH tomorrow before flying cross-country before playing SF.
I did expect Crawford against the RHer, especially after playing well last time out…and not running for Pill, I don’t understand that
.There ya go, I second guessed my brother, uh, Bochy.
It was too early to run for Pill.
I know the offense is struggling, but Burrell’s flyball was not nearly deep enough.
And Cabrera is gone. Fucking awful deal there in the 8th.
Gone as in benched. I hope.
Every game from here on out is the 7th game of the World Series.
Not with the bench they had left. And the seventh inning, too early? Ridiculous
Gaaah.
It’s really getting difficult to understand why Bochy keeps playing Cabrera. They ditched Hall in a nano-second, why not this chump? He hits for shit and his defense is worse than his hitting. It makes no sense at all why Crawford isn’t playing in his place……
Oh don’t you know- he was on 4 different playoff teams in the last 4 years. Can that be a total coincidence? Actually, yes.
exactly, you look at Cabrera’s numbers, especially the last few years. Then you look at how many teams never re-sign him (all of them) and you finally realize that he keeps getting traded to contenders and making the playoffs IN SPITE of his dumb ass. Reputation has a way of growing unnecessarily out of control……….
No shit. Cabrera’s defense has cost us runs lately . . .
Rebuilding the garden wall. Did not feel compelled or even impelled to come in and check out the score. Intuition again, i guess. So there goes another masterful performance by Matt the Horse where the Giants cannot beat a so-so fair to middling starter due to a combination of bad baserunning, the continued presence of Cabrera, Ross suddenly going cold again and Whitey getting another start. This is my read from the box and basic game description.
Offday tomorrow and on Thursday its Lincecum vs Kershaw. So far this season it has been a clear case of ownership. Hope the LaBumbos are really dragging after their DH and that Timmy gets back on track. Couple things that could help would be for Cabrera not to get another start all season unless something happens to our third best SS prospect and either Belt or Huff to start over Ross. Cody blows hot and cold and even though it appears he hit a couple balls pretty hard he may be back to January.
Though it may be a bitter pill for Bochy and his veteran man-love to swallow, it looks like that ‘kid’ from the PCL may have earned another start.
actually, I would hardly call Cain’s start “masterful”. granted, I missed a few innings. He gave up the go-ahead run right after they scored the tying run. I don’t know where to check stats on this but it FEELS like he’s done that a lot this year…….
The man love stuff is ridiculous.
Well, we must be on a sliding scale then . . . I have no problem with Stix calling Cain’s outing “masterful.” Cain pitched 7 innings, allowed 2 runs, which works out to a 2.57 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, and 7 SO. To illustrate how good that is, I’ll throw out one metric – MLB pitchers are averaging 3.92 ERA. Not certain what the MLB average WHIP is, but I bet it is well above 1.25.
In my mind, Cain’s performance is the last area I would look at to criticize, albeit, if you want to concentrate on minutia, then yeah, I guess you could find it.
We demand a shutout!
An odd feel to the loss in that Cain was in control most of the way and Font makes a great play to make it look like an 8-pitch inning and then it unravels in 17 seconds. Padres played well; Harang is a good pitcher (on my FL team); we weren’t awful. But not good enough. Let’s hope the Dodgers’ plane comes in around 7 a.m. Friday.
Um, Rox MUST win.
They tied it.
Watching the debate. Just found out per Rick Perry that Social Security is a “Ponzi Scheme.” Other than Dennis, who knew? 🙂
Tweet from Henry:
“My game story will have Bochy’s take on Cabrera: Hint, you’re going to be seeing a lot more of Cabrera.”
where? On the waiver wire?
Just quoting Henry… both of the beat writers like playing the “full details at 11” game
Earlier today before the game I said starting Cabrera any more was “beyond ridiculous”. Since he then proceeded to commit yet another error to let Venable on to later score, I guess now it is “beyond, beyond ridiculous”. I dunno what Bochy sees in playing this hackjob of a SS. Everybody and their brother sees this guy’s D is killing the squad — I will call him Bonehead again if he keeps trotting this doofus out there…
Old war horse, Kevin Millwood is holding his own against the Snakes. Actually, Millwood has had a renaissance at Colorado – Millwood – he has a 23-to-4 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 32 1/3 innings this season. In his last start against San Diego, he pitched seven scoreless innings, giving up seven hits with no walks in the 3-0 win. The right-hander worked his way out of trouble all night long and retired 10 straight at one point. He threw 63 of his 102 pitches for strikes and lowered his ERA to 3.34. Millwood also struck out a season-high eight while earning his second win of the season.
Right now, it’s 3-2 Rocks . . . with the Snakes threatening.
Pfffft! Snakes just tied it up.
*Masterful*, in my opinion, is the wrong word to use. What is better than *masterful*? Seriously, what word would you use better than that? 9 innings of shut out ball, 13 k’s, that’s *masterful*. Cain was decent today. For him. He’s pitched better. Hardly masterful……….
“He deserved better” should probably be the motto for the 2011 SF Giants.
if he’d been *masterful* he wouldn’t have needed better 🙂
Imagine if you lived in the Denver area and you had to watch “vomit” pitchers like Aaron Cook, Esmil Rogers and Jason Hammel, then you watched Matt Cain pitch . . . Yeah, “masterful” would come to mind. Of course, you guys in the SF bay area see quality pitching just about every day and are spoiled 🙂
Checked Chuck’s new blog- same guys. With one (Spit) threatening to keep me “in check”…
relax, he’s just coming in like that to try to save some face. The guys who doomed that blog know who they are and they are going to have their tails between their legs from here on out. WordPress will see to that…….
It was a remark, I’m not worried about it. If it becomes the same old shit, and it wilI , I just won’t post.
Yeah, it’s the same cast. Spit has already taken over for Chuck. I feel bad for Chuck, he’s actually pretty reasonable and “up on” football. Good night.
Well, ya can’t say that Colorado isn’t trying to win the game . . . Romero is the 7th pitcher Tracy has thrown at the Snakes. Next is the kitchen sink.
. . . and it sounds like the Coors Field crowd is shouting for the kitchen sink.
http://tinyurl.com/2fz7lkl
Cool, see ya next year.Write often…
With Phils’ sweep of Braves, we are now 7.5 back in the wildcard race (Cards are 6.5). I think it more likely that AZ would implode than Braves. Either way it takes an amazing run by us and a near-historic fall by either of those two.