Giants Re-Sign Mota
This signing got very little press when it went down. 1 year, around a million bucks. But this man’s contributions last year can’t go understated. Instead of trying to *state* them today, I’m just going to re-post what I wrote about him last August 22nd, the day before my now-hollow “August 23rd!!!!!!!!” call to arms……..
Your 3rd Place Willie Mac Winner: Guillermo Mota
I was discussing this 3rd place finish with Pawlie yesterday on the phone. I know the players and coaches vote 0n this esteemed award, I’m just not certain how the votes are cast. Do they just get to submit one name? That would be tough. Looking at the list of past winners since 1980 is a wild ride down memory lane. Clark won it the first year. Krukow won it back to back. Speier won it in 1987 and I only remember him playing for us in the 70′s. Tiny Felder in 1992, I loved that guy. Mark Carreon who I dimly remember playing for us at all won it in 1995. The 2 time winners are Krukow, Snow and Molina. It’s awarded to the player who “best exemplifies the spirit and leadership consistently shown by McCovey throughout his long career”.
I think Pablo wins it this year fairly easily with Vogelsong and his long road back to the big leagues snagging him 2nd place. And I don’t know how else to honor Mota’s thankless contributions to the team this year so I am handing him 3rd place right now. This is a guy who didn’t get an offer from a single team last Winter. Think about that. With pitching staffs torn up across the league, Mota didn’t even get a major league offer. The freaking Giants didn’t even offer him an MLB deal! He had to come back on a minor league deal. He’s making $925,000. This is a guy who’s made a little over 16 million in his career who is hardly doing this now for the money.
I’ll spare you all the disgusting details of Zito’s contract. One of them is that it calls for him to get a luxury box on every single road game the Giants play. Meanwhile, Guillermo Mota is busy saving our bacon time and time again. When Zito went down with his owey foot, Mota comes in to eat up innings and get the win. When Bumgarner gave up 137 runs in the first inning against the Twins, Mota comes in and saves the bullpen (as well as the next couple of games by resting the bullpen) and pitches nearly 5 innings. And yesterday, after Runzler did his best impression of a scared 3rd grade girl, Mota comes in and rights the ship with 3 scoreless. There are 39 other games he’s appeared in that will go unnoticed by everyone except Mota and his friends and family.
His contributions to the team this year can’t be understated. And while I don’t know if 3rd place in the Willie Mac Award is the proper way to honor him, I’m doing so anyway. So take your cap or use a pretend one and doff it to this man today. He’s never going to get paid market value for the games he saves for us. He’s 38, he might get another year deal with the Giants if he’s lucky. But while Zito is packing his whores into those road luxury suites, Mota is quietly waiting in the bullpen for Bochy to call on him. He almost always delivers the goods…..
And speaking of delivering the goods, I want to give a huge public shout out to WILCO JOE. While I am pathetically titling the main thread “To Watch or not To Watch?” my main man in the state of Texas was busy doing it all this weekend: He went to all 3 games giving us live game time updates. He had a player toss him a ball (not his first) as he was congratulating the team from the rail. He tracked Bow Tie’s every move, and ultimately got his picture taken with him. He even took a break from the rum and cokes and took his family to a game. And this is unconfirmed, but I think he’s the first double-POTD we’ve ever had. You, dude, are one hell of a Giant’s fan and an esteemed member of Flapper Nation. Well done……
__________________________________________________________________________
Retro-Action Time…………
The 1980 death-march continues on. Someone named John Fulgham shut us out (4-0) in complete game fashion on an unfortunate Businessman’s Special Wednesday afternoon game. George Hendrick was one of the great bad-asses of the ’70’s–I collected imposing baseball cards of that dude. Eli White…er, I mean, “Dennis Littlejohn” was our catcher. This year just needs to end………
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Mota has done solid work for us. With all the teams looking to shore up their bullpens, I’m surprised he didn’t receive interest for a slightly higher salary. Or, he may have simply elected to not look elsewhere and come back to a comfortable situation. A couple other memorable moments: 1) After defeating the Phillies in the 2010 NLCS, his teammates showered him with champagne in the locker room, screaming “MVP,” sarcastically applauding the only pitcher not to appear in the series. (BTW, he got some mop-up work against the Rangers) 2) His genuine celebration of Chris Stewart’s first home run. Dude seems like a cool guy.
Wow, that was a nice read through the old thread, cool stuff.
Guys like Mota obviously are worth their weight in gold. They lend the invaluable vet presence to everything they do, and help the younger guys learn what it means to be in mlb and how to act. It’s not going to show up with wins or saves, and a bad outing can f up your ERA. Just be ready to pitch and do what you can to help the team, always.
Wonder if we could get Vizquel to do the same thing for Crawford.
He came with a rep as a headhunter and a bad dude- and I recall we were all pretty happy when the Bums brought him into a game. He changed minds pretty quickly. One of the big games of 2010 was the game where Burrell homered off Broxton ( Flavor was there) to put us ahead in in the 8th- Wilson was unavailable- Mota pitched the quietest 9th of the year to seal one of the most thrilling wins in that most thrilling year..if you watched Edlefson muck up the long man role at the end of the 2011 season you can really appreciate the job Mota does..
oh for oberkfell hitting 8th…couple years later he’d be a key guy for the killer Cards small ball Turf show.
Also in 80, one of my heroes Omar Moreno stole 96 bases, and finished second to Ron Leflore of Expos.
Little did Darrell Evans know that a few years later he would win a World Series ring with the Detroit Tigers. Former Giant Dave Bergman was on that Tigers team, too, I think.
In the World Series, they defeated a Padres team that had Steve Garvey on it, I think. Garvey looked odd in that dookie-brown Padres uniform.
Who’s Your Padre?
Take a flyer on Jason Varitek anyone? Give him the 30 starts when Poseys over at 1B.Nice veteran switchitter off he bench and probably get him for a mil or so.
Like Republicans searching for a non-Romney, we are searching for a non-Whitey.
Put me down for Jason Varitek and Ron Paul.
Jason Varitek or Jason Voorhees?
ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch
ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah
REE-REE-REE-REE-REE-REE-REE-REE!!!!!!!!
Baggarly seems to think that thay any deal offered Eli would be a minor league deal, Evans said they’re happy with Stewart and Sanchez competing for the job. So I’m not too worried about having to jump- and before I’d do that I’d need photographic evidence that Craig ate the hat he promised to consume ( over a Lincecum start) burp 😉
But I have no problem with Varitek on a ML deal
Plenty of room for more baseball memories. How about some about the dearly departed ? Ishikawa, Dirty, Vungo, The Bat…
I don’t know why you guys are getting all riled up over the possible re-signing of NO Whitey.
He’d only make the difference of whether we finish 3rd or 4th in the West this year.
The conversion to full time troll is complete..
Varitek will be 40 and wasn’t even considered for the 3rd string job in Boston. Think he retires or hangs around in a Will Clark kind of role.
Designated Racist?
Whether any of them get another hit as long as they live, Burrell, Torres, and Ross were truly ( and who knows, perhaps even in the literal sense) our “Angels in the Outfield” in 2010. Despite what befell them last year, their replacements still have some big shoes to fill..
Twin goes for the mystical literal. I like it. (Just like Katy Perry, I kissed a girl and I liked it, too.)
Geez whats the deal with Whiteys stranglehold with the Giants?
Did he write the eulogy at Sue Burns funeral so the Giants feel obligated to keep him?
He’s a good guy. Bochy can relate to him.
What’s the deal with the preoccupation with Whiteside? He’s not going to make the team. Signing him to a contract ( most likely ML according to Baggs) just gives them another body to catch the many pitchers who will be in camp. My guess is that soon he’ll up end as some kind of minor league intsructor, maybe teaching young catchers how not to block balls in the dirt.
Add another name to the utility infielder carousel: Joaquin Arias…minor league deal
Why aren’t they grabbing Paulino? He’d probably wouldn’t cost much more than Mota. At least he can hit ML pitching.
They grabbed him once Loo …for all of about 10 minutes. Then shipped him to the Marlins for Hector Correia. Not to bright move.
Maybe they’d rather give a home grown prospect a shot. ( Hector)
How does Paulino’s career 29% CS percentage stack up these days?
Looks like the single season record is 73% (24-33) by Mike Lavalliere in 1993.
A little less than..get ready for it..Eli
In 5 minor league seasons Hector is 34% ( just FYI, not comparing to the bigs)
Chris was 45% in the minors, 39% up here
Eli had been 34% in the minors, 30% in the majors
Again, this this just informational, not drawing any conclusions…
Is Bochy or Sabean on record as to whether or not Sandoval will catch with any regularity?
I thought Pablo was against it . . .
I haven’t seem anything where he says he’s against it, at least this go around. Sabean has only said it’s been discussed and that it would only be on days when Buster has a full day off. In other words, the regular back up would catch when Buster plays first…
Baggs is the one who’s said Pablo nixes the idea. Not sure if he heard that or talked to panda but he was pretty clear about it in that online chat question thing I did with him last week…
Well, I’ll take Baggs’ word but maybe Pablo will think about telling Bochy or Sabean..
This was from MLBTR about a month ago.
Some Mets officials were displeased with Ronny Paulino’s defense, offense and work habits in 2011, according to Andy Martino of the New York Daily News. “He was supposed to hit for power, and all he did was hit singles,” one Mets person told Martino. Some Mets executives would like to part with Paulino, rely on Josh Thole to catch about 60% of games and add a veteran to handle the remaining catching duties. MLBTR projects a $1.6MM salary for the arbitration eligible Paulino in 2012.
Baggs, in responding to Craig’s question, says it’s come up before and Pablo nixed it and Baggarly assumes he’d nix it this time . However, he never says that Pablo *has* nixed it this time. Baggs is probably right but that was just his opinion.
Fantastic News…Bryan Stow update: @ Rock Center NBC will interview Bryan Stow on their Dec 19 th episode on NBC at 10 pm!
The best solution is for Hector to hit well enough for them to scrap the idea.
Yeah, why risk it with your best hitter?
I’d guess it is/was a consideration if Stewart was the back up.Baggarly, in his answer to Craig, said he thought they should carry three catchers..