Enough with The Posey/Glass-chez Watch. Let’s Talk About the Pitching
Felled with a vomitous flu yesterday, I wasn’t able to get a main thread or a BBOTD up. But I’m back, mostly, walking upright with the rest of the humans. We’ve spent all Spring talking about the hitting, who plays where, how the rehab for Buster and Glass-chez are going, etc. Discussions related to the pitchers has been almost non-existent. And I’m not just talking about the blog, I listen to a fair amount of KNBR talk radio and neither the hosts or the callers seem to have to much interest in talking about the pitching. Part of that is because we don’t have too many jobs up for grabs. There might be one, if Bochy decides to go with 12 pitchers which he’s likely to do. Here are the pitching stats so far this spring. I reorganized it by *innings pitched* so we could see who is getting the most work and, therefore, who is getting the longest look…..
The first thing that jumps out at me, and I’m really astounded by this, is the fact that we don’t have a single *blow up* ERA until you get all the way down to someone named “Fitzgerald. J” who checks in with a 9.82 and a ticket to Fresno. Usually in spring if you have one bad appearance that pretty much does it for your spring ERA. So while we all know how awesome our pitching is, I don’t think anyone envisioned EVERY single pitcher of consequence having a solid spring. I haven’t seen more than a few innings a week and maybe an inning on the radio now and again so I don’t have a personal opinion about who should get that 12th spot, should there be one available. I know that no one has stood out this spring the way Voggy did last year. But here are the stats and you guys can kick them around today if you like. It’s good to be back, I definitely noticed the disruption to my daily routine by NOT getting a thread up yesterday……
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Vogs starts on the DL. So you have Bum, Tim, Matt, Zit and Surkamp. Or the possible 4 starters
The pen you have Affeldt, Casilla, Lopez, Romo, Mota, Wilson and I’m guessing Hensley.
Did you guys see the bubble blowing Panda bobblehead? Very cool.
I don’t think they will use Surkamp to start a game unless Voggy has a set back. They can go with 4 and not have to have a 5th spot come up till April 15th.
Started a new gig this week, which is my own little spring training of sorts. Apparently the seating arrangement was changed recently and it was decided I would be right next to the department head. I was a little apprehensive until,upon my return from lunch a dodger antenna ball was mounted between our cubes. With a knife straight through the eyes. I’m having a good feeling about this….
“Started a new gig this week, which is my own little spring training of sorts.”
Funny line Dirt (especially after reading what follows). So, I’m wondering what is the flap plan to assert your dominance in this potential “cube war?”
re-read it, his DH is a Giants fan
Still missing it Flav, i.e., who put up the Dodger antenna ball???
Blade, the Dodger ball has a knife in it.
awesome. Welcome back to the Bay, btw. And I hope you’re up for Flappalozza 2.0. I’ll get that set up once the season starts….
Haha, Flav is right. He’s a Giants fan. He’s even got a Lincecum bobble head holding the “ship” trophy.
It’s good to be back in CA. I’ve missed this place.
Timmeh,Cainer,Bum,Vogs ,Zits-SP
Relievers-Affeldt,Lopez,Romo,Casilla,Mota,Wilson,I would go with Edlefsen,but knowing Boch it will be the old vet Hensley.Bochy goes with 12 always,damm sometimes freakin 13 pitches with no bench.That’s when he looks like an idiot.
Haven’t seen the Panda bubble bobblehead Bozo.But I do want a “Clown with a Frown One”.
kat – it’s on the Giants facebook page http://www.facebook.com/Giants
A flying Panda blowing a bubble, I gotta get me one.
edlefsen wasn’t exactly fooling hitters last year, I think he’ll get a lot of bus time this season touring the central valley and enjoying its lovely weather.
I recall hearing something about runzler and an injury/discomfort/setback week or two ago. I always wonder what’s up with this guy and what SF plans to do with him. Start/long man/set up?????
Supposedly the whole deal with Vogs to the DL was they wouldn’t need a 5th starter for a while anyway at beginning of season with off days, so surkamp might not be needed (since apparently Z is in). Outside of him, everything looks solid and wilson is kicking in the stall, as muddy waters might have put it.
“outside of him” meaning zito.
quick shout out to James: at the flap fest I mentioned Sonny rollins “road shows” cds of live stuff he did and approved for release. vol 2 is out, from stuff he did recently in 2010, and includes 20 min version of “sonnymoon for two” that features last half of it with Ornette Coleman. Others are roy hargrove russell malone roy haynes bob cranshaw jim hall. Most enjoyable, cuts such as “can’t get started” and “they say it’s wonderful.” to say he is still going strong is an understatement.
Willie – I’ve seen Sonny many times and have many great memories. The topper for me was an intimate interview he did at Jazz Fest (either last year or the year before). He shared some great stories, which included the time he took off after his initial success and spent a lot of time on this bridge just blowing (I think he may have also worked as a dishwasher or something during this time). Anyway, at one point they had questions from the audience and one guy asked what it was like to work with Trane and what he thought of him. Sonny paused for a second and said “What did I think of John?”, “I thought I needed to go back out on that bridge for awhile”. Not only can that man blow but he is also one class act.
Bozo, I obviously hadn’t had my coffee yet, so Dirt’s post went totally over my head this morning (where I missed the knife comment). OK, fully caffeinated now . . . ahhh.
No worries blade, I had to read it twice. The first time I was thinking his new neighbor was a Dodger fan and how cruel would that have been.
I need more coffee…double Manhattan’s at lunch yesterday and Single A practice for my 6 year old that I am coaching led to 9:30 pm bed time. I hope you are feeling better Flav….
Why not give Surkamp a start if Voggy is on the DL at the start of the season? I would like to see what Surkamp can do regular season with the games counting to see what he has. He will be the go to option if Zito flounders and quickly ends up with an “elbow injury.”
I just read Schulman’s story about the potential (which I had speculated on before spring training started) of Huff getting starts in left so they can keep Belt’s bat in the lineup and Melky then goes to right. As Flav has consistently said, Nate does bring intangibles coming off the bench and late in games, you bring Huff out for defense and Melky swings to left.
I am surprised to read that Blanco seems to be a lock, I have not been keeping up with spring training this year and I would definitely plot Burriss ahead of Fontenot and Theriot on the depth chart. I still like Pill off the bench and getting starts against lefties and playing left, but if Blanco mmakes the squad, hard to see Pill also making it. Add in a backup catcher and it seems like the 5 on the bench will be:
Nate, Blanco or Pill, Burriss, catcher and then Fontenot at this point, but I dont know much about this other potential SS Arias. Any feedback there? I guess if Freddie starts on the DL then the last spot is either Theriot or this Arias….
Soria headed for TJ surgery (pending a 2nd opinion). Man, I ALMOST drafted him on Sun but went another direction at the last second.
Thanks for the info Flav . . . got to go and nab his replacement in a league I am in. Pffffft!
Fuck . . . Both Holland and Broxton (who I don’t like anyway) were nabbed. HAHAHAHA . . . snooze, ya lose in my league.
“I just read Schulman’s story about the potential (which I had speculated on before spring training started) of Huff getting starts in left so they can keep Belt’s bat in the lineup and Melky then goes to right. As Flav has consistently said, Nate does bring intangibles coming off the bench and late in games, you bring Huff out for defense and Melky swings to left.”
Actually, I’ve said that is likely ( Belt and Huff both start) and Craig has said it isn’t…
Thought the same thing twin. I even said something about using Melky like Cody and Huff like the Bat. But now, I’m kinda leaning towards Blanco taking Belt’s spot until something shakes out.
Just to be sure what I said, I went back to look.
Bozo said, on December 9, 2011 at 7:21 am
Flav I’m in agreement about the OF, except I expect to see Huff in LF and Belt starting at 1B. Using Nate as the late inning guy and moving Melky from Right to Left (pretty much how they used Pat and Ross). But it all will come down to who has the hot hand and match ups. That’s my guess anyway.
Like twin pointed out, we only have 3 major league OFs with Belt and Huff trying to fill out the 4 and 5. But we have 4 guys splitting time at first (Huff, Belt, Pill and Posey) 5 if you count some time for the Panda. That’s sounds kinda risky if you ask me. Baggs says the Giants are trying to resign Ishi, if that happens I would assume Huff or Belt will be traded for another OFer.
if it comes to pass I’ll be happy since I think it makes our team stronger. I just don’t think it’s going to happen.
But you haven’t used the word “likely” you said “Belt will start opening day PERIOD.”
Here’s the quote:
twinfan1 said, on March 10, 2012 at 9:04 am (Edit)
This about your claim- that Belt will sit unless he hits 50 points at least above Huff. Belt will start period. Whether it’s at 1st or LF is not relevant. As to Huff/Nate- it’s a different issue. The point is that Belt will be in the starting LU barring injury no matter what Huff does. And I see you’ve eliminated the possibility of voting for Belt to start regardless, another poll biased by your take.
Fine-period.
But today’s post was about Belt AND Huff both starting, not just Belt. It’s not contradictory to what I’ve posted earlier.
Quick thoughts about the Boo-party at Oracle last night. I don’t really put that solely on the fans. By and large, fans are lemmings and all they know is that their favorite player was traded for a dude with a broken ankle. That trade made perfect sense to rational people like myself. There’s risk involved but you have to take a risk when the no-risk answer isn’t there.
Anyway, yes the fans misread the moment. They shouldn’t have ruined Mullin’s night. But Lacob really showed himself to be out of touch with the feelings of the core fan base if he didn’t see that coming.
How he could risk going on RIGHT AFTER MULLIN showed him to be fairly ignorant of all of that. Now, I get that it would have been awkward for him to just sit there politely clapping all night. But don’t go on right after Mully and turn that epic Warriors moment into a boo party.
One option would have been to call in sick. No harm no foul with that. But Lacob is a publicity hog. Read this comment from Kawakami yesterday:
“When you buy an NBA team, stuff like this happens. You have to have a thick skin.”
Um, dickhead you bought the team a year ago. You are an owner now. Act like one. Pick and choose when to be in the public eye and when to not be. Lacob strikes me as the guy you meet in a bar and he can’t wait to tell you he owns an NBA team…..
I like what Lacob is trying to do and i think he’s going to get it right, but he’s getting in the way of too many things right now. Last night was proof of that…..
At least he didn’t put on a Warriors jersey.
From Pav:
Lineup originally had Schierholtz in it and looked awfully close to a possible opening day lineup (aside from the pitcher). But Schierholtz was a scratch because of forearm tightness.
Giants lineup against Arizona:
Pagan CF
Cabrera LF
Sandoval 3B
Posey C
Huff 1B
Blanco RF
Theriot 2B
Crawford SS
Zito SP
Christ, Nate comes up with more puss-injuries than anyone I’ve ever heard of. He’s born to play off the bench. I don’t see why Bochy and the brass don’t see this…….
I see Bubbles is in midseason form. Homer, 2 BBs in the 1st . . .
Feels like old times
good times………..
Zenman has given up four walks in 4 innings — yeah, he’s rounding into shape for the opening week…
He’s just crouching too much. Quick, 9-1-1 Tom House! I’m actually glad this is happening. It might lessen the rope he has once the season starts. I’m still *ABZ* all day long (ADL).
ABFZ AFDL
Numerous media helicopters followed a Lear jet to an isolated Denver International Airport hangar this afternoon, then observed the occupants getting off of said jet, where they transferred to a white SUV. They followed the white SUV to highway 70 and continued their pursuit of this vehicle to Dove Valley, where the vehicle parked at a large facility. The occupants got out and entered one of the buildings at this site.
O.J. Simpson? Terrorists? All no . . . Just the normal bull shit that goes on in Denver whenever a football player is signed. I imagine they will be following this player for his next haircut too.
Yikes. Frucking John Elway revisited.
“Reports are John Elway wen to the Country Kitchen on Highway 84 outside of Carbondale. He ordered biscuits and gravy with a side of waffles. Film at 11:00 pm.”
Chuck, you out of everyone here at the Flap (having lived in Colorado) would understand the complete fixation the folks have here on football. Manning has no idea what he walked into here.
Dennis must be sick too. He’s way too quiet!
Might be still celebrating St. Patrick’s Day Nip . . .
Ralph Barbieri cemented himself in my eyes as a complete idiot earlier today. Not only did he condone the booing of Lacob that ruined Mully’s retirement party (among other things, he called it *the perfect forum* to boo Lacob. Huh?) but he had the unmitigated hubris to replay a call in of HIMSELF that he did on Radnich’s show earlier in the day. Think about that. He’s sitting right there blabbering away about all this and then he calls for a REPLAY of HIMSELF. Tolbert laughed and said, “you want to replay yourself? Why? You’re right here!”. This isn’t a perfect comparison, but that would be like me giving myself POTD. Anyway, they replayed it and it was 90 seconds of more blather and how sad he is about losing his long, lost love Monta Ellis……
Tolbert, also an idiot about all things not basketball, came in and patiently (for like the 100th time) explained why it was a good trade to make.
Ralph didn’t buy it. Shocker.
I heard that replay BS, too, and thought the same thing. Huh? Tolbert had it nailed. You’re here, say it live. Classic. Barbieri is phoning it in, has done for the last half decade, at least. Chalk up to his illness? I dunno. He doesn’t even know the most basic things about the Giants, and he’s supposedly a fan, and a sportstalk host. The bare essentials of player stats and IDs of minor league guys, etc., that the Flappers throw around here like nothing are totally out of his universe. He has no freakin clue about the team, compared to real fans. Yet, he’s sitting there making statements and pontificating on a 50K clear channel station. And, BTW, that Amici’s pizza is OK, it ain’t great. He needs to go…
those Amichi commercials he does have the feel of soft core porn sometimes. It’s like he wants to fuck the pizza or something. In fact, this could be a pic of Ralph:
http://www.rexmag.com/reviews/hardcore/bigsausagepizza.com/big-sausage-pizza-kaycee-brooks_picture.html
“phoning it in” –LQTM—well today, he did……
I wouldn’t chalk it up to Parkinson’s, he’s NEVER brought anything of consequence to his shows. He talks with the knowledge of a casual fan. Somehow that’s *qualified* him to work on a gynormous radio station for 25 years. The way he disclosed his disease had a weird feel to it as well. As his contract was about to expire, he decided to disclose it to the public on his show. As I recall, I think he thought the station was going to use it to not-renew his contract and he probably figured if he exposed it to the public they would almost have to keep him or they would look like that was the reason they weren’t renewing him. Anyway, that was a weird day…….
He once declared to Chris Webber on the air he had “beautiful eyes.”
That voice is nauseating. Inexplicable how he’s stuck around or how he ever got his foot in the door.
Should say more nauseating than ever.
ST – try being a couple of rows ahead of him on a flight from SFO to Atlanta. Oh, did I mention some idiot asked him how he got into broadcasting? On and on for four fucking hours.
Yay. Alex Smith just signed with the Niners.
I’ll go celebrate by taking a dump…
At least Snarkk is regular!
Shoot, Alex is nothin’ compared to Zito.
If watching Zito were a laxative, I’d be off prunes forever…
LQTM…..As I take a field dump…
Glad to see Alex back. Hopefully any lingering hard feelings won’t affect what goes on between the lines.
Well, they got the best QB west of Burlington, Colorado… now I’ll be interested to see how the relationship plays out. I’d think Jimbo will be a litlle shy at first, Perhaps coffee, a group get together, later a film, some light petting.. it’s gonna take awhile before Alex..well, let’s just give them some space, they’ll both need some “coaching up” for the magic to return…
oh twin, you had me at “some light petting”.
lol
The agent should take the blame. That could smooth it all over.
So in the end everyone, including smith, agrees this is where he belongs, insulting offer and all…with Harbs (uh the coach of the year), the top rated D, a top rated running game, a top rated tight end, and (for almost every game except last one) top rated special teams, and a weak division.
” the relationship”…sounds like a reality series or something…just put the football in the end zone..
In the end everyone’s a multi-millionaire…
I would have thought “light petting” would be a clue that it was not a serious post. Whatever- as I said, they got the best QB in either West division back, Jim be a lucky man..
I’m not a big Ralph fan, but I sort of understand why they keep around. Ralph helped build KNBR into what it is today, as hard to believe as that is. A few decades ago, KNBR was a goofy hybrid station, mixing sports, regular news, schlocky music, and who knows what else. Ralph was the first clear-cut sports guy on KNBR that fans could identify as a unique voice of the station. KNBR had a super-bland guy, Ken Dido, doing an evening call-in sports show, so Ralph didn’t have much competition in that regard. And the station still feels a kind of misguided loyalty to Ralph.
The problem is- Ralph got full of himself, and he became a tired act. For example, he was a jerk to Ferrell, who I still think is the most interesting broadcaster KNBR ever had on. Ralph was so obviously jealous of Ferrell’s instant popularity on the station that he couldn’t resist badmouthing him, which is pretty unheard of from broadcasters on the same station. Ferrell eventually left, of course, to pursue TV work in L.A.
The station doesn’t need Ralph anymore. Tolbert could easily do his show by himself, as Grant Napheir does on 1140.
According to Wikipedia, Scott Ferrall these days has a 4 hour radio show nightly on Sirius radio. He was in his late 20s when he was on KNBR. That’s pretty wild.
Zumie, you nailed it. The station continued with a full service adult contemporary music format with news into the 1980s. In 1987, when NBC got out of the radio business, KNBR was sold to Susquehanna Corporation, a longtime radio station operator. The station added some sports talk in evenings. The station began to cut back on music more. The station took a full-time sports format in 1990. Barbieri was a stringer for Sport magazine before he joined KNBR in 1984 . . . When he came on the scene, I recall him as being different and unique, i.e., as Zumie pointed out – he built that station up because there was no one like him on the scene back then.
Fast forward today, he probably lives on his reputation, calling it in as many of you have pointed out. Ironically, he isn’t stupid – dude holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of San Francisco and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. The other irony – I’ve read that he has been the “highest rated show in the Bay Area in the 25-54 male demographic since 2000.”
Tolbert’s patience with Ralph’s idiocy, especially during basketball discussions, should be commended. He rarely loses his cool with him, though he could lose it 10 times a topic…….
I’ve had no use for Ralph for years. if you can stand it, listen to him attempt to ask a question. it’s not a question per se but a monologue about how he was right to begin with and don’t you agree with him. Tom can be very funny when he wanders but the ONLY reasons to listen to the show are the guests and the traffic (if you commute like i do!). Gary Radnich is such an unbelievable embarrassment that I can’t believe he’s still on ANY show. Comcast gave him the boot thank god. I can’t listen to the morning show because paul m is a complete idiot. someone please take the sound board away.
was it kgo that had mike and someone in the morning? I think it was knbr. I had my alarm radio set to that.
Imo, the only guys who should feel insulted should be harbs and baalke…where was smith going to get anything like the above I mentioned? Certainly not from the Fins nor the seachickens. He just had the best season of his career in his first year with harbs and the team (imp word, that) ballke put together…so you decide to make them strain, have your ageint make some phone calls and fly across the country to talk contract with somebody else?
That would only be if he decided to bolt before the Manning flirtation. Few, very few, believe that to be the case.
And before this year, *SMITH* was 19-31, not the team, according to his detractors- Harbaugh himself pointed out the unfairness. Now that they went 14-4, those same folks stress “team” (imp word, that). They want it both ways.
he didn’t sign tho, when he could have, and I highly doubt that if he had p-m would have been on the radar. I don’t blame smith for anything that happened before, at all, but this is a good team, and he led it to a great season. so why walk?
“. . . have your ageint make some phone calls and fly across the country to talk contract with somebody else?”
Yes, every day and twice on Sunday willieD. Football players have a finite career and are subject to severe potential injury. Smith has already had his “nine lives,” having had multiple offensive coordinators and coaches to deal with. Has he always done it with grace? No, but I’ll tell you what – for someone that is in there late 20s, he has been through quite a lot of shit and has handled himself admirably. This crap about him “having his agent” do this and that . . . Besides, who knows if that is actually factual? If I hire an agent, I expect that person to provide me accurate information and advice, whereby I can make an informed decision. Again, all football players have a short career and they owe little or no allegiance to any team. I know that’s how the owners usually play the game. Just sayin’ . . .
understood, he has that option, go for it if you want, but why leave is my point. Sf and harbs etc. was a pretty good situation for him (or anyone else) after all he’s been through…so why look elsewhere , esp to a couple chump teams, when he wasn’t going to get any more money?
that’s all I’m saying…if his “informed decision” is to walk away from SF after his best year ever, I don’t get it.
WillieD–you’re right when you ask the question “where were you gonna get a deal like the Niners offered”. Supposedly, he might have gotten the same offer from Miami, though I think that was just *money talk*. Even if he got the same deal, that was it. no one else came to the party. So in terms of what Smith was worth it was defined by the market. Otherwise he would have been offered much more and accepted it. That is fact……
But Willie I think you’re wrong about the *flying across the country to talk contract with someone else.” That was a clear response to the discovery that the Niners were trying to sign Manning. He was doing what ANY qb would do in that situation. Cover your bases, do your due diligence, and talk to everyone who might want to hire you. There are only 32 jobs like this in the world. If your job isn’t secure there’s a window that shuts quickly. And though it was managed unskillfully by Harbaugh, Balkke, York, etc (don’t forget there’s a big team of people involved it’s hardly just JH) at the end of the day it’s still all business. Football players get this, there were at least 2 scribes in the Bay Area who discussed it today (I think it they were Purdy and Jenkins). It’s a cold, hard business. Football players get this, fans don’t always get this. If Smith was so butt-hurt about this saga he could have not signed the deal he signed today…….
You know, too much has been made of this *friendship* between JH and Smith. Harbaugh knows how to connect with qb’s, that’s fucking obvious and he did an excellent job of doing so with Smith. Any coach WISHES he knew how to do this like Harbaugh. But again, they aren’t *frat bro’s* or anything. Harbaugh is just speaking his language, not to many qb’s know how to talk to NLF qb’s how to manage them skillfully. Fact. What he fucked up on was the way he went about ManningGate. I don’t fault them for going after him (though I never would have) I fault the secrecy of it. Just be straight up with Smith, he’s a big boy, he can handle it.
“Here’s our offer. While you’re thinking it over, we’re going to talk with Manning because he’s a future HOFer and he’s available. Stay in touch. Peace out”.
Now, the “peace out” part was mine but the rest would have been a fine message to communicate to Smith. Again, the Niners did NOT misjudge the market. They just fucked up their communication within it…….
I haven’t seen anywhere where somebody clearly says that Harbaugh and the Niners did NOT do just that at some point in the Manning search, or even before they even went back to Duke. No media type I’ve seen has a timeline as to who knew what and when, likely because nobody is talking about it — yet…
Blanco had 2 more steals today. Has a total of 9, leading all teams in ST…
Torres, Vogelsong–now Blanco. Looks like another steal by the G’s FO.
Pill with a 3-run dinger today…
Straight from the Niner QB: As I said and suspected, Niners kept him in the Manning loop all along…
http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2012/03/21/alex-smith-qa-this-was-the-plan-all-along/?tsp=1