Grade School Mentality
Baseball players are brain dead lemmings when it comes to responding to perceived *disrespect*. If you glance at your homerun for a second too long you’re likely to get hit in the ribs in your next at bat. There are all sorts of little traditions you have to honor and you’re not allowed to violate any of them, even by accident, or you’re subjected to being hit with a 95 mph heater. It’s all 100% stupid. I think most *retaliation pitches* are not justified but I don’t have a problem with it under a very specific circumstance: 1) clear and obvious intent to hit one of your star players with a pitch that could possibly cause injury.
Last night, I will admit, Otero’s pitch that hit Votto *looked* bad if all you look at is the pitch. But unless there was something going on in-game that we didn’t see or hear about, there is no reasonable way you could draw a line from Otero to intent to hitting Votto. Simply put, there was no antecedent that preceded Otero throwing at Votto……
LeClure’s pitch was an obvious message pitch and it had a significantly greater chance of causing injury than Otero’s—it just missed Buster’s knee. Not a guarantee to cause an injury but more likely to cause one than just getting hit on the side of the hip (where Votto got hit).
If you saw Dusty in the tv shot after LeClure’s pitch he let out a hard, long spit that was basically saying “that’s right, it’s on, fuck you for hitting Votto.” What a dumbass……
Buster answered by shaking his head a few times, milling around the box as both benches got warned and then promptly depositing an opp-o HR into the seats in right center. A better “fuck you” than Dusty’s, to be sure…….
I’m sure the Reds weren’t happy that Votto got hit but their response seemed to be a “you hit us, we hit you” mentality regardless of whether there was any intent of not. And that’s a pretty stupid, juvenile approach to anything in life. I do believe LeClure was trying to hit Buster somewhere in the leg area and he was agile enough to not get hit. If you are simply sending a *message* with a behind-the-player pitch it’s usually *higher and wider* not a few inches from the knee.
Still, if anyone deserves to get plunked today it’s Votto. I wouldn’t judge the Giants for retaliating for that pitch near Buster’s knee. That’s not really the Giants-way, they don’t seem to get too caught up in displaying 12 year old behavior, but they at least have a reason to respond, in my opinion, based off the criteria I used above.
The reason not to do it is obvious: If Votto gets hit today there’s a good chance that the pitcher who throws that pitch will get days. Depending on the brawl afterwards, many players could get days, including Bochy. And do we really need to deal with that right now? No. Besides, Buster laid out the best *punk job* you could land on a pitcher—he went opp-o on him in the very same at bat that LeClure tried to hit him. It was perfect…….
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
I hate to see wilson used as a crutch. Lopez, a set up guy, torched a game last week. tonight it’s hensley and affeldt–these are set up guys that are only ever going to pitch in the 7th-8th, pure and simple and always will be. Zero to do with wilson or whomever is closing.
Last night I noticed in box scores there were (again this happened a couple weeks ago) 3 blown saves in the NL–all of them by set up guys. Normally this is a position of strength for SF, but when they fuck up, they do. That’s just baseball, irregardless of who the closer is, or isn’t.
Well, we all knew that installing Casilla as the closer would create a void somewhere else. But nothing that should be of much consequence. Those guys are still responsible for getting out the usual type of hitters in the usual place in the game that they always are asked to do.
I’m most skeptical of Hensley. I’ve watched him pitch and I can see what everyone else sees, but his career numbers don’t match the movement on the ball that he throws. I’m willing to consider that this will be an *up* year for him and he’s started ok, but I wouldn’t get him too set in a particular inning, especially late in the game……
Just to clarify, I wasn’t making light of Huff’s DL news today with my post earlier, I was in my car at a red light when I heard the news on KNBR and I just shot a quick post to the blog about it. Anxiety disorders come in many shapes and sizes. At this point in his life, it’s likely that he’s been on medication for a while to treat it. Who knows what disrupted that treatment? If it had anything to do with his recent struggles culminating with Sunday’s game, I feel terrible for him. In fact, it doesn’t matter what the reason is, I feel for him. And since the last thing ANY ballplayer would want to have come out is a mental disorder as the reason for their DL stint, I must assume that this is the real-deal truth about what he’s off dealing with.
I remember the Dodger reliever Hong CHi Kuo dealt with this last year or the year before and spent quite a while on the DL.
Brings to mind Rogelio (Roger) Moret…..and of course Piersall….
Fear Grounds Out to Second?
Agree about Huff . . . My earlier post was a bit flip before I heard more about this. I understand that he is due back on Friday?????? Seems like this isn’t something that you can just come back to work and everything is fine. My take is that he will be gone for a much longer period of time.
Blade, he’ll be back as in back to SF, but he’s on the 15 day DL ( for starters), he’s not back to play.
Ahh . . . Thanks for the heads up.
Again, about the bullpen… Wilson doesn’t exist, will never exist (this year, anyway), this is not news. Bochy manages accordingly, pitchers must do their jobs. If they think they need someone new to fill any gaps, they’ll get one.
Huff… sad indeed. Wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him come back to SF and ‘retire’, at least for this season. His mental and emotional health are far more important than trying to continue to hack it out on the field while dealing with it.
little solace to sharks fans, but the defending stanley cup champion bruins (god, I hope that’s the last time I ever see those words again) got bounced in first round by Wash Caps game 7. I really can’t enjoy any playoffs until the team from boston is eliminated.
The only real solace to Sharks fans is a Stanley Cup championship. But watching Boston lose in OT at home was pretty cool.
I feel Chapman drilled Pill on purpose.Baker might have called that from the bench.He knows Pill is a dead red fastball hitter,and the only Giant in that situation who could go yard, to takethe the lead,really feel it’s common in baseball late in games,that managers won’t. get beat with some one with potential power over a weaker hitter.These aren’t. accidents,its part of their thought process.
Ghead says he saw a video of Affeldt yelling at Hector, and I have no reason to doubt him. So it’s not entirely true that Affedlt was just pissed at himself. And with Tim said to have been unhappy with the kid, we need less, not more, of guys getting pissed after fucking up. “Seethe” in private, suck it up in public. Any of these guys want Whitey back, they can go pitch to him in Fresno.
Hector Sanchez, the new AJ.
Maybe someone should send this to Hector:
http://tinyurl.com/6ulnxpt
Well, none of this is furthering the idea of moving Buster to first and installing Hector as the catcher. And I guess that a base hit and a walk earned Belt some more pine.
I certainly am not arguing for that, just agreeing that any ragging on Sanchez by the pitchers is bullshit. Hector and Posey would be highly unlikely to produce more offense for the team than Belt and Posey over a full season.
Before joining the Giants at age 32, having thrown 600 innings, Armando B had a career save percentage of 86%. He broke down with injuries and lost his fastball after that, which is what tends to happen.
Brian Wilson has pitched 320 innings, and has a career save percentage of 87.
Armando blew out his hamstring the first week of his first season here. He was never the same. Blaming teammates and then fans for his poor performances didn’t endear him to the locals.
372 and 314- no, they’re not adjoining rooms at the Warsaw Hilton, it’s what happened to Nate’s BA in two days..
GNight.