Making Due Sans Panda
Andrew Pavlovic’s blog at the Merc has really been seamless in it’s transition from Baggs to post-Baggs. He covers almost everything. I have to consciously prompt myself to read Baggs at Comcast and I’d say I probably only even do that once a week. Anyway, last night he trotted out the 25-16 stat that I was not aware of (the Giants record with Panda down last year). And look at the crew we have this year that we did not have last year: Posey, Melky, Pagan, Blanco and Belt. Those five dominate a list from last year that included Tejada and Whiteside.
I really hope Blanco is going to get a run in the OF in place of Nate. Bochy HAS to see how critical that is, especially with The Panda going down. He and Pagan should be at the top of the line up. If I were managing, I would encourage those two to run wild on the base paths. They did it all spring training, why stop once the regular season starts? Speaking of Pagan, can anyone recall a softer or quieter 17 game hitting streak? He has no 3 or 4 hit games, 6-2 hit games and 11 1-hit games. He’s not exactly tearing the cover off the ball.
I’m not that worried about this offense. I think the Marlin series was just a weird 3 game misstep that can be attributed to playing lousy against a team we usually play lousy against AND the fact that there might have been a bit of a *lost Panda hangover* yesterday. The three pitchers we’re facing this weekend are no picnic’s but I am hopeful that the bats get going again. It will be nice and warm and sometimes a weather change like that can light a fire under a guy………
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
unlike nate, the marlins were “due.” They got good enough pitching, plus some timely hitting, stole some bases, and played better in the field than SF did. They have a lot of talented players, and like ozzie said, just needed to get away from miami where, “no one wants to see us play right now.” SF pitching held them to 8 runs in 3 games, all of which were winnable.
I would agree that the little things become more magnified and important right now, esp getting on base and using the speed they have, and better IF defense. 3-4-5 of melk posey belt is fine, and I like what blanco and arias can do given an opp to play more regularly. I hope they can do enough to show bochy that the likes of theriot pill hector and nate, along with huff, are primarlily bench guys/spot starters only.
Willie D….Yeah the guy who was due was Giancarlo Cruz Mike Stanton(it doesn’t matter what your name is) who just smoked the Giants.This is the type of stud OF i dream for but will never receive with Sabean.
Snarkk made a fabulous call on this yesterday—the last player I can remember (and he remembered it for me) to hit laser shot home runs like that was Willie McCovey…..
Besides the 2 HRs, there was also the double off the top of the LF wall. I was not a fan yet during McCovey’s heyday, but I’ve never seen anyone hit 3 line drives like that over 2 games.
The Giants offensive approach reminds reminds me of Guy Pearce in Momento. Every at bat is their 1st at bat vs any pitcher, their are no patterns, no history and no strategy. They just found themselves with a bat in their hand and they look down to see a tattoo that says “SWING”.
Saw this over at McCovey the other day and thought it was interesting. Baseballreference cited as source.
Year Rank Percent of swings on pitches (out of 30) out of the strike zone
2008 28 28.0%
2009 30 31.2%
2010 30 32.3%
2011 30 33.5%
2012 29 33.7%
Sorry about the crap formatting. Couldn’t figure out inserting that. Should be Year, Rank (of 30) then %.
Weatherproof games: Athletics at Rays, Cardinals at Astros, Twins at Mariners.
The East Coast and Ohio Valley are both expected to get some precipitation Friday. It will be 58 and rainy in Boston, with warmer temperatures and a potential thunderstorm in the forecast for Washington, New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit. Expect partial sunshine in Kansas City and Colorado, with temperatures in the 80s. Meanwhile, no precipitation is expected for the Giants and the rest of the “left coast.”
Even worse is the contact made. Improving though
Year Rank (out of 30) Contact made on swings
2008 15 80.8%
2009 27 78.6%
2010 19 80.0%
2011 13 81.0%
2012 5 81.9%
Putting all the stats and all the ‘whatif’s aside, I can’t stop thinking that the injuries are getting into the players heads… Nothing seems to be stable as players are and will continue to be rotating like a merry-go-round from AAA. To me, the Marlins games were an example of players looking around themselves as to who is going to drive the runners on 2nd & 3rd in and coming up empty…. And when that happens, it gets in the heads of the starters/pen and disastrous distractions will develop… hmmmm 2011 all over again?
Too much cranium thoughts here?… ok.. I hope I’m wrong… we’ll see with the Brewers in town..
Anybody think we need to make a trade?
Not yet, it is only May, no reason to go into full on panic mode. IMO
Can’t wait to hear your proposal, Loo.
Pablo had a nearly identical shot over the RF wall on Tuesday. And he regularly hit drives like that. Both his and Stanton’s Tuesday HR’s can be seen on MLB.COM. You can go go Gameday and the highlights..
As if we didn’t know it, we lost our owm monster. Stanton has been slow getting started this year but a peek at relevant numbers from last year show: ( BA, OBP, OPS, OPS+)
Stanton .262 .356 .893 141
Panda .315 .355 .909 155
Now this year, Stanton will need step it up to catch even Belt
Stanton .267 .308 .750 102
Belt .292 .370 .766 120
BTW, the breakdown of NL first basemen on my Belt page is before yesterday’s games. He’s stll 7th among the 20 with 50 minimum plate appearances, however.The numbers are extremely fluid still- even Brandon Crawfod has been better than Pujols. I did the breakdown anyway, to show that Belt fares much better than some imagine..
True that maybe the injury bug biting again gets into some players’ heads, but it’s also true that it presents opportunities to others. The key is, do the others step up or not. Torres eventually did for Rowand, etc. Some players need to get it into their heads that they can help, and then do it. We’ll see who does. I think I’ve long echoed James and Michael about Belt; I’d also bet on Blanco, hope for Arias. Gillaspie, we can only watch, hope he holds his own.
Kat, great reference to Momento. James, yeah, line drives are sweet. Dwight Evans was someone I saw do that a lot in Boston, just savage drives that would reach that left field tin wall in about 1.5 seconds and sound like an explosion in the night, bouncing so fast and far back onto the field that he could only get singles out it. Loo, trade who for who? or is it whom for whom…
… get singles out of it, forgot the ‘of’
that one that was a double that zito left way up and out over the plate hit the wall above melk in about two seconds. Reminded me of george foster, who used to do that to Sf after he got to the Reds, of course.
I know he’s overhyped to the max, but I’ve seen Harper already hit a couple lasers off the OF wall.
Well we always have Zito. Players come and go but like a rock he’s around.
Lookin’ for a girl, I ran into a guy.
His name is MCA, I said “howdy”, he said “hi.”
RIP
Just heard that, DNR. Sad. He was only 47.
Yeah, Nipper, Zito is the rock tied around our collective neck. Dragging us down inexorably into the depths of despair. Once every 5 days.
Barry Bonds ring any bells? He hit line drive HRs like that 8 days a week.
I attended games when Bonds played. Not now. Overpriced stuff for a weak line-up.
Giants management in general seems to prefer hitters with an aggressive approach. Or maybe a better way to put it is that they’ve shown a studied indifference to players who have a patient style. Certainly, Huff, Burrell, and Beltran would be arguments against the idea that a particular philosophy is at work. Still, I think it is fair to say that they are simply more comfortable with the offensive shortcomings of players like Nate and Pill than a B. Belt. It does show in team stats that usually feature relatively high BAs/low OBPs.
Very good observation, it has been evident for quite a while over multiple managers, but certainly all under Sabean. Giants appear not to give a crap about players not working the count. I mean, really give a crap. If they did, they would not select the players they do as FAs, nor would we see the minor leaguers coming up that we see that swing at crap, and find it hard to take pitches. It was severely evident the other night in person when I saw the Marlins spit on the shit Zito was throwing up there — so that he had thrown 90 pitches into the 4th. The Giants, of course, were hard pressed to take Zambrano to a 1-1 or 2-1. With RISP, SF hitters take the pressure off the pitcher when they swing early in the count.. Bochy has consistently used the word “aggressive”, particularly in regards to Belt. Belt has a damn good OBP, a very good eye for a pup, and still was jacking out balls last year on a 1 for 20 ABs clip. Then the major league coaches got a hold of him, started fucking around with the “hole” in his swing, and now he’s hitting a lot to left, swinging earlier in the count, and has lost his power stroke for the time being. All for being aggressive…
True James. I don’t disagree with the approach to an extent. You don’t want a bunch of guys with bats on their shoulders that only look for walks. It is good to have them swing the bat but when those batters consistently swing and miss at pitches out of the zone then there is a concern. As shown above they are getting worse at recognizing the pitches to hit.
I think this is why the club has done well against the better pitchers in the league and struggled against pitchers
with less velocity. Power pitchers tend to be around the zone more and overpower the batter whereas soft tossers are depending on deception.
The problem is that I don’t think you can fine tune it the way you’d like across an entire roster, Dirt. And a team that finishes, say, 6th in OBP and 8th in BA is likely to outscore one that has it the other way around.
I don’t think it can be fine tuned either but when the lineup taken as a whole is regressing it points to a systematic approach that is not a receipe for success as evidenced by the team’s poor offensive ranking (2010 being the exception). Snarkk pretty much said what I was going to say for Belt.
BTW, I certainly wasn’t saying that other players don’t hit really impressive 360 ft line drives — I’ve just never seen anyone do it 3 times out of 8(?) ABs.
Velez ruined the RF wall- I saw drives bounce back to the infield off the wall. BTW, he’s now in the Cardinal system, hitting .303 8-10 in stolen bases for AAA Memphis. Mattingly should be ashamed for not making sure that Gino got his hit last year..
Like everything else, they need some balance in the approach. The Backfoot Boys put themselves in the hole because they are too passive early in the count- taking fastballs that are hittable ( or missing them), setting up the pitch no one can hit and few can lay off of. Watching that Bowker Gang take fastballs brought to mind what Morgan said ( I think it was Joe)..”What are you waiting for- a curve?”
In 622 ML PAs, Bowker had 39 walks. I’m not sure he falls into the patient hitter category.
I didn’t say he did. Like a lot of the Backfoot Boyz, he passed up good pitches to hit and swung at bad ones.”Dumb” isn’t a synonym for “patient”..I know who is and isn’t a patient hitter.
That was a misperception with those kids- the problem was less the backfoot slider but putting themselves in position to get the pitch. Of course he didn’t walk much- he frigging struck out on the bad pitch and took early good (as in hittable) ones..
I just assume that’s the MO for many failed major league hitters. Bowker was strange because BBs were a big part of his minor league game.
Well, the BB became a big part in 2009 at Fresno, it wasn’t until then. Like others, that’s what excited me- it seemed he’d learned. I remember when he he came back up- he then flailed at the first breaking ball in the dirt he saw and they might as well have just put him back on the plane then..
Well, it is hard to find a silver lining after losing three to the Fish.
On the bright side…the team only gave up 8 runs over three games. Shoulda won at least one of those.
The Brew Crew comes to town losing 7 of their last 9. Let’s hope that trend continues. Giants need to get a little win streak going.
The Marlins are a good team who had been playing bad ball. Some people lumped them in with the Padres, which is absurd.
I heard Jim Bowden, former Reds GM, on the radio this morning. With regard to Belt, his remark was that especially now with Panda down, just fuckin’ leave him in the lineup every day for the next 6 weeks (paraphrasing). Against righties, lefties, doesn’t matter. You need to let the kid hit against all comers and get in a groove, or let him fail. You need to find out what the kid can do, stop phucking around with platooning. He cited Freeman in Atlanta as an example. Bowden may not be the best expert when it comes to Giants, but I figure a guy who has been a GM with a couple of MLB teams probably knows a little something about player development. Especially when he agrees with my opinion…
The Brandon Crawford band wagon is broken. Power Wheels Jeep being pulled by a burro. Now the burro is dead. An opossum is chewing on the dead burro and actually pulling it backwards. You don’t have to get off, but I hope you don’t have any appointments. It”be be awhile.
It might be time to rename the blog to something like “bebegirafe9.com”. Last year, Belt hit 1 HR in his first 67 PAs, 8 over the final 142.
Crawford grabs some pine
Blanco RF
Gillaspie 3B
Cabrera LF
Posey C
Pagan CF
Belt 1B
Arias SS
Burriss 2B
Lincecum
Our short-term hopes dashielhamated, this seems like the best LU given the options.
Should appeal to the Fresno crowd…
Who do you have in mind and where?
Not diggin’ Pagan in the 5-hole.
Where do you think he’d be best?
We front-load w/ a shock full of blinding OBP, then second-strike w/ aweful power. This plan is foolproof. I call it, “Operation Grandslam.” I’ve devoted 15 minutes of my life to it.
Really? What did you use the other 14 minutes for? Baddaboomp.
I’d switch Belt and Pagan; or put Pagan second, and Gillaspie at 7th, although that second choice would weaken the bottom of the lineup.
… interwebz pr0n, of course. There’s a shortage, could run out any day now.
I’d switch Belt and Pagan also.
It was a nice day at the ballyard yesterday, regardless of the final results. The weather was overcast, but actually comfortable and even a little balmy. Section 315 in the upperdeck is straight behind homeplate. Blanco was terrific. His running slap-hit to left looked like something Ty Cobb would have done. Melky hit to leftfield also very nicely for some hits, until the two runners-on situation, and then he pulled the first pitch to the firstbaseman for a doubleplay, so go figure.
Melky made some terrific throws. Vogel pitched well. The Giants are just going to have to find ways to grind out wins. Make the routine plays, play fundamental baseball. Take the extra-base when they can. All that cliche stuff. Play better defense, obviously. Especially Crawford.
Great post-game meal. We walked to the Korean BBQ place at the Metreon foodcourt. Very good food at a reasonable price.
—-
Alley’s post this morning about “Memento” was awesome. It’s always important to retain a sense of humor about this stuff.
Wow, that hole in Belt’s swing is bigger than we thought. (kidding)
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/04/11540025-giant-sinkhole-threatens-to-swallow-house-forces-family-and-its-pets-to-flee?lite
Monte Poole (Mercury Sports) was right today when he cautioned not to be down about the current state of the Giants, especially in lieu of other teams around MLB who are floundering even worse than us (e.g., Phillies, Red Sox, Angels). I loved this line . . .
“The Giants have spent most of the season bobbing around the .500 mark. That’s what they are and what they will be as long as they rely on the pitching of a .600 team, the fielding of a .500 team and the hitting of a .400 team.”
The fielding’s been decidedly sub .500 team, wouldn’t you say?
It was more the way he said it Loo (but yeah, the fielding is nothing to write home about) . . . Read the entire article – no idea that this guy Poole was such a good writer (i.e., a couple of other parts of the column where he has a way with words).
Not that anyone cares, but the Kentucky Derby has joined the Super Bowl in the category of major sporting events that I’ve grown to hate…
——–
Cody Ransom just hit a 2 run HR for AZ, about 400 feet…..
So Ransom is the new Lamb?
No, I’m on McGehee. They’ve never adequately replaced Shea Hillebrand…
Hate!
Andres Torres, batting RH, just missed a HR by an inch….
Andres 2-2, RBI single…
I thought we were in rough shape. How bad must the Orioles be? They’re bringing back Miguel Tejada.
The Orioles would be better off coaxing Edgar Renteria out of retirement then go with Tejada.
“Ain’t seen the light of day since we started this band, MCA-ay get on the mic my man”
Saw the Beasties open for Madonna at the Open Air Theatre on the San Diego State campus when I was a student there in the 80’s. The place has about 3,000 seats. Also saw Guns n Roses open for The Cult there a couple of years later. Must confess I also thoroughly enjoyed a hair band triple header at the same venue that featured Kix, Great White, and Tesla. I’ve always been partial to Tesla as they played a couple of our dances at Woodland High when they were called “City Kid.” Open Air Theater back in those days had a liberal alcohol policy that allowed you to bring in one container of beer—as long as it was not glass and no larger than a gallon!!! We’d each bring in an empty milk container full of something like Schaefer, MeisterBrau, or Lucky Lager. I’m not making this shit up!!
Gawd, the 80’s kicked ass.
I’m off to the Pads game with the kids. Tonite would be a helluva good time for Timmy to throw a shutout.
Didn’t realize you were a Wolf. My niece will be running with the pack in a couple of years and my son just chose the Tritons over the Aztecs.
Glad to see Brandon Crawford out of the LU.The dude is just pressing to much.Yeah I can take some of his AB’s as just being inexperienced and rushed up through the organization partly because they thought Tejada could do the job which was ludicrous, but his fielding has been a real letdown with the exception of a few great plays.
Yeah the the Brandon Crawford band wagon is broken. Power Wheels Jeep being pulled by a burro. Now the burro is dead An opossum is chewing on the dead burro and actually pulling it backwards. You don’t have to get off, but I hope you don’t have any appointments. It”be awhile.
I can’t say I’m glad that he’s out of the LU- other than what’s already here, we have zero SS prospects close to ready, if they’ll be ready at all. Adrianza looks like he’ll never hit, and Panik is struggling in a hitters league. We got nuttin’. Noonan has been moved to SS and is hitting pretty well in Fresno but everybody hits in Fresno…well, Eli is at .208
It’s a crying shame!
Pagan in the five is fine. Why add to the pressure Belt feels already? Pagan has been around the block. He can handle it.
There’s no pressure difference between the 5 and 6…
Thornton blew the save for the White Sox (Peralta home run) . . . More security for my guy, who hasn’t exactly set Earth on fire either. Ha.
Sale is the new closer.
LOL . . . No shit. I just read about it . . . Daily double for Dennis (Peralta hits the HR for him and he gains a new closer too). Pox on both him and Chuck.
It is not everyday I get to see an AmyG teaser before the game. Watching on MLB TV rather than the real ComCast broadcast. And I MUST say seeing that bit about Flav’s newest member going deep for the inside-‘er with Amy, well, it just made me feel a good feeling for the rest of tonight’s action.
🙂
Go Gigantes!
Right now I would have your best hitter Posey with Panda out batting 3rd,Cabera 4th Belt 5th.You want Posey to get those extra AB’s in the 3rd hole when the LU turns over.
Just played my “Cookie Puss” 12″ in honor of the departed Beastie.
Thumbs up!
Jesus here we go again…Timmy making a mess of the 1st inning.
Timmy’s back to his old (new) self again with these early inning runs.
3-0 lead with Greinke on the mound? I can start reading the Racing Form early tonight.
This is Dennis’ bad karma at work!
“His piñatas fight back.”
With tomorrow being Derby Day, you know what I did today? I stocked up on ice. I got a shitload of ice. I’m all set in that dept. Now if you’d just come over with your shovel and clean up this shit, I’d be gold.
Watching Lincecum right now is paramount to watching Zito’s first year with the Giants.
Or the second, or the third, or the fourth . . .
Bet the Giants would have start winning and get out a this funk if they wore those Killer Cool Colt 45 ‘s Jerseys Wilco!!!
The sad part is the Giants are on their way to having the same record as EL Lastros.
I’m ready to turn to the porn channel.
You only have ONE?!
Fuckin’ A, just once can the Giants hold the other team to a zero in the top of the 1st?
What about the first 75 feet that he half-assed, Kruk?
The sad thing is the Giants are hitting better than my FL team 😦
#Fuckmewithabroom. And it’s not Making Due. It’s Making Do. #Whothefuckcaresthefirstinning putmeinafoulmoodthishasgottostop.
He just has no idea where the ball is going. No idea WTF is wrong with him. I don’t think he’s hurt, as I’ve said for weeks. He’s just lost right now……..
He’s not “picking up the dollar” on most of his pitches. Where the fuck’s his dad?
Where in the fuck is his dad, indeed….
It is not interesting to watch Timmeh’s face go from warrior to wtf
Tims done.
Oh BLEEP IT!
Bochy can’t send him out there to start the 3rd unless he wants this deficit to become insurmountable…..
50 PITCHES IN 2 INNINGS WOW!!! Bullpen game early tonight.
The ONLY postive right now is the fact that we didn’t sign him long term…His agent’s probably punching walls right now.
Almost everybody looks fat on my TV. Belt’s ass looks 3 feet wide from the CF camera…
Lucky they didn’t last pan on his wife’s ass.
You know things are bad when they show more shots of the fucking sunset than the field.
I shared a sentiment in this vein when Mrs. James called my attention to one of the sunset shots.
I had to capture those shots of the sunset, working on my home-sick-ness
🙂
This is progress and it is hard to pull a progressing SP
1st – 3 runs
2nd – 3 base runners 0 runs
3rd – 1-2-3 outs
This is practically deja vu on what Barry Zito was doing Wednesday – early runs scored in the 1st, high pitch count and walking everybody.
I’d like to see Timmy step on a scale. He couldn’t weight more than about 160.
Timmeh…is smoking the new line of Jenny Craig reefer BF
I weigh 168 and he looks lighter than me.
How tall are you
5’11”
that 3rd strike to Tim was right where tim threw all his balls in the first inning
and, DMD, I mean he threw balls tonight
Kent-Bonds?
The game Melky won against the Mets on a Friday night, evoking chants of MELKY MELKY MELKY, feels like 37 years ago.
It’s getting past your bedtime, mate, everything seems a while ago.
Padres just scored more runs in the 3rd inning tonight vs.the Marlins than the Giants did in three games.
Triple play time…
lqtm. You donating your brain to science too Loo?
Hey, from Steve Blass-like tragedy to a near quality start — what drama.
Yeah, I take back what I said about Timmy pulling a “Zito.” He’s pitching quite well now . . . However, like the last 3 games we’ve played, we have to play catch-up . . . not certain that’s possible the way we’ve been hitting.
The Kult of Nate.
Bah. Schierholtz PH was not part of my plan — which was otherwise foolproof.
Seems like Nate’s been stuck on 3/9 for a month…
I really like the way Blanco sticks to *his* strike zone rather than giving in to the variable, bullshit interpretations of the umps.
PaGONE took a horrible angle (Light) on that ball. Fit that bastard with some blinkers.
I was at that Wood, DMD…maybe as stunned as I’ve ever seen a racetrack crowd…
How about the Suicide SQUEEZE by Ishi.That’ never an option with Bochy Ball.
That was Deckinger-bad…
Denkinger…
Still not nearly as bad as this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goZAKhjG15k
Bullshit call.
Pagan has some “crazy” in him– I like it
Maybe that’s how he got his nickname-Crazy Horse…
Thank you for the error Ricky.Helps allite for that hose job on Pagan.
New ballgame!
loved this fucking song, thanks for posting it.
I still remember when the Beasties bum rushed the stage after REM took the Best Video over this one…I think Spike Jonze directed this, if memory serves…Great song, even better video.
I love Greinke, but I love my Gmen scorin’ runs even more.
Ha! The make-up call.
Now this is some exciting Baseball, the Giants string together some good hits.Make up call at first, Pagan’s look in dugout tells it all.