Making Due With a Triple AAA Infield
Well, they got *Jaime’d* by Garcia last night. It’s frustrating to watch them hack away at every pitch thrown their way; especially a night after they took 10 walks. Last night? No walks. In fact, there wasn’t a walk issued in the entire game. I’m not sure how often that happens. Anyway, if you are not a power hitting team you HAVE to take walks. They did manage 9 hits though very few of them were at the right *time*………
Now, to the headline at hand…..When you’ve got an infield that goes Pill at first, Culberson at 2nd, Crawford at SS and Burriss at 3rd, you are talking about an elite, potentially *all star* infield—-at least, an infield in Triple A. While there is a little to like about all 4 of those players, the fact is, at least 3 of them and maybe all 4 will find themselves back in the minor leagues this year—and yet that was our starting infield last night.
I realized how bad it had gotten when I was driving home from my softball game last night and bummin’ out on the fact that Arias wasn’t somewhere in the line up. Think about that: I was lamenting the fact that Joaquin Freaking Arias wasn’t playing. Again, nice player, he’s shown some skills and even won some games for us. But he’s another guy that could EASILY be playing in the minor leagues right now and probably still would be if it weren’t for all the injuries to our infield this year.
When you start dreaming about what Arias could be doing to save the offense it’s time for a major reality check: this infield, as presently constructed, needs some help. Pablo returning will help. Belt taking over first base and hitting like everyone says he will hit would help (he’s hitting .239 right now). Arias overcoming his injury and taking over short stop would help. Those are three extremely realistic expectations that would save us from ever having to take a gander around the horn and shuddering at the combination of Burriss, Crawford, Culberson and Pill………
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Final Note: I wasn’t around to moderate the blog last night and don’t feel like doing it now since I have a new thread up and i have better things to do this morning than delete a bunch of posts. Let’s hit the re-start button today and get back to talking about baseball and steering clear of personal attacks. I don’t mind a little back and forth at all. In fact, it’s encouraged. But keep it somewhat respectful and then drop it after a bit. Another excellent tactic to practice is to ignore posts that you find offensive. For the most part, this blog runs pretty smoothly so I hope all I’m doing right now is sending out a *reminder* to everyone. Thanks…………
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Weatherproof games: Yankees at Blue Jays, Red Sox at Rays and Brewers at Astros.
Denver could see an afternoon thunderstorm, and there will be areas of fog rolling in off the San Francisco Bay, but other than those two sites, weather will not be a factor on Thursday. Expect predominantly sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s for Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington and Chicago. It will a little bit cooler in Cleveland, and seasonably warmer (in the 80s) in Kansas City, Atlanta and Texas.
Blade are you absolutely sure on the “Weather Proof Games?
There could be a ice age effect in Toronto freezing out fans….A major Hurricane in Tampa…and a Category 5 Twister hitting Houston.
99.9% certain Kat . . . However, here at “Blade Weather” we report the weather, we don’t predict it.
Michigan Grias
I imagine each one of those guys is pressing. They’ve each had their latte and know that a bus trip to the nearest Dennys might be in their near future. If I’m in that group, I’d call for a good old fashion rookie meatin’. Get in a cab and go to the House of Prime Rib. Eat meat like a 49er lineman, drink cocktails like Bukowski and enjoy my day in the sun.
you know, that might not be a bad idea. they all should know each other pretty well by now. get together and work out how this is going to go. wouldn’t they be demanding “winning” if they were in AAA? Tell each other that they’re in it together and by god, no one is going to stop them. And eating meat and drinking like a sailor doesn’t suck either.
Hell ewisco, if I was in SF, I wouldn’t mind going for a “meatin'” at the House of Prime Rib myself. That place has always worked well as an attitude adjustment for me.
I’m not one for second guessing Bochy but did anyone question his strategy of pitching to the lefty Schumacher? I know it sounds crazy to walk Schumacher to get to Holladay, but with Edlefsen, the RH sinker baller, first base open, I might have done it. Especially considering Holladay has never hit well at AT&T. Easy perhaps in hindsight, because he hit a perfect DP ball and the next guy, too.
Anyway, agree about Arias and the infield. Got to thinking last night Fontenot and Keppinger would look pretty freking good right about now. Not much they can do at this point barring a trade. That could be hard to pull off this early.
excuse me, Holliday
Cubs 2B Blake DeWitt was available, clearing waivers going back to AAA.Shit he would of been a upgrade over Burriss.
If font and kep, both of whom I liked, had done better last year, they might still be here. Neither one of them hit much at all while here; font was barely over the mendoza line and kep had an OPS of about .650. Kep is pretty wooden as a 2b, and font isn’t going to blow anyone away with his arm.
Sabes figured he had it covered btw the kids and theriot I guess. With all the injuries bochy just doesn’t have enough competent bodies to cover 2b ss and 3b. The kids are finding out how hard it is to step up a level–everything happens a little faster and all the guys out there are really good.
One good thing that has happened is that with blanco success at the top, Pagan has had some nice hits batting lower in the order. with sando and pagan sandwiched around melk posey, it’s not that bad of a LU.
I didn’t say it was a rational thought..;)
You’re right. Neither of them did enough to make me want them back.
Hey Chuck, what is up with your blog? anyway, BF does not have a check box that request an email be sent for every comment. I have to go in an manually uncheck it. find out how to get rid of that check box or find out how to make it default to unchecked. Hopefully that will stop the emails
Thanks Kevin
I have to manually go in to your blog and uncheck it.
The setting I had to tweak to turn this off was in Word Press. Not sure if you have to be in the blog from which you are getting the emails (would assume so). I cannot even recall exactly where the setting was (it wasn’t easy getting to it), and Blade provided some info on how to get at the setting. Good luck…that is a royal pain in the ass getting an email related to every post on the blog.
I noticed there was again an attempt to pin a huge amount of blame for the 2011 finish on Beltran. I cannot let that pass without trying to show that this is nonsense in yet another way 🙂
Beltran produced 20 runs in September, 6 in August. Here are the Giants runs scored/allowed stats and W-L records for August and September:
Aug.: 78/104 11-18
Sept.: 110/95 14-11
Let’s assume that Beltran produced 21 runs in August instead of 6. Add 15 to the runs scored in August for a total of 93 runs. The Giants record would have at best been 14-15 with those totals. Assuming that Beltran continued with a > 1000 OPS in September and the 20 runs produced, the Giants still come up short. Considering that an expectation of a >1000 OPS over 2 months is unrealistic, there is no case for focusing on Beltran’s excellent performance for the Giants as a key part of their failure. BTW, the Giants were all of 3 games out on August 27th.
The Heroic Man theory is ok for explaining success in the very short run; over 2 months it’s just another questionable form of American individualism (Hey, I vote left, too.) That’s the magic-killing beauty of macro -SABR stats.
“Beltran’s excellent performance for the Giants”???
Wow- don’t ever tell me stats don’t lie.
well, the guy hit .300 while he was here and had an OPS of .900. Only other guy on the whole team to hit near that well was sandoval. I understand people not liking the guy for whatever reason, but blaming beltran for what happened last year seems unfair to me….there obviously was plenty enough blame to go around to players that were here all year, and were flat out disappointing.
Read the above and comprehend it.
TF had an excellent post about that yesterday, showing how Beltran failed when they needed him most. I’ll try to find it.
Found it. TF was responding to someone else’s post:
twinfan1 said, on May 16, 2012 at 4:02 pm
“When Beltran wasn’t hurt, he hit well..’ not true.
He was 11-46 before the injury with 0 HR and 2 RBI, then 9-34 the rest of August after the injury with 1 HR and another 2 RBI.So the last few days of July and all of August he was 20-80 with 1 HR and 4 RBI.
He did hit well in September.But they lost 10 games in the standings between when he was acquired and August 31. Obviously not all his fault but he hurt them big time…
What was said was that it hardly all his fault, I gave accurate numbers for him, and never pinned a “huge amount of blame”. That is your incorrect translation of what was said. He did hurt them with his July/August performance- that can’t be denied. Another poster, even after seeing those end of July and August numbers was still claiming he hit well during that time. It was also stated that he had no protection the line up, actually, he mostly hit in front of Pablo, they did not pitch around him, and Pablo hit well in August despite no help from the 3 hitter (Beltran) or 5 hitter ( Huff). As I said- Beltran did hurt them, as did some others. But like it or not- when a player is obtained for a couple months for a top prospect, he is expected to perform well for more half the time. I’ll call him HemiMan…
BTW, I have often posted that I still would have wanted him back, I *do* understand that he is still a top hitter, but I’m not in denial about his poor performance before September that HELPED doom their play off chances. The big dog was late to the hunt…
Well said, Michael. I agree..and I too would have liked him back.
This is not really a response to my post. The idea that Beltran — or anyone else — can hurt the team with a 940 OPS is absurd. If he had been nearly twice as productive as he was –and he was already quite good — the Giants still would have come up short. A 940 OPS spread out more evenly over the 2 months would have done no more or less to improve the Giants final record. They would have scored a few more runs in August and few less in September. See the analysis above. And, again, they were only 3 games out on 8/27. He was not late to anything.
I’ve seen guys clamoring for font almost everyday on pav’s blog…last year he hit .227 with an OPS of .680, struck out once every 5 times up and had on OB of .300. Don’t know why, but it was one of his worst years at the plate. Less annoying than a lot of others here last year sure, but…
Kep just fell apart after leaving Stro land. His slugging dropped 100 pts., the OB 35 more, and his OPS went from .750 to .618 for SF. Maybe he was hurt as flav theorized, but in over 200 ABs he just didn’t hit here.
The vet guy from this level player I wanted was Jamey Carroll, who hit .290 for LA and was a 2.2 WAR player for them. He signed with twins, where he isn’t doing much at all this year. Contact hitter, no pop, not going to wow anyone with the glove but has played other positions besides 2b.
Frustrations with the middle IF are understandable…as I recall Loo called this out as major weakness long ago. But more frustrating to me last couple nights was watching the SPs give the lead back after SF scored. And both guys gave up some hard hit shots on “mistakes in location.” Casilla too.
Clamoring for Font…..OK, now I’m depressed. (grin)
As always, I will begin with an intelligent post about baseball. It will not propose punishing umpires for being human beings, condone throwing objects at them, or some of the othe comments that arose supporting the cause of a player who hurled an object at the umpire and quite possibly was the instigator that emboldened the idiot fan to throw his beer at Johnson, also hitting him.So far a poll at USA today shows that 70 percent of about 1500 votes so far feel that the penalty to Lawrie was either too soft or just right, BTW. Those were terrible calls but there are evaluations of the umpire’s performances, a procedure that can lead to loss of postseason assignments, fines, etc, for poor performance from the men in blue. Lawrie may not have intended that his helmet strike the ump, but his rage was such that he hurled where only a lucky bouince would kept it from hitting the ump. About 10 grand and 10 games sounds about right, and a ban for the year on the fan…
NOW, our Fresno Grizzlies: actually, that intended insult is unintentionally not a bad thing. We’re having some young position players move up through the system,and some have contributed- Pill, Hector, Belt, even Crawford.. I’d posit that this is preferable to the old farts just semi-plugging holes. If Timmy can get it together, the return of Pablo, Arias at SS or second-or both- moves the team right back in it.
And some of us will continue to think the whole thing was pretty funny, including the ump getting hit with the beer.
And, btw- how could a fan actually be banned for the rest of the season? Check ID on every fan entering the stadium the rest of the season?
fans get banned all the time. The NBA banned all those fans who were a part of the Malice at the Palace got lifetime bans. A couple other guys earlier this year, including the Greatest Fan ever or whatever that Clipper fan calls himself, got banned for life.
How is it enforced?
Good call, Bozo, on the suggested night out. Sounds like the Babe Ruth and Micky Mantle approach, hell, if it’s good enough for them…. Pablo and Arias need to heal quickly. Pill I think will stick, but those other three, ya’ll are right, it’s dismal at the moment. As for Beltran… obviously you can’t blame him for the Giants not making it last year. But nonetheless, yes, the Giants “were all of 3 games out on August 27th”, but they were also about 4 games atop the division a month before that, just before Beltran joined the team. It’s just a weird thing that stats cannot explain.
zum, I have wondered about that myself. Are the stadiums employing advanced recognition technology? Does the fan attend their next game in Groucho glasses or with the cap pulled low and oversized shades like a celebrity in disguise?
As Flavor said, it’s done all the time. obviously, a fan who had season tickets could be more easily banned. But thinking that throwing objects at the umpire is funny? Sad. BTW, the Orioles banned a guy for life earler this year, Batman, no less. You could ask them how they intend to enforce it.
Nowhere have I said or insinuated that I thought it was funny. I’ll anticipate your apology 🙂
Zumie said it was, I never said you did.
zumie said, on May 17, 2012 at 8:51 am (Edit)
And some of us will continue to think the whole thing was pretty funny, including the ump getting hit with the beer.
What if your the twin brother of someone banned for life?
They’re both screwed.
Except it is a reply to mine. I agree with you though. Apologies are overrated.
I apologize for accidentally putting it under reply.
I really don’t care to revisit 2011 and the Giants epically bad offensive ineptitude, but beltran showed me he could hit here…unlike: Huff, whitey, stewart, font, kepp, crawford, tejada, o-cab, ross, torres, rowand, and nate.
A drunken fandiot should be easy to ban- Batman could scale the stadium walls, that would be tougher.
All’s not lost. The traffic judge reduced my ticket for seat belt violation down to $120 from $160. So remember to buckle up on the way to the ballpark near you.
What makes it funny to some of us is that the ump was a pompous hot-head who obviously made the last strike call to “punish” the batter. Most of the umps are pretty mediocre. They get about half of the close calls wrong.
And the beer hit the guy in his chest-protector. I don’t sanction throwing stuff at umps, I’m just saying the whole piece of video, as a piece of video, is funny to some of us.
And is there anything funnier in a baseball game than when a pitch is completely missed the catcher and hits the ump. Oh, who here amongst us has not laughed at that at one time or another?
Jerry Grote was known to do it on purpose…
Umpires, like catchers , can get concussions from thrown baseballs. So my answer is: no, I have never laughed at that.
How do you feel about the “Dunk the Clown” game at carnivals?
Well, here’s a funny story about an umpire who got hit by a pitch:
http://tinyurl.com/7sgda93
If I ever go to a carnival where “Dunk the Clown” is a feature, I’ll get back to you on it. However, I will say that if it was found that that durn Johnson was getting paid to have drinks thrown at him, I’d have to change my opinion on this and just say that that fan missed the buuleye and his girlfriend won’t be getting a teddy bear..
“Dunk the Clown”? Hey now, I only call em like I see em.
Drunk the Clown?
Well, most ballplayers are pretty mediocre.
“And the beer hit the guy in his chest-protector…” so the fan, like Lawrie, was lucky he didn’t hurt the ump.
Hate to interrupt good baseball talk, but …. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0h8Pjf4vNM&ob=av2e
One of the best sultry sensual performances of all time, way ahead of her time, ’78, Ms. Donna Summers. I hated the disco “scene” in those days, never participated in it, but there was actually some good music. May she rest in peace.
I hated that scene too, Paul but I admit to liking the music. If you wanted to meet girls you pretty much had to go at least once in awhile. There’s a Studio 54 station on Sirius (#15) that will make you feel like it’s 1977..
This is entirely horrible news. Donna Summer was the queen of disco, and I mean that in the most complimentary way. She and Moroder had a combo going that was something special. He must feel horrible today. Paul, you picked her masterpiece, IMO. Moroder was/is a genius and a visionary in electronic music, and he did many great things including Midnight Express, one of the great soundtracks of all time. But, she put the soul into his genius. Anyone that doesn’t feel something strong and lusty and more than a bit deliciously nasty when they hear “I Feel Love” is about alive as the Giants offense…
Affects me just a tad more than the Whitney news. Even as I was slowly selling off my Wishbone Ash and Keef Hartley albums, her stuff continued to sit proudly next to my punk rock 45s.
Her first collaboration with Moroder. “Love to Love You, Baby”. Classic ’70s. Original, loooong version — plenty long enough to, well, set the mood and let your woman lov ‘ya, baby…
http://tinyurl.com/3h8ej2z
Charlie Culberson was on KNBR just a few minutes ago. Good character and personality. He even took all the “wife comments” in stride and with aplomb. He still sucks and can’t hit a baseball worth a shit, but he’s a good sport nonetheless.
Blanco RF, Crawford SS, Cabrera LF, Posey C, Pagan CF, Belt 1B, Burriss 3B, Culberson 2B, (Cain P)
Well, that’s a sad story about Drummond, but forever umps will be the natural comic foils on the baseball field. Some of them are the most prickly, arrogant, and thin-skinned of all sports officials.
Fine.
Agreed. And, becoming more so, they are. Another reason for more use of video replay to take away from them the results of their frequent missed calls…
Well, the umpire union is eithr very strong or baseball just does not want to use it, they llke the human error element. The umpires through a fit over TV using computer graphics to show balls and strikes.
Instant replay being expanded is a good idea. Besides helping get calls right, it would spare a guy like Joyce from receiving death threats and many umpires from needless abuse for being human.
Well, I hope most here realize thatv expanding replay would not change anything about a situation like yesterday’s. There is none chance that ball and strike calls would be subject to replay and it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting it to. Well, those 4 hour games would mean more concession sales..
Welcome to the human condition, Mike. Of all the injustices in the world, this is pretty low on the grand scheme of things to fret about. How many umps have been murdered due to bad calls?
I know it happens in Guatemalan soccer leagues, but it hasn’t hit home. Yet.
Reducing ignorant animus towards men who make honest mistakes is one of the very real advantages in instant replay, Chuckie. No one except you has mentioned murder.
Zumie, unrelated to baseball, I know you (and possibly others here would enjoy this) . . . Specifically, under “Inter-activities,” click on The Scale of the Universe, then click on Start. It will plant your ass approximately in the middle of the Universe scale (where Humans are) . . . Move the scale to the left or right to start with the largest or smallest thing in the universe. I just got this from a friend and I haven’t even scratched the surface of what else is here. No idea how long it takes to get through it because I am near the “Sloan Great Wall” which lies one billion light years away from us.
http://htwins.net/
Yes use video replay. MLB is still in the stone age.
Lets get a Giants DH! Oh wait, Huff is it!
That was my original point in all this. The ump delays the 3-1 call til Lawrie starts toward 1st. The ump makes a bad call, and waited until Lawrie starts his trot to make the bad call. In retaliation, he rings up Lawrie on an even worse pitch. Yeah, the ump will get some sort of fallout for being a provocatuer, but to Lawrie, it’s game over. There’s no re-do for him. The ump likely wasn’t on the short list for playoff work anyway, so it’s no skin off his ass. I understand why Lawrie’s furious. He got jobbed by a hack. The helmet toss? Whatever. If he wanted to hit the ump, he should have thrown it AT him, not the ground. And, to soothe your savage breast, Mike, I’m not advocating it. He threw the helmet on the ground. It took the bounce it did. Oooops. Lawrie apparently rescinded his appeal and will take the 4 games off. Shit, he’s a stupid Canuck. He probably thought he was playing hockey. They punch refs all the time.
.
They should send the ump to Fresno.
In other words, there’s no reason to think that the ump, who knows Lawrie’s rep as a hot-head, didn’t instigate this whole thing for some sort of perverse power trip. Could have cost the BJays the game, and an eventual spot in the playoffs.
It was thrown at him. At, toward, same thing. Not “at” him would be toward one side or the other. It would have taken a “lucky” bounce to miss him. Of course Lawrie rescinded his appeal. If he has anyone with brain advising him, he was told that 4 games was a soft penalty.
Read the Wilson in transcript at the Merc. “Laying Carpet”, “I don’t gnome what you’re talkign about.” Dude is pretty funny.
Asked about his elbow —
Q: “Was there a point where you knew something was wrong?”
A: “Birth”
Now THAT’s funny…
HAHA, yeah I liked that one too. Rehab sucks, it’s good to see him keeping a sense of humor.
I’m moving on to how the Orioles think they’re going to enforce the ban on Batman.
That’s pretty funny. He’s no Morganna, though.
Amazing how out of shape the cops are. How are they going to catch a dude that really, really doesn’t want to be caught?…
I don’t think I’ve seen a recent pic of her.That would be a pretty scary sight.
Cool website, Blade! Very creative and informative.
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As for replay- I heard a couple of broadcasters on one of the games talking about how there could easily be a 5th umpire in the booth, especially for the close plays at first. Those are the most blown calls during the season, apart from balls and strikes. The irony of it all is that the person making the call at first is the person with the worst view. The firstbase ump could have a small earphone, and could get quick help on extremely close plays at first. Even if it added a few more minutes to games, it would be worth it. Yeah, details would need to be worked out, but baseball’s lagging on replays is frustrating to the majority of fans.
It wouldn’t add more than minute to 90 seconds, at most. Manager protests the out/safe call at first base by throwing and hitting the umpire with a red nerf ball. 😉 Then, the “umpire” in the booth looks at the replay from whatever angles are available. In a regular game, that’s what, 2 or 3 angles, tops. We all have seen this a zillion times before. The first or second replay clearly shows whether the call was right or wrong or you can’t tell. Boom. Replay ump is on the squawk box to the dugout, gives the decision. Onward. Did you all know that each dugout has a direct phone line to the pressbox at ATT? I did not, until I took a tour of the visitor’s clubhouse….
I don’t know of anyone, incliuding me, who doesn’t support the expansion of replay. And it will happen. One of the huge problems in not having it is that television and the stadiums uses it. Contrary to what seems to be the popular view, I think most umpires would prefer expanded replay to having missed calls replayed but not corrected. There would be much less animus toward the umps if blatantly missed calls were corrected .
It’s replaying ball and strike calls that would delay the game too much. That will not happen.
And should NEVER happen.
Close calls at 1st, 2nd, etc. hell yes.
I’d have Cain batting 8th maybe higher after he carried the offense his last start.
Well, let’s see. With Culberson at 2-14, bunting to leave it up to Matt wouldn’t be a bad idea. That’s joke, Chuck.
I would think the umps would be totally for expanded replay, especially if a 5th umpire in the pressbox had to be the arbiter at every game, instead, of say, the official scorer. I think they’re ambivalent now because the review is centralized now in some dark studio in NYC. The MLB umpires union would love the increased membership, and the older umps could go upstairs to be on “emeritus” status. Make one call a game while sitting on your ass and eating nachos. If you’re an ump, what’s not to like about that?…
I don’t half the guys in the Cards’ lineup this afternoon. Maybe they feel bad for us and wanted to make it a even playing field. Sit back and enjoy some day baseball…it’s the Memphis Redbirds vs *your* Fresno Grizzlies.
Play ball!
CAIN Pumping Iron in the weight room,knows he need to go yard to win his own game 1-O….
Blanco just continued to run after that catch like it was the 3rd out. Belt earlier had to be told to hold the runner on at first. The team has its collective head up its ass this Thursday afternoon.
Hey, youngsters are laid back these days. they’re not all hyped up on winning is everything like you older guys. Take a chill pill and enjoy the day. We all voted for youth on this team.
Damn . . . A bit farther????
I see the Cards’ alarm clock failed to go off this morning as well…Carpenter has definitely lost a few ft. off his FB after the surgery. As to be expected in the beginning…
I take back what I said earlier about this being Memphis vs Fresno. They play better than this.
Nice day for a good long hike.
What are you talking about? We have Burris, Culberson, and Cain coming up in our half of the inning. 🙂
We got one back and Wainwright had to throw some extra pitches there.
A couple of piss poor at bats from Melky and Belt.
I don’t know about these things, but Belt had a broken bat.
The Padres just DFA’ed Orlando Hudson. 2-1 says he’s here by next week.
The O-Dog! And why not!
Do you get that excited when the UPS guy drops off a wheelbarrow full of shit at your place?
Looking at his batting averages since 2008, he should be at .000 by sometine in 2014…
Speaking of which, I may be close to a fine Stetson dinner if Crawford keeps this up.
timely
Crawfish!
so much for the lead. Both Ps suck Donkey Kong today.
Damn. Cain is getting knocked around.
I haven’t seen the numbers but it doesn’t seem that the shutdown inning has been happening much of late.
Agreed. Seems like we scratch out a run or two and give it right back the next inning.
Whatdya expect from the Fresno Giants? Although Craw is 2-2…
So, Mike…sounds like you have a bet of some sort riding on Mudbug?
Well, just that I have been rather clear that I don’t think he’ll ever be a MLB hitter. No wager, just thought I’d try eating a hat for the helluvit.
Huh? I was talking about shut down innings from our pitchers. Are you blaming it all on Edlefsen?
My comment had nothing to do with shutdown innings. I was responding to your comment on clawing out runs and then giving tj back.
Bozo, I have no idea what you are referring to.
Sorry twin that was a reply to chi’s “Whatdya expect from the Fresno Giants? Although Craw is 2-2…” as a reply to the lack of shut down innings. I didn’t see your comment when I replied.
Thanks, I’m never sure if I’ve made that final step into insanity.
Nice to see a little patience at the plate today (Pagan two passes today). Tuesday night they had a boatload of walks, then last night not a damned one.
Same shit…different day. Get a couple on and hit into a fucking DP…
There’s your Giants replay . . . ouch.
One of their most imaginitive DBs to date. . .
DPs that is.
There’s that whistling asshole. If I was sitting near that guy, I’d throw Mike’s beer at him.
Pagan has been unbelievable since moving to the 5. Over .500 now?
Hell yes!
Too funny . . . Not certain that was Kruk, but one of them said, “The perfect out is a grounder to the 2nd baseman.” Lots of confidence with Burriss, huh?
Tied this mofo…time to take (and KEEP) the lead…
Hey! Burriss with the SF.
Coem on Huffie. You have to hit your last HR sometime soon.
I’ll take back all the shit I said past couple of days about Huff wasting a spot on the 25…
Woo Hoo!
Take ’em any way you can get ’em!
Does Cain come back out for the 7tH? Either way…between Cainer and the bullpen…they gotta make this stand up…
I’ve forgotten what’s it like to have your team score some runs. It’s kinda nice…
Having to listen to this one on the radio broadcast, damn MLB and its blackout rules. I happen to live in KC,STL,Tex, and Houston black zone. Thankfully I get both Texas and Houstons broadcasts on my cable system. Sounds like quite a game going on by the radio broadcast.
They’ve actualy bailed Tim out a few times, even though they eventually lost. Be nice to actually win.
Close this sucker out.
Hell Yeah!
Good game, any game is good that you win. You all have a good day now.
Good to see the whipping boys Crawford and Belt get some big hots today. Crawford appears to have found his D legs as well.
Love me those “big hots” unca.
Crawford suddenly became safe with the second base position in full blown suckitude mode. He’s starting to take advantage. For Belt, though, could have been a huge game.I really think that his struggles have been what’s keeping Huff on the team. Some continued production could spell the end for Aubrey. IMO.
One can hope. . . .
hots hits whaever
Get yer red hots . . . .
Bochy had a tough time getting Belt’s name out of his mouth when he tallked about guys who produced.
Listening to the game it sounded like Belt came through. Did what was wanted of him.
What is Bochy’s problem with Belt? Strange dynamic there.
At one point it was claimed that he refused instructions about a hole in his swing. I don’t believe that because I don’t believe they’d keep a guy who refused to listen to the coaches. But who knows? Just good to see the Grizzlies pound out a few runs..
Maybe Boch still having nightmare about Belt swinging at the 1st pitch in the dirt after a bases full on walks, the last 2 full on wild pitches…Augh
If that’s the case, he has nightmares about 13 guys and horseshit swings…
To criticize Belt, of all players on the roster, for swinging at shitty pitches is fucking ridiculous. The pitch wasn’t in the dirt, it was just a little below the knees. And he had just experienced a prior AB where another wild lefty had walked batters before him, only to throw 3 straight strikes to him. He took a guess, and it failed.
Pawlie must be bursting. That cat RIch Thompson got called up by The Rays and he’s 1-2 so far tonight.
thmmmmm, it is sort of like buying low, isn’t it?
Good night.
It’s interesting to consider where a hitter hits in the order and how that might affect them. Crawford said today that he’s been having trouble with the 8 spot because he’s got the pitcher batting behind him. Today in the 2 hole he saw fastballs for a change and raked. Pagan, batting down the order for a while now. is on fire at the plate since the move. Maybe he just needed to take away the pressure of batting first and being expected to take a bunch of pitches AWAY and now he’s just letting it fly.
Or maybe Crawford is getting a chance to play through his troubles and we’re finding out what he can do by playing consistently. As for Pagan letting it fly, he’s starting to take walks like the second coming of Mickey Mantle over the last 6 games.
look dude, Crawford was interviewed and SAID this is the reason. He talked about the difficulties of hitting in front of the pitcher, he said he hit 2nd in college and he’s comfortable there. He said TODAY that he knew he was going to see fastballs batting in front of Melky. So can we just, for once, go with what COMMON SENSE AND THE HITTER are saying?
Cody Ross. 27 rbis. 7 hrs.
I am slightly bothered by variations of stories on negotiations. E.G. Beltran says Giants didn’t call. Chron says otherwise (though poorly phrased; should have said the Giants SAID that instead of reporting as fact). So what did they REALLY offer Cody. Miss him.
You know Pawlie, I’ve been wondering if the Giants lose interest when one of these guys (Ross, Beltran etc.) make some sort of comment to the press during the negotiations. It just seems strange to me that I keep reading about some sort of disconnect between what the Team says they did or offered and what the player says happened. It seems to me Ross said something like, I’d love to be back but I’d like to test the waters (something like that anyway). And I do seem to recall Beltran saying he’d love to come back if the Giants had a true lead off hitter (again, not an exact quote).
An outfield of Ross, Melky and Torres/Blanco would have been pretty cool.
Every player is going to *say* they want to come back. They all work the press and they know they shouldn’t say something stupid to thin their employment pool.