Barry Zito
That’s a name that should bring you in off the ledge after that 3 game implosion in Washington, right? Only if you’re a “Thirteen Percenter”….
He’s pitched 13 innings over his last 2 starts and given up only one earned run. Nice. But he’s walked 9 and struck out only 7 over those 2 games. Not nice. How will he do today? Well, I think The Pirates are completely overrated and Zito seems to pitch his best this year when everyone thinks he’s going to pitch his worst so I will go out on a limb and predict he’s going to pitch a no hitter tonight.
Ha….
No, no no-no prediction coming from me today. But I think he’ll pitch well. I also think we’re going to be dragging in this game. I’ll say that “someone” wins 2-0…..
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
With Zito nibbling corners throwing his junk and the players standing around in the heat wilting and sayin throw strikes Meat,this game could get ugly.
Giants should be pissed off after their meltdown in Washington coming in here,but is Zito really gonna stop the bleeding?Andrew McCutcheon is on fire right now,and this team is not overrated IMO,and will actually be buyers for the first time in like forever at the deadline.
This doesn’t bode well at all, so I guess I got to go with my reverse-gut and say the Giants win 5-2.
Either that, or it’s 14-3, Boigs.
Truth is, Zito’s done pretty well as the stopper. But yee (mee) hast little faith. . . .
They have a nice looking Bridge view from their park. Pirates have nice unis. Cutcheon is worth watching. He should get no more than HRS off Zito. Hopefully with no one on.
McCutcheon
No more than ?
Three
Everyone knows about AM. What is unclear is why teams keep pitching to him. That LU blows. The blueprint to beating the Pirates should be to “4 finger” that dude every time he comes to the plate.
A .500 record with era/whip below most 4 or 5 pitchers. He has been big, but not huge, for us this season. It is lovely to watch him pitch when he is throwing strikes. And the women, need I mention the off field humour he brought to us? I do like the man, but not so much the team member. He has given this team some grief over the years while making the most of a single Cy Young campaign.
I am not ready to call him Sir Barry, but if continues to win games and gets up over .500 I may have to. The best 5th pitcher that I know about.
Friday marks the 79th anniversary of the first All-Star Game, a 4-2 win for the AL powered by a Babe Ruth home run. The former Red Sox and Yankees icon hit a two-run homer to back AL starter Lefty Gomez, who threw three scoreless innings.
Well Zito better come through. This is a fairly important series. You don’t want to go straggling into the break like a bunch of hobos.
And I’m not the least bit worried about Casilla. He hasn’t exactly been getting shelled. The break oughtta do him some good.
You ever notice that fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing?
Are you looking in the mirror, again?
I always thought fat chance was a sarcastic slim chance and slim chance was an optimistic no chance
I think you’re right, ed. The thought just crossed my mind while doing a crossword puzzle this morning so I just felt like posting it.
Anybody remember when this ERA “wager” was conceived? Just wondering.Was it at the start of the season? Or when, if not.
From my suggestion, CSN made that their poll question on May 25.
I think it was the middle of June around Father’s day??
maybe not, do polls survive the archiving process or are they more transient?
I may need another hit of acid to answer that one…
Well, I didn’t get to see the game last night. We were out to dinner with my daughter and her boyfriend. I stole a check of the score via MLB.com (knew the score earlier was 5-1 Giants in the 7th), and saw it was 5-4 Giants in the 9th…and then…ah, to hell with it.
What an ugly-assed series. Again, the Giants cannot seem to get the key knock with RISP.
The break will be welcome.
I sincerely think that Sabes needs to do that voo-doo that he do, and land us a RH bat.
I’m thinking Zito pulls a stellar performance out tonight and the Giants get back on the good foot.
And to think, just last year you would have posted “I’m thinking Zito pulls a stellar performance out of his ass tonight”
Interesting – looking at the 3-day schedule on mlb.com, and going for the Giants on Sunday is the infamous “TBD.” Do they skip Timmy?
Hitting and pitching stats are nearly identical with Pittsburgh. They have way more HRs but RPG is virtually the same.
Whuich means home field advantage tilts the balance to Pittsboigh
Actually we hit better on the road than they do at home. HUUUGE advantage for the Buc’s pitching, though. We have a 4.71 ERA away, their home ERA is 2.37. Below are our away ERAs, their home ones
Zito- 4.93 Bedard 2.31
Vogelsong -2.31 McDonald 1.73
Lincecum- 8.45 Burnett 2.01
Saw how that “way more HR” thing worked for us in D.C., and it was not pretty.
Making judgements based on one series is not something I engage in- the fact remainds that the Pirates don’t hit better than we do.Their extra HRS do not translate into more runs. And they have 31 HRs at home, vs. our 35 away.
Their paper advantage is their pitching at home.
No shit, Chi. The G’s just don’t do well in the summer months back east. Thank God the playoffs are in October . . .
Wasn’t making a judgement based on one series…more a smart-ass comment. And I was aware that the pitching match-up is where they have the distinct advantage…thanks for sharing the details, Michael.
Shit, they never do what I thik they will, so here’s to a Giants sweep.
How about two out of three?
Who would have thought that at mid-season we’d be looking for Zito to right this ship that’s been listing a little.
It’s been a few years since he was asked to take centerstage.
As for Timmy, if he doesn’t perform well in next assignment, he has to accept pen work for the team.
As for Casilla, it’s getting scary whenever he closes. The blown saves are beginning to pile up.
Japanese sensation, Yu Darvish beat Jake Peavy for the final All Star online fan voting. “It just wasn’t meant to be,” Peavy said. “Obviously, we knew it’s hard to outvote a country.”
lqtm.
What the fuck is with Hugh Hefner and that stupid-ass sailors cap?
If I had a housefull of women on hand to raise my mast, I’d wear a sailor’s cap too.
This is not the light-hitting Pirates from earlier this season: They scored almost as many runs in June (146) as they did in April and May combined (147), and already have 31 runs in July, including 27 at home (albeit against the Astros). But hey, Zito was the stopper at Coors after the 0-3 start, so why not again. Plus, I’m at a concert tonight, and since I always miss the good games (like Sunday vs. the Reds), it’s a guaranteed W for the Giants.
Yeah, it just doesn’t bode well for the G’s. These guys aren’t built for the hot weather.
This is a tough stretch. 1 of 3 I’m afraid. Unless Bubbles somehow pulls another gem out of his ass.
I think they “wash” off Washington (no pun intended . . . 🙂 ) and kick butt in Steel Town. Unrelated to baseball – Thanks for the assistance last night and this morning Twin. I think the temporary fix will last until next week, until the arrival of the fan and thermal paste application. Appreciate it!
Weatherproof games: Brewers at Astros and Dodgers at Diamondbacks. It’s getting hot in here! With the exception of the trio of California cities set to experience temperatures in the 68-74 range with low clouds, the mercury of most thermometers will be filled to the bulb on Friday. Boston will be the “coolest” place to be, with a high of 87. New York is forecast for a high of 90. The rest of the slate (Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Texas) gradually gets hotter until we reach the neighborhood of triple digits in Washington, Chicago and St. Louis. Pittsburgh’s projected high of 98 degrees will not bring Nick Lachey to the ballpark but would tie an all-time high for the day.
If the bulb was full, that would mean it’s cold, Blade
LQTM…You know it is a slow day when the bloggers are commenting on things such as the correct reading of a thermometer.
Heh heh heh . . . you ainl;t the only smart-ass around here . . . !
(no gay-ass smiley face for me . . .)
Oh hell no, Chuck! I can be a smart-ass with the best of the smart asses!
TBD for Sunday? Me thinks it’s going to be “Check out the big brain on Brad” Penny. I don’t think the G-men want Timmy to absorb loss #10 right at the break. Not saying it would happen, but if it did, being 3-10 at the break would not do well for a psyche as fragile as Timmy’s.
Zito has been known to pull a win out of his ass when you don’t expect it.
I’m not going to get all worried about McCutchen. The guys the Giants need to keep off the bases are Walker, Jones and Tabata. Sounds like a law firm.
I’m not convinced it has anything to do with his psyche (why they wouldn’t throw Timmy on Sunday). And, I really do not think he has a fragile psyche. Anyway, will be interesting to see how it goes.
Ah…fuggetaboutit! Looking at the 3 day schedule, Big Time Timmy Jim is now slotted for Sunday. He has said numerous times “I want the ball,” and I believe Bochy thinks he is “close,” so not surprised at all that he gets his normal start.
Freddy Sanchez had successful surgery yesterday to remove a portion of a disc in his lower back…he’ll miss the remainder of the season
It is always good to hear a surgery has gone well.
Who was his doctor?
Well, here we go.
Another big test of the resiliency of this team. Can they come back from a sweep and a galling loss yesterday.
Nice start. Blanco gets a blow. Or did I miss something beyond his temperature bulb being especially low.
A fast start would be . . .
Nevermind
I meant for the GIANTS ! ! !
Seriously, I look forward, so forward, to the first Giants season without Zito. This 5+ year slog with him getting lit up early or struggling early is just so OLD, I am sick of it. Tim’s problems for this season are bad enough, but going on 6 years of this shit with Zito is just more than enough. They are tatooing him from the get go…
The other nice thing about being done with Zito will be the 20 million that will be available to spend elsewhere (I think I mentioned earlier about the need for a RH bat with pop)…
Exactly ChiP, good one. I get so frustrated watching this guy year after year, I almost, almost forget about the money angle, which is huge. I wish he’d shut me up and pitch great for the next 6 innings, but how likely is that?…
Well, that coulda been much worse. Of course he’ll be gassed by the 4th at this rate.
Looks like the G-men are playing with limp noodles.
Sorry Dennis. Too close to home?
Now that you mention it, the Chinese joint down the street has been a little underwhelming as of late. I want fresh, crisp noodles, and I want them now. Chop! Chop!
Damn. That ball Hector crushed woulda been a HR at AT&T. How often do you say that?
I’ve sat through quite a few Giant heart breakers, I mean a lot of them, last night ranks very high on my list. Perhaps it was because of the walk off, after getting blown out two games prior. Perhaps it was because of a three game sweep on a road trip that I attended. Whatever, last night tore my heart out.
Reflections on the three game series with the Nats. DC is a very fan friendly ballpark. I’ve now taken the Metro to the game, the water taxi from Alexandria and know a cool way for driving and parking for those going by car (details provided upon request). I’ve sat in every section other than Club and the Field boxes (I roamed the park for different angles and views), I know the elevators, ramps and ushers by name (again, details provided upon request). I’ve sat through heat before, including Atlanta around Labor day and nothing, nothing I’ve ever encountered matches this weekend.
The Nats? They are a strong team getting healthy and from what I could see, very well fed after the Giants came to town.
Our team? This was my first live games and I still believe they can win the Division but I do not for a second believe this team (as per our current LUs) can compete in a Playoff environment. Outside of Panda, Melky and Cain, I watched a mediocre team, still bent on mental mistakes and a bench (sometimes starters) that don’t belong on a weekend beer softball league, IMO from the games that I watched, we must have the greatest manager ever to have this team in any contention. I’ll give Hector Sanchez some slack because he’s young but other than that, our bench sucks. For our starters, Pagan had maybe the worst route to a ball I’ve seen by a ML baseball player. I probably shouldn’t mention Crawdick, I’ve been a fan but the throw in the dirt last night, fuck him. Belt, give the kid a new address, it would be good for the team and him. Blanco, I think most know I love the guy but the dude should be a fourth OFer.
A very, very poor showing by our team, in my opinion.
I agree with most of your take John, with the one exception being Buster…I don’t think he belongs thrown in with the comment on mediocrity. And I think since his return from injury, that Theriot has been a serviceable second baseman.
But I certainly do agree that A) I think this team can win the division, and B) Not sure they can compete in the post season.
With our pitching, if players got hot and things clicked as they did in 2010, we could maybe surprise some teams in the playoffs.
I’ve mentioned it a number of times (as others have, too)…I think they really need a RH bat (esp. with some pop).
Even if they had just Cain, Vogelsong, and Madbum pitching well they would be a threat in any playoff series.
John, you’re in a terrible mood. Have a few drinks and settle down.
Twin, Terrible mood? I’m thinking about switching this game over to Deliverance. It was a tough weekend my friend and you’re right, I’m still pissed off about it.
Fucking McCutcheon…why do you even give that guy anything to hit!
I wouldn’t bail on Belt yet. He’s young. Blanco seems to be reverting to AAAA.
Bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh.
I hate the east coast.
Agree. I would not throw in the towel on Belt, either. I still think he can be a guy who hits 15-20 jacks a year and drives in 80 or so runs. We already know he is a plus defender.
Speaking of Chinese joints, the Cassavetes film “Killing of a Chinese Bookie” was on last night- starring Gazzara in one of his best roles-check it out.
Good call, twin. Timothy Carey is good in that one as well. Very eccentric
Crawfish? Ehhh. Most teams have a couple limp bats. The Riot is nothing more than a placeholder. Burriss as a bench guy is a bit of a joke. Huff is worthless. The bench is a well-known issue. There will likely be a lot of turnover coming up soon.
There’s no power, so coming from behind is a challenge. As we will see shortly.
I still think MudBug (Crawfish) will be a serviceable SS from a defensive perspective. If he turned into a plus defender I can handle him hitting .240-.250, etc.
3-0 Buccos. Time to water the grass and watch something more entertaining, like watching my grass grow.
Have a great weekend fellas!
Tonight is the night to get the Pirates, with the worst of their 3 scheduled hurlers going. Giants need to get another starter for the 2nd half. Zito is showing signs of a “cratering” 2nd half, as usual, and Timmy is in never never land, with no way out in sight. Penny as a band aid?…
They insisted Penny is only for relief, but I never believe what they say about those things, nor should anyone else. Hacker is busy going feet up in Fresno. If they need a guy it could be Penny by default.
New ballgame.
FUCK YES! The Melk Man delivers, again!
Amazing what an HR here and there can do for a club.
Now, Bochy better have a super short leash on Zito…
I know one thing…Sabes and Baer better work their asses off to sign Melky to a new deal. Can you imagine what this team would be like without him…
I just don’t see why he’d sign before exploring Free Agency.
I agree, Mike…but I would be surprised if there have not already been discussions between Giant management and his agent.
He’d be an idiot to sign a deal until after the season’s done, assuming he’s not fearful of the occurrence of a long shot career-ending injury of some sort. I would risk it, and then be inundated with offers in the off season…
Giants need to put pedal to the metal here. 5 is not enough with Zito going…
Eight was Enough for Dick Van Patten…
Chi, you might want to get Demp back in.. hey, a basehit here and what do we have? A 4 run lead for Zitster..
Unless you’re superstitious and believe demp leaving caused the runs
Ha! Well, it’s only a 2 run lead…and we know what happened with those 3 run leads we had past two games. Not trying to be a pessimist, but damn…I think the G-men need a few more runs.
I’ll let him watch his grass grow for a while longer before I try to give him a shout. Especially after that near-miss HR last pitch…
Penny may start, but he’s likely coming into this game soon. Bubbles is got to be reaching 80 for his pitch count.
I don’t know if anyone has watched Zito warmup before his start. He starts at least 1/2 hour before, stretching and throwing longer and longer tosses to the pen catcher or whomever as he works himself further out toward CF from the pen area. After all that stretching and tossing up to maybe 120 feet or more, THEN he goes to the pen mound and throws for a long time. I was friggin exhausted just watching him get loose. Maybe he ought to try shortening that a bit…
Yeah, I do remember that.
Zits warm-up routine sort of reminds me of the old joke . . . “The best part of you dribbled down your daddy’s leg.”
Yeah, we need to get runs. Just cash in on the opportunities. They’ve done pretty good today.
Why does Pittsburgh have a statue of Wilford Brimley outside their stadium?
Whatever the configuration, this will be another pen game. Besides Penny, Kontos could play a significant role
Zito at 74 pitches…
Bochy has to be mercenary here, and I think he will. Pull Zitoid at the first sign of trouble, fuck him getting 5 innings and a win potential, just make sure the lead doesn’t disappear….
If that was the case, Bochy would have taken the ball, already. WTF…when it’s time for a change, think bullpen!
You know it’s bad when you feel like you dodged a bullet with Zito only giving up one HR and we still have the lead. Gawd, Zito games suck…
59 degrees C . . . Only one Flapper knows what this denotes. 🙂
Is that what it’s stayed at ? BTW, your fan and thermal compound are on the way.
Yeah, still staying steady . . . Thank you.
It was so hot…
All the corn on the stalks started popping and flying through
the air. The cows thought it was snowing. And they froze to death.
It’s so hot, I saw squirrels fanning their nuts.
The potatoes cook underground and all you have to do to have
lunch is to pull one out and add butter, salt and pepper.
Farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them
from laying hard boiled eggs.
the cows are giving evaporated milk.
the trees are whistlin’ for the dogs.
Satan decided to take the day off.
Even the sun was looking for some shade!
the birds had to pick up the worms with potholders.
I saw a dog chasing a cat and they were both walkin’..
that Dennis Rodman went out without a bra!
The chickens are laying hard-boiled eggs..
Two trees fighting over a dog….
the workers at the chicken place were jumping in the fry vat
just to cool off
I saw a fire hydrant begging a dog to pee on it
Calista Flockhart of “Ally McBeal” was spotted eating some ice cream.
And she almost ate a second spoonful.
When I first heard Kuiper say “Harrison”, The Buc SS, I thought he said “Hairston”.. my first thought was that, OMG, this really isn’t fair..
Relief. Theriot got it done there with the sac fly; good job…
One thing I forgot to mention about the games in DC. There were Giants fans everywhere. That was a good thing and made me happy.
always
Has anybody thrown inside to McCutcheon? I would…
Christian’s OBP is .412 at the moment. Dude’s going to get some playing time.
Between now and the deadline, why not give Pill another stab at it (RH power off the bench?) Leave Huff on the DL.
Now that was a nice ballgame.
Gmen HAD to win this game, had to in order to avoid a potential disastrous trip. And they did. Good effort to come from behind the Zito mess to take it. The fact that he gets a win is a bit of a joke, but that’s how it goes. They need to stretch Penny out and get him ready for a starting role, he’s looked pretty good in two outings now. Belt earned his keep on that catch on the smash — that was big time trouble if he doesn’t grab it. Vogelsong needs to pitch tough inside to friggin McCutcheon — the guy’s too comfortable at the plate…
I was gone most of the day and finally got through all the posts – something needs to be pointed out in regard to Demp28’s 2:39 pm post, where he said, “I’m not going to get all worried about McCutchen. The guys the Giants need to keep off the bases are Walker, Jones and Tabata.”
Say what?
Yes, you do have to worry about McCutchen. Tabata?????????????????? The Pirates optioned his ass to Triple-A Indianapolis Tuesday. Tabata has been MIA all season. Until June, the same thing could be said about Walker. He wasn’t very reliable in the first two months of the season, but he did brake out in June, batting .292 with a .370 OBP, .415 slugging percentage, .785 OPS, seven doubles, 17 RBI and 20 runs in 26 games.
*break . . . (I hate it when I don’t spell a word correctly).
By the by, no offense to you Demp . . . I love your posts, so sorry if I seemed a bit harsh. I just re-read what I wrote and I think I was. Again, sorry. 🙂
Unrelated to baseball – Hundreds of thousands of Internet users whose computers are infected with a particularly nasty virus will be unable to access the Web starting on Monday. If you want to check your PC and ensure that it isn’t infected, read this article and it will explain how to do that:
http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/06/technology/dnschanger/
Damn, shoulda gone to Pittsburgh, although I probably woulda jinxed it. Good win.
McAfee has a free and quick check to see if you are infected. There is also a free “SiteAdvisor” download there- both are safe.
http://www.siteadvisor.com/dns_checker.html?cid=109273#
Sheesh . . . Your site is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay easier than the somersaults CNN asked me to do, i.e., get into the “run” program, cmd, etc.. Surprised that I didn’t fuck up my PC more.
Whew. We snag a W, as in Win.
Don’t the Bucs have two McCutchens — different spellings? Anyway, leave tomorrow around 0730 for the game. Expected to be 100 degrees F or more. Don’t have a smartphone but maybe I can send an in-game photo. Who’s the blogger tomorrow? Maybe I can email you. Should be a pitcher’s duel, but one never knows.
Pawlie, I’m the one posting tomorrow; if you want to email me a picture tomorrow, I’ll try to post it. The only thing is- I may not be at a computer during the game, so it wouldn’t get posted till later that night. I don’t know if you’d rather have someone else post it the next day or something.
My friend Denis gave Dan Johnson BASEBALL’S STARRY NIGHT in Charlotte today. Had a nice talk with him. Johnson knew about the book, was excited it was out. “You mean the one about the fans?” Apparently, someone is writing a book from the players’ perspective. (My guess and my hope? Sam Fuld.) I welcome that.
G’night, gurlz.
I’m forever blowing bubbles
Pretty bubbles everywhere
Just for the fuck of it. Enjoy and goodnight, gentiletlemen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJdFtmTET8w&feature=related
Winner winner chicken dinner! Gigantes win and da Bums just lost to the Snakes! Vogey tomorrow to keep it rollin!
Thanks Ted. Funny shit!