A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

Here’s a link to the list of all time wins by Giants pitchers:

http://tinyurl.com/cbwcdwf

As you would guess, it’s a long list. On page two I saw some of my favorite ex-Giants. The Count, Bob Knepper, Rick Reuschel, Ed Halicki— Bumgarner is already on page 2! Dirrrrty and Lowry are there as well. Casilla made page 3, tied for 144th with 18 wins. At the bottom of page 4 I found Dave Dravecky. Ozvaldo Fernandez is locked into page 5 with his 10-17 lifetime record with the Giants. Al Hargesheimer is a name I’ll never forget and he’s on page 6 with 5 wins. Anyone remember Andy McGaffigan? For some reason, I do. He’s on page 7. Somehow Wellemeyer won three games for us, he’s on page 8. Midway down page 9 you get into the guys who won a single game for us. It’s the beginning of 6+ pages of names of guys who are tied for 435th place on the all time Giants wins list with one win. Because it’s listed in alphabetical order, that’s where Jean Machi, his friends and his family can find him—specifically page 10 about half way down sandwiched between Shane Loux and Goerges Maranda who went 1-4 for the Giants in 1960.

Congratulations Jean Machi on this great personal victory. For a guy who toiled in the minors for 12 longs seasons before he got his shot, last night must have felt so freaking good…..

I’m not really a *tip your cap* kinda guy—after Denorfia caught that line drive hit by Torres I just exhaled a little bit and said, “Shit happens”. I don’t even fully understand what “tip your cap” means. I’m assuming it’s some kind of respect given to your opponent after you lose, but what happens if you don’t have a cap to tip? Would a salute work? A fist bump? Anyway, the breaks just did not go our way in San Diego. I have low expectations for this upcoming series, it feels like we always get swept in AZ. Maybe a few “knowing dude head nods” with strangers I pass in the street today will change my attitude. There’s nothing like a good, solid, committed, extended, genuine, *knowing dude head nod* with a fellow Giants fan……..

How ’bout those Warriors, eh? I’ve distanced myself from NBA basketball over the last several years—the game just doesn’t interest me that much anymore. Most of the time, especially as the game is nearing an end, it might as well just be a 1:1 game. But it’s pretty hard not to get geeked up a little every time Curry launches a shot. I don’t get it, I have never seen an ankle be declared sprained and yet it never looks like he’s hurt out on the court. I’m assuming they’re shooting him up with something but how long can you do that before you make it much, much worse?

Match Ups:

Tonight: Cain vs Kennedy –we never hit this dude well, tonight feels like an L

Tomorrow Night: Bum vs Cahill– get the ball in the air off Cahil and good things happen. But Bum is due for a stinker. This one feels like an L, too

Wednesday Night: Timmy vs McCarthy– high scoring, but we finally get a W.

“He just couldn’t get that last out”– Bruce Bochy.

No, he couldn’t, skip. And it’s incomprehensible to me that Zito couldn’t play through an even MORE incomprehensible error by Torres. What is the deal with Zito in San Diego? It’s a pitcher’s park. He’s from there. The Padres usually suck. And yet Zito hasn’t won a game down at PetCo since 2008?!?!??!!? I had to look that up to make sure that was correct. And it isn’t just the colors they’re wearing, he shut them out last week at AT&T.

I’m not sure which was the worse error, Torres missing a freaking line drive right at him or Scutaro bumble-fuckin’ an easy DP. Considering the moments, it was probably Scoots.

Jean Machi: Where have you been all my life? I look at this career minor leaguer’s stats and shake my head, refusing to believe. The guy I saw last night didn’t have a flaw (as long as I focused on something other than his disturbingly short arms). More Machi please.

Down 2-0 to the worst team in our division, we turn our tired eyes to The Chainsaw and beg for redemption. He’s probably sprinkling nails on his Fruity Pebbles as I type this.

I read Bagg’s blog this morning about the Giants not getting a hit with RISP since Panda got thrown out by 632 feet last week. Normally, a stat like that would have me doing a slow burn but I’m finding it hard to fuel thet rage. In years past, I can usually look up and down our LU and find a target to seethe at. This year, I’m just not feelin’ it. I love all 7 of our starters as well as our platoon in LF.

And even with this latest RISP slump (and I think they had another stretch earlier this year that was grim) the Giants still rank above most teams in the NL batting .279 with RISP. The league average is .251. Side Note: St Louis is batting an unreal .352 with RISP. How are they not undefeated right now, lol? Answer: they’re batting an MLB worst .207 with none on. Two of the weirder *First/Last* numbers you’ll see a team put up in the same season….

With RISP and 2 out the Giants are only hitting .220 but the league average is .217 so they aren’t really out of line there. St Louis is hitting .376 nearly .100 points higher than the 2nd place team.

The bottom line is that it’s still April. Every time one of our guys come up to bat I feel good about the ultimate outcome–at least as they step into the box. Maybe next month, if they’re still slumping with RISP, I’ll try to get worked up about it.

Well, in a bit. It’s a Game Time Thread though and that’s just straight $

Here’s the LU:

Pagan CF
Scutaro 2B
Sandoval 3B
Posey C
Pence RF
Belt 1B
Crawford SS
Blanco LF
Lincecum RHP

Nothing much to noodle on here. Off the top of my head, I’m predicting Blanco strikes out twice, walks once, steals a bag and he might throw a triple in there, too. That’s a lot going on from the 8-hole but god dammit, it all just sorta rushed over me, as if delivered from a dream….. 🙂 🙂 🙂

I’m fully expecting that Giants fans take over Petco Park this weekend. If they can turn Wrigley into a home game taking over 80% or so of the seats in San Diego seems like a done deal.

This is a good time to hand San Diego their collective ass. Colorado is going to lose at least 2 of 3 in Arizona this weekend. We need to beat the “6-Win” teams like a drum. I like our rotation of Zito, Timmy and Voggy, I think all three will have strong starts this weekend.

I’d also like to see Pagan bang out a triple or two. He needs to get going.

And please, no more lost or misplayed balls in the outfield. These guys are all good defenders, they need to start playing like they’re good defenders.

I don’t mind losing 2 of 3 but I do care HOW we lose them. Way too many mistakes got made in this series by the Giants. Missing ground balls, losing them in the sun or misplaying them, bad throws—it’s like our guys weren’t totally focused. And speaking of that, what was Casilla thinking when he casually fielded that fair ground ball? How could he have thought it was foul? Wasn’t he focused on warming up for an appearance? And if he truly was watching the play unfold how is it that he was like the ONLY person in the park who thought the ball was foul?

Bochy is the best manager in baseball, that’s nearly a fact. But the best get questioned too, and I want to know why Romo wasn’t out there to start the 9th. When you’re at home, tie game going to the 9th, that’s a standard play. Especially with a closer who is probably a top 3 or 4 closer in all of baseball right now. This gives me a chance to mention Jason Grilli– I’m fascinated with the late blossoming of his career. Out of nowhere he’s become one of the most dominant closer’s in baseball (I know this is really his first full year with the gig but he was equally dominant last year in a set up role)…..but back to the No-Romo thing…….Was he hurt? Hungover? I couldn’t find an answer because not ONE of the beat writers seemed to think this was an important question to get answered. That’s a typical oversight by those guys.

I didn’t really mind Bochy’s decision to leave Bum in the game. He’s a great hitter and he was dominating. But the No-Romo/Yes-Mirares thing? I didn’t get that at all…….

These 9th inning heroics from Belt off the bench are going down easy like a cold brew in the Summer time. Or any time. Baha. I’ve gone back and forth on the Flannery call. He might have thought Panda got a better jump than he did and by the time he started sending him it was too late to stop him. I dunno. Bochy wasn’t having any of it when he got asked the question about the Flannery-send. Of course, he’s not going to call him out publicly, ever. But even had Sandoval gotten a good jump he was dead at the plate. Even had Noonan ran for him—also dead at the plate. Ross was playing shallow and his throw was perfect.

I’m not sweatin’ the Flannery decision. He put the pressure on Ross to come through and he did. Tip your cap.

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A great win by the Warriors last night and they could easily be up 2-0 right now. But Marc Jackson calling Klay and Curry the best shooting back court in the history of the game? Um, wow.

Well his shoulders weren’t slumping as he rounded first base and made a detour to the pitchers mound. And it’s a good thing they weren’t, he had to square up when Pablo blasted into him with a “Carlos Quentin* greeting. There are few things dumber than basedball walk-off celebrations. I wonder how Kendrys Morales celebrates a walk-off now? I’m guessing he’s toned it down a bit. The worst part about them is that most of the guys go half-way. They’re sorta trying to do it in a restrained way but all that does is make it look awkward and when you’re doing something awkwardly there’s a good chance you’re going to hurt yourself. Anything that involves tackling someone or jumping into the air and making contact with another onrushing human is not something you want to see.

But aside from the risky-bash into each other-bullshit, it sure was great to see that huge smile on Belt’s face after he won the game for his team. And he did it against a lefty.  Apparently, all that attention he got from Bochy in the cage yesterday paid off. 🙂 BamBam must be worrying about job security this morning.

Between Voggy guttin’ out 7 innings, Posey blasting another bomb, the rally-video, Torres scoring the winning run (again), Belt driving it in and Ted predicting it, I’d say that last night’s win was as sweet as they come.

Ah, so elusive. But when you find one, how much hotter do they get?

Much. Regardless of how hot they start out. And this chick is good looking even without the necklace.

It is so awesome that there is a spot in New York that lives and breaths SF Giants baseball. That place is Finnerty’s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j32xR0_d3j4

Thousands of miles away, our brethren celebrate with us in unison, from where it all began…….

MacDog and Pawlie talking to the Necklace/Bead fan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J41-9BVZt_0

Body language can be a powerful tool when trying to understand the mood or attitude of another person. In baseball, body language ebbs and flows and seems to both drive and interrupt the production, or lack thereof, of most baseball players. When he’s going bad no one has worse body language than Brandon Belt. He addressed this last year when he told the media not to read anything into his slumping shoulders, that’s how he looks all the time. Of course, slumping shoulders is but a single message one can send non-verbally.

At fanfest, I was struck by how Belt sounded–not really the words he said, but how he said them. He gave off an air of confidence that he didn’t have last year (or at least, that he didn’t show publicly). He went on to have another of his usual dominant springs and I actually thought this was going to be a very productive year for him. Then he got sick and lost 10-12 pounds. Then the season started. And 19 games in, we’re still waiting for Belt to get started. Bochy talked with him yesterday and it sounds like he’s going to sit vs the lefties coming up in the Arizona series.

I haven’t heard him interviewed since fanfest. I hope he’s still carrying the confident tone he had with him that day. If I was Belt I would chalk my slow start up to the pre-season illness and bad luck–he’s hit many balls hard, especially earlier in the year, that found gloves. And that’s just baseball.

I like the fact that Bochy called him into his office because running him out there over and over, especially if he’s failing, isn’t the way to handle every hitting slump. In fact, i wish more players would sit during a slump. Watching the game can sometimes be better for you than playing it or practicing it (somewhere far far away, I’m sure Aaron Rowand is still perfecting his swing in a cage). As long as Bochy reassured Belt that he is the starting first baseman, I think this break will be good for him.

1) how easily Andre Miller blew past Draymond Green

2) Tim Lincecum walked less than 13 hitters in a game

3) Boston and New York being 1/2 in the AL East

4) Colorado having the best record in the major leagues

5) people getting bent that Big Papi said “fuckin'”

…But I’m out of town. Nice win last night. Golden State just might win this game today. Think it’s kinda cool that The Red Sox are on a 6 game winning streak. And while I don’t give a rip about the Celtics I will be rooting for them vs the Knicks. Timmy pitching today. Hope he leaves his bad inning in the bullpen.

Matt Cain has been abysmal this year. And I really don’t care even a little bit. Yet. Most of the guys on our team have banked enough slack to use (with me) for a long time. How long? Well, I went back to see when my *rope* ran out with Timmy last year. It was May 21st. Here is that thread:

https://oneflapdown77.com/2012/05/21/tim-lincecum-needs-to-get-his-head-out-of-his-ass/

It would be the beginning of many threads that called out Lincecum for his failures in 2012. So if 2 Cy Young’s and one World Series (at the time) bought him not quite 2 months of slack with me, how would that transfer to the slack I ultimately give Cain this year?

Matt Cain:

No Cy Young’s and he’s making 20 million dollars this year so expectations are naturally higher. But, he endured years of no run support, never complained about it or the team, has 4 post season wins, a hot wife, threw a perfect game and….probably a lot of other stuff, too.

So even though Matty is sporting a 7.52 ERA and an 0-2 record, I have nothing to say about him except I think he’s rad. Nothing but thankful, encouraging, positive vibes coming from Big Flavor’s corner of the earth.

I’ve finished my calculations. Turns out Matt gets slack from me well into late May/early June. But if he’s still pitching like this in June…..

I might start off easy and tell him I had sex with his wife. If that doesn’t work, a thread starting “Matt Cain needs to Get His Head out of His Ass…” might be appropriate…..

Finding something to complain about in this 2013 season has been a challenge for me. Maybe I’ve been softened a little by yet another World Series win. Maybe I’m just getting old and the little things don’t bother me as much as they used to. That’s not it, little things piss me off more than ever. I have greatly enjoyed all of these comebacks that the Giants are pulling off seemingly daily. Though it’s not always resulting in a win, we’re only 15 games into the season so I have still have a high tolerance for ultimate failure as long as there are positives to be gleaned along the way.

So basically, I’ve got nothing today.

Here’s how our offense is performing at each spot in the line up:

I find this fairly interesting. Our 4-5-6-7 hitters aren’t hitting. Still, I love our 4-5-6-7 hitters so I’m not looking for a rant, just noticing something. Then you get the 8 spot and 9 spot significantly outperforming their expected production. I’m not sure if pinch hits are included in the 9 spot. But regardless, .268 is more than acceptable from the 9 hole. As is the .345 we’re getting from the 8 hole (almost exclusively Crawford).

But even with the limpness of the 4-5-6-7 guys, our offense is still solid:

Being 13th in HR’s isn’t gonna fly for the entire year. Or will it? Of course we all remember our HR pro(?)duction from 2012:

But I don’t think trailing the field in HR’s every year is the blueprint for “How to Win a World Series”.

If the 4-5-6-7 spots in the LU get on track, this offense is really going to be fun to watch.

Hello Flappers!

WordPress seems to be having some problems this morning and I can’t upload any photos. That was a change up I wasn’t expecting–unlike the one that Betancourt was sitting on last night. Anyway, this will probably only be an issue for my BBOTD disciples.

Awesome things from last night:

Brandon Belt’s 3 hits (that could have been 5 hits)

Pablo’s 4 RBI’s

Chad Gaudin

Crawford’s big fly. As I said last night, when I watch his home runs sail majestically out of the park I don’t understand how he doesn’t hit 25 of those every year…….

Below is a list from mlbtraderumors.com that I was planning on posting this morning but had some tech problems. Listed are each team’s highest paid players. Quite the incongruent relationship between salary and production, at least for many of them…..

16 wins in a row. I still marvel at that streak. I tried to find what the record is for most wins in a row by a team with the same starting pitcher. I found that over the course of 2 seasons, Carl Hubble won 24 in a row– obviously a much more impressive streak since those were all W’s for The Hubbster. I didn’t find out what the actual record is but it has to be at least 24, obviously. In my search I also found an interesting record that I have a hazy memory of: Greg Minton didn’t give up a home run between June 1st 1979 and May 1st, 1982–nearly 3 full years and 269.1 innings. Incredible that he stay that focused during a period of our history that was littered with losses, failures and Stennett’s.

But regardless, the Giants are going for their 17th win in a row today with Barry Zito on the hill. It reads almost as ridiculously as it types. But there is one snag in the plan. And thy name is Miller Park. And Miller Park is Barry Zito’s death-blow, black-hole of kryptonite. Many of his greatest pitching nightmare have come on that hill. Let’s take a look at the numbers, shall we? You can try squinting but it doesn’t help much. Looking at this list is like try to look straight at an unsightly BBOTD for 8 straight seconds. Speaking of that widget, I brought her back!

7 starts

0 wins

4 losses

31.2 innings/39 hits

7 HR’s

28 strikeouts/23 walks

His ERA is 7.57. His WHIP is 1.96

The Brewers tee off on him at a .302 clip.

Now, some good news. Big Fat Price Fielder is in Detroit. Also, Corey Hart and Aramis Ramirez, two guys who crush him, are on the DL. Zito can pitch around Braun if he wants to. But who knows, the man is walkin’ the earth with a newfound Zen-fueled pride that just might propel him to a well pitched game in Milwaukee today. He hasn’t given up a run yet this year. His teammates have all marveled at the way in which he’s throwing and mixing up his pitches. Today just might be the day Zito wins in Milwaukee. Come on, do you guys believe? Say you believe! All together now!

Nah, he’s gonna get crushed again. 🙂 🙂 🙂

We took 3 of 4 from the Cubs. They gave us a couple of those. The Cubs are truly an awful baseball team. Between the errors, the walks, the mind blowing number of wild pitches and passed balls, it only seems right that we would win yesterday’s game because of a balk.

If you haven’t heard the Kuip or Miller calls of Pence’s game tying bomb, take the time to. Goose pimple stuff, especially Miller’s….

I can’t get over how many Giants fans there are at these road games. LA or Sand Diego, i get it. But Chicago? I guess they are the trendy team to root for with the 2 world titles in 3 years. How far has this fan base come since the days of Barry Bonds? We went from one of the most hated teams to one of the most loved.

Day off today. Dark day. I hate these days. How do we ever get through 5 months of days like these?

Like this pic

The Giants have won both his starts this year but that doesn’t tell even a tenth of this tale. I didn’t look up the weather in Chicago for today. Does it really matter if the wind is blowing in or out for a Timmy start? If he struggles today it probably won’t be the long ball. It’ll be because he’s walking too many guys. I’m just hoping that he doesn’t start out the game sans mechanics. Is it too much to ask that he starts a game mechanically sound?

Whatever, I am getting my mind set straight now so I don’t blow a gasket during the game. Forget the 2 Cy Young’s. Focus on him being  a #3 or so. Maybe a #4. I’d settle for a #5 who is pitching like a #3. Yes, that’s the vision. I’m locked in. Go time.

Welcome to the CQ-ZG-Free Game-Time Thread!

So, what’d everybody have for breakfast?

Just to clarify a few things from last night since I wasn’t there to defend myself. I wasn’t happy about Greinke getting injured. I am happy because it weakens the Dodgers. I don’t care one whit about Greinke, I don’t know him, I don’t care about his injury, I don’t own him on a single fantasy team. I’m happy that the Dodgers have been weakened. Gleefully so, in fact. And so is every Giants player. I’m also ecstatic that every fantasy owner (who are my opponents) also got weakened yesterday. In fact, I freaking LOVE that–reveling in copious amounts of glee over that. For those who don’t understand the definition of “glee”:

And every Giants fan I know is happy that the Dodgers have been weakened. I also stand by my comments about Grienke getting off light. He completely instigated the brawl by hitting Quentin and then swearing at him and tossing his glove down. And only a damn fool stands there waiting to absorb the full blow of a steamrolling man who is ~60 pounds his senior. Try getting out of the way, dunce. “Hmmmmm, a train is coming, I wonder what I should do????” He’s lucky it was only a broken collarbone, it could have been much worse. And Quentin didn’t go out there because he thought Grienke was trying to hit him—it was payback for a vendetta he has held for years. There’s no timetable on a payback, especially in baseball. It comes when it comes. Oney Guillen’s tweet confirms this:

This clearly explains why Quentin waited till now to go after Grienke. He doesn’t hit him again, he doesn’t come out there. And when Grienke swore at him and threw down his glove, it was on, triggering the FIRST TIME that Quentin has ever charged the mound.

Here’s an article that has Quentin’s response. Some of you may have already read this:

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/scott-miller/22059298/quentin-suspended-amid-ugly-history-with-greinke

The bottom line with this: Greinke hit Quentin one too many times. Regardless of the intent the other night (and I do believe it was probably an intended  brush back pitch that was PAYBACK for brushing back Kemp earlier) if ZG doesn’t hit him he wouldn’t be injured right now. That is FACT.

Here’s another thread I wrote (recently) about my feelings related to a player getting hurt:

https://oneflapdown77.com/2013/03/20/when-im-happy-a-player-isnt-playing/

I hope you all caught the Dodger/Padre brawl last night. It wasn’t as good as The Mexico/Canada fight but there were a few Tyson fights that weren’t that good, either. Grienke hit Carlos Quentin and it was on. Grienke broke his collarbone in the melee. Apparently, there’s history with these two and Quentin had finally decided it was time to kick Grienke’s ass. I’m not totally sure what ZG was trying to do in this fight. He’s displaying an odd fighting technique. Check out where his left hand is on Quentin in these 5 pics:

Anyway, the game ended on a Juan Uribe pinch hit home run and he even threw up his jazz hands a little which made me smile even a little more than I already was smiling. Too bad the Dodgers won but Uribe is one of my top 3 favorite players from the 2010 team so it’s nice to see him produce after being so putrid for so long down in LA.

Here’s the only negative that might come from last night’s brawl: the Dodgers come together, rally together, coalesce or whatever you want  to call it and play together as a team instead of a bunch of overpaid individuals. Brawls, especially when you lose your ace pitcher, tend to bring guys together. That would be an unfortunate fall out to this sorted, shocking(!) display of neanderthal behavior 🙂 🙂 🙂

Romo and Wheezy have traveled some parallel roads. The dude who just *looks* illegal isn’t yet at Wilson status in terms of stardom. Wheezy dominates him on twitter (645K > 82K– and Wilson hasn’t tweeted anything since last October while Romo fires tweets off at a furious pace). BW had the tonight show appearance. Of course, Romo had that too. Both have fantastic *closer* personalities, both have had fantastic success as closers, one is healthy, the other one is getting there….

I’m on record as saying I didn’t think Romo could ever handle the grind of the closer role over the course of a full season. He wears knee braces, he’s whispy as fuck, he throws sliders that look like each and every one should be breaking down precious muscle fibers on the way to an accelerated visit with Dr. Andrews…..But he has ALWAYS had the stuff to close. He keeps the ball in the ball park and he knows where his pitches are going with an INSANE K/BB ratio. Sickeningly insane. And this year he’s started off in spectacular fashion. He’s got 6 saves, 2 hits allowed in 6 innings pitched, no walks and 10 K’s. He’s making Craig Kimbrel look like Matt Herges (admittedly, in his prime)….

So where is this going? Bochy dropped hints all Spring that Romo would get some help with closing, there would be an influence of the BP by Committee that worked so well last year. But he’s pitched 6 times in 10 days. I don’t think that’s the blue print of success for Romo over the course of the entire 162. But how can Bochy do anything but what he’s doing now? We’re talking about the most dominant current closer in the major leagues. How do you rest a guy like this in a 1 run game in the 9th?

Do they make knee braces for knee braces?

…for those of you in that 18-120 age range who are able to watch the game today.

I love baseball in the daytime, but that’s more *romantic* love than it is *practical* love. I’ve never understood how so many people can attend day games. Since 90%+ of the population works and kids are in school during the day, how is it that so many fans can find the time to pack these stadiums during the daylight hours? Even in the Summer time, these days most kids are funneled through a strict schedule of camps. If I take my kid to a baseball day game in the Summer it means I’m pulling her out of a Tara VanDerveer bball camp and at close to a buck fifty a day, that’s just not happening. 🙂

So when I see 4 day games in a row (and technically it will be five since yesterday was a day game) my brow begins to furrow. I start to do a slow burn. At least 2 of them will be on the weekend but again, that’s right in the middle of *get sh!t done time*. The Cubs play 30 night games a year, we couldn’t have played even one? One of the most electric baseball games any of us have ever watched was played at night on October 4th, 1989. As my mind’s eye recalls Will Clark losing that ball into the blackness of the Chicago landscape, I wonder how *electric* that would have been had it been a day game? Ok, it would have still been electric, that’s a bad example.

Regardless, we are headed into Chicago to play four day games against a team who’s leading hitter is Nate Schierholtz. Of course, their team batting average is .198 so temper your fear of Nate-Dawg’s bat……

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In the photo bucket I’ve dumped 2 new pics. The first one is Zumie at the game yesterday brazenly rockin’ the Rod Beck look. The 2nd photo is of UncaChuck and Gregor Blanco inside someone’s home with Chuck awkwardly wearing Gregor’s WS ring. Chuck, you got a story to tell? lol

The Giants just finished off the Rockies with a 10-nada thrashing. Zito pitched his usual “no runs allowed” game. Seriously, at this point I almost want the Giants to lose one of his starts just ’cause the streak is starting to consume me. 16-0? This is getting into *twilight zone* territory. And it couldn’t happen to a better Giant. A GREAT Giant. The sh!t this guy took from his fan base and the media was non-stop and relentless. And before the start of the 2012 season, it was certainly deserved. Before his first start shut out in Colorado last year,  I wrote “Zito is completely done as a major league pitcher.” And I wrote 20+ other threads skewering him and wishing a big wave would take him away from us forever.

But this is the thing I love about Barry Zito: he never gave up. He never got complacent with the money. And he finally got it right. And by “finally got it right” I mean he is largely responsible for our most recent world series win. If he doesn’t shut down the Cardinals we don’t make the World Series. And as magical as The Panda was in Game 1, Zito’s the guy who out-pitched the supposed greatest-pitcher-in-the-world that night.

As a fan, I long ago forgave him for all his past sins. Quite easily, I might add. But it wasn’t just the World Series that he brought to us. He’s now in the midst of “THE STREAK”. Sixteen bad boys in a row.

Here’s what he’s done in his last 4 starts (post season games vs Cards and Tigers + his first two starts this year): 27.1 innings pitched. 22 hits allowed. 6 walks. 17k’s. And…wait for it…. exactly 1 earned run.

I will never understand the Giants fans who can’t forgive or forget his first five years with us. Although that number is thankfully dwindling if the standing-o he received today is any indication. In ’07–’09 the Giants sucked so it’s not like Zito losing was going to change anything in those years even if he was winning. In 2010 we won the World Series. We won it again in 2012 and never would have without his man-child performances. And in 2013, he’s un-scored upon in 2 starts.

So what, exactly, keeps the few remaining haters hating so hard on this guy? Stubbornness? Likely. He is one of the great Giants in the history of this storied franchise. I represent Flavor Nation with the highest honor we can bestow a player:  Two Flaps Up. Barry, we salute you.

I’m not sure which of his starts was worse. In the first one, he walked 7 but he got the win. Last night, he walked 4, but he k’d 7 in 6 innings. He walked the pitcher twice and I know one of those at bats was a 4 pitch walk. Were both of them? I can’t remember.

I would have to say that last night’s start was better than his first start of the year and Baggs sent out a tweet last night that nailed the reason why:

Timmy says he watched some tape after the 2nd inning and made adjustments. Whatever he did after the 2nd inning he needs to do more of in his next start. Aside from the MONSTER BLAST he gave up to Tulo in the 5th, he pitched very well in innings 3-6. And our dominant bullpen took care of the rest.

Lincecum has 11 strikeouts this year balanced evenly with 11 walks. 1:1 k/bb ratio is not exactly what you’re striving for as a pitcher–at any level.

If you forget the first two innings, this was a rousing, fantastic come from behind win. The East Coast Moonlight Crew (P-Koko, Mac-diggity and Bozo) represented throughout.

I have no expectations for Lincecum’s next start other than he’s going to do another hatchet job on his WHIP and probably K a hitter an inning. But we’ve won both games he’s started in 2013. If I’m gonna count Zito’s 15-0 I gotta count Timmy’s 2-0. Although who among us could even dream of another 13 in a row for the Giants in Lincecum starts after the way he’s pitched so far?

If I close my eyes and completely forget the 2 Cy Young’s and then imagine that it’s a #5 out there, I just might make it through his next start without gnashing my teeth to pieces…..

I can’t get enough of the ring-bling-thing.

I love all of it. I didn’t care for the designs of most of them until probably the late 70’s when the Yankees started pouring the diamonds all over those things. The rings pre-70’s just look like class rings. There’s nothing special about a class ring, at least in how it looks.

Marty Lurie was fishing for topics on Sunday night and he took several calls on how these ceremonies could be done differently. In other words, he was saying that this first home weekend was a distraction to the team and that’s why they lost 2 of 3 to the Cardinals. You know your team is on top of the baseball world when talk-show callers are lamenting those dang championship celebrations and the detrimental effects they have on the players. Jeez.

I think the only change I might make is to combine the flag raising with the ring-getting and maybe do Buster’s MVP trophy a week or two later. But that’s only if I was looking to fix something that really isn’t broken. And the day Larry Baer gives up an opportunity to sell tickets to an event is a day we won’t see happen.

Anyway, they’re back to their routines, their *creature of habit-ness*, and their *focus* has found it’s long lost *re*. It’s time to settle in for the grind of the 2013 baseball season. Our view from atop the peak of this great mountain is crystal clear. In fact, the sun couldn’t shine any brighter off a diamond than it does for Giants fans today…….

I’ve never really taken the time to appreciate the gaudy detail of these championship rings. Here’s Dave Flemming, proudly showing off the last 3 years of bounty for his alma mater and current employer:

Here’s the White Sox ring from 2005. I like the look of this one:

Here’s a pic of all the Yankees rings up through 2000:

Here’s the Yankee ring from 2009. I think it’s cool with the 4 diamond bases:

Here is a pic of the Cardinals bling:

Here’s the Oakland A’s ring from ’74. They really went all out on the design of this one, eh? 🙂

I was expecting to see him today with all the other MVP’s. I was going “conspiracy theory” until I read that the Giants had invited him and he never RSVP’d. Why no RSVP? That suggests ANOTHER conspiracy theory. 🙂

After Barry retired, the SF Chronicle published a Letters to the Editor section that had (from my memory) like 18 Bonds letters posted and 15 of them were anti-Bonds. As a long time subscriber, I canceled my subscription the next day. After the Chronicle made 15 years worth of sales off their stories of this dude, it pissed me off that they ran almost all negative letters against him. And I know SF Giants fans and they aren’t 15-3 against the best hitter they ever had. And I haven’t bought a single Chronicle since I canceled my subscription. Though it still has me doing a slow burn that they logged all those sfgate hits I gave them when I blogged at the Splash. Whatever, that place is dead to me.

He’s been seen at the ballpark several times times over the last couple of years. At least a couple of times that I remember. Today was a perfect day for him to come back. He didn’t RSVP? It’s not making any more sense the more I type…..

True Giants fans love Barry Bonds for obvious reasons. He will be celebrated for as long as flags fly at AT&T. And I have to believe he’s not so consumed with biking around California that he couldn’t find the time to RSVP to today’s event.

But what do I know, he’s pretty lean and focused these days.

🙂 🙂 🙂

“We Score We Win” has never been accurate than when discussing the four Giant starting pitchers in 2013. Four starters, 26 innings pitched, zero earned runs allowed. I can’t imagine what Voggy will do if he gives up an earned run today. The dude already takes the hill gnashing his teeth into broken pieces, if if becomes the first starter to give up a run he might execute himself.

Yesterday it was Barry’s Zito’s turn and he was magnificent. I discussed his different approach to pitching last year when I noticed how many fewer fastballs he was throwing. I incorrectly cited an increase in sliders thrown (I misread a chart at fangraphs) but it was actually an increase in cutters thrown. Here is his career chart (and I’m using a different one than last year because it’s easier to read):

Combine the FA% and FT% and you will get the percentage of 2-seam and 4-seam fastballs thrown. FC% is the % he throws his cutter. And while a cutter is a type of fastball, it’s not counted in the FA or FT% in the chart above. For reference, a cutter is usually described as a pitch that is somewhere between a fastball and a slider. Clearly, Zito decided to finally stop throwing his shitty fastball so often because he wasn’t able to get anyone out with it. Throwing more cutters has balanced out his pitch type enough to keep the hitters off balance and guessing. He obviously needs to locate all of his pitches to be effective. But from the chart it is clear that the difference in his pitching is less fastballs and more cutters. He seems to be throwing the curve and the change up about as often as he always has during his Giants career.

If you’re wondering about the differences between a 4-seam/2-seam/slider/cutter, you are not alone. Here is a chart that shows where a pitch typically ends up if it was thrown by a right handed pitcher (the view is from the catcher position). For a left handed pitcher, it would be reversed.

By the way, this is the chart I used last year.

I’ll admit to still not understanding this chart as it appears to assign a 32.5% of his pitches to the slider. I’m assuming this chart lumps in slider/cutter together, but I don’t know. Regardless, the first chart listed is the one that shows how much more often he threw his cutter in 2012 (and in his first start of 2013).

I still wouldn’t ever add Zito to a fantasy team. He doesn’t strike out enough hitters and he still throws in disaster starts that I now am attributing to poor location of his pitches. Of course, you could use that excuse for most pitchers. But he has become a reliable starting pitcher, something you can’t say about Tim Lincecum. And we’ve won 15 of his starts in a row. Some will point to run support as the reason. Well, he got 1 yesterday, so I guess they’d be right. He did get *some* run support. Enough to win, anyway. “We Score We Win.” We haven’t lost a Barry Freaking Zito start since last August 2nd. His comeback has been remarkable. I will forever honor him as a great Giant.

Here’s a pic one of my friends took yesterday:

I’m ripping myself off from last February…..

It’s tough to complain about taking 2 of 3 from Dodgers in their house. But 7 walks against 4 strike outs? Everyone is talking about how Tim gutted out that win but this was more of a case of him lucking his way to the W. He lost his velocity, just like last year, after a few innings. By the 5th he was throwing his fastball 88-90 mph–with very poor location. That’s not gonna get it done over the course of the season. I’m awaiting Kruk’s breakdown on KNBR this morning where he tells me it was all a mechanical flaw and that Tim is juuuuuuust about there. Of course, he said that all year last season, too.

Chad Gaudin seems to have rocketed up the ranks, yes? What was that all about? He should be 2nd guy in the showers by the 8th inning….

I still find it amusing how starry-eyed the Dodgers fans are when a fly ball gets him…

The two bombs we hit were uber-impressive. Pence hit the shit out of that ball to right center. That’s hard to do. And Panda hit his by hacking at a ball around his neck. But he blasted it.

Too bad St Louis isn’t coming in to play today after playing the longest game in Chase Field’s history last night….

I’m really looking forward to adding a pic of the 2012 World Series ring to the right….

Sandy said, on April 3, 2013 at 6:57 pm (Edit)

How about a new thread for the game?

The Dodgers can’t score unless Clayton Kershaw is starting the rally. Trip on that for a bit….

_____________________________

In the meantime, I thought I’d toss out my list of teams that can’t make the 2013 post season. It’s actually a very short list. The A’s and O’s proved last year that you don’t have to have a 100+ million payroll to make the playoffs. And there are many recent years that prove that anyone can win once they make it to the post season and get hot. And if you do some shifty book keeping and subtract Zito and Rowand’s salaries from the Giants 2010 team, we won that World Series with a payroll of about 65 million. So not only can you win a World Series on a budget, getting to the post season is doable for every team in the league. With the exception of….

The Houston (L)astros. Bud Norris is their highest paid player at 3 million this year. Their team payroll is 26 million. I love Altuve. And that’s about it. Obviously, they have no shot at the post season in 2013.

The Minnesota Can'(T)wins. Kevin Correia is their #1. ‘Nuff said.

The Miami Mar(losses). Loria is scum. And the team has no chance. Free Stanton.

The Chicago Flubs. I like what Theo is trying to do in Chi-Town but this is not the year. No chance for the playoffs.

The San Diego Patsy’s. They have a decent bullpen and a couple of hitters, but there’s no way they make the post season having to play so many games against LA, SF and Arizona.

God dammit I want to put the Yankees on this list. SOOOOOO badly. But I can’t, mostly because of their ability to add-on, if they choose to do so, before the break. But they are stuck right now. Their team is old and/or on the DL. They’re playing a boatload of games against a division that is rock solid right now. But I just can’t put them on this list.

But I will put The New York Mess on the list. They have a couple of starting pitchers that I like (Niese, Harvey and Gee) and their corner infielders (Wright and Davis) can bang when they’re healthy (never guaranteed) but I still don’t think they have a chance to make the 2013 post season. But what do I know, maybe a mid season call up of Zach Wheeler will put them over the top. 🙂

Baseball is back and I always forget how much it consumes my life. The one thing that sucks about winning the World Series is that I go from a total focus and obsession with the game and my team to…nothing. My emotions are all over the place and then I’m hit with this unreal rush of excitement and happiness culminating with a deep exhale of completion. But then it all just stops. I get my b-a-s-k on, of course, but quickly I’m hit by a period of withdraw. Voids are created and filled, slowly, with other things in my life. There’s an adjustment of not setting my day around the time a baseball game is played and waking up and NOT checking the box scores or setting my line ups for the different fantasy teams I have. Haiku’s get written, BBOTD’s get uploaded and football happens and it’s darker and colder for a long period of time. And then Opening Day happens again and I get right back into the intensity and the excitement and the overall consumption that baseball brings to my life. I imagine it’s the same for all of you or maybe it’s completely different. I don’t know.

This year I have 5 fantasy teams, my team is defending it’s world championship, I have a full time job and a daughter who’s a year older and I don’t know how I’m going to fit all of this into my life. Except I know I will because it’s part of the cycle of my life. It’s like riding a bike or throwing a ball. I’ll be able to do it because even when it’s gone it’s still part of me. I love all of it and my life really isn’t the same unless it’s all happening at the same time.

So I’m pumped and excited for this season. Winter officially ended yesterday. What the calendar says  means nothing to me.