Putting the Rings In a Safe Place and Getting Down to Business
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…….
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
As the Champs you can call the tune, but I think less is more in terms of pre game ceremony. Cards must have been pretty tired of it by 1:30 sunday, not surprised they took it out on Cain and others. this seems to happen in NBA too—winners have a ring ceremony etc. and get happy while the opposing team forced to watch it gets fired up and kicks their ass.
Dexter Fowler is an intriguing player, and if he is ready for a break out year could be interesting. I recall a series maybe 2 yrs ago at Coors where SF literally could not get him out all weekend and he ran wild on bases. He’s already got 4 HRs while Rox were beating up on Brewers on the road (DBax swept their ass after Rox took 2 of 3) and the Pads at home. And he almost ruined bum’s night with a blast to the warning track.
Weiss has him hitting second behind Young, and he went 0-4 with 2 Ks last night. See how this works out and if these guys can get on base and make things happen ahead of Tulo, Cargo Cuddyer and the Rosario kid. Gonzalez long HR was the only hit in top 4 (1-14) vs. Giants pitching and he struck out the other 3 times.
Essentially, I have the same opinion as WillieD regarding “pre-game ceremonies.” I’m certain the Giants having “the shoe on the other foot” would feel the same way. No one likes to be shown up and the Cards must have been doing a slow burn while that shit was going down. That being said, I could give 2 shits if it means the Giants get to do this annually. 🙂
Fowler is intriguing Willie, but mostly he is a bust and conundrum to the Rockies. This dude has unbelieveable speed and yet, he barely steals any bases and the ones he does steal come at the cost of a pathetic success rate. Similarly, he has been given so many opportunities (4-5 times at least) to hit 1st and 2nd and FAILED EACH TIME. This guy is so inconsistent, that you will always see him on most fantasy league waiver wires multiple times at certain points in the season.
Regarding the Rockies team, I have to go along with Twin – they have too many holes in their lineup (3rd base, 2nd base, 1st base, catcher, and one outfield position – since Cuddyer will most likely be at 1st base). Rosario at catcher was feast or famine and he is still learning the position. Second base and 3rd base are a patchwork, especially since they made the monumental mistake of trading Scutaro to us. The entire team is hot and cold at home and on the road, except last year, where they were just cold. Period. Cargo especially, is two different players at home and on the road. Tulo? Who knows if he will even play the entire year. By the by, his team mates are getting mighty tired of his over the top act as well. The fans too. He has much to prove this year. In fact, this is one reason why I think that Crawford has a real chance for a gold glove since Tulo was out of action most of last year.
The pitching is so bad that I predict that by the All Star break, the entire relief corps will be exhausted by being used too much. In fact, by the end of May, the pitching staff will be as bad or worse than it was last year. I see the Rockies taking last place, with maybe a chance to pass San Diego.
Despite all the foolishness crtitiizing Baer for doing maybe the best job in the game in keeping the stands full- which everyone knows is a huge motivation for the players- lost is that he also does what many CEOs don’t do (Magowan) – he lets his men do their jobs. Baer has been a revelation in his new position…
Sure, the festivities might have been a distraction- a distraction the fans and players will be happy to endure every year..
There are some *real* concerns- there was too much giddiness about Scooter’s curious production last year, Andres needs to get it going or we could see two outfielders called up soon, the back up catcher position needs rethinking, the pen has been very iffy…Tim is very much an unknown…
Twin wants action! Now!
While I respect Lurie and like to listen in on occasion, he and whoever else thinks that the excessive ceremonial pomp was the cause of the Giants dropping the opening series can blow it out their asses. Baer, Bochy, Sabean…they all point out that the ceremonies are as much (if not more so) for the fans as they are for the players/staff, and they also are quick to point out that the team could not consistently perform the way they do without the rabbid support of the fans.
I don’t see it being an issue. After a WS win, it typically happens the first series and that is it. I saw on the Brandon and Brandon site where MudBug was lamenting about the length of the ring ceremony, and how he “just wanted to play.” I get that, but there has to be balance, and the Giants do a great job of sharing their successes with the fans.
And if the opening series, with the drawn-out ceremonies were the contributing factor to the Giants dropping 2 of 3 to the Cards, why then did the Giants win both opening series at home in 2011 (during the ceremonies commemorating the 2010 World Series title)? (Rhetorical question…I don’t need an answer.)
Meanwhile, back at the ranch we return you to your regularly scheduled baseball season minus the pomp and circumstance.
I agree Michael…there are much more pressing issues than the length of the ceremonies. Perhaps a bit more light is shed tonight on one of those that you mention (Tim being an unknown).
What the teams need to understand is that these ceremonies are mostly for the fans. We spend a lot of time and hard-earned money supporting our team and therefore we are entitled to bask in the celebrations when they win a championship. If the road team feels like they’re being “shown up” that’s too bad.
It doesn’t get much sillier than blaming the series loss to the Cards on all the ceremonies. I guess Vogey and Cain needed to channel their inner Zito, the better to focus on the task at hand. And funny how the Cards gave up 9 runs in an inning one day later without the distraction of a ring ceremony.
I admit to having little use for corporate suit types, but Baer is tough act for me to warm up to. Reminds me of an insurance salesman that tells you your coverage ran out last week. Nukes seemed more like a real person and fan of the game, not just the bottom line on the accountants spreadsheet..
Celebration in general I just don’t get into, and it seems like pro athletes do more and more of it every year. Football special teams guys lucky to even get on the field dance around like madmen when they make a tackle….which is your job, right? Hanley and his lo viste, college b-ball guys with the 3point monocle move after a basket… Even Romo after his punch out last night…you know all this stuff trickles down to kids too. Sign of the apocalypse to me…you can win with class, act like you’ve done it before and show some respect for the game and opponents without rubbing their noses in it.
You say “tough act to warm up to” as if Baer is some bean-counting outsider who the team owners just brought in last year. Baer has been with the Giants for three decades years (first as their Marketing director) and helped put the ownership group together in 1992 that saved the team from relocation. He’s part of the reason the Giants are still here and not in Tampa. I’ve met and spoke with the guy a couple times and he seems to genuinely love the Giants and the game of baseball. I see him walking the Field Club during home games, glad-handing the Giants corporate partners and such (that’s his job), but he’s also legitimately watching the plays as he talks to these guys. Obviously being the owner of an MLB team is pretty lucrative, but there are much quicker routes to wealth for a guy with his education and connections. If he just wanted to make money he’d have gone to work for a hedge fund or something after he got his MBA from Harvard. He’s one of the most committed and down-to-earth owners in sports.
hear, hear
nice post
Willie – I don’t get that about Baer at all. I have met him/chatted with him at length a couple of times, and he comes across as very down to earth and very appreciative to be in the position in which he is in. At the 2011 trophy viewing at the Capitol, I met both he and Bow Tie on the street in front of the Capitol (pictures taken with both and individuallly with the trophy), and if anything Baer came across as more real than Billy. Whatever…I think Neukom did a great job while he had the reins, and I think Baer is doing a great job, too.
The ceremonies take all of a couple of days IF they win the WS title. I was really beginning to wonder if I would see ONE title in my lifetime. Now to have 2 in 3 years…I am down with some basking and ceremony, and I think they did it both times with class. The pissing and moaning about the ceremonies is a non-issue in my book, and I hope like hell we get to do it all again next year (parade, ceremony, etc.).
Ceremonies come and go. These were nice and now they’re over. Play ball.
Now if the DH would just come and GO…as in go away FOREVER…
Probably not happening…but we can wish…
The DH has to come probably when Selig goes. Pitchers are too valuable to hit.
I thought this was a cool article on retired numbers in baseball…
http://tinyurl.com/cy5occl
It does seem that it’s Baer’s slick image that turns people off. I understand that. I just think that he’s been a good CEO thus far and I like that he doesn’t seem to be a meddler.
Twin makes a strong point. I like Baer too.
Reports of Sanchez catching Timmy. So who’s out: belt, posey or Torres/blanco, none of which are hitting well?
Buster not starting…here is the line-up:
1. Angel Pagan (S) CF
2. Marco Scutaro (R) 2B
3. Pablo Sandoval (S) 3B
4. Hunter Pence (R) RF
5. Brandon Belt (L) 1B
6. Gregor Blanco (L) LF
7. Hector Sanchez (S) C
8. Brandon Crawford (L) SS
9. Tim Lincecum (L) P
I suspect that once Timmy leaves that Buster will be behind the dish.
No chance. They aren’t going to be that obvious that there’s a feud or something wrong with their pitching/catching relationship.
I shouldn’t say *no chance*. I’ll say *highly unlikely*.
Plus it would leave Quiroz as the only catcher left on the bench and I doubt they want to ever see him in a game unless it’s an emergency.
and Buster could always use a game off now and again….
New post on my blog. Good night all.
Those two rings and two flags on the side of the blog are AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m diggin’ it!!!!!!!
With Posey kinda scuffling I’d honestly rather have him sit and keep Belt at 1B and Blanco in LF. The thing I hate most about Hector catching is that it potentially weakens three positions defensively– catcher, 1st base (if Posey is there) and LF (if Belt takes over in LF for either Torres or Blanco who are both better than he is playing LF).
Here again is the pitch chart from Lincecum’s last start with the circled pitches being ones that because of Hector’s terrible framing were called balls.
I’m not saying Lincecum would have been reborn as Cy again. Sanchez did hurt him in that start, though.
I’ll be interested to see if Hector’s D improves from the LA start.
I’m guessing maybe two passed balls while Timmeh is in there.
It’s obvious now that Bochy doesn’t want Tim’s style to beat up Posey; so Hector is the designated “pin cushion” for Tim as Schulman writes today.
What does that say to Lincecum? That the manager figures he’s the guy that’s supposed to survive the “bad D and bad-frame job catcher”? Points even more to Tim not being here next year.
I’m not optimistic about tonight. The Rocks are patient at the plate, and they can rake fastballs on fastball counts.
Hope I’m wrong…
Yup you’re wrong again!
Whatya mean “again”?…
Sorry Nippy.
I wasn’t wrong…
Lefty tomorrow for the rocks…that’s why Posey is sitting tonight rather than manana.
Well, he wouldn’t be catching tonight regardless.
Posey is only 25 and earning now a boatload of cash. Unless his ankle injury is still really bothersome, he shouldn’t be sitting out more than 10-15 games this season. Even that is a lot for a young stud to sit out. He should be catching Lincecum fairly regularly, regardless of who the opposing pitcher is…
I’m not saying he shouldn’t be catching him.
My 7:24 wasn’t meant as a comment on your 7:15, I agree with it. More of a general comment to Brian’s. Seems to me Posey is being treated with kid gloves, and the guy is paid like the top player on the squad now, so he should catch everybody. Hector is the second stringer here, and barely that. If I were Lincecum, I might be getting pissed off that I get the inexperienced, backup catcher all the time. You’d think a guy with two Cy’s would get the team’s first string catcher at least once in a while…
Hector should be catching Petit and company.,.
Hope Sanchez gets his act together tonight. Not looking forward to more stab, stab stab, pass ball. Dude needs to pick it up.
Patience!
There’s the walk twin predicted 🙂
It’s probably due to his low BA at San Jose but Adam Duvall has been overlooked as a prospect. But the dude hit 30 HRs last year and he’s tearing up the Eastern League early. That league is where prospects quickly turn into suspects.Adam has become a kid to watch. He’s a 3rd baseman , maybe they need to find him another glove.
Seems now the bad D that plagued Zito has now been communicated onto Lincecum…
WTF was that?
That pitch was very high, but it looked like Hector was clueless about going after it until too late. Then, clusterF pitching by Timmeh…
Timmeh, I’m only following this digitally, little floating neurons on an ESPN simulated diamond, BUT HOW CAN YOU WALK THE PITCHER?
Seriously, Tim should go back to pitching from the stretch ALL the time. He did that several years ago.
Maybe that will allow him to control the fastball. I was afraid of this tonight. He’s turned into the prior Zito, I’m sorry to say…
You know what? It’s early April, it’s nearly 11pm, I need to be up early tomorrow morning, this is bullshit, and I’ve had it. G’night, girls.
As least we don’t have to hear about him “competing” again. Maybe Hector *will* be catching Petit-here.
that was nice to see out of Scut, line drive rocket for an rbi. And credit is due to lincecum for getting the bunt down to move Crawford into scoring position. But he needs to back it up with a shut down inning.
Tim cannot throw a fastball strike with any consistency whatsoever. This is his fundamental problem, and it’s a killer. The speed on it doesn’t matter if he can’t locate it. I can’t understand why after all this time that he and the pitching coaches can’t figure out what the fuck is causing this and fix it. Some radical change to his approach, IMO, seems to be in order to be able to fix that problem…
Well, when you lose your heater it’s quite possible that you will now be exposed as a P who never had any location to begin with.
When you throw 96 with movement it can mask a bunch of faults.
Ubaldo Jimenez?
Dirrrrty Sanchez?
It’s not good…..
No, it’s not good at all. However, I seem to remember Lincecum could locate his fastball pretty well. He’s still throwing it at 89-92, which is plenty fast enough, if he locates it, to get outs on that and his other pitches — which are still nasty and clearly more under his control than the fastball…
I’m catching up on the game so I’m a little behind, but his P walk was a joke. His balls are a mile off of the strike zone.
And then he throws two meat pitches to Fowler and Rutledge who crushed him.
Hector sucks, he almost makes me miss Whitey (I said almost) but he’s not responsible for Tim turning into our worst starting pitcher (for the second year in a row).
No, Hector’s suckage isn’t an excuse for Tim’s suckage.
But, Hector’s suckage doesn’t help Tim’s suckage, that’s for sure.
I want Posey to catch Tim’s next start…
Sheezus.
Tim walks the pitcher again. On 4 pitches.
He can’t throw a fastball strike to save his ass…
Now he’s just fucking embarrassing himself. xFip-this. Right now, Tim can’t hold Zito’s jockstrap
.
.
.
.
.
I don’t want to hear Krukow give any bullshit excuses tomorrow for Tim. No more “mechanics” mumbo jumbo. Walking the opposing pitcher twice is inexcusable and absolute crap. Lincecum needs to do something radical to change the trajectory of this control problem — it’s been going on for far too long…
Mark it down-another 43.5 ABs before Hector draws another walk.
You were off by 42.5.
To me, Marco deciding to go to Second when the runner was pretty much there, started the whole thing (I know, K and K thought it should have been Craw’s error). As Tony and Nick say when talking about Cliff Lee, “I don’t know”
K and K were wrongo.
Well, it was a huge mental error from Scutaro, so he deserves the actual error, whether it was debatable or not. I was stunned that Scutaro threw to second. It just seemed really boneheaded, and help blow that inning apart, by giving the Rockies 4 outs that inning. And, obviously, Tim could have pitched better, but it’s kind of a rip that all the runs become earned runs because, technically, Scutaro’s play is a fielder’s choice. The error was only for the throw itself. But Tim could have saved the inning by getting the pitcher out.
Damn, he got all of that one.
Adios, Flappers…
Good night here, as well.
Alright, back for just one more. If I’m going to rip Tim, I gotta rip Panda for that last AB.
He literally got no strike in that AB. Down by 4, and Pence is hitting well behind you, so you need to get on. Instead Panda goes 2-0 and then refuses to take pitches not even close to the zone, swinging at total bullshit, until he pops out. The pitcher was beggin Panda to take a walk. What the FUCK kind of professional AB is that? Stupid. There, I said it. I’m not commenting any more on his weight. But, stupid situational AB approaches? That is clearly fair game. And, that was stupid…
His fastballs are straight as an arrow and they miss a lot. The Rockies can just sit off speed and tee off or take a walk, one of the two. Same shit different year.
#baserunners
Hmm, in the pre-season predictions, I predicted Tim at 6-8, thinking he’d lose a bunch as a starter before they move him to the ‘pen, where he’d likely succeed. Not sure he’s going to be given the time to lose “a bunch” as a starter.
Who starts in his place?…
His numbers are actually better than Cain’s at the moment. (grin)
Probably not WHIP, though.
.
CRAW!!!!
Crawdaddy!
Crawford opposite field!
Righteous Crawdad
Crawdaddy!!!!!!!!
The club is down by 1 in the bottom of the 6th. 2 on 1 out with Sandoval at the plate and everyone going doomer and hitting the hay? WTF? Have a nice siesta fellas. Hasta Manana. Where’s the accent. eh f it.
Let’s GO GIANTS!
Yes!
All tied up. We’ve got a ball game. Humm Baby!
Yes! Great comeback!
Belt’s been a rally-killer tonight.
Just Tonight?
Take a damn pitch, Belt.
But he has continuously been coached to be aggressive. The pitch was a low strike, which he generally handles better than the high ones.
Or tops it to second
Agreed, he’s a better low ball hitter, that’s for sure.. I just wish he took a pitch or two there.
Timmy still 1-0! A veteran pitching to the score.
WTG Kontos.
Not enough Tulo.
Rally time.
OK, so I didn’t go to sleep. Happy? Yes.
Shades of 2010.
Way to lead it off Torres.
Atta boy Andres!
Pagan!
The Return of Vungo.
Yessss!
I’d love to see Andres being interviewed regularly by Amy G. again.
I miss those too. Haha.
Sa-lute!
the East Coasters repping tonight!
The bottom of the 8th is one of the most delicious features of baseball, especially when it follows this formula for the home team (best when it is OUR home team): A. Come from behind or tie to take lead, or add insurance. B. Stun the visitors with a haymaker or pile on more runs against the previously winning visitors. C. Quietly finish them off in the 9th. The visitors could be winning for all eight of the previous innings. Doesn’t matter. All we need now is C.
Marco.
Scutaro.
Getting hot!
Alright Pawlie. The East Coast guys still hanging in there.
Panda!
Insurance runs always come in handy. what a rally…gone be a long year in rockies land..Weiss gonna wear out shoes going to the mound so often.
Helton better take cabs tonight.
Blanco!!! Fuck, I’m becoming Nipper in my comments.
At least you didn’t bring up the DH 😉
Unless the Giants score more than 5 runs in this half-inning, they will “disprove” Bill James’s “big bang” theory that the biggest half inning owner usually wins — ASSUMING the Giants win — still not something to take for granted (though the game is not in Denver, where the iffiness would be iffier).
Gotta like the comeback. Gyros, though it’s early, seem to have some more pop this year than last…
Time for the night shift.
Go GIANTS!
Ballgame. Cheers!
Ballgame (phew)
Might have to buy MLB package yet. Tired. Pleased. Grateful. Good night. Good night for real this time. Woo-hoo!
wow, pen guys all lights out again. Bad news for rest of the league.