Gearing Up For Timmy’s Third Start of the Season
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.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Well, right now, ranking our starters for this season only, he’s the 4.
But that’s a fluid thing, as we know.As to mechanics , think “moving parts”. He’s got parts moving, flying, doing the Cha-Cha.. he’s got parts that the medical profession has never recognized as parts, and they’re movin’, too.And we all know that the key to pitching consistently , hell, to throwing the stick to the dog properly is “repitition”, you gotta be able to repeat what you do when you were doing it right. And that’s hard when you have all those parts going everywhere. Timmy is a wisp of a man and I just think that years of that violent delivery coupled with his yo-yo weight gain and loss and gain again have taken their toll, he can’t consistently repeat what works. I think there’s more hope for him regaining that now, because he seems stronger than last year- but any hope for a return to elite status will require a reworked delivery and a complete realization that he needs to be a different pitcher than the one who won those CYs.
Well, that’s my current theory.
A Timmy start. The Masters. It’s gonna be a good sports day. Nothing like the NY Post to help start it off:
http://www.nypost.com/archives/covers/
This is a stretch of games where SF can make some hay until they get rematch with LA May 3 at home for weekend series, after which phils and braves come into town. SF visits Mil (where they usually hit well and brews don’t pitch well) for 3 on Tuesday, and then home/away 3 each vs. AZ and SD. I’d really like to see SF 10 over .500 by the time LA comes to town.
Another 4 bombs hit last night in Petco, including two by the Pads I saw on mlb network. Wil Venable pulled one into RF seats where there used to be grass, and freaking Evereth Cabrera lauched one deep to left center and out the park. Friendlier confines there now, obviously.
Speaking of which, has Dioner Navarro out homered the entire Giants LU? Is the wind only blowing out when they are up? Like to see SF batters romp out the gate and get TL a nice lead to work with…maybe the most imp *moving part* is his head, which I think could benefit by having a nice cushion of some early runs.
Just caught 6 thru 1 of espn’s top 10 plays. 2 of those were fuckin hockey and 1 was a Stanford football spring gm highlight. No Panda catch. That’s a joke. Was he in 10 thru 7?
It’s a beautiful day,Giants baseball going for 3 out of 4 against the scrubs.Timmy will get it done today and get his shit together.Masters too always cool on Sunday to see the cream of the top rise under the pressure._
Going over to the coast on a date,hope it goes well and she better like “SPORTS” cause I’m going to get seats postioned at the restaurant to watch both events.(grin).Women,can’t live with them can’t live without them.
Kat, You didn’t quiz her on the Giants before making the date? Easy to slip into conversation.
For exx: “Dang, just ran into Lincecum while walking the dog.”
If there is silence or she says who?
you say, not a baseball fan I guess.
Then she might reply no #$%&%$ way…my ex was a baseball fanatic. Bored.me to tears. OR
she might say oh you mean the pitcher. No, not much into baseball. I like Hockey. Ugh.
OR if you into fantasy she might say OH you mean Timmmmmmmy!? Cool. He’s really struggling with command isn’t he?”
It didn’t take long to expose the absurdity of having interleague games all season long. Mets at Twins today postponed, and the game won’t be played until August. Why the Twins were playing a National League team at home in mid-April instead of a division opponent only Bud knows.
Buster with a full day off.
Pagan CF
Scutaro 2
Sandoval 3B
Pence RF
Belt 1B
Blanco LF
Sanchez C
Crawford SS
Lincecum RHP
nice to get some feastin’ done while we are playing the weaker teams.
At me mum’s new apartment in Fairfield one of her neighbour’s daughter has season tickets. real giants fan by the sound of it. She went to opening day and got the faux ring and gave it to her dad, mum’s neighbour.
anyway that is the news from home.
go gigantes!!
Fairfield…when I was doing delivery work we had to go from San Jose up 680 to the big outlet in vacaville past there once a week, and to avoid getting hassled at the f-ing CHP truck scales on Hwy 80 we took the one lane side road through cordelia (no lights, just one stop sign). You came out and rejoined fwy past the guittard chocolate place and Bud plant. One of the drivers was a big raider fan who quite enjoyed butwiper, and I used to tell him all the time, “Stay out of the Fairfield area.”
As he walks the lead off hitter….the one thing that sucks about Lincdcum’s walks are how totally not close the balls are.
Brutal.
Come on down, Mr. Petit..
He may not know where the balls go, but the strikes seem to be landing in the seats.
I know he hasn’t pitched for us ( I think) , has Jackson been with the other 29 yet ?
I said Petit, but we really don’t have anybody. Maybe Heston. Or just ride it out.
Good breakfast again this morning. Tough to keep it down, however.
Blanco’s DP cheered me up a bit.
walks – check
HRs – check
big inning – check
ah, Timmeh, we remember you well.
“It’s important to look at what he did after he got his ass kicked again.”
Ready made storyline for the rest of the year!
Noonan!
Nick’s alright!
Wtf is up with these chi pitches?
Note to self – No Cubs pitchers on my FL team, ever.
This guy Navarro has a somewhat promising career as a DH.
Timmy still with his eye on those 16 straight wins. Veteran pitching to the score, from the very start of the game — uncanny and amazing.
Nick acts klike he got a second chance to go to Heaven and figures he better not screw it up this time. Ever since they called him back up in ST, he’s been raking…
Don’t know why Scuts was first pitch swinging into a DP there. The Cubs pitcher and catcher were deathly afraid of another passed ball/wild pitch. Not smart to not even wait ’til at least one strike flew by…
Lincecum with his typical start again. A blow up inning followed or sandwiched by good to very good innings. Crazy…
Don’t know the eventual outcome of this one, but with a 4-game sample size, the Cubs look horrible. That goathead delivery the other day must have revitalized the curse. They can hit, but can’t field, and their Pen looks like a refinery fire…
They should have used the whole goat.
Unca Blanco!
I think we’re finding out why Navarro doesn’t play every day.
Julia Sweeney just did a most painful rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
Gaudin looks to me like he will turn into a version of Shane Loux…
I’ve been musing about Gaudin, wondering if he has a new pitch or something. Cuz I see absolutely nothing in his history to suggest he should be getting anybody out.His stuff is good enough, he must be a brain farter. I have that “wait for it” feeling about him.,.
Affeldt has been pretty poor the last few outings. Didn’t start out well here…
So Posey gets two days off with today and tomorrow. Is his ankle worse than they let on? I don’t really understand why a guy this young and an MVP is getting days off like this. It’s not like the Giants lineup is murderer’s row….
Affeldt has always been a horrible fielding pitcher, and it continues. What a stupid play…
Bochy will get second guessed on that intentional walk, big time. Affeldt struggling with control, but he can still strike somebody out with that curveball. The free pass figured to put Affeldt under pressure, and he crapped out…
He shouldn’t get second guessed, but yes, he will.
The other lefties have been worse, and as far loading the bases, Affeldt has always been a DP guy.
He’s been bad lately, and was obviously struggling here…
Wow!
This series has just been nutz.
Way to go Pence!…
PENCE!!!!!!!!
Pence goes DEEP!
Tiger now just 2 back….looked dead earlier.
I don’t really care much about the “penalty” debacle. Everybody looked bad. But Tiger HAD to know that rule cold, as well as his caddy. He’s been playing competitive golf at the highest levels for far too long not to know you can’t just drop the ball basically wherever you want to in back of the original shot’s divot. THAT is inexplicable to me, with a shade towards suspiciously intentional so he could get a higher trajectory on the shot and better spin…
He knew exactly what he was doing. That it took a TV viewer to catch him was a travesty, unless the rules guys were too busy keeping a stopwatch on the 14-year-old.
Yep, Mac. Penalizing that Chinese kid as the FIRST ever player penalized for slow play was a travesty. The Masters blowhards are beyond shame. They didn’t want a kid to make the cut and embarrass them and their course, so they did everything they could to make him miss the cut, but he still made it. Good for him…
Let’s go, Kontos!
4-6-3! Giggity!!
DPKontos!
A hat trick! Giants have now scored on a passed ball, a wild pitch and a balk.
Nate dropped a fly to right, too, but nobody was in position to score…
Mac, you gotta love it.
Tip your cap and say, thank you very much Mr. Cub(s).
WTF are the Cub pitchers doing today? WTF was THAT?
Just got back in….flems and miller couldn’t figure it out either.
Hell being a Cub fan.
I can’t see why the Cubs haven’t won the World Series in 105 years. (grin)
salty, did you go to the Fishwife?…
Snarrk, we never made it. We ended up meeting some friends in Monterey. Had some decent fare at peter b’s beer pub. Sitting there now in fact watching this because the apt doesn’t get G’s comcast.
Ok, well check it out another time. There’s also a Fishwife in Seaside on the main drag. Was there once, didn’t seem quite as good as the one in Pacific Grove, for some reason. But, still good…
If we actually we win this, they “out-badded” us.
This Camp dude might have done what most would have thought impossible- gave Marmol the closer job back..
Pence doing it ugly, but doing it.
And Romo, nice catch.
Muy beuna!
I think Romo threw exactly one good pitch in the inning…
Getting by on pure dominant closer stuff.
Giants, 3-0 in Timmy’s games. (grin)
Always gives his team a chance to win, what more can you ask?
Hell of a win. Bus trip to the city of cheap brew.
Lock up your Dogs and Daughters Milwaukee, the Giants are coming to town!
“Dogs and Daughters Milwaukee”
And sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. OH SNAP!!
I think you have to check where the bow on the head is located..
Another way to tell you’re dealing with two guys who have never been to Milwaukee.
Actually twinfan, I’ve spent a bit of time in Milwaukee and the midwest while on tour and have had a great time. My joke on the prom night bow heads may not have been the best but once again your heavy, all knowing response is Blatz.
Yeah, that damn twinfan, this time he has problem with women being insulted. Eat it, pal.
Actualy, my reply was a Joe Martin special, a staple line from the Mr. Boffo strip. A very non-heavy response to two poor jokes.
Yes, I’m sure all the women in the world wanted to shake your hand, after you put up pictures of “Trailer Trash” on the BBOTD. Yup, that was a great step forward for women everywhere.
You want to play this game with me twin? I don’t really want to but, I’m game if that’s what you want to do. Otherwise, leave me the fuck alone.
.
What is it you want to play? As to trailer trash, it was antidote to the air brushed Stepford girls, they were actually hotter unless you dig mannequins.
But you started on me for no reason, you even had a problem with me posting a Honeymooners clip. And the one of Panda on Jay Leno. You read sinister meaning in almost anything I post. It’s ridiculous.
Yeah, that damn bozo, this time he has a problem with the women twin insults. Eat it, pal.
And as to the Honeymooners clip, as I tried to explain to you, I felt you had already made your point as you tried to ridicule another poster. My point was, I felt you were being a bully, a bully with what I call now twinfan rules. Where you are able to say what you want but you ridicule others for their opinions.
The game, if Flav is up for it, would be a side bar, war room type thread. Where only Craig has edit capabilities. You and I can go at it verbally without the main thread being disrupted. If others wanted to read our crap or join in, so be it.
I’m not staying up any longer, so go ahead and trash me. I really don’t want to bore the rest of the Flap with this shit.
I should have left the dumb jokes alone, I’ll grant you that. But comparing women to dogs isn’t funny on any level.
I know what you explained and you were wrong, reading something into that wasn’t there. In fact, on the Honeymooner clip, there was no argument with anybody at all. Someone said something about Craig and the ponies. It reminded of a great Honeymooners bit where Ralph was rehearsing for a play and Norton was reading another part- and calling polo ponies “polopponies”..
It was funny.and there was no argument with anybody, you have totally made that up.
I’d like to find that thread, because there was never an argument of any kind. What you are saying is 100% fabrication. You did have a problem with my responses ( on a totally different thread ,to a commenter I won’t name) because you said I made him look even dumber than he was ,”if that was possible”. So I won’t play your game, not here anyway. I really don’t try to make anyone look dumb, if it happens, they did without without outside help.
well, they are having a tricky time holding these leads after these big comebacks but it all worked out in the end today. It’s like a young colt who makes a big move on the 2nd turn, hits the front too early and then gets passed late. Last year, they did not come back well. This year, they’re doing it and figuring out what to do once they hit the lead. Fantastic series for us……..
An ugly win is a win. In fact, it’s a great win.
This club knows how to come back. Especially when the other team gives you gifts… 😉
And we came within a whisker of taking all four games. Gutsy. Was it not last year versus the Cubs that Timmy had one of the worst outings and was morose in a postgame presser? Pretty sure it was vs. Cubs [yeah, yeah, and 10 other teams). Baseball is such a bizarre and long season. That week before the All-Star Game last year, when the Nationals and Pirates clubbed us as we wilted, including my in-person viewing at a broiler in Pittsburgh, had me thinking gloomily. At that point, the Nats and Pirates were ascending. The Bucs were soon to cascade downward. AND GUESS WHAT? THE SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS WENT ON TO WIN THE WORLD SERIES!
D-Backs just beat the Dodgers in walk-off fashion.
Well, we were better than the Cubs. Or rather, we weren’t as bad. But yeah… 3 of 4 makes it great no matter how it’s done.
Cubbies were generous today.
What a clutch shot from Angel.
I missed the game owing to a long, restorative nap. During the game Sam P. texted, “Noonan!” which I read upon awaking, and inquired further of Sam via a text reply. I learned of the win while preparing supper. The AP summary broke the traditional sports-writing lead. Let me explain. (Macdog will like this.) When I worked at a newspaper copy desk (not sports) in the Seventies, there was a room with teletype machines near our desk. This sounds like 1897. Bells rang. The more bells the more you should be alerted to the gravity of the story. As for baseball stories, fellow copy editor Dan Valenti, who would lose his job on the Bucky Dent homer day and go on to write a dozen or so baseball books, and I came to understand that you could typically guess if your team won by the first three (three!) words of the AP or UPI lead. Thus: “Willie McCovey drilled…” or “Willie Stargell’s double…” This was valuable to us because we would sneak into the wire room while we were supposed to be tending to our own copy, state and local stories. You could even rarely conclude your team won by a negative three-word lead: “Rennie Stennet’s error…” Well, today provided a juicy example of the finding-out-who-won by the negative: “Edwin Jackson and Michael Bowden tied . . . ” [The since-updated and current lead, at ESPN, blows my whole three-word theory: “CHICAGO — With a record number of wild pitches in the middle of the game and a balk near the end, the San Francisco Giants sure got plenty of help from the Chicago Cubs.”] Anyway, how’s this for three words? WIN. TAKE IT.
The only thing I wish you’d done is dropped “WIN. Take IT” on us in the same situation last season when you came up with the epic “We Score We Win” text. But yeah, I like it.
Hey, it just came to me. You give me too much credit. You available now? I’ve got a good girls’ coaching story. And I’ve been good about butt dialing. none in a week. After butt dialing my daughter today twice, I actually locked it!!! Progress.
sure, hit my cell.
I’m watching the Yankee game mostly because I have Kuroda going for me on one of my teams. I still can’t get over the number of empty seats at the New Yankee Stadium. At what point does consumer-less demand take over and we start seeing some regular guys in those $1000+/- “Legends” seats?
I know they’re selling the seats but Jesus, they have the emptiest looking new stadium I’ve ever seen. I guess the corporations just eat the seats. That’s unreal to me.
I think they have moved people down there at times because it looks so bad. (Apparently, Finnerty’s has sold out it’s Friday trip in September, largely owing to West Coasters!)
Three team wins in a row now for CyTim starts.
Speaking of the Yanks…..I’ve been reading the book “Driving Mr. Yogi,” (highly recommended), and there’s some really cool things about David Cone’s perfect game in 1999. He was near the end of his career, and it was Yogi Berra Day at the ballpark, after Yogi had boycotted the Yanks for about 14 years because of how Steinbrenner had handled Yogi’s firing, when Yogi managed the Yanks in the mid-1980s. Now Yogi was back, he and Steinbrenner having mended things. Well, the Yankees thought it would be really cool that day to have Don Larsen be there too, and throw out the ceremonial first pitch of the game to Yogi. Are you kidding me?? Don Larsen?? And then Cone throws a perfect game that day?? And it was manager Joe Torre’s birthday that day.
Well, that’s the kind of thing that makes baseball fans believe there is something really transcendent about baseball. The recently published book “Baseball as a Road to God” looks at baseball’s connection to spirituality. Humans have played “ball and stick” games for thousands of years. There does seem to be something hard-wired into the human brain and pysche about playing ball.
Ancestral humans used sticks and threw round shaped rocks to kill game, and fight marauding ancestral humans of other tribes. It is an ingrained requirement of homo sapiens. That is why there is a handball penalty in soccer…
yeah, enjoyed that one zum. Guidry is a pretty cool guy.
I realize it is still early but Pence is top 3 on the club for avg, runs, hr, RBI and SB. If he keeps this up he’ll have a new deal by the All Star break.
For $13 million, he should be in the top 3…
he’s swinging totally different than last year. No more wild swings at sliders he can’t him.And he’s rock solid. He was strong last year too, but he seems a little tighter now. I don’t own him on any team but I wish I did.
The swing on the basehit he grounded to right was amazing.
Yep, in ST Pence appeared to be working on getting more patient with the low outside breaking stuff. He’s definitely better at spitting on that stuff so far…
I’d guess he still look to play in a better hitters park next year.
One of the things that bugs people about inter-league is the way that baseball administered it in the past. There’s been inter-league since the late 1990s, and the Yankees have come to the Giants’ ballpark one time in all those years, if I remember correctly. That’s pretty ridiculous.
In the Yogi book, there’s some things about the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center, in Little Falls, NJ.
Posey was there for an event during the off-season. Here’s a pretty cool video report of that day:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130118&content_id=41022808&c_id=mlb
Funny stuff on the Fox game yesterday, Nate was said to be our former right fielder and part time first baseman…
Pence cracks me up with his herky-jerky way. There’s an interesting sci-fi book called “The Wind-Up Girl”, based in Bangkok in the future, with some genetically engineered “beings” that the Japanese developed; they have to try to hide their herky-jerky motions and try to look fully human. Reminds me of Pence. The video of him after his homerun, as he trots home from 3rd and then down into the dugout, mouth flappin’ the whole time, high-fivin’ with quick jerky hand slaps, almost looks slightly in fast motion. And, he seems quaintly old-timey. Convert that video to old grainy black-and-white film, he looks like he’s right out of the 1920s. Quite the character. He’s poised to have a very good year.
Fwiw there was a piece in the paper the other day about Pence changing his off season workouts…worked with a new trainer used lighter weights more reps more work on his flexibility… said he feels stronger and has more flexibility/ balance…so far its working. Gotta love the energy he brings.
Yep, great energy, which can be contagious. Everyone here said during the off-season and during spring training that without any power additions to the line-up, the team would need Pence and Belt to provide more. Still waiting for Belt to do what he did in Scottsdale, but Pence is certainly delivering so far.
9-4 as a good season start, and they’re beating they teams they are supposed to beat. Though the hitting and pitching has been uneven. Defense has been the only consistent thread so far, and should continue…
If we want to keep Pence and have any chance to keep him, he’s going to need to hit the ball to LF more at home. He does have a couple HRs here, one to LF. But he’s showing most of his power to center and right of center. That’s cool, but we could see something like 20 HRs on the road and 7 or 8 at home- making it a near certainty that he’ll go somewhere else in 2014.But let’s say he has a big year and is amenable to staying. He’s making 13 million now- it’s going to take major bucks. Certainly more than 15 million per and 3 years minimum. I don’t know that Sabean would do that.
IMO.
As far as ST goes – it is over.
Pence is off to a great start, the player we traded for, gotta love it (and him).
Lincecum is going after Zito’s “games won when starting” record? If he is he is surely testing the offense. and they are doing their part. (back to spring training) all those wild pitch/balks/passed balls drills are paying off.
And Romo with 7 saves in a half done April. WTG!
I could see Pence staying here regardless of his numbers at home. I think he’s really digging being here, and if the Giants make another deep run in the playoffs, it’ll even mean more to stay. The Giants are locking down as many guys as they can, and Pence is certainly the kind of guy who isn’t your typical ballplayer who digs the atmosphere here. Granted, he’d like a fat payday, but I’d think they could work something out by the break.
So how much and for how long would you go? He’s 13 million now, he’s going to get a fat payday from somebody if plays as he has. I don’t see them doing a deal until they decide on what they think the future prospects are for Peguero, Kiecshnick, and falling star Brown. I think the money will need to be spent on the pitching staff, they might need 2 or even 3 starting pitchers.