New Thread Where We Will Chat About Blah, Blah, Blah . . .
The Giants are blah, blah, blah and they will make their move on blah blah, 2013.
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The Giants are blah, blah, blah and they will make their move on blah blah, 2013.
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A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball
Thanks Blade runner!
De nada. 🙂
Nice thread, Blade. That about covers it… 😉
Brevity seemed appropriate.
Brevity, the soul of wit…
Kieschnick now has 4 singles out of 11 ABs since being called up. Looks like a good defensive OFer, despite his misplay the other day on the slide catch attempt. Some background:
Giants drafted him in 2008 as #82 in the draft. Drafted ahead of Crawford at #117. Five seasons in the minors with 1995 PAs so far, with 672 PAs at AAA and 747 at AA. Minor league stats include .275 BA, .816 OPS, 71 HRs, SLG at .485, only 28 SBs, so not much of a burner on the SB front. Looks like he’s got some speed, though. He’s been hurt with a shoulder issue last year, so missed a bunch of games. Here’s more if you want it. http://aroundthefoghorn.com/2013/08/02/roger-kieschnicks-journey-to-the-majors/
I hope this kid gets some playing time; we need him to turn into a keeper…
I am pretty sure Kieschnick and Belt played against one another in the Big 12. Brandon with UT and Roger at Tech.
Crawford with the RBIs. Nice.
And, as usual, they cannot get a guy in from third with less than 2 outs. Unreal…
Surprise — Belt takes a close pitch on 3-2 count. But he gets the BB, despite the big zone today, and now walks again, to the plate, on Crawford’s beautiful triple. Sometimes what strikes me as Belt’s stubborn cautiousness pays off very nicely.
Nice to see good ABs from Crawford and Belt. If SF can get the Pagan of late 2012 back, he solves leadoff and CF. If Kiesh and or Peguero can bring something to the table lower in the order SF will have plenty to build on.
The FAs listed by Snarkk are not very appealing, obviously. If you can’t get one more bat, then Pence has to stay, and you have to keep as much of the valuable pitching as you can, imo.
Baggs had a good read in the thread with Maddon comments. I think if R Craig was around he would encourage all not to get dauber down.
San Francisco Giants:
1. CF: Gregor Blanco
2. 2B: Marco Scutaro
3. 3B: Pablo Sandoval
4. DH: Buster Posey
5. 1B: Brandon Belt
6. RF: Hunter Pence
7. LF: Roger Kieschnick
8. SS: Brandon Crawford
9. C: Guillermo Quiroz
SP: Guillermo Moscoso
I’m amazed this is the same Roberto Hernandez who was with the G’s. Had no idea this dude (now 48) was back in the bigs. HGH baby?
He is the former Fausto Carmona, late of the Indians. When they figured out he fudged his name and age for years, he fessed up and became Roberto Hernandez and added 3 years to his age on the visa. Supposedly now 32…
Don’t forget that Sabes has pulled off deals like Culberson for Scut and Nate for Pence, and also picked up Javier lopez and cody ross late season too. Not to mention castoffs like Uribe Burrell and Casilla. He can make deals, late season or off (melk for jonny sanchez, pagan for torres and Ramirez), that work.
And if nothing else, Moscoso is NOT near as bad as watching f-ing Zito.
Sabes got Ross largely because of a waivers block from the Pads. There wasn’t much brilliance in that move. Cody actually only started 17 or the 37 games left in the reg season when he joined the Giants. His playoff exploits kind of hide his mediocrity coming down the stretch…
These Rays look good, solid and don’t make many mistakes. But, world beaters? I dunno, they don’t impress me THAT much. Didn’t they just win 25 out of 28 or something crazy? Bum and Tim held them in check, we should have won both, in their place on their friggin turf. They might win the series, but, hell, if the Giants got a little hot with the bat, I’d take these guys on in a 7 game playoff and I wouldn’t be quaking in my boots…
Make em pay Hunter, make em pay.
Or not.
New post on my blog . . . Video of Old Faithful (before and after eruption).
http://aroundtheworldwithblade.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/old-faithful-geyser-yellowstone-national-park-july-5th-2013/
Geyser is from the Icelandic/Old Norse word “geysir”, meaning “to gush”. Lots of geysers in Iceland. And, bodacious blondes…
Anyone have a freebie video feed? My two sites that I usually use are not operating today.
Agree with WillieD, with this Moscoso guy, at least we appear to have a shot. Zito by all rights wouldn’t have even made it into the 5th, we’d probably be down 5-2 or something by now…
BF, awesome burger-review video yesterday. Very entertaining.
Although, I think you and S-Dawg were too rough on the lettuce. I like the greenery in that burger. 🙂
Bozo, you were asking about the condiment…..it’s honey mustard, I think.
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Great concert from Kim Richey last night at a cool acoustic music venue- the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley. After the show, we walked Shattuck Street a little bit. Went to the big half-priced bookstore. Had a real late dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Then the 90 minute ride home, listening to Hem’s new album. The album played through twice on the CD player and it was very cool.
Thanks Z, honey mustard makes sense I guess.
What a weird ballpark. They’ve got blank areas in the stands that look like a yoga or wrestling area, they have some bar tables in the stands and a pool with stingrays in it. Strange place.
I petted one of those rays last October. You heard, didn’t you, that the PETA crowd complained when a homer landed in the tank this season? The ballpark, which Stewart O’Nan described in an email to be as a crashed 1970s alien spaceship, features a nice shrine to Game 162 of 2011.
Regarding baseball stats- everyone has their own level of interest in them. I can appreciate all the knowledge in a copy of Baseball Prospectus, but I’ve tried reading it a few times, and I don’t find it an interesting genre. And I’ll always be a little suspicious of stats anyway. If I ate 50 Pretzel Bun Burgers in one day, and somehow survived, and then didn’t eat any for the next 24 days, the statistical average would say that I’m eating 2 Pretzel Bun Burgers a day. But clearly I WASN’T eating 2 a day. I ate 25 in one day, and none for the next 24 days. The average doesn’t represent what really happened.
Use the median…
And what about your water consumption? I’ll try one more time: When the Giants were scoring lots of runs the first 2 months of the season, they would have won several more games if the pitching had been even half way decent. There was a real opportunity cost. How about another stupid, imperfect metaphor: if you stumble out of the block in a sprint, and then furiously play catch up, but lose the race, the reason you lost is because stumbled at the beginning. By the same token, you can stumble out of the gate and lose ground, too. We’ll see how the season plays out.
Well, they play them tough.
Blechhhhhh. At least they’re playing better ball. Still can’t hit or score, but at least they don’t look like they’ve got their heads up their ass. I’ll take this Moscoso start over a Zito roadie start, yep. No baseball reason for Zito to continue on the 25, unless they go to a 6 man rotation with Voggy back soon and the goal saving arms in a lost season. Even then, Zito should be shut down, he’s done. This Moscoso guy can’t do worse, and likely better…
Steve, your post may be the most accurate, prescient, and persuasive all year. #tryingtokeepmyinterestblahblahblah
Blah! 🙂
Zumie, did you notice Tom Clark’s baseball poem inscribed in the sidewalk near the Freight? Next time you’re in town for a show there, I highly recommend Comal or Belli Osteria right around the corner. For great cheap eats, Slow on University is a fantastic choice, especially if the weather is warm. Suya has fantastic West African, and Sliver is run by a bunch of Cheese Board alumni. Haven’t tried Build yet, but hear it is very good.
I go into the half price books every couple of weeks to scout good deals for a vinyl collector friend.
Kim Richey and Buffy . . . .
Hope the blog doesn’t turn into a letterman list of the *10 things I hate most about the Giants* and why they suck.
Mgr doesn’t know what he’s doing.
GM does nothing to help the team.
Players A B and C suck and need to be DFA’d immediately.
Players D E and F need to be traded.
Hitting with RISP sucks.
Hitting without RISP sucks.
And on and on. We can’t play small ball/we can’t hit HRs.
I’ve watched baseball and enjoyed it for 50 yrs., and in that time SF has won a grand total of 2 WS . I have also spent 50 plus years reading about it, and continue to this day–thx to zum for mentioning the Dimag book, which I have now. But all the negativity I’ve been seeing here lately is like a bad novel by a good writer–I’ll finish reading it, but wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
Today’s game was a good ball game. Giants just didn’t win. That’s better than most of the Giants games the last two months that have generated your bullet points at one time or another. We’re still watching/listening to the games, and real Giants fans like everybody here are still paying attention. Maybe we’re paying more attention when they’re losing. The fair weather fans are probably heading for the exits…
williedav, I get your point. And actually agree. I’ve never been one to claim any skill as ersatz GM or manager or player, for that matter. I’ve been a fan since 1955, and, yes, all was forgiven, as it were, in 2010. 2012 was sweet icing on the cake. I need to remind myself that very few NL teams — maybe only the Reds in the Seventies — can boast they won two of three World Series. Still, with all of that, I’ve always been a sort of doomer, in the way a jilted lover is. It’s thinly veiled protection against pain. But with all of that being said, I try to delight in my Giants, despite the arch comments and wry asides. In defense of Flappers, I will say a lot of time it is just frustration and disappointment and realism more than negativity. But I can’t speak for anyone else. I do believe that no player on any team wants to lose, and our Giants — the whole organization — are doing what they can with what they have. For me, in a way it just underscores how stunning and rare the two rings are. Now: am I hypocritical? Perhaps. But I feel collectively we are dealing with a challenge that is rare for us: a year after a World Series. That’s a pretty good challenge to have.
I looked at the Splash for the first time in a long time. I see that Fire Sabean guy is on under a different name, but I think he’s trying to sell those old tee shirts again. I also learned that Bochy is reverting back to his idiot ways, that the two championships were just luck. Unfucking believable. So I’m guessing the genius behind Sabean, Ned Colletti was just unlucky since going to the Dogs. And with that logic, I guess his manager has also just been unlucky. I’m just shaking my head over it.
James, I didn’t see the baseball poem, but I saw an artwork on the sidewalk that was a collection of ears, I guess celebrating listening to music.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176463
I’ll bet Tom is on your side when it comes to the stats 🙂
Cool poem!
I love that poem. Thanks.
Tomorrow may be interesting if only because suspensions for players connected to the Biogenesis scandal are supposed to be handed out any day now,
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that only 144,000 people will go to heaven and that the remaining people who obey God will live forever on a paradise Earth. Similarly, in MLB, 20 players will be suspended and the remaining players will continue to play this season. Amen! 🙂
Well, the Giants’ humble “magic number” is 6 wins to do better than the ’98 Marlins. That’s a piece of cake, but I’d also like the Giants to avoid 90+ losses, so that puts their other magic number at something like 24 wins to do that. That would mean having a record of something like 24-29 the rest of the way. That’s looking like a big challenge.
Hanley Ramirez injured his shoulder today. He’s been the guy carrying their offense for a month. He’s such a drama queen that it’s hard to tell how injured he is. He’s getting an MRI tomorrow. The Dodgers don’t think it’s too serious, but who knows.
New leadoff hitter tomoorow, probably scooter but I’d like to see them try Belt.
Injuries the only thing stopping LA.
Cubbies have lost 7 of 8 after Giants wore them out.
In a circuitous, Jesuitical manner of reasoning, I’m in Alex Rodriquez’s corner. Honestly. The airwaves are filled with demonizing, psychoanalyzing, assuming, accusing. I hope he fights any suspension so that he receives as much due process as he is entitled to. I feel it is absurd how much Yankees fans love to trash him. Easy for them to do that now. And phony.
Did not see any of the Tampa games. But I still had a Giants-related day by meeting up with Pawlie at the famous Destiny USA mall in Syracuse. Only problem was I forgot to bring my copy of “World Serious” for Pawlie to sign. Otherwise, my daughter and I got to hang out with Pawlie by the 100-year-old carousel while he was eating his Wendy’s lunch (no pretzel bun, though), followed by a brief tour of the new additions (indoor go-karts and a rope course) to the mall. A very pleasant visit before hitting the road back to Jersey.
Pleasant indeed, and your daughter is a nice kid, even if you let her be born without SFG genes. That’s four times we’ve met: Citi Field, Destiny (2), and Finnerty’s. Glad you made it back okay.
Pawlie-did you seriously eat at Wendy’s today and you DID NOT get a Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger?
That can’t be true. I have to be misinterpreting Mac’s post.
LOL, for about 5 seconds . . . . metrics, metrics.
SPICY CHICKEN
I’m taking one of the programmers on my team to the game tomorrow night. He’s from the Benelux, a really brilliant kid. This will be his first game. “Son, you see this big old crowd? Well, it’s not as big as the number they’re going to tell you it is later on. Anyway, be that as it may, all these folks out here don’t know shit about this game. Listen up . . . ”
Hey, I wonder if I could make a living as a baseball educator for wealthy foreign tourists? Trade in the office for 81 games at ATT. Maybe I could partner with someone who covered the “human side” of the game, while I concentrated on the hard science angle. You could choose your track.