Complaining About the Park is Lame
You know, it’s not like the opposition is getting to play in a different park than us. When we’re at home, both teams are playing at AT&T. And yet, we only hear Kruk and Kuip chit-chatter about getting AT&T’d when we’re losing. The Giants have been out-homered at AT&T 45-30 this year so it’s not like the opposition is going 92 straight innings without a home run at home (as we are currently doing as a team at AT&T). But last year, they were out-homered 53-31 and they managed to cobble together a world series season.
Obviously, everyone knows the pitching has been worse this year. But last year they outscored the opposition at AT&T 308-272. This year THEY are getting outscored at AT&T 226-204.
I am a huge believer that a feeble, impotent offense can negatively effect the pitching, especially the starting pitching. The players say this, too. The pitchers feel like it’s all over if they give up a run and pitching tight is not the best path to a successful pitching performance. Still, since the all-star break the team ERA is 3.49–certainly adequate enough to win well above half of your 18 games played. And yet, they’ve won 7.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
A great, succinct summary of what’s going on. For a while now, the pitching’s been fine. More than fine. I’m tired of hearing on these radio shows about who they’re going to get to pitch next year. Who are they going to get to hit?…
Yeah, this season is shaping up a lot like 2008, when they had no trouble getting runners on, they just couldn’t get them in. After the early comebacks and tight wins, they just figure out how NOT to win these days.
Two more months of futility? Ouch!
I think Kruk must read your blog, he mentioned the whole Home run thing this morning on KNBR. and yes the timely hit with RIS, has been non existant since about late May. Hitters, we need hitters. This will give this blogg plenty to talk about till next spring and beyond!!
Bleacher report attempt at summing up the season so far:
http://goo.gl/JO6oyl
But most of you have already read these things; to me it was interesting to see them all in one place.
Speaking of scrap heap,Why the fuck would Sabean even bother looking at Ted Lilly?
Fucking get old bringing back pepto bismol players. Looks like he couldn’t pass his jeraccic physical anyway thank god.
several pepto bismol coots have contributed big time to our titles.
AK, what is a “jeraccic” physical? I looked it up and I can’t find that type of physical exam. Thanks . . .
To paraphrase the often wonderful Carl Steward (blogs.mercurynews.com/g), game was like sitting through a 3 hour art-house film about a Bulgarian potato famine…
I turned it off in the 4th. Brutal.
LOL. Yep, good description.
the offense away from home is far more responsible than than the pitching on the road for our downturn from last year. ( we’re giving up the same while scoring a full run per game less than in 2012) . at home, we’re scoring .22 runs per game less than last year while the pitching is giving up .60 runs per game more than last year. Quite obviously our hitting away from home has been the greatest factor in our fall off but the pitching at home has played a large part in our relatively poor home record (29-28).
caveat-i think my numbers are accurate but i have occasionaly transposed numbers lately.
Well said, BF. Blaming the ballpark is lame. The ballpark isn’t making Pence hit dribblers, or whoever else doing whatever. In the previous 13 seasons of being in the ballpark, the Giants have been to the World Series 3 times. That’s an outstanding ballpark-to-World Series ratio, if such a stat even existed.
discussing their hitting at att is of little import anyway- they’ve only hit marginally worse than last year. the pitching here and the offense away from home have been the primary differences. add in the poor defense at second base, left field, center field early, and third base- and several games blown by set up guys when casilla was out.
imo.
Yeah, the bullpen has not exactly been stellar this season. So lets see, Pitching Average to poor, check, hitting average to poor, check. Defense below average to poor. check. Not a great formula to win with. But they are still YOUR San Francisco Giants. meaning mine too!! waiting 50+ years for a WS and then winniing a second one. not bad. I think I can live with a shitty year like this one. sure I would love for the Giants to be playoff bound every year. but that is not going to happen. Reality is injuries, older players getting older, under performers, etc. It might not be fun to watch at times but I will still watch. GO Giants
I agree. It’s baseball for two more months before the cold non-baseball months arrive, and I don’t think in terms of the season being over already, although the Giants’ playoffs chances are mathematically dire. In addition to the Giants, there’s all the other games going on, too, obviously. My wife’s Braves are rolling to their division title, and she’s very thrilled about. I’ll be pulling for the Braves in the playoffs.
And the Yankees are struggling. That’s very cool. 🙂
That’ a healthy attitude Kev, and pretty much mirrors my thoughts on the situation.
btw, carl steward is brilliant, no sportswriter locally even compares, imo. i’ve always ranked jenkins the best, but seward has gotten better and better. i love him.
Gametime Forecast: 62°F • Mostly Cloudy • 0%PoP
i think larussa once had over 100 different line ups one year. bochy is at 70 plus now.
1. Hunter Pence (R) RF
2. Brandon Crawford (L) SS
3. Brandon Belt (L) 1B
4. Buster Posey (R) C
5. Pablo Sandoval (S) 3B
6. Roger Kieschnick (L) LF
7. Jeff Francoeur (R) CF
8. Joaquin Arias (R) 2B
9. Madison Bumgarner (R) P
Bochy’ s latest LU throwing darts..Our new lead off hitter!!..And Whipping boy bats 3rd.LOL Frenchy in CF
Pence RF
Crawford SS
Belt 1B
Posey C
Sandoval 3B
Quiche LF
French Loaf CF
Arias 2B
Undertaker P
Fr
OOPS,didn’t see your LU post Twin.
yours is cuter.
I figured Pence would get his shot leading off. Why not? What is he? 15 for 15 in steals?
yesterday i showed belt’s numbers in the 6 spot. if he duplicated those, bochy would be justified hitting him anywhere from 1 thru 6. to refresh memories:
221 pa 196 ab 8 HR 25 RBI 33 r .311 ba .385 obp .520 slg .905 ops 151 ops+
that’s after last night.
Pence at leadoff makes the most sense given what our options are. But I really do think Belt would be good out of the 1 hole.
Shit we have no options leading off.So yeah Reverend or Scoots will probably be it down the stretch.Unless you guys want a return of Aaron Rowand leading off.
Shocked Bochy’s personal whipping boy gets a 3 hole shot.No way he will ever lead him off though,unless Mrs.Bochy gives the “Flap Thumbs Up”
I love it up here in Idaho–we’re jumping off bridges into rivers, riding bikes (this is the only place I ever ride a bike), and my daughter is in a totally legit rodeo barrel race on Sat in a town that has, lol, 462 people in it. But goddamn, I miss watching baseball. ANY baseball. We have no tv, no cell coverage and while we do have a decent internet speed we’ve got one laptop for what has now grown to 9 people in the house.
This place reminds me of why I miss nothing about the pre-internet/pre-smart phone world…..
Seriously? I love disconnecting fro the grid every now and then. You in Ketchum?
Yup. Ketchum. I guess I have just gotten too addicted to instant baseball score updates. And texts. And twitter. And facebook, And email and, heck, pretty much anything but porn (as even I draw the line somewhere and my inlaw’s house with 8 other people is exactly the line that I do not cross :))
And I don’t want to pretend we’re out in the stix living off the land or any of that shit—If you know where Ketchum is, you know that. Shit, we hit the outdoor symphony in Sun Valley at night all the time and that’s only 7 miles away. But at our house, which is about 2 miles away from cell connection/main roads/etc… we have almost nothing up here.
But there’s a hammock in the spacious backyard, we live in a real log cabin and the Big Wood River (I fucking LOVE the dude who named that!) rolls quietly by…..
Life could be worse I guess…..
Sounds pretty damn nice to me, Flav! Something about rivers really clicks with me. I can sit there and stare at a nice river for a good long while. Enjoy!
Why not Pence at leadoff? A thousand reasons why not. But, since nobody else seems to be able to handle it, the Why the Fuck not factor overrides. Maybe he’ll swing at one fewer dirt slider per game with a little lead off focus. One hopes…
Works for me. And by that same logic, why not give the TDF a shot in centerfield?
I’m sure I don’t need to do this, but just in case…
TDF = Toeur de Francoeur
Any chance we can coax “Big Titties “back to lead- off?
I would pay extra dinero to see that. Still have time for that to happen for “Orange Sombero Night”
Molina takes his lead from 1st.Dirt flying on around him like a matador calling a bull,he gets a huge jump ,since no one is holding him on,he is still out (shot down by a country mile) and in total disbelief as the ball is waiting for him at 2nd.
well, he’s got nothing else to do. and as is said, can’t be worse, right….zito for lead off…
A chance to get away from watching the Giants try to score a run? Take me with you, Flav!
No shit. The Futility Express is reaching warp speed.
5.00 era? Yup 1 hit through 5 . . .
Figaro gets out Arias.
Sang the fat lady.
Got to get Bummie one fucking run.
MadBum is pitching beautifully tonight. Posey and Pablo have hit some tremendous drives, but no luck. 9Good news for Buster, after the rib-plunking last night.) That Gomez guy playing CF for the Brewers is a helluva talent.
When was the last time the Giants hit a home run at home? The Kennedy administration?
well, the next one they get equals their 2012 total.
Think Buster bunts? A la Beltran?
At least get the sac fly, Buster.
Sheeesh! These guys, for being shitty defensively, are doing pretty well tonight. Both those catches are in the heel. Sando needs to do the same thing.
wtf is going on with the brewers OF tonight? Maybe they got drug tested last week and then ordered a new shipment of testosterone cream. That’s what, 3, 4 great plays?
they’ve hit the crap out of 5 or 6 balls, at least they got a sac fly out of one
Wow. There’s your run support, Madbum. Good luck.
Giants LF Kiesch could use some magic dust, I think.
burrell’s starting to look like a fine defender.
I knew you’d eventually come around.
dare i talk freddy-rod..
Aaaaaaaaaah fuck. They are trying to give us outs and we won;t let them.
jesus horatio christ.
Wow. Like clockwork, the wheels fall off.
Madbum’s shut down inning percent is still well above the league average.
Great. That and $5.00 will get you nothing at the ballpark.
When Panda gets his head out of his ass, please advise. Thanx…
well, he didn’t expect a goosed knuckle ball. madbum shares the blame on that one.
panda, crawford, kieschnick, and madbum all screwed up in the field that inning.
MadBum, how the hell do you go from near perfection to disaster so quickly?
I guess every bad turn hurts more this year because the bruises have accumulated. You go into a down season prepared, as if you’re wearing catcher’s gear, and most of the losses and disasters don’t nick you much. But you go into a championship defending season wearing nothing but battng gloves and a helmet, and the pops really hurt. I’m committed to finishing out the season. Hell, I’ve got tickets to the Saturday game vs. the Orioles. I’ll hit some games in Sept., too. But my health insurance carrier is going to get some big fucking bills.
nice analogy
I actually had a great time at the game on Monday night. I didn’t let the standings creep into my thoughts but a couple of times.
i like to have a show at the ready where heads gets blown off and stuff after a game like this one.
some wise ass took the bottom out of the rock or the rock out of the, well, you know what i mean…
“The pitchers feel like it’s all over if they give up a run and pitching tight is not the best path to a successful pitching performance.”
Prophetic? Bum was outstanding for 7 innings. You can’t ask for anything more (well, yeah ya could, but . . . ). Anywho, like Flav said, the starters are pitching tight and that’s not an optimum way to success. Almost like having to pitch as if they are giving an enema to a gnat’s ass. The mental fatigue/pressure to be perfect must be enormous for the starters.
well, they got very little support at home last year either. i rarely second guess bochy but casilla should have started the inning,. madbum was laboring in the 7th.
Fuck ’em all. Fire Bochy. Bam Bam, at least. How do you go through a 3 month hitting slide with nothing done about it? This team is as lifeless as Fred Mertz.
Chuck, I said fire somebody a month ago. Just for the helluvit. Wake somebody up. Not the Giants way. Now, back to your sleepwalk ballgame. Gnite…
ouch
It’s the park, I tell you.
I just don’t believe this. Slightly less than one year ago this man Zito stood up in game 5 of the LCS and beat the Cardinals in one of the best starts in SF Giants history. Now he’s slopping garbage time in the 9th of a game the Giants have given up on, and he’s giving up HRs.
These guys are damn near unwatchable right now. They’re making the Brewers look good, and that’s hard to do. I’ve gone to radio. And, a second Makers. Zito in relief. That’s something. Who knows? Maybe he’ll discover some Zen state of mind, and find himself. Me, I’m finding sauteed sweet peppers and onions with some spicy meatballs, and a nice Spanish Garnacha to wash it down and pound through the spice. The Snarkkmutt is eyeing the meatballs, his name is on a big one, he knows. Well, there goes the Zen — over the wall for another HR against Zits. Sheezus. Gnite…
Someone finally gets an extra-base hit and as usual the next guy up (Pence in this case) flails at the first pitch he sees and grounds out weakly.
Here ya go, Mike.
All in all, one of the best exploding head scenes ever.
thanks, a double ‘header’ tonight…
the freight train episode will be juuuuuussssst right…hey, he fucking waved. had to be done. night all..
Boo is right.
well, we got football now. is kap planning on wearing a uniform…
And the right hat . . .
Ha ha. Good stuff . . .
Bochy may just quit. Pull a Marquis Grissom and walk away. They are saying he high-tailed it into the clubhouse right after the last out.
THis was supposed to be under Mike’s.
Bummie’s sniping a bit at Pablo’s lateness in covering 3rd base.
It’s bleak, I tell ya!
Well, maybe not as bleak as this…..
(warning: R-rated)
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