Pfffftttttt…….
Perusing the POTD, maybe I’m not missing so much after all? As Bochy said in his post game conference: “To get this type of pitching and not get some wins, shame on us…” The only thing to look forward to now is when the volcano is gonna erupt. A player going off to the media, or maybe on the media. Someone getting fired. Disputes between teammates becoming public. Either way, the *()hit* is headed directly towards that fan. That is, if there were any *hits* out there. I guess the fan is safe for now…….
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
I did something I rarely do last night…I bailed on the game before it was over. When the brew crew took the lead at 3-1 and still had runners on, I said to hell with this.
While more of an optimist and a “glass half fulll” type, I am not, and never have been, a doomer, and I do think I look at all things in life (Giants baseball included) in a realistic way. And there just isn’t anyway around it. Trying to say that the Giants currently do not suck would be like the proverbial “putting lipstick on a pig.”
At this point I just want to see them finish strong…play some good clean baseball and be competitive. But damn if it doesn’t look like that may be a stretch for this crew.
So instead of going off about how badly my team sucks right now, I am going to remind myself how for so many years, I hoped and dreamt of just ONE World Series win. To have been blessed with two in three years…well, I am just going to relax into a mode of bask and roll with it.
Easily said the morning after! Watching it day after day is grating on my nerves to no end.
But, I turned a blind eye to it as well. Sort of. I’ve been reading Steven King’s ode to Ray Bradbury, Joyland. It’s no Something Wicked This Way Comes, or Dark Carnival. Not yet anyway.
So I read while pretty much ignoring the last couple innings. The pisser is, they ARE a bit snakebite. Drives aren’t falling. Teams consistently make plays we don’t, on and on.
Chuck – I’ve been watching it day after fucking day…every fucking inning, every fucking pitch, and you don’t think it hasn’t grated on my nerves. I’m just not going to let it get to me any more.
I mean fuck…it was a loooong time ago when they dropped 100 in ’85, but I survived that shit. Makes this look like a walk in the fucking park.
I just am not going to stress over it rest of the way out. I’ll watch, and I may bail again…but I am not getting wound around the axle over this shit (and of late, it has been SHIT).
I don’t believe they will “Quit” on Bochy and just mail in the rest of the season, though they could be looking for the highest draft pick postion and get a freakin OF with power for the future.
I also had a book going during the game; I got “Mickey and Willie,” by Allen Barra from my local library. It’s a 2013 book, and my first thought was ‘how much more can be said about these two?’; but as I started reading the author drew me in with his stories about growing up as a baseball fan during ’50s. There’s almost an inexhaustible amount of stories of the way athletes like this affect fans, and more books continue to get written about some of the most written-about players.
Thanks for the report on “Joyland,” Chuck. That’s a book I’m looking at reading at some point.
I have come to terms with the fact that we have 1 hitter. We have a few others that can get hot from time to time WHEN things are rolling. If things aren’t rolling its either Buster or bust.
It is no longer a “these guys aren’t producing”, its a “these guys can’t produce”. This makes watching a lot easier.
What I find more and more angering with each loss is why we made no moves at the deadline. This team is going nowhere. Get what you can, but don’t just sit on your F-ing hands. Give us something to look forward to
they made no moves because what was offered wasn’t good enough for what we offered. that’s sabean’s word, and i’m buying that in the wake of what he’s done in building our championship teams.
Some sound points for sure BH but it has a tinge of Monday Morning QB.
What I can’t figure out is why a team like the A’s, clearly in the playoff hunt, failed to do anything other than pick up Alberto Callapse-o.
Any ideas?
If I was saying it on Sunday and then say it again on Monday, is it still Monday Morning Quarterbacking? :). Callaspo is not bad for a platooning 2B which fits their current system. 2 things about the A’s. 1- they are poor and have the best record since last AS break so why rock the boat. 2- With the cloud over Bartolo they didn’t know where their biggest need would be before the deadline.
Sabean said he made no moves because the offers were “embarrassing”. Whatever that means. That’s the rationale. If it turns out that all three of the main guys rumored on the block (Pence, Tim, Lopez) all end up somewhere else 2014, Sabean will say mission accomplished, because he’ll get compensatory picks that aren’t “embarrassing”. I disagree with that calculus, because it doesn’t help the near future one bit, but it’s hard to argue since we’ll never know Sabes’ definition of “embarrassment” in a player deal. Hopefully, he’s embarrassed about recent team play, and will work to get some hitting in here in the offseason, particularly LF. That won’t be easy with a horrible list of FAs out there…
well, now come the inevitable pieces about who has ‘checked out’ and the lack of heart and omg where has the chemistry gone…i think i have a pretty good feel for this game after my 50 plus year love affair and i’m not buying it . in my view the trouble often starts with the guy who starts pointing fingers. madbum has been stellar on the hill but he should shut up- now. following up on flavor’s thread yesterday, if bumgarner has an issue with a player or players- take it up with him.
anyway, i don’t see a group lacking heart, i see a group pressing and feeling snakebit- they hit the crap out the ball last nignt- and had one run to show for it. yeah, the 8th inning was a cluster fuck but i sure don’t buy that madbum, kieschnick, crawford, pablo, and casilla *quit*- it was just a horrible inning that happens to teams going bad.
i don’t see a bochy team packing it in-and certainly not playing for a better draft pick- we’ll see in the coming weeks but i expect the same kind of bochy team we’ve always seen- a team with heart and pride. many of this group have been here for 2010 and/or 2012, they aren’t quitters- none of them…
I agree, Michael. Will be interesting to see how it goes down the stretch. Without a doubt, this team, as configured, has the capacity to play much better ball than that which they have played over the last 2 months, plus.
BF’s prediction from Idaho already came true last night when MadBum was obviously PO’d, and threw Panda under the bus, uh, actually “the guy” who wasn’t at third. That’s amusing at one level, startling at another. Bum calling Panda “the guy”? And he also basically admitted the team has checked out now and again. I’m cool with that. He’s now the ace, one of the best players. Calling out the team in public, hell, why not? If Bochy and Sabes can bust Belt in public, what’s wrong with Bum busting the team to the media? As for pressing or being checked out, well, there were boos last night, and it wasn’t for the Brewers. Bochy may have had his shortest news conference ever, obviously hacked off. Probably a good move. How often or differently can you agree that yeah, we play like our position in the standings. He knows this is making him look bad, because it does. I’ll be surprised if Panda starts today. As I’ve said before, after the season we’ll hear that this clubhouse isn’t/wasn’t singing Kumbaya most of the year…
madbum shared plenty of blame for the 8th and no, he has no right to be calling out others. he didn’t ‘admit’ that the team ‘ has checked out now and again’, he ‘alleged’ it -and he is wrong. being good doesn’t make him a leader, and in fact he’s now identified *himself* as a problem to be dealt with.
Panda spit the bit, the only reason the throw went awry was him, Bum had to double clutch — and Panda still should have caught it, it wasn’t that bad a throw. Bum could very well have gotten out of the inning, should have gotten of it, but typical this year, the defense cratered. Crawford blew the grounder, Panda didn’t do his job getting back to third for a force. Basic stuff. Miller called out Panda huge immediately, I’ll go with his take on it, since he’s only announced games for 35 years. Bum is the ace, he’s a leader whether you like or not. You’re parsing of admit and alleged is amusing. He called out the team, in response to the question. He could have said nothing, he didn’t say nothing. Even homer KNBR is saying Bum dumped on the team, you may be the only one missing it, or rather, refusing to admit it…
i’m not going to argue with you on this, it would not go well for anybody. i’ll just say that bum has been a hothead and finger pointer going back to his minor league days.our conversation is finished for the day. have a good one.
I wish this team had 24 more hotheads performing like Bumgarner. One thing I’ll say about Sabes, it looks like he or Evans negotiated a steal on the LT contract with Bum…
And the bottom line is, no matter how many years any of us have under our belt’s watching baseball, none of us know what’s going on in the clubhouse. And we won’t get shit out of the beat writers so we’ll just have to see what comes out of “this” clubhouse in the coming days/weeks
the ‘bottom line’ is that some have more a predisposition to blather on about a team lacking heart or life than others do. sorry, but knowing many of the men who have played and coached the game, knowing what players have said about bochy, knowing how these guys have displayed character time and again, *does* give me a good clue. sure, it’s possible that a player or two will break the mold but there’s far more reason to believe that this is a team of character and grit than the opposing view.
Boxhead welcome to the blog (i.e., I haven’t seen you post before 😉 ). I also have no issues with someone saying something in public, as long as they meant well – I suspect that Bumgarner did mean well and his outburst was partially done due to frustration. No biggie in my mind. Bochy is the manager and I would welcome him going ballistic, e.g., tipping a dinner spread, calling anyone out in public that deserved it, etc. That being said, I like Bochy’s low key style and more important, it has worked (2 WS titles).
Back to Boxhead – I am in the camp where there were NO moves to be made – at least ones that would benefit us (and didn’t seem as if we were walking bowlegged from being porked in the ass). Even more important, Sabes cited the fact that the team had to show a pulse for him to even consider making a move. They didn’t and anyone who says different is delusional. The team has been trying, it’s ludicrous to think otherwise, but obviously – they have had little or no positive results (wins).
In short, why should Sabean risk the future for a team that was going nowhere fast? Any trade would have been like putting a silver saddle on a jack ass . . . It’s still a jack ass, even with the accoutrements.
I don’t see how trading Lopez, a basic move on a losing team, would have risked the future, Blade. It’s even clearer now, and it was clear to me then. You get something for a pending free agent that has no use on a cratering team. I doubt the returns discussed for him were that “embarrassing”. A hitting prospect in AA or similar? How embarrassing is the team’s play now, and Lopez isn’t needed? Anybody that says he’s needed on this team should do stand up. And, he can re-sign with SF in the offseason anyway. IMO, there was no downside to trading him…
They didn’t get rid of him, because they may want to re-sign him. Since joining the Giants in 2010, Lopez has become one of the premier lefty specialists in the game. Through 2+ seasons, Lopez has only given up one home run in a Giants uniform in 100 plus innings (108?). We have no idea what was offered for him snarkk. With Affeldt having his issues, perhaps the Giants have re-thought Lopez’s future with the Giants.
The position people seem to take on this is that if they traded Lopez, that meant there’s no way the Giants could re-sign him, or at least it would be tough to do so. I don’t believe that. My understanding is that if the Giants re-signed him in the offseason, the Giants would owe nothing to the team he was rented to, he’s a true FA. Just like Beltran when he turned tail and went to St. Louis, the Giants got zip in compensation. Maybe I’m wrong on that, somebody let me know. So, I don’t see the connection of trading = not re-signing. Lopez has said repeatedly he loves it here…
steve- stop making sense immediately…btw, it should be noted that they can’t make a qualifying offer to a guy they don’t have. making a qualifying offer increases their chance of resigning him. it seems that some think that this team needs a complete rebuild. they are wrong. trading a key vet for a couple of ‘prospects’ who will never play in the bigs is not a good plan.
I’m with blade on this one snarkk. With Affeldt’s injury history Sabes probably didn’t want to let go of Lopez if the trade wouldn’t help today. Sabes probably felt signing Lopez was the priority and if not, he could do better with a comp pick as opposed to another Brett Pill (or whatever was being offered).
We’ll see whether the qualifying offer is that big of a deal to discourage teams from paying Lopez. I suspect if Lopez gets a knock me down offer with somebody, he’ll go there, the luv me some Giants will leave with a big check waived in your face. And the compensatory pick for him is uncertain. Under the new CBA, you get a pick only if the offer is = to the average of the salary of the top 125 players in MLB. The Giants may not make that big an offer. If they do, I don’t know what quality of pick the new rules would generate for Lopez. And, as I’ve said, a pick is a pick, it’s a crapshoot for a player who can’t help now…
Pence said that exact thing. Trade me now, and I’ll re-sign here next year.
How it would have really played out will never be known, but the situation isn’t that outlandish.
how often does that happen, chuck… a free agent-to-be traded and then resigned in the off season by the team that traded him? it’s far far more common and obviously easier to re-sign a team’s own free agents.
I too am with Blade on this one. Sabean said that they listened to offers for Pence, Tim, and Lopez. He said that what was offered for any of them was an embarrasment. He also said that they were hesitant to trade any, as they all could play a role in the future (they want to make qualifying offers and try to resign them).
I was totally down with Sabes and crew standing pat in this situation…if he said the return on any of those trades were shit…I trust his judgement…
snarkk – in response to your 11:48 – the Giants have said they will make “qualifying offers” to all (Pence, Lopez, and Tim). When they say qualifying…it means that the offers will meet the criteria.
Hi Ho Silver on my Jack-Ass Tonto, says the Lone Ranger!!! 🙂
Thanks for the welcome blade3colorado. I think I may have confused you. I wanted a move, but more of a sell short-term rentals (Pence and Lopez) for prospects.
De nada Boxhead . . . I hope you post more. 🙂
belt batting 4th, quiroz dfaed, hector back..
If I was a player and a beat writer asked me a question right now, I’d probably just start quoting Fear songs.
She don’t like salami, she don’t want pastrami
She don’t want a chicken, she don’t want a roast
She just wants her double dose of my
Beef, beef, beef, beef balogna
Beef, beef, beef, beef balogna
Beef, beef, beef, beef balogna
In the Mercury, Kawakami wrote this over a month ago, “Brian Sabean and the Giants already are past the denial stage, and they are headed toward alert acceptance. Amid a season of accumulated miseries, this is necessary. This is wise. This is realistic, and it is what reasonable executives for successful teams must do, even if they have won two of the past three World Series.”We’ve had a lot of things go right — apparently this is the year that things go haywire,” Sabean said in a phone conversation Monday afternoon. “What we don’t want to do is forsake the future for something that might be looking like a bad-penny year at this point.”
He added, “Unless they start winning immediately, the worst thing the Giants could do is lie to themselves and start dealing away top prospects for short-term fixes or absorb an enormous salary just to pretend they are N.L. West contenders.”
The aforementioned was written two series before the All Star break. Sabean was correct in his evaluation back then and if anything the Giants play since then has emphatically gotten worse. In short, his words were prophetic about this not being our year. Where have the Giants proven him wrong? Thank God he is holding the rudder and not some other hare-brained, delusional GM, whom would have traded our future for a couple of pick ups that would have done little or nothing to elevate us from the cellar. In my mind, Sabean has earned his money this year.
Blade, he earned it last year. He has to wear some responsibility this season for this debacle, of not having any real backup for LF (which he admitted on KNBR), nobody ready in the minors, among other things. I don’t know who Kawakami was talking about. Nobody rational was saying trade Crick and other lower level prospects with real potential to bring a player onto an obviously sinking ship. It was clear to many, several weeks before the AS break, that this team was down the dumper this year, Sabes wasn’t the lone swami figuring that out…
No, he wasn’t the “lone swami” figuring this out, but just about everyone else wanted to clean house and make trades. Shit, even I was delusional about trading Lincecum before his no hitter. Side note – I am still up in the air about trading him, since his “peripherals” such as strikeouts are phenomenal.
Seriously, I can’t blame him for what I deem minutia, e.g., your reference to “backup for LF (which he admitted), nobody ready in the minors, among other things (by the by, spell out other things????)).” All teams have holes snarkk. We won the frickin’ World Series the year before, so anyone would have been on board with the team that came out of spring training. Weren’t you on board then? Admit it – YOU WERE. Sabean is a General Manager, not a clairvoyant.
I’ve admitted I was on board, Blade. I was dubious about Torres redux, which has been borne out, and about Scutz for 3 years, 2 was OK, but since there was virtually no other option, fine, I was down with pretty much what we had. But, I’m not the GM. He is, that’s way above our fan pay grade. I don’t see why he’s the Teflon Don in all of this, since he got the props for a GM winning a WS, he catches some GM blame. If he’s in any other big market with a team doing this free fall, he’d be catching a ton of crap…
“Teflon Don.” That’s a funny line. 🙂
Hopefully, Hector’s defense has improved. I wonder if Tim will be the “designated Hector” pitcher again, or if he’s moved up the pecking order to avoid that…
fyi- the giants were not able to offer beltran a qualifying offer and by rule would not have received compensation for beltran anyway-‘only players who have been with their clubs for the entire season will be eligible for compensation.’
Lopez is very good, and he’s paid well for being a specialist. On a per innings pitched basis, for 27 innings so far this season, he’s making about $157K per inning pitched. Cain with 139 innings so far, is at $144K…
Well, Hector is starting at catcher today. Timmeh must be overjoyed about that. Hopefully we can get a hit or two from Hector, I assume that’s the idea in letting Quiroz go. So far this season, Hector’s had 85 ABs at Fresno, BA .271, OPS .787, 3 HRs. He’s still only 23. If Hector could prove he actually can be a starting MLB catcher someday, that opens up a ton of possibilities. Posey to 1B or 3B eventually, Belt to ? and Panda to traded?…
Belt! Opening up that industrial-sized drum of WHOOP-ASS!
So, that’s it! Belt should have been hitting cleanup all along 😉
What the hell was THAT?
What’s this I just missed? A Giants homer at home!
If anyone needs a video feed (Flav still in the wilderness?) . . .
http://www.vipboxonline.eu/baseball/168247/3/san-francisco-giants-vs-milwaukee-brewers-live-stream-online.html
Offense is a beautiful thing.
Just like old times. Our cleanup hitter, with the initials BB gets walked after hitting a HR.
it was kinda weird that bonds really didn’t want to hit in the 4 and didn’t much of the time. he only hit in the 4 in eleven games in the year he hit 73. just a casual observation…
This comment was deleted by me.
I hope that guy’s boat sinks.
Nice gun on that play Mudbug!
Segura has the most infield hits in the majors.
Not this time chump!!!
So, who claimed Rios off waivers?
i thought it was texas.
unless he suffers a reversal of fortune, timmy is rapidly upping his value in the market this winter. whether he stays here or goes elsewhere absolutely nobody is going to pay him what is now a *minumum* 16-18 per year to pitch out of the pen.
Agree. May be a good idea for Sabes to have Timmy’s agent on speed dial (and get something consummated).
That splitter is freaking nasty.. He’s on today.
i don’t guess he’ll be using goober bumgarner’s agent to be handling his deal..
Sabean has said all along that they will make a qualifying offer to him, and I am sure other possibilities may be explored. With Bum and Cain being the only definitive SPs locked-up for next year, I can see the Giants making a pretty hard play for Tim.
Will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Yeah, poor Bum got taken to the woodshed on that deal.
on the other hand, i see the o/u year on that contract standing as-is at 2014…
Which one Mike? Tim’s? Or Bum?
bum.
Ahh. Thanks.
i probably said that wrong- i don’t see madbum pitching past next year without renegotiating that deal.
Wow. Gomez looked totally lost on that swing. LOL.
Lot of mustard on that hot dog….reminds me of Raul Mondesi.
Not bad Timmy. One hitter and 7 whiffs.
The game’s on?
No, its from 2009. The best of Timmy.
potd. good one
Tim was at 108. He could have come out to try for the shutout, if the first guy got on, go to the Pen…
Ballgame! TImmy is doing nicely lately.
Yep. He’s found something to make it work. Pitching backwards, let the nasty stuff set up the fastball. As long as they swing at the crap first, he doesn’t have to be perfect with the fastball…
Are you ready for some football?
Is pre-season football really football?
I just want to see if Jenkins can run a coupla routes without falling down…
If we win tomorrow and the Mountain Yodelers lose, we’re out of the cellar. The Sherpas have been terrible on their 10 game road trip. How terrible? They were outscored 61-23. What’s more, the 1-9 misadventure matched the worst three-city trip in franchise history. The Sherpas’ other 1-9 free fall came from June 22 to July 1 in 2007.
Xoot, Chico, Salty, AlleyKat, Wilcojoe, Macdog, Sandawg and James – please contact me at your convenience . . .
blade3colorado@yahoo.com.
Thanks 🙂
noticed the new lbgt ads, pretty tough for these guys to say they didn’t know what they were pushing…anyway, this will be a very interesting year.
Any link to a “typical” ad Mike? I hadn’t heard about this.
http://www.csnbayarea.com/show/391546/episode/424506
Awesome public service announcement.
i haven’t checked this out but it seems to me that timmy is starting the game at 90/91 and maintaining it rather than hitting 93 early and falling off to 88/89.
If anyone needs a video feed for the Niner/donkey game . . . http://www.vipboxonline.eu/american-football/158428/2/2013-nfl-pre-season:-denver-broncos-at-san-francisco-49ers-live-stream-online.html
I’d never seen this from HacMan on the origin and history of “one flap down”. Very funny…
http://www.news10.net/video/846007416001/0/Ex-Giant-Jeffrey-Leonard-on-one-flap-down
Great interview, loved him fucking with the Cardinal fans. I grew up down here in Cardinal territory hating those fucks.
Damn, Mrs. James just caught me jackin’ off to Belt’s 800 OPS . . . I don’t know how I’m going to handle his success. Maybe it’s better if he tightens that grip again . . . .