How Does Our Pitching Stack Up Against the Rest of the NL West?
Andrew Baggerly, who I really enjoy reading, is in the midst of ranking the NL West pitching staffs. He’s releasing one team a day. Haiku Season hits everyone hard.
Anyway, he ranked the Padres 5th, The Rockies 4th and the D-Backs 3rd. You should all be able to see where this is going. He’ll be ranking the Giants 2nd and The Art Dealers 1st. His rankings look reasonable to me.
But how close are we to them in terms of our staffs?
Art Dealer’s Starting 5
Kershaw
Grienke
Ryu
Haren
Beckett/Billingsley
Art Dealer’s Relievers:
Rodriguez, Withrow, Howell, League, Bee-Asshole, and Jansen.
Our Starting 5:
Cain, Bum, Timmy, Voggy, Huddy
Our Relievers:
Casilla, Affeldt, Lopez, Petit, Machi, Huff (he might be competing for a rotation spot), and Romo
Qualifying this thread by saying I’m not doing any research at all. I’m late for work, just gonna churn and burn this bad boy out there.
Thoughts?
I’ll share mine later today.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
I just posted on the previous thread, adding more linguistic linguine.
As for pitching staffs, I guess none of it means ANY THING AT ALL until one pitch is thrown. It is all based on the past. That’s why I shy away from stats. (Oh, c’mon? What else is there to go on, Pawlie? Mystical clairvoyance and divining rods?) I get it, stats are predictors based on prior patterns and performance. But, as with all those financial advisers and institutions, “Past performance does not guarantee similar results.” No shit. One out of a thousand financial gurus is smart enough to be counterintuitive and successful. Same with baseball predictions. Who picked the Jints in 2010 or 2012?
Did I just buzzkill the conversation?
“Hellmann’s is my mayo choice” – mine too, but it was an easy switch since I was a Best Foods guy on the West Coast. Saying supper instead of dinner has been a change for me. Also being in the South I’ve had to learn to pronounce some word differently. Here, Norfolk isn’t pronounced nor-folk, it’s pronounced nor-fuck. Now I took to this with out any problems. Although, I have been told that I shouldn’t carry that over by calling an old folks home, an old fucks home. Live and learn.
Being entrenched on the Left Coast, I am a Best Foods guy (mayo). And yes, it is dinner, not supper out here. And to yesterday’s thread and Pawlie’s comments on “having a catch,” I get it that this may be the norm on the Right Coast, but with me, here on the LC and growing up in the Southwest, it was always “hey, want to play catch.” You say To-may-to, I say To-maut-o…let’s call the whole thing off.
You say, Haiku Season? You throw it down, I accept.
snowdrift blanketing
red stitching — frigid, dormant
awaiting spring’s grip
Very nice, Mr. Kokonuts…
danke, Herr Mercantile
Every team that got into NL playoffs last season had top rated staffs in the league. Nats were up there too. Giants, of course, were down there with the freaking Brewers.
Bum was really the only guy up there with LA’s top 3, which is why I’d still like to add one more like an Arroyo to the equation. I have zero faith Vogs returns to previous years form, Mrs. Vogs notwithstanding.
I think SF pen stacks up well, and it would be great to see Hembree be a RH late game option. Mijares just recently signed with someone else on minor deal I thought. You also have to give Bochy a big edge in managing it over 2 trips.
But PK does have a point, this is all on paper. Ask Cy guy Kershaw about being outdueled twice by Cards kid on LA’s biggest stage in last 25 yrs.
Kershaw just signed a big contract so I expect a let down year. Grienke is a head case just waiting to go MIA. Dan Haren or one of the Bs? Please. Their relievers can only add to the fun of high scoring games and blown saves. They do have an outfield, I will give them that, but our pitching staff will out dual theirs this year.
Just stay healthy. Staffs on paper mean little. Every season is unique so surprises will occur.
Irrelevant left coast b-ball post here:
tough night for local men’s teams as both lost close games at home to AZ schools. Dawkins team inability to score (best player goes 3-15) when needed cost them vs. #1 AZ, but they are playing better right now with limited talent than Cal. Cal has better players than what they have shown lately after being swept in LA, including last night when they were down 14 early came back to take lead but couldn’t hold it and lost in OT to Sun Devils. Monty’s got some work to do, not just vs. UA on Saturday but beyond.
FT shooting will doom UA in close games, which imo is not near a #1 in country team. UCLA is very good and balanced, but rest of conference inconsistent. 4-5 teams in, maybe. Dunno what happened to Oregon.
Gals rivalry game at Stanford tonite, but Cal not near as good as last year, unable to replace scoring lost by graduated Layshia Clarendon who often bailed them out last year. TVD has better outside (more of them) and inside game with O, legit player of year candidate. UC PG Boyd just hasn’t improved perimeter (or FT) shooting enough to help her team. Coach Gottleib is always saying *how proud* she is of her team–see if she says that if they lose by 20. Stanford is rolling most everyone while Cal already has 2 losses–league is very top heavy and not near as competitive as men’s. Cal has been getting excellent recruits and has 2 more from top local gals HS teams. They gonna need em.
Pulled this from the last thread as well.
Yeah, my wife’s mom’s family is all from Pennsylvania, and they all said ‘pop’. I had the exact same though, PK. What is this? Leave it to beaver? She had all kinds of weird expressions and shit. Her version of eeny-meeny-minie-moe was inappropriate at best.
And yeah, I saw that linguistic thing on facebook.
Here’s the link.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=0
Pretty cool. My problem is I grew up on the west coast but my parents were both from Chicago, so I get a lot of their terms mixed in with sneakers and soda.
I knew you weren’t doggin’ me PK *insert dumb-ass winky face*
I took that 25-word word test. It concluded I lived in the Bay Area…
MadBum, Cain. Timmy. Hudson, Vogie
Petit, Machi Or Kontos, Affeldt, Hembree, Casilla, Lopez, Romo
Notes: Mijares signed a minor league contract wiih Boston…Hembree has options so he could be a casualty if he doesn’t pitch well in the desert…they’re paying Vogelsong 5 million regardless, so I don’t see any competition for the 5 unless he completely stinks it up. Derek Law has a shot in relief-may even pass Hembree on the depth chart. Don’t see Huff, Willis, Dunning,Lively, Cordier, Depaula or anybody else having a shot unless there’s injury or trade. Sidenote on Petit- he was our 3rd best starter over the last 1/4 of the year. He deserves to have a job to lose.
Extra notes: Pablo is in great shape, Blade’s pic was a “before”. Won’t happen, but ideal contract- 3 years, club option for 4th. 14 mill per year with weight incentives
.
Seattle 20-17…
Alex Smith, CBSSports.com’s Comeback Player of the Year, looks to be headed for a pricey extension…
Hellmann? Best Food? I make Mayo. It’s easy…
vipbox- all of the sites that illegally broadcast games are chock full of malware, adware, spyware. It’s the price you pay. As Craig said, it’s *possible* to escape safely, but don’t count on it. Wax your car instead…
Let’s see, a fade from the 18, great DB who you’ve avoided all day- good thinking.
About 25 or so non-roster invitees, chance to make Opening Day roster- at most 2. Probably none.
Sarah Palin quote: “Sadly, there are no Chick-fil-A restaurants in Alaska.”
I don’t think the Dodgers are done with their staff. They can’t really count on Beckett, and Barbra IF ready wouldn’t be until late July.
As for ranking the teams, ranks are meant for the armed services, not sports teams.
I think that pitching order is pretty good indicator of what is likely to occur this year and see us competing with the Dodgers for the division. Huff will need to pitch in Fresno to see if he could fuill in for any emergency starts. Agree with Twin Petit deserves a spot and I think we need to see what Hembree has at the big league level at this stage.
My biggest worry about Panda in Venezuela is the crime, especially the kidnapping and violence. If I invest in him for an extension, I would demand no more winter ball for him in Venezuela.
I agree with Twin that is an ideal contract, but one would think people in the AL would go at least 5 years if not longer for him. I think if we can get a 5 year extension at $15 mill a year average, I would sign him as quickly as possible. Panda getting 6 years and $90 mill in hte open market I dont think is beyond expectation. He is going to play hard this year for that contract…
Final note…Giant Head loves him some Chick-fil-a! 12 piece nuggets and large sweet tea please!!!
RE: the staff, I agree with Michael. Whether Hembree makes the 25 will be decided during ST. WillieD mentioned wanting to add another starter (Arroyo, etc.), I don’t see that happening (I was hoping they added two when they landed Hudson…but no dice). Twin, do you have a mayo recipe, or do you just wing it?
RE: Pablo. I would LOVE a three year deal, but don’t see that flying. I think it will need to be four and an option at the minimum, and I like the 14-15 per year number. Anything over a five year deal makes me nervous.
Damn…only 15 days until Giant pitchers and catchers report. WHOOP! I can smell baseball in the air!
MLB Trade Rumors suggest Arroyo is holding out for $10 mil a year and at least two years…aint getting that with the Giants..
I would go 10 per for two years for Arroyo (of course, it is easy for us desk GMs to spend Charles Johnson and crew’s dough).
Eternally hopeful and I side with Pawlie Kokonuts, i.e., who predicted the Giants in 2010? 2012? Also, contrary to Baggs prediction, most publications have us in 3rd place after the Dbacks. Just going to have to wait and see . . . Personally, I like it when we are the underdog. No expectations. Bring it West division. We’re ready.
My bad…nice thread Flavor…especially on the fly. I respect Baggs and I like reading his pieces and hearing his analysis, but I don’t put a lot into the stacking and racking of the staffs. I’m going to leave my stacking and racking to the BBOTD page until Craig changes it up…
We’ll Huff & Puff was added to the 40 man roster for now, so unless he implodes in ST,I expect him to stick as either a 5th starter if Vogs blows up or better yet that 3rd lefty out of the pen which I’ve always liked.
Agree with Twin about Petit as well for a Spot Starter or pen guy, though I want Hembree in the pen as well, never enough heat coming in , probably a 6-7 inning guy for now,followed by Casilla & Romo IMO.
Hard to say on Huff and Hembree right now…that will all shake out in Scottsdale.
I think Huff is headed for Fresno. Might be up later. I think Hembree will be here, but it’s possible he could be victim to one of the guys out of options.
Dodgers staff on paper easily over the Giants. Tim, Huddy and especially Voggy are nothing but question marks at this point, much to be found out as ST goes along. Everybody’s a year older, and with Voggy in particular – I’m just not counting on much from the dude. I’d hate to see his good story go down in flames. I even question where Cain really is at this point in his career, given his mileage and the up and down he had last season. If he’s mediocre or has arm issues, we’re screwed. Sabes will do his usual Pen push and pull with a coupla no names, so it will probably turn out fine, but not a top 5 Pen by any stretch. Affeldt has to come back and get it done, with 2 years to go on his deal at $6M per, he’s the key to the Pen IMO…
And to tie-in with Pawlie’s comments…no one, on paper, expected the Giants to win it all in 2010 or 2012…especially in 2010. It’s all conjecture until they start playing for keeps.
Orange and Black – And give me a shot of BBOTD back…
Agreed, Chi. But, Baggs is projecting, and that’s all we can do at this point waiting for Ps & Cs to report. I could easily rank the Gyros staff 3rd or tied at 3rd with the Dbacks now, but my love for the team has me put them at a hopeful 2nd. IMO, the starting staff after MadBum and Cain is a total crapshoot…
In 2010 and 12 they didn’t win it with opening day 25. That’s why no one was picking them.
Fellas check the 2010 archives…I said sometime in May they would get there…
…and I privately emailed Blade in May or June, giving up, saying we were done
You have to let that go Pawlie—you’ve been beating yourself up about it for years! If it makes you feel any better, I did a post that year after the all-star break where I changed the words to “Magic Bus” to “Doomer Bus” and basically said the season was over. It was actually fairly clever and I think I snagged a POTD on it—but I do feel badly my faith wavered like that.
thanks for your absolution, Fr. SanDawg
No problem. Now go put on your best pair of Adidas and say 5 Hail Mary’s and an Act of Contrition!
Wow, Arroyo at 2 yrs/$10mil sounds like helluva good bargain to me. Compare that to what SF is paying Lincecum for 2 more years (and what he’s done last 2), what Garza cost Mil, and what Ubaldo and Santana are looking for. He’s consistent and has put up solid numbers pitching in bandbox Cincy. Right now he’d be no worse than 3 in SF rotation, imo.
I’d jump on that guy and offer him 2 years at $17M or some such. He’s got no offers. That’s low risk in my book, and let him and Voggy fight it out in ST. Yeah, that’s 6 arms to start, but figure it out later…
“Haiku Season hits everyone hard.”
Awesome quote.
—–
Regarding terminology……as Pawlie mentioned, sneakers have been called “tennis shoes.” That’s what we called them when I was a kid, or “tennies” for short. It seems kind of quirky in retrospect. No kids in our neighborhood played tennis, as far as I know. Yet we wore “tennis shoes.” But why “sneakers” now? Because you could sneak up on someone while wearing them? That seems kind of odd.
I just called mine “Chucks” for Chuck Wilson’s high tops, and yeah nobody I mean nobody played tennis!!!
😃
Yeah, tennis shoes and sneakers were inter interchangeable. Or just keds. We called em tennis shoes but then we did start playing tennis.
There was a time not that long ago when using the word “tennies” would have gotten you beaten to death in Brooklyn. Now you can get away with it. English is no longer spoken here.
Wasn’t it Chuck Taylor?
Yes, it was, Chuck. Preferably white with colored laces in these parts.
Who is Chuck Wilson?
my bad ,it was ChuckTaylor, geez bad hangover last night🍻
Had to be the black high tops, otherwise you were a freakin Tennis Player in the Whitey’s!!! and most likely getting a wedgie after school.
I still rock the Chuck Taylors. Low top, all black with orange stiching and orange stripe on the black (got to REPRESENT my Giants!)…
And just to get in form for the season – Fuck the Bums!
There was a time growing up when my mom always bought me white Chuck Taylor low-tops, but that was when Adidas had burst on the scene and it was far from hip or cool to wear Chucks. Around that time we were going to spend a weekend with my grandma in the city, which usually meant church and a nice meal on the town–often brunch at The Palace Hotel. I didn’t have any nice shoes at the time, so my mom gave my dad the message to take me downtown to get some shoes. I knew she meant dress shoes, but we when we got to Woodland Shoe Center, I quickly figured out my dad my thought she meant any kind of shoes. Little shit that I was, I picked out a sweet pair of Adidas Varsity’s. Blue suede with the 3 white stripes. I can still picture ’em clear as day. God, my mom was pissed at both of us when she saw those and heard how much they cost. I tell you what though—I rocked the shit out of those fuckers in the 7th grade!
Awesome Sandawg!!!
Bet Pops was about to get the frying pan to the noggin from your mom ,but WTF like you said “You rocked the shit with those bad boys in 7th!
–
..
sorry diggity, that long link was fucking up the formatting of the page, had to delete it
Outrageous! Please tell me you at least saw the picture before you blew it up. Also, while you’re playing God and deleting crucial links (though I must admit it was the longest web address I’ve seen in my life) can you clean up the syntax in my story posts?
As for our pitching staff versus LA’s, I think theirs is a helluva lot better on paper—mainly because Kershaw is so damn good. Of course, that doesn’t always translate between the lines, but I’d rather have their staff than ours. If they would have signed Tanaka, it would have put me in horrible mood heading into the season.
Loved your 4:37, Diggity……
Still haven’t had time today to get my thoughts together about these 2 pitching staffs. Appreciate Twin’s 9:39am. He covered a lot.
I think the question to ask, for both of these staffs, is who is going to bounce back, and who isn’t? Who is going to step up, who is going to take a step back? I could TOTALLY see Ryu taking a step back next year. And I think Haren and Beckett are both done, Beckett more than Haren. On our end, Voggy is a total ? and I can’t believe he scored the deal he did with Arroyo still sitting on the sidelines without having ever received an offer from us (or any other team, by the way). That is unacceptable. You take a shot at Arroyo before you go back to Voggy. There is no argument otherwise.
Regarding the BP’s, the Dodgers BP is better than ours and it really isn’t even close. So those are my 2 thoughts today as I settle into an evening of Round Table pizza and Dubs/Clips with a little math homework help thrown in the direction of my daughter. Lots of drama today at her school. “Who likes who”, secret crushes, revealed crushes, ugh. Everything I knew would happen is starting to happen. I want her to turn into a boy or a non-practicing lesbian in the next year or two (she’s 11 now). I’m not ready for this shit……….
My 16yo got her license on Wednesday, Magnus. How do you think that makes me feel in the Have No Control Department? Actually, I’m okay. Kahlil Gibran said something like our children are arrows. We position, aim, and then shoot the arrow and let it go where it will.
Yup. Sounds about right. You just hope some of the shit you say all the time sinks in.
Glad you guys appreciated the shoe story–it always puts a smile on my face when I think of that time. My poor dad never set foot in anything other than a hardware store or lumberyard, so he was really out of his element on that day and I took advantage. I was also smart enough to keep those Adidas squirreled away until we were in SF and in the midst of the frantic rush to get out the door to make it to church on time–which was a standard part of our Sunday mornings. If I would have busted them out in Woodland, I would have had to take them back for sure. I must have been a helluva sight with my polyester pants and corduroy sport coat, rocking those Adidas. I’m sure there was point on the drive to SF where my mom asked my dad if he took me get shoes and he proudly announced “yep.”
@WillieD: I will say this for you regarding your confidence level in Voggy—you have been consistent. You have thought that guy was crap from the day he first donned Orange and Black!
I love you man, but I hope he proves you wrong yet again!
WilleD thinks my coffee is crap! He’s one tough dude.
If I had to set an over/under on the number of posts where Willie has bashed Voglesong over the years, I’d go with 8.
Which is still lower than the over/under I’d set for the number of posts where Twin bashed Crawford during his rookie year. I’d set that one at about 17.
His .214 BA, .272 OBP, .569 OPS, 75 OPS+ against lefties in 290 ABs *should* make him platoon material.
BTW, it was *TWO* seventeen. Those are career numbers.It got worse last year. He’s a good kid, though. Did say he’s a good kid ? He’s a good kid.
You’re right, I never warmed to the guy even when he was good.
Which even you have to admit was quite some time ago.
The local college b-ball writer Curtis had some interesting stats on where best defensive teams nationally are–and the best ones are at the top of all polls. I think Tecs are one of the leaders in whole country in team D.
When I was in HS, only the coolest b-ball players wore the white Adidas lows with the 3 black stripes. I had my requisite high top white chuck taylors–2 pair lasted 4 years. I hope the newer versions I see kids in today are better padded!
I bought some Lebron James Zoom Air Nikes about 6 or 7 years ago. They are still waiting to be rocked. Unfortunately, the markings say “Lebron” instead of “James.”
that is fantastic. I laughed out loud on this post.
Diggity–
The O/U is O on both those lines!
go to tinyurl.com dawg. It’ll shrink that to nothing.
I’m confused…
“The following URL:
http://tinyurl.com
has a length of 18 characters and resulted in the following TinyURL which has a length of 22 characters:
http://tinyurl.com/1zt “
One of the big moments in the pre-pre-season for me: the baseball preview magazines have arrived. I’ve been reading Lindy’s tonight. Lots of intriguing stuff. They pick the Giants as one of the two NL wild cards.
According to Lindy’s, the Dodgers are going with another Cuban rookie this season, this time at second base: Alexander Guerrero. If he turns out to be good, then……the Giants will be grateful for that wild card spot.
And the Cardinals have a hot-shot rookie outfielder they’re real high on. If he turns out to be good, then Snarkk is going to e-x-p-l-o-d-e. 🙂
As much as it hurts, I agree with those who rate the Bum pitching better than ours. I know it’s “on paper”. That needn’t be said. ALL preseason predictions and projections are “on paper”. We *do* have “ifs” which could change things for the better. Just too many of those ifs for my liking
Cain has to pitch like he did post-break. Timmy has to be at least an acceptable 3. Hudson has to stay healthy. Vogelsong? No comment for now. 40 million this year for the Tims and Vogey. Lotsa bucks for 3 ifs.
Pen? The late inning guys were OK. We had trouble getting there. Petit and Machi should help there. Unless Hembree or Law comes thru, we needed a guy to make it a six innning game when we have a lead. I would have signed Edward Mujica and/or gambled on my old favorite Jesse Crain.
Vogie? Should have been about 2 million plus incentives and in competition for the 5. If he wouldn’t have taken that, I’d thank him for his extraordinary service and wish him well.
My favorite day in the month of January ~ the last one. Eleven below when i logged in this morning. But the wind’s from the south and it looks like only two more nights coming up next week when the thermometer drops below -20. That means February is immanent. Also means there will be some very anxious free agents running around with only a couple weeks before pitchers and catchers due to report. Will Sabean swoop in and snag one whose expectations are sagging? Arroyo would be very nice, but my suspicion is that he will go with the Twins.
Wondering if those two NLCS losses to the Cards last October are still hovering around in Kershaw’s noggin. If that’s the case his psychological edge might sport some serrations. We’ve seen similar things happen with both Timmy and Cainer. A large proportion of a pitcher’s poise depends more on his inner balance than his outer talents. A reversal of the sag occurred when Vogie came back to SF from baseball purgatory. Still not a lot in the tools department, but his mental attitude was all bulldog. Or to slightly paraphrase the Yogi: More than half the game is half mental.
So that’s my take on rating the LaBumbos and Giants staffs. Intangibles. Without Kershaw maintaining something close to absolute dominance psychologically, the spectrum differential between LA and SF fades into shadings of pastel. In such a situation additional intangibles may become dominant. Unit cohesion and will to win become trump cards. Under that scenario i like our chances.
Congrats to NoCal on getting some snow in the High Sierras. Now, why don’t you be good neighbors and eject that hovering high-pressure system so that you get more moisture and reciprocally, that jetstream relieves the heart of the continent from Arctic conditions. We could all use a little relief, even if its not coming outta the bullpen.
Ok, now I finally know what a TIny Url is all about. Thanks to Chuck, my main man from Walnut Crick, for showing me the light. Now check out my first pair of Adidas I swindled my dad into buying for me in 1976:
http://tinyurl.com/sandawgsbadassadidas
I think Giants will be positioned to get another pitcher if need be —at the deadline. Might turn out to be wise decision and so how things unfold.
There will always be questions , even when you pay $100 m. (Cain for example)
True too many IF’s, but Garza Jimenez Nolasco were IF’s, IMO when you look at 4 yrs. Arroyo at 37 a big IF.
The KEY was # of years. They kept it to 2 yrs on Tim’s and 1 yr on V….bridge to Crick Escobar et al.
Good post. I agree emphatically. For example, Jimenez and Santana, the two big free agent pitchers left – have more evidence of doing face plants than being outstanding as they were last year (Jimenez only for the 2nd half of the season). In fact, Santana was hoping for a $100 million dollar contract when free agent hot stove season began . . . Fast forward today, he is probably praying for a Garza/Nolasco type deal ($50 million).
Timmy, Hudson, and Vogelsong? Doen’t get any iffier than that at 40 mill this year.
I would have taken Arroyo, Kazmir ( I think that was a Blade coice) and Jimenez (Craig talked me into Ubaldo ) in a New York second over Timmy, Hudson, Vogie.
Yeah, Kazmir was my choice for a “value” signing. I still am ambivalent about Arroyo, but all things being equal, it would depend on the contract cost and length.
Agree with all that the bottom 3 on the Gyros starting staff are a big collective crapshoot. Chances are at least one is not going to be good (Voggy most likely). That can probably be remedied with Petit, but then you need a long man replacement. If two suck, that’s bad. No obvious remedies for that at the money Tim and Hudson make. If they’re all mediocre as a group of 3, which IMO is what reality will be, it’ll be very tough to even get to a WC berth. The offense would have to pick up immensely. I doubt Sabes would bring up an Escobar “early” to stop starter bleeding, especially at the overall budget of the starting staff, unless the main cause is Voggy, due to his lowest salary. He could go on a DL stint if he craters, and his paycheck for nothing wouldn’t hurt that much. Not so the other two. Yeah, Escobar coming up before September is not the Giants “way”…
Vogelsong’s deal pretty much guarantees he’d have to suck for at least a month before they’d bail on him as starter. And if/when they do that, why would they want him at all? Considering his prospects of getting a Major League deal anywhere else, they could have signed him for a couple million and incentives IF he made the team.
Don’t worry about getting grief, James. If I’m posting at all this year, I’ll absorb it for you.I was feeling chatty today, I’m gone for awile again.
I agree with that. I don’t have any clue as to why they gave Voggy that much dough guaranteed after they failed to exercise his option, and paid him the $300K or whatever in walkaway money. I didn’t see anywhere that there was a clamor among teams to pay him $5M+…
…see how things unfold
As long as a few of us are talking about dottirs (Icelandic spelling), the younger Snarkkette turned 13 yesterday. Yes, now a teenager. She was happy with getting money for a first salon “mani and pedi”, but none too thrilled with the decision that ear piercing would have to wait another year, at least. Mrs. Snarkk, more than I, frowned on that. Apparently, the group of friends finds many already with pierced ears, so this is a minor crisis, which shall pass for a while. The older Snarkkette could give an S about pierced ears. Last night, we attended the high school meetings about her next year’s (10th grade) class scheduling, which must be done in about 10 days. Sheezus, Honors World History, Chem, Alg 2, English, Span III, then probably Physics and AP Bio and AP Spanish and other challenging stuff in junior year, plus ability to do externships in junior and senior year for credit, plus she’s going to do her Girl Scout Gold Award project (equiv of Eagle Scout) — I don’t know if I could handle that load even now….
Snarkk,Getting to Football & Baseball practices, not stoned was tough enough for me.😃
The stats — what’s on paper — allow you to roughly measure the likelihood of an outcome. It’s not very likely that the Giants pitching is going to be as good as the Dodgers, or even particularly good relative to the rest of the league. The pitching has been on a decline since 2010, and it was the worst in baseball last year. Dumping Zito is by far the biggest thing they did to remedy that situation (and his departure should, admittedly, help a lot).
If Cain threw 93-94 consistently, I’d have a much better feeling about the staff. I know he’s been successful at 89-92, has a good slider/control, but he has also been a noted statistical oddity in ways outside of his at times unlucky W-L.
Here’s hoping I suffer unrelenting verbal abuse from Blade, Bozo, Salty et al come June!
” it was the worst in baseball last year”
That doesn’t seem possible, unless you mean they had the worst DECLINE in baseball, which….seems possible.
Didn’t see your post.
“The pitching has been on a decline since 2010, and it was the worst in baseball last year”
How are you measuring it?
ERA+
I should have qualified with “arguably,” but I don’t doubt that the Giants’ staff has the biggest ballpark edge in MLB.
Just asking. I’ll let others dispute that.
We can’t start abusing you before June? 😉
Well, we can take this to the bank if this 2014 Giants team lays an egg . . .
We will know two things: 1. Going to the “well” again to capture the magic of the 2012 season without a major upgrade(s) was a complete miscalculation; and, 2. Giants will have to move on and figure out a new paradigm on how to win in 2015.
Verbal abuse? Moi?
Any told ya so hurts, no matter how kindly put. 🙂
Just love the positive negativity of die hard G fans….You guys remind me of this one…
Guy has been losing regularly at the races. He’s down to his last few bucks and looks upward and says “Lord let me win this bet and I’ll quit gambling forever”. His horse breaks on top opens up 3 lengths at the quarter and he says again, “keep him goin lord I promise to stop betting”. They get to the half and the horse is in front by 6 now and he looks up and says ” please keep him going, I’ll always be good to my wife and kids”. They turn into the stretch and hes in front by 8 and he says “please I’ll quit drinking, never swear, attend church, and never gamble again. Now there in the shadow of the line the horse is in front by a mile, and the guy says “never mind what I said Lord, I’ll take it from here”.
They wouldn’t have considered Jimenz because he would have cost them their first rd pick. That applied to Santana as well. Not sure about the others.
But again, think the key for G’s was length of deal. Only time will tell if strategy backfires. Lot riding on the starting five as well as the top p prospects. If they both do a face plant next yr, Sabean will be pressed for answers.
Gawd. The Warriors are just so hard to watch. They beat the shit out of the Clips and play like clowns vs the Jazz. Stupid fouls, endless turnovers, Bogut is dominating inside so they don’t bother to go to him. Thompson can’t hit a shot to save his life, so they keep going to him. Someone has to tell Barnes he needs to live inside instead of dancing on the edges.
I expect, Bum to have a better year than Kershaw, Matt should have a better year than Ryu and Tim will have a complete and better year than Greinke. And yes, I think Hudson and Vogs will out duel the Haren/BillingsleyBurkett tag team. Sorry, I don’t have the numbers to back that up, but I’m just not ready to bury the Giants before spring training has even started.
And by the way, June isn’t when I want to be right about our staff, I want to be right in October.
Well,a nice 11-0 run midway through the 4th and Dubs win. Crazy. Klay Thompsom is a total liability from the floor these days.