A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

It’s almost as if Bochy is bored or something. Tired of merely winning games, now he’s trotting out line ups like this just to challenge himself:

If Wacha and the Cardinals can’t beat that motley crew it’s time to go back to the drawing board in St Louey.

A special treat: We get to see Oscar Taveras’ major league debut. This guy is the epitome of a minor league “crown jewel”. Super excited to get a look at him in his first game…….

The Giants have the best record in baseball and a team salary of 149 million. Correlation?

Cain makes the most at 20 million a year.

Timmy is 2nd at 17 mil.

One Hunter Percent makes 16.

Huddy is at 11.

Buster 10.5.

Imagine where we would be if Buster and Cain started contributing…..

The truth is, Sabean has built this winning team with bargain basement investments. Morse is on a 1 year/6mil deal. Voggy 1/5mil. Romo: 5.5. Bumgarner is making 3.5 million this year. Jean Jean the Dancing Machine is making 500K. The list goes on….

Freddy Scutaro makes 6 mil this year and 6 mil next year. Can’t win ’em all. But I’m starting to see the method to their madness with Scoots. They know he can’t play every day anymore, but if he can get his back to the point where he could join the bench and come in as a pinch hitter it will improve the quality of our bench dramatically. Think about how important it would be if we had a high-contact guy with great bat control able to come in and pinch hit late in a game. Scoots could turn out to be invaluable later this year……..

Grinding series coming up in St Louis and with no off day it’s go-time against Jaime Garcia tonight. I still remember a few years ago, it may even have been 2010, where we got completely shut down by Garcia. He pitched a complete game and I want to say he did it in 81 pitches. I recall being disgusted with our effort and venting long and loudly about it on the blog…..

And Garcia is arguably the EASY starting pitcher we have to face in St Louis. He’s a couple of starts back from torn labrum surgery last year. After Garcia, we *get* to face Wainwright, then Wacha, then Lynn. Actually, I guess Lynn is the weak link in that foursome.

The reason you don’t discount beating up on hapless teams like the Cubs is that you need those wins in the bank when you go on tough road trips like this one. I don’t see this series with the Cardinals as a measuring stick. I see it as something to survive, get through uninjured and move on through the rest of a long 162 game season.

Just don’t get swept, I’d consider that a victory…….

I know this ripping off the Merc blog post by Carl Steward but I was struck by it. I hadn’t bothered to grade Sabean’s off season moves so far but when you look at the guys he signed it’s really remarkable how they have all turned out: so far.

Huddy: A+

Morse: A

Hicks: B+

Colvin: B

Vogelsong: A-

Anyone got a problem with those grades so far?

They say that’s it’s prudent to wait till Memorial Day until you take a look at the standings. Well, I’m looking at the standings and I see both the Giants and the A’s with the top two records in baseball. Mil-freaking-waukee is leading the NL Central. The strikeout happy Braves lead the NL East. And Toronto and Detroit lead their respective divisions in the AL.

Maybe we push that “standings look” out till July 4th this year?

Surprisingly, the Giants look most likely to stay atop their division all year long. They have the pitching (both starting and a solid bullpen) and the hitting (they have power up and down the line up finally). No one is having a career year but everyone is contributing and the team is doing it without the former NL MVP doing much of anything. Barring some catastrophic injuries, and Belt is coming back don’t forget that, we look to be in great shape to keep our NL West lead.

But it’s still not June yet.

Still….

Arguably the low point of the 2013 season: getting swept at home by the Cubs. I’m sure the Giants won’t be taking these guys lightly. I hope. This series is an excellent opportunity for the Giants to continue to rock and roll.

On Memorial Day, I’m remembering my dad. Here’s a photo of he and my Uncle Mel in Europe during WWII. It’s amazing this treasured family photo even exists. My dad and Uncle Mel, helping to defend our freedom to do things like watch baseball. They both made it safely back home.

Thought I’d pop one up there even though I’m not too partial to a new thought one way or the other. Not feeling real good about this one, Dozier and Parmelee are my picks for Twins who might go off tonight. But whatever, good luck Voggy…..

I had a long back and forth with a buddy at work this week about the best sports movie ever made. First of all, it’s almost impossible to pick just one. We battled over that for nearly a day.

Secondly, I discovered that your age will usually determine which way you go on “fav sports movies”. My buddy is about 12 years younger than me so he didn’t rank “Hoosiers” as highly as I did. I had that movie #2 behind “Let it Ride” which is in the top 5 of my all time favorite movies.

Feel free to share your favorites to pass the time if Voggy gets blasted tonight……

The team appears to have all lived through the weather from yesterday and have safely returned for a 3 game series vs…the Twins? Can someone explain why we’re playing the Twins right now? I’m not against inter-league play but the way the games are set up now it’s basically watered down the 2 leagues into something sterile and unemotional. Maybe that’s been Bud’s plan all along. With Houston going to the AL West a couple of years ago we now have everything in place for Bud to drop the DH on the NL in the not-so-distant future. I’m fine with it, I don’t think pitchers should bat. We’ve debated it back and forth so there’s nothing left to talk about and I believe it’s inevitable so there’s nothing to do now except “wait for it.”

But all things considered equal, I’d much rather face “the twins” on the BBOTD page than the baseball version that we’re going to see tonight. 🙂

Timmy tonight. He’ll probably get a couple of extra k’s tonight getting to face a helpless AL pitcher and least a few times. Despite the assumption that guys like Dozier and Plouffe are lefty mashers, the Twins actually hit righties better than lefties (.724 OPS v R and .668 OPS v L). The wind is  blowing out to center tonight at 13mph so Timmy better keep the ball down if he wants the opportunity of facing that P 3 times tonight……

Functional hammy’s were on short supply last night at Coors Field. Still don’t know the severity of either but Cain and Casilla will likely miss some time. After the game, Bochy said he told Casilla not to swing and that he’s “never seen him run like that before.”

No one has. And no one should ever run like that again…..

I doubt that Casilla flat out ignored a direct order to not swing.  Bochy probably advised against it or drawled out something like, “Shoot, don’t feel like ya hafta swing.” Something like that. In the end, Casilla did want he wanted to do—try to add to his already legendary batting status. Maybe the *joke* was just busting down the line like an idiot with no real chance of legging out that hit. Who knows. It’s done and over with. And while I don’t support him trying to leg out a hit in a meaningless moment, I understand why he did it completely. Baseball players are not the brightest bunch. Half their jokes are idiotic pranks on each other. Giving each other shit back and forth is part of the game. They find status in strange places. Casilla has found his nitch in his rare at bats. I doubt Casilla ever gets to bat again. Not because he sucks at it. Bochy probably knows that if giving another at bat, even after what happened last night and the lesson he should have earned, Casilla probably wouldn’t be able to help himself from doing something stupid again.

To me, this is another reminder of how dumb it is to have pitchers hit. They aren’t hitters they are pitchers. That’s the simplest reason ever for the NL to finally adopt the DH.

It’s probably the only way to keep relievers like Casilla from being idiots in the batters box or on a baseline…..

Bummer ending to what should have been a great win. Tyler Colvin sticks it to his old team in the top of the 9th, then Romo blows the lead and the game in the bottom of the 9th. I don’t know why, but it feels like a loss at Coors Field, especially a close one like last night, counts as more than one loss. Each game, in fact, feels like 2 or 3 games, right? Constant lead changes, a parade of pitchers, a huge outfield and just looooong games….

Weather in the forecast today, and with scattered thunderstorms (and possible lightning) I suppose we might have to own last night’s loss for an extra day. Seems SOP for Coors Field……

Can anyone explain to me what the big deal is with 3 guys being named “Brandon” on the same team? Marty Lurie invites callers to “weigh in” on this stupid topic all the time. Callers like to debate the “odds” of this happening and I get a kick out of there being such a wide range of odds set by the callers on this chance encounter. Now Alex Pavlovic  is writing a story about it at his blog today. I don’t get the interest. It’s not like they’re named “DickSucker” or something truly unique. I know lots of guys named “Brandon”. It’s a normal name sans controversy. Anyway, I don’t get it. Maybe these guys do:

__________________________

On to more important things. Colorado. The stadium the Sherpa’s built. Tonight two lefties face off, one of them good (ours) and one of them not very good (theirs). As usual in Colorado, I have no feel or idea for what’s in store. Predictions?

Jeff Passan is an idiot. He’s been gnashing his teeth about Bonds for years. He hates the Giants and I hate him. Total hack pussy as far as I’m concerned. But this article made me smile….

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/10-degrees–dodgers-and-their-crazy-tv-deal-top-mlb-s-biggest-disappointments-053835872.html

Considering how the Marlins have treated us behind the AT&T woodshed over the last couple of years, I feel fortunate to get out of this series with a split. No Belt, no Huddy, no Pagan (today)….all in all, a solid split.

Voggy threw a lot of off speed stuff today but he was throwing 91mph FB’s in the first inning and 90 mph FB’s in the 7th.He’s got a 3.62 ERA. I think everyone will take this considering most of the fan base considered him “done” last year and into the early part of this year.

And speaking of *done*, The Panda hit a bomb today and with an additional hit has catapulted his batting average to .220. If I’m Sabean and he keeps this up I break the silence and offer him 3 years/20 million. He’ll decline it but he’d probably at least think about it…..

That’s 17 games in a row and time for a day off. Coors Field awaits. I really like that the team is traveling there tonight instead of using tomorrow as a travel day. Besides the day off, it gives them a full day to acclimate. That’s important.

Which Timmy will we see today? Do we get dominant, pitching into the 8th inning with 11k’s Timmy? Or do we get 5 innings of laboring, casting-off-sliders Timmy?

Wind is blowing out at 14mph tonight….

It’s possible that this is just who he is now. No longer capable of dominant performances for 30+ starts a year, but able to hump up on night’s he’s feelin’ it.

This would not be a good weekend for Timmy and Voggy to lose their location…..

I was staring at the NL West standings this morning and I have to admit, this isn’t really adding up. To me anyway. 27-15? For a team that can’t hit and an under-performing pitching staff? And yet, here we sit atop one of the toughest divisions in baseball. If you had to list off the top 3 reasons for this unexpected start, what would your list look like?

I’d go:

1) team chemistry

2) rock solid bullpen

3) best manager in baseball

Of course there are other things. You might not even agree that those 3 things are contributing to playing .643 ball so far in 2014.

Whatever it is, I’ve come to expect wins. Put ’em in the bank. See where we stand in September….

_______________________

Yuzzie-Pet goes today for an ailing Huddy.

Wither Huddy?

This is starting to feel like a “bad penny” year for The Panda. He was finally starting to hit a little, he even nudged his batting average over .200 for the first time I can remember. Then he has to exit with a big toe injury. It doesn’t sound serious but injuring your big toe, even a little bit, is a bigger deal for a professional athlete than it is for guys like you and me. This could set him back a few steps as he tries to finally get his contract drive going……

Miami comes into town today and I always feel like we play poorly against them. Maybe I’m just remembering all of the Ricky Nolasco beat downs we endured over the years. This Marlin team doesn’t play very well on the road and we should pad our lead in the West this weekend.

Sorry to everyone who has sent me pics lately, been too busy to upload them here or into the ‘bucket but I will get to that soon.

It was only a few threads ago that I asked “Is Buster Posey Afraid to Play Catcher?” It was a harsh title. But watching him jump out of the way of an onrushing Starling Marte I felt it was a normal question to ask.

Somehow, last night’s play at the plate was worse.

Last night was about one thing: lack of effort. Put simply, Jason Heyward tried harder than Buster Posey. That half-assed tag was like a runner failing to hustle to first base. It was like a runner failing to MAKE IT to first base and just peeling off the base line and heading back to the dugout.

After the game, Posey said, “You don’t expect a big guy to be able to move like he did.”

I reject this excuse. Posey has been playing Heyward in baseball since Little League. If anyone knows how athletic Heyward is, it’s Posey.

Another comment: “I thought I was in the right position. You don’t have time to think it happens so fast.”

I summarily reject this claim as well. Maybe he didn’t have time to *think* during the Marte play. That was bang-bang. But when Posey received the ball last night he had time to whip out a pair of binoculars and gingerly focus them on the distant, yet oncoming, Heyward. He had all day to *think*. As Heyward approached, he could have thought about a lot of things. And what he *thought* was that Heyward was just going to give up and run into the tag. Whoops. Heyward kept trying. Buster is the one who quit.

If you want to be a catcher you are going to have to engage in contact from time to time. You might even have to invite it. It’s part of the job. Whether Posey quit on the play (as he did last night) or whether he is now instinctive jumping out of the way (as he did last week) it is simply unacceptable behavior for a major league catcher.

I don’t think Posey will ever play aggressively. But he certainly can be expected to play assertively. He gets paid the most. He is a leader. And he can’t keep playing catcher like this…..

This is what a typical Little League scoreboard looks like these days (I snapped this photo from the field down the street from my house):

With the news of yet another major leaguer needing TJ surgery (Jose Fernandez of the Marlins) I started wondering (again) about the reasons for this bizarre rash of arm injuries that we have seen this season. Even if you believe it’s caused by something (ie, overworked arms, underworked arms, etc….) it still wouldn’t make any statistical sense that a cavalcade of pitchers would go under the knife all of a sudden in 2014.

I do think it’s funny that “pitch count” gets so much attention. Limiting the number of pitches thrown by a player in a game is probably a good idea. But when you play year round baseball, limiting your pitches doesn’t really do much. Up until 10-15 years ago, kids played baseball about three  months out of the year. Now, in any good weathered state they play year round. The dullest mathematician can figure out that no matter how limiting your pitch count you are still going to end up throwing way more pitches in a season than anyone did up until recently. The wear and tear of each pitch on an elbow and a shoulder probably can’t take that yearly abuse.

But unless this happens again next year I’m inclined to believe that this season of arm injuries is just a statistical anomaly…..

Jean Machi, now bored with hording mere wins, is now taking aim at the team saves record (Robb Nen: 206).  I’m thinking he passes Randy Moffitt (83) some time just after the all star break. He gazes at his 4 holds with disdain…..

I can’t think of a single thing to complain about. Pablo’s jacked his batting average all the way up to .189. Romo is 2-0. We have the best record in baseball.

Pass it on.

Tonight’s LU:

____________________-

and now for a fun picture that I stole from Dirt’s facebook page:

Unfortunately, I know the reality of all mothers not being created equal. I got to spend the morning with my fantastic mother this morning and it was the perfect start to one of the best days of the year. I hope you all get to do the same or honor your mom however you see fit. Great day for a game. Go Giants.

This one is gonna hurt. Six to 8 weeks for Belt. This likely means the return of Travis Ishikawa and while I don’t mind him as AAA roster filler I really don’t want to see him playing every day in San Francisco. My preference would be to have Posey play mostly at first base, Sanchez catching and bring up Susac who’s hitting well in Fresno. But, it could be argued that Susac is better off playing every day.

Either way, this sucks.

Another fun win and more redemption for Voggy. I loved his quote after the game: “My focus is not to prove people wrong anymore but to prove people right who believed in me.”

A great reminder of what a winning mind set looks like.

Hector continues to do what he does in extra innings.

Pablo jacked his batting average all the way up in to the .170’s with a hit in 5 at bats.

The only one not all smiles was Machi who reportedly was seen doing a slow burn in the clubhouse after the game when told he didn’t get the W.

Hammer Maholm? Indeed.

I have nothing new to say about Tim Lincecum, therefore……..
Pretty big series coming up in LA, yes?

If I continue to think that Beckett is done then I have to believe that the Giants have a decent shot to win this game tonight. And then I turn to see who’s on the hill for us, and I’m longer as confident.

So, I have no idea what’s going to happen tonight.

That might be too brutal of a headline. But what was up with that little left foot sashay out of the way during that botched tag of Marte last night? If you have the ball you are allowed to block the plate. Period. He had the ball. He started to apply sort of a half swipe tag but for some reason is whipping his left leg out of the way. It left him off balance and he missed the chance to tag Marte on the hand or the arm and he was forced to tag him on the chest—after he was safe.

Stand your ground, man.

Now, maybe the coaching staff has told him to NEVER block the plate. And if that’s the case, that’s not really on Buster. Although he could disobey them, he’s an adult and in the moment of that type of action it would be understandable if he reverted back to what he was always taught to do.

It just seems to me that trying not to get hurt is the best way to….get hurt. And it’s also a pretty good way to go about losing a game.

If he is afraid of contact let him learn how to play 3rd base. I bet he could do it and that would solve another problem that no one seems to want to talk about…..

Admittedly, you have to change the way you pronounce his name, but that headline says it all, yes?

So who had this one?

(Sorry about having to have that idiot Dodger face in the image)

Anyway, I think last night’s game could be classified as “fun to watch.” Any time you come back from an 8-2 deficit and then 9-8 and then 10-9 you can safely say your team is trying it’s best. And who knew that our very own NL wins leader knew how to bunt? How awesome is it that Machi didn’t get his first big league win till he was 31 and now he’s on pace for close to 30 this season? He’s 8-1 lifetime. I wrote a blog thread about his first win last year.

https://oneflapdown77.com/2013/04/30/jean-machi-joins-the-club/

As Zummie noted on the last thread, we are 2-0 in Cain Sandwich Games. lqtm….

And a big Happy Birthday (83) to Mr Willie Mays

I know we just swept the Braves in Atlanta for the first time since 1988 and that is fantastic but I’m in full b-ball reflective mode right now. Still processing the Warriors epic game 7 loss. I read a horrible blog post written by Lowell Cohn early this morning about his take on the Warriors season. I won’t re-blog it here, it doesn’t deserve to go viral. 🙂 🙂 🙂 Lowell Cohn has become a poor man’s Glenn Dickey and the expensive version wasn’t worth the newspaper it was written on. Google Cohn’s post if you feel like reading drivel and nonsense.

I am not a big Mark Jackson fan but I hope the Warriors bring him back and give him an extension. Simply put, Warrior players play for him. That’s all that matters in the NBA. They hear his voice. They love him. Now, you could argue that his voice leaves a little to be desired in terms of outcome, x’s and o’s, etc. But you don’t let a coach leave who just dropped 51 wins in your lap and whose players would proudly follow off a steep cliff like brain dead lemmings. They just lost Game 7 without their first 2 string big men. What team in NBA history could withstand those 2 blows?

Did they cough up a chance to win last night? Sure, that could be argued. But who was supposed to guard Jordan and Griffin for 4 full quarters? Hilton Armstrong? Shit, they did the best they could with what they had. I read some nonsense about Festivus for the Restofus stepping up and playing in that game. Was that a joke?  First of all, if this was 30 years ago, that dude woulda been playing a month ago. Secondly, I’m not really interested in Ezili gingerly coming out of some fake-o 1:1 drills in practice to take on the beastliness of Jordan or Griffin in game time speed……

Give me a loss with the heroic efforts of Curry and Iggy and Draymond and Speights. I’ll take that and proudly ask for another. That was my team. And you support your team. Especially when they leave everything they have on the court besides their vital organs, as they did last night.

And Lowell Cohn can go fuck himself……

My dad thinks my threads are too negative so I’ll try to spruce this one up a bit. Perk it up. Raise it up. Pump it up. Energize….

We’ve got a chance to sweep the Braves in Atlanta today! (do exclamation points indicate a positive nature?). That hasn’t happened since 1988!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was greats! We hit 3 home runs to win the game!

Does that mask our putrid .304 team on base percentage?

Eh, a little bit I guess…….

Once again, another fantastic report from my main man on the scene, WilcoJoe. If you missed his game summary, check the last thread (6:51am).

I’m not sure which stupid tradition I would boycott quicker: the tomahawk chop or the wave. The run for both of them should have ended a long time ago….

Voggy goes today vs Julio Teheran and I foresee a dark turn of events in this road trip….

Can Timmy throw a decent one tonight in the strangely cool night air of Hotlanta?  Will WilcoJoe bring good vibes for the Gyros and then hit Buckhead hard?  Is Bochy F ing up Belt’s mind again?  Is it too early for a little Makers pick me up, or should I go on Buckhead time for that?  Questions, Questions.

Last time I was in Gen. Sherman’s playground it was July and that town about fried my brains it was so dad-gummed hot and humid.  I was in town for a consult with a jaw specialist to confirm whether I needed major jaw surgery (yep, damn).  For consolation, I spent one evening at Emeril’s eponymous old restaurant in Buckhead (upscale northern ‘burb) sitting at the bar bench right on top of the kitchen (the chefs said Emeril blew in once a year for a few days to re-tool the menu, and was a prick — the food was good, though), and another evening at some other Buckhead  restaurant and a few bars that were pretty good — they had arctic-strength air conditioning and beer.   Ahhhhhhhhh, just what the doctor ordered.

Play Ball!…

Tim Hudson: he never had an inning where he threw more than 12 pitches. Padres suck? Or Hudson does not?

Posey: “I catch that many pitches in 4 or 5 innings sometimes…”

It’s only May 1st, but would Hudson win the CY if the season ended today? Since Jesse Chavez would probably get some CY votes in the AL, it’s probably a bad idea to give out Cy Young’s on May 1st….

Between Huddy, Morsey, and Hicksy I’m not sure if Sabean could have hand picked any better 3 free agents for the overall price he got them for.

Now, about the other guys who were already on the team…..