Another Loss Turns the Dodgers Blue
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.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Giants are hitting .297 in 37 at-bats against Maholm this year. We torched him in the first meeting, scoring 5 runs in 4.1 innings, with 7 hits and 2 walks . . . Fast forward to our last meeting – he must have done some late night “burn the midnight oil” study – because the cramming paid off, as he only gave up a run in 6 innings. However, he still pitched out of trouble, because we got 5 hits and 3 walks against him.
I agree with Flavor that we need to hammer this guy, since it’s going to get much tougher with Greinke and Kershaw over the weekend.
Guaranteed no worse than a .500 roadie with last nights oh so sweet win. I believe most here said they would be happy with that prior to the start of the trip. I agree though, jump on Maholm and get the W. Big Country is due for a good outing. He hasn’t had a lock-down start in a while. I realize the Giants haven’t even won the 2nd game yet (to ensure a winning road trip), but WTH, let’s take 3. That third game with its two game swing is huge.
BEAT LA!
Yeah Chi, most of us were sweating this road trip, and the whole May schedule for that matter. So far, so good. Actually, this team is looking very good overall because of the combination of a balanced offense and pitching/defense and an excellent team chemistry based on a blending of characters with character and without the showboating “me, me, Me” so evident in at least one of the outifts we have played most recently.
In major hitting and pitching categories SF averages 4th in the NL while most other highly ranked teams excel in one of the slots but fall off in the other. Though the team’s batting average is not quite mediocre at a ringing .240, their run production, featuring more HR’s than any team not playing in the sky-high Box of Rox, is among the top five in the NL. Overall ERA and WHIP trend at fourth, with bullpen ERA way-gone crazy at under 2.00.
Agreed, one of the next three makes for a surprisingly profitable road run, but two more and those vs the damned, dirty, dire, despicable Dodgers would make for pure gravy.
Get your “Rally Yogurt” frickin’ ready . . . GO GIANTS!
What I would liek to see out of this weekend is a nice good fight to stoke up the rivalry:)
Hector, the guy who caught 12 innings the other night, sure has an interesting slash lines. OB is at .255, partly because he has 1 BB in 55 PAs. However, the slg is at .420 (40 points above Pence). He and Craw each have 3 SFs out of team total of 8, none more imp than last night. And his 15 rbis are only a couple less than Posey, and equal the total combined number for Sandoval and Pence.
Giants bench is what it is, but Sanchez is holding his own with some everyday guys. Heard the interview with K and K after SF beat the Pirates in 5 hours, way cool. Just like rally yogurt, if his style works for him, Vaya!
I don’t have a problem with Hectors OBP if he keeps getting the key knocks. His D is still suspect at times, but I’ll take it. While Pence has brought up his average, he needs to raise his SLG (dude is due to bang some bombs). Only regular on the club hitting over .300 is Pagan. Posey and Morse both at .286, and Morse with the .907 OPS.
Pence is streaky beyond belief. in July/Aug he had 3 HRs. In Spetember, 11.
Never worry about Pence Chuck, end of the year his numbers are always there, plus the 162 games..
Been harping on it forever, i know, but however masterful Bochy may be in bullpen magic (where he thoroughly schooled Donnie last night) his lineup patterning still bejiggles the hell outta me. Pence in the two-hole? C’mon now. Dude is a streaky hacker, polar opposite of the type you want in that slot. Contrarily, Crawdaddy thrives in that placing, where he sees the kinda pitches he likes.
Belt is simply the most logical candidate for the three-spot, combining slash, clout and a fair turn of speed for a gangly, lanky Texan. Buster is fine at cleanup and Pence seems logical in the enforcer role, batting fifth. Or you could switch him into sixth with Morse as enforcer. Could work either way. Until he gets his vision back, or some of his weight, or forgets about contract bucks or whatever, Pablo bats 8th, with Hicks and his surprising pop getting the nod for seventh. Who knows, hitting in front of the pitcher, Sandoval’s OBP might actually show tiny glimmers of light.
Agree. I’ve been advocating Pablo in the 8th spot for a while now. His style of “hitting” suits it and kind of messes with the other team’s minds a bit…
I really like Crawford and have been impressed with the clubs willingness to put him out there and let him grow into a MLB player but I don’t think he’s quite ready to be in the 2-hole. Then again maybe with a better stick behind him he sees better pitches but that’s getting into verboten territory per James’ metrics.
Yeah, I’m completely down with that. Move Crawfish up and he’ll see better pitches. Pablo swings at shit anyway, so let him see more of the same in the 8 hole.
Yeah, I don’t know about Crawford in the 2 spot, but I don’t really care where he hits. His D is just so outstanding it’s a pleasure to watch.
Interesting quote from Donnie 2 Trips: he implied that the Dodgers needed to improve their game to “establish that we can play with” the first-place Giants. Wow. With all the swagger and Hollywood status of the Dogs, if I’m a Dodger, I am way under impressed with that quote from my leader. Have the Giants gotten into their heads in this early part of the season? How cool would that be. Need to keep beating them. Unfortunately, I’m always wary of a game we “should” win (against Maholm). But really, this team is getting it done. Agree about Hector and his less than impressive stats: he gets it done when it counts. Same with Hicks, lousy average, but gets the big knocks. There really isn’t any position player I would exchange right now… on the condition that Pablo starts to hit. Timmy is a problem. Matt’s next start will tell a lot. Everything else looks good.
Except the bench. They suck.
One can argue that the bench suckage doesn’t matter much, with the evidence being the record so far. Until / unless some starter gets hurt for a bit — then the bench weakness gets revealed. Or the happy homers cool down somewhat, and bench players’ hitting contributions matter more…
Of the many cool things about the game last night, one of the coolest was the way the Giants denied Gonzalez 3 times with the infield shift. The Giants looked like geniuses on that. Hick’s throw from somewhere in right-centerfield was downright surreal. And some metrics were shown here recently showing Crawford as slightly above average on defense, but he’s been more than that this past week. He’s been a highlight reel this past week.
Yeah. That was too funny. He looked like a rover in a softball game.
Where did all this new defensive shifting come from? Lots of teams are doing it. What precipitated it all of a sudden — the scatter charts and all the stats have been available for quite a while. And, how is UZR and all that noise going to deal with shifts? How do you account for a shortstop’s range if a quarter of the time he’s playing behind second base, or the third baseman is stationed where the SS used to be? For 2014, Fangraphs has Crawford with a UZR of -2.0, or slightly below average defender, and Panda at +0.2, barely above average, and Hicks at +2.1 (slightly above average), and Belt at -0.3 (huh?, he’s played fine D all season), all which makes no sense to me…
http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=5343&position=SS#fielding
Fansgraphs didn’t include last night’s game?
Dunno, didn’t look that closely…
SF is 8th fewest in errors made in the NL with 22, and has a team UZR of -0.8, slightly below average. Dodgers have the most errors in the NL. Seems to me putting some pressure then, on their D, is a good idea…
http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=fld&lg=nl&qual=0&type=0&season=2014&month=0&season1=2014&ind=0&team=0,ts&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=7,a
Is Posey and Sandoval starting tonight? Important that I know in the next 25 minutes. Thanks . . .
here ya go…
http://blog.sfgate.com/giants/2014/05/09/bochy-writes-dont-mess-with-success-lineup-for-sf-giants/
You can usually find a lineup link on Schulman and/or Baggs’ twitter feed…
Cool. Exactly what I was looking for.
Rotogrinders.com updates them constantly throughout the day.
I checked rotogrinders and yes, they are usually reliable, but nada on Posey and Sandoval (entire Giants lineup). They carry the Twitter feed as well.
I’ll be rockin’ the oneflapdown77 couture on the third base side tonight. I had already promised Mrs. James I wouldn’t throw a hissy fit if Belt was absent from the starting line up tonight – glad Boch didn’t test me.
Fuck yeah! Have fun! Try not to get your head slammed into the parking lot pavement as you leave the game
Justice will be swift in this case – I’ll be with an LA prosecutor.
I bet a barbecued rotogrinder is delicious on a blogroll…
Looks like the Niners just picked their new Frank Gore…
Yep. That might be the steal of the draft. Great pick!
The rally yogurt is ready to go tonight, when needed, at a moment’s notice.
Votto walk off HR against the pathetic Sherpa bullpen.
I just got a book in the mail that looks pretty cool. It’s “Baseball Legacies and Legends,” by Gary Hall, which was recommended by San Dawg. I found a used copy online. Any book that has an interview with Tito Fuentes in it has got to be a groovy thing. 🙂
I think you’ll dig it Zumie, especially if you can focus on the info and stories instead of the writing technique.
Saturday morning in China. I know I posted this earlier in this thread, but even after a night’s sleep, I’m still trippin’ a bit at Mattingly’s quote about the Dogs needing to “establish that we can play with” the Giants. Maybe I’m reading too much into that; maybe he just means yeah, SF has taken 2 series already. But it sounds more like the G’s have gotten inside his head. Maybe I just want that to be true… 🙂
I put Mattingly in the same general category as I do Mark Jackson. I kinda wished the Warriors hadn’t fired him but I’m not that broken up that they did.
They didn’t fire Phil Jackson, they fired Mark Jackson.
He had the players ear. I value that. After that?
Eh, I’m waiting till the next coach comes along before I say too much. Remember, everyone wanted to string Lacob up after trading Monta. Ha, think about that?
Two Trips doesn’t strike me as anyone I want leaving the Dodgers bench any time soon……
Agree. I think he’s one of “our” best assets there…
Just made it home to Houston. Had one of the scariest experiences of my life when we hit some nasty wind shear on approach. I nearly kissed the ground when I got off the plane….My recliner and double Makers never felt so good!
What happened to Belt?
I was about to ask the same thing,. Glad your flight landed ok, that wind shear in TX can be terrifying…
Hit by pitch—-I think it got him on the thumb. He didn’t leave immediately but they took him in for x-rays after the inning ended.
Thanks, Dawg.
Glad you made it home ok, Joe . . . Reminds me of a flight I had coming into San Francisco, where we’re approaching the runway and approximately 300-500 feet from landing, we suddenly ascend and I let out a gasp. Why? I had a window seat and right below our plane is another jet taxing on the runway we were going to land on. Holy shit . . . I was maybe 4-5 years into my sobriety and I definitely felt like having a stiff drink at that moment . . . Fortunately, when I got off the plane, I decided to chain smoke 3-4 cigs instead. 🙂
Who was your pilot, Sum Ting Wong or We Too Low?
Loo, what happened to the new material? 🙂
Loo channeling Del Mar Dennis?… :-p
Channeling KTVU…
Ump’s got a really wide strikezone benefiting both pitchers.
Pablo takes the one in the zone and swings at one over his head. How he fouled that off I’ll never know.
Miller and Krukow are yukking it up, but it’s not funny.
Crawfish!
Crawdaddy!
Craw.
MudBug!
Wait for it, Chi . . !
Bummie almost went yard . . .
Not to beat a dead Panda, but if Sandoval is going to swing at a pitch over his head, then Bochy needs to sit him.
Radio guys just said Belt’s thumb is broken
Not good.
Belt is out with a broken thumb if you didn’t hear.
Buster Posey, your new first baseman.
Where’s Ishikawa? Travis, come on up!
Dodger fans are lame. Was that James?
Well, so much for sitting the Panda. That ain’t happening now. Maybe a lot of Posey at firstbase, Sanchez catching.
Well, in the many discussions here about our bench (or lack thereof) not being too big a problem as long as none of the starters get hurt…. It will come into play now. Morse can play 1st, but then who plays left? Buster can play 1st, but that makes Hector the starter, probably not optimal for the long-term. Arias? I don’t think so. They’re going to have to get someone. Maybe it’s Travis, I haven’t heard much since they brought him back.
What’s Aubrey Huff up to these days?
Doing a bay area morning sports talk radio show , , , Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
I’m not eager to see Travis brought up. That could be Francouer, Part 2.
THAT was a brilliant throw to no one.
I’d try Travis, who knows. At least he’s very good defensively. A weak bench gets even weaker if one of the current bench guys becomes a starter…
How long will he be out? Too soon to say?
Wow, nice fielding Los Doofers.
Or, somehow swing a deal for a fairly decent hitting LFer and put Morse at 1st. Blanco or Perez wouldn’t cut it.
I’m down with Travis too. Or, just put Posey at first.
Ishi, Ishi he’s our man.
Hey, they could always bring up Villalona. Ishi is on the 7 day DL.
Villalona would kill for the opportunity. Oh no I didn’t.
Or go Susac/Posey
Just heard about Belt. What’s a broken thumb worth — two months? My worry about a starter getting hurt, I didn’t mean to jinx it earlier today. I’d put Hector at 1b, he’s played there and can handle it. Then he switches off with Posey when Posey needs “a day”. No way can you put Arias at first, offensive drop off is huge. Ishi? I really don’t want to see that unless Hector makes a mockery of defense over there…
Yep, Snarkk, we posted about that earlier. Good call. Uh, bad call… 🙂
Just saw Belt’s thumb injury on mlb.com replay. Criminy, lucky he didn’t get hit in the head…
Scully is saying Bum is pissed at Puig (probably because he did the bat flip).
This is great!
Getting ugly?
Mattingy’s tip the spread moment.
I guess Bum feels like he wants to wassle a Puig.
Uh oh. Mattingly tossed. Dodgers chances just increased…
Gold.
Just hope we didn’t just wake these fuckers up.
Do you brush back Puig next AB? Hell yes.
I’d ear hole the clown but that’s me . . .
Sorry Bozo
I thought the same thing unca
Stop it now and we should be fine.
Next time up if situation allows, or sometime this series, Puig is going to get buzzed by whoever is pitching…
You can bet on that.
Ai yo, what’s happening? Gameview on the Gate doesn’t show the nuances of on the field behavior… 🙂
Dogs broken Belts thumb on a HBP. Puig styled and flipped his bat when he hit a home run and Bummie woofed at him as he rounded 3rd. More to follow
Thanks, Chuck.
I like Bum’s aggressiveness. Thing is, when he gets torqued off, he loses concentration and gets the ball up into the hit me zone. Bochy’s gotta be careful with him now…
If they throw here at Madbum, it’s on…
Yowsa, Madbum with the base knock. He’s feeling it…
Looked like Buster had a few words for Puig, too. I seem to recall El Presidente looking very ready to rumble a couple of years ago. I think it he intimidated Victorino if I remember correctly.
Puig styled a bit after taking Bum deep. Bum waited for him at the plate and started screaming at him and they got into it. Can’t wait to hear James’ details from the game.
I LOVE Bum!
I thought James was going to tomorrow’s game (with Cain on the bump).
Puig’s about twice the size of Victorino (for DJ).
I would have bunted here and moved the runners over…
Well, I would have… 😉
Are you a good bunter?
Hell yes…
The best thing to do in situations like this is just pile it on and beat their asses.
Sheezus, Pence. Take a dang pitch, willya?…
Pence {Pence Pence.
Boy, Buster takes the broadway pitches.
Yeah, huge missed opportunity if they don’t get these runners in. Momentum can shift…
Fuck. That fizzled in a hurry