Random Thoughts About The Best Record in Baseball
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……..
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Freddy Scutaro. lulz. Having him come off the bench would be great for the club. It’s tough to have a LU of good hitters top to bottom but the Giants are stacked 1-8. Well, I mean. Except for Posey. It’s pretty amazing how this club is performing. Add Belt back in is going to be even better.
If Morse keeps this up I bet he gets a 2-3 year deal and Sandoval gets the qualifying offer.
A Scutaro comeback looks now as elusive as a Bigfoot sighting…
All this talk of moving Posey to 1st gets me thinking, trade the guy. He seems impermeable to bad press, and his value would still be high. If he has another bad year, I’d much rather see Panda come back rather than Posey. One good month out of 6 doesn’t cut it. Besides, he’s likely going to play about 90 games as it’s going now.
Hey, if he gets to rolling, great. Keep him. But for all the talk of moving him somewhere else in the infield, at this point it would be a hit both offensively and defensively to put him at 1st or 3rd.
Trade fan fav and Larry Baer’s marketing wet dream? Heresy. And with his $$contract, good luck.
Oh, the Yanks or Boston could take that shit in a heartbeat. I don;t know. Maybe I’m just getting sick and tired of all the crap Pablo gets, and all the love Posey gets.
I used to like listening to Beuker (sp?) and Towny in the morning, but since they added Aubrey Huff to the mix, it’s all about dogging Sandoval. Every single day. Panda was getting shit from Huff for the boots thing. Posey can do no wrong despuite the fact he gets every other day off, and can’t play for 3 days after flying anywhere.
Chuck – this is the exact type of crap that I cannot stand, where you said “Posey can do no wrong despuite the fact he gets every other day off, and can’t play for 3 days after flying anywhere.” See my 11:22 about the number of games Posey has started, played in, etc. I feel the same way about Posey as you feel about Pablo.
Their numbers (including plate appearances) are damned near mirrored. So, I don’t think either one of them deserve much crap at all.
Damn good point of bench potential with a returned Scutaro, Flav. Was it just yesterday i was calling for a trade to get a high OBP guy and there the solution is (potentially anyway) right in fronta my baby blues. I’d imagine by that reckoning that the Brass probably has a late-August deadline for a return by Scoots.
As of last night’s victory over the Cards the Giants have reached the one-third marker at 54 games played and 108 to go. Projecting our current status of 35-19 we arrive at 105 wins. Pretty heady stuff. But lets say the team tails off a whole, unexpected bunch and just goes .500 the rest of the way. Makes for an 89-73 record and a likely 2nd in the NLW. Split the difference between high-flying projection and wet-blanket downturn, cut conservatively leaves SF with a finish at 98-64. LaBumbos would hafta go totally apeshit to top that slightly conservative projection.
Giants are currently in the catbird seat. Winning half of the next six vs the Cards and Reds would excise another potential roadbump. We’ve been making hay in May. Lets stay in tune through June.
I threw out the same numbers yesterday on Giants going .500 rest of the way. Even there, Bums would have to go 61-47 to win 90.
No major injuries and things are looking pretty damned good!
IMO, way early to be projecting or expecting 100+ wins. Such a season is very very special. Too many things can happen with 2/3 season left to be looking at that level of success, IMO. Staying at .500 rest of way yields 89-73, which is in the middle of a WC berth, minimum. I’d take that right now…
I heard on KNBR this morning Posey may be out again tonight. If he is, WTF do they do if Hector gets concussed or otherwise hurt in the middle of the game? Posey comes in and the back gets even more cranky? Either he can play or he can’t. Put him on the DL and bring somebody up to backup Hector. BTW, the Dodgers brought up ex-Giant cup o coffee catcher Johnny Monell to the big club. He promised not to bite any ears…
If that happened (Hector hurt and could not play), and Posey nicked-up, I would expect they would close the game with their emergency catcher (is that Pablo), and then deal with if from there if someone had to go on the DL.
Great game last night. I was at my son’s wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, so I missed most of it (tried to follow on my phone), and got home to see Romo get the final out. Torture again, baby. THREE comebacks in one game. This team has GRIT. Love it!
Good thread, except I am going to take exception with one part of it (and Dirt’s comment to the same).
Posey IS contributing. He is easily a top 5 catcher. He has played in 49 of 54 starts (started 45). The dude has been streaky his whole career. And outside of Pence, EVERYONE on the current club has missed a few starts here and there. That is normal.
He is SECOND on the club in RBIs with 25.
He is 4th in HRs with 7.
So all this talk about “when Buster starts to contribute” is, IMO, BS.
Also, no way in hell he gets traded. Get a fucking clue. Really. He just inked a 167 mil deal that pays him 17.2 next year, then jumps up to 21.4 mil through 2021, and finishes at 22 mil in 2022. He also has a FULL no trade clause. So unless it was a trade he was open to, it ain’t happening.
I’m not talking about the entire season. Really just lately he’s not contributing. 3 for 32 since 16 May with 4 RBI. That’s not contributing at the moment out of the 3 or 4 hole. Look, I don’t want to trade the guy. Just stating fact of his recent lack of contribution.
And that is what I would call a streak. He has always been a streaky hitter. So, if at the end of the year he is an AS catcher who does a great job of managing your rotation, and contributes 20 plus bombs and near a 100 RBIs…why piss and moan about a minor slump. Dude is going to contribute…
Chances of Scoots coming back and being productive are slim and none IMO. Has here been any reports on what he is doing right now. Besides cashing his check?
Yeah Snarkk, it lookled like Hector hurt his knee on a near wild pitch yesterday. I’d love to see Susac come up, but they’d likey bring up Quiroz. Neither are on the 40-man so they’d probably dump Villalona off it . . .
I have heard Bobby Evans and Tidrow say that if they brought up a catcher, it would be Quiroz. They feel that Susac is not ready and needs to catch every day to become a better receiver. Makes sense to me.
http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/77233918/san-francisco-giants-shortstop-brandon-crawford-performing-on-both-sides-of-the-ball#!SvRFP
Read the article, but stay for the (1st) video of “The Professor” practicing trick plays at 2nd. Unfrickingbelievable. As the author points out, Brandon may not be Tulu at the plate, but he outshines him with the glove (anyone who saw the hapless Troy muff a routine infield fly ball the other night against the Phils know exactly what I am talking about.
Yeah all three videos are cool.
Crawford is looking good all around isn’t he? When he missed that ball up the middle in the 9th last night it was sort of telling to me. That wasn’t a routine play at all but I expected him to make it and was surprised that he didn’t. He barely missed it.
About the season tickets from yesterday. I mean to reply. $42 a game is a sweet deal. That’s per seat and we have 2. Last year i was in a group of 8 in the upper deck and it was like $13 a game. I wanted to improve the seats but nobody in the group wanted to. I was lucky to sort of fall into these ones this year and hope we can stay in the group. Heck, with all the mini-flappapalozas and whatnot we should all just pull together for as set.
Micah – I would be down with that. Realistically, I would be down with 10 games a year max.
We should think about that 5 or 6 is a good number for me.
Snarkk isn’t on Facebook, so he can’t see where you were sitting . . . Again, as I said yesterday – your seats on SubHub would scalp for over $180. Wish I knew in advance when I was in the bay area, because a Flap set would be a no brainer for me. You guys should do this (as you and Chi suggested).
5 or 6 would probably be more ideal for me, but if I ended up with 10-plus, I know my daughter would take what I did not use (she usually goes to as many games as me, and the past couple of years, she has actually gone to more).
Awesome article…thanks for sharing, Blade. I shared that “Professor” video here a couple of years ago. Amazing stuff. And he is a local boy born and raised…and that makes it all that much sweeter to me. There is a reason my Flap shirt (We Score, We Win) has 35 on the back (not only for Craw, but also for past Giants shortstops who rocked the 35…Chris Speier and Rich Aurilla).
Yeah, I knew I’d see that before, Chuck. Figured it was someone here. Cool stuff.
Trade Buster? I know I know. It won’t happen, but like I said, I just get annoyed that Panda (or Belt) catches shit all the time for less than half the things that Posey does. For all the time Panda’s gotten hurt, it had nothing to do with his fluctuating weight. The bones in his wrist were the biggest problem he’s faced. What bothered me about Posey is the fact he disappeared for 4 months last year, but everyone else on the team seemed to take the fall. After the season, he said he was ‘tired’ and that he’d get himself in to better shape. He’s 27! He’s still missing a bunch of games, and with Crawford crushing at 1st, there’s little reason to lose his bat when they want to get Posey out from behind the plate. Belt has a bad day and the hand-wringing never stops. Until recently. Posey takes a month off and no one bats an eye.
Sure, I’d love to see Posey revert to form, but with these new back issues, and the clothesline he caught, he’s not getting any power on his hits. If he’s hurting, sit him and get him right. If not, we get more of thie same from him? Then what?
Well, I am just not that worried about him (health and production), long-term, and I thought some of the comments about him not contributing were bullshit. I did say he has his slumps and is streaky, but at the end of the year, his numbers are usually pretty damned good.
Last year he tailed-off a bit in July and August (not terribly). His OPS went down mainly because his OBP went down (and his BA to some degree). But to say he “diappeared” for the final four months is not accurate at all.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=poseybu01&year=2013&t=b
Buster’s 2nd half numbers: 2 hr 16 rbi .244 .333 .310 .643
Those are MVP numbers? No. He himself said he was tired, and those numbers bear that out. He played like shit the 2nd half.
I don’t want to get into the trade Posey thing again, but I will say his power almost disappeared by the end of last year and that’s probably why he beefed up in the Winter.
The first three months of last year he had 23 2Bs, 12 HRs and 48RBIs, the last three months of the year he had a total of 11 2Bs, 3 HRs and 24 RBIs.
Well, this seems to be history repeating itself. Posey had a fast start, then, pfffffffffffffft.
Nothing lately. Let him sit til he gets healthy.
Just my opinion, but Steve Ballmer is an idiot. Hey, I know the guy has about $20 billion, so that does count for something. However, it doesn’t let him off the hook for how he ran Microsoft into the ground and made it an after thought to Apple, Google, and Samsung . . . Fast forward today after resigning his Microsoft CEO gig (where in reality, he was forced to resign by the Board of Directors and Bill Gates), he wants to buy a sports franchise. Should his offer go through the “hoops” of the NBA Board of Governors and potential Donald Sterling lawsuits, the $2 billion price tag for the Clippers will rank among the richest ever for a North American professional sports franchise.
As most of you know, the Los Angeles Dodgers were sold to the Guggenheim group in 2012 for $2.15 billion, but that price included land, parking lots and TV deals, making it more expensive. Most of you know about the problems Time Warner is having distributing the Dodgers to the Los Angeles area. In short, they will potentially lose money on this deal. My point being that the only real estate involved in the Clippers deal is the team’s training facility in Playa Vista and THERE IS NO TV DEAL included. My question is how in the world does Ballmer plan to make money on this purchase?
As a side note, this isn’t exactly a sweet deal for the Sterlings. Remember, Donald Sterling had planned to leave the team to his heirs, thus avoiding a significant amount of IRS taxes. On a $2 billion sale, the Sterlings would pay approximately $662 million in capital gains taxes. OUCH! The Milwaukee frickin’ Bucks recently sold for $500 million for comparison. Hilarious.
Hmmm…Sterling bought the team for 12 mil. Sells if for 2 billion. Minus 662 mil for capital gains. He nets about 1.36 billion. Uh, I would say that looks pretty fucking sweet to me. Fuck Sterling. He should just sell it and go count his billions. Agree, Ballmer is a tool, and I too see no way for him to make any coin on this deal.
Reason number 187 on why I’m not rich – If someone paid me 2 billion, paying 600 million in taxes wouldn’t bother me.
LMAO…me neither, John! I would GLADLY pay those capital gains taxes…
Posey traded???? Never ever gonna happen!!
That’s like sayin Trade Mike Trout Angels and their fans for going 0-8 slump!
Unrelated to baseball and my Flap Family, I haven’t posted much BS lately cause my hearts not in it right now, due to my Wonderful Mom passing away on Mothers Day of all days up in Reno and it’s been gut wrenching for me as well for my Dad and Sister.
Grateful she lived to the ripe old age of 88 and loved her Giants as well.65 years of marriage quite a feat as well!!
Sorry to hear that kat. Take care man.
Sorry for your loss Alleykat.
Sorry for your loss, Kat. Wishing you and yours peace and comfort during this time of loss. You’ll be back on a regular basis once the time is right.
condolences Kat, prayers to you and your family
ugh, passing away on Mother’s day? Well, if you think about it, is there a better day to celebrate her life each year going forward? Take care, man
Ditto on all the Flappers comments to you, Kat…
Very sorry for your loss Kat. My thoughts are with you.
Sorry to hear that, AK. My condolences. Hate to hear that the Giants lost a fan.
I just wonder if Ballmer is thinking about bringing the Clips up north to Seattle.
He says no. Not large enough market.
Ahhhh. Seattle’s bigger than Portland. If Seattle can support a football and baseball team, it certainly can support a basketball team.
At $2 billion, you need an LA market, not Seattle, to make any sense out of that price…
Pagan CF
Pence RF
Sandoval 3B
Morse 1B
Sanchez C
Blanco LF
Crawford SS
Hicks 2B
Bumgarner LHP
My condolences, Kat. I know how you feel. Watched mine take her last breath on May 5th at age 87. Would have celebrated 67 years with my Dad in June. Some ways it was for the best. Dementia had taken it’s toll.
If any of you should be caretakers for your parents, embrace it. It’s tough but ultimately the most rewarding thing I’ve done.
That is what I am doing right now, taking care of my 88 year old Mom. very difficult at times.
Dudes, I’ve been there. I’m feeling for ya. When your own mother doesn’t know who you are, it’s not cool. Not her fault, nobody’s fault. But, that doesn’t make it better. You learn to deal with it…
Besides, this isn’t about money (although if you’ve had a team for at least 10 years, you’ve likely reaped huge rewards), it’s about prestige, cachet, or whatever you want to call it. There’s a very small group of owners in this country (what, 120 in the 4 sports?) and to be one must be quite the ego trip.
Exactly right.
Fuck the ego trip. 12 mil investment. Pay the capital gains and I walk with 1.3 billion plus profit. Yeah, I could deal without being a part of that “elite group.”
Speaking of Posey, maybe they’ll just play him at home the rest of the year.
These guys missing time should be a plus come Oct. Gives the bench guys more time to polish their game. All good when your are winning at .640 clip.
Wow. A positive spin off of Posey missing playing time and not contributing to the team. Amazing…
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Thanks you Bozo, Chi,Kevin,Salty, Chuck and the rest of you knuckleheads. The Flap will always be the best…
And Salty my condolences to you and your family as well, and yes my mom was suffering partial dementia as well unless I mention the Dodgers and she would just say in her sweet way ” Oh I never liked that team” That was awesome and it rubs off on all our family the same way!!
Kat, I just read about your loss . . . So sorry to hear this. Take care of yourself dude!
Salty, I just read about your mom as well. Again, sorry for your loss too. Hang in there dude. 🙂
Thanks, blade.
Dementia sucks. My mom had it, progressively worse from about 85 to when she passed at 92. After a while of adjustment and acceptance, you stop being pissed off. You go with it, handle it, make the best you can of it. There’s ups and downs, good days and bad. You savor the good, and ignore the bad and move on. Luckily we had two great lady caregivers for the last few years that were angels on earth that helped take care of her…
Salty, are you sure you’re not the Salty on KNBR?…
Quite sure I’ve never called Knbr, Snarrk. 😉
Okee dokee. Too bad. Not saying you’re not cool, but THAT Salty is a kick, the all-time raging KNBR sports caller. Was in Clovis a long time, then moved to Sac. His Mom died recently…
I’m not pissed at Posey. I just want him well, if he’s hurt. How else to explain the down stats from the last half of 2013 to now. They’re not horrible stats, but definitely not what we’ve come to expect. Either he’s been hurt, or that MVP year was a total aberration of super excellence and something we’ll never see again. I don’t get why he’s treated as so fragile — the guy’s only 26. If he’s that friggin fragile, he’s not headed for a long career as catcher. Crap, if Bengielena got this kind of kid glove treatment, lots of us would be screamin’…
Condolences Kat and Kat family….
John Malkovich calling balls and strikes tonight, cool.
WTG Angel, two out hitting. Gotta love it.
Hicks with the nice 10-pitch AB, and walk. Good job. I love Giants milking the count…
Holy Crap! Two out INSANITY…
Pence! The Scooter is back with a 3-run jack!…
Hunter going for the burger. Yes.
4 runs scored with 2 outs. This two out RBI stuff is crazy, and good…
maybe we should start the innings with two outs?
rolling over Wainwright? This is getting a little ridiculous……
Get more, pour it on…
In each season, a little wain must fall.
Cain scratched from tomorrow’s start, going on DL retroactively to 5/22. Surprise. Not. So, Petit will try to go more than 4 frames before getting hammered tomorrow. Juan Perez fans should celebrate — he’s coming up for a few days to take Cain’s place. Did he learn how to bunt during his two weeks in Fresno?…
Does it even matter? Posey and Cain are out, we just keep steamrolling. Probably need them this year, right? But right now, just keep putting those wins in the bank, Leverage. We’re in fantastic shape right now even without Cain or a gimpy Buster.
not to mention a shaky Romo. Anyone worried about him?
A little, It’s probably why I was so PO’d over the Casilla injury.
Maybe Petit is due for a good performance this time. Why not?…
Holy crap — I just took my first look at the score: 5-0 off Wainwright! If only this was last week when Wainwright single-handedly beat my fantasy team.
Nicasio just got his ass chased after 4.2 innings against the Indians, which are winning 5-2. The hapless road Sherpas just can’t manage sea level baseball.
Well, Kluber is a freaking stud, that has something to do with it too.
Yep. Kluber is dealing tonight. 11 SOs.
Umm . . . Make that 12.
No harm, no foul.
Anyone else outside of the bay area have the Cardinal feed? These guys announcing the game are boooooring. No idea who they are.
They sound like a couple of the fishermen that live up the street.
Gregor!
You weren’t kidding about those Cards announcers. I only heard them for the last inning, and that was all I could take.
By the by Mac, our mutual friend did me a big favor this evening . . . Let’s just say I am done using VIP box and having to deal with those shitty popups, etc. Giants feed was PERFECT. In short, about the 7th inning, I left the Card broadcasters on VIP box and accessed our mutual friend’s feed. 🙂
Nice inning Mr. Bumgarner.
Come on now. Get these fuckers out.
If we want to nitpick:
Huff.
Nitpick is the operative word. Unless you’re a masochist, not too much to complain about at Giants central. 🙂
Go ahead and nitpick…
Game two, that’s a win.
The Giants have spent the first 1/3 of the season reminding the baseball world which team won 2 of the last 4 World Series. 🙂
Lost Again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCyAIDfGte4
Figures you’d be in to these guys. Great stuff!
Saw these guys a bunch of times when they’d play the I-Beam on Haight. They’d usually close with a Zepplin song.
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Heavy thunderstorm coming in here in the Upper Midwest. Took a chance and tuned in the PowerBook. Second inning. Giants up 1 zip vs Wainwright. Cool. Up 2-0. Waaay cool. Action on the Yahoo feed. Pence dinger with two on. FIVE up on the NL ERA leader. Big thunder getting close. Shut down computer. Feeling good about the game, though. Wonder why.
Two wins in St. Louis and it’s still May. Perhaps this is another Giants year.
What a massive face plant for the Indiana Pacers. I traded for Hibbert for one of my FL teams when his game average was 4 plus blocks, almost 10 rebounds, and 14 points . . . Immediately following his outstanding first 2 months of the season, he was MIA. Same deal in the playoffs.
Stephenson was an outstanding FL player, but I had no idea this guy was a “buffoon” as accurately described by Ray Allen until the playoffs began. Dude has a bunch of growing up to do.
Paul George has NOT arrived yet. He went missing in action as well for long periods in the season and the playoffs. He is nowhere near the level of a leader and impact player as Lebron showed in this playoff series.
This was supposed to be the season that the Pacers supplanted the Heat and went onto the championship. Instead, they played horribly. I think the window has closed for the Pacers. I would be interested in getting your opinion about this team WillieD?
I honestly haven’t seen them much, but they are very disappointing, with only occasional flashes of brilliance. Imo the Heat are a vulnerable group with little depth and aren’t particularly well coached either. Pacers long stretch of underperforming in reg season proved to be harbinger. They talk a good game but can’t back it up. It took an unreal game 5 from George and off night from LeBron just to get to 6, and then they get flattened.
Hibbert should be a 20/10 guy every game given lack of good big men today; how can a guy that big and strong disappear? West I like but Stephenson dribbles away too much time in half court. If you are going to challenge LeBron you better be able to give him a battle. Bench is anemic, tho I like CJ Watson (good guy for Dubs to re-sign). Lot of teams in East have more potential, including Toronto and Washington.
Good post Willie. I also agree the Heat are vulnerable and thought Wade’s knee problems this season would be their death knell in the playoffs. Didn’t happen, so I will grudgingly give them props. However, that coach is poor (as you pointed out) and I think they will finally get eliminated in the finals. For sentimental reasons, I would like to see the Spurs be that team, as I admire Pops as a coach, as well as all of their players.
Reports were that George and Hibbert had an internal squabble about George doing HIbbert’s wife/girlfriend, and the rest of the team ended up taking sides in the dispute, which was the cause of the cratering of the team late in the season…
Wow what a great couple games to start road trip! Nice column on yahoo from STL Post-Dispatch guy Prezza on Giants and their contributions from everyone. He had a great line on bum too about him holding up his end of the purported aces duel. Couple more ribbies each from Blanco and Sanchez and Giants over all have ripped on STL starters and pen. Sando and Morse stay hot. Most enjoyable, and sticking it to STL (NL version of ESPN love) always good.