Dominating
After outscoring St Louis 23-11 in their home park, I’m hard pressed to remember a more dominant trip through that stadium. A great day to relax and enjoy this:
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A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
I respect the Cardinals because they have a great history and model organization. They also are not “loud” a la the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, or Boston Red Sox. They go about their business, emulating the mid-West sensibilities and values of the fans that adore them. Last, but not least, they don’t diss their opposition. Rather, they acknowledge excellent play when they see it. Here is an example . . .
“They’re playing as well as I’ve ever seen them play,” Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter said of the Giants, who have won 26 of their last 36. “They’re as hot as they could possibly be, I think, and everything’s clicking for them. Guys are coming up off the bench and hitting and their [regulars] are hitting. That’s a fun spot to be in. That’s a fun thing to play for.”
The Cardinals, like the Braves, always seem to put a winning ball club on the field and I do respect that. I hope Matheny does well as their manager and I still have a soft spot in my heart for Aldrete and David Bell who Coach for the Cards. But sorry, I have no respect for their Third base coach, and cheap shot artist, Jose Oquendo. I also do not respect current player, Matt Holliday or before him, Pujols, McGwire, Ozzie and I didn’t care for Herzog that much either (although he did rip Selig for the expanded one game playoff a few years ago). So yeah, I respect the Organization and their history but I’m not a huge fan of the team or it’s history with the Giants, if that makes sense.
True dat, Steve. Class organization and nearly always competitive. Recall listening to KMOX (i think thats the call letters) late at night back in 58 broadcasting Cards vs Giants in San Francisco with Harry Carey and Joe Garagiola. Could barely hear it with radio maxed and crackling. Lived in St. Louis a couple years in early 60’s. It was the first place i got to see Willie Mays in an MLB game. That was about four Busch Stadiums ago back when it was located close to the north rim of the porkchop (shape of the city) rather than riverside like it is nowadays. Also remember some Summer nights at #3 Fraternity Row where sleeping up in the dorm was almost impossible till the temp dropped below 90, maybe around midnight.
It was dominating series in every facet. Giants SPs shut them down and thrashed Wainwright and Lynn. Wong made a big error yesterday, peralta allowed a hit to get by him up the middle and Lynn made a dumb move to try and double up Pagan instead of going to the plate. Bum and Hudson were lights out.
Patience at the plate yesterday vs. Lynn, esp by bottom of order guys was nice to see. Giants scored 8 without any big bombs and Blanco replacing Morse (!). Posey looked great, 3 solid singles and Sandoval kept hitting streak alive with a line drive double into alley.
I know we make a big deal about hot weather road trips, but quite a lot of Giants grew up in hot climes–Posey, Cain, Belt, Bum, Hudson, Pence (I think) plus all the Latin ball players too. I’ve wondered in past if playing at ATT, where summer nights are often chilly, turned off Hispanic hitters more attuned to hitting in warmer weather where they grew up/played minor league ball.
Yeah. my son saw that. I missed it.They would have had Hicks (I think) at the plate by a mile, and I knew they wouldn’t double up Pagan. Wong’s error was the biggie. Just getting the out at 1st would have helped.
Chuck, congrats on your son’s wedding!
As far as the Cards go, part of why I never liked them was their consistency. But I NEVER liked White Rat, and Okendo, O Smith, Porter, et al were smug little fucks who pissed me off no end.
The Bob Gibson teams of the 60s I loved as a kid. Losing Cepeda to them bothered me, though. Esp when he kicked ass.
yeah, me too (Flood Brock White) altho the beanings they gave JR Hart were brutal.
Plus ET Willie McGee and Reggie Sanders two other cool players that came here…what was the funky deal with the batting title ET won?
Thanks, Charlie re: Zach’s wedding. It was a great day.
Congrats Chi on the wedding…
Awesome road trip so far. I’ll take 3 of 4 from the DeadBirds, especially in their park, any day. It is great to see the team clicking so well, and especially given the circumstances such as Cain missing a few starts here and there, Belt being out, Pabo and Pence with the slow starts, etc. Blanco has been heating up, and even Adrianza and Arias have joined the party of late. It is just really fun watching these guys lately. If they’re not coming back (one of the games in St. Louis they came back from deficits three times), they’re just dominating.
Was good to see a game without an error yesterday. That was one area over the past several weeks where I really felt they needed to clean-up their act. Some of those games with multiple errors they still won, but just one aspect of the game they need to improve on over the long-haul.
For those Flappers who met my son Zach at the recent mini-Flapalooza, Zach is officially a married man as of Saturday. It was an awesome ceremony and celebration in every respect.
Nice to get a day off today. And what a trip to get FOUR days off this month. Giants miss Cueto (with his 1.68 ERA and 0.76 WHIP). By the way, Cueto is the ONLY guy in MLB with a better ERA or WHIP than Hudson.
Make it an awesome day, Flappers.
Well, most that have been here for some time know I grew up in Oklahoma and the Cards radio feed was the only one that I got worth a shit. So I grew up listening to Harry Caray calling games on KMOX- AM 1120. I loved Bob Gibson, Curt Flood, Lou Brock and that cast.
Blade mentions their fans. They ARE passionate, but my observations are that they can be a bit smug. But, when you have a team that has been as consistent as that franchise over the years, I guess some folks do become a bit smug/cocky.
On those years when the Giants are eliminated from the post-season, I will sometimes root for them. But when they hook horns with the Gigantes…all bets are off…it is pure FUCK THEM.
While SF was kicking booty on road, LA dropped 3 out of 4 to Pirates at home. Pit beat Kershaw and Greinke I believe…their SPs are still dang good but until rest of team catches up, they got some splainin to do.
Kind of funny that once their fans actually do get to watch them, it’s Lost Again. Maybe NL Central will bedevil them this year like teams did last year to SF.
I respect the Cardinals as a long-time successful franchise that does things right over the long haul. Objectively, it’s the second most successful franchise in MLB in terms of WS wins, so that’s hard to argue against. They were smart enough to get rid of Pujols and not go into never never contract land when he was holding them hostage — and they didn’t miss a beat without him. Under different managers and players down the years, they continue to play solid, fundamental ball, which I respect. I don’t know personally about their fans, other than I’ve heard/read that they’re pretty accommodating and friendly to other teams’ fans, and don’t act like jackasses, for the most part. Unless you’re a Cub fan, maybe they’ll give you a hard time. I really like beating their butts in the playoffs, because if the Giants do that, it means the Giants are pretty dang good…
I’m not getting too excited about this team yet. Hopeful, sure, but there’s a long way to go. We can project 90 wins or 95, and what it would take for LA to get to 90 and blah blah blah, but I’m taking it one series at a time. Come mid August, we can do some real-time assessment after the trade deadline, and really get a handle on things. Until then, I’m enjoying the ride, and hoping the injured get healed soon, and new injuries are minimal the rest of the year. Baseball writer Ken Rosenthal was on CBS radio this morning and agreed Hudson may have been the best offseason pickup in MLB, with Morse not far behind, especially considering their lower level contracts. Who would have thought 20 years ago that $23 million to sign a 38-year old starter for 2 years would be considered a steal…
I like and respect Metheny a lot, night and day from Herzog or LaRussa. And none of their current players bother me really. No puigs that I can see. Holiday doesn’t seem like a bad guy. Just hard nosed like our Will Clark, who I’m sure was just as hated by other teams fans. The stench of eighty seven washed away beating them in the playoffs twice.
Anyway, its more satisfying to beat the bad guys or good teams.
Each team becomes enemy number one when you play them. I think I can work up a pretty good bile for any of them.
For example, we’ll get to face Latos now (or is he hurt?), surely one of the top ten current favorite players to hate.
Latos had been fighting an elbow issue. He has made, I believe, two rehab starts, and last I read was he probably would make one more rehab start at AAA before joining the Reds. I wish he was healthy and scheduled to pitch as I would love to see the Giants light his ass up. I cannot stand that dick-wad.
Scheduled Reds starters are Bailey, Cingrani, Leake. Giants will miss Cueto. Latos is pitching at AAA Louisville in rehab assignment. I would not count the Reds out of the Central division race yet. Looks tough for them, they’ve had injuries, and Votto’s been out. But, their starting pitching and Pen is pretty decent — in the middle of the pack in NL. They’re not scoring. When Votto comes back, they could make a move towards getting above .500, and who knows — the Cards look a little vulnerable, and the Brewers might be coming back to earth…
Hard not to feel giddy up 7 1/2. They have beaten LA, Atl, Stl on the road. All this despite key guys missing time. I think they are something like14-6 without Belt.
I am with snarkk re: his 9:24 post. I am “cautiously optimistic” re: our Giants. Sure, I love what I am seeing right now. But we are just a few games past the 1/3 mark of the season and there is a lot of ball left to play. I do think if the Giants get their wounded back (and no, I am not including Scoots here), and do not experience any other major injuries, then I am pretty optimistic for the remainder of the season.
It’s hard NOT to be giddy at this point. Although the worm can turn in an instant. The 1st game of this StL series was an object in perserverance. Overcoming 3 different deficits IN StL to win set the tone, and is pretty tough to pull off. Throw in the 2 slaughters and there you have it.
Another reason is we pretty much went through the toughest part of our schedule, our longest road trip (7-3), and beat the shit out of everyone. 17 of our next 26 gams are at home, so there’s the real opportunity to pull away a little farther.
I think everyone understands it’s way too early to be arranging playoff rosters. I know the players remember how the wheels came off last yr and are not taking anything for granted.
Nevertheless, feeling pretty damn good about where they are.
Giants on a roll right now, and Cincy seems more than a little vulnerable, even at home. So, seems a series win should be doable for the Giants. Timmy in game #1 throwing in that small yard in that muggy evening heat, well, the first game isn’t one I’d guarantee a win with Bailey as the oppo starter, but this Gyros team is a battling team, we’ll see…
This team is hot, we could have swept St Lou but 3 out 4 is good. Will we cool off? Probably, but right now you gotta ride this thing while it’s hot. Gain some ground on the Division, take games from the teams that are struggling and go in expecting to win and then win every series, road or away. We’ve had Cain out, Belt out, Panda in a slump, Posey hurt and slumping, and I doubt if we see Scutaro or Casilla until the end of the year, if at all. Yet we continue to win. Yes, it’s still early, but we are also 71/2 games up. Look at it this way LA is not only 71/2 back from first, they are also 7 1/2 from being in last, it sucks to be them right now. Day off, then go beat the shit out of the Reds. That’s what I’m talking about.
What makes you say that Casilla won’t be around till the end of the year? Not according to this..
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140527&content_id=77056812¬ebook_id=77066596&vkey=notebook_sf&c_id=sf
OK, edit that to Casilla probably won’t be back until late June early July. My point is still the same, these guys are getting it done even with the injuries and slumps we’ve had..
You always have to take what the SF bay area – writers, players, fans, Flappers (LOL) – says with a grain of salt. In short, the “echo chamber.” However, when one of your competitors calls your line-up, “Murderer’s Row” and this competitor is the 1st or 2nd best pitcher in the National League, your ears perk up . . . At least mine do. 🙂
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/giants-make-it-a-bad-night-for-wainwright/article_4cdbcf09-3964-52df-8055-ad2519f7832a.html
It might be a little early to call them “Murderers Row”. Manslaughter Men?…
What’s brewing in la la land?
http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/dodgersnow/la-sp-dn-dodgers-mediocrity-unravel-20140601-story.html
Giants are 6th in NL fielding %, and that’s after a minor streak of not fielding very well, and Belt out at 1B. Doghairs are 11th. I think the Giants will stabilize and get in the top 5 eventually by end of season. To me, Doghairs may not get any better all season, and that’s a problem you can buy yourself out of…
In regards to Casilla – yes, he seems to be progressing ahead of schedule. This is the last I read on him (from the Merc) and is also from May 27th (date on the piece that WSWins posted).
https://tinyurl.com/ltkn5zu
Scoots? I will be surprised if we see him at all. But if we do (especially after rosters expand), and all he can do is an occasional pinch hit off the bench, that’ll be a plus having a guy with that kind of bat control.
So far, Morse is a relative bargain at $6 million. But, when you figure Sabes is paying Scutaro $6 million to get platelet injections, it evens out…
WSWins – thanks for the link. I love reading “Continued mediocrity” and “dodgers” in the same sentence.
Belt on radio just said he will have pins removed from his thumb this Friday, can start on rehab work…
Doing what? Tiddly Winks to start off?
Well, that’s working on range of motion, isn’t it?… 😉
Those standings look a lot like 1971 at this time…
Good memory, Loo. But at least they hung on unlike in 1993
The wheels were off pretty much from the beginning of the season last year, with a lot of run production masking a truly shitty pitching performance through the first third of the season. A lot more would have to go south this year . . . .
Yup. I sgree with you there. Evben when we were in Ist place in late May last year we were barely over .500 and not doing very well. Oncew Pagan went down, the team went down hill as well.
I can’t believe the White Sox are sitting Adam Dunn. He does a face plant against everyone else (as far as batting average anyway), but he is GOLD against Kershaw, with a .613 BA (8 for 13), 4 HR, and 9 RBIs. Dumb fucks.
Disclaimer/warning: the following is my yearly rant about the unfairness of the completely unnecessary “geographic rivalry” interleague games. Were the fans clamoring for these particular games? No. But it’s a chance for the A’s to get some Giants fans to come to the A’s house of concrete for a couple of games, increasing the A’s attendance for those two games. The Giants get 4 games against a really good A’s team, and the Cardinals get 4 games every season against the annually crappy KC Royals. The Royals can sell some more tickets for a couple of games, as some red-clad Cardinals fans come goose-stepping into the Royals’ ballpark.
Goose stepping, he says . . .
Here comes some Cardinal fans now. Oops, they forgot to wear red! 🙂
Getting some respect…..
http://espn.go.com/mlb/powerrankings
Cool! The USA Today Sports Weekly has the Giants at #1 in their power ratings, also. And the national media is also suddenly remembering who won the World Series in ’10 and ’12.
Cardinals rated at #7, Reds at #21. I don’t put a lot of stock in these rankings on a daily basis of play, but they reflect the general gist of where a team has been and where it’s headed in the near term. I don’t see Puig listed, doesn’t he get his own power ranking at ESPN?…
Puig pretty much got that tonight on BB tonight the way they were blowing him on the story that spotlighted him.
We likely won’t see Panik until September call-ups, but it’s nice to see that he’s doing well. I saw this on the web:
“Joe Panik, who followed up his stellar April with an even better May, leads all Giants minor leaguers with 70 hits. He batted .345 with 39 hits in May and maintained a strikeout percentage of 10.8 percent, totaling just 25 in 243 plate appearances.”
3b/1b Duvall had a strong May, also.
Panik should be ready to compete for the 2nd base job next ST. He’ll have had 3 full seasons in the minors, one full season at each level. The plate discipline is a recurring theme with this kid, I like it. His Fresno OPS is at .821. Splits tell he’s a singles and doubles guy, with a dinger once in a while…
Interesting articles about the Dodgers posted by the Flappers.
A little observation I made from the last few Dodger games was that, twice, Dodger batters struck out for the third out, with the catcher not catching cleanly, and the ball rolling away a few feet; but both times the Dodger batters saw the ball roll away, and just gave up on the play and walked off, with the catcher running over to tag them. If Two-Trips lets that kind of thing go, that’s not a good reflection on what’s happening on that team. It’s not baseball the way it’s supposed to be played. It was Kemp and Ramirez, if I remember correctly.
Kemp is a legend in his own mind. He’s pissed because Mattingly sat him for more then a few games in favor of Ethier. Additionally, this dude’s defense (always suspect) has also forced Donny’s hand, where he is now playing left field. In Fantasy League, Kemp is becoming a regular fixture on the waiver wire in all of my leagues.
Regarding Ramirez, he is lackadaisical in my opinion, making bone head errors in the filed and seemingly playing offense only when he feels like it. I like the column that wswins provided (by the way, thank you wswins), as it clearly shows that there are some Bum players (Adrian Gonzales) who think some other players are not playing with a sense of “urgency.” Easy to guess who these tools are . . .
One good club house fight in LaLaland and the place might turn into Chernobyl II.
Looking at the Dodgers, we Giants fans probably find it easier than other people to think that many of the Bums are… bums. A-holes. In the case of Kemp, and Ramirez, and even Puig, it actually might be true. This is one other thing I give Sabean and the front office a lot of credit for: they seem to stay completely away from bringing bums and a-holes to the Giants. I remember thinking a handful of years ago, when the G’s needed a shortstop, that they should go after Ramirez. But clearly he’s a dick, good move not going after him. I can’t really think of too many players that Sabes has brought in that were kind of assholish. Benitez comes to mind, maybe, but Sabes was pretty quick dumping him. A lot of people thought Kent was a bit of a dick, but he always played hard, unlike the bums in LA.
Just to clarify….. there were a lot of “bums” and “a-holes” in my post. I am not at all anal retentive, it might just seem that way.. 🙂
great post. I really think the Giants had their fill with Bonds and decided they didn’t want a dick-run clubhouse anymore. And Will The Thrill was a dick leader before Bonds got there. That’s like 20 years of a dick running the clubhouse. lol.
No dickheads since Bonds, they’ve won 2 WS’s and have the best record in baseball this year so maybe there’s something to be said for “no dickhead clubhouse leadership”…..
Preceded by the God Squad…
Agree, Craig…
What about Pierzynski? Wasn’t he talked about as being somewhat a dick when he was with the Gigantes?
Somewhat is an understatement. Ask Stan Conte…
Well. It isn’t like I hold Stan Conte in the highest esteem, either.
The way Ethier went off on Two-Trips in the dugout, mentioned in one of the articles posted, just shows a lack of respect for the manager. That kind of thing is embarrassing for a manager, no matter how well the manager shouts back. Most people are going to look at things like that and tend to think the manager lacks control of his team. I can’t remember a Giants player going off on Bochy like that in public during Bochy’s entire time with the Giants so far. I think Giants players respect Bochy too much to do that to him in public. Maybe it’s happened away from the TV cameras at some point over the years, but the Giants are great at keeping things “in house.”
“You can put it on the board….yeah!”
White Sox’s Abreu’s 2-run HR off Kershaw, as called by Harrelson.
I’m so happy I didn’t have to listen to that. Harrelson is an idiotic moron who makes the White Sox fans who like him look like fools.
Well, it’s him or Vin Scully. Not good choices, unfortunately. 😦
I don’t mind Harrelson as much as just about everyone else does.
Abreu just took Kershaw deep for a ding dong. White Sox 2-0 over Bums.
The Royals made me eat some fine-tasting crow tonight. 6-0 win over the Cards, sending the red wave home sad.
Royals were bad coming into this series, makes me wonder what’s up with the Cards.
They’re hoping Tavares will be quick help, but there’s a learning curve, even with highly talented players. He was 0-3 tonight, and is now hitting .200. Puig’s early success is highly rare.
Royals pounding Cards has me wondering if the Giants really did something special taking 3 of 4 from the Redbirds…
Puig was thrown out tonight on a play where he stood at homeplate and watched to see if the secondbaseman was going to stop a hard-hit ball. The secondbaseman booted it, but was still able to throw out Puig, who would have been safe if he’d been running all the way.
Did anyone talk to Puig about that when he got back to the dugout? The manager or one of the coaches is supposed to do that kind of thing.
Billy Martin would have gotten in his grille on the steps of the dugout. Most others would, I think, take him and the interpreter (if the manager doesn’t speak Spanish), and go back inside the tunnel out of camera view and chew his ass. Not hustling is unforgiveable, IMO — this is professional ball…
Didn’t Puig get around 40 million to sign with the Dodgers. When you make a guy like that rich without doing anything what kind of hammer do you have to hold over his head. I could be wrong about the signing money but I think he got a insane amount of money to sign.
Puig got 7 years at $42M (2012-18) and a $12M signing bonus, and I believe he can opt into free agency after three years of ML service. Fucker got rich based on what he did in Cuba. Obviously a number of scouts and agents had a hard-on for him, and the bums paid the piper.
A bunch of us sure were wrong about Bochy a few years back. Especially me.
Hated his Padre pedigree and what I thought was an almost dazed presence in the dugout.
I should write him an apology letter.
I’m sure he’s gotten a few of those over the past 3.5 years.
Conor Gillaspie with the boneheaded error to give the Dodgers 5, count’em, 5 unearned runs. All he had to do was run to the base for the easy force-out, but for reasons known only to him, he threw to first, and threw the ball away. So instead of the third out, the inning continued, and that’s the ballgame.
Article in OC Register use sabermetrics and a stat called OPS+ to say Puig had 2nd best 1st full year in history. Paper is gone already and I can’t remember who was number 1. Trout was 8th..Impressive even for a dick!
Let’s see how he does lifetime, and whether or not he is in the same league as those presented here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-base_plus_slugging#Leaders
Bonds third all-time. Pretty impressive company here. I doubt Puig is on this list over the long haul. Plus I cannot stand his ass…the way he plays so lackadaisically he doesn’t belong on the damned field.
San, I saw your comment after I posted. No way I would welcome Puig with open arms, unless he changed his ways. No way he is on my club if he is hot dogging, slacking, etc. To allow that to happen whenever he wants would be a cancer to any team, IMO.
I have one problem with Puig and one problem only. And its a big problem. He plays for the Dodgers. Other than that, I love his game and I’d welcome him with open arms and deal with all of his baggage in a heartbeat.
I can’t handle Hawk Harrelson either. The forced nicknames drive me crazy. “Let’s go Tank” and crap like that.
Also agree on Giants making a determined effort to go dick-free in the clubhouse after Thrill and Bonds. I always maintained Rowand was brought in to be the anti-Barry. All-out hustle, gamer, good teammate. He was all those things, but unfortunately he was the anti-Barry with a bat in his hands as well.
Holy shit! Somebody help me up. Watching baseball tonight and one of the talking heads says the Giants are the best in MLB.
Must have been a mistake, they usually edit those… 😉
I’d throw Kent in the dick mix. He was a bigger dick than Bonds certainly. AJ was definitely an asshole of the highest order. Puig? Hate him as a Dodger, don’t think many other teams would put up with him for very long.
I disagree that Kent was a bigger tool that Bonds. Bonds had a barcalounger and several paid stooges flitting around him. Kent did not. IMO that alone qualified Bonds for supreme dick of the clubhouse…
BEAT THE REDS!
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