Reflecting on a Long Season
Game 162. The final day of the season (likely, for everyone). Again, I will be glued to football.
The Giants get to sit back and relax while the Cards and the Pirates go all out on each other as the NL Central crown is still undecided. The Cards are burning Wainwright and the Pirates are burning Brandon Crawford’s brother in law.
Are you guys happy with where we are today? I am. The baseball season is a grind. Only 10 teams make the playoffs. And this isn’t the NBA, anything can happen in the playoffs.
I’m proud of my team for fighting through injuries and long stretches of general suckitude to persevere this year. So you’re telling me we have a chance?
We have a chance……
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
This is for Willie and anybody else interested in playoff roster rules…and Loo, some people evidently know!
http://www.piratesprospects.com/2013/08/mlb-playoff-roster-9-important-points-you-should-know.html
Thx. Nice to see a Darren Ford reference too.
We not only have a chance but some weird factors may help us: a Game 163 for Pirates-Cards, long layoff for Kershaw, and the Fool, the Juggler, and the Wheel of Fortune overturned in our deck of tarot cards.
I’m happy but would be delighted to see Pirates win the div. Cards are a much more favorable matchup for Bum. He toyed with them earlier this yr, striking out 10.
But facing Cueto who goes for 20/and owns the Pirates this year?
I’m cool with the Giant’s position. I predicted they’d be a WC team, with LA the div winner. Compare that to the A’s who are playing today in a throat grabbing game just to preserve the second playoff spot. Giants are not the strongest team in the playoffs on paper, but that really doesn’t matter. It’s who gets it done under pressure. So, yeah, they have a shot. I’d rather they play in St. Louis, but you take what you get. I’ll give props to St. Louis and especially the Bucs. Pittsburgh is throwing out their best guy today to win that game just to have a shot at tying for the division and get into a one game shootout with St. Louis. Nothing like going for it when you have a chance. If the Giants play Pittsburgh and go down against them, I’ll be rooting for the Bucs all the way…
Schulman on Lurie’s morning show made some oblique remark about Posey maybe having a disc problem, but Giants are keeping mum on whatever is wrong with him. He’s starting today at catcher, so I don’t see how he could possibly have a disc issue and still be catching. If he does have some sort of developing back problem, he won’t be catching for much longer at his pay grade. Speaking of backs, Schulman also said the Giants fans are right to be ticked off that Sabes had no backup plan again, no real MLB quality everyday OF starter to substitute, when Pagan went down for a second season in a row…
How many teams have a better 4th outfielder than Blanco? He can drive you nuts with his stupidity at times, but all in all he’s been real good, just as he was in the post-Melky days of 2012…
Why the hell is Posey catching today? What good can possibly come from that?
Just for Heston’s sake?
Good question. Fan appreciation day?…
I have no idea. Doesn’t make sense at all.
On yesterday’s Cal game. Fun watching guys put up 1200+ yards of offense for the game. Up to a point. The point being you’d like to see a defense actually stop the other team on a third down, or not give up 7 or 8 yards on an out route every dang first down. Cal’s coach Sonny Dykes I think won’t be around for too long. The game he coaches may be entertaining, but you’re not going to have a winning program doing this. I’ll give him maybe maybe a third season next year to show he can improve a defense, but I’m not optimistic. I wouldn’t be surprised if he got fired after this season. At best the team might win one more game this year, because the remainder of the teams will have better defenses. Cal will continue to be a bottom feeder in the Pac12, despite a fine stadium now and upgraded, competitive football facilities all around. The crowd size was disappointing yesterday, the stadium looked half empty…
I’m stoked the club is in. I’m going to celebrate with a cha-cha bowl at the yard today (insert sound of Larry Baer’s cash register here).
Shoot, Dirt. Go all out and get one of those crab sandwiches in back of center field. I think they’re 14.95 now or maybe even more. Cha Ching…
Your right. Those are tasty. I’ll get one of those too.
I could go for one of these, but I haven’t seen this truck since about 1965:
Just reading the posts . . . Internet out most of last night and this morning. Hilarious dirt . . . Put a smile on my face.
Jeter departs after infield RBI single…
Bye-Bye
And Abreu departs after a single to left.
TBS game is Yanks-Red Sox. I think Fox had same yesterday. Seriously? I guess the Pirates game isn’t relevant enough.
Pav: MLB announced that Wild Card Game will be 8:07 p.m. Eastern on ESPN.
I’m very happy that we are in the tournament, even if we did get the last spot. I never thought we were going to coast to the division title—even when we had a 10 game lead–or whatever it was.
Pretty amazing we made it in when you consider how many things went wrong:
-Scutaro out for the year
-Cain wins 2 games and then is lost for the season
-Lincecum pitches so poorly he has to be be pulled from the rotation
-Romo falls part and gets pulled from the closer role
-“Magic Man” Pagan plays less than 100 games
-Pablo has a dreadful first third of the season
-Hudson has his first losing record ever
-Belt has a nightmare season and isn’t even in the line-up enough to drive in 30 runs
Did I forget anything?? How the hell did we make the playoffs?
Think you pretty much nailed it.
Good coaching.
Seriously, add in crummy starts and ends of season by Pence, the losers that played 2b before Panik, Casilla hamstringing himself while running out a ball he was ordered not to swing at, and injury to only guy beside Posey with .800 + OPS, Morse.
OK, kill me on this one, but…why move Belt to LF instead of Posey? I just don’t see Posey diving at 3b and scrambling up to make throws on balls to his left, or charging in and bare handing dribblers/bunts hit in front of him. If SF can live with couple months of Morse D in LF while he was raking and put up with 7 innings of Burrell out there in order to keep his bat in the LU, wtfn leave Belt where he is?
I’m cool with Posey anywhere but catcher where he doesn’t embarrass himself. If he’s got back problems, catching isn’t where he needs to be. Giants will obviously try to keep their $168M man healthy and happy before they keep Belt happy.
Speaking of whom, there goes Buster with a dinger! He gets two days off, and that’s what happens. More proof he needs to stop catching…
The pitching was much better than last year. Hudson was there instead of Zito, Vogey wasn’t as crappy, and Petit and Peavey have made 24 starts and done pretty well.
The offense was pretty much steady state, with Posey, Morse, Crawford, and Panik helping compensate for the injuries and Pence’s dropoff.
Oh, and Romo actually has had a pretty good year đŸ™‚
Excellent summary of the season SD.
On to pitsburgh. 4-1 Reds now…
Bring on the Buccos.
What is with Giants baserunning? Panda should have scored easily. WTF?…
The Dodgers probably wanted the Pirates instead of the Cardinals. The Cardinals spanked the Dodgers pretty well in the playoffs last year.
The 49ers play a brand of hardly watchable football these days.
Susac continues to impress. He’s gotta be on the playoff roster. If they want to move Posey into the infield next year, they’re good behind the plate…
Season attendance at ATT: 3.369 million…
Speaking of Darren Ford, lol, Baggs just tweeted that he was watching ESPN 30/30 story that covered Red Sox 2004 with Dave Roberts highlight. He’d like Giants to put Pagan on 60 DL and purchase D Ford’s contract and activate him for playoffs.
What Posey wants to do and what others think is best might be worlds apart. I think he likes catching and would not be happy about playing full time anywhere else…at this point in his career.
I know the numbers are much better with him at 1b, but Belt is already there and is a better fielder at that position. We’ve all gone over the weakening the D at multiple positions argument. How well Susac calls a game, blocks balls and throws, plus how he would hit over a full season are big question marks.. Even if you did that you would still need someone to back up Susac, and Hector just doesn’t cut it, healthy or not.
I’d be up with seeing more of Lincecum if Pads were in the playoffs. His home ERA this year is pretty high.
Can’t explain why that review took so long. Grandal’s foot was obviously off the bag by a few inches…
The only thing that makes sense is that they were having some kind of technical problems with their link-up to NY.
Then the 49ers go out and make the two best plays of their season so far. The sideline fumble recovery, and Johnson’s amazing catch in the tiniest little corner of the endzone possible.
Brown with another hit. Cool for him. And dude is definitely fast, scoring easily from firstbase on Arias’s double to the leftfield corner.
Leave it to Ron Fairly to almost blow the biggest call he had with the Giants (on Sept. 28, 1987.) If you rewind that call, you’ll hear him almost call it the pennant.
“And the Giants have won the P-, the Western Division!”
LOL- Harbaugh’s sideline facial expressions and overall drama-queen activity. Kap with the inexplicable time-out call. Kap just might not be the brightest lightbulb out there.
Kap’s pulling down way too much money to make that move. That was head scratchingly ridiculous…
He’s no dummy. Got a 38 on the wonderlic. Andrew Luck got a 37.
Frank Gore got a 6.
Kap’s football IQ isn’t what it should be, yet.
Bochy’s son finishes off the Giants game. Very cool.
And the reg season. Nice…
I was worried that scenarios would be so complicated I could not go — but leaning strongly toward a solo road trip to Pittsburgh. I’ll be happy to just stroll on the Clemente bridge.
Sweet…
The official was only about two yards off on that mark of the football. Ball should have been on about the 8, but they put the ball on the 6.
Still, the Niners fizzled away two timeouts for no reason.
Niner defense comes up huge at the end of that drive.
162 and in. Whodda thunk it the way the team kept taking hits to the roster. Imagine the season Belt could have had, the way he started out and those hints of much the same in the last week or so. Timmy coming around a bit to get his 12th was nice. He could be another post-season weapon. Brown has made the absolute most of his opportunities. A decent look in ST will follow. Still wanna see him get some close, personal coaching. Duffy comes through again in the clutch. Panik steady as Gibralter. Cordier too will get some close looks in the Spring. Both Blanco and Arias made nice recoveries from their early season woes.
From the way things were going in June and July this team has made one helluva comeback and looks poised to be a strong contender next season. Post-season: Who knows? Should they lose to Pittsburgh i’m with Snarkk on wanting to see the Pirates go all the way from there. But it sure would be nice to see SF get back at Anaheim for ’02.
Yeah, Stick, I’d be up for another shot at the Angels…
Not a picture-perfect game, but the Niners get a much-needed win. Kind of a classic Harbaugh-era win. Good defense, good running game, kick four fieldgoals, and win by five points.
Niner offense,particularly Kap, and the special teams, stunk out the joint. Niner D won the game for them…
Kap is either an idiot or he’s just got too much on his mind. Nothing else accounts for his bonehead decisions (especially regarding the play clock and time outs.)
From the little I saw of Gary Brown, hey, he plays good OF defense, he raked a single through the hole on the left side, and scored from first on a double with ease. Give the guy a shot in ST as a 5th OFer, I’ve seen enough of Perez…
I’m with you on Perez. I’ll never forget the awesome throw he made when we beat the Yanks on Mariano Rivera day at Yankee Stadium, but that’s in the past.
Yeah, good D and fine arm. But, opposite at the plate. Just constantly looks overwhelmed…
Congrats to the Giants! To get 88 wins and into the WC game after such an up and down season, a horrible nearly 2 month stretch and a horrendous string of homestands, and big time injuries to Scutaro, Cain, Pagan, and Belt, and crap for the last half season from Tim and Huddy, I’d say the Giants came back well the last 6 weeks and got it done. Panik and Susac and Strickland and maybe Duffy look like real contributors for next season. Giants are alive and into the playoffs, so now anything can happen…
A.C.H. Anything Can Happen.
When I saw the Giants scored 9 runs, I gotta admit I was hoping Crawdad did get that 70th RBI, but alas, it was not meant to be.
We’re facing Volquez instead of Cole? Works for me.
Yeah, I think that’s good. Maybe. Volquez has been lights out the last month, though…
Check out catch by former Syracuse Chief Steven Souza Jr. to save — and END! — Jordan Zimmerman no-hitter. http://www.syracuse.com/chiefs/index.ssf/2014/09/jordan_zimmerman_no_hitter_steven_souza_jr.html#incart_river
Good catch, a little drama added by falling when he didn’t have to, IMO.
Blanco’s catch on Cain’s perfecto was far better. Nice way to end a no-hitter, though.
If the Gyros make it through to the NLDS, the Nats will be formidable…
Yep. Been saying that myself.
Say what you will about Kappy, and those plays that timed out are utter fails, and then he calls the TO when he shouldn’t have, are pretty stupid looking, but there’s something to be said about getting the plays in faster. A Smith had this problem with Harbaugh.
Beyond that, this team cannot block for Kappy when he drops back as a passer. Set plays where it’s a 5 or 7 step drop, he’s barely able to look before there’s 3 guys on him. Our line struggles blocking 4 and utterly falls apart on blitzes. Only by Kappy running out of trouble and finding someone does he get the ball out.
In other words, if it is their goal to make Kaepernick a drop-back passer, they need to give more than 2 seconds to throw. And they STILL need to dial up slants and quick hitters to negate pass rushes. 4 sacks and he was hit numerous times.
so where are the screens? Can he even throw them? He’s literally the opposite of a game manager. He doesn’t know how to throw a check down
Niners don’t do screens. At least I haven’t seen one in the last few seasons. I doubt Kap can throw to a RB running laterally to the sideline…
It’s hard to throw a screen when it isn’t in the playbook. Slants either. LaMichael James was the perfect guy to use as a guy inthe flat. They never did it. Plays they can use to minimize the pass rushes they constantly face they just don’t use. 3 step fades? No. Delayed draws to Gore? No. Screens or slants? no and no. This passing game is very methodical and slow-developing most of the time.
He needs work at checking down and he can lock on sometimes. But this is a new offense than the one he ran ;ast year. He better be better by the end of the season, BUt he needs time to throw. If you look at the time Stanton got last week, and the pressure Kaepernick was under all day, it’s night and day.
Kaepernick made touch passes in college. He threw screens in college. Alex Smith didn’t throw screens under Harbaugh. It’s not Kaepernick. All of Kaepernick’s passes came after he was flushed from the pocket.
True, I don’t remember many screens from Alex under Harbs. When Gore was on the Niners the first few years, he caught a lot of balls…
And, as I just saw on the MLB hightlights, our long, national Jetergasm — is over…
oh yeah! bring on the playoffs…I like the Giants chances…as solid as any, if the play like we all know they can. I see Panik and Belt highlights coming…
88 Ws for the season Flav, right on the money. Most propitious number for the Chinese as well. Friend of mine from Taiwan uses it in an email.
I’ll take Bum in one game match up with anyone.