The Many Different Careers of Edinson Volquez
Edison Volquez, the SP for the Pirates on Wednesday, has had a remarkable career. He was traded for Josh Hamilton in 2008 and promptly turned into one of the most dominant pitchers in the NL. His success lasted exactly one year. After 3 years of injury and mediocrity he was traded to the Padres for Matt Latos where he was healthy for 3 years but still painfully mediocre compiling 20-21 W/L record and an unsightly 4.96 ERA.
In August of last year, the Padres finally released him.
He was picked up by The Art Dealers the next day and started 5 games for them, winning none of them.
And then the Pirates signed him to a deal and he turned into “2008 Volquez* again going 13-7 with a 3.04 ERA.
And now he’s starting a do-or-die playoff game on Wednesday. Weird. Wild. Stuff.
This dude has stuffed like 5 different careers into one career.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Well, I hope he goes all Ryan Garko for that game. Probably not going to Pitts. All I thought of was the gala, the fun, the electricity — not the six hours each way on the road. That grind gets to me at my age. Will watch game with Giants fans. Go, Gigantes!
so PNC Park will be a Flapper-free zone? Say it isn’t so! Our world wide reach is diminishing as I type this…….
Bozo, Macdog, and Loo are potential maybe possible, no?
Who knows with baseball players these days? Their level of success year to year can be due big time to injury, rehab, and the use of who knows what kind of chemical assistance during and in between the seasons…
All I know is that the Giants have a shot at the post-season, so bully for us fans. This team has guys that know how to win at crunch time, they’ve done it before, and when playing the underdog role, as here again. Though PNC has been a crappy place for them that last few seasons, they have done pretty well on the road this year. So, as I’ve said before in the playoffs: WTF not the Giants?…
I’m not the only one, but I’ll predict:
NFL Opening Day 2015, Harbaugh is HC and GM of the Raiduhs…
Nope, I’d bet on Michigan. They can pay him 2 truckloads of money and he can live up to his potential as Bo Schembechler Jr.
He’s got options, for sure. I’ve been noticing he looks thinner in his pressers, wonder how the
Wonder if the new wife likes really cold weather, or the Stanford Shopping Center?…
Michigan just got their clock cleaned at home by Minnesota in front a half-empty stadium.
Old enough to remember Michigan upsetting the invincible Buckeyes in ’69?
I think that game put Ann Arbor on the map.
Chuck, speaking of Bo, why the fuck has Denny trade marked his stupid nickname for Harbs? Does he think someone is going to steal that or something? I think Denny has gone insane…….
He thinks it’s real funny, I guess.
He absolutely ruins Chuck’s blog for me. Sorry to say (and I do feel kind of sorry for him), but he just reminds me of that line from the song “Aqualung”: “Spitting out pieces of his broken luck.” That’s how his posts read to me. The best thing for someone like that is to get away from sports for a while, totally. Find new passions and spiritual discoveries. Sports, alone, could drive a person over the bend.
100% agree. Loo made a comment about Denny a while back that spoke to me. He said that for some guys, blogging anonymously on the internet brings out the dark side of a person. I think that’s definitely the case with Denny.
I don’t know where or who said it, I was turning off the radio in my car and some announcer said Peavy was going to pitch instead of Bum?? couldn’t get the radio back on to hear if that was true or not. then my day at work got really busy, have not had time to research. I Bum still starting Wednesday?
All I know about this weekend was it was a great weekend for Bay Sports, A’s are in, Giants are in, the Niners won…oops well maybe not great for all Bay sports Raiders lost. Yawn, nothing new there.
MLB is showing Bummie as the starter. I haven’t heard that Peavy gets the start.
But that doesn’t mean it ain;t happening.
How was the Niner game? Musta been crazy! Heard the boos as the 1st half wound down. Esp on the kneeldown to close the half after the fumble.
There was I think 2 Seconds on the clock?? I one I was booing was when Philly pinned them back on the 2 yard line and H did his famous 3 runs and out gig!! That pissed me off. A pass. any kind of a pass for the first play would have been better. I agree a team does not want a turn over when they are down there, but Philly had already blocked a punt so why not try a pass on the first play? a first down would have ended the game.
They had to keep the clock running so Philly would burn their timeouts, Kevin. Besides, you get a holding call (or a sack) in the end zone, and Philly was getting to Kaepernick every time he went back to pass, and its a safety. Disastrous.
I just thought at the half, throw the hail Mary and hope for a coverage breakdown or a PI call. Kick the FG, or remotely get the TD. I don’t get why you don’t take the shot. They pick it off, no harm.
Flav, the local idiot Spitty says Dennis stole Bo Schembechler Jr from him. Dennis disagrees, so he trademarked it. Oh, the joys of running an insane asylum.
It’s hell, but it’s my little slice of hell.
http://m.giants.mlb.com/news/article/96842464/three-keys-for-giants-to-win-nl-wild-card-game
Giants and A’s finish with identical records. (Same as Pirates, too, if you’re counting.) Go figure. After Moneyboy Beane made all those trades, it looked as if Oakland would waltz home. Breezily. Just like it might’ve looked when SF was 21 games over .500. That’s why they throw actual pitches.
A meditation from me on fate, free will, and baseball: http://bit.ly/1vqq5Zd
Very nice, Paulie. Good stuff.
How fun to see the video of Pence trying to pump up not the team but the whole ballpark after the last game ended. Felt like I was back in college at a pep rally. Except my college didn’t have pep rallies. Ok, maybe high school. Nonetheless, it was kinda silly but also kinda cool. “We are not guaranteed another home game. We have to earn that.” Yes Yes Yes! Ah, the right Reverend Under Pants. He is unique and he is uniquely ours.
Wow, Aqualung, one of my fav rock LPs of all time. Not one bad cut on it. Liked Benefit too.
For a while I was trying to learn electric bass, and one of the first exercises in a book I had was “Bouree”, but the solo in Tull version was beautiful.
Dedicated to our great lefty starter:
SNOT IS RUNNING DOWN HIS NOSE!
Greasy fingers smearing the balls he throws…
Wouldn’t we all prefer to see a proven big game pitcher like Timmy start in Pittsburgh?
Yo dipshit. Bumgarner started, and won, a WS game before he was 21.
I have heard of no changes in the starter. Has the 25 been set for the Buc game? There was discussion the other day (Marty Lurie’s show) about who would be the pitchers for this one game, since teams can restack their roster for each series.
Not a guy who I read a lot in relation to bay area baseball, but I thought this was a good encapsulation of the Giant’s and A’s seasons. Let’s GO GIANTS!
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Wild-summer-for-A-s-Giants-ushers-in-potential-5789318.php
Here are a couple of other articles that I thought were good reads (linked from the Chron article I posted).
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/twilight-baseball
http://espn.go.com/mlb/allstar14/story/_/id/11197566/mlb-baseball-future-mike-trout