Procuring the Panda For under a Hundy
The Red Sox only offered 5 years/95 million? If that’s true, this should be a done deal on coming back to SF unless there’s something we don’t know about. The Giants should be able to match that without even blinking.
San Diego offer coming in today and I’m not worried about that one.
95 million? He can feed his family on that.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
You guys can worry about Panda for me. I’m going to worry about breakfast.
Panda may even say yes to the Giants if they offer him $85 or $90 mill with a 6th year option that could get him over $95 mill. I would only agree to a limited no trade clause…I am sticking with the vibe that if he does not say yes to the Red Sox by tomorrow, he is staying….
Make it happen now and be done with it. Pando should be thrilled with 5/95. He can always sign a 2 yr deal to DH after 5 more yrs in SF if he stays fit. He’ll only be 34.
On the other hand….maybe a change.of scenery trumps. Historic venue and all.
Curious about his numbers improving in Fenway. All those games against rival NY. Playing the Padres Rockies Dbacks over and over gotten old? Can DH part time. Hang with his man Ortiz. (Is there a player on the Giants Pablo is really tight with and also looks up to?)
Might not be the Sox final offer either.
$95 million? $95 million? Sorry, that is a million too much. $94 million and not a million more, well maybe $94.5 with incentives, but that is it.
Big Game such a contrast in styles and coaches; should be interesting.
Obviously a lot riding on this one in many ways.
QBs should determine it— Goff trying put up some points on stingy Stanford D and hang onto ball long enough to keep Cal’s D off the field vs. Hogan trying to do same, keep Goff on sidelines and wear down Cal.
I’m off to the game of the middle of the roaders, I mean, the Big Game.
Hopefully, the rain will stop late morning, as predicted. Field could be damp, though, likely a few turnovers today.
First Big Game in about 5 that Cal has a real shot. It’s whether Cal’s prolific offense can score enough on a pretty good defense to offset their sieve of a defense stopping Shaw’s unimaginative offense just enough, or get a turnover or two on the Tree on a sorta wet day. We shall see.
Go Bears!!…
good luck. I’m not going but will be watching on tv. My hope is that a bad offense (Stanford) can move the ball against a bad defense (Cal). If not, this one could get ugly for those of us on The Farm…
Back to the bench (coach) for Wotus, Rays turn him down.
Wotus has a boring personality. When giving an interview he could cure insomniacs for sure.
this guy is always on the mark with Toronto news:
Ben Nicholson-Smith @bnicholsonsmith 19m19 minutes ago
Looks like #BlueJays are no longer in the mix for Pablo Sandoval per source
Well, we thought we were gonna see the Cal Stanford game. This farming out sports program to these Kazahkstani networks is getting ridiculous
if you’re not going to show the game, don’t say you are. they were nearly an hour late. ridiculous. But go Indians!
Just started watching the Cal game and the Bears have scored and been deined 2 TDs. They are going for a 3rd review.
Cal denied a 3rd TD. 2 of those calls were wrong.
Between the 2nd and 3rd TDs, call was called for an unsportsmanlike penalty so 3rd andd goal from the 1 became 3rd and goal from the 16. Stanfor was offside. 3drd down from the 11. Cal holds, 3rd and goal from the 20.
Unreal.
Cal gets a successful onsides kick. Game’s getting good.
Stanford wasn’t very good so you have to downgrade Cal after this. And WTF is Dykes doing with his qb’s? This isn’t high school……
Yeah, that shit wasn’t working well.
They are showing the 2012 World series on MLB network.
Scoots is up in the 10th . . .
The Riot scores!
Yeah, it’s very cool MLBN is showing that. They also showed a 1/2 hour documentary about the ’71 season this weekend, in their “seasons” series. Lots of Bobby Bonds in the show; very cool.
A book no one should pay money for:
“How To Interview For Management Positions,” by Ron Wotus.
In the USA Sports mag, I was reading a quote from GM Dave Stewart, talking about the new manager of the D-Backs. Stewart said something like “He talked about getting 15% more effort from his players, and that impressed us.”
Man, the baloney people say in job interviews….
Tiger Woods has hired a new “swing consultant.”
Uh……OK……
The Giants recently signed 4 minor league free-agents. Here’s a good line from McCovey Chronicles’ Grant Brisbee about Carlos Triunfel:
“He had his worst professional season in 2014, hitting just .223/.256/.330, but he did it in the Dodgers’ system, so it wasn’t all bad.”
I haven’t checked out a Dodger blog in a while; let’s see what the Dodger fans are up to:
Time for serious tailgate cooking
by CraigMinami on Nov 21, 2014 | 9:11 PM
What’s on the menu?
by Catherine the Blue on Nov 21, 2014 | 9:12 PM
Pain, sorrow
by Eric Stephen on Nov 21, 2014 | 9:17 PM
Well…..OK…..
This Dodger fan notes:
right now i’m listening to
Down By The River
by Neil Young
by 68elcamino427 on Nov 22, 2014 | 7:51 PM
Now, that’s an upbeat song to lift a Dodger fan’s spirits.
“Down By The River” lyrics:
Be on my side, I’ll be on your side, baby
There is no reason for you to hide
It’s so hard for me staying here all alone
When you could be taking me for a ride, yeah
She could drag me over the rainbow
And send me away
Down by the river I shot my baby
Down by the river, dead, shot her dead
You take my hand, I’ll take your hand
Together we may get away
This much madness is too much sorrow
It’s impossible to make it today, yeah
She could drag me over the rainbow
And send me away, yeah
Down by the river I shot my baby
Down by the river, dead, dead
Shot her dead, shot her dead
Be on my side, I’ll be on your side
There is no reason for you to hide
It’s so hard for me staying here all alone
When you could be taking me for a ride
She could drag me over the rainbow
And send me away, yeah
Down by the river I shot my baby
Down by the river
Down by the river I shot my baby
Down by the river
Down by the river I shot my baby
Down by the river
Pain and sorrow, that’s pretty funny zum.
Unfortunately, I think the Giants winning yet another World Series has provided a serious wake up call and new guy from Tampa is gonna make stuff happen. As in, no more taking on big contracts/signing unproductive players like League Wilson etc. of Colletti days.
If Wotus is the guy responsible for positioning the defense, then I sure would hate to lose him.
Agreed.
Interviewing for a coaching job I think is a skill all its own and has zero to do with your ability to actually do the job itself.
Since we were talking about Raiders the other day I think there’s more than a few guys they’ve hired because they sold themselves well, including current GM, who don’t know wtf they are doing or how to fix what’s wrong.
I think your right, Willedav.
A couple of NY guys who did good jobs here, Willie Randolph and Jim Fassel can’t seem to get themselves hired as a manager or head coach. Always wondered why Billick never got another HC job after Baltimore, too.
Random panda thoughts: when thinking about a long term contract, which is anything over 2 years, I guess i really don’t care about his post season stats. they’re only useful if you get to the PS. The downward trend of the regular season is much more significant. They’ve swallowed some bad long term contracts in the past, zito-rowand, but i don’t think they had to swallow more than one year. with panda, you may be looking at swallowing two or three of a five year deal. and if he’s not hitting, you’re not going to be able to trade him to an AL team because who would want him. I guess i’d rather throw a lot more money over 3 years than spread it out over five. you’d have to add options to make it near to palatable for panda. but that’s probably not an option. with the decline in hitting each year, i don’t think his age really factors into it. this isn’t an issue of one bad year but a distinct trend. So i guess i think ANY five year deal is a bad one. i’d rather spend the money on pitching. to have chance to make that work there’s going to have to be really good production out of left field. a healthy belt can make up some of it as well but who’s to say he’s going to stay healthy. A healthy scoots (a two year contract swallow if not?) could help as a backup to panic and a mentor if he’s willing. that all still leaves 3rd open though. and there i draw a blank. play one of the kids? go get headly lamar? neither of those jump off the page do they. you’ve all hashed the bejeezus out of this already but i’m sitting here paying bills and this seemed more fun. I just can’t think of anyone who’s had such a downward trend suddenly turn it around without “help”. also no on melky, though i would LOVE to see the return of the melkmaids. suddenly autocorrect is really starting to piss me off. i guess that’s it for now. Happy holidays to all y’all.
[…] The rest of the article can be found here: THE San Francisco Giants Blog […]
Good thing a friend gave me the Cal game ticket yesterday.
What a POS game by Cal. Bad coaching, bad playing. Stanfurd didn’t impress me much, particularly their offense. Hogan went 15/20, but he had all day to pass against an all time horrific D backfield that was depleted on the first play of the game when the refs kicked Cal’s “best” backfield defender out of the game for a BS spearing call. The Cal DC can’t blitz his guys much, because they can’t cover the pass when they HAVE a full D backfield, let alone one that has a blitz package going. Both of the Tree’s lines dominated Cal’s lines, but that’s nothing new for Cal vs. almost any decent opposition. Clear talent chasm, as usual when Cal plays any decent team, plus 5 turnovers spells no chance for the Bears. The officiating, ultimately not mattering too much, was still just off the charts horrific. The 3 straight TDs by Cal called back by replay and then a penalty on the Cal lineman tossed in that mix almost started a riot. There may have been one if the zebras called back the following Cal onsides kick recovery for 4 straight replay reviews. I was on that end zone line, 35 rows up. The first run for TD IMO was clearly a TD, the Cal kid fell a yard into the EZ, yet called back. WTF? What showed on the replay was not shown in the stadium. Football at the NFL level, and now even college, is become nearly unwatchable with all this officiating horsehockey. I forgot how horrible the TV timeouts impact the rhythm of the game when you are actually there watching live. That seemed particularly bad yesterday…
The Raiders are in pretty good shape. Believe it or not. They need some O line help more than anything.
another random thought: in 2010 either Bochy or Sabean said something like “it’s a knife fight and i like our chances in those”. I thought that summed up the 2014 addition as well. And that’s really a good description of post-season play. you’re playing good teams. it’s going to be close. small things win.
I’ll be happy if Pablo stays and ok with it if he leaves. The one thing I’ll quibble with is that there has been some statistically significant decline in his offense. There hasn’t been. As I posted before, there is no rational argument for excluding his post season performance from how you judge his 2014 season. It’s not spring training, it’s the freakin playoffs! His OPS including those additional 15 games is around 752. The one thing he did more of this year is play the idiot hacker, which reduced his walk totals a bit. That isn’t an irreversible trend.
The last 3 seasons have been steady for Sandoval. He is a pretty good player, and likely will be for a few more years. The fact that he hasn’t turned into a great player has also not mattered too much for SF . . . 🙂
Seems to me at post season time, he turns into a more disciplined hitter compared to the reg season. I won’t bother to look at the stats on first and 2nd ball swinging, and hacking out of the zone etc. It’s just what I saw, and the Giants announcers commented the same thing. Assuming there is some statistical proof to that, even if a small difference, I’m wondering why he does that, instead of just being more selective all the time. I’m assuming the post season approach change is not accidental…
He probably turns into a more disciplined hitter whenever he goes on a hot streak. He had a lousy September this year, so an upswing in October was not surprising.
2008-2014
BA: .345 .330 .268 .315 .283. 278 .279 – 2011 an outlier maybe?
OBP: .357 .387 .323. .357 .342 .341. .324 – throw out 2011 and pretty steady decline
OPS: .847 .943 .732 .909 .789 .758 .739 – 4 straight years of decline and 5 out of 6
SLG: .490 .556 .409 .552 .447 .417 .415 – Again a 2011 outlier and steady decline
GDP: 6 10 26 12 13 19 16 – steady increase
His HR and RBI totals seem fairly consistent
HR: 3 25 13 23 12 14 16 – 4 out of 5 years around 15
RBI 24 90 63 70 63 79 73 – 5 straight years of 70
so if we want to go by statistics we have a high .270’s hitter with steadily reducing batting average and slugging percentage who’s going to hit 15 home runs and drive in 75. that’s not a hitter i give 5 years to. and yes, you DO have to throw out the PS because you have to get there first. and the way you get there is the regular season and i’m not seeing 5/95. not seeing it.
agreed. It’s not my dough and if it only cost 95 mil to keep him I’d do it. But he’s not even in the ballpark of being worth it unless you want to factor in the post season stuff. And who pays for what you *might do* in the post season going forward?
Hah, Craig… I guess I do… 🙂 (see post below)
Based on the last 3 years, we have a mid 700s OPS player, not the guy we hoped for – 2010 is closer to what you should expect, not 2011.
I agree with you that it’s a lot of money and years for that kind of production, but he’s still a better than average 3rd baseman.
James, not seeing mid .700 at all.
.909 .789 .758 .739
that’s a trend and it ain’t toward the middle of .700. and 2010 was 5 years ago effectively. you want to count on that? 3/65 maybe 3/70 with options and incentives. no five year contract. it won’t work but that’s my final offer.
Yeah, James, agree about including Pablo’s post-seasons when considering his overall effectiveness. The *team* has been good enough to get into the post-season, sometimes maybe because of Pablo’s contributions, and sometimes maybe despite the apparent declining regular season trends for him. Pablo has been gold in the past two post-season runs; whatever the reason for him “stepping up” in the playoffs, that’s worth a LOT. If this team is going to continue to take advantage of its current window for be able to get to the post-season over the next few years, I want Pablo to be part of that based largely on his playoff performances…. I loved that one fake headline, can’t remember where I saw it: “BREAKING NEWS: Pablo Sandoval Will Sign With a Baseball Team Soon”…… can’t come soon enough at this point.
I’m not going to say “best catch I’ve ever seen” but that Beckham td catch was in the top 5 of the best catches I’ve ever seen
Um, I’m not a heckuva football fan but hey!
Not sure what Boston is thinking, this off-season. You’d think they’d learned about taking on big contracts (and learned even more after they dumped said contracts and then won a World Series). Sox are in talks with Pablo AND Hanley.. not Hanley as a back-up if they don’t get Pablo. Both? And, Lester? That would be a boatload of bucks…. Well, as we breathlessly wait to see how it unfolds, seems like more and more stuff in the news says Pablo to Boston and Headley to the Giants. Eek…..
If you don’t like Pablo, you aren’t gonna like Headley either, esp since no more fat jokes.
This guy hit .229 for the Pads last year who tried him at clean up, where he was utter fail, hence the trade to NY.
Pablo, btw, hit over .300 at clean up over course of year, NOT including playoffs.
If he leaves it’s fine too. But dropping $10 mil plus on Headley I don’t get. Give that money to Morse and his .800 plus OPS (and use blanco/perez as back up), and get another solid SP to match what LA has at top of rotation is how I’d play it.
And wave that latest ring in everyone’s face.
that last line is money!
Signing Headley would make nunsense to me. Better they pay Pablo, and move onward.
Or, don’t sign him, put Duvall at 3rd, and take the savings to get a decent LFer and a starter…
At this point, the baseball writers are just falling all over themselves guessing what’s going to happen and who’s going where, hoping that one of their stabs in the dark turns out to be correct. Headley to the Giants is one such stab because it seems the easiest (2nd *best* 3rd bagger out there after Pablo). No to that, please. Hanley to Boston is also a guess by some but it seems to have some sudden truth in it. Still can’t imagine why the Sox would want both Hanley and Pablo. Maybe they (Sox management) know something already that the media does not: meaning, Pablo ain’t going to Beantown….
Hanley Ramirez apparently going to sign with the RSox tomorrow for 5 years and $90M. To play somewhere, I’m not sure where. SS? 3rd? Maybe Panda told them no, so they’re going for the next guy. Must be nice to throw that kind of cash around for a doofus like Ramirez. I wouldn’t touch that guy with Nipper’s van…
Yeah, huh… someone is suddenly going to teach HanRam to play the OF? This is the same Hanley “anything for the team [NOT]” Ramirez? Been messaging a bit with my best bud in Boston about the whole thing, and he says most sentiment about Pablo there is very similar to here (would love to have/keep him, but not for exorbitant time and money, etc.). I want Pablo here, but I actually think he’d do well there. Ramirez? Those fans would dog him so bad once he starts doggin’ it out there, which he will. But damn, the guy can hit. Always hated the team having to face him in key situations in the LA games. Could be an interesting news day there….
Hey man says Panda to Boston is a done deal.
Hanley, too.
“Jon Heyman” that is…
Good morning, DJ.
Heyman just tweeted: “Sandoval has agreement to go to the red sox for 5 years, close to 100M.”
We’re like a news team, Mac!
Well, like I said in my 4:52am post (7:52pm here), could be an interesting news day there… have fun….
new thread.