Brandon Morrow
I read this morning that Brandon Morrow has 6 offers on the table. I started hoping the Giants were one of the 6. I’ve always liked Morrow, even back when he was a Cal Bear. Electric stuff. But like most guys who throw too hard he can’t stay healthy. Still, I’ve wanted him on our team for years.
And then I re-thought it. Why would Sabean take a chance on a guy with his injury history. He wouldn’t. If he breaks down in June it’s just another huge hole to fill in the middle of the season. The Giants almost never have a starting pitcher break down in the middle of the season. There was Cain and that’s about all I can remember without my coffee yet.
So while I’d love to see Morrow on a make-good 1 year MLB deal I don’t see how that would come to pass. Again, Morrow is the type of guy a *0in5* team takes a flier on…..
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Morrow, drafted in the first round by the Mariners; the Mariners choosing not to draft the local fan-favorite, the pitching star from the University of Washington, a little guy by the name of Tim Lincecum.
And as Robert Frost said in his famous poem about diverging roads: that has made all the difference.
Oh the sliding doors/butterfly wing effects/alternate universes abound.
It’s like the Trailblazers drafting Sam Bowie instead of Michael Jordan.
It’s like the Niners drafting Alex Smith instead of Aaron Rodgers.
On and on it goes in the history of sports.
All the things that fell into place for the Giants to win 3 in 5, alone, is mind-boggling, mind-staggering, and mind-blowing. Anyone want to go back in time and NOT make the Rowand deal and the Zito deal, and THEN take your chances on that timeline? I don’t. Anyone want to go back in time and NOT make the Beltran/Wheeler trade, and take that timeline instead of the timeline that we know brought two more championships after the trade?
We take our 3 in 5, and we are extremely grateful, and we bask bask bask bask. 🙂 🙂 🙂
And we hope for another one in 2015, because we know anything’s possible. 🙂 🙂 🙂
perfectly stated and I feel exactly the same as you
Interesting stuff there, zum. I always felt that the Beltran trade indirectly led to the Pence deal…
Conversely I was giving my A’s friend shit about “3in5” and he came back with the predictable “well, imagine what Beane could do with the Giants payroll.”
Screw that. For all we know, Beane is a used car salesman. That could easily be all he is.
Poor A’s all they have are the drums. Beane would trade them away if they were on the payroll.
Beane probably trades Timmeh after his 2009 season to avoid paying him, and get a bunch of prospects for the future that never arrives…
The A’s have been crying about being a small market Nomoneyball team for about 15 some odd years now. It is fucking old and weak.
If Sabes can sign Morrow, he’ll only need three more starters by April.
well he only needed one to win a World Series so I’m assuming you’re saying that if Sabes signed Morrow he would be ahead of schedule come April?
As I said last year and the year before, that second wild card removes a lot of pressure that there might have been to keep up with your division rivals. And now it’s proven. Sabes probably couldn’t care less about winning the division. Just make the playoffs and trot out Bumgarner as often as possible. This might be his plan for the next 10 years.
I think there is a lot of truth to this post
I’m not too sure about that. I think Sabean’s been hot after one of these big-money pitchers so he can try and match the Bums’ 1-2 of Kershaw-Greinke. The sure-fire way of making the playoffs is still winning the division. The Giants sort of lucked out last year in that they were able to set up MadBum for the wild-card game, but things might not always fall neatly into place like that every season.
BTW Loo, my Mets buddy already asked today which game I want to go to next season. I said whichever one MadBum starts.
We were lucky to have a 4 game set here this year, Mac. Back to 3 in 2015. Is it too soon to try to figure out the rotation for that series? The Thursday game should be an afternoon start (getaway day for a Friday game back in SF).
I think they’re all at night.
Gotta go to one of those games with youse guys. Must. Gotta.
I’m gonna ask my bartender to make me a Koko-Mac-A-Looza.
Just to see his reaction…
Peavy and Vogey might not be awful for the rotation. Then again, they could crash and have us out it by May. #oddyear
I think they’re both gone, Pawlie…
#too many geezers
“The Giants almost never have a starting pitcher break down in the middle of the season.”
Well, not by injury. And after the 2012 PS I swore I would never insult Zito again. So I’ll let that one go.
well, I was referring to injuries, that was the point. It’s the reason why I don’t think Sabes would ever be in on a guy like Morrow
But great to see you XOOT, it’s been too long. You should stop by more often!
Dodger fans continue to ponder:
I find this fascinating, that the Sabean world can win the games that count. Even while everyone discounts his model as crapshoot witchcraft. My favorite part, alll after Bonds was done. I used to be so sure about so many things related to baseball, now I feel like I’m just full of knowledge that doesn’t mean jack shit. Probably not chaos theory but it feels like chaos to me. And since I rarely make myself clear, I’m not talking about the Geek Squad (Dodgers front office), I’m talking about the Giants having three championships in five years with teams I never would have dreamed of being of that caliber. All good teams, but the ability to stroll through the postseason continues to mystify me.
by Phil Gurnee on Dec 12, 2014 | 1:10 PM
I think it is obvious someone sold their soul to the devil.
by Franklin Brock on Dec 12, 2014 | 1:26 PM
Franklin Brock nailed it…
I think crapshoot witchcraft is about right. Except there’s no reason to discount it, if you understand and acknowledge that all 3 of these teams were “good.”
Dodger fans ponder the new Dodger lineup:
In my opinion it may be A LOT like the Washington Nationals lineup from last season.
A lot of solid hitters, with a couple STAR potential players (Joc/Puig/Grandal vs. Rendon/Harper/Ramos)
by dodgermatt on Dec 12, 2014 | 12:50 PM
Cool, they totally dominated the Giant pitching in the postseason.
by Phil Gurnee on Dec 12, 2014 | 12:51 PM
haha
sarcastic, deadpan, accurate
by kinbote on Dec 12, 2014 | 1:35 PM
do you ever troll this blog with something snarky or are you just strictly a *cut and past* guy? Don’t get me wrong, I love these posts, I’m just wondering if you ever get into it with anyone……..
No, I’ve never posted on another team’s blog. I’ve never really understood the appeal of that, I guess.
Plus, I’m always a little daunted by sign-up processes for discussion forums on the internet.
This blog, and Chuck’s once in a while, are the only sports blogs I post comments on. There’s a couple of music and book blogs I post comments on occasionally.
same boat. I post here, chuck’s blog and if I see a particularly stupid post I’ll crash Yahoo. But I’m always bummed after that since I know my IQ just dipped 3 pts for doing so.
There’s also some daily fantasy sports sites I’ll hit. And Pawlie’s blog on occasion but he doesn’t fire off enough threads. 🙂 🙂 🙂
And Blade’s blog is really fantastic, when he throws a thread out there it is encompassing, layered…..
Thankfully, Melky has signed with the White Sox. Now hopefully we won’t have to continue being subjected to that Jaegermeister guy and his trolling about everything Melky. Unless he’s actually more than just a one-trick dick and moves on to another extremely boring topic….
He’s a long time troll, once known as barry4ever. You’ve also enjoyed his arch wit as Vogelscheisse and Phlabloxxxl. He seems to have some fluency in the tongue of the Vaterland, hence the utterly hilarious variation on Vogey’s name and the homage to Hargesheimer. Bonds, Melky, steroids!
I’m a little disappointed but not surprised. I’d take Morse back, but I think he’s AL bound. Can’t see Blanco as the full time LF to start the season, so where does that leave us?
I don’t think Melky was ever coming back to SF. Evans said they were “in” on him, but I’m guessing that was just easier than going into the reasons why the team had no interest in dredging up that whole chapter. IMO. Where that leaves us is… where we’ve been from the start of the off-season… waiting for a new pitcher, 3rd bagger, and LFer. Haven’t heard any word from management about Morse, so, yeah, he’s probably AL-bound. A full healthy season of his bat would be great, but it probably wouldn’t happen. If I were him, I’d welcome being a DH at this point. I still think new position players will come via trade, and perhaps Shields via free agency.
If they fill two of those 3 needs with better than average players, they’ll be in good shape . . . as long as one of the two is a starting pitcher.
I don’t subscribe to Sports Illustrated, so if there’s an issue I want to get, I have to buy it ‘off the rack.’ Today, I went looking for a copy of the MadBum Sportsman of the Year issue, and I checked the local Barnes and Noble. They didn’t have that issue yet. Then I checked a Walgreen’s (they didn’t have it, either) and then a Raley’s grocery store, and they had it! Yay! But how did Raley’s beat Barnes and Noble on that (?); that’s a question for another time.
Great article about MadBum; a classic. And the issue also has a nice article about Bochy, too.
A couple of the MLB Network pundits said that Lester should do well because the NL is easier to pitch in than the AL.
Huh?? Is there actual statistical evidence to back that up, or is that just some kind of myth? Sure, the AL has the DH, but the NL pitchers are not all automatic outs. They do get hits sometimes.
How often have AL starting pitchers come over to the NL and dominated? It doesn’t happen all the time.
No DH. A lot of pitchers feel they get an easy out by facing the opposing pitcher. I guess they haven’t read Bum’s stats yet.
Looks like there wasn’t enough Melk money after all. Is Sabean feeling re-Morse, then?
Zach….enough
James, I do remember Barry4ever. I think the Splash had that feature that you could actually “turn off” or hide comments posted by someone you designate as “invisible”. He was the only one I ever did that to. Even Soph I kept visible, *it* was just so funny in a way…. unlike this fool.
I found Soph extremely entertaining. Not many others did…
Soph was entertaining for a while and then they jumped the shark. Not long after that, the Flap came along and I haven’t been on the splash since.
Whoa, Craig, you’re up early…