Sifting Through the Numbers
For those of you wondering……
What do we glean from this? Someone named “Lollis” is on the team. Our HR leader is Gary Brown (1) tied with Duvall, Carbonell and Quiroz. Brown is also the SB leader with 2. So clearly, we’ve found a short term replacement for Pence, right?
Man, Gary Brown must really not be able to hit a breaking ball.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Nor can Reggie Jackson . . . Also, the MOFO can’t make a 3, much less a frickin’ 2 to save his life.*
*Inside joke . . . Craig would understand.
No doubt. Against the freaking Lakers no less
Gee, three of our starters (Aoki, Craw and Panik) are below the screen print line. On the positive side, that Jarrett Parker is a goddamn RBI machine.
I like the way Flappers are worried about the pitchers getting in shape and the fielders working on their timing and team play. Meanwhile espn (isn’t that the ability to see into the future?) and mlb.newz are hyping “monster” home runs and how this or that batter is going to render opposing teams helpless. As demonstrated by their ST outbursts, of course.
HA!
And aren’t you excit_edd? A-Rod hit a homerun in Florida. I’m pretty sure it was with his eyes closed after he had pointed to left center and winked at the pretty girl.
This is why spring training doesn’t wow me much. Barring a huge spring by the unknown phenom, (that 70s guy whose name I can’t remember springs to mind) there’s very little fighting for positions going on. When your team is set, there you go.
Some clown was asking Bummie if he was worried about getting shelled his first start. I mean seriously. I’m sure Bummie was freaking out.
Randy Mofitt?
No, some hitter kid that lit up spring and like ha’f a season of success before burning out in a blaze of groundouts. Randy Elliott!! That’s him.
I’m more worried about guys who take ST seriously.
I am more worried about you being worried about guys taking ST seriously. Seriously.
Good one Nip.
Front page of chron sports has a story about Eric Sogard that notes 2 years ago he hit .444 in ST.
Eric Sogard, the guy who was hitting .186 at the AS break last year.
Pence last season didn’t get off to great start (.262 with 9 rbis march/april) altho he got rolling in May, and that’s after full ST. So might be a while before he’s really himself at the plate. Of course last year his worst month was Sept.(under Mendoza line), so rest could ultimately do him good.
Reading the Bill White bio entitled “Uppity”, so you get an idea he wasn’t one to take much BS and had good read on the “business” of baseball. Great story about being a part of integrating ST in Florida with Cards in ’60s.
Mays helped him out quite a bit when he first came up with NY Giants and he has nothing but good things to say about Mays the ballplayer and the man.
On Yahoo today was an ad featuring a sale on Converse shoes.
Still cracks me up these are a fashion statement today for girls, and even their Moms, low top and high tops included.
I wore these (high top whites) in the 60s to play HS ball in, never with less than 2 pairs of socks because of zero padding. 2 pair lasted all 3 yrs, and were worn inside and outside unlike today’s b-ball shoes.
They were ugly then and imo haven’t changed. No idea what kids see in them, esp bright colors.
Black high tops, worn by Celtics HOF all ugly team guys like Mel Counts and Henry Finkel, were the worst.
Couple years ago one of the top selling kids backpacks where I work had a white background with 3 or 4 different shades of blue horizontal lines in them running from light to dark. I asked a Mom who bought one, “Tie dye is back in?”
She said, “Oh, it never left.”
I don’t play hoops but I still love the high top leather Converse Cons for knocking around in, One of my ankles is pretty tore up and I always liked the support they had (Nike had the better arch support). Not a fan of canvas shoes, unless you’re talking about my 5 buck K-Mart slip-ons.
In SE Asia (especially Vietnam), the Converse canvas shoes are BIG! No discounts over there either, as they sell really well to females especially. Yeah, I agree they are butt ugly – so much so that they are cool. In fact, if the cost weren’t so high, I would buy myself a pair. Also, like you said, they have no arch support, so they suck wind for playing sports.
I have a pair of Chuck Taylor canvas low tops in black and orange (custom from the Convese site). Yep, they have ZERO arch support, but I still like them. Have started looking at the same shoes in leather, as my canvas pair are starting to show their age.
Here’s the Randy Elliott story . . . in a nutshell
http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/WHERE-ARE-THEY-NOW-Randy-Elliott-Giants-2660151.php
Great story. Before him, it was Clint Hartung. After a sizzling ST, a sportswriter cracked, “He should skip the formality of a career and go straight to Cooperstown.”
I don’t really follow spring training that much. I caught the dodger/Giants game the other day on MLB.com though and it was nice to hear Miller’s smooth voice again. Arroyo stands out on that list of stats I suppose. Isn’t he only 19 or something? Sure, it is only 6abs but anything positive from a young guy against professional competition is good to see. As I understand it the club thinks highly of him. Former 1st rounder I think.
Blade, I got a Linked in invite from you recently. I don’t know if it is intentional or not but that is probably one of the funniest profiles I’ve seen. If that wasn’t your intent…..no offense? lulz.
Yes, it was my intent. I have no idea why – but everyone endorses me for all things related to vacations, travel, and tourism. My expertise was in the occupational safety and health field. Hilarious. The only thing funnier is that I am asked constantly to be someone’s connection. I retired early almost 9 years ago and explicitly say I have NO interest in working EVER AGAIN. Anywho, occasionally I turn the tables and ask someone to be my “connection” for shit and giggles. Lucky you. 🙂
By the by, go to my Facebook profile, which reads:
“Ne’er-do-well
Executive Director of Goofing Off
I specialize in retirement . . . umm, my own.”
Randy Elliott. In 1978, at Three Rivers in Pittsburgh, on the field or in the dugout, I mentioned him to Altobelli. Alto rolled his eyes. As if, “Are you kidding me, kid?”
now I’m wondering if it was 1977, based on the Chron story….need to check my research!
I unapologetically find Spring Training interesting. I think there are interesting storylines around MLB during ST. This morning MLB Network had the Os vs. the Yanks. I found myself not disliking the Yankees for the first time in about…..decades. No Jeter. No pompous hype. Just a team trying to find its way. I officially don’t dislike the Yankees as much as I used to.
The only time I get wound-up about ST is when I am heading down. I love Scottsdale and the vibe of ST, and it is always great fun to hang-out with my daughter and have some quality 1-on-1 time. And taking in a ball game with a bunch of other crazed Giants’ fans is awesome.
Plus, Scottsdale is just a great place to hang-out, watch people (more great looking babes than you can shake a stick at), and there are a few restaurants that I always love to visit (the Daily Dose for an awesome breakfast to start each day, Don and Charlie’s for the baseball/Giant vibe, great food, and Grimaldi’s for a kick-ass pizza). Outside of that, I always am hopeful to get to see some of the prospects in action. This year, with my daughter and I not going down, my interest in ST has been “ho-hum,” at best.
Obviously our boys need a bit more time to get into every-day playing shape, but I am ready for the games to start counting. Cannot wait for the home opener and seeing another World Series Champions banner going up the flag pole!
Back-to-Back and Four in Six!
Watching Cain pitch two very good innings was a very cool thing. If he can be something like the Cain of the past, what a huge boost for the Giants.
Hudson with his first start today. Will be interesting to see how he does. I have absolutely no expectations, other than hoping that afterwards, he walks off the field with no pain, and is ready for his next outing.
Some of the Dodgers have looked pretty good in ST, but their new catcher Grandal has not. He was pretty awful against the Giants, on defense. The guy can hit a bit, but his defense is not good. The Padres were starting to play him more at firstbase last season. The Dodgers were pretty desperate about their catcher situation last year. Ellis hit something like .195 last year.
No doubt the Pads are jizzin’ over three of their big pickups — Middlebrooks, Kemp and Upton — hitting home runs against the Giants yesterday, although last I checked the Giants and Pads won’t be facing each other at Chase Field when the real games starts.
It has been mentioned that the Red Sox have a crowded outfield and of course they have been trying to ship Allen Craig and his contract for quite some time. Obviously there should be no interest from the Giants in Craig. One guy who I could see us making a play for is Daniel Nava. He would be a nice fill in for Pence, and at worst would be a fine fourth outfielder and at best would pressure Aoki for every day playing time.
Joe – I don’t see the Giants making any moves to accomodate Pence being out 6-8 weeks. What would the Giants give-up for Nava?
And while the OF may be crowded for the Sox, they have some measure of control over Nava, as he was in his first year of arbitration this year (settled on a 1,85 mil contract to avoid arb). He will continue to be arb eligible until 2019 when he becomes a FA.
The Red Sox don’t exactly overwork their players in ST. After 7 games, Sandoval has 9 ABs, and that’s typical of all their players so far.
The Thong lives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you, Aubrey! (and Blade). Now the Panda Saga comes clear for me; this makes sense of all the odd pieces around Sandoval’s departure just didn’t quite fit.
“that didn’t quite fit”
Sheesh
ST ……a great time to have a vacation……for the players.
First play in today’s game – Belt goes deep in the hole to grab a grounder and underhands to Hudson covering for the out. Sounds like Hudson looked good in getting to the bag to cover.
Yep, Spring Training is so important that MLB is going to let Will Ferrell play all positions for 10 different teams (I guess they consider DH a position?) on Thursday. Maybe the new Comish will allow a roving band of clowns to take over a team’s infield for an inning or so during the season, you know, for the Sanctity of the Game and all.
I bet if they let the mascots DH they would do just as good as your average pitcher at bat with a little instruction of course.
LOL, Aoki. “Hitting” .067 now. Giants fans weren’t thrilled about this signing in the first place, and he’s provided zero thrills so far.
And in other news…Timmy’s Mojo is STILL MISSING…
That’s too bad; he looked good in his last outing. But he needs to be consistent, and he still isn’t.
In his last outing I was concerned about the speed of his fastball. I remember him hitting 89 a few times. He needs to figure out how to get it done with an 89 MPH fastball. Of course, that means hitting spots with it, and can he do that?
What did he do today Zum?
Bochy will just state, “I’m not worried…..Timmy’s Mojo will come around just fine.”
Well imagine there is increased pressure now on Timmy after all the work with daddy and publicly stating he thinks he found what was wrong.
If he still struggles, what next, Lourdes?
3 more earned runs for Lincecum; he hasn’t had a clean inning yet. ERA at 13.50 now. This was a step backward today.
Greinke was kind of ragged in his debut today. And Grandal continues to play some lousy catcher. Greinke gave him the stank-eye on a wild pitch he thought he should have blocked.
Story I read said Dodger pitchers love throwing to Ellis. As good as they are esp on front end of rotation, I doubt Mattingly would gain much by antagonizing them.
LA is still going to be very tough regardless of how many guys they are paying to not play for them.
wow, great ending to Stanford game vs. hot shooting UW, with Cards down 5 but scoring final 7 and winning it by a basket with a 3 pointer from Chasson Randle with 2 seconds left.
Walton was great all night and will do last 2 games again tomorrow.
Good stuff.