The Pointless, The Bad, and Paul Pierce
I watched a lot of Seinfeld back in the day. Remember the episode where Kramer is hanging out at a company and the employees just assume he works there so he starts showing up everyday with a briefcase full of crackers? Then he submits a “report” and after reviewing it his boss says “It’s almost like you have no business training whatsoever.”
I think some of these GM’s got their jobs the same way Kramer got that job. Many of these deadline moves suggest as much. Toronto had a very capable leadoff man and shortstop in Jose Reyes. His teammates and manager loved him. The Blue Jays hole is pitching not hitting. So what do they do? They go get an aging Tulo who is a shell of what he once was. That move made as much sense as the crackers in Kramer’s briefcase. And Toronto players were not happy.
Flip flop over to Washington. Why did The Nationals trade for J-Pap? They had a perfectly serviceable closer in Drew Storen. And much like Tulo, Pap’s best days are behind him. As you would expect, Storen was less than thrilled with the move……
What’s Dave Stewart up to in Arizona? He’s busy trying to trade for Aroldis Chapman. What the fuck is he going to do with him if he gets him? Have him sit on the bench every game? The D-backs need Chapman like I need a gay lover. He would go unused in the desert. And Stew would have to give up half of his best prospects to get him……
Decisions, decisions. Baseball GM’s make some curious ones. Then there are decisions pro basketball players make. If you’re Paul Pierce, why do you agree to do this?
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
“The D-backs need Chapman like I need a gay lover.”
ROFL. Thanks, Flav, I needed a good laugh this morning.
Yeah I second that !!
Almost upchucked my coffee☕️
Nice curveball
That’s one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes. Reminds me of when I was in college and I lied about having waited tables to get a job at this really hot restaurant in Austin. I had never waited tables in my life but I knew they wouldn’t hire me with zero experience. First night It started off great until the place got busy and then it all went to shit. I ended up walking out before the GM had a chance to fire me.
that is HILARIOUS
my problem is I shoulda lied more, esp if they asked, “do you give a feck about this job?”
Day game, looks like we’ll get a chance to test out the Kruk theory from last night about weather making the ball jump. Should be a lot hotter in SF at 12:45 than it was last night, although it won’t change when SF is up to bat.
Cain has looked pretty ordinary to me, worse than Peavy so far. Continued work hopefully these guys get back into the rhythm and routine and have better command.
Arias is instantly forgettable, but still no idea why SF is so concerned Adrianza is OOO. He’s never given any indication he can hit ml pitching, and his stint here last year was marred by some really dumb baseball.
His ceiling is probably one step above the Mendoza line.
Op, who is rolling lately, vs. A’s today.
Re: Manny Burriss. In the book Feinstein wrote about following a season of AAA ball in east/south, if you weren’t called up by end of trade deadline it sucked. That usually meant you were stuck finishing out the season in August in the heat and humidity. Sept call ups are often the young hot prospect types moving up the system, and less the seasoned vets.
There’s been a lot of local talk about how Evans has taken the reigns which I find mildly interesting. After so much time apprenticing with Sabean does he call other GMs and tell them to kiss the ring? Has he mastered the dry hump?
One of my favorite scenes in the Moneyball movie is when Beane is in his office trying to unload Carlos Pena. The back and forth between the various GM’s is not only humorous but probably pretty accurate. I would pay to see a Hard Knocks version of the baseball GM’s this week.
As for Beane trading his established vet stars for prospects, knock your self out.
I just looked it up and both Hembree and Escobar worked 2 thirds of an inning for the Pawtucket PawSox couple days ago. So both guys Sabes gave up to acquire Peavy are still in the minors a year later and unable to crack the pen for the Red Sox.
Yeow, that’s almost like acquiring Scut from the Rox/Pence from Phils for Nate.
I’d still take Parra tho, guy can play. Send Pagan to a clinic in Thailand and roll with Parra Blanco Pence Aoki and Max. Plenty of versatility, good D and OB.
No worries of a Latos signing….But he’s going to the Dodgers, so we’ll have to be sickened by the sight of the POS anyway a few more times…
Pretty mediocre numbers from Latos. 4-7, with a 4+ ERA. But their rotation has a gaping hole in it.
I don’t see him being an answer for the playoffs, though.
MLB.com is reporting the Dodgers and Marlins are close to a deal to send Latos and Morse to the Dodgers.
OK….I get acquiring Latos, but Morse? That must be one of those “if you want player A, you have to take player B, too” kind of deals.
But there’s no place for Morse on the Dodgers. That would be another of those “tick off a bunch of people on the team” type of moves.
Unless….the Dodgers are going to move some other guys afterwards, like Van Slyke or maybe even Puig.
Or the Dodgers could just let Morse go and eat the contract.
Or include him in some other deal. I gotta think Morse’s value is pretty low lately.
Last night reinforced how important Turner has been to the Dodgers this season. Without him in their line-up, there’s a key cog missing. All the money the Dodgers have spent the last few seasons, and their best offensive player these days is a scrap-heap pick-up.
It’s being reported that Kershaw has slight soreness in his hip, and won’t make his start today. They think he’s going to be OK in a couple of days.
Morse on the Dodgers would bum me out big time. Just doesn’t seem right. I know its weird to say that about a guy who played for us for one year, but that’s the way I feel.
As for Paul Pierce…….I can understand when a rapper makes a mess of throwing out the first pitch—but a surefire Hall of Fame hoops player with off the charts athleticism????? I know he is well past his prime and grew up in the era when blacks stopped playing baseball, but it looked like he was trying to throw a freaking ping pong ball 60 feet.
It was unreal. My question: did he even bother to take a few practice throws. He had to have right? And after those throws, even his bros had to have said, “brah, you can’t do this in public.”
Good thread; totally agree, as noted yesterday (well, I solipsistically note that you were agreeing with me). I think half these moves are made to get ink, or to make fans think the front office cares, or to grab time on MLB or ESPN. Along those lines, I have to note: look how UNdramatic and “sober” the Yankees have been this year. They are cakewalking to the AL East title.
I rarely watched Seinfeld because I had/have a standing commitment on Thursdays related to staying out of jail, jumping off of tall buildings, insulting strangers, getting into brawls with both male and female and transgender bar patrons, driving under the influence etc. etc. Anyway, one episode I did see was when Costanza somehow got a job and no one knew how. He “worked” on the Penske file, but mostly watched the clock. “You know, you’re Penske material.” Too true, but not too true in the bitter way The Office is/was, Brit or US version. Those shows WERE too true and hard to watch if you were ever in Corporate America.
Have you seen House of Lies with Don Cheadle? That was basically my life at one point.
no, but sounds good already
Yeah, the “Diversity Day” episode which I believe was either the second or third episode of the US version, is the single funniest epsiode in the history of television.
House of Cards is another good show. Kevin Spacey is brutal!
Yup. The start of season 2 was crazy
Added a pic to the thread. Love it!
That is sweet!
A Bochy Day Game Special for Peavy:
Aoki LF
Blanco CF
Duffy 3B
Pence RF
Belt 1B
Crawford SS
Sanchez C
Adrianza 2B
Peavy RHP
Did I miss something with Panik?
Tweaked his back and needs another day.
Looking at the years of dysfunction lala land I wonder if Hamels regrets not putting the dodgers on his no trade list.
I still can’t get over that Pierce throw. And his reaction after like he can’t believe it. How could an elite pro athlete throw a ball like that?
Just listened to the pre-game show on the radio and then read Baggs post. Bochy makes the same statement everywhere. He stays on message better than a GOP Congressman.
Synopsis of House Of Lies . . . “Charming, fast-talking consultant Marty Kaan and his MBA-toting colleagues charm smug, unsuspecting corporate fat cats into closing deals while spending a fortune for their services. Kaan isn’t above using any means — or person — necessary to get what he wants. Members of his team are razor-sharp Jeannie van der Hooven, an Ivy Leaague alumna; lackadaisical Clyde Oberholt, who’s a lady’s man; and math guru Doug Guggenheim, who’s awkward with women. Marty lives with his psychoanalyst father and young son, Roscoe.”
So, the $64,000.00 question is . . . Which character were you Dirt? 🙂
lulz, Clyde or course. No MBA though. Like most of my life I’ve gotten by with a steady stream of bullshitting and knowing how to party.
You should watch it, blade. I think you’d like it.
Going to. Sounds like my kind of show. I will download the seasons. Thanks . . . Umm, you’re married though, right? This is BM (before marriage)? Still lackadaisical? Hehehe . . .
haha, yeah. I mean there is much less partying these day. The bullshitting never ends.
After I got shitcanned from my first job out of college a friend and I started a technical recruiting firm out of his kitchen with nothing more than an internet connection. Payment was dependent on getting contracts which were often signed after cold calls on technology firms. We grew the company to 23 employees at one point. When the dot com bubble burst I pulled the chute and split for Deutschland. He ended up staying with it and spinning it into this software platform that is sort of facebook for seniors which he runs out of Mexico now. He was definitely the Marty Kaan.
not POTD but an extremely interesting post. thanks for sharing
Nice 1,2,3 inning for Peavy.
Pierce looks like he never played after the mound moved to regulation distance. Dude should have just gone from the bottom of the hill. Agree with you though, Flav. He’s gotta have advisers watching his arse on these kind of things.
Nice throw from Pence; good call by the ump.
I would really like to see Pierce try to make that throw Pence just made. That would be some fantastic comedy….
Pence is on fire out there today. He’s gonna go yard.
Aoki, great catch in a tough sun field.
That was a super nice at bat by White Shark, really made Fiers work … Gotta say, Blanco has developed into an indispensable bench player, one of the best in the game I’d think … anybody notice what the difference is?mi think it is his focus … he seems so present, at the plate and in the field … showing great maturity and at 31 it bodes well for the future.
Ok that’s it … I’m coming on board ….. TRADE BELT!
I guess Bochy hasn’t noticed Belt leads the team in Ks — and there isn’t a close second.
To go with the K’s he is also by far the leader in 3-2 counts and wearing down opposing starters. Now if he only wouldn’t do that with their bullies…
I’m sort of hoping that Belt gets pulled from the game as a deal is consummated.
Oh, that’d be sooooo sweeeet!!!
Not Belt’s finest moment, but a strange time for Bochy to call for a hit and run, IMO.
Adrianzzzzzzzzzzza.
Ehire, with almost warning track power.
About the time Peavy runs out of gas.
Looks like there is drama surrounding the Latos/Morse trade and it may fall thru. Medical issues with one of the players involved and the Dodgers are already trying to find a taker for Morse.
Strickland throwing like Pierce, although much harder…….
Strick got it done the hard way. Yikes.
The ball’s certainly jumping out of the park today . . .
Must be the heat or some other Krukow nonsense.
Pence right in the thick of it with the RBI. Nice. Duffy is pretty damn fast.
Note: I said that before the double by Pence.
yeah, baby . . .
nice call, Dirt. Didn’t go yard but might as well have. 1- nada
Redemption song?
Come on, Belt. The time is now . . .
Pence having a game.
A hit with RISP that didn’t result IS.
What happened to pence? I hate gamecast.
Lighting up the Fresh Prince out of the Brewers bullpen.
Fucking gamecast can’t add. Do we ave 4 runs?
4-0, runner at 2nd, 1 out. Brewers pitching change.
Thx.
Gamecast had Pence disappear and not score, Crawfish was out, and the outs didn’t change.
An Adrianza sighting! We have 4 now.
Yo Adrianza!
good 1
Nice inning by our World Champs!!
Still a schizophrenic hitting team, but when they’re on they’re right there with it. Sweet to see Adrianza get that dingle and the two rib-eyes. That tripled his knocked-in total. Now we don’t hafta miss being able to push the Panik button on a constant basis. Bochy can feel good about getting him 3 days of healing feeling.
Wonderful performance by Peavy and nice Houdini job by Strickland in his 20 pitch effort. Romo does not seem to care about making it look easy these days but got the job done.
Very schizoid … I was ready to start whimpering & whining around the 4th when Peavy had our only hit, then Pence stepped up. They really played like champs today facing a hurler with good stuff and once they got him outta there they did what good teams do: feasted on the remains.
How did Peavy look (missed the game)?
I thought his stuff looked good. He started to run out of gas in the 6th.
Can’t argue with a shutout through 6 (4 hits and no BB). Nice.
Nice one.
This is completely without factual basis, but it seems to me — of late anyway — that the Giants have won more often than not when Buster doesn’t start.
Nice win. Adrianza finally contributed; he doinked one past the drawn-in infield. He got the job done on that.
Pence is a star. If we hadn’t lost him for 2 months we’d have already blown past the Dodgers.
Tied for first at the moment.
Nice read about the Duffster . . . http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/61013/national-league-rookie-race-has-a-surprise-contender-in-matt-duffy
Watch the video . . . Eric Karabell is a dickweed weinie.
Cool article; thanks!
Karabell is a stat guru and WAR is his bible . . . In effect, you can’t have it both ways by saying that Bryant or Pederson are the front runners, when their WAR numbers (2.6 and 2.4, respectively) pale against Duffy’s 3.4
Only valid statement is about Heston being equal to Duffy (albeit, personally I do not like pitchers to win this award, nor the MVP).
The video has a pretty cool debate.
Thanx for the link. Cool piece as national media types are now coming around to a take i was boosting maybe 5 weeks ago. No video or even radio coverage here but a person can gather quite a bit from box scores. Bochy propping him into the 3-hole probably opened a lot of eyes across the baseball cosmos.
Joc’s been horrendous in July and for the year he’s hitting .228. Fuck that.
Just saw this on Twitter . . . Good point.
isn’t that Tommy Lasorda?
I wish Xoot. 🙂
Tulo hits an HR. Nice start.
. . . and a 2 bagger.
And then hits the DL
I don’t get the big deal about the Paul Pierce first pitch. It doesn’t look that bad compared to most. Go to YouTube and check out some of the gems by Carl Lewis, John Wall and even Michael Jordan… Jordan by the way might be the worst golfer who thinks he is better than he really is. Can’t believe he actually thought he could make it on the tour.
Brewers’ Gomez traded to Mets for Zach Wheeler and somebody else.
Wilmer Flores.
my kid thinks Gomez is a good player and that he got tossed from the game in SF the other night because he was upset at himself (thus, I guess, Counsel was arguing that point with the umps). That’s a pretty good take. At least it explains why Gomez and his manager both seemed to be railing at the umps in NY. Still, I thought Gomez looked like an immature sort of “star.” The Mets must desperate for some pop.
Dodger/Marlin trade is now a 3-way with the Braves.
Is their a woman involved?
So Fleming is doing another ESPN game tonight. I bet Kuiper and Miller just love having to do play by play for nine innings and go back and forth between booths. Not sure when “the kid’s” contract is up, but I would bet money he won’t be back.
That’s fine with me WJ..
Never really thought the Stanford brat was all that articulate.
He grates on me on radio and especially post game shows..
Take your act to Bristol Conn, where nobody cares if you flub up..,
He wants to be Al Michaels. Good riddance, is my view, but others enjoy him. Anyone else remember when Krukow got a shot on Fox game of the week and blew it? He really tried too hard.d
Latest MLBTR update is that SF is still in on Hamels, with Susac, Beede and two pipeliners in the offing. So it’s wait and see on that one. Philly wanted offers by today. Rangers are sposta have the inside track. A lot may depend on who the two minor leaguers happen to be and just how deep Texas wants to dig. If Hamels is not the get, i’d okay with Price and quite happy with Leake (who would likely transform from a rental into a fixture). Two more day, Grace.
Hamels on his way to Texas.
Which means he will pitch against the Giants this weekend.
Good they can kick his arse again…;)
they got that Susac/Beede/etc. package from this blog after I proposed it weeks ago and Loo said it was nonsense. I’m circling around toward it’s nonsense. But we’ll see.
Nice call Zoot! I wasn’t sure who made that call. Probably could have happened if Hamels didn’t have SF on his no trade list. It’s sounding like Texas didn’t have to give up any of their top 5 prospects for Hamels.
Gordon Edes @GordonEdes 58m58 minutes ago
This close to trade deadline, a player coming out of game in 6th like Pablo typically means a trade. Let me know when you stop laughing
That’s hilarious.
that is hilarious. Unfortunately it may apply to Jesse Chavez tonight in LA too
Sandoval left the game because he was dehydrated.
Red Sox manager John Farrell said Sandoval’s level of conditioning is “something that Pablo has dealt with his entire career. It continues to be addressed. I can’t say tonight is a direct result of that. But there are ongoing efforts to support that, to try to get him in the best shape possible.”
Some quick research has turned up the following and might explain Sandoval’s problem:
The Panda usually eats while sitting upright, in a pose that resembles how humans sit on the floor. This posture leaves the front paws free to grasp bamboo stems with the help of a “pseudo thumb,” formed by an elongated and enlarged wrist bone (missing the hamate) covered with a fleshy pad of skin. The Panda also uses its powerful jaws and strong teeth to crush the tough, fibrous bamboo into bits.
The Giant Panda’s digestive system is more similar to that of a carnivore than an herbivore, and so much of what is eaten is passed as waste. To make up for the inefficient digestion, the Panda needs to consume a comparatively large amount of food—from 20 to 40 pounds of bamboo each day—to get all its nutrients. To obtain this much food means that a panda must spend 10 to 16 hours a day foraging and eating. The rest of its time is spent mostly sleeping and resting.
The Giant Panda gets much of the water he needs from bamboo, a grass whose contents are about half water. (New bamboo shoots are about 90 percent water.) But he needs more water than what bamboo alone can provide. So almost every day the Panda will also drink fresh water from rivers and streams that are fed by melting snowfall in high mountain peaks. The temperate forests of central China where giant pandas live receive about 30 to 40 inches of rain and snow a year. Charleston, West Virginia—a city with a similar temperate climate—receives about the same amount of rain and snow: an average of 42.5 inches a year.
Freaking crazy night on the trades!
Now the Mets/ Brewer trade off the table, Wheeler/ Gomez/ Flores, as Mets GM Sandy Alderson said no trade will transpire.This after Manager Terry Collins had Flores start then yanked during the game,and he was balling like a baby in the dugout,as Collins is saying nobody told me what’s going on,so i played him cause its baseball and I have a job to do. Which is true, but sure was handled messy to say the least.
Now it sounds like it came down to are old guy Zach Wheeler and his medical charts, not up to par..
Maybe they should have asked Kevin Love instead of PP:
http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/kevin-love-art-touchdown-pass
A’s move ahead of Bums on MLB Network…
6-3 A’s – top 7th…
Good aggressive play by the A’s on the base paths.
Somebody earlier mentioned how Blanco is improved this year and wondering why — it’s clear to me it’s the influence of Aoki. I’m pretty sure last year in the World Series I said blanco should take a lesson from Aoki on how to hit– So he’s doing that now on a teammate basis…
Is Aoki a banned substance?
Are you sure he hasn’t changed his grip based on Bam Bam’s advice? If not, maybe some credit should go to Aoki’s translator, who may have mastered the nuances of Japanese to English as a second language.
That was me Snarkk. I think you are on to something … it could well be that the proximity of Aoki is having a major influence. I think it could also be attributed to an overall maturation of skills. He’s been at this game for awhile now and seems like he may have begun to figure out some of hittings deeper aspects. Ultimately, a big part of that could be his ability to observe and learn from what he is seeing … case in point, as you have so astutely pointed out, watching and learning from Aoki.
That A’s reliever was brutal. A reliever that has control problems is just aaarrgghh.
The basic problem is the A’s just aren’t very good.
Pomerantz’s curves are all hangers. Pathetic. Congrats, Beane, your team is horrible.