Missed Opportunities
Three games v the Cardinals and only one win. All 3 games very winnable. The Cubs lost. AZ beat up on Pitt. And the lowly A’s exposed the Dodgers as what they are— a truly average team.
The division is RIGHT THERE for the taking. That is, as long as the Dodgers continue to ignore fixing their pathetic bullpen and continue to make pointless moves like adding Chase Utley.
Nothing else to do but take it one game at a time, starting tonight……..
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
All these injuries won’t matter if we can simply hang around. Yeah I’d love to run away with the West right now, but that probably won’t happen. Getting healthy by mid September would be the time to make the run.
GOD decided dominating the division would be no fun. So we question our sanity, the injuries, the moves, the possibilities and live the season as all Giants fans do: lots of torture and big victories hard fought through it all. And we all know this team fights.
I am wondering if there is any ball player, a real gamer who would love to beat the Giants more than Yadier Mo? Matt Williams comes to mind but I do not think he fits my definition.
Go Bruce B. Go Brian S. Go coaches all.
Go Gigantes!
Some Players just have our number, Goldsmith,others, freakin Molina for sure, he has 4 homers all year, 2 the last 3 days off the Giants including the game winner, frustrating!!
Good thread and perspective, Craig. Hey, we all would have loved to have swept the Cards, or even taken the series, but even with all the injuries, our boys hung tough, and could have won them all. Against the team with the best record, in their yard, I will take it, and will look forward to a rematch in our house at the end of the month.
I still think the WC or the division are there for the taking. Of course, the division is the preferred way to punch your ticket to the dance. I do think we will be right there, and I seriously suspect that four game set against the bums (our house, end of September) will decide who wins the West.
You always want to play .500 ball (or better) on the road, and I think most of us said we would be happy with three of seven on this roadie. Split with the Bucs and we’re there. Taking three of four from them with the pitchers they have lined-up will be tough, but WTH…go get ’em Giants!
Chi: September schedule is mostly vs the West. So that finale looms huge and i’ll betcha the LaBumbos are sweating it even now. Remainder of August is all about treading water. Doubtful whether the Buccos will sweep like the Cubs did. We should take one. Fifty-fifty shot at copping a split there. If so, we win 3 of 4 vs the two toughest NL opponents and those in their yards.
With Aoki back soonest and likely Leake and Pagan to follow, the team will at least suggest wholeness. IF Panik comes back with a full load of frustration needing to be expunged then we may expect good things in September. Needles to say, a waiver-wire outfielder could totally tip the balance in our favor.
Nice little piece on Blanco and what he has meant (and currently means) to the club.
http://tinyurl.com/p9sz8eb
Nice piece, chi. Key take aways;
“The Giants would be well served to take his sample size from this season and treat him as an everyday player from this point forward. His wOBA of .343 is also the highest it has ever been and in the last two weeks Blanco has accumulated a .326 BA with an OPS of .885 with 4 SB and 5 XBH.
Blanco is the real deal and truly should be valued as a premier leadoff hitter for the rest of the season on a team striving for a playoff push.”
I don’t know that I agree with all of that but I don’t think he should lose PT in CF to Pagan.
dirt – I agree with your thoughts about maybe not agreeing with all of that. I have been one of the more vocal saying I love Blanco as a 4th OFer, but not as an everyday guy.
Regarding losing playing time to Pagan, that all depends on what we get from Pagan when he returns. If he truly comes back with two healthy legs, can cover ground in CF the way we have seen when he was going right, and can contribute offensively, then I can see splitting time between the two. The key in all of that about Pagan is the “IF” part.
I think Pagan is done and a bench player going forward. I’d like to be proven wrong. Speaking of Pagan. Looks like he’s gotten into 102 games per baseball reference. 95 games started.
dirt – he sure looked done when they put him on the DL, but it is kind of tough to do anything…especially play MLB caliber ball with a bum knee. Hopefully there was no structural damage, and it just needed some rest. I hope he can come back and contribute, if not, then he needs to go back on the DL until he is right.
I have not gone back and read all of the posts from last night (after my final one on yesterday’s thread), so I am not sure if anyone else has shared this. Aplogiies if this is a duplicate.
Update on Panik and Pagan…
http://tinyurl.com/q4u2gpa
Interesting to see what happens with Susac in the LU C, Posey at 1b Belt LF Aoki RF, tho I’m sure one of the other OFs will get some time and Posey returns to C at some point in 4 gm series.
. Maybe given some reg ABs for a stretch Susac improves on his .235 avg. I’m not sold he is more than a decent back up/trade chip, and is a ? behind the plate.
Susac in limited action has made 4 errors this year—same number as Belt. Panik has 2, Posey 1 along with a high pct vs. attempted steals.
Giants face two lefties — Locke on Friday and Liriano on Sunday — so there’s a good chance we’ll see Susac at C/Posey at 1B in those games.
We can agree to disagree on Susac. Most in MLB say that a player needs a minimum of 500 MLB ABs to get seasoned, and to serve as a true evaluation. Susac has had 207.
He did hit .273 with an almost .800 OPS in that limited action last year. He also threw out runners at a 32% clip last year, and had no errors.
I think, given time, he will be a good MLB catcher. Regardless, he is the best option we have as a 2nd catcher, and any other options not named Hector are at least a year or so away.
Understand, but not on the 500 ABs. Some guys can show enough to deserve that long a look, others not. No way Adrianza would ever get that kind of rope, and I think that is entirely justified.
Same with someone like Hector or a Brett Pill, and I can’t see SF going forward with Maxwell for 500 ABs either.
Hey – I am just passing along what many who work in the industry say in regards to 500 ABs. Fringe players like Max, etc., sure.
But Susac was touted out of college as a highly regarded recruit. He certainly deserves a long look. Not sure why you are down on the dude, and don’t care, I still believe he will be a better than average receiver.
Re Molina: ESPN had something last night about how he had struggled vs. Giants before this series. Curious, I checked last year’s NLCS and completely forgot (or maybe misremembered) that he didn’t even play the final three games because of a strained oblique in Game 2. None other than A.J. Pierzynski played the next two games, and then Tony Cruz had the best view of Ishi’s blast in the clincher. Man, that was a big loss for the Cards that series.
My biggest concern with the eventual return of Pagan is the amount of rope Bochy gives him. If he returns to the lineup by early Sept when the imperative to win is full on in the red zone, will we find Bochy in his ‘loyal to a fault’ mode where he keeps running Pagan out there for an interminable number of innings? I think we do. That modus operandi alone could be a major factor in diminishing any chance we have of attaining the post season.
Agree with you there, LE. On the other hand Bochy has laid the groundwork for reduced PT.
Blanco has clearly been the better CF for a while now and earned the starting spot in my opinion.
Anyone else see the article Ratto barfed out on to the interwebs regarding Bobby Evans and his moves, or lack thereof for Utley? I’d link the article but I don’t want to soil this place with Ratto’s nonsense. Reading him for all these years was bad enough. Now that I hear him on the radio all the time I just want to slap him in the lips.
I just read the article. I have two words to say “Fuck Ratto.”
Once in a blue moon Fatto puts out something intelligent. I too have tired of his BS…cannot stand to see the man’s face or hear his voice. There are times listening to him on KNBR or seeing him on CSNBA, where, like you, I just want to slap the living dog shit out of his stupid ass.
Dirt … “barfed out” … Chi … “Fatto” … man, you guys are too much 🙂
Lisle – if you have not figured it out yet, you will see that I will be the last person to sugar coat anything. I call ’em the way I see ’em.
Apologies if I wasn’t clear Chi … I LOVE IT!! Both you and Dirt had me wetting myself … Freakin hilarious!!
All good Lisle…
F Chase Utley. We had a problem with him and Jonathan Sanchez back in the day and I am sure he objected to coming to SF. So perfect he is now a F-Dog. Bum should knock his ass over first time he sees him.
What a great series against the Cards. Every game was meaningful and tight…becoming a mano-a-mano battle royal between these two teams. And what I take out of this series like the last couple of times we have seen them in the playoffs is that we have their ass if we seem them again in the playoffs.
Even with a AAA outfield right now, I am starting to believe in the Giant magic…
Four in Six? Why Not?!
Humm Baby – Let’s Do It Again!
I think I went 110 in the Pagan contest but think that was games played and not starts…
I missed the first 4 innings of yesterday’s game, but I heard Posey was the guy going over to Cain to help get him back on track( mixing his pitches up more which seemed to work)after his struggles early on. So much confidence in Susac keeping him in check eh?
Kat, at one point Susac, Posey and Cain met at the mound and it sure looked to me like the whole conversation was Posey talking to Susac.
Yes, our ‘magic’ certainly defies ‘logic’ … as it always should.
At the outset of the series with Cards I posted that because of our impressive offense against the Nats, it should disappear against the Cards … other than Clutch McCraw there wasn’t a lot (losing Pence didn’t help matters but he was looking pretty spent anyway) … I said our SP would “astound” because other than Bum vs Nats we didn’t have much … well, I think I was fairly accurate with that … Vogglestrong certainly did astound and Cain was mostly decent … maybe I missed it on saying our BP would “tank” … other than the capitulations by Strychnine & Ostrich the pen was decent, especially Romo.
In this next 4 with the Pirates, keeping with the defying logic theme, I’m feeling stupidly optimistic 😉
I’m sensing Peeved is going to be shaky again; Bum is regrettably going to have an off day; Heston will astound and amaze us; if it is Leaky on Sunday, he will be anything but. The offense will ignite but BP inconsistencies will display their ugliness … Ultimately, we defy the odds and gods and take 3 of 4!
Yes! Yes! YES!!!
Welcome back Aoki-san…
1. Gregor Blanco (L) CF
2. Matt Duffy (R) 3B
3. Brandon Belt (L) 1B
4. Buster Posey (R) C
5. Brandon Crawford (L) SS
6. Nori Aoki (L) LF
7. Kelby Tomlinson (R) 2B
8. Ryan Lollis (L) RF
9. Jake Peavy (R) P
The Hologram with another start.
Man, with the exception of Posey, Belt and Crawford that is a slappy hitting looking lineup.
Maybe Byrd can get his physical done while he’s flying to Pittsburgh
Marlon Byrd for cash and AA right hander Stephen Johnson. Come on down?
I think I said we should get Byrd (among a lot of you as well) 3 years ago. Better late than never . . .
19 dingers, 42 ribbies, .237 BA .735 OPS
Beats the hologram . . .
My favorite part about checking Byrd’s stats at baseball reference was the similar to area at the bottom. #1 most similar to is our very own Roberto Kelly. Sweet!
I see our RFer and I think of this:
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=lollipop%20lollipop%20oh%20lolly%20lolly%20lolly
I think of Nelly Furtado.
Who?
So funny Dirt driving back home with 15 year old daughter and of course she is playing awful pop songs and on comes Nelly Furtado and said what the hell happened to her…oh yeah no talent…ok she can sing but so can a million girls…
In the last paragraph of his Evans piece Ratto strangely called himself a “nuance-resistant kneejerk[off].” You have to admit, the guy loathes everyone, including himself. I wonder how he’ll try to sweep the Yard Byrd deal away? Looks like a smart, practical, economical move to me. Let’s add some pop to the OF.
They say a Byrd in hand is worth two in the bush. Marlon Byrd…come on down.
But hey, I do like my bird in a bush…
If a bird is the hand is worth 2 in the bush, what is a hand in the bush worth?
I know. $50.00 on Broadway.
Or 10 bucks on Capp street?
Regarding the cash part for Byrd (according to MLBTR…and I paraphrase), Byrd is making 8 M this year as part of a two-year deal originally signed with the Phils. Phillies picked-up 4 mil of the tab in the trade to the Reds, leaving only about a mil remaining of his salary this year. So, a AA pitcher who was not even in the top 30 for team prospects and less than a mil cash…I like this deal.
Here is the full article:
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/08/marlon-byrd-trade-giants-reds.html
How many Giants fans will be tweeting about the new acquisition? Byrd is now with his umpteenth ML team and is one of those guys usually described as a professional hitter. His average and OBP has largely taken a dump this year, but he still can rake ~ at least in the Riverfront bandbox. Chunky, at around 6’0 and a bit over 240, Byrd may have some success as a RH slugger at Willie Mays Field. The Reds were probably happy to save around a Mil. for the rest of the season and pick up a pipeline pitcher who is vaguely a prospect in Stephen Johnson.
Hitting age 38 on the 30th of this month, Byrd is anything but a spring chicken. But coming to a perennial contender might just resurrect a bit of mojo in the old boy. On the season he has 85 hits with 13 of them doubles, 3 triples !? and 19 dingers. He is pretty much a hacker with a mere 23 walks vs 101 K’s. His runs scored and driven in are 42/46 with a drooping OBP of .286 paired with a decent SP of .448 for a .735 OPS. Batting 7th would be his logical slot.
Really Marlon’s walk up music should be a song from the Byrds… Maybe Turn Turn Turn or Mr. Tambourine Man…
or Bloomdido or Salt Peanuts
Something tells me Mr. Byrd is not into the Byrds….
Yeah that’s a good one Chuck…
Starting in RF Lollipop Lollis a real sucker move…
My oldest son thought we should have signed Marlon Byrd this off-season and I thought NAH way too old…now, he is the perfect fit..woo-hoo get him in the starting lineup pronto. Cincy is not too far. Making plans now to go to the Sunday night game if the wife gives us a pass….
Byrd feels a little dumpster-dive-ish, but hey, that’s worked out for the Giants before, at times.
Par Burrell was as dumpster diving as it gets and that was brilliant….
I think for the cost (a minor league pitcher at AA who isn’t even in the top 30 prospects for your club, and a mil or so in salary), that this was a steal. WTF…we need the OF depth, and this dude has some pop to boot. I have been bemoaning this need for weeks. Glad to see some movement. Stitch-up his uni and get his ass in the line-up pronto.
I love, love this move. I seriously feel they had to do something with the loss of Pence (oblique injuries could last until October) and it sure doesn’t sound like Panik is coming back anytime soon. I said the other day, the final nail had been laid with the loss of Pence. Now they have some serious life. Do not underestimate this move. Love me some Marlon Byrd.
He should at least help the bench. And help some guys get some rest? Lollis is a decent fielder and contact hitter and has the Will Clark endorsement so now our minor team is stronger, too.
Back when I was playing Fanduel earlier this year, Byrd was the one ( if not the only)guy that always delivered for me. I swear half of his homers this year came when he was in my lineup. Maybe I need to start playing again.
It was like that way for me with Frazier in the first half of the season. And fuck yes you should start playing again! Dude, football is right around the corner. Go take a gander at what FD and DK are offering up tourney-wise for football……
I will check that out.
Hey we’re the kings of dumpster diving, but I like this one, Byrd’s tied with Crawdaddy as our HR leaders..
If the Giants thought they could jump-start the paddles on Jamie Moyer they might bring him back as well…
The good news is that Byrd’s on his way to Pittsburgh.
The bad news is he pulled a hammy boarding the plane…
Beat me to it. I was going to say something along those lines.
I’m not in front of my computer so I don’t know what Byrd’s contact rate has been doing the last couple of years. My guess is that it’s trended downward with a boost to his power. Older players tend to do that to retain their power. He is a great add when you look at the holograms we have in AAA (or the holograms who are headed back to AAA).
Jesus, Peavy.
They black out away games on MLB.com? This is supposed to be a free game. Get the audio so I can listen to it on Bart later . . .
Yeah, some of the blackout rules are ridiculous.
The Giants are special for an unknown reason on mlb.tv Listen to the ads “see every out-of-market game”, I even heard Jon Miller say it recently. But the Giants rights to broadcasts are not owned by MLB. One of only two teams. And away games are blacked out if you live in the greater Bay Area/Northern Ca. I thought mlb owned it all and granted rights, but I was wrong.
That bridge is a nice look in centerfield.
yeah, never been there but I’ve watched several Pirate home games this year and that stadium looks second to none.
Peavy fucked that up. Belt didn’t pick him up.
I love how Kruk said something to the effect of Peavy fucking up killing the rally. Um, it was a leadoff single…..
Is that in reference to Peavy’s lousy bunt attempts? Even my daughter couldn’t believe how bad he was.
that was a line drive headed to CF that actually spun slightly AWAY from Crawford. He’s so good at SS it’s scary.
don’t fuck up on a Jake Peavy start
Peavy might have the same reaction to that 5-pitch inning.
Well, this game is going quickly, and not in a good way.
Is it asking too much for someone with 2 strikes to lay off that fucking curve that lands in the dirt?
Go get ’em tomorrow.
The 6th inning strikes again for another starter..
Peavy’s gopher ball to Walker is still in orbit…4-zip yikes, getting back in this one
Blanco rope to right, caught. This one just has the feel of a game that is going the opponents way….
Those Pirate hats look like someone with the runs shit all over them. I would be embarrassed to wear one.
Another one down the big swirly. Can’t quite understand how Morton has it over the Giants, but they have gone down whimpering into their last shot ~ probably with yet another whimper. Maybe Bum will stay on course tomorrow and things will perk up a bit. Two wins in this trip are a must do. Three would be a good trip vs these two NLC leaders.
Impossibly lame when the Giants make the Pirates starting P the Player of the Game. And the game isn’t over yet.
2nd time this week Susac got a walk to keep a game alive, so there’s that.
The Holograms get shut-out.
The Hologram! We are clever here collectively and singly, no doubt on that.
excuse me: Holograms, with an s.
I get so tired of listen to the broadcast team and the CSN guys telling us what a fantastic pitching performance the team ran into. One time I’d like to hear ONE OF THEM say “a very average pitcher shut the team down tonight. No excuses. Our hitter sucked.”
But average pitchers have to have good games to make up for the bad ones. Think of the miracle that is a great Vogey start.
You can smell the smoked pole even here in NY…
singe, smoldering, smoked pole……
so far, with only a couple of innings to go in the final 3 games of the night, 9 teams have scored 0 or 1 runs tonight. MLB has to do something about the strike zone. The low strike is killing baseball…….
I’m not sure. I pine for the days of the high strike. Do they ever call it at the letters?
I looked up Matt Carpenter’s and Adrian Gonzalez’s charts, which I’ll spare you for now. They look a lot like Belt’s. MLB really could compensate for the low strike call by doing away with the Greg Maddux special. There is absolutely no justification for it.
That said, there are some notable differences that really put the lie to the idea that Belt doesn’t defend the off the plate pitches. He also takes far fewer pitches in the actual strike zone than either AGon or Carpenter.
I like Marlon Byrd. Miss Joe Panik.
And there is no bigger piece of old school bullshit than “as long as the ump is consistent.” No, just call the fucking strike zone or change the size of home plate/redefine the rules. Antonin Scalia would make as great an umpire as he is Supreme Court abomination.
Bring on the ump robot. I wouldn’t miss a human umpire one bit behind the plate…
Yeah, Marlon Byrd would be good – about 3 years ago. Whatever. They need an OF body that can run into one once in a while…
Ump describing the new home plate umps:
This umpire’s a new model Hal 12000, with one terabyte of flash memory, 2 dual-core processors each with a clock speed of 2.5 Gherz. It’s got 1 gigabyte of RAM and a positronic CPU platform with AI modalities capable of logical argument. And, it’s got Goodyear radials on 8 inch rims. The AI is supported with artificial voice controls that mimic Al Barlick. Hal likes to call strikes on the down and low outside slider, but he’s a little inconsistent with that call. You can get his goat by referencing his great great great grandmother, an Apple II that got tossed out and sold in a garage sale, later re-sold for $100K…
Ah, couple days ago there were 40 HRs hit and teams scored 125 plus. It’s time of year when batting avgs. start to drop…for everyone, not just Blanco. Without Pence, which is a big loss to middle of LU, SF top 6 (3 of whom are .300 hitters) went 4-25 with one walk 4 singles.
Still think the team that has “missed opportunities” is LA tho. They could be 10 up and could have bought a lot better players than Latos or Jim Johnson or end of his career Utley.
Ls still count as Ls, but losing to Cards and Pirates a lot different than losing twice to A’s, esp with Kershaw on mound.
One of Jersey’s finest, William “Count” Basie would be 111 today. Bill from Red Bank consummate swinger whose music always drenched in the blues, led by his plink plink plink at the 88s.
Wow, 111 … unbelievable! I saw him back in the late 70’s. He was wonderful, as always. Cannot believe he passed more than 30 years ago.
We don’t score
We don ‘t win.
Simple enough.
Exactly … seems like lately we’ve lost the feel for the conga line. To ‘run in to one’ once in awhile is fun and entertaining but I’m still convinced that, in the long run of a baseball season, it’s not gonna win a lot of games. Look at our record again the top 3 Central Div teams: 1 – 10 … Yeah, that’s right one win, ten losses! The Giants have more home runs that both the Cards & Pits.
What the hell has happened to Ferret anyway?
Why do they always say that injuries are no excuse?
They’re the BEST excuse…
Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the Marichal-Roseboro incident.
I still say it’s a bobblehead maker’s dream…
not old, but……..starts with “n”
Is anybody else getting tired of listening to all this whining and complaining about Botchy using Bum to pinch hit the other nights? There is even more venom about the fact he didn’t pitch run for him when he got on base.
I got wonder if Botch was sending a message to his bench by doing that … pointing out to certain individuals, who shall remain nameless, ‘ hey, look what I gotta do because of you no-bat motherfuckers!’…?
“pinch run” … Fuck … I HATE autocorrect. Anybody know how I can turn that shit off on an iPad?