Moving On
Last night? Just wash it off, it was too much of a 1-off to fret over. And don’t have any day dreams about Tomlinson getting sent down. With Adrianza on the shelf we don’t have another utility guy on the 40 man. And sending him down would be a brutal message to send. Have a bad game, you’re gone? Bad idea. And one we aren’t really in the position to execute anyway….
I though Panik’s flub was worse. Of course, Specs did have the recent botched dp from last week and he had some shaky throws last night. He’s obviously fucked up in the head right now. That will pass as soon as he gets out there again and has some success…..
Warrior Game today. I sure hope the players aren’t so tired from playing basketball that they sleep through their alarms and miss the start of the game…….
yeah Specs just has to get over it. Game is never as easy as it feels sometimes.
Giants did put 3 up on Kershaw, some great ABs by Pence and Panik. But Panik had a costly meltdown too.
Law establishes his presence with authority. Giants Dodgers games so far never dull.
@Lisle–heard a set of live music composed by Jymie Merritt played by his son Michael’s band featuring Odeon Pope, confederate of his dad in Max Roach band. Very adventurous music, from npr broadcast of band called Forerunners on “Jazz Night in America.” Familiar with these guys?
Yes, WD .. The great bassist Jymie Merritt! Don’t know of his son Michael’s work. Odeon Pope Is a magnificent saxophonist who had an incredible ‘power trio’ back in the 80’s with Kenny Washington, drums and … Oh damn, I’m having a ‘senior’ moment .. I swear, I must be on the fast track to dementia! It’s shameful that I cannot remember the bassist’s name … a bassist yet! .. one of my kin folk. I’ll have to look it up and get back to you.
Anyway, Odeon and that trio hailed from Phillly .. Strongly recommend searching out their South Street hyper jazz funk from that period .. If I can remember a particular recording I will let you know.
I’ll be at the game tonight. It will be my first time to Dodger Stadium since 2010. You may remember the game I attended. Zito and Kershaw were in a pitcher’s duel, and amazingly, Zito outpitched him, shutting out the Dogs for like 7 innings while Uribe had hit a solo shot off Kershaw. Boch brought in Romo to face the pinch-hitting Manny Ramirez, and Manny took him deep for a 2 run shot that ended up being the game winner. The place went nuts. Screwed by the Dodgers AGAIN. I was with my buddy Jerry. He is arguably my best friend on the planet, but he was enthusiastically high-fiving everyone in sight after that homer and I seriously wanted to fucking punch him right then and there. I still get a little pissed off now just thinking about that moment. Well…the Giants recovered quite nicely from that dark day and I will have an entirely different vibe about me for this visit to Dodger Stadium and all others that follow. Should be fun.
Now we get to see Cueto and dzija prove their worth.
Report is that Pablo’s considering surgery. He’s visiting Doc Andrews. I bet a a stomach-stapling specialist will be in on the confidential visit.
The one truly positive takeaway from a botched and befuddled performance was when Derek laid down the Law. Those special K’s are exactly what are needed for a prime fireman. Casilla remains the closer while Strickland moves up to prime setup man. Perhaps Gearrin steps up with Kontos into the 7th and some set-ups. Osich looking like the general purpose lefty. Is Lopez tottering as the Loogie? In any event, i am once again leading up to the crying need for a fireman. Does Law possess that sangfroid essential to a highly successful fireman?
The next few weeks should tell us whether Law has the kinda moxie to preserve the game when our starter has a melt-down. We will also discover whether the Giants braintrust (on-field) has the stones to re-create a role which dominated bullpens in the 50’s and 60’s.
Carstie, you’re going to have to expand on your fireman term. Do you mean a potential closer, late inning guy or what?
Lurks: Generational difference here. Back in the day, say my HS graduation year, when YankMe 2nd sacker Bobby Richardson speared WillieMac’s liner to give the NYY’s yet another W.S. victory; the closer was still mostly an unknown in MLB. The BMOC, so to speak, was the Fireman, who would come into the game when the starter was clearly losing it and the game appeared to be on the line ~ say in the 5th inning of an up to then tight ballgame. Ideally he was either a Stu Miller type junkballer who was basically nearly impossible to square up on and get a solid hit OR a flamethrower with high-octane heat who for a batter or three was pretty much untouchable. To totally mangle the metaphors, he doused the rally with cold water and kept his team in the game.
Got it. So basically he wasn’t restricted to just the eighth or ninth inning, he came in when he was needed. I seem to remember an award of some type, Fireman of the Year? Thanks for the explanation.
Tomlinson likely won’t get sent down because of the injury situation be he is absolutely not to be trusted with any late inning defense. It’s not just a couple of botched plays, you can see as plain as day that he just isn’t solid defensively and fielding is just like hitting in one regard; slumps can and do happen. Throw in some already shaky skills and you have a recipe for disaster. 2 tailor-made DP balls in 5 days, one cost them a sure win the other let 3 unearned runs score. Worst of all, both against the fucking Dodgers.. I like the kid, but I proceed cautiously with him if I’m Bochy.
Panik’s play was bad, but he is clearly a plus-defender.
I’m more concerned with starting pitching. This rotation has really been up and down. Cueto and Samardz would really help if they can replay the quality of their last outings. The two 4.5 spots at the bottom look really dicey, even allowing for the Coors Field factor in their last starts. Problem is those two bottom spots are costing the team about $35 million…
Curry certainly deserves a unanimous MVP. Likely won’t get it. Some moron will have to vote for somebody else, just to make some kind of “look at me” statement…
He may not get unanimous, though I agree with you, but I guarantee it gets it.
I saw highlights of Law. Wicked stuff, but no wonder the guy had TJ surgery. He has one funky delivery that helps the batter deception — looks like a lot of upper body herky jerk where that arm really gets stressed. Hope he can avoid another elbow problem for a long time…
I saw that on the highlights. Hopefully it doesn’t continue to cause him problems. I only saw breaking pitches on the highlights. Does he throw hard?
Yeah, he can bring the heater at 95 or so…
Curry and Beverly going at it pretty good. Article in the paper this morning saying how good of friends they were. Played on several travel leagues together in their youth.
Fouling Curry’s not a very perspicacious plan, imo.
Had to look that one up, xoot. lol
Dubs crushing the Rockets in first half…
Curry’s injury is ominous.
Well, let’s see if he comes back in to work out a bit now. If not, then uh oh.
They said he was available, which is about as vague as it gets. I’m sure as long as they can maintain a sizable lead he’s staying on the bench.
On the other hand, if Curry’s actually pretty much ok, do you hold him out just to psych the rockets into preparing based on the assumption that Steph is hurt?
A little gamesmanship? Why not.
If it were really bad they wouldn’t have brought him back out in the uni, I should think. Dubs should be able to beat Houston without Curry anyway. Rockets suck big time…
Alrighty then, a little ragged but a win. Now GO GIANTS!
THe Rockets are a joke. The only thing I’m worried about is if they just decide to say fuck-it-all and just start trying to take out some of our guys by injuring them. That Montejuionus scrub is a fucking tool.
Sports injuries are tricky. I got hurt at the gym last week. I was putting an exercise ball back on the overhead rack and I bumped into the corner of a weight machine. I think the rib is just bruised, but who knows?
You call that a “sports injury”? Hilarious.
You fell for that wholesale? More than hilarious. You must be from LA
Or someone pretending to be from LA
Ha! You fell for my falling for it!
Wtf? Donald Trump is on the blog?
Hey, old buddy!
But is that the way “rooster” signed on? I don’t know. What do pantyhose and Brooklyn have in common?
Kerr said Curry is questionable for game next Monday. If he might be OK, I’d leave him out the first half, see what happens. If he’s not needed, hey, he can sit out the whole game and get the ankle really in good shape for the game next Thursday…
1. Denard Span (L) CF
2. Joe Panik (L) 2B
3. Buster Posey (R) C
4. Hunter Pence (R) RF
5. Brandon Belt (L) 1B
6. Matt Duffy (R) 3B
7. Brandon Crawford (L) SS
8. Johnny Cueto (R) P
9. Angel Pagan (S) LF
Rooster, lol, awesome.
Hey BF – good to see your blog still going strong.
I’ve kept it going in the hopes that you would come out of hibernation. I guess a bunch of errors and some one-off bombs from Kiki lured you back, eh?
I think that’s “rad”
The Warriors should rest Curry the rest of the series just to make a statement to all of the doubters. Even without Curry, the Dubs win this series in four, five at worst.
Doubters? What doubters?
Golden State Warriors -150
San Antonio Spurs +375
Cleveland Cavaliers +400
Oklahoma City Thunder +1000
Los Angeles Clippers +2800
Toronto Raptors +3300
Boston Celtics +6600
Miami Heat +7500
Atlanta Hawks +7500
Charlotte Hornets +15000
Portland Trail Blazers +15000
Indiana Pacers +20000
Detroit Pistons +20000
Dallas Mavericks +25000
Houston Rockets +30000
Memphis Grizzlies +50000
Odds as of April 14 at Bovada
That’s the odds for winning the NBA Championship, btw
think I’d take the Grizzles over odds of Dodgers winning a championship in my lifetime
.
I got the Warriors – Hawks this morning at 35-1…great odds I think. $50 on that and $10 on Warriors – Pistons at 105-1:)
Sorry mental typo..14-1 odds for Dubs – Hawks….
Not doubters in regards to their chance of winning the championship but rather the doubters who think they aren’t as good as advertised and that they can’t win without Curry.
This is why I don’t play baseball…glasses…nothing you can do. Your peripheral vision gets cut off looking downward. Why no one basically plays the infield in glasses. He probably needs to go ahead and commit to contacts.
who did they call up for Adrianza?
Williamson and Law were brought up to replace Adrianza and Romo.
Cool I missed the Mac Daddy end of it!
A win tonight would erase the funky feeling about last night’s game.
Ken Burns’ “Jackie Robinson” on PBS on right now.
It’s a great one. Another great job by Burns and crew.
I just wish Burns would get a better haircut. He looks like he should be in a 1967 surf-rock band.
His Jazz doc was bogus.
I don’t sweat the Gyros losing to Kershaw. They almost always lose to him. Tomlinson will get his act together. He’s a serviceable fielder. A couple of well-pitched games by Giants starters would help right the ship…
I wholeheartedly recommend Pawlie’s (Paul Kocak’s) book about his travels in Iceland. We all know how talented a writer Pawlie is, and that talent is fully unleashed in this book. It combines prose and poetry in a very creative and poignant way.
Thanks, Pawlie, for taking us on that journey with you in this book! It’s a profound piece of work.
great post. I still haven’t gotten it, feel bad. Busy. But I will as I have just about everything else he’s written
Could Cueto become the new stopper in the rotation? We know MadBum will come around, but the new addition has pitched an excellent 5 innings of baseball.
I mean, of course he could. He’s fairly accomplished.
Another consideration on Specs: these big game moments are overwhelming him. That’s not the end of the world, he might just need some time and experience. It’s not like we’re in the middle of the world series or anything, give him a chance to breath and let him keep playing this year. His speed alone is something I’d love to harness and take advantage of…..
IMO Specs is a product of hard work over talent. When I saw him in Phoenix at SS, he could make the plays, but compared to Craw, the talent, the smoothness, the ease of play is obviously not there with Specs. He had a bad habit IMO over a couple of plays at SS of taking several crow hops to set himself before throwing to first; hopefully he is working on getting rid of that…
What happened to Rooster? He was on the cusp of coming back and talking shit and now that they’re losing I feel like he’s stuck in another long ass line at Jack in the Box. Thoughts?
Those lines at Jack in the Box can be quite long. (grin)
and what’s up with Cueto pics of him on all these white horses and white linens in giant-ass California kings? What am I missing here?
Is it too late to trade Duffy?
Curious the problems we have had with 3rd basemen early in the early season the past few years .. 2014, Panda got off to a terrible start, last year it was McDblplay, this year Duffster has got caught that .. whatever it is.
Duffman may have a bit of the sophomore flu; give him some time. McDP got DFA’d once already by somebody this spring, he needs to head back to Japan. He will be an answer to a great Giants trivia question someday …
Enrique fucking who? Who the fuck is this guy?
They got him in the Dee Gordon trade, I think.
Dusty has the Nats at 9-1. I sorta predicted a Giants/Nats NLCS; that would be very cool going against Dusty…
i think they beat Dusty and the Reds in the 2012 NLDS…
Yeah, and I’d hope for the same result in an NLCS this year…
So maybe i’m a little muddled. You let cueto hit, then u pull him after one hitter?
I think he wanted Cueto to face the righty.
Well, removing Cueto for Lopez worked well, didn’t it? Always nice for the reliever to come in for a guy that’s been dealing, and immediately walk a guy and then give up a 2 run dinger. This Pen could look a lot different by August…
I agree.
Lopez looks like he’s barely got anything left in the tank. He struggles to hit 85 mph, walks a guy then gives up a bomb to the fucking lefty. WTF.
Yep .. 38yrs old … “Things ain’t what they used to be” to quote Duke Ellington.
If the bullpen loses this game I will be so pissed. I have never liked side arm pitchers. They are either on or they give up hits like batting practice. Lopez had nothing!!
I’m already pissed … We need this game .. We’ve lost 3 in a row .. Now was not the time for Boch to let Lopez get stretched out .. His loyalty to veterans is annoying at times
Lopez has been nails for 5 years, but I think he’s on his last leg. He looks shaky, at least right now.
And now Strickland who I have had no confidence in!!
Strickland still makes me nervous every time he’s out there. He always seems like he’s teetering on the brink of disaster. Still overthrows his pitches.
I agree.
I can only imagine how Cueto must feel
If Lopez never retired another hitter, he was still one of the great steals of all time for the Giants.
Strickland needs a Brian Wilson beard…
He’s absolutely an SF Giants hall of famer, but these days he’s like chum in the water.
Lopez will be 39 in July. May be time to think about hanging them up.
Romo, Lopez, Casilla — all these guys are looking dicey heading into the season. As Kruk says, I hope the young arms are keeping “greased up” down in Sactown…
And as LJ pointed out, Strickland is an anxiety attack in waiting. Who,else,we got that you have confidence in?
I have no confidence in any of ’em, since they are a blank slate in MLB. Okert, Broadway in Pen, Blackburn and Stratton as potential 4-5 starters. But, if the Giants vets in the Pen struggle, hey, get some young arms up…
Oshit! … he sure was last time out
The LA logo on their batting helmet is 3D. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that before…
I saw an article on it. Only one in MLB. Supposed to look better for TV or something. Equipment guy said though, that it might fall off frequently or some such…
I wish we had one.
I’d feel better if the Giants got an insurance run or three here…
Apparently it looks great on all the 3d TVs on the dodger TV network.
Both of them.
A nice tidy victory just got dicey. Lopez looks done. Just got back fromTahoe and everything was great till I walked in the door. Sheesh.
Whew, that last pitch to Span was soooooo close!
I’m watching the MLB broadcast and I gotta say, Vin sounds like he’s on his last leg too. Nowhere near the broadcaster he used to be.
The helmets are 3D too, DJ. So are the players.
Need this run.
Cadillac hasn’t pitched in awhile … Bottom of the 9th is gonna be torturous!
Oops! Fuckin auto correct … maybe it’s a premonition?
54 LOB tonight?
Almost bought a ’54 chocolate brown & tan Coupe De Ville years ago.
I suppose a quick 1-2-3 is too much to ask for.
Casilla is due for one.
Pence sure has eyes for that high fastball.
Whatever happened to our conga line? By my count, we’ve had it going one time, in one game, so far this year. W
Come on, let’s stomp on these cockroaches…
This sucks!
The Giants should win this!!
unbeleivable
Do the Giants have any reliever who can get someone out?? Shit
Ahhhh fuck. This guy Kiki annoys the fuck out of me.
Remember the skier, Kiki Cutter?
I cannot watch!
Please please throw strikes!!
Jesus. The pen is a sty right about now.
Chuck, a 1-2-3 is usually too much to ask for from Casilla.
Or anyone else for that matter.
need a popup or strikeout here
Nice call
just like that
fucking casilla wasn’t even covering home
Hey, you expect Giants pitchers to field the position?…
Jeebbbbuuuusss
Watching with the Vin Scully feed. I mean, how many times will that remain possible? He is classic.
I think Casilla has gotten predictable when he uses that hook…
Ol’ time TORTURE.
Hate to so I told y’all so .. No, actually I like sayin that.