Cueto Day
Yesterday’s win was a comfortable reminder of the mental toughness of this team. They could have easily thrown in the towel on a soggy getaway game vs one of the be@st pitchers in the league. But they fought like men.
Very interested to see how Cueto does tonight. The Reds, to put it politely, smoke as much pole as could possibly be smoked. He’s in a familiar yard, he should destroy them. But will our offense show up minus Pagan? I hope Buster is in the LU today. One of my all time favorite bombs and calls by Miller:
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
That clip is a good one. The catcher’s reaction, the ball smashing off of the sign with Latos’ name. I took a peek at the box score. Cain with 5.2 IP, 3ER and the W. The Romo v Bruce AB was epic. I remember being in the lunch room at work. 50-60 people were on the edge of their seats.
Interesting road trip. First it’s 3 vs perhaps the toughest team in the league in their venue. Giants take the finale, riding the best big game pitcher in MLB and just missed in game two. Now its to the “rebuilding” Reds. If the team does not play down to their opponent they should cop two of three with Cueto and SamWhatAm. Not so sure about the Peavy game.
Gotta say that will always be a great Giants memory. That game was a real nail biter throughout. Winning 3 straight there was a thing of beauty…
Yes. First time that year that the Reds had lost three in a row, at home. Tortuous it was.
Yeah, going into that bandbox ballpark in the ’12 playoffs, having to win three in a row, with 40,000 fired-up red-clad fans breathing down their necks. It was epic!!
I don’t want to belabor the whole Posey thing .. No, that’s not true .. I do want to belabor the whole Posey thing but Flav has made it difficult by posting the reminder of one of Posey’s most glorious moments. Yet, that may be somewhat trumped by Macdog’s observation, to the effect, of the predictable ease with which he was able to call Posey’s 8th inning solo shot yesterday. I think we see much more of that sort of production from Posey than we do his vital Slam against the Reds way back when.
In any case, here are some curious factual tidbits, probably of little consequence, for any interested parties:
In April, Giants were 51 for 211 RISP; 172 LOB.
Team leaders for ‘runners left in scoring position with 2 out’:
Duffy 15
Pence 11
Panic 10
Pagan 10
Belt 9
Posey 8
Span 7
Craw 6
Pagan had ‘0’ through his first 14 games.
Lisle, in case it provides any relief, here are the cumulative RISP stats for the year so far:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/split.cgi?t=b&team=SFG&year=2016#bases
Scroll down a bit for the “clutch” stats.
Thanks James for the link to all those yummy stats! I found the offensive production splits in wins and losses quite interesting. Seems to indicate that although we know how crappy some of our pitchers have been, they haven’t had much run support either which only exacerbates the situation. I clearly remember Cain’s first two rocky starts but our bats were dead too in those games and we were all chiming in with our obligatory “Caining” chant.
Over the last 3 years Posey’s April = .266/.357/.444/.801.
With runners in scoring position his overall results = .323/.412/.478/.890.
With runners in scoring position 2 outs = .311/.433/.443/.876.
Add the foot owie to his typically slow start and I’m cool with giving it some time.
You are right dirt, and the stats back you up nicely. I just cannot shake this feeling about Posey’s inability to step up in the clutch. Obviously, he does have his indisputable powerful moments … I just wish there where a few more … especially from such an elite player.
I tend to agree with your overall point. Supposedly Posey is great in the clubhouse and other ways we just don’t see. Assigning value to his defensive performance is tough. All the pitchers seem to like throwing to him and have good things to say. On the other hand he’s the face of the franchise so what else are they going to say? Ultimately he’s been at or above 520 abs since 2012. Factor in catching performance and you have a star player. I haven’t been able to place my finger on it but 26 games in and the club seems to be missing something this year.
Good stuff…thanks, Dirt. I get the feeling too with Posey at times, but the numbers show he is no slouch. He is not the problem, IMO, and agree, with the foot thing, I would cut him a bit more slack.
Ewisco (Eric) and I met for lunch last Friday . . . Going to do another lunch on Friday, 11am at another Sunnyvale downtown landmark, Dish Dash. Any flappers who want to join us, please do. I left my drivers license in Colorado (I usually return to Colorado from my overseas jaunts, so sort of spaced out/forgot I was coming to the bay area on this trip). Consequently, I have been limited during this trip, relying on rides from friends and family. Ugh.
Let me guess, you mistakenly forgot your wallet at lunch as well? 😉
WJ, he very definitely did not do that!
Had fun . . . Looking forward to seeing you again Eric. Hopefully, I’ll hook up with WJ too some day.
Speaking of socks:
“Curt Schilling: Former Red Sox Pitcher’s ALCS Performance Edited Out of ESPN Documentary
ESPN aired a “30 for 30” documentary on Boston’s 2004 playoff comeback against the Yankees with Schilling’s “bloody sock game” cut from the broadcast. Schilling was fired by the network in April.”
ESPN says they edited it due to time constraints because a softball game they had been airing went long.
Schilling naturally is bellyaching about it.
He’s a piece of shit . . . However, it is beyond the pale for ESPN or any news organization (sports or serious) to censor/edit his key contribution. Another reason why ESPN is a joke.
Schilling was a brilliant pitcher but not a brilliant human being.
Schilling was a human being? Who the fuck knew???
You’re right Chi, maybe we should check his DNA profile. He may not actually, qualify … Simian species would probably be unhappy to find he is part of their family.
Flav got his wish. Buster is in the line-up…
1. Denard Span (L) CF
2. Matt Duffy (R) 3B
3. Buster Posey (R) C
4. Hunter Pence (R) RF
5. Brandon Belt (L) 1B
6. Mac Williamson (R) LF
7. Brandon Crawford (L) SS
8. Kelby Tomlinson (R) 2B
9. Johnny Cueto (R) P
Yeah, hammy and groin injuries can be tough. Last I heard on Panik (groin) was he would be out until at least Tuesday. The prognosis I last saw on Crazy Horse is he will probably miss much of this week, but should avoid the DL.
Huh. Hadn’t heard Mac got called up. Curious to see how he rolls now that he made the bigs.
He’s been up before, Chuckie.
So far he’s rolled a .200 (7-35).
This year. Yes, he was a September call-up.
He’s 0-3 this year.
lulz!
Think this Hoover dude has been “Hoovering” the buffet spread heavily..
Williamson has had plate appearances this season in the @ LA series and at home vs AZ … Yes, I think 0-3 is accurate.
Revising history. I thought that was only in the realm of Fox News. Say what you will about Schll(er)ing, but it’s totally off-putting that BSPN cut that stuff.
Dirt’s post @ 1:21 “I haven’t been able to place my finger on it but 26 games in and the club seems to be missing something this year.” struck a chord within me. I’ve been feeling that too … Something seems off with this year’s group, and I cannot get a bead on it. The opening series @ MIL was a good one and although I was a little disappointed we didn’t sweep them — which we should have done easily if it wasn’t for missed offensive opportunities and a shitty pen performance (Lopez in particular) — I didn’t sense anything out of sorts. Yet, at that point, I wasn’t looking for anything either.
Next came the home series with LA which was ecstatic! Then came Colorado which was abysmal … then the poor showing in LA and back home to meet the Snakes where the number of games that we lost but should have won began to accumulate at a series rate. Somewhere in there is where I started to get the “funny feeling” about this collection of players we call our team.
Im trying to recall an off season in recent history where we brought in so many high profile players: Cueto. Sam & Span. Even trades we made during the season in recent years weren’t real attention grabbers. Scutaro & Cody Ross were guys that weren’t supposed to amount to much. The Pence trade was fairly high profile as was adding Leake last year. But they were brought in one at time. I’m wondering if this years addition of 3 “stars” has impacted the clubhouse chemistry in some adverse way? Any thoughts Flap Nation?
I think the main issue is an inconsistent bullpen. The bullpen is a work in progress; it’s a transition season. There’s going to be some growing pains with the young guys. But they do look very promising, IMO. I wish Strickland had made more progress by now, though.
Another issue, of course, is Peavy and Cain. That will have to be sorted out pretty soon.
For whatever reason, all the batters went into a slump vs. the D-Backs. That series was pretty mystifying.
Regarding Strickland, I think it was Jon Miller who said the other day that it seems like opponents can immediately recognize when Strickland is throwing a slider, and they lay off of it, since Strickland has trouble throwing it for strikes. And they just sit on his fastball, and we’ve seen how that works out.
The key for a slider to work is for the batter to think it’s a fastball. If there’s no deception to it, then it’s hard for it to work unless the pitcher has an absolutely amazing slider, which Strickland doesn’t have.
I don’t know what the answer for him is at this point, other than to just keep working on his stuff. Try to get more movement on his pitches, and ideally, late movement. Late movement is the key to great stuff.
I’m sure they miss the presence of their 2 longest tenured guys (after Cain), Lincecum and Affeldt, who were both very popular, but I doubt that’s hurting them on the field. The new guys look like they’re fitting in. I would agree with Zumiee’s logic…
Last year after 26 games: 13-13 (and still fooling around with McGiggles)
In addition to being on Bay Area Comcast, today’s Giants game is on the MLB Network in certain parts of the nation.
That might help the “Zumiee of the East”…
From memory, I think the Giants have an uncanny knack for scoring in the top of the first in the first game of a series in Cincinnati…
When it’s sunny…
Zumie, your 4:01 applies to Matt Cain as well. He usually can get 2 strikes on someone but can’t get them out with his fastball anymore. And guys lay off everything else and foul till they drive something.
Would you believe top of the 2nd?
Remember the old Splash classic: “That’s what I meant to type”
I think it was SOAD who coined it during an epic battle with Twin…
that’s sick classic Splash knowledge
Way to go Cueto!
Chemistry a little off? They miss Timmeh… 🙂
Did Kruk just say “Like taking a greenie”?
Cueto let Hamilton completely screw him up…
Can I delete my 4:39?
Some “homecoming.”
Reds are now halfway to 12.
I was only listening to it on the radio but it sure sounded like Cueto was wetting himself about Hamilton on 2nd base. Totally lost his concentration. Lame.
A little surprised the Royals traded Brandon Finnegan to the Reds ,considering he was a 1st rd pick LHP who actually is the only ball player in history to play in the College W/S and the Big Show W/S in the same calendar year 2015! Ironically he was part of the Jonny Cueto deal…
Make that 2014 for Finnegan in the College W/S and the Big Show against the Giants when he came out of the BP…Now he starting which didn’t happen in KC so I’m sure he’s happy about that.
Nice Job White Shark!
Big time RBI knock!
Great props to Bochy as well, Pinch hitting Blanco for Williamson!
Craw bomb . . . Nice!
The Craw!
Giants hitters are loving this ballpark.
Just getting home and settled…B Craw bomb! Fuck Yeah!
I’m looking forward to some spirited pitching from Mazzaro.
he’s a hoot when he really gets going.
It seems like Blanco has been with the Giants for 10 years.
Yeah those little hydrants have a long life shelf. Marvin Bernard another one..
Good call…
If by the end of May Span has not improved I say give Blanco the start in the OF?
Span will play until/if he gets injured (at least year one of the contract)
Unfortunately, I think you are right, Flav.
We cannot let these muthas back in this game …comon’ pen!!!
How’s that work Baldy.
A pitchers best friend the DP!!
Pablo shoulder surgery. God help his stomach during the recovery period.
No surprise, really. I will always appreciate what he did for helping us win our world series titles, but I could give a shit about that fat fuck. I do not wish him ill will…just do not give a damned about him.
Maybe they’ll tie it off – his stomach that is – while there in there with the knife.
They could keep Boston lit up for 3 years with all that blubber.
😂
Damn – I sure am liking Osich. Kid is a stud. I believe it was Stix who first talked about him regularly before he got his cup of coffee.
Osich sure can deal some nasty stuff Chi!
Yeah the BP saving are bacon in this one, really nice work!
Oh shit almost forgot about Casiila for the 9 th???
FUCK! Me, too! He is due for a clean, quick outing.
Dunno . . . But I was singing his praises early last season, indicating that he could close despite being a loogy. No worries, defer to Stix too.
The SOAD ref had me laughing. He woul yammer endlessly about Alex Smith on the Insider.
Schwebler? That’s a Cream song.
swlabr, right? Many fantastic colors…
Yup. The rainbow had a beard . . .
Don’t really know what all happened in this game, just got home, heard some bits on the car radio. But, lotsa runs here. Giants must feel like they’ve been given hitting oxygen when hitting in a place like this bandbox vs. playing half of their games at ATT…
3 zip Giants went to 6-3 Reds in one inning (Cueto had like 127 pitches in the inning), and then Giants storm back to whoop that ass…great comeback win.
Nice, thanks Chi…
Ballgame! Nice comeback win after giving up the early lead!
Bullpen was lights-out. Very cool.
As I said earlier…loving the way Osich is pitching. And Casillia had an uneventful outing for a change. Very nice!
Mazzaro got the W.
With one pitch to close out that one inning. lmao…
Pen looked good .. No fuckin Strychnine!!
Apparently Leicester tonight, by virtue of another team’s loss, has clinched the English Premier League soccer championship, its first in 132 years of playing. This is more surprising than the Cubs finally winning the WSeries. The odds at beginning of the season for it to win the EPL were 5000-1. Wow. Some bettors and fans are living it up tonight, and some betting houses may be going broke — a 20 pound bet on the nose yields 100K pounds…
I know! A friend and I were discussing this at our local brewery the other day. Right on for all those fans who put it out there for their team. Party on! Great story!
you lost me at “by virtue of another team’s loss.” And didn’t their draw they final game? Fuck soccer.
That just means their closest pursuer still having a mathematical chance to win just lost and is eliminated from contention. Leicester apparently has another game or two to play, but is so far ahead it can’t lose the championship even if it loses out…
Great, good for them. Losing out is not a championship I would ever celebrate for my team. I kinda appreciate the story because of the media coverage of the fans going crazy in bars and all the underdog stuff but if it has to do with soccer or hockey, and it’s not the Olympics or the World Cup, I could give zero shits…..
I just looked, the UK guess is that UK bookies will cough up a total of around 25 million pounds from Leicester’s win. I also saw that at the same time, English bookies had the same 5000-1 odds on Elvis showing up alive this year…
Holy shit. What is everyone’s take on Timmy? I say give him a look!
absolutely, as long as Peavy and Cain are still in the rotation. But really, it would be just like subtracting a Peavy or Cain and adding one. And getting a free lotto ticket to go along with it.
Henry Schulman @hankschulman 12s13 seconds ago
Cueto agreed he spent too much time worrying about Hamilton in big 6th.
_________
Hey, could you make the argument that Posey’s grand slam in 2012 ruined the Reds for years to come?
It sure as hell didn’t help. Going into that series, they had been invincible at home (had not lost three straight at home all season), and the Giants came into that house of horrors and did exactly that! And Posey’s Salami up their arse was the crowning moment of the series win for our Giants. Yeah, it sure as hell didn’t help them. LMAO
…tho’ I used to think we ruined the Phillies after we beat them in 2010. That’s a myth in my head. They won 102 games in 2011.
That game with Posey’s GS was tense for me until the very end. But I felt the same way when we were beating the Cards 9-0 in the rain. Nice comeback — RALLY — tonight. Ever notice how ‘rally’ exclusively used to mean come from behind? Not anymore.
I’ll never forget how long that game was. I was at work all day sneaking peeks in on the radio and some fucked up free website that froze all the time. Also, take a look at the color shining that day. Was that just Fall? All the vids of that game had an unreal sheen to the screen. Maybe I’m just going crazy, a definite possibility.
it was a brilliant fall day
Had not thought about that (rally), but you are right.
Jon Miller, who most would agree is well spoken, used “rally” to describe the Giants scoring yesterday. Well, words change. But at one point, I can’t tell you which, he said “precluded a double play” — and precluded was the opposite of what was meant.
Manny Burriss just doubled to left as a PH in the Philly game. PK, thoughts?
I noticed something a while ago that Miller does– he pauses a nano second after saying “Josh” and then he says “Osich”. It’s a brilliant move from a HOFer. You basically ensure that you’ll never say *shit* when you do this. I clued some people into this on twitter today who where laughing at Kruk and Amy G for fucking his name up and got the predictable responses. But, bottom like, I’m right.
He did the same thing some years ago on a Sunday night game when a Yankee reliever named Colter Bean entered the game. I believe he just wanted to give the insanity of that name a chance to sink in slowly…
Reds probably are going to be just what doctor ordered for a lot of teams this year.
Further thoughts on Posey:
Last year 130 singles out of 177 hits. 4 more walks than Ks (56-52). 623 PAs, team leader by a bunch despite all the rest he gets. Likely to play less 1b if Belt stays healthy and continues to produce.
I do think ATT hampers his HR production; he has pop to RCF but that’s wrong place to hit the ball there.
Most of his bombs (19 last year)seem to me to come on mistakes where he goes dead pull.
Another season like that with 135 OPS+ I’d imagine would suit mgmt. just fine. With 3 good hitters (yes I think span will be fine) in front of him, all those singles should drive in runs.
I say it all the time. When his swing is right, he is Thurman Munson in his prime…
Span’s OBP is alright so far; he has 14 walks. But he does seem to roll over a lot of easy-out ground-outs. He’s not hitting many line-drives.
he is who he is. Span has never been a dominant beast at the plate. He did well to get the contract he did, lots of teams would have given him the same deal. But I’ve never been “OMG I have to get Span on to my fantasy team!!!!” (season long or daily).
Hey, whatever happened to Brandon Belt as central figure of controversy? All this focus on Posey is uninteresting.
We just hope Belt stays healthy. The weirdest stuff seems to happen to him.
Panik is a little more of a worry right now, I think.
check it after 162 as you are always preaching. Popping in after a single game is beneath you.
Take a look at the WAR ratings. Belt’s D has him about where Brett Pill would be right now. It was an earnest appeal for open dialogue!! 🙂
The Giants with a comeback win and Verlander announces his engagement to Kate Upton. Can it get any better? Dude is set up for a lifetime of motor boating.
It’s only by a 1/2 game, but it’s always rather nice to be ahead of the Dodgers.
Re: the Posey grand slam game.
I remember the exact same thing BF does. The light there that afternoon was a type of filtered fall light, almost a sepia tone, as if the legend of the game was being built inning by inning in real time. When the gods provide us with epic play on the field in Autumn, day-game light, playoff baseball has a shot to become legendary…
The Rockies lost, and we have sole possession of first place. 🙂
Lisle posed the question “Who in the SF line up do other teams fear.” I thought maybe one index could be provided by the statcast strike zone data. The simple reasoning was that batters who pitchers fear more would see a lower percentage of pitches thrown in the rule book strike zone. I looked at the pitches to Pence, Posey, and Belt for 2016. Note that this is the location of all the pitches, whether taken for a ball/strike, hit foul, fair etc. I also calculated the percentages for early in the count. The numbers were a little surprising:
Posey 298 pitches 127 strikes — 42% (47% of first or second pitch of the AB)
Pence 513 pitches 190 strikes — 37% (38% of first or second pitch of the AB)
Belt 418 pitches, 138 strikes — 33% (32% of first or second pitch of the AB)
What do I conclude from this? Buster should be putting up way better numbers!
It seemed to me that teams were pitching Pence backwards. If I’m understanding this right I think it shows that. Then he adjusted and got hot over the last week. The % for Belt is surprising.
I’d like to know where the pitchers are missing to Belt. Teams play him with that big defensive overshift to pull into RF. Maybe the pitchers are all missing inside, because they don’t want to throw a ball to the outside part of the plate, and let him go with it to smack a ball to the left side for an EZ hit…
Yeah, teams pitch Belt down and in I’d say about 80% of the time. He used to swing at the back-foot slider all the time.
I would also conclude that pitchers are, in general, less intimidated by Posey than they are by Belt & Pence! So far, by the individual numbers put up by those three, that makes sense.
If you look at that vid of the Giants/Reds game, you’ll see the long shadow cast by Latos on the right side of the mound from the POV of the CF camera. Google Maps shows that the ballpark’s field faces outward to the southeast towards the Ohio River and across into Kentucky. So, the sun was already heading lower in the West on the left side of Latos, helping to create that really cool, soft Autumn mid-late afternoon light vibe thing going on there…
That Cincy game just felt like it had disaster written all over it. Even with the big lead, it felt like shit was going to collapse the whole game. Every pitch was insanely important. One of the most nerve-wracking games . . .