Cry Baby Closer
I like Casilla, I do. But fuck him. He has NO argument to support his petulant stomp off the mound yesterday. And I could even forgive that for a “heat of the moment” thing but he kept crying after the game in his post game comments and offered no apology for his antics.
You want to be treated like a man? Then act like one. Men don’t cry to reporters after the game, they talk face to face behind closed doors.
I think it’s time for a lesson from Mr. Wallace on Casilla’s bout with pride:
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
One of the best movies of all time IMO.
Sooooo, I am perusing the Want Ads this morning and saw this . . .
LONG RELIEF (Class I) – $29,044/hr., prev. experience helpful but not required. Duties include pitching blowouts and at the very end of extra-inning games. STRONG POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT. Former long relievers in our organization have made it into the rotation in each of the last three seasons
Lamb was hitting .130 off LHP. RH vs. Casilla were batting .107 I think, but then he gave up single and walk after the double and that guy looked like he could have scored easily. If he’d gotten those guys out, no Lopez.
Maybe Bochy stretches out some of these guys so they can go longer–and Kontos should return vs. SD next week. Osich might have faced more guys if he hadn’t walked the lead off, just an inexcusable move, before Gearrin (who gave up 2 runs the day before after Bum left). There are a bunch of young arms on the staff–hope they figure things out.
Casilla will apologize and everyone will make up. He has a great reputation in the clubhouse and he has been tremendous for us. At least he cares – give him a break…
I can’t take De Niro seriously when he’s wearing MC Hammer’s pants.
lulz…he would’ve been a great Flapalooza guest
I liked the old SF hat logo better – before they added those pointy edges to the letters some years ago…
Never try and “Show up the Manager especially a HOF one”!!!
Doubt they go down to the local ice cream parlor and share a Sundae together…
Funny thing is this happened to Cards yesterday too. They were up 12-7 on Angels entering 9th, Angels score 3 after a HR by Pujols so Matheny brings in closer Rosenthal with bases empty. He walks 3 guys in a row, Matheny takes him out and Siegrist closes out the game by getting last 2 outs.
Before Wed game, Casilla had retired 20 of last 23 hitters he had faced. He does get RH out a lot better than LH, but I doubt Bochy does anything drastic. Hanging the curve ball that resulted in the double was a bad pitch. Being careful with Golds wasn’t a bad idea either, but if he’d got him out he’d had the save and pats on the back instead of argument with mgr.
Cards go to LA and miss Opie. Wacha vs. Stripling and his now 3.82 ERA. Except for Kershaw their rotation looks pretty ordinary.
bottom line is, as borderline of a closer as Casilla is, the Giants have no other options. Even if Romo comes back healthy. They need Casilla and I think Loo’s right, this will all blow over. I just think the way he acted off the mound and with reporters was total fucking bullshit.
I stand with Boch.
Casilla will get his chance to prove he can get Lamb out, hopefully it’s when we are up by 3 and nobody is on.
Casilla made yesterday all about him. I get it, he’s a closer, pride and confidence and all that bullshit. But if Lamb tags him again, and that is the bigger picture, we’re fucked. No big deal to Casilla, he heads to the showers wishing for his next crack at Lamb.
Agreed. He may even get a chance to get Lamb today, I’m just hoping it isn’t with the bases juiced and only up by two, because right now Lamb owns his ass.
Miller has not been loving playing in AZ so far, in his 4 starts he’s 0-3 with a 8.24 ERA and a 1.78 WHIP. Pagan is supposed to get the start in LF. Fire up the conga line.
On this date in 2007, Fred Lewis hit for the cycle at Coors as Giants won 15-2 for Cain. Fred went 5 for 6 scored 3 and drove in 4 after being called up only a few days before.
Others in Giants LU:
Omar Vizquel batting second
Pedro Feliz batting third
Ryan Klesko at clean up
Ortmaier in RF
Frandsen at 2b
Bochy was managing against Clint Hurdle.
Was Fred the best of recent Giants homegrown OFs?
Inquiring minds, um…
Well, the bar is pretty fucking low. In fact it’s on the ground.
Shit after watching the pen give it up the night before, what did Casilla think, he would be left out there to work through shit?? Every reliever was going to be on a short leash!! Get over it!!
in 4 yrs 930 ABs with SF Fred had .775 OPS. He played 326 games…if you cut his stats in half to equal 1 full season divide, think about it.
Totals (career with SF):
53 doubles
16 triples
16 HRs
34 steals
I thought Freddy would tear it up in Cincy.
Didn’t happen.
I guess Nate (drafted a year later) had a little better career…
Heck, I’d almost forgotten about Freddles. If we’re saying he’s the best home grown OFer since Chili, then it’s worse than I thought…
Bochy couldn’t get Casilla out of there fast enough as far as I was concerned, especially given the past history vs. Lamb and the blown save the day before. Loogy Lopez got the Lamb chop to second to close it out and that was that. Move on.
No doubt about, it Boch was right. This was about securing a win which, for this team, has been difficult in the extreme lately. Especially pertinent is the fact that AZ are division rivals who we have a very sketchy recent record against. Boch showed, in no uncertain terms, he was not going to risk a loss via another BS for the sake of enhancing his clsoer’s confidence. Casillia is veteran. If anyone should understand Boch`s move it is him.
Still have to watch what happened.
Casilla was in the wrong to “show up” Bochy (and Lopez, essentially). But, on the other hand, I thought it showed the dude had some fire, he was pissed, he wanted to get it done. That was real emotion. Maybe his next outing, that will ramp him up with a bit more incentive to get the job done. Anyway, Bochy was amusing. Casilla slams the ball in his hand and stomps off the mound, Bochy tells him to come back, and just as soon as Casilla turns around and heads back to the mound, Bochy tells him to get the hell out with some choice words and a finger wag. Funny…
Ahhhh. Yeah, Bochy had every right to pull Casilla.
Lefty/lefty matchup. Double, single, walk. Fucking Lamb is 2-6 with 2 bombs and a walk vs Casilla for God’s sake. Bochy just saw Casilla burn Bummie’s last win, so cry me a river, Santiago.
Often enough i have criticized Bochy for occasionally leaning over backwards for his troops. Yesterday, he let them (and the world) know that he has his limits and draws his lines. Casilla yesterday exemplified the results of Spanish colonialization and its effect on the descendants of its victims. The puffed up pride and the defended masculinity has its roots in this colonizing policy as was so well explained by the late, great Native American poet and social critic John Trudell.
Shoot, I thought he was just pissed off…
My thoughts exactly, Stix…
Kidding aside, this Casilla tightrope act on closings needs to improve, or change is in the wind. You can get by with a borderline closer now, but when the S hits the fan in mid August down the stretch into September, you need a confident closer who can get it done. If the closer keeps loading bases, there aren’t many options if you’ve already blown through your regular 7th and 8th inning Pen dudes in a tight game. This is the last contract year for Casilla, so I doubt Bochy’s going to have any problem putting somebody else in there for Casilla if he starts going south. There may not be anybody better, but I don’t doubt Bochy would try somebody else before it gets really bad…
The problem with that is the next guy up would most likely be Strychnine.
The name says it all. Poison.
Just did some schedule checking and believe i may have unearthed the Mismatch of the Year. One week from today, on the 20th, the Cubbies come to town and game 1 features the Battle of the Jakes: Arrieta vs Peavy. Of course, baseball being the pinnacle of perversity, we might somehow end up winning that one. Just kidding ~ probably.
I didn’t see the game or video (in transit to Colorado) . . . Regardless, IMO you never show up the manager, especially someone like Bochy, who always plays it straight with his players. Equally important, he’s a frickin’ future HOF manager.
Casilla must think that all Giants fans think he is doing a wonderful job . . . The reality is that Casilla has blown 3 saves already, with a pace to blow 12-14 for the season. That’s piss poor. Dunno how other Giants fans feel, but my ass tightens every time he goes to the mound. Same with Romo and his frisbee pitches. They’ve both done the job in an above satisfactory manner, but I never think of either as a lock like Chapman or Rivera.
Fucking-A spot on…I feel the same way, exactly.
I saw the end of the game, and IMO, Casilla was totally out of line. ONE – he wasn’t getting the fucking job done (like someone at the end of the last thread said…get people out and Bochy will not come out for you. TWO – regardless of whether it was an issue with Casilla’s outing, Bochy may have thought that Lopez was the better match-up (lefty on lefty). And to storm-off the hill like that…total disrespect for Bochy, IMO. I would have taken Casilla’s ass into my office and straightened some shit out, pronto. Casilla needs to get the hell over it, and apologize to the team, IMO. Fucking cry-baby.
As I mentioned last thread, four runs is not exactly going gangbuster, but it is the most we have scored in a while. The 1-7 w/RISP is still frustrating (leaving 6 OB). Zona left 11 OB (they were 2-11 with RISP). I still think this trip to Arizona may be part of the cure for our boys’ slump.
Let’s whoop some snake ass (wait..do snakes have asses???)!
Blade – looking at Loge Box 155, row KK. With all the bullshit add-on costs it is $393. We can sit in the same area, even closer to home plate in the Grandstand for less than $100 per (with fees those would probably be around $300. There are also lower box down the 1st base line for &70 up to $145. What do you think? I am ready to pull the trigger…just want your input…we can talk later if ya want. I will be out of pocket…taking my daughter out for a surprise 30th BD dinner tonight.
She doesn’t know it’s her 30th birthday?
I would much rather go with the latter . . . My 1700 shares of Apple is kicking my ass lately, so things have been like this:
Over the long-haul, those Apple shares are probably going to be good to you…
Looks like the album cover for Genesis – Selling England by the Pound. (Love that album!)
LMAO. She knows it is her 30th, but is under the impression that she and her boyfriend are meeting only Gail and me. There will be about 14 people there.
“One week from today, on the 20th, the Cubbies come to town and game 1 features the Battle of the Jakes: Arrieta vs Peavy.”
I’m going to be at the next day’s game on Saturday the 21st; Cain vs. whoever.
Cainer! Oh boy! 🙂
I thought the way Bochy handled it was perfect. He addressed it in the moment in front of the other guys on the mound. He showed them all, but most importantly Casilla, that he won’t stand for being disrespected. They all had that “Dad’s pissed” look afterwards as they stared at the ground and moved the dirt around.
so where are you these days? US?
El Caballo Loco!
1. Denard Span (L) CF
2. Joe Panik (L) 2B
3. Matt Duffy (R) 3B
4. Buster Posey (R) C
5. Brandon Belt (L) 1B
6. Hunter Pence (R) RF
7. Brandon Crawford (L) SS
8. Jeff Samardzija (R) P
9. Angel Pagan (S) LF
Anyone else notice that Ryan Braun is tearing it up this season? Him or is it PEDS? Or, Memorex?*
*Maybe some Flappers wont remember this reference, e.g., sfsarge, dirt, etc.
Ella Fitzgerald, baby.
I get the memorex thing, I’m not that young
lulz . . . You’re a pup compared to some of us sarge. 🙂
Memorex was my blank tape of choice for recording my favorite songs off the radio
True story blade
I believe you. It absolutely was meant as a compliment sarge. 🙂
I did not notice that Blade .. I remember he got off to a pretty good start the first month then I lost track .. well, isn’t that special (said in character of the ‘church lady’)!
I’ve never liked the guy. Mostly because Tulo got robbed in the ROY award. It should be noted I don’t care much for Tulo either, but I have friends that know Tulo and his family. He also is from Sunnyvale and that counts for something as well.
However, I’m reading that they may shop him at the trade deadline and if our pitching is satisfactory, but our hitting (e.g., Pagan or Span) sucks, I wouldn’t mind taking a flyer on him a la Beltran. No idea what it would take to nab him.
So, we get 3 games that he would have missed on the DL? Guess we’ll see how that works out.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the 3rd spot where you normally bat your best hitter, and cleanup is your power guy? Does Boch have special knowledge/insight into Duffs’ potential? Either way, is Posey our power guy? I realize Duff is in the 3 hole a lot but, remarkably, this question just occurred to me.
i think that 3/4 is interchangeable. I’ve heard the arguments and I think it’s all a bunch of nonsense. Bat 2 good hitters in the 3/4 hole you’re good to go. Lots of stuff happens in the 5/6/7 hole too.
Thanks Flav .. what you say makes sense .. makes me wonder what it would be like to bat Posey 2nd followed by Panik & Belt (especially with season BB is having). I’m thinking maybe Duff for leadoff .. Duff, Posey, Panik, BB, Pence, Craw .. Other than pitcher, get rid of the rest of them, we don’t need ’em.
Wasn’t thinking of righty, lefty sequencing … Inconsequential in my mind 😉
I agree, bb. Always thought that alternating shit was ridiculous…
Casilla predictably apologized. What’s he going to do? Say “Boch apologizes or I’m leaving?” I’m not down with the excuse of “he just wants the ball.” All the pitchers do. Something tells me Sabean and Evans are looking closely at who is available for the bullpen. Their bullpen needs a lot of help anyway so if they do add someone of quality it will be someone who could close if need be too. I recognize trades don’t go down at this point in the season. But their *bullpen radar* is up. I mean come on, even without Casilla’s tantrum, he could get replaced with someone new and we’d all probably be fine with it…….
Seems like Duffy keeps getting the same hit over and over again.
A Duffy shift is imminent…
He hasn’t been getting it nearly often enough to warrant a shift.
Arizona leads the league in assinine uniforms…
Tonight’s left sleeve logo looks like a baseball shoved up a cunt…
Yow!
Nothing wrong with the one last night.
How old was it?
Matt Williams is another shitty 3B coach.
He never struck me as terribly bright…
Smarge should be good for 2-3 years of Kevin Brown-like numbers.
Signing him made a lot of sense to me, there were reasons to expect he would be very good this year.
you did call it. Lot of bloggers were sure he’d be a fail and questioned the money big time.
One of cbs guys I think, Axisa maybe, thought he’d be one of worst signings of the year.
I was off line over the winter, but also really liked the signing.
Just for the hell of it: Kevin Brown belongs in the Hall of Fame.
HOF for leading the charge in LT contracts that sucked?…
Ha, a business pioneer, too! He was a pretty fucking good roid era pitcher.
Giants must be close to the leading the league in double plays … last I checked a few days ago, we were near the top.
One of the downsides of striking out the fewest times in the league 🙂
OH! Did not know that, thanks! Is that all MLB or NL only? As I write this BB just struck out … but I’ve noticed he & Pence have been much more selective at the plate this year.
4th in MLB, but of course no DH n the NL. Belt has always been selective — he just K’ed a lot more in previous seasons.
I suppose … If swinging wildly at pitches out of the zone — like he did a lot in the past — was being selective, then he certainly was being selective in the extreme.
I think the lucrative contract has relaxed Belt.
Sometimes guys press to live up to it…
Certainly, benching him for the likes of Brett Pill served no useful purpose whatsoever.
it’s hard to slump your shoulders when you’ve got 79 mil peppering your checking account
Time for some runs.
That wasn’t what I meant.
That clip reminded me I need to watch Pulp again. Top 5 of all time for me.
Idiot AZ announcers accurately point out that Pagan and Pence were nowhere to be found on the carom off the CF wall…
Shelby Miller….Jesus fucking Christ. Nice to see he’s finally righting the ship this year.
That’s what I’m talking about.
Hey Joe!
I pick my spots. that’s why I fucking post shit.
Bet that triple affected Miller…
So we should hope he hits a homer?
Very cool that Bochy let Panik swing on a 3-0 count.
He just spat right on the ball. I’ve never seen that.
He rubbed it in and I guess wasn’t on the rubber, so maybe it’s all good, but that was wild.
Going into the bottom of the 7th SamWhatAm at 92 pitches and facing the bottom of the lineup.
Now I know why Buster’s initials are GDP.
super lulz….
Cheese & Crackers! Four double plays .. Positive spin is they are making contact .. I hope these guys can break out the bats soon .. at least, no later than next week at home against Cubs .. I always feel we need a decent cushion (4 runs) no matter who we are playing.
Wow! Again, Smarge is dealin’!!!
Another nice play by the Duff man.
Good win.
Yeah, a ‘taking care of business’ type of win. Not spectacular, but solid. Built on good starting pitching.
Very nice job by Casillia … Not without a tense moment or two. But he got it done!
Hey, Casilla bounced back, with a vengeance. Dude, as I mentioned before, was incentivized to sack up and get it done. Nice win. Smardz with another solid effort. If only the 4 and 5 spots could be consistent in at least throwing 5 to 6 innings of decent work…
Maybe tomorrow Peavy will turn it around … Finally!
Pagan missed eleven (11) games, but was not DLed. So, Giants were down a position player to the oppo for 11 straight games. Why do we have OFers at AAA — so they can trim their toenails while Pagan watches from the dugout 11 games? WHAT THE PHUK ???…
BTW, Pagan provided the impetus for that 3-run rally culminating with the Panik Plant into the RF bleachers. He got on, then Span got on, then Boom — 3 runs…
Ya gotta hand it to the big old noggin. Master psychologist, ol Bruce. Once Osich had him a little Lamb, THEN BB15 hands the ball to Casilla for the save. Dude did not get his revenge on his nemesis but promptly took it out on the next two batters to assuage his pride. That was one sage piece of managing. Casilla knows who’s boss now and no doubt about it and who can say but that little incident in game one in the Snakepit may have given him some new motivation to come down nasty in a save situation.
Other nice thing about this contest is that the second consecutive Panik attack not only gets Joe out of his semi-slump, but gives us a guy who provided not only some critical power but also some sorely needed clutch hitting in the face of a 5 GDP night starring the aptly initialed GDP as Macdog so astutely pointed out.
Good win. Those two off-season Free Agent starters have brought some panache and stability to the rotation and also have provided much needed relief to an overtaxed bullpen. Panik provided punch. Now we need Peavy and Cain to pretend they are pitching on the mound at Willie Mays field and for those bats to start finding those holes when the ducks are on the pond.
With 30 bases on balls, Brandon Belt is third in the league after Harper and Goldschmidt. Not bad company the guy keeps these days. Looks to be he is protecting the black (and sub-black) a bit more this season and that BB9 has also come into his own in getting due respect from the umps. He also happens to be a not bad 9th in the NL in OBP. That nice contract went to his head alright ~ in a good way.
All these guys want to play. Have a bad day or are in a slump, no one wants to sit. Casilla gets the job done, ho hum. Panik had been terrible at ATT after coming back off the injury, blasts game winning bomb on consecutive days.
The GIDPs are maddening, but as Twin used to point out, they don’t come without guys getting on base and are often the result of someone who is a good hitter (like Span twice recently) hitting the ball hard on the ground. Duffy had a fantastic 2015 at the plate and did it a ton.
Bats definitely seem to have woken up—lot of hard hit outs in addition to base knocks and HRs from Panik.
LU back to normal with Pagan in there, Giants should continue to be among league leaders scoring runs.
D looks better too all around.