All Cylinders
Yesterday was the first time in years when the Giants played and finished a game before I even knew they were playing. Man, that was an early one yesterday.
Into Missouri we go. Honestly it doesn’t rile me up the way it used to. Not sure why.
Warriors 2nd team took down “The Land” last night. That must be a fun pill for LeFlop to swallow.
Here’s a sampling of tweets from their resident idiot fan after the game ended last night.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Cavs go fishing in 5 . . .
Portland would handle the Cavs.
Not sure why? I’d like to think I had a part in that. Once the fan base was humanized it took some hatred out. 🙂
Any thoughts on Wacha at 2-6 and Martnez 5-5? Tough division I know but why are Cards playing under .500 ball at home?
Season is one third over, Cards 10 behind Cubs. What has to change from Cards side?
Wacha had a real tough stretch, three straight games of six-plus runs in just four innings. I think he’s not able to throw his changeup for strikes as often which is letting people sit on the fastball. That’s just a gut guess, though. He looked better last time out.
Martinez had a flu bug that seemed to impact him over a stretch (whether weakness or just got him off rhythm) but was very good against the Brewers (granted, Brewers). I think we’ll still see a lot of good stuff from him going forward.
What has to change for St. Louis is, firstly, beating good teams. They have feasted offensively against sub-.500 squads but have really struggled against better opposition. If the rotation would get going–right now your good friend Mike Leake may be the most consistently good option–things would improve as well. We didn’t expect them to be as amazing as last year, but even 80% of that would be nice.
Either that or the fact we’ve spanked you in the playoffs that last two tries . . . !
And three if you go back to 2002. That might have something to do with it as well…… 🙂
Hah! Those battles in the 80s were intense. I still can barely say Okendo without throwing up.
You can barely spell it, too…
I was thinking the Warriors might follow the same path as the Giants to their 2nd Championship. They’ve got the down 3-1 comeback covered. Now it’s time for the sweep.
I’m pretty stoked for Livingston. His performance last night was not surprising. I was down in L.A. when the Clippers drafted him and he created a lot of buzz for that franchise. His knee injury was terrible and he’s fought his way back. Dude has overcome a lot.
Great post game interview with Shaq and Isiah. Very composed and intelligent, just like he is on the court.
He’s been through a lot, hope he continues to play well.
Lol how much of a idiot this Vern guy is..
Hey Vern your starting 5 can’t even outplay are bench.Grasp on that you knucklehead..
..
J R Smith, lol. 36 minutes and he gets 3 points and watches old man Barbosa light them up.
I have a feeling LB says, OK I’m gonna get mine, I’m not coming out the game to watch their scraps f us up and I’m not settling for 23 points. I got 40 on these guys last year and I’m gonna do it again.
Course that didn’t work out too well, but…
Quick look at B/R for Cards is a surprise.
They have 6 guys over .800 OPS despite Wong and Grichuk (good looking 24/25 young players) struggling in .220s.
They are tops in NL for runs scored
BA 4th
HR 2 (!) really?
OB 3
SLG 2
OPS 1
However, team ERA: 9th NL
See how top rated O fares vs. Cueto and Smardz.. followed by.Peavy on Sunday ouch.
This has been the inverse of how we expected this year to go. We knew there was some power potential on this squad, but we didn’t think everyone would hit them, plus folks like Jeremy Hazelbaker were a complete surprise. This club has already tied the Cardinal record for pinch-hit homers in a season with 10 and we’re just starting June.
That said, as I mentioned above a lot of the offense has come at the behest of some really awful teams. The run differential against sub-.500 teams is astounding, but when they run into better teams, they’ve struggled.
They have done OK against some of the better pitchers–put seven on Greinke in AZ, just knocked around Arrieta, beat Scherzer–but we’ll see how it goes this weekend.
Card79: Just wanted to say thanks for posting here. It’s always a pleasure when you check in with us. The Cards being the perennial powerhouse they are have my unwavering respect and I’m deeply interested to receive news of the goings on with the team.
I second your sentiments, Lisle. Glad to see you here again, Daniel.
Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
The one offensive category in which the Cardinals were the champs for decades has switched positions with their previous weak suit. I’m talking stolen bases vs the longball. The likes of Lou Brock must be scratching their heads with this turnaround into the hardest hitting yet slowest team in the NL. Wonder what Whitey might have thunk.
There are a lot of folks that claim to want to see Whitey back in the dugout, wanting a return to the speed days. While I’d like to see some more running (and if Tommy Pham returns from Memphis, we might see a little more) I’m not sure Whitey’s philosophy would work quite as well these days.
Ah, you rekindled some childhood memories for me Stix. I remember those days well. Brock, Flood, Gibson…those were the teams of my childhood. Loved hearing Harry Caray call the Cards games back then. I still think Gibson was one of the most dominating pitchers of all time (of course, I was a bit biased back then).
Chi: Summer of ’58, staying on aunt and uncle’s farm and earning some money for school clothing at the age of 14. Radio in my upstairs bedroom tuned into KMOX. “This is Harry Carey along with Joe Garagiola, coming to you from beautiful Bush Stadium in St. Louis where it’s the Cards vs the SAN Francisco Giants, with Vinegar Bend Mizell for the Redbirds facing Sad Sam Jones for the visitors. It’s a warm baseball night in St. Louis with the temperature hovering around 90 degrees and just right for baseball.”
Wow! You are truly a maestro with the written word, Stix. I almost thought I was lying in my bed with my transistor radio there. Although in ’58, I was still dirtying diapers, but it wasn’t too many years later when I was introduced to the most beautiful sport to grace our wonderful planet…baseball. Love it…thanks for that vision.
Cavs know they can’t go down 0-2 out here and win the series, so they’ll come out scratchin and clawin Sunday. Dubs know that, and that they lost game 2 last year to Cavs. Should be a closer game, Dubs win again, though. No way Klay and Steph only get 20 between them again…
Great thread, Flav. And I am with you, some of the luster of the rivalry between the Cards and us has seemed to worn off for me (and I grew-up a Cards fan).
Regarding the ass-hat Vern, what a dumbass. Blind, I tell you, blind. I picked Warriors in six over the Cavs, but think that the Warriors may just seal the deal in five…would not surprise me.
And I think WillieD called it right. We probably saw the true championship series last week against the Thunder. I think the Thunder would have taken the Cavs, too.
Last night’s game brought true meaning to the Warrior moniker of “Strength in Numbers.” This has to be the best squad, top-to-bottom in the history of the NBA. Your two stars tank it for a game…NO PROBLEM, bench pours in 40+ in what was ultimately a cake-walk.
Love that we have the Dreadlocked Dominican and Shark tee’d up for the first two in Saint Louie! GO GIANTS!
the fact that he’s still sticking with Cavs in 6 after they lost game 1 shows how dumb he is.
Yep. He isn’t worth the time of day or a breath of air. Let him wallow in his ineptitude.
In the past, the Cards (I think) have done OK against Samardzija and occasionally can kick something off against Cueto, though that’s a lot more unlikely.
This year….I’ve got no clue, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them have trouble scratching out more than a run tonight.
by the way, Daniel gave me a chance to do a Q/A with him but I had to turn him down cause I was too busy. But it is GREAT to see him here! My all time fav Cardinal fan. 🙂
Always enjoy checking in over here. Should be a fun weekend!
A friend of mine I met in Panama (we hiked the tallest volcanic peak there) is a Cleveland fan. However, he isn’t delusional like this Vern dude. In fact, my friend is saying Warriors in 5, if the Cavs can steal a game in Cleveland. Most of his buddies (on Facebook) are saying the same thing. Point being that most Cav fans are not tools like Vern is.
Should the outfield situation get in the desperate/dire dimension the Giants have a potential trade piece which would bring in a pretty good 30-32 Y.O. outfielder from a rebuilding team. I’m talking last year’s #1 SF draft pick Chris Shaw, 22, a native of Stoneham (think longtime Giants owner Horace who brought the team to SF in 58), Mass. The right-handed throwing and LH batting 6’4″ 235 pound first baseman has amassed some impressive stats at a relatively tender age for San Jose in High A ball.
With 192 AB’s Shaw has scored 35 times on 58 hits, 18 of which are doubles, an even dozen Dingers bringing in 41 Ribeyes. His typical power hitter Walk-S.O. ratio is 19-46. Here’s the rest of the story: A sparkling .370 OBP, a noteworthy .583 SP on a BA of .302 for a .954 OPS.
One might argue that the stats are not quite those of a superstar, but do not forget that the kid is but 22 and is in his first year of organized baseball. He has pretty much convinced me that he can hit for both average and power and has a knack for driving in runs. One might argue that Shaw would be a lot to give up, but 1B is pretty well covered with Belt now on a long-term contract and sporting one of the better OPS ratios in the NL. And he’s backed up by Buster.
So we are talking contingency/desperation here, but several teams who are out of the race this season would likely swap us a more than adequate outfielder and perhaps toss in an experienced and competent reliever for a young man with this much promise and who, at his current pace of development is likely to crash The Show by 2018.
Who do you have your sights on Stix?
Haven’t focussed on that one Loo. Any suggestions? Off the top the two Florida teams seem to be awash in outfielders, with the cream of the crop being Ozuna. Now that guy is good enough that the throw-in might have to come from our side. Long term i think Shaw would considerably outshine Marcel within 4 years and at his age we could be looking at a long career in MLB. But we are talking a bit of desperation in our drive for all the marbles once again.
It would be nice to get someone who would stay on and replace Pagan next year…
Correction: Second scoping reminded me that Shaw did play close to two-thirds of excellent hitting baseball in the Giants pipeline last season. Doubles and dingers flying all over the place. So his partial two season track record should stand as a further plus that this kid is on a fast train to The Show. Maybe that outfielder should be in the 28-30 range and the reliever better than competent. This kid is a comer.
I was sort of wondering the same thing about Shaw. Maybe he can play LF instead?
Beltran was mentioned over on the McCovey site. He might be attainable without having to give up too much.
I sure hope not. I don’t think Beltran is a very competent OF anymore plus I don’t like him, either. There was a clip on that short-lived Showtime series on the 2010 Giants in which Torres was trying to get a little insight from Beltran about hitting. Carlos seemed to cooperate reluctantly which is very much in line with his aloof reputation. Felt bad for Andres who was treating him like a God…
Yeah, he’s a douche but can he hit in the 5-6 hole and play LF? Would his D be better than Morse or Burrell? He’s putting up decent numbers over roughly 200 abs this year. Do you think that is a product of Yankee stadium?
Mac and Parker can solve all of this by performing.
Great post and subsequent comments, Stix and Loo.
Actually the Showtime thing was on the 2011 Giants (obviously)…
Back when English was spoken in Brooklyn, there were plenty of Cardinal fans here. I knew 3 of them very well – all good guys. One in particular was devastated when they traded speedy Bobby Tolan for the declining Vada Pinson. He was right. Tolan had some good years for Cincy – the once great Pinson was a shell of himself…
Those Brooklyn fans were the one that gave Stan Musial his nickname, so it’s probably not a surprise some respect (on both sides) developed!
True, 70. Couple of kids I knew conveniently hopped on in ’64 when Gibby, Brock and the gang put an end to the Mantle-Maris-Ford era…
Interesting, Whitey Herzog’s unintended influence on baseball. In one of Bill James’ early editions of his Abstract, in the very early days of sabermetrics; James cited Herzog as one of the reasons he started the Abstract. James said that he heard Herzog quoted as saying that Ozzie Smith saves two runs a game on defense, and how all the media nodded their heads in agreement, like, yeah that sounds true. And it gnawed a bit at James. Yeah, it SOUNDS right, but how can it be right? How can a player be saving 324 runs a season on defense? Well, closer examination of the numbers proved what a ridiculous statement Herzog had made, and thus sabermetrics was born. The essence of the birth of sabermetrics was the ability of FANS to challenge all the statements the baseball professionals would make, and never be challenged on over the years.
And, from there, of course, sabermetrics is a big part of the work of baseball professionals nowadays.
I don’t think I’d ever heard that story. Very nice to know!
Daniel, did you read the recently published book “The Cardinal Way” by the author Megdal? If you have read it, I was wondering what you thought of it. I haven’t read it. I’d like to get to it eventually.
How great, you give me a chance to self-promote! Megdal sent me a review copy of the book last fall and a final copy this spring. Here’s my review but on the whole, it was a very good examination of the Cardinal organization.
http://www.cardsconclave.com/2016/02/18/book-review-cardinals/
Austin Slater was 317/.413/.490/.902 in Richmond before being moved up to AAA to replace Williamson.
Maybe we see him soon.
What is this? New math? .490+.902 = .903? That or fat fingers. 😉
I just looked at his stats, and he is now at .400, .400, .600, 1.000. Damn!
And if Parker cannot fix the holes in his swing, I say bring the kid up for a cup of coffee!
It’s straight from the MiLB stat site. AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS. Maybe they rounded wrong. I guess that .001 makes all the difference.
All good…I was just messing with ya. Thanks for sharing the stats. I need to do a better job of following our minor league teams…
Dirt: Was scanning through the pipeline stats and Slater stuck in my mind as well. He’s come up fast, about 23 if i recall. Not particularly a power bat but some fair number of doubles and good BA and OBP. He may be a bit green just yet, but by August or so, if the ParkerMac pair can’t handle it, we might get our first taste of Austin .
CardinalFan….recover from the Sharks beat down yet???? 🙂 At least the Cardinals won’t disappoint you this year ad the Blues did…
There are other sports? I wasn’t aware of any…..
Honestly, while I saw the Blues were playing well (until they weren’t), that (along with the Rams move out of town) didn’t mean much to me. I’m just glad the whole town can now focus on what’s really important!
we are cut from the same cloth.
Indeed Flav….
Let’s get it on! GO GIANTS!
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. Brandon Crawford (L) SS
7. Gregor Blanco (L) LF
8. Jarrett Parker (L) RF
9. Johnny Cueto (R) P
Super bad news,
Hunter Pence as been reported by Baggs tore the hamstring completely from the bone! Out atleast 2 months or longer yikes!!
Daniel, thanks for the link to your review of the Megdal book. That’s an interesting and well-written review. Great job on that. Have you read and reviewed the Rains book yet?
I did, yes. It’s a different flavor and approach, but it’s good (if a lesser book) in its own right.
http://www.cardsconclave.com/2016/04/16/book-review-flight/
Pence – TORN hammy….NOT good. FUCK!
Terrible news on Pence. Surgery required.
Loo turns out to be right: see him in September.
djloo27 said, on June 1, 2016 at 5:28 pm (Edit)
Yeah, looked like he tore something, but WTF do I know…
————————————————————————-
The answer: EVERYTHING
lulz
Man, what happened to that guy? He went from being an iron man to repeatedly injured.
He got married.
lulz!
Pence has sort of accidentally made the case that the players are correct in not sprinting on all routine outs.
He may be out for the year. Putting him onto the proper DL in the first place could have avoided this, could have. I’ll say no more, lest a bunch of bad words flow…
Could have. Or not. 2 more weeks or rest may not have made a damn bit of difference.
They ran the tests, and Pence passed them and got back on the field. He’s getting paid to run around, and he was cleared. It ain’t like they are solely basing this on Pence’s desire to play. Would one day of rest helped? A month? Who knows? I hear people on the radio saying he should have been given the day off. Right. In hindsight that’s a great call.
What Pence should do is stop trying to go full throttle legging out infield hits. Let Tomlinson lead the team in that category.
Maybe Susac gets his act together and makes it back to the big club. Posey to 1b and Belt to LF?
Whenever someone suggests this, Dirt, someone else will say it weakens 3 positions…
Yeah I was thinking that would come up. I’m good with Blanco playing LF and a Parker/Mac platoon in RF but that’s just me. Time for Booby Evans to do some GMing errr what Sabes tells him.
That Loo, is pure gold!
That was pure Gold, Loo! So true.
No problem with what dirt says. Also, Chuck is right. Stop the blame game with the medicos and trainers. This is ultimately on Pence. Sheesh, all of us have had injuries which required surgery/rehab. Please tell me where the PT or doctor says “over do it.” I recall distinctly my PT looking me in the eye, telling me after my shoulder rotator cuff and ruptured bicep injury surgery – “I know the type of person you are. I’ve seen people who are gym rats like you and I tell each of them – You want to do twice as much as I recommend. Do that and you’ll be back here within 6 months.” The dude was so serious (and sincere) that I did exactly what he said. It took forever to complete the rehab, but he was right, i.e., I had my full range of motion back and most of my strength as well.
I’m not saying Pence didn’t pay attention to what his body was telling him, but as dirt pointed out, he probably would have been better served by ratcheting down the intensity a bit. Hard to say.
On the MLB Network, they’re saying the usual procedure in this situation is to have the tendon completely removed. Say what? A person doesn’t need their hamstring? I’d never heard that before.
It’s always weird when I hear doctors or dentists say, “You don’t need those wisdom teeth” or “Let’s remove that appendix.” I always thought WTF? However, I learned my lesson regarding wisdom teeth, as I found out both were impacting the other molars because they were too close together and food was getting trapped between them. Caused some issues before I said, “Ok, remove them.” Intuitively, we all want to keep our body parts, especially the extra ones the Universe or God gave us.
I’m sure the Braves wouldn’t mind dumping Markakis contract. His power is gone but he never misses a game and when he’s right he’s a doubles machine. Also a 2X GG winner. Signed through 2018 at $11 million/year…
I would think we could get him for nearly nothing as long as we picked up the contract. This isn’t a bad idea at all.
Career games played in RF:
Span: 124
Blanco: 96
Pagan: 90
They just showed an aerial view of Marlin stadium.
Looks like a huge modern toilet bowl with the lid down…
Stix: Ozuna just homered off Syndegaard…
Loo, is Syndergaard an idiot? I’ve never heard him talk or anything like that. Just wondering? Addendum: I just read what I wrote . . . What I meant was the incident involving him throwing behind Utley and getting kicked out of the game, i.e., has he done anything in NY to give fans reasons for questioning his intelligence?
I really don’t know, Blade. He’s only 23. I guess he speaks okay.
Here’s a little:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPfHb5tGX_g
He sounds very intelligent. However, the analyst in the checkered red and white shirt? He needs to reduce his coffee intake.
SF-STL is on MLB network. Costas just reported surgery is definite for Pence who could return in August…
I’m still gonna go with Sept 1st at earliest. “torn completely off the bone” doesn’t sound like something you bounce back from that quickly.
Cueto is not sharp.
Belt is…
.. oh how, I love good conga …
It’s nice to see that Bob Costas has gone from doing the Olympics on NBC to regional games on the MLB network. Couldn’t happen to a better guy.
lol. Has his pink eye cleared up yet?
HAH! Now thats funny
I think Parker’s gonna golf one out of there before the night’s over…
1.5% usage rate on FD. I have him in a LU, so I hope so. However, he hasn’t given me any hope in his ABs this evening to think that’s remotely possible.
ParKer.
I hope this one run lead inspires Cueto to focus a tad more.
Wainwright is a cagey ol codger. Parker is not used to that. Lately, he has just not been cutting it. Though he just did cut the conga line.
I’m voting Parker off the island if he does zilch tonight.
I 2nd the motion!
Just caught the news about Pence…now we definitely need a bat and my appetite for Bruce just grew…
Waz up with JC tonite? 5 BB?
He can’t hit the broad side of a barn right now. One of those nights…
Reading some of the earlier posts, I would by all means keep Shaw and I wouldn’t give up shit to get a guy like Beltran. He wasn’t worth a shit the first time he was here, so let’s not find out about a second.
Last year’s draft was a good one for the Giants and could have 3 guys who could be in the majors for years. The above moves would be a big reach at this point in the season. Pence’s injury sucks big time, but I won’t even entertain the idea of dipping into the cream of the Giant’s prospects.
Muhammad Ali is expected to pass away within a day, according to reports.
That sucks. Always liked him and arguably the greatest boxer ever. He’s had a good life.
Read that. Frankly, he’s my all time favorite hero, person and sports figure. No one even comes close IMO.
So sorry to hear that.
Agree 100% with Blade about Ali.
Snarkk, I’m with you, Pence may well be done for the year. A torn anything isn’t something you bounce back from in a couple of months, and a hammy might be the worst place to get hurt in that manner. The way he plays and the way he depends on his legs, I dunno.
I think he’s getting hurt more now because his years of playing balls-to-the-wall on every play is just catching up with him. Even iron men start to wear down eventually.
The Giants won 21 games in May averaging 3.9 runs a game. The line up, even w/o Pence, will produce at least at that rate. Sure hope the big 3 starters can keep it up.
Concern about Cueto’s back….
I.e, Cueto’s back may be a bigger deal than that hamstring.
Duvall just cracked another one. He wouldn’t do anything near this in our park but with all these “torn off the bones” and Pagan limping around and Parker sucking, it wouldn’t be so bad to have Duvall around for 8 weeks.
Duvall has hands down been my best fantasy player all year. He was hitting homers for me when he was still under $3000 on DK. I actually have to thank Lisle for that.
Bumgarner during a dugout interview just now on MLB said he has made 8 holes in one. Either he is full of shit or he was thinking of miniature golf.
That was Smoltz.
Smoltz is an accomplished golfer and has been for a long time. I think he even considered going pro after he retired from baseball.
That makes sense. I can barely understand a word Bum says.
Bumgarner didn’t sound too concerned about Cueto’s back during his interview.
Dodgers put Puig on the DL because of a hamstring.
Five walks over 94 pitches in 5 innings is totally Un-Cueto. He came into the game with perhaps the 2nd or 3rd lowest walk ratio in the NL. So we will be looking at maybe three innings of the B-B-B-Bullpen. Ouch.
That might be it for JC.
i’m not worried about Cueto’s back at all. It’s not right that’s clear. But if it was really bad there’s no way he’d be out there. He’ll be fine next start
Cueto was awesome. I’ll take a gutsy performance like that any time.
Yup, he clearly had nothing and still toughed out 6 innings of one-run ball.
The Ali deal is sad. An American icon and a huge part of my childhood. I rooted for him to lose every time I watched him fight. It’s just the way I roll. I was an underdog guy when I was 7, and I’ll be an underdog guy when I’m 77.
Man, losing Pence is going to make this a very hard even year.
Awesomely bad AB from Gillaspie.
I’m glad to see others feel about Ali the way I do. He rubbed some the wrong way, but he’s so charming that he has a way of disarming people and winning them over. He’s also funny as hell. I loved watching him box and maybe just watching him be himself even more. I’m trying to watch my tenses here because he ain’t dead yet.
A tremendous talent and a good man.
The best part of last night’s game, besides the obvious victory, was Kerr going medieval on his clipboard. He was pissed! I actually liked seeing that from him.
I’ve never read anything about Ali’s true feelings about having Parkinson’s but I have to believe this is almost a blessing for him. Soon he’ll be free to “dance like a butterfly” again…..
It’s amazing how full of a life he lived after contracting the disease.
Beautifully said.
It’s….Oh shite!
Yes, O-shit, from 0-2 to 3-2 to base hit. Fuck.
Bozo, LJ . . . My mom in California will call me up if he does pass on. We’ll both cry. I can’t think of a single person who was more well known in the entire world as Ali was . . . That’s saying something, when you consider this is before the internet. Ironically, as much as he was loved, he was also hated, especially while in exile (banned) from boxing. Hard to articulate what he means to me.
The band The Clash had a song with the lyric: “You have the right to free speech….as long as you don’t actually try it.”
Ali was all about using the right to free speech, and the right to follow your conscience.
“You have the right to not be killed….unless its by a po-lice man”
Great band.
There’ll never be another personality like him. Today’s fighters are sterile by comparison, devoid of any style or panache. Ali oozed both.
Years ago I remember reading that the two most recognizable faces in the world, were Ali and Louis Armstrong. I think at the time, that was probably true (in Ali’s case, it probably still is). Both took shit for some of their actions, but both stood behind their beliefs. I’ve been in awe of these two ambassadors since I was a kid.
Agree John . . . Both of them span my childhood, teen years, and adulthood. I still remember the soundtrack cut that Louis Armstrong made, called “We Have All the Time in the World” . . . It was the James Bond theme and a hit song for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Xander “Don’t Bogaerts that Joint,” has his hitting streak end at 26 games.
I’m actually enjoying McCarver’s analysis tonight, which is rare.
My favorite Tim McCarver moment was when Deion Sanders dumped a cooler of gatorade on his head. Hilarious.
Gearrin has some nasty movement. G’s need to nail this one down after Casilla’s chokage the other night.
That was a nice effort by Gearrin cleaning up Oshits’ crap.
Totally up with Bochy’s quick yank of Osich and replacement by Gearrin, who seems to consistently get that job done. He’s looking more and more like that FIREMAN i’ve been plumping for. Sooner or later MLB will once again recognize that a quality fireman is worth at least as much as a competent closer…not that the latter isn’t also looming as a chasmic abyss.
Anyone up for giving the 9th to Strick? Can I see a show of hands????
(Zum…cue up the cricket GIF)
Tough one dog … I don’t know who is trust … Certainly not Casillia!
lulz
lulz!
I don’t have my laptop handy, unfortunately. I’m less knowledgeable about my cellphone.
Panik has stung the ball 3 times tonight.
Does Duff look as lost at the plate on tv as he seems following on gameday?
Yes.
He stroked the ball this AB, but he’s definitely not found his groove yet.
I’ve said it before that I thought Duffy was a one year wonder. He just doesn’t look like a major league hitter to me. The guy came out of nowhere to put up a career year that I doubt will ever be matched. I hope I am wrong.
Sure as shit ain’t a 3 hitter…
In a close games we so very nice rarely get late innings insurance runs even though we often seem to set the table for them frequently.
Skinkin typing
Is that typing called hunt and skink?
I’m with ya bass, putting up a crooked number would make me feel a little more comfortable.
As any flapper ever calculated what Lopez pay,works out to be on a per pitch basis? Or, on a batters faced basis? Just curious …
Saw Ali struggle to put away Bonavena at MSG in late ’70 (6 bucks). It was his 2nd comeback fight after he was banned…
Envy you. Many of his early fights were on TV . . . Pay TV ruined that. Usually, you could catch them on television (Wide World Of Sports) a couple of weeks later. I remember the ticker tape on all network channels showing round by round results for his fights. A different world back than.
I remember those days vividly…could not wait to see the fights, and yes, almost always on WW of Sports. Channel 8 in my hometown. Ali is still my all-time favorite boxer. Once a generation stuff there.
Wow Loo .. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone that saw Ali fight ‘Live’ .. That is truly impressive!
Bonavena was the only guy to ever get the best of Ali at a pre-fight press conference. Gotta be on youtube somewhere. He was taunting him in his thick Argentine accent about not going into the Army. Called him a chicken and made chicken sounds if I remember right. It was actually very funny. Ali was humiliated…
Good job there Strick.
Leave him in there!
Yep, he got ‘er done!
As I have said many times, if Strick develops a couple of other pitches that he can throw consistently for strikes, he will be deadly. Come on Rags and Gardner…work your magic.
Casilla is a-comin’!
Duck & Cover!
Let’s get some runs!
C’mon Specs!