Game Win
Coming off a tough, emotional series with the Dodgers, last night could have been a big let-down game. It was not. The top of the order were hitting right out of the gate and we got a fairly easy victory over an underrated team.
I can’t believe all the steam this “Braun story” is getting. There is NO WAY we get this dude. Unless the Brewers want to pay 80% of his deal and we know that isn’t happening. I don’t want him for free. He would be guaranteed to hit significantly worse over the course of an entire season at AT&T. He’s aging. And now *probably* without his precious steroids. And we’d be stuck with him through 2021! Plus if he gets popped again that a 162 ban. Not worth the risk.
Also, the guy’s a dick. All Melky did was hastily put together a fake website. Dumb? Super dumb. But he didn’t chuck some poor guy just doing his job under the bus. That was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen an athlete do.
Fuck Ryan Fraud. Forever.
Harmonic convergence or something. Dodgers leave town and Giants bats erupt with everyone getting into the act while LA gets bounced around by DBax (now 13-23 at home). Even Blanco broke up a massive 0-fer with a couple ribbies.
I don’t like Braun either, but the guy can play. There were epic battles in Yankdom when they signed Reggie, but all was forgiven (pretty much) when he blasted all those bombs in WS. Braun could do same here.
How many years have we been talking about RH pop for the OF? He’s a legit middle order bat and would kill in Giants LU, with or without Pence. He’d do fine at ATT as RH pull hitter and even better on the road.
This would be the last thing Dodgers (or anyone else) want to see.
Btw I’m giving full props to LA for dumping Crawford and releasing the other useless guy they owe a ton of money to.
It doesn’t matter how much a guy is getting paid, but what kind of player he is and how much he can help the team.
Giants did it with Gamer finally (always love Bowtie for that) and held on to others far too long, including one current OF I’m not going to mention who would be extremely irrelevant if Giants got a hitter like Braun.
Oh come on. Don’t hold back, Flav.
Yeah, he’s a big douche nozzle in my book. The righteous indignation over the fucked up process was bad enough, but getting caught again is stupidity on a colossal level. Aaron Rodgers sure shut the fuck up about it as well.
Agree Flav. Unless Brewers decide to eat half the contract, which won’t happen cause the Giants done have the prospects to make that happen, I say hell no. The fact that the Giants are even discussing Braun is evidence enough that won’t happen.
That being said, the Brewers new GM was formerly the Astros assistant GM. A real sabermetric nerd (he looks like one too) who hasn’t made any big deals yet. It will be interesting to see what kind of moves he makes, because I do think Braun goes before the deadline.
I started nodding out in the top of the 7th, so I shut it down. Wake up today to see the team started listening to Coach Bassbaldy and went out and got some more runs.
Braun, I don’t want him. Yeah throwing the Fedex guy under the bus was very telling of the type of guy he is (I wonder if there was ever a defamation suit?), but I’m not letting Melky off the hook either, I think an argument could be made that he threw the Giants under the bus while he slipped out of the clubhouse in the dead of night. But it’s not the roids that make me say no, it’s the contract. Five+ more years for this guy is a huge no from me. I have a new rule, it’s called the Ryan rule, where you don’t give anyone with the first name of Ryan a long term contract.
Question, how did Greinke get to 9 wins? Last we saw him I thought he was on the ropes.
Thanks for the props Clown .. I’ll take ’em!
As, for Braun, thanks but no thanks. For all the reasons mentioned already by y’all, and I believe we need to give the rooks a little more rope.
Its tough hitting in this league. Some guys get it fast, some slow, most never.
Look at “my guy,” Duvall. He did nothing for us and now he is having a spectacular year. I realize there could be extenuating circumstances in his case, and maybe its a case of one and done.
So, lets give the youngsters a little more experience before we start selling off the farm.
You did call it on Duvall early in the season, I remember that. I think he only had 5 home runs at the time. Nicely done!
I’m guessing making a transition to so many home games at higher altitude was a challenge, but he’s turned a corner on it. And he didn’t pitch great last night, IMO, but good enough for the W.
Zum, I like this altitude theory of yours. It does make sense. How is it Gumby has 9 wins while pitching if not exactly “poorly”, at least, so far below his norm?
It would be interesting to see a stat on how much run-support he’s gotten. Sabermetricians don’t put a lot of stock in pitchers’ Ws anymore, because they feel like it’s so dependent on a pitcher’s run-support. Brian Kenny, of the MLB Network, a huge sabermetrics guy, says he doesn’t even look at a pitcher’s W/L record anymore. He believes it to be a completely worthless stat. But I think that’s taking it too far. It’s still a worthwhile stat, IMO.
Run support is exactly what I thought of. Look at how well Bum has pitched and has only 7 wins. He should have at least 9 wins … thanks to the BP, nope.
Btw, Phoenix is only 1100ft elevation. Do you believe that is enough to affect pitching?
Yes, and it’s not just the pitcher’s “stuff” that gets affected, when the ball gets hit, it travels better than at sea level. Not as much as the Rockies’ ballpark, but still more than sea level.
F/G always has interesting take on the contract, where more of the real value to the club comes at front end. In Braun’s case, he comes here and helps Giants put another ring on the widget, it ain’t gonna matter because the bean counters will explode with all the cash it brings to the club.
Take a look at what a top notch OF costs these days—FAs like Heyward and J Up, both of whom are way underperforming so far. Like him or not Braun would be tremendous help to Giants and one less headache for FO scrambling to find competent OFs in system.
After this year you say good bye to Pagan and Peavy, saving $20 mil right there. What I’m saying is no more dumpster diving or throwing inexperienced kids in there. Who knows how much more Pence there is? What is there to replace him with?
Hey I realize I’m not convincing anyone who can’t stand the guy and Giants could very well win it all without him. I’m just saying this is someone I’d consider very seriously about who Brewers would want. And if he went to another NL club in contention that would suck.
Hey there WD .. did you ever see my response to your query about Buster Williams a few days ago?
my token post now that I am working and grave shift no less.
I didn’t take the Braun rumors seriously, but it is a nice tease as he is playing good right now.
Now I know why LBJ wanted Green out of the dubs lineup – smart beats big and the cavs star went wild last night. I heard from someone at court side that as Draymond sent the offending hand-shove he yelled, “adios pelota!”.
The dogs that bet Cleveland last night done good.
I hope Cain never has to pitch to Kerwin Danley again, he seemed to lose it after 3 strikes were called balls.
We see such flashes of championship brilliance some games. Then we want every game to be that way and last night was no exception. Get that 2 out conga line going. Baseball is beautiful, even after 3.5 hours.
P.S. we need a pool for how many games before Pagan is on the DL again. As I write that I can feel how cold hearted it is to say, but pools are always fun.
yes, and a late night for East Coasters…I checked my iPad by the bed off and on, drowsily
The Giants bullpen was a FORCE last night….
GifMan!
If Braun were just another ‘roider, I wouldn’t care if SF took him. Half the league could still be using PEDS. And when caught they lie, so he’s no diff there. But, the Blame onto the Fedex guy was beyond the pale, that was low ands despicable right there with Lance Armstrong kind of character assassination…
Just saw a story by the disgraced form ref Tim McCunahy saying NBA suspended Green because they want series to go 7 games. Not shocking, but lame. No other league would suspend a guy for that little tap considering the circumstances…I’m thumbs down on Braun too. What about Bruce? 29 with only one year left on his deal at $13M
Looked over Bruce’s stats yesterday. Impressive. I did not do home and away splits to see how much the overall is effected by half his games being at Riverfront Bandbox. After snagging Duvall, Cinci may have become a believer in former Giants outfielders (think George Foster). They might jump for Stratton, Crick, Parker and one of the 4 currently bright rotation prospects at Augusta.
I like that theory, Stix…
What I don’t get is the fact that the NBA allows this shit to be determined 2 days after the fact.
If they did this in the NFL, there’d be 10 suspensions a week.
I didn’t think the Warriors would fade in the end last night, but Green is the best defender in the league ,and they missed him badly. Bogut down the stretch as well. Once they finally started getting stops in the 4th, they couldn’t score.
Losing Bogut is big deal. He was supposedly walking around last night, but the MRI is this morning.
I’d let him sit for game 6 if there’s the possibility to have him for game 7.
And, fuck the NBA. After the Donaghy deal, this looks contrived as well.
I’d be impressed if Bogut came back before October, but the Warriors could really use him.
I don’t like Rhine Brawn-not-brains.
I am pretty sure Willie was on in 1958.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brains_%26_Brawn
‘Course Loo will know the exact date.
Jackie Jensen?
The Giants kind of quietly signed Ruben Tejada to a minor league contract, most famously known for having his leg broken by Utley in the playoffs.
I am on the #NeverTrump I mean #NeverBraun team. But overall, his contract is not the worst thing I have ever seen. Roughly $20 mill a year after this season. If we get them paying half of next year’s salary and maybe a quarter of the rest, it would not be that much of a salary albatross.
If those numbers were somewhat close, you are replacing Pagan this year for Braun. And I am going to presume and I will suspend disbelief for the moment and go ahead and believe his numbers are legit this year and not artificially enhanced. One would expect he is capable of putting up similar numbers at least for a year or two.
What is he 34 now? Is Braun replacing Pagan for next year and then getting whatever help he gives us this year worth the last couple years of the deal if they knock it down to $15 mill/year??? I still say know but not the worst thing to live with..
If you’re Williamson and Parker, you really want to do something great in the game tonight to try to sway the Giants’ decision.
Like playing adequate defense . . .
Fucking all day class today thru Thursday. UGH…
1. Denard Span (L) CF
2. Joe Panik (L) 2B
3. Brandon Belt (L) 1B
4. Buster Posey (R) C
5. Matt Duffy (R) 3B
6. Brandon Crawford (L) SS
7. Jarrett Parker (L) LF
8. Gregor Blanco (L) RF
9. Madison Bumgarner (R) P
Are you teaching a class or taking one, Chi?
Play hooky?
No kid on Earth hated school more than me.
I would’ve dropped out of kindergarten if they let me…
I liked school, mostly for my friends and the pussy. But I can’t imagine going back to school now. What a rig school is. You get all these kids to come every day all day and they do it for free. How many of you would do your jobs for free? Heh, dumb kids…….
The Dodgers acquired Will Veneble. A meh move.
I had a couple of fun pre-game exchanges with his dad at Shea.
He was cool…
Blanco in his everyday player mode- goes for Oh for 26 stints and 6 for 66 stretches. The guy is a good 5 th OFer, but he is a mess at the plate when he starts for any length of time…
Blanco is actually putting up better numbers as a starter than a sub this year. Here are the splits for last year:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=blancgr01&year=2015&t=b#stsub
Yeah, I seem to forget that fact about White Shark … when he gets those spot starts or PHs and gets to raking in the clutch and playing great defense, he looks like a world beater to me. It scrambles my brain to the point I begin to believe he is the answer to ALL our OF problems … he is not.
El Tiburon Blanco could well afford a good hypnotherapist ~ maybe the best. I think it would be worth a try ~ should it even happen to cross his mind.
Parker out, Pagan in. Personally I would have had him replace Blanco for the reasons given above.
Who got sent down?
Mac
Cain to DL with another hammy strain
Now you’re joking, right?
I’m much funnier than fake out DL jokes
looks like another sellout. There must be at least 60 people sitting behind home plate. We had more parents come to our little league games.
Looks like the contractors are just about done with Amy G.’s mouth…
Missing Pence in the Enforcer slot. Batting after Buster Duffy could not quite do it with a pair in scoring position, though two were out. Duffy and Crawford are well suited for batting 6th and 7th, however you prefer to position them. We will have a number of games where this situation arises. Against good pitchers (like we will face in a number of games in early August) things could get a bit stressing if that 5-hole is not addressed. Hopefully we will have a nice cushion by that time.
Yup. Wish there was an Ellis Burks type out there for us…
Pitch count after 2: Bumgarner 63 (@13 per) Garza 40 (20 per). Looks to be no more than a five inning return for the latter.
The Brewers announcers sound very non-chalant and at times even a tad giddy about the prospect of them getting rid of Braun. Is he THAT big of a jerk?
probably the guy they could get most for, while saving a ton of $$$, but idk.
Supposedly Lucroy has been available too but wouldn’t help SF much.
Hey Lisle, I did see your comments re: Buster Williams, very nice.
Another guy I’ve always admired is Bob Cranshaw. He played with Sonny Rollins a lot including “The Bridge” with Jim Hall, something I still listen to at work (5 CD changer so I can have music going all day).
Macdog, tnx for that BRAINS AND BRAWN link. If there is a brainsandbrawn dot com I shudder at the possibilities.
No lie, the Giants conditioning sucks with these hammy injuries. They need to take ballet. Not joking.
Hey, ballet always worked for you seeing your daughter and helping the Giants win all the time….. what can it hurt?
I believe Ricky Henderson was the first athlete to refer to it as a “hammy”…
The name “Doug Fister” makes me nervous.
I tend to agree with both camps here about Braun: the guy can still hit, probably even at China Basin, but he seems to be a real jerk and yeah, is quite likely another suspension waiting to happen. My biggest concern would be the whole “team” thing, which statisticians tend to downplay because it can’t be measured in numbers, but wondering how Braun’s presence would affect the team morale, togetherness, whatever. Can’t help but think about Beltran, who joined the club near the end of July that year when the G’s were about 4 games up in the division, and, despite Beltran’s year-end stats being fairly productive, his first few weeks were not at all productive (he was injured, I believe) and the team inexplicably tanked *immediately* upon his arrival. Didn’t they lose something like 13 games in the standings in August and September? I remember a few times seeing the team celebrating a homerun or something good that happened, and there was Beltran just hanging out alone and stoic in the dugout. He just never became part of the *team*. I’d be afraid Braun might have the same effect.
Good post. Though I do look forward to James’ response.
Don’t worry, there’s no chance of Braun becoming a Giant.
I guess it was about 9 years ago on the Splash that I proposed trading Lowry, Feliz and Taschner for Braun.
Got a mixed reaction…
Loo, a good friend of mine texted me earlier that he likes the uni’s the Dbax are wearing tonight. I responded by telling him your thoughts on their logo.
He’s no longer such a big fan of those unis…
I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I know it involved a female body part in some vulgar way…
Anyway, glad to help…
Yes it did.
B Belt now in rare territory. Very few players every year get to a .300 ave .400 OBP .500 OBS
Hope he keeps it up…
5 innings – 2 hours
Why?
lotta baserunners for SF, lotta pitches for Garza and relievers. I think Kuip said they’d left 2 guys on almost every inning vs. Garza. Then the kid came in and loaded the bases on walks.
Does seem odd for 2-1 game tho.
The way Blanco is going, tonite might have been the one time I’d vote for Bum to hit 8th.
Bochy did say with Pagan back that he will go back to using him 9th too. Just don’t like it.
This Villar dude is good. Hadn’t heard much about him.
I don’t think I could have named 3 Brewers before yesterday…
Yeah, they’re in rebuild mode. It won’t be surprising to see Lucroy and Braun traded.
Oh burn! The Brewers had no replays left.
I’m basically agreeing with the Flappers that have said that Span is just a guy. I hope he gets a hot streak at some point.
10 lob in 5 innings?
Oh fuck
This is all we need
what happened? not watching…injury?
12 in 6.
Bum is a pretty slow worker himself, very deliberate.
Giants back in CSM = Constipation Scoring Mode…
No comment on Giants ability to manage injuries with Cain back on the DL re-aggravating his hamstring strain –after out a few starts. You know what it would be anyway…
Pffftttt?
or pfffffffft?
Belt looks fucked.
The dude is an injury magnet.
Watch Pagan blow his hammy stealing
Bum is so scary a hitter, the pitcher would rather throw 2 wild pitches to get a run in…
Well they can’t drive ’em in. Might as well wp ’em in.
Weird game tonight.
Bum gets a RWPI…
What’s the temp out there tonight, about 45 with wind chill? Definitely a night for hamstrings tightening up…
Yeah it was windy as shit in the financial district today
Without a gimme, giants can’t buy a run…
Wow.
Dang, I hope Belt doesn’t have a cracked foot or some damn thing. Gillaspie in…
Everybody knows this is the kind of game that bites you in the ass for leaving so many runners on. Bum probably wants nothing to do with the Giants Pen coming in…
Damn Flap, I shoulda just kept my big mouth shut .. I jinxed it!
I really thought we had turned a corner with this offense .. fuck .. I know, I know, a run is run and one more run than the other guys is all it takes ..
Posey has looked very good but damn this CSM !!!
Did i jinx Belt? What happened to him? I see Gillespie in..
Just saw some slo mo replays of Belt getting hit in the foot. Dead straight on hit onto the right side of his right foot just below the ankle, ball bounced straight back, no glancing blow. He strode with that front foot and planted it, so had no chance to lift it up or move it away for a glancing blow. Cross fingers that nothing got broken in that one. At best, that sucker is going to have a big bruise, swell up and he’ll be out a few days…
Let Bum start the ninth and pitch until somebody gets on…
Looks like Casilla. Yikes.
They only do that in the WS…
The shift is tough on Panik. He needs to poke a few to leftfield.
Gillaspie should’ve gotten a few starts when Duffy was struggling to keep him sharp.
He’s rusted away to shit on the bench…
I bet he has had his name spelled wrong all his life.
I agree. He had that one good year as an everyday with White Sox a couple years ago, then tanked last year .. looked ok with us early but has lost all sense of hitting … at least he made the guy throw 7 pitches .. about the only good thing to say.
He still has to face Villar.
I swear Casilla drops every grounder hit to him.
I call BS right here. Bum earned the right to close this thing out…
I’m sure it was the pitch count.
111 last I saw – maybe more…
Bum could throw 125 – 30, no biggie…
I’ve given up hoping for a clean inning. I now hope for no bombs.
Boom. A W for Flag Day. Gnight, girls.
Wow, Casilla hung tough there. That was a battle. 1-2-3, but seemed like 1-2-5. Good job by Casilla, he needed that…
No hangers from Casilla.
Good job…
Super job again by Bum. Per Miller, Giants have now won every one of his last 10 starts…
Dodgers won, so 6 game lead is maintained. Cool.
Whew!!! Finally a W for Bum … he should have at least a couple more than he does.
I would have gone postal if Casillia had fucked him outta this win.
16-7 in 1-run games
Ron Guidry was 16-7 in 1977…
Did you see the movie “Summer of Sam”? Good movie about that summer in NY.
Baseball Tonight @BBTN 10m10 minutes ago
Madison Bumgarner is 1st Giants pitcher to allow 2 ER or fewer in 11 straight starts since Juan Marichal in 1965-66.
Wow … a thing of beauty!
Thx Pawlie!
Nice to see Cowboy Joe West get his call overturned in the Giants favor at first base earlier in the game. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving Dbag of an ump…
What call was that? The call on the Bum infield hit was the correct call.
Not that I’m a Joe West fan.
I’m not.
Panik’s doinker infield hit to the right side in the 3rd, he legged it out after the Brewcrew bungled it, then a bang bang at first. Carter threw it between his legs to the pitcher Garza covering first. Kuiper said when he called it, Cowboy Joe looked like somebody just gave him the check for a big dinner. Cowboy Joe ruled bang out, but it was actually overruled and called bang safe…
Ah, right….
I missed it when it happened. I had gone outside to do some watering.
Watering is always more productive than watching Joe West blow calls… 🙂
For San Dawg: the 2011 Giants, the season Posey was injured, were a weak hitting team playing in the midst of a major drop in overall run scoring across the the NL. They had an excellent pitching staff that finished with a 3.20 ERA. SF was 3-9 in Beltran’s first 12 starts, but the real story was the sub par pitching over those games, with 54 runs allowed. Nevertheless, they were only two games out of first place at that point, August 23. They had not been ahead by more than 4.5 games at any point earlier in the season.
From the time they were 2 games out on 8/23, they went 18-15. Over that period, Beltran raised his OPS from .880 to .910. He and Pablo were the offense during the stretch run.
Sometimes you don’t get a chance to re-do a first impression. He joined the team, they went into a funk for a couple of weeks, and he got injured. He joined the team near the end of July and yet only played in 44 games for the Giants. I looked up his numbers and saw that he hit 7 HRs for the Giants, but none of them stood out in my memory. He just sort of anonymously passed through as a Giant, in a Giants season that will be remembered as a big disappointment, even though the Giants did end up winning 86 games despite all the injuries.
He would REALLY be disliked by Giants fans if Wheeler was having a stellar career. Maybe Wheeler eventually will, but who knows.
Plus the Giants went on to win two more World Series, so it’s all good. Beltran, you’re groovy, dude. 🙂