Back in….First Place!
….alone, anyway.
KNBR talking heads trotting out the tired cliches about “Giants winning with pitching and defense.” And while that’s true, they also need to do more with the bats as it’s probably not a good plan to try to win 1-0 all the time. After carefully considering it, I really think all we need to do it get some bats going at the same time. I know that sounds like a stupid, simplistic plan akin to Wotus saying that “first and foremost, they have to be ready to hit.” But it might just be that simple. We have 8 bats that have proven this year and in their career that they can hit at the mlb level. Almost all of them (and even Crawford before The Night of Seven) have been under-performing for over a month. To me, that’s just a bunch of guys pressing. We don’t have a line up full of *Shingo’s*.
So let’s go. Span, Nunie, Pence, Belt, Panik, Pagan, Posey, and even Crawford. All you guys know how to hit.
So start hitting……
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Just took a peek at the wild card standings. How is Seattle so close to winning one of the AL WC spots? And if I own the Angels and my team has the 7th highest payroll but the 3rd worst record in the AL, I am firing the shit out of my manager. Seriously, is Mike Scioscia the most overrated manager in baseball? If not, who is?
Scioscia must have compromising pictures of Arte Moreno. There is no other reason as to how he has managed this long.
Well Arroyo was the big disappointment last night going 0-4 and flailing with runners on base. But he looks like a major leaguer and no coincidence he is playing 3b now. And not to forget he is only 21…I would expect they give him a run next year at Sactown.
Beede had a very smooth delivery and he still hit 96 in the 6th inning. His delivery seems very resistant to a major arm injury. He had 8 strikeouts in the first 5 innings and 6 in the first 3 so he was changing speed effectively.
Sitting on the first base side, was too hard to gauge if he had much movement on his pitches. Didn’t see a slider or curve out of him but wasn’t able to watch every pitch. I mentioned first run scored on an error and the top 4 went with the little boys to get their dipping dots and there were runners on first and second. Apparently the first baseman botched a ground ball to the first hitter and led to double. My oldest said it should have been ruled an error. That led to the 4th run, so he really only gave up two earned runs.
He seems a bit like Smardjaramjam that he could get the ball up there but if he does not mix things up he could give up base runners with a lack of other pitches or leaving too much over the plate. But like Smardjaramjam, he could be a guy who reliably throws 200 innings. Smardjaramjam seems to be a true #4 after what we have seen the astonishing couple of months besides his great start this week. Beede seems like a #4 type of starter eventually. I would expect he gets next year at Sactown and then see if there is a spot post Cain retirement in 2018…
Nice report Peter. Question – why do you think Beede is a #4 type of starter? I’m curious because you said earlier, “Beede had a very smooth delivery and he still hit 96 in the 6th inning. His delivery seems very resistant to a major arm injury. He had 8 strikeouts in the first 5 innings and 6 in the first 3 so he was changing speed effectively.” Sounds like he has better stuff then your run of the mill #4 starter.
I put him at Smardjaramjam’s level and he is now our #4 so that seems to be the high end, which may not be a bad thing. Just doesn’t seem to have ace or top two level stuff…
Meant after Smardjaramjam’s poor last two months besides his astonishing start yesterday…Shaw had the most power hitting look and played DH. But when had bases loaded he grounded out meekly. Crushed that triple I mentioned in his first AB. Would think they get him to AAA as well next year. He should begin shagging balls in left..
Good report. In regards to your Arroyo comment “But he looks like a major leaguer…” Well, going 0-4, he probably looks a lot like our major leaguers do of late.
lulz! good one.
Looks like Roberts and his pen blew up on him. Kazmir left with 2 guys on in 7th and 1-0 lead, and the reliever gave up 3 run bomb to Freddy Galvis, his first HR as RH in 2 yrs.
Then after LA made it 3-2, Jansen had asked to pitch and promptly gave up 3 runs included PH double to Ryan Howard. Ouch.
Meanwhile power hitting O’s are shut out by retread Ross Detwiler for 8 and lose again to A’s, 3rd in a row.
Hope these guys don’t wake up over the weekend but they seem to resemble Stros of a year ago—lot of power, lot of Ks. ATT at night lot different than their bandbox yard.
I did see Z Britton throw an inning out of their pen, wow.
G-men don’t leave the state of California the rest of the month with a big home stand and a short trip to Dogville for 3, so this is the time to get some distance between us and them..
Sherpas are beginning to fade as well. They’ve lost some heart breakers in the last week, e.g., last night Reynolds error coupled with the bullpen imploding (again) was all the Rangers needed. Of course, the Rangers had a lot to do with it (as WilcoJoe probably knows) – they have a majors-leading 36 comeback victories. Unbelievable!
Regarding the Kathmandu team, they lost their fourth consecutive game and they have dropped six of their last seven. They are now five games behind in the race for the National League’s second wild-card spot. With last night’s meltdown, they’ve suffered their fourth blown save in the last six games and tumbled to 8-15 in one-run games. Not certain if they’ve overtaken us in bullpen woes. lulz.
Yes, let’s hope the Dodger stay in 1st place is short-lived.
As far (I know, the dead horse will be beaten) as lead-off goes, the real reason I want Noonie there is his base-stealing ability. Not that Bochy will ever USE it, but he should. Noonie gets on base by hitting. He can turn a single or walk into a double, and a double into a triple.
Span and Pagan have shown little in having the ability to take the extra base when the situation arises. A distraction for the pitcher and catcher. It’s on Bochy though to use that speed. I mean, shit, we don;t hit and run. We don;t bunt, and we hit into DPs a lot because of this.
Sure, we need a better 2 hitter, as Panik (and everyone else) is scuffling. But having a guy at lead-off that can cause some havoc is a good thing.
His OBP sucks, and Pagan has done more than adequate for us there, so that I why I would go with El Caballo Loco.
At least we are home, but O’s, Bucs, Mets, and Dodgers is still a tough couple weeks.
It is time to wake up the bats. Road trip to the bunny ranch or some shit.
I thought I could wait till Sat to turn this topic into a thread but I can’t wait it’s irritating me so much. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. As you probably know, Gaylord Perry is getting a statue outside AT&T this weekend. Can someone explain to me why this guy gets to stand next to Cepeda and Mays and McCovey and Marichal for eternity? There are like 20 guys I’d *statue* before Perry starting with Tim Lincecum.
Kuip was on the radio this am talking about what it was like to play with him in Cleveland and he could barely hide his disdain for the guy. Between the lines said he was a complete asshole to play with. When asked if he’d be attending the ceremony he said “I’ll be somewhere in the park, yes.”
So that’s strike one. The dude was a complete dick. Why honor that?
But ok, let’s look at his contribution to winning. Uh, moving on, he had lots of individual awards but never won shit as a Giant.
He was a cheater. I have no problem with this last one but it’s a fact, this guy was a known almost cheating braggart. Again, not something I would turn into a statue.
To be clear, I don’t have a problem with great Giants who were dicks who cheated who never won anything. Technically, that’s Barry but I would put a statue of him up about 10,000 times before I’d put one up of Perry.
So why does this Perry statue bother me so much?
as usual, the guy @super70ssports has it nailed. And by the way, if you’re on twitter and you aren’t following this guy you absolutely have to. He is solid gold like 10 times a day.
This is a Larry Baer misfire. A tone-deaf move. I am barely OK with the Cepeda statue, but the Perry one….no. There was no one calling for this except Baer, and his own over-infatuation with everything SF Giants history related. The only positive thing is that, maybe, Baer felt the need to close out the book on SF Giants-related Hall of Famer statues, and now it opens it up for others to have statues. Barry Bonds, Clark, Lincecum, and whoever else.
I would have gone Bonds, Timmy, even Kent a hundred times over before I went with Perry. I met him once at ST and he came across as a condescending prick. I will not be doing a photo op anywhere near that statue when my daughter and I are at Sunday’s game.
They are putting up statues of HOFers, he’s in the HOF as a Giant, he gets a statue. I don’t recall anyone mentioning that Marichal could be a bit of an asshole, I guess you could say he also didn’t win anything. Perry was never caught cheating but I seem to recall Marichal was caught trying to commit manslaughter on the field.
Fuck this. Y’all that don’t like the statue, then go piss on it when they put it up. I can’t believe people care about this
LMAO…don’t sugar coat it John…tell us how you really feel, brother. It’s all good IMO. We all have opinions, and of an off-day, you get this kind of stuff being discussed.
A quick glance at the remaining schedule for the two teams shows the Giants having a slightly tougher schedule than the Dodgers the rest of the way; but overall, the 9 games left between the two teams will be huge, obviously. Playing meaningful baseball in August and September is something I try to not ever take for granted. After so many seasons between 1972 and 2009 when the Giants WEREN’T playing meaningful baseball in those months, it’s a good thing for me to keep in perspective, and enjoy it for what it is. Hopefully the regular season ends with a Giants division title; but they need to end it with at least the Wild Card for sure. We went the Wild Card route in ’14, of course, and it worked out. It can be done. 🙂
I read in the paper this morning that the Niners and Texans are holding a scrimmage tomorrow at Kezar Stadium. That’s pretty cool.
yeah nice read in the Chron today about that, guys checking out the old locker room and tunnel on the way to the field. Only saw 1 game there as a HS kid. Lot of stories too about raucous fans letting Niners have it before they could past the tunnel.
Funny thing is, it’s in a residential hood just off the Haight and a really tough school Polytechnic (long since closed) I think used to be right across the street.
Giants have generated a “rule” apparently that if you are a former Giant in the HOF, you get a statue. Perry isn’t getting any younger. I don’t know where the rule stops on how long you had to play as a Giant to get a statue. Perry played for 7 or 8 teams in his career, 134 out of 313 wins were with SF. He’s got baggage , no doubt, but it’s fairly harmless PR. I wouldn’t put him on my statue list either …
I agree the Perry statue is a dumb move. Where are they going to put the damn thing? I also agree with Zum that a Cepeda statue was already a reach. Hell, I really don’t like the fact that the McCovey statue is stuck off in the distance even if they do call that murky little area of backwater “McCovey Cove.” If I could turn back time and be in charge, McCovey’s statue would be where Marichal’s is (down the 1B/RF line makes sense), Mays would stay put, and Marichal would go where Cepeda is—-and Cepeda wouldn’t get a freaking statue.
I would then leave it just like that.
IF, I were forced to add more statues, Barry would get the next one and Lincecum the one after that. …and then maybe one for D Span….and that would be it!
D-Span. lulz!
Lqtm. The Z-Span statue wold be him lying down of course.
Cepeda? Meh. I feel the same about Perry. He must be some kind of a red-ass to be traded so much. But it’s their fucking deal. If they want a statue of Earnest Riles hitting the team’s 10000th home run, so be it. Or Randy Johnspn’s 300 win? Whatevs.
It’ll get to be pretty fucking crowded with statues in a few years at this rate. Bochy, Bummie, Posey at the least will get statues. As well as Bonds and his dad.
I am going to be the outlier here but I don’t think Lincecum is deserving of a statue. Not to take anything away from what he did but when you step back and look at the career numbers, they don’t scream statue worthy. As far as the World Series go, every one of those titles was a result of the “team” far more than any one single player or even handful of players. Though you could argue that Bum single handedly won the ’14 series and you won’t get an argument from me.
Obviously the question of “what is statute worthy” is going to garner different answers from different people. I just think teams with such history as ours, should be held to a much higher standard.
If this is limited to Hall of Famers, then I guess Timmy ain’t getting a statue.
The D-backs have four stolen bases so far vs. Syndergaard, including two by Goldie.
I can stick up for Cepeda as old school cohort of Mays Mac and Marichal. He was fearsome hitter in SF for 9 year, hitting 46 HRs once and regularly 30+ doubles and HRs. Just too bad he and Mac were both here at same time and someone got stuck in LF. No they never won one but doesn’t take away from it.
From what I gather, polar opposite of Perry in clubhouse too, big personality well liked.
Bob Gibson absolutely loved the guy once Cards got him in the infamous Ray Sadecki deal.
But yeah this a marketing overreach by Baer, tho not surprising, he’s mostly absurd.
Maybe they unveil it on Mechanics night and give away quarts of 30 wt.
Now I would put up a statue of Bochy. As far as one person associated with our 3 titles, Boch has got to be the first one mentioned, IMO.
Hard to argue with a Bochy statue. For Timmy, I just think there is a major X factor with him that goes beyond stats as he led the renaissance after Barry was gone and had so many electric moments that I think led to the Giants becoming one of 2-3 most glamorous teams in all of MLB and “selling out” every day–which is something I never would have imagined possible. Hanging on the way he has though has definitely chipped away at his mystique. Should have listened to me and retired 3 years ago. He would have had some of that Koufax/Jim Brown/Wes Parker vibe about him going out early like those guys did.
I agree 100% with that Dawg. It’s hard to ignore the last several years. Five dominant seasons followed by four “what the hell happened to this guy” one’s are hard to get out of your head.
Koufax, Jim Brown . . . and Wes Parker?
I had a feeling Wes Parker was gonna get a reaction! I think when I was a kid they made kind of a big deal how he retired relatively young, but yeah, obviously not an HOF caliber guy.
…..and I probably let his guest appearance on The Brady Bunch elevate him to megastar status in my mind!
Wes Parker was the early version of Garvey, IMO. Pretty boy, but not as obnoxiously all-american (while boinking every chick in sight apparently) as Garvey was. The dude carried a glove, though. He could field that 1B position, no joke…
According to Perry this am, his statue is going right next to Cepeda’s so make of that what you will
I think Timmy absolutely deserves a statue one for being the MAN when he came up. From 2008 to ’12 he was one of the most dominant guys in the league. The statues shouldn’t be about the HOF anyway. We gonna put up Steve Carlton? Beyond that Koufax isn’t in the HOF baed on numbers alone.
In Timmy’s case, he was the bridge from the Bataan death march of Barry Bonds’ home run pursuit while the team staggered to the glory days of 3 in 5.
That alone warrants a statue. He made the team fun again.
With you on that, Chuck. Well said. Ask the fanbase today who deserves a statue more — Perry or Timmy, and I think Timmy comes out far ahead…
Orioles have really struggled to score runs on the road, as indicated by their lack of scoring in Oakland. I know I have avoided their hitters on the road in DFS all season.
And this is the A’s we are talking about, their SPs outside of Graverman are call ups. I’ve watched parts of these last few nights, only guy doing anything is Schoop who hit 30th double the other night.
Mulder has been doing games replacing Fosse, he does good job very informative and good energy too.
On the other hand….the Orioles are an HR-hitting team, and our starting pitchers have had several weeks now of being vulnerable to the HR. I can visualize Cain winning tomorrow night if he keeps the ball in the yard. There could be several balls caught on the warning track, but that’s OK.
I wonder if there is a statue anywhere in mlb that isn’t of a guy who was in the HOF……..
The Astros have statues of Jimmy Wynn, Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio. Only the later is in the hall of fame.
The toy cannon . . . ! Saw him single-handedly beat the Giants a few times . . .
thanks. And that’s just your personal knowledge. I’m sure there are more. Gary Idiot Radnich was saying earlier today that no stadium had a statue of a guy in front of it that wasn’t already a HOF. I figured he was wrong.
Blade and Unca – sent you an email about tix for the Giant-Rox game on Sept. 7th in Sherpaville. I had been leaning towards lower box (20 or so rows behind the dugout), but there are also seats a couple sections down from where Charlie will be setting (Section 222, I believe). My main question is the club level at the Box of Rox anything similar to the Phone Park? Let me know your thoughts…
Gotta scoot and go try to find my mukluks and siberian parka for the trip.
Don’t forget your avalanche beacon . . .
Yeah, I have no idea about what their club level is or looks like. And yeah, I’m in 222.
Sorry, been busy all day, but I just responded. I’m down with sitting near the Unca contingent.
From what I see on the coors field website website its the same kind of thing.
Had to look up Wes Parker as I vaguely remembered him. Shit, he became a follower of the Rev. Gene Scott of channel 38 fame. I loved that guy. Many an early early am of all-night craziness was spent listening to the ramblings of Rev Gene. Pyramids, scriptures, speaking in tongues, everything was on the table. I remember him complaining that his Caddy needed a transmission job, and that he needed more money to get this to happen.
Me and my high school buddies loved Rev. Gene Scott and actually to one of his appearances that may have been at the Flea market or at a church near it. It was hilarious. Pyramids, aliens etc. Too bad that was pre-Illuminati obsession…in college we got to see Wally George on campus at SJSU…equally hysterical. Chanting USA…USA!!!
Definitely not into more statues and other knick knacks ruining the ambience of an already perfect park, unless they erect a line of them at McCovey cove. I do have one idea for a statue . . . One for the fans who sat through years and years of mediocrity, as well as freezing our collective asses off at the hellhole Candlestick Park.
In fact, they can erect a statue of Flavor, who can represent the fan base – he can have his One Flap Down shirt on, which says, “We Score, We Win,” and he can wield the broken Twin bat. Now, that would be a statue for the ages . . .
Hah! Yeah, have a fan sitting next to a tornado of hot dog wrappers swirling around.
If the sculptor can capture this, have Flavor holding the infamous hot dog . . .
First of all, SF has to be the location for any statues named for Gaylord…I’ll be here all week thank you.
Is Gaylord even in the Hall as a Giant???
If he is, then fine..if not, hit the fucking road Gaylord Statue…or how about the Gaylord statue going to a different part of the City???? I’ve got a couple of ideas. Lincecum will be a Giants legend until we all die, he gets a statue…
Do I have this right? Did Bonds have 658 home runs after the 2003 season.
I thought it would have been pretty awesome if he had retired one home run behind Mays. Giants though were competitive in 2004 and he nor us would have wanted him to walk away. But if he had, don’t you all think his status within baseball and people’s perceptions of him, especially the infamous baseball writers, would be totally different today and a mea culpa from him at the time probably would have ensured, maybe not, his HOF place.
I think the hatred of Bonds beyond his surliness is that he holds the home run record and people and writers will never let go of what they think is tainted. I like the idea of going to a 154 game season and everyone from this Era that is hall worthy goes in with the asterisk that these records were based on the 162 game season era…
I would like to make this official..dont play golf when the Heat Index is 109 degrees like it was today. Was one if the most atrocious days (didn’t help going back to blues tees in this heat). I think I hit a ball out of bounds into the shit at a pretty tough course on every par 3. Literally every par 3. I think I ended up with heat stroke…or that may have been when I got stuck in the phone with .you mother in law right after this round. Last time I played this hot maybe 110 Heat Index, I stopped playing…should have done the same today…
That was a brutally tough road trip. And they came back still in 1st place. I’m feeling decidedly glass half full. Obviously most of us feel that the bats need to get in synch and get cranking again. IMO, the key is Pence. He can be fairly awful during long stretches, but he’s also been known to go on a tear for awhile and carry the team. This homestand would be the perfect time for that to happen, and high performance from him would change the whole lineup around, top to bottom. That’s my “key to the rest of August”. Hell, rest of the regular season….
I like it!
I can’t imagine a major leaguer looking worse at the plate then Pence has lately.
He’s like the last kid you would pick in a “choose-up” game…
Angry Cardinals player picks up an ice-chest in the dugout and spills the contents. Yeah, there’s nothing dangerous about little pieces of ice scattered on the dugout floor.
As much as I love baseball, BF is right. A lot of baseball players are just dumb…
Dr. Gene Scott — the dude was hilarious. Stanford Ph.D, which explains a few things.
He moved from Leviticus to Pyramids to astronomy to the New Testament to economics — you never knew wherein hell he was headed — or why. His second wife Pastor Melissa took over after he broke on through. Ay caramba! For her, I’d sit for some “instruction”…
She could “sit on my face” was a big expression at one time. Not anymore.
I wonder how much face-sitting is going on today among the younger crowd.
From what I’m told a blowjob these days is as casual as a handshake…
I dunno. I read the other day in the WaPost that millennials are having way less sex than previous generations. Too busy working or playing Pokemon or some S like that. Too busy texting to actually meet somebody. I also read a while back that in Japan something like half the young women population isn’t interested in boyfriends, sex, marriage, nothing. All that just slows them down in the business world, per the old cultural stuff in Japan. If you’re a woman and get married in Japan, you’re done for life in the workforce. Not cool for these young women. Population in Japan set for big future decline, as a result, unless they open up to immigration…
I’ve heard they’re desensitized…
Just saw where a Kenyan track coach tried to impersonate one of his runners and gave a urine sample when the runner was called in for a random drug test in Rio. Now, that is a very dedicated coach…
The “feels like” temperature here is 177 degrees.
I wish I was dead.
It’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity.
Random thoughts at work . . .
It seems the lovable losers are having a season much the mirror image of ours. While they did have a slow-down slump that allowed the Gmen to catch and pass them at the break that slump ended quickly and they have pulled away from every other team in both leagues; completing their 10th win in a row on Thursday with a walk-off walk win to increase their division lead to 13 games.
It has been that kind of a season – for them and for us. The cubbies stand alone so far this season. The Mets have fallen to .500 and there is dissent in the dugout. We battled the Nationals and lost a 7 game series 4 to 3 by one 1-run game. But the cubbies are killing it (and every other team) and look to waltz into the big dance in October. Meanwhile it has been a physical beat down for this fan since the AS break. I’ve had to stop thinking like a fan of a world series championships team and revert to being an old school giants fan.
I have every belief that Your San Francisco Giants can turn this around. We have the players, management and experience. But, gads, am I tired of saying that. Day after day ready for the turn around until one day is the day that hope slips away. The cubs have a great GM, but so do we. The cubs have a great on-field manager, but I don’t think he’s better than ours. The cubs have a classic park and a passionate fan base. Our yard is newer, but it is a beauty, unique and built for baseball. Our fans are large, rockin’ the orange and black.
So it comes down to fate, luck, Fortuna spinneth, bounces, those game of inches inches, injuries, goats, butterfly wings and who knows what else. I have no reason to doubt that this team has the skills, spirit and ability to put it all together and I know they will hit a stride and step STRONG into the second season.
Make it so.
too long for a POTD but well done Edd. And anyone that uses “fortuna spinneth” in a sentence at the Flap ALSO instantly goes to the Flap HOF. You and Snarkk have both been green lighted in the last week!!!!