Dead Team Losing
Agent 000 hit a bomb and we lost. That barely computes. But hey, no worries, the Mets and the Cardinals lost, too! It’s embarrassing being in this wild card race. I am not on board in the slightest with the take of “hey, if we can get in, anything can happen!” That’s a perspective for a team that’s at least half way decent. We suck. In literally every aspect of the game except starting pitching. In that area we have 2.5 solid starting pitchers as long as the first one isn’t getting stared at, the second one isn’t getting bitten in the balls by a crab and Mr. 0.5 is pitching in an easy, breezy pressure free game.
Do I think we could win a wild card game? Sure, anyone can. Do I think we could beat any other post season team in a 5 or 7 game series? Haha, no chance in hell. Just kill this season already. Pence is playing the OF like he’s half awake. If the Reverend is shutting it down it’s time we do, too. I don’t remember much about the ’85 hundo loss bunch but it has to be worse being a fan of this year’s team than that team. It HAS to.
Smarge going tonight in SD.
I was thankfully living in Colo those years so I didn’t follow them except for the sports pages my mom would mail to me occasionally.
DJ,, my plan is to take my son to Finnerty’s for his 21st birthday, so just hold on till May 2018 and I’ll buy you a beer or 3.
Loo and the right coast contingent need to plan a trip out here for a Left Coast Flapalooza. I have room to put a couple of folks up (spare bedroom and my travel trailer).
They might be a Cubs bar by then, Chuck…
There’s always Professor Thom’s.
Lulz! Professor Thom’s is worth a visit just for their awesome hand dryers in the bathroom.
Like a mini-hurricane…
I respect your take of not being on board with the “hey, if we can get in, anything can happen!” Even though this team sucks balls right now, they did have the best damned record in all of baseball during the first half.
I still believe that if they get in, anything truly can happen. Sure, it is a stretch, especially with the turd this team has laid in the second half, but stranger shit has happened.
Anything can happen in playoffs tho. One of the 2 chokers, LA and Nats will win a series.
Cards won 100 games last year and made early exit. WC Mets were NL Champs.
Beating Cubs, even if they do get in, tall order sure. Giants have played them tough close games.
Miller said on radio last night Panik was 1-28, then he went 0-4. He’s fallen below Span numbers at the plate, under .700 OPS, despite the off days lately vs. LHP. Think about that one—for the non ending grief Span gets here, Panik is actually a worse hitter.
Giants are such a confounding group—they’ve used a lot of position players, but how many of them are legit everyday regulars? How many others are mix/match platoon guys with limited skills?
Evans will have his hands full in off season to cover up misreads of 2016.
Agree with your take “Evans will have his hands full in off season to cover up misreads of 2016.” This team will need some major re-tooling, IMO.
Good post. I’ll go farther – maybe he should have been traded versus Duffy.
And yes, I have mentioned numerous times of late that this year’s second half has been far worse for me than the 100 loss season of ’85. About all I remember from that year is rocking my Giant lid all year and getting copious amounts of grief over it (I basically told folks to fuck off…that even though they were a shitty team, they were MY shitty team).
There was something fun about those awful Giant teams that this bunch seems to lack.
Or maybe it’s just that I was a lot younger and used to losing every year…
Yeah, it was like a badge of courage to be a Giants fan when they truly sucked. Catching shit for following a team that was just bonechrushingly shitty from like ’73 to 86 was brutal. There were brief glimmers of hope that were smashed to bits the next season. Vida Blue and the 78 season, and the year Frank Robinson willed them to decency in 82 before crashing back to Earth in spectacular fashion.
Going to games with 899 of your closest friends was also a trip.
Ah yes, I remember going to games at The Stick where you could damned near count the people in the ballpark!
Hilarious unca (889 friends comment).
After their initial struggles both Smith and Núñez have performed well. It’s hard to know what to think of Moore but his poor showing last night was disheartening. I appreciate his willingness to get it over with early though. That was nice of him. Its funny (or sad) to think that I was sitting in the bleachers at AT&T last weekend talking with my cousin about playoff tickets.
With Núñez going to arbitration I’m hoping the club keeps him at a reasonable cost. Panik is just falling off a cliff at the plate as willie details above. Maybe its the previous back issue flaring up or the concussion but he’s been terrible. If I was Arroyo I’d be taking grounders at 2b over the winter.
Well, I don’t think Panik is going anywhere despite his not-so-stellar 2nd half. The biggest changes will be to the pen and the OF. And I hope to God the fucking bench. Span should go but probably won’t. Pence has either blown his wad on his marriage and those fucking videos, or I don’t know what. Posey and Belt? Don’t think they go either. Pagan ony stays as a 4th OF. Blanco, adios, 000 please go . . . Specs should stay. Williamson? We need a light hitting bench player like we need Adrianza. Bye bye. Parker? We’ll see.
Casilla has to go. Romo? He still looks like he’s capable of getting outs. At least righties. Closer can be determined between Law and Stricknyne (*urk*) (someone give him a breaking ball). Peavy, Cain, Reynolds, Okert, on and on, they need to weed out the crap.
For whatever reason, and maybe it costs Bochy his job (or he retired for health reasons), the whole team just deflated like a cheap balloon.
Funny, I think all spending this off-season should be on the bullpen with the other holes filled from within.I’d be good with Pagan leaving and letting Williamson take a shot at it with some sort of dumpster dive pickup in the LF for coverage. Span in CF is crazy but with the money left you know the front office is looking for a bounce back year. Agent Zero goes for Tomlinson. You’re probably right about Posey and Belt. I’m not too worried about Pence. If he closes the month hot he could lead the club in HR. Crazy, right?
Jared Fogle has a brighter future than Williamson…
Williamson was picking it up in July before getting injured so I wouldn’t mind seeing what he can do. Staying healthy seems to be his problem though so who knows. I’d rather see him then Parker.
And I would rather see Parker of the two. Both will get extended looks in ST next year.
And Parker will still suck. lulz
If the team gets massively overhauled this winter, Panik’s a likely goner. Seems like decent 2nd basemen are easy enough to find these days…
Down with Panik gone. See my Willie response.
I would never let Strickland near a ninth inning again. He just doesn’t have the closer make-up…
No “it” factor.
Charlie – regarding your 9:44:
I agree pretty much with your who stays who goes, Charlie. But at closer, I think they need to go out and get a solid-proven closer. I have seen instances of Law that are promising, but at this point, no way I want to go into next year with him, or anyone else on the staff as the closer. They MUST be able to lock-down games, and no one on the current roster impresses me as the answer.
Agree overall that the majority of changes come in the OF and pen. OF – who starts outside of Pence (and Span?). Span is not going anywhere (unfortunately) given his contract. Go out and get a power-hitting OFer to play LF.
RE: the pen. I think Osich should be tagged as the “leftie specialist” aka the next Javier Lopez. Here are his splits between righties and lefties:
VS RHB: K/BB – 1.0, BA .270, OBP 368, SLG .530, OPS .898
VS LHB: K/BB – 3.5, BA .188, OBP .258, SLG ..312, OPS .570
Regardless of the availability of second sackers, I don’t think the Giants will throw in the towel on Panik. The dude is a damned good glove, and he has shown stretches of being a good gap hitter. I think he gets every shot at taking the job out of ST next year.
As much as fan I was of Strickland early on, I agree big time with Loo…Strickland just does not have the make-up to close. (Another reason they need to go out and get a proven closer via free-agency).
Yeah, if they do spend this offseason, it should be at closer.
The mind boggles as to were we would be with Melancon . . .
If I had a way-back machine, I’d nix the other deals and put all the eggs that basket.
Agree, agree, and agree!
Though I must say I have taken a liking to Nunie. He brings a much needed dose of excitement and athleticism to the team.
Agree, Dog…I am liking Nunie, a lot!
I will be at the game tonight. Gonna be interesting to see if Giant nation still takes over Petco or if this second half has led to some folks fleeing the bandwagon. I suspect there won’t be as much Orange and Black in the house as usual, but we shall see.
I was surprised at the Braves game I attended at the amount of Giants fans that had sold off their tickets to Braves fans. There are some bandwagon fans jumping off. People who became Giants fans in the middle of the 2010 season.
For me, that is a silver lining to our struggles. I’m looking forward to wearing the HAAD tonight.
Bring us a win, SanD!
Panik, like some of the other Giants, seemed to age a bunch of years overnight. Some of it is just bad fortune with injuries. This team, which we thought was fairly young, already needs an infusion of youth. But the minors aren’t bursting with position players, of course. If the Giants wanted to go outside the box (which they rarely do), they’d look at Shaw as the firstbaseman (or Posey); move Belt to leftfield, where he’d be fine with more experience, he has great instincts on defense; bring up Arroyo to be in the infield mix; keep Tomlinson around; jettison OOO; and sign a free agent centerfielder, and give Span bench-duty. Remember those two great plays Span made in the Moore no-hit bid? Who can remember any other plays that he made all season that stood out? The guy was in cruise-control all season, because of still recovering from surgery. And his throwing arm seems to be falling right out of his shoulder socket.
Unfortunately, with the coin owed Span, he isn’t riding the pine to earn his pay.
Span hasn’t been terrible, overall; he just hasn’t been close to what the Giants promised the fans. And it looks like the Giants gambled on injured goods.
On other hand, Hernandez in small sample size looks great, at least defensively and does have good arm.
I think this guy has to be in mix somewhere next year at least as backup/insurance. He played RF too, tho the bigger issue is CF.
I don’t remember the Giants promising anything awesome from Span. Its not like he was a highly coveted free agent they won in a bidding war. He was a C list free agent they grabbed late in the process. I hoped for .270 and good defense and he has for the most part provided that in my opinion.
He had put together some excellent seasons and was on his way to another one last year before the injury.
I guess it was unrealistic to expect that at his age after the injury.
The annoying thing is that Bochy kept him in the lead-off spot every damn day…
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/spande01.shtml
2 questions for Loo:
1. How far is Prof Thom’s from where that latest bomb went off? Seems to me not real far.
2. Ur package doin’ ok today??
I’d say about a mile, SD.
I’m OK today. I put myself in some ridiculous situations sometimes…
? for the East Coast guys—who to believe in the Bridgegate Jersey mess?
Read today that the Fort Lee mayor testified he lied about no Christie intimidation over fear he would further delay a big development.
Also read that once the lanes were reopened after 4 days, Baroni the PA guy wanted them closed again and when that request was denied, invoked Trenton, meaning the Governor’s office, would call.
Seems like fascinating story of revenge plotted by defendants at very least, with Christie’s blessing.
Thoughts?
Thoughts? I think Trump punches Christie’s belly for a bit to warm up for his speeches.
And Giuliani blows him . . .
Yeah, I was gonna ask you, ‘Dawg, if you were going to the game tonight. Bring some fucking luck!
It’s nuts that we are still in the chase. And truth be told I’d rather be in than out regardless of the outcome. If only to avoid all the ‘biggest collapse in history’ talk.
I still believe in the positive thought that “hey, if we can get in, anything can happen!”. The regular season coming to and end is the best thing that can happen at this point. The club will either be out of the post season or they’ll have a chance to wipe clean this historic collapse.
Any Cueto or Crawford updates out there in Twitterverse?
I know all about that 85 team!
Loved Jimmy Davenport as a player, his family top notch, played little league Babe Ruth all the way to Varsity HS with Don, Gary,Kenny.
Yeah as manager he will go down as a goat and he took some shit in my own town which was unfair growing up in San Carlos.
He was really unlucky that year more because “EVERY PLAYER” had a career shit year for him Hac Man, Chili, especially tanked. Shit Brenly led the team in homers with 19. They traded away Jack “the ripper” Clark after that 84 season to get David Fucking Green to play 1st and he shit all over himself in that one season!!! And of course Will Clark& Robby Thompson came in the following season and the team started taking off under Roger Craig! !!
Bad luck for Jimmy? Maybe? Definitely Bad Timing, he had no chance in SF sadly…
Yeah, that was hard seeing Davenport have to go through all that. He was my brother’s favorite player growing up and he really hated seeing him associated with that team and catching crap from some of the fans.
At some point today, I got excited about tonight’s game. I want that playoff spot!!
Me too, Zume! I still believe that if they get in, anything can happen!
The last play of the Met-Brave game yesterday is just the latest proof that anything can happen…
http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/9674738/v1181241483/92116-mlbcom-fastcast-braves-hold-back-mets
1. Eduardo Nunez (R) 3B
2. Angel Pagan (S) LF
3. Buster Posey (R) C
4. Hunter Pence (R) RF
5. Gorkys Hernandez (R) CF
6. Brandon Belt (L) 1B
7. Ehire Adrianza (S) SS
8. Joe Panik (L) 2B
9. Jeff Samardzija (R) P
Well, I guess always take a GM’s statements with a grain of salt….
The Giants agreed on a $31 million, three-year deal with free-agent Denard Span, giving them the outfielder and leadoff hitter they had sought.
Span passed a physical and he will be officially introduced at a news conference on Friday.
“I’m very pleased to strengthen our ballclub with an excellent fielder and solid top-of-the-order hitter who has a great track record,” general manager Bobby Evans said. “When you invest in pitching like we did this winter, it’s important to invest in the defense behind them. We hope this makes us stronger and deeper and better prepared to enter 2016 with the strongest lineup and strongest defense possible.”
dawg, Span was at least expected to be a solid lead off guy. He hasn’t been jack . . . Nooner better be the LO guy for the rest of the year. In fact I think Gorkys should be in CF for the run . . .
The Giants vs. the ’27 Yankees again….
Hopefully Samardzija gives it the old college football try. He played in college you know!?!
I did know that. 🙂
Wait he played college football???
Alright, Giants, don’t Lucy us tonight.
Philly takes 6-4 lead in the 8th on Franco 3-run bomb.
So, if our fans are collectively on the metaphorical ledge, so are Mets fans. Especially after that game-ending catch last night. [Hey, Macdog, great hed: GAME ENDER.] And now with the Franco bomb. MANNY BURRISS REPORT: He ran for Ryan Howard and is on second base.
Magnus, good lead at the top. Can’t disagree. It’s loyal and sentimental and virtuous to say with our pitching in the offseason we can mow throw anyone, blah blah blah. But I don’t see it or feel it. It’s not grounded in reality. A little voice keeps saying: in 2010, the Pads lost 10 in a row and we know the rest; those 6 straight elimination games in 2012; the WC surprise in 2014. That little whisper, called hope, is getting hard to tune in on my radio. Lotsa fecking static. Lots.
I wish my guy Gregor would get a start. And what ever happened to “Charlton” Heston?
54% of Mets runs have come on home runs. If that holds for the season, it’s a record.
All I have to say about Williamson is that he almost killed me in Fenway…we need a real power hitter in left next year. I wanted Nelson Cruz or Cespedes two years ago (I did not realize this but Cruz has 37 homers this year and 93 rbis…I had no idea he has had another strong season after hitting 44 out last year with 92 rbis. And he is making just $14 mill a season. We could have easily had him.) We need a power bat hitting cleanup. Bottom line.
Then go and overspend on Melancon. The money saved on not signing Casilla, Romo and Javy Lopez leaves plenty of money to spend on Melancon. I’m not worried about Panik. I give him a pass this year with the concussion. Tomlinson should start at 2nd against all lefties. Noonan is good enough at third and reclaiming Panda if he is released is sort of positive karma. Pagan as 4th OF but money has to be spent on power bat.
I’m with ya till Panda. He’s a mascot, nothing else.
sad but true
Wow. Where was that? Not that I want Belt walking, but shit.
O fuck, 000? Jesus.
Belt’s favorite song could be James Taylor’s “Walking Man.”
“Walking man, walking man walks
Well, any other man stops and talks
But the walking man walks”
Reyes just homered for the Mets. I thought I’d give the game a listen and caught that. Tied at 6, 1 out. Fuck.
Off a closer with a 14-plus ERA in September.
Is Casilla moonlighting?
fuckin wifebeater Reyes
Pretty good line by Mets’ Howie Rose: “one more bite of Wheaties [by Cespedes] and the Mets would have won that game [last night]”
then he said “the Phillies are gonna try to sneak onto the Whitesboro Bridge without paying the toll, that’s how deep they are”
make that Whitestone
Thursday night football is a waste.
I think the Texans have finally run a play in Patriots territory.
That’s something the Giants lack: game-changing HRs. Especially late in the game.
my exact thought; we just don’t have those emotional swells; get it over with, girls
Robot umps can’t come soon enough. This guy is on glue.
FFS we’re not facing Cy Young here!
The Giants beg to differ.
get on base: bunt, get hit, Baltimore chop, whatever
Damn. Smarglebargle is dealing. Someone this century has to run into one.
Jesus. Gorkys was toast. That was off the end of the bat. Why is Kruk doing play by play?
A.J. Ellis RBI single in 11th gives Philly 7-6 lead.
Phillies take the lead in the 11th.
YUP!!!
Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.
Specs and Panik should be platooning these days.
Agree. Than trade his injury prone ass next season.
Fuck these motherfuckers, already…
Who is the worst QB Belichick could use with only a week to design a game plan and still win the game. Tee Martin in his prime?
Tim Tebow?
Kaepernick is on the cover of the next issue of Time magazine.
So far Kaepernick, Eric Reid, and Jed York have donated a million each to inner city charities.
It’s doing some kind of good.
The Warriors have made some kind of announcement that they are going to be more involved in Oakland social issues.
Nothing anyone does will help anything.
So much for my career as a motivational speaker…
Five to one, baby
One in five
No one here
Gets out alive
And don’t you forget it…
Can we just defer our at-bats?
Mets win.
Mets fuckin’ win.
Phillies score 2 in the 11th, Mets score 3.
Looks like we are under the line now.
Time for us to fold up shop and go home.
Yet another pitcher mowing down Giants hitters.
Friedrich the Great.
I love their air conditioners…
Re 85 team?? A great year. Got us Will the Thrill!!!
We go 5-2 vs SD and the rocks, then lose 2/3 to LA. 6-4 and we are in…It’s going to happen. One of the two other teams will .500 or worse. I’m guessing the Cards…
I’m not near the edge of the cliff anymore. Expectations are gone. Time to just be a fan and root root root for the Giants!!!
As it stands now Shark will pitch the WC game in NY if they fill in for Cueto vs moving everyone up a day
Huh?
Concentrate!
The Dodgers might be playing a lot of their scrubinis in that last weekend.
Certainly a bad thing for us.
That foulball by Meyers was off the charts.
What more could you ask from Smahardhjia? Can we score one motherfuckin’ cocksucking run?
If he got a glove on it, why is it still a GRD????
2 base error?
alllllrightie then.
Kruk: “The bounce denies 3 bags for Panik, maybe even more.” Yeah, Kelly would’ve sent him home with no outs.
C’mon ya 4 eyed fuck!
Nice to see the other team’s RFer fuck up.
Why is Specs not playing more. Keereist, every time I pay attention, the guy is getting a clutch hit. Bochy won’t play him because his contract doesn’t have enough zeros on it?…
Giants on first and 3rd w/no outs. Situation dire for SF…
We’re gonna get hosed
What the fuck are these assholes reviewing?