Another Day
Unless I resort to haikus, the last defense for a thread in the middle of winter is a trip to mlbtraderumors.com to see what they got cookin’. Today’s current lead headline does not inspire.
Market Notes: Profar, Utley, Francoeur, Masterson
So force yourself to comment on that headline or come up with something else.
It’s January 31st for what that’s worth….
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Lucky 13!
Only 13 daze until pitchers and catchers report. Giddy up and play ball!
Well, what battles are out there in ST? How many of the invites such as Rollins, Morse, Ruggiano do you think actually make the team, barring injury of course?
How many pitchers on staff at opening day? Usually there are extra days off at start of season (tho i’m unaware of April sched), and since SF seems to have at least 5 SPs, do you need 11 or 12? that is if you are bochy.
If he’s not gonna start and Cain is, what do you do with Blach? Do you keep him stretched out or pencil him into late inning relief role?
I think a lot of the “who makes the team” conversations cannot realistically be answered until we see what transpires in ST. On the number of pitchers to start the season, there are three off days in April: 3rd, 17th, and 20th. We all know Bochy likes a lot of bullets in his bullpen.
I think that unless Rollins just absolutely sucks, and it is apparent he is done, he will get a shot at making the roster.
Maybe we give Masterson a cup of coffee look in ST, so we can hear his walk up lyric
“Back when the west was very young,
There lived a man named Masterson,
He had a cane and wore a derby,
They called him Bat,Bat Masterson
There aren’t as many foggy days in the Central Valley as there used to be, due to a variety of factors, including climate change and more land getting paved over; but today is pretty foggy and gloomy. The air is like breathing cold steam. The Valley cries out for baseball season to get here!!
I saw “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” again last night, when I saw it had just started as I was flipping channels. Kind of an underrated film, with lots of good acting performances in it. The plot line is actually pretty thin, but the actors really make those characters feel like real people, who have lived actual lives. And I even noticed Gary Busey in there in a real early appearance in his acting career. The film was funnier than I remembered from a long time ago. It’s more of a comedy than I had realized.
I hope Rollins has something left. He’s got that reliable vet presence, the same way Ellis Burks or Gallaraga or Dunston had. Who am I forgetting? Chris Speier? Who else? I like having at least one of those guys around for spot starts and good vibes on the bench.
Renteria was one of those guys, IMO.
Reggie Sanders was always a bit of a badass reminding me of Ellis Burks both with power both with attitudes.
Ty Blach doesn’t score high in any of the prospect lists in baseball media, but that dude came in during the heat of the chase for a playoff spot last season and pitched great. I wonder how many of the top pitching prospects on any of the teams could have done that.
Agree Z,
And if they weren’t paying Cain a zillion dollars 💵 I would like him to get that 5th slot in the rotation! 3 lefties in the rotation especially against the Dogpile is the right call..
Going into ST, my guesses are –
the OF will have Parker and Williams battling for the starting LF job, Parker probably gets the edge because he’s out of options which would send Mac to Sac. Hernandez (out of options), Ruggiano and Morse will probably battle for the OF bench.
For the infield, I’d imagine the vets, Rollins and Gillaspie currently have the bench edge, Specs still has options so he’d be a long shot.
Pitching – unless Cain completely breaks down in the desert he probably has the edge for the 5th slot, Suarez probably gets the long man role. I figure non-roster invitee Bryan Morris gets a long look and Blach probably starts for the River Cats.
Catcher – Hundley over Brown
Good synopsis, especially from a clown. 😉 But seriously, I am with you on most of this, John. Will be interesting to see if this is how it all shakes-out this year. I am bummed that I am not going to ST this year. My daughter and I need to get back on that rotation next year.
It’s probably good to take a break. You might not want to be like me though,the last time that I went to ST was in 89, doh.
Ha. All good. I dig the ST vibe and it has always been a way for me and my daughter to get away and have a few days together that focuses on baseball.
Wonder if G-Head is unconscious on the Florida beach from too many Mai Tias (or too much of the Trumpster’s kool-aid). 😉
we disagree but he’s the one with all the mouths to feed. Raising a family pretty expensive these days; shot at a govt job ($$ + benefits) would be high on most people’s list.
Btw, someone unearthed convo btw Sessions with Yates in 2015 about the integrity she needed to have in DOJ to defy Obama directives he disagreed with. Of course when she does it to Trump shoe is on other foot…
Shit, Willie, we all have to try and get through this political hellscape. I hear DeVos passed through and was on her way to becoming sects of education.
Dawg and Flav don’t you guys work in the school system? How do you feeel abou her? Every teacher I know thinks she’ll fuck things up royally and institute Christian based education across the board.
Just read where John Wetton, bassist for King Crimson passed today. Loved the early King Crimson stuff. RIP.
Saw that, chuck. With Greg Lake that’s 2 guys from the band. Saw the Fripp/Belew/Levin incarnation back in the early 80s. Incredible stuff
Yep…they were ahead of their times.
Jon Heyman @JonHeyman 9s9 seconds ago
joe nathan gets $1.25m on nats minors deal. gives them another closing option.
He wasn’t that bad last year. Wish we had given him this deal.
For that coin…I would have brought him back. Another swing-and-miss by Sabevans?
I’m not sure it’s “swing and miss” territory but it would be nice to see them continue to try to make the periphery of the team better. They did that with the Korean so I’m not grading them out too low for this off season. I’d put them at a C+ right now.
Damn, I was really hoping they’d give him another shot this year.
It’s finally over……
Joe Salvatore @radiojoee 5m5 minutes ago
ICYMI on ex- #SFGiants …Ehire Adrianza claimed on waivers by #Brewers
WOO HOO! Sayonara, Agent Zero…best of luck, and don’t let the door hit ya in the ass on the way out.
Brewers officially suck…
wow collective sigh of relief there. I understand Triple O was only supposed to be Craw’s back up at SS, but yeow just didn’t cut it and took up roster spot.
Over on F/G in the Hardball Times section I saw column on OF defense. Guy raved about Royals OF D before they got to the Series, and Cubs D last year with Heyward. What he talked about was how OFs defended line drives and hard hit balls he labels “barrels.” Turns out 5 of 10 playoff teams were in top half of D stats here.
Giants were near the bottom; in another section he graded CF only and again Giants near bottom of ml ball.
What he’s talking about: “On toughest hits to track down a look at which teams protected most against severe damage.”
As to Giants lack of proficiency here, he says, “Denard Span had a rough go in 2016 and his wingmen weren’t much better. In an OF as big as ATT–the Giants saw the second most barrels in play 2016, presumably because of their huge home OF–having strong defenders can be mighty beneficial.”
Interesting argument, and one I’d never thought about before.
Thought you might like this one, Flav
top 20
Famous for one phenomenal game and his unusual facemask…
Raiders deal getting torpedoed and it’s too funny. Fucking Davis can’t hang at that negotiation level. Adelson just finally said “fuck this guy”.
Yup. And the Raiders lost the $750 mill the state of Nevada was kicking down to them.
They are back at square one.
And now there’s this:
WTF? The fucking owners voted on this and approved it. Now they are upset tha Spanos moved the team?
http://boltbeat.com/2017/01/20/nfl-reportedly-upset-chargers-moved/
How utterly fucking stupid. The rich ARE idiots.
I don’t have a very good feeling about the Giants this season.
Seems to me that a lot would have to go right for them just to be around .500…
I’m excited about the start of the season, overall; but, yeah, this is the least confident I’ve been about the Giants’ chances in quite a while. I think we’re looking at fighting for a Wild Card, and how many times can we expect Bum to have to win that Wild Card game? At some point, sheer probability math would indicate you can’t win the Wild Card game every time.
But having said that, it’s a long season with a lot of highs and lows, and if the Dodgers have some key injuries, then maybe it’s a different story.
The thing about the Dodgers is, it will probably be the same story we’ve seen for the last 4 years, they are going to really beat up on bad pitching again.
And it is the year of the rooster…
I am back Chi.. I stuck to coconut rum and pineapple!! I had my orientation today and world domination tomorrow…of course I like this Supreme Court pick but I had liked the Wisconsin jurist Sykes to add another woman to the court but also a conservative female voice…
I’m hoping for a 4 year filibuster until the next election so that the people have a chance to speak…
day after tomorrow spring Stix?
This is worth reading just for opening shot at Mark Davis…
https://www.google.com/amp/www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/columnists/nick-canepa/sd-sp-canepa-raiders-san-diego-20170131-story,amp.html
Hilarious that they mucked up the Vegas deal but San Diego is the perfect spot for them to get out of the Bay Area…
RE: this thread’s heading — is Jeff Francouer still going to play in MLB? There has to be a supply of better OFers than that retread…
it’s amazing. This guy was decent for like 2 years and that was a decade ago. And yet he keeps scoring gigs. I don’t get it.
Cody Ransom somehow hung around for 11 seasons…
I thought he was beyond washed up when he was with the Giants 3 or 4 years ago, or was it 5?…
I’m with Loo about “a lot would have to go right for this team” as currently constructed. The OF situation is just brutal, IMO, one misstep, turned ankle, hit by pitch, etc. away from being a disaster. I insist the front office cannot possibly be “good to go” about that, still think we might see a trade before the start of the season once spring training shows us something (or not).
Sure like to see a move too P/A
Cause are OF stinks and getting older with no speed! Then you add a possible Michael Morse to butcher balls in LF some games and it really gets depressing..,
Agree, Paul. This current OF is fair, teetering on crap with an injury…
There’s (farfetched) talk the Chargers may move back, GH
I think we’ll get someone at the trade deadline to get shit straight in the OF. The season will be fine with the pitching til we stock up in July.
Paul, how many times has ‘as currently constructed’ finished the season that way?
Yes, Charlie, obviously the team that takes the field on opening day will not resemble the one even just a couple months later. Oddly enough, a couple of years there (including last year), the team played very well the first half but then tanked after moves were made (or, like last year, after the “regulars” returned from their injuries). Wouldn’t mind 2017 seeing an ok first half and then some moves and to pour it on and hit the post-season with some hearty momentum.
Yeah, I think they’ll do the usual pickup of pieces around the deadline. Like everyone else, I think pen help is in order.
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is a great movie. Saw it at the Fox Theater in San Mateo . . .
Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, as you know by now, is the son of Anne Gorsuch, Reagan’s “head” of EPA back in the day, whose main purpose was to destroy the agency and its “glut” of business-killing regulations. Her appointee to head the Superfund program was Rita Lavelle, who had no experience at all in that area, had been a former Reagan speechwriter. I was working at that time for a publishing company that printed newsletters on environmental issues. I had the pleasure of interviewing both Gorsuch and Lavelle, and they were both total idiots, on a mission to gut the EPA. Very similar to the climate in DC we’re suddenly seeing now…
Good story. Betsy Devos got out of committee on a strict party line. Maybe the most clueless Cabinet nominee in modern times. Now it looks like she may have plagiarized some responses. Ben Carson and Rick Perry are just behind her on the idiot meter…
Yeah, it would be nice to think that cabinet picks don’t really have a lot of power to influence things dramatically, but… they do…. that Reagan EPA mess, combined with James Watt “revolutionizing” the Dept. of Interior, at the same time, was unbelievable.
great story. The kool aid of course is that loosening regulations does zero to create jobs; its primary benefit is to corp bottom line profits, as it is intended to be. Funny to hear GOP going off about restoring coal industry jobs–even the Chinese are finally hip to how destructive coal production is to their environment.
Bush 2 did the same thing in Texas as gov then as prez as the great Molly Ivins pointed out in “Shrub.”. He made it impossible to sue big biz over environmental issues such as Erin Brockovitch did. Again, to whose benefit?