A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

I’m trying to rev up for the Chris Marrero train, really I am. But I can’t tell if I’m rooting for him because left field is such a wasteland or I really think he could do something at the mlb level if only given the chance. Grant Brisbee at McCovey Chronicles dulled my buzz when he detailed the 7 pitchers C-Marr has bombed this spring. I won’t reprint their names as it would be waste of pixel space. And my advice is not to look up his splits in the minors, they are uninspiring. He’s only appeared at the mlb level in 2 seasons, 2011 and 2013.

That was a long time ago…..

But still, Jarrett Parker is, well, JARRETT PARKER. I didn’t realize how much his first name bothered me until just now. Anyway, the point is that Marrero doesn’t have a lot blocking him for a start or two a week against lefties. Or righties. Would it really matter?

I wonder if any of the Giants beat writers contacted Randy Elliott this spring just to get his take on Chris Marrero.

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Xoot sent this too me. Not sure why he would want the venue changed. Wouldn’t you think he’d have a better shot at sympathy from a jury in his hometown?

This pitching line was nearly perfect in terms of who Matt Cain is at this point in his career.

He niggled his way into the 6th inning. He gave up a bomb. 4 ER. More K’s than walks. Get used to it. And I suspect Bochy will have a VERY high tolerance for this in 2017. In addition to his blind love for Matt Cain, he has the normal expectations of a 5th starter to cloud his judgement.

Chris Marrero has 7 bombs this spring and who am I to discount that? I am 100% supportive of NEW BLOOD on this roster so if Marrero is that guy, come on down!

The Raiders are moving and I could care less. I guess if it was up to me I would prefer they stay but I’m a Niner fan and the Raiders mean nothing to me. People that think this move won’t work aren’t thinking it through. A Raider game will transform from a football game to a Las Vegas show. 8 shows a year. It’ll be one of the hottest tickets in town. They won’t have a problem selling out the 65K *arena*. Their issue will be lack of fan support/home field advantage. Fans that don’t care about the team that are stacked inside the confines of a staid dome is about the worst recipe you could have for a true football experience.

They can stop selling the “Just Win, Baby” shirts since nobody will give a lick about the outcome of the game. Maybe they could sell shirts that say “Just Been, Baby”. That would capture the mood of their new *fan* base much better…….

He’s the “Special Advisor to the CEO” Lol. The titles these ex-players get always slay me. What topics could Barry possibly advise Larry Baer on? Bike riding? How to act like a colossal dick to beat writers?

I’m not gonna lie, it was pretty cool watching the vids of him jack bombs out of the cage on Saturday. His last season was 2007, he was 42 and he blasted 28 bombs (along with 132 walks). He’s 52 now and if Baer wants to pay him to hang out and flip balls over the wall who am I to say there’s anything wrong with that?

I never thought Barry wanted to be a hitting coach and wasn’t surprised at all when he ran out of gas last year and the Marlins fired him. Being a hitting coach is more for the grinders of the game. Barry likes to get his relax on and *special advising some rich dude* seems about his speed.

I’m sure he’ll have some nice pointers for the hitters. Just don’t call him a *Hitting Coach.*

And build that damn statue already. I’ve never been to a statue unveiling but I would go to that one…..

Sadly, the reign of The Long Donger has just about come to an end. I’m happy he seems + about the trip to Sacramento but I’m worried that if he’s left there too long his attitude might change and he may consider a trip back to Seoul for a little R&R just like Hawk and Trapper used to do back in the day.

What would have to happen for him to get called up? Probably a lot. Assuming Nunie’s shoulder is just feeling ouchy he’s going to be back soon, likely by opening day. Donger’s best chance is probably for either Gillaspie to turn back into Ishikawa or Hill to prove he’s got a little more *Uggla* in him than Bochy realizes. Knowing the skipper’s high tolerance for veteran suckitude, it’s likely both of them could tread water well into June before The Donger could get an eventual call.

Just don’t leave him in Sac-town for too long or this could happen:

I wanted to get this up yesterday but things got busy and I have to post it on the slower weekend. Regardless, here is Daniel’s Giants thread that he writes every March. He should be in and out today to talk baseball with us so feel free to leave something in the comment section. As always Daniel, we appreciate your take, you are a Cardinal fan I truly respect. After the kerfuffle between Clark and Ozzie way back in the day I didn’t think I’d ever say that. 🙂

http://www.cardsconclave.com/2017/03/23/playing-pepper-2017-san-francisco-giants/

Somehow I missed this yesterday: The Span Man hit a home run. Did anyone see it? This is incredible. Also, a championship was won at Dodger Stadium. Therefore, I will declare yesterday to be “Miracle Day.”

Seriously, a Span bomb and a championship at Dodger Stadium. I’m still trying to calculate the longshot odds of that bizarre, unlikely exacta from coming in on the SAME DAY.

Also, left field. WordPress has upgraded something and now, of course, I can’t find where they put the polls. So let’s go “old school” and you can just put your preference in the comment section below. Would you like to see Pagan signed and inserted into LF or would you rather see Parker out there?

I’ll cast the first vote for….Parker.

Chuck got me going on the last thread with those old Giants commercials from the early 2000’s. According to Bozo, his name is Matt Griesser. I could watch this every day of my life and not get sick of it.

Also, I couldn’t find it but there was another slightly longer version of this commercial (when it first came out) of him giving Lucille a couple more ass-whacks and he had the funniest expression on his face like “am I really free styling this??!!!?!?!”. After about a week of running it they cut it to this so somebody must have complained.

Checking in on some of our colder bats this spring….

Span is hitting .161 with no stolen bases and no home runs. He’s about the worst although Jimmy Rollins, who is completely done as a major leaguer, is a little worse at .103 (although he does have a bomb). Pence is hitting .125. I’m just glad he hasn’t hurt himself yet. Ruggiano, another pointless spring training invite, is hitting .200 with a bomb. Morse has hit 2 home runs and done literally nothing else…..

This was a pretty amazing tweet about the Seattle closer. Wow. Barry Zito should write a song about it.

I’m not insane, I did watch a replay of the Adam Jones catch in the WBC. Impressive. Not even close to the best I’ve ever seen. It looked better than it was because the wall is low and there was a bunch of American flag stuff in the background. But it was a nice catch.

I watched the Mays catch again just to experience the true beauty and aura of a perfect catch. I wasn’t born yet when they played at the Polo Grounds. What a mess those dimensions were.

That was an ominous blurb Loo posted at the end of yesterday’s thread wasn’t it?

Also, if I never have to see another gif of that silver spooned shithead crybaby Northwestern fan, I will consider my life mostly complete. I’d like to send that kid to Syria for a week to give him something real to tantrum over.

Here’s the headline at mlb.com: “Saturday Night Survive: US-DR Win or Else!” I’ll take the *else* please. And hope that means an end to this meaningless nonsense. I love how I’m hearing about how much these games mean to countries other than the US. Like that’s supposed to make me feel bad that I don’t care about the WBC.

Let’s play real baseball already.

Or else!

By the way, here’s how The Donger dressed up for St. Patty’s Day:

Now that we’ve made it thru the boring Belt-HR prediction, let’s do one that’s far more interesting and near and dear to my heart. With restrained anticipation, let’s turn our attention to the great and all-knowing and all-wondrous and all-powerful…..Nunie.

What’s his line gonna look like this year? Health is the only question I have. Assuming he keeps his legs straight, I’ll go 8 bombs, 30 swipes and a .280 batting average. Tack on 92 flying-ass helmets strewn across the infield and at least 125 times he sends me rocketing off the couch belting out the loudest “FUCKYEAHNUUUUUUNNNNNIIIEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!” the neighborhood has ever heard…..

You?

Two more hits for The Donger and his magical spring carries on. Now hitting .346, it will be interesting to see if Bochy casts a watchful eye his way. He is easily my favorite player in Arizona.

Does anyone know what happened to Chris Stratton? After watching Kruk throw the once coveted and stupidly not traded Kyle Crick into the trash bin I started wondering what happened to Stratton who was supposed to be hit the rotation right about now. Unfortunately, he’s 26 and looks to be maxing and relaxing in triple A.

How many home runs do you guys think Brandon Belt hits this year? Assuming health, let’s toss out predictions and see who nails it cold. I’ll say 16……

You’re probably right, Flav, but so is Xoot.
On paper this team’s a bore.
A band of misfits no more…

This is absolutely spot on. I’ve been having trouble putting my finger on why. I think it’s 3 fold: 1) the rotation is pretty much set. 2) we have no exciting, young player to root for. Sure, MacPark offer some intrigue, but we all know neither is going to get enough at bats to fulfill the promise. 3) the guys we have are pretty much who they are. Almost all of them are *pros* who don’t show much personality at all and who have settled into the back of their baseball cards. We used to spend the spring with raging debates about what Belt’s numbers will look like but I think everyone is on board with him checking in at .280ish/18ish bombs/85ishRBI’s. Anyone REALLY want to argue for or against that? I don’t have it in me….

So this team looks, at least on paper, to be a colossal bore.

He is the only guy in camp who’s reached the infamous pitching triple double: 16 hits,  12 runs, 11 earned runs allowed. Not good, and Bochy can’t possible spin this guy into the rotation. About the only thing good about any of this is that we’re just talking about the #5 spot. Many teams are still trying to fill multiple spots in their starting rotation. Truthfully, starting pitching is the last thing a Giants fan should be worried about this spring.

I was fiddle-de-doing around mlb.com trying to find something remotely interesting about the Giants camp and I saw a vid headline that said something about a Puerto Rico walk off bomb. I ignore the WBC the same way I ignore the Olympics but I thought, “Hey, walk off bombs can be cool, I’ll check it out.”

Sure enough, TJ RIvera hit a walk off bomb. But not the kind you think. His bomb pushed the score to 11-0 so the game ended on the mercy rule. That was the *highlight* they were showing on the main page of mlb.com.

Anyway, the WBC is stupid, spring training lasts too long and I’m ready for some real baseball…..

It’s hard to find an argument that justifies wanting more home runs from your line up other than “I just dig the long ball.” Last year, the opposition out homered the Giants 158-130. But the Giants hit more doubles (280>262), more triples (54>42) and scored more runs (715>631).

Of course, that doesn’t factor in how much better our pitching is than most teams. But that’s kinda the point. There’s nothing wrong with adding power to a team top heavy in pitching. We have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to our starting pitching and the bullpen has improved. But the Giants didn’t come back to win even a single game last year in the 9th inning. The spring training invites are a clue as to how the Giants brass feel about that. It’s a lot easier to win a game late with a bomb than using the conga line approach.

I’ve always disliked the term “conga line.” It’s what you say when you’re team can’t hit a bomb. But how realistic is a conga line of hitting? Everyone in the lineup has to out perform their OBP average for a *conga line* to actually happen in an inning.

The Giants are barely scoring enough runs to win consistently. I happen to want them to score more because scoring is a good thing. Not every win should have to be achieved by scratching and clawing. And hey, home runs are more exciting for the fans and they are absolutely proven to result in runs scoring. 🙂

More bombs please.

Three guys who won’t be making the opening day roster (Williamson, Marrero and The Donger) went yard yesterday.

Young Beedah continues to impress.

WBC snores on. Bruce Chen didn’t even see the purpose in putting cleats on. Look what he wore on the mound yesterday. Apparently it was business-casual day.

Cain has whittled his ERA down to the Jackson, Tenn area code and that’s probably enough to lock up the #5 spot in the rotation. Also, the aged J-Roll offered to play second base yesterday, further cementing his flexibility and endearing himself to an already smitten manager.

The Giants finally won another baseball game yesterday and are now only 4.0 games off the Cactus division lead!

I’m trying to figure out what the Giants are going to do with all of these infielders. Let’s look at the expected 25 and see who’s on the bubble.

The 5 Starting Pitchers are fairly obvious: Bum, Cueto, Moore, Smarge, Cain.

Relievers: Melancon, Law, Strickland, Kontos, Smith, Okert, and then either Oshich or Blach. If they carry both that would be 13 total pitchers which is probably 1 more than they carry but maybe what they decide to start with on Opening Day.

Catchers: Buster and Hundy (that’s gotta be his nickname, right?)

Outfielders: Pence, Span, Parker and Gorky’s. (This is just assuming they go 4 OF’s, it may not be the last 2 guys).

So that’s 19 guys with 6 spots left for the infield. Around the horn we go Belt, Panik, Craw and The great and all-knowing and all-powerful Nunie.

That leaves 2 spots left for Gillaspie (who I have to believe is a lock), Rollins, Hill and Specs….

Anyone see this any differently?

I don’t see how there is any way Specs makes this roster.

Where do you guys stand on baseball cards? Anyone collect them? Still have the old ones from your youth? What was your favorite part about them? Trading them had to be #1. But I was also really drawn to the personal tidbit on the back. “the first player to be traded for himself with Harry Chiti from Indians 4/27/62 and returned 6/15/62”. Stuff like that.

If I was a kid growing up now the internet would have basically ruined collecting cards for me. Memorizing the stats on the back of the card was my go-to move. Now? Stats are a click away.

And while I love that as an adult, it’s still kinda lame.

The Donger has bumped his average up to a cool .444. His OPS is stratospheric. We could be looking at a late HOF bloomer….

It is a struggle to look at spring training stats so I think I’m going to stop doing that.

Let’s just get everyone to SF healthy and go from there….

That Warrior game last night….How many wide open 3’s did Klay and Steph miss? It’s irritating that Durant goes down and they come up ant-small. I hate to say this, because I can’t stand him, but you’d never see LeBron perform like that in a game right after losing a key piece.

Matt Cain got blasted again yesterday. My question is simple: What does Cain have to show you this Spring for you to be somewhat supportive of him starting as the #5 in the rotation? Because barring a phantom injury, that’s what he’s going to be.

It’s not so easy to just say, “He’s got to have a decent start or two.” Vets, especially vet pitchers, don’t use spring training as anything more than a way to get in shape and stay healthy. A guy like Cain probably bristles at the idea of needing to prove anything against a bunch of minor leaguers and hangers on. His career spring ERA is 5.45 so don’t expect anything lower than that and likely his ERA will check in much HIGHER.

But public opinion CAN matter. The boos at AT&T absolutely played a part in the unraveling of Santiago Casilla. Cain’s constitution might be better at handling negativity from Giants fans.

Does he need to show you anything this Spring?

This Durant injury reminds me of Buster tearing up his ankle and being done for the season. Durant’s didn’t look as bad, probably won’t be as bad. But it’s going to be bad. I’ve got a bad, bad feeling about this. And if he’s gone I’m looking at the rest of the team with Patrick McCaw scurrying around out there, a washed up Matt Barnes now coming back, and I’m just not seeing or feeling the rest of this season.

At least we have baseball. March 1st. When I was  a kid I always called March 1st the beginning of Spring. Caused a few problems with me studies. I just told the teachers “that’s what the calendar says in Flavortown” and they didn’t ask any questions after that……