Musings From Another Loss
There’s something about blowing a lead in the 5th inning that is infinitely easier to tolerate than blowing it in the 8th inning (I’m looking at you Law) or the 9th inning (walk off, duh). So last night didn’t bum me out like the game on Monday did.
But still.
I think the Giants just need to get the hell out of Arizona. Been there, done that, air sucks, team’s flat. If I never see Gearrin pitch again that would be just fine with me. And Snarkk brought up 2 great points last night:
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Yep. Why would they need to be signing some washed up 32 YO dude Stubbs off the scrap heap only 2 games into the season? Even if just for AAA roster fill. Where is somebody from AA that could do that? And Morse would have been on the 25 without his leg injury — and the only reason he was in ST was that he attended Pence’s wedding? The OF situation of the Giants after an entire off season and full 6 weeks of ST is flat ridiculous…
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Someone explain to me why Nunie isn’t leading off. If/when Span comes back, there is no freekin way he should lead off. Nunie creates havoc on the basepaths and pressures the defense when he gets on. If he leads off, he has a shot at getting an extra AB late in a long game, if needed. Why can’t Nunie play LF, and put Gillaspie at 3rd…
To his first point, it’s really amazing isn’t it? Like when mlb baseballs are produced in Haiti but nobody plays baseball in Haiti (even though they are exactly zero miles away from the boarder of The Dominican Republic). That one still slays me. One guy who hasn’t been mentioned is Ruggiano. He sucks but he at least made it through spring training. Will he be the guy we see come up and fill the spot for Span if/when his hip gives out on him again?
To his second point, this seems like a no brainer to me. I don’t get why people think a leadoff hitter’s only qualification needs to be his OBP. It MATTERS what you do when you get on base, especially for a team that is reduced to The Conga Line approach. Nunez brings more energy and excitement (and sbs) to the line up than all 8 other guys combined. He’s probably gonna hurt himself again soon with the way he plays the game but until that happens LEAD MY MAIN MAN NUNIE OFF!!!!!!!
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Well you only have what Span says to go on, and report is he’s available today and could start Friday.
If you think that’s a disaster in itself, OK I understand but disagree. End of ST he was fine, homered off Arrieta and hit line drives vs. A’s. So no way for SF to have seen this coming.
Pence had a couple hits yesterday including triple.
Hernandez at 0-5 is back under Mendoza line, where imo he stays.
Parker/Marrero/Hill and Mac once he gets healthy, you have to let them play more than a game or two before making a knee jerk decision on who sucks/who might develop into a keeper.
I’m not into different LU every day; wherever you hit you have a job to do and some guys are comfortable in different spots. Nunez is off to great start in 6 hole, so why not leave him there? He breaks up the LH (Craw Panik Parker) and provides a boost to bottom of the order that has been producing runs. Twin said this before, 6 is a good spot for him. Don’t see what difference it would make at top, and Giants larger issue so far isn’t scoring runs but preventing them.
Well Will, I am with you if Spam is back to give him a few days or week leading off. But if he sputters you can’t just keep him there. If the lead-off typically can’t get on, IMO that puts more pressure on Belt hitting in the 2-hole where he swings too much to be a viable hitter there consistently.
He swings too much? You mean the player who takes more pitches than anyone else on the team? Panik, btw sees the fewest pitches among the regulars other than Posey.
What a cluster fuck all the way around. I have Comcast, so I can do a voice search for content. Did a search for “San Francisco Giants.” The channel comes up as 460, or some shit, and I have never heard of it. When I change to that channel, it says the game is fucking blacked-out. SMH. So, I follow online…looking good at 4-1. Moore is cruising. I check back and see it is 4-3 and then 4-4. I finally get frustrated and start surfing the channels on which the Giants SHOULD be playing. I check 720 NBCBA which is one of the typical Giant channels. Says the Warriors game is on, so I say WTF…I’ll watch the Dubs. But it is NOT the Warriors…it’s the fucking Giants game, and now it is 8-4. Fuck that…ain’t nobody got time for that shit.
Agree with the points on the thread. And yes, all of our concerns in the off-season and during ST are still valid. No confidence in the fucking bullpen, and the OF is a mess, especially if Span’s hip it problematic, long-term.
At least we are getting the fuck outta AZ.
Chi sounds like me banging my head against a federal bureaucracy…you all would not believe how dysfunctional things are in a Dept with 47,000 employees and employees who you have to pull not just teeth but tonsils to do work outside of their typical daily functions…
btw only reason for signing Stubbs in first place was that Giants were short handed at AAA with Mac and Morse both out. Obviously they have a glut of OFs once these 2 are healthy; all above with big club and Ruggiano.
They still have Slater and Jones kid in Sac, right? Baggs said Jones might be the one to watch.
Who was the kid from AA outfielder who had a solid spring???
There should be no debate about Nunez as lead-off…and maybe the call of the year is not just putting him in LF or at least giving a start in CF, but calling the kanger up now and he is out everyday 3b with Gillaspie getting some starts…
Thanks Wille…it is that Austin Slater. If I recall he can handle CF…
Slater had a decent spring. He has played some LF and CF, and was also playing some 2B and SS in 2015. Steven Duggar also had a nice spring…plays CF and RF.
Span saying he’s *available* and he’s gonna *give it a go* is the LAST thing I want to hear. Not looking forward to Bochy running him out there for months because he’s a gamer and then hearing in August “well, Spany been working through some stuff, he finally needs a break so he’s going to the DL. We’re calling up one of the Stubbs brothers to take his place”….
actually what Schulman said today was teams are more likely to use the now only 10 day DL quicker than they otherwise might have done with the old 15 day. So I doubt “running him out there for months” like what went on with Pagan 2015 ever happens.
But quality back up for CF is a problem…”we’re calling up one of the stubbs brothers” is pretty funny. Relax man, it’s early.
Props to Unc for that stuff on Giants/Dodger brawl. Check out the link which has great stories of other Dodger dustups (and universally reviled OF Mike Marshall)including one involving Gagne and Michael Tucker I don’t remember at all.
I’ve been hoping and praying Nooner get the nod as leadoff since the fucking day he got here. And Bochy won’t listen! Missed the disaster that befell Moore last night. Meh. I think you are right, Flav. The Giants are sick and tired of AZ. They’ve been there all spring, and then the entire first week of the season? The good news is we don’t go back till August.
Regardless of who gets the call the point remains the G’s need someone to step in, and not some retreaded piece of rubber from the side of the road. This isn’t the only injury we will have to the OF. Pence is one more stupid video away from blowing out his hammy.
In case you missed it yesterday . . .
http://www.dodgerblues.com/content/features_fights.html#marshall-sf
This one is flat awesome. Wonder if there’s any video of this . . .
August, 1988
After the Philly Phanatic had stomped numerous times on a stuffed doll dressed in a Dodgers uniform with “Lasorda” on the back, Lasorda wrestled the doll away from the mascot. Lasorda then hit the Phanatic in the face with the doll, pinned him to the ground and threw a few punches. Truly a great sight.
“What he did wasn’t entertainment,” said Lasorda. “I love the Dodgers, and it wasn’t right for him to stomp on the doll with the uniform. There were a lot of kids there, and he’s showing them violence. He didn’t need to do that.”
David Raymond, who masqueraded as the Phanatic, didn’t seem too bothered. “When he grabs me, he gets his shots in pretty hard, but I didn’t know that he was serious,” Raymond said. “I’m really just trying to make fun of Tommy’s shape.”
Holy shit . . .
That is fricking hilarious…
Yeah, we don’t want the kids to see violence.
Wow, some of you are already dangling your feet over the ledge, like Will said relax, take a deep breath. Everything will work its way out. 3 games into the year does not make this an average or even a bad team. If they end April with a 1-26 record then maybe panic should set in.
Maybe? No, my problem is that we are 2 games in, and the fragile OF is already down a man. And guys like Stubbs and Pagan are in the mix. Everyone knew that the OF health would be an issue and the brass did nothing about it. If we go 2 guys down, we may not recover.
RIP, Don Rickles…
Saw that on Facebook. The notification came from Larry Storch. HE’S fricking 94 . . .
Larry Storch?? 94?? Jesus Chuck I remember him from F-Troop with Forest Tucker?
Hey Forest Tucker here buy that property at Poker Flat a gem of a development community in the foothills!
Hah! I remember those ads. Wasn’t Eric Estrada selling land at lake don Pedro?
Don Rickles, The greatest of all time, as far as I am concerned.
The guy opened for Beethoven…
Lemon Can or El Conman may turn out to be the closer we need. We’ll see. One bad outing is one bad outing. But the rest of the core looks like it may be a bit rotten. Will Smith’s inability to refill the Affeldt slot leaves us with a lot of what went bad last year. Does anyone think Blach (or Cain) can be the longman/spot starter we had in Petit? Is there any sign of a Romo/Lopez-like set up combination? The pen has fallen on tough times. The OF in 2014, 162-game Pence aside, was far from perfect. Perez and Blanco spent a lot of time in LF and CF. Maybe they can cobble something serviceable together by the end of this season. But it won’t matter much if the pen really sucks as badly as I fear it does.
I’m with DJ. Okert should be up.
I don’t understand why Ramirez made the squad over Okert.
It’s Arizona and 3 games, but so far the starting pitchers have been as bad as the bullpen. The ERAs are equivalent, in any case.
They really should be 2-1
Belt boots the 3rd out their out of the inning still with the lead, it was the game changer last night..
Belt shoulders much of the blame for sure. But another storyline could have been Moore preserving the 4-3 lead after the error, going 7 strong innings, with Law and Melancon doing their jobs.
agreed. Moore faced some adversity and did not rise above it. He was beaten my it.
The 1899 Cleveland Spiders went 20-134 to “top” the list of MLB’s all-time worst regular season records.
I’m pretty sure the Pads will do better than that.
1900 to present is considered the “Modern era”, which does’t make a lot of sense. How much of a difference between 1899 and 1900? Nada.
Anyways, in 1916, the Philly A’s went 36-117 – worst for teams since 1900.
Padres MIGHT better that record.
The ’62 Mets are the team I’d say are truly a part of the “modern” era. They went 40-120.
The Pads might have trouble winning 40 this season.
Their $35 million payroll is ludicrous. That’s just a few million dollars more than Kershaw himself is making this season.
This has been the big stat the last few seasons.
2017:
Dodgers vs. NL West, 3-1 so far
Giants vs. NL West, 1-2 so far.
Yadier Molina got a wild pitch stuck to his chest protector today. A lot of folks are wondering why a ball would stick to his chest protector. I would say that’s a legitimate question to ask.
looked covered in pine tar to me so that’s about all you need to know. Cheater.
Apparently catchers have shit rubbed all over them (at least, that’s according to Schwarber who says he does it too). I had no idea, I thought that wouldn’t be allowed. Who cares if it’s the pitcher or the catcher doctoring the ball? It’s getting doctored.
That is bullshit if catchers are able to, within the confines of the rules, goop-up their gear.
Giant Potential
@giant_potential
Stellar season debut for Dan Slania is over after 6 innings. 5ip, 1r, 1bb, 8k. 75 pitches, 56 strikes. #FlyingSquirrels
Thanks for the report, Flav.
Holy shit. ~50 Tomahawk cruise missles launched at Syrian airfield. New meaning to the term “Play Ball.”
Ok I’m not watching the start of this game, but wtf? Why is Hill starting over Panik who is redhot, and I don’t give a shit that the starter Ray is a lefty it doesn’t matter,it’s like the usual getaway BS game Bochy gives away!!
Hill home run.
Power potential, which he just flashed. One out of four starts for Hill is cool. Ya gotta get a guy an occasional start.
Marrero at least put the ball in play. Baby steps.
Bombs away!
Something else watching Belt motor the basepaths.
Well, the 5 second rule comes in to play.
Love that throw from the OF. A fricking worm burner.
wow belt sb leads to a run.
WTF, Shark? Pitching like a fucking guppy right now…
Wow. Way to hold that lead. Every starter is leaving the ball up.
Giants 2017 motto: Can’t stand prosperity.
Marrero is striving to be Bowker gang material.
Gawd. Pence has a 2-0 count and lunges for a pitch 6″ off the ground and outside.
Never knew about the pine tar thing.
Buster! Nice! He has been roping all series.
Posey finally cashing in…
38 yr old creaks his way into 2b with rbi double as Giants retake lead and knock out yet another AZ SP early.
Kinda surprised Hundley hasn’t had a start yet, thought maybe Smardz would be his guy in rotation.
I know there are guys not hitting, but Giants are scoring runs…offense ain’t the problem.
Yep. Overall, I’m not concerned with the SP…the bullpen…no confidence.
Need to tack on a few more runs here, given our boys difficulty at holding a lead…
Couple good ABs there from Craw and Nunez, but Marrero is just up there hacking.
Have a feeling Mac’s legs get healthy and he gets some ABs in Sac, he takes his spot.
Probably a safe bet…
Like the commercial just shown, “fix our roads”
The Giants LF is the same “Fix our nightmare”
Parker 0-7 5 K’s Marreo=Randy Elliot redux..
Uh, I retract my statement on the SP. Fucking Smardge…
Feast are phantom with the Shark..
Shit load of strikeouts, Shit lost of Bombs!
I have faith that at least the first 3 of the SP will be fine; homer smardge, who knows. there’s a simpsons joke in there somewhere
It’s not worth shit pitching 200 innings if you give up 4 earned runs a game. Moore and Smarj both have great stuff and yet they could tank the season if they underperform.
The bar has been set pretty low for Cain.
I am confident he’ll limbo his way under it…
Smarja sucks. Another awful signing…
I’m more than happy with the 3 titles that I’ll take to the grave…
I feel that way sometimes Loo, but next thing you know, I’m wanting to see them win it all again (greedy fuck that I am)! And outside of the OF and bullpen, I still think this is a solid team. Based on 3+ games it’s gonna be a helluva ride!
The OF and the BP is half the roster!
Fuck! Fucking BP pitch by Strichnine…
Strick leaves one in the wheelhouse and there goes another run added onto Smardz ERA.
I can’t watch Strickland pitch! He has been useless since he came up, throws flat fast balls that everyone and their mother can hit. Wait my bad Fat fast balls!!
Shark is maddening for sure Loo, but the one idiot pitcher I always cursed at the most was Todd Wellenmeyer, I couldn’t slam enough drinks to get that shithead out of my mind!!
It was a freaking nightmare how long Bochy kept throwing his pathetic ass out their to pitch which was a “Guaranteed Loss”!!!
The Arizona announcers are “Goldying” me to death…
I would have to drink heavily…
Strickland is just a muscle-headed Phuck. I would never, ever count on him getting a coupla outs in a really serious-ass situation. So far, Giants look like a team that will take some time to coalesce. The Pen is a friggin’ gemischt mess…
The Giants didn’t do near enough to shore up the pen, imo. Melancon, fine, hopefully he pans out and pitches to his career numbers, but his first outing wasn’t encouraging. But Gearrin? Strickland? Law? They were all culprits in last year’s second half bullpen meltdown. They inspire no confidence in me. More should have been done if you ask me. And don’t get me started on left field. Parker and Marrero are a joke and will do nothing of consequence this year. Span is a meatball.
For a team that is flush with cash every year, the Giants sure do seem to like to operate on the cheap, at least as far as position players go.
I basically agree with you, LJ but how do you argue with management that’s won 3 titles operating this way?
Like anything else it looks good when it works and shitty when it doesn’t…
They had better pieces in those years. The past couple of years have seen a series of AAAA guys parading through.
offense is scoring some runs but obviously not enough of them if pitching is going to give up 6 and 8. yeow.
Blach in there now.
Yowza. 2nd day in LF. What’s the worst thing that could happen?
Aubrey Huff playing second base?
Fuck…this bullpen is pathetic. Get Blach’s ass outta there, now!
Wagon wheels off.
Fuck this shit…I’m jumping over to the Shark’s game. That’s prettty fucking bad when you’re not even four games into the season…
2-1 Tiburones, BTW…
Fuck. Make that 2-2. May be a sign to turn off the damned boob tube!
It ani’t any better at the Sharkies game.
Bad day for Sharks…
Mercifully over.
It’s aboot over
KD playing tonight should be a big deal. Thought I missed the Gs game planting trees and shit but a 5:40 start. Odd
Dawg, you hitting any of the games?