Losing in Arizona
It would be a pretty riveting IQ test to see who’s dumber, Smarge or Strickland. My $$$ would be on Strick *winning* but Smarge would be right there the entire race. You couldn’t shine a flashlight between ’em…..
I missed the game because our power was out all night and just went on about 10 minutes ago. I was driving and listening to the radio early in the game and Smarge had run off about 4 K’s in a row and I was thinking, “this isn’t going to last. He’s going to get too big for his britches and just start humping his heater in there.” After I got home and my phone died along with my last connection to the internet and the rest of the world I sat in the dark wondering which D-back ended up being the first hitter to turn Smarge’s night sour….
I’m just happy they’re out of Arizona. I don’t think our left field spot has a hit yet this season but CF isn’t far behind. Gorks is hitting .125. Makes me long for Span and his aged hip.
We play San Diego today at 3:40 for some reason.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
It’s the Padres home-opener, and oh the festivities. The team with the $35 million payroll will take on $21 million Cain.
My godson is supposed to be there. Last time I saw him a month ago he had on dark brown Pads jersey which actually isn’t too bad. He knows they are at least year away from young pitching replacing all the old fart vets they brought in. Still, their kid hitters whipped up on Giants last year second half. Let’s not have any more of that.
Yeah, what a cluster-fuck of a game. Once again, Giants get off on the good foot, build a lead, give it up, re-take it, and then crater. I still think overall, the SP will be OK, especially 1-3. Smardge gives pause, and Cain, well, he’s Cain. The back-end of our rotation (given their lack of production and payroll) looks like the south end of a north-bound bulldog.
And we all have had concerns about the bullpen and OF. And neither are giving us any reason to pull-back on those concerns.
I still think this team will get it together and be much better than the results of the past four games. AZ may have a lot to do with that…we shall find out. Team is scoring runs, but the pitching just flat-out sucks. A sweep in San Diego would be sweet.
Thanks for the reminder on the start time, Flav. Looks like my ass will be heading out early today. I am fighting a sinus infection (just got some antibiotics yesterday afternoon), so good reason to “be sick” and bail early.
Make it an awesome day FU.
Those 2 Stricknine&Sharky are definitely not the sharpest tools in the shed. Then you have poor Aaron Hill who I’m not knocking at all playing LF in game 4 of the season speaks volumes on how the top brass fucked up the whole LF scenario, so their brain cells are short circuiting as well…
I stole Loo’s “that’s half the team” post from last night and texted it into KNBR this morning when someone said nearly the identical thing that Chi said last night and they read it on the air……
I’m such a useful individual…
lol
The OF and the pen do make up half the team. the F/G positional rankings had Giants combined OF rated very low, esp for a team that is supposed to contend. Didn’t think much of pen beyond Melancon either.
I have less problem with OF in that I think you have to give them enough rope to hang themselves or not. Marrero swings at a lot of stuff that aren’t strikes; Bochy doesn’t want to put Parker in vs. LHP, Gorkys came back to earth pretty quickly after the 4 rbi game and Hill isn’t really an OF. Mac’s on the DL.
Meanwhile, keep an eye on who is doing what in Sac where Giants have some hitters stashed.
Just a dose of reality too—Nunez started off 5 for 9 before 0-3 yesterday. If he went 1 for his next 9 he’d still be hitting .286, very respectable. No one hits .500 all year.
Anyone geeked for Cain today? I feel a 4 inning 4 run effort coming on. Anyway, the lunatic fringe concerns about LF were wrong. It’s worse than expected. LF hit Oh for Arizona the first series. Thankfully a dose of Pads could fix the pain. Could…
Wow, snarkk, you fucking nailed it.
The Pads killed us last year down the stretch. This team HAS to do much better against the (dixie) dregs of the west.
All signs point to SD killing us today.
Agreed. Pads can hit some …
Sharkie and Cain, feel the pain.
Plus, the day game after an evening game and plane flight. The Giants usually look tired in these kinds of games for some reason. Well, we are one of the older teams in MLB, overall.
The Dodgers/Rockies game is one of the MLB Network games today. The Dodgers have a chance to feast on the Rockies this weekend.
The Kat had a great one on the Flap last night. The Giants’ “feasts are phantom” in Arizona this past week.
That was some overlooked brilliance that only Sir Skink is capable of…
When a player comes up from the minors why do they treat them differently? I am assuming Parker batted against RHP and LHP while in the minors. So all of a sudden he van only hit RHPing?? I would put him play him no matter who is pitching, how is he going to get into a groove if he is benched every other game. Stupid IMO.
Plus, Marrero looks awful. Marrero is on a quest to prove how worthless Spring Training stats are. He looks nothing like a major leaguer so far. Maybe if he finally squares one up, his confidence will rise, and we’ll see some of what we saw in the Spring.
Agree. There’s a reason he’s been a career minor leaguer.
Also, and maybe I’m imagining this, but hasn’t Pico Perwhever pitched well against us in the past?
It’d be nice to see the Giants organization be willing to start the season at home one of these years. They like to start the season on the road for reasons that I always forget. That’s a tough way to start the season every year.
This from an article in the Chronicle, starters were responsible for half of those as they built a 6.35 ERA. The relievers were not faultless, costing the Giants a victory on Opening Day and failing too often to prevent tack-on runs.
lol this is funny (the line up, not the numbers to the right)
Joe Panik 2B L $2.7K 7.34
2 Aaron Hill 3B R $2.5K 0
3 Brandon Belt 1B L $2.9K 8.85
4 Brandon Crawford SS L $2.7K 8.48
5 Nick Hundley C R $2.4K 0
6 Eduardo Nunez 3B R $2.8K 7.34
7 Jarrett Parker OF L $2K 7.18
8 Gorkys Hernandez OF R $2.1K 7.46
9 Cain
Actually it gets better BF, Aaron Hill after his spectacular debut in LF last night gets the start again in LF, not 3B though 2 thirdbasemens and no Left fielder might be better😊
I’m serious. And don’t call me Shirley.
Hey I don’t know if any you guys heard this, but after Tim Tebow hit a HR in his 1st AB in the minors, the Giants pitcher Domenic Mazza announced he was retiring!
Get this he was a 22rd pick back in 2015 and the pick was #666, yeah lots of bad karma to say the least..
Mazza is probably just taking time off for Passover…
Dodger Rich Hill to the DL. Ouch. No shock tho.
Panik at leadoff? What does Nooner have to do to get the lead off spot?
Good start for the new leadoff guy.
Wow. That didn’t take long.
The wheels on the bus fall off off off.
Wow desperate save. Need to score 5.
Margot to be kidding me.
Who’s Margot? Is she at the phantom feast?
Final: Rockies 2, Dodgers 1. Very cool.
Forsythe only hitting .167 so far, and their leftfield platoon is struggling, too.
i sit down, turn on the tv, Cain is sitting there in the dugout with an atrocious pitching line at the bottom of the screen and all Kruk can say is “the defense didn’t really play a clean game behind him.”
That is HILARIOUS
Box score shows 4.1 IP and 4 earned runs. My 9:18 am …
You nailed it!
Looks like Cain pretty much went as expected. His starts will be a recipe to blow out arms in the Pen. I predict he’s to the DL no later than mid May…
Cain was mostly 87-88 on his fastball. He did hit 89 at least once.
There’s not much separation with his slider speed, which hit 85 several times.
Ok finally getting to sit down and watch the Giants. First chance I have had since Game One…and I get a Grand Salami…
well that is ALL RIGHT! If he had done this last inning some Giants fan from San Carlos woulda gotten 5K from Round Table.
Grand Belted!
Did Snarkk nail that Cain pitching line or what…I give him one more start and then move on if it is anything like this. I saw the talk of them possibly going to go Blach against the Dodgers…maybe that will decide the matter.
I had no idea they were going with this lineup and obviously two big pieces sitting, but getting Belt out of the two hole and I rather like the idea of Panik leading off if they aint going Nunez…Donger getting warmed up yet in Sacto?
The D did suck. 2 errors in 3 innings isn’t a good line. But Cain is Cain (pray for rain).
Oh boy. It’s the invisible reliever.
Best. Reliever. Ever.
Another strikeout? It could only be Jarrett.
Then there’s George . . .
Aaaaaand there goes the lead.
Oshit, Ocrap, and Ofuck.
Why is fuckin’ Kontos still around?
The only explanation to how quiet the Giants booth gets, is that Kruk must be dropping some serious F bombs with the mic off.
The Pen is having a group case of bad mechanics…
Is a good closer really good if he never gets a chance to close?…
it’s really amazing that the front office figured they only had to slightly tweak the bullpen by paying up for a closer….
Well, the offense has been up to the task pretty much 4 of the first 5 games. Pen atrocious; worrisome. Makes you realize how good the Pen was 2010-2014…
I thought it would be worse than 7-6…..
Well, that sucked. I am trying to stay optimistic, but it’s tough. Agree with your 6:11, Craig. Short-sighted on the bullpen, and OF.
And again, Bochy seems to have lost a step in managing a staff. I would have pulled Cain as soon as he put the first runner on (instead of waiting two hitters).
The positive – it’s a new day tomorrow.
I’m happy they hit a little bit. I have never heard of any of those Pad relievers but they are mlb pitchers so that counts for something. If this is who our bullpen is, I don’t know what can really be done. It could be a very discouraging year.
It’s really hard for me to believe that this ‘pen is what the *braintrust* came up with for 2017 after last year’s debacle. It’s also really hard for me to believe that somewhere in this world there aren’t just a handful of guys who could throw better than Kontos, Gearrin, Osich, etc. Shit, get in the Winnebago and go drive across the farmlands and find some big farmer boys who can throw ridiculous heat. Do scouts still do that kind of barnstorming? I’d love that job….
The Giants have at least 4 kids in the minors now who can hit 100 or close to it on the gun. The merc published an article on them just before the season started. Why not move some of them up? They did that with Strickland just to have a flame thrower in the pen. Of course, he throws a lot of high-heat t-balls. But why not move one or more of the other hot shots along? Personally, I’m very tired of Kontos’s “professionalism.”
The problem is these dudes like Kontos have major league contracts. If they have no options, they have to get DFA’d to make room on the 40 man. Giants won’t DFA and eat a contract unless the guy is absolute toast, like Benitez was, only he was traded. Gamer is the better example. Unless they are scrap heap material, Giants won’t bring up young pitchers without trying the DL doe-see-doe first …
Zack Wheeler talked a little smack during Spring Training; and he got lit up today. Some humble pie served to him.
updated stats for your puking pleasure:
Starters: 6.67 ERA, 1.59 WHIP, 8 HR allowed, .296/.347/.574, 5 leads lost
Relievers: 6.97 ERA, 2.25 WHIP, 0 HR allowed, .288/.400/.390, 3 leads lost
Ouch.
Here’s to more puking…
Basically 2/3 of our OF.
Marrero – 4g, 9 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 2Ks.
Parker – 4g, 10 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 6Ks.
Gorks – .105, .150, .158, .308.
And one BB between all of them. SMH…
Any update on Span?
Yeah, he’s “close” …. kind of like everybody else on the team…. 🙂
Xoot, agree with your above. “Professionalism” in this case sort of just translates to “old”. Old thinking, old players, old manager …. This team I’m sure will go up and down all year, it’s just starting out “down”, but at some point, there might need to be a shakeup.
Good game going on between the Brew Crew and the Cubs. Extra innings.
Brewers win on a wild pitch!
The Giants have the worst record in the NL at the moment.
Hey, at least we’re the best at being worst ! …
Well hell, the Dodgers had no problem lighting these guys up. Or shutting them down.
What just doesn’t make any sense is the fact that this braintrust was the first one to really load up on relievers and pay them well to keep them around. Did they really think that last year was some kind of mirage and that these guys would all turn a corner?
Alex, over at the old CSNBA, said it best: We should be giddy (my word as I realize flappers are way too manly to be giddy) and talking about the home run race between MadBum and the Giraffe. Instead we are talking about something very different.
Are sports really that easy to read? You guys have nailed it all hot stove/ST long. We ain’t as strong as the FO thinks we are. Or maybe the FO is 80% sharp enough and 20% too cheap to do it. Share holders rejoice.