Walking to Nowhere
interesting stat (finally) from Krukow: Giants received 14 BBs in this sd series, and none of those runners scored. none. (I hope Krukow was right. that’s damning.)
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I actually didn’t hear this but I’ll assume you did and that Kruk was correct. This is a good example (admittedly small sample) of why I don’t think it’s so wonderful that Belt takes a lot of walks. I’m typically not against a walk but for our team, with little to no power and no speed, most of our guys sit quietly on the first base bag, stranded by failure at the plate. Belt is one of the few guys we have on the team who can knock it out of the park on a regular basis. I don’t want his eagle eye coaxing bb’s out of the umpire. I want him blasting balls out of the park.
I think Belt would be a bigger asset on almost any other team.
Cardinals in town. It’s going to be extremely hot in the Bay Area this weekend. Our good friend Daniel has sent me a list of questions to answer and I promise to get to them at some point–always enjoy the back and forth with him.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Belt is still best slugger on the entire team for the second year running. the fact they have to play without him in LU (and gets replaced by Ryder Jones) hurts them because no one else can hit HRs or doubles as often as he can. He does fine enough here. He still leads the team in HRs despite being out for almost a month.
So the problem it would seem isn’t Belt as much as it is the other 7 guys in the LU. It was those guys that couldn’t drive in a run when Giants needed them last night, night before and rest of the road trip.
Btw, just for fun take a look at what team leads the NL in walks and OB. Seems to work OK for them.
I counted 15 walks, with none scoring, and 27 LOB for the series.
Gorkys batting third last night. WTF?
As KNBR mused this morning, when’s the last time a team this late in season put a regular to semi-regular player in the #3 hole who has ZERO homers?…
According to my research, it might be none other than Mr. One Flap Down himself on 9/29/79 for the Houston Astros…
that is some incredible research. I’m forwarding this on to the KNBR guys who asked about this in the am
It was just a hunch cause I knew Hac took forever to hit his first ML Homer. What I wrote is accurate but I don’t know if it’s the most recent…
Jason Stark, ex of ESPN, was on KNBR earlier this am. Love that guy.
He made a great point or two about the HR deluge in MLB.
The rate of homers to fly balls is at an all time high the past two seasons, so it’s not like players have discovered how to hit fewer grounders.
Yet, the rate of HRs hit and number of HRs hit in the minor leagues is NOT above their historical norms.
And small detail, uh, MLB and the minor leagues use different baseballs…
Bad break for the Giants to have built a “conga line” philosophy on offense when the MLB went to juiced baseballs.
The Dodgers, on the other hand, caught a huge break, because everyone in their lineup swings for the fences.
When you have the worst OPS in baseball, you don’t score runs. The team OBP went up slightly over this series, and the SP went down. Just as the relative ratio of OBP to SP makes no difference to a team’s productivity when the OPS is high, how you compile the OPS doesn’t much matter when you suck. See the San Diego Padres vs. Giants.
Belt is more or less involved in run scoring depending on his team mates, just like every other player. His OPS reflects his value on offense irrespective of team context (the roster, not the ballpark). Belt leads the team in runs scored. On a better team he’d have more, but so would most every other Giant — they just wouldn’t have as many more.
Gorky 3rd? LOL
It’s past ridiculous now..
Yep.
I’m almost to the point of not even caring about the call-ups. Why bring back Cueto for this? Stark said this morning that the last time the Giants were 40 games out of first was in 1902. They fired two managers that season…
Well, shit, when Belt went down, I predicted he’d lead the team in HRs despite being out for the last 2 months.
Not a major accomplishment, but when everyone sucks, sucking the least is all we got with him.
Yeah if everyone around him did better, he’d do better. If we had an outfield worth a damn, the team would be better.
Belt catches a lot of heat for the walks and k’s and the gumby shoulders, but he leads the team in slugging %age along with home runs and doubles, and he hasn’t played in 3 weeks.
Belt is the least of this team’s issues. In all of MLB, this is where our boys rack and stack:
BA – 23rd, OBP – 29th, Slugging, OPS and HRs – dead fucking last.
Crawford and Pence have tanked HARD.
Only eight pitchers have WHIPs under 1.40.
This team just flat-out sucks ass.
We will see if Craw and Pence can rebound next year. I still think they need to swap-out a couple of bullpen pieces, and add a REAL FUCKING OFer who can hit.
Crawford is salvaging his numbers, so his season won’t look too bad on paper.
He’s a lock for the Willie Mac Award considering the personal problems…
yes I’m sure his teammates will feel for him; he and Posey seem like honky powers of clubhouse. Some guys get off to slow starts and pick it up as weather warms, but boy it took Craw a long time to get going. You would hope next season is different.
Pipe dream on Pence&Span next year. 2 outfielders platooning in LF is probably their dumbass thinking. Willie Mays Hayes Hernandez in CF. and ensign Parker in RF yeah we’re screwed if they don’t pickup 2 solid outfielders, not holding my breath…
Thank god football is starting. Even the Astros have become boring to watch.
Baggs’ story last night mentioned a rumor floating around the Twitterverse that Giants have expressed trade interest in Justin Upton, but Angels just made a trade for Upton,
in corresponding move Angels are dealing Cameron Maybin to the Stros who now have a surfeit of OFs. If the Giants can somehow pry one loose this winter, sure hope it ain’t Maybin.
Also saw that Cards sent Mike Leake off to Seattle and are paying $17 mil of his salary. I’m telling you I really think Giants could have unloaded players if they’d had this mentality.
Of course they could.
Management sees PR downside in any move getting rid of a player with any semblance of fan capital…
I’ll be flat-out amazed if the Giants make any big off-season moves before next season. I’m predicting they are more or less writing off next season, getting through the Pence/Span contracts, and hoping to build from there. Maybe some big off-season acquisitions before the ’19 season and/or a bigger youth-infusion from the minors.
I swear the other day I was thinking that at times it would be great if you dads out there would talk about your kids more if you felt like it. This is a good forum for that. The guys here (not me) often have lots of useful info to pass around. And then yesterday happened…
#psychicloo
Yeah I just now got to reading Flav’s post about his daughter. I almost started crying right along with him. That is going to be such an awesome experience for her, but man, I can’t imagine how difficult that had to have been for him.
fun day over on MLBTR. Verlander and couple relievers being dumped off maybe by Tigers, Z Cozart pulled back off waivers by Reds, Stros/Angels making deals, talk about Cards OF stockpile yada yada.
Idk Zum, I think season has been bad enough Evans and Co take a hard look at what they have and jettison some underperforming pieces to rebuild pen and OF. Level of blog vitriol on other sites (plus here) over how bad they are relative to money spent I doubt fans would stand for much more of it. And maybe there is a shakeup beyond Meulens.
As you mentioned, comparing Giants to Pads looks like their kids are on the rise and more athletic; they do hit more HRs and played some good D in this series too. Their pen guys zapped the Giants. I think Baggs couple days ago said Giants are paying Cain and Pence as much as Pads are for their entire team.
The Pads are outliers. They’ve tried playing on the cheap. They tried the FA route, they won the preseason a couple times, and they got bupkus to show for it. Their last relevant season was 2010 when they collapsed down the stretch to us. They may have a good young team, but they are still in 4th place 59-73. Next year is their 50th season and they have 5 playoff appearances, 2 pennants, and 0 championships to show for their efforts. I don’t give them much credit for anything. They have a propensity to fire their best managers (Bochy, Black) and generally screw things up.
Sure, Pads are 30 games out too. But how is It they’ve been kicking Giants high payroll ass for a year plus? I thought what Zum said was spot on—their team looks younger more athletic and definitely more interesting than the Giants, at least in the field, and their LHP out of pen ate up Giants hitters. they seem headed in a better direction right now with young mgr and pieces to build on.
The past history argument is just blah to me. I used to see this from Yanks bloggers who post “27” all the time as the last word because they have more Championships than anyone.
When I was watching the epic meltdown of 8th inning sunday or last night or any other night, the 3 rings in the side of the blog don’t enter into how I feel about this year’s team and the people running it.
Well, they’ve been perennially rebuilding for their entire existence. I get why the Giants are catching a shitload of heat, but no one came into this season saying that most of the players would tank this year and that we were on our way to 100 losses. No one.
I’m frustrated about the lack of moves made, but really, they are hamstrung by onerous contracts and the very fact that some of the players very well COULD bounce back. I mean fuck Pence and Span, they are toast, but Crawfish and Panik certainly aren’t dog meat to be dumped at the first trade offer. The pen and OF were issues we all identified, and it played a huge part in their slide to oblivion, but Bummie’s blunder, Moore’s suckiness, and Pence becoming a fucking paperweight were all unforeseen.
I’d love to see them blow their load and sign JD and Bruce and a few pen guys. Will they?
Encouraging news: Dodgers losing 7-1 as D-Backs go for the sweep. Blanco at leadoff: 2-2, 2 R, RBI.
Flav – just went back and read your post about Katie and CR. Dude, I was damned near in tears reading your post. I know you and your daughter have a really cool and tight relationship. My daughter and I have a great relationship, too, so I can relate.
A number of years ago my daughter went back to New Jersey to see a friend with whom she attended cosmetology school, and came back talking about moving there. I swear, it felt like someone was ripping my heart out of my chest. I immediately started crying and she was confused by my response. She obviously did not understand how hard it would be for me to live a long distance from them.
I love both my daughter and my son more than anything, and am grateful that they both live close by, and I can see them (and my grand daughter) regularly.
Anyway, this will be a great opportunity for Katy. I feel for you brother, and wish Katy and you all the best in this journey.
Dodgers’ Seager has some pain in his throwing elbow. There’s some concern about that in DodgerLand.
Pav: Matt Cain is starting tonight. Bumgarner has flu-like symptoms.
What is it now, a 7-man rotation?
I’ve been vomiting over this team all year, can’t blame Bum for tanking out like the rest of this sorry bunch..
Well theirs always watching Panda take another o fer, think he has a 0 for 17 going now in his quest to take that 3rd base job lol come next spring.
Thank the powerful Wizard of Oz we have FOOTBALL 🏈 TONIGHT!!! Tough choice Cain getting lit up(that’s a given) with Boch’s usual dead man walking interview after the loss, welll Matty looked good you know left a couple up that haven’t landed yet and the 12 hits in 4 innings their was a couple bloops and a couple off the tip of gloves but hey 8 runs and they way he battled out their, I’m encouraged and he’s still possibly in are plans next year!
Football 🏈 baby bring it on!!Go Niners!
That was a big series for the D-Backs, vs. the Dodgers. The two teams could end up in a playoff series against each other, and the D-Backs needed to really believe they can compete against the Dodgers.
The Giants have 6 more games vs. the Dodgers. It would be nice to go at least 3-3. The Dodgers swept the Giants in the last series. The Giants blew late leads in two of those games with their crappy bullpen. One of the guys that got toasted, Kontos, is gone now.
hey thanks for the thoughts about my daughter and what it was like for me to “let her go.” She and I are extremely tight, basically a 2-person family. So when we split, especially like this, it’s hard on both of us. But that’s another reason I want her to do this— get a little more independent, get some experience living with people who aren’t like her big, dumb dad. She’s been texting me that the last couple of days have been hard but I know she’ll bounce out of that mood. I’ll be really surprised if this doesn’t turn out to be the right move for her.
this is fucking hilarious. Lots of swears, just FYI. He ends with a random “player of the game is Mahtook.” I lol’d so hard at this.
i’ve watched this 5 times. It gets better every time.
It’s superb. I love his closet, too…
The side office!
I knew a comedic genius like you would appreciate “the side office.” Diggity would like that one, I bet
Oscar Goldman died. That sucks, he was the shit when I was a kid.
kind of ironic that Deadspin wrote an article about this on the team who claimed a player a month ago that the Giants did the exact same thing with
http://deadspin.com/pittsburgh-pirates-try-to-justify-giving-away-effective-1798684742?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow
Pre game on, they’re interviewing that pussy Alex Pavlovic (who blocked me for literally nothing) tell NBCBayAreaSports or whatever this station is called now that the Giants “checked in on Upton but it wasn’t a good fit.”
lol. Really, they checked in on him, huh?
Evans: “hey Tigers, we’d like to trade for Upton.”
Tigers: “you don’t have shit to offer us.”
Evans: “Ok, just checking in, good luck to you.”
Does anybody have Evans’ iPhone number? The league doesn’t know or want Sabes’ number, apparently…
It’s all BS about Upton, he said himself earlier in his career that : “Its the shits to hit here”
Giants are famous for kicking tires& smoke&mirrors and then nothing as usual ever happens..
So Cain now becomes the “Scratch Starter “replacement pitcher..#7 man rotation sure who gives a f..k!
So will Matt now go with “Cain Scratch Fever” as his walk up music?
it’s so fucking hot. We are such pussies in Nor Cal
“player of the game is Mahtook, I can’t believe what I just saw.” –might be the line of the year so far for me
another interesting point from the Stark interview on KNBR this morning that Snarkk ref’d earlier: MLB is on pace to hit 2000 more home runs this year than in 2014. TWO THOUSAND. And there has been no discernible difference in the number of HR’s hit in the minor leagues over the last few years. Surprise! They don’t use the same ball. This isn’t too hard to figure out….
these “reliving the thrill of beating the clock” Volkswagon commercials are the dumbest fucking things I’ve ever seen. What kind of lunatic starts reliving a childhood fantasy so hard they detach from the reality of the conversation they’re having with a fucking car salesman?
lol, Kontos *liked* my response to this deadspin article
Cain, 5 innings, 2 runs; you cash those chips and put a reliever in next inning.
Nunie not fucking around anymore, finally finding a team to match his intensity….
He is all-knowing.
finally. Yes. Fucking finally. Thank you.
how long would it take to play 9 innings if Gearrin started and finished it?
If you watched Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez throw tonight against the Yanks, that’s as close to a Gearrin-like start as you’ll see.
I sort of like this Frank Robinson nostalgia tonight. Remember that game in 83 when he mocked Steve Howe’s coke habit? He kept miming snorting motions from the dugout and Howe got upset. At the end of the game a bunch of the dodgers charged toward Robinson, iirc, and the umps had to intervene.
I loved that slogan from the mid-’80s Giants commercial: “Hang in there!”
lulz
that was pathetic. 83.
first year in baseball he got hit 20 times and averaged about 10 a season for Reds and O’s. Pretty hardnosed guy, as I’m sure K and K will attest even in the ’80s. One of my fav ballplayers of all time.
So will Al Weis…
I guess the thing about the 83 dodgers near-brawl that doesn’t get stressed enough is that the umps had to protect Frank. Presumably his players weren’t offering assistance.
From wikipedia: Robinson attended McClymonds High School in Oakland, California, where he was a basketball teammate of Bill Russell. He was a baseball teammate of Vada Pinson and Curt Flood.
Oakland Tech has more limelight lately, Rickey, Marshawn. But damn McClymonds in West Oaktown ws something.
I had to play against a guy in two varsity games who later was an offensive lineman for the Rams. Slater or Slaton, something like that. He was not fun to bang against for rebounds. I was a stick-figure in high school.
Elk Grove, with Bill Cartwright as a senior, played our school in a non league game one year, but fortunately I was just on the freshmen team.
Jackie Slater became known in NY for interrupting Gastineau’s idiotic “sack dance”…
I just looked it up. The guy I was remembering is Tony Slaton. Merced High, to USC Trojans, to the Rams.
not so much Frank Robinson nostalgia after all!
I get the feeling he wasn’t a very good manager, no matter what Krukow says.
Kuiper wasn’t exactly singing his praises. Everything Kuiper said was parsed and measured.
As I’m sure Daniel will readily admit, Cards pen hasn’t been much of a sure thing this year.
Verlander to Houston?
Looks like a done deal.
That guy above is a serious fan, going off on his team that’s 17 games under .500 at the end of August. I thought guys like that only hung around here. Love it.
This is the single weirdest play I’ve ever read about or seen at any level. Interesting read:
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/20294816/skunk-outfield-how-most-epic-trick-play-history-broke-baseball
Finally some good news amongst all the devastation in Houston. Astros get Verlander literally at the last second of the deadline.
Frank Robinson as manager is the same as Ronnie Lott as head coach. No one has near the intensity that they bring, and can’t understand that other don’t have it. That pisses them off to no end.
Mac, that play is so funny. After 5 brawls and anarchy on the field, Summerall sez “there’s a flag on the play.”
In today’s NFL there would be 30 flags, 12 ejections and 35 minutes of reviews to sort out.
New York is full of morons…
Well, it is the home of Trump Tower. 🙂
and the Clintons…
What good is replay? 5 minutes to flat blow a call so badly is insane. Remove the umps from the game entirely. They obviously don’ know the rules in play here.
Why isn’t Bochy getting thrown out? If the ball hits the roof it is a home run. Gawd, if the guy doesn’t catch that ball it hits the faoul pole 5 feet behind where the roof starts.
Is anyone watching?
Apparently not the replay guys.
The 2017 Giants season keeps finding new ways to suck.
I’m starting to think it’s not our year…
“Side office” is great. The F-Bomb he lets loose after talking about bunting into a double play is my favorite part though. Great stuff.
That call made absolutely no sense on the Craw home run. Over the green metal, and the kids glove was laying on the yellow foul line when he caught it, so it’s absolutely a homer. This replay review must be manned by aliens…