A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

Chris Stratton showed Matt Moore that it’s ok to try your best all the way to the end of the season.

I’m going to reluctantly sip on the Stratton Kool-Aid. Apparently Raggs and Gardy have shown this guy a new pitch or new approach or something. Hey it absolutely COULD have happened.

I’m not sure why Matt Moore couldn’t have learned the same thing but he’s had major surgery on his arm. Like Cain, maybe he’s just not the same after getting cut open. It happens.

Attitude happens, too. And I would like Moore to pitch with the same urgency as the younger arms on the staff. I guess we’ll see next year if he can do that.

Me and Snarkk. He’s a great dude

Maybe I’ll re-energize once the post season starts, but I can’t wait for this baseball season to end. Bobby Evans was on KNBR yesterday telling everyone he’s really excited about targeting free agents who can play great defense. Ugh. I can’t listen to this guy anymore. He’s the one-est of one trick ponies.

I’m still into the NFL and the NBA is great as long as you are one of about 5 or 6 fan bases. Breeders Cup weekend is in November and the prep run up for that is massive. So sports will continue, as usual, to be a big part of my life.

But I’m ready to put baseball to bed for the winter……

We still have a semi-decent chance to lose 100 if we lose out the rest of the season. There would actually be something symmetrically perfect about losing 100 on the nose. It might also get us the #1 pick in the draft. Detroit is also sitting on 62 wins and they are playing the Twins. Theoretically we have it easier but I’m guessing Minnesota rests a bunch of their players for the post season. San Diego has no reason to rest anyone and they have younger, hungrier players than we have. Plus Cain should get blasted in his start. So there is at least a chance we get swept v San Diego.

Every year I learn something I didn’t know about baseball and this season is no different. Once so enamored with the K/bb ratio, Smarge has shown me the light. There is so much more than a sparkling strikeout to walk ratio.

Anyway, he’s going today and will probably sprinkle a couple of bombs into that stat line that will include 8k’s and 1bb….

I can’t believe it took us so long to start discussing securing the #1 pick in the draft but it’s definitely on the table. Conversely, Niner fans have been talking about the possibility of landing the #1 pick since week 1.

Anyway, we need help across every position at every level so if we somehow manage to snag the top pick we are probably looking at Brady Singer a RH pitcher from University of Florida.

Johnny Blisters did a nice job tip toeing through that AAA line up last night….

Agree completely with WillieD at the end of the last thread, any comp between AZ’s rebirth and the Giants possible bounce back in 2018 is a joke.

Look, if NO ONE on the team gets hurt next year I could see them winning many more games than they did this year. Maybe a 15 game swing? That still doesn’t get them into the post season. And what are the chances that NOBODY gets hurt in 2018? Literally zero.

There is a better chance that Bum gets traded and while I think that’s near zero too I have to at least believe Sabean will look at it. What does he have to lose by examining it? He traded Matt Williams. It’s nearly the same thing and if you think I’m blowing smoke go look at Matt’s stats and what he meant to the team before he got traded. Sabes COULD do it again and for the right package it’s the only way out of this mess. Screw the season ticket holders. They are freaking brain dead lemmings, they aren’t going anywhere next year. Why not try to WIN instead of just sell tickets and plant flowers outside the stadium?????? Because ONE DAY that approach isn’t going to work anymore. ONE DAY the lemmings are going to fall off the cliff and there won’t be any of their brethren behind them. ONE DAY last place is going to be so familiar it’s going to feel like you’ve never been anywhere else. ONE DAY is coming at Sabes FAST.

Lucky us, we get to play another team who just clinched a post season spot. Hangover line up for AZ tonight. We will take it.

Is this Cueto’s last start? Hopefully. What a drag of a year it was for him. And the stitches on the ball won’t be changing, mlb digs the juiced ball. I don’t know what he’s going to have to do to keep his fingers straight but if he doesn’t get it right he’ll be mostly worthless next season….

I can’t come up with a single story line for today’s game. Stratton v Kershaw? Pfffttttt. What’s Kershaw’s pitch count? Thank God for the NFL.

Five NL crowns in a row. I didn’t think it had been that many. Time flies when you’re losing all those post season games. It’s honestly shocking that the Dodgers can field a team with this bloated payroll every year and not even make it to the World Series. The last one they went to was the one they won: 1988. Man that was a long time ago. And I can even give you a perfect visual example of how long ago that was.

The other day I went into the Stanford post office (Go Cardinal) to get my passport renewed. I’m not one to travel out of the country anymore for a variety of reasons but my daughter is in Costa Rica for a year and I’m going to visit her in December. So I dug out my long-since expired passport and took it down to get it done. The pic on the left was taken in 1988 before I went to Paris for 3 months. The pic on the right was taken Wednesday. (Bonus of being out of the country: I didn’t have to watch them win. My dad sent me a letter about it that I received 2 weeks after it had happened).

If that isn’t the best visual of how long it’s been since those bastards have even BEEN to a World Series, I don’t know what is.

Good luck this year, Art Dealers. As usual, you’re gonna need it. The lines on my face and the gray in my hair say this won’t be your year. Again.

The Art Dealers will be getting their fun little division crown this weekend. That’s cute. They’ll over-celebrate as usual.

I think the ultimate outcome, which I am certain will end with another painful post season failure, probably rests on Yu. If he can stay healthy and ramp it up when the games count he could be what they need to make it interesting. Although you could make the case that Kershaw needs to pick it up too. He’s been pretty un_Kersh like since he came back from yet another injury. The rest of their SP is not built to last into Oct. Hill? Wood? Ryu? Please, none of those guys are post season material.

But they can worry about all of that later. This weekend is about the fruits of their labor being recognized. Enjoy the crown. It’s your stepping stone to yet another season cut short with an L.

WAB is up to .439 which is not a good sign for all those games the Giants were supposed to lose with that replacement player after Belt went down (According to WAR). If the Giants win one more game this season (out of the 9 remaining) they ensure a better record without Belt than with him. I wonder if Sabes will be factoring this little know peripheral stat into his decision to jettison Belt or not in the off season?

Unfortunately Belt is untradeable with his bloated deal kicking in next season combined with his concussion issues. If he were healthy he would be one of our few decent trade pieces. His OPS is valued and he would be much more productive on another team.

Looking at the major league ready talent we have to offer in a trade there is exactly ONE player who has dominant trade value and that’s Bumgarner. Please don’t say Posey. He’s been fine this year (*good enough*, *serviceable*, whatever) but his power stroke is basically gone (Hello Joe Mauer) and he’s owed 84 million over the next 4 years—not sure how many teams are looking to fork over a bunch of prospects for that.

Panik and Crawford? Eh, I think we value them more than other teams. In fact, I know we do.

There’s no one else. If Sabean doesn’t step in and take the wheel from Evans and trade Bumgarner there’s really nothing he can do to fix this.

Riding the wave of this lengthy 2 game win streak, we are now back in a position to not lose 100 games. With 10 games left, we need to go just 4-6 to avoid it. I really don’t care anymore. After reading the quotes from Sabean in the article posted yesterday I feel like he’s at least conscious and considering the obvious problems we have. Fixing them might be too tall of a task but he’s not thinking “a tweak here and there.” That’s a good thing. He knows we are weak and slow and terrible. Let’s see what he can do in the off season to build a team that is able to succeed in the juiced ball era…..

Larry Baer said the money that no longer goes towards paying the stadium off is now going towards the Mission Rock development project. Help me understand how that’s supposed to make the team better. It will make the Giants more money, something they were doing anyways. It will make the local community a little prettier with a park and some restaurants—SF already has restaurants. He noted some low income housing that he’s likely forced to include in the project–again, nice for some public teachers out there but not exactly improving the quality of the team…..

I don’t have an issue with the Giants developing Mission Rock, but with the team set to lose 100 games I think it might behoove Baer to pipe down about where he’s spending his extra dough. It was amazing to me that he would go on and on about his real estate project in an article that was supposed to be about the state of the Giants and where they go from here.

So where we go from here is a prettier landscape around the stadium?

Huh?

Anyone catch that Voggy thing? I watched some replays. I’m trying to figure out why that was done. I mean, Voggy was a big part of the 2012 World Series win. Three wins, one each in the NLDS, NLCS and WS. But he got blasted in 2014 and he wasn’t around in 2010.

Good Giant? Definitely. Great Giant worthy of all that pomp and circumstance yesterday? Uh, I’m not seeing it. This opens up the door for a parade of 1 day contracts.

I’m certainly not against it, the 2017 team has earned so few claps that dragging Voggy back to the mound for one last time (along with an unusual number of kisses to his son) is as good a reason as any to get the fans into the game.

I guess we’re gonna start seeing a lot more of this to distract the fans from the substandard product on the field?

With NFL Week 2 upon us, there is literally nothing I can do to trick myself into watching Walker v Stratton today. Can you imagine buying tickets to this game months ago and now actually feeling forced to go? Ugh. I suppose you could unload your tickets for two bones.

Still excited to watch the Niners this year, my expectation for the season have nothing to do with wins or losses. I just want to see young players starting to make plays, maybe see an unknown or two bubble to the top of the depth chart.

Between the Giants and Niners we have 8 championships in my lifetime to forever celebrate. And then last year the Niners were the worst team in the league, this year the Giants are the worst team in the league. It’s still entirely possible that the Niners are STILL the worst team in the league….

Cycles. Life. Repeat.

Smarge was good enough to win last night and for once no homers allowed. Our hitters are an embarrassment but it’s not the worst thing in the world to go down k-ing vs Ray, he does that to a lot of teams.

Grienke shouldn’t have any trouble with us tonight and Bumgarner can usually step up in games such as these so maybe it’s a half way entertaining game.

You can still find a ticket for $2. What’s the deal in Miami? 6 tickets for sale?

Question for those who watched the game: did the park look 95% full to you? I guess a lot of bargain hunters snapped up those $2 tickets at the last second, eh? Attendance numbers are a complete sham.

Number 1: I’m not sure how accurate the “get tickets” link at espn is, but this is a telling indication of how far we’ve fallen as well as the zero shits our fans currently give about baseball in the Bay:

Number 2: In honor of the Indians comeback last night, here’s what your hundy would have done had you bet on them in game 1 of this historic winning streak and kept rolling it into each game thereafter:

Number 3: it’s fucking early.

Bruce Bochy after the game:

“This season is basically a learning season, a teachable season to get better. But our defense, the way it’s gotten away from us, is disappointing.”

What. The. Fuck. Is. He. Talking. About?

This is a *learning season*? A *teachable* season? This is a 172 million dollar payroll. One hundred and seventy two.

Bochy is spinning some serious yarn right now and anyone that falls for it is a dumbass. He’s talking like this is some fucking expansion team. What was Bochy doing last night when Eli Whiteside was stepping up and actually DOING something as a coach? What has Bochy done all season?

I’m so disgusted with this team and Bochy. I hope every last season ticket holder grabs Baer by the collar and sticks this in his ear hole: “We’re not fucking re-upping!!!!!!!”

There is nothing else that will get this clueless group off the nonsensical narrative that the 2018 Giants have a core that’s only a couple tweaks away from competing for the post season……

Last night we got Kershaw v Cueto, tonight it’s Darvish v Moore. Yes we are dancing through the loss-drops towards the end of this miserable season but these have been some pretty intriguing pitching match ups. Moore cobbled together his best pitching effort ever last year around this time vs these same Dodgers. If you are Matt Moore isn’t this go time for you personally? He’s got two tasty team options in 2018 and 2019. Would the Giants seriously consider buying this guy out after the season? I think they’d pay the paltry 9mil and just hope he reaches down and finds a nut sack or a soul or something. We’re not talking about Matt Cain. Moore theoretically should still have something left……

I’ll just have trust the box score since I saw exactly one out of that game. Last night bad met shitty and shitty prevailed. The Giants pinned the 11th loss in a row on the Art Dealers—their longest losing streak since moving to LA. Think about how awesome that is. And don’t forget this:

Player of the Game is Zumiee who made it all the way to the end of that game, posting like a boss the entire time.

Huge props to Chris Castellani who took time out of his busy college life to answer some questions about his viral video.

Today’s thread was written and uploaded entirely from the side office of my home. There. Got that out of the way early.

Last night on Facebook, MacDog humorously noted that the Yankees and their 16 runs would have handily beat the NY Giants and their 3 points. I added in the SF Giants (1) and the SF 49ers (3) and the Yankees still killed all three teams. We’d have to insert the Cardinal’s 24 points to finally beat them. Sadly, if you added the 42 USC scored to the Yankees 16….

It was a horrible weekend for Bay Area sports, something we are well conditioned to tolerate lately. Madison Bumgarner is due 12 million in 2018 and 2019. Anyone still feel like tearing up that deal and giving him 300 million? God, if we do that this team will be screwed for the next 10 years……

There are 17 games remaining. We have 89 losses. You do the math and the death march to 100 starts tonight.

I have spoken with Chris Castellani via twitter and here is his response:

Really nowhere to go with the remote last night. Giants got leveled by one of the worst teams in the league 13-1 (btw, nice job stepping up in your *revenge* game Smarge, idiot). Cardinal got toyed with by Darnold– he got whatever he wanted whenever he wanted it. Stanford looked like a high school team.

Thankfully, I have the NFL to take me away from all of this. Furiously building line ups at fanduel and draftkings, it’s gonna be a wild ride today.

Bumgarner vs someone I’ve never heard of if baseball is more your speed on Sundays.

In hindsight, we should have seen the run scored on Sept 5th as a harbinger for last night’s offensive explosion….

The Dodgers DO have something to worry about. They are starting to stagger into a post season with one dominant pitcher (as usual). The non-Kershaw’s? Not looking reliable. Hill and Wood are both 2 guys who are not known for finishing the season strong. And Darvish, as I said a few days before he hit the DL, is still hurt. Maybe I should have grabbed Roberts by the collar and stuck one in his ear hole: “He’s fucking injured!!!!!!!!”

Ryu? Maeda? Good luck running those chumps out there.

The only thing I’m bummed about is that this epic collapse started a month early. It was going to be so much sweeter to watch it all disintegrate around them as the POST SEASON started….

I’m re-posting this every Sat morning till I get sick of it which will be never:

….this game is going to test your attention span. Will you watch a game that starts early (5:10pm out here) between Matt (Always Less Never) Moore and Gelato ice cream? These two chump teams are 67.5 games out of first place. That HAS to be a record.

The White Sox have some hitter who could give Moore trouble (Abreu and Davidson are my picks to go yard). But this is a perfect game for Moore to step up in a completely no pressure situation, pitch well, and give us some fake hope going into next season.

Very happy for Alex Smith, a guy that always got way too much shit during his time in SF…….also fuck Tom Brady with Twin’s baseball bat (that still rests quietly and proudly in my office)…..

Joe Panik becomes Mike Benjamin. Pablo Sandoval becomes Johnnie LeMaster. Baseball has a way of connecting itself. It also helps us keep track of our own history. For instance, I’d rather remember listening to John Montefusco’s no hitter on the radio than remember that was the night my parents told me they were getting divorced. Fans catch shit for caring too much but this shit means a lot to us. It’s the timeline of of lives. We were all about to watch Game 3 of the ’89 World Series when that earthquake hit.

And this season will get marked down in our lives, on our timelines, the same way ’85 did. The problem with that is that back then I was a lot younger. Still had hope. Aged now, I’m not looking forward to what this team *could* become in the future. I’d rather look back on the dots on the timeline……

_____________________

Melonhead still being that game gamer that Bochy loves. I swear to God, Bochy doesn’t think past the game he’s watching. Complete baseball goon. And I really don’t think he minds all this losing. I mean, I know he’d rather win and I’m sure the losses grind on him, but at the end of the day he just wants to be sitting on the bench chewing seeds and slapping asses. He has no reason to want to leave….

At this point, I’m rooting for Pablo to catch Velez. What’s he need? 9 more? Let’s go. It’s actually probably the only thing that will stop Bochy from rolling him out there. Doubt he would let him get to 46…….

I’m also rooting for 100 losses since I think that ’85 team gets too much shit. The 2017 team should catch miles more shit for losing 100 than the ’85 team…..

Snarkk’s end of last thread rant about the Giants and Melancon really got me going. He’s spot on. Who cares what HE wants to do? Forget the front office, what do the gents in the back office have to say about this? Does the side office have any input? What in the goddamn Brad Ausmus is going on here??!!?!?!

Of course we can’t force him to get surgery. But we can control when he pitches in a game. With September call ups to use there is absolutely not a single valid reason Melancon can use regarding “helping the team”. If he keeps going out there, at this point, it’s for purely selfish reasons.
And where is Bochy in all of this? Why is he pitching this guy? Who cares if he can’t do any more damage to the elbow, a theory I am quite suspicious of anyway. Even if true, get the surgery done NOW, no athlete was ever done wrong by having ample recovery time in the off season. What if he has a set back? So then he misses the start of next year because he was gutting out meaningless appearances in September? Appearances that, at this point, should be going to every young pitcher we have for evaluation purposes.

SHUT MELANCON DOWN NOW!!!!!!!!!

Daniel and I have both been busy this week but we did manage to exchange a few q/a. I asked him 2 questions. The first one was about Wacha and whether there were any lingering bad feelings about him for Cardinal fans (the way we feel about Solomon Torres). Here is that answer:

Daniel said: “Nobody, at least nobody I’ve seen, has ever laid any of the blame of Ishikawa’s blast on Wacha.  Absolutely none.  All of the blame–and yes, people still reference this at times–went straight to Mike Matheny.  Wacha hadn’t pitched at all in the postseason up to that moment.  He’d not had a spectacular September either after coming off a DL stint that saw him miss July and August.  He probably shouldn’t have been on the postseason roster at all, but it looked like they were just saving him for one of those blowouts that you need a guy to take some innings.  To have him then inserted, compromised and rusty, into a position where the season was on the line was one of the biggest mismanagement examples of Mike Matheny’s career and there have been so, so many to choose from.”

The second question had to do with Mike Leake who I have always believed to be a small market, small game pitcher. His answer was thoughtful and encompassing, as usual:

Daniel said: “I well remember your distaste for Mike Leake.  There were people before the deal that were trying to float something about Leake going to San Francisco and when I saw it, I’d immediately cut it off given the response y’all had, which I think was fairly representative of most Giants fans.  Leake was solid at times for the Cardinals.  He didn’t get a lot of defensive help last year, which as you know is big for him.  I think he pitched better than his numbers indicated last year.  He got off to a fantabulous start this year, with an ERA under 2 going into his last start in May.

With all the commotion in my life lately I somehow missed that Mike Leake got traded to the Mariners. Was there a fallout with him and the team or did everyone just realize that he sucks?

Speaking of sucking, we are in prime position to do that tonight facing off against a guy making his first major league start. I’m already gearing up for Krukow’s excuses for why we can’t hit a guy we’ve never seen before…..