A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

If it’s going to happen, it must happen today. And it must be Justin Verlander, in all his glory. This is why they got him. As a “10 day” Astro fan I feel like I’ve waited my whole life for this moment…..

And me thinks Roberts isn’t going to yank Hill after 60 pitches. Brandon Morrow might tackle him on the way to the mound if he tries anything.

Thirty years is an awful long time but 31 is longer.

Cheers to streaks continued…..

The crazy thing about the Houston bullpen is that they don’t seem like they even bring in relievers. McHugh, Peacock, Musgrove, Liriano warming up…those are all starting pitchers. It’s like they literally don’t have a reliever they feel comfortable using. That is astounding.

Regardless of how absurd last night’s game was it was the most entertaining sporting event I can ever remember watching. And I agree with the comment on the last thread (can’t remember who made it) that if mlb is going to keep juicing these balls they are going to have to up the # of players on the active roster. I think that would need to happen at the next CBA so it’s not going to happen right away. But it’s just not right to send these pitchers out there to get blasted over and over.

At this point, LA has to win, right? Unless Verlander throws a complete game? But an important point, Jansen is no longer Jansen right now. He’d fit into the Houston bullpen seamlessly.

Ken Giles gives me massive Santiago Castillo indigestion. That guy….I don’t like that guy.

Now we’re back into the pit of misery, dilly dilly, facing Kershaw. At least it’s in Houston. What a huge game, this is over if they lose today.

Also, what a great series. This has really lived up to the hype that so many series fail to meet.

It’s funny how a couple of games can completely change your mindset. After the Dodgers steamrolled two tired, handicapped teams (both their pitching staffs were burned up prior to facing LA) we finally got to root for a team that was locked and loaded from the beginning.

And now it seems like this is in the bag….

Every Astro hitter that comes to the plate I’m like, “this guy can rake. I love this guy.” While their pitching is suspect, I had total confidence in Peacock, a guy I always thought was better suited for relief anyway.

And now I see we get Morton tonight. Hmmmm. He’s a little like McCuller’s in that I *could* see him pitch a great game. And why not? Just as I look at the Astro line up and give a knowing dude head nod to every single guy 1-9 I look at LA now and see nothing but a bunch of castoffs having career years but who are peetering out now, fucking Puig, and young superstars who just swing too wildly to be successful enough to beat a great team like Houston….

I’m telling you, my mindset has changed and it’s in a real good spot right now….

McCuller’s is gonna need to bring that sick bendy with him today because Houston has their hands full with Darvish. Yes, they know him. But that’s where the advantage ends. They have one hitter who’s had success off him (Springer):

But hey, it’s the World Series and the game of baseball seems to have been reduced to a home run derby. And Minute Made Park, at least left field, is a “joke” (Remember when Barry Bonds called it that during the 2004 Derby? And the right handers just kept flipping the ball into the left field stands???). Barry no likey.

So let’s hope Springer and his pals can blast 5 or 6 bombs off LA tonight and take the lead in this series…..

Roberts bungled that game by using 9 pitchers in 11 innings. Hill was pitching great, taking him out after 60 pitches was hubris of the highest order. After Jansen the Astros got into the shit-end of the bullpen and you knew they were going to win. Roberts thinks he can do anything. He’s no Indiana Jones.

At least we’ve got a series now….

Darvish vs McCullers…not feeling real confident about this one. If Roberts pulls Yu after a few dozen pitches we are good. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Bam Bam: bench coach. Wotus: 3rd base coach….

This is just getting stupid. Do any of these jobs even have any specific talent requirements? If Wotus is the best pick for the 3rd base coaching job what the fuck has he been doing sitting on the bench all these years??!?!!?!

I supported coaching changes because this crew proved unable to halt the slide that started when Duffy left (lqtm, I love that marker on the timeline) and lasted all the way to the end of the 2017 season. That is unacceptable and the people in charge need to pay a consequence for that.

But this is over the top. All of these random, haphazard moves wreak of a pomp and circumstance production designed to fool the fan base. “Look at what we’re doing season ticket holders!!!! We are SHAKING STUFF UP!!! Firing people! Fucking Ron Wotus is gonna fix all of this now that he’s closer to the field of play!!!!!”

This has gotten asinine.

I still can’t get over that Jordan Bell dunk. Playing in garbage time in his 4th NBA game, he decides to hold a “lone wolf” dunk contest. This brings up the same questions as the bat flips. There’s always going to be the old school crowd who do a slow burn about stuff like this. Of course, the play made it to #1 on the NBA.com list of “plays of the night.” So there is an appetite for this stuff…..

Big baseball game tonight……

If Houston is going to beat LA I really believe the key is to win Game 1. If they can beat Kershaw (not that hard of a post season feat) then they get to throw Verlander in Game 2 and then the very likely scenario of Houston going home  2-0 comes firmly into play.

LA needs to feel some pressure this post season and if that happens we’ll start to see some gripped bats and overthrows from the boys bathed in blue.

I still believe Houston wins this series, I’d just like to see it be the easiest path possible. Win Game 1. Coast from there…..

Obviously it’s easier to get rid of the coaching staff than a bunch of overpriced vets in the twilight of their careers. So this was a necessary first start. While I don’t blame the coaches for last year’s collapse, I don’t think they are capable of turning this thing around. It is curious that Bochy somehow avoided the ax. Are they trying to get him to quit by taking away all his generals? If so I can’t think of a bigger puss-move.

How to turn over the roster is a much bigger challenge. But however they do it I think Sabean has realized they need new voices in the clubhouse. I hope Bochy reads the writing on the wall and heads upstairs to one of those fake admin jobs. It’s really a shame he’s being treated this way…..

If you want to remember what it was like, here’s Wilco last night at MMP:

And for comparison, 2010 at our yard. He had better seats than me and The Bone did. I think we paid $800 a piece for ours. I’d also point out the great advances in phone video recording quality in 7 years.

Woke up this morning and the Dodgers are in the World Series. It’s having surprising little effect on me. They’ve gotten farther than I thought they’d get. Let’s see if they can finish the job.

Thank God for those 3 beauties we won in 5 years. This would be hard to take otherwise. As it is, this is really like being the past winner of a big race and waiting at the finish line for the Dodgers to finish. I obviously won’t clap if they finish in first place but I’ll give them a knowing dude head nod that says “ok, you finally know how it feels. You finally know what it’s like to finish the job”. And make NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT they don’t know how this feels. I haven’t bothered to look at how many current Dodgers have a ring but it can’t be many. And MOST of the Dodger fans out there have MAYBE the ring from ’88 to remember. But as the post of the day clearly indicates, that is likely to be a distant, barely accessible memory–almost like a dream. So this ONE that they may get will be a start. But they have no clue what 3 in 5 feels like.

The Giants twitter account roasted this dumbass from @foxsports

This is the biggest start of Kershaw’s career and I don’t think that’s an understatement. I’m not big on legacy games but if I were, this would be a legacy game. He can either erase everything about him that people laugh at or he can give them more material. Until he proves otherwise I think it’s fair to call him a headcase. Until he flat out dominates a post season game that sends his team to the WORLD SERIES, he’s never going to reach Bumgarnian levels. His past is his shadow. Let’s see if he can shake it tonight…..

This is a big day for the Art Dealers as they try to get back to a place they haven’t been in nearly 30 years. But credit to them, they are playing well and meeting the challenges of the post season. Can’t say the same thing about the Cubs.

Just for fun, try to recall where you were the last time LA was in the WS. I was in Paris for a few months riding trains and shit…..

Dubs loss was annoying but not a big deal. I personally thought Kerr dicked around with his rotations too much, you don’t HAVE to play all 12 guys. And I don’t care if he had a good game, I don’t want to see Nick Young on the court for 26 minutes. Two or six, but not 26.

Amidst the collapsing, smoldering landscapes that are the 49ers and Giants, there is hope. A light tower in the distance. Dubs ball is upon us and for folks out here it couldn’t come soon enough.

Idiot Cleveland fans on twitter are in-fighting with themselves trying to decide whether to boo Kyrie Irving or not in tonight’s season opener. Cleveland fans are dopes. They ‘pert near imploded as a base when Lebron left for Miami and they’ve been relentless in their condemnation of Irving for leaving. And they still give Durant shit for his OKC exit. And that had nothing to do with them, lol. They act like these athletes are indentured servants who have to stay their entire careers in one city. Simpletons, every last one of them……

But forget them. Tonight the march begins. Glory and destiny awaits.

Well, we covered cereal and fav songs this weekend. Felt like we got a lot done. Joe Maddon reinforced the perception that he is completely overrated. But as bad as his bullpen decisions were it just doesn’t seem like the Cubs have it right now. I am accepting, slowly, that the Dodgers will be making it to the world series for the first time since my original passport expired.

Go Astros.

Yesterday was fun. I learned a lot about cereal and the Cardinal waxed the Ducks. Today is NFL but the NLCS is on at the right time so I’ll probably catch that, too.

And now for your listening pleasure, prepare to have your minds blown as I did on that fateful trip to Togo’s back in 1987. Maybe the best song of all time. If you had to pick one, what would yours be? Enjoy the show tonight, Loo…..

Unfortunately, this looks like an easy one for LA again. I know, I know, I’m running out of games to keep saying that. But the Cubs are pretty beat down after a tough series with Washington and then a cross country trip that went sideways and didn’t see them get into LA till yesterday mid day. Yes they have time to rest but the schedule has been disrupted, their pitching staff is pretty burnt up and this just isn’t setting up for momentum going into Game 1. Plus, Kershaw is rested. He gets a lot of shit for his post season failures but he’s never come into a start with this much rest. He will likely dominate tonight. Irritating, I know…..

I’m glad the Cubs advanced because there was no way in hell that Dusty was gonna make it through a series with the Dodgers without multiple fuck ups. Maddon is not a lot better, but they won it last year and the players have that confidence you need to have to get back to the World Series. I really believe that will be enough to put them over the top of LA who has a team without the confidence of having won anything before. And I’ll take Cubs fans over LA Fans and that fake noise they pump into The Latrine.

Yankees/Astros tonight. With everything that’s happened in that community lately, I can only imagine the excitement in and around Houston today. This is going to come down to Tanaka’s slider. If it has the devastating movement it’s capable of he’ll be lights out. If it’s not moving, as has happened multiple times this year, he’ll get blasted. Keuchel at home usually always reliable but it’s the post season and NY knows this time of year well. Looking forward to this game.

That was some pretty compelling baseball yesterday. Hat is off to Strasburg who took the calls of him being a pussy and stomped them into the Cubs faces. I’m on board with the Yankees winning for 2 reasons: 1) it kicked the annoying Indian fans out of the equation and 2) I think Houston now has a free pass to the World Series. I’ll be very surprised if they don’t make quick work of New York……

Dusty still has a decision to make. Gonzalez or Roark? That’s a lot like picking between Livan or Livan. He should flip a coin and then choose whatever side in faced down…….

I forget who Dusty considered to start Game 162 of the 1993 season but I am certain that Solomon Torres was the wrong choice. In 2002 he chose Livan Hernandez over Kirt Reuter and well you know…..

Would it have really mattered? Gross and Lackey shut us down in both of those games. But you never know. If Torres and Livan hadn’t let both games get away our hitters may have found a way…..

And here we are today, 15 years after the Livan call and 24 years after the Torres debacle and Dusty is faced with yet another decision. He has chosen Tanner Roark over Strasburg and I am going to predict right now that no dude named *Tanner* is ever going to pitch a post season game for the ages….

Stras is sick or something. Stras is a known pussy so I’ll guess he has a cold. Maybe he flat out told Dusty he couldn’t go. We don’t know.

But we do know Baker’s history with tabbing pitchers in games like today’s. And it is frighteningly bad.

Not too surprising that the Dodgers took down the Dbacks in 3. Their pitching staff was screwed from the start when Grienke got staked to a 6 run lead and then got blasted by the Rockies in the 3rd inning with Ray having to come into the game. Walker was horrendous in Game 1 and then Ray wasn’t himself in Game 2 because he had to come into pitch the Col game that Grienke couldn’t manage. The starting pitching for Arizona was a disaster from the beginning and it disrupted the entire pitching staff because of it.

Speaking of Grienke, maybe he’s just getting old and can’t do it the way he used to but 34 million should get you more than a *scared* pitcher (something he himself admitted he was prior to the Wild Card start).

The Giants stopped giving out massive deals to non-SF free agents after the Zito deal. Now they just overpay their own guys. I think that’s easier for us as fans to tolerate, right? Sure, Cain and Lincecum (and now Crawford, Belt, Pence, Posey etc…) make too much money relative to their production. But at least they produced at one time for us. Imagine being a Red Sox fan and getting Pablo Sandoval for 95 million. Or Grienke for 34 mil a year. That would be infuriating.

Happy Birthday to my old man, or *Bobby Bowden* as San Dawg likes to call him……

you want to talk about throwing it where you want to throw it. This is wild.

Yankees and Boston keep hopes alive. Niners do too, if you are hopeful of the #1 pick….

Woke up this morning to terrible news of several fires in Napa Valley. That is where Twin lives. It is not looking good for that massive region. Prayers for everyone.

Here are ESPN’s top NFL news headlines. WTF?

Kershaw was not, in fact, able to keep his ERA under 5.00. Checked in with his usual post season stuff and walked off the hill with a 5.68 ERA.  But they still got the W because Arizona is a mess. They burn starting pitchers like I used to burn Marlboro’s.

I’m not seeing a clear path for the Dbacks to pull this off but it won’t stop me from rooting for them. I suppose they could continue blasting the ball, and Ketel Marte is a revelation, but with a pitching staff in ruins I’m just not seeing it.

Also, Joe Girardi is an idiot. I should say a “pompous idiot.” How could he sit there defending that obvious managerial blunder?

Four big games today and I have to admit each of them has a good story line. Houston threatens to push Boston to the brink—the Yankees are also in a mess as Cleveland deftly set up Kluber to go in Game 2.

The Cubs roar into Washington to face Strasburg who has a LOT of pressure on him with the uncertainty of Scherzer’s hammy. I was surprised to see that Strasburg has exactly ONE post season appearance in his entire career–a rather underwhelming go vs the Giants back in 2014.

And then we finish the night off with a guy who has a LOT of post season experience (most of it bad). This will be Kershaw’s 15th post season start. Let’s see if he can keep his ERA under 5.00 in this one…..

Adam Kennedy? I have no recollection of that.

It’s very early. I’ve read this twice. I like it. Will explore it more as the day unfolds. Thoughts? (thanks for doing this. Nice out-of-the-box thinking. And a thread written for me. Bonus).

Here’s some stats I did for the NL this season. Power is power is now the name of the game.
I took ERA and HRs per game. Divide the ERA (lower is better) by HRs per game (higher is better). Arguably the team with the lower ERA and higher HRs/game will generate a combined stat that lower is better, a type of pitching/power combo metric. Doghairs are best with a 2.478 lowest pitching/power stat with 4 of top 5 teams with this metric in the post season, and Brewers just missing the Wild Card. The gatekeeping stat line for this metric seems to be around 3.00 to be in contention for a playoff spot. Rocks are the anomaly at 3.8, probably a stadium adjustment factor or look at their overall Slg. Giants are worst with this P/P metric at 5.695. Note the Giants HRs/game at .79 is the worst in the NL by far. The NL average is 1.208 HRs per game, with a standard deviation of .1848 about that mean. The Giants are a full 2.26 standard deviations below the mean HRs/game, far worse than the runner up dogmeat Pirates that are just 1.49 standard deviations below the HR/game mean. Note however, the Giants are in the middle of the pack pitching wise, with a 4.50 ERA. If the Giants HR/game rate stays around the same next year, even if they magically improved their ERA to 3.38 like the Doghairs this season, their pitching / power metric would still be crap and out of the running at 4.278. If they got Stanton and he hit 60 HRs with everybody else hitting the same HRs as 2017, the Giants HR/game rate would spike to 1.16, but they’d still need to magically pare their ERA way down from 4.50 to 3.50 to get their pitching/power ratio down to around the gatekeeping 3.0 postseason P/P metric qualifier level. Upshot: Giants need way more power to get into post season contention for next year. Even 60 additional jacks is unlikely to get it done, even if they have a major improvement in ERA…

Take a look:

P/P ERA HRs/game
Dodgers 2.478 3.380 1.364
Dbacks 2.695 3.660 1.358
Cubs 2.870 3.950 1.377
Brewers 2.893 4.000 1.383
Nats 2.924 3.880 1.327
Cards 3.314 4.010 1.210
Mets 3.623 5.010 1.383
Rockies 3.805 4.510 1.185
Reds 3.824 5.170 1.352
Padres 4.003 4.670 1.167
Marlins 4.025 4.820 1.198
Phillies 4.236 4.550 1.074
Pirates 4.527 4.220 0.932
Braves 4.634 4.720 1.019
Giants 5.695 4.500 0.790

Now THAT is how a bullpen should operate. None of this 1/3 of an inning bs–uh, unless you’re talking about the starting pitcher. Yikes. 26 out from the bullpen. You can say what you want about the “Javier Lopezesesezezes” of the world but those 4 dudes stepped up in a big way. And 13 of the outs, HALF, were strikeouts. That’s huge.

But they don’t win without the bombs they hit. Power. The Yankees have it. By the way, if you want to see a stunning home run chart that could easily be titled “The Team That Home Runs Forgot” check this out (players with at least 15 HR’s on each team):

Yes, you cannot win consistently without pitching. But you also cannot win with just one lonely guy on your team’s bar chart. Buster Posey hit one home run since July 15th. That is not normal or acceptable for someone with his responsibilities and pay grade.

Rockies have their hands full tonight, I’m not certain Jon Gray is up for this moment. But the Rox hitters hit Grienke good. So this could be another good one tonight.

The wild card game is the best thing to happen to baseball since….the wild card team? I’d argue yes. We kick off the post season with 2 game 7’s—finality in sports is a very powerful thing. I like the way pitchers are used. Berrios relieving Santana? Sure, why not. It tests the mental strength of all involved and post season heroes are literally born on Day 1. I don’t know how you can beat that.

Who will be this season’s “Conor Gillaspie?” We’re about to find out.

This disappoints me:

To me, the stolen base is one of the best things about baseball. Unfortunately, it’s become an inefficient tool. And with guys banging the ball out of the yard at a prolific rate it really doesn’t matter if you’re standing on first or second base.

But there is something awesome about a thief swiping a bag. The timing of it, the rush, how close the play always is. I miss the days of Rickey and Vince…..

Ok, so the post season match ups are set. Who you got?

Let’s start with the wild card games. I’ll go with Colorado and Minnesota.

“well it’s time for me to go, an autumn moon lights my way….”

And with that, the Matt Cain era comes to an end.

And today, this miserable season does the same…..