Straight Talk From A Giants Legend
The Thrill was interviewed by Tolbert yesterday afternoon on KNBR and he had my attention nearly immediately. I turned it on mid-segment and was like “Who is this guy who is so directly calling out Brandon Belt?” At first I thought it was just some yahoo calling in but it became clear that it was someone Tolbert was interviewing. He basically called Belt a “pussy” for not being able to ever play a full season and claimed that he says this to his face in conversation. Even I, one of the great Belt skeptics of his generation, started to silently defend him. “Come on Thrill, it’s not like his concussions have been stubbed toes.” But he bookended the near *pussy* call-out by suggesting this is the year Belt puts it all together—if he can play the entire year.
He also said Smarge throws too many strikes and that Duggar could play a gold glove center field RIGHT NOW.
Seems to me a gold glove center fielder might be a nice starting piece if he’s flanked by 2 dudes who are far less than that……
Anyway, The Thrill says what’s on his mind, no doubt about that…..
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Snarkk, in regard to your Rockies question from the last thread . . . No, it’s not nuts for them to take the division . . . However, I think we all know that the Bums have the inside track. If the Rockies meet or exceed expectations in 2018, it will likely be due to a combination of a healthy and positively developing rotation supported by a good bullpen, once-again reliable seasons from their core three position players, and at least league average seasons from rookies and players hoping to bounce back. The Rockies can compete for the postseason if one or two of those things don’t turn out as expected, but given how competitive the NL Wild Card race looks to be, there isn’t a lot of wiggle room.
One other thing. Don’t discount the Phillies for a WC birth. Most analysts thought they would be ready to compete in 2019. However, they’ve moved the schedule up with their additions of Santana and Arrieta. Couple that with their young nucleus, they have a good chance to make noise. By the by, beyond 2018, the possibilities are endless. The Phillies have deep resources in a number of areas. The depth in the minor leagues and in the majors – gives them the ability to make a significant trade without selling out their present or future.
I’ll give Rox credit they did spend to get better pitching. But they spent a lot on one area only, lost Chatwood , are paying Desmond (and Cargo) a lot to play where? and have contract issues looming with Blackmon and Arenado.
I like bud Black, that was a good hire as mgr.
But I think Rox like a lot of teams have too many things that would have to go right for them to be close to LA and in WC hunt. They could just as easily be sellers at deadline.
AZ has a similar problem coming with Golds–how much do you offer him to stay vs. how much are you paying out to others like Greinke? who btw won’t be ready for Opening Day and has had injury plagued ST.
col is always going to be hamstrung by where they play and the influence of altitude change on their bodies.
Blade, nothing wrong with your message or putting it out there; never tire of reading your posts or anyone else. I think SF will score more runs, Cutch will have a good contract year and Longo will relax and enjoy playing home games in a real yard full of (mostly) real fans.
SS is position I worry about most—if Craw loses some range as he gets older and the bat doesn’t come around, giants have a big problem. OF will sort itself out and be younger soon, other spots are fine.
SPs beyond Bum and Cueto need to be able to keep Giants in games and give up way fewer runs than last year. This is what drove AZ rebound last year. They might regret not going after an SP to stay under lux tax. How the SPs fare will be deciding factor for me as to whether Giants contend or not.
I think the Thrill should factor in that the Giants FO probably made the decision to shut down Belt after the last concussion. They are paying him big coin starting this year; last season was lost and meaningless, early on. He’s had 4 head shots now, right? If the guy is woozy for months after the last one, he’s supposed to play when somebody is throwing a 97 mph heater up and inside at him? If he sees two balls, is he supposed to hit both? I like Will, but he needs to get a grip sometimes…
Throw in Belt’s broken hand as well.
Not like The Thrill after 30 started missing a chunk of games as well..
Schulman’s suggesting that the Giants could dump Dyson (and most of his non-guaranteed contract) and keep Hernandez. Wtf not? Keep Duggar, too.
obviously Duggar won’t disappear if he doesn’t start the season on the 25, but I’d still like to see him there from the start of the season
We love Will greatly, but some criticism can be lobbed at parts of his career, too. He came up a bit gimpy in ’93, in the heat of that division battle vs. the Braves. He only played in 132 games, and hit 14 HRs and had 73 RBIs.
Plus, in one game he misplayed a grounder and ended up colliding with Mike Jackson at firstbase, which put Jackson out for several games. Jackson was one of the Giants’ better relievers that season.
And, of course, the Giants lost the division, and a playoff spot, by one game. Will can wear some of that.
Is Dyson sucking that bad? Chuck, you out there? How did Pablo look? Fat and happy? Or just happy?
Will sure never gets tired of listening to himself talk, that’s for sure. It’s Joe Morganitis. “I never swung and missed, made an error, or screwed up in any way.”
Beyond that, Will’s waking state is basically like having a concussion. He’s a bunch of bricks shy of a full load.
The thing I’ll never forgive Twin for: He ruined Will Clark for me. He’s still my favorite player but he posted some SI story about Will being a complete ass in the clubhouse. Bummed me out for days…..
Better to have an ass like Clark or Puig than another year of the Vanilla Gang.
There’s been such a noticeable purging of Latin players the past couple of years that I’m wondering if it’s not just a coincidence. I do realize that they did draft Heliot…
Giants may just start Duggar in Sac, lots of tough lefty starters early on in April games, incl all those with LA. Plus, if they bring him up later in April past that super II deadline or whatever, they delay his free agency for a year. Gorkys can handle glove duties for a few weeks, and maybe some of his hitting prowess from last half of last season comes back. Maybe. Meanwhile Duggar gets 4 ABs every day/night in Sac…
Heard an interview on 95.7 w/Duggar coming back from the airport last night. Sounds like a good kid. He actually hits lefties pretty well. Not overwhelmed by everything. But the whole deadline thing is ludicrous. The owners really shafted the union on that one. The A’s are doing it w/Puk. The Cubs and Khris Bryant same thing.
Pence at .270 .325 .839? Not earthshaking but better tha.107…
My nine year old (whose left handed)had been struggling with his swing, until I found this simple yet brilliant tip from The Thrill a couple weeks ago. Who knew my favorite player growing up would still have an impact on my life 30 years later.
that’s awesome.
They might wait a couple of weeks to start Duggar’s clock, but he’s going to be the starting CF against RHs. Hernandez will be gone by tax deadline.
I only heard Tolbert and Lund discussing what Clark said, think he’s wrong, especially with the 10 day DL as an option. Obviously with concussions you don’t fuck around. Same with hamstring injuries. If a player pulls up lame, put him on the DL immediately. It seems like the Giants were always playing with a short bench, waiting a week or more before finally replacing injured guys.
The players goofed that on the Collective Bargaining Agreement; the situation that allows a team to bring a rookie up a few weeks after the start of the season, and get a 7th year of control of the player before free agency.
I didn’t catch Tolbert’s interview with Clark. What’s his go to session IPA?
Probably an Abita Big Easy IPA.
I’m thinking Cajun Gator IPA for Will.
With a special H20 chaser from Vickie Valentine…
The a’s always screw their young players; no wonder they fucked with Puk and his control-years. Control years and pre-arb years haven’t meant so much to the Giants in recent history. Past practice would suggest that if Duggar turns into a star they’ll buy him out before arb hits and control him with a contract. Otherwise, he’ll get gone.
I guess this belong on yesterday’s thread about Parker (who sucks) but still some interesting spring stats.
Williamson: .318/.333/.727/1.061; 4HR, 2 doubles, 2 triples, 13 RBI; 1 BB, 13 SO
Gregor Blanco: .333/.419/.708/1.128; 2 doubles, 2 triples, 4 RBI; 4 BB 6 SO
Gorkys Hernandez: .278/.366/.444/.810; HR, 3 2B, 3 RBI; 5 BB, 13 SO
Steven Duggar: .268/.362/.585/.947; 4HR, 1 double, 10 RBI; 6BB 13 SO
Jarrett Parker: .243/.364/.622/.985; 3HR, 3 doubles, 1 triple; 7BB 20 SO
The Giants did it with Posey, didn’t they, back in 2010?
they called Posey up early in 2010
maybe that’s what they’ll do with Duggar, but I don’t see the big advantage. Pence, Cutch, Jackson, Duggar and Blanco would be ok. Gorkys and Parker? Not for me. Williamson’s in the wings, perfecting his high-step launch angle. Fine; good luck. A DL trip for somebody is inevitable so we’ll probably see him sooner rather than later.
I read a note somewhere saying the Giants would have to give up draft picks to keep Holland. Haven’t had time to track that FA thing down. Too bad, if true. I think the Giants will be a lot more careful with draft picks than with control years, and they do need pitching.
Yeah, they reworked his deal way before his arb year, but the fact was they did what the A;s are doing. and that is gain an an extra year of control by leaving him in ST for the start of the year. He came up in June (?) when big titty went down. I never worried about it for that very reason. You know way before it becomes an issue whether the guy is good enough to give a reworked deal to or not.
Uness you are Billy Beane
Like the story goes, Buster won his 1st world series and won rookie of the year before he ever experienced opening day.
there’s an old article on mlbtr says Posey was a super two and arb eligible before the 2013 season, so the Giants could’ve waited just a few weeks longer I guess and secured an extra year of control
and that’s not quite right, either–super 2 status hastens arbitration but doesn’t truncate control. Too much minutiae
Posey came up at the end of May–I don’t know whether that was after the super II cutoff, given his minuscule time in 2009–but they had Benji handling the pitchers, etc. No pressing need, immediately. OF is pressing now.
Beane used to keep his players through their option years and then cut that down to pre-option years when Wolff took over the franchise. One more year of control makes a player a little bit easier to move, I suppose, if you’re playing penny ball
I mean, through their arbitration years, and then cut that down to pre-arb only.
Henry Schulman
@hankschulman
First three hitters off Samardzija in 4th: double, homer, homer. #sfgiants
2:03 PM – 21 Mar 2018
Pfffttt!
He’s still working on stuff…
Not anymore . . . Per Schulman, “Looks like Samardzija done. 3 2/3 IP, 3ER, 2 HR, 0 BB, 6K. 73 pitches. #sfgiants”
Vs. Cubs AAA lineup.
Which makes my mind more discombobulated. Well, at least Trevor Brown is having an outstanding Spring. Oh wait! Hundley’s ahead of him.
but it was second time through the LU, right? smaHRj is good for 3 😉
Giants pitchers having an ERA south of 4.00 . . . Fortunately, it’s Spring Training.
Gregorio 4.15
Holland 4.20
Cueto 5.79
Law 6.43
Watson 6.75
Suárez 7.62
Samardzija 10.64*
Fernandez 14.14
Dyson 15.00
*Not certain this has been updated to reflect today’s outing.
Yes, it went to infinity. And beyond.
I was harping on Law seeming to have lost his stuff a couple of weeks ago. He was optioned yesterday.
Suarez has the upside of a corpse…
First Less-is-Moore and now Smarglebargle. Shit. That’s a fine kettle of fish, Ollie.
He got his work in, anyway. 73 pitches in 3.66 innings? Sheeeeeeeit. That’s some serious suckage.
you guys worry too much. I’m just glad everyone’s staying healthy. I could give 2 shits what these guys do in ST, it means nothing in a week.
Funny that Clark calling Belt a pussy doesn’t even register as an opening salvo in the Belt Wars of 2018. I guess everyone’s still drawing up their plans and stocking ammunition.
started getting excited about the draft tonight, did a little prelim research. It’s kinda underwhelming. The best power hitter is a left handed HS kid. All the rest of the top 10 guys are pitchers and shortstops. Pffttttt……
Watching the Sanchez no hitter last night was pretty cool. I’d forgotten how he bounced around in the BP for a year or two before finally cracking the rotation. Sort of similar to Smardjiza’s career in a sense. Hopefully their declines don’t mirror one another too. Sanchez only started that day because Randy Johnson was injured and was pitching to save his spot in the rotation. I always liked Sanchez, especially for his clinching game 162 in 2010. Easily one of my best in person game memories. He’s since married a smokin hottie from Univision so I guess the post playing days aren’t too bad.
One positive prediction: Big breakout season for Panik. Like starting 2B at the ASG. Like 180 hits – 17/75/.310
I wouldn’t say worried, but reasonably concerned comes to mind.
Our three biggest concerns going into last season were leftfield, bullpen, and Cain. Well, it turns out we were right to be concerned.
I did not know Gyros had to give up pick(s) to keep Holland.
That’s a monkey wrench…