Monday Blues
With Brandon Belt still passively waiting around for that perfect pitch to drive, we impatiently wait for tonight’s game to begin. Strangely, Hunter Pence has the best numbers against Zach Godley (4 for 5 with 2 bombs). Belt has a walk against him (4 at bats), of course.
The Giants are doing what you would hope they would do without their ace and #3, they are surviving. That could be changing quickly. Arizona is all business. Solid starting pitching, good hitters. Not sure what to expect from Holland tonight. Maybe he’ll be an “AT&T” guy but that’s really just hoping he will be more than anything else….
Now I’m off to begin the day, a day where Patrick Reed is a major winner. That sucks and makes today a little less than what it could have been….
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Fangraphs has a recent article about Godley’s curveball. It has a high swing and miss %.
https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/sunday-notes-zack-godleys-hook-looks-like-a-heater/
Any Godley & Creme fans out there?
Yes. 10 cc was a killer band in the eary/mid 70s.
The Patrick Reed story is going to become a movie. I guarantee it. It sounds like the dad was verbally if not physically abusive with Patrick growing up. In fact the Dad looks like a mean SOB. Doesn’t excuse Patrick for being a snake, which he is, but it still will make for a great movie.
he’s everything that is wrong with golf in terms of the stereotype of the golfer who treats everyone like shit, rules don’t apply to him and he thinks he’s a better human being than everyone else out there. Fuck guys like that. Everyone hates this guy, except his own family, but he hates them. Great role model…..
It is just not golfers….I think we can say it about almosy every superstar athelete…and probably the elite actors in Hollywood…
Who is with Dale Murphy here? Bob Horner? Man, those 2 got old!
I have a theory that a lot of these guys look older because they didn’t use sunscreen back then…
Zum’s mentioning of umpires brought to mind something I realized recently while umpiring one of my son’s little league scrimamages. It’s damn near impossible to judge a strike when standing behind the catcher. I seriously have to wonder whose idea it was to place an umpire back there? As parents we decided it was much easeier to judge balls from strikes by standing beside second base.
I can see Reed ordering collard greens&fried chicken at the Masters dinner next year just like when Fuzzy Zoeller did that to tick off Tiger..
I dont think Zoeller ordered it but made a very poor joke that is what Tiger should serve after he won…
agree with him that he’s the rookie of the year, hands down and this is a funny quote from him
I was hoping Rory was going to make a run…fortunately only one person in my year long majors pool had Reed (just cant find myself rooting for him) but he also had Ricky and Rory, who were my top 2 with DJ hopefully ending up with a couple of points.
At least Giant killer J Lamb is on DL. They do bring 2 more LHPs after Godley. Ray won 15 last year with 2.89 ERA. Cutch Longo and Jax were supposed to help vs. LHP and only 1 has done much. See how Giants LU fares vs. LHP. Most teams seem to load up on lefties out of pen vs. SF too.
Saw pic of Pirates J Taillon who threw complete game W over Reds in what looks like old 3 ring hat/yellow top/black pants unis. I still have one of those hats in closet from 40 yrs ago.
good LA Times article about how he was actually received yesterday by the crowd
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-masters-plaschke-20180408-story.html
Joe, I remember some Little League games with just one ump, standing directly behind the pitcher to call balls and strikes. I pitched a lot in Little League, and I thought the umps behind the mound called a better game.
one thing is for sure— the view from behind the catcher is most definitely different than the view from behind the pitcher—helps explain why P’s sometimes get so upset about calls.
Goldschmidt has been quiet so far this season. Hopefully he stays quiet for a few more games…..
I thought the D-Backs would struggle more without Martinez, but they look very solid still.
Loo’s 7:41.
Like an Austin Jackson bunt attempt, makes me Cry…
Regarding balls and strikes, and umps, and pitch-framing….that all came to a head in the D-Backs/Cards game yesterday. The D-Backs manager got fed up with the ump rewarding Molina for yanking pitches into the strikezone, and he went off on the ump (after one of his players went off.) In the course of going off, he had some choice words about Molina, and Molina took offense, and as Strickland would say: “It was ‘go time.'” Molina has been in a fair amount of these donnybrooks, as the Cards in general have over the years, especially when LaRussa was involved with the team.
Molina shoved the ump to the side to go at the D-Backs manager, and although the D-Backs player and manager were ejected, Molina was not ejected. Interesting.
Cards are going to be tough this season, although they’re scuffling right now. They have one of the hardest throwing relief pitchers in the MLB – a guy named Hicks. Yes, he throws as hard as you know who on the Yankees. The rest of their bullpen throws hard too and they also just got Holland for insurance.
That being said, the Pirates are one of my favorite teams (the Indians being the other) and I hope they continue doing well, despite the loss of Cutch and Cole.
Speaking of Godley and Creme . . . one of the funnier videos from way back in the day. Fricking 1978 . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC3jt_k27No
Ahhh. Godley and Creme had left by then . . .
Give 10 CC’s Sheet Music a listen. Great stuff.
I liked that song by CC and The Music Factory. That was classic 90s baby.
A very good article about why MLB players are in the show and minor league players aren’t.
“Here, the difference between being a long-time big leaguer and a long-time minor leaguer is sometimes decided by the slimmest of margins—and players can spend the next five seasons being reminded of that difference. One player who makes one adjustment ends up earning $10 million or more over their career, while another who can’t ends up as the dreaded AAAA player who makes less than one-tenth as much.”
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/so-close-so-far/
Flav, thanks for those articles on Reed, especially the one yesterday. Fascinating and sad situation all around. The guy’s got immense talent, though, so we likely haven’t seen the last of him.
Who should play Patrick Reed in his biopic? Sarah Jessica Parker has to play his wife.
How about Jonah Hill?
How about Lumpy from Leave it to Beaver?
I feel like he’s been here for 3 years…
He hasn’t?
look at this shit. If all you can do is hit the ball to one area of the field you really aren’t a very good hitter.
Anyone interested in this old tradition?
Twin started it and got real annoyed at DMD who seemed to enjoy beating Twin to it at times…
Panik
Belt
McCutchen
Posey
Longoria
Crawford
Pence
Blanco
Holland
he used to always get extremely mad at me if I ever picked a POTD during one of the threads he wrote.
I posted the Opening Day lineup last year, The Giants went 64-98. I’m not posting lineups again anytime soon.
I always appreciate it when someone posts the line-up, and yes, it was a hoot when DMD used to scoop Twin on the line-up. I still remember Twin finally calling him out on stealing his thunder. I loved me some DMD.
Denny was tolerable till he’d get drunk and spew out a bunch of stupid racist bullshit. He had several chances to stay here but finally he had to go.
Giants-DBacks is free game of the day on mlb.com.
Golds must think every Giants pitcher is Lincecum.
at least Belt is swinging the bat….
well with Beede due to start, sets up the awesome match up of Amy G and Mrs. B.
greg holland not exactly endearing himself to Cardinals fans. Wow, they might put up with that shit in Colorado but not in St Louis.
Yikes, 4 walks.
Crawford has been waving at the breaking pitch out of the zone since opening day. He needs to start picking it up, because I’m losing confidence in his ability to hit consistently any more.
Longoria looks like he’s even more stupid than Pablo.
If you mean he’s flailing at pitches that aren’t even close, then I agree.
Yep.
Here BTW is the chart for Belt’s AB:
http://tinyurl.com/yat6xn7o
The pitch he was called out on was higher than anything Cutch saw the night before, contra Baggs. It was a ridiculous call. And if you want to be pissed at Belt, you should be even angrier at the inside cutter he didn’t swing at earlier. Just because it wasn’t called strike 3 shouldn’t make a difference, since he was being “passive.” Never mind that he would have missed it.
that ball wasn’t at his shoulders as you suggested, that was a ridiculous comment. And he could have easily fouled it off. It was one inch about the top of the strike zone
This hp ump has been all over the place so far. That has to drive pitchers and hitter crazy.
i agree with you that he has trouble with high pitches and so maybe it was best that he didn’t try to hit it. But it was a ball that most major leaguers could have handled by fouling off.
Giants sure helping this guy out a lot. Make him throw you a strike.
Well atleast Belt his swinging for his strikeouts!
He knows all he has to do is swing at anything, no matter the result, to win over the fans!
Kerwin Danley. Horrible balls and strikes ump.
Where the hell did this Godley dude come from?
8 K’s thru 4 innings on a measly 47 pitches..
Drafted in the 10th round in 2013 by….the Cubs. Then traded to the D-Backs.
So does our guy.
Shout out to the Flap Universe!
Like to know how AZ finds all these OF for their system. In addition to Pollock and Peralta, they’ve traded away Gerardo Parra Adam Eaton and Ender Inciarte.
Holland has been solid his first two starts.
we need him. And you’re right, he’s been good. 8k’s thru 5 is outstanding. Now, about our bats….
Posey has no problem figuring this guy out..
Pence you suck!
This ump stinks 😷
Kuik says, “The last thing you want to do is not swing the bat with 2 strikes on you.”
Umm . . . Like Belt you mean?
K&K have disdained Belt for years. At least Bochy had a little breakthrough defending him last night. Of course, not accusing you of going soft on Belt 🙂
Out of all the many bad calls tonight that high-outside pitch to Blanco has to be the worst. wtf?
I dare anyone to listen to “Cry” on youtube by Godley and Creme without getting an immediate ear worm…
never heard it before now. mid 80s Berkeley/Santa Cruz. pop music didn’t exist.
Prefer Graham Gouldman.
Danley has had a reputation as a mediocre umpire for a long time, and not just behind the plate. It just stands out more when he’s calling balls and strikes.
Hey, I told you dudes Holland was pretty decent.
Knock on (wooden) bats…
Jesus. 27 balls in the dirt and Posey can’t get to 2nd, let alone 3rd? Fucking annoying. It may not have changed the outcome, but it may have.
Even more annoying is Pence and Blanco coming to the plate to do their thing.
Maybe it’s just a Arizona thing for Holland ST/and facing Arizona..
Another schlub that looks like Cy fucking Young when he gets here. Godley’s creaming his uni facing this squad.
Sorry, I’m on pain meds and losing my shiot.
This is ridiculous. This guy is just mowing the Giants down.
Golden Sombrero for Belt 💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻
Between him, Longoria, Crawford and Pence, it looks an awful lot like last year.
I’ll take Belt’s 2017 823 OPS over a full season. The others sucked last year. Belt didn’t.
Yup.
The new Mark Portugal.
ouch.
Gomez gets a shot here. He’s got some crazy movement on his shit.
Gomez nearly slept through that. Nice play though.
Yeah, but what was Owings thinking?
He thought Gomez wasn’t paying attention.
Like this Gomez kid’s moxie..
Nice step off helped by Posey to nail that runner.He seems comfortable out there..
Alex Pavlovic
@PavlovicNBCS
12m12 minutes ago
Giants announced a crowd of 36,997, their smallest since Sept. 15, 2010.
first, how in the fuck did only 36K show up mid-Sept 2010? The bandwagon got started THAT late that year? second, my son failed to talk me into going to the game tomorrow night. I’ve got things to do. He’s got good but cheap tickets lower box near the plate. hmmmm.
fuck. Posey for Cutch isn’t good. There goes the speed.
Longo’s got to take advantage of that mistake.
Eva can’t even hit a hanger right down the middle.
pffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffft.
Speed doesn’t matter when you get a Taylor made DP ball.Thanks Longo ..
Giants lead MLB in…
worst hitting with RISP….
SF came in 4th in hitting, 9th in slugging and 14th in OBP. The last stat is more relevant than RISP, which is usually lousy for any stretch you’re not scoring.
James, Giants are last in NL in scoring.
Is that stat relevant for you?…
The Giants are in a heap of trouble if Longoria struggles for a long time.
Crawford Pance and Blanco
AKA outs 1, 2 and 3.
a PRODUCTIVE out!
Will wonders never cease.
Hey! An xbh.
That’s a nice swing by Crawford.
Can we please break this 7-60 RISP streak!!!
Get Panda up there for Blanco.
At least Pence got Crawfish over.
Pence hits like he throws a girl now..
See that, Mr. Belt?
two productive outs!
Mr. Belt might have fouled that one off, too. See the chart I posted. The ball he took was a few inches above the strike zone.
The point being he shouldn’t leave it up to the ump to make the call. Try to foul it off.
He left it up to the ump previously with two strikes. It was called a ball. Did you have a problem with that? How high does the pitch have to be for him to take it?
I have a problem with him letting called 3rd strikes go by. Especially in scoring opportunities. McCutcheon fouled off pitches high in the zone. and was able to get a pitch to hit If it’s close enough, Belt should do his best to foul it off, not hope for the ump to see it his way. There’s being too picky. Pablo has a better career swinging at anything and everything
Pitchers will continue to get Belt out high in the zone. His stubbornness will be his downfall. Or his borderline meh-ness.
Look, I’ve been one of the people supporting him. He led the team in home runs and missed the last 2 months. Sure, that’s an indictment of the team as well as anything else, but if he was surrounded with a bunch of better hitters, he’d be perfectly fine. He isn’t, so his failings are more obvious.
Time for a knock
Come on, Pablo, make my comment look ridiculous!
Went down with the cheese atleast , a good AB but Denied!!
A noble, manly AB, although taking ball 4 might have been a better option.
Lulz! And excellent body language after the strike out too.
Better to be aggressive than passive when you are trying to get on base.