Grinding
One thing we can all agree on: this team isn’t going to be having too many laughers. We aren’t going to coast to wins by blowing out the opponent.
We’re facing another tough foe today and I can already hear Krukow crying about the match up. Kruk’s always going cry. We’re either facing a tough, established vet, a stud lefty or a pitcher we’ve never seen before–to Kruk, that’s the most difficult of all tasks.
Anyway…..
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
The Giants did their best to give that one away, but a much needed win nonetheless. Stratton has been a revelation and he was dominant last night. What I see is a polished pitcher with command of three big league-worthy pitches and an excellent mound demeanor. I only hope it’s not all smoke and mirrors. I don’t think it is. He’s going to have his rough spots this year, but he looks like a legit 3-4 guy to me.
Longoria’s turnaround has been nothing short of remarkable. He looks like a different hitter now; balanced, seeing pitches well and squaring up a lot of balls. 5 days ago he looked like he’d never hit again. That nasty slider he laid off just prior to belting the homer was a perfect example. The first two weeks of the season he chased that thing every time, Amazing. Clearly he’s been putting in his time in the batting cage.
Belt. He drives everyone except James nuts, but great game last night, with three great defensive plays in addition to the clutch dinger. That’s what may be most frustrating about him. He’s so damn strong but the homers are still few and far between. This guy should be hitting between 25-30 a year.
Except for Pence’s inexplicable drop, the D was great last night. Let’s not forget Actionless Jackson’s brilliant catch of that gapper that saved the game.
And when the hell is Pence going to get a week off? The guy sucks right now.
the problem is he has had excellent bvp numbers against virtually all of these pitchers who have been dominating him this week. Therefore, Boch keeps running him out there….
Nice win last night. One day Belt will be on the post game with “yeah, I was just trying to make something happen there, put a nice swing on it and it went out. I know both of you talk shit about me all the time. You can sit on a bag o dicks. Thanks, fellas!”
I still have absolutely no confidence in Strickland to perform in high pressure situations. The Fresh Prince is due back 01 May and it can’t come fast enough imo. He’ll push everyone down and make the BP even better. I bet he’s closing within 2 weeks of returning.
following up Loo’s early morn post on the last thread.
Yeah, RIP Bruno.
Super 70’s Sports is a pretty good Twitter feed.
A very long time ago Sammartino meant as much to me as Mays…
A couple days late on this, but RIP John Amirante.
That one hurt too, for very different reasons…
Re Strickland: He’s better than Melancon, not as good as Watson. Like Romo, he doesn’t walk a lot of batters, doesn’t waste time, throw easy takes. Like Romo, he’s going to give up extra base hits. Death with him is sudden.
The worst for me to watch is Gearrin. Can’t stand him, but like Brian Wilson, he usually gets the job done.
In May of 2010, I started turning off the game when Wilson came in, and would follow it by reading the comments on Schulman’s blog. The relatively few blown saves he got after that were kind of funny from afar.
Two notable exceptions: I was in a bar and didn’t want to abandon my drink, so I watched Wilson walk the bases loaded, then the Astros’ (?) 2B, Matsui go15 pitches with the tying run on third. BUT I bailed on the 16th, stepped outside to hear the cheering inside.
I didn’t watch Wilson’s last “save” for the Giants, even worse, I listened to it on the radio. They had a three run lead early in 2012, so I switched channels for few minutes, tuned back in for what I assumed would be the post game wrap. Not even close, two or three times I did this, then just hung in there for the agonizing duration. He blew his rotator cuff, I went into cardiac arrest, only to be revived in time to hear Romo facing Jay Bruce in game 5 of the NLDS.
Yes, LJ mentioned Actionless Jackson’s great grab that helped save Giants shoddy pen work. He may not hit as well as Span did (12 bombs/.750 OPS) but is definite upgrade defensively. He did walk twice last night too. I’ll lay off comments on his ABs til he gets more settled, but he’s best CF option for Evans “lux tax ate my OF.”
re: Nick Hundley and Brisbee. He’s the backup C for god’s sake, the bar is extremely low for batting skills. As even Brisbee admits, he is a decent enough C and pitchers seem to like throwing to him. He does have some RH pop and doesn’t play much. Of all the things wrong with Giants, he is pretty far down the list. Vs. LHP it would be dumb to bat him 8th as he is unlikely to see anything he might yank out the yard.
Arguing about the LU is one of most tired things on any blog…you could do it every single day/every hitter.
Bottom line, to me everyone here is way more interesting and has better baseball insights than Brisbee and his entire blog following posters there.
I’ll sound like a nit-picker, but Brisbee didn’t write that one. It was a guy named Doug Buzone. Brisbee writes a lot fewer McC Chronicle things now. He is officially more of an overall SBNation blog guy now.
Buzone sounds like some fattening Italian side dish…
The Arizona announcers virtually called Longoria’s homer during the AB. They were super impressed with how he looked at the plate. Some actual insight from them as opposed to the usual Goldy, Goldy, Goldy…
I wish K&K could have the chance to say Goldy, Goldy, Goldy. I’d love to have that guy. Of course he’d probably go in the tank if he was a Giant.
I think those articles yesterday did bring some interesting perspective to lineup discussion. They were both saying Bochy is kind of hopelessly old-school in regard to lineups, and that it makes it more difficult to score runs because of that. Then Bochy kind of walks right into it by starting Pence in the two-hole last night. Pence, 0-5, with 2 strikeouts, and just looked completely overmatched. On KNBR this morning, Baggarly called Pence “non-competitive right now.” If I was reading between the lines with Baggs, he went on to say the Giants management is really struggling with this emotionally. The Giants are the anti-Bill Walsh regarding jettisoning beloved players. Both organizations had dynasties, but did it with some differences in approach.
Baggs also said he, as gently as he could, asked Pence if he was having vision issues. Baggs says Pence deflected the question.
He’s having some kind of issues, and, whatever they are, they’re directly affecting his ability to play professional baseball. Age, vision, I don’t know, but he is bad right now and shows no signs of snapping out of it. Dropping that can of corn was the capper.
This morning on KNBR Krukow referred to Pence as ‘a guy at the end of the line’ so management is putting the trial balloons out there. At this point I’d almost rather see Parker(who sucks) in LF.
The club needs a DH against he Angels this weekend. Seems like the perfect opportunity to get Williamson some abs.
Absolutely agree re: Williamson. Pence looks like he may have “a slight issue that needs a little time.”
Struggling emotionally? FUUUUUUUCK! Let’s put Willie Mac at 1st!
How do you think the fans feel? Jesus, I HATE reading shit like that. It shows that winning isn’t important to the front office at this point, It’s about feelings and glowing remembrances. Bochy rewards Pence’s abject terribleness by making sure he gets the most ABs as possible.
But he was great in 2012!!!
Fucking Actionless leads off the game by getting on 1st. Ray was wild af but no, don’t try to move the runner. Let’s wait for the inevitable DP or the much more fun don’t-hit-and-run DP.
Baseball in general may be going away from stealing nd moving runners, but jesus, we don’t have the luxury of waiting for the conga line, or even a bomb. Because neither are happening with enough frequency.
I agree, Willie, Hundley is fine with me as the backup catcher. Brisbee is holding him to a pretty high standard for what amounts to a thankless job, backing up Buster Posey.
I just don’t think the order of the LU has much to do with scoring runs as the guys in it. . Pence of course shouldn’t be in it at all. All the tough LHP in NL West is tall order.
Because of the type of team bochy has, playing small ball isn’t a good option. who runs well enough to be a base stealing threat? Who can bunt or use the whole field for a hit/run? Think about it, almost no one.
And I don’t get the idea of firing everyone up; they aren’t HS kids—Bochy yesterday called hitters in and told them to relax in order to get them to stop pressing and chasing bad pitches out of zone so much. Longo at least seems to be coming around.
Do they have trad lead off/high OB guy? No. Belt, as Flav has suggested, is only guy who really fits this role.
and he’s the guy who won it with bomb last night. Would Bochy keep him in there vs. LHP?
the bench is gorks Sando Specs hundley Blanco…not to be confused with Lumber Company or Harvey’s Wallbangers.
Great post, Willie.
In the ’80s used to play a fascinating baseball board game called Statis Pro with my cousin and a few of his buddies over beers/etc. One of them occasionally used to pick his position players and then close his eyes and mix the cards around.
We’d laugh and say, “Uh oh Mgr. B is shuffling the LU.” And honestly when he did it usually didn’t turn out too bad.
Bochy is at mercy of who he is given by GM and some days has to rest guys and go fishing off the bench. I think he’s making best of it while working with new and different coaching staff.
That still doesn’t excuse putting Pence in the 2 hole. Posey should be there, for obvious reasons. Well, anybody really. Panik is fine if Posey is behind him.
Pence in the #2 was a joke, and he proved the comedy with an 0-5. Bochy is a believer in goosing a guy’s flagging confidence by giving him more responsibility, which is OK if the talent is still there. I think bringing up Williamson for a long weekend of 10 or more ABs as the DH in Anaheim would be a great idea. See if his hot hitting translates upstairs. I can see giving Pence rope to absolutely prove he’s done. This is the Giants MO. They’ll give him 100 ABs or so — ’til the end of April and past the sock date. If by then he’s still floundering, just DL the dude for 60 days with a phantom hamstring. No need for an embarrassment DFA; yet. He can go to Arizona and work out/”rehab”, drink coffee, make vids with the wife, add months to his tax free residency, and not embarrass himself in an MLB uniform…
LMAO…that is pretty spot on, Tom. Absolutely the way they should go with Pence…
As for Musclehead, he proves frequently the he shouldn’t be the closer. How often does he need proof that a 96 mph 4-seamer on a platter is going to get hammered by some of these guys? A good closer makes that mistake rarely; a bad one makes it as often as he does. I still can’t tell what role in these gopher pitches is played by Posey. Last night it looked like Posey put his glove right in the strike zone, so I dunno. From the limited stuff I’ve read, those two aren’t exactly buddies, so maybe there are pitch call issues involved. Bottom line, Musclehead is the hurler, it’s his pitch that gets clobbered. Watson or Moronta deserve a shot at the closer…
Maybe Watson gets the shot if Smith can make it back and be effective. Otherwise, you’re giving up your primo 8th inning lefthanded guy (LOOGY?).
Watson’s been getting everybody out, an inning at a time, pretty much…
I want to see more Moranta…
How much more could there be?
Speaking of bad nights, how about Alex Avila? 0-5 with 4 whiffs, not to mention making the last out of the game. I don’t know what kind of sombrero that is, but it should be platinum.
“Not that this will stir anything up, but Mac Williamson is not in the River Cats lineup tonight
— Ahmed Fareed (@FareedNBCS) April 19, 2018”
No Pence: Blanco LF, Panik 2B, McCutchen RF, Posey C, Belt 1B, Longoria 3B, Crawford SS, Hernandez CF, Blach LHP
Come on Blanco and Gorkys — you studs lead the Giants to victory tonight !
I can hardly wait for Gregor’s first fake bunt !…
Willie, what are your thoughts about Panic being replaced by Hundley, as occurred during Corbin’s near no hitter? Top of the ninth inning – Gorkys Hernández, Austin Jackson and Joe Panik due to hit . . . First 2 guys whiff and Bochy decides to bring in Hundley as a pinch-hitter for Panik. WTF?
1 run game, hoping for a bomb? Not gonna crucify him over it cause it didn’t work out.
Panik’s hitting .212 off LHP this season tho he does have the 2 HRs. Last year he hit much better but OPS was 100 points higher (and 9 of his 10 HRs) vs. RHP— Panik got 45 hits off LHP, 38 of them singles.
I don’t have much faith in Willy but I would certainly rather see him out there instead of Pence. So, hopefully that’s what is going to happen. He can at least DH when they play the Angels
Max Muncy. The Dodgers brought him up from their AAA team and started him at 3B last night. And….he hit an HR.
this morning on KNBR, I can’t believe this was true maybe I misheard it, I was very tired this morning: they were celebrating the 2 bombs we hit last night saying that didn’t happen even one time last season. Can anyone confirm if this is true or if I just heard it wrong?
Maybe it was two 2-run HRs in the same game.
I finally found a game at Coors where the Giants hit a 2-run HR and a 3-run HR (they lost anyway). If it’s specifically two 2-run HRs in the same game, they may be right, but that’s a little nit-pickity.
I’m sure they had 2 HR games last year. I’m also pretty sure they had a lot of solo shots. I glanced at BBRef to see if any easy splits touched on these questions, but I quit early after learning this fact: last season the Giants hit 64 HRs in wins and 64 in losses. There’s something very depressing about that balance.
yeah. The Murph and Mac guys are prone to spouting off a lot of shit. They say a lot for a reaction but I was thinking at the time “Goddamn, I don’t recall them hitting 2 hr’s in one game…maybe it’s true?”
Madbum 1st game of season.
good call
Not that it matters at all in the scheme of life, but just for the record, add me to the very short list of people that Belt has never driven nuts. I love the guy just for who he is. As for Bochy not needing to fire up the guys because they’re pros, IMO the job description for every and any manager in any industry or job includes the responsibility to motivate the staff when they’re not getting the job done and for correcting nonperformance issues. Perhaps not many baseball managers are good at striking the right balance (not too light or heavy handed about it) but it still is part of Bochy’s job. I don’t get too frustrated too often with this team, but the one thing that drives me nuts is a dead-ass team whose boring, uninspired play *looks like* they don’t care. Of course they care. Manager needs to make sure they act like it.
Good post, Paul. Agree on the management slant…
Amen…
Speaking of Bum, he had he 3 pins removed today from his fractured pinkie so that’s good news.Wont be eligible to come off the DL till May 25 at the earliest in which the Giants will have to open up a spot on their 25 are 40 man roster.
That shouldn’t be a problem plenty of candidates hmmm Pence, doubtful Boch bromance is stronger then the force to allow that to happen..
That is good news. Now he can begin rehabbing in earnest.
Randy Johnson guesting in AZ booth is pure agony – a real stutterin’ prick…
Stupid challenge – he’s safe…
They boned another one.
Nice work to get outta that jam…
Chi, could you e-mail me a PDF of Stix letter, unless you feel it’s personal. Would love to see it.
Thanks, either way…
You got it, Loo.
It’s in the pipe, brother…
i forwarded it to both you and Diggity a few days ago, maybe it went into your spam? Diggity got it
Try opening it on another device, Loo. Its sitting right there like that Moronta meatball he just served up.
The D-Backs unis tonight have kind of a Friday night softball team look to them.
Late to the party, I saw last night Strickland reverted back to form. Who else can the Giants trot out there as the closer? Anyway looks like Belt is going to go into one of his hot streaks, but for how long.
Those unis to me look like standard issue at a Baskin Robbins 31 flavors..
Game over 2 runs down. Giants offense sucks donkey dick.
Hey – don’t sugar-coat it Sundance…tell us how you really feel. 😉
Yes. I was calling for more Moranta, but not that kinda Moranta…
Thanks for sending the Stix letter, Chi. He’s truly amazing. I’m just not clear on what we can send him.
I will have to read the letter again. I am going to put together some things (newspaper articles printed from the net, other stuff, and try to figure out how to send him some coin).
Wire cutters?
Crawford a thing of beauty on that barehanded throw!
Well, it’s hard to hit a bomb every time.
Well, at least they weren’t swept.
Still on course for a 3-7 roadie…
By the by, if you’re around Paul, no issues watching the game live on my smart phone (not even using my iPhone, but a cheap ass Xaoimi) in Saigon. HD and resolution is perfect on that pirate site I gave you and Communists aren’t blocking the site.
Baggs advises that Pence had a pregame MRI on a sore thumb.
Lays groundwork for a DL visit, then Williamson up for Anaheim.
We shall see…
Now KNBR reporting Williamson has been called up.
No word on the complimentary move…
I wasn’t expecting much today against Greinke, still their staff ace imo. Just wash this one off and move on.
Law sent back to Sac.
Thanks for the tip, Steve, I might try that link this weekend (can’t really watch games at “game time” in the US during the weekdays because I’m working at that time)….
@ Paul..I too am a fan of Belt!
You and James and I should start a little club. 🙂
The Giants have now scored 1or 0 runs in 10 of 18 games.
Giants bust out the “Mystical Wheel of Injuries,” give it a spin…tick tick tick…Hunter Pence! Sprained thumb! Mac Williamson….come on down! Pence to the DL. We all saw this coming….
Well bringing up one hitter I just don’t see that turning the hitting woes around. What has happened to Crawford? And Panik has certainly cooled off. Not just one guy needs to step up, all of them do