Aggressive
A couple of weeks ago I raged about Belt not fouling off a close pitch and instead passively leaving it up to the umpire to ring his ass up. Yesterday I gave him a knowing dude head nod for finally swinging the bat.
And even though that at bat didn’t result in a hit or a run or even moving a runner along, it was critical to the general wounding of the pitcher and their bullpen. Later in the game he continued to swing the bat and blasted one to right field outer space.
All I’ve ever wanted for Belt is for him to swing the lumber. Use the talent God gave him. His eye has talent too. He uses it to spy balls and strikes and he used it to spot that large lady he locked up low those many years ago. But those days are over. Swing the bat. Like a man.
Belt said he is crummy on pitches out of the zone, and has good enough eye to know what is a strike. therefore he is better off swinging at what he perceives as a strike.
Loo made pretty good point last night, “They’ll never get to him” re: Watson as closer. Set up guys often have to enter game in high leverage situations, runners on/good hitter up. Closer usually gets to start inning clean and with lead. Set up guys can be more important. Once FLR gets back pen could shuffle some more.
Thx to Xoot for that column on Bonds from Olney, fantastic read.
Lot of guys here including Flav in his pepper thing with Daniel said Cueto was gonna be key. guy has been lights out and endless fun to watch.
Giants need to win the first two games of this series and then deal with Sherzer on Wed when they have to.
Cueto and Belt are by far my 2 favorite Giants, so that game was fun…..
I was working on my suv but had the radio on
listening to Belt’s AB even Fleming was getting into after it kept dragging on for almost 13 minutes! He was saying Belt looked as frustrated as the pitcher but praised them both for not giving in to each other..
The Phillies are a fun story so far. Interesting series this week between the D-Backs and the Phils. Kind of a test for the Phils to see where they’re at.
Posey trying to bunt his way on late in the game isn’t a good sign but Belt’s 21 pitch at bat was pretty awesome and that double play with Crawford and Cueto was epic too. The club seems to be taking approach in the press with Belt which is nice to see. The dude has won 2 rings with the club, maybe they can at least give him the same amount of respect as annual the dumpster dive pick ups.
Taking this series and finishing the month at .500 would be fantastic. Then the Fresh Prince comes back and 2 weeks tops for moving Strickland out of the closer role.
Flannery said on the postgame show Rawlings baseballs ⚾️ go for 23 bucks a pop Belt just gave away $ 500.00 bucks worth to the fans..
MLB gets them for $8.33.
What has happened to Strickland, he was lights out for the first two weeks and now hitters are teeing off on him. Did he give up on his new pitch or did hitters once again figure him out. If they have figured him out he needs to be gone and gone for good. He has had plenty of chances to show he can be the Man and has done very little to take control of b in the closer.
*being*
I think he was just fortunate those first two weeks. I remember a few hanging sliders that batters didn’t square up.
His stuff just isn’t that great, and he doesn’t have good control.
I’m not saying he isn’t a servicable middle reliever, but he’s not really ever going to be a good closer, IMO.
Watson should be the closer imo nobody is squaring him up!!
I think like Willie pointed out, he’s more valuable where he is and set up guys do more often face high leverage situations. I’d rather have him in one of those than Muscle Head.
Strickland’s problem of late has been the same old story, his inability to anything but the fastball for a strike when he needs to. The hitters don’t fear the slider, so they just sit dead red.
FWIW, I didn’t think Belt looked frustrated at all during the long AB. He kind of looked like he was enjoying himself. And the homer was a thing of beauty. They had one dugout side replay of him connecting and he caught it perfectly out front with some serious “launch angle.” That was a serious moonshot. Must’ve been awesome live.
Yeah, to *throw* anything. Mondays.
I agree the hitters do just sit dead red. The only scenario I see using him is if the Giants are up be 5 runs.
I’m only slaying what Flem said on the radio I didn’t see the AB on TV…
It’s just nuts that the Belt AB took over 12 minutes.
Strick had the element of surprise for about a week when he was simply throwing the slider somewhere near the plate. They weren’t located well, but hitters were off balance. His problem is the hitters realized he wasn’t throwing it for strikes very much, so they went right back to sitting on dead red.
Not too many lefty closers, but hey, he’s doing well enough. And better him than Stricknyne.
When ever Prince of Bell air comes back healthy and throwing strikes, you can use Watson in the 9th switching roles…
Willy 6th tonight. Moving on up, I like it
And Jackson down to 7th.
with a couple of defections, it looks like Instilled Regard is making it into the Derby this year. Will be huge odds and has a great shot to crack the super. Maybe more.
I have no clue wtf that means, other than it involves equines… 🙂
we’ll talk more about it as the race gets closer. If you like free money, you should bet him. 🙂
mike leake; 1 inning, 7 hits, 5 runs….lqtm
inning 2 is not getting better for our old friend Leake. Seriously, why run him out in the second if he got blasted in the first?
When your 3-18 guess it doesn’t matter..
He pitches for the M’s. Final line: 3.1 IP, 12 hits, 8 runs, all earned, 2 bombs allowed. Yikes.
Who hasn’t called for Posey to bad third? When does Bochy finally make the move? After Posey is nursing a tweaked back, his avg has cratered .80 pits and he tried to bunt for a hit the day before (possibly indicating some other ailment). F-ing Bochy man.
I think the White Sox are playing hard for Farquhar. What a mess that is, sitting in the dugoutt and suffering an aneurysm. I really hope he comes out of it all right. Seems like a good dude.
I need to see this jacket that Mike Shumann swiped from that security guard. Man, was it made of diamonds or some shit? What the FUCK was this guy thinking??????
I went to mlb.com to glance at the gameday stats, matchups etc., and found the big headline to be “Stanton Hits HR Number 5.” Well, I’m sure they covered Belt’s 13 minute AB yesterday.
As to Shumann, he’s fucked.
Metallica national anthem is a yawn.
keen insight.
I’m in the industry.
that’s true. I take back what I said. Hey, what’s AVID trading at today?
A lot of empty seats.
The A’s would kill to get that kind of attendance day in day out. They couldn’t sell out giving tickets away.
Shumann is totally fucked! Dub players refuse to do interviews now thinking theirs a double standard controversy going on black/white ..
Bet Draymond wouldn’t mind kicking his ass..
What does stealing the jacket have to do with race?
Turner is just a freak with the foot speed.
Jeeebus. WTF??? Cutch has iron-gloved about 3 or 4 balls already this year. .
Yikes. You’ve been on him for his D for a while now and the criticism is justified.
Longoria too. Not a great showing by the solid all star vets.
Same with Longoria. I’m
Looking at a new mitt if I’m those 2..
Nice to have 2 GGlovers
make back to back bone head errors!!
The way they field, you would think they’re actually wearing them out there…

You don’t get that slicing curve action on drives to CF
You don’t get $18 mill to play a game either. He’s got to make that play 100 out of 100 times.
So fire his asd
Give it up for Stratton
Way to bounce back Stratton from your shaky teammates..
Stratton is nails.
Great 5-out inning by Stratton.
Fucking pussy. Belt that is . . .
Mac Mac, baby!!!
Big Mac!
Hella job by strat. Miller on radio was raving about all the ground ball outs then he pitches out of jam.
And there goes some insurance! Mac attack!
um wally pence thumb just got worse
What was the angle of the dangle on that one?
Cutch has the curse of Fred Lewis going!!
Mac Attack!!!
Blasted!!!
Hey Might get to stay in the LU alittle longer unless Boch brain farts some more..
BOOOM!!! Big Mac!
It’s the curse of right field.
Lulz (and disturbing)
Exactly what I was thinking. I’ll never look at a Big Mac the same way again.
Mac Attack! Brings back memories of “Little a shop of Horrors.” Feed me Seymour Feed me all night long!
This guy is as strong a hitter the Giants have had in a long time. That was a bomb for AT&T at night with the wind blowing in. We’re going to see some huge homers from this guy this year. Remember the rocket he hit off the scoreboard a couple of years ago in AZ? That thing was 60 feet off the field of play when it hit the board. Wow.
MacWilly or Big MacWilly or LittleMac, or whatever his nickname is, could blast the first opposite field splash hit. In 2012, Pence looked like he might. No longer. But this guy, the right pitch, the right afternoon . . . . maybe.
Talk about not getting cheated on a swing! His eyes were as big as saucers when he saw that fastball coming! LOL
Just rolled into a steakhouse in Phoenix. Told the bartender as he delivered my Manhattan to change the channel and find giants/ Nats if he could. He did. As soon as I started hitting that Manhattan, Mac smoked that sucker into the seats– Booom!…
I am following the game on lameday, and “step away”for two seconds at 2-1 Giants, come back and Mac has done it again! Love to see him keep this rolling throughout the entire year. Boom!
Also, was talking with some of the usual suspects at my watering hole this afternoon, and we all agree, Stratton has been amazing. Our number five ace!
His command is amazing. A real Rembrandt.
We need the good Dyson to show up.
Cheesy Mac!!
Buster doing his best Thurman Munson impression tonight…
Jazz up by 17 end of 3. this is very cool.
After the Sixers, they might’ve been the hottest team over the last couple months.
Nice play by Mac the Knife on cuttting that ball off…
Both Harper’s and Weiter’s balls shows you how hard Mac hit his homer. Both those pitches were hit on the screws and went nowhere. Mac’s was about 10 rows back in a place where few homers are hit in that park.
Others have mentioned this, I believe. With the current bullpen possibilities, I think Watson should be closing. Fresh Prince is due back soon, too.
It’s worked out the last two days that Watson has faced the tougher part of the order.
Yep. All the more reson he should close. Strickland doesn’t exactly exude confidence…
Fasten your seat belts boys…
Leadoff walk, yeesh.
Oh boy. Sitting fastball. Yeah, there you go. Walk the first guy you see.
This fucking guy.
The Nats wreak a lot of havoc on the basepaths. 2 steals tonight, guys always taking the extra base.
Keep the ball down. Check. Throw strikes…ugh….
Fuck!
Slider and a bad one, but the dude wasn’t expecting it.
hanger
Wow. I thought for sure he was gonna walk that one…
3-2 hanging slider strikeout.
lqtm
Got him on a hanger…
That might be the best slider he’s thrown this year.
Huh. Couple good sliders to the last guy.
Boom!
Torture 2018…
well earned W for Strat
btw Giants now have better record than Nats do.
We’ll take it. Another stellar start from the burgeoning Stratton. Mac with the bomb. Muscle Head nails it down.
Finally found the damn slider !!…
10 wins in April! I had ’em at 9…
Just went back and watched Mac’s HR. Holy shit! What a fucking shot!
And caught the last two outs, top of the 6th. Great work by Stratton to work out of that 2nd/3rd one out jam.
Nice win! Keep it rolling!
Every 5th day…
Yep!
Belt walk and a double
.290/.392/.581/.973.
Only player with better numbers in yard tonite is Harper