Another Beat Down?
Look, this series is over. But if LA is going to dodge the embarrassment of getting swept they need to win tonight. And it’s not a crazy thought to think they could niggle a win out of this back of the woodshed treatment. They are at home with their best pitcher going. Of course, the pin heads puppeteering Roberts might still screw this up.
It must stink being the Dodgers manager. You’re nothing but a message carrier. A butler. A yes-man. Did he know what he was getting into when he took the job? Probably. Baseball really has gotten worse when the manager is too scared of his own shadow to make actual in-game decisions.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Analytics are important, and the Giants need to embrace them more; but the Dodgers took it to a ridiculous level in the first two games. Every player is a platooner except for Turner and Machado.
analysts fall into a trap that many fantasy players fall into. They take a stat that plays out over the course of a season and apply it to a moment in the post season. It’s a flaw. Poker players do it to. They say “I’ve got a X% chance to hit my card on the turn or the flop, there’s X amount of $$ in the pot, I have to call.” No you don’t. Look at the details of the moment.
The analytics guys are going to keep losing if they continue to force this approach on weak managers like Roberts.
I use analytics and numbers when I play daily fantasy and poker but I use them more as a guide than an absolute way to react to something. This is how they are intended to be used if you are playing in a moment. If you want to play season long or if you play poker every day then yes, go with the numbers.
Can’t stand Roberts but I read somewhere last few days that actually as a strict L/R platoon guy he is more traditionalist. And the numbers do (often) point out a guy like Grandal sucks vs. LHP even tho he is a switch hitter. It’s weird to me the way he juggles guys in and out, but he did win the freaking league, for the second year in a row.
Bochy does this too, using PHs or relievers this way. And as we know, there were times Watson could not get out left hand hitters in critical situation. Romo in his heyday was the freaky one, devastating vs. RH hitters but couldn’t seemed to locate as well and got lit up by LHs.
To me I think the GM’s on a lot of teams are now telling the managers who sits and who starts…
I’d like to see a team try having no manager, but rather a different player-manager every game. One game it’s Posey, the next it’s …. Hanson… that would probably be at least entertaining, watching Hanson or Mac the Oaf or Bum take the helm for a game. How much worse could it be after the past 2-1/2 years?
sure. That would be fun in the regular season. Kerr did it once last year I think in a real game
I think that’d be an unmitigated disaster, especially for the Giants.
Willie– Roberts is making moves that were determined BEFORE the game starts. He meets with the analytics stiffs and they tell him, they ORDER him, to make certain moves based on who is facing who. Bochy plays match ups but he is the one calling the shots.
Boone admitted to screwing up by basically pre-planning the innings his starter and specific relievers would pitch in certain playoff games. It resulted in him possibly sticking with CC & Severino too long.
As far as platooning, it goes back to Casey Stengel and many others.
Hodges religiously platooned his miracle Mets…
What an idiot.With apologies to all the analytic junkies here, but I think it’s starting to go too far. Pre-planning anything in baseball is a recipe for disaster, if you ask me. And if Roberts truly is being told how to run the game beforehand, that’s proof, IMO.
Speaking of managers, anybody looking forward to another season of Bochy? I’ve seen enough. Hopefully it it will be a passable last season, not brutal…
Agree. I am very appreciative of everything Bochy has brought to the fight, but I am ready for a change. Time for Boch to go fish…
I suspect that right around the time the Giants fall back by double digits, Bochy will head upstairs due to health concerns and Bam Bam gets his audition…
If anybody else would like financial advice, me and my SS check will be at Belmont.
Hot Diggitty in the 3rd for Flap hunch players…
I’m husbanding all resources for a monumental attack on the Breeders Cup next week
I see the next Giants season kind of being like this past one: a pointless drifting in the water.
I think some serious rebuilding might start in ’20.
Time for another lost Wilderness Zumie..
Per yesterday’s thread, I just want to thank the Flappers that talked about their ideas/suggestions/understanding of when to start taking Social Security pay. Some interesting and different takes on the whole thing. As complicated as it is, it seems that it really comes down to one thing: you’re placing a bet on when you’re going to die. That’s not really morbid, it’s just how it is. Start drawing on SS early, you think you won’t live too much longer beyond retirement, and live your life accordingly. Choose to take it later, you’re betting you’ll live longer, and live your life accordingly. I think I’m ready to decide about where to place that bet, but I sure as hell don’t feel ready to acknowledge the death thang…. At some point, I guess we do have to think about the end-game. Anyway, thanks again, great comments.
Good luck my friend.
If Bochy were managing LA, they’d have a shot. He loves power; he would not leave it on the bench. He loves it so much he manages like he has it, when he doesn’t…
I find it hard to say things like, “This Series is over,” if only because I don’t want to jinx it. And this coming from a decidedly not superstitious person. Too much shit can happen and even with the Dudger facing some serious reality, I prefer to wait it out. It was the same with the Giants. Even up 3-0 on Detroit in 2012, I was still hedging my bets. That’s what happens when you’ve been burned too many times in the past. Okay, if Boston wins tonight, I’ll say it.
That said, GO SOX!
I found yesterday’s SS posts very interesting. I’m still a ways off, but the years are starting to fly by and it’s never too soon to start planning. I’ve been pretty good with my money, but enough never seems to be, you know, enough, at least not in my increasingly-addled brain. Thanks to Paul for broaching the topic and the others for the sage advice. And to Loo for his usual comic relief.
As an aside, my elderly mother has to get by on my old man’s $1,800/month SS stipend and it’s not easy, even with her modest living situation, especially because she’s starting to suffer from dementia (she’ll be 89 in December) and her memory has become a serious problem. She’s developed a proclivity for overdrawing her checking account, which has all but forced me to step in and manage her finances the best I can. Point being, it’s easy to run through money like that if you’re not diligent. This whole aging thing is a joy to experience.
So, my inclination is to wait as long as possible to get as much as possible, because I do have longevity in my family tree. But, like the others mentioned, it’s always a balancing act. Just because I have some longevity in the family doesn’t mean I won’t keel over tomorrow. My SS will be a supplement to my other assets, not a primary source of income, but I’m starting to see how tricky of a decision that can be. Personally, I think the feds want people to wait as long as they can because that mean, A. they won’t be paying anything out and, B. the longer you wait the better chance they have that you’ll just end up dying before taking too much out. Just my opinion.
Paul, good luck with whatever you decide. I’m sure you’ll be fine.
As a second aside, you and Steve living in Asia got me looking into U.S. retirees living abroad. There’s even some YouTube channels dedicated it to it. It’s intriguing because of the much lower cost of living, but I’m not sure if I could pull something like that off, leaving the U.S. for good. Evidently quite a few people do it.
Chuck, is that your Facebook page trolling my congresswoman’s race???🤔
If she is a republican, troll away! 😉
My goal when playing poker is to get blitzed drunk with buddies and have fun…money is only secondary.
Robert Earl Keen’s not a great country singer. He ain’t no Steve Earle. But he has his moments.
One thing I have found
There’s just two ways to go
It all comes down
To livin fast
Or dyin slow
“Time for another lost Wilderness Zumie..”
You got it.
This one’s pretty bizarre.
Speaking of money, I’m not a stock market person, but man, the market is crazy these days. Wild swings back and forth. People must be really on edge throughout the day.
Unless you are close to retirement there is no real cause for alarm, IMO. The overall historical return on the stock market is 10% (7% when adjusted for inflation). One year rate of return on my 401k is 14.12%.
NBC fired Megyn Kelly. I know you’re all heartbroken about it.
On the air, she said she didn’t think it was racist if a white person put dark make-up on their face and went for Halloween as “a black person.”
Wow. That’s the kind of tone-deafness a person would have because of working at Fox News so many years.
Piedmont is a little principality entirely surrounded by Oakland. I lived in Piedmont for a while. At Halloween, people from all over used to drive to our neighborhood to enjoy the safe, festive door-to-door trick or treating. Every year we’d have a few black families show up with little kids in regular costumes and parents in white-face. Extra peanut butter cups for those kids!
LJ, actually I am living here in the USA (condo in Colorado). Confession here regarding my marriage and living in Vietnam . . . It isn’t a bed of roses. Not by a long shot. Chuck, Pawlie and Paul are aware of much of what I am going to share with you and the other Flappers, but it’s not going well for a myriad of reasons (some personal, which I wont share here). I have lived for months at a time in foreign countries. No biggie . . . with one caveat – it’s 180 degrees different I have discovered living in a hotel versus being totally immersed in the culture, where you are living on the economy. Language is probably the biggest issue, but there are others as well.
For example, most Vietnamese spec homes and apartments do not have hot water in the kitchen. That’s right, no hot water to wash dishes. Worse, most don’t have dish washers. Additionally, most Vietnamese women – who do all the cooking – prepare the food on the floor. When my mom and aunt visited last January, they were in shock. Same deal in bathrooms, as the sinks do not have hot water. Only the showers have hot water. Consequently, you shave in the shower. What else? No dryers, so you hang your laundry. I am helpless when a repairman or bill collector knocks on the door, as I do not speak Vietnamese. If Linh is not at home and someone comes for the rent, utility, maintenance, or water bills, I have to use hand signals to tell them to come back later when Linh is home. Same deal for the most part at Vietnamese restaurants located away from the tourist areas. Without Linh’s assistance, I am helpless.
Pollution in Saigon is terrible. Traffic is . . . umm, think of the worst traffic you have faced in the bay area and multiply by 10 – yes, it’s that bad. Sheesh, pedestrians can barely walk on the streets due to them being used by vendors and motorbike parking. Want to exercise? Forget about doing it during the day. Similarly, the gyms are not air conditioned. Consequently, you want to be very careful about being hydrated when you’re doing anything strenuous.
The aforementioned is only the tip of the iceberg. That being said, Linh loves me and our baby is a joy. However, I am having a very hard time adjusting to living in Vietnam, where I miss my “luxuries” here in the States, and I often feel dependent on others in Vietnam – a big problem because I am very independent. I am seriously thinking about only going back to visit my baby. In fact, I go back next month, where Linh is allowing me to take back Michele (my daughter) for our big Christmas holiday party in the bay area.
Any chance you could keep her with you in Colorado? Single dad stuff, it’s a gas, man.
No chance Flav. Linh wouldn’t allow it. I’m floored that she is allowing me to have her during Christmas, which is months (May) earlier than what we agreed to initially. My mom is so excited about having the baby for 6 weeks, so I am quite happy about that. My mom is very healthy, but is in her 80s and this is her only grandchild. Linh recognizes that. We really wish Linh could come over too, but with this administration and the current state of immigration, there’s no way we can get her over here. We have tried twice for Visas and failed both times. I better stop now. I get so angry thinking about it.
I wondered, as you have been in Colorado, a lot of late. I remember when we were on our Flapalooza to Boston and NYC, and you and Linh were chatting, facetime, etc. daily (about the time you guys had met, I believe). Glad there is still the love between you two, and your daughter is darling. I am hoping for the best for you brother.
On a separate topic, what do you think about a road trip to Chicago in August? Giants are there Tue-Thur, August 20-22.
Give us a heads-up on your next visit to the Bay Area. Would be good to see you again my friend.
Maybe Chi. August is a long ways off, but I am interested. I will be in the Bay Area from about December 11th to January 25th or so, than back to Vietnam to drop off the baby with Linh.
GH,
That was my same thinking 🤔 playing poker with my buddies, get my skink on!!
Also when I knew I had the winning hand, I would say the Delverance line holding one ear. and say “I want you to squeal like a pig 🐷 boy”!!
lol, no tell there, right?
as to other current events of note, I just read that Steven Spielberg’s next movie will be an adaptation of the play West Side Story. (I can hear the producers making their pitch: “Well, you are the Shakespeare of our time, Steve.”)
Speaking of movies, two music bios are coming out. I think the Freddie Mercury one is arriving maybe this weekend. The previews look terrific. The actor from the TV show “Mr. Robot” looks like he has really channeled Freddie.
The other music movie bio is about Elton John. It may be a much later release date.
The remake of “A Star Is Born,” starring Lady Gaga, is getting good reviews. I vaguely remember the version with Streisand and Kristofferson. I’ve never seen the one starring Judy Garland.
The previews always look terrific. That’s the point.
“Top Youth Soccer Recruits for Trump”
Unbelievable. I have a lot more sympathy for my beleaguered and only semi-competent local mail carrier than I used to.
A little baseball-on-TV history from Baseball Digest:
“August 26, 1939: The first televised MLB game was broadcast by NBC – Cincinnati Reds vs the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York. The broadcast was as crude as you might expect: swings looked like a player was waving a fan, the ball was non-existent on the screen after a hit or during a pitch, and with only two cameras covering the field, lots of action was missed.
But that wasn’t the first baseball broadcast…earlier in the year, NBC broadcast Columbia University and Princeton playing at New York’s Baker Field.
Fast fact: number of homes that had television sets in the New York area in 1939? Only about 500.”
And the first World Series TV broadcast was in 1947. The Yanks topped the Dodgers in 7.
Wait, the Dodgers lost the first televised World Series? Maybe tonight’s game should be on the History channel.
Blade I’m sorry to hear about these struggles in your personal life. If it were me, I could have never cut the cord and tried something like this. But I’m kind of a homebody when it comes to the USA. I hope it works out for you, it would be great if you could convince your wife that letting you raise your daughter in the States would be the best thing for her.
I’ve tried (believe me), but I do recognize her point. Vietnamese, as Paul will tell you, are very supportive, insofar as family. Unbelievable how much they see each other, even if they live hours away. It’s always expected that you will open up your house to them (father, mother, aunts, sisters, brothers, and even the cousins). Quite frankly, that’s another issue – which I never complained openly about – the lack of privacy. It always seemed like someone was spending the night at our place.
the only thing I’d caution against is the time you spend away from your daughter, you are missing a lot, you don’t get that time back. Katie is 15 now but she has spent the last 2 school years in Costa Rica. It’s been very hard on me not having her live with me. The other day she called with a pretty big personal problem and I felt helpless. If she needed a tutor I could get her that. If she needed money, whatever. But this was something I couldn’t just fix. And to be so far away from her while she was dealing with it, man, it was tough.
Anyway, good luck.
It’s already driving me crazy, even with Messenger video chat, it isn’t the same.
Wtf Muncy?
Easy forceout on you at 2nd and you barrel in spikes flying?Feel a payback coming!
Sorry about that, Blade, I misunderstood your living situation. Thanks for the frank insights. I think the idea of living somewhere with a much lower cost of living is appealing to retirees, but the culture shock can be very real. Some of the YouTube stuff I was watching was of a guy living in Thailand where he’s married to a Thai woman. He offers paid services for people considering the move, which are supposed to give them the info they need to acclimate easier. He certainly doesn’t sugarcoat anything.
I think I’m more like Flav. As much as I’ve travelled in my life, with extensive stays in Europe on a couple of separate occasions, at the end of the day I’m something of a homebody at least with regards to permanent residency. Things like hot water are easy to get used to. lol. These are just things I’m looking at. I’ve probably got another 6 or 7 years of working, assuming the stock market stays steady.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought if a foreigner married an American national, they were automatically allowed to live here. And your child is an American citizen, yes?
No, even a spouse (male or female) must go through the Visa process. Our daughter is different because she’s the child of an American citizen, so it was a piece of cake to get the Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA) and USA passport. I could have initially applied for her Social Security number, but we were so beaten up emotionally by the process of getting our Vietnamese marriage certificate (4 months), my 3 year Residency Visa (2 months), and the aforementioned 2 Visas for Linh, that we only requested the SS and Passport. Fast forward a year later, it was literally a cluster fuck trying to get Michele’s Social Security number here in Colorado. First, they told me to bring her original documents (Passport and birth certificate), as I only had copies . . . Fast forward, I go back to Vietnam and bring that stuff back and present them at the SSA office and they said, I had to also have the baby there. I literally lost it . . . Security came over and told me to lower my voice. A supervisor came to the window and asked what was going on. I was just about hyperventilating and ready to cold cock someone, anyone . . . The supervisor was kind and said, please tell me what is going on and maybe I can help. I explained that, “I was initially told by your office to ONLY bring originals of the passport and birth certificate, which I did after returning from Vietnam. Now, this guy (customer service associate) is telling me that I have to have the baby here.” To make a long story short, the supervisor intervened and I received Michele’s social security number. The aforementioned has been typical of our experience trying to obtain these and other official documents. Both the Vietnamese and USA governments are extremely bureaucratic and could give 2 shits about the emotional toll they take on families.
I don’t care how long he plays, I think Draymond Green will always have one of the ugliest jump shots in the league. That thing is as fugly now as the day he came into the league.
Fucking Pederson. Not even him being a Paly brethren can make me like his dumb, smug ass….
Can’t stand the fucker. I wouldn’t mind if he got plunked every few ABs.
Time to remind everyone we took good ‘ol Phil Bickford 6 picks before LA took Bueller…..
And we also drafted Buehler’s teammate Beede.
Yay.
just peeked in on Bickford. Terrible. Can’t get out of A ball. We traded him for Smith so that worked out
Spicoli Phil Bickford just another one on the list of such a terrible draft evaluators the Giants have!!
Get Jason McCleod signed on the dotted line! and let him strip down this whole orq. himself
Sabean,Baer,Barr,Tidrow whoever else,just stay in a locked basement Jason will occasionally check in and give you bread 🥖 and water 💧 and give you all the great moves he makes trades/draft pickups on a loudspeaker
Porcello K’s a guy, at 61 pitches, yanked. Ridiculous.
“Kelly is from Cali but pitches for Boston”…..and they wonder why ratings are so low in this post season……Buck is just the worst.
Machado with the long single.
Ha, quick for him. Think about all the energy he could have saved by just jogging to the dugout.
What a lazy asshole Machado is. Dumb fuck. Baer better be watching this shit and file it for future reference, insofar as making a play for him in free agency.
Wow.
So, can the Sox just start every inning with two outs?
Let’s go.
Collective sigh of 4 million residents in LA (Lost Again). HAHAHAHAHA . . .
Grab some pine meat.
I’m thinking the Dodgers should try and sign Machado, maybe 10 years $500 mil or something like that. You just don’t see a singles hitter with that much flair when they strike out.
gold
Price??
I was thinking the same thing. Doesn’t make sense to me.
Big gamble.
The pitcher, I mean. 🙂
Sunday we’ll see Porcello, assuming it’s still going. The genius of The Intuitive Human Cora.
He forgot to kiss his bat???
Gutsy moves on the bases, come on Eduardo.
Kinsler’s an adventure on the bases.
Seems like a better slide would’ve avoided the tag off that throw up the line
Agreed.
That trip around the bases by Kinsler was a clinic on sketchy baserunning.
Nunez didn’t know enough on that one.
Hey Zumiee, have you checked out any of Kaia Kater’s playing?
The songs I’ve heard, I thought were pretty cool.
I had never heard of her. I’ll check it out.
My favorite album this year is Eliza Gilkyson’s new one. It’s been in my car’s CD player a long time.
Thanks, I’ll check her out.
Need some 2 out majic here.
Hey, Heath Hembree is still around.
Funny all this talk of social security and when we’ll die and i look at my folks who smoked and drank their collective asses off for around 60 years each and both lived to 81.
Come on Bosox! Who the fuck was the guy celebrating the 2 out single in the 10th?
The Dodgers just make me want to puke.
81? I might have to take up smoking again.
My mom smoked those Goddamn filterless Chesterfields for YEARS. She toned it down by smoking Camel Lights at around 60. Dad was a solid 3 pack a day guy. We’d play tennis and he’s take a smoke break between sets. Nuts. I never got more than a pack a day but I smoked for 20 years.
I was a Camel two packer until 5 years last June. I haven’t thought much about cigs lately, but I have been thinking about sitting down with a cigar.
Blade, sorry to hear about your struggles in Viet Nam. That is such a different way of life and culture, let alone all the other baggage between Viet Nam and the US politically. Especially with a child. I’m sure you’ll make it work.
Damn. Score a run, Boston.
Thanks buddy. I appreciate everyone here. .
All Knowing…
Jeez that was a rough series of downs for Nunie. Good outcome though
How about Nunez again!
and of course the fucking Dodgers usual lousy defense as the Sox’s take the lead!!
I’m liking it.
Hard to define “it.” but the Dodgers definitely lack “it.” The Red Sox definitely have “it” though. lol 🙂
“It” is minus the sh, right? 🙂
lol . . . yep.
Wow. That’s rough.
Hmmm, Jack nearly forgot to mention that Boston took the lead.
John, don’t even try a cigar . . . My first 2 attempts at quitting smoking – once for over a year and another time, 6 months – ended with me having after dinner cigars. The cigars quickly escalated back to cigs within a month or so.
Yeah, you’re probably right there, still…
Ouch. I’ve barely smoked pot since I quit smoking cigs almost 20 years ago. And no cigars. I pretty much quit the pot 30 years ago.
It got in the way of my drinking.
So many walks these last 4 innings.
Damn, Nooner gives it up. Doing all he can and then some.
If he didn’t kiss his bat, he’s fucked.
What was that throw?
Puig was dogging down the line. No reason to rush the throw.
WTF???
E-an Kinsler.
What the fuck was that?
Man, that throw was reminiscent of Steve Sax (syndrome).
Maybe not.
Colossal screw up.
Jesus. Puig is “locked in?” He hit a grounder to 2nd. Can they blow more smoke up LA’s ass?
That was Buckner-esque, Kinsler. What a fucking moron. All he had to do was set himself and make a strong throw.
We had his awesome baserunning earlier in the game.
He dug up about 3′ of sod on the plant to throw. But he did have time to reset it looked like.
Kinsler is doing his best to help LA win.