My Faves
Ok, I’m tired of thinking about The Rona. This morning I woke up trying to piece together my favorite all time SF Giants team composed of my favorite all time SF Giants players. This is harder than it sounds, please take your time on this. You got the time, right?
Catcher: Buster Posey. Gotta be. He’s jumped into too many pitchers arms for it to be anyone else.
First Base: The Thrill. My favorite all time player.
Second Base: Jeff Kent. I really wanted to go R-Thompson here but in the end I went with the bombs. And Kent should be in the Hall of Fame.
Shortstop: Thin category. But I ultimately settled on Brandon Crawford—his longevity, his defense and his 2014 slam vs the Pirates was worth more than anything Jose Uribe did for the team. And I loved Jose Uribe.
Third Base: Darrell Evans. His home runs were more fun to watch than any others. Why was that?
Outfield: This is the toughest category so just list 3 outfielders it doesn’t matter what position in the OF they played. I settled on Barry Bonds, Kevin Mitchell and Jack Clark. I had about 10 dudes on the bubble here….
Starting Pitchers: Madison Bumgarner, Tim Lincecum, Mike Krukow, Jason Schmidt and John Montefusco. Lots of guys bubbled this category, too. The Count slipped in 5th due to his rad nickname…..
Closer: Bee-Wheezy. Almost entirely for 2010. And that was enough.
Ok, whatcha guys got? And don’t say The Rona…..
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Almost the same for me with a few exceptions. For OF, I would go with Bonds, Chili Davis and the Hac Man. I would have The Big Daddy and John Burkett as my four and five starters. Really tempted to go with Shooter Beck as my closer but your right about 2010, so I gotta stick with Wilson.
Mitchell bumped Hac Man off my list. Burkett was actually #4 on my list till Schmidt and The Count usurped him. Same with Beck, I had him as my pick until I couldn’t get the image of Wilson turning his back on the plate and pointing to the sky out of my head.
Favorite or best you saw?
People forget that the young Matt Williams was considered a better SS than 3B…
I know you said favorite.
I’ll figure it out…
BF, I like your picks; except, as an older person, I’d switch out Clark in the outfield, and put in Bobby Bonds, and have the father/son combo in the outfield.
I’d keep Lincecum and Bum in the starting rotation and add Cain, Marichal, and Perry.
I’m not old enough to have seen (or heard on radio) Mays and McCovey in their better seasons, so I’ll leave them off, as I’m taking your post as meaning players that we “experienced” ourselves.
since I’m lot older than you guys I’d go back to the ’60s for all time greats
. Mac takes 1b (barely over Cepeda), Mays is in the OF with Bobby and his son (yes OF is very tough call) , Marichal starts so does Gaylord (over Kruk and Count) Vizquel is my SS . Nen closes,set up by Affeldt Romo and Casila (potential for an AB there worth price of admission).
Visquel and Casilla, wow!
Just to be clear, this is “generational?” Best players we experienced in our lives as Giants fans?
your favorites. So, you had to have seen them play. Barry Bonds shot me off my couch more times than I can count, therefore, he’s in that outfield.
I loved so many non-greats like Jesus Alou (autocorrect is partial to Christ) and Candy Maldonado.
Much easier to make an all hate team…
yeah I almost put something like that in earlier post. Would make a fun list too, of guys not all that great or who didn’t play much but you always got a kick out of seeing them do well. Jesus for sure Ollie Brown Willie Montanez..
3b is tough too just not a lot of standouts or cool players. Darrell Evans did play there a bit, didn’t he?
I think a least favorite list by position is a great idea. Guys who you couldn’t stand seeing in the game because you felt they sucked or someone better should have been playing.
Or guys you just flat out hated like AJ Pierzinski.
Good idea. Parker, Panik, Benitez definitely make it along side Pierzinski.
rowand and “his hands are bleeding” after 500 swings in the cage. Um how much good this do you?
Mike Kingery.
He had the upper body of a pipe cleaner…
Neifi Perez and Edgar Alfonso land on the all suckitude list somewhere too.
Couldn’t stand Mark Carreon (my wayward son)…
Catchers: Posey with Sandoval as backup/bench bat
First Base: Clark
Second Base: Thompson. Almost went Durham here. Agree that Kent should be in the Hall.
Shortstop: Crawford. Best SS to man the spot in SF imo.
Third Base: Mueller
Utility: Juan Uribe
Outfield: Barry Bonds, Butler and Pence. Chili as the 4th outfielder. Burkes and Mitchell were bubble guys.
Starting Pitchers: Bumgarner, Lincecum, Jason Schmidt, Cain, Mulholland
Bullpen: Nenn, Romo, Casilla, Petit, Affeldt, Minton
Closer: Wilson
Bochy
One of about the only benefits of being old is that you got to see the REAL greats of SF Giants….Mays, McCovey and Cepeda.
Bottom of 10th with Mays on first and a clean single to right field. Mays goes to 3rd as the RFr lobs in a safe throw. As it is coming in, I saw Mays out of the corner of my eyes coming home! Either the 1st or 2nd baseman fields the throw as fans scream and throws wildly to the plate and Mays scores. Game over. I think it was 1962.
McCovey blast off Drysdale over the fence and up against the far fence separating the parking lot from the stadium was my biggest thrill in BB.
Mays, McCovey and Marichal must be on any SF team.
Stay safe Flappers.
OSF
C: Buster
1B: JT Snow–tough one as i did see some Willie Mac and LOVED Willie Montanez during his short stint n SF.
2B: Kent
SS: Speier (my first glove had his autograph AND I got his bat on Bat Day one time, so the bond there was strong) And yes, it was a full size bat and yes, growing up in the 70’s was awesome.
3B: Williams
OF: Bonds, Bonds, Kingman (Bobby is my all time favorite Giant and Kingman has always fascinated me. The first HR I can remember seeing live was hit by Kingman when he was on the Giants at Candlestick. Barry saved baseball in SF.
Timmy
Bum
Billy Swift (he was awesome in ’93)
Burkett (he was pretty damn solid and he and I were born on the same day)
Trevor Wilson (I really liked him. He had a lot to do with naming son #2 Trevor)
Beck—first time I heard of him I was at spring training for the frist time. 1991 maybe? He came in to mop up late in the game and we were like who the hell is this guy? Never would have guessed he would have turned into such a stud.
His control was amazing and man did he have guts on the mound.
Almost went with Swift and Burkett too. Liked watching both of those guys.
I considered both strongly.
Barry, FredL, Garry Maddox, Belt, Fuentes, Crawford, Chris Brown, Posey, Krukow, Swift, Schmidt, Timmy, The Count, and Beck.
Maddox. Great one.
My first favorite player, no way he does not make it.
Jonathan Sanchez nearly bumped Kruk, who was so incredible the year he won 20.
Tons of great players to choose from, but being from the older crowd and seeing the greats with a few surprises
1B McCovey( he just was so intimidating to watch as a kid)
2B Jeff Kent( HOF that’s sadly is not)(Thompson)
SS Crawford (Royce Clayton)
3B Williams(honorable mentions my old schoolers Davenport &Hart)
C Posey (Haller&Dietz)
OF Mays,and both Bobby&Barry Bonds ( with honorable mentions for Clark,Maddox,Matthews ,Mitchell,and a underated Ken Henderson
SP..Marichal,Perry,Lincecum,Schmidt,Bumgarner honorable mention Cain,Big Daddy,Swift&Burkett
BP..Romo,Affeldt,Wilson,Casilla,Petit,Minton
Closer RHP Nen LHP Gary Lavelle
Ok, where the hell is Romo? Senor Frisbee has to be on my list.
That greatest/favorite line is tough…
Watching Romo wipe out Tigers yesterday was awesome. Mixed in the occasional fastball 88-89 ish with the no dot slider at 77, unhittable to right hand hitters.. Plus he was goofy little guy. There was a great commercial where he is riding in back seat with 2 doofus giants promo guys who are stealing his “that’s what’s up” line. Finally he goes, “that’s like exactly what I say” while they ignore him, and he just shakes his head and goes “wow.”
Look at Romo’s 2019 stats. He is easily the best reliever SF has ever had.
yes.
Affeldt # 2?
Twin’s (my best guess)
catcher: Big Titty
first base: Cepeda
second base: no idea
SS: no idea
3rd: Panda
OF: Torres, Torres, Torres
SP: Dirty Sanchez, Marichal, Perry, Bum, Timmy
Closer: Casilla
Think I came close?
That’s a pretty great list. He loved the second Uribe at SS.
That’s excellent. I think he liked Ray-Ray and Fuh-leeze.
“Chuckles” would know, I bet…
That’s right, I was always sorry I joined the Splash too late to join in on the Durham Defense. He was an excellent player for SF, the best 2B after Kent. Maybe not a juicer.
Oh Twin’s SS easily Renteria he could no wrong in his eyes.I battled with him over his uselessness a lot!
Ok so you give him his epic home run which tilts the scales some for a lot, not me,but in my eyes the guy SUCKED along with a washed up Tejada.
Yep, the roster is now complete.
Garrelts was done at 29. I forgot about that. I always hated Roger Craig, in the dugout, the biggest dumbshit of a manager ever, so let’s say it was the splitter.
How could you hate Humm Baby/LBJ?
He supposedly changed their attitude towards the Stick…
Look at Will Clark’s SB stats under Craig. The ridiculous pitch outs and squeeze plays. God, it drove me crazy. Humm Baby was . . . unenlightened.
Craig was encouraging every pitcher to throw the splitter, and that is wrong. Not every pitcher is built to throw that pitch. It puts a lot of strain on an arm. Just widely separate your index finger and middle finger and feel the strain go up your arm to your elbow. Giants pitching was a sore-arm factory under Craig.
No one ever seems to mention the split as a possible reason for Lincecum’s early loss of velocity.
Evil people suck.
“A painting by Vincent van Gogh was stolen overnight from a Dutch museum that is currently closed due the coronavirus pandemic.
The Singer Laren museum, just outside the Dutch capital city of Amsterdam, said van Gogh’s “The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring” was stolen in an overnight raid.”
Never heard of the painting before; but I ain’t no art historian.
No bright colors way up North of the French Riviera.
I never understood the thought process behind stealing famous works of art. Everyone knows it’s stolen. Who’s going to hang it on their wall? It would be like kidnapping a screaming kid for ransom money. At some point, the thief must regret that decision.
Yeah, it’s a weird phenomenon. It comes up in the novel “The Goldfinch,” but I don’t remember much from the novel. I liked the novel, but can’t remember it well. A young guy steals a famous painting after an art museum gets damaged by a terrorist bomb.
Man, this wasn’t easy. Here goes:
C — Bob Brenly. Gets the nod over Buster for being a Met killer.
1B — Willie McCovey. Only saw 70s Stretch. Still had some good years, and saw him hit a bomb in person at the Vet.
2B — Robby Thompson. Easy choice.
SS — Omar Vizquel. Barely over Craw. A rare bright spot in those lost years 2005-08.
3B — Pablo Sandoval. Had a tough time with this one, aggravating at times, but he’s fun to watch and loves being a Giant. Juan Uribe a close runner-up.
OF — Bobby Bonds. An early fave, though never saw in person as a Giant (did with Yanks). All-Star Game MVP in ’73 was rare point of pride as Giants fan in 70s.
OF — Kevin Mitchell. Could also work for 3B in ’87-88.
OF — Hunter Pence. An oddball who plays his ass off, that’s easy to root for.
SP — MadBum, Timmy, Mike Krukow (another Met killer), John Montefusco (hometown Jersey guy!). A tie for 5th spot: Jim Barr and Don Robinson. Barr had that consecutive batters retired record for a long time, I always dug that. And Robinson was a pretty good pitcher who could hit, always a plus.
RP: Man, I hate closers, but gotta go with Romo.
RP — Javier Lopez. Loved watching him get all those lefties out in the WS seasons, especially Howard and Utley.
Utility: Joaquin Arias. Seemed like this guy always made things happen in big spots.
Caveman tied for 5th! Nice!
Here’s the deal with Roger Craig–it was the 80’s, he couldn’t manage that way anymore. He did destroy many, many arms by teaching everyone to throw the splitter. But, he turned the franchise around. Guys who thought they were losers started to believe they weren’t. That went a long way back then.
I’m putting McCovey in the outfield with Mays and Bonds, Clark 1st, Morgan 2nd, Visquel ss, Williams 3rd, Posey C. Marichal, Perry, Sanford, Timmy, Cain, Big Daddy, Nen, Miller(he was fun to watch). Not all these guys were my favorite but i felt the best at their positions
a Morgan sighting.Very nice.
i definitely forgot to put Bum on that list.
Lots of tough choices…
C: Posey
1B: The Thrill
2B: Kent
SS: Crawford
3B: Williams
OF: Barry, Butler, Chili
SP: Timmy, Bum, Swift, Big Daddy Rick Reuschel, Cain
Closer: Shooter
Manager: Bochy
lotta guys going with Cain, I just never really warmed up to him. Don’t know why.
Agree on Twin loving Renteria. I mostly stayed out of Twin’s way, but I did battle him regarding Renteria–who I agree with Kat was mostly awful for us.
MIxed feelings on Roger Craig for me as well. I do think he brought a great attitude to the team and restored some pride when it was badly needed. But, I hated all of the pitchouts/bunting/wild steal attempts too.
And I liked the split finger. He resurrected the careers of guys like Mike LaCoss with that pitch.
All in all, I give Craig a thumbs up, but I know where James is coming from.
Good to see Caveman get some love. It was uncanny how many times we was the starting pitcher when I went to see the Giants play. Same thing with Matt Cain. I bet I saw him pitch live 12-15 times and I don’t go to a ton of games.
I cannot BELIEVE I forgot Renteria for Twin. To me, Rent is just like Zito. He gave us a championship. That puts him in *Forever Great Giant* category for me….
well no way he was going with Crawford. He even used to defend Tejada iirc.
I’m also partial to 1980’s guys who would indulge my pre-game drunken nonsense during BP at Shea.
Venable, Brenly, LaPointe, O’Malley, Nicosia, a coach named Van Ornum (?) all come to mind.
Plus my first 2 autographs in the 60’s, Ron Herbel & Ron Hunt…
O’Malley was one of those guys like Panik who just looked like he had to be better than he was.
1983 opening day 50,000 at the Stick.
Actor Yul Brenner attempts to throw out the opening pitch as Mike Krukow is warming up for the start and laughing as he throws a 3 hopper to the plate!
Game starts and Krukow’s elbow is barking as he gives up 4 runs in an 1 1/3 innings.Manager Frank Robinson goes out to pull him and tells him “Yul Brenner had better stuff then you today” 🤣🤣
Love it when Krukow tells that story.
1987 was Craig’s year with that unremarkable pitching staff finishing #1 in ERA. Jeff Robinson . . . . but even then the infusion of Dravecky, Mitchell, and Lefferts probably meant the difference between the division and another 83 win team.
Other than that, all I see is a significant boost in talent with Clark, Mitchell, Butler, Thompson, Williams and role players like Maldanado and Aldrete shining briefly. And Craig actually getting in the way of their productivity with his preposterous over managing.
Ron Herbel might have been worst hitting pitcher ever. By contrast Renie Martin could rake.
As for old Humm Baby, he did get things going again in right direction, with big assist from GM Al rosen. Giants were awful before that; I could barely listen to them on radio.
Reading through stuff by guys like Darling, some pitching coaches can be counterproductive.
Darling has one book where he goes through all the major type of pitches in each chapter. It’s fantastic, and I do know he talked to Craig. I think Darling’s take was split is not for everyone, plus there is a proper way to throw it that should not bother your arm any more than sliders etc..
I mean guys that never threw one in their life have gotten injured all the time, especially today.
1B: Stretch (Will backup)
2B: Robby Thompson (Kent backup)
SS: Crawfish (Speier backup)
3B: Matt Williams (DEvans backup)
OF: Mays, Maddox, Barry (Bobby, Mitchell, Leonard backup)
C: Buster (Dietz backup)
SP: Marichal, Schmidt, Timmy, Bummie, Perry (Burkett, Krukow, The Count, McCormick, Cain backups)
RP: Shooter, Weezy, Romo, Affeldt, Nen (Don McMahon, Moon Man, Mota, Casilla, Nathan backups)
I think I’m swapping out Williams for DEvans thanks for the idea…
Yo, Flavor. Maybe this Rona will put you back in a positive state of mind!
Nice Chuck! Great song, they sure at the right Knack with that album cover!
Oops that was for you Dirt!!!
about 6 weeks ago me and a buddy were bored at work and wrote a song called *No Carona* to this, it was pretty funny. I think I left the lyrics at work the day we shut down.
One time at Fenway Park, Elrod Hendricks most certainly DID NOT indulge my pre-game drunken banter as I tried to talk to a journeyman pitcher named Mike Griffin who went to my high school and was getting his final warm-up pitches in before taking the mound for the start. Ellie was a coach at that point. He chased my ass out of there in a big hurry.
Griffin WAS going against Roger Clemens that night, so maybe it was a little messed up of me to be distracting him 5 minutes before the game started. I was supposed to get in there earlier, but we were drinking 40’s on the steps of Dunkin Donuts right near Fenway and I lost track of time. (The 80’s weren’t bad either.)
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS198707010.shtml
lee Oakland lacy playing RF and batting second for the O’s. McClymonds Laney College product. guy could hit just had tough job finding place to play in the field, career .286 BA.
We saw him as a Pirate in early 80s and as me and buddy are leaving the Stick afternoon game this striking hot gal talks to my buddy and tells us she’s his cousin, Veronica.
A Dave LaPointe sighting!! Ouch. He was part of the Jack the Ripper trade, right? Think we got oooreeeebayyyy in that deal as well.
Yeah just another dumbass trade by the Giants getting rid of “The Ripper” who led the Cards to back to back pennants! And what did the Giants get? LaPoint 1season 7-17 and one of my hated Giants for one season as well 1B David Green total LOSER!!
Best player they ended up getting was the throw in Jose Uribe who manned SS for years and was a fan favorite as the chant of OoooRibe caught on big..
After Romo and Beck, there’s Jeff Brantley to complete the troika of overachievers. The way he’d pitch up in the strike zone with his average at best fastball was very cool.
Clearly, this observation was so profound, there was nothing left for anyone else to add to this thread.
nickname was “are the bases loaded yet?” because if they weren’t when he came in they would be soon.
Giants TV network is showing a game tonight, but it’s a game they showed last week (a Timmy no-hitter.)
Sheesh, repeating stuff? Open the vault some more!
You probably have the same issue that they have here.
They refuse to show the home team losing.
So silly, especially after 3 titles…
Guess the thought is nobody wants to see Solomon Torres biggest start and failure in 1993 in the last game of the season getting blown out by the Dodgers to prevent the Giants playing a 1 game winner takes all against the Braves! (That’s 2 on Baker that dumb decision to start him and taking Russ Ortiz out when he was dominant in the W/S 2002 and handing him the ball which only pissed off the Angels and started the famous collapse)
I don’t see why some people are down on Roger Craig? This team under Robinson and the one almost full year out of Davenport were pathetic in the early 80’s.Once Craig came on board plus “The Hebrew Hammer Al Rosen as GM they both instilled a winning attitude out the team while dumping dead weight players that didn’t fit in,with kids like Will Clark and Robbie Thompson that did,with they’re all hustle determination which was contagious starting in 86-87…
Craig was perfect for the team at the time. Just what they needed, actually. But, his approach wouldn’t fly today.
Think Brantley and Will Clark both taken 1985 draft, both from Mississippi St. Brantley used to show up on ESPN Baseball tonite, seemed pretty old school obnoxious.
Tonight’s cocktail:
1 oz Macallan 12 yr
1oz Cynar
1 oz Carpano Antica
https://www.diffordsguide.com/cocktails/recipe/3517/sin-cyn-cocktail
Great idea Craig! Lots of the same but here goes.
C: Posey
1B: The Thrill (My all time fav Giant)
2B: Kent (Toss up with Robby T). How the F can Kent not get HOF love?
SS: Crawford
3B: Williams ( Almost Evans. Loved that guy and have him charging out of the Tigers dugout in my head right now:)
OF: Barry, Mitchell, Clark. My all time fav Giant till Will showed up. At 1st I was pissed they gave out J Clarks number!
SP: Timmy (#1 by a MILE), Bum, Burkett (Loved the bowler set up!) , Reuschel, Schmidt
Set up Romo!!!
Closer: Nen
Manager: Bochy
Who says pitchers can’t become great bowlers?
John Burkett has an incredible 32 perfect games of 300 on his resume and a PBA Senior title to his credit…🎳
This year’s Wimbledon is now cancelled.
Is they’re any sport that hasn’t been cancelled?
What a great topic….but is this just a list of fav Giants that we have seen in person??? Otherwise Mays, McCovery, Marichal and Cepeda are locks.
Im sure these have been already pointed out but to go Matt Williams easily for 3rd and Kent definitely at second with Bonds, Mitchell and I go Chili Davis over Jack Clark. And I say Johnny Lemaster at short for being an icon!!! The Shooter as my closer!!!
I never saw The Count so I put Russ Ortiz in as my 5th starter…should have been the winning pitcher for the first San Francisco Giants world series championship clinching game!!!
Roger Craig always my manager…no question!!!
And my four set-up arms in the pen are all from that bad-ass 2010 pen…Romo and Casilla from the right-side and Affeldt and Javier Lopez from the left. I think that pen with Bdiddy Wilson closing may be arguably the best pen in baseball history for a single year (even though Instill go Shooter Beck) god rest his soul…Kirk Reuter, Reuschel amd Cain as my 3 honorable mentions as starters…Greg Minton as well…
I also have to have Dave Dravecky as a very honorable mention and Butler my 4th OF along with Pence and Jack Clark….
Brenly as my backup catcher and Im going with 7 hitters on my bench with the 3 OF and Brenly previously mentioned leaving me 3 IF so I have to have Panda there with Robby Thompson and Jose Uribe slightly ahead of Crawford!!!
I’ll see your John Birch Society member and raise you one God Squadder:
Gary Lavelle:
“The Bay Area is the center of devil worship, radical groups, and homosexuality in the country. It is a satanic region.”
And then my fav past time of naming a lineup!!!
1) Chili Davis
2) Will Clark
3) Jeff Kent
4) Barry Lamar Bonds
5) Kevin Mitchell
6) Jeff Kent
7) Matt Williams
8) Johnny Lemaster!!! We dont need any offense from SS….
If I have to break up all those righty power bats i would stick Panda in place of Matty Williams after Mitchell and ahead of Jeff Kent.
Butler? Sorry, a douche of the highest order. He jizzing himself to go to LA made me puke.
Still one of my faves because that ’89 team is such a fond memory!!!
Douche aside, he might’ve been the only pure leadoff hitter the team ever had outside of Lofton for 2 months.
Mays had nothing hitting in front of him for the better part of a decade…
And still in search of a franchise CFer…Dubon our next hope?? I think the Duggar train has left the station…
Give Jaylin Davis 500 AB’s and find out if he’s “The Man” to roam CF!!
I even had high hopes for Greg Litton…
Fun fact about 2010 Giants:
Forgotten relievers Chris Ray, Dan Runzler, Ramon Ramirez, and Denny Bautista were a combined 9-0 in a total of 125 games…
Speaking of forgotten men on purpose,Chad”The Gurney Molester”Gaudin whohas his best year 5-2 3.06 era with the Giants in 2013 in consequently turned out to be his last year in baseball! One of his roles with the Giants was that they used him as a “Swingman” Lol 😂
Who didn’t love The Groper?!?!?!?
Is there a Jim Ray Hart or a Rich Aurilia up above there somewhere?
Tito Fuentes, Tom Haller?
I’ve got Jimmy Ray Hart along with Jim Davenport as my backup 3B behind Williams.
And Tom Haller&Dick Dietz behind Posey at Catcher!
But you know now I’m giving a prop at Catcher for John Boccabella, because when the public announcer would introduce him with this epic drawn out Italian punctuation the whole crowd of 1,500 back then would all chant his name Bocabellllllla in unison it was hilarious 😂
James had Fuentes. Haven’t seen the other three.
Ooops, didn’t see Kat’s post. That leaves Aurilia.
I think Tim’s the most popular pitcher in SF history. Even more than Marichal for obvious reasons.
Possibly most beloved Giant since Stretch…
This is wicked cool. Not a huge Elvis fan, but with all the Beatles talk (wait for it) there’s little about the King.
Lots of good plays behind Timmy’s first no-no. DIdn’t see this the other day.
Hunter Pence in right field. Easy. And Matt Duffy at 3rd.
we almost made it through this thread without a Duffy sighting. Damn.