We Are In (For Now)
I have not been paying attention to the MLB 2020 post season structure. But with the exciting news that the Giants are currently IN I decided to look it up.
Eight teams from each league get in. Three division winners, 3 runners up, and……two *best teams remaining* baby. That’s where we slide in.
Currently 7th, we are looking back and down on the Mets who are in 8th.
Make no mistake this is a sham season. The Cardinals are in right now and they’ve played about half as many games as everyone else.
But as long as they’re gonna keep bulldozing through the pandemic why not enjoy the run? What else you got to do?
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Agree, sham season, but that is the case for all teams. So, if you’re gonna play, may as well play for all the marbles.
This team continues to amaze. The biggest change I have seen of late is they way Kap is managing the team. He seems to be settling in. While our boys did commit an error yesterday, they are overall playing cleaner ball. The offense keeps on rolling.
What a bitch to have an off day when your steamrolling. I predict we take two of three from the bums.
Really enjoying watching everything Joey Batts!! How he us handling the catching…his down low to the ground with no runners on and he is truly a smasher. This team with the Solanos and Flores’ and Yaz just keeps at it and Slater continues to surprise, this team can manufacture runs and get the long ball. Belt and Crawford topping out at what they can do and we are stuck with them for now…good luck to you Hunter…
He got comfortable quick, didn’t he?
Already looks like a veteran.
Having no one in the stands probably takes away some pressure and nervousness…
Let’s steal one!
That would make 4 in 11 which would top the Red Sox who have 4 in 15.
Still need a closer, don’t we?
The silence on Gott is ridiculous.
Don’t any reporters ask about him?
Agree, Loo. Why the fuck not steal one. I like the way ya think, brother.
IMO we still need a closer. Not sure WTF is going on with Gott, but no way in hell I want him in a close situation. Not even sure I want him in the 8th with a slim or couple run lead. He needs to be an inning eater until he proves…uh, proves something.
I think roster move are sign Kap is figuring out what he has/what he needs and Z/H finalizing the moves.
With how well Wilmet Solano and Slater are hitting, Pence is expendable and less important than Coonrod.
Sandoval, while still here, is on thin ice. The LHs are not good outside of Yaz. Duggar at least fills CF a position of need defensively. sando is down to DH/PH duties. Dickerson bought himself more time with bomb yesterday, but still.
Adding IF from Rays is reflection of Kap being worried about backup for Longo I guess. He doesn’t trust Wilmet or Solano over there in case Longo needs some off days or gets hurt and Sando is out of question.
this is good and bodes well for not just next month but next season as well.
the idea of Sandoval on thin ice is pretty funny
yeah huh
remember Phils OF Lonnie Smith used to be known as “Skates” for some adventures in LF.
Lonnie Smith — the only player who could keep both teams in the game at the same time, right? Whenever I catch sight of a reference to mlb’s cocaine 80s I think of Smith. Howe, Gooden, Strawberry, Raines — even Dusty and One Flap Down were prominent to one degree or another. But Smith really embodied the drug, somehow.
Good synopsis. And agree…thought of Pablo on thin ice is damned funny. I would not be surprised that within a week he is gone.
Don’t know if extravaganzas like the Ice Capades still exist, but if they do, I could envision El Gordo doing the “Baby Elephant Dance” routine from a ca 1940 Disney Production.
Updated, a purely cartoon/animation version of him with skates attached to his gut by guy-wires, swirling around in circles and loops could be attractive to the youngest crowd. He’d be in full uniform, of course. Imagine a host of chubby kids becoming Giants fans for the strangest of reasons. No, I haven’t smoked anything in over 4 years, just attempting to relate to contemporary mindsets.
Gott was warming up yesterday so it’s not like they shut him down or anything.
I know. I just do not want to see him in any games, 8th or 9th innings, where the lead is relatively close.
It they happen to be up by more than five runs, or we are, then it is not unlikely that Gott will get his shot.
According to my figures,they owe Gott about $109G for the remainder of this season…
Chomp Chomp…GULP…
Eat it…DFA.
It’s not how Z/Harris/Kapler operate, though. They are convinced his stuff is good. It will be up to Kapler to try to nuture that talent along. They’re still pretty high on Gott. But, clearly, they wanted to give him a break, and take him out of the heat of battle for a while. If they get to the point where they lose faith in him, they’ll just demote him back to Sac.
Z isn’t into the concept of a guy who’s just a middle reliever innings-eater. That’s old school thinking. That’s sort of where D-Rod is right now. Is he even on the team right now?
Yeah, he’s in Sacto with the scrubbinis.
Well, they can’t all be closers. And Mr. Kotter seems to be getting even higher on Jolly Rogers. TOFLR Tony Watson may be ready to step into the role, but Kapler is taking a very cautious approach with Watson these days, so that’s unlikely.
Gott is in Sacto? I do not see any transactions on Giants site that shows he was moved to the Alternate Site.
No, I was talking about D-Rod.
They’d need a lead like this before I’d feel safe using Gott again.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN198807090.shtml
Chris Speier had 5 hits. How insane is that?
2 home runs and 5 ribbies as well. Part of his epic comeback tour with the Giants.
Actually, it appears Speier had one HR that day. Also with HRs Boogie Bear (Mitchell), Melvin, Will the Thrill, and Ernie Riles. Mitchell with four RBIs, too. Thanks for sharing Mac, and agree…we would need a lead like that to bring in Goff.
Kelly Downs just couldn’t stay healthy.
Thought he coulda had a big career…
Yeah I was a big Kelly Downs fan, when he was on he was as good as anyone in stretches.But yes injury bug always seem to hold him back..
greatest horse racing name in baseball history….
The Giants scored 21 runs, and the game was STILL under 3 hours.
Giants might as well give up on big ticket FAs and not count too heavily on home grown talent.
They do their best work in the discount bins and trash heaps…
Tommy fucking Lasagna
Fuck Tommy Lasagna…too damned funny though.. a fucking mascot getting tossed. Has that ever happened outside of that incident?
I don’t think so, bu he did famously beat up the Phillie Phanatic once.
Lasorda was a dickwad but that is funny. My favorite memory of Lasorda was in 82 when Morgan hit the homer to RF. I was sitting on the 1st base side and had a clear view into their dugout, he looked like a whipped dog.
Only Tommy would of been a dick enough to get a mascot tossed..
Gott just became to much of an enigma for the team..
They probably told him, look here’s how it works:”The train moves but not the station,hop on board to Sac”
Kap stupidly put him back in a high leverage situation. There was the obvious chance that it would bolster his confidence if he succeeded. But the risk of failure was there and it was a risk that was so catastrophic it might literally ruin Gott (which I think it has). You can put a vet right back out there but these young pitchers….way too risky.
He’ll be 28 on Weds., 5 years older than Joey Bart.
6th year?
ooops
i know how old Gott is, thanks. 27 is still young but if you would have preferred I should have said *inexperienced*. The guy has never really found a home until last year. Should he feel more confident? I probably wouldn’t if I was him, he’s been hanging on the periphery of MLB his entire career…..
Gott gave up 5 HRs in 57 pitches, which has to be a pretty rare feat, one that has a lot more to do with extraordinarily bad luck than anything else. I didn’t try to look for comparisons to other relievers, but here are the record holders for HRs in a game and inning:
https://tinyurl.com/y6yxs48y
James Shields threw 94 pitches to give up 6 HRs on 8/7/10
he seemed like a real find last year. But that was the first real consistent success he’s had up here. I didn’t check his minor league stats but I am guessing he’s bounced back and forth a lot, what else could account for only 135 innings pitched since 2015? I don’t know his injury history.
The guy could hardly be considered a confident grizzled vet. And I’ll be very surprised if he bounces back from last week’s melt down. He’s young and inexperienced and it was stupid of Kap to put him in a situation that had a chance to work out for him like it did.
I looked up Strickland’s 2014 postseason:
8.1 innings/6 homers
Seems like people only remember LaSorda “moments”
Nobody ever brings up his managerial skills for better or worse…
i still can’t believe he’s not dead yet. How fucking old is that guy? All he did was drink martinis and shovel pasta in his pie hole. Shocked he’s still kicking
LaSorda was a damn good manager.
His teams kicked our ass for a decade and a half.
Hate for him was often the only thing that kept Giants fans interested in Doghair games…
Lasorda was easy to hate, he loved playing the stick crowd. He probably was a good manager but all i really knew was their pitchers owned us for the most part. Can’t tell you how many times I saw Welch, Hershiser, and Pena. They owned us. We usually could make a game of it against Fernando but even then we usually lost. They had some really good teams.
Gott has had some injuries. Likely that by trying to help him kap ruined him, at least for a while. Sandler has him with a BPX of 103 for what that is worth. Some of it was bad luck. The homer on Monday wasn’t even a strike. batter reached down to get it. Swing and miss and maybe Gott still the closer.
Really bad luck that I really believe we win both the wrecked games vs A’s if not for the horible defense
Lasorda was ashamed that he had a gay son, and embarrassed that his son died of AIDS. To this day, Lasorda denies his son was gay, and insists his son died of cancer. I would say Lasorda was a rotten father.
As for human qualities—Tommy LaSoreButt didn’t have many. In some ways his old-school approach achieved measures of success. In other respects he was still stuck in a Victorian era mindset. It is highly likely that he grew up in an extremely patriarchal culture–in his case quite likely pre-Vatican II.
LaSorda is 92 same age as Vin Scully which defeats all thoughts that a 2 martini 🍸🍸
are eating linguini and meatballs all your life is bad for you!
Remember these health nuts runner Jim Fixx drops dead at 52!
Are Mr. Granola cereal and healthy eating nuts 🥜 whatever Euell Gibbons dead at 64!
Doesn’t matter your lifestyle I believe in heritage more on lifespan.Your parents reach close to 90 so will you..
This was a great Lasorda moment:
I listened to the radio broadcast of that game. Even if it was the Cards rather than the Giants, Jack Clark brought vindication.
Remember that game well, big mistake by Tommy boy pitching to one of my favorite Giants Jack”The Ripper”Clark! Man even after the 1st pitch bomb, his extra slow swagger around the bases was awesome 👏
Never get even today when 1st base is open and your best hitter is up,these managers will still pitch to them?
Lasorda had a long run with tons of talent and won 2 World Series—the same as Tom Kelly. I don’t find that super impressive. Admittedly, I genuinely can’t stand the guy and have nothing good to say about him.
I’d be down with a Tim Scott presidency.
Buck the Fums! BEAT LA!
Very first guy Gott faced this year, Will smith in LA, homered off him. Piscotty said Gott made him look bad on curve so he thought he might get another one and added that’s all he has, curve and fastball. One hanger later. bomb. Having 98 is one thing, being able to locate it with movement quite another, especially in juiced ball era.
Change/split that Gausman has seems like better repertoire.
Pitching is always gonna matter to any win streak–Mac noted how few runs Giants gave up. Hank today the ERA of the starters during the win streak in 2.48. Offense is fun to watch and even BC have contributed to it lately, but let’s see how sustainable the starting pitching can be going forward. Maybe more innings the better.
Remember, before the win streak this was 8-16 team on big downer and we were down on pen etc. It’s taken 6 Ws just to approach .500.
Wasn’t there a kazoo giveaway at the Stick, so fans could play Roll Out the Barrel when Lasorda walked out onto the field, but the kazoos were thrown at him instead? Not sure if this is a memory or something that I wanted to see happen.