RIP
Very sad to wake up to the news that Clifford Robinson had passed away. He was always one of my favorite players mostly because of his attitude and the way he carried himself–he was a total badass. I was going to Lewis and Clark when he was just beginning his career with the Blazers. I was at a club he was at one night, he was dancing in the middle of the dance floor with like 3 chicks, he was high as fuck. I told my girlfriend “hey that’s Cliff Robinson” (he was “Cliff” at the beginning of his career before he went to “Clifford”) and we went out and started dancing right next to him for a while. It was so much fun. I don’t know why this memory has always been so vivid for me but I remember it like it was last night.
A’s traded for La Stella—to me, that’s about the ceiling of what we can expect regarding moves before the deadline. Some “La Stella’s” getting moved and others not at his quality level.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Oh that’s too bad about Robinson. He was in GS for short while toward end of career. LaStella only brought the Angels Barreto, who has been bust so far for A’s and hardly played.
More I think about it I’m coming around to idea of this being sham season. I was into it earlier especially after jonesing for any sports up to July when baseball came back. Still though, I think lot of numbers being put up are ultimately only halfway reliable and might not tell true story of how good or not a player really is.
Pete Alonso just hit his 6th HR of season and is batting .220 with middling .750 OPS.
Manny Machado has 11 HRs, slugging 100 points higher than his Balt days and has OPS over 1.ooo
Pads lineup last night had 6 guys in it, including Hosmer, with OPS over .900
Bellinger is hitting .220 with .750 ish OPS and Muncy is even worse.
Pirates Josh bell is hitting .204. He has 2 doubles 2 HRs and .500 something OPS. Last season 37 doubles 37 bombs and .900 OPS
Brian reynolds, the guy SF traded for Cutch, hit .314 last year with 37 doubles 16 HRs and .880 OPS
This year he’s hitting .192, 4 doubles 2 HRs and .606 OPS
I think it’s possible some guys just can’t get going in this funky atmosphere, especially where on road players are confined to hotel. Some hitters are off to great starts they wouldn’t sustain over 162/6 months and others the opposite–guys who would get rolling eventually.
Hope that is issue with our Mr. Dickerson, who is now under Mendoza line at .195 with .635 OPS and 1 double.
He has half as many ABs as last year, when he hit .290 with13 doubles and .880 OPS
It’s not quite been a quarter of a full season, so usually there would be plenty of time for “corrections.” Right now Dickerson’s career numbers equal about a full season. Those stats are largely what I’d go by if I were forced to make a snap decision about his place on the team.
The MLB standings show a few real dominant teams and all the rest just bleh.
I’m sure you could find guys like this on every team.
AZ last season finished solid 2nd and their pitching was 7th in league. this season, dead last.
Eduardo Escobar 3b hit 35 bombs with .830 OPS. so far he’s hitting .184 with OPS of .575
Carson Kelly hit 18 HRs in 340 ABs and .826 OPS. So far he’s hitting .190 with .530 OPS.
We all know how well Vogt hit for SF last year–so far he’s at .145 in 55 ABs with .499 OPS.
Sorry to hear about Clifford Robinson’s passing, he was a good player. 53 years old is way too young.
Saddened as well of the passing of Cliff Robinson
Won a 6th man award, 2 time 2nd team all defensive team.
One of the original big man that could knock down a 3 consistently.
His former coach at UConn Jim Calhoun mentioned that he suffered a stroke 2 1/2 years ago
wondering if that had anything to do with his passing?RIP Cliff way to young to leave us..
A’s are kickin’ butt and takin’ names, but you barely hear anything about them on BayArea sportstalk radio. They don’t even have a radio station, the games are streamed somewhere. They might as well be playing on the Moon…
The moon is more hospitable than the mausoleum.
Meanwhile the Giants are 1.5 out, but have 4 teams to jump. Once again.
Sell Sell Sell those pork belly’s! Start with the biggest pork belly Panda!
That was a nice pickup of LaStella for the A’s.They we’re getting no production out of Pinder&Kemp they knew they needed to do better there.And they give up a .180 hitter in Bariteo (sp) a steal adding a good player for the stretch run. LaStella hit that walkoff bomb against the Giants, just a tough out..
Panda should be cut now.
2020 Baseball. Yanks starter J.A. Happ, who hasn’t pitched in two weeks, is shutting out the Mets on 3 hits, no walks, gets the first out in the 8th, 90 pitches, has retired 8 straight. Done for the day with a 1-0 lead. Ottavino comes in and gives a HR to his first batter, tie game.
Hey I was watching some of Cards Indians—is everyone wearing 42 again today?
Yeah, looks like it.
maybe it’s just the teams that missed Wed’s boycott and then observed it yesterday.
I thought the A’s did set something up with an AM station, 900 something. Jenkins was ragging on them for not doing it earlier. They have solid team and just filled a weak spot at 2b. Only other one would be C but that’s often true for even other good teams. For some reason C position generally sucks. Isn’t Realmuto an FA? wow he should rake if owners don’t decide to collude over money lost this season.
Saw lineup of white sox—8 players in batting order today either black or hispanic, all except Elk Grove prospect 2b Nick Madrigal.
Sure wish at some point Giants could unhonkify the team with more athletic players. Used to be their calling card.
Btw, started “24” by John shea, fabulous. Only at point where Mays is being brought up from Minnesota but great background from where he grew up and Black Barons teammates. Lot of anecdotal stuff from them, interspersed with direct quotes from Mays himself. good stuff
Good AB from Bart his last time up last night. He took two inside fastballs for balls, the type of pitch he’s been swinging and missing, and ended up drawing a walk. Better plate discipline.
And he got a hit! Even the called K looked like a pitch that was unhittable.
His next step of growth is to stop letting them steal strike one on him.
So, it’s the challenge of having good plate discipline, but also be aggressive in the strike zone. That’s a big step for a young hitter.
How’s he supposed to deal with the first pitch from a pitcher he’s never seen before? Swing away?
Sometimes, yes.
This might be the lineup:
RF M. Yastrzemski L
LF A. Dickerson L
3B E. Longoria R
1B Brandon Belt L
2B W. Flores R
DH P. Sandoval S
SS B. Crawford L
C Joey Bart R
CF M. Dubon R
Too much pressure on Dickerson sitting on the 2-hole. He should be moved down lineup a bunch.
Bart 8th in the lineup, ouch.
the way he’s been going, gotta wonder what analytics would have Dickerson hitting 2nd. At some point you hope they could find a legit high on base guy to lead off and let Yaz hit behind him.
Slater’s their best option when he gets back..
Sandoval even in the LU is a joke.And to bat him 6th even more ridiculous..
Ridiculosity is the name of the game for Kapler most of the time. Z. should be removing the temptation.
You know I never complained or criticized the Giants until I had a place to do it…
lol, that is a GREAT fucking point. The most I remember doing pre-2007 is just kind of shrugging my shoulders and shaking my head now and again…..
And I assume you’ve always had Giant fans around you if you wanted to vent.
The goddamn internet changed us!
The radio call-in shows were the thing.
While driving back from Silicon Valley today, I flipped over to the bloomberg fm station, because they often have the best traffic reports, and there was the a’s game. Apparently, it’s on the am feed 960, too. The announcers, Korach and somebody (not Fossil), went out of their way to trash the Giants at every opportunity. La Stella, their new player, hit a game-winning HR against the Giants last week; the break between double-header games today would be short, not like a Giants-dodgers extended chess-game break; the good teams are starting to separate now, at the half-way point (yeah, the Giants have lost three in a row and dropped out of contention); etc. Meanwhile, as ever, the Giants announcers always treat the a’s with respect. I don’t know, maybe I’d be bitter, too, if I had to watch home games in the E Coli.
Just jealous i guess.
Wow, last I heard the A’s were off radio. Googled it, they got onto KNEW after 6 games into this “season”. Must have been a cheap deal. Never made any sense to me that a baseball team didn’t have a radio contract. A’s fans are jealous, for sure. Most Giants fans are at worst, ambivalent about A’s, they aren’t important enough to hate. Serious dislike is about the best many can muster, I think…
Sounds a lot like Rangers-Islanders here.
Islander fans are obsessed with trashing the Rangers.
They still have an attitude from their dynasty, which ended 37 years ago.
Ranger fans truly don’t give a fuck.
We’re more mature and sophisticated…
Tigers swept DH from Twins and are now .500 16-16. Projections had them battling Royals for last…wonder if our rant buddy can contain himself.
he’s pretty bummed about that dude Chad Bozeman dude dying. I haven’t seen any of his movies, those are about 10 more years out for me. But Chris is a huge SciFi movie buff and this news destroyed him today.
How’s he doing otherwise? Can you tell?
I remember he was very open about some personal problems a while back.
I’ll always like that guy…
Maybe they’re just taking a last look at Pablo before they say goodbye…
Bozeman 1st big break when he played Jim Brown in “The Express “ a great movie with Dennis Quaid his coach who he mentioned as his mentor during his Heisman Trophy winning speech. Also Black Panther, And 42 excellent roles for him! Real tragic death, fighting with colon cancer the past 4 years..
Well now, if Dicker didn’t make a fool outta me and get the ball rolling so Longo and Belt could get us an early jump. Yaz has been scuffling for the past week or so. Maybe Slater’s return will make a difference and get him re-lodged in the lineup.
Giants must have been dreaming about facing Weaver during their overnight hotel slumbers. Woke up ready to face a more chewable starter. YaZmaTaZ back in the saddle with that rbi double driving in Doobs. Two
Is that Tia Carrera?
(hit the wrong key)…two out production can be quite productive—not only the run but in upping the count on Weaver to 48 pitches over two innings @ 24 PPI. Wearing him down . They keep that up and he may not last more than 5 IP. Then its munch on bully beef.
Boseman was great in 42. Shame to die so young. Top of the world and all that. He was fighting it while doing his last couple movies. Didn’t tell anyone.
Cahill does a quick job in the bottom of 2, with a couple quick k’s and then a caught ball for #3. He looks to be dealing tonight as he’s at an economical 29 pitches.
Yaz is such a study on hitting. Longo is rolling a bit now.
Flores on the other hand is lost . . .
A career salvaging hit for the Panda!
Noooooo!
Be nice to see Bart do some damage though.
We’ve moved up a spot to 11th. We jumped Cincy.
Farhan’s wearing a T-Shirt that says “Don’t Damage Joey!”
Does it have #42 on the back?
Is that for Rickard are Bart?
70 pitches in 3 innings for Weaver way over Kruk supposedly 15 pitch count an inning.He’s got maybe 2 innings left he’s lucky..
Time for Wilmer to snap out of it!
One would think he could hit back in the Snakepit.
BTW: Again tonight I’m just glancing at Gameday now and again as I’m just now coloring -in Noo Yawk. But that’s not the way I’m spelling it, but in my Village, Flushing and Brooklyn Heights days I heard that a lot.
When this one’s fini there are only five originals left to go. Technique improving fairly steadily, both in composition and in coloring—also in the totally new and unique modalities of balancing those symbol-letters into a coherent whole. Looking to get going with acrylics sometime after turning ’76…Like the prophet, Dylan commented “He not busy being born is busy dying.”
You wouldn’t believe the change to Brooklyn Heights, Stix.
Possibly the “hipster” capital of the world these days.
The “Moonstruck” Italians are long gone…
Changes in the Heights doesn’t surprise me a bit. That first -floor brownstone room I was sharing on Henry Street at $16/week for two occupants might now be renting at maybe 50x that rate. Like the realtors always put it…location, location, location. Maybe five blocks to the subway station into Manhattan and a couple blocks from where me and dates used to look out over “Our Lady of the Harbor” under the moonlight, up there on the Promenade.
Closest I every got to Lady Liberty was passing it on the ferry.
Feel terrible for the poor Fed-Ex driver that had to deliver that thing from France…
Just read bulletin on Gameday stating that Cahill was out with an injured hip. Ouch. Maybe he had pulled something and tried to tough it out there in the 4th.
the tv feed showed him trying to stretch loose some discomfort while he was in the dugout before heading back out
Holy roller Sam Coonrod thanks god for the Tommy John resurrection of his pitching arm, and who are we to disagree?
That’s one redneck I’m glad is on our side. And how about Jarlin and his .000 ERA. Z&H did some excellent dumpster-diving on that southpaw.
Well that just proves he has Giant bloodlines…
Jarlin and Joey didn’t have any trouble communicating tonight. No runner on 2B, though, right? Still, . . .
it’s been widely reported Giants vote not to play the other night was not unanimous. there were players (plural) who wanted to play…
I heard that they avoided troublesome confrontations among themselves after Mookie and Dave Roberts informed them that the game was not going to happen.
He should be the Closer, why not ? his stuff is Filthy compared to one pitch Stricknine straight as an arrow crap.
Coonrod has 3 pitches the Heater that moves at 101 mph, nasty slider and now a Changeup.
He definitely has Closer stuff if Kotter would ever see it..
In fairness, the Giants haven’t been in a save situation since the Gott nightmares…
the Giants salvaged Stricknine after TJ surgery, too, and turned him into a 100 mph guy when they needed one (every other team had one or more), but Coonrod, so far, looks like a much better pitcher. Let us pray. Metaphorically speaking.
I feel that observers with more clout than K. are paying close attention watching him grooming. May or may not happen before this adumbrated, adulterated season is over in around 30 days, but then again, maybe K. gets a whisper or two and says “what the fuck”.
poor wilmet. guys are making behind the back passes on him.
Joey with the ultimate diss.
Seems like Bart bats with the bases loaded an awful lot…
One might say that Joey is Snakebit.
working on stretch of 1-17.
Still along bad stretch for Bart to be near Hunter’s number of .096…
Pretty soon only Stanford grads will be sharp enough to play.
or comment during broadcasts
Unless it’s Ryan Garko..
Not thrilled at all to see Gott in there..
speaking of commenting on broadcasts, Mr. Korach’s A’s got swept today in Houston. Stros lit up both of their SPs with long ball and Springer hit one that is probably orbiting their hotel.
Giants blowing too many chances to put it away. That can bite you in the ass…
Yeah, their RISP level must currently reside in some hole deeper than Death Valley.
Gott and Bart are The Damaged Battery.
Gott out of it.
Too many strike outs in this sport. It’s been that way since the analytics revolution. That’s NOT what Bill James wanted.
the juiced ball is the culprit, not sabrmetrics
Yep.
After that triple things looked bad with the Kentucky guy, but he done did dood it and emerged undamaged. Huge confidence-booster. He might be reliable for sixth inning with a clean slate and perhaps the 7th. He might be a bit gun-shy yet for the 8th and for men on base situations. One step at a time.
Gott’s fine for the 7th
MoReese is starting to get back in the swing of things. Average now up to .276–very nice for a not quite everyday player. He should maybe get a chance to bat second. Leadoff might be a stretch as he seems averse to drawing walks.
When he was with the Gyros, Vogt had a crap arm…
he was still recuperating from his serious shoulder injury
He lucked out there, that was not a good throw.
Is there an Off Base Percentage when players make outs on the bases?
Is it about time for a Rogers meltdown?
if the Giants trade for JBJ I’ll puke. They already have a guy who plays D (Dugger) and he can’t hit either. If they give up anything of value for that guy I will GO OFF on Z
Wilmet!
Whhhilllmer signs theinsursance policy. Nice wakeup.
Flores breaks out again with another HR!
I’ve never seen this power out of him in the past like this.,
Mr Rogers neighborhood.
Take that back he had a nice 3 year run in NY from 2015-2018 16 bombs 💣 16 bombs 💣 and then 18 bombs 💣
The Giants win Theeee Giants win!
Rogers Hammerstein’s em.
Victory!
I always liked that song, more or less. Never saw the tv show, but the song was on the radio all the damn time one summer.
John Sebastian of Lovin’ Spoonful, the song has a legit pedigree. 🙂
Yep. I saw him open up for Steve Martin at the Berkeley Community Theater in 1977? Did Summer in the City, Do You Believe in Magic? and of course the Mr. Kotter theme song.
oh yeah, I’m old enough to remember My Darling Be Home Soon
He lives forever in “Creeque Alley”…
Krukow got so excited about Rogers tonight he called him “Submariney.” New superhero.
Kind of a weird game tonight. But they got the job done!
We are apparently intereted in Bosox OFer Bradley?
Fine, if the price is not too steep. Cleveland and a couple other clubs may be interested. F.A. after this season, Boston going nowhere.
At 30 his speed both in CF and in SB situations has dropped off. Currently hitting .253,but power is down. He’s rated as one of the best in center at getting quick jumps on the ball. Would be nice to have a black dude from South Carolina on the squad. SF is a bit short in that category right now, so a move would make for great P.R. And who knows, maybe a move from a sure loser to a fair-shot at wild-card contention could perk him up a tad. Oh, and he’s sposta be a good clubhouse presence.
Hilarious antiquated use of the word.
the covid protocol has shut down all that kinda buttafucco
“That’s outrageous!” he ejaculated.
good one
Pretty good for sperm of the moment Zum.
Reading novels from the 19th century can provide unintentional moments of humor.
my son texted me yesterday because Cornel West was perorating brilliantly on CNN about how institutional racism in the USA has been plain since Melville published Moby Dick. (He knows that’s one of my favorite novels.) I told him that Cornel West is a genius, too.
Interesting. I read Moby Dick a long time ago. I remember it was great, but I don’t remember much about it.
I saw someone joke that Moby Dick is a novel about a whale named Moby who is a jerk.
“Long story short, reading for pleasure has been really hard, but I still listen to a lot of audiobooks. My qualifications for an audiobook to listen to at night: It’s just got to be long because I don’t want to wake up. But I’m telling you, if you’ve never [expletive] with it: “Moby-Dick,” man. It’s not like anything I’ve experienced with the English language. Maybe the Bible or something like that, but I’d totally take “Moby-Dick” over the Bible. I’ve taken my swing at James Joyce, “Gravity’s Rainbow,” some of the ones that they’re supposed to have remade language, but to me, they don’t really hold a candle to “Moby-Dick.” I was asleep for a lot of these hours, but I’ve probably listened to it 50 times.”
Well, we’re wondering now who said that. 🙂
If I told you, Loo would still be in the dark.
ok, ok, not a favorite of mine among the “Who Are these Guys??!!” crowd, but I did like the quote:
I did not expect that.
Bradley is essentially another Pillar, the biggest potential difference being BF’s favorite cost the team nothing.
Ya gotta love the way that bullpen is coming around. Davis, Selman, Coonrod, Watson, Rogers all looking good. Gott is partways resurrected. That’s six viable bullies. Needed them tonight. If Kapler gets the hang of the juggling act they could make the last 25 games against mostly a lighter set of opponents more successful than these first 35 and we land an outfielder who can contribute, this team could hit the .500 mark by 9-27.
For a team which nobody sensed would be anything but terrible, it would make for an uplifting turnaround going into ’21.
Call me Ishmael…
“Ahab could discover no sign in the sea. But suddenly as he peered down and down into its depths, he profoundly saw a white living spot no bigger than a white weasel, with wonderful celerity uprising, and magnifying as it rose, till it turned, and then there were plainly revealed two long crooked rows of white, glistening teeth, floating up from the undiscoverable bottom. It was Moby Dick’s open mouth and scrolled jaw; his vast, shadowed bulk still half blending with the blue of the sea. The glittering mouth yawned beneath the boat like an open-doored marble tomb; . . . .”
Not Billy Budd, foretopman?
That’s Billy Buddha in some readings.