Time Ticking Down
This is the time of year I begin to get especially irritated with Giants management. There is no reason not to go for it this year. We have the prospects to make trades that will improve the team. Get into the post season and anything can happen.
Well, not with 1.5 reliable starting pitchers. We need another one. Badly. But instead of going out and getting Lucas Giolito which the Angles did last night (for a mediocre price I might add) the Giants traded the guy with a bunch of L’s at the beginning of his name for someone no one has ever heard of.
Come on Farhan, just throw the fans a bone. Not a sabermetric bone. A bone we can all chew on.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Giolito seems like someone who would get killed in the NL but his 4.00 level era can be managed in the AL. Calling up Luciano has the hallmarks of Farhan strategy of staying pat and dumpster diving.
But I think there needs to be some help added. Reynolds in left would be a nice bat to add and clearly one more starter could not hurt although I don’t to throw $40 mill at Verlander for one year in ‘24.
But after Luciano and Matos, I’m not sure how strong the hitting prospect are. We are not trading Kyle Harrison or the two-way kid we just drafted or the one from last year. Are other teams breaking down the door for the Hjelles and Villars. Not likely.
Who would you like to add?
Flavor, the best thing about your daily blog is it gives life-long Giants fans a platform to offer opinions, vent and occasionally gloat when our Oracle Park heroes succeed. In that spirit I disagree with you and I’m sure many other Giant fans today.
Yes, Giants could snare wild card spot. Yes, 2012 & 2014 prime examples of “just make the playoffs and World Series titles are there for the taking.” But realistically speaking, how likely is it that Giants surpass Braves and (Ugh!) Dodgers and reach World Series.
Do we want to hang our hopes on another wing and a prayer 2012/2014 playoff run and mortgage young talent in process? We’ve agreed past month that 2 reliable starters not enough. If Farhan can get serviceable arm (e.g., Jordan Montgomery) without sacrificing Top 5 minor league talent, ok.
But even with Haniger and Estrada due back in August I see team continuing trend started last year of shedding aging vets and hefty contracts and slowly morphing into more athletic team. In my view Farhan’s challenge is not playing chess at trade deadline with marginal moves but supplementing younger roster in offseason by finally snaring top flight starter and big bat in middle of lineup.
That was excellent!
As my son often reminds me, even a broken clock is right twice a day 😎.
Not into rentals, as most of the top pitching guys are, myself. Kris Bryant was in demand player in 2021, Giants added him for 2 guys still not in ML ball and he was mostly meh though he did have post season HR. And after winning 107, giants went out in 5.
I think Loo said this earlier–Giants and their rooks (who can be fun and exasperating to watch) are not winning WS even w Ohtani, and I agree. If you can get someone useful for 2024 and beyond that’s different.
Speaking of the rooks, whose job is it to tells Mato to throw to the right base?
Gotta love Flavor’s creation above.
I think from now on PTBNL should be replaced by SNOHEHO…
SNOHEHO?
The thing about rental players like Bryant is that they shouldn’t cost too much. Because they are rentals. Paxton’s already coming to town so grab him. The Cards Montgomery would be a good get. But a couple mid-level draft picks should be able to swing the deal. Throw Davis in on the deal. Roll the dice with the young IFers.
“SNOHEHO”
Someone No One Has Ever Heard Of
Nice
lqtm
I appreciated Dean’s post and only disagree with it from the standpoint that this is not an all or nothing play. As Chuck said rentals don’t cost much. Look what we did with scutaro. Our farm system is stacked we can afford to throw some chips in the middle and play this hand.
I don’t like the idea of trading any of our youngsters especially pitchers. We have been in a perpetual rebuilding mode for quite awhile now it is showing some real progress. Someone said it yesterday I think and that is just keep bringing up the prospects and things will sort themselves out
testing to see if I can post without signing in every time
looks like it worked
Baggs in TA said last time Giants had 2 21 yr olds in starting lineup was 1982. Couple forgettable guys in Tom O’Malley and Jeff Ransom.
and last time they were both latin ballplayers was 1963–Jose Cardenal and Jesus Alou.
Thanks Willie, I mentioned yesterday that I thought it had been some time since SF started two 21 yos, didn’t feel like looking it up tho.
The one thing that worries me about Luciano is that he’s 21 and already has back issues.
The SNOHEHOs the Giants traded for Bryant are still not even cracking ML lineups yet.
We have plenty of mid-level guys we can trade for, say Boston’s Paxton. Hell be in town this weekend so, they save money on plane fare. Montgomery from the Cards is also a guy we could get relatively cheap.
And maybe we get lucky and they pull a Jason Schmidt and sign with us next year.
And RIP Sinead O’Connnor. Anyone that pisses off the Catholic church is aces in my book.
another point to consider, she was pissed at everything.
lol. Bipolar I think.
Oooops.
Magic by Pilot takes me back to 1975 as much as any song.
Thanks, Chuck!
I really liked 1975…
Bachmann Turner Overdrive!
Another excellent point from Chuck. The SNOHEHO’s we traded for Bryant have done shit. Sure, you’re gonna get bit in the ass now and again by guys like Reynolds and Wheeler but more often than not those guys turn out to be shit. I forget the catcher we traded for Hunter Pence. Total SNOHEHO.
it’s actually fun to say SNOHEHO out loud. Try it.
What kid (or 66 y.o.) wouldn’t be amused by SNOHEHO?
Caleb Kilian is a 26 year old AAA guy with 2 sniffs at the show. OFer Canario is working his way to AAA and has struggled.
Speaking of minor league guys struggling, Bart is 9-48 and 0-14. Ramos 3-19. Hot streaks were all too brief for these two. Same for Vaun Brown at AA Richmond. Since June 9 51 Ks/24 hits 6 HRs in last 124 at bats.
Vaun Brown needs a lot more plate discipline, that’s for sure. He’ll never get to 40/40 without it. Or to mlb.
Some of my fav Giants are SNOs. No idea who Estrada was except that Loo said his Yanks fan buddies liked him. Yaz nor Wade Jr. neither, nor Donnie Barrels. Seems like what Z does best.
Z needs to connect with Sabean! make a deal!
Off to palm dessert! Go Giants!!!
lol you’re going where? Isn’t it like 115 there today?
say it like this: “SNOW-HEEE–HO” It’s fucking rad. It’s like some long lost native American tribe or some shit
I say it like that, but it comes out sounding like the Yo Heave Ho in the Song of the Volga Boatman.
I hear it without an accent on the second syllable.
In the pregame show yesterday, they were trying to rev up a Giants/A’s rivalry. I don’t see it. Maybe a little in ‘89 for the World Series, but the earthquake made that moot.
In baseball, the rivalries are in the divisions. Giants/Dodgers, Yankees/Red Sox, Cardinals/Cubs, etc.
Yesterday the pregame show was trying to compare Giants/A’s to Yankees/Red Sox. A ridiculous and pointless comparison.
When I lived in SF I couldn’t stand the A’s and I still can’t. I didn’t even like seeing stuff about them in the Sporting Green (they had their own paper, write about em in the Trib). To me it’s more like the cross-town rivalries like the White Sox and Cubs. I really get pissed off when I see someone wearing the split SF/A’s hat, bugs the hell out of me.
Is the Mets/Yanks a rivalry? I guess that’s for DJ.
I’m sure the Mets are still the new kid in town for the long-time Yankee fans so they don’t even give a shit about the Mets. Since the Giants are the longer resident and in the NL, I barely even gave the A’s a passing thought. Even when they couldn’t sell out (and won) their own world series games in the early 70s. I went to a couple games back then only because my bro-in-law was a fan, and they let him bring pony kegs into the bleachers. So he and his buddies would get trashed. Great fun. 12 years old and getting blitzed in the bleachers and then bombing back across the SM Bridge at 110.
No wonder I’m a lunatic.
When mlb dumps AL/NLand unifies into a single league with geographical divisions, the lAs vegAs A’s may rise to the level of a rival. Not until then. Before gap heir Fisher bought the team in 2005, they were worth checking on occasionally during the regular season for glimpses of the AL. Since 2005, not so much, and really not at all now with the homogenous interleague schedule.
Tommy Joseph was one of the players the Giants dealt in the Pence trade.
total SNOHEHO
I’ve always been an A’sgnostic …
It was always just fun to call them ‘the fuckin’ A’s’
“Look what we did with Scutaro.” He was 36 yrs old and 8 of his first 10 seasons he was below average hitter. At time Giants got him he was .684 OPS guy, in Denver.
Then he exploded in 2012. Sabes got incredibly lucky that happened.
If Z added someone like that now there’d be uproar.
Kinda like picking up Juan Uribe after ChiSox released him after 2008 and he went on to have best seasons of his career as a Giant.
Or Aubrey Huff, another Sabes classic low buy FA who went off for 1 year.
Morse and Burrell spring to mind as well.
Exactly. When Sabes went out and spent lot of money on big name, it usually backfired on him something awful.
Gregor Blanco wasn’t a big FA signing but he sure was nice to have around.
As a fan I can dig what Angels did. But in reality it’s effing stupid. From what I read elsewhere the guys they gave up were top of their class prospects in a farm that mostly sucks. For rentals, one SP/one reliever with ERA of 4.29 in hopes they catch Stros or Rangers or one of AL East teams and get into WC, which are slim and none
“Randy Meisner, who was a co-founding member of legendary rock band the Eagles and served as a bassist and vocalist, has died, according to an announcement on the band’s official site. He was 77.”
He was the lead singer on “Take It To The Limit.” Everyone remembers his high notes at the end of the song.
A certain amount of people thought the Eagles were uncool or whatever, but I liked them a lot, and still do.
I like watching YouTube videos of their Hotel California tour, when they were hitting on all cylinders, and were arguably the best band in the U.S. for a couple of years.
They were a little too soft for my taste. Until Joe Walsh joined. Saw the Hotel California tour for a day on the green (77?) and it was great. Foreigner was pretty good that day as well. Heart kicked ass. Steve Miller? Meh.
Fleetwood Mac did the opposite when Peter Green left. Saw the Tusk tour and the marching band was the best part.
“I hate the fucking Eagles, man.”
Ironically Jeff Bridges probably loves the Eagles.
I’m sure he doesn’t. No one with any depth does.Their best work was the early stuff Bernie Leadon took from the Dillards and diluted. Or maybe the backup of Linda Ronstadt was their best.
Well, let’s ask Jeff Bridges. I have him right here.
Jeff says he loves the Eagles.
He also thinks the umps blew it in the Cards game.
Spoken like someone who loves the fucking Eagles, man.
“I love Creedence,” said Bridges, echoing his character’s listening tastes. “As far as the Eagles, I don’t hate the Eagles like the Dude hates them . . . .”
But I sure as shit don’t like em much, he suggests. Ever listen closely to Lookin’ Out My Backdoor, the CCR song that the Dude enjoys while smoking a joint in his car? Lyrics are infinitely more nimble and poetic than anything the Eagles ever recorded.
Yeah Loco, agree about Blanco. Watching videos of 2012 and 2014, I think his play in LF in 2012 was likely among the best ever outfield performances in a World Series.
Don’t forget Andrés Torres, signed as a FA.
Torres .823 OPS and 26 SBs 2010.
In the Cardinals/Cubs game, the Cardinal pitcher got the first two batters out in the first inning, and then the third hitter hit the catcher in the head accidentally on a back-swing, opening a gash, and the catcher had to leave the game. The Cardinal pitcher then threw a pitch up and in to that same batter. And then hit the batter on the hip on the next pitch. The four umps conferred, and then threw the pitcher out of the game! With no prior warning! The Cardinal broadcasters went ballistic. The Cardinals manager argued energetically and got thrown out.
The relief pitcher who came in got shelled, and now later in the game the Cubs are leading 9-1.
The Cardinals broadcasters’ point was that the retaliation pitch hit the batter safely on the hip, the batter just jogged to first, totally accepting the payback. But then the umps inserted themselves needlessly into the situation, and completely botched the situation, in a way that favored the Cubs.
The Angels swept a doubleheader from the Tigers today, outscoring them 17-4 in the doubleheader. The Tigers are lousy, but the Giants lost to them badly.
I’ll tell ya Slater showed some constraint last night after almost having his face dismembered for life on a 100 mph heater.Slater hit the go ahead HR in his previous AB , makes you wonder on content?that and the pitcher miraculously throws 2 great pin point sinkers after that and K’d Slater..
I know it can hurt the team but screw it I am dusting myself off and charging the mound! Giants have been drilled probably more then any team and have lost Hainger&Estrada to broken bones it’s time for the Giants to DRILL BACK!!
I agree Kat.
Slater showed too much restraint IMO.
He looked terrified and angry after that pitch and had every right to charge that fucker…
The TV play by play guy for the Cards is Chip Caray. Fun fact: Chip is actually Harry Caray III. His father Skip was Harry Caray II.
Chip used to be the Atlanta play by play guy. I wonder what happened.
Chip sounds a lot like the Dodgers’ guy Joe Davis. Their voices are basically the same.
Cubs lead is 9-3 now. The Cards’ back-up catcher who came in has hit two HRs, one of them a monstrous shot.
“Bridges has run into the Eagles’ Don Henley on several occasions, noting, “I wouldn’t say I’m a good friend of Don’s, but we know each other.” Yet it isn’t Henley that Bridges is worried about. The actor has also bumped into Glenn Frey. “I can’t remember what he said exactly, but you know, my anus tightened a bit,” Bridges said. “I run into him at parties; he’ll always bust my chops and make me squirm a little bit.”
“I love Creedence,” said Bridges, echoing his character’s listening tastes. “As far as the Eagles, I don’t hate the Eagles like the Dude hates them . . . .”
From the same interview you quoted. You try to gaslight like Trump. It’s absurd. Admit defeat. He just generally hates the Eagles.
Look, we know you go into lawyer mode at the drop of a hat. You do it for a living, that’s fine.
I wasn’t trying to win a point. I just thought it was a funny quote.
What, identify real facts based on actual evidence and then relax with a joint on the back porch like CCR in Lookin Out My Back Door?
A quote that you excerpted, out of context, fraudulently. Like a hit?
You said no one with any depth likes the Eagles. How is that a provable fact? In fact, I do have depth, so you’re proven wrong.
And, if Bridges doesn’t like the Eagles, then maybe he should. It could possibly improve his songwriting.
I love Creedence, too. We had the Cosmo’s Factory album early on. I was mesmerized by “Run Through The Jungle.” It sounded so good on our stereo, and our stereo wasn’t all that great. Just something about the magic of vinyl records.
John Fogarty is kind of the patron saint of bar bands. A lot of his songs are 3 or 4 chords, and relatively easy to learn pretty quickly. But so memorable and instantly catchy.
An emotional statement about Sinead’s death from the singer Morrissey, or some might call it a rant:
““She had only so much ‘self’ to give. She was dropped by her label after selling 7 million albums for them. She became crazed, yes, but uninteresting, never. She had done nothing wrong. She had proud vulnerability … and there is a certain music industry hatred for singers who don’t ‘fit in’ (this I know only too well), and they are never praised until death – when, finally, they can’t answer back. The cruel playpen of fame gushes with praise for Sinead today … with the usual moronic labels of “icon” and “legend”. You praise her now ONLY because it is too late. You hadn’t the guts to support her when she was alive and she was looking for you. The press will label artists as pests because of what they withhold … and they would call Sinead sad, fat, shocking, insane … oh but not today! Music CEOs who had put on their most charming smile as they refused her for their roster are queuing-up to call her a “feminist icon”, and 15 minute celebrities and goblins from hell and record labels of artificially aroused diversity are squeezing onto Twitter to twitter their jibber-jabber … when it was YOU who talked Sinead into giving up … because she refused to be labelled, and she was degraded, as those few who move the world are always degraded. Why is ANYBODY surprised that Sinead O’Connor is dead? Who cared enough to save Judy Garland, Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse, Marilyn Monroe, Billie Holiday? Where do you go when death can be the best outcome? Was this music madness worth Sinead’s life? No, it wasn’t. She was a challenge, and she couldn’t be boxed-up, and she had the courage to speak when everyone else stayed safely silent. She was harassed simply for being herself. Her eyes finally closed in search of a soul she could call her own. As always, the lamestreamers miss the ringing point, and with locked jaws they return to the insultingly stupid “icon” and “legend” when last week words far more cruel and dismissive would have done. Tomorrow the fawning fops flip back to their online shitposts and their cosy Cancer Culture and their moral superiority and their obituaries of parroted vomit … all of which will catch you lying on days like today … when Sinead doesn’t need your sterile slop.”
MORRISSEY
26 July, 2023
that is incredible.
Chuck, as far as Yanks-Mets, I don’t sense any deep hatred between their fans – although I’ve never been to a live subway series game. I’m sure the players in general couldn’t care less. Mets are definitely not looked at as new kids anymore. Used to be whoever was better owned the town like the Mets of the 80’s when you also took your life in your hands if you wanted to venture to the South Bronx to see Mattingly, Winfield and Rickey win nothing. New York was always called a NL town, but that’s also outdated like everything else. The Mets biggest rivalries at various times were the Cubs, Cards and Braves. This generation seems a little more loyal than in past years and obviously the whole media landscape is so different that neither team gets ignored.
It used to be about winning the back page of the local papers that no one reads anymore. Mets-Yanks have played one meaningful series in 62 years. Jets-Giants, I would look at kind of the same way. Only the moronic drunks and entitled clowns cause problems…
⚾️ Immaculate Grid 116 9/9:
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If you’re a baseball fan and you’re not bored to death with fuckin Wordle, you really should consider moving on to this game…
It’s on the homepage of BR website…
many people i know rave about this game. I haven’t tried it yet mostly because I’m not tired of wordle and I can only focus on 1 game at a time
Brisbee in TA yesterday thought Giants could get Flaherty from Cards for Bart and couple low end guys. But didn’t think Z was doing much else even though he described Giants need as power in the lineup.
“More than anything, though, the Giants need power” is what he said after noting “the Giants are probably looking for another infielder” and “a starting pitcher who can give them innings, though that will be tricky.”
Brisbee points out there are 22 teams that have at least 2 hitters with 15 HRs (unlike Giants) and that only SF and Reds don’t “…have a single 15 HR hitter at all.”
Not saying we don’t need power but what’s so magical about having 15 HRS?
We got 3 with 13 and 2 with 11.
Arbitrary statistical nonsense…
Thanks Loo. I kinda figured that. Not much crossover. I just thought what with the Yankees success over the decades that they were top dogs. The fans bemoaning the loss of the Giants and Dodgers are becoming extinct. Didn’t know it was an NL-leaning town.