Wiped Out By Glasnow
Our old *friend Zack Littell takes the hill tonight vs one of our openers. I think it’s going to be Junis. Can anyone recall a single pitch Littell threw for us? We scooped him up while shopping the Brebbia Aisle, right?
We still have a 66% chance of making the post season. Don’t forget that. An extra arm and a couple of bats would have bumped that number up substantially. There would have been a psychological bump that the team desperately needed had Farhan done something at the deadline. I know some of you don’t like things that can’t be measured.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Ah motivation is funny thing and can be spun different ways. by not adding in and by definition subtracting out players, there is also the point POBO believes in who he has , with confidence they can get job done.
Tough times for Kap but I think he mostly sends right message–hitters aren’t going to blast their way out of slumps. focus on getting good pitch to hit and lay off bad ones. Camargo’s vet presence better than another rook like Fitzgerald.
Read book about 98 Yanks recently, grinding offensive team with patience etc. and no big bashing superstars, just team that worked hard at being best. Scott Brosius WS MVP.
Braves picked up backup IF Nicky Lopez from Royals, career .250 hitter with .680 OPS. Vs. Mets Saturday he had 4 hits 5 rbis and HR and last night vs. Yanks 3 more hits. Bottom 4 in Braves lineup had 9 hits 8 runs 8 rbis in 11-3 W.
I remember Littell after getting lit up and Kap going to pull him and Littell kinda of slammed the ball hard in Kap’s hand as he was leaving and Kap had a snake eye look stare back at him.Wasn’t much longer he was sent packing for good..
Good memory. Refreshed my recollection.
Yeah remember that one Kap gave him lecture series on how you handle poor performance/exit the game.
With Giants Littell was only reliever. 2022 44 innings 48 hits 8 HRs and 13 BBs in 44 innings. Rays have had him start 6 games, 38 innings 5 HRs only 3 BBs 46 hits.
Wasn’t Littell one of the first guys used as an opener?
Littell was one of the ZZ Top relievers, wasn’t he? He contributed in 2021.
I remember a pitch Mark Littell threw in 1976…
Meckler’s family is excited to see their son play in MLB.
In my experience, most Orange County conservatives are more sybaritic.
Still bitter about the dust bowl.
I was thinking of the Newport Beach Lido Isle crowd. They have a convenient airport nextdoor, with a ten foot tall statue of John Wayne dominating the concourse. But they hate the sound of low flying jets. So departures there immediately go into steep climbs–you’re thrown back in your seat by the g force–then they level out and pass over those rich people at an altitude muted level. I guess arrivals fly in over the poorer inland cities. And of course, the place does not operate early or late.
First time I flew out of there, it was foggy and I thought we had lost the engines and were going down.
Across the aisle one afternoon, long ago when planes were often half full, on that rocket like takeoff a bag full of wine slid loudly back in the overhead bin until it crashed against the other end. One passenger had to stay seated as what looked like Chardonnay poured down on his face.
Wade might not be a popular name among that crowd.
I bet there’s been a generational line of Wade Hampton III’s descendants in that holler proudly bearing the name.
Conner Mendez was the other ZZ Top guy I believe?
Good description of Meckler’s parents Loo!
Yeah. You’re right. I googled it. But it’s Menez. Confusingly. He didn’t contribute as much in 2021.
Rays promoted rookie IF Basabe and started him at SS to replace Franco and he got first ml hit sunday.
per beat writer Daniel Brown in TA, “The Rays entered play Monday 9-6 in their past 15 games following a MLB worst 5-15 stretch to open July. They slipped 3.0 games behind the first place Baltimore Orioles after spending 113 consecutive days atop the division.”
I despise PG&E. Another power outage (just came back on) since yesterday evening. That fucking company has gone into the shitter since I left in 1989 . . . Never had a power outage in Old Shasta, Mountain View (except for 89 earthquake), Sunnyvale, Palo Alto and other places I have lived in California. Today, I must be approaching 40 power outages since July 2020. Half that total were 3-7 days. Grrr . . .
Friend of mine is a forester who among other things manages PGE brush and tree removal projects. During the pandemic, he spent months in Placer County marking trees and maps. Later, he went back to check the work done by labor crews. The entire project must’ve taken a year to complete. At that rate, the under grounding will finish first.
Pacific Gouge & Extort has been on the fritz since they decided to forego customer service and spend all their money on parties. They’ve been charging to put power lines underground for 40 years and have done very little of that. They charge for clearing trees from power lines but then forget to do it. For 20 years. They charge for infrastructure upgrades but somehow the occasional house or 5 explodes due to ancient gas lines. And our rates are skyrocketing as they pass along their numerous lawsuits for the fires they’ve caused onto their customers.
The only thing I miss about Roseville was being on Roseville Electric. We paid 1/3 the electric cost in a house 2.5 times bigger than where we lived in San Carlos.
And this team is back to being boring as fuck. The season started with the team not hitting and just getting beat regularly 6-2, 8-1, 5-0.
The rookies have stopped hitting, and the vets are hurt and/or flailing. The pen games have turned to shit because, gee, it’s hard for 5 pitchers to be on their game every fucking day. We are saving the Jolly Rogers twins and Doval for games where we have a lead. That isn’t happening anymore.
I’m not sure I follow the logic of “use an opener, give up more runs.” Most games are now “bullpen games” — teams across MLB use between 4 to 5 pitchers per game on average. Starting pitchers now average under 5 innings a game.
Maybe someone has posted this before, but interesting proposal from Nate Silver all the way back in 2019:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/relievers-have-broken-baseball-we-have-a-plan-to-fix-it/
Per your link, “The core of my proposal is simple: Each team should be limited to carrying 10 pitchers on its 25-man active roster, plus an Emergency Pitcher.”
GO READ MY PREVIOUS POSTS . . . I have been saying this for the last few years.
I thought it sounded familiar 🙂
Well, it isn’t like they use the starter method and using guys 2 innings each. There’s a guy (Manaea, Wood, Stripmeat, Junis) who’s supposed to go 4 innings at least. What used to be the long reliever when the starter crapped out.
Maybe our guys are just starting to suck. But it isn’t as effective as it was. Then again we aren’t scoring so all this is moot.
James, how many pitchers on a roster is the norm now? Either 13 or 14, right? Or, is it more?
13
Isn’t there now a 13-pitcher limit?
Fascinating, thanks James. Silver was Baseball Prospectus guy too, and brilliant.
However…his projections for rotation show 4 starting pitchers @180 innings and 1 @150.
Giants in 2021 and 2022 for example had only 2 pitchers go 180 and 2 more (total) work near 150. The bottom 2 in their rotation only worked 138 +114 (Wood and Cueto 2021) and 130 +112 (Wood and Junis).
So that’s large increase for those back end SPs, another 30-40 innings, or teams would have to develop more pitchers capable of doing so. As back end guys that’s lot more work for lesser quality. While very possible Ks would go down, what would happen to efficiency? How would you train minor league guys to do this and keep them healthy? Or regular starters?
Well, that’s my (and I think Flav’s) point. We were touted as having 7 starters when the season started. Turns out 5 of them were shit (Manaea, Hjelle, Junis, Stripling, Wood) so they became the middle guys that would hopefully pitch 4 innings. They may not be starters anymore but they are counted on to go more than just an inning or two.
Highway to Hjelle already washed out, and Junis is teetering on the edge as well, so this is falling on Manaea and Wood to get the bulk of what used to be called long relief. It worked for a while as Stripling has pitched himself back into the rotation and Manaea had a good run, but it still puts a lot of pressure on a lot of different guys and Wood is gagging on the wood.
I’ve listened to KNBR today twice. Both times the main story was Flemm as bat boy. Motherfuck who gives a shit? Dude pays off a fantasy football loss with acting like a bat boy and it’s an all day story at KNBR? Just trying to avoid talking about the state of the team I guess……
Another ex-Giant ready to intensify your torment.
Yeah, we skipped a day last night.
Marlins lose, Giants will hold onto #2 WC for at least another day.
Phils just lost to Toronto 2-1. Reds and Marlins lost as well.
Good day for Giants to gain on everyone around them in WC.
Keeping eye out for opposite field bas hits by Rays. Someone on other site mentioned it last night as Rays had 18 total.
Wade’s buddy at 1b looks like GD.
Surveillance of Kyle Harrison is on. He’s pitching in Sac tonight, so he wont be called up tomorrow. Slusser’s on it. She tweeted that he threw 23 pitches in the first two innings, 19 of them strikes.
So he might get past 3?
Apparently. Or maybe he’s training to be a super opener.
Damn, missed him by one night.
Zack Littell and his 4.10 era cruising.
It truly doesn’t matter who’s on the mound.
Littell vs. Little offense.
It’s a joke that can’t hit Littell but the Giants have been a joke for a long time hitting right now..
Even Kapler getting tossed by this terrible umpire added no spark..
One flap down for Estrada!
Nice first knock for Meckler.
Willlllllburrrrrrr!
A crooked number!
Boom!
Thairo and Wilmer blast off. Meckler’s single was a clean rip, too. Startling.
Did you see Brisbee’s article detailing the level of commitment they’ve made to him? Kapler was probably letting the ump know that it was unacceptable for him to make the organization look bad.
I’ll check it out. I tend to overlook Brisbee’s stuff. Meckler’s eye at the plate is supposed to be a strength. Lotta good that’ll be if umps rook him.
“You dumb son of a bitch, there are dozens of us struggling to get these idiots not to swing at shitty pitches, and you, you fat fuck, punish the one guy we’ve put our money on to do that at an elite level! Fuck you!”
Ha! Something like that. Brisbee’s piece pissed me off. His explication of the roster issue was good, sophisticatedly factual. But his summary of Meckler’s rise was close to sophistry. The kid only played ten games in Sac. And his notion of what’s going on in the FO and with Kap & staff is inadmissible speculation, lacking all foundation. “[T]his isn’t an act of desperation called for by desperate times.” How does he know that? He doesn’t. It’s actually an open question.
The kid, however, is starting to play well. Gotta like that.
The primary reason they called Meckler up is because his contact rate will fit in nicely at the top of the order. It’s ironic he struck out 4 out of his first 6 plate appearances.
Another valid reason is because he’s an exciting player. He gives the fans and his teammates something Yaz can’t, which is why I think Yaz’s setback may have been prearranged.
Meckler is the bat they couldn’t acquire at the trading deadline (did anyone else upgrade their hitting?). Pretty soon we’re going to see the starter, or should I say, “long opener” they didn’t get either.
A horse is a horse of course of course
And everyone loves a horse of course
And especially if the horse of course
Is the FAMOUS Mr.ED!!
Cubs lost to crosstown rivals 5-3.
Ramos!
Helluva a job pinch running. He plays hard.
E-2 for 2!
Nice hustle. B/R lists Meckler as 5-10… sure doesn’t look it
Meckler is a wiry dude like Don Knotts was.
His whole body is a lethal weapon!
But man he’s easily the fastest Giant, it wasn’t even close at 1st , like to see some steals out of him the kid is growing on me.
He gets that call right and he can’t call balls and strikes.
Haha.
Yeahhh, pour it on!
That was a classic slide and the best reaction ever by Joc!
Hey! A win! Hits!
Victory!
YES!!!!!
Harrison’s motion reminds me of Terry Mulholland.
For some reason the paywall didn’t block this from me. Hope that’s generally true. It’s worth hearing from the owner, but he’s often glib.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/giants/article/giants-owner-greg-johnson-q-a-farhan-zaidi-s-18293301.php