Crap O
Thursday: we scored 0 runs thru 6.
Friday: We scored 0 runs thru 8.
Saturday: we scored 1 run thru 9.
I mean, what the fuck? We are at home. We are facing shitty pitchers. And the offense literally is chortling balls.
Our pitchers deserve better.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
And our base running is deplorable. Ahmed Fri night. Wilmer yesterday. Either it’s taking extra base and getting thrown out or overrunning base. For offensively challenged team, can’t give up potential runs on base path.
Positive is starting pitching seems to be rounding into form. But current home stand microcosm of season to date. Win, lose, win win, lose lose…And an offense leaking oil with too many holes in lineup.
I want to get excited about 2024 Giants but first month hasn’t gotten me there. May traditionally strong month for SF so perhaps.
Brisbee in TA talking about Friday night game mentioned Nate Schierholtz in reference to Reynolds swinging and missing pitch from Walker that hit him, for inning ending K.
Nate is 40 years old now. per B/R his first season in SF was 2007, Bochy’s first.
A W today would make them 6-4 on homestand before road trip that begins long stretch of games without day off.
Nate had a great arm.
Definitely. Nate wars used to happen a lot over on Baggs blog w SJ Mercury as in why won’t Bochy play the kids etc. Twin used to be over there for awhile while it was still alive.
Andrew got a brand new gig with the Giants cable station. I remember him posting an early video on the blog that seemed like a screen test. Then as the tv insider he pissed off Pagan. For a while, he used Twitter as the microblog it was meant to be. He all but gave up on that a couple years back. Too bad.
Frustrating that they couldn’t get over 500 before going on the road. An arbitrary, meaningless goal, but it still pisses me off.
Candlestick like conditions have an affect last couple nights???
Normally, a bad base running team is largely defined by its caught stealing numbers. Just because you make an out with some intent to improve your chances of scoring doesn’t reduce the negative impact of the out made (and it’s why Roger Craig was probably the single worst in game manager the team has ever seen). So far, the unintentional base running blunders equal or exceed the CS stealing numbers. Ridiculous.
If this team were still being steered by Kapp, and it was baserunning and hitting like this one has for the first month, the fans would be firing on Kapp and his big staff something fierce. So far, I haven’t heard much re: BoMel and his dream staff having a hand in the desultory experience so far…
off to the game. Hope the offense does its weekly wake up call.
Send a picture. We could use a laugh 🤣🤣🤣
I’m over Kap myself. 2021 happened, so did next 2 years. At this point 2023 is forgettable to me.
Last year SF got off to11-16 start to April. By end of June they were 10 games over .500 at 46-36. We all know what happened over last 80 games as they went 33-47.
I was over him when he got canned. But I almost always understood the rationale for his decisions, because they were usually logical. I’ll take logic over whatever other ostensible plusses another manager might bring to the table.
Over? That’s a false dichotomy multiplied infinitely. Sources can work together. Synthesize. “logic is the lowest form of magic,” an apercu I’ve seen posted here in the past, may apply to more than great art. Probably to anything dependent on what we call talent.
I’m sure even the majority of Roger Craig’s decisions were reasonable. It’s just that a really high percentage of them weren’t. So, no dichotomy, just a continuum.
I was referrribg to your defense of Kap, not your traduction of Craig.
I know, I just used Roger as an example of someone who made many illogical decisions.
Kap is smart enough to be logical but too stupid to be anything else? I’ll buy that.
If only he’d taken some lessons from Hunter Pence.
Or Bochy. That false dichotomy thing.
I’m sure Bochy’s leadership skills are beyond magical. “Grab a cold one” only gave us a small glimpse.
Kap just didn’t get a fair shot. Ay, cuándo llegará la justicia?
Career WP%-w/Giants
McGraw .586 .591
Baker . 540 .540
Kapler . 526 .543
Melvin .515 .483
Alou .503 .529
Bochy .499 .500 (2 games under)
One of the last phone calls F.P. Santangelo fielded on Sportsphone 680 was from me, making the case a 4th WS title would not make Bochy the best manager in history. He scoffed at Joe McCarthy’s MLB record best career WP% and 7 WS titles. Called Casey Stengel an imbecile for his use of platoons.
In a sport with a 162 game schedule, regular season won-lost percentages are a truer measure of success. Bochy has lost more games than all but three managers in baseball history, many of his decisions were questioned by commenters posting here.
So far I’m not terribly impressed by Melvin. Bailey’s walk-off HR notwithstanding, using Doval in the 9th inning in a tie game at home is not a good move. OTOH, not sure if Bochy would have called for him in the 8th, clinging to a narrow lead. Can’t remember if Kapler has done that. He had Soler pinch hit for a much hotter Ahmed with the tying run in scoring position. Baserunning hasn’t been good. If they have Jefferies start another game, that’s on Melvin too. While he’s more lively than Kapler on the radio, he’s not very insightful.
3 DPs in 1.5 innings. What offense!
I haven’t checked the numbers, but it sure seems like there has been a lot of double plays for both teams this series.
kapler did a great job with the shit hand he had to play with
Hell of a nutritionists.
Kapp was a master with Instagram posts…
there you go!!&
Back to back.
Two jacks in a row !
Must be that Chuck is in the park …
So far Winn has been terrific. Together with Hicks we have some young guys to get excited about!
Bullpen is not rested. Not deep today.
Lee refusing to take the walk there … hope that’s something he improves on.
Better outing for Walker after 33 pitch inning yesterday.
fucking Fitzgerald is a disaster defensively
Made nice play on first one in 9th and then Wade had to bail him out. Defense does matter.
Doval got it done in the end, fooling Bart. Maybe not lot of style points, but W in the book.
Put it in the win column!
Doval did look a bit weary but he saved it. Good Winn
Joey’s AB should have ended with a K or a bomb.
Was thinking about that.
One of my favorite Eddie Palmieri tracks was “Justicia” title song from 1969 LP.
Great line, “Ay cuando llegara la justicia” written by great lead singer Ismael Quintana.
Yes, wonderful track! I have it on the History of EP on the Tico label. Liner notes by the great John Storm Roberts.
Tremendous LP, have that one too somewhere. Saw him once at Cesar’s in North Beach and then once at Greek at Latin Jazz festival late 70 s.
Doval is a bit of a mess himself. Jesus. And Joey Bart makes the last out. As I’m getting g on Bart..
Bailey has had a few glitchy plays like that behind the plate so far this year, like he’s nonchalanting things a bit. That was a boneheaded passed ball. He also seems to have trouble finding pop-ups over his head, not to mention some errant throws. Not as sharp defensively as he was last year.
A win is a Winn!
I have to admit, I missed a lot of the innings in the middle of the game because I dozed off. The classic ‘quiet baseball game on a Sunday afternoon’ effect.
I recorded last night’s River Cats game that was on local TV and will watch that tonight.
Very nice day at the yard. Sunsplashed and breezy. 5 innings sitting in the cold of the club level on the 1st base side, and ended up at the outdoor bar at the very end of the club level on the LF line. The very edge of the bar was in the sun so we stood there for a couple innings. Pretty nifty. Saw a couple Stargell jerseys and a Dock Ellis. Sweet. Talked to a couple seasoned Pittsburgh fans about the good old days of the Pirates and their killer teams of the early 70s.
Amazing how unnoticeable the effect the pitch clock has on the game until you look up and it is the 5th inning after 1 hour.
Great view of both the home runs. And Wade ended up having the game winning sac fly. Winn was dealing. The starting pitching has been flat amazing. Lee is fun to watch. Very much reminiscent of Ichiro in his approach. The balls he hits seem to always be dead level with his hands and they are driven hard. Great high ball hitter.
Fitzgerald? Bailey? These guys are kinda squirrelly. They are hitting, but jeeze. JFK had 3 hits. Their defense is random and odd.
Soler and Chapman seem to be a waste of fucking money at this point. Soler Eclipse? 3 ABs, 3 Ks. At least Slater didn’t make an appearance!
hmmm
Career WP%-w/Giants
McGraw .586 .591
Baker . 540 .540
Kapler . 526 .543
Melvin .515 .483
Alou .503 .529
Bochy .499 .500 (2 games under)
One of the last phone calls F.P. Santangelo fielded on Sportsphone 680 was from me, making the case a 4th WS title would not make Bochy the best manager in history. He scoffed at Joe McCarthy’s MLB record best career WP% and 7 WS titles. Called Casey Stengel an imbecile for his use of platoons.
In a sport with a 162 game schedule, regular season won-lost percentages are a truer measure of success. Bochy has lost more games than all but three managers in baseball history, many of his decisions were questioned by commenters posting here.
So far I’m not terribly impressed by Melvin. Bailey’s walk-off HR notwithstanding, using Doval in the 9th inning in a tie game at home is not a good move. OTOH, not sure if Bochy would have called for him in the 8th, clinging to a narrow lead. Can’t remember if Kapler has done that. He had Soler pinch hit for a much hotter Ahmed with the tying run in scoring position. Baserunning hasn’t been good. If they have Jefferies start another game, that’s on Melvin too. While he’s more lively than Kapler on the radio, he’s not very insightful.
Yeah, sure, right. Blah blah blah. Managers are as good as the players they have. Point being, if Soler and Chapman were hitting the ball and driving in runs, we’d have a few more wins, be in 1st place, and be looked at as a tough team out of the gate. As it is, the guys we got aren’t doing shit, this offense is scuffling, and we are losing games like yesterday’s and a bunch of other ones like it.
Look at a guy like Dave Roberts. A guy with quite possibly the best lineups 10 years running has done very little with it. But he is the ONLY one getting in the way of his team’s success. Kapler catches tons of shit, but his lineups were hysterically weak (except for the bore corps reborn in 2021) and he got more out of them than I think Melvin or a shit-ton of other managers would have. Still, though, he lost in the playoffs. Wah wah.
And, speaking of Dave Roberts, his regular season record is stellar. But regular season success doesn’t mean jack shit, especially in today’s baseball with half the teams getting into the playoffs. Managers, especially ones with stacked teams, should just stay the fuck out of the way and let the guys play.
Thanks for the W today Unca, we really needed it. As for what you just said, I agree with EVERYTHING.
Hah! Fun day that needed the help of a couple shots of whiskey coming home. Bart had some kind of fuckup in the tunnel between Lafayette and Rockridge so we had to transfer to a bus, ride that walk a couple stops both there and back, and we were walking to the park from Embarcadero anyway, so my back is jacked. So I’m skinking away!
Roberts has the second best WP% ever. Under the single WC game format, winning the division, which he did every year except 2021, was huge. Now winning the most or second most regular season games is still huge, albeit a little less important because the WC teams get to play 2 out of 3.
I don’t follow the Dodgers too closely during the postseason, I doubt Roberts is costing them games, unless it’s by sticking with Kershaw too long.
Wow. You aren’t paying attention at all.
obviously Bochy’s not the greatest manager in history. But look at what he did with the Giants, taking over during a rebuild stretch, handling the bizarre end of B Bonds career, and presiding over the three in five. I don’t think myopic squints at w/l % alone can perceive the success in that. Or maybe I’m just being too radically historical.
Oh Bochy is the greatest and most successful SF Giants manager, no doubt about that. I have no problem rooting for him over the D-Backs, or Dusty in the playoffs. OTOH, rooting for him to beat the Giants last season, to justify their hatred for Farhan and Kapler was a betrayal.
huh? I don’t know any Giants fans who rooted for bochy or Dusty over SF.
In six years Kapler managed two teams , only one of those years did his team go over .500. If he managed for another twenty years that record of the 2021 team would flatten out and his winning percentage would likely be below .500.
Don’t miss that dude at all.
Never saw this till today. Sweet.
I’m not sure I follow anyone’s take on this version of how much credit does the manager get. I guess I’ll ask, what exactly is Dave Roberts doing wrong that Bochy is doing right? The one tactical humiliation Bochy laid on him that everyone loves is fun and symbolic, but it’s an isolated incident not connected to any ongoing set of “mistakes” Roberts is making.
The answer is you don’t actually know. The fact that Dave Roberts is the manager of the Dodgers doesn’t have jackshit to do with their post-season success or lack thereof any more than Bobby Cox’s leadership of the Braves did during their “failures” in the 90s. That’s why the Dodgers don’t fire him – they know the role chance plays.
Managers basically need to have baseball credibility, not be tactically stupid, give input to the front office, and to provide shit like the necessary but irrelevant rah rah sessions in the clubhouse.
necessary but irrelevant? wtf does that mean? essential but frivolous?
truth is we don’t know exactly what goes on or how one guy seems to do it better than another–except to some degree when he fails as nakedly as Kap did in 22 and 23. Even then it’s not totally clear. (How much of Kap’s failure was on Z and ownership?)
It’s a cultural imperative that has nothing to do with a team’s record, but everything to do with maintaining the culture. A ritual.
How about blaming nobody? The old dudes performed so well one year it precluded signing someone like, say, Corey Seager or Freeman, and then the old dudes left or broke down. There’s more to the story, but the “excuses” are all there for anyone who isn’t interested in maintaining a dumbshit results are all that matter POV.
Kapler’s failure was partially clothed by virtue of the team being ten games over 500 at one point. Besides, he’s got the body to get naked in public. Melvin’s failure was far worse, and he wasn’t as gracious about it either.
Going into 2022, Farhan had a successful offseason. He signed two thirds of their free agent starters to five years total, plus Cobb for three years for less money than Gausman got in Toronto. He innovated the one and one with a player option with Boras clients, getting the best starter in the NL for $24 million. Joc Pederson had an 874 OPS, they contested for a WC slot up until the last ten days or so.
You know what may be regarded as Bochy and the front office’s best season?
2016. They had the best record in MLB for the first half, so you can’t bitch about the roster or managing. Then the wheels fell off. They made the trades they needed to make (baseball’s current OBP leader is the end result of one of them). Recovered in the last week, swept the Dodgers the final weekend for the chance to win one of the most exciting games in their postseason history. That the LH “closer” they traded for, who BTW won WS rings each of the past three years, blew the save against the Cubs doesn’t diminish what management accomplished.
You know what the most legendary postseason Giants win is? 1951, The Shot Heard Round the World. History does not give a shit they lost the World Series.
(baseball’s current OBP leader)
Correction: The Giants DID NOT trade Shaun Anderson for Mookie Betts.
Didn’t realize that about Will Smith (The Fresh Wince)…
I see the cultural imperative at work here in the bleachers, but I doubt it bears any resemblance to what the multimillionaires in the clubhouse consider important. Necessary but irrelevant actually may describe fans from the players’ pov.
They did once seem pretty into the Pence Revival Revue, but maybe it’s a mistake to assume the clubhouse ever demands that kind of display behind the scenes, away from the view of the plebeians. Maybe the social dynamics between the Friends enthusiast and the stars spangled headband wearing catcher require a more nuanced approach to team building. Different level stuff. Or maybe that crap ultimately matters about as much as leading a high school football team’s prayers.
You can point to something like Kevin Cash pulling Snell in the 6th inning when he’s cruising and the bullpen failing after that or Matt Williams pulling Zimmerman in the 9th with a 1 run lead and losing the game.
Roberts makes a lot of questionable pitching moves in the playoffs. At least it sure seems to bite him in the ass more than a lot of other guys.
I don’t know? Look at the Dodger lineup.
armchair guesses based on superfice. Knock yourself out.
So, if Roberts had been the Dodgers manager back in the 60s when there were no playoffs, maybe the Giants win a few more pennants because Roberts would have fucked up his team during the regular season? Poor Sandy Koufax!
yes!
I still liked Billy Martin.
So did I – and Ralph Houk was a huge favorite of mine…
Local terror in younger days. Sure had lot of success in various settings.