Verlander
I liked the Verlander signing and I still do. You have to take him for what he is at this stage of his career. And the velocity is still there. As is the experience which is invaluable to this staff. But he’s 42 freaking years old. It was so obvious he was leaking oil in the 6th inning. He was well into 90 pitches headed to 104. Melvin completely screwed that up by leaving him in too long.
And that’s not Monday morning quarterbacking. It was obvious to anyone with eyes that he needed to go get him.
Verlander can be a very effective 5 and dive guy at this point in his career. Use him the right way and he’ll help us this year.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Giants are still scoring at high level despite BA of .226. They are 3rd NL in runs per game, 2nd in doubles only to Cubs who have played 3 more games, and tied for 3rd in HRs. See how this holds up through rest of road trip and what happens when they return to the O. OB is still pretty low at .302.
Looks like weather today to be mid 50s again and warm up tomorrow. Wind sure made difference yesterday, in bad way for SF.
using zero era zero fip Rodriguez vs only one batter that inning sure looked dumb, although the one batter did crush that out.
True. Birdsong giving up 2 insurance runs to Phils did too, disappointing outing. First LH hitter Stott drove line drive into RF corner that wound up triple. Got next out with IF in on groundout to SS then gave up 2 run HR to Harper on 3-0 count. As Kruk always says, had base to play with. Walking him would have been OK. When Birds came in it was 4-3 game; 3 batters later it’s 6-3.
Next inning Ramos led off with single and after hit by Adames came around to score on clutch rbi single by Lee. Giants had Adames at 3b and 0 outs, but situational hitting went zip–Chapman popped out to IF, Flores K’d Schmitt drove deep fly that was caught.
heart of the order in the 6th too. Birdsong may not be a reliable rubber arm in the pen. SP long innings and rest cycle may be what he needs. Tough choice between him and Hicks. Verlander is a helluva five. I’m also optimistic about his ultimate value
fwiw Fangraphs has column today on Rodriguez by Ben Clemens. guy walks right in and throws 100, plus slider, with interesting motion.
yeah I saw that. Fwiw I wrote my zero era zero fip note on Rodríguez before I saw his. I think he was correct about his eventual meandering. The first two paragraphs of his piece would’ve sufficed.
after all, we’re only talking about 8 IP total.
Pitching wins championships and it doesn’t seem like we are there yet. But it does seem like on any given day we can play with anybody. Our ceiling is way bigger that our floor imo.
Birds and Hicks should be flipped. Verlander can be an opener. 5 being his limit. He was at like 90 pitches through 5 iirc. no need to try and get more. Esp when it got obvious he was gassed.
Hicks has earned a few more starts at least. Birds will get his chance when someone gets hurt. Happens to every team. Lets enjoy the joy a little before changing things up. Giants just lost and still on a 113 win pace;)
Well, then Verlander is gonna get a mystery injury soon.
Melvin is totally bought into Verlander’s unrealistic chance of reaching 300 wins and yesterday proved it!
”His overall track record deserved a longer leash”!
”Everygame has its own personality to it”Melvin said.
”He’s had a lot of success “That might have played into some, but I wanted to give him a chance to get that final out”
Well how’s that working out Bobby? Giants are 0-4 in his starts, his ERA sits at 6.75 he’s given up 24 hits in 18.2 innings yeah he has 17K’s though only 1 in this last start,and WALKING way too many 14? I believe so the mysterious injury could be coming soon and Birdsong moves into the rotation as it should be..
AK, the Giants are 2-2 in his starts, but both the wins required Giant comebacks after Verlander left with the team losing.
If BoMel yanked him after the 5th, he would have been in line for the win. Oooops.
Verlander may be well and good as a player/coach, but he’s got to get some command back.
Sure, his velocity is fine, but 1.77 whip is not even close to effective.
Off topic, but today I was able to emotionally “exhale” regarding my daughter and her new school. Specifically, she said, “School was fun today Daddy . . . I really liked meeting everyone and I made friends with all my class.”
Michele is very outgoing (hard to explain, but I was way more reserved growing up). Anyway, if I had any concerns about moving to a new State, she was #1, as I wanted to make sure she would adjust to a new school and community. Consequently, I thoroughly checked all the academic ratings of potential places to move, along with their socio-economic, racial diversity, and other school/community criteria. Regardless, you’re never certain as a parent until your child says yea or nay. Today, I was stoked about her obvious excitement for her new school.
Must be a huge relief. Some kids are great at rolling with the flow. That sure wasn’t me!
Me too Unca! I still vividly recall getting my ass kicked at a new school in Sunnyvale (Fair Oaks Elementary school, in 3rd grade, which is no longer there) . . . It took me 2 years before I said to myself, “I will no longer be afraid.” Not to say, I didn’t lose another fight, as I lost plenty, but going forward, I wasn’t going to allow anyone to ‘walk over me” or respond back in kind.
Helluva first inning!
Joe Ross still going, Bishop O’Dowd HS Oaktown.
he helped coach my younger son’s 13-14 yr old Oakland LL team.
the league had one team every season coached entirely by O’Dowd players.
Yeah I thought I remembered was connection there. very cool
Harper is such a good player. Damn . . . just wish it wasn’t against us.
Lee gets rally going as Giants re take lead.
Willie’s 7:59am post comes to mind, as last year when they had similar type mediocre batting stats, it didn’t translate into an outstanding win/loss record. Now? Giants seem to make every hit count. To date, their situational hitting is excellent, where hits result in runs across the plate.
Go figure.
2 Es for Bailey on that play.
Is this safe enough for Doval?
As long as he doesn’t let base runners get on he did pretty good. It was a good time to put him in with a 7 run lead in the 7th.
Dave Flemming is trivial, trite, and verbose. I can’t stand him, suddenly. I miss kuip and miller trading off on the out of town tv games.
That was phun!
Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Big win, taking the series tomorrow would be huge.
Giants patient at bat, e.g., 9 walks this evening.
Nola in 2nd year of 7 year deal through 2030 @ $24.5 million per year. Ouch
5 shutout innings for pen after Ray, nicely done.
Game 4:
Lee, Flores, Bailey & Wade given day off.
That’s a lot of fire power riding the pine. I suppose BoMel willing to leave Philly with a split.
What I enjoyed about yesterdays game was we got some meaningful hits with a two strike count, I love seeing those.
A little off topic but in this mornings Athletic there was an article about the ex- marlins gm NG, and a new women’s Pro softball league which she is the new commissioner. Personally I love watching college softball. Those girls are gamers and competitors, I have yet to see any of those games that were mailed in. I don’t think I can post the article but it’s a good read.