A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

This is starting to feel like a “bad penny” year for The Panda. He was finally starting to hit a little, he even nudged his batting average over .200 for the first time I can remember. Then he has to exit with a big toe injury. It doesn’t sound serious but injuring your big toe, even a little bit, is a bigger deal for a professional athlete than it is for guys like you and me. This could set him back a few steps as he tries to finally get his contract drive going……

Miami comes into town today and I always feel like we play poorly against them. Maybe I’m just remembering all of the Ricky Nolasco beat downs we endured over the years. This Marlin team doesn’t play very well on the road and we should pad our lead in the West this weekend.

Sorry to everyone who has sent me pics lately, been too busy to upload them here or into the ‘bucket but I will get to that soon.

It was only a few threads ago that I asked “Is Buster Posey Afraid to Play Catcher?” It was a harsh title. But watching him jump out of the way of an onrushing Starling Marte I felt it was a normal question to ask.

Somehow, last night’s play at the plate was worse.

Last night was about one thing: lack of effort. Put simply, Jason Heyward tried harder than Buster Posey. That half-assed tag was like a runner failing to hustle to first base. It was like a runner failing to MAKE IT to first base and just peeling off the base line and heading back to the dugout.

After the game, Posey said, “You don’t expect a big guy to be able to move like he did.”

I reject this excuse. Posey has been playing Heyward in baseball since Little League. If anyone knows how athletic Heyward is, it’s Posey.

Another comment: “I thought I was in the right position. You don’t have time to think it happens so fast.”

I summarily reject this claim as well. Maybe he didn’t have time to *think* during the Marte play. That was bang-bang. But when Posey received the ball last night he had time to whip out a pair of binoculars and gingerly focus them on the distant, yet oncoming, Heyward. He had all day to *think*. As Heyward approached, he could have thought about a lot of things. And what he *thought* was that Heyward was just going to give up and run into the tag. Whoops. Heyward kept trying. Buster is the one who quit.

If you want to be a catcher you are going to have to engage in contact from time to time. You might even have to invite it. It’s part of the job. Whether Posey quit on the play (as he did last night) or whether he is now instinctive jumping out of the way (as he did last week) it is simply unacceptable behavior for a major league catcher.

I don’t think Posey will ever play aggressively. But he certainly can be expected to play assertively. He gets paid the most. He is a leader. And he can’t keep playing catcher like this…..

This is what a typical Little League scoreboard looks like these days (I snapped this photo from the field down the street from my house):

With the news of yet another major leaguer needing TJ surgery (Jose Fernandez of the Marlins) I started wondering (again) about the reasons for this bizarre rash of arm injuries that we have seen this season. Even if you believe it’s caused by something (ie, overworked arms, underworked arms, etc….) it still wouldn’t make any statistical sense that a cavalcade of pitchers would go under the knife all of a sudden in 2014.

I do think it’s funny that “pitch count” gets so much attention. Limiting the number of pitches thrown by a player in a game is probably a good idea. But when you play year round baseball, limiting your pitches doesn’t really do much. Up until 10-15 years ago, kids played baseball about three  months out of the year. Now, in any good weathered state they play year round. The dullest mathematician can figure out that no matter how limiting your pitch count you are still going to end up throwing way more pitches in a season than anyone did up until recently. The wear and tear of each pitch on an elbow and a shoulder probably can’t take that yearly abuse.

But unless this happens again next year I’m inclined to believe that this season of arm injuries is just a statistical anomaly…..

Jean Machi, now bored with hording mere wins, is now taking aim at the team saves record (Robb Nen: 206).  I’m thinking he passes Randy Moffitt (83) some time just after the all star break. He gazes at his 4 holds with disdain…..

I can’t think of a single thing to complain about. Pablo’s jacked his batting average all the way up to .189. Romo is 2-0. We have the best record in baseball.

Pass it on.

Tonight’s LU:

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and now for a fun picture that I stole from Dirt’s facebook page:

Unfortunately, I know the reality of all mothers not being created equal. I got to spend the morning with my fantastic mother this morning and it was the perfect start to one of the best days of the year. I hope you all get to do the same or honor your mom however you see fit. Great day for a game. Go Giants.

This one is gonna hurt. Six to 8 weeks for Belt. This likely means the return of Travis Ishikawa and while I don’t mind him as AAA roster filler I really don’t want to see him playing every day in San Francisco. My preference would be to have Posey play mostly at first base, Sanchez catching and bring up Susac who’s hitting well in Fresno. But, it could be argued that Susac is better off playing every day.

Either way, this sucks.

Another fun win and more redemption for Voggy. I loved his quote after the game: “My focus is not to prove people wrong anymore but to prove people right who believed in me.”

A great reminder of what a winning mind set looks like.

Hector continues to do what he does in extra innings.

Pablo jacked his batting average all the way up in to the .170’s with a hit in 5 at bats.

The only one not all smiles was Machi who reportedly was seen doing a slow burn in the clubhouse after the game when told he didn’t get the W.

Hammer Maholm? Indeed.

I have nothing new to say about Tim Lincecum, therefore……..
Pretty big series coming up in LA, yes?

If I continue to think that Beckett is done then I have to believe that the Giants have a decent shot to win this game tonight. And then I turn to see who’s on the hill for us, and I’m longer as confident.

So, I have no idea what’s going to happen tonight.

That might be too brutal of a headline. But what was up with that little left foot sashay out of the way during that botched tag of Marte last night? If you have the ball you are allowed to block the plate. Period. He had the ball. He started to apply sort of a half swipe tag but for some reason is whipping his left leg out of the way. It left him off balance and he missed the chance to tag Marte on the hand or the arm and he was forced to tag him on the chest—after he was safe.

Stand your ground, man.

Now, maybe the coaching staff has told him to NEVER block the plate. And if that’s the case, that’s not really on Buster. Although he could disobey them, he’s an adult and in the moment of that type of action it would be understandable if he reverted back to what he was always taught to do.

It just seems to me that trying not to get hurt is the best way to….get hurt. And it’s also a pretty good way to go about losing a game.

If he is afraid of contact let him learn how to play 3rd base. I bet he could do it and that would solve another problem that no one seems to want to talk about…..

Admittedly, you have to change the way you pronounce his name, but that headline says it all, yes?

So who had this one?

(Sorry about having to have that idiot Dodger face in the image)

Anyway, I think last night’s game could be classified as “fun to watch.” Any time you come back from an 8-2 deficit and then 9-8 and then 10-9 you can safely say your team is trying it’s best. And who knew that our very own NL wins leader knew how to bunt? How awesome is it that Machi didn’t get his first big league win till he was 31 and now he’s on pace for close to 30 this season? He’s 8-1 lifetime. I wrote a blog thread about his first win last year.

https://oneflapdown77.com/2013/04/30/jean-machi-joins-the-club/

As Zummie noted on the last thread, we are 2-0 in Cain Sandwich Games. lqtm….

And a big Happy Birthday (83) to Mr Willie Mays

I know we just swept the Braves in Atlanta for the first time since 1988 and that is fantastic but I’m in full b-ball reflective mode right now. Still processing the Warriors epic game 7 loss. I read a horrible blog post written by Lowell Cohn early this morning about his take on the Warriors season. I won’t re-blog it here, it doesn’t deserve to go viral. 🙂 🙂 🙂 Lowell Cohn has become a poor man’s Glenn Dickey and the expensive version wasn’t worth the newspaper it was written on. Google Cohn’s post if you feel like reading drivel and nonsense.

I am not a big Mark Jackson fan but I hope the Warriors bring him back and give him an extension. Simply put, Warrior players play for him. That’s all that matters in the NBA. They hear his voice. They love him. Now, you could argue that his voice leaves a little to be desired in terms of outcome, x’s and o’s, etc. But you don’t let a coach leave who just dropped 51 wins in your lap and whose players would proudly follow off a steep cliff like brain dead lemmings. They just lost Game 7 without their first 2 string big men. What team in NBA history could withstand those 2 blows?

Did they cough up a chance to win last night? Sure, that could be argued. But who was supposed to guard Jordan and Griffin for 4 full quarters? Hilton Armstrong? Shit, they did the best they could with what they had. I read some nonsense about Festivus for the Restofus stepping up and playing in that game. Was that a joke?  First of all, if this was 30 years ago, that dude woulda been playing a month ago. Secondly, I’m not really interested in Ezili gingerly coming out of some fake-o 1:1 drills in practice to take on the beastliness of Jordan or Griffin in game time speed……

Give me a loss with the heroic efforts of Curry and Iggy and Draymond and Speights. I’ll take that and proudly ask for another. That was my team. And you support your team. Especially when they leave everything they have on the court besides their vital organs, as they did last night.

And Lowell Cohn can go fuck himself……

My dad thinks my threads are too negative so I’ll try to spruce this one up a bit. Perk it up. Raise it up. Pump it up. Energize….

We’ve got a chance to sweep the Braves in Atlanta today! (do exclamation points indicate a positive nature?). That hasn’t happened since 1988!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was greats! We hit 3 home runs to win the game!

Does that mask our putrid .304 team on base percentage?

Eh, a little bit I guess…….

Once again, another fantastic report from my main man on the scene, WilcoJoe. If you missed his game summary, check the last thread (6:51am).

I’m not sure which stupid tradition I would boycott quicker: the tomahawk chop or the wave. The run for both of them should have ended a long time ago….

Voggy goes today vs Julio Teheran and I foresee a dark turn of events in this road trip….

Can Timmy throw a decent one tonight in the strangely cool night air of Hotlanta?  Will WilcoJoe bring good vibes for the Gyros and then hit Buckhead hard?  Is Bochy F ing up Belt’s mind again?  Is it too early for a little Makers pick me up, or should I go on Buckhead time for that?  Questions, Questions.

Last time I was in Gen. Sherman’s playground it was July and that town about fried my brains it was so dad-gummed hot and humid.  I was in town for a consult with a jaw specialist to confirm whether I needed major jaw surgery (yep, damn).  For consolation, I spent one evening at Emeril’s eponymous old restaurant in Buckhead (upscale northern ‘burb) sitting at the bar bench right on top of the kitchen (the chefs said Emeril blew in once a year for a few days to re-tool the menu, and was a prick — the food was good, though), and another evening at some other Buckhead  restaurant and a few bars that were pretty good — they had arctic-strength air conditioning and beer.   Ahhhhhhhhh, just what the doctor ordered.

Play Ball!…

Tim Hudson: he never had an inning where he threw more than 12 pitches. Padres suck? Or Hudson does not?

Posey: “I catch that many pitches in 4 or 5 innings sometimes…”

It’s only May 1st, but would Hudson win the CY if the season ended today? Since Jesse Chavez would probably get some CY votes in the AL, it’s probably a bad idea to give out Cy Young’s on May 1st….

Between Huddy, Morsey, and Hicksy I’m not sure if Sabean could have hand picked any better 3 free agents for the overall price he got them for.

Now, about the other guys who were already on the team…..

I’m not comparing the two on their career body of work, but what two things do Tim Hudson and Y-Petit have in common (at least, in his start last night)?

1) they keep the ball down

2) they throw it where they want to throw it

So why can’t Tim Lincecum do this? He’s won 2 freaking Cy Young awards. And yet when he pitches, it’s just always such a grind. Balls bouncing 2 feet in front of the plate catapulting Posey across the batters box. Casting off pitches that no sane hitter would ever swing at.

We’ve always heard about what an amazing athlete Timmy is. If true, shouldn’t he be a little above the brain-dead power pitcher who loses his fastball and is left with nothing else?

Petit is efficient and someone I would never use in a fantasy match up. But goddamn, I’m getting to the point where I would rather see him pitch than Timmy. Or Voggy….

#freePetity

Anyone think that The Panda is starting to regret turning down the 3 year/40 million the Giants offered him? From the other side, do you think the Giants would still make that offer today? If so, would he still reject it?

The Giants knew their offer was just a starting point but Panda’s stubborn agent wouldn’t come off the idiotic number he started with (I think it was north of 100 million but don’t feel like looking that up). So when NumNuts refused to budge the Giants said *go fuck yourself* and  now we are where we are. “LimboLand.”

And nearly 100 at bats into the season, Sandoval looks like a guy plugging along full steam ahead on a Six Figure contract drive. And while I normally wouldn’t give a shit about someone I don’t know who screwed themselves out of 40 million offered to them I do have an obvious interest in hoping he starts to hit the baseball again.

It’s still only April.

I have a buddy who is convinced that the lowest scoring games of the week occur on Sundays. I never bothered to look it up. But it does seem like games are low scoring on Sundays. Then I saw a tweet that noted 9 pitchers (yesterday) pitched at least 7 innings and gave up no more than 3 hits and Elias says that’s the first time that’s ever happened. So, maybe my buddy was on to something….

We swept the Indians and they have to be considered a decent team–they did make the playoffs last year and the only guy they’re missing is Ubaldo. Still, they looked uncomfortable playing NL ball, I wonder how we would have done in their yard?

And regarding Brandon Belt, maybe he needs to shave his beard or something. Or stop swinging. Swinging doesn’t seem to be working for him. Each of the 11 swing thru’s he had yesterday were on the same pitch on the outer half of the plate. Kruk says he’s clearly dropping his shoulder and that he needs to “flatten out his swing.” Maybe. I don’t know what’s going on with him but I do know that there’s no reason to plastic wrap anything anymore. At least till he can put the bat on the ball again……

I’m having a hard time deciding who I’m more disappointed with, Pablo or Timmy. Is that stat I read correct? Pablo is 0-42 when he’s got 2 strikes on him (with 22 strikeouts). That stat sounds made up. He’s batting .165. I wish that was stat someone made up.

Timmy has pitched 2 good games and 3 bad ones. His K/BB ratio remains impressive (17/5). The Giants have won 4 of the 5 starts he’s made. But he hasn’t pitched a great game yet and he’s consistently struggling with his location.

Speaking of location sufferers, we’ve got another one of those going today. I’m not going to say Voggy is done but it’s getting hard to watch him pitch. What I don’t get is that some of his worst located balls are on change ups, something that he should be able to throw effectively, at least in terms of location, even if he truly was “done.” He’s throwing some of those right down the middle and the hitters are not missing them….

So it’s Sunday, how about a nice, easy, leisurely poll? And before you vote, remember, we are in first place even with these 3 chumps not pulling their own weight.

Another Flapalooza is in the books and while this one didn’t have any surprises like the last one (that Flapalooza was titled “Your Daughter is Dating My Son…”) it was still a blast. Notable attendees besides myself included San Dawg, Dirt, Snarkk, James, Zummie, Unca Chuck, Chi and his son. And the best news was that we FINALLY brought home a W at a Flapalooza. I think we were 0-3 before that……

As usual, we didn’t catch much of the game. The highlight conversation was UncaChuck trying to sell us on the *fact* that Willie Mays made his famous catch some 490 feet away from home plate. I found that very hard to believe. We observed some of the AT&T landmarks for reference and it just wasn’t adding up. But Chuck stuck to his story and a couple of the guys supported it so in the end, I was forced to believe it. 🙂 🙂 🙂 I see that on the last thread he made some revisions to his claim.

We took shots to celebrate Chuck’s birthday. That was fun.

I somehow completely missed seeing Morse’s bomb.

And I donned my Inspector Clouseau hat and solved the mystery of who *stole* Snarkk’s bobblehead. After interviewing several people it was discovered and returned to him. Nobody’s jacking a Flapper on a sanctioned Flapalooza, at least not on my watch.

And of course, I had another run in with an usher.

Here’s a selfie that I took of me, San Dawg and Snarkk. This picture is epic on so many levels:

I didn’t take any other pics. Until this morning. Here’s what was across the street from the parking garage that housed my vehicle overnight:

Ah San Francisco, you are nothing if not unique…..

Oh the moral quandary of Giants fans going to the game. We want the game to get played tonight, but California badly needs the rain, also. Let’s hope it’s a win/win/win situation.

1. The rain helps fight the drought.

2. The game gets played anyway.

3. And the Giants win!!

So far, it’s not raining as bad as this:

I’m having a hard time processing just how dumb Michael Pineda might be. Does an IQ score result ever go negative? Cause it should, at least when it comes to this dipstick.

To review, Pineda gets busted on April 10th with a hand full of pine tar on his HAND. No big deal, he didn’t get caught during the game, but the pics and the video were clear in their rendering. No harm, no foul, no one seemed to really care, just don’t do it again or at least don’t put in in the same exposed spot again.

Two weeks go by, he’s now playing the same team. But instead of slathering his palm with it, Pineda (and I just want to point out the hilarity of the first 4 letters of his name)….decides to trick everyone by….wait for it….slathering the pine tar on his neck!

This was a brilliant idea that Pineda posited to himself without peers nearby to offer corrective feedback—–no one would ever think to check if it was on his NECK since the last time he cheated he put it on his PALM. Different exposed body part = no one will ever know. The neck and the palm are so far away from each other, he bemused quietly to himself, this was the plan which promised to be his best and greatest one yet…..

And I can only imagine the scene in the dugout pre-game. These guys are all 3 feet from each other. Did dipshit Girardi ever think to mention to PINEada how stupid it was to dumb a gallon of pine tar on his neck? Did the pitching coach say anything? Did Brian McCann bother to say, without laughing, “Bro, come on now….”

The stupid, half cocked way he wears his hat is reason enough to eject him—or at least ballpark his low, LOW IQ….

I’m thinking that before his next start he takes a shower and replaces the water with pine tar. This dude is a freaking genius, what could possibly go wrong?

If this wasn’t happening in Colorado, I doubt so many fans would be lamenting the offense. But there are obvious red flags about the Giants bats and they will be waving wildly long after the team leaves Sherpaville.

If I was going to point a finger at one particular player it would quickly be pointed at Buster Posey. I don’t doubt his effort and this is obviously a complex and layered problem, but guys like Hicks or Arias aren’t counted on to carry the team. And in dark times like these, someone has to step up and lead the way to a better place.

Buster is hitting a pathetic .229 this year but his struggles are not just about this year. In the second half of 2013 he hit .244 with a measly 2 home runs. You wanna be the man then BE THE MAN. He gets paid the most. He gets the commercial deals. He’s the former MVP and batting title winner. He’s supposedly in the prime of his career. I don’t want to hear anything about him being tired or worn down. If he’s that sensitive he shouldn’t be playing catcher.

I’m not putting this all on Buster but I am putting it on him to lead the team, if he’s able, out of this funk. If they truly can’t hit as a team that’s fine, I’m sure Sabean will be chalking this up as another bad penny year soon enough. But Buster can hit.

So start fucking hitting.

Well, that was ugly.

When your all-star stud catcher is hitting .227, and that’s good for 5th highest on the team, your team is in trouble. Let’s take a gander at who is batting below Gerald D.

Hicks: .206

Pence: .197

Adrianza: 182

Arias: .167

Panda: .162

Hector: .125

Blanco: .087

Can’t win with this stuff and “We Score We Win” is taking on new meaning…..

So a new thread might shake this up a bit. Hey, it’s Sherpa Land, there’s a long way to go.

You guys ever looked at a ball like this?

Three hits? We got three hits? It seemed like more than that. Lots of balls hit hard. And now we travel to visit the Sherpa’s. Nice weather, low humidity, it’s the perfect environment to blast off bomb after bomb. Will it happen? Stay tuned.

I predict three Giants go deep tonight. Pable. Pence. Posey. And for some reason, I feel like Voggy is going to do ok. If Cargo’s knee is still bugging him he might avoid having to pitch to him. And shockingly, Tulo is 0-10 against him. Cuddyer is still dealing with a hammy problem. The rest of their line up is uninspiring. I’m not a Blackmon Believer and Morneau hasn’t been any good since he got his bell rung.

And delaRosa is not very good.

Giants win, 11-2.

The Giants have now gone three straight games without scoring at least 2 runs and that’s the first time that’s happened since 2011. That blows me away. I feel like we went dozens of games straight last season without scoring at least two.

Snapping out of this dry spell won’t be easy against Robbie Erlin, a lefty who will surely give them trouble. Posey is the key, if he mashes him, as he often does a lefty, we might stand a chance of scoring 2 runs today.

I’m excited to watch Timmy today. I refuse to believe he’s been as bad as everyone is saying. 17k’s/1bb. I expect him to pitch well.

Not much else to say. This place gets quiet when the bats go limp and lifeless……

I will never get tired of seeing Giants fans take over PetCo Park. It’s still a surreal scene to watch literally 80% of the fans screaming and cheering for San Francisco. Does it upset Padre fans? I’m talking about the few who go to the games. And I don’t really understand why they don’t go to the games. It’s a beautiful park. Fantastic weather. The team is actually decent. It seems to me they have everything in place for the fans to storm their home games.

And yet when Brandon Belt hit that bomb all you could see in the background of his trip around the bases were ecstatic Giants fans.

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side bar idea: Hector Sanchez only gets to pinch hit. No more starts. No more time spent behind the plate. Ever again.

The Giants are 10-6 and they’ve played 7 one-run games in a row. That means they could just as easily be 6-10. Just sayin’.

Sixteen games into the season, these have been the surprises (to me):

1) A rock solid bullpen

2) Voggy seemingly righting his wayward ship

3) Timmy having 17k’s and a measly one walk (an outrageous SO/bb ratio) and yet he’s 0-1 with a 7.20 ERA

4) Panda hitting .175 and swinging (and missing) repeatedly at balls OVER his head

5) Crawford hitting lefties

6) MadBum hitting a grand slam

Did I miss anything?

In case you non-Californians didn’t know it, according to Rod Brooks of KNBR, the is officially “Beat LA Week”. The Giants continue to put the smack down on the Dodgers and the A’s are busy battling the Angels. I’m told that the Sharks are playing the Kings in the hockey playoffs. And Golden State drew the Clippers in the first round of the NBA playoffs set to kick off on Saturday.

I also heard that the Warriors D-league team in Santa Cruz has recently bounced the LA team from the D-league playoffs. So that’s one more for our side.

Truthfully, the only one I really care about is the one we all care about: Giants/Dodgers. I have no feelings about the A’s, hockey might as well be soccer in my world, and while I am hoping the Warriors compete and win vs the Clips I have very low expectations now that we know Bogut is out with a broken rib. What would have been an exciting series is probably going to be a cake walk for Blake Griffin and Co.

So everybody now, this time loud and in unison: “BEAT LA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

I did NOT stay up to watch the conclusion of last night’s win. I shut it down around 10:30–the same time some of you east coast guys shut it down. And I continue to be amazed at your abilities to stay up past 1am to support the team. My body clock and my life are not built for that type of stamina. 🙂

Anyone starting to feel like Hector Sanchez = Candy Maldonado? I’m not looking it up, but I have memories of Candy piling up the walk off hits (pinch hitting or otherwise). That’s a great name, isn’t it? “Candy.” You wouldn’t catch too  many cats rollin’ with that name in 2014. I think I heard Kruk say that Hector has 4 walk off game winning hits in his career.

That’s pretty good. I might start calling him “Candy”.

If you stayed up to watch it live, regardless of the coast you call home, good on you……

‘Nuff said….

I might be in the minority, but I didn’t have a problem with Flannery trying to scoot Blanco home for a WOITPHR (walk off inside the park homerun). As my main man on the scene in Houston (WilcoJoe) noted, it took a perfect throw to get him. And while the throw might not have had to be total perfection, Flann put the pressure on the Rockies to make the throws and the tag and no one is mailing any of that in. At least, they shouldn’t be.

And it ended fine with Crawford sending everyone home wet and smiley. B-Craw is starting to tease me. Besides blasting away on left handers, he’s got a .981 OPS and an out-of-this-world OPS+ of 179. For those of us who used to think he’d hit .250 if we just prayed a lot, it might be time to raise that bar….

Guest Post tomorrow: The esteemed and honorable Twin

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Niner Comment: Their first 3 draft picks of the 2011 draft: Aldon Smith, Kap, Culliver.

Oops.

I’m still having trouble processing the reality that the freaking Colorado Rockies bullpen shut us down yesterday. But whatever, it’s just one game of 162, time to let it go and focus on today’s seemingly nice match up. Chatwood is coming back off injury and we have our ace going today. Huddy usually doesn’t dick around with games like these and I expect him to be masterful once again. Brandon Belt should enjoy the offerings of the Rockie righty and I’m wondering if Blanco gets a start today— he’s 4 for 7 against him. Crawford also hits him well (5-11).

I usually take the pessimistic approach to the day after a game like yesterday’s but I’m going contrarian and saying we win 5-1.

I couldn’t find a stat that told me how often an SF Giants pitcher has come to the plate with the bases loaded. I know it’s happened at least twice. 🙂 Still, considering all of the times a pitcher has batted with the bases jacked, and exactly two of them have managed to hit a grand slam, it’s safe to say that it doesn’t happen very often. How many years have the Giants been in SF? 55? Multiply that by 162. Considering playoff games and the few they’ve played this year, lets say they’ve played about 9,000 games. I’ll say a pitcher comes to bat with the bases loaded maybe every third game. Sound about right? Divide 3k into 2 and you get 0.0006%.

So what we saw last night should be savored. It likely will never happen again, considering the DH will be hitting the NL sooner rather than later.

Some day, next to the hallowed Willie McCovey statue, I expect the Giants to build another one that looks a little like this:

You’d think I’d be feeling negative about last night’s victory that was ripped away from us. Three errors including Sandoval’s idiotic final gaffe will always be a pretty huge stumbling block to securing the W. Voggy continues to pitch like he’s in the dire-est need of some solid Nicole action. Sadly, I fear it is a plastic free environment at Casa de Voggy…..

But the fact remains, we are hitting the baseball. And I’m not as down on Pink Slip as the rest of Giants Nation. I feel like our pitching is *ok* right now. So I feel like the team can sustain some shaking pitching every now and again. They can weather suspect defense.

Because I have confidence that they can score runs.

Thoughts?

Farewell to Candlestick Night at AT&T . You get this:

I have unconfirmed reports that it does NOT bobble. Hey, that woulda been a pretty rad marketing give-a-way the year after the earthquake. What, too soon?

There were some cool pics shared on Twitter today from ‘Stick games. Here are some of them:

This one was from some chick who’s dad worked at Candlestick in 1971. This is such an awesome pic on so many levels considering the scoreboard message.

Barry wheelin’ it big time on top of the dugout.

I got a few of these but I lost track of them years ago.

Can’t remember what year they said this pic was taken. I THINK it was ’71.

Brandon Crawford, bummin’ out hard on the possibility of his team moving to Florida…….

Bozo The Clown’s final game at the ‘Stick (ticket shown).

I know that simply talking to Huddy about location problems isn’t guaranteeing Pink Slip sh!t. He’s got to figure out where his pitches end up on his own. But that’s really what this is all about: location. Pink Slip’s got 12 strikeouts to 1 walk this year. That’s dominant. He’s given up too many hits and I think he’s got a major mental issue with pitching to Paul Goldsh!t, but if he can figure out where to throw pitches that strike out 12 in two games against only one walk, then he can figure out where to throw all the ones he poorly locates, too.

So whether he watches Huddy or talks to Huddy or shadows Huddy, Pink Slip needs to more of what Huddy does, more often than he does it himself.

Locate the freaking ball……

Leading the major leagues in dongs?

Opening Day.

Is there any better day of the year? Now that it’s here, I’m bummed I’m not going. The moment the game starts you are literally surrounded by 40,000 people who have joined you  in a happiness fellowship.

Opening Day.

It should be around 75 degrees in the City today.

I don’t go to enough opening days. I think I’ve been to two at AT&T. I went to the last one at Candlestick and meant to find the photos from that day and share them here but got side tracked and I don’t feel like digging through boxes in the dark.

Opening day.

Knowing dude head nods abound.

and then this happened….

Well, if I had told you that we’d be 5-2….eh, nevermind. It always sucks to lose to the Dodgers. We competed, they were just better. Grienke was much better than Cain, who was lucky to only give up 5. You serve up 4 bombs to those two idiots and you only give up five earned, well, that’s a mini-victory. Sorta.

Brandon Belt is hitting .323 with 4 dongs.

They might have to plastic wrap the entirety of Main Street in Los Altos if he keeps this up.

You know who else is hitting .323 and leading the AL in dongs? That’s right, The Melkman.

My main main on the scene in Houston, WilcoJoe, made a brazen and bold call last night linking Mike Morse to Jack Clark. Upon further review…..inconclusive? Or confirmed?

In my opinion, that was a pretty good call…..

Anyone else have a bad feeling about today’s game? Does that feeling even matter? If I told you that Pablo and Pence have a combined batting average of .294, would you be bummed? There’s very little to quibble with as we focus up on a possible 6-1 road trip to start the season.

So no matter what happens today, we head for SF in first place.

And yes, I am very greedy, I want to see the Giants pummel the Dodgers on national tv tonight.

I just don’t think that’s going to happen……

I still can’t get over The A’s having to cancel last night’s game due to….stupidity? Seriously, there is no other word for it. Why didn’t the A’s have to forfeit that game? I know there’s no rule or precedent for it but the reason they couldn’t play the game had nothing to do with mother nature– it was 100% on them. How do we know that they didn’t cancel the game just to rest their tired bullpen? I know that’s not why they canceled it, the field condition WAS the reason, but it’s a little scary that a team can just cancel a game for any given reason.

Snarkk brought up a great point in the POTD. Do the fans get their money back for the parking? How about for the beers and food they bought in anticipation of enjoying them during an actual game? Did A’s officials make everyone slam their beers before kicking them out and having them drive home? Isn’t selling beers and sending fans back to their cars right after they drink them irresponsible? They stop selling beers in the 7th inning for a reason…..

Stat Fact: The last game to be canceled for failing to tarp the field for bad weather was 8/15/41

And we haven’t even started talking about the sewage problem yet. I know it’s not L-Wolff’s problem, it’s the city’s, but at what point do you decide that your players deserve at least the basic right to work in a place that doesn’t have sewage backing up into the locker rooms all the time? At what point do you eat that cost for the sake of your players?

Anyway, #secondclassoperation #headsshouldroll #thiswouldneverhappenatAT&T #oranywhereelse

#sogladI’maGiantsfanandnotanA’sfan

So how would you describe Angel Pagan’s hair? In one word. They’re riffing on this on KNBR this morning and the texts coming in are pretty good. “Billowing” was my favorite. I offered up “organic” and it got a shout out by Murph. One guy offered up this one: “it reminds me of a warm safe place that as a child I’d hide.”– obviously not one word, but epic in it GnRness.

They covered most of the best ones already but wanted to see what Flap Nation could come up with (sorry I’m not posting a picture of his hair in all its “resplendency”, I’m at work and I can’t post pics from this computer).

Is it just me, or do all of you hope Tim Lincecum spends most of his free time these days watching and talking to Tim Hudson? I hope he’s taking copious notes. When Lincecum looks at Hudson, he should see his future. And the sooner the better. Timmy has a formidable task today as he’s facing his Goliath, Paul Goldshit. Goldy is 10 for 20 vs lil’ Timmy with 5 bombs. Those are video game numbers.

Aaron Hill enjoys his offerings as well. He’s 7 for 14 against him.

I think Tim Hudson could literally impact this entire pitching staff in a way Raggs and others never could. And that’s not a dig on Raggs, I think he does a good job. But sometimes, it’s not about telling someone something it’s about letting them watch and learn.

And no one on the staff is too old or too good to not soak up everything Huddy has to offer.

Ok, time for a new thread. A GAME TIME thread.

My daughter is super into knitting these days and she’s also doing those Rainbow Looms. I’m not a dude that typically wears wrist jewelry but I can’t turn her down.

She doesn’t like baseball but I have at least got her to start rockin’ the sportswear and she’s making me orange and black looms unsolicited. #newgiantsfan’loom’ing?

Giants player I think goes off tonight: Angel Pagan

D-Doosh player I think goes off tonight: Trumbo

I hope Dunston has now been properly schooled in how to do this……

So, I’ll preface this by saying I only saw the reviewed play at first base 2 times. My thoughts were, “Eh, he looks out to me.” But there is no way I would say that he was out “conclusively.” When they froze the frame, it was unclear, at least to me, if the runner was touching the bag or not. It looked like maybe by a hair he was not. But it was also a little fuzzy….

If you hire Shawon Dunston to be your replay coordinator you just tell him one thing: Be fucking SURE you’re right. That’s it. Arguing a call is no longer “go out there, kick some dirt around and wander back to the dugout.” We just say, “let’s look at the tape.”

Dunston should wear this one. Hard.

The KNBR guys were steaming mad this morning about the “botched” replay at first base. Last night on The Wrap, Krukow said “Hey New York, wake up and pee! The whole world is on fire!!!!!” I have  no idea what that means.

From my eye, the tape on the play we challenged wasn’t conclusive. Had we had the challenge on the play at the plate, we would have won that easily.

In my opinion, all scoring plays in baseball should be reviewable…….

And none of this should excuse Cain who pitched like crap. When you entrust a 127 million dollar man (or whatever he is) with a 4 run lead, that’s supposed to be game over.

Now THAT was an Opening Day to savor (apologies to A’s fans reading this. 10 OD losses in a row? Ouch). Is it just me or did Kuip and Miller put a little bit extra into their calls?

It WAS a monster bomb, maybe they were just vibing off that. And it was the 9th inning. And it did complete a wild comeback.

Well, we didn’t field the ball particularly well and Petit was worthless. But this was a *never give up till the final out” game. Awesome way to start the season.

Still can’t get enough of that meme I posted last night….

And opening day is finally, ultimately, upon us. I think the Dodgers just hit the all star break. Not sure, someone should check on that.

Predictions? A prediction thread used to be one of the most polarizing threads I would run each season. Now? Eh, not so much. Last year I think everyone took about 92 and look where that got us.

How many wins will the Giants have this year? I’ve come to realize that predicting wins for a season is ludicrous. The opening day line up is usually nothing like the line ups in August and especially September. If you don’t know who’s going to be playing for the team in August and September how can you rationally predict a win total for the year?

While I’d like to go contrarian and say 75, I just can’t bring myself to do that— not with the potential of this current team. They are one or two injuries away from 75 wins, make no mistake about it. And no one gives up quite as easily as “Bad Penny” Sabes. Last year, I think he waved the white flag in June. But I digress…….

Here’s the bottom line reason why I can’t go with 90+ wins for the Giants this year (even assuming good luck with good health all year): The NL West is rock solid from top to bottom. And while we did have the best record last season against fellow NL West opponents, all the teams in the division have improved themselves over last year. We don’t have anyone to “Astro-slap” along the way this year. No breaks. No one to pad our stats against. I just think this year is going to be a grind in our division. Not to mention that, on paper, the Dodgers are probably the best team in the National League.

So I’m gonna go with my old faithful “88” and hope for the best.

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anyone want to guess the collective IQ of the 2 chicks in the bottom left of this pic? 180+/-?

Thoughts?

I have something exciting and brand new to tell you all:

The Dodgers are playing a regular season baseball game today….

I’m half thinking that we could be 18 games out of first place before we play our first game. Whose idea was it to have one baseball team play 3 games before 27 teams have played one?

And they’re playing the Padres?  Because as we all know, Padre fans span the globe. Just from a national ratings perspective, this game makes no sense. ESPN has programmed me to expect Yankee/Red Sox games over and over until time stops.

If I told you that Madison Bumgarner went on the DL yesterday and Bochy had to hold a closed door team meeting to “clear the air” about Brandon Belt’s affect and impact on team chemistry, how bummed would you be?

I’d be “Dodger bummed.”

lqtm

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and for the pm crowd….