A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

Hmmmm…I’m kinda excited for the game tonight. Not really sure how I’m gonna burn the time off before first pitch—I have to go to work and, obviously, take care of my daughter’s basic needs, although by game time I’m not sure how high up we’re gonna go on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs pyramid:

http://tinyurl.com/32l6mha

maybe I’ll hit the gym, too…..

But other than all that, I don’t know how I’m going to be able to tolerate the seconds that are ticking off my life even as I type this. I’m sitting here with my dyed black head and my best Giants jersey hanging neatly pressed nearby and all I’m doing is waiting. Just waiting. Still waiting……..

I guess we can bide our time by marveling at the playoff roster at 10am. Then you guys get to fight it out for who can post the line up here first. That’s always fun. Beers will probably be getting popped open by many of you before the customary whistle blow at 5pm. And then we’re just about there, right?

Let’s just throw this out there: Our playoff history sucks. SF has never won a crown. We’ve ultimately lost every series we’ve played in– some were dramatic losses (the 2002 WS), others I barely remember (the 1997 series v Florida) and others were just plain weird (the ’89 Earthquake series). But in the end, they were all losses. But there have been amazing, wonderful playoff memories that I’ll never forget. My favorite playoff moment was the Will Clark grand slam bomb that he launched deep into the Chicago night sky. I was watching the game with some friends in my dorm room at Lewis and Clark and got so excited about that hit that I jumped out our 2nd story window, saved from major injury by one of Mother Nature’s trees. That’s the feeling i want to have to have tonight. And luckily, we live in a one level house so I’m good to go as far as that goes…….

Three days without any giants baseball? THIS is freaking torture! At least when the regular season ends and we’re out of it I can psychologically ease my way into a Winter of pain and regret. But this waiting three days thing is almost worse……

Well, at least there is some baseball today so I’ll give you my “Can’t-lose-bet-both-lungs-and-the-mortgage” bets o’ the day. here they are:

The Yankees to beat the Twins. I hate to take the -145 on the Yanks but I’ve been taking all year about Liriano’s innings catching up with him (in 2007 he went 76 inn, in 2008 he went 136.2 inn and this year he’s up to 191.2) and his last 3 appearances were pretty dismal. So, I’m taking the Yanks to win but I’m taking the adjusted run line (-1.5 runs) since it’s at +110. Liriano had a good year for sure. But he’s on fumes right now. Yanks 6 Minnesota 2….

Next lock…..actually that’s my only lock. I’m putting a few bucks on Cincy to beat Philly since I don’t think Philly is that good and +190 looks real, REAL nice especially if I need that win to make up for my Yankee loss (should I be wrong about Liriano fading here down the stretch)……..

Texas vs Tampa: tiny bet. Maybe a little on the under (7)……

Baggs has a thread about the possibility of the Giants leaving their 3 highest paid players off the post season roster (Zito, Rowand and Renteria). There’s no way that goes down, especially with Bochy’s love affair with “track record”—The only way Renteria is left off is if he physically can’t play. Edgar is one of the most celebrated clutch hitters in the history of the post season—if he can play, he will….

Zito would go as the 4 in Atlanta, if it got that far. There’s no way, right? He’s HORRENDOUS on the road. And his confidence is shot if his body language from his last pathetic start is any indication. He can’t relieve in any important circumstance. I suppose they could use him as a long reliever if any of the Big 3 get rocked early and we’re down like 5-0 in the 3rd inning. Otherwise, why would you ever play him?…”track record”. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…..

Rowand. Goddamn, what do you do with Rowand. If it were me I would put him on the roster and leave Guillen off. I might even give him a start in one of the first 2 games considering his numbers against the Lowe and Hudson. Guillen’s numbers suck against them plus he’s 1 for his last 21. And he’s slow. And his defense sucks. And, frankly, his attitude is surly at best and disruptive at worst. Rowand brings you better defense, a significantly better clubhouse presence and attitude and he’s got as much if not more power than Guillen does right now. Guillen was brought in to give our line up some pop. That didn’t happen. He played 42 games for us and he homered in 3 of them. Thanks, but no thanks. We’ve got several guys that can give you that or better (Ross, Rowand, Nate) and those same guys give you a lot more in the outfield and in the clubhouse. This decision seems like a no-brainer to me……..

After not being here since 2003, this is just all about kicking back and enjoying the moment–there”s some second guessing going on, but that’s mostly about the black dye job i did to my head about a half hour after that incredible game. Mental note: the next time I decide to dye my hair in an attempt to peripherally involve myself in something I’m not actually involved with, wait a day and then make the call…….

A few “congrats” to get out of the way:

Congrats to MacDog for winning the season end contest, sponsored by TWINFAN– and Twin, your generosity throughout the year was appreciated by all who participated though a little bit more by the 4 guys who won– off the top of my head that would be James, Stix, SAN DIGGITY DAWG, and Macdog. Did I leave anyone out? Seriously Michael, I appreciate you for everything you do.

Congrats to BLADE who won The Flap Fantasy Baseball league. He led for most of the year, withstood a run in Sept from me and GH (as well as a weird, 4 pt jump from TIZZLE who somehow took 2nd place yesterday) but ultimately took home the coveted first place broken Rich Aurilia bobblehead doll. Blade, I’ll hook up with you later this month to get a mailing address–Twin is much more diligent and responsible when it comes to shipping prizes so be patient…….

Congrats to ME for not shutting this place down. I’m an emotional person prone to impulsive decisions (see: my head) and while I don’t always enjoy getting up at 5am to load up all the bells and whistles that hypnotize you on a daily basis, the fact is I really love this place and look forward to interacting with all of you every day–  you regulars are the best Giants fans in the virtual world……

And finally, congrats to all the *weird beards* who made all this happen. I can’t remember a season that gave us so many exciting games, interesting personalities and intriguing side stories. I am just so goddamn happy for guys like Aubry Huff who finally got to take part in all this. Buster Posey jumping up from the dish with a totally awkward completely genuine celebration–I think I looked the same way when my Little League team won the city World Series. Scrap heapers like Uribe and Burrell who have tasted a World Series win before but who might have thought deep down that they would never have a chance to taste it again. Finally getting his shot at 32 and turning himself into the team MVP–Andres Torres. How often does that happen? It’s a first. And then there’s Bochy– After the YEARS of crap and second guessing he’s taken from so many giants fans, I almost got tears in my eyes watching him come out of the dugout yesterday with his arms raised and that big goofy smile on his face–just as he doesn’t argue with the umps very well he could also work on his celebrations. But that was a moment of rare genuine happiness that the public got to see—-one we should all consider ourselves lucky to have gotten to share. And getting to do it against his former team, the one that basically showed him the door years ago, must have been equally satisfying. Bochy deserves our honor and respect for what he’s done with this team in 2010…….

Of course I want this World Series win. Who wouldn’t? But whatever goes down in the post season, whether it’s 3 and out or an ultimate win, the magic of this season will live with me forever. The 2010 Giants. Just as I typed that I got the chills…..

As we discussed last night, if Atlanta loses today we are in and there will be no 1-game playoff to decide the NL West winner/WC winner–today would be that game. But I don’t think Atlanta is going to lose with Hudson pitching and Charlie Dumbass resting all his players and pitchers. I think Hamels is slated to go 2 innings today.

So, back to our game today…..And who better to have going than the guy who guaranteed it all way back when. Dirrrrty Sanchez. Back in August he guaranteed a sweep of the Padres and a division crown. That prediction didn’t work out then but he’s in a position to make good on the long term prediction of the division title if he can shut the Pads down (and we scratch out a few runs for him). If you think about it, this is the perfect way to end the season—a victory in the final game of the season that locks up the division pitched by the guy who guaranteed all of this for us 6 weeks ago…….

So make it so, young Dirrrrty. Do whatever it takes to fulfill your promise to us. I have an unwavering belief in your foresight and your intuition. But, just in case,  I hope to God you’ve flown your dad in for this game…….

Well, that didn’t work. Bochy and the Giants had everything aligned last night but the stars. And now we turn to….HIM. You guys already know about fake hustle. Ever heard of fake confidence? That’s what I’m rollin’ with today.  I found one stat that can fuel my fake confidence, at least for a day: Zito in October for his career: 4 starts, 2-0, 2.70 ERA, .212 batting average against…….

I’m really more worried about the hitting than Zit(uh)0 They were tighter than a drum last night. Franchez looked like he was on 10 tabs of adderall when he stepped to the plate. These guys have GOT to chill out and manage their adrenaline better. Baseball is a game played with squashed emotion, not unbridled emotion. I think he’s a chump but Stauffer has been very good lately. We could be headed for another 1-0, 2-1 deal and all that’s going to do is continue to build up tension, edginess and anxiety— not too easy to hit when that’s happening either…….

Going into last night this was just way too easy, wasn’t it? You don’t base your entire season on torture and then just saunter into the post season with a few games to spare– this could get much uglier before it gets better. The next few days could feel like a lifetime……..

Those are the pitching staff numbers for September–and that includes the 10-run Zits game in Colorado. Truly amazing and probably the best month of pitching by a staff ever (Elias?)…..

After the Yankees clinched a playoff spot, my daughter’s grandpa, a diehard Yankee fan, barely cleared his throat in celebration. “They’re playing horrible, we’ll win nothing this year,” he grumbled. After I told him that if the Giants make the playoffs I was going to die my hair black and party like it’s 1999, he just stared at me with a confused look on his face…..

I cannot fathom the depth of the depression I will sink into if we lose 4 straight to the Padres right now…….

Well, last night they won their 90th, my total number from Opening Day. Hopefully I will not be nailing it cold this year (as I did last year 🙂 ). I usually don’t read any other blog besides this one and Baggs’ but I have been poking around other sites lately and it blows my mind how negative Giants fans are to this team. There are “fire sabean” guys all over the place. The freaking team has the 2nd most wins in the National league and there are still haters out there. Unbelievable.

Baseball is a game that is linked to failure. The best hitters in the game fail around 70% of the time. It’s EASY to find a player to complain about or a manager to second guess. But now? Why now? I don’t have the slightest problem in the world admitting when I am wrong. I’ve posted several mea culpa’s here this year (Torres, Bochy to name two) and I did it early on I didn’t stubbornly hold on to an opinion that was incorrect. I guess that’s why the negativity about the team is still out there– people that want to just inanely hold on to their original perspective despite damning evidence to the contrary….

Having said all that, I am dead set against the pitching change that now has the rotation going Cain-Zito-Sanchez. If Bum takes care of business tonight we only need to win one vs the Padres but if Cain doesn’t do it do we really want to put it in Zito’s hands on Saturday? And then face a do or die must win Sun? Unappealing scenario…..

This is unfolding nicely, isn’t it? Professional, inevitable comeback win last night. And how about Mike Quade? he’s got the Cubs playing for…..I dunno, but whatever it it that’s the reason he should be named their manager in the off season. The job he’s done keeping that team together and playing hard until the end is to be honored…..

Ian Kennedy going tonight? No prob, we’ll just throw Lincecum at ’em. As I said yesterday, a sweep of the d-backs would hardly surprise, in fact I expect it. San Diego is hitting the 16th pole staggering, on fumes, as I said they would do.

I’m not sure why anyone is sweating who we play in the playoffs. Philly doesn’t scare me at all, In fact I think we match up well with them………

Tonight’s AZ line up is a joke— we should destroy them. I took the Giants at -210 because i thought it was a lock for them to win their 89th game on THE BONEY ONE’S birthday, but now I’m pissed I didn’t give 1.5 at even money. We destroy them tonight, 9-1……

Off day today but still a HUGE day for the Giants. If Z and the Cubs can beat the Padres we go 1 game up, lose and we’re obviously tied. Yesterday got us to 88 games, a watershed number over the last 4 years. 88! 74! 88! 74! Ha, those were fun exchanges back then, weren’t they?

And then as we all know, last year I nailed the win total cold with that golden number of…88. It’s been a while since I brought that up.

With 6 games to go I am dead-confident that I will miss my season win total prediction of 90 that I posted on Opening Day. No problem with that at all.

This team has developed and proven to have a resiliency that winning teams have to have beyond a bunch of stats and fantasy numbers. That resiliency is why I believe in this team. I believe in the GM. I believe in the manager. I believe in Raggs and Bam Bam. I believe in Torres and Huff and Uribe and Burrell—-4 players that no other team wanted last Winter. And if I don’t believe in jinxes I don’t believe in made-up laws so yes, I believe in Barry Zito. And I don’t *believe* we are going to win the West. I’m certain of it……

I don’t hate the team, I hate the state. I can’t even stand to look at the letters that make up the word. Every  time we go there it seems we get dealt a crushing defeat. Strangely, last night’s didn’t hurt that bad. Bochy went all in last night and I like the move. Win that game and the Rockies are DONE. It just didn’t quite work out. Plus, he knew he had Cain to fall back on today….

And thank freaking GOD that Zito’s sweet “4 runs or more” stat didn’t take a hit. Nice 4.1 innings of work, chump……

You can’t second guess anything Bochy did last night. In fact, you could argue that the Rockies won because of that catch Car-Go made on Posey–he misses that ball and that’s the ballgame……

Isn’t it amazing what one swing can do? If Pat swings through that pitch instead of blasting it into the bleachers, we would be sitting around bemoaning our crap offense trying to figure out how a first place team could get shut out seemingly every single game. And yet….One swing. Glory. Destiny…………

I never get tired of enjoying Tampa Bay paying for all of this…..

Ah, how cruel irony is. Zitman on the bump today. We win today and we basically knock Colorado out of the picture since they would be 5.5 back with 8 to play. How do you fight the inevitability of Zito’s Law? You get to bat against Jason Hammel.  The Rockies are stuck today, having to throw “dead arm” Hammel out there. If we win today that gives us 4 wins on the trip and I don’t see how we don’t steamroll this division with Cain going tomorrow and 6 to finish the season at home…..

“fucking juiced ball bullshit”– read his lips near the end of the clip..

Is it possible to get more geeked for this series? Timmy vs “The Poor Man’s Ubaldo” tonight. I love watching Chacin pitch, this is going to be a great match up. Zitman on Sat and for some unknown reason the Rockies hitters flail against him. Then Cain on Sunday.

The pitching staff continues to hurl at a record pace in September but there’s reason for concern right now. The rockies are losing but they aren’t having any trouble hitting the ball. I’m certain that our “HR or bust” mentality will continue in Colorado. We can’t panic if they put up runs just go out and match any crooked numbers they might put up.

I’ve got no feel on how this series plays out. The only thing that would be devastating would be getting swept but I just can’t see that with Timmy and Cain going. We are in control of everything, especially with 6 easy ones to end the season. At home. Magic number is 10……

If you talk with little kids or people that don’t know anything about baseball, you’ll see that they mistakenly think the only way runs are scored in baseball is by way of the home run. It seems the Giants are taking the same approach in this stretch run. I did a quick post last night about the 45 inning thing but I was shocked when I looked at the entire month of September.

When you look at how many runs were produced by position players with hits other than a home run, it will blow your mind…

9/1: Fontenot basehit produces 1 run

9/2: Posey hit produces 2 runs

9/4: 0 runs produced by a basehit (this was the 4 bomb LA win)

9/5: 0 runs produced by a basehit

9/6: 0 runs produced by a basehit during regulation. Nate tripled in the 12th to score two though

9/7: 1 hit for 1 RBI

9/8: 0 runs produced by a basehit

9/9: 1 hit for 1 RBI

9/10: 0 runs produced by a basehit

9/11: 0 runs produced by a basehit

9/12: 0 runs produced by a basehit (timmy had 2 rbi’s but I’m only looking at the pos players)

9/14: 0 runs produced by a basehit

9/15: 1 hit for 1 RBI

9/16: this was the big *explosion*– Posey had 1 hit for an RBI and Franchez had a hit for 2 rbi’s. 3 total for game

9/17: 0

9/18: 0

9/19: 0

9/21: 0

9/22: 0

So, if you don’t count Nate’s triple (and I’m not going to, it was the 12 inning and we hadn’t produced a run in the first 11 innings), by my count the Giants have 7 non-HR basehits in 19 September games for a total of 9 RBI’s. My mind is just blown by this utter offensive failure at the plate. In fact, all our minds should be collectively blown by this. We’re talking about almost a complete breakdown of one of the cornerstones of the game: a clean base hit for an RBI. 7 hits in the entire month for 9 rbi’s. And 3 of the 9 RBI’s came in the first 2 days of the month! And I’m not going back and checking but i THINK the only non-HR rbi’s came from exactly 3 players: Posey, Franchez and Fontenot. What. World. Is. This….

Over their last 45 innings, the Giants have scored exactly one run with a hit that didn’t involve a home run. That is astounding and probably a major league record of some sort. The offense should get sent to Cooperstown just on the basis of it’s unique absurdity. Our problem is that everyone is trying to be THE GUY and do something with one big hit. Walks, base hits, that’s all out the fucking window with this offense. Just swing for the fences and hope for the best— dangerous game to play at this point in the season……….

Heyward V Posey. I’m not including Garcia because I think that for a pitcher to win it he has to be dominating since he only plays in 20% of the games. Outside of the 1-off game where he carved us up in 9 innings, Garcia is a 5-6 inning guy. Hardly dominating….

Posey: .324ba, .895OPS, 15 bombs, 62 RBIs in 364 at bats

heyward: .286ba, .876OPS, 18 bombs, 9 swipes, 71RBIs in 482 at bats.

Give Buster another 118 at bats and he’d easily blow by Heyward in every category except SB’s.  And Buster is an east coast guy (sorta) so he’s definitely known across America, it’s not like the west coast bias will hit him that hard. But, in the end, I think Heyward will win it. He’s had a very strong July-Sept and he’s been hyped since Opening Day. It’s too bad Buster didn’t have a level playing field, had he been here from Day 1 I think he wins it easily…..

Ross cf
Sanchez 2b
Huff 1b
Posey c
Burrell lf
Guillen rf
Sandoval 3b
Uribe ss
Cain p

until further notice…….

Today, I don’t want to hear about Zito’s Law, or lack of run support, or how much money he makes, or the fact that he’s 112-0 when the team scores 16 runs for him or whatever.  Somehow the Giants just need to go out and figure out how to get a win despite who’s on the mound…..

That one just sucked. Uribe had easily his worst game as a Giant and one of the worst single performances of a Giant this year. He only got saddled with 1 error but he bungled at least 4 plays and did nothing at the plate….

I have to admit, I like Randy Wolf– definitely a guy you’d want on your team. Back in July he gave up something like 15 runs in 5 innings. You wonder how a manager lets a guy stay in that long but it turns out that Wolf volunteered to stay out there to save their bullpen that was destroyed the night before. He’s been pretty reliable since then and outstanding in his last 2 starts. Tip your cap and move on…….

I didn’t look at the pitching match ups when I said we could easily sweep these guys. Gallardo goes today, always a tough pitcher. We’ve had our moments against him though….

And then Sunday looms. God’s day. You’re supposed to rest on that day, right? I don’t think God is gonna be too happy to see Zito working on Sunday. I forsee a severe punishment in the offing…….

I find it doubly satisfying that the game SF wins to put me in the $ on the *over* for the season win total is also the win that bumps us into first place for the first time….all season? I think that’s right. There was a post about Bochy winning MOTY and I think that’s hard to argue when you look at what he’s done with the bullpen this year and how he’s mixing and matching the LU at the most critical time of the year. How many other managers in the league in September have to pencil in a new leadoff hitter every day? Renteria? I’ll mark that one down as a successful string pulled……

I made my peace with Bochy a couple of weeks ago with a mea culpa post about him. He’s not a flashy guy and he’s never going to argue with an umpire the way I’d like, but when it comes to running a team for the long haul and making a ton of decisions with a lot of different moving parts, it’s impossible to argue with his results this year……..

Milwaukee series coming up. This is OUR time, I’ve been talking about these Padre/Rockies road trips for weeks. I’d like to be greedy and say let’s take all 3 from the Brewers, a team that is doing nothing other than trying to pad their individual stats at this point. Sweeping them is totally doable…….

Quick housekeeping note: The esteemed Matriarch of the blog, Lady FerretHead, somehow ended up in my spam filter with some perfectly legitimate posts that shouldn’t have been zapped. 1000 apologies. Sometimes the filter zaps royalty when it should be zapping rubbish……

82 wins on the season. The next win hits the over on *the Vegas insider* spread— they set it at 82.5 at the start of the season. I have that plus a much larger wager with my A’s buddy that hits once the Giants win their 89th game of the year…..

After 15 straight innings of ineptitude, the Giants finally scored a run. Fontenot wouldn’t be everyone’s POTG but he’s mine with room to spare. Plus I read somewhere once that wide chicks need props, too. 🙂 Anyway,  he hit the ball hard all night with nothing to show for it. Finally, where so many others had failed he delivered against  a tough pitch to hit, muscling it into right field. Obviously, most of the team was critical to this win including Cain, the bullpen and Sandoval for making contact on a night that he looked like he wasn’t going to come within a foot of hitting the ball. He deserves credit for doing what he had to do in that situation. I still have no idea WTF he was doing in that first at bat with the bases loaded……….

This is going to be a very tough game to win tonight. I’m no Lilly fan but he’s a lefty who doesn’t walk too many guys– that’s the death combo to toss at our offense. Pray that Dirrrrty finds his stuff and just hope for another scratched out victory. 2-1 or so………

Man, was his Law ever in more effect than last night? Look at my 9/13 post and see how many theorems out of the 6  he had checked off:

1) “He’ll get outpitched by the opposing pitcher”: check

2) “Our bats will go silent”– double check

3) “”We will commit some dumbass defensive miscue”— ugly check. This one was the best because God (who hates Zito and the Giants) stepped into the game for just a moment to make sure Theorem #3 kicked into play: Blake hit a certain base hit up the middle–except that it bounds off the mound and changes course directly to the Uribe. We are saved, inning over. Whoops. God just wanted that inning to hurt a little more– a simple, clean base hit up the middle wasn’t gonna do it………..

4) “Opponents hardest hit balls are always in the direction of our slowest athletes”– I wouldn’t call Uribe slow or not athletic but he’s hardly a deft gazelle out there at SS. I’d give this a 1/2 check.

5) “If we ever score a run Zito will walk the first 2 hitters of the next inning”– we never scored a run but he did manage to screw up the 6th inning in classic Zito style: hit batter, walk, walk to load the bases. No check here, though. OK, maybe a 1/4 check.

6) “The opponents game winning hit will always come from their worst hitter”– substitute “most hated current Dodger” and this one gets a full check………..

Heart breaking game. Who loses when their team throws a 1 hitter? Zito’s Law, baby. You can’t escape it. Every 5th day like clockwork………..

Here it comes. Can you feel it? Right now it’s just a few leaves blowing around outside, the faintest wind is starting to kick up. But it’s coming.  By 7:10pm he’ll stride to the top of the hill in the middle of a raging hurricane of bad luck, broken promises and fake hustle. The team hasn’t won a game he’s pitched in since August 11th…….

I was surprised to look at the overall team win totals when each of the 4 starts have pitched this year.

Dirrrrty: team has won 19 times that he’s pitched

Timmy: also 19 times

Cain: 16 wins

Zito: 14 wins…..

The team has won 14 times when Zito’s pitched this year? I had to check to see if those were the team wins for his career. It wasn’t, it was for 2010. Zito is kryptonite to the “W”. And yet, somehow we’ve won 14 times this year when he’s taken the hill.

The team has won games that Zito has pitched in this year. Just keep reminding yourself of that fact tonight if you start thinking about “Zito’s Law” during tonight’s game……..

Actually, that was a trick question, there’s no way to avoid it. The only question is how it will unfold in a game…

Zito’s Law: “Whe he pitches, dumb shit happens”

The theorems (with slight generalizations):

1) Zito will always get outpitched by the opposing pitcher. It could be just barely or obviously, but he will always get out-pitched

2) Our bats will go silent on days he pitches.

3) We will commit some dumbass defensive miscue at least twice  a game

4) Opponents hardest hit balls will always head in the direction of our slowest, least athletic players

5) If we ever manage to score a run, ZIto will automatically walk the first two batters of the next inning

6) The opponent’s game winning hit will always come from their worst hitter

There are probably some others, feel free to add them into the thread. Tuesday is Zito vs Kershaw. And let the law unfold…….

There seems to be some disagreement over who are leadoff hitter will be. As many have pointed out, it’s an overrated role since the leadoff hitter usually only leads off an inning once a game. But what’s not overrated is speed and defense. And I don’t see how we can keep running Burrell and Guillen out there with anyone other than Ford in CF. If they want to go with an outfield of Burrell/Rowand/Ross I could moderately dig that. Maybe Burrell/Ross/Schierholz– in that case I was thinking they could bat Franchez first since he got some experience but now that I heard he’s limping on a bad knee again that idea is probably off the shelf. Ross has almost no experience batting leadoff…….

It won’t happen but the best idea is to run Darren Ford out there. With no book on him he could easily get away with a successful 10 game run at the plate. And his speed and defense would allow Bochy to still go “Water Buffalo Defense” in the outfield…….

I loved Baggs’ description of the strike zone yesterday: “more like a rectangle than a square”.  How could we expect to do anything at the plate when Crawford’s dumbass is calling pitches 6 inches (or more) off the plate? And today we get the ridiculous Cuzzi who went to the “How much effort are they putting into making the play” School of Umpiring.  Go google “Cuzzi blown call” and you’ll see there are countless fuck ups by this tool….

THe O/U is 5.5 for today’s game. I don’t know if I’ve seen one that low. And I think I’m taking the under……

8 percentage points out of first place. That sounds much worse than one game back…….

“Nice effort”

I have no idea how you guys decided to make THAT the thing to perseverate on at the end of the last thread. First place? Not first place? I didn’t think about that for a second after we won last night. I’m not even thinking about it if we sweep these chumps this weekend. Where they are in the standings at this point only has to do with leverage. And after the first two games I say that we have that, without question. We are % points behind, everyone can see that. But we have the psychological edge on the Padres AND we have assured ourselves of not losing any ground from where we were on Wednesday. As I’ve been highlighting for weeks now, the Padres are about to hit the road for 10 straight games with exactly one day of rest left in the entire month of September. Latos and Richard can’t pitch every game. They are DONE. If we had lost 3 or 4 we would be sucking wind and they’d have the leverage on us from here on out. But they didn’t do that. I’ll take a win this weekend, two would be divine, but we are all good from here on out. We won the division last night with that victory. Book it……

What a tone we set in San Diego last night. We didn’t just eek out a victory, we dominated them, burying the memories of their 8-0 start against us to start out the year. With their fans absent and our fans filling their seats, there’s no way the Padres can maintain their confidence……

Another chance tonight for Dirrrrty to back up his hubris against SD. Do you sit Buster? I know Bochy wants to give him a blow but I don’t think this series is the time to do it. And as bad as he looked on Wed in AZ he sure looked spry last night. He’s going to get a blow Monday and then Bochy could give him another one against the checked-out Dodgers or even Milwaukee. San Diego will be losing plenty of games next week when they head off to their 10 game roadie on Monday. Posey should sit then, not now…….

It was in full effect last night, wasn’t it? Zito’s Law shut down the bats. For the first time in a while it just felt like nothing was going to happen, no one was going to step up. Posey looked horrendous at the plate, Same with Torres, Uribe, basically every single at bat after the Franchez HR. 14 left on base–that’s another theorem of Zito’s Law–tons of guys left on base…..

Cain v Garland tonight. I hate to go into San Diego with a line up full of cold bats but that’s what we’re doing. And the bats have been cold for a while, it’s been disguised a little because of the wins. We haven’t put two good hitting games together since I don’t remember when……

3 of 4 is totally doable. For either team……

It’s a good thing this game is being played in a dome. Otherwise, anyone walking within 3 miles of the stadium would have to wear a hardhat to protect themselves from the bombs Zito is going to be giving up tonight. I haven’t checked this but I would guess that in the first month of the season Zito’s fastball was averaging at least 3 or 4 mph faster than it has in the last 2 months of the season. His fastball is gone people, at least for the rest of this year. And when you’re throwing 84-85 that just isn’t going to cut it. He’ll get a few guys out but over the course of the game he will leave several of those fatties over the plate and Arizona will punish him……

He’s had one win since June 12th and he hasn’t won a road game since the middle of May. Arizona is -130, Giants +110. How could anyone of sound mind bet on the Giants at a paltry +110 with those horrific stats to consider?

All right, I hope I’ve successfully pulled of the “reverse jinx” and Zito pitches a beauty tonight……

Look back at all three games, how did we win ANY of them?  It’s almost as if each game is just a collection of individual, separate moments. And yet somehow, each moment connects to one another at the end for a victory. Nate Schierholtz comes off the bench clearly with his head not in the game, and gets picked off. Idiot. So, of course, Nate wins the game for us. Hero.

I honestly can’t remember a season that had this many entertaining games. And it’s not just that we are in a pennant race, these games have just been unbelievable…..

There have been a lot of documented things that didn’t work out this year: Timmy, Pablo, Wellenmeyer as the 5, DeRosa hurt, Rowand sucking, Franchez hovering just above the brink of *below averageness*….the list is a mile long. And yet we’re about to take over first place. How?

This is a gutty-ass team that refuses to ever give up. The season has evolved to the point where each player knows someone on the team will step up and deliver–the only question is who it’s gonna be. That’s a very cool place to be in September…….

I was half-way listening to Marty Lurie in the car yesterday and I THINK he said that only one team in the history of baseball has ever lost 10 in a row and still made the playoffs–1951 Giants (I think). And the Padres are forced to look around the locker room and not be thinking “Ok, this will pass, we are the best team, etc…”. They’re looking around going “uh oh, this is what everyone said we would be before the season started”.  If anything, we need to worry a little about Colorado– they’re playing well and if we get hit by San Diego on their freefall down it’s totally possible that the Rockies slide right on up to the top of the division…….

Depending on the outcome of the next couple of days we could literally be in a position to BURY the Padres in our upcoming seires with them later in the week……

10 freaking games lost in a row. Amazing. 80% of the Giants fan base would have committed suicide if that had happened to us……

That’s what I did after Gibbons hit that bomb. Not a long walk, just down the driveway and up the street and back. Apparently that walk worked wonders. Cain settled down and we go on to hit 4 bombs to win the game. There are almost no words to describe last night’s win. Either you saw it or you didn’t and I have never seen a game like that–that one was an original. Uribe has to be POTG but if was ever to be a shared last night was the night—Posey, Renteria, Burrell, Ross and Uribe. And you have to give Cain huge props for settling down after giving up that bomb to the ridiculous Gibbons…….

Torre stubbornly using Broxton again. Baha. Classic look of defeat on Broxton’s face after Uribe’s hit. Broken and beaten….

Who loses 9 games in a row at this time of year and can honestly maintain the confidence to actually believe they can win their division?

There is no team above us. The only thing that is stopping us from steamrolling this division is proper execution. That, and God hating us when Zito pitches……..

It seems like every time Zito pitches something stupid happens to us—like God hates the Giants when he pitches. Should Guillen have caught that ball?  OF COURSE that hit by Lady B goes to the ONE guy on the field who is least likely to make that catch. I’d guess that every outfielder on our team makes that catch…..

2 hits? This year we have exactly 2 earned runs scored of Billingsley through 29.2 innings he’s pitched against us. Pathetic….

You can’t blame the loss on one guy unless you believe God hates Barry Zito and I think that’s an inarguable fact at this point. “When he pitches, dumb shit  happens”. It’s Zito’s Law……..

The Padres continue to lose, even at home. This is still totally doable……..

You can’t really understate the importance of the next 10 games for the Giants. San Diego is limping home but they are about to kick off a nice long homestand. If we stay around 2-3 games back for the next 10 days or so then we will POUNCE on the Padres when they fall apart on the 10 day road trip they have to stagger through starting on September 13th.  September is their month to fall apart– their young arms are taxed and spent. But we don’t need to be 6 games back on the 13th, that could leave us with too much work to do……

So it all starts tonight against the *Done-gers*. I think they’ve got a team-wide check out going on right now. The owner-divorce is dominating the headlines, Matt Kemp can’t wait for his next date with Riannah, Fucal and Martin are in their rightful spot on the DL and Broxton is not fine despite what Torre will tell you. As long as we don’t get too tight I think we take 2 of 3 for sure this weekend……..

When Darren Ford improbably took off for third, ultimately heading home as the winning run last night, the first thing I thought of was Will Clark hitting a HR off Nolan Ryan– I know, I know, lots of differences but that’s what I first thought of. That goddamn ball rolled maybe 5 feet away from Olivo. There’s no WAY you take off and make it safe to third. And how does a guy in his first freaking major league game even have the balls to attempt that play? And then it just sort of magically unfolded, ironically, in slow motion. At least to me…..

Bochy deserves credit for putting Ford in as a PR but what the hell was he even doing on the team? This guy was hitting .251 with a .680 OPS in freaking Richmond! Everyone has heard about his speed but you don’t really get it till you see a play like last night. Would he have been out if the throw had been on the money? Probably, but we’ll never know…..

I’ve got no clue if Ford will ever do anything at this level. I think I saw he had a neck tattoo. I hate guys with neck tats. And it doesn’t really matter how fast you are if you can’t get on base and that .251 ba/.315 OBP/680 OPS from Richmond is uninspiring at best.  But for one play, for one moment in time, the dude showed up with the most exciting rookie debut since Will Clark’s. I’ll never forget last night’s play……

Call up day. Bochy has to be sighing a bit of relief at the new bodies he’s getting. Uribe is in desperate need of some time off and whether it’s Renteria or Burriss who give him a blow, that dude needs to get a blow….

So who’s getting called up?

Here’s the link to our minor league stats:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/minorleagues/affiliates/index.jsp?c_id=sf

Outside of middle infield help I’m not sure what our team really NEEDS right now. We’ve got about 16 outfielders already vying for time. The bullpen has sorted itself out pretty good in terms of roles and Runzler will be taking his spot back today so I don’t know how many new guys we’re going to be seeing coming out of the bullpen. Brandon Belt? Sure, why not but I don’t know when he would play.  Couldn’t hurt to give him a view from the bench and a PH now and again…….

How about Chris Dominguez down at Augusta (not for a call up, just *how ’bout him*)?  He seems like he can hit a little, but 30(!) —t-h-i-r-t-y— errors this year. Dude might want to learn how to play 1st base or he’s headed down the same road Jesus Guzman is traveling down…….

Ubaldo vs Timmy— this is not a must win game. I’m telling myself that partly because it’s true and partly because I’ve lost faith in Tim Lincecum. If he can’t beat the #3’s of the league how is he going to beat this guy (who he’s already lost to)……

I couldn’t catch the entire game last night, I bounced in the 7th. I woke up and did my “read the blog” thing to find out what happened. Ugh. That move has turned into bad luck for us, it always seems we suffer some type of excruciating loss when I do that…..

It was nice to read the Merc and see that several players stopped by Ross’ locker to offer support, it sounds like this was just a freak play that could have happened to anyone…….

Brian Wilson is your closer who is strong as an ox. He’s an all star. You bring him into that situation every single time. I’ve got no problem with that move whatsoever. Dirrrrty is always a pitch away from disaster anyway. Did anyone want to see him lose the game in the 9th? Exactly. The 9th inning is Wilson’s in a situation like that, period……..

The only good thing that ever comes from me missing games like this is that it doesn’t leave the same pain in my soul that watching it would have done…….

After impossibly giving up that lead our guys really showed me something yesterday– They didn’t waste much time either, did they? They steamrolled the bottom of the 7th and re-took the lead in like 2 minutes. Very professional win and a fun game to watch……

The Dodgers really got their money’s worth on that 50 mil they gave Manny, didn’t they? The first year he gets busted for steroids and loses 50 games. This year he happily picked up his player option and proceeded to incur about 12 calf injuries throughout the season. When I first heard he was White-Sox bound I actually thought it might help the Dodgers along the lines of when the Raiders ditched Jamarcus (No)Muscle. But with the McCourt’s divorce case starting TODAY I think that circus will be enough to bury the Dodgers who are pretty much buried as we speak……

We’ve got 31 games left. Is 18-13 doable? I’m not too worried about the WC or the division. Either is fine. And San Diego has to deal with a 10 game road trip in the middle of September just as their young pitching staff is maxing out on their innings pitched for the year. Plus we get ’em for the final  3 of the regular season. With Philly focus and marching toward their usual spot in the post season I think the division is still our best shot at making the post season this year…….

Not much to say about this weekend series– Zito was predictably awful. I can’t wait to hear the excuses from his boyfriend Michael Urban. In some ways this is his worst year in SF of all the four. He’s just unraveled at a time when the team needs him the most. That bomb he gave up to make it 9-1 was  a batting practice pitch…..

Every starter we have is pitching like shit right now… Giants are -230 to win today, the D-backs are +205. Jesus, if you were a guy who bets this game how can you realistically put money down on the Giants with that +205 hanging out there for the taking?

And I’m tired of this “Uh oh, we’re in a hole again” right off the bat in the first inning. The energy just gets sucked out of the team with every roped bomb. F-that, you’re in a hole, don’t freaking give up in the first inning! That’s what if feels like they’ve been doing lately. Power through it, persevere. This is the freaking DBACKS……

Tim Lincecum Whip: 1.35

League Average: 1.35

Wow, that’s a frighteningly quick fall from the top we’ve seen from Timmy. And he’s just kinda felt average this year, hasn’t he? Another loss against another #3. Most of us knew going in that Enright didn’t do anything spectacular with the ball but we still couldn’t do anything with him. That goes back to the theory I floated out there a couple of weeks ago: the team loses their collective focus when Tim pitches. I compared it to the Zito starts during his first year with us. Disagree with the theory if you must but try to use a valid argument instead of “No, that’s not it”.  When Zito was sucking and everyone was wondering what was wrong the team would take the field tight and everyone’s eyes were glued to the radar gun. Same thing is happening with Timmy. When the focus is on something other than your job (hitting) AND you aren’t playing loose, bad things are going to happen to your offensive production. Let’s look at the number of runs scored in Tim’s last 5 starts (all losses):  0,0,2, 2,2.  Remember, those are the runs we have scored in those games WHEN HE’S BEEN IN THE GAME. In some cases, like the Cubs loss, we scored some runs after he was chased…..

And that’s my main point. Scoring 6 runs in 5 games for the guy is ludicrous. But when their are questions about your effectiveness, when no one seems to have the answers and there’s 8 guys standing out there hoping, waiting, PRAYING that the “old Timmy” will show back up, I am telling you, that’s a misplaced focus and THAT’S the reason our offense has sucked so bad the last 5 games that he’s pitched…..

His 7.82 ERA/ 1.82 WHIP/ and .311 batting average against him in August didn’t help much either…….

Baggs wrote an interesting piece today at the Merc. It’s a comprehensive piece on what Tim and Pablo need to focus on this off season. It suggests that they are having down years as a result of their bodies (Pablo too fat, Tim not conditioned correctly).

Now I love Baggs, I think he’s the best beat writer we have by a mile. When they pan to the writers at the games, Baggerly just LOOKS like he’s about 10 times smarter than everyone in that room. But I think that article is off base. It’s not that I don’t think Panda should lose weight or that Tim shouldn’t work on his conditioning. They should. But the deficits in their respective bodies don’t explain the problems they’ve had this year…..

His velocity has dropped from year to year and the theory is that he’s not conditioned correctly to handle the rigors of a 162 game season year in and year out. Couldn’t it be better explained by the fact that he’s thrown the third most pitches in baseball over the last 3 seasons? This guy weighs about as much as my left bicep, how much conditioning is he gonna have to do to keep up that type of pace at the Cy Young level we’re accustomed to? Baggs uses Oswalt as a comparison but Tim looks like a dwarf compared to Oswalt. A buddy of mine saw Tim at a restaurant in SF last year and couldn’t believe how tiny he was. And forget his listed height and weight, there’s no freaking way he’s 5’11, 170. This dude just doesn’t have the body to throw that many pitches every year no matter how many squats he does or how many miles he runs. And as he ages it’s only going to get worse…….

Panda’s problem, as I’ve identified many times, is nothing more than focus. He was going through a tough emotional time at the start of the year and struggled through that for most of the season. Quite simply, his focus wasn’t 100% on the game of baseball and in this game, if you’re even at 95%, that’s going to ruin you. He hit .330 with the same body last year and I think he’s a little thinner this year. Yet now he’s swinging through hit-me strikes that he killed last year? No way. And as we see him coming out of his year long fog, the “time heals all wounds” theory is making more and more sense. I’d worry about Pablo’s weight as he hits his 30’s. Right now, it’s not as big of a deal as it is for him to get his head straight. And it looks like he’s well on his way to doing that right now just in time for the stretch run……..

Could Tim get stronger/better conditioned legs? Sure. But if he doesn’t start locating his slower pitches better, he’s screwed. And Pablo is already showing that he’s finally got his focus back. Lose some weight, sure. I’d rather see him lose some *dead* emotional weight in his head……..

I’ve had to do a lot of driving this week, I’ve been catching more of the Idiot and Mac show than usual in the mornings. One of them is gone for the week, not sure which one. Anyway, the remaining idiot has spent a lot of time this week saying he’s getting a TON of emails from fans that are upset about Timmy’s hair and identifying that as his main problem. I know we give him grief about his hair but does anyone here think it’s contributing to his recent streak of mediocrity?

Personally, I don’t think that has anything to do with it and can’t believe there are fans out there who think his hair has become his downfall. But Mac (or Murph) has been talking about it all week. Obsessing on it, really…….

Timmy’s got bigger fish to fry than how often he visits his hair stylist. Tomorrow’s pitcher is Barry Enright. Besides pitching very effectively this year (he’s a “6 inning guy” with a nice ERA of 2.73) he’s also the guy who was 2 for 2 against Tim on July 25th. I hope he’s devised a plan to somehow get Babe Ruth out……

Here’s why Tim has had problems recently: The fact is, Tim isn’t pitching THAT badly. He’s often pitching good enough to give his team a chance to win. But his starts have become a distraction and it’s affecting the focus of the team. That’s why they aren’t hitting in his starts. Everyone is watching the radar gun instead of focusing on their job. I’m expecting the same thing to happen tomorrow–Tim pitches ok but still loses to an inferior pitcher who appears better than he is against our unfocused group. The same thing used to happen to Zito starts a few years ago. I know it seems like I’m giving Tim a free pass here, but I’m not. I’m just raising the possibility that other things are contributing to his recent string of losses. Loose teams who play tight behind you, a tightness YOU brought on with your less-than-CyYoung performances, are not known for being  very productive offenses. Once everyone stops looking at the radar gun (including Tim) and once he gets better location with all his pitches, THAT’S when he’s going to come out of this and start winning games again. His fastball is gone, at least for the rest of this year and at least as we once knew it to be when he first came up. Everyone needs to accept that and just start playing good, focused baseball again……

After that pathetic, team-wide, lay down on Sun these last 2 games have been awesome.  I was stunned to read that this is the first back-to-back double digit runs scored at home since 1973.  That’s crazy. Of course it’s hard to get to 10 runs in a baseball game but is it 37 years hard to get their consecutively? The Yankees probably do that at least a couple of times a year…..

Did anyone catch Barbieri crying about moving the fences in yesterday? His argument is that good hitters don’t want to come here because of the dimensions. I don’t think for a second that the Giants would consider altering this perfect park so I’m not worried about Barbieri’s rant. There isn’t a reason in the world to move the fences in. In fact, I would argue that a triple into the alleyway is MORE exciting than a homerun– will the guy get to third? How many runs score? And then the play at the plate! And so what if Huff has lost a few bombs at AT&T.  His home OPS this year is .906. Last year his home OPS was .784. I think he can live with the dimensions. And I was at that inside-the-park job he had earlier this year, it was one of the most exciting plays of the year…….

I’ve argued this point before. Sabean drafts backwards. He focuses on pitchers because that’s his thing and his results certainly can’t be questioned. But he would have no problem signing FA pitchers to pitcher here. Pitchers love ATT. He gets rebuffed by the big boppers, but if he DRAFTED hitters they would have to play here. And most hitters find out that ATT is NOT death to a bat. OPS’s and batting averages usually go up at ATT because of the big outfield, the fielders simply can’t cover the ground they can at other smaller parks…..

Ted Sillanpaa still sucks……

For whatever reason, I am not able to cut and paste this into today’s thread. But Twin has set up another contest: Pick the total number of wins for the season. Tie breaker is total runs scored for the year. Email your picks to twinfan1@hotmail.com. He’s giving away another custom built computer, everyone is eligible. He can post the specs later today…..

I shut down the old blog and have any comments that get posted there now coming to me first for moderation. Amazingly, people still try to post there almost every single day though I haven’t approved even one comment there in months. Anyway, this was an interesting comment I got last night. Anybody read this guy? He gets bent pretty easily, doesn’t he…..

this is what he was responding to that I wrote last March 23rd….

“Tuesday, March 23, 2010
The Final Roster Spots…..
Some guy named Ted Sillanpaa wrote an article in The Bleacher Report that suggests the last roster spot is going to shake out of this group: Bowker, Ishikawa, Velez, Torres, Posey, Frandsen and Lewis. I dunno, how can you trust an opinion from a guy named “Sillanpaa”? That name sounds made up. I haven’t played out a “fantasy roster” ..”

Then this was the post he tried to make last night:

“Gee. Can’t imagine how your blog died.
The last name came with my family from Finland. And, the Giants final decisions did involve those guys. Thanks for giving me and the friend who somehow found this a laugh.
Ted Sillanpaa”

My question:  his *friend* found this? Right. $10 says this dude sits around all day doing google searches of his made-up name  and then desperately reads anything that anyone has written about this chump. I still don’t know who this guy is or if he’s a real person. He’s probably a bot. Two flaps down to this Sillanpaa character……

Torres CF
Posey C
Huff 1B
Burrell LF
Guillen RF
Sandoval 3B
Uribe SS
Sanchez 2B
Cain RHP (9-10, 3.11)

Big (flavor) Happy Birthday to AlleyKat……