A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

So Cody Ross, come on down. Sorry, no explanation points.
After looking at this a little more carefully, I’m much less enthused. Baggs thinks he subs for Torres against lefties and maybe that’s true. But we simply have nobody to leadoff (al our high OBP guys are toads–Huff, Posey, Burrell) if it goes down like that. And let’s forget Rowand already. He of the .291 OBP shouldn’t be leading off for a little league team. I guess Ross subs for Guillen if his re-injured quad won’t let him go. But otherwise, Guillen is playing is playing everyday. You never know though, Guillen could be the guy to hit the DL to make room for Ross. He’d probably handle that very well, dotcha think?

Plus Ross will be 30 this year, I thought he was younger when I first head of the pick up……..

I dunno, 4th OF, whatever, come on board…….

Welll, he wasn’t horrible. He wasn’t all that great, either. Bottom line is that Lincecum got out-pitched again and we get another L for his *efforts*.  Unfortunately, Tim’s starts are starting to feel a lot like the “Zito starts” from his first couple of years with us. Tight. Everyone on edge. All eyes on the MPH board. That’s not the way we want this team playing during a pennant race. Tim’s starts are not only ineffective, they’ve become a distraction to the team…..

Speaking of Zito, today we get to lean on him for a critically needed quality start. Ugh……

Those were the last two games that we saw some “Back-to-back Cy Young Action” from Timmy. On the 7th he won the game with a 7 inning, 4hit, 10K game. The next week he complimented that gem with a complete game shut out of the Mets. Since then…….eh.

This is HIS time. We needed him last week and the week before and he failed. Hell, we really need him every time he takes the mound. But today WE NEED HIM!!!! Dirrrrrty and MadBum just rose from the dregs of the bottom of the rotation to right our rudderless ship. On the road, no less. Chris Carpenter is just a man, he’s been hittable this year, certain games easily so. I’m not worried about him in the slightest…..

But I am worried about the man we are sending out to the mound. It’s put-down-the-bong-STFU-time. No more excuses or new wind ups or pretty long, wavy black  hair. Storm the hill  like the two time CY winner you are and win this goddamn game…….

Dirrrrty saved us yesterday and now we turn to MadBum for another necessary step-up stud performance. This Dirrrrty/Bum exacta  feels preferable to a Lincecum/Cain debacle, doesn’t it? Not sure where Zito fits in, he’s a shaky 3, I guess. We don’t really have a NUMERO UNO  these days, as is evidenced by the starting staffs stunning failure to ever notch a win for themselves. Dirrrrty is the only guy to “stand out” in the win column with his bounty of two over the last 3 weeks. That’s freaking pathetic…..

This is a dangerous time for the team with the starting pitching laboring on the edge of unreliable and marginally competent. But Dirrrrty’s performance last night can’t be understated. It was huge, maybe the best start of the year for one of those 5…….

I thought we matched up well with Philly but they easily took 2 from us. I feel the same way about St Louis, I think we match up well with them. Regardless of what happens tonight, the spotlight will be squarely on Timmy tomorrow. We can’t win this thing without a #1 to carry us the rest of the year. Dirrrrty isn’t a #1, despite his 2 (two) victories over the last 17 days. Mr Cy Young is that guy. Or maybe he’s not, we’ll find out soon enough…….

They’ve hit 4 bombs in the last 2 games, that’s nice. But that’s not enough. Way too many “1-4,0-4’s” in the boxscores. And our pitching has come up ant-small so far. Dirrrrty may or may not need to pitch a pearl today–the way he’s been pitching I’d expect a line like 5.1inn/4ER/4BB/7K.  Bottom line is, regardless of what Dirrrrty does, we need to HIT the baseball. For hits. Lots of them. Ducks on the pond. Clutch hits. All that jazz….

This has been a horrendous 2 game swing, every facet of the game has been worthy of averting your eyes. But it’s 2 freaking games out of 162. The team isn’t trippin’ on it, you guys shouldn’t either. Join Denny on the ledge if you must, but don’t jump. Yet….

We sort of played right into their hands last night, didn’t we? Got 2 quick ones and then it just felt like we didn’t keep coming. The pitchers pitched defensively, too. You don’t try to protect a 2-0 lead in that park, you put your foot on their throat and keep hitting and hitting and hitting….

Ray has been marginal, at best, since he got here…….

Since May 16th Zito has won two games….And it’s not a lack of run support, he’s given up plenty of leads over that stretch…….

Blanton is just a *guy*, he’s an innings eater. He’ll give up 2 runs in the 1st while eating a couple of  ham sandwiches on the way to 6 or 7 innings of ho-hum pitched ball. We need to be aggressive against this team, in their park against this average-ass pitcher…….

One *over* in the books, 2 to go….

The Dodgers are done, man. Their collapse really is astounding when you consider the talent they had on that team to start the year. But Kemp got Hollywood-on-the-brain and decided it was more fun to date Rihanna than it was to work on his game. The broken thump slowed down Ethier. And as I said a few weeks ago when I watched him warm up, Broxton is hurt (though they say he’s fine–curious when he’s lost 5 mph off his fastball)……Either way, watching them go down with Torre fanatically pulling strings that are attached to nothing is funny as hell…….

Big series begins for us today–they’re all big from here on out. For some reason I feel like we are going to hit just fine in Philly. If our pitching holds up we could easily win 2 and maybe all 3. Still, I’m taking the over in all three of these games no matter what the number……

That feels pretty good, right? Ugh. You know it’s a tough times when I’m happy we don’t have to see Lincecum pitch in Philly……..

Krukow thinks we lost 2 of 3 to San Diego because we didn’t get the breaks and they did. That’s a crock, of course. Many times you make your own breaks, you force the issue. You make the plays. San Diego does all those things. We didn’t and we are lucky we didn’t get our asses swept this weekend…….

Time for Guillen to do his thing in that Philly band box. Everyone was trippin’ on him yesterday, and he definitely made a bonehead move and he disclosed that he’s  a slow runner at this point in his career. But he also had the best hit of any Giant yesterday, except Posey. We need him mashing the ball. Sabean didn’t trade for him so he could steal you a bag now and again………

Tues we see Zito V. Oswalt. Zito has pitched better against the Phillies than Oswalt has against the Giants. Cainer goes against Blanton on Wed and while Cain does own a 7.20 ERA (o-2) vs the Phillies I seem to remember one of his first starts was against them in their yard and they blasted him. He’s obviously a different pitcher today. Dirrrrrty takes on Hammels on Thurs, and again, Dirrrrrty has better numbers vs them than Hammels has vs us. All in all, I like the pitching match ups……

I can’t shake that question and can’t imagine this place if we hadn’t won that game. And yet I still don’t know how we won it. We had no chance to win. Yet when we went extra innings I was CERTAIN we were gonna win it. Doesn’t make sense, I know….

Our bullpen has quietly turned into one of the most reliable cogs on our team. 4 innings of no run ball yesterday, 3.2 innings of no run ball the day before. And it’s been EVERYONE…….

The ONLY thing I’m worried about today is that Timmy tries to hard. Just let it flow, baby. LeBlanc isn’t a chump but he’s totally beatable and Tim’s lost to a few guys like this in 2010…

Regardless,  today is huge. Not a must win since we have several more games against the Padres this year, but if Timmy is going to be a part of this TODAY needs to be his day. Very few of the Pads hit him even moderately well….

So maybe the guarantee game needs to come from someone a little, I dunno, maybe….better? It worked for Namath but not too many other guys over the last 40+ years. Dirrrrrrty pitched how he usually pitches and we left 11 men on base. So much for shit-talkin’…..guillen starting will take the focus off the “sweep talk” and that’s a good thing. Dude mashes, when he makes contact. He’s not a “pie in the face guy” so don’t try that on him. He’s going to be a great stretch run addition…..

Burrell is the first ever 3 straight game POTG. Again, thank you Tampa Bay…….

Tonight’s game is everything. As I posted a few days ago, I LOVED Dirrrty’s bold prediction, especially after that tough Atlanta series. Now he gets to go out and set the tone. If we dominate the Pads tonight, his prediction will be in full swing to the wire at the quarter pole. If he gets knocked around and if the overrated Richard cobbles together a goodie, Dirrrrrty looks like a chump and, more importantly, we prove we are the same team that this toothless bully has been beating up all year long. All or nothing.  I love it……

Of course I saw none of it up in the Idaho mountains but the last 50 or so posts from you guys told me it was a “great win”. I’m only changing the date on the POTG, obviously. We go up 3-0, then it’s tied 4-4, still we find a way to win. Gutty team performance to take back the lead and the win, that’s what playoff teams do….

I’m 110% behind the Fontenot pick up. I haven’t read what others have said about it yet, will try to later this morning. He was already taking time away from Theriot before he was traded to the Dodgers. I remember when those to came onto the scene, the Cubs felt like they had found their middle infield for the next 5 years. But, sometimes things don’t always work out as planned. Fontenot will be fine, I was actually a little surprised by how few SB’s he had but maybe I was thinking of Theriot. Regardless, we gave up NADA and now have a legit mlb option to plug into 3rd or 2nd and Bochy won’t feel hamstrung to have to play Pablo or Freddy all the time…..

Losing to the Dempster’s and Jurrjen’s of the league isn’t anything to be ashamed of. Unless you’re the 2 time CY Young Champ. Why would a 2-time defending CY champ need a *new delivery* mid season anyway? I don’t doubt Tim’s effort one bit, but this is not where we want to be in August with our ACE….

Kinda bummed that Renteria is ouchy again–this means we will see a lot more Franchez who will be released this Winter if Burriss proves he’s healthy and productive……

With Willy Aybar DHing for the Rays I can’t help but wonder how Tampa Bay, desperately in need of a *bat*,  feels about sending checks to THE BAT every month…….

If you’ve never done it before, try this on games you can’t finish watching: wake up and just head straight for the blog, rewind the pages till about the time you checked out, and just read what happens through the words of you guys. The first thing that stuck out was the ‘418’ comments so I knew it wasn’t a simple ending. Anyway, while you don’t totally understand the details of what’s gone on you definitely figure out the outcome and feel a flavor of emotion that you aren’t going to get from Schulman or Baggs. Fun to do, I’ve done it several times…….

Have we finally reached a point where it makes logistical sense to go to a 6-man rotation through 3rd/SS/2nd/1st base? Renteria and Uribe are healthy, their version of it anyway, there’s no reason to play them every day. Sandoval and Franchez SUCK and there’s simply no time left to hope they play their way out of it day in and day out. Travis doesn’t and shouldn’t need to play every day. And now we’ve got Burriss, too. That’s a lot of flexibility……

I’m going to be on the road for the next week or so. I’ll keep new threads going and should see all the games but I won’t be around as frequently. I’m not going to be able to send out warning shots regarding blog etiquette, I’ll probably just quickly delete posts, or mini-threads, when it calls for it. Please just move on to a new topic if you start seeing posts or blocks of posts disappear…. 🙂

This will be unpopular, but I like Jonathan Sanchez’ bold words after yesterday’s game: “We’re going to play SD and we’re going to beat them 3 times. If we get to first place, we’re not looking back. We are definitely going to make the playoffs”…..Hell yes, say it again, louder this time! And to make this bold claim even more impressive, Dirrrty had the balls to say this on the heels of the team looking so awful in Atlanta. I’m surprising this wake up call came from him, he’s not exactly a visible team leader. But I’m glad he said it. The Giants needs a reminder that this is August and they are in a pennant race. Freddy Sanchez doesn’t know what the hell is going on right now, he’s usually booking his Winter vacation around this time. The team has to play the rest of the season with a belief that they aren’t just good enough but that they WILL BE WINNING this thing. No other mental approach makes sense. Forgot all that “locker room pin up shit”– The Padres have been kicking our ass all year, I LOVE IT that they are now hearing an attitude from us— kinda reminds me of Rocky in Rocky 3 during the 2nd fight with Clubber Lang: “Ain’t so bad! Ain’t so bad! Ain’t so bad!!!!”…. Pin those comments up on every locker in SD for all I care…….

Manny Burriss getting recalled today (according to Baggs). No big surprise, especially since it will likely be The Todd who gets bounced. I would be more excited about Burriss’ arrival if I felt confident that speed was still a major part of his game but I think he isn’t going to be back to full physical and mental strength until next year. Either way, if his arrival sends Franchez to the bench a little more, I’m all for that……..

I didn’t make it POTD, though I should have.  On the last thread, Zumie made a good point:

“zumarust said, on August 8, 2010 at 11:23 pm (Edit)

The thing that is the bad thing on any of these blogs is grating repetition. Soph, at the Splash, is horrible, but even more horrible because of the repetition. If someone has a criticism, make the criticism and then MOVE ON to other things, or come back to the old thing in a new creative way. This is why TF is so good at this stuff. I see people all the time talk about him never criticizing the Giants. Say what? The dude shares his criticisms of the Giants; he just doesn’t keep repeating the same criticism over and over. He moves on with the unfolding events.”

I’d like everyone to remember this. The Flap isn’t The Splash, thank God. Let’s not act like the posters still left in that tumbleweed town……

Those are the number of hits we’ve had in each of our last 4 games. That 8-hit game looks like an offensive explosion, doesn’t it? I said this before yesterday’s game, with Buster’s bat cold it seems like the rest of the team got iced down, too. Yes, we’ve faced some decent pitching lately but I think this is just more about one of those team-wide slumps EVERY team goes through several times a year. Right now there’s just no one to ride with everyone scuffling. Posey DOES look tired. I’m not sure what a day will do but it couldn’t hurt. Unfortunately he’ll be getting it on a game we really would like to win. Oh well, if he’s dragging, he’s dragging…….

Speaking of guys who need a break, Freddy Sanchez needs to sit. For a long while. He’s reminding me of what we’ve seen from Rowand the last couple of years. Bochy is waiting for him to snap out of it but there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight. And what do we get from Kruk and Kuip? Nothing but fawning over him for how he handles routine ground balls at 2nd. Just ONCE I’d like to see them break down a vet’s hitting with some honest analysis……

It’s done in two easy steps, actually:

Step one: Don’t get any hits in the 9th inning, tie the game. Check.

Step two: Don’t get any hits in the 11th inning, take lead. Check.

Simple.

We are seeing what happens to this offense when Buster Posey isn’t hitting…..

With Renteria sidelined with his latest injury we are once again staring at a depleted bench. Baggs wondered why we are still carrying 13 pitchers and decided it’s because Romo is the only one with an option. What was the point of trading for Ramirez  if they are going to hold on to Casilla? In fact, a better question is, why did Sabean trade for Ramirez in the first place? He’s pitched 1/3 of an inning since he got here and he’s redundant to Casilla (or vice versa). So we end up trading for a guy who we don’t need and who doesn’t pitch, meanwhile our bench languishes with three healthy players….I don’t know, seems kinda stupid to me……

It came up here last night but I truly am surprised that Sandoval is catching so much heat from the regular beat writers and team reporters for his failure to get to third base yesterday. I want to be clear, I never ONCE criticized his play in last night’s game. I wish I had paid more attention to the replay, but I don’t remember him getting an especially bad jump. He seemed to have a little trouble getting started but hustled the entire way. And he was only out by a whisker…….

True, Pablo is overweight. Everyone seems to want to talk about this and point to it as the reason for his failures this season. But I would argue that we really aren’t giving enough credence to his personal issues. I don’t know all the details but we know that he took a leave a couple weeks ago to finalize a divorce at home….

Pablo’s poor numbers can’t be attributed to simply his weight. How do I know?  Look to the OPS…..

Pablo’s OPS, by month, going back to last year:

4/2009: .790

5/2009: .839

6/2009: 1.203

7/2009: .856

8/2009: 1.010

9/2009: .852

10/2009: 1.471

4/2010: 1.008

5/2010: .617

6/2010: .645

7/2010: .597

8/2010: .750, so far……

What I see from looking at this guy’s OPS from month to month is, obviously, a huge drop starting in May of this year. To me, that indicates one of two things: either he’s got an undisclosed injury or his focus suddenly shifted somewhere else…..

I’m going to assume it’s the latter. Pablo walks around as of he doesn’t have a care in the world, “Mr. Happy-go-lucky”. If I could play amateur psychologist for a moment, I think that’s his way of deflecting his feelings about his personal life. I suspect a psychologist would call that “denial” or “compensation”.  And, while it’s not an unusual approach to dealing with the stressors of life, it’s probably not the most healthy. If his focus has been elsewhere, and I think it’s easy to argue that it has, that would be a better explanation for his poor year. His weight? He was fat last year and raked. In fact, he might even be a little smaller this year. The pitchers finally figured him out? Hardly, they pitched him the same way last year once they realized he swung at everything. This year he’s missing the balls he raked last year. To me, that’s focus. And if you’re a major league baseball player, your focus has to be 100% on your trade. So far this year, his has not been……

He’s a 23 year old kid who had a bomb dropped on him in May, of that there can be almost no question. He hasn’t dealt with it very skillfully, certainly not from the emotional side. I hope he’s getting the help that he needs. If his OPS this month is any indication, he’s started to move on a little. It’s heartbreaking to assess a human being’s personal life through his month-to-month OPS. Almost ridiculous, really. But the theory I floated today makes more sense, to me, than the “fat theory” or the “Pitcher’s have figured him out and he hasn’t adjusted” theory……..

Not because it will tell me something about the Giants. I’m hoping to learn more about the Braves. Simply put, I just don’t think the Braves are as good as their record is.  Everyone is jizzin’ about Heyward but the dude has hit ONE home run since the end of May. They’ve got a good catcher and Prado has been a stud at the lead off spot for them this year (though we miss him during this series).  They’ve got a solid bullpen and maybe 2 starting pitchers I’d want on our staff. Chipper is held together with rubber bands and Glaus (like Heyward) hasn’t done much after his hot start (no HR’s since June)….

I dunno, I just don’t get the hype about the Braves. Do they still do that dumb chop? I guess we’ll find out……

The Todd makes his glorious return to the team today with Bautista *walking* his way out of town…..

I think we win 3 of the 4…….

Anyone got anything to bitch about? Wanna get something off your chest about this team? Detail all of Bochy’s shotcomings? Bash the line up? (cause you just freaking KNOW that Whitey’s gonna be in there today)……

Well, Freddy Sanchez, god bless him, proved to me that he can, in fact, hit a ball farther than 200 feet. Although that could have just been the thin air in Denver so the jury’s still out on that…..

That strikeout by Renteria in the first inning really had me doing a slow burn. Outside of that, I got nuthin’…..

Ha, kidding. Tonight is nose-to-the-grind time. I don’t think Colorado is a better overall team than we are but they do play extremely well in their park 35-18 (who doesn’t, right?). This is a time for Dirrrrty to step up. He has never pitched well against Colorado, either in their park or ours—6.25 ERA and 1.71 WHIP in COl (he’s even a little worse than that in SF V them). It’s not the hits so much as the walks, he’s 23 free passes in 31.1 innings in Denver. That tells me he’s tripping on the park a bit and trying to be too fine,  living on the corners. Dude just need to trust his stuff……

Despite the lack of confidence I have in Dirrrrty tonight, the TEAM couldn’t be heading into this series with more confidence. No one is in a major slump and we’re getting contributions from pretty much everyone on the team. Lopez is probably going to appear in both 0f these games. It’s nice to know the bullpen has been revamped in a positive way as we head into this tricky little 6 game road trip…..

Man, “Hello driver’s seat”….At least in term of the Wild Card and the NL West. I know SD is still ahead of us but I am telling you, they are not to be feared. Admittedly, I didn’t think they’d last this long.  But the ace in the hole in the innings pitched their young pitching staff is accumulating. Latos and Richard are going to be putting on innings in September that those arms haven’t seen before. And the Pads aren’t going to be led through Sept by Garland and Correia. We probably steamroll them before Sept 1 but I’l certainly take it when the season ends, too. And the teams underneath us in the NL West just don’t inspire me. We’ve got the upper hand on everyone right now, as far as I’m concerned…..

Cain finally gets his first win against the Dodgers. He’s now 1-8. But his career ERA vs them is only a half a run worse than his career ERA against everyone else. 1-8 is not a fate this guy deserves……

Someone on the last thread compared Burrell’s Bomb to Brian Johnson’s and I think that’s close. It’s not the same but it’s close…….

Javier Lopez and Ramon Ramirez– I won’t bother posting their stats cause you’ve probably already seen them and they’re underwhelming anyway. But I am totally cool with these two pick ups. Or didn’t any of you catch Bautista’s latest charity work in yesterday’s game? This bullpen, *save* Brian Wilson, has been living on borrowed time for months. It’s a wonder they haven’t lost more games for us. I don’t care one whit about losing Bowker and Martinez. And we simply HAVE to have a left hander down there right now. And by “right now” I mean for the rest of the season. Everyone is dreaming about the return of Runzler and Affeldt but neither has been reliable this year. Lopez is better than what we have now, I’ll take it.  And Ramirez? Whatfreakingever. Can he throw a strike with a baseball to a major league baseball hitter? That’s all I need from him and word down at the snack shack is that he can perform this rare feet. Bye Bye Bautista…….

A good buddy of mine made it on to the field for the after-game season ticket party thing. Lots of players signing autographs and everyone eating and drinking– say what you will about Baer but he knows how to throw a party. Anyway, Chris had THE man of the hour, Pat Burrell, sign this autograph for the blog:

translated: "To oneflapdown77.com Keep it Up. Pat Burrell"

That was a crazy-ass 9th inning, wasn’t it? It felt like the 7th game of the World Series seeing Dirrrrty warm up and eventually enter the game as a reliever. He didn’t seem to comfortable with the role. Then “All Arms and Elbows” (Ray) comes in and as soon as I can say “WTF is going on” he gets out of it and saves the game. Nice.

This season has been great as far as renewing my dislike for the Dodgers. It’s been a while since I felt this way. It’s almost approach “hate” again. I don’t think it’s because both teams are finally competitive again (though that helps). It’s their players. Ethier, Kemp and Loney just walk around looking like they truly think they’re better than everyone else—Garvey and Cey used to do that, too. And I don’t know what it is about Casey Blake– it’s not the *Wilson thing*, I actually thought that was marginally humorous. Maybe it’s his name and his beard. It’s definitely the way he looks, though. There’s always Padilla and his greased out look to laugh at. Anyway, hate for this team has made a comeback within me. Feels good, actually…..

To the blog: I’ve been burnt out on the blog as I think you can tell from yesterday’s post. I tried to give it away but my *guy* couldn’t take it on at this point in his life. And I couldn’t bring myself to disband it at this point or just let it go like a rudderless ghost ship (which is what some friends of mine told me to do with it)…..

So here’s the deal. I started the blog as a sort of *anything goes* thing. That mentality has run it’s course. I’ve let lots of, as CALSTIM calls them, “bitch fights” go on longer than I should have. Ironically, those don’t bother me. It’s the cascade of emails I get complaining about them that has worn on me……

So, starting today (well, maybe not today since I’ll be at the game) I’m cracking down on the bitch fights. If they go back and forth for more than 4 or 5 exchanges I’m sending all involved parties, regardless of who started it or the level of intensity, to one of the *penalty boxes* that you see to the right of the page. I’l make it clear in the thread when someone (or multiple posters) are being sent there. You participation in this is non-negotiable. You HAVE to remain on the sidelines for as long as the box says you are to stay there. If you get sent there and don’t respect the call by me, your referee, you are immediately banned from the site. There’s obviously going to be a level of subjectivity here that will bug some people. For instance, which box will you go to? Probably the 30 min box for the first one but depending on the level of intensity it could be the 1 day box. Second infraction will definitely be the 1 day box.  I’ll take into consideration your attempts to bail on the bitch fights, should you attempt to bail on them. There will also be a hierarchy involved (for instance, if someone brand new shows up and start in on a blog vet I’m not going to give the new guy any rope, he’ll be outta here). But the flip side to that is I am no longer going to tolerate the vets attacking a new blogger just because they are new or spend half a thread accusing someone of being someone else– that could also earn you some time in the box. And regardless of who starts the “bitch fight”, because think about it, with all the history in the archives you could point to any random post in the past of where it ultimately *started*, I’m just going to send both bloggers to do time. End of story, moving on……

I’m also going to start deleting a lot more stuff in hopes of decreasing the possibility of a *bitch fight* breaking out…..

I want to give EDddakkkeeerrr (sorry, I can never remember how to spell his handle) the credit for this idea. While it’s more work for me, something I wanted to avoid, it’s also something that I find intriguing and anything I can do to kick-start my interest in managing this place I’m going to do….

To summarize: Lots more is going to get deleted and you’re taking a time out when I give you one.  I don’t mind it if you guys bark at each other– just keep it somewhat civil and if you can’t do that end it in a few exchanges. I won’t have you do *time* if you can abide by those two simple rules. And here’s another option that my 7 year old daughter has recently  learned: ignore people that are teasing you……

I know this might feel a little “child like” but these new rules are non-negotiable. These changes have nothing to do with you, they are all for *me*.  This is what I’m doing to renew my interest in managing this zoo. You don’t like it you are certainly free to go somewhere else, I will salute your exit…….

Wow. There would have been any words other than swear words to describe that game if we had lost. I only caught the tail end of the Kuip Show but he said that had there been 2 outs instead of 1 the winning run would not have counted because of Nate’s bonehead move not to touch 2nd base. Can you imagine that scene playing out?

I’m done with all this *Orange Shoes* talk but I wouldn’t put it past Wilson to keep running them out there. Any sane person would understand this is getting to be a distraction and ditch them. But closers do their own thing, often with the “look at me” mentality.  There’s also a little “I don’t back down to anyone” mentality going on, too. I guess we’ll see how this plays out…..

Renteria and Rowand batting next to each other again. Sweet, back to back POTGamers. That’s gotta count for something, right?

RF Torres
2B FSanchez
LF Huff
C Posey
3B Uribe
1B Sandoval
CF Rowand
SS Renteria
P JSanchez

Is it just me or do Josh Johnson and Matt Cain have like the exact same looking face (not counting the hair)….

That HR by Renteria absolutely lit that dugout up, didn’t it? And he was chugging around the bases at what looked to be maximum speed. It’s obvious by the team’s reaction that they love and respect Edgar Renteria…..

This doesn’t happen very often, but the Marlins have a pitcher going today who’s I’ve never heard of. “Alex Sanabia”– I searched him at *The Cube* and they’ve got nothing on him.  Well, he’s pitched in 6 games this year, likes to walk people and give up hits (1.55 WHIP), 32nd round draft pick according to Yahoo. Have at him…..

I really don’t understand why Florida is only one game over .500. They’ve got 2 legit aces (we get to face the 2010 NL Cy Young winner tonight), Annibel Sanchez is a legit 3, they’ve got star power (HanRam) and regular power (Ugggggggly and Cantu)….I dunno. No closer and nothing at the back end of the rotation, I guess that’s it…..

So it seems we are “aggressively scouting Jose Guillen”. Eh, whatever. If he didn’t cost too much I could dig that a teeny tiny bit.  Burrell needs to pick it up ASAP or we need to seriously consider adding someone like Guillen. Though I would prefer Willingham  I actually MOST prefer not paying too much at the deadline (enter, Guillen). I think we are pretty much good to go from a position player standpoint. I don’t want Sabean trading anything of major value this year…..

I showed up at The Splash a few games into the 2007 season. It was the first blog I’d ever visited. I think it took me about 2 posts before Twinfan and I were at each other’s throats, lol. But to me, that’s really when that blog started to take off…..

The Splash was a great place back then but I’m glad they started monitoring it, it was absolutely out of hand. But back in 2007  and 2008 there was a unique community there. I miss that, actually…….

In some ways I feel responsible for the demise of The Splash. Back in the day, we would  run off trolls simply with our volume of posts. But after I started this place, THAT PLACE got fractured and splintered. Back then we could get like 300 posts a day from about 7 people…..

I’m sorry The Splash has been overtaken by fools. It’s certainly run by them, too, if banning Twinfan is their idea of thoughtful moderation. For the life of me I can’t understand why there are people out there who’s sole existence is to be disruptive and annoying– “Soph”, “BarryForever”, etc are almost hilarious in their worthlessness. I guess people like that would rather be noticed  instead of being ignored, which is probably what happens to them in their daily lives….

This post is simply a tribute to what  The Splash used to be…….

Yesterday was one of the few games I’ve missed this year. I picked the POTG just off the box score– probably got it wrong. We’ve got some nice separation from 3rd place in the West and are even atop the Wild Card Standings…..

It’s a tired subject, but what’s everyone think  we need right now? A bat? A reliever? A SP? I’ll throw a poll up there. Loo, have you made it through the archives yet? 🙂

We’re doing what we need to against this team. I hit the sack early so I missed the end. Today, we get to enjoy the beginning of Bumgarner’s Farewell Tour. I’m out the door, I’ll catch up with you guys later…..

Welcome back, Mr. Loo. Your rightful spot at POTD has been warmed by many but filled by no one…. 🙂

I thought I’d throw up a new thread. Nothing to say. Baha. After almost nailing the score cold last night I thought I would again put in writing my bet (I never bet against the Giants but I almost always post when and what I do bet on their games): went with the under. I also did a 3 team parlay Giants/Mets/A’s. I’m awful at parlays but I play them anyways 🙂

So what’s the O/U on Dirrrrty’s strike out total tonight? I’ll say he gets 6……

Last Winter we spent at least half a thread discussing who was going to have the better year, Dirrrrrty or Edwina Jackson. I was firmly entrenched in the “Dirrrrrty Camp” and if you look at their stats it’s obvious that he’s out-pitching Edwina.

7W/6W

109K/97K

3.42 ERA/4.96 ERA

1.27WHIP/1.47WHIP

opponent BA–.215/opponent BA–.268

I still love that AZ gave up their best pitching prospect for him. A dude who is, arguably, having a better year right now, not to mention all the years from here on out. But I digress…..

There’s a MERC story out there saying the Giants are going to be limiting Bumgarner’s innings. No surprise at all, everyone is doing it. Toronto just moved Morrow back a week trying to accomplish the same thing. It’s not even arguable, this is the right move. I just don’t want to see Wellemeyer be the guy who *spells* him. I really don’t care who it it as long as it’s not him. “ABW”……

I’m not one of the guys afraid of AZ just because they’re playing well right now. We match up very well with them– our strike out pitchers vs their strike out hitters. How about we win 3-1 tonight?

Torres cf
F Sanchez 2b
Huff lf
Posey c
Sandoval 3b
Uribe ss
Ishikawa 1b
Schierholtz rf
Zito p

Great line up. Most of you have probably already seen it but I wanted to throw up a new thread. I’m going to go back and delete some of today’s comments. Cease with the personal attacks or you are gone-zo….

Timmy hits Kemp. Everyone is saying the right things about this: “No WAY was that done on purpose”. But I don’t know. It was 5-1, Lincecum was pitching badly, frustrated, and just about done for the night. Maybe he hit Kemp to fire up the team. Maybe he did it for Rowand. Maybe it wasn’t intentional….But whatever the reason, the team came together at the moment. Total puss-reaction by Kemp, by the way. He did like a 6 step half circle toe dance to nowhere. Sandoval charged in like a tiger…….

And then……

Sandoval’s double in the 6th……

Bautista and Casilla somehow dragging and scratching the team through 3.1 innings of scoreless ball….

Rowand’s sacrifice…..

Mattingly’s blunder and Bochy’s keen eye……

Torres’ double….

Posey muscles a single…….

Affeldt? AFFELDT!!!!!!!!

wow. And I’m still LQTM…….

I still don’t have the hate for the Dodgers burning deep within me the way it did in the 70’s and 80’s– but last night was sweet. Casey Blake looks like a tired, old woman at the plate. Who doesn’t *love* that?

Bumgarner looks like he’s 28 years old on the mound…..

And thank God for Buster Posey. If he doesn’t muscle that single into center field who knows how long the team would have been second guessing themselves……

Just a huge win all the way around, especially on the heels of the Sunday game blown by that idiot Cuzzi. What the hell was up with his comments *explaining* his call?  “Blanco made a decent attempt to put the tag on him…that’s why I called him out.” Whhhhhaaaatttttt the HELLLLLLLLL is this dumbass talking about?

Knowing we get to slide right into a series against our *supposed* greatest rival makes it a little easier to focus on that and not on yesterday. And yesterday would have been a little easier to stomach if we hadn’t already had that inspiring comeback in the 9th. Oh well, nothing you can do about that……

Krukow was on the radio this AM saying we’re catching the Dodgers at the right time— Broxton threw 43 pitchers yesterday, a bunch of their guys are hurt. I think that type of thinking is BS. It’s on US to play well for once against this team. The way we’ve been playing against them recently they could field their AAA team and still probably beat us……

Well, here we are in 2nd place, currently holding the longest win streak in MLB (5). Not bad. Buster Posey is giving me the same feeling I had when WIll came up— every at bat brings me to the edge of my seat. And he’s delivering unreal results. I don’t understand why NO ONE pitches this guy inside–he’s proven to every scout in America that he’s got legitimate power to right field. And that arm to second base, wow, we are lucky to have him and to get to watch this story unfold….

she doesn't like baseball but she has no problem with me buying her all the shwag



It’s great to see our pitching staff get back on the beam. If we score 3 runs in two games and lose both the blog world would be imploding with rage. No reason Cain can’t keep it going unless you subscribe to the “METs are due” theory. They aren’t do, they can’t hit. They’re due for another bat or two, I guess……

Zito was the easy choice for POTG….

San Diego is only 17-15 vs The NL West– They’re what, 7-0 against us? Something like that. Looks like Colorado and the Dodgers don’t seem to have a problem beating them. They killed AZ last night. What has happened to Danny Haren?

Lovely game last night, wasn’t it? It was +130 lovely for me. As I suspected, Timmy mowed down that line up. Now we turn to our mercurial master of mediocrity, Zit-Man. He needs to step it up. He’s got ONE WIN since May 16th. That’s just not cool. Niese is his opponent and he’s a guy who’s sort of turn4ed a corner, IMO, over the last several weeks.  I suspect we finally see Torres back tonight, at least I hope so.

We’re -130 tonight. Ugh, who would take that bet? Let’s just pray to God that Zito goes 6 or whatever and staggers to the dugout with a 5-3 lead….

Winning the division really is our only goal right now. I just don’t think the WC will be realistic for us–too many good teams in the NL East–and at least one of those Big 3 (Braves, Mets, Phillies) will make some loud noise at the trade deadline–Sabes won’t compete with that….

It’s easy to be negative and harp on the failings of the first half—The older bloated salary vet guys have sucked. Our BP (minus Wilson) was awful. The SP has been mediocre. Pablo Sandoval has turned into Guy Sularz, at least from a production standpoint….

But look at what’s gone mindblowingly RIGHT for us: Huff, Torres, Uribe, Posey, Bumgarner, Burrell, Whiteside and Freddy Sanchez have ALL done more than I thought they would *this* year. Those were 8 home runs for Sabean, as far as I’m concerned– and he gets additional props for the guys he passed on signing (Penny, Nick Johnson, etc)….And turning Molina into anything other than a worn out bra strap was genius– Ray looks like a very stabilizing force for us in the BP…….

But we’re not winning the division “as-is”. I don’t think we need to add anyone, certainly not until the Ishikawa thing gets played out. Burrell, too. If either or both of those guys maintain their level of success we set positionally. Obviously we can’t have any big injuries but that’s the same for all the fringe playoff teams. There are certain guys we’d miss less than others but that’s a topic for another day. With everything that’s gone RIGHT this year, all we really need to win this division is for some of the things that have gone colossally WRONG to right themselves—Pablo, the SP, the BP– any of those 3 get fixed and we are good to go. Maybe 2 of 3 depending on which 2. But we aren’t that far away. We don’t need a “Derek Lee” or a “David Freaking DeJesus”. We need the YOUNG guys we counted on going into the season to start living up to expectations: Pablo, Cain, Timmy, Dirrrrrrrrty. Those guys need to step it up starting today. Let’s hope they’re “second half” guys…….

REGARDING THE NEWEST CONTEST: Please get your picks in to me or twin by 5pm today. Give us your prediction for W/l total at end of season and whether you think we make the playoffs. So far I’ve only got about 10, not sure how many TWIN has. He’s putting up a big prize so I hope we get enough entrants to justify doing it….

God I hate the All Star Break. It’s funny to feel so deprived of baseball and it’s only been a couple of days. Somehow we make it all Winter long without the game….

Very entertaining game last night, one that the players seemed to really get into in the later innings.  I still would have liked to see Timmy show his stuff on the national stage but whatever, now he pitches tomorrow….

Congrats to SAN DOG who won the All Star Game Contest and another computer from Michael…..

Here’s a post from last night, it’s regarding the new contest. Email me if you have any questions. For now, just send me what you think their W/L record will be at the end of the year and whether or not you think they make the playoffs.:

From Michael:

“Stage 1 Prize ( pick season W/L record and Yes or No for Playoffs): Intel Pentium Dual Core PC/2GB DDR2 RAM/160GB SATA II HD plus 1 Terabyte External Hard Drive/DVDRW/512 MB HD4600 Graphics Card/Windows 7 Home Premium/InWin Fanqua Computer Case
Stage 2 Prize ( NLDS)- to Desktop PC add Mini HTPC/Dual Core Atom/2GB DDR2 RAM/500GB Hard Drive/DVDRW/External USB Blu-Ray Drive/Integrated Intel Graphics Controller PLUS 22″ LCD Monitor
Stage 3 Prize (NLCS)- to Stage 1 and 2 Prizes add Asus Eee PC 1001PX-MU27-BK Seashell 10.1 inch Atom N450 Netbook and Wireless Router”

Deadline is this Thurs at 5pm….

Regarding the All Star game contest. here’s who is still in it. Again, from Michael’s post last night:

“Here are the contestants for today. If you win, send your address to Flavor and your new PC will ship before the end of the week. Has to be a street address and an adult available to sign. If Flavor and Zumie tie, ( or Flavor, Zumie, and Blade) the tiebreaker will be first guy with a hundred bucks in my Paypal account… alright, alright, I’m kidding. Uh, tie breaker will be…………. how many runs the NL scores. If it’s still tied, how many HRs in the game total. Get the picks to me. twinfan1@hotmail.com
Sandog looks REAL good with me out, BTW.

3Bagger: Wilson, Lincecum/AL/14

BLADE: Wilson, Lincecum/NL/11

Flavor: Wilson, Lincecum/NL/9

Zumie: Lincecum, Wilson/NL/9

SANDiggityDog: Wilson, Lincecum/NL/8″

So who had “Bumgarner, Posey and Ishikawa” in the pre-season pool as the 3 guys who would be leading the way for us at the break? Obviously you can throw Huff, Torres and Uribe in there too. But without those first 3 guys we’d probably be stuck at .500 or less right now……

Henry tweeted out something about personal issues for The Panda. I’m not going to spend a second wondering about what they are or how they are affecting him since his *issues* aren’t my business. Everyone has *life* to deal with. What I’m wondering about is, if these issues are so substantial that they have ruined him at the plate, why is Bochy running him out there every day? Christ,  put him on leave or something. Get him into therapy. And maybe this is happening already and we don’t know it….

But at some point something needs to be done FOR Pablo and ABOUT Pablo. Either that or he will be nothing but a liability for us for the rest of the year……

Of course, a loss wouldn’t be devastating or anything but it would be really nice to go into the break 47-41 instead of 46-42. I think we have a great shot with this match up. Despite some very good results in certain games this year, Livan sucks and we have a new line up now that should handle him much better than the “Rowand/Molina” line ups. Bumgarner will open some eyes on the east coast today…….