by
Greek Giant
The Giants take on the Bums today with Matt Moore the starting pitcher facing Mr. Clayton Kershaw. The Giants want to quell our woes and worries concerning left field, the fifth starter and the backup infield positions on the roster. Did someone email Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy a link to this site yet?
The Line Up
Hernandez, CF
Panik, 2B
Williamson, LF
Belt, 1B
Ruggiano, RF
Marrero, DH
Hwang, 3B
Beckham, SS (?!?!)
Federowicz, C
Did everyone see this yesterday? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a8c6416a2ba92e556597d458e3a13045d7c16911d4826dd033f623bed5fa7a35.jpg
I sure hope he can coach some this year, after putting in the years of minor league service to reach the Giants staff.
Right before Supper I looked at this …
“Supper”?
You know my Grandpa!
Wuz Up? Supper, that’s what.
Supper and dinner are two different things.
Is the picture in GG’s post Hwang-ssi?
Yes Sir! That’s Hwang!
I’m kind of excited to see what he can do over here. And Marrero has caught my attention too.
It was great to hear (sort of, with Giants MLB.com’s 2-cans-and-a-string audio quality) Hwang save Moore two runs with a great diving play at 3B! 🙂
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ee4e8f6a0ea329016894888a31a8cba426845ffca510b977b645c6793f129026.png
Hank and Baggs trolling Belt
Where’s Loud mouth lime and his Belt battering?
Driving thru the desert. Any Giants updates are welcomed.
Thought you were still there.
Belt hit triple to score Panik. 1-0 Gs
Was it against Kershaw?
No
🙏
Never would have heard the end of it
Oh, it’s PuigLasordaGlennonFruitfly
Please have some compassion for Puig. He just got robbed of 500k in jewelry.
I would have made it my personal mission. 🙂
Do you get at bat on your phone? I plug my phone into my radio and hear audio that way. Can still get PXP
Game tied B4
Logan Forsythe 1B to score Holt
Taylor scores for LA on throwing screw up at 2nd, E4 Panik
Your updates need work.
WTHDoYouWant?
Hwang homered to tie it up
There ya go!! See how easy that is? God bless PJ’s assistance. Not listening to it. My lady would probably blow a gasket if I put it on.
I typed it three times before it took.
We know who wears the pants in your family, would never happen to me !
We all have our battles to pick, PJ.
We use to call guys like you, P ,whipped .
I think you should replace whipped with slapped just for consistency.
Peter slapped you?
Spanked, like a newborn baby.
You missed a HR, by the Korean sensation .
Are you listening to it?
I use my phone.when driving
Doger talkers indicated it was a lousy throw by Whang, not Joe P’s fault. Reckon Whang redeemed himself.
Joe still got the error
Beede in- hit on 1st pitch I’ll let Pete do it from here.
Not listening , not on KNBR, my update was from tweets from Baggs .
3rd party coverage works for us, PJ! Keep it coming
Schulman wrote some pap about how Parker’s girlfriend, who is an ANTHROPOLOGIST (!), said how hard Jarrett works. And Hank said his stare is REALLY intense. But his girlfriend said he jokes around a lot. Thank God.
You watch – he and Mac will hit the same # of HRs in S/T, Mac will hit .300 and Parker will hit .200 – and they’ll send Mac down.
Gotta maintain that inventory of unused talent.
Appalled7 is an anthropologist???
I thought it was a great article. His GF sounds smart and interesting, and he’s pretty unusual, too, for a baseball player. Schulman’s been doing the best work among the beat writers this spring, in my opinion.
Agree – they’re both interesting individuals.
But she probably can’t lay off the low curve either.
Parker better OB%, look it up , has been taking way more pitches , and getting lots of walks .
Both Hank and Pavs tweeted Mac hit another opposite field homer and that Marrero also homered. Apparently “deeeeep” to left, per Pavs.
Marrero gone at AT&T, Mac’s a can of corn, need right handed pull hitters, not more right handers that go the other way , got enough of them .
Hahahahahaha. Only you could find fault with an opposite field homer.
421 reasons to think that way and a very high wall .
I’ve seen Mac hit homers completely out of the park to LF at Raley Field and land on the roof of the clubhouse. His pull power is just fine.
Yes, it is. Personally, I really like seeing him go the other way. Shows me he’s not trying to jerk everything.
You found the blog for you, me just the opposite .
Gimme an hour to decipher this.
I will help you out, this blog is in favor of going the other way, and sacrificing power for average, I think a player could pull with power and still hit for a good average, seen many greats do it in the past .
This blog is a rainbow coalition…we accept going the other way…we accept jerking and pulling…we accept anything that you desire that doesn’t hurt others
My grandmother washed my mouth out with Lava Soap.
That’s what made them great, Peter. I’m all for power. My moniker is indicative of what type of player I favored when I was young. You seem to think Giant hitters should alter their swing due to our park dimensions. That strikes me as a recipe for disaster. Willie Mays is one of the few players who could alter his swing at home and get away with it. And as much as I loved Deer, do you really believe he was best served trying to pull everything? It’s what made him a one-dimensional player.
Where is the real Rob Deer, you are not him !
unlike some people on this blog who shall go un-named….
Like I posted, this is the perfect blog for him .
on cue…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQXcwogHe6g
Not a problem with Mac, just that one he just hit probably not out in San Francisco .
It seems pretty smart to go with the pitch, and hit it to the opposite field. If I were you I’d focus on how often a hitter actually makes useful contact since HRs are accidents.
Give me Posey’s spray chart , I bet when he hits the ball in the air to his pull side Average better, SLG% way better !
Which is due to him getting his pitch and driving it. Obviously, these are pitches that the opposition are looking to avoid throwing. Pretty much every hitter is going to have a higher avg and slg% when they pull the ball since it’s more “their” pitch. Conversely, if Buster tried to pull pitches away as opposed to going with them, his avg and slg% to his pull side would drop dramatically.
Calling a HR an “accident” implies that they are random, which obviously isn’t true.
They are random in their occurrence. In addition, I bet the guys calling their HRs is astonishingly small.
If they were really random, everyone, over time, would hit them at about the same rate.
At Bat stopped updating with two outs and Kontos just walked Calhoun. What happened?
I can’t listen to the radio because, um, I’m in class. (Computer lab, and my students are working quietly.)
Would headphones be un-professorial? :o)
I’m afraid so.
Not on Radio
Can’t listen to mlb.com on my phone, either. It might distract the students from working on their big research paper that’s due in a week.
One ear bud would distract?
Targeted Kontos Inspired Dr. Lefty Torture, i believe
Looks like he got out of it fine.
Bottom 8. Neil Ramirez in to pitch.
He got an out, and Ramirez went 1-2-3 in the 8th. Moving to 9, 4-2. Lots HRs! :o)
4-2, bottom 9. Dominguez P.
Not watching game but love to see Beede just pitched another 2 scoreless innings.
I like Black to be there once the Cain “experiment” goes awry (only because I like the lefty thing, but this kid looks to be the real thing.
Would not be surprised if he is the Giants 5th starter by end of the year.
who is higher on the depth chart..fed-ex or brown?
Brown always goes downhill
Hector Sanchez went Deep, and he pulled it, vs Mexico, on MLB Network .
It’s because he’s wearing #44, PJ!
The great Keith Van Horn. Dude was a baller at Utah.
Rick Monday makes a mistake just about every inning. And Jerry Hairston Jr. is a cipher.
We are so lucky.
He needs to MC a cheesy game show with Gene Rayburn’s old mic
He just repeated the Gints have hit 2 HRs.
Nothing like a Big Swinging Hwang to show the Bums who’s boss.
OK, that’s it Buster, I’ve got a big bar for you.
Anyone heard from TheSincere? I miss that SOB.
Me too. I have his contact info somewhere. I’ll reach out.
Nice one, TF.
Just so everyone knows, the MLB.com website will direct you to all the ST games on the left hand column. At Bat, Audio feeds and TV feeds are listed and all are free, I believe. You can even get AtBat and the audio feed together.
…in addition to all the other means one has to get games.
One other thing, the complete boxscore is available in the same LH column after the game.
According to Twitter world, Trevor Brown made two fine plays at 2B to end both the 8th and 9th.
Better than Rollins already.
Jarrett Parker and Girlfriend Story
http://www.sfchronicle.com/giants/article/Giants-Jarrett-Parker-is-intense-and-intent-10981662.php
Already posted, I think Lefty had the Shulman article mentioned a few days a go.
Still, think people here get to drawn into the private stuff.
I feel strongly the GF, wife, kids thing is no ones business.
Keep it to the game.
I don’t. Baseball is six months or more out of the year. He and she freely spoke about it.
I would agree. The local press wouldn’t do a piece like this on anyone on the Giants without the “green light” from the player. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a background story similar to this where a player went “wtf?”.
It’s stories that talk about a player’s divorce (or a family illness or issue)…without their permission…that has me agreeing with Efrain’s “is no ones business”. The recent story about Jake Peavy’s marriage was captured during a Jerry Crasnick interview and Aubrey Huff’s story came out via his book, so there were no lines crossed there.
Possibly when the scribes rode the trains with the teams of the 60’s-70’s and both got a heat on from the same bar and then the scribe forgot to let the player know he was ‘running with’ a certain story.
* Or the Huff v. Baggarly gizmo where Huff chose Henry to pop the Anxiety article.
“Huff v. Baggarly gizmo” Not sure what this means, but any time Huff doesn’t give you a story…is probably a good thing.
Baggarly wanted the huge SF Chron Huff Anxiety story but Huff hand picked O Henry
http://www.sfgate.com/giants/article/Aubrey-Huff-opens-up-about-his-anxiety-attacks-3536390.php
Except when Baggs writes about Huff then you go all 🦍 💩 and say wives/GF’s are off limits.
99% of the writers agreed to not run with the Huff Divorce Story. Baggs ran with it Sam.
Efrain: I feel strongly the GF, wife, kids thing is no ones business.
Mr Up: I don’t.
——————
That’s Heinz to you sir
Yes. Always go with what everyone else believes. It eliminates the need for independent thought and frees up a lot of time.
Do you window peep too? Just as a symbol of independence, of course.
As Huff has said, what was happening off the field was affecting what he was doing on the field.
It’s a game. Who cares.
Double standard… all in or none in. I’m with none. I don’t care where Pat Burrell park his penis
It might be just Spring Training, but we BEAT LA.
In a Kershaw start!
Hee hee hee.
Jeffrey “Hac Man” Leonard, the onetime Giants outfielder who annoyed the St. Louis Cardinals with his “one flap down” homers 30 years ago, arrived at spring training Tuesday to begin a new role as a special instructor.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/giants/article/Hac-Man-back-in-Giants-uniform-10983030.php
Maybe Penitentiary Face will scare a win or two out of them
A lot of sports talk radio chatter in the ATL today re Dubs/Hawks game last night, specifically Dennis Schroeder. Didn’t see it, but it seems he was barking at Dwight Howard while Steph nailed an open jump shot. German Chocolate (his handle in the ATL, since he’s from Germany) is very talented but also very immature. Coach Bud sat him down for the duration of the game, and fans and radio dudes alike were all over him.
It was Playground Stupid by both of them, but he had been torching the Dubs/Curry/Klay early.
2017 Strength of Schedule Impact Estimates for the NL
https://i.imgur.com/8rWwzJx.png
Team Israel http://www.jweekly.com/2017/03/07/team-israel-scores-another-surprise-baseball-win-with-a-marin-pitcher/
When does the US play?
http://www.baseballamerica.com/international/2017-world-baseball-classic-schedule/#PZaMl8yfEvS1sbz4.97
All afternoon games, I see.
WBC Replay Review upheld 3B Umpire Cory Blaser’s fan interference call during Japan’s WBC victory over Cuba on Tuesday as umpires Todd Tichenor, Fabrizio Fabrizi, Su-Won Choi and Blaser utilized local limited replay for the first time since the 2013 season, after which baseball expanded the technology to its central MLBAM location and eliminated video review at the ballpark. World Baseball Classic pool play still uses pre-2014’s iteration of limited replay review.
http://www.closecallsports.com/2017/03/wbc-replay-review-conroys-fan.html
All-in-all, that sounds really stupid.
Major bummer- despite of our love for authentic Japanese cuisine, we will be cancelling our vacation to Japan.
Buy a pocket knife, and carve some chop sticks as a way of compensating.
Wha happen?
I was joking about the vacation, referring to Kim Jong’s statements that the missile launches into the Sea of Japan were tests of his goal of striking our military bases in Japan.
Shout Out to 610nm – here’s an old Polaroid with Say Hey at the plate and Cha Cha on deck.
Of course NO HELMETS. April 1960 at Hamms Beer’s Seals Stadium.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9eec106e188235299d8dbf6b1851f892c4c932ab18bfa3874504dae9886590bf.jpg
There is still a Hamm’s beer made by MillerCoors and sold in select markets. I remember the original jingle and the Hamms; bear.
Good Nite Allen. Sharing some Ha-Ha’s for ya’ll ‘Up there’ – that the Canadians thought was funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-y-J8GeYKk
PS Andre Iguodala’s cousin!
I just noticed that the US team will play the Twinkies tomorrow at 4:05 our time tomorrow. So right after the Giants’ game the US team will play.
That’s their one exhibition game before their round play starts Fri?
It appears they play the RSox the next day early 1:05 Eastern and then the first real game the next day v. Colombia.
Interesting. Thx.
Wild game between A’s and D-backs. Oakland scored 3 TD’s to win 21-13. Sonny Gray gave up 7 runs in 2 innings. Shelby Miller allowed 6 tuns in 2.2 and Bradley gave up 6 in 1.1
Good. Hopefully Miller will be equally bad this year.
Except when he pitches against the Dodgers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjKcu8sOTBw
Quick cuts may be artistic, but they’re a really annoying and useless if you’re over 30.
Close your eyes.
I don’t know if Rollins is going to make this squad anymore, but there is ZERO chance Kelby makes this squad
Oh, c’mon. He must have at least a 1% chance.
NONE chance. Bochy likes Beckham and Gillespie and Hill well before KT. And KT has an option that will be used. NONE chance. Going into the spring I though J-Roll was a shoo-in but it looks like that ship has sailed.
Now Mac is interesting. Morse is having a blah spring, opposed to 2012 when he tore the cover off the ball, and Ruggiano’s has been gosh darn awful giving Gorkys a potential new lease on life. Right now I would go with Parker, Gorkys & Mac right now. But I can still see Bochy keep Morse over Mac and letting Mac get ABs in Sactown for a month or too since Mac has an option.
Left alone LF maybe still an open competition between Mac and Parker into June the way things are going.
No way Beckham makes the team over Kelby.
Preserve inventory
They may do it but it would be complete idiocy.
Why do you think that?
KT has an option. Beckham is having a good spring.
I don’t think Beckham will make it, I think that they will carry only 4 OFers and KT, CG, and AH will all make it.
Signed, MS.
I hope so.
There’s no comparison between Aaron Hill and Bend-it.
Atlee Hammaker? Really?
But Kelby is a good player and Beckham isn’t.
Will you moon K&K from the stands if he does?
You betcha… it’ll be a full one at that!
Bail card in your wallet?
Call Marty Lurie! He knows people.
Yeah, but they all live in Colma.
Is live the right term? I’d think reside might be closer.
Are you throwing shades?
It’s just that the vast majority of residents of Colma are…..
DEAD.
Yeah. KT is young, cheap, fast, versatile, athletic, and a good hitter. Why in the world would they want him on the team?
Because Anti said so…cmon, Dr.
“Beca Se”? Are you (a) high (b) speaking in tongues?
I’m speaking in Tim Cook Spell Check Bizzaro World…
The man is right.
Why, have you heard something? He’s doing okay.
Driving home from work today, heard Tolbert opine that Kawhi Leonard should be the frontrunner for MVP, with Harden second and LBJ third. I’d have to agree. Much as I hate to say it, I think the Spurs are going to have the best record in the league, and Kawhi IS the Spurs. He’s amazing.
Kaehi is great but Harden does more with less than any player in the NBA.
Have you looked at the Rockets roster lately?
Put it this way, the Rockets have won 8, yes 8 games less than the Warriors and 5 less than the Spurs.
Enough said.
They have a great roster, Eric Gordon and Lou Williams both could be 6th man of the year !
Not enough, so you will tell me that Ariza, Anderson, Nene make up a great team?!
Crazy, for them to have the 3rd best record in the West. That’s all Harden.
Agree Williams is a good addition.
Better roster then most teams, Ariza great defensive player , good 3 point shooter, Anderson great 3 point shooter, former 20 points per game scorer, they have Beverly good guard. Cappila good young center , very deep team .
There are 2 ends to the court. Harden knows only one….Kawhi is a far superior basketball player. Harden is a far superior offensive basketball player.
I get that but you take Harden away from the Rockets and they are the Kings.
You take Kawhi off the Spurs and they still make the playoffs.
MVP is not the “most all around player” – it is the guy that is the most valuable to his team’s overall performance, the one guy that they can’t be without.
I would not argue with either one of those two guys being MVP.
I just can’t get on board with Harden. I’ve seen him do some incredible stuff, but I’ve also seen him disinterested and very ineffective. Their team has no shot, again in my opinion, of any sustained playoff run because of porous team defense.
Nice piece by Baggs on what a relief it is to Matt Moore that Joe Panik is raking this spring. Of course, I knew that Moore was the one who beaned Panik, but I hadn’t really connected the dots that he’d feel responsible as Panik struggled the rest of the year.
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/07/nine-months-after-a-pitch-to-the-helmet-joe-paniks-sizzling-spring-is-a-relief-to-matt-moore/
After I recovered from the shock of Duffy being traded (which as I recall took about a day), I thought ‘Matt Moore, wasn’t that the guy who…?’ It was kind of a strange trade to make in that sense.
I remember that game against the Rays in TB, including the part where Panik hit a 3-run HR later (off a reliever) for a come-from-behind win. I also remember really liking Moore in that game (despite his beaning Panik, which in the moment didn’t seem serious–it was more than a week later that Panik went on the DL) and joking on the blog that the Giants needed to sneak him on the plane when they left. They were a little challenged at the time at the back end of the rotation. Little did I know.
The other weird foreshadowing thing about that game is that it was Duffy’s last game as a Giant (he went on the DL with his Achilles and then was traded) and he hit a HR–off Moore.
I was immediately worried about Panik. He sprang up so fast and had this big ‘I’m fine, no problem’ smile on his face, I had the sinking feeling that he protesteth too much.
I forgot about that about Duffy. His whole departure is like a black hole I don’t want to think about.
But I can’t deny it was a good and gutsy trade for us.
And I forced myself to look at a few innings of a Rays game the first week Duffy played for them and comforted myself with the thought that he probably always wanted to be a shortstop and not a 3rd baseman (who wouldn’t?) and now he was going to get to do it.
We’re all pulling for Matt Duffy, for sure. But it does look like we have a 3B man, although whether that is Nunez, Gillaspie, Hwang, or Arroyo only time will tell. Matt Moore is looking like a very smart acquisition.
Funny to have so much depth, when 3B was such a black hole for years. (Sort of like LF still is.)
Plus the free agent pickings among starters this last winter were just awful. Can’t argue with the trade.
Panik REALLY did pop up like a jack-in-the-box after that beaning. Funny thing was, he ducked and it didn’t look like a direct hit.
p.s. Do you think Duffy really wants SS? I reckon that makes sense.
My guess: Duffy would rather be back at 3B with the Giants.
Also, to escape that hideous turf stadium.
We need to start a ‘gogo’ fund, or whatever it’s called.
It was too extreme. Plus he had a silly smile on his face, completely unlike him, it was like he couldn’t think clearly and he just wanted to convince everyone, especially himself, that he was fine.
Ayup! You see that goofy smile in interviews when he’s uncomfortable and mouthing clichés.
Yes, but this was in a game. Plenty of players will smile during a game–Pence, Cueto, Posey, Span, Romo, Crawford, for example–but I’ve never see Panik smile like that during a game.
I remember that, too–thinking that Panik’s huge “I’m fine” grin either signaled “I’m lying” or “I’m concussed.” It felt unnatural in the moment.
The trade deadline happened to be on my birthday last year, and when the last-second news about Duffy being traded came through, I was sick. It sounds silly, but that’s the only thing I remember about my birthday last year. I had purchased a bobblehead of Duffy to benefit the Junior Giants, and it had just arrived TWO DAYS before that.
As for Duffy’s future, yeah, playing SS may work out better for him. No one expects a SS to be a big power hitter, but traditionally people do expect that from a 3B. And we know Duffy has excellent defensive tools. I just hope his Achilles is OK and that the Giants haven’t killed his career by trading him to that rock-hard turf in the Rays’ park.
Amen.
to especially the last sentence.
I was in a meeting at work when the Duffy news popped up on my phone and my coworkers, who understand my love of the Giants and Duffy said I looked visibly sick and pale after I looked back up. Thank goodness for my understanding colleagues! And then my Duffy bobblehead got delivered that same day. He’s still hanging out on my desk.
Baseball can by almost mythological.
“almost”?
I miss Timmy!!
Here he is, Pac. This will cheer you up. Check out Bumgarner looking around with a scowl to see what hit him.
https://twitter.com/fifthstarter/status/839342374698409984
That 9.16 era, 2.374 whip got ya all excited again, eh?
Gillaspie outhitting Nunez in ST .444 to .154. Outslugging .778 to .154.
I dreamed last night that my husband and I were at some public gathering (a concert? A church service?–something) and sitting right by Madison Bumgarner and his wife. We had a nice chat, and he was surprisingly friendly. I told him that he and I have the same birthday and that I’m a lefty too, and he smiled politely like “you’re a weird creeper.”
Cool Dream!
You reminded me, I had a strange dream that I was to bat against Aroldis Chapman in a big moment. I couldn’t decided whether I was to bat right handed or left handed, a la Conor Gillaspie. Should I take a strike, time the pitch, perhaps draw a walk, or just be geared up to start the swing extra early and let er rip. Strange. Usually, in baseball dreams, I’m called to to the mound to pitch. Such a dream was just the other night. Baseball season must be nigh.
Duck?
Actually MadBum does everything righthanded except pitch…
surprisingly lolol Dr.
There was once a night in which i dreamed of Kate Beckinsale in a similar scenario*
For purposes of self preservation and marital harmony, i didn’t share it on a blog that could be used as evidence in a court of law.
(* my public gathering was decidedly not a church service)
Q; who is the backup to Crawford? Hill hasn’t played there for years. KT has limited exp. Rollins is of course ready for AARP.
In yesterday’s game, Beckham started it and Arroyo finished it at SS.
I assume you don’t just mean these next few weeks while Craw’s at the WBC, but in general. There’s a range of possibilities, besides Rollins, the most experienced SS:
–Nunez (have Gillaspie or Hwang or Kelby play 3B)
–Kelby (he’s played more SS in the minors than anything else)
–Hinojosa (may not be ready this minute, but could be later)
–Arroyo (it won’t take him long)
Talking about just this year. I guess it’s KT.
KT gets my vote. (Not that it matters.)
If you’re wondering what happens should Crawford go to the DL at any time this season, Orlando Calixte could be a possibility.
He looks shaky there .940 F% and hit .247 in 7 yrs in the minors. Pass.
It’s real simple. Christian Arroyo.
This is exactly the Giants’ problem. At every other position they have a fully adequate backup, but not as SS. This is one reason they kept Adrianza around for so long, and it’s why Crawford plays too many games and gets tired late in the season. That was why I thought Desmond would have been a great acquisition.
Either Hume Cronyn or Wilfred Brimley
Oh, Brimley, for sure. Hume is way too frail
Here’s a well-done article by Dan Brown about the cult of the fastball and its two-edged sword: it will make you a star and then it will destroy you.
This is why guys like Ty Blach shouldn’t be under-appreciated.
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/08/is-fastball-mania-putting-young-baseball-arms-on-the-brink/
God article, Dan. Thanks, Lefty.
Yep, very good.
The most important statement in Dan Brown’s article:
“But there’s no way to strengthen an elbow ligament, leaving the UCL to bear the brunt of this unprecedented fastball force.”
That part reminded me of Tom House’s recent comments about Syndergaard, who put on 18 pounds of muscle over the winter but without doing any throwing. He says Thor is at unique risk of arm injury because of that combination of factors.
Seeing Posey quoted at the beginning about moving the mound back is pretty ironic. If there’s one guy who just plain doesn’t care about speed, it’s Posey. He’s 5 for 9 career against Chapman (6 for 10 if you count the postseason). When Belt came to the plate as the Giants’ last hope in game 4 of the NLDS, I was thinking–if he can just get on, Posey’ll tie it or win it. But no such luck.
I mentioned to my friend, 610nm (the chemist, not the physicist! – but isn’t chemistry just the physics of molecules?) the book ‘The Brothers K’; an epic tale that is only partially about baseball, but enough about baseball to pique the heart of the baseball fan, because ultimately baseball is some sort of allegory for life, right? At any rate, I am here to sell the book once again. Here is a review, followed by an excerpt which is very much to the heart of matter of baseball, and a link which will enable you to preview more of the book and perhaps motivate you to find it and read it.
-cheers
https://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/the-brothers-k-is-the-great-american-novel-you-havent-read-y?utm_term=.vsQGyyEZp#.pmOWxxQby
“…and pitches are special throws nobody but the pitcher knows how to make, and Papa has seven different kinds, not counting his different deliveries. He didn’t say what a delivery was, but he said Papa had a kind that went ffffffffwirp! called a sinker, and a kind that went fffffffweet! called a slider and a kind that went ffffffwow! called a forkball and a kind that went bleeeeeeeeeurp! called a change-up and a secret kind too, called a knuckler, which he only used when he was red-hot since it might go rrow!rrow!rrow! or might do nothing at all, and I felt almost like crying by then, I was so confused and wanted so much not to be.”
(Johnny Cueto-like? just a bit?)
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19534.The_Brothers_K
Life is exactly like baseball! Some days you hit a home run, other days you strike out. Sometimes you need a teammate to pick you up. And over in the corner, Jobu is throwing dice with a manic grin on his face, in case you thought you had any say in how life turns out.
Some days you should wear sliding pads.
“Sometimes you’re a Louisville Slugger, sometimes you’re a ball”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIHMN1rFi9s
Forgot how great that album is.
Never forget to Wear Your Cup; you do not know what position you will have to play that day.
How important is science? It’s critical. It’s fascinating. It can even bring a tear to your eye.
My wife found this link sometime after harvesting some turkey tail mushroom, Trametes versicolor, from a fallen tree. We have a really cool book at home, “Mycelium Running”, which I also recommend, Paul Stamets and his wife are awesome. Watch this, it will blow your mind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXHDoROh2hA
ps- I could use some Psilocybin which has been studied for treatment of depression. You can easily find links to articles in the NYT and The Atlantic on that subject.
hi friend
That’s pretty impressive, in addition to being a tear-jerker.
Awesome Footy. Gracias!
i was going to make a smart ass comment about portabellas, or psychedelic shrooms, but once he started, i found it fascinating, and what a great finish. thanks for sharing that, pal.
The first time I see Kershaw pitch every year in his usual awesome way after another disappointing postseason for him, I ask myself the unanswerable question: Does he really choke in the postseason, in the sense that he performs pretty much like an average major league pitcher but not much better? Aside from general Schadenfreude as a Giants fan, it really is an intriguing question, and each time, with each additional mediocre postseason performance, the question becomes more unavoidable. At this point, when the playoffs come around, no one who seriously follows baseball seriously expects Kershaw to simply be Kershaw in the postseason. It seems to me that there are four possible explanations:
(1) He really does choke.
(2) He simply runs out of gas at the end of the season.
(3) His manager uses him in the postseason in a way which brings out the worst in him, either by using him on short rest which renders him not particularly effective or by leaving him in games when a lesser pitcher would be pulled and compounding his failure (the most striking example of which being blowing a 6-1 lead in the 7th inning of game 1 of the NLDS against the Cardinals, when Mattingly grimly stuck with him as he gave up 6 hits in 2/3 of an inning).
(4) It’s just random.
(4) Is just getting harder and harder to believe.
There is always a 5) in post season that certain pitchers (cough, cough…MadBum..cough) get through :
5) the competition is a higher level, because it’s the best teams left standing…there are no Padres or brewers
6) the Giants cannot, and may never, solve the guy…so when we see other teams do so , it’s like “WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?”
7) He usually pitches decent until late in the games (not always, just usually) and the DMOTD (Dodger manager of the Day) in a very defensible decision, would rather leave him in too long than go to Gas Can Baez or someone else
(5) is quite possible but that would involve the implication that Kershaw in general is less that outstanding against top-flight competition, playoffs or not. I don’t have evidence for or against that but it’s something which could be checked.
Your (7) is one of the possibilities under my (3). It was certainly the case in the game against the Cardinals I mentioned.
He needs a pitcher’s Mgr. There are but a handful that understand how to use a staff in the Post Season. It ain’t like the rest of the year. There’s also the issue of Opie being so much better than the rest of the staff and (as good as he is) he ain’t a dray horse like some others we know.
I agree. Mattingly was awful and from what I’ve seen of Roberts he may be almost as bad.
I’m thinking #3.
That would be my guess too. But I’m not sure it isn’t #1. There was an interesting article about him in Fangraphs a few days ago in which it was pointed out that in his entire CAREER he’s only thrown one non-fastball when he was behind in the count (Cueto was mentioned as the polar opposite whose pitch selection doesn’t vary at all with the count). Admittedly he doesn’t get behind in the count very often but it does sound like someone who doesn’t think he can handle pressure well.
My guess is it’s a combination of your 1) and 2) and Matthew’s 5) below. People who sneer at MadBum in comparison to Kershaw (postseason brilliance vs. regular season transcendence) do forget that Kershaw’s tremendous dominance over the years has been somewhat padded by pitching to the weaker teams. For example, I remember arguing in 2011 that Roy Halladay should have won the Cy instead of Kershaw because Kershaw pitched a third of his starts against a very bad Padres team and a historically inept Giants offense–and in capacious NL West parks.
The Dodgers have ridden him heavily over the years, so the “running out of gas” thing makes some sense as an explanation, especially when you consider that his most memorable postseason implosions have been in the seventh innings of games (where he coughed up leads). But after so many failures over the years, it has to be in his head, too (that the “really does choke” thing has become a narrative in its own right).
It’s also worth noting that David Price, another elite starting pitcher, has been even worse in the postseason than Kershaw has:
Price: 2-8, ERA 5.54 (9 starts over 7 years and 9 series, 66.2 IP)
Kershaw: 4-7, ERA 4.55 (14 starts over 6 years and 9 series, 89 IP)
Contrast with Bumgarner: 8-3, ERA 2.11, (14 starts over 4 years and 12 series, 102.1 IP).
Great analysis.
He had 3 starts against SD in 2011.
Bum pitches to the same Padres every year and in just as or more favorable park.
OK, so 9 of his starts were against the Giants or Padres and about 25% of his innings. He went 8-0 with an ERA in the low 1s.
We could start parsing this out year by year or team by team, but the glaring evidence is that Bumgarner pitches much better than Kershaw (or Price) does when the stakes are the highest and the competition is at its best. These are not small sample sizes for either guy.
I would not ever want to get into a parsing battle with you, Lefty. It would be over before it began.
To parse at a professional level is what she gets paid for.
Well, I’m sure her expertise is much more than that…
Just to be sure, I looked up parse.
It encompasses analysis and description “in terms of grammatical constituents, identifying the parts of speech, syntactic relations, etc. In addition, in relation to speech and behavior, ” to discover its implications or uncover a deeper meaning:”
And to “describe grammatically, identifying the part of speech, inflectional form, syntactic function, etc.”
That about covers my comment on her being a Professional.
.As to her additional skills, I didn’t say that’s all she does. I hear
“(S)He cuts down trees, (S)he skips and jumps
(S)He likes to press wild flowers…”
[See M.Python’s Lumberjack Song]
I think we need Lefty to weigh in. I don’t want to go too far here.
Boy you really take the love of Bum to the extreme! Geesh
I love Bum, but Kershaw is hands down the best pitcher of this generation and it’s not even close. Hell, his numbers are put up against pitchers of other generation.
I’m not discounting the post season success of Bum, which is heads above Kershaws, but when speaking of the complete accomplishments, its about the overall stats. If you follow your train of thought, are yo arguing post season success more important? Then are you saying there are great pitchers in history, including some Giants like Marichal, whose records don’t mean much because they never won in the post season? Or some bad pitchers that had great post season runs are better than those that had the stats during the season? Of course not, that is plain silly.
Baseball is a team sport and Bum, while very good under pressure has played on a team with a great post season manager and some clutch players, and you are dismissing all this.
Kershaw is the pitcher of the generation, nuff said.
Bumgarner is the Post-Season pitcher of the generation, nuff said.
Oh Matthew, you are the voice of reason sir.
En punto!
My only point about Kershaw and the Padres (or whoever) was piggybacking on Matthew’s point that in the postseason, you’re pitching against the best competition available, every start. In the regular season, it ebbs and flows.
I’m not saying that postseason is MORE important than the regular season. After all, you need one to get to the other, right? And look at Price–his teams have gotten to the postseason in 7 different years of his career, and he has a great September career record. So he’s been awful in the postseason, but his teams don’t get to the tournament without him, either.
I think the fairest thing to say is that regular season and postseason pitching are different. To be excellent in the regular season requires durability and consistency. The postseason also requires some heightened focus and mental toughness, something Bumgarner has proven to have, more than any other contemporary postseason pitcher.
I’m not giving Kershaw a postseason pass on the basis of his manager or teams, though. The Dodgers have won six division titles in his career. The rosters he’s played with were, as you’ve argued elsewhere, mostly more talented than any the Giants put on the field in 2010, 2012, or 2014. The Dodgers have also had one of the best closers in baseball during Kershaw’s career. As for managers, yes, Bochy is a great postseason tactician, but Kershaw’s played for Torre, Mattingly, and Roberts, with the same lack of overall success with all of them. I believe his postseason problems are mostly in his own head. It’s just happened too many times to make excuses for him.
The Dodgers have had a great closer but their middle relievers haven’t been very good and Kershaw’s postseason failures have tended to focus on the later innings but not the 9th. The implication (I think) is that the manager didn’t pull him because he had more faith in a tired Kershaw than he did in the Dodgers’ middle relievers, and if Kershaw had a better supporting cast in the bullpen, he would have been pulled before he fell apart and either the Dodgers would have held on to win or else at least the loss would have been on their relievers rather than Kershaw.
Good points overall Doc!
The truth of the matter is that at this stage, pretty much everyone would rather have Bumgarner pitch for their team in a playoff game than Kershaw. Just look at the public discourse last fall. Even the Fangraphs crowd, who hate the Giants and think ‘clutch’ is a dirty word, were talking that way. Kershaw is clearly the best pitcher in games which aren’t so important but there is overwhelming evidence that this isn’t even close to being the case in games which are very important. Different people can define ‘the best’ in different ways, but these facts are clear.
Giants vs. Team Puerto Rico today. A familiar name leading off for P.R.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/40140d4fb1f06112b12afce732e631cf89011cdd8178b8c41e3b6ca2a276328b.jpg
Sheeesh, that’s a pretty good lineup. Good luck, Shark.
great squad, they and the Dominicans are hopefully in line for an epic battle.
do you know if this is being televised anywhere (I do not have MLB tv any longer).
According toi AtBat® radio confirmed at MLB.com and TV is “TBD”
thanks Haak!
Doug, again.
I like his knowledge and stories.
His voice harkens me back to his dad; good guy that had to deal with some bad Giant years.
I wonder if Pagan views the WBC as a showcase. Tick, tock.
And the Giants will throw this lineup out vs. PR:
Guys who will play Puerto Rico: Span CF, Nunez 3B, Pence RF, Morse DH, Belt 1B, Hill 2B, Parker LF, Rollins SS, Brown C. Samardzija RHP.
Just to add, from Alex 2hr ago:
Nunez finally cleared to play third base. Gillaspie (sore arm) also back on lineup sheet.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m ready for the next round of cuts.
Any suggestions? ;o)
dgg wants Morse and Rollins and Beckham to play in her local church softball league.
You guys (Matthew, paul, Bapah, 610nm) are fun to interact with! I can be so predictable.
This will come as no surprise: Morse, Beckham, Rollins.
Especially to O.
I had Rollins on my 25 Man list but would have picked Hill (then not an option) or Beckham now (and Beckham doesn’t impress me).
What changed your thinking on Rollins? (I would do my selections for 25 Man list over too. Too late now.)
Hill while no spring chicken is just a better player in more recent time than Rollins.
Beckham has the advantage of youth (which is probably more meaningful to me than Giant management).
Rollins has not done anything particularly note worthy and is most likely essentially finished as a player .
Caveat: I actually haven’t watched any games so my opinio9ns are weak sauce.
…And I bet you have a list of preferred names for Santa!
I can see a situation this season where Pagan gets a job out of playing in the WBC AND has better stats than the Giants LF by committee. That would be a kicker.
By no means do I think the Giants should have brought him back as Pagan is the MLB version of Bogut. He may look great for a couple of games, but that is the problem, he has a hard time sustaining any production due to his fragility.
I never want to wish any ex-Giant anything but success (unless they become a LAD) but it is hard to believe that Pagan will find a job this spring. Not being able to go in the 2016 playoffs is a huge black mark against him. My back isn’t the greatest, so I say this with sympathy, but that condition never gets better.
Maybe the WBC will prove me wrong!
Good post. I can see where he is healthy enough to do well in the WBC and avoid back issues, much of it on adrenaline and home pride.
I think most of the Giants perceived it as being not willing to go in the playoffs, as opposed to not able.
I am glad to see Pagan go as he has been blocking younger players and was mediocre at best and injured too often for the last two seasons.
I would rather that the Giants had kept Romo who I expect to have an OK season with the Dodgers.
Happy international women’s day to my fellow baseball-loving ladies. ✊🏼
To you too, just peachy! You’re the real international woman among us.
I wuz gonna make the bed but mi Esposa stopped me.
Does that make me a strike-breaker? ;o)
Hank Schulman 1hr ago:
Cueto will throw live BP today.
Update: Schulman watches Cueto’s live BP this morning. 12min ago:
Cueto threw 65 pitches, a lot for a live BP. Said he had command of all of them. Wants to pitch twice here before deciding on WBC.
My unsolicited advice to Cueto: Skip the WBC this year, Johnny.
Ditto.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/91/ba/76/91ba76a64a875357fb5f4c162510f574.jpg
Oh, man…
“Tim Tebow facing live pitching in spring training today”
He might stand a chance against dead pitchers. Tim: you might want to try “ferret legging” next.
What drives Tim Tebow in his latest quest?
His incredible service to the Lord….or…wait…My bad…to the singer Lorde.
Strange Brew
The game is on now. Porcello vs. Thor.
And it’s watchable on MLB.com
K. Looking.
I was hoping for a faceplant on the bag as he tripped trying to run out a dribbler.
He might do quite well in the “breaking the bat over the knee” competition.
Kids: Watch what Bruce did on that fly and DON’T do the same. Watch the ball.
I’m not a big Russell Westbrrok fan, but this is pretty amazing. There are 18 games left in his season. If he were to play all 18, without getting a point, rebound or assist in any of them, his final averages for the season would be 25.1 ppg, 8.2 rebounds and 7.8 assists.
http://deadspin.com/are-you-sure-russell-westbrook-should-be-mvp-consider-1793083400
…and he will be left off of many MVP ballots because he is great at individual basketball in a team game.
I don’t that he’s the MVP, but anyone who leaves him off their ballot completely is an idiot.
I’m not sure how many names they list (?). I think the consensus is a combination of Harden, Leonard and Durant ahead of him …might be just a Bonds-type journalist blow back.
They vote for the top 5.
These video feeds are just terrible. Almost every replay stutters and repeats a couple of times and it’s been happening since the beginning of ST..
Watching Lucas Duda try to catch a pop up reminds me why it is so absurd that Efrain has such disdain for Belt
New Post: http://fe0.84e.myftpupload.com/2017-giants-offseason-news/spring-training-2017-giants-vs-puerto-rico/