OUT OF LEFT FIELD
DR. LEFTY'S TAKE ON ALL THINGS GIANT
LATEST OUT OF LEFT FIELD POST
The Third Place Giants
On May 21, the Giants are 22-16 and in third place in the NL West. Third place doesn't sound very good until you remember that there are three wild card spots this year. The Giants have the fifth-best record in the NL and are currently sitting in the second wild card spot. That's not a disaster. It just happens that they have not one but two really good teams in their division. None of this is...
GIANTS NEWS, ANALYSIS & MORE BY DR. LEFTY
The Third Place Giants
On May 21, the Giants are 22-16 and in third place in the NL West. Third place doesn't sound very good until you remember that there are three wild card spots this year. The Giants have the fifth-best record in the NL and are currently sitting in the second wild card...
Thank You, Buster
"From an early age, he saw the benefits in working hard on the basics. He's done that with baseball, with academics, and with his personal life. We're proud of who he is today."--Demp Posey, talking about his eldest son, in Andrew Baggarly's A Band of Misfits I miss...
The Bomb Squad
Former Giants manager and future Hall of Famer Bruce Bochy had a special name for his ragtag lineups that occasionally surfaced when there was a rash of injuries and/or players who needed days off. The lineup instead would be populated with bench players or even...
Can We Please Come Home Now?
Photo credit: Disney The Giants' week hasn't gone very well. They had embarked on a ridiculously long road trip with no off days and with the awkward addition of a one-game stop in Milwaukee on what was meant to be a travel day, thanks to the post-lockout schedule...
One Week In
Photo credit: NBC Sports-Bay Area How good was Carlos Rodón in Cleveland last night? Well, bear in mind that the Guardians were--and still are--the top-hitting lineup in baseball in the early going (first in batting average and OPS, second in OBP and SLG). Rodón held...
Game Up? Game Up!
Photo credit: BrotherLefty Well, it was a pretty unforgettable Opening Day. As we had our postgame dinner last night, MrLefty and I agreed that San Francisco feels "back" for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Lots of people walking dogs, scootering,...
Last Weekend Before Games That Count
I'm getting very excited. This coming week I'm going to home openers in Sacramento and San Francisco plus getting a Brandon Belt Captain's Hat next Saturday. I bought the River Cats tickets awhile back, thinking that AAA might be my only chance to watch baseball in...
It’s Almost Time!
In an alternate universe, this would be the last weekend before Opening Day, which was originally scheduled for March 31. Instead, teams are still in Arizona or Florida, playing out spring training schedules that were adjusted on the fly. The Giants have ten more...
Finally…A Baseball Game in 2022!
Box score here Two years ago--seems like two million now--MrLefty and I went to the Cactus League opener at Scottsdale Stadium. It went about how last night's game went, except worse in some ways--it was against the Dodgers, and the Giants made something like...
Welcome to DrLefty’s new Favorite Giant!
I have been a serious dog person my whole life, and longtime regulars on TWG know that MrLefty and I had a beloved yellow Lab, Winnie the Pooch, who left us in 2018. But I don't think I've ever mentioned that my very FIRST dog was a German Shepherd. For Christmas the...
Minor Keys
Well, the worst has come to pass. Opening Day is cancelled. Our spring training trip is cancelled. There is no end in sight to the lockout that has paralyzed major league baseball. There was one tiny hopeful rumor going around last night....
Let’s Talk Drafts
Today was supposed to be the first day of spring training games. When you look on the MLB At Bat app, it skips right from November 2021 to March 8, 2022, ignoring games that were supposed to played from Feb. 28-March 7. The Score app, which is not controlled by...