by
Greek Giant
There is a difference between pace and length. Yes, baseball games are getting longer. Back in the day, a 2 hour nine inning game was pretty standard. Today, with multiple pitching changes, commercials, replay reviews and endless discussions between pitchers and catchers, most games will try your patience. Last night’s game 4 of the NLCS between the Dodgers and Cubs, a nine inning contest, lasted thee hours and fifty-eight minutes. That’s too long and the slow pace, the disruptions within games that disturb the flow of a game and a fan’s viewing pleasure, are the main issue with baseball’s disappearing act in the national television ratings, which are at an all-time low.
The experience of baseball on television compared to attending a game is vastly different. But for every sport to thrive and build generations of fan bases, it must succeed on both the screen and on the field. The television issue is really one of mediation of technology in our perception of an event. Baseball is the most phenomenological and experiential sport by far thanks to its pace and its ability for spectators to converse and interact socially in ways that are not as common in other sports. But this space for pace and interaction also contributes to the increasingly-trying length of games. Baseball’s slow pace and never-ending games are a major factor in the old “boring” criticism one hears directed toward our national pastime.
Questioning What Constitutes Gratification
Those who lament baseball’s methodical, slow (as compared to football) or contemplative (choose your term) pace and confuse slowness with boredom display their own inner need for the quick fix of touchdowns and layups, for the immediate saccharine bliss of the manufactured passion and euphoria of the NFL, the NBA, college football and other “more popular” sports. This is not to say that baseball should not institute rule changes like limiting visits to the mound and pitching changes however. I believe the question of pace and perception is as much a cultural and technological one as it is a question of baseball’s ever-evolving strategy and culture.
What has changed the most in the past 25 years where college and professional football have dramatically overtaken baseball in television viewership and popular discourse is how we relate to time and to entertainment. We have become a nation, indeed a world conditioned by our technologies to compress time as a result of the encroachment of data and our devices into pretty much every element of our daily and nightly lives. What is taking place in our midst, in this very moment is nothing less than a re-shaping of the individual and collective human consciousness and our very survival, both culturally and politically, may be at stake.
Time Is a Constant, Human Perception To Time Is Constantly Evolving
With such phenomena as the Internet, Social Media, Texting, Smartphones and their ancillary diversions, the human relationship to time and to interaction, the equation between contemplation and reward, between activity and sensory perception has been fundamentally altered for the worse, to such a degree that it has also adversely impacted everything from mating/dating rituals to sexuality and our educational systems. In short we have become a people, a populace of organisms hooked to and on our technological apparatuses and this has made us less creative, less patient, less able to think and enjoy, less able to create, contemplate and foresee… and of course, less able to appreciate baseball’s majesty and grace. Baseball, because it has not changed much in its history, has been eclipsed by the up-tempo gladiatorial games of football and basketball in the sporting consciousness. Of course, there are other factors at play in this dynamic including the role of urban sporting programs for youth (basketball courts are ubiquitous, baseball diamonds are few and far between) and the relationship to cultural norms among African Americans for example.
Dignity and Contemplation
For baseball is most of all a game of timeless dignity. It is this inherent dignity, this belief in behavioral propriety, respect for the past and your opponent, respect for the higher concept of “the game” that grounds baseball’s very identity. Indeed it is these very values, the preservation and honoring of the past, the appreciation for contemplation, for intellectual and physical skill, that is lost on today’s Americans and it explains why football, the most barbaric and violent of team sports, the simulacrum of geopolitical warfare, is today’s most-watched, and perhaps most “popular” sport in barroom discourse. The rise of football speaks not only to the blood-lust of danger and the vulgarity of sport but also to our relationship with entertainment, to the role of time and contemplation in perception and gratification.
The question of time, of pace in baseball is a question of how we as a culture relate to it. Baseball has changed less than we have. The game of bats and balls is a metric for the prevailing winds of our sensory deception with regards to patience and the passing of gratification. If we now find baseball “boring” it is because we as a culture have become bored with ourselves and we must resort to the savagery of football and, the vanity of basketball for our hero worship. What could be more boring than the infinite television timeouts over the course of an NFL game? What could be more aesthetically-vapid than the endless fouls and resulting pauses at the end of a basketball game? As with beauty, boredom is in the eye of the beholder.
Very interesting rumination on Baseball fandom, GG. Breckeroni is impressed.
You don’t have to look any further than the ages of the people here to see the problem baseball has. A nearly four hour, nine inning game is ridiculous.
Regular season, perhaps. But post-season…they should have all the time needed to try and get a win. I personally don’t think “hurry up!” watching post-season games.
I can understand extra caution in the postseason. But I listened to the LA radio feed last night and they commented more than once that the umpires were trying to get the players to just play the effing game.
It depends, as you well know. Why make such an absurd generalization? Is it becoming a trademark?
Short attention spans are not age-dependent. Case in point: Donald Trump.
Where are our ages posted on here? I haven’t seen a list.
I’m 69. Any other volunteers? LOL.
Well, I’m retired.
Well, I’m not yet retired.
But I could if I wanted to. Maybe next year. Then I will have the time to watch a six hour baseball game. But only once a week.
I think of myself as reaping the rewards of cultivating adulthood.
Chicken. 😉
61
58 going on 15.
A repentant mature fart. 😉
It’s not an absurd generalization. Baseball appeals to an older demographic and MLB is very concerned about it. I didn’t make it up. Where have you been?
Come on 4 hour, 9 inning games are rare, sort of like hen’s teeth. Hyperbole to make an argument of the sort you did is absurd. Look at the data, and make a case there, but don’t use some absurd example as the basis for a premise. That’s just silly.
Where did I say that a four hour, nine inning game is typical?
You employed hyperbole as an element of making an argument using extremes to illustrate a point. It’s a bush league debate tactic even 8th graders don’t use. If you have a point, make it and don’t weasel out of the POV you were expressing.
My point of view is that games are too long. My opinion is that it’s ridiculous that a nine inning game should take four hours to play.
Hey Hey Malloy…… you will be THAT ages someday…
2016 World Series Umpires Features Retiring Hirschbeck
Here are the 2016 World Series umpires, with retiring umpire John Hirschbeck serving as Crew Chief. These postseason umpires will be listed by position as appearing in Game 1 of the World Series when the rotation is announced. Umpire crew rotation for the best-of-seven World Series is clockwise in the infield and counterclockwise in the outfield. The Replay Official joins the on-field crew for Game 3 and remains with the on-field crew for the remainder of the series. Game 1’s home plate umpire becomes the Replay Official for Games 3, and beyond.
World Series Crew (WS / National League Champion @ American League Champion)
John Hirschbeck -cc (5th World Series [1995, 2006, 10, 13])
Chris Guccione^ (1st World Series)
Sam Holbrook (2nd World Series [2010])
Marvin Hudson^ (1st World Series)
Tony Randazzo^ (1st World Series)
Larry Vanover^ (1st World Series)
Joe West (6th World Series [1992, 97, 2005, 09 12])
As for crews of origin, Hirschbeck is the only member of his regular season crew to advance to the 2016 Fall Classic. Guccione and Vanover are from the Vanover crew, Holbrook represents Gerry Davis’ crew, Hudson is from Jim Joyce’s crew, Randazzo is the #2 on Bill Miller’s crew, and West is the only member of his crew to officiate the 2016 World Series. Vanover and Hudson worked with Hirschbeck during the 2016 NLDS, while Guccione served on Jeff Kellogg’s NLDS crew, Randazzo worked under his regular season crew chief Miller in the ALDS, and Holbrook worked with West on the ALDS Wild Card crew.
Hirschbeck’s first and last World Series assignments (1995, 2016) both feature the local Cleveland Indians. He recalled that in October of ’95, trash collectors in his Ohio neighborhood left him a piece of soiled cardboard wishing him good luck: “P.S….’Lofton likes to steal third base.'” When Lofton ended up trying to steal third base in that first game, 3B Umpire Hirschbeck was in great position to make the call: “I credit my trash men for the keen advice,” Hirschbeck said.
The crew has not yet been officially announced by Major League Baseball and is presented as public source information.
CloseCallSports …
The observations about our perception of time in the age of Social Media were interesting.
But four hours for a nine inning game is too much.
As noted, in the ’60’s games typically were about 2, 2 and a half hours. I’d say 3 hours is about as long as baseball game can be, before you start getting distracted by other things.
Everyone dawdled in the that game last night. Just throw the ball, hit it, play the game.
Some ‘numbers’ on game length.
https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/qLgx3wFNIuurvzzJzzeE82iBCmg=/800×0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3345438/MLB_Game_Length_1920-2014_9_Inn_or_Less_and_Runs_Scored.0.png
Uh oh, cc. You would have to throw actual facts into the discussion!
Just wait, the minor league data from 2014 and 2015. Long games are an anomaly, not the rule, IMO.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/early-returns-show-minor-league-games-shorter/#ThU6LuvA6A1AKHtt.97
If you take MiLB as an un TV cluttered norm. It appears about 2:45-50 is about the minimum under today’s rule structure.
I fondly remember one 18-inning game that was riveting throughout with a spectacular smashing win for the Giants.
LMAO!
Right. It was riveting but also extremely annoying.
Not to me, and I was listening on the radio to the game up at our cabin.
Well, extra inning games for me are annoying because, since I live on the East Coast now, it means staying up later and later and later. And that doesn’t stop “hard” wake up requirements, either for work or for family obligations.
In that particular game, I was of course excited that we tied the game, annoyed that Posey was called out, and that it led to extras. But also about that time I had to stop watching, because I had family obligations, and my son (who was in another state) also had to stop watching because of social obligations.
The upshot is that my 30 something son and I were exchanging angry and obscene text messages every 15 minutes or so for the next three hours while covering the game surreptitiously on our smart phones.
My experience with extra inning games is that “how good they are” is basically dependent on whether or not you win the game. I can remember more than one extra inning game that we lost that ended at 3 AM or later East Coast time. No good memories.
That particular 2014 NLDS win had some great moments in extras, but not sure that justified the added three hours. So glad we won, however.
BTW, the longest game I can recall the Giants ever playing was this 7 1/2 hour snorefest from 1964, I remember listening to it with my sister on the radio.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN196405312.shtml
I remember a 23-inning Gints/Mets game on the radio! (Giants won on a 3B by Davenport, 2B by Del Crandall, and a 1B by J. Alou.) :o)
We’re getting more impatient. Some of us anyway.
“The savagery of football” –Most excellent description of a vile sport, GG.
nice job, greek. i always struggle when trying to explain how a brutal, violent game like football could possibly be more popular than baseball. much of it, i believe, has to do with gambling. whether it’s the office pool, the fantasy leagues, or the wagering with bookies, people love to gamble, and football lends itself, more than any other sport, to betting.
another reason is just how violent our society has become. guns are everywhere, and after a while, people get desensitized. violent video games, and violent movies are what sells, and it’s always about the money. when i was a kid, it was pinball, and then pacman. movies were not about blood and guts, the way it is now.
when i tell people that i don’t watch much football, and baseball is by far my favorite sport, they look at me like i have 2 heads. it’s ok. me, and the others that think like me, will soon be gone, and by then, football will be on 7 days a week, and baseball games will be played in under an hour, so everyone can get back to checking their phones. a$$clowns
I agree with your analysis about gambling and violence accounting for football’s popularity. TV ratings for NFL games are down. Which gives me some hope. Along with mothers and grandmothers like me not letting their sons and grandsons play football.
Unless the parents aren’t involved, who’s letting grandparents make the ultimate decision about what sports kids play?
A lot of families do. A grandparents opinion can be an important component of a decision.
And, I happen to know a thing or two about the impact of TBIs on young developing brains.
Many families have the Patriarch and Matriarch provide guidance.
I get the whole football does lend itself to gambling and fantasy leagues and such, but the bottom line is that Football AND basketball just do a better job at marketing and appealing to younger generations and overseas fans (apparel deals, video games, etc.,).
At the same time the baseball fan base is both older (and whiter) than the others.
I personally love baseball the most and don’t particularly love watching entire FB or BB games on tv because it feels at times I’m watching a ping pong game going back and forth.
And while I don’t clear the NFL of selling violence, I think that may also be an aging perspective skewing your POV. Time have changed, media, social media, the way the game is displayed on TV, faster. You can’t tell me guys like Dick Butkus and Ray Nitschke weren’t known to be violent tin their days, it just happens that coverage was different, the coverage, the images that went out to the masses.
Baseball will continue to be America’s game but it just needs to modernize a bit and appeal to the younger and multicultural consumer.
from the best collection ever. how’s the baseline on this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYKYka-PNt0
yeah – thank you again!
71 year old Van Morrison appeared at the SF Jazz Center the other night to an intimate crowd of 700 fans who paid 250$ per – sitting in the Miner Auditorium. Word has it – his 90 minute set was vintage Van.
http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/Van-Morrison-gets-intimate-with-SFJAZZ-crowd-9983508.php
Van Morrison – Cyprus Avenue – 9/23/1970 – Fillmore East, New York, NY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKuM5oKk0es
Van Morrison – Wavelength / Tupelo Honey – 10/6/1979 – Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Povb2PrPCg
WhoTF can afford to go to that? But then, wtf can afford to go to a playoff game??
I saw Richard Shindell up here for $22 (incl. service chg.) the other night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6El9VLMc3iM
I would have gone if I was in The Bay. Couple of hundies.
“Cannot take it with you”
Van is such a mystery live. Truly one of those “never know who you’re gonna get” guys. I had a friend see him a few years ago in LA, two nights. One night was 45 minutes. The next night was 2.5 hours. He’s someone who if he’s really feeling it, he gets taken away. And if he’s not feeling it, he can’t fake it. Highly recommend the new “It’s Too Late to Stop Now Vol. II, III and IV” live set. Great early 70s performances.
When Bochy finally steps away, the average length of games league wide will probably go down by a few minutes.
Is that your fall back position? I guess when one steps in it, it’s polite to draw on humor to take the edge off.
What did I step in?
You’re no Socrates.
Senator, I knew Ted Kennedy, and barring Chappaquiddick you’re no Ted Kennedy!
Confucius once said: “You do not have to step in it to smell it”
The 2-3 Year old movie ‘Get On Up’ was co-produced by Mick Jagger
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/ups-chadwick-boseman-transformed-legendary-james-brown/story?id=24698249
Chad Boseman played Brown as well as Jackie in 42
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArZdz-fsLLA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkNgOXNIMe4
To me one of the biggest reasons the games are too long (of course not the only reason as there are multiple factors) is that pitcher are just not coached to move the game along as in previous eras (I invite coaches to speak to this).
It seems when I was growing up, pitchers such as JR Richards, Seavers, Ryan, didn’t waste time and extra energy on the mound. Once a pitch was over the plate they just wanted the ball back from the catcher and wanted to keep it moving.
Now, some of these young guys come in and hem and haw over batters, complain too much, seem to overthink the damn game at times.
That’s only one step to take, but I think it will go along way to curbing 4 hour games.
Why games are long. About 15 minutes longer. Starting pitcher innings.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0AkTB2F40nwvIdGJYRmNRS1VPbXQ4ZWREZmZlYmxzSFE&oid=2&zx=hli1goavsmdx
Being in media, the reality is the more money the league and the teams make from corporate sponsors the more media time to spread around. Brands want to make sure their money is well spent. More commercials, sponsor breaks and timeouts to get make all parties happy,
Also, of the sake of not sounding patriotic, perhaps someone on the blog has any data to show the length of games BEFORE and AFTER 9/11.
Most sports seemed to add more time to patriotic symbolic acts before and during games, things that took more time than the simple “take me out to the ball game”
As I always love to say, CAN”T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS. We Americans love out pomp and circumstance, but have to be realistic all this takes time.
All I can say is that I’m glad that “God Bless America” isn’t a feature of every single game anymore.
I agree, and again, to not sound pro patriotic, but it got excessive.
One thing I noticed about Ty Blach, but it seemed like he got the ball, he threw the ball. Also he tended to throw strikes. I love pitchers like that. I detest pitchers who dawdle and nibble. I could go into the kitchen and make a sandwich they’ll still be on a 3-2 count with some 8th place hitter with the bases empty.
pitchers nibble for one reason. they don’t think their stuff is good enough to get guys out, so they try to throw a perfect pitch, or hope the hitter will fish. a guy like black is a pleasure to watch, as is any pitcher that gets it, and throws it.
Great piece GG. My sentiments exactly. Baseball connects me to all those childhood memories and the advantages of a simple life lived. There is a lot to be said about sitting back and enjoying the nuances of the game; lost in some of our other sports (of which I enjoy as well).
Steve Kerr says to TO … “Old News”
http://tinyurl.com/Kerr-to-TO-Old-News
Everybody seems to think games ABC or XYZ are too long except: The players and coaches involved in actually playing the game. I can’t remember one game that I had the pleasure and honor of being a part of on the field where I said anything other than – on a Monday afternoon game – turning to anybody and saying “It’s almost Tuesday already”. Other than that, I think it is the gallery who is upset. Wotus is asked this question dozens of times each season during his weekend home games “show” and he never agrees with those bringing up ways to change the game or shorten the game.
No one is complaining about the length of youth baseball games.
Try reading Your Highness. Wotus and coaches and players in the Pro venue have zero qualms about it.
The players don’t play for themselves. They play for the audience, that pays them high salaries, and that is why they don’t have to paint houses in the offseason anymore.
On the other hand, if the players want the games to be long and longer, then they can also watch paint dry, because that’s inevitably how it will end up.
Cricket matches go on forever, too. That’s cool for those who like it. I don’t.
Doubtful. They play for themselves, the name on the front and their families.
The fan item is overblown.
The Fan item cannot be overblown when the fans is the only reason why these guys are being played to play the game.
In 1900 baseball may have played to packed houses also. Ball players play the same game they did as kids. They are much more proficient at playing the game and salaries are huge. However when Candlestick was getting 5K to 7500 fans – the best players were still getting paid. Herman Franks took care of Willies money and when he went back to NY Mrs.Payson helped set Willie up.
That’s a complete non sequitur. The reason Stoneham broke up the team after 1971 — starting with trading Gaylord — is because he had been losing money for years.
That’s also why, if not for Bob Lurie, Peter Magowan, and others, the Giants would have been the Toronto Blue Jays, Miami Marlins, Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks, etc.
I seriously doubt that anyone on the Giants roster today would be playing 162+ games of baseball if they were not getting paid very large salaries serviced by the revenues from ticket sales, $10 beers, parking fees, and baby giraffe and bobble head paraphernalia.
If people stop patronizing MLB because the games are too long — as they are stopping patronizing NFL because of the publicity over head traumas and whatever else — then the salaries will go down. Only way to fix that is to stop dawdling.
Bogus maybe but non sequitur reminds me of my 4 years at Junipero Serra HS where my teacher Father Zoph used that word ad infinitum.
Baseball is the National pastime. Wrigley and Boston hold 30K+ fans. The Mega parks that were built like the Astro Dome and Candlestick were bad for baseball. Football can generation 70K per once a week. Even the news A;s ball park when it is built at Jack London Square or the Howard Terminal may only hold 39K.
Any hoo, I think attendance has always been up and down – and such I think ball players “try just as hard” when the crowds are so so.
The Giants have a shifty way of announcing sell outs. They send OUT electronically about 13K tickets to agencies per home game and then those agencies send back what they don’t sell. about 50% of the empty seats at each first pitch has yuppies sitting in the Club View food court rather than their own seats especially if those people have corporate seats – they only care about “doing” Facebook on the Cell phones or even if IN their seats near the on deck circles they are seen waving to the camera.
Candlestick fans would have never stood for that 🙂
I understand your POV however.
Why do I feel you are making a very subtle and intricate argument in favor of legalizing marijuana.
NOW – *that* was funny!
not exactly, there are TV rights, corporate deals, etc.
The players get payed if fans are in the seats or not.
There would be no TV rights nor corporate deals if there were no fans.
Otherwise ESPN would be inking $32 Billion deals to broadcast lacrosse.
GS Dubs Dunk Highlight Video from last night. Lots of ball movement even tho preseason game.
https://www.facebook.com/warriors/videos/10154734552327526/
Kelenna Azubuike must be Tim Royes radio partner since no Tolbert allowed on 95.7 the Game
JaVale McGee could really help the Dubs in about 10 min appearances this year. Blocking shots, running the floor, no need to depend on scoring other than put backs and easy lobs.
must be a slow day in sports if you’re subjecting us to this
Just seeing what your resting heart rate was …
After the Rusty Simmons fiasco where he wrote 1-2 stories about the Dubs from his couch – it appears there has been changes made. Rusty now gets to write about CAL.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/author/rusty-simmons/
http://www.sfchronicle.com/author/connor-letourneau/
I brought a customer of mine from Germany to a Ports game. Pablo was on a rehab assignment and hit one out. After the first inning they were ready to go out and smoke. They kept asking is that it, is it half time yet. It goes to the heart of what people are use too. And as younger generations seem to need increased stimulation I think there is long term trouble for baseball and football. If you think about football, the games lasts about 3 and 1/2 hours for around 11 minute worth of action. To prove the point you can watch every game on Football channel as they presented in 30 minute shows.
I personally reduced my TV time on watching games. I went back to watching during the playoffs. But I am finding it harder to take the time to sit and watch a whole game. Now having it on in the back ground I like. And I will watch the videos of the critical plays the next day. I don’t do much personal email any more I text so I am not much better than the younger generation.
I was at that Ports game. 209!!! We were disappointed Angel didn’t play as well. Did see many current Giants at that game. IIRC, Okert closed for San Josed that game that Crick started.
Pablo playing catcher and yes Villalona was never going to make it at that weight. I told my guest Pablo was a big time player I’m glad he came through with a blast. I’m from the Stockton area.
So now we want to shorten the length of our escape from the suffering on this planet ??
from the series: Great songs on the radio playing on the drive to work….
(another one that goes out to Anti-Lasodra)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azdwsXLmrHE
In this day and age of baseball, sure, the games are long; what with the commercials, pitching changes, etc., things that GG has already mentioned. Myself, I enjoy going to the yard, and watching the beauty of the game play itself out. Baseball really has no game clock, and I like that. Who wants to be rushed into paying hundreds of dollars for a couple tix, beers, sodas, dogs, not to mention driving one or two hours and expect the game to last 2 hours? Not me. I enjoy a day, and I mean a day at the ballyard.
It’s the TV audience they’re concerned about.
Well, personally, I don’t take that into consideration; even though it’s true. I just want to watch baseball, even if it takes 3 and half hours to play 9. I really do not care what the ratings are.
this is an interesting take on the save. I don’t get the full service, perhaps someone here can provide a synopsis.
http://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/17833690/kill-save-yes-team-focus-cost-wins-mlb
Intetesting synopsis of Giants play this season looking at some unusual metrics, ball in play metrics.. It uncovers, IMO, a serious problem with outfield defense being unable to allow us to take full advantage of the offense.
San Francisco Giants
Sometimes the most important stat is one that draws almost no
attention. The Giants put 293 more balls in play than their opponents;
that’s a pretty stark difference, one that almost ensures a competitive
club. Only the Red Sox, Cubs and Nationals bettered that differential.
The Giants out-singled their opponents by 100 and out-tripled them by 14
(54 to 40), though they were out-homered by 28.
The three-time even-year champs held commanding advantages over their
opponents in total fly balls (+89), and even more importantly, in total
line drives (+121). That line drive differential was the best in the
game, well ahead of the +76 Indians. The Giants hit 57 fewer pop ups
than their opponents, while interestingly earning five more hits (8 to
3) on those pop ups. Another key Giant strength was infield defense;
though they hit only 36 more grounders than their opponents, they
accumulated 68 more ground ball singles. Brandon Crawford says hi.
All of that said, there’s quite a bit of negative in their profile.
Yes, the Giants’ team homer total is limited in part by their spacious
home park, but their lack of power was real. They only hit 40 105-plus
mph fly balls all season, the fewest of any club. In fact, no team
allowed fewer than 40 fly balls in that bucket either. Their outfield
defense grades out as ordinary at best in relation to their opposition.
They allowed 118 fewer in-play flies than their opponents, but only 12
fewer in-play fly-ball hits. They allowed more fly-ball singles than
their opponents, despite hitting well more total fly balls in the
buckets where singles are most common. In addition, though they hit so
many more liners than they allowed, the Giants actually allowed more
line-drive doubles than they hit.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/prime-ball-in-play-traits-of-the-10-playoff-teams-part-2/
Good stuff, but you’ll have to explain this one:
“…outfield defense being unable to allow us to take full advantage of the offense”
Wouldn’t any flaw or weakness in the team qualify as something that disables them from “taking advantage” of whatever offense they can muster?
It’s pretty self explanatory to me. Enough runs, are never enough.
There you have it. Occam’s razor or something like that.
I bet they ranked near the top in slow ground balls to the second baseman.
LOL. With Posey this year, probably.
Aubrey, not David Huff – would agree
1982 was a fun team to follow especially down the stretch.
Frank Robinson flashing signs from the dugout and Davvy coaching third base. The Giants carried 4 catchers: Brenly, Milt May, Jeff Ransom and Ron Pruitt.
I was at the game where Pruitt hit a duck snort over the Astros second baseman driving in the winning runs in the B9th allowing Hank Greenwald to make one of his great calls.
5:17 on the dial – Pruitt’s doing his pre-at bat routine…for his FIRST at bat of the entire season. “Evans scores, Leonard scores, the Giants have won the ballgame… we’re back in the race…HOLY cow….”
Watch Kuiper who was on first base raise his fist in the air on his way to second base because he knew the bloop was gonna land. Don’t blink, it happens in less than a second. At 5:23 they show Kuip at first base… wearing number 18 and at 5:56 at the bottom of the screen Kuip is raising his right arm in the air.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6v7gpdJPD4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_San_Francisco_Giants_season#Roster
Oh, yea, we know how it ended on the last weekend but like this 2016 team, the 82 provided many exciting moments.
PPPS: To the Giants Front Office. *Find away to have a day in the future and retire both guys who wore 22 proudly. Jack the Ripper and Will the Thrill.
Find a WAY, even though your policy says Hall of Famers ONLY. Find that “Giant Way” – so we don’t have to watch guys like Dan Uggla Cole Gillespie Roger Kieschnick Alex Hinshaw Ivan Ochoa Ryan Rohlinger
Keiichi Yabu Matt Morris Dustan Mohr Jose Cruz Kurt Ainsworth Manny Aybar Eric Davis Damon Minor Osvaldo Fernandez Dave McCarty Rikkert Faneyte and David Green put that jersey on.
* Exceptions to Jake Peavy Mike Matheny and maybe Eli Whiteside (maybe)
That was cool. Thanks
Indeed. Thank you Clutch!
Part one of 1982 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAECnSwkOWs&spfreload=5
The Ron Pruitt game! I was there too. That whole year was fun, but that last week of the season was great. Maybe not Friday night so much.
I was there as well. And on Friday and Sunday.
The THREE amigo’s. We were moose like, got clutch hits and hacked away at the plate.
And I was as well. I changed the itinerary of a business trip so that I could stay in SF for that Thursday and the next night vs. the Dodgers. The Ron Pruitt game was one of the best I ever attended.
Nice discussion of how to beat Andrew Miller, then the Giants AB’s against him.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/so-you-want-to-beat-andrew-miller-a-walkthrough/
Gonzo at Home Plate Last Nite
http://www.closecallsports.com/2016/10/out-or-safe-call-stands-due-to-home.html
So maybe the fix isn’t on? Or is it?
Either way the way they do it makes no sense because one side on a close play is always unhappy. Had Gonzo been called safe they would not have over-ruled it and since he was called out – it was not over-ruled.
I want – if it is clearly safe – which he was – then he’s safe. Every ball park needs their own crew on site.
As I watch this seasons playoff replays, I am feeling incredibly lucky that they overturned the Panik-to-Crawford -to-Belt game changer in KC 2014
Happy Birthday Ty Blach!
The Giants #1, Grade A prospect, turned 26 today.
Our very own Julio Urias
this should get a grade A Efrain response
Ty has a better eye (chuckle, chuckle)
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/76708849d0695135d0ad5cb585a19b693dab7046bd23bfd870a5a475c9cb326a.png
Me and Julio down the be schoolyard (whistles that tune)
This article says say NO to Neftali Feliz – Jose Bautista – Mark Trumbo and Yoenis Cespedes
http://aroundthefoghorn.com/2016/10/19/san-francisco-giants-four-potential-free-agents-avoid/
Cespedes would bring Pagan-level defense to LF? At least if Cespedes misses on a ball, he has the rifle to make up for that mistake. Pagan’s arm creates helium filled baseballs.
IMO – this past season Cespedes ate really good food. If he would return to the physique he had as an Oakland A – then he may be OK with the glove.
That + sitting down – like they all get to do with Willie Mays
Except for the Your Killing Me Smalls aspect of what it would do to Pagan’s pride, I was wondering why he did not consider FIRING the ball REAL hard on the ground – so it would ROLL to the base of choice much faster than through the air. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/80c2e25876d26c1b6e73dbb7b6348fb3937a293821b60f8b4eab14cc954e98ea.jpg
Yes to Lorenzo Cain !
Get it done!
+ Melancon
Or maybe we should just trust the farm system. There’s bound to be some good mlb players ready to seize an opportunity. So Law gets the ninth.
Mac Park slate Cole Duggar will resolve left field because…
… Because Giants baseball ⚾
Boom.
No, no, no, no, no. Give me a proven closer, period. If Law comes that dominant, then there’s a commodity to be used…or traded for another need. No “cross your fingers” with regard to the closer solution in 2017.
Clayton Blackburn for closer!
The rise of the unheralded Giants farm.
You’re killing me!! 🙂
Sloppy Seconds
Most “proven” closers become unproven very quickly. Indeed, the longer they are “proven,” the bigger risk they are. When they go south, the manager still uses them months beyond their spoilage date. All of them are overpriced. The Giants simply need better relievers, “closer” or otherwise, and they need for the manager not to attempt to use all of them as often as possible.
When the have a “proven” closer, the rest of the roles will fall into place…the same way as with Wilson, Romo, then Casilla. The manager’s craziness would also subside in this area.
This is a “red alert” moment; similar to when the Giants desperately need a closer…and they had to go out and get Robb Nen.
Lo Cain will be 31 around opening day.
Isn’t there a rule that one cannot of two Cain’s and two Hunters on the same team?
Eff the rules. But never mind trades. Build and trust the farm. Giants scouts are an unheralded bunch, but they rock the house.
Is Trumbo a free agent?
Maybe yes and no
2016 Contract Status: Signed thru 2016, 1 yr/$9.15M (16) (details) [*]
Service Time (01/2016): 5.027, Free Agent: 2017 [*]
He would basically be MIke Morse part 2 if we got him. Probably better than Morse. He could play LF for 6 innings and Mac/Parker can play RF if/when Hunter gets hurt. Trumbo can also play 1b in pinch
worth a click, esp for cat fans
http://themindcircle.com/most-beautiful-cats/?utm_content=buffer890fe&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Snorkel UP there will approve
The Oracle will dissect what Terry said and render a resounding BS!
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17823719/cleveland-indians-manager-terry-francona-says-middle-finger-broadcast-was-unintentional
2016-17 NBA predictions. http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2017-nba-predictions/
Damon Bruce @DamonBruce 7m7 minutes ago
If the #Raiders DO move to Vegas, the first stripper to change her name to “Autumn Wind” will be the real winner in the deal.
That’s known as working the room.
Me and Bruce don’t…. but that was funny. He should know since he frequents several joints that have poles on the work room floor.
Anti Lasorda will like this
What’s a stripper? I this can of Jasco out in the shed…..but it’s a remover not a stripper
lmao – I see what you did there.
Question for Footy or his god son Peter – or for anybody for that matter. Is there any relevance to the teams who “went to post season” but went out early compared to those who never made it in regarding their free agents?
Redsox – out
Orioles – out
Jays – out
Rangers – out
Nats – out
Mets – out
Gints – out
No post season
Marlins
Cards
Buccos
Tigers
Royals
Stros
Mariners
Uhhh, we’ll have to ask Melancon. Or the Jays about Bautista.
Not sure Bautista is on our short list….his boots are shaky
His right cross and left jab are terrible.
Bautista thinks he’s a 7yr/$175MM player.
That sound you hear is me LMAO.
I think the teams that keep playing are focused on picking their 25 man rosters, today’s starting pitcher, etc etc (strategy) while those that aren’t playing any longer can direct their attention to next year’s needs. So they are ahead on planning. Filing dates for free agency, and so on are fixed, and occur after the WS, so apart from advanced planning, all teams are “tied”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-0DMSowQFE&list=RDz-0DMSowQFE
Maddon and the other Billy Bean (no ‘E’)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CvPwVWQUIAAoVzM.jpg:large
Time for some heavy metal thunder because today is one of those days…
#8 must have applied to Gaylord
http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2015/05/21/124363454/10-bizarre-rules-from-baseballs-past
Pee Wee Ellis – Do Dee Dum Diddy (incredibly dirty sax solo)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odWm7TbUkc4
http://peeweeellis.tumblr.com/
Last Night Terry Francona said “Oh Yeah”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv4ncvHYNaU
Some days are more interesting than others. Snakes on the move.
http://www.nbcnews.com/video/snake-emerges-from-hood-of-man-s-car-789096515874
The NFL has some bad actors on rosters and some bad actors that are gone but Josh Brown is at the top of the class for Pond Scum (all apologies to pond scum). Goodell should resign and donate his Billions in salary to domestic violence causes.
Josh Brown said: “I became an abuser and hurt Molly physically, emotionally and verbally,” “I viewed myself as God basically and she was my slave.”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/nancy-armour/2016/10/20/josh-brown-new-york-giants-wife-abuse/92459970/
Kaepernick is driving down NFL ratings/profits, so some believe.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/10/poll-anger-at-colin-kaepernick-is-driving-down-nfl-ratings.html
Yeah, it must be that…
Buy this book for yourself or for friends for the holidays. Haven’t read a book quite like it. D’Acquisto was a pretty boy with a cannon of a fast ball. Got more run in San Diego but the ladies who hung out at the Hillsdale Inn in San Mateo or the Ben Franklin – out by the pool were not complaining. Just Peachy may have given JA a bogus phone number however. Pop-Corn always worked.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d386508b8b74d3cd62e42c1fc2bf6910ef6322017054541db0369237ed7b56ba.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3cf760d1317589ac5c871f39cf96e6bef41b7ef6f2c364f3875fec4d210d947a.jpg
https://www.amazon.com/Fastball-John-DAcquisto/dp/0692750274
Fastball John Paperback – September 7, 2016
by John D’Acquisto (Author), Dave Jordan (Contributor)
Thanks for the heads up. Looks like a great read!
This a must win for the Cubs with Kershaw on deck? I am kind of surprised Kershaw isn’t pitching tonight. HOw many times have we seen the dodgers move him up a day for a random regular season game vs the Giants? Seems like Gm5 of NLCS is the appropriate time. I know Mattingly did it more than Roberts.
That says what they think about their confidence against LHP no matter who is on the mound against them.
i like the move by roberts. if the bums lose, they have a rested opie to get them to a game 7. if they win, opie pitches to get them to the series. it’s now a must win for the cubbies.
Rizzo seems to know this!
Makes sense. One advantage if he were to pitch tonight was he could maybe make a relief appearance in potential gm7.
One of many reasons, perhaps, Mattingly is no longer there. He’s not good folks
Must win for the Dodgers with two on the road coming up – Lester probably going to eat them em up anyhow, and Maeda does not have any riddles for the Cubs lineup.
HPU kept the Dodgers in it.
Cubs up 1-0 is the lead headline in the Chicago Tribune.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/
What are they waiting for with Lester?? Runners on 2nd and 3rd guaranteed if they try to steal.
Carlos Ruiz batting cleanup
History? But he is 0-9 against Lester.
Roberts’ hunch?
Hunch: A panic move by a manager in hopes of changing trends, with no indications that the move will result in any changes whatsoever
Maybe. The RH lineup is not as deep for the bums
Lester staring into the LA dugout because-OMG-they bunted, of all things. Didn’t the Cubs start a rally with a bunt base hit last night? The Smirks are truly the most magnificent superdouches I have ever seen.
Cubs are playing like they want to give this game away.
And TheSincere sincerely hopes they sincerely do.
Is it just me or are the announcers splooge feasting all over the Cubs?
No, did it vs the Giants too.
Aren’t we used to Peavy yelling at himself?
At himself? Yes. At the other team or ump no. Assume this was meant for myh comment above
The announcers, the umps, the replay officials. brain-dead sports fans…
I need a ride to the morgue,
That’s what 911 is for!
Was Lester screaming at Marquez or Seager?? That was over the top
Maeda’s Camry is running on fumes and Kramer is pushing the envelope.
Camry damnit
Kenta? More like Can’ta, amirite? I’ll be here all week….
Not letting Maeda get the pitcher out? Okay.
Yeah that was truly a brilliant move.
3 more pitches & his arm explodes.
Apparently…
If they don’t overturn this…
This is an imperfect world
The Cubs are so hard to root for
That’s why I’m returning to my roots.
Can I put a cousin up for adoption?
Say it ain’t so
Born 20-25 miles from Ravine and 10-15 from Big A.
That’s not an excuse….
I should do a guest post…. Not!
Shake it off, Footy!
Zorilla is only so strong
We’ll get you some Angels gear
Brian Downing or Bobby Grich or Blylyven jersey would be cool
You got it…just no John Lackey stuff
Prefer Al Downing, so does Hank.
Bruce Bochte…
…and the Dodgers?
Impossible
Bingo
The umps are on a perfect roll this series…every close call wrong….New York will break their trend and get this right
Or they could have used the not overturning the bad call because we see how they might have gotten it wrong excuse, aka, not enough evidence to overturn the call on the field, option. Then again, they have to make an occasional call for the other team or fans might suspect a Cubs bias, wink, wink.
Almost unwatchable. Might have to switch over to Packers /Bears.
I think it’s 3 to minus 2 at the half
He ain’t no Belt
Nope. Not with the glove, but funny thing is that he probably wins Gold Glove. Another Hosmer, eh?
how many GG does Belt have? Real ones……not ones you imagined?
EFRAIN TOOK THE BAIT!!!!!!!!
Troll
See above….
In Boston, Lester was a stud in the playoffs. Lester post-Red Sox? Not so much.
Uhhhh, he hasn’t given up much of anything
He’s caught a few breaks.
When he was with the A’s in 2014, wasn’t he the one who couldn’t hold a 5-run lead in the 7th vs the Royals in the wild-card game? A’s lost that game.
They went crazy running on him and Norris
Exactly, Royals ran him out of the mound that day. And IMO, his cutter isn’t as deceiving as before so batters can square it up when he misses his location.
Now to knock Lester the hell out of the game.
Dodgers are David, right?
Troll
Pederson is no Span.
No Gregor either
The Joc Pederson Karaoke Exercise Video…available at Walgreens
Packers 6
Bears 3
Damn barn burner goin on at color splash.
Sounds about as exciting as the Cubs Dodgers game.
Zorilla with less post season RBI than Gillaspie had in his first post season game…
Gillespie was having the type of post season that garners a player the WS MVP had the Giants not wet the bed in the ninth.
I kinda feel like he was this year’s Murphy.
And next year’s!
I’ll be here all night too.
I remember when even year Octobers were exciting. This is boooooooring
Division Series was so much better
Except for the losing part.
There’s definitely a lower intensity, but engaging nonetheless. Not a life-and-death vibe, for sure.
Was that Chooch or Chong throwing that to 2nd?
LOL Heyward!!! WOWSERS.
Here’s Joe Blanton…( to the Jetson’s theme )
…his slider, Elroy 🎼
Yep. Just felt like the Cubs were going to break it open. Russell too.
Don’t forget The Blanton Factor.
Blanton always gonna Blanton.
Unfortunately! What a meatball. He and Cain are brothas from anotha mutha.
It’s still we the people, right?
Watching the Cubs seriously gives me chest pains.
Blanton=midnight
Does Rizzo have a hole in his glove or something?
He ain’t no Belt, Book 2
His glove has an identity crisis. It can’t decide whether it wants to be a skillet or a sieve.
Who is? Nobody else.
Chooch batting cleanup was the stuff that regrets are made of.
Ham and egg lineup in Gm5 NLCS
How, exactly, are you supposed to “ask your doctor about Lyrica” when you have hives, rash, trouble breathing, and thoughts of suicide consuming your every fiber?
Quizzically?
Just say no to drugs
Sometimes, Beauty is magic:
“He looks like a ‘Blanton’…”
Nice Rizzo pulled an Aubrey
Cubs v. Indians does have a ring to it.
CVI for short
The Japan Series is now set: Hiroshima Carp vs. Sapporo Fighters:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/10/20/baseball/japanese-baseball/carp-fighters-vie-npb-supremacy/#.WAmGO47F4r8
You follow Otani?
I am. He is apparently going to start (pitch), hit, and close for the Sapporo Fighters.
Then the Yankees?
Hopefully to a NL team. His talents as a hitter would be wasted in the AL.
Dodgers will surely bid.
Giants can’t let them. Otani is cut from a different cloth than Maeda. His stuff is Syndergaard-like.
Yah. Nippon Noah.
Wow. We gotta get this guy.
Check out his stats this year in the NPB. And he’s still only 21!
http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.cgi?id=otani-000sho
That is absurd
As absurd as elections!
What kind of contract do you expect he’ll get
I’ve only recently learned of him. The Fighters wer ethe team of Yu Darvish, who I knew about for a few years before he went to Texas. The Carp haven’t been in the JS sine 1991, or won it, but they have loyal fans. Maybe the game I saw in Hiroshima had the best vibe of any I have seen there. Maybe it is the year of the C’s? Well, Cubs haven’t made it in yet.
What was Maeda?
Maeda-san played for the Carp for a long time.
Doing a Philip Fabiani impersonation, replying to myself. Here’s a picture from a game in 2010 in Hiroshima – Mazda is headquartered here, so this is Zoom Zoom Stadium: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e86904b0628ce923d7cdcd507aba05a8dbcc0debd7e496aaf797a8519cd6e481.jpg
Go to Japan often?
We have 2 Mazda’s btw
Named Zoom and Zoom? (Boom!) Mine’s a Honda made in Japan itself.
I have one. It’s 11 years old and runs like new. It goes fast. My friends call it “the Purple Rocket.” I adore it.
Manny tranny?
No. Mazda3 hatchback with a 2.5 liter engine. It’s got some get up and go. State Farm classifies it as a sports car. Zoom zoom.
We have 2 Mazda’s too.
Two innings ago, you were rooting for LA…you keep us guessing.
Lester has game. Baez too.
Baez is an amazing talent…Lester grinding it out. That mental block throwing to first is some weird stuff
Totally. Remember when Baez was a top prospect?
Russell too.
Had they stood pat several years back, would we have seen a Padres v A’s series?
Not impossible.
Sorry Adrian, you’re out again.
Sorry?
Suck it* Adrian, you’re out again
You can ALWAYS go with “Yo, Adrian”
Better!
My God, I’ve never seen so many wrong close calls in a row…
Contreras was a recognized top rising prospect coming into this season.
Both teams Sans-a-Belt
No kidding.
Sans-a-Belt sounds like feminine hygiene product from my mother’s day.
You don’t remember those ugly polyester pants from Sears? John Brodie was the model!
Oh my GOD was George’s post on point. This game’s like a frickin’ doubleheader.
Even the fans are bored…that last shot had literally every fan behind home plate looking at their phone
Cubs radio guys just now making fun of them going home early.
I’m at a conference at ASU and just got back an hour ago from the evening reception. I don’t think one inning has elapsed since I fired up my Slingbox.
Guys on the radio said it was so far an 18-min. half-inning, and that was about 2 mins. ago.
Baez threw 27 pitches in 23 minutes.
Thanks to 2 replay challenges.
…and 30 seconds minimum between each pitch…
This Cubs’ momentum is going to roll all over Kershaw like Lefty’s grizzly bear 🐻
All of a sudden, I’m remembering something Lefty said, way back when, in the regular season: “I don’t think anyone’s getting by (or past) the Cubs this year.”
Except the Indians!
We can only hope.
Former top prospect Lindor may take home MVP. He’s some kind of talent.
I’m amazed by Andrew Miller… and Ryan Merritt. Trevor Bauer cuts his finger on his drone’s propellers… and in steps Ryan Merritt throwing curveballs and no balls over 90 mph, and hitting his spots.
If Miller appears in all four wins, I bet he wins the MVP. I’ve never seen a postseason like this from a reliever. Part of that is how Francona is using him.
I appreciate Francona’s life wisdom about baseball: talking with Merritt beforehand to reassure Ryan the game was not life or death.
Amen
Can’t take too much credit for that…everyone picked ’em. Have hopes for Cleveland, though. They’re rolling and Andrew Miller is an amazing weapon.
I’m also remembering my silent protest when you said that.
OK, these umps are now 1 for 8 on close calls….
Talk about Replay Reliance Laziness Syndrome
No fans quit on their team like LA fans…it’s Yellow Seat Domination time
Looks like another 4 hr game. I shudder to think how long the elimination game(s) will be.
Night all, it’s always more fun to follow a game with you folks, thanks.
Good night, Scientist!
Aw look at all those empty seats. What else is new?
They should play “Yellow” by Coldplay between innings…
“I looked around….
I looked around for you…
And it was allll…
Yellow….”
Since I was busy four hours ago when this game started, how come Maeda was pulled in the fourth inning? Injured or ineffective or…? Pitch count was 76, which is high but not ridiculous.
I’d like to know the answer to this too. I came into the game with Maeda watching the field of play from the dugout between the rails, looking awful actually, for lack of a better word. He was responsible for the two men on base.
There were 2 baserunners.
He was not sharp….not terrible. The guys talked as if Roberts was hoping for 4 innings….
Huh. After Urias didn’t make it out of the fourth last night, you’d think they’d want some innings out of Maeda. Guess with an off day and Kershaw up next they figure no need to spare the bullpen. “Hoping for four innings” is an odd comment about a guy who was one of their best starters all year.
I agree….but he’s been really bad this post season, and remember his SF finale? I wonder if he is worn out and they know it?
Playing to win tonight. They do not want to go to Chicago and have to win 2. He had runners on all game and it could have been worse.
Lester was up.
Yeah, he was. Funny!
Wait, he pulled Maeda because LESTER was up? Isn’t Lester a terrible hitter?
Yes and yes!
Although “because” may not be the right word!
Roberts said he was going to manage this like a Gm7 with an off day tomorrow so he was aggressive. Actually pulled him Lester at the plate and retired two in a row
Joe P. is a nice second baseman who fields well and can hit, Baez on the other is a phenominal fielder with what is getting to be a good bat.
Come on guy up 8 to 1 you just can’t do that.
I think Pete rose is wider round than tall
Strop might be more effective if he straightened his hat on his dome.
His expression of failure rivals Belts
When in doubt, huh? It’s a sad go-to move for you.
It is a Giant blog so there should be some tie in to some of the comments.
The terrible fielding by tonight’s First baseman is the only legitimate reason to bring up Belt tonight. He is exponentially better in the field than these cow pies
I will say the grounder he misplayed thinking he had a play at the plate was bad, the one hopper that got buy him looked bad as well untill you watch the slow mo. That ball had a bunch of English that bounced sharply away
Blah, blah. Routine for my guy
may be but your guy never had a chance for that play 🙂
ooh what a dig 🙂
Rings rule. Oh, what we’ve done
Then the Yanks rule….
Nice try at diversion, Goat Boy…
dah da dah da dah da dahda Bartman!!!
SEI UNA LURIDA TESTA DI CAZZO. VAI A FARTI FOTTERE DA QUALCHE ALTRA PARTE. A CHICAGO PREFERIBILMENTE.
What are you talking about? Belt was the starting first baseman on two World Series teams. “Never”?
Ah yes, but Belt is not in the game and neither are the Gents. Thus he never had a chance at that play. Oh the sutle dig.
Chuck Barris gonged your ass years ago
Yeah but me and the Unkown Comic had a great run. Speaking of the unkown Comic, Belt could use that bag to cover his expressions of failure from the world
badabum
Not so subtle, and definitely not friendly. Why are you here, 2hh? There must be a Cubs community blog somewhere.
That’s not how you spell “subtle.” You are such a jerk. Your team is winning and you should be enjoying it, and instead you’re here gloating and rubbing it into Giants fans on a Giants fan blog. It’s pathetic. I hope the Cubs get destroyed in the World Series, and that they don’t win another championship before 2257 after you’ve been dead and forgotten for 200 years.
So you believe that 2hole will be remembered for 41 more years? That might be generous.
During the offseason I have gone back and watched the various Giants postseasons: they are easily available if you have an MLB.com subscription, and they are also on youtube (of course, everyone should have the official WS commemorative boxes which include a few other postseason games.)
Anyway, my point is that, if you watch those other games, you are reminded that not only was Belt a big hitting component, at least in the 2014 postseason, but also an important defensive component in both 2012 and 2014.
In fact, there’s a ton of great plays and subtle hits and at bats that are easy to forget in those postseasons. They got those three rings for a reason. And, unlike the CUBS, they never smirked.
By the way, I also have the tapes to the 1989 NLCS. Some team called the “Cubs” were beaten by another team called the “Giants.”
I love when Dr. Lefty goes full Berserker!! It’s my favorite!!
Find a friend of yours who is of italian descent and ask him to translate this sentence for you:” sei un’emerita testa di cazzo”.
Le teste di cazzo sono offese per il paragone
Continui ad essere una testa di cazzo
Really? Really?! This is odd timing. A dig at Belt when you’re team is winning going into the 9th inning? Shouldn’t you be happy or at least cheerful?
Oh I am in good spirits but reality is Strop was frustrated, reminds me of Brandon and the bat.
Sempre testa di cazzo
Emerita Testa di cazzo
THERE’S Waldo!!!!!
Well, at least there won’t be any traffic in the parking lot when the game is over…
Well, Aroldis is gonna have to walk an awful lot of batters to make this interesting.
I would expect that Aroldis is only in this game for a tuneup, so, 20 pitches max.
Which means we may have another pitching change. Maybe 2. Maybe 3.
Tonight on Midnight Horror Theater: “The NLCS That Wouldn’t Die”
One of reasons games take longer these days that doesn’t get much run is the fact that MLB either orchestrated or allowed umpires to lower the top end of the strike zone by a foot over the years. More balls, more hitters counts than there should have been, more walks, etc. Call the rule book zone and some number of minutes would be lopped off.
All the pitching changes also played heavily into it.
Testa di cazzo
Post of the might.
Ryan did you see below – I got me two Mazda’s too. A three and a six equals mine.
Oh God, I’m starting to sound like you.
A 3 and B2300 = 2303
The post season games are also longer because they have 3 min breaks instead of 2 min between innings changes as well. They allocate more time for commercial breaks wherever possible. This should not be. How can they change the time for the post season? Yes money dictates everything. But as someone not having grown up in this country, this is completely incomprehensible. Sport around commercials instead of commercial around sports.
Game 6 should be fun. If Kershaw is on, the Cubs will start panicking. If Kershaw folds, we can enjoy that, and the Dodgers being eliminated.
You are exactly right.
Driving home from Harry’s Hof Brau listening to the game, Dan Schulmann mentioned that Ryan Merritt the rook who faced down Toronto’s Murderers Row yesterday is getting married in the off season and that the Cleveland fan base got wind of it and are apparently buying everything listed on the happy couple’s on-line wedding registries. Too cool.
That is cool but what will that couple do with 127 crock pots?
A lot of cocktail weenies and chili?
The story I read a few days ago asked what they were going to do with 300 Muffin Tins.
I haven’t lived in the Peninsula for 30 years, I forgot about Harry’s. I loved that place growing up, bugged my parents to take me down to RWC for some Harry’s all the time. Didn’t go that often, Dad was budget conscious but when we did go it was meat and potatoes and gravy for me, no veggies, no bread, no salad, no problem.
But you’ll never forget that “completely full” feeling from Harry’s.
The Indians are a weak AL rep. Bad hitting and one respectable starter. Yes they have a good bullpen but it’s really the only strength of the team.
Giants lost a really good chance at winning another championship.
Souds like the Indians used the 2014 Giants model
The Giants blew it. Bochy blew it when he pulled Moore. I’ve been saying that since it happened.
The Dodgers can’t hit lefties, the Cubs only have one lefty starter, just imagine what the Giants, with Bumgarner, Moore, and maybe Blach would have done to them.
The 2014 Giants had great relieving but they couldn’t take over a game in the 1st inning like the Indians did when Bauer went down.
Although they did come in in the 2nd once (although that was game 7 of the World Series) and the 4th twice (with Petit).
But don’t count the Indians out. They haven’t been hitting much in the playoffs but they were 5th in the majors (2nd in the AL) in runs scored. Tomlin has been pitching well recently. If the others can pitch decent 4 innings and turn it over to their bullpen they’ll be in good shape. And they have great team spead, 134 stolen bases (4th in the majors), they could really take advantage of the Cubs’ pitchers inability to hold runners on. And Francona can manage circles around Roberts or Maddon.
Plus they have the X-factor, they’re doing something new and spooking everyone. Like the Royals did in 2014. The advantage the Giants would have had over the Dodgers and Cubs in playing the Indians is that they aren’t spookable.
As for hitting, actually, it was a very good lineup during the season : 6th in wRC+, 5th in runs scored.
Pretty much everyone in the lineup is above average hitter. 2 guys with 30+ HRs, + 2 guys that hit over .300. Throw in a very talented Jason Kipnis with 23 bombs, and talented rookie, Tyler Naquin, who hit 14 HRs and hit .296 in less than 400 PAs, and you’ve got a very nice lineup.
Point taken about the rotation.
That formula you speak is exactly what the Giants won with in 2014.
How are the Indians a bad hitting team?
Irresistible force meets immovable object tomorrow. Neither the Cubs nor Kershaw can win a big game like this. Who will fold?
Dodgers late. Jansen wears the collar serving one up to Bryant in the 8th. Wrigley goes bonkers.
Uh-oh, just read an article on how the Blue Jays should rebuild and I got a sick feeling the Giants are going to go after Encarnacion or Bautista.
Encarnacion to the Red Sox. Who knows about Bautista? But he is not Giant material. If they had a place to play Edwin that would be bomb, and he’d it em.
It won’t happen. Neither player is a Giants type. Both are American League types who belong in Boston, NY or Toronto, maybe even Detroit.
Hope not. I was probably just panicking.
But what about Michael Morse? He was an AL type…
Scottsdale Scuttlebutt…
The Scorpions defeat the Salt River Rafters 4 to 1 behind 5 scoreless innings from Chris Stratton. The Giants former first round pick scattered three hits, walked, and struck out six.
Corey Taylor picked up the save with a scoreless ninth, allowing 2 hits.
Batting cleanup, Hunter Cole rapped two hits and knocked in a run; K’d twice. He is batting .318 in the early going. Catcher Aramis Garcia was 0 for 4 with a K and is batting .154.
—-
Speaking of prospects, it’s time for the Giants crapshoot, top prospects. Take these ten prospects up against any 10 on any farm system in MLB and these guys will win some games. Believe me!
#1 Ty Blach – Grade A poise, great year in PCL, unfazed by the big leagues. A combination of Woody, Glavine, and that rookie from the Indians, Merritt.
#2 Clayton Blackburn – he was better than Blach last year and for most of minor league career, so he’s go to be up there too. A future Rick Reuschel.
#3 Chris Stratton – don’t forget about this guy. He’s right up there with his buddies, Blackburn and Blach.
#4 Austin Slater – This guy can hit. The less hype around him, the better. Know this name, Bochy gonna be penciling it in early and often.
#5 Steve Duggar – Hit .321 in AA after hitting .284 in A+, so obviously he is on the rise. Could be the centerfielder of the future – might even be better than Denard Span right now ! Believe me.
#6 Hunter Cole – He can hit, the Scorpions star hit 13 HRs in the tough Eastern League. Look for him to own the PCL and be part of this great future OF with Slater and Duggar. The future is bright.
#7 Joan Gregorio – tall drink of water, he’s gonna put it all together and be a stud in the bullpen.
#8 Jake McCasland – great name, low ERA, he’s gonna do things.
#9 Corey Taylor – A budding Clayton Blackburn, lookout.
#10 Brandon Bednar – nobody is talking about this guy, but he hit .286 in the Eastern League. He can play all over the diamond and is a real professor of the game. A perfect fit in any Big League dugout.
These guys can play ball. Bring on Milwaukee’s Best, these guys will drink it on down!
This has been another installment of Giants prospects in review. It’s not always the big, hyped names that rise to the top. Here’s to the unheralded soldiers that win the wars.
I was just about to say don’t forget about Stratton. He quietly had a very nice year, especially after he returned to the River Cats after being with the Giants for a month or so. Our last River Cats game this year was a Stratton start, and he was dealing–7 shutout innings, very dominant.
The Giants have a bit of logjam of pitchers in the upper minors. Blach, Blackburn, and Stratton have spent all or part of the last two years in AAA. You can’t really argue they need more time or aren’t ready. Blackburn, for example, signed out of high school and has now pitched five full seasons in the minors, mostly really good ones.
Then right behind them are Beede, Andrew Suarez, Gage, and Coonrod, who all did well at AA and probably are ready for promotions. (Coonrod maybe not yet because he started last year with San Jose.) And then there are tweeners like Gregorio and Slania.
Now, I know they’re not all future frontline starters, and I know minor league pitching depth is valuable, but you can’t stack all these guys in AAA forever. It’s a nice problem to have, I guess–unless you’re one of those pitchers.
Who needs Mark Melancon? Give Stratton and Blackburn a shot in the pen. Move Law to the 9th, full time. Slania is going to be better than Biagini. Gonna make you forget all about him, just like Austin Slater gonna make everyone forget about Duvall. Trust this productive farm system!
OK, I know you’re being sarcastic, but seriously, I’ve been thinking that it would be nice if the Giants repurposed a starter or two for the bullpen. Some of the best relievers in the game were meh starter candidates. And then there’s Kenley Jansen, who was a catcher!
Aramis Garcia – future closer !
ok – how about Kyle Crick? Or do you wish they’d just dump him already. Not smart enough for the Giants brand?
Something tells me Crick might wind up being Gary Brown 2.0; even though Brown was an OF.
Crick was MyGuy ™, but I think it’s time to give up on him. He’s more of a bust than Gary Brown, and that’s saying something.
Indeed. Crick’s stock dropped faster than an bad IPO.
lol Brown was probably your guy at one point 😉
Crick was MyGuy too. I see no reason not to try him in the 9th. Has the fastball for it, but I think he would be very Brian Wilson circa 2009 all the time. Pucker up and hold on…..
Walk the bases loaded, then strike out the side.
Of course he should be doing that in Richmond first.
future trade chips…
The future is now, especially if you miss out on Melancon. Who do you send to Kansas City for Davis?
So Corey Taylor is actually a Mets prospect…
Cory!
So is Tim Tebow! LMAO
I think Slater might be MyGuy for 2017.
Attack of the sarcasm aside, great choice. Having scouted him at Visalia, he’s got an idea at the plate and the right kind of swing to handle big league stuff.
Good pick, but I think Duggar is too.
I was thinking about our conversation about prospect lists and especially Efrain’s claim that being a top prospect means you have a much better chance of being a star MLB player or at least one with staying power.
Just as a little experiment, I looked up the top 100 prospects from 2011 per Baseball America. I figured that was a good year to pick because by now, we should know if those guys are going to accomplish anything at the big league level. Then I compared that list to MLB’s Top 100 Right Now (best MLB players) at the start of the 2016 season to see how much overlap there is between the two lists.
There are 13 guys from the 2011 Top 100 prospect list who also appear on the 2016 Top MLB players list. And yes, one of them is Brandon Belt(!). Here’s the list of 13: Trout, Harper, Hosmer, Chapman, Machado, Sano, Belt, D. Gordon, C. Archer, Betances, Sale, Rizzo, Arenado.
There were another seven top prospects from 2011 who in my opinion are top/very good MLB players even though they didn’t make the 2016 list for various reasons. They include guys like Freeman, Teheran, Zach Britton, and Matt Moore.
Then there are maybe another 20 guys from that 2011 list who are average or mediocre MLB players or just hanging on.
So at least for that year, if you were a top-100 prospect, you had a 13-20% chance of being a star (or even just a very good player like Matt Moore) five years later.
That’s just one year, so take it for what it’s worth.
This talk of Giants prospects and all the buzz around Andrew Miller has me really frustrated that the Yankees didn’t take Christian Arroyo and Andrew Suarez over Clint Frazier and Justus Sheffield.
The Yankees were listening to the wrong people – they were following the hype train. If only they would have listened to the right people that told them, never mind the consensus, the Giants prospects are underrated – Arroyo and Suarez will have better futures than Frazier and Sheffield.
So frustrating!
And you’re not even Bobby Evans or Brian Sabean; Sabean especially since I think he and Cashman knew each other back in the day bouncing around as scouts in the Yankees office.
great point, this one is on Sabean,, he should have bet the house on getting Miller. It’s no coincidence both the Indians and most likely the Cubs, the winners of the Yankees fire sale, will meet in the WS.
And so many fools here posting all season about how “overrated” a top closer is. SMH
I still don’t understand with the 2 additional years of team control why people are so adamant that wasn’t worth 3 years of control left on Panik?
This one’s a total crapshoot too. Look at these nobodies. Kyle Crick right behind Aaron Sanchez? LOL. Who is Joc Pederson? Bust. Even Seager is behind him! These raters are clueless! Rougned Odor? He stinks 😉
http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2014-baseball-america-top-100-prospects-free/#TAlIyeP3IvtUd6dD.97
Oscar Taveras turned out to be the top drunk driver/girlfriend killer on the list.
I have for the life of me trying to figure out how you get a smell with texture. I mean what is a Roughened Odor? What the heck is a roughened odor?
Then thought reminded me of the fat kid in grade school who had too many chili dogs at lunch and then played tag a little too hard at recess. All hot and sweaty he would then squeeze his butt into that desk contraption kind of sideways in a Latin dance move. You would hear the poor plastic chair stressing under the weight. The sheer torque being placed on the bolts and the plastic flexing under his girth desperately trying to hold that seat down to the chrome tubing . Then it happened. That sound of a trumpets so loud and deafening that you would swear that a jazz band rehearsal was nearby. The wind moved the hair on my legs mere seconds before those in my nose stood on end. The smell, it was so rank and so vile in my nose it felt like it had texture, almost like that of warm chunky peanut butter spread on toast.
That was a Roughened Odor……
how do you figure Joc is already a “bust?
you don’t think 50 career HRs and 120 wRC+ in first two years is a bust? what’s wrong with you?
the kid is 24 years old! he has more HR in the past 2 years than Brandon Belt! He plays a pretty good CF, is already a better OF than anyone the Giants have on the active roster.
He may not hit for enough average, but at his age that can be fixed.
So a good fielding young athletic CF with good power is a bust?
What about Mac? who happens to be 4 years older?
Totally. Mac is a stud. Another in the long line of Giants farm raised outfielders.
now I know you’re just being a jerk for fun lol
Good data – proof positive that the prospect lists are only promising, not preordained players.
From your data, it seems we can conclude that 60 of the 100 aren’t even in MLB?
Thanks. Good analysis.
Great analysis and thanks for doing the research.
Like I’ve stated before , even if you are one of the highest rated kids, baseball is a crap shot. Reason so many terrific athletes go to other sports where there is a perceived instant gratification and opportunity to “make it”.
The flip side argument is that even guys “hanging on” in baseball have long careers, much longer than a NFL career and way more roster spots than in the NBA.
Those numbers would suggest that the top prospect is more than likely to make the big league roster. I wonder what precentage of non top 100 prospects every make it into the bigs and how many ever stick.
http://www.blessyouboys.com/2013/3/5/3977782/what-are-the-odds-of-making-it-to-the-major-leagues
Just waiting on Robbie Evans to make a few deals that i can get behind this off season. Please no more Denard Span type of deals please.
Robbie! Magic….he was in My Three Son’s, right?
Yes and the bespectacled little bro Ernie i think.
Yes, adopted Ernie to make “my three sons” again when Mike got married and left!
I was looking fondly at the photo Greek decided to attach to this post and was thinking rather ironically that the beautiful ballpark that he choose was deemed less than adequate by its former tenets and is no longer in use….
I wonder when the demolition is scheduled. Looks like a nice place. Even hosted an Olympic Games.
Turner Field was a great park. Way under-rated. It was a victim of Atlanta’s latent racism. It was built in a black neighborhood very near downtown and the Braves and the city never developed the area. White suburbanites never wanted to come to that part of town for games, hence the new development. Atlanta is a classic case of backward urban redevelopment. It is a broken city and its suburbs rule politics because that is where most of the money and whites are. It’s very sad. The Atlanta Journal Constitution has done many great articles about it. I was glad to catch a few games there.
Sounds like Atlanta is just 30 years behind the trend. That model was very prevalent it a lot of Metro areas in the 80s…..
Exactly.
Now that you know the model, you know the real estate opportunity in those areas a forward thinking franchise could have taken Turner Field and made a killing around that ballpark.
I’ve occasionally wondered why they don’t tear down/demolish ‘Mount Davis’ and restore it to what it once was.
It’s happening one way or another. A’s move or the Raiders move…or one/both of them get a new stadium in Oakland. Either way…it’ll be meeting a Candlestick fate at some point.
That’s sad given all the history in that stadium. My Dad lived and breathed A’s baseball in the 70’s.
In the 70s the Braves played in Fulton County Stadium. Turner Field was open for baseball at the start of 1997.
I remember flying over FCS in the mid 70s, empty. I looked closely as the aircraft banked, and maybe 100 or so people were there. I thought the game was over and the cleaning crew and ground keepers were working.
It was the 5th inning.
LOL, may be.
As a kid growing up in Chicago and MLB baseball every weekend on TV, I grew up with the A’s as a favorite team. The green and gold looked cool along with the dual color helmets that had just come out. Their style with the mustaches being a throwback look was impressed on my mind. That and they had some Chicago Cubs pitcher named Ken Holtzman.
After Marky Mark loses the team in Vegas then maybe that becomes a new stadium proposal. Repurposing the O…… The location is good for a lot of reasons.
Boy…not that the Giants would sign him as a FA…but Chapman sure looked like a head case out there last night.
I see high maintenance written all over him. Even a Joe Maddon hug didn’t help.
Ask his wife her opinion of his mental stability……
he is not married.
Wife v. live-in girlfriend – same/same
not quite in the court of law.
Go jump from a Chicago bridge, you jerk.
ہیں اور دالٹید کے لئے یونکالل ہو گا جیسا کہ انگریزی میں آپ اٹاللیان کےتم بالآخر کچھ
پیچھے چھپنے کی بجائے پوسٹ کرنے کا فیصلہ کیا ۔ خدا حافظ.گیندوں کو حاصل کریں اور آپ ان اقسام کے خطوط کا جانتے
STUPID AND IGNORANT BUFFOON.
My suggestion: Disengage, Alvise. This will be better for your equanimity and blood pressure.
You are right, of course. Thank you Doc.
Depends on which state they are living in. In several she would be considered a common law life.
When it comes to threaten her with the aid of a firearm….. same/same.
Totally agree, KIR. Great stuff, but seems to just heave, and seems fragile in his mental composure.
And…the guy has been getting hit around pretty regularly all post season
Chapman is not stable. He was upset and fired a handgun 8x (in the garage?) at his home. One bullet went through an open window and landed in a field. What if kids had been playing sandlot baseball in that field?
I hope the Giants have the wisdom to steer clear of Chapman. I have never wanted the Giants to acquire Chapman. Then I saw Hank and Carl mentioning Chapman for the Giants in tweets and write-ups. Hell no.
Yeh…I don’t see it. Looking at Melancon’s twitter page, he seems like he’d fit in with the group.
I think Alex wrote recently that Melancon was the most likely for the Giants. I’ll see if I can find it. But you’ve been talking about Melancon for some time, KIR, so you get the scout credit.
Found it. Alex’s blog page is so well organized.
“There are three dominant relievers at the head of the offseason list, but the Giants would need to make an overwhelming offer to beat the Yankees, Cubs and others to Aroldis Chapman, the man who closed them out. They likely would have to hand a blank check to Kenley Jansen to pry him away the division rival Dodgers.
That leaves Mark Melancon as the most likely target, and Giants who have gotten to know the veteran right-hander believe he would be a perfect fit in the clubhouse. Melancon is said to be a strong clubhouse presence, the type of quiet, ego-free worker who would fit right in alongside the Buster Poseys and Madison Bumgarners of the world.
The 31-year-old had 47 saves for the Pirates and Nationals this season, posting a 1.64 ERA and 0.90 WHIP. He saved 51 games a year ago, with a 2.23 ERA. The year before that, it was 33 saves and 1.90. In short, he is the type of player who could walk into the clubhouse on Day 1 and lock down the ninth inning.”
http://www.csnbayarea.com/giants/giants-take-aim-new-closer-offseason-begins
Let’s lock down the contract on the first day he’s a FA 🙂
I just checked out Mark’s Twitter page for the first time. You’re right. He’d fit in with the group and with the community, with his record of service and giving back. He supported the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation when he was with the Pirates.
Bleacher Report has predicted he signs with Giants
Good!
Plus he refuses to pitch more than one inning in a game.
I remember when Dusty tried to make a starter out of Chapman. No bueno, didn’t even make it out of ST with that plan!
It’s dreary to be discussing prospects and FAs in October.
Now we know how the other 99% live…
I joked on a slice of apple…cut that out dude.
I should have added… in an even year.
This AM, just for an FYI, multiple internet content/service providers had a denial of service ‘attack’. Disqus (and Netflix among others) were interrupted for a time.
Disqus was acting weird about a half hour ago.
I had the same experience here and at at other sites I visit that use Disqus. The article below describes what, to me anyway, a newish sort of denial of service scheme at play these days.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/10/when-the-entire-internet-seems-to-break-at-once/504956/#article-comments
this is for my pal mateo. don’t forget, you’re not the only one whose favorite player of all time is the high kicking dominican dandy..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yK8oF1qvMM
Okay, mystery solved. I didn’t know this because I started watching last night’s game after Maeda had been pulled.
Andy McCullough 17hr ago:
Considering Kenta Maeda just hit Jason Heyward with a pitch, I have no real problem with bringing in Josh Fields here to face Jon Lester.
Today’s denial of service internet problem. A map.
http://cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/c7/80/c7801c84b0daddff284ebfe0dec4e212.jpg
http://www.dailydot.com/layer8/dyn-ddos-twitter-reddit-east-coast/
As it propagated.
http://cdn0.dailydot.com/uploaded/images/original/2016/10/21/Screen%20Shot%202016-10-21%20at%2012.52.05%20PM.png
Scary.
I wonder what the implications are for election week.
I was even denied the ability to post this for over 2 hours.
Just got it back a few minutes ago.
Trump is wearing this. He and the naked Putin pulled it off 🙂
When my sister showed up along with many others to vote in the Dem primary in upstate NY, they (all Sanders supporters) were magically told they weren’t registered…though they were and had proof. Nope.
So, a guy was assigned to investigate some months later…and he died. Really. A “robbery” in DC. On the street. In broad daylight. Robbery.
We live in a scary underworld society.
The uncanny similarity between Madison Bumgarner and John Lester.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/instagraphs/jon-lester-should-have-madison-bumgarners-reputation/
Fangraphs writers almost all hate the Giants. They’re consumed with jealousy. Career ERA 2.99 vs. 3.44. K% 24% vs. 22%. BB 6% vs. 8%. xFIP 3.28 vs. 3.59. Lester isn’t in Bumgarner’s class.
New Post: http://fe0.84e.myftpupload.com/giants-offseason-news/ode-to-gregor-blanco/
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