Playoff baseball is really awesome until it doesn’t go your way. Feel free to steal that one. After the first loss of the NLDS, I could honestly shrug my shoulders and say, “Welp. That’s baseball.” Because the loss that ensued after Game One was an easy loss to digest. You take away a hanging Cain curveball and maybe add a… Read more →
Tonight, the Giants beat the San Diego Padres 8-4 and, in the process, clinched their first divisional title since 2010, when the team went on to win its first World Series title in the San Francisco era. Obviously this means that the Giants are on their way to winning their second World Series title in San Francisco. Science. Book it…. Read more →
Yes, it’s come to this. Today the Padres announced that they’ve released 34-year-old second baseman Orlando Hudson. The Associated Press: “We felt it was time to make a change,” general manager Josh Byrnes said in a statement. “O-Dog has been a two-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glove winner and a contributor to playoff teams, but at this point, we want to… Read more →
OK, deep breath. /inhales Brett Pill. Chances are that Brett Pill isn’t, or will he ever be, a good major league baseball player. I’m using good somewhat subjectively here, but I think it’s a fine word for what Pill won’t be; good. However, that doesn’t mean that Brett Pill doesn’t necessarily have some sort of utility for the Giants. First,… Read more →
Recently, on Twitter, I wondered if the Giants’ upcoming middle infield combination might be one of the weakest in recent memory. If you’re just waking up from a year long nap, the Giants’ middle infield was a big problem for the team in 2011, and it looks like things could stay the same this season. I really wish I could… Read more →
Things aren’t so peachy for Freddy Sanchez’s various bits and parts these days. Sanchez, as we all know, is still in the process of working his way back from a season ending injury in 2011. Bruce Bochy has said that Sanchez looks “tentative” in the field, and another problem is the fact that Sanchez has been limited to DH’ing duties… Read more →
Greatness, I think, most would agree is easy to spot. It’s not hard to see what makes players like Pablo Sandoval or Tim Lincecum or Matt Cain great. That’s not just in sports, or baseball, but life in general. We always notice the talented people. We always notice those who are in the spotlight. But, I’ve also got a soft… Read more →
Grant, at McCovey Chronicles, has a neat little post on the Giants and one of their newfound strategies for success this year: running. We’ve been force-fed some variation of this for the past five springs. The hitting isn’t expected to be stellar, so there’s some mention of the dedication to the little things. Baserunning is always one of those little… Read more →
Recently, the 2012 ZiPS projections went live on FanGraphs. What that means is that you can now browse the projections at length, and FanGraphs has also conveniently included a wOBA calculation along with the projections. Really cool stuff. But, after looking through pages of these projections, I always eventually come back to the same feeling: Why in the world didn’t… Read more →
Now that pitchers and catchers are back and doing baseball things, it seems the floodgates for new player pieces have opened up. I can’t say that I blame sportswriters too much when this stuff comes out, because pickings are slim and I’m not sure how much anyone can write about the early stages of baseball camp. “This guy showed up… Read more →