File this under not-too-surprising. The Giants executed a pair of long-anticipated moves Tuesday by extending the contracts of general manager Brian Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy through 2013 with club options for 2014. “Brian and Bruce are certainly two of the finest professionals at their respective positions in all of baseball,” Baer said in a statement. “They have effectively built… Read more →
Here’s a list of players on the Giants 25 man roster whom I’m pretty sure are worse hitters than Orlando Cabrera Chris Stewart Nate Schierholtz in a boot Jeremy Affeldt Madison Bumgarner Matt Cain Santiago Casilla Steve Edlefsen Tim Lincecum Javier Lopez Guillermo Mota Ramon Ramirez Leading off is a pretty important job. You get the most at-bats over the… Read more →
In the exquisite film The Shawshank Redemption, “Andy” Dufresne (Tim Robbins) wrote a letter per day to the State, requesting that they fund his library project. Eventually, it worked. Sadly, I bet some Giants fan out there has a desire for Brandon Belt to play first base over Aubrey Huff for the San Francisco Giants. I bet that desire is… Read more →
The San Francisco Giants’ ‘pen is pretty good. Actually, it’s excellent. They have the second best ERA in in the National League at 2.86 (behind the Padres at 2.85). They have the second best FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) at 3.13 (behind the Braves at 3.06). They also lead major league bullpens with a 52.6 percent ground ball rate… who knew? I… Read more →
Don’t you sometimes hate how dry MLB Gameday can be on your Android/iPhone/Other? It’s so straight forward, it’s nearly dishonest, and it feels terribly condescending. For example, let’s say Brad Lidge is pitching… Aaron Roward strikes out swinging. Thanks, MLB Gameday. Duh! Or, when Jonathan Sanchez is pitching… Carlos Beltran walks. Really, MLB Gameday? Really?! So let’s fix it –… Read more →
Oh, Bruce Bochy. How you push my buttons. Look, I think I’ve entered a point in my life where I’ll relax and accept most managerial moves during a game. Unless a manager is pinch-hitting for his best hitter in the early stages of the game, or he’s making Tim Lincecum play CF, generally these moves are easy to digest. The… Read more →
Even when Aubrey Huff does something right it goes wrong. A bottom of the ninth, game tying single from a struggling hitter would normally be pretty awesome, but in this case it just delayed the loss long enough for Posey to suffer a horrifying injury. These days even when Huff succeeds, it’s a disaster. As of this morning, there’s still… Read more →
I am going to piggyback on Chris’ – and Crazy Crabbers’ – earlier post on Bochy’s confounding bullpen usage. (For now, I’ll leave his perplexingly slow hook during Tim Lincecum’s Monday start alone.) Instead of making Chris’ graph more complex, I’ll make it even simpler. I’m going to focus on four pitchers: Sergio Romo, Dan Runzler, Jeremy Affeldt and Javier… Read more →
Today’s lineup is presented without comment: CF Rowand 3B Tejada SS Fontenot C Posey 1B Huff RF Schierholtz LF Ross 2B Burriss P Vogelsong Kevin Davidoff is also reporting that, at Brian Sabean’s request, Lou Piniella is in New York tonight to watch the Giants. There’s lots to speculate given that information, such as what exactly will he be looking… Read more →
When it comes to evaluating prospects or looking at roster make-up, I’ve always been a little biased against relievers. It’s not that I think all relievers are replaceable, but in the short-term of baseball history, what teams have paid for and what they’ve gotten has been grossly out of proportion when it comes to relief arms. We’ve seen the almighty… Read more →