We’re only a few days away from the first game of Spring Training – the Giants play the Diamondbacks on March 3, 2012 – and there is, quite understandably, a lot of baseball excitement in the air. After watching the Giants televise their batting practice last week, I was already quaking at the prospect of live baseball. Yet, while Spring… Read more →
Last night, a tweet by John Shea really sent shockwaves throughout the Giants’ fan base: Heard management wants to keep Brandon Belt, leaning toward making him their starting first baseman. Announcement Wednesday. At the risk of jumping the gun, I think Belt’s going to be playing in Los Angeles tomorrow. And it’s not so much the tweet by Shea, but… Read more →
Eli Whiteside vs Chris Stewart Eli Whiteside got hurt early this spring, and Chris Stewart has taken advantage of his opportunity, thumping out a .318/.400/.545 line in a handful of at-bats. His minor league track record indicates that he might actually be a bit better of a hitter than Whiteside, but not so much that you’d actually notice. Other things equal,… Read more →
So Chris Ray is gone to the Mariners. That, in and of itself, is unremarkable. Ray gave the Giants 24 innings of forgettable, yet competent work, mostly in low leverage situations. His on-field impact on the Giants pennant run was closer to Lou Seal’s than Buster Posey’s. And yet! Chris Ray did play an important part by not being Bengie… Read more →
In an otherwise slow couple of weeks, there is one nugget that I thought would pass along. On the KNBR Hot Stove show last week, Bobby Evans said something to the effect that the Giants didn’t really think that Mike Fontenot was the ideal backup for SS. This is probably because Fontenot – otherwise a fine player- is kind of… Read more →
Egads. The common phrase used to describe the Giants particular style of play this year has been ‘torture’. After tonight’s 3-2 win, the phrase is entirely appropriate. Quick Thoughts: Jonathan Sanchez pitched maybe the game of his life — 7.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 11 SO. The slider was filthy and the fastball was difficult… Read more →
It’s September 1st and the Giants are tied for the Wild Card lead in the NL. Commence freakout. Before you preorder your World Series tickets, realize that there’s a lot of baseball left to play. BP’s postseason odds projection has us pegged at a 22.4% chance of winning the Wild Card. The Rockies’ odds are currently at a 53.9%. With… Read more →
After the last soul-crushing defeat, the Giants needed this game. Matt Cain chipped in 7 innings of 2 run baseball and Travis Ishikawa belted a 3-run HR in the 8th inning to break a 2-2 tie. Something that I’ve noticed about Cain this year is that his K/9 has dropped by almost 1 full strikeout per 9 innings. Cain owns… Read more →
I wanted to share this quick post since I’m sure a few other Giants fans might be interested. The Pirates have just traded Adam LaRoche to the Red Sox for two minor prospects (reports are for SS Argenis Diaz and RHP Hunter Strickland). From 2006-2007 LaRoche posted back-to-back 2.5 win years with the Braves and the Pirates. He owns a… Read more →
Prepare for a bold statement: The Giants’ offense isn’t very good. I hope you were sitting down but it’s true, the Giants offense has done more sputtering this season than anything else. A graph and then a bunch of words. This basic graph shows how many runs the Giants have scored thus far in their first 25 games. On the… Read more →