A Post for Baseball on a Birthday

On April 29, 1984, the Giants played the Reds in Cincinnati. Mike Krukow went 4 innings and gave up 6 runs in what would become a 7-3 loss. The Giants' record dropped to 7-15, and they were on their way to what must have been a pretty miserable season, finishing 30 games under .500. However, unbeknownst to anyone in the organization, that day was the start of a new era in Giants baseball. For that was the day that yours truly drew his first breath of air in this world, and it just so happened to be in the City By The Bay.

My first meaningful baseball memories came in 1989, when I was 5 years old. Kevin Mitchell's barehanded catch stands out, but of course they all are dwarfed by the earthquake. While my mom and older brother were finding their seats at Candlestick Park for Game 3 of the World Series, I sat on our living room floor, not knowing what was going on, but kind of enjoying the ride. No one we knew was greatly affected, so I didn't grasp how big of a deal that all was until much later. Four years later, I was much more personally devastated, when on the last day of the 1993 season, the Giants lost their game to the Dodgers, and with it the division title to the Braves, despite a dominating 103-win season. With the arrival of Barry Bonds, that season was when I became a die-hard fan. On September 18, 1997, when Brian Johnson hit a walk-off home run in the 12th inning versus the Dodgers to tie up the division, I was watching with a buddy, although he was more of an acquaintance. But in that moment, a true friendship was cemented, and he remains one of my best friends today.

My point is this: out of all of those "I remember exactly where I was when that happened" moments in my life, a disproportionate amount of them involve baseball, and more specifically the Giants. I can't tell you why it happened that way. Sure, my parents raised me as a Giants fan, but my fandom only grew after I left for college. Being a Giants fan was never a choice. It just happened. Like falling in love.

And that's what's great about sports. There's not really any wrong answer*. Even when I'm watching a game or playoff series involving two teams I don't really care about, by the end of the it, I'll find myself having a rooting interest. As trivial as sports are, it's comforting knowing that my mind will sort itself out on its own, without me even trying. Almost as if its reverting back to instincts.

For me, my instincts will always take me back to baseball. Again, I can't quite tell you why. Football seems to me to be the sport of sports, with it's combination of intense athleticism, physical brutality, and necessary strategic brilliance**. And baseball certainly can't compete with the constant action nor the aesthetically pleasing natural choreography of basketball. Hockey is the same way. There's arguments to be made for soccer (although I don't know what they are), volleyball (way underrated), and everything else. But there's something about baseball that draws unconditional love. Maybe it's because it's so unique -- played on a diamond (as opposed to back and forth on a rectangle), and played with no clock. Plus I think there's general consensus that hitting a baseball is the most difficult thing to do in sports.

Whatever it is, I'm glad it's a part of my life (and I bet you are, too). I'm glad I get to write about it (and I hope you are, too). I'm headed out to the ballpark this afternoon with friends and family. I can't think of a better way to spend a birthday.


*The Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, Lakers, Cowboys, and Packers are the exceptions to this.

** Seems to me that we should just settle wars on the gridiron.

49ers post draft review

I say this to myself every year - I can't believe these ESPN todds can actually talk about this shit for so long.  Anyways, the end of the draft means the Niners just picked up some new players and I can't wait to see them on the field, especially some kid out of Oregon named LaMichael James. 

Below are the Niners selections in this year's NFL draft:

Round 1: A.J. Jenkins, Wide Receiver, Univ. of Illinois

I guess a lot of teams had this guy in their sights.  A guy like this has a ton of up-side and it's not going to hurt the Niners or Alex Smith to have another option to throw to out there.

My grade for the pick: B

Round 2: LaMichael James, Running Back, Univ. of Oregon

Not much to say here.  One of the most electric college football players of all time.  James couldn't have gone to a better team.  With Harbaugh's take on the left (west) coast offense, James should be able to shine and that's only on the offensive side of the ball.  James should be able to get his touches on the punt and kick return teams if he can show that he can hold onto the ball on special teams.  The Niner faithful are going to be impressed with James' speed and agility!  Go Ducks!

Grade: A-

Here's the rest of the Niners picks.  Picked up some good talent on both sides of the ball and potentially filled the void for a number of positions they needed to address in this draft. 

Round 3: No Pick

Round 4: Joe Looney, Offensive Guard, Wake Forest

Round 5: Darius Fleming, Linebacker, Notre Dame

Round 6: Trent Robinson, Safety, Mich. St.

Round 6: Jason Slowey, Center, Western Oregon 

Round 7: Cam Johnson, Defensive Tackle, Univ. of Virginia

Cant't wait until the season kicks off next fall!  See you all at the stick for the second to last season of the real SAN FRANCISCO 49ers! (Their move to Santa Clara is a whole other post)

Cheers,

Mr.A

Giants Roughly-One-Tenth-of-the-Way-Through-the-Season Report

So, here we are at the all important 17-game mark. A time when judgements should not be made because the sample size is still much too small. And yet, judgements should be made, because who doesn't love judging? With slightly less than 90% of the season remaining, the Giants look kinda-sorta-good-but-not-great. They sit just over .500 at 9-8, but early returns show the plan of the offseason holding water. The Giants and their fans were pinning their hopes for this season on offensive improvement in the moderate to major range, with the pitching staff maintaining the status quo. How's it turning out? Let's have a look at the specifics, shall we?

• The top-of-the-lineup additions of Angel Pagan and Melky Cabrera
• This one is going just about right. Pagan needs to get on base more, but he's trending in the right direction. After compiling just 3 hits in the first 7 games, he's got 13 in the last 10.  Melky looks like he started just where he left off in Kansas City. He's leading the team in walks (10) and steals (4), and with Jonathan Sanchez struggling in KC, the Giants look like the early winners in that trade.
• Pablo Sandoval being Pablo Sandoval
• Not surprisingly, he is the Giants' most consistently productive hitter. Difference is, he's got production in front of and behind him this year. He wasn't healthy all year last year, which probably cost the Giants a win or two. Stay hot, young Panda.
• The return of Buster Posey
• Getting hits (like a boss). Mashing dingers (like a boss). Calling games (like a boss). Playing defense (like a boss). Never leave again. Never ever ever.
• Improvement from the 1B position
• Oy. Here's where it gets a little hairy. The idea was for Huff to at least split the difference of 2010 and 2011. Or, ideally, Belt would smash his way into playing every day. So far Huff looks about 3 parts 2011 and 1 part Aaron Rowand. He just kind of looks old doesn't he? The job is there for the taking for Brandon Belt, and he's pissing all over himself. Actually, that's a bit harsh. Give him some more consistent time. But I am a bit worried. What if he's just not as good as everyone expects him to be? What if he's just not good? His 2 RBI this year came on a 150-foot pop up that should have been caught.
• The return of Freddy Sanchez
• N/A, which sucks, because the Burriss/Theriot ticket isn't exactly inspiring the nation.
• More production from Brandon Crawford
• Wait and see. So far, it's not there, but he's been hitting into some hard outs. Lovely in the field when he's not making errors, so maybe cut down on those, kid.
• Hitting with runners in scoring position
• Law of averages says the team's production with RISP should improve greatly this year. But with Tuesday's 0-for-6, they're down to just .195 (last year it was at .219 - good for dead last in the Majors). However, so far they do have the 2nd most at bats with RISP in the NL (last year they were last in the NL in that category), and that's probably more meaningful in evaluating the offense at this stage. But when you take last year and the start to this year, it's possible that they just suck when the ducks are on the pond. If that's the case, this year will be excruciating.  

And now to the pitching, because an improved offense doesn't do a whole lot of good if you can't prevent runs on the other side:

• Lincecum is a worry, but I think he'll figure it out. His first win last Sunday was a step in the right direction. That being said, the Giants won't be the team they want to be if he doesn't pitch like an ace, and he won't pitch like an ace until he recovers his command.
• Madison Bumgarner has been stellar, although not the Cy Young Award winner I boldly predicted him to be. Still plenty of time for that to change.
• Matt Cain is Matt Cain.
• Ryan Vogelsong's storybook 2011 looks like it's not a fluke, which is hugely reassuring. Still plenty of time for that to change as well, though.
• Barry Zito -- staff ace! Not really, but he's pitching good, and we all should probably just stop talking about it in case it causes him to revert back to his former self. Let's remember, through his first 6 starts in 2010, he was 5-0 with a 1.49 ERA. He finished up 2010 by not making the post-season roster.
• Bullpen: Lost Brian Wilson, but the real Brian Wilson wasn't even around much for 2011, and they were just fine. Clay Hensley is doing a helluva job replacing Ramon Ramirez. They're not as dominant as they were last year, but they're getting the outs they need for the most part. Bruce Bochy has a luxury with all the reliable arms he has in the 'pen, and he's rewarded management for years now by conducting symphonies with the way he uses it.

Other things to mention:

• If Hector Sanchez keeps hitting, he'll see more time, which will move Posey to first more often, which will move both Belt AND Huff to bench.
• Nate Shierholtz has not been mentioned yet, even though he's been a revelation. However he's always a 1-for-15 away from losing his job again, so he's almost not worth talking about.
• Defense. It's been atrocious. That's one more thing that will likely level off; I'm not worried that it will continue to cost them. The problem is it has already cost them. Every game counts. Even the ones where Aubrey Huff plays 2B (it's true -- I called the Commissioner's office to see if they could replay that one. No luck). 

So all that adds up to a record of 9-8, which seems about right for the way they've played. They've won every series since getting swept by Arizona to open the season, although they were boosted by two walk-off wins that were the direct result of errors on the opposition. You can't count on those to keep coming around, but hopefully they won't need to. Just stay healthy.

And the "Oofs" Keep on Coming: B Weezy Likely Out for the Year

Citing "structural issues" in his elbow, Brian Wilson will likely have surgery, and it will likely end his season. So that sucks.

The closer situation will go to committee, but my guess is that Santiago Casilla will emerge as the de facto 9th inning guy. He's coming off two absolute monster years -- racking up 3 WAR over the two years in 107 innings. By comparison, last year Lincecum pitched twice that many innings to compile 4.4 WAR. Plus Casilla was 6 for 6 in save situations last year, if I'm not mistaken.

None of this is official yet. Even if the worst-case scenario plays out, this is an area where the Giants do have some other options. I think they'll be fine. Plus, we got our ace going tonight.

Giants Lose Another "Oof" Game

I'm telling you, the Giants need to release Barry Zito. Just cut him loose. His contract is a sunk cost. He had a horrible Spring, and after what he did last night, it looks like it's going to contin....What's that? That wasn't Zit---that was WHO? Oh. Oh, I see. Well, yes, that is a bit troubling.

Tim Lincecum has had two starts and he stunk in both. Is that reason to be upset? Yes. Is it reason to freak the eff out? No. And I can tell you why in two words: August 2010. Lincecum is allowed one bad stretch per year. Not if he wants to win the Cy Young, mind you. But the Giants can win (the World Series even!) with Lincecum going through one bad stretch. It's a shame that he's using it up this early, and not very considerate to those who tend to freak the eff out, but it's happening. And hey, it's not like the rest of the pitching staff was that stellar yesterday, either.

If the Giants are going to lose, might as well get all the bad pitching out of the way in one single catastrophe. Here's what Giants fans should be concerned about: the stat geeks have come up with a new stat that evaluates a team's performance. Takes into account hitting, pitching, and defense. It's known as "wins", and in five games, the Giants have only accumulated one.

An improved offense (which has been very encouraging) doesn't do a whole lot of good if the pitching doesn't hold up their end of the bargain. Maybe that's just what it is: a bargain. Maybe the pitching staff got together before the season and decided "let's just remind them of the power we have. Let's show them how horrible it can be if we want it to." Of course this was after they told Barry Zito they were having a big game of hide-n-seek. Man, they got him good. Ha ha, very funny guys.

Also, Nate Shierholtz was really pissed at Bochy for taking the starting job away from him.

Well That Wasn't Any Fun

Oof.

I came into this weekend very confident that we'd walk out of Phoenix having witnessed a sweep. I must have forgotten to specify which team I wanted to do the sweeping. Tim Lincecum, Madison Bumgarner, and Matt Cain all are going to have bad starts throughout the year. This is baseball. It happens. Ideally they don't happen on consecutive days against the team's biggest threat to the postseason. With the Giants actually scoring a reasonable amount of runs, these mulligan starts from the Big 3 showcased a new way to lose, so at least we got a learning experience out of the weekend! (Last year the Giants were 55-9 when scoring at least 4 runs. 0-3 so far this year). Yes, it's only 3 games. But it's also 3 games. Can't get those back.

Great to see Posey homer. But after watching some of his swings, and some of his defense, I'm hard-pressed not to use the pun "Rust"er Posey. He'll be fine.

That bottom third of the line-up consisting of Theriot/Burriss, Crawford, and the pitcher is not quite awe-inspiring. Freddy Sanchez needs to come back ASAP. Also, Crawford, if you are going to be making critical errors, people will be wondering what the point of your existence is.

Credit the Arizona fans for being friendly all weekend, even if their numbers declined significantly after the opener.

So now Barry Zito. At Coors Field. In the role of "stopper". Oof.

Ding Ding! Giants Open First Round at Arizona

"Oo de lally, oo de lally, golly what a day!"
- from the Disney animated classic, Robin Hood
- also, what I'll be saying tomorrow as the Giants kick off their season against their division rival Arizona Diamondbacks. Big games, these three. They mean just as much as the September contests. But, if the Giants get swept while being outscored 24-3 over the weekend, let's promise not to freak out. Small sample size and all that jazz. However if they do the sweeping and the outscoring, we should definitely freak out, because that will be hella fun. LinceBumCainer! Improved offense! Bearded relievers! Yeah, that sounds about right.

The Giants are hosting a viewing party at AT&T Park for Friday's opener, inviting fans to watch (for free) on the big screen. I encourage all to go. You might even see me there...on the big screen. That's right, I'm grabbing some buds and heading to Phoenix to catch all the weekend's action in person. Boom.

As the regular season approaches, my optimism grows, even though I have my doubts. It's all too exciting to arrange my thoughts in well organized prose, but I do feel the need to jot some down. So we'll all have to settle for long-winded bullet points:

• Cain got his extension, at that is a very good thing. It's a ton of money, but there was no real alternative. Macho Camacho thinks otherwise (my thoughts in the comments). They've got the Lincecum/Cain/Bumgarner trio locked down for at least 2 more years, and I'd take those 3 against just about any other pitching trio.
• Ian Kennedy and the Diamondbacks are due for some regression. Things like going from winning 65 games in 2010 to 94 in 2011 don't happen too often without sliding back the next year. They have, however, added some pieces to help improve the team from last year. Trevor Cahill is one. A full season of Paul Goldschmidt at 1B along with some other potential young stars will help. 
• Speaking of regression, I'm just a bit worried about Ryan Vogelsong. What if he was a fluke? The difference between a great pitch and a horrible pitch is about 6 inches. Vogey doesn't have devastating stuff -- he thrived last year by painting corners. If the pitches that were on the outside corner last year are 3-6 inches off in one direction, he'll fall victim to the walks that derailed his career as a prospect. 3-6 inches in the other direction, and he'll be serving up ding dongs all year.
• I continue to be amazed at how much the media and his teammates present Buster Posey and "how much he means to this team". Maybe ease off a bit, guys. He's just a kid. He can't do everything.
• I also continue to shake my head at the lack of Carlos Beltrans on this team. I wrote this back in December:

           Sanchez enters the season on the DL. I don't know if he's just a sissy, but the Giants' medical staff    has continued to swing and miss on his prognosis, ever since he came over from Pittsburgh. Point is, second base is not going to be a strong point on offense. They will miss Beltran's presence in the line-up.

• Overall, I liked most of the final roster moves:
• Of those who made the team, Nate Shierholtz winds up the big loser. All indications are that Belt will be starting at 1B, with Huff moving to the outfield, pushing Nasty Nate to the bench. Poor Nate. Been throttled around like a doggy toy for years. My guess is that Bochy just wasn't impressed with his abs. But there are a couple ways Nate could find himself back in right field: Belt could go 0 for 5 the first game. Or, for 2 months, Aubrey Huff could continue to piss all over himself hit soft grounders to second, just as he did all of last season. All I know is, the Giants a probably a better team with Belt in there every day, so I'm happy.
• A bit sad to see Chris Stewart go (traded to the Yankees for a potential September call-up reliever). But glad that Hector Sanchez beat out both him and Eli Whiteside for the back-up catcher gig. He'll get plenty of starts, as the Giants will continue handle Posey with care. With Brandon Crawford at short, and either Emanuel Burriss or Ryan Theriot at 2B, there's just no room for another pitcher-like hitter.

Prior to the 2010 season, I had 2012 marked down for a title. Coming off the surprisingly good '09 campaign, I told people to expect some regression in '10, improvement in '11, and a deep post-season run in '12, when the pitchers enter their absolute peaks and the young hitters have enough experience to shine. Turns out I got the title in '10, and regression in '11. That leaves "improvement" for 2012. Sorry, Giants, but that just won't do. Go get that trophy back!

Mega Numbers

No, I am not about to discuss the insanity of the United States largest lottery jackpot in history. I bought a few tickets and dreamed the good dream, but it's not something worthy of discussion just 5 days prior to The Real opening day of major league baseball. I'd like to discuss the contract that Matt Cain signed with the San Francisco Giants today. 6 years $127 million and the language can be found at your favorite sports website, but I won't dissect each year and the actual money being paid. I will say that his agent is an extremely smart cat, getting San Francisco to sign off on a deal this large that includes the ever important no trade clause. 

The Giants are in the stretch run of the Barry Zito contract disaster and most Giants fans likely would have assumed that never again would the Giants offer a pitcher than much guaranteed cash and lock them off for that long. Yes, this is a different beast. Matt Cain is a professional in every sense of the word. If you didn't watch him every fifth day and you only knew his name from watching his highlights on ESPN, you would assume that a guy with a career record of 69-73 and an era of 3.35 is not worthy of a contract that large. But, if you live in the Bay Area and are a Giants fan (or if you are a guy like me who just watches a lot of their games) you know what he means to this club. His career record should be expunged from the record books forever because the Giants have provided 3.73 runs for him, lowest in all of baseball. That doesn't do justice because I can't begin to explain how many times I'ver seen him lose 2-1, 3-2; 4-3.

This contract is a microcosm of who the San Francisco Giants are and clearly who they will be in the future.   At this stage in the game, the San Francisco Giants have $57 million of their payroll locked up in 3 guys, all starting pitchers. Barry Zito makes $22 million, Matt Cain $15 million and Tim Lincecum $20.25 million. In recent years, the 2010 World Series championship included, offense has been an issue for the team and has prevented them from taking full advantage of their all star caliber pitchers. San Francisco avoided Albert Pujols, for good reason. They turned their heads when Prince Fielder was on the market for them to enjoy and this has been the pattern ever since they signed Barry Bonds way back in the stone age. For the next 7-10 years this team has decided to grow their own players on the farm, avoid huge contracts for sluggers and that's terribly disheartening news for Giants fans across the country. I understand that pitching wins championships and the blueprint for success in San Francisco is crystal clear. This team will win or lose based on how their pitching performs. Unless this team is willing to spend more of the money they claim they don't have and spend it on guys who can hit and drive in runs, they will continue to fall short of the gold ring. 

I thought for sure the Giants would allow Matt Cain to reach free agency and let him walk next winter. I practically guaranteed that he would wear a Cubs, Yankees, Red Sox or even Dodgers jersey in 2013, but I admit I was wrong. I will continue to believe that San Francisco doesn't have enough offense to compete at the highest level and until they break down and start spending some of their "rainy day" fund, the fans will continue to be frustrated and angered by the lack of offense put forth by this club.