The Muscle Melk Man - Building Numbers, Breaking Hearts

Imagine one night you decide not to go to a party, but instead opt to have a quiet evening at a coffee shop. And you meet this girl, who seems pretty and nice and fairly easy to talk to. But after you go out with her a few times, you just can't get enough of her. She's smart, funny, and she seems to get even better looking each time you notice her. Great skin, gorgeous eyes, and an hourglass figure you wouldn't believe. And my god, she's into you too! That never happens! Moreover, you found out from your friends that that party you didn't go to wasn't even that great (so you didn't even give up a lot for the chance to meet this chick). All your friends are like "jebus, how the hell did you score THAT girl?" And you're all like "I know, right?" And after explaining how she didn't used to be this good looking, but it all came together for her a couple years ago, you slyly add,  "and by the way, they're real and they're spectacular".

And then you find out Melky Cabrera tested positive for PEDs. 

Turns out Melky had numbers-enhancement surgery and didn't tell any of us. Personally, I would guess it happened two years ago before he put together a very good season with Kansas City. But this year with the Giants, it was going to a new level. Talk about your all-time too-goo-to-be-true's. The Giants will be without their hit factory for the remainder of the regular season, and the first 5 games of the post-season, if they make it that far. There's no way around it: This. Is. Devastating. 

I'm pretty mad at Melky for this. For making us believe in this great story. For getting our hopes up that he could hit .350 for the rest of the year. I feel sorry for the Melk Men and Maids for idolizing a cheater. [Side note: before you get all puffed up and try to call me out for being a hypocrite because I only have nice things to say about Barry Bonds, remember that Bonds never broke any rules. Melky did]. He broke our hearts, too. 

He was leading the league in hits and runs. By one statistical measure (Baseball Reference's Wins Above Replacement), he is the 4th best player in the league*. There's no way the Giants can replace that kind of production. Buster Posey's shot at 100 RBIs probably just vanished. For the Giants to make the playoffs, everyone will have to step it up. And that includes the pitching. It would be very unwise to count this team out, but also naive to think this isn't a blow to morale. 

Just when things looked like they were falling into place, too. During Tuesday night's win against the Nationals, I remarked to myself "this is probably the best line-up the Giants have put out there this year. Probably in years." A white-hot Posey, Scutaro in for Theriot, Pablo off the DL, Belt on an up-swing of his pendulum season, Hunter Pence figuring things out, and of course Melky, who was the beacon of consistent awesomeness. (McCovey Chronicles, as always, beat me to this point, here and here). 

However, after sorting through all my anger and disappointment, I think I've arrived at a place of "is what it is" nonchalance. After all, if you had told me after the Jonathan Sanchez trade that Melky would be a 4.7 win player in 2012, I would have been thrilled. We already got all the production out of him that we could have expected going into the year. If the Giants fail to make the playoffs, it won't be because of Melky Cabrera. It will be because they weren't good enough, as a team. There's room for improvement with the players already in place that can fill the Melky void. Belt can stay hot. The bullpen can pitch better. Timmy can find mediocrity. Pablo is back. 

Still, this sucks.


*Not to mention the All-Star Game MVP, helping the National League get home field advantage in the World Series. Will the American League representative demand that the All-Star game be replayed? Maybe then Mets fans can do a better job of voting David Wright in.

Three things to watch when the 49ers open their preseason tonight at the Stick

We are finally here folks.  The NFL is back for another season.  I've got to say it's great to start the season without the BS of a labor agreement in flux and having to see Roger Goodell's mug on the tube day in and day out.

The 49ers are currently 8/1 odds to win the Superbowl with only New England and Green Bay ahead of them.  Even though this is not important at all, if I were a betting man these odds look pretty nice right about now.

With that out of the way, let's focus on this week.  What story lines will emerge?  Who will move up on the depth charts?  Here are three things (In no particular order) to watch for tonight at the Stick.

1.) The battle for the back-up QB position.

As it stands right now, Colin Kaepernick is first in line behind Alex Smith.  Look for Johnson to make his mark to take over that spot starting tonight.  Both guys should get plenty of reps and with Johnson's knowledge of Harb's offense he should be able to jump right in and move the ball down the field.

Who do you think will win the spot?



2.) There's a  healthy stable of running backs on the squad... Who's going to shine the brightest (Gore not included)?

La Michael James (LMJ), drafted in the 2nd round of this year's draft has the potential to help his team out immediately.  As most of us know by now, LMJ is a freak of an athlete and his ability to make people miss along with his toughness makes him a leading candidate to become a break out star in his first year in the league.  That being said, the presence of LMJ as well as the addition of veteran Brandon Jacobs to the back field is going to get the best out of every running back on the team.  Along with Gore the Niners have Kendall Hunter and Anthony Dixon.  Look for Hunter and Dixon along with LMJ to get the bulk of the carries tonight.  Don't want to speak too early, but I feel LMJ is going to break a huge one tonight, but them again he's a Duck and now a Niner... What's not to love!?!?!


3.) So the biggest and baddest defense in the league last year return almost everyone... the question is, who are the new guys that are going to be fighting for playing time on the #1 D in the league?

Can't wait for tonight!  Should be fun to watch things unfold.  Harb's has a history to never show his cards in the preseason as well as barely play any starters until the final game, if that.  Have a great weekend!

Whooooo's got it better than us??!?!?!?!

Peace,

Mr. A

A Farewell to Shierholtz

Nate the Great. Nasty Nate. The JuggerNate. These are the nicknames that we as Giants fans won't get to use anymore. At least until we get another dude named Nathan on the team. But Nate Schierholtz was more than just his fun nicknames. I'll miss him, and not just because he and I are body dopplegangers. Plus he gets bonus points for being a local boy.

I'll remember him hitting with no batting gloves. I'll remember him swinging over and over again at that slider on his back foot. Mostly I'll remember his defense. He made sweet sweet love to right field at AT&T Park, and it was a joy to watch. No doubt one of the best arms we've ever seen out there. I'll remember him grabbing and then losing a starting outfield job over and over again. And that, really, will be his legacy. I used to feel sorry for Nate, but the fact is, he never did truly grab the bull by the horns to become a mainstay in the line-up. People would say "just let him play for a whole year and see what he does". But that's not really how it works in baseball, especially in Bruce Bochy's dugout*. If you're one of those guys who "needs to be out there every day", then you're probably not good enough to be out there every day. Nonetheless, Nate Schierholtz was a nice 4th outfielder, and a good Giant.

And with the departure of Schierholtz also comes the end of an era for Giants baseball. With the release of Manny Burriss coming days before the Schierholtz trade, none of those "prospects" from the late '00s remain on the team. Kevin Frandsen, Freddy Lewis, Eugenio Velez, John Bowker, Travis Ishikawa, Matt Downs, Ryan Rohlinger, Brian Bocock, Dan Ortmeier, Manny Burriss, Nate Schierholtz. These names represent the utterly futile efforts of the Giants to develop hitting talent during that decade. This is one era I'm not sad to see end, even though those guys will always hold an ironically special place in my heart. Hopefully the next crop of Belt, Pill, Crawford, Gillaspie, Culberson, and some kid named Posey will do better. (To be fair, Pablo Sandoval is on the borderline, but probably should be included in that first group).

So enjoy Philadelphia, Nasty Nate. You'll no doubt see those numbers get a bump from that band box of a stadium you'll be playing in, and you'll look especially good playing next to Juan Pierre LOL! Here's to hoping you finally get that regular starting job. Good night, sweet prince.



*Unless you're Brandon Crawford.

Reaction to Hunter Pence Trade

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

These gloomy quotes, from George Santayana and Albert Einstein, respectively, are the first words that came to mind after hearing that the Giants acquired Hunter Pence from the Phillies in exchange for Nate Schierholtz, catcher Tommy Joseph (the organization's #2 rated prospect), and Seth Rosin (a single-A pitching throw-in). The move is eerily similar to last season's deadline acquisition of Carlos Beltran. They gave up a top prospect (last year it was their #1 prospect in pitcher Zack Wheeler) for a hard-hitting right fielder from an NL East team. Last year's didn't work out so well. Of course, that was in no way Beltran's fault. After a minor injury, he raked the ball all over the place while the rest of the offense dried up like beef jerky, leading to a distant second-place finish.

Once again, the Giants have, on paper, the best team in the division, and they've added an upgrade to their offense, which can sputter at times (shocking, I know). They are a better team now than they were before the trade. I wonder by how much though. His numbers this year are really not that great. His .784 OPS is way down from last year's .954. When looking at OPS+ (which adjusts for ballpark and normalizes OPS for easy comparison to the rest of the league), his 109 is actually less than Schierholtz's 115. And he's at least a minor downgrade in right field defense compared to Blanco or Shierholtz. With just 2 months left to go this season, will Pence really make a significant difference in the pennant race?

The good news is that Pence is actually hitting better away from hitter-friendly Philadelphia, and has particularly good numbers at AT&T (.329 average with three doubles and five home runs in 76 career at-bats here). Plus there's the intangibles of giving the clubhouse a boost, and I'm sure the fans will quickly fall in love with his quirkiness and all-out efforts on the field. Once Sandoval returns from injury, the Ginats can trot out a fairly faersome midle of the order. (Yes, those typos are on purpose. I tried several times to type out that sentence correctly, but every time it would immediately crash my computer).

Still, more than anything, this trade highlights once again why the Giants should have just re-signed Carlos Beltran (or not traded for him at all). In this whole saga, I give the front office poor marks for the lack of budgetary foresight when they made that trade combined with cheapness and lack of offensive-fortitude foresight during the offseason. Beltran just stroked his 24th dong-job of the season to put his OPS at .893. The Giants will likely have to pay Pence about $13 million next year, which (look at that!) is exactly what Beltran will make next year.

The fact is there's really no way to evaluate this trade at this time. Tommy Joseph is a good few years away from the majors, and we just don't know how good Pence will hit for the Giants. But with Posey and Hector Sanchez under team control, the Giants are probably set behind the dish for the foreseeable future. So using Joseph as a trade chip was probably the best use for him. In flipping him with Shierholtz, they get a proven star, who hopefully can light a fire and contribute heavily to a World Series run. As I've said before, the window is open now; best to take advantage of it while you can. The Giants are probably a little better right now, and probably a little worse for the future (a thin farm system did just get thinner).

I'm still hoping the Giants' biggest deadline pick-up will be a Tim Lincecum who is worth watching.

Pedo State's Running Back Silas Redd transfers to USC... Que the quitter chants!!!

Well this doesn't make life any easier for the Oregon D when they have to travel to the Coliseum on November 3rd. Here's a LINK to the news break.

The thing I don't get is that these players can transfer to where ever they want because of what happened.  The Pedo State scandal had nothing to do with the football players yet they get an exemption because of some stupid rule the NCAA tacked on to the sanctions the school received last week.  Doesn't make sense to me.  You committed to your school to play football for Pedo State.  Suck it up, stay healthy, and play well so you can make it to the NFL in a couple years. Also, of all the schools to choose from he chooses USC?  Lane Kiffin makes me sick.  During the Pac-12 news conference last week the reports were asking him about Redd and whether he would transfer to USC.  Kiffin responded with, I can't comment or talk to him or anyone about that.  Well, less than a week later Kiffin and Redd are talking on the phone and texting each other?  This guy Kiffin is a joke and a cheater!  Only fitting that a QUITTER is going to join him on the side lines.

Can't wait for all of this to unfold and crumble up in the USC's face. 32 more days until we start our run to the Natty... which goes through SC and I love it!!!

Time to get hyped, again!!!

Cheers,

Mr. A

Pence lands a one way ticket to SF!

UPDATE!!!  The deal is final!  Philly sends Pence to SF for Nasty Nate, catching prospect Tommy Joesph, and 6'6" 250 lb RHP prospect Seth Rosin from Fargo, ND who has been in the Giants farm system since 2010.  It's been fun Nate, but bring on the susPENCE!

The deal is not final yet but the San Francisco Giants have made a splash in the trade market by potentially landing Hunter Pence from Philly!  The likes of Nasty Nate, catching prospect Tommy Joesph, and maybe something else will be headed to Philly for Pence if this deal goes through.

More details to come when and if the deal goes final!

Cheers,

Mr. A

#SFGiants
@HunterPence3

Big series by the bay with the roster up in the air

The Giants have the day off today and it couldn't have come at a better time.  On Tuesday the Giants were making top play after top play.  One of those plays was a double play turned by Theriot, Crawford, and then across to the Panda.  Panda finished the play on the ground doing the splits.  Though he made the play and the crowd was going nuts, I instantly became concerned that the big boy would not get up.  Even my fiance said OMG, he did the splits, he's got to be hurt.  Well, she was right.  The Panda left the game after that and it turned out he strained his hammy.  This is horrible news for a Giants team that is playing great baseball right  now with their arch rivals coming into town for a weekend series.  If Sandoval has to go on the DL, Boch and company have some major decisions to make.  Going into this weekend's series against the Dodgers, the Giants options at the corners are suspect at best.  Arias will most likely get the start at third with the Panda out through the weekend.  At 1st, it's a whole other story.  Belt is in an ultimate funk.  Posey could play there but then that means Eli Whitehair would be behind the dish.  The word on the street is that Huff might be ready to come back, but he isn't any better than Belt which means he is garbage.

With all this happening, you have got to hope that Sabean is trying to make some calls to see what kind of deal they can swing for a 1st baseman out there.  Every year it feels like the Giants have a chance to fill a void they have on the field and Sabean can't pull the trigger.  Maybe I'm dreaming but here's another chance for Sabs to prove us wrong.  Go out there and get a bat.  Someone like Corey Hart or Edwin Encarnacion. Having to pick from Huff or Belt just kills me.

Anway, no matter who is out there the Giants will be pumped and AT&T will be rockin this weekend.  The last time the Doyers were in town they were swept by the Giants and didn't even manage to get one freakin run.  ESPN is going to be and is already all over the Dodgers nuts for picking up Haley Ramirez.  He's a good player and all but he can't do everything.   I can't wait for another sweep.

Giants are going with Cain, Zito, and Vogey!

Sunday's Vogey/Kershaw match up should be a dandy!


Go Giants and wear your orange tomorrow for orange Friday's!

Cheers,

Mr. A


Here's a couple pics from some classic Giants Doyers brawl over the years,

Winning doesn't change everything

The Oakland A's are playing some of the best baseball of any team in the bigs right now and I'm happy for the team, but I'm happier for the fans. Quick background for those who don't know my back story. When all my friends were growing up Giants fans, I was an A's fan. I've been through the highs and lows of this franchise and a few years back, I went on strike. I jumped ship in year 6 of a 3 year rebuilding plan. I haven't been to a game at O.Co since April of 2008, I haven't watched an entire game on TV since around the same time and my passion for this franchise, which was once strong enough to get me out to games 5 hours before first pitch, 25-30 times a season has faded completely.

I know how easy it would be to follow them now, to watch them while they are playing their best brand of baseball since they were murdered and swept by Detroit in the 2006 ALCS. It would be so easy to buy a ticket to the weekend series against the New York Yankees, head out on Sunday and just sit there. Not cheering, not yelling and not hating, just observing. I'm not going to do that because I am a stubborn sob, to put it lightly. When I jumped ship, it was a way of expressing my concerns about the greater good of this once proud franchise. A franchise with more world series trophies than all but 2 teams in baseball. Rumors of the team moving to Las Vegas, Portland and other cities have circulated for years now. The fantasy of a downtown ballpark have wet the appetite of many an A's fan. The possibility of the San Jose A's was once a nearly done deal and now has become an absolute disaster. The list of excuses made by ownership is so long and pathetic that even good ole Bud Selig won't do anything about it, despite the fact that he and Lou Wolff have been friends for the better part of 40 years.

I'm glad this team is playing a good brand of baseball because the fans deserve some excitement during the baseball season. However, this doesn't erase all the factors that lead me to run away from this team in the first place. When I made that decision, I told myself I wouldn't drift back just because the team played better, won some games and made progress. My issues with this team do not have short term resolutions, they are long term problems that will need to be addressed over a long period of time and until I see progress on a new stadium, an answer on territorial rights with San Francisco and the owners are not named Wolff and Fisher, I refuse to play ball. It's highly likely that my days of wearing green and gold, tailgating in the parking lot, screaming and yelling at Red Sox fans as they overflow the stadium, are in the rear view mirror. Those days are behind me now and as I look back on my experience as an A's fan, aside from the bitterness, resentment and anger, I am reminded of the love I had for my team. The passion I shared with so many great fans can never be forgotten or replaced and as I write this today, I am able to accept that somewhere in the Bay Area, there is a kid visiting the stadium for the first time. Watching his or her first baseball game and the love for the team is growing inside of them. I'm hopeful that the A's and their ownership group are thinking of them too, but based on my experience, it's unlikely and that's a shame.

"The most valuable commodity I know of is information." Gordon Gecko

Ah yes folks. Another great quote from the one, the only Gordon Gecko. The MLB All Star balloting has been the topic of conversation among baseball fans for the past few days and I wanted so badly to write about Giants fan. Not the fan that actually understands the game of baseball, focuses tons of energy on being a good fan and does the right thing. The corporate manufactured Giants fan who bought their first hat, jersey and Panda mask around November 4, 2010. You know the guy. He is face deep in that shiny Ipad to catch up on nothing whatsoever during the games at AT&T Park and refuses to actually watch the game in front of him. I wanted to rip into those fans with both hands, string up up in the courtyard for all to see and hang em with their orange and black shoelaces. However, after further review, I've come to terms with the idea that each and every one of us has just been made a fool of. 


You see, when I was a kid way back in the 1980's All Star ballots were punched at the ballpark and  only at the ballpark. You actually had to show up to a game in order to cast a vote and it was done by hand, well before automation became the way of the world. In recent years the game has changed dramatically and the votes are cast electronically. Each email address is allowed 25 votes and for the record, the majority of sports fans have numerous email accounts. One for fantasy football, one for personal use and of course, one for porn. At least that's the structure you should have in place. When you cast your vote online, your email address is captured by MLB.com and when you enter your two favorite teams in the ballot box, you start to get email spam almost immediately. Considering that everything in this era centers around cash, I have a difficult time believing that MLB.com has not sold our addresses to a third party who's sole purpose in business is to capture as many email addresses as possible, sell them off and "market" products directly to us, the consumer. 


If you want to point the finger at the bad guy, point it not at Giants fan or baseball fans in general,  but at MLB and Uncle Selig. Without his discretion and that of major league baseball, we'd be allowed to vote for our favorite players in a unique and modern way without the prospect of being suckered into the biggest scam on the internet. Ok, maybe that's extreme because I can't even open my porn dedicated email address any longer for fear of clicking on the ad that informs me that "Daisy in San Francisco would like to hang out with you" and seeing thousands of emails directed to my sick brain. The reality of the situation is simple and clearly that's the biggest problem. We, as Americans, are suckers. Young and old, man and woman, educated and uneducated. Anyone who has ever entered their email address on a sketchy website, then thought "is this a good idea" prior to clicking submit has been victim of the scam on consumers. That's what happened here. The votes we cast may in fact have selected an all star starting roster. No doubt Giants fan should be sick inside after voting for Freddy Sanchez 2.75 million times, simply because he's one of your guys and ignoring the idea that he hasn't laced up in almost a year without injuring himself. But the bigger problem we face is the false advertisement provided by MLB and it's "business" partners. That my friends is just another negative component of being an American and sadly, we all suffer as corporate titans get rich while we starve. 

On the All-Star Voting Machine

We all remember in 2009 when Pablo Sandoval was the deserving All-Star candidate, but the Giants' marketing department got trounced by Philadelphia's, and Shane Victorino was voted into the final roster spot. Three years later, the marketing staff has put those lessons to work more effectively than Boss Tweed did in the "Gangs of New York" days. It makes you wonder whether the marketing department has "All-Star Selection" bonus clauses in their contracts just like many players do. If not, maybe they should.

Melky Cabrera will start the ASG in the outfield. You won't find many people arguing against that. Buster Posey will start at catcher. Even though Carlos Ruiz and Yadier Molina are arguably having better years, the Posey selection is nothing to rail against. Pablo Sandoval will start at 3rd Base. Frankly, this makes me uncomfortable.

Outside of the 1957 Reds selections, and those cases where an aging veteran gets voted in as some sort of lifetime achievement award, the choice of Pablo Sandoval over David Wright has got to be up there with the worst choices the fans have ever made (from a numbers point of view). Wright is a surefire MVP candidate, while Pablo Sandoval has missed nearly half the season. And not only did Sandoval beat Wright, he trounced him, surging ahead in the final week to a 1.6 million vote margin of victory.

Many folks will say this proves the Giants fans are the "best in baseball", or that we are "passionate". Unfortunately, I think this makes us look like maleable, gimmiky, front-running bandwaggoners. Any sound baseball mind knows that Pablo has no business starting this game, and so all across the country this week, people will be pointing out how San Franciscans deprived Wright of a deserving honor in favor of a fun-loving guy with a catchy nickname.

None of this means anything, except for the fact that it does. As Jay Bruce proved yesterday, the Giants have a significant home field advantage. With the ASG determining who gets home-field in the World Series*, this shit is important. Luckily, fans don't vote on playing time, so Tony La Russa can correct this error during the game, but really, it was in the interest of Giants fans to vote in Wright. He's better. Simple as that.

The goal for the entire Giants organization, including the fans, should be to win the World Series. Root for the name on the front of the jersey, not the back.



*This, by the way, is incredibly stupid. A significant advantage in the World Series is determined by a game that is organized, managed, and played like it's a meaningless exhibition. Home-field in the WS should be determined by which league has the better record in interleague play. Logically, this makes perfect sense. If the AL beats the NL in interleague play, it's perfectly reasonable to say the AL is the better league. The team that makes it through that tougher league to the World Series should be rewarded. Simple.

P.S. As long as we're voting in record numbers, Giants fans would do well to vote for Michael Bourn in the Final Vote. He'd be the most useful to the team.