One down, Seven to go

"Not one, not two, not three, not four, NOT FIVE, not six NOT SEVEN." Those were the words uttered by Lebron Raymone James on July 8, 2010 when he joined Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. Allow me to start by saying, congrats Lebron. The first ring is said to be the hardest one to obtain and countless hall of famers played their entire career and made tons of money, enjoyed the fame and lifestyle of a professional athlete and would trade it all today for one ring. This is a great win for the Miami Heat franchise and for their fans, but is it a great win for Bron Bron?? 

It's no secret that I can't stand the sight of Lebron James, the sound of his voice, the cut of his jib and the simple idea that so many declared him the greatest basketball player of all time before he stepped foot on the hardwood of The Association. All of those things were starting to dissipate when he took the Cleveland Cavs on his back and nearly won a championship ring for his hometown. I felt like he was doing it the right way, building something special in Cleveland and the idea of hating a guy for doing that started to seem a bit ridiculous. Had he chosen to stay in Cleveland, forced owner Dan Gilbert to spend some serious money to get top flight players to join him, I would probably have stopped hating him so much and settled for disliking him. Hell, if he would have left Cleveland respectfully instead of in the middle of the night with a bunch of Mayflower moving trucks like Art Model, maybe I would respect that. But he didn't and he felt the need to make a spectacle unlike any other athlete in the history of professional sports. I don't need to rehash The Decision and go into great detail about how pathetic that was, but I do need to address the insanity of predicting eight championship victories. If Rafa Nadal predicted 8 grand slams, nobody would care. Not only because he plays tennis and few people care about that sport, but he plays an individual sport. It doesn't take an MIT Graduate to recognize that the odds of winning 8 championships in a team sport is highly unlikely. That being said, I will answer the question I posed earlier. Is this a great win for Bron Bron? No, it's not. Had he kept his mouth shut and predicted that he would bust his ass for this franchise, leave everything on the court and make sure he got a ring, I'd say it was an incredible victory, but he didn't do any of that. He flat predicted 8 championships and for that, I have to point out that he's only an 1/8th of the way to the promise land. 

To make matters worse Lebron is delusional enough to believe his own bullshit after he won his first ringwhen he said and I quote "I'm really glad I did this the right way, no shortcuts and because of that it makes it that much more special." I disagree with all of that and feel like this is one of the reasons why I can't be onboard the Bron Bron train and never will. You did this the right way? You joined forces with 2 of the best ballers in the league and ditched your hometown team to buy a ring. You didn't take any shortcuts? You are the same guy who deflected blame after you tanked the 2011 NBA Finals and said "At the end of the day, all of the people that were rooting for me to fail, tomorrow they'll have to wake up and have the same life that [they had] before they woke up today. They got the same personal problems they had today and I'm going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things I want to do." That's a shortcut. That's taking out frustrations on the fans and attempting to blame anyone and everyone but yourself for choking away a chance at your first ring. I'm confident that Lebron James handles success better than most professional athletes do and I also know he handles adversity with very little class and respect. Now that you won the first ring I gotta ask you Bron Bron, can you do it again?

Is the no-hitter becoming so common that it's losing its luster?

The title of this blog post is stolen from a professional sports writer named Tom (Todd) Verducci. More often than not I prefer to think up a creative (or not so creative) title that's original and fresh. However, the article featured below was not posted today or even over the weekend. It was posted Thursday June 14, just hours after Matt Cain turned in the performance of his lifetime, tossed only the 22nd perfect game in the history of major league baseball and his feet hadn't even hit the ground, but ole Tom was already puking all over this amazing accomplishment.

I'm a young guy with an old heart and old soul. I have learned that I was likely born in the wrong generation because for all of my life I've wanted my baseball served up the way it was generations ago. Simple, clean, by the "book" and stats are for fans to enjoy while sipping coffee. Currently, statistics in baseball have become completely out of touch with the game that's played on the field and I refuse to indulge any further than that. What I will say is that I don't care that of the twenty-two perfect games in major league baseball history, five of them have been thrown in the last three years. That's none of my business and I refuse to play ball here. In my book, a perfect game is an amazing accomplishment and each and every time a guy gets one, it should be given the respect and credit it deserves. Reading this article the day after Matt Cain pitched the best game of his life, the first perfect game in the history of one of the proudest franchises in baseball history, made me sick and I am not even a Giants fan. If you have enjoyed any of my work over the years, you know a few things. I don't toe the line and I refuse to take marching orders. I am not the guy who forms an opinion based on what the majority feels or thinks; I think for myself and I know my thoughts are in the minority, but I do know this. Diminishing a perfect game is something I will never engage in and I can't help but think that because Matt Cain plays on the West Coast, this article hit the internet before the fans at AT&T Park made their way home. I know for a fact that if Josh Beckett or CC Sabathia threw a perfect game last week, Tom Verducci would be sucking knee caps not pointing a fire arm at them.



http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/tom_verducci/06/14/no.hitter.craze/index.html

Here Comes the Story of the HurriCain

Prior to Wednesday night, no pitcher in Giants baseball history had thrown a perfect game. It took nearly 130 years, and yet it's not surprising that it was Matthew Thomas Cain who got it done. His whole career he's been flirting with Destiny. Buying her drinks, charming her friends, and she laughed at all of his jokes. He'd put his hand on her lower back to gauge the interest level, and she'd never even flinch. But every time he'd lean in to close the deal, she'd back away, claiming she couldn't for reasons like "I'm meeting my parents early tomorrow for breakfast" and "I'm out with my friends; I can't just leave them." Still, as she was leaving the bar each time, Destiny would glance back at Matt and smile lovingly. Even lustily. So you got the idea that there was something special going on between these two, and it was only a matter of time before they finally gave into each other. And special it was. This was not your ho-hum 8-walk no-hitter, where Destiny is just stumbling drunk because all her friends are getting married and she's looking for the nearest Edwin Jackson to make out with. Last night, Destiny didn't even have a chance, and she knew it. It was Perfect.

But this was even more than that. We're talking about one of the greatest games ever pitched. Repeat: EVER. In the history of baseball. Cain's "game score" was 101, tying him for second highest ever for a 9-inning game*. That's the part that's hard to wrap your head around. Out of all the games that have EVER been pitched in the Major Leagues, Cain's performance is very near the top of the list. 

Big Game Matt Cain now has to be considered the leading candidate to start the All-Star game. He leads the league in Innings Pitched and in WHIP. That means not only has he pitched the most innings, but they've been, like, the best innings, with the fewest base runners per.

It's amazing how good he his, and at the same time how take-for-grantedable he is. It's a shame that it took a perfecto for me to realize this, but he needs to be considered amongst the great pitchers in Giants history. Maybe even the great players in Giants history. Ever since he entered the big leagues in 2005, he's been good. Has he ever even had a bad stretch? Not a single earned run in the 2010 post-season. This is stuff of Giants legends. He's the longest-tenured Giant, and he will be for years to come. He's never shown a sign of slowing down, nor of disgust with his team when they certainly deserved it due to offensive impotence. The contract extension he signed a couple of months ago is still in its fetal stages, but right now, it looks like a steal for the Giants. He's ours.

It won't take long for the Giants to honor this achievement with one of those walk-of-fame plaques on the boardwalk that runs along McCovey Cove. When it's all said and done, he may just have a statue.

 

*He's tied with Sandy Koufax's 14-strike-out perfect game in 1965 and Nolan Ryan's 16-strike-out no-hitter in 1991. Kerry Wood holds the Game Score record for a 9-inning game at 105 with his 20-strike-out 1-hitter back in 1998. There have been other old-timey, extra-inning masterpieces that have game scores significantly over 100. 

Giants One-Third-of-the-Way-Through-the-Season Report

And so we've finally arrived at the one-third (plus 1 game) mark of the season. The all-important (read: arbitrary) marker where we can make judgements about who teams "actually are" and what they are "made of". Some of these judgements may even hold true at the end of the season. So what can we say about the Giants at this point? They are, pretty much, who we thought they were. They're capable but flawed. A high ceiling but with a low margin for error.

The pitching covers up the offensive ineptitudes, while the defense has probably cost them a few wins on its own. Perhaps I should have written "low margin for errors" -- a league-leading 51 in 55 games has been good for 30 unearned runs* (also leading the league*). League average is 20 unearned runs*, but if the Giants were the excellent defensive team they were supposed to be, they might even be in first place, given their style of playing in a lot of close games. That's a stretch, but it's possible.

As it is, they're 31-24 (a 91-win pace) and 3 games out of first behind the Dodgers, who have fallen back to Earth a bit. If, before the season, I told you that Lincecum would be pitching like Zito usually does, Brian Wilson would miss the whole season, Sandoval would miss significant time, and Belt + Huff are no better than they were last year, you probably would be happy to see the standings where they are right now. Then again, if I told you that Zito would have an ERA under 3.00, Gregor Blanco is a real-life Major League lead-off hitter, and Melky Cabrera is running away with the Team MVP award, you probably wouldn't be thrilled. All of those anomalies, except for the Wilson injury, are likely to regress towards where we expected them to be by the season's end. So if all that cancels itself out, where will the Giants make up those 3 games? Well, for one, I think the Dodgers will continue to fall off, especially since I told the baseball god who is responsible for Matt Kemp's hamstring that it was Kemp who ate its leftover half-sandwich in the office fridge. I think 91 wins can take this division. Secondly, those errors have already started to level off. Just one in the 6-1 homestand that just ended. Other than that, they'll have to keep applying the formula, and if they continue to win, the "chemistry" argument will start to snowball and everything will take care of itself and they might was well just bring the trophy to SF right now. Right?

More specifically, the strengths and weaknesses of 2012:

I'm still not going to let the front office off the hook for letting Carlos Beltran walk away, but credit Sabean and Co. for putting together a very productive and pretty darned fun-to-watch outfield. Safe to say the Melky-for-Sanchez trade was a win. Same for the Pagan-for-Torres-and-Ramirez. And Blanco is the leading candidate to get this year's "Andres Torres/Ryan Vogelsong Award for Being Awesome When No One Thought You Would Be Awesome". For position players, those three lead the team in Wins Above Replacement.

The infield, on the other hand, is nothing short of a disaster. Getting Pablo back will help significantly, but as it is now, I have a hard time believing opposing managers don't chuckle when they see the line-up card. Until Brandon Belt can start substituting home runs for strike-outs, first base is a massive disappointment. Huff looks completely finished, even after that gritty bases-loaded walk he worked last Saturday. Theriot's picked it up a bit, but they still miss Freddy Sanchez (they'll probably continue to miss him all year). Joaquin Arias has been a nice surprise defensively, but he's sub-replacement level at the plate. And if Crawford makes errors at the pace he's at (he has been improving, for the record), he might be the least valuable everyday player in the league. Come back, Pablo. And stay away from those 21-year-olds while you're at it.

Starting pitching continues to carry the team, as per the usual. Cain is Cain. Vogelsong is Cain. Bumgarner is Cain. Barry Zito's non-evil twin captured actual Barry Zito and is holding him tied up in a basement somewhere. Real Barry Zito is crafty and resilient though. Probably only a matter of time before he gnaws through the duct tape and returns to the mound. And Lincecum...ugh. Not even worth talking about. Either he'll figure it out and the Giants will be good to go, or he won't, and they probably won't win. Here's the interesting question though: say he turns it around and Zito continues to be good. Who get's bumped from the post-season rotation?

The only problem with the bullpen has been its lack of depth due to injury. Wilson (elbow), and Mota (cough syrup) are long-term losses, while Casilla, Romo, and Affeldt have all been unavailable at times. And that's when Edlefsen has to come in in the 8th inning and promptly give up 2 runs to put the game out of reach. But for the most part, Bochy should be able to order the Affeldt/Romo/Lopez/Casilla combo platter for the late innings, and it's delish.

All in all, this baseball season has been a pretty weird one. Puljos is bad, the Mets are good, etc. I'm still sticking with the Giants finding their way to the top of the NL West by the end.



*That's primary research right there, folks. It's only a matter of time before you'll be required to pay to become a Left Coast Lean "insider" for gems like that.

The Melky Way!

Over the past month, no one in the majors has been as consistent and hot as Melky Cabrera.  Last night Melky passed Willie Mays for the most hits for a Giant in the month of May at 49.  After going 3-4 last night, Melky has 50 hits this month.  Today is the last game in May for the Giants.  If Melky can get 2 hits, he will pass the palsy Randy Wynn (51 hits) for the Giants all time record for most hits in a month.

As of this morning Melky leads the the majors in hits (77), multiple-hit games (25), runs (38), and batting average (.376).  Straight up killing it!

Let's all give it up for Melky in his first year in a Giants uni.  Let's hope this continues so we can catch the Doyers before the All-Star break in July.

-Mr. A

Here's a link to the SFGate article about Melky's milestone and last night's win

Lightning strikes the Panda two years in a row... This time in the left hand!

Breaking news from the Giants club house... Pablo has broken hamate bone in his left hand.  What kind of timing and luck is this?  Pablo broke the same bone in his right hand almost a year ago from today.

This is a huge loss for the Giants!  Pablo, as every Giants fan knows, has been crushing it this year.  The time is now for Melk, Pagan, and the rest of the Giants to step it up with Pablo going on the DL for at least 30-45 days.  I would think Arias would be the guy to fill his spot at 3rd for the time being.  Arias has been playing well since he got called up at the beginning of the season.  Now is his chance to shine even brighter.  Let's all wish Panda a quick and healthy recovery.

Here's the LINK to the news break from sfgiants.com

-Mr. A

Worst Call by a Baseball Umpire Ever? You Make the Call

Last night at Coors Field umpire Tim Welke made one of the worst calls ever in all of sports.  Even though this play didn't have a major impact on the game at the moment, something still has to be done about this.  It's baseball, the next three guys could have hit home-runs.  You just never know what would have or could have been.  It definitely changed the game and this guy should be fired! Did he make this call to sway the results because he was betting on the game? If so, not sure why he picked this play to alter.  If his eyes are that bad and he honestly saw Todd's foot stretch 3 times it's length to reach the bag then MLB has a problem and they need to fix it now.  Anyway, just thought y'all should check this out.

Cheers,

Mr. A

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.