Giants Midnight Replay

2010 San Francisco Giants: The Movie

The writer in me just can’t help but look back at the 2010 season and not see parallels of a perfect story. In my mind, the story of this team could not have been written any better. 

They have the perfect elements of a movie. 

#1. The Unlikely Hero - The Team

#2. The Hero’s Character Flaw - The Offense

#3. Enabling Circumstances - Good Pitching, Weak Division

#4. The Villian - The Padres

#5. What The Hero Must Overcome - Padres, Themselves, Everyone’s Predictions, Superior Offensive Teams

Also their season retains the structure of a great movie. 

They come out of the gates with guns blazing. 

• Opening Sequence.

  • Renteria comes out of the gate and goes 11 for 16 in the first 4 games. 

  • Giants go 8 for first 11 games

• Plot Point 1, end of Act 1. Our hero starts on his path/The first trouble arises. 

  • April 20 Johnathan Sanchez pitches a 1 hitter. Giants still lose to Padres 1 to 0.

• May 26 Lincecum gets handed first loss in Washington. Giants drop to 4.5 back. 

• Re-enforcements arrive. Momentum builds.

  • May 29 Posey gets called up

  • May 29 Burrell gets a minor league contract

• Mid Act 2 drama. A main character is sacrificed/killed off. 

  • July 1 Bengie Molina is traded

• The End of Act 2. All Hope is Lost

  • August 25, Lose to Cincinnati 11 to 12, Giants 6.5 games back. 

• Beginning of Act 3. A Fresh Idea Helps Push Towards Solving The Problem

  • September 4-25 Pitchers go 18 straight games giving up 3 runs or less.

  • Giants barely edge out the Padres who make a heroic las minute charge. 

• Resolution. All problems are solved. (relatively)

  • The Giants outscore play off opponents by 18 runs scoring an average of almost 4 runs a game. 

  • Edgar Renteria blasts an unlikely 3 run home run in game 5 of the world series to tie the beginning of the movie to the end. 

Opening Day Special Edition (ps: fuck mlb.tv)

Giants Win 5-2 over the Astros!

Screenshot of the day. (due to the complete incopetence of MLB.TV there will be no screenshot today, if you would like my thoughts on MLB.tv please visit this link.) so here is a REALLY generic AP Photo….. grrrr. 

Neukom’s on the NRS (what’s an NRS?)

Opening day get a whopping 5 out of 5 Neukoms!!!

It was fundamental baseball all around. Great defense, especially three great catches by Rowand, Sandovol, Bowker and Derosa’s ricochet play that prevented the showboating Carlos Lee (he thought he hit one out) from even getting a double off of his hard hit ball that hit the top of the left field wall. 

Lincecum laid down two great bunts and the hitting was not as bad as predicted. The only defensive miscue was (surprisingly) Ishikawa’s drop of Renteria’s amazing throw from deep in the hole.

The Hans Solo Award goes to Lincecum, He silenced the doubters with this solid outing. He gets the hero award. 

The Boba Fett (just to keep it Star Wars) Award goes to Carlos Lee for fucking show-boating when he should have been hustling to second base. He gets the villan award.

Other Notes…..

I kinda feel bad for Medders, I loved the guy last year but I just feel like he is not going to last in the bullpen. He has just seemed off for a while now.

Some special notes now:

The Firsts of the year list:

Hit: Huff

Walk: Derosa

HR: Derosa

RBI: Molina

Sac Fly: Uribe

Bunt: Lincecum

K (pitching): Lincecum

K (batting): I forgot……anyone remember? (fucking mlb.tv won’t let me watch the game again!!!!!!

Double: Renteria

Win: Lincecum

Save: Wilson

A Well-(emeyer) Fought Battle

Sorry I am running out of ways to play on Wellemeyer’s name. It’s probably just as well, maybe I should get all the bad puns out before the season starts.

So I guess we are all looking for some meaning in a Spring Training game. Wellsy’s 5 shutout innings, Huff’s HR and his defensive start of a double play are the small things we can be happy about. We should throw Renteria’s Hr in there as well since anything we can squeeze out of that 18 million dollar mistake is gravy at this point. It’s nice to see Hinshaw get a solid inning in also.

So here are some of the highlights in the form of screenshots.

Renteria’s HR!!

Huff’s 2 run HR…….. Nice swing.

My cat looking at a bird out the window………J/K it’s Zito…. who asked Mychael Urban to interview him …..ppffffft!

Bonus young kuip pic!!! awesome!

If at least 2 of these 4 things happens and of course #5 happens then the Giants have an excellent shot of making the playoffs this year.

1. Our underperforming/overpaid veterens need to produce at the level that they once did. Aaron Rowand, might smell like 2007 when he hit 27 HRs had a .309 AVG and had an outstanding VORP of 51.1. But all the off-season biking in the world is not going to return him to that form, especially outside of the bandbox that is Citizens Bank Park. Lets aim for something realistic like…… trying not to chase sliders all the time. Renteria needs to silence the doubters. If he can return to his 2007 form at least from a VORP (value over replacement player) standpoint. In 2007 he was 46.5 VORP, last year he was 5.5. If it really was his injuries that slowed him last year, then he can return to at least to an above average SS option.

2. Will Schierholtz be the ONE Giants prospect that delivers? We don’t need more sub-par regulars to fill in the cracks around the cast of regulars that Sabean hand picked for the teams offense this year. The Giants need Schierholtz to deliver Winn-esque defense while fighting his way to a .350+ OBP and at least hit .280 with some power. The minor characters will be the ones who get us in the playoffs this year.

3. Bam Bam Meulens succeeds in his attempt to make everyone in the lineup take two pitches. On-Base Percentage should be the MOST stressed aspect of the game this year. If you can’t get a bunt down, if you can’t take a walk, they you need to sit a couple of games.

4. Our 4 and 5 starters deliver a 10+ win season each. I know it is a lot to ask of a 4 and 5 starter. But with the talent that we have on the pitching staff our 4 and 5 guys would be 2 and 3 guys elsewhere. While everyone expects Sanchez to deliver a stellar year, I would be happy if he got 12 wins and 15 or so quality outings. As for Madison Bumgarner, It seems like he could add another great southpaw to our staff. It will be sort of odd to have our front 2 pitchers throwing from the right side and our back three throwing from the left. But the important part is to see if Madbum can at least make it once through the league just being a surprise to everyone, maybe picking up 5 wins on the way, then change it all up when they figure him out, which hopefully can be good for another 5 wins. Otherwise I am more than willing to see Wellemeyer soak up 5 or so wins at some point.

5. Magic…. thats what we need. We need the same luck that we had last year when we won more games than we were suppose to. We need Huff to remove the bricks from his hands and play the 1 bag at least half as good as Ishikawa. We need Juan Uribe to come off the bench and comically swat home runs like he did last year. We need a full year from Mr Mole himself Freddie Sanchez. We need Sandoval to keep his jester hat on, while golfing any ball that comes within 5 feet of the strike zone. We need the same magic that happened last year in the bullpen to repeat (minus all that Merkin Valdez stuff). We need a couple hundred balls to bounce our way, and we need to pound the shit out of weak teams like the Padres who somehow destroyed us last year.