Giants Midnight Replay

Stress

I have been stressed lately. Getting finished with my finals, switching jobs, eating a lot of pizza, and watching the Giants….. all of these things stress me out. I want to say that my “magical vacation” to Chicago to see friends and the Giants play at Wrigley Field was a cloud of fun and relaxation, but it really was just more stress. I will fill those blanks in with a post when I get a chance. For now I am wallowing in a couple of stress free days. Now all that stresses me out are the Giants. Why did I even dream that this win would be an easy one?

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The Omar Vizquel defensive inside play of the game goes to:

Nate Schierholtz for making an absolutely balls to the wall flying catch to end the game. If he missed the ball we lose. Flat out spectacular!

The Eugenio Velez defensive mishap of the night goes to:

Miguel Tejada, sure he made an amazing dive to get the ball but how much does that mean when you almost throw it away…. at this point I know I am being petty, the guy is getting better. 

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The Jack Donaghy (hero) award goes to:

Madison Bumgarner, how do you win your first game, hit a double and suppress the hell out of the opposing batters. Madison went all beast-mode on the dodgers today, I’m impressed. 

The Devon Banks (goat) award goes to:

Police people. I know I know, I am suppose to welcome safety to the ballpark right? nah, this just looks like a my house after the kegger I threw in high school got broken up. 

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more stuff:

Fontenot gets the scoring started!

The absolute meanest Pablo face I have ever seen. Awesome!

When you can’t win you just go after the batters I guess. 

I love that look that pitchers have when they can’t believe that they just gave up a hit. 

Soooo close to his first shutout. zoiks. bummer moment here. 

I probably should have giving Fontenot the Velez award today, but I just couldn’t. I like the guy too much. 

Usually a good sign, if you have two outs in the ninth, not today. Brian needs to take a day or two to heal that ankle. 

That is the second batter that got hit tonight. just saying…

Who is this guy? and what has he done with the old crappy Tejada? No joke, let’s pay some respect to a guy who seems to be turning it around. I really do want to root for you buddy, just give me a reason. 

Take notes Darren Ford, this is the only way you are going to make the bigs. 

This Week in Giants Facial Hair.

Well Fan Fest happened. Out here in Brooklyn I am still slipping on snow when I go running. But It was like this last year so I’m not worrying. Spring is peeking through with three consecutive days with the temp over 40 degrees which is practically a holiday over here. Women strut around in tights and low cut tops and guys walk around in only two layers trying to show-up the weather gods before they usher another month of snow in to cover our false spring. 

With the dependable, yet questionable practice of counting down to pitchers and catchers starts. We have to rely on our creativity to write posts that will not bore. So without further ado…. let’s have our first installment of what will hopefully become a years worth of posts about Facial Hair Growth on the San Francisco Giants. 

Top Three Facial Hair Moves and Transactions. 

#1. Lincecum Mustache.

In a stunning turn of events Tim Lincecum has decided to throw his hat in the ring for most pubescent looking mustache in the Majors. I highly applaude this move since I am a major proponent of Mustaches over beards. Lincecum looked pretty dapper in a short interview the day before Fan Fest and would not look out of place in a Brooklyn bar. 

Personally I am hoping that Timmy can get a John Waters stache going. 

#2. Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson have kept their beards. 

Let it be known that Brian Wilson WILL be rocking a mustache at some point in his career, it’s just the next logical move. Not to say that his beard is not manly, it does it’s job well, hiding the fact that he still only has 2 jokes in his joke barn.

Sorry about stealing this twitpic… thanks to who it was… I forgot. 

But we love him and his beard, and the fact that he and Sergio have wintered their beards makes me happy. I’m trying to think what is more distracting….. a guy throwing a ball at me at 90+ mph with a black pirate beard or a guy wearing orange shoes……. ya… STFU league. 

#3. Madison Bumgarner tames his hick beard. 

From this…….

To this…….

Not much of a difference. But with a lack of other facial hair alteration…. I gotta go with this as #3. 

As rules of this blog have it, I must give equal time to the patron saint of future Giants facial hair and all around inspiration to this blog with his (former) flaming red mustache…. Jason Stoffel…. Here is an interview with him. 

Stoffel seems to not be taking his career as a mustached closer seriously enough. Come on Jason!!!!! There are enough chin growths in major league bullpens! We need more lip sweaters, it’s the only way you are gonna make it. Let’s try THIS look again. 

Future Facial Hair-olator. 

I think our best bet for a good old-timey mustache is Madison Bumgarner. Only a guy who deals in livestock and lives in the tiny town of Lenoir, NC could rock a true mustache. 

Side note…. while looking up Bumgarner’s hometown I found that another Bumgarner came from that same home town…. Justin Bumgarner…. Who is a MMA Fighter, (bottom of the page) I wonder if they are related?

Some Meaningless (Spring Training) Stats……

Pick your 5th starter……..

Todd Wellemeyer ………  1.20 ERA/15 IP/1.13 WHIP

Kevin Pucetas …………..  0.64 ERA/14 IP/0.33 WHIP

Madison Bumgarner……  6.43 ERA/7 IP/2.14 WHIP

My money is on Wellemeyer as 5th starter, and Pucetas as the long man. Bumgarner starts in AAA. 

Well Well Well-(emeyer)

Other possible heading for this post where:

Oh Well-(emeyer)   …… if we lost

Wishing Well-(emeyer)     …….not even sure why this one works

Well-(emeyer) Played!!!       ……too complicated. 

ST Game #9

Either way we won this one. 

While I enjoy winning. I enjoy, even more, seeing one of our 5th starter candidates take a real step forward. I would be happy with either Todd or Madbum as long as we can get some decent production out of our 5th starter. 

Other highlights from the box score:

Scheirholtz and Posey 2 for 3 and a double a piece. 

Ford had 2 hits also and stole 3rd…. not bad. 

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.