Giants Midnight Replay

Walking Off

Last night my boss took me out to eat, we went out for burgers and he tried to convince me to not quit my job. We ate our burgers and had a couple of uncomfortable moments. Eating, drinking, me talking about “how money matters to me now”, as if I’m some sort of adult. After dinner we split ways, I went drinking with a friend, had a few too many and ended up running around SOHO kicking trashcans over at 3 am. At some point I blacked out, got blue paint all over my pants, told a poet that I hate poetry and lost $20. I woke up at 1pm today, my head was throbbing. 

There’s no walk off hit in real life. I can’t make an amazing latte for someone, get cheered by a room full of satisfied customers, be mobbed by delirious co-workers and carried out on their shoulders. Life doesn’t provide the moments that baseball provides. I guess that’s why we get shitty drunk and run around manhattan kicking trashcans over. 

——————————————————————————————————-

The Omar Vizquel Defensive Excellence Award Goes To:

Aubrey Huff for sticking with the under-thrown ball to nail Miranda at 2nd. 

The Eugenio Velez Defensive Indifference Award Goes To:

Freddy Sanchez… surprisingly. For making 2 errors on one play, bobbling a ball and then throwing it too low for huff. 

——————————————————————————————————-

The Setoguchi Award (Hero) Goes to:

Lincecum…… I wanted it tonight. I was sniffing a no-hitter when I turned the game on when I got home in the 2nd inning. “is there a hit yet”?

My girlfriend goes to sleep and I ask her…..”should I wake you up if anything “historic” happens?”….. It’s gonna happen… someday. Until then, sleep tight. 

The Datsyuk Award (Goat) Goes to:

Ian Kennedy, not only for throwing a damn fine game but for breaking up the no-hitter in the 6th. disappointing, I was really feeling like tonight could have been the night for Timmy. But just like Datsyuk… you have to recognize greatness. 

——————————————————————————————————-

More Stuffs

This makes me wonder if the phrasing “Andre The Giant” is copy write, or if they felt it was appropriate to call it “Andre el Gigante” just because of his latin roots? Either way it is kinda cool, and kinda lame, I can’t decide yet.  

Buster sniffs out a hit. 

“Vaaat I git no vin today, eeez ok”

Cody Ross does the Freddy Sanchez “fake like it’s inside” dance

Then he throws his bat like a spoiled brat. haha

Tim threw two perfect corner pitches for strikes in a row in the 7th inning. Both times they showed a close up of his face and he was mouthing “fuck” with a disappointed look on his face. Perfection must be hard. 

Buster Posey is making gloves drop like beats……. ok that didn’t work as a metaphor. Whatever, Posey is playing great. 

Can some internet nerd draw some lasers shooting out of these eyes? Cause Ford is straight up cyclopsing dudes with these lazy browns. “Ya, I just stole on you… what?”

Huff has the swing of the game, with this karate chop fouling a ball at his eyes. 

Amy G. is the only thing in the world that makes Cody not want to smile. I feel ya Cody, I feel ya. 

GMR Field Trip

The Mets have a scoreboard problem. They start playing the “Let’s Go Met’s” chant before their first batter even gets into the box, which leads to the inevitable scoreboard prompt burnout by the 5th inning. I say, only sounds until at least the 4th. 

There was some pretty great banter back and forth between the Met’s and Giants fans during the game. And it went back and forth pretty well, through our bases loaded pop-outs, and through their bases loaded double play. Organic “Let’s Go Giants” Chants were squashed by thunderous boos but Giants fans definitely grabbed a foothold in Citi field tonight. 

————————————————————————————————————

I’m just gonna post pictures and give a couple of my thoughts. But first…..

Stock watch

Rising stock:

Schierholtz, Fontenot, Lopez, and Huff (a little bit).

Falling stock:

Tejada (majorly), Burriss, Ross, and Vogelsong (sorry buddy)

———————————————————————————————————

If you read this blog you know that I am a Fontenot fan. He just embodies the underdog thing. He had an important hit tonight and played solid defense at SS. 

Mets fan definitely remember Mota, and they don’t like him. Note to self: look up what Mota ever did to Mets fans. 

The AAA crew. Ford, Burriss, and Rohlinger, chumming it up on the fence. 

Just showing again how short Fontenot really is. Sure the angle distorts the view a little bit, but not much. 

Stretching it out. 

Burrell and Huff were chatting the whole afternoon before the game. There was not a lot of smiles going around. In fact the only one acting loose was Bochy who played catch with Ross for a while. Lots of focused looks on the Giants before the game. 

Henry Schulman in the wild. zoiks!

The only action shot I took all night. I was in foul ball territory and I got about 4 that were hit in about a 30 foot radius, so I couldn’t be holding the camera the whole time. 

Constant coverage!

Terribler Than Terrible

“These aren’t your father’s Nationals” That’s what Krukow said on the pregame show. I am assuming he was speaking about the endless futility of the Expos. At the same time Kruk might have a point. The Nationals are not terrible, but to say that the they are not terrible would be a lie. They ARE terrible, but the Giants are terribler. The Giants are the 111 loss 2004 Diamondbacks right now. The Giants are the fucking 43 win 2003 Detroit Tigers right now. The Giants are the fucking 1994-2010 Pittsburg Pirates right now.  The Giants’ bats are limper than a senior citizen’s wrist. Ok let’s leave it at that. So let’s all just do some jumping jacks, loosen up and settle in for a LONG road trip. Let’s enjoy this round of terrible baseball while it lasts. Let’s hope it doesn’t last long. 

——————————————————————————————————-

The Omar Award goes to: 

Aubrey Huff for the excellent play down the first base line early in the game. 

The Velez Award goes to:

Aaron Rowand and Cody Ross. I think everyone knows what I am talking about…… Just look at the picture.

“let’s share this ball and be happy” says those dorks.

————————————————————————————————-

The Dorus Rijkers Award (Hero) goes to: 

Tim Lincecum who found his good pitches a couple of innings too late. Poor bastard, if you don’t throw a shutout then you pretty much have no shot at winning with this lineup. 

I forgot to snap a pic of Tim tonight so I stole this pic from here..

The Sea Award (Goat) goes to:

Jason Marquis who is a mutha fucking Giant KILLER. It’s unbelievable how much the Giants suck right now, and Marquis is just the wrong type of pitcher for us to face right now. I would rather face Halliday, Sabathia, Josh Johnson or pretty much any number of aces. A ground ball pitcher is the last thing I want to see on an upcoming schedule. 

Here he is hitting an RBI hit and run on an impossible pitch to hit. 

————————————————————————————————-

Bonus Crap:

This bunt that worked (but ultimately didn’t work) doesn’t bother me. We are up against a ground ball double play pitcher, and we have a guy on base. Solid option. 

This bunt does bother me, Miguel Tejada, former MVP, former slugger is bunting with no one on base and 36 year old legs. Now Tejada made it to first, I know, fair enough. But it just proves that Tejada knows that he sucks, and in my opinion should not be playing. 

Right after Rowand and Cody decided that they wanted to share a fly ball Nix blasts a 2 run HR. Perfect timing. Can things go worse for the Giants?…….

Yes… Cody (why am I still in the lineup) Ross hits a single and gets throw out by 8-12 feet at 2nd base. 

Buster (Don’t vote for me for the All-Star game ) Posey along with the rest of the Giants hitters swing about 20+ times at this pitch. 

Posey throws his second runner out except he is called safe (make-up-call). This guy went on to score on that impossible hit and run Marquis hit. 

Bring in the scrubs!!!!

Last Week In Giants

High light of the game (and possibly the week)

To say that the only Giants game that I will be able to see at AT&T this year was a downer is a huge understatement. Here are the facts. 

1. We lost

2. It was damn cold (I forgot how cold SF gets… yes I’m an idiot).

3. I had standing room only tickets

4. EVERYONE was there early. Gone are the days where I would show up 2 hours early and was almost guaranteed to be able to catch a BP ball. Oh well, for better or worse… right?

5. I had just had my car impounded for parking on Mission street during rush hour (FUCKSHITDAMNFUCKING $475 later I got my car back!!!!)

The best seat in the house.

If you buy standing room only. 

So ya, I enjoyed coming home, I enjoyed being at AT&T again. But I am much more looking forward to the Giants Vs Mets game at CITI Field where I have seats 17 rows behind the Giants dugout. And tickets are only $30 because the Mets are TERRIBLE. 

But enough about me. Let’s talk about what the Giants are up to. 

I’m just going to go through a couple of players and spout what I have been thinking about. 

Fontenot

Can I get an amen? If given playing time I feel like Fontenot represents more runs saved on defense and more runs created on offense than Tejada. I know I am echoing someone but I get nervous every time the ball is hit to SS. 

Pat Burrell

I want this guy in the lineup every day. Sure he makes a lot of outs, but he always takes at least 4 pitches. One of the shining examples of how to take an at bat. 

Aaron Rowand

From now on I will probably not mention how garbage Rowand was. For Rowand we are going to have to put blinders on. I don’t remember what happened to Rowand last year… do you? All I know is there is some dude who looks like he sits on a toilet when he swings and he is saving our ass, game in and game out. 

Darren Ford

…..Has more World Series Rings than Major league hits, and he totally deserves it. 

2011 All Stars

1. Posey

2. Pablo

3. Timmy

4. Either Cain… or Wilson… not sure which one yet. 

The Dog House. 

1. Tejada (told you so)

2. Huff, but it’s not entirely his fault, he is hitting it into the defense a lot of the time. 

3. Ross,….. is he playing for his job now? maybe. 

4. The rotation, I know… I love them too, but they need to start getting deep into games or our bullpen will be all used up at the end of the season. My recommendation is to get Kroon, and Edelfson up here to help out for a while, drop Burriss and carry an extra reliever to keep the pressure off. 

Last thing…

I see this sign every time I go to the park…. and I wonder… how the hell is a ball (or a freaking bat!) going to get back to the last row of the last section before the arcade, about 20 rows under the overhang and still be “flying”?

Olberman’s Giants Predictions

I browse other sites sometimes checking out what other people say about the Giants, as I suppose everyone else does. I came across this piece today on Keith Olberman’s blog called “Baseball Nerd” which, which I rather enjoy. He picks the Giants to win the West again. But he kinda puts it to the fans. Here is the whole paragraph he wrote.

San Francisco: The Giants would have to screw up – and badly – to not repeat in this division. Brian Sabean would have to do the exact opposite of what he did last year and tradeaway key components and I’m not betting on it. But I must say this: the Giants are rapidly becoming one of the most disliked teams in baseball – and not just because of the silly boastfulness of the ring ceremony and the rest. No World Championship team has ever been feted by fans who have been worse winners than have the 2010 Giants. I mean Red Sox Nation didn’t gloat this much like this after ’04. It’s understandable that a franchise that saw that much frustration and even peril might continue to celebrate for years to come, but there is a reason they coined the phrase “act like you’ve been there before.”

He is right in a sense. Obviously I disagree with him when he proclaims the Giants the “worst winners.” BUT it’s about time we shut the fuck up and start playing baseball again. I enjoyed the hell out of winning the World Series, but he has a valid point. 

This is How to Lose at Baseball

This whole game wasn’t a total loss. There were some sweet moments. The only one I remember was Uribe crying when he got his ring. Which was a nice moment for him and the fans. But you have to think about this…. does Uribe get this moment if Stow doesn’t get beat up in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium last week? So… in that sense it’s kind of a manufactured moment… right? just weird, but nice. 

———————————————————————————————

The Omar Vizquel award goes to:

This one will reluctantly go to Madison Bumgarner. He really doesn’t deserve it. But his pickoff of Kershaw at first base was nice to see. It was sneaky and well executed. Even though Kershaw looked like he made it back to me. (again…. the fucking umps)

The Velez Award goes to:

oh my so many to choose from tonight. Where to begin. I guess this will have to go to Pat the Brick with his weighty brick glove and no-body defense in left field. You must put your body in front of the ball. He made and ass of himself out there. Also where the hell is the Rowand to back him up when the ball gets past him. uuuuugh

—————————————————————————————————

The Sherlock Holmes Award (Hero) goes to:

….No…….. you know what…… I ain’t giving this award to anyone. No one deserved it today. 

The Professor Moriarty Award (goat) goes to: 

The Umps. They just straight up got it wrong during this game, bad strike calls, bad non-calls, bad base-path calls. Just bad game all around, I wonder if there is a rotation of umps that make sure that we get good umps once in a while or does the NL West just get a bunch of cast-off garbage?

—————————————————————————————————

More Garbage.

Bumgarner’s throw was too slow over to first base and Kemp’s Steal turned into a run shortly after.

Sanchez has a rare dropped ball, of course it happens now, just like everything else. 


This is all you need to know about tonight’s umps…… This was called a strike. I’m not joking…. and….


This was called a ball two batters later…… NOT JOKING.

Rod Barrajas ruined my fucking night last year. I was working at my job in Manhattan, and ran out after work to catch the last part of the Giants and Mets game. I took the 7 train all the way out to Queens to see if I could get into the stadium late. It was the 8th inning and I found a $5 ticket from a scalper. I ran in, through the oddly out of place Jackie Robinson pavilion and up the stairs. I found my girlfriend who had been there the entire game, she was standing in the walkway behind 3rd base. We watched the last three innings standing there. They went to extras and after a couple of scoreless innings Rod “mutha-fauckin” Barrajas hits a walk off home run to crush night. He did it again tonight, just not as dramatic. 

I didn’t get the chance to screenshot the other two close grounders that got past Tejada, This one got past Sandoval, but I am beginning to lump them together defensively. 

oooooohhh nice picture. ………. actually you know what! I am really getting sick of all the free advertising that Toyota is getting on my blog. If I had some quick way to blot that STUPID Toyota symbol out I would. Like anyone drives a Toyota. Do you know anyone with a Toyota? I don’t. I hate sponsorships. 

Regardless of what the barbarians did to our man Stow in LA, I don’t like to see this kind of unity. It’s like Stephen Colbert breaking character, or Brian Wilson breaking character. It just kinda ruins stuff. Plus if it takes ruining 100+ years of good rivalry to convince San Francisco fans not to ruthlessly savage each other then I am ashamed of everyone. Affeldt and Carroll sounded like my 4th grade teacher out there before the game…… I’m not saying that their message was not correct, I’m just saying that if we need someone talk to us like grade-schoolers, as if we were watching an old PSA on tv, then we need to consider having a “common sense awareness” auction or 5k run.

Jeremy Affeldt starring as……. Your 4th grade substitute teacher. (in your best teacher voice) “ummmm guys,…. hitting each other is bad, and I don’t think you should do it anymore” …….. I mean come on, everyone knows those dudes in LA are degenerates who probably never even finished 4th grade. I just can’t believe it came to this, Affeldt telling me to be nice. uuuugh, my life is moving backwards. 

oh god,….. on the flip side….. I am glad that Carroll didn’t get straight up booed. It was pretty brave of him to even get near the mic at AT&T park. 

Sure Brandon is struggling. But there is something in his face when he is swinging at all those bad pitches that scares me even more. Between swings he looks  contemplatively at his bat. He will furrow his brow and wipe some imaginary April sweat from it. He has the face that I had back in the 8th grade when I had just done amazingly while playing the lead role of Tom Sawyer in the first half of the play we were putting on that year. Only to realize that I had a whole other half to go and I had seriously slacked off on the memorizing part of the latter half of the play. I stumbled around some lines, made a blowfish face with my mouth, looked at the ground, looked at my frantic teacher mrs. (forgot name) who was mouthing ghost words in my direction……. Just shear panic. That’s what this face means to me. 

And of course it wouldn’t be a real Giants game without a late meaningless solo home run. Thanks Pat Burrell. 

Gee Shucks guys! Let’s go get’em tomorrow…….. or we can just get steamrolled like we did today, what the hell!

Don’t Call Him Garbage

You can say a lot of things about Aaron Rowand, but you can’t say that he has given up. I seriously dislike the Giants association with Rowand, but I can’t fault him as a human. He just grinds……… sometimes he grinds a little too hard on sliders thrown outside and in the dirt. But the bastard just grinds. Here’s to you Rowand, keep grinding. Who knows, maybe we won’t miss Ishikawa so much, maybe Rowand becomes an amazing pinch hitter. 

——————————————————————————————————

The Omar Vizquel Award goes to:

Pat Burrell for closing on a well hit ball in left field and making a nice jumping play….. I know…. you don’t remember that do you, that’s cause the game lasted 9 hours! 

The Velez Award goes to: 

Tejada for two miscues, one is stepping on his glove the other was picking up a grounder that should have been Sanchez’s in the 9th that proved to be an infield hit. 

——————————————————————————————————

The Tina Turner Award (hero) goes to: Rowand for getting two big hits, when no one is really on his side (including myself)

The Ike Turner Award (goat) goes to: Brian Wilson for not throwing strikes. Sorry buddy, you wanna be a bad-ass and close games, you gotta throw strikes and shut the door. Screw the dramatic flare, close that shit down. 

——————————————————————————————————

Some extras. 

Huff Miscue #1

Huff miscue #2


Yeah….. The Cardinals don’t really care about this. They are here to ruin our fun!


Sanchez’s breaking pitch was really working today. 

Affeldt needs to open his eyes when he swings.

Tejada makes good on his first swing at AT&T.

Do we need to do more ground ball practice for pitchers? Seriously guys. 

It’s conclusive evidence folks, Burrell is juicing. JK. But seriously, he is crushing balls! (haha)

Sanchez hits a double…….. that’s big Johnny Sanchez, not F. Sanchez.

This was a key play, unfortunately those bastards who were scoring the game didn’t give torres a hit OR a stolen base……. come on guys, your killing my fantasy team!!!

Sorry Affeldt, but your swing SUCKS!!! hahahaha

This is garbage!!! Lose with some dignity you batty old fart! Don’t pull 5 guys into the infield. uuuugh. I HATE Tony LaRussa! I hate him even more because it totally worked!

This is how long the game went, soo long that the announcers started talking about their meat. 

More Umpire garbage, this same spot was called a ball on Wilson at least 3 times in the 9th. 

Bummed-garner

How many more games will we lose like this? That is the real question. But the bigger question is, are the Giants playing with any kind of heart? Cause it doesn’t really seem like it. Are they playing with a fire on their asses? No. And for some reason, I feel like Tejada does not help…. I don’t know why I relate the signing of Tejada to a weird sense of complacency among the players during the game. He seems like a professional player. He seems like he is well respected. But to be honest I sensed an edge among the players last year. A “fuck you” attitude that they don’t seem to have now. 

It’s just what I am seeing, what I’m feeling. I want the “fuck you” attitude back. 

——————————————————————————————————-

The Omar Award goes to:

Buster Posey, followed up a strikeout with a gun to third to get the base stealer and complete a double play. 

The Velez Award goes to:

Madison Bumgarner for throwing the ball behind his back in what would have ended the 3rd inning but instead gave up a run. 

————————————————————————————————-

The Garfield Award (Hero) goes to: 

 Strangely I am giving this to Mota… He came in and effectively saved our bullpen. I thought I would never ever give him any kind of award….. But here it is. Also he took an AB, which was kinda sad. 

The Odie Award (Goat) goes to:

I’m going with the umpire, who consistently called a strike on the outside part of the plate for Harang but not for Bumgarner. This also could have gotten us out of the third inning. 

This is the one that was called on Buster, which killed our rally. 

This is the one they didn’t call for Bumgarner.

And here’s one final bad call for Buster Posey even when Hundley drops the ball he calls a ludicrous strike three.

————————————————————————————————-

I took the liberty of making a schedule for the Giants tomorrow. 

———————————————————————————————-

Bonus Crap:

Pablo flashing some leather. 

The seats I wish that I had. 

J. Sanchez and Timmy were working some voodoo on their hats during today’s game. 

I don’t know, but it looks like Pablo got the tag down. 

Blooped to death in SD

The best part of our lineup right now. 

Tejada actually got to this one. He spun and made a terrific throw to get the runner. I have to give credit where credit is deserved. 

I want to see more of this from Pablo, patience at the plate!

Can’t really believe this play, Pablo walks, then he tries to steal 2nd and was out by….. 5 to 6 feet

ohhh, and Brandon Belt is not hitting that well….. just saying. 

Arbitrary Statistics

I have been thinking about statistics again…. It’s really something that I shouldn’t do. I’m not a statistician, I’m not even that good at math. The only A I received in my first two years of college was in Statistics. But that is not saying much.

Although I love what stats do, I cannot pretend to create a statistical category that has any kind of real factual base or value. so I will create a statistical category that mixes stats with what I do best, which is basically to take what I see and say something meaningful to me. 

With all that BS said. I created a category that I call “Win/Loss Assignment”, or “Fault Assignment”. After watching the 2007-2009 seasons I started to think about the games that were lost by mere inches. The games that were lost on an Armando Benitez balk, the games lost on a ground ball bobbled by the great Ivan Ochoa, the games lost because Jose Castillo couldn’t bunt to save his life. I always finished the game thinking, if we lose the division by 1 game I will remember this game. Also I always have hunches as to who is the least valuable player on the team, but I never bothered to tally up who I thought it was. 

So for this exercise in madness I will attempt to:

* Place blame (a point) on one player if we lose a close game (Example: Tejada’s wide throw on the first leg of the double play on opening day).

* Assign a point to a player who obviously wins a close game for us (example: Burrell’s HR off Broxton last year).

* I will stick it to the umpire if it’s his fault (example: last year, vs. Mets, the tag at home that wasn’t).

* If it’s a blowout then I’m just gonna mark it as a blow out. If it’s no ones fault, and it’s just a normal game, then that’s how I’m marking it. 

Without further ado…. here’s what it looks like so far. 

I’ve marked down Tejada for the game 1 loss. I put J. Sanchez down for game 2 for the botched bouncing ball. Game three was a blowout although I would love to give someone credit. But let’s be real, you gotta win the close ones like we did last year. 

If anyone has suggestions on this, let me know. 

To Live and Die in LA

Look how empty that stadium is……. 

It’s hard enough to lose a game 4 to 3 when you straight up get beat. It’s even harder when you beat yourself. Tonight and last night we fucking beat ourselves. Tejada doesn’t turn well on the first leg of a double play…. we lose. Today… Sanchez drops a dribbler…… we lose. When you have 5 errors in your first two games, then you are beating yourself on defense. The fact that no one is getting clutch hits does not help. 

——————————————————————————————————-

The Omar Vizquel Award goes to : 

Tejada for laying down the most perfect bunt I’ve seen in a while. 

The Velez Award goes to:

Sanchez, when you take your goddam eyes off the ball you fucking lose the fucking game…… get your shit together John. 

——————————————————————————————————-

The Chris Knight Award (hero) goes to: 

Brandon Belt. nuff said. 

The Prof. Jerry Hathaway Award (goat) goes to: 

John Sanchez, it’s hard to get both the Velez and the Goat award for the night, but Sanchez truly cost the Giants the game. a botched bouncer, and a leadoff walk to the pitcher is the diference between a win and a loss. 

——————————————————————————————————-

F. Sanchez with the first bumble of the night. 

Space cadet Zito tries to keep his neck still so he doesn’t get sore. 

Blooped to death in LA.

Haaaaaaaaaai guys! …….. Haaaaaaaaiii Burrell!

A lead off walk to the pitcher. Hello 2008 John Sanchez.

The perfect bunt. 

An errant throw by Pablo = error #5 of the season. 

Belt is happy. 

The title of this blog is a grandaddy song. It’s a good song, pretty much sums up how I feel about SoCal.