Sunday, July 12, 2009
ASB
49-39 at the Break is a damn fine accomplishment. Way to go, Giants! I love being wrong about this team. This season has been one hell of a lot of fun. You know what the ASB means, bhoyos, it means analysis. Good analysis, bad analysis, technical analysis, voodoo analysis, thoughtful analysis, half-assed analysis--I want it all, buckos. Gimme your best shot. Or your worst shot. Gimme some insight. Or some blarney. I don't bloody fookin' care, I just wanna wallow in the Giants to fill the time until the real games can start again.
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Does anyone on the Giants' beat give letter "mid-term" grades for the players? I'd like to match mine with anyone else's, and would defer to those within 3,000 miles of McCovey Cove, which I am not.
Maybe I got some half-assed blarney to share. It is what it is. It shall be what it shall be. Something special is going on this year and I intend to enjoy it. Shit, it's not like the Giants are ever going to win the World Series or anything.
We have the best pitcher in the world. We have the best 22-year-old hitter in the world.
My man-crush Jonny Sanchez threw a no-fucking-hitter. Anything's possible.
Bowker finally asserted his manhood in the blowout loss. Maybe he'll start to amaze us. Maybe Ishi will go on a tear and provide some power to complement Pablo.
I still advocate a trade. Break up the 8-man rotation and get a bona-fide leadoff hitter. Screw Rowand and his irrational success at leadoff. If he can hit, he can hit in the 6 spot too.
The games against the Cardinals and the Brewers were the most telling to me. Those are the teams this team needs to match up against. Earlier in the season, the Mets exposed the weaknesses of this team. Maybe the Giants decided to pick their game up a notch in response?
Essentially, this line-up has figured out how to score runs. It's a situation where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. With the pitching having been at level it has been, the team has been successful without a big bat.
They have good chemistry.
Chris Haft will likely give an All Star Break grade of the team.
As a schoolteacher by trade, I am absolutely LOATH to give grades during the summer!
Nonetheless, Tim & Matt obviously get A's, as well as the bullpen as a whole (with particular marks for Jermey Affeldt). On the other side of the ball, Pablo Sandoval is clearly our only A player. Juan Uribe's surprising .793 OPS (106 OPS+) gives him a B in my book. Grudgingly I have to acknowledge Captain Gomer's .806 OPS (110 OPS+) with a B as well.
This has nothing to do with mid-season grades, but it's still impressive. From Bruce Bochy's Wikipedia site:
"Bochy is known for having one of the largest cap sizes in Major League Baseball at 8 3/4. When he joined the Mets in 1982, they did not have a batting helmet that would fit him, and they had to send for the ones he was using in the minors."
Apparently Bochy likes to surround himself with phrenological equals . . . unless the AT&T video screen lies, mssrs. Sandoval, Molina, and Uribe have three of the biggest melons in MLB.
I'm sorry, but yesterday's game left a bitter taste in my mouth. I tuned out at 6-0 and could barely stand to read the paper this morning. We are 5-7 to one of the worst teams in baseball. We were willing to roll over and expose our soft underbellies to get swept in San Diego. Twice. Could we at least sweep them here at home? No, I guess not.
I am really starting to dislike the padres. It used to be that San Diego fans and Giants fans had something in common, that is a deep, visceral revulsion to LA. I'm starting to feel the same way about the puds. How can we reasonably expect to win when we can't beat the teams in our own division? I realize that much of that losing was in the first part of the year, and we are pretty good overall since then. But I was just thinking - "Man with Lincecum, Cain, a focused Sanchez and the way that Zito threw last time out, well, it's Nellie-bar-the-door!" But that didn't happen, and I am pissed.
I understand, Zo. Plus, it's always nice to win the last game before the All-Star Break, so that you can feel good about things for 5 days (you get to say stuff like 'we haven't lost for 5 days!'). However, we did win 3 of 4. Now, we face on of our true nemeses over the last few years: home-and-home against the Pirates. That will be telling.
What a week for the Parsons Brothers. First, Jonathan Sanchez gets the no-hitter. Then, Tim Lincecum is named as the All-Star starting pitcher. They must be sky high!
Just get back to the Giants safe-and-sound, Tim & Matt.
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