A very happy Hallowe'en

It was all treats for Giants fans this past Hallowe'en. Madison Bumgarner showed no fear and the Giants wore down the American League champs to take a never-to-look-back 3-1 lead in the Series. I recommend re-watching all the games in the Giants post-season run. If you have not bought the DVD set then get them via iTunes. I was far too involved emotionally when watching the live games so it has been very enjoyable to see them again in a more relaxed and detached mode. I looked back at what I posted that evening and I'm stickin' with it. I'm surprised I was so calm and objective about being one win from a World Series title! Andres Torres was superb, rapping out three hits just like the "rejuvenated" Edgar Renteria, scoring one and driving in one. Aubrey Huff's blast was just what we were hoping the ex-DH would do in an AL park. Freddy Sanchez was a glove machine at second base, killing rallies with heads-up baseball. Buster Posey hit a monstrous home run to dead center, and absolutely nailed Josh Hamilton trying to steal a base. That rookie battery was something, eh? Here's a comparison--pitcher A vs. pitcher B:

Year	Age	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	CG	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA+	WHIP
2010	20	7	6	.538	3.00	18	18	0	111.0	119	40	37	11	26	86	136	1.306

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/30/2010.

Year	Age	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	CG	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA+	WHIP
2007	23	7	5	.583	4.00	24	24	0	146.1	122	70	65	12	65	150	112	1.278

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/30/2010.

A is MadBum and B is Lincecum. Note that MadBum is 5 years younger! It sure is nice to have young, studly pitchers, isn't it? There was a time when I thought Ed Halicki would be the next NL Cy Young winner. Ah, youth.

--M.C.


p.s. I've gotten pretty weary of all the HOF debates. I'm sick of PEDs and the pointless arguments about them. I became hoplessly cynical about the Hall after reading Bill James' book (Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?) and the whole Marc Ecko asterisk-ball nonsense (here's what I wrote then). It seems obvious that there are some all-time greats who should be enshrined, like Tim Raines, Jeff Bagwell, Bert Blyleven, and (yes, Virginia) Mark McGwire. And a bunch more real good choices like Barry Larkin and Edgar Martinez. At this point, I don't really give a shit. All I care about is the Giants winning another World Series. But if YOU care, read Joe Posnanski. He puts together the HOF arguments better than anyone. It truly depresses me that the supposed "professionals" who cover the game can churn out mountains of crap about how they "feel" about this candidate and that candidate when baseball excellence (like innocence or guilt) has NOTHING TO DO WITH SOMEBODY'S FUCKING FEELINGS! Any BBWAA member who uses the "you just had to be there to know how intimidating so-and-so was or wasn't" argument should have his ballot cancelled. And don't get me started about these idiots who "suspect" someone was a PED-user without out ANY EVIDENCE and thus won't vote for them. Didn't these people go to college and learn how to construct a proper argument? Didn't they take Civics in high school? There, I've just ruined the high the Hallowe'en game put me on! Oh yeah, the Giants won the World Series.