Wednesday, April 22, 2015
In A Pinch, Panik
9th inning. A pinch hit rbi with bases loaded, game over. What's not to like? Joe Panik. Madison Bumgarner against Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw gave up 2 runs in 6, Madison gave up 2 in 6 1/3. They gave Mr. Kershaw a better game score, which illustrates how little that means. However, Joe Panik. And just to be absolutely clear, Joe Panik.
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6 comments:
Good game. Aoki has been wonderful, both at the plate and in the field. He might be my new favorite Giant. Definitely my favorite FNG.
Any interest in discussing the Bonds case? I'm glad he was cleared. It probably won't change how people think about him. I think he and Canseco, McGwire, Sosa et al saved baseball. So there.
Game Score rates strikeouts high and dings the pitcher for hits allowed. Kershaw had 9 K and 3 hits, Bum 6 K and 6 hits. Plus it dings pitchers for walks--Kershaw 1 and Bum 2. Like any other metric it has its strengths and weaknesses.
Great win against the toughest pitcher in baseball. That was a classic Giants rally in the 4th: single, walk, sac bunt, ground out, single. Kershaw doesn't give you much so you have to seize the moment. Dodgers have some interesting arms in their 'pen, that was an issue for them last season. We'll see what these guys have. Another classic rally in the 9th: single, HBP, single, sac fly.
I don't think Canseco saved baseball, he's mostly a blip (pimple?) who unfortunately is in the books with his 40-40. It was McGwire vs. Sosa that saved baseball, it sucked me back in, when I had basically shunned baseball after the strike cancelled the World Series.
I'm also a bit of an oddball regarding steroids and baseball.
I'm not convinced that steroids helped baseball players, I think the evidence sides more with the ball being juiced by the Selig cabal secretly ordering up livelier balls a la how the live ball era starting in 1920 made baseball the national pastime. http://highboskage.com/juiced-ball.shtml
Also, most people who blames steroids cannot point to any evidence of any help other than that it helps players grow muscles beyond what they normally can do. That is the anecdote I see all the time, and then some comment about not passing the smell test.
And as anybody who has seen baseball regularly, large muscles and bodies do not necessary mean that a hitter will hit better or hit homers. And we have seen skinny hitters like Ted Williams (Splendid Splinter) and Hank Aaron blast out homers without needing to get muscle bound. Plus, there is evidence that shows that steroids and HGH does not help baseball players much, if at all. http://steroids-and-baseball.com/
I will note that the author of these websites wrote the famous sabermetric book, "The Sinister First Baseman..." and is the author of the A's bible, but, oddly enough, when some other famous sabermetricians took him to task for the information he provided, they were the ones who used the "smell test" excuse. It was not a proud moment for sabermetrics when they did that.
I hate to gripe, because it probably did not make a difference in Wednesdays game but Kershaw had a better strike zone than Bumgarner. Some of those 9 K's were total gifts. His stuff may be so good that he can fool the ump, but new high def TV and Kzone analysis shows some fairly strong bias in some games. Anyway, it all worked out, the giants played through the BS. and swept. Now next week when we go to Los Angeles we cannot let them turn the table on us. Does the great Vin Scully even know what pitches are being thrown? Lately he will call a change up a fastball, a split finger a curve. He is way off. Still great voice and great info. and if I have to listen to a TV broadcast of a giants dodger game and Kruk and Kuip are not available on the baseball package, Scully is much better to listen to, than almost any other broadcast.
So I don't think Bonds, even if he was taking something, had much if any help from the PEDs. He and everyone else (well, hitters) was helped by the juiced ball.
So I would easily vote him in.
And in the matter of this case he just got cleared of, I thought the conviction didn't make sense so I'm glad too that he was cleared.
If meandering answers is obstruction, lawyers and politicians would be convicted all over the place, all the time. Plus, it was one question out of all the questions he was asked. Have to question the intelligence of any jury convicting him of that.
However, McGwire I see more as a modern day Kingman, horrible defense, not that great a hitter, though he showed potential early (like Kingman) but still good enough to get a lot of walks. Sosa was better defensively, but a worse hitter. I would let his candidacy stretch out, and see how we feel later. They are borderline to me, Sosa more so given him being caught corking his bat (not for cheating, but now I subtract some performance to account for that potential).
Plus, I think it's hypocrisy by writers to keep them out while voting in Gaylord Perry, who was CELEBRATED by the media for cheating repeatedly, and Don Sutton, who was caught with emory boards and stuff.
Even more so, they knew players have been taking speed since at least the 1960's, if not longer, and yet none of them took on baseball for that. They knew the dangers, they knew the advantages, and it is unfair to those unwilling to take the drug. Where was the high and mightiness then?
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