The Giants lost tonight by playing some of the stupidest baseball I have seen this year. It wasn't easy though, it took a complete effort by players and coaches. Madison Bumgarner faced off against Cole Hamels for the Phillies. Madison pitched pretty well, although not efficiently, using 110 pitches to get through 7 innings. He struck out 9 and gave up only 4 hits, although 1 of them was a home run, resulting in the only run while he was on the mound. Jeremy Affeldt relieved Madison in the 8th, but gave up a 2 run home run, and the game went into extra innings. The Giants got a big knock from Michael Morse off of Hamels in the 4th for 3 runs.
The thing is, the Giants should have been up at least 5 - 3 by the time the 9th rolled around. However, in the 6th, Bruce Bochy stupidly decided to replace Morse with the speedy Gregor Blanco after Morse hit the ball twice better than he has in two months and drew a walk. Blanco stole second, went to third on one of Joe Panik's two hits and then stupidly ran into an out on Brandon Crawford's weak contact. Then, in the 7th, with Madison still the pitcher of record, Angel Pagan led off with a double and then stupidly decided to steal third with Buster Posey at the plate. Just a note here, Buster Posey is a pretty good hitter.
Two hitters into the 8th, the game was tied. Cole Hamels was relieved by Ken Giles, who gave up a single to Pablo Sandoval to lead off the bottom of the 8th. After a sacrifice that put Pablo on second, Tim Flannery stupidly sent Pablo home on a Joe Panik single to shallow right field. Pablo was out by at least 30 feet. In the 9th, the Giants put runners on via walks and moved them up via a wild pitch, but managed to escape with the score tied. They did not, of course, score.
In the 10th, Javier Lopez rounded out the display of incompetence by barely hitting Chase Utley with a pitch with the bases loaded, before giving up a sacrifice fly to make the final score 5 - 3.
Showing posts with label dirtbags. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dirtbags. Show all posts
Friday, August 15, 2014
Thursday, January 10, 2013
BBWAA Hall of Fame Votes Itself Into Irrelevancy
This is a rant.
As most everyone knows, the BaseBall Writers Association of America decided that none of the eligible candidates, which included first-time eligible candidates Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Curt Shilling, among others, were worthy of induction. Everyone who is NOT in the BBWAA who knows anything about baseball responded with a heart-felt "What the Fuck?"
Yes, you've heard the arguments, and they hinge on the "character" clause, which apparently is interpreted to mean any damn thing the BBWAA voter wants it to mean at that moment. The reason no one, apparently, was inducted into the BBWAA HOF was because of steriods. That has to assume that steriod, or other PED use, was emblematic of insufficient character to warrant induction. It takes, of course, no more than a moment of reflection to realize that this line of reasoning is full of holes.
The use of steriods is cheating. Not always, but at some point the use of steriods and other PED was determined to be illegal under the rules of baseball. So apparently it is the cheating that has been determined to be emblematic of insufficient character. Except that, this doesn't seem to be a very constant point against eligible players. Gaylord Perry was inducted into the HOF in 1991. Mr. Perry was known to have altered the baseball with which he pitched on numerous occasions. That clearly is cheating, but he was elected.
Baseball lore, in fact, love cheating. The game is full of stories about everything from how pitchers doctored baseballs to how players stole signs, to tales of Andre Dawson hiding extra balls in the ivy at Wrigley Field so he could retrieve one if the ball in play bounced into the ivy and he couldn't find it. Andre Dawson was inducted into the HOF in 2010. So it is not really cheating that is the problem, apparently, it is the degree of cheating, or perhaps the type of cheating. But it can't really be the degree of cheating, because no one can tell if PED usage ups your stats, or your competence level, by 5%, 20% or any other number. So the line of reasoning has to be the type of cheating. Use of PED is cheating and this specific type of cheating is an indication of specific character (insufficiency? flaw?) to allow a brilliant player to be inducted into the BBWAA HOF. That is, even if you really knew, which in many cases, you (BBWAA) do not, no matter how much you think you do. That is why they have a court system in this country, so that smart-ass members of the public with half-assed information don't get to arrest, judge and execute people.
Here are some of the types of character flaws that are not considered detrimental to induction in the BBWAA HOF:
wife-beating
unrepentant racism
taking other drugs
cheating except for PED
moral turpitude
wearing a uniform six sizes to big.
So, one thing I noticed is that Craig fucking Biggio got about twice as many votes as Barry Bonds. Is any one of these clowns fucking serious? [here is the part where I drop any pretense of a structured argument and just bitch] I know Mr. Biggio had a long and productive career, and he played several positions, but, REALLY? Wasn't about half his OBP because of uniform shirts HBP? I suggest that the BBWAA just drop the HOF and dedicate the building to themselves. That way, they can put "BaseBall Writers Association of America" in bigger letters, because they have decided to make it about them and their silly, old, white notions of what integrity is all about. They can re-label the part of it that has players in it "Former Baseball Players of Mention, or, at least, that We Like." Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, just to name two, were among the greatest ballplayers ever, regardless of whether they took PED or had upstanding moral character.
Some of my fellow blog authors may remember one fine day sitting in the Candlestick bleachers as they put up the line score from a Boston-Seattle game. Specifically, it was April 29, 1986. As I recall, the collective sentiment was, "Who the fuck cares about an American league...holy fuck, 20 strikeouts!" Well, then there's this: http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2013/1/9/3857262/top-5-barry-bonds-home-runs-where-im-picturing-a-writers-head-as-the.
As most everyone knows, the BaseBall Writers Association of America decided that none of the eligible candidates, which included first-time eligible candidates Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Curt Shilling, among others, were worthy of induction. Everyone who is NOT in the BBWAA who knows anything about baseball responded with a heart-felt "What the Fuck?"
Yes, you've heard the arguments, and they hinge on the "character" clause, which apparently is interpreted to mean any damn thing the BBWAA voter wants it to mean at that moment. The reason no one, apparently, was inducted into the BBWAA HOF was because of steriods. That has to assume that steriod, or other PED use, was emblematic of insufficient character to warrant induction. It takes, of course, no more than a moment of reflection to realize that this line of reasoning is full of holes.
The use of steriods is cheating. Not always, but at some point the use of steriods and other PED was determined to be illegal under the rules of baseball. So apparently it is the cheating that has been determined to be emblematic of insufficient character. Except that, this doesn't seem to be a very constant point against eligible players. Gaylord Perry was inducted into the HOF in 1991. Mr. Perry was known to have altered the baseball with which he pitched on numerous occasions. That clearly is cheating, but he was elected.
Baseball lore, in fact, love cheating. The game is full of stories about everything from how pitchers doctored baseballs to how players stole signs, to tales of Andre Dawson hiding extra balls in the ivy at Wrigley Field so he could retrieve one if the ball in play bounced into the ivy and he couldn't find it. Andre Dawson was inducted into the HOF in 2010. So it is not really cheating that is the problem, apparently, it is the degree of cheating, or perhaps the type of cheating. But it can't really be the degree of cheating, because no one can tell if PED usage ups your stats, or your competence level, by 5%, 20% or any other number. So the line of reasoning has to be the type of cheating. Use of PED is cheating and this specific type of cheating is an indication of specific character (insufficiency? flaw?) to allow a brilliant player to be inducted into the BBWAA HOF. That is, even if you really knew, which in many cases, you (BBWAA) do not, no matter how much you think you do. That is why they have a court system in this country, so that smart-ass members of the public with half-assed information don't get to arrest, judge and execute people.
Here are some of the types of character flaws that are not considered detrimental to induction in the BBWAA HOF:
wife-beating
unrepentant racism
taking other drugs
cheating except for PED
moral turpitude
wearing a uniform six sizes to big.
So, one thing I noticed is that Craig fucking Biggio got about twice as many votes as Barry Bonds. Is any one of these clowns fucking serious? [here is the part where I drop any pretense of a structured argument and just bitch] I know Mr. Biggio had a long and productive career, and he played several positions, but, REALLY? Wasn't about half his OBP because of uniform shirts HBP? I suggest that the BBWAA just drop the HOF and dedicate the building to themselves. That way, they can put "BaseBall Writers Association of America" in bigger letters, because they have decided to make it about them and their silly, old, white notions of what integrity is all about. They can re-label the part of it that has players in it "Former Baseball Players of Mention, or, at least, that We Like." Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, just to name two, were among the greatest ballplayers ever, regardless of whether they took PED or had upstanding moral character.
Some of my fellow blog authors may remember one fine day sitting in the Candlestick bleachers as they put up the line score from a Boston-Seattle game. Specifically, it was April 29, 1986. As I recall, the collective sentiment was, "Who the fuck cares about an American league...holy fuck, 20 strikeouts!" Well, then there's this: http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2013/1/9/3857262/top-5-barry-bonds-home-runs-where-im-picturing-a-writers-head-as-the.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Run scoring
A poor hitting team averages 4 runs per game. For a season, that's 648 runs. The Giants scored 657 runs in 2009. A good hitting team averages 5 runs per game. 810 runs in a season will put you among the league leaders. The 2009 Phillies scored 820 runs. The league average last year was 4.43, or 718 runs. Seven NL clubs managed to score more than 4.5 runs per game: Philadelphia, Colorado, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Florida, Atlanta, and St. Louis.
Baseball Musings has been running a series on team offense (see the Giants entry here). Mr. Pinto gives a breakdown of his procedure here. Mostly, he relies on Marcel the Monkey forecasts. The neat part is the Lineup Analysis Tool. You plug the player projections in to the lineup slots and see how many runs per game that combination creates. For the Giants, they score the most runs when the pitcher bats 8th! This, of course, will never happen. Tony LaRussa manages in St. Louis. But the following lineup projects to a little over 4.5 runs per game: DeRosa, Sandoval, Schierholtz, Huff, Rowand, Molina, Uribe, pitchers, Renteria. I can't argue with hitting DeRosa near the top, his lifetime .275/.343/.424 makes him our best hitter not named Sandoval. The Nate projections may be a tad optimistic, though. All of the idealized "best" lineups that compute to over 4.5 rpg involve Renteria hitting last, Molina no higher than 6th, Sandoval and DeRosa no lower than 3rd, Huff (mostly) at cleanup, and Rowand 3rd through 5th. And they expect a lot (.753 OPS) from Schierholtz. If the Giants score 4.5 rpg (or 9 runs every 2 games if decimal runs bother you), they will win the West.
This, though, is the Giants. And soon, it will be the real season and not the imaginary one. Aaron Rowand will lead off and Juan Uribe will hit second. This is because he is our second baseman, and our second baseman hits second. Please don't ask why, just accept. With Sandoval, Huff, DeRosa, Molina, Renteria, Schierholtz, and the pitcher following, LAT says 4.353 rpg. That's 705 runs, just about what the Cubs (707) scored in 2009, good for 10th place. Back in the real world, the team might get smart and put DeRosa at second base while FSanchez is out and bat him in front of Sandoval where his decent OBP skills will be of the most use. Since he's a "proven run producer" (Sabes-speak for "RBI guy") we will likely not see that. But it might be the best way to get either Fred Lewis (very unlikely) or John Bowker (certainly possible) into the lineup in left field. Uribe, despite his fine season last year (.824 OPS), is a Molina-like hacker and his low OBP (.298! lifetime) should NOT be at the top of the lineup. If we can find a way to get Mr. Upside Buster Posey into the lineup instead of Mr. Out-maker Bengie Molina, we just might have a league-average offense. Let's hope we figure out how to do that.
--M.C.
Baseball Musings has been running a series on team offense (see the Giants entry here). Mr. Pinto gives a breakdown of his procedure here. Mostly, he relies on Marcel the Monkey forecasts. The neat part is the Lineup Analysis Tool. You plug the player projections in to the lineup slots and see how many runs per game that combination creates. For the Giants, they score the most runs when the pitcher bats 8th! This, of course, will never happen. Tony LaRussa manages in St. Louis. But the following lineup projects to a little over 4.5 runs per game: DeRosa, Sandoval, Schierholtz, Huff, Rowand, Molina, Uribe, pitchers, Renteria. I can't argue with hitting DeRosa near the top, his lifetime .275/.343/.424 makes him our best hitter not named Sandoval. The Nate projections may be a tad optimistic, though. All of the idealized "best" lineups that compute to over 4.5 rpg involve Renteria hitting last, Molina no higher than 6th, Sandoval and DeRosa no lower than 3rd, Huff (mostly) at cleanup, and Rowand 3rd through 5th. And they expect a lot (.753 OPS) from Schierholtz. If the Giants score 4.5 rpg (or 9 runs every 2 games if decimal runs bother you), they will win the West.
This, though, is the Giants. And soon, it will be the real season and not the imaginary one. Aaron Rowand will lead off and Juan Uribe will hit second. This is because he is our second baseman, and our second baseman hits second. Please don't ask why, just accept. With Sandoval, Huff, DeRosa, Molina, Renteria, Schierholtz, and the pitcher following, LAT says 4.353 rpg. That's 705 runs, just about what the Cubs (707) scored in 2009, good for 10th place. Back in the real world, the team might get smart and put DeRosa at second base while FSanchez is out and bat him in front of Sandoval where his decent OBP skills will be of the most use. Since he's a "proven run producer" (Sabes-speak for "RBI guy") we will likely not see that. But it might be the best way to get either Fred Lewis (very unlikely) or John Bowker (certainly possible) into the lineup in left field. Uribe, despite his fine season last year (.824 OPS), is a Molina-like hacker and his low OBP (.298! lifetime) should NOT be at the top of the lineup. If we can find a way to get Mr. Upside Buster Posey into the lineup instead of Mr. Out-maker Bengie Molina, we just might have a league-average offense. Let's hope we figure out how to do that.
--M.C.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Post-season sayonara
6 7 4 4 3 5
Game Score 44
Hiroki Kuroda joined the swelling ranks of Cy-Young-vs.-the-Giants pitchers last night, smothering our hapless linuep with ruthless efficiency. Some fool with a blog opined recently:
" . . . we can get him out of the game with some smart, patient approaches at the plate . . ."
Whoever wrote that clearly has not been watching the MMIX Giants. Let's see how it went. First three batters--3 pitches, 5 pitches, 3 pitches, 3 outs. The next four batters managed two hits, an RBI groundout, and 3 outs on 8 pitches. In the third inning it was 3, 5, 3, and 3 outs. The fourth? 3 batters, 10 pitches, 3 outs. The fifth? Same story, but only 8 pitches. Then it was 3 up and 3 down on 4, 2, 3 in the 6th, and 3 up and 3 down on 3, 1, 5 in the 7th. In the 8th, things finally improved. Olympic Nate made an out on 2 pitches, but John "Dirtbag" Bowker roped a triple on his 3rd pitch, Ryan Rohlinger drove in the run after a 6-pitch marathon, and Buster Posey battled to a 5-pitch strikeout. Hey, that was BUSTER POSEY finally getting some action. Let's see some more Buster, eh? The contest was already decided, but Travis Ishikawa and Kevin Frandsen managed to put two hits and a run together in the 9th off reliever Ramon Troncoso, who needed 22 pitches to end the game. Mr. Kuroda only required 86 for his 24 outs. I have to give a nod to an improving Eugenio Velez. Even though he was 0-for-4 he managed to see 16 pitches. Considering that was almost 19% of Kuroda's total, I have to like it.
In all, a par-for-the-course display by one of the worst offenses in baseball. Matt Cain was not at his best either, in fact, the 109-pitch, 6-inning, 27-batter slog could be called his worst start of the season. I blame it on that hideous fucking red cap he had to wear. No matter. It was a big game in a big series and he didn't get it done. And, truth be told, you have to give the LAtriners credit for battling, working the counts, and getting the big hits with men on.
I hate writing an obituary for a team with 21 games left to play, but the long string of wonderful luck we've had this season is running out. We've never had the bats to truly be competitive, something that we knew going in to this season, but the pitching has been so good, even better than expected, and the team has done well. I'm happy about that, but I have the sinking fear that Brian Sabean will get credit for the work done by Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, Brian Wilson, and Pablo Sandoval, and our baseball-ignorant, bow-tied CEO will give him an extension. We'll trot out another offense next year of has-beens, hackers, old fogeys, and overpaid mediocrities to "support" our stellar youngsters, and we'll be writing this same fookin' obit a month earlier. Tell me it isn't so, O My Brothers.
Game Score 44
Hiroki Kuroda joined the swelling ranks of Cy-Young-vs.-the-Giants pitchers last night, smothering our hapless linuep with ruthless efficiency. Some fool with a blog opined recently:
" . . . we can get him out of the game with some smart, patient approaches at the plate . . ."
Whoever wrote that clearly has not been watching the MMIX Giants. Let's see how it went. First three batters--3 pitches, 5 pitches, 3 pitches, 3 outs. The next four batters managed two hits, an RBI groundout, and 3 outs on 8 pitches. In the third inning it was 3, 5, 3, and 3 outs. The fourth? 3 batters, 10 pitches, 3 outs. The fifth? Same story, but only 8 pitches. Then it was 3 up and 3 down on 4, 2, 3 in the 6th, and 3 up and 3 down on 3, 1, 5 in the 7th. In the 8th, things finally improved. Olympic Nate made an out on 2 pitches, but John "Dirtbag" Bowker roped a triple on his 3rd pitch, Ryan Rohlinger drove in the run after a 6-pitch marathon, and Buster Posey battled to a 5-pitch strikeout. Hey, that was BUSTER POSEY finally getting some action. Let's see some more Buster, eh? The contest was already decided, but Travis Ishikawa and Kevin Frandsen managed to put two hits and a run together in the 9th off reliever Ramon Troncoso, who needed 22 pitches to end the game. Mr. Kuroda only required 86 for his 24 outs. I have to give a nod to an improving Eugenio Velez. Even though he was 0-for-4 he managed to see 16 pitches. Considering that was almost 19% of Kuroda's total, I have to like it.
In all, a par-for-the-course display by one of the worst offenses in baseball. Matt Cain was not at his best either, in fact, the 109-pitch, 6-inning, 27-batter slog could be called his worst start of the season. I blame it on that hideous fucking red cap he had to wear. No matter. It was a big game in a big series and he didn't get it done. And, truth be told, you have to give the LAtriners credit for battling, working the counts, and getting the big hits with men on.
I hate writing an obituary for a team with 21 games left to play, but the long string of wonderful luck we've had this season is running out. We've never had the bats to truly be competitive, something that we knew going in to this season, but the pitching has been so good, even better than expected, and the team has done well. I'm happy about that, but I have the sinking fear that Brian Sabean will get credit for the work done by Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, Brian Wilson, and Pablo Sandoval, and our baseball-ignorant, bow-tied CEO will give him an extension. We'll trot out another offense next year of has-beens, hackers, old fogeys, and overpaid mediocrities to "support" our stellar youngsters, and we'll be writing this same fookin' obit a month earlier. Tell me it isn't so, O My Brothers.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
More Dirtbag Love
We all knew that PITCHf/x data was neat-o, and our own JCP has us looking at it when The Linkster takes the hill, but Chris at Bay City Ball has turned the tables a bit. Check out today's post about John Bowker. This time we see PITCHf/x from the batter's view, just like we do on Gameday. Excellent analysis of our young Dirtbag. Is he the FBOTF (First Baseman of the Future) we've been hoping and praying for?
Monday, April 21, 2008
My Heroes Have Always Been Dirtbags
Check out that lefthander with the no. 22! There's a real dirtbag for ya. Now don't go gettin' yer panties in a wad, the dirtbag moniker is a compliment for this fella. That's right, the Long Beach State University 49ers have a nickname for their baseball team: the Dirtbags. I'm thinkin' "dirtbag" is a hell of a lot better than "gamer." That's it, then. Dirtbags >> Gamers. Turns out there are quite a few Dirtbag-49ers in the bigs these days, perhaps the most famous being Crockie Troy Tulowitzki and TB Evan Longoria. Our Dirtbag has a .364/.400/.864 line so far in his very brief ML career. We all know he'll drop back down to, uh, earth, here pretty soon but you can't complain about what we've seen so far. RMC salutes our Sacramento boy, John Bowker. May he bring gritty dirtbaginess to our clubhouse by the shovelful.
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