Monthly Archives: April 2016

Giants in Queens, no wait … I mean Flushing: Common Misconceptions

30 Saturday Apr 2016

Posted by in Commentary, Uncategorized

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The New York Metropolitans play in Flushing Meadows, which is kinda … Queens, a borough of New York. There are 5 boroughs. So our history is related to all this:

OK. so. Shea stadium was in Flushing. It neighbored Citi Field.

The Giants played at the Polo Grounds, which was in upper Manhattan – which is what made them NEW YORK.

Brooklyn, which is just south of Queens, is where the Dodgers played.

BOTH teams, the Giants and the Dodgers moved to the West Coast in the same year.

1958.

In 1958, the Giants moved from Manhattan to San Francisco, and the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.

… which is why we believe we have a 132-year rivalry.

Now, the Mets, the Metropolitans, are a new New Queens, I mean Flushing, entity … which is another borough than Manhattan … so …

any baseball Giant fan, like Jaromir Jagr, who wishes the Giants still play in New York when we visit the Mets, when they play in Queens … is kind of a false-nostalgia person.

This is the whole point of the Manhattan being in SF and the Brooklyn being in LA.

 

 

GBC Off Day FLASHBACK: Opening Day 2016 at the Yard

28 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by in Commemorations, full games, Opening Day, SFG Off Day Posts, Tony Bennett

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Another new feature at GBC this season is a FLASHBACK day on SF Giants off days.

Today’s feature is our delightful opener at the yard vs. the nemesis. I’m just going to stack up a bunch of short form videos and at the end drop in the three long form ones of our view of the day.

Here’s all that, in approximate chronological order. Enjoy. Love, MTK

Specs

D-Span’s first Home RBI as a Giant

G-men take the lead, courtesy Joe Panik

and here is the LONG FORM stuff … but I think section two is wrong … but what is on there is a score in which there is a slide at the plate and I can’t find the clip now … so …

Definitely Part One and Three are cool.

Part Two: the one I think is wrong ..

and Part Three which includes Tony Bennett loosely in the background …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The GBC Reader, Issue 5: John Shea With Fresh SP-in-the-8 Data, Brisbee Covers the State of the Shift and some Cool Barry Lamar

25 Monday Apr 2016

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Giants got a couple back against the Marlins, but the last one we should have won … and let get away. Josh Osich may just need a second after the week he had. Consecutive beanings of the same DBacks player the second of which led to a bench-clearing, followed by giving up the dinger that cost us the last game. Ouch.

Just a quick Reader this week to feature, as usual, a few good bits you may have missed. In the parlance of our times ICYMI:

John Shea has an excellent piece on early returns from the experiment of using the Starting Pitcher in the 8-spot (which we of course love so much here at GBC). It’s too early to say anything definitive, but I LOVE that Bochy is committed to a serious sample size. This early data will be immensely useful down the road.

Brisbee has data about the infield shift and how the G-men aren’t doing it as much that is pretty interesting.

And with Barry Lamar back in town with the Marlins, Gutierrez at ESPN wrote about it, thusly, but I really loved this moment: Bonds seems so relieved of bad and idiotic and rude and hateful press. It is nice to see him laugh … and to hear him brag about himself again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The GBC Reader, Issue Four: Struggles on the Road, Infield Errors, Relievers Injured and Back to .500

19 Tuesday Apr 2016

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It’s absurdly early in the season, so there’s no reason to panic – because the Giants have shown us what they’re capable of in flashes of brilliance with the lineup we’re currently fielding: we had come-from-behind wins and a home run parade to start the season.

Still, other than Johnny Cueto’s start, the last week has been a bummer. Infield errors lost us a MadBum start in Chavez Ravine and we eventually lost that series to the Nemesis, three games to one.

The last one was one that got away. Jeff Samardzija (the #Smarj) was looking great, but one mistake to the phenom Joc Pederson was all it took for the Nemesis to pull out the win. Our bats went silent against new Japanese Nemesis Maeda.

Then last night in Arizona we had the lead three times and couldn’t hold on, with Santiago Casilla failing to close – his second blown save in five chances – and the snakes winning in extras.

Injuries, especially to the relievers, are playing a role in this. Romo and Kontos are now down for 15-day DLs, and the one game we lost BCraw turned into error-filled madness in the infield that cost Bumgarner a win. But I would much rather be injured now than in August – last year was a drag.

So the silver lining is that it’s early. Rather it might be good to take a look now down the road. Steve Berman’s got a piece on 10 Important Questions for the Giants season.

And at least Matt Duffy’s slump may not be as bad as you imagine, according to Brisbee.

Enjoy the Reader!

Love,

MTK

Go Giants!

 

Consensus Opinion Among Giants Fans? Screw Coors Field! Giants Lose Series 1-2

15 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by in Series Recaps

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Game One

It is easy to forget the lone victory in our three games in Colorado, but it is important not to do so. Jeff Samardzija looked as good as he has yet looked in a Giants uniform and the Giants took Game One of this series 7-2, behind a stellar performance by The Shark.

Samardzija went seven strong innings, gave up just two runs and six hits, striking out four. He had two walks, but managed the game well and was in control of a tough Rockies lineup throughout.

The Giants continued their Home Run hit streak throughout the series and rookie C Trevor Brown had two in that first game, bringing his total to three for the year – his first three hits in the majors are all home runs! Hunter Pence added another two-out, two-run homer in support and the Giants were looking good.

Then the wheels fell off …

Game Two

Jake Peavy is going to be a problem unless he can right himself quickly. His opening day start at the yard in which he put us in a 0-5 hole in the first four innings, was calamitous and in Colorado his second start was worse. He was shellacked by the Rockies early and often.

Jake Peavy gave up a NY/SF Giants franchise-high 10 Extra Base Hits in this one – the most allowed by a pitcher since Curt Schilling gave up 10 for Boston on Aug. 10, 2006, against Kansas City. It was seriously ugly.

Arenado homered twice, Peavy was a total meltdown. The Rockies ended the day with 12 XBH and a blowout, defeating the Giants 10-6. Brandon Belt did homer in this one to keep the Giants Home Run streak alive at nine games.

Game Three

Matt Cain came into the rubber match as a question mark, as usual. Which Matt Cain would we see? Well, for four innings the answer was AWESOME MATT CAIN.

Cain was precise, throwing 92- and 93-mph fast balls to great success. It was a thing of beauty long-forgotten since we hadn’t seen him this sharp in a while. It was pretty exciting for a few innings there.

Then all of a sudden in the fifth, Cain gave up a dinger, then a double and then found himself in a chippy battle with Craig Wolters, who finally just barely got the best of Matty with a bloop flare over the head of Matt Duffy. That was the beginning of a collapse that ended in embarrassment as the Giants gave up 9 runs in the 5th inning.

In this one, Matty had struck out Arenado twice and was to face him in the fifth with the bases loaded, but Boch decided Matt was done after a 35+pitch inning that had him on the hook for those three base-runners. He brought in Chris Heston who was pitching on consecutive days for the first time in his young career. Hesto gave up a double to Arenado and the run-parade began.

Meanwhile, Jorge de La Rosa pitched a great game and managed the Giants bats well. This was a tough loss. Belt managed to homer again though – a bright spot is our ten game homer streak.

But at  the end of the day, the Giants gave up 31 hits in the last two games to these Rockies at altitude, prompting a lot of fans on twitter to express their hatred for Coors Field once again.

Some injury news, Romo is out temporarily with an elbow thing. Brandon Crawford had to leave with a flexor flare, and Posey who was held out a couple of games to help heal his toe, came back and caught well for Cain during his comeback 4 innings.

Glad to be out of Colorado and on to face the Nemesis in Chavez Ravine with MadBum v. Kershaw II tonight at 7:10pm.

Using Timely Hitting the Giants Open the Yard with a 3-1 Series Win Over the Nemesis

11 Monday Apr 2016

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In case you haven’t been paying attention to baseball yet because you’re wrapped up in Warriors or Sharks or The Masters coverage, our San Francisco Giants are looking really good at the plate. Yes, that’s right, THE GIANTS ARE HITTING!

We had 36 hits over the series and with 14 home runs we stand second behind the altitude-assisted Colorado Rockies (17) in homers.

With 64 hits, we stand second behind the Nemesis (76) in hits (they had a breakout opening weekend at the plate).

Those stats are for the MAJORS, both leagues – we are second in hits and homers in all of baseball.

But first things first, from Opening Day at AT&T park here’s GBC’s footage of Your 2016 San Francisco Giants lineup.

The home opening weekend series against the Nemesis was just about perfect (except for George Kontos and a few other reasons we couldn’t hold on to Game 3 to sweep – Brisbee has those here).

While pitching is taking a little while to get on track, our lineup is covering for the starters. The three wins were all come-from-behind victories and once the hits and runs start, with these guys, they seem to pour out.

It’s infectious, situational contact hitting – bunts, singles, doubles, sacs and homers on the regs from Span, Duffy, Panik, BCraw, Pence and Posey surrounded Trevor Brown’s first major-league homer over the weekend. Move ’em along and hit ’em out seems to be the philosophy of this group and it is pretty thrilling stuff.

Many have remarked – and it doesn’t take long to notice if you watch the Giants – that there’s really no weakness in the lineup – everybody is a threat to do something with the bat. We are bunting and moving ’em over and sacrificing and getting ’em over and hitting balls out of the park with startling regularity.

Most importantly, the hitting has been timely.

and of course, at last, we are batting the pitcher in the 8-spot AND IT IS WORKING.

Angel Pagan seems to be healthy at last and looks way better than last year. Pagan is showing the form he had in the Championship seasons. With pitchers who rake, like MadBum and Peavy, and with Pagan in the 9 and Span at the top of the order, the Giants are turning what used to be dead innings into run-producing opportunities.

A sweep would have been truly perfect, but Madison Bumgarner’s second homer off Kershaw in the lone loss made it palatable, and honestly, with the Division lead and the way we are hitting, I couldn’t be happier.

Go Giants!

Love,

MTK

 

 

Led by New Acquisitions, Giants Win with Bats, 12-3, and Cueto, 2-1, in Milwaukee

06 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by in Mid Series Reports, Opening Day, Uncategorized

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Blissed-out is how to describe us here at Giants Baseball Corner.

The Opening Day game in Milwaukee was a perfect display of what our new lineup is capable of in terms of hitting – and came with the surprise of power! We kept moving ’em along and driving ’em out. 4 Home Runs, 12 runs on 15 hits!

Denard Span came out of the gate hitting with purpose. He is fascinating to watch at the plate: so precise. His stance is crazyfoot, his approach insanely deliberate, his sudden crouch during wind-up reminds me of a tennis star poising for a return.

Denard Span had 5 RBIs on Opening Day – which hadn’t been done since Barry Bonds more than a decade ago.

AND NO GIANT IN THE HISTORY OF RBI RECORDS HAS EVER HAD 5 RBIs IN HIS DEBUT!

The HRs by Duffy, Span, Panik and Posey were awesome. You must have seen by now that the last three were back-to-back-to-back.

Madbum looked like he was working things out, gave up 5 walks and even walked in a run, but in the end had 6Ks and got the win because of the massive power of the offense.

Game 2 was a defensive display, a 2-1, hard fought battle behind the debut of Johnny Cueto – who was very good. He was precise, workmanlike, fast and unpredictable, yet totally in control.

Some excellent defense from Panik, Crawford and Duffy was backed up by Bcraw’s first homer and double of the season. Everybody is hitting, folks!

AND WE BATTED THE STARTING PITCHER IN THE 8-spot in BOTH GAMES AND IT HAS ALREADY PAID OFF!

Cannot wait to see you all at the park on Thursday, this season is starting off just about perfect.