Monthly Archives: July 2016

The GBC Reader, Issue Ten: Season on the Blade’s Edge

26 Tuesday Jul 2016

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Well Dear Reader, the G-men have plummeted back down to earth in the second half. Though we are 58-41 and in first place in the NL West, that lead has shrunk from six and a half to just two and a half games after the 1-8 stretch since the All-Star Break.

Optimism is hard to find, but I have faith in Bochy and the staff because I know we  faced weird difficulties each of the previous times we won it:

  • Chase the D-Backs all year and take it from them the last weekend in 2010
  • Lose our best bat Melky Cabrera, one of the best hitters in baseball, in 2012
  • Forced into a committee of closers, having to send MadBum on short rest out to finish the job against the darlings of the nation at Kauffman in 2014

Maybe it’s par for the course. There has to be struggle for the championship to mean something. Maybe there aren’t going to be 100-game winners that often anymore. Maybe there is just so much parity in the long season of baseball, so much Law of Averages, that from now on there will never be a consecutive World Series Champion or end-to-end first place finishers.

I don’t know, but here’s GBC Reader Issue Ten, filled with doom and gloom.

  • Hank Schulman wrote an excellent break down of the pursuit for a reliever
  • AlPav talked to Skip about WTH happened on the road trip.
  • Baggs turned his blog over to Carl Steward, a joyful fellow who titled his piece cheerfully: “The Skid Continues, the Postseason Could be in Jeopardy, and the Trade Options Look Sketchy at Best.”
  • Brisbee is depressed, and not nearly as fun, but he humanizes when he is depressed which is nice.
  • And just so we end on a positive note, Berman showed up again to write about how cool Mac Williamson is.

And speaking of Mac Williamson, for me the biggest excuse is we’ve had three of our major bats out: Pence, Panik and Duffy – lotsa situational hitting, power, RBI’s, average on the DL there.

To their credit the rookies have worked hard and done pretty well filling in. One can’t expect them to produce like those three guys. I am glad they got experience here in July and it isn’t like last year when all the injuries hit us during the stretch.

 

 

I Still Believe.

 

Let’s Go Giants!

 

Love,

MTK

 

 

 

 

 

Remembering and Forgetting the 1-7 Road Trip to Fenway and Yankee Stadium

25 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by in Commentary, Road Trips

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ugh.

I hate Inter-League.

I’ve NEVER liked it.

have been forced to tolerate it by idiots who spend absurd amounts of their energy trying to destroy the beautiful chess match that is the National League game. These loud, brutish and impatient fans are incapable of enjoying the game of baseball at its own pace.

So they’ve shoved Inter-League down our throats, as they do with the incessant and obnoxious demands we add Designated Hitters and limit the number of pitchers we can use.

I hate you people. Why can’t you just leave us alone?

You go watch AL ball and leave us alone to happily watch NL ball. I honestly think it would be way better for the game to go back to NO Inter-League games in the regular season and have the AL and NL meet only twice: in the ASG and the WS.

The AL fans can make all the changes they want to the game and they can let us real fans of baseball have our chess match. You go watch your blunt instrument version of the game and we will enjoy our defensive battles and five-tool play.

We’re not going to see the Yankees again for a while, since they aren’t in smelling distance of a wild card. It was fun to wax nostalgic about 1921 and 1962 and all the years between, but I really could not care less about these games.

I guess I’m not really too mad we went 1-7 and had such horrible outings offensively. We were playing three rookies every game. And in fact, we got some great plays out of them. It was good to give them experience. I am proud that our record is so strong we can withstand six losses and still lead the NL West and have the second best record in the majors.

Well, whatever … so glad we’re back home.

Let’s Go Giants, CRUSH the Reds.

 

Love,

MTK

 

 

 

 

The 1962 World Series Between The Yanks and Our SF Giants

22 Friday Jul 2016

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We’re playing in New York City against the Yankees this week, and immediately my thoughts turn to Willie McCovey whose line drive that could have won the first World Series in San Francisco was caught by Bobby Richardson in Game 7, beginning a 27-year World Series appearance drought for the G-men.

 

Hence my two new hashtags:

#BeatTheYanksForMcCovey

#SweepTheYanksForMcCovey

WillieMcCoveyMTK2012

Many long time fans associate the Game Seven loss with intense feelings not only because of the drought that followed, but because the drought implied we couldn’t win it all in San Francisco. The implication that we were somehow cursed not to win in SF grew for another 26 years and it’s the basis for the intense feeling of relief we all felt when at last we won in 2010.

The history of the ’62 Series fascinates decades later because of the incredible talent on both sides, but among fans I have interviewed about it, there lingers a feeling that the Giants let this one get away. So many of us ache for Willie McCovey.

Rather than share my interest in it, which would just be more historical slather, here are links to three from the net that might interest you:

From Wiki:

“This World Series, which was closely matched in every game, is remembered for its then-record length of 13 days, caused by rain in both cities, and its appropriately dramatic conclusion. The Yankees took the Series in seven games for the 20th championship in team history. The Yankees had won their first World Series in 1923; of the 40 Series played between 1923 and 1962, the Yankees won half.

The Giants had a higher cumulative batting average and lower earned-run average, hit more home runs, triples, and doubles, yet lost the Series.”

And here is the MLB’s one-hour World Series Film about the entire 1962 World Series

FUN!

Go Giants!

 

 

 

mtk

 

 

 

 

 

Who will be our Scutaro, Ross, or Peavy This Year?

20 Wednesday Jul 2016

Posted by in Relief Pitching, Uncategorized

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The Trade Deadline is 11 days away and it is clear the Giants, like many other teams, need a consistent reliever who can close. But I think we also need another bat even though Panik, Pence and Duffy are coming back. I would love to pick up a DH-style bench bat that can produce runs. If it’s an outfielder, even better.

Who will these players be?

Well, the Marco Scutaro or Cody Ross or Jake Peavy of 2016 will likely NOT be Aroldis Chapman as it looks like the efforts of the Cubs or Nationals are more intensely focused than ours to get him.

Evans was on Buster Olney’s podcast and said they’re actively scouting in Philadelphia and New York and elsewhere looking for the reliever, but that most of baseball is doing the same. He also said the Giants would have to find someone better than what we currently have for us to make a move. This is going to take some effort to pull off.

Grant Brisbee listed whom he thought qualified as better than what we have over at McCovey Chronicles on Monday:

  1. Aroldis Chapman
  2. Andrew Miller
  3. Dellin Betances
  4. Alex Colome
  5. Ryan Madson
  6. Ryan Dull
  7. Will Smith
  8. Arodys Vizcaino (DL)
  9. Hector Neris
  10. Tyler Clippard
  11. Daniel Hudson

“Maybe add in Huston Street and/or Joe Smith if you’re still a believer, but you get the point. Some of those up there are stretches. Some of them, like Dull and Betances, probably aren’t even available because they’re young and cheap. And because I’m a moron, I’ve almost certainly missed a couple. Still, that’s close to the full list of pitchers I might trust more than Hunter Strickland, Derek Law, and Sergio Romo in the eighth inning. That’s 18 teams looking for impact relief help and maybe — maaaaaaybe — 11 relievers who qualify. – GB”

He goes on to argue that Giants don’t seem to have enough to deal to beat out some of the other teams that are looking for relievers as well.

It is a conundrum.

 

 

The GBC Reader, Issue Nine: Confidence is High Despite the DL

16 Saturday Jul 2016

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So the second half begins with the G-men in first place in the NL West holding the best record in baseball, which is why we lost last night naturally to the Padres for the first time this year and once again because we couldn’t provide enough run support for MadBum.

(I rewrote Take Me Out To The Ballgame last week so now I sing, “If They Don’t Win We Got Cained” instead of “If they don’t win it’s a shame”).

That said, the next few weeks should see the return of Hunter Pence, Matt Duffy and Joe Panik to our depleted lineup, so hopefully the hits start cranking up again.

It has been great  to see Sergio Romo back and really taking care of business, but personally, I want to add Aroldis Chapman to this lineup. Not so much because I distrust Casilla, but because I think a combo pack of Casilla and Chapman could be really devastating.

Once again, I didn’t watch the All-Star Game or the Home Run Derby. I really have ZERO INTEREST in the whole affair. I think my favorite part of  the All Star Game was that Brandon Crawford got well-deserved rest despite being the best short stop in the National League.

OK on to The Reader:

Here is Brisbee on the Giants’ schedule in the second half, but he tempers optimism by noting how easy  the Nemesis has it during this ride.

AlPav and the CSNBA crew covered rehab games of Pence and Cain and Panik

Before we leave the first half behind we HAVE to talk about that incredible outing by MadBum that ended our first half. He was utterly dominant in that start and the 14Ks were just … wow. I like Baggs on MadBum’s badass outing.

Steve Berman sighting! He weighed in on the Giants first half success.

Well that’s all I got this week. Let’s Go Giants!

Love,

MTK

 

 

 

The GBC Reader, Issue Eight: G-men Stay Hot, MadBum Has One for the Ages

03 Sunday Jul 2016

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First off, Madison Bumgarner was the first pitcher in 40 years to intentionally bat in an American League park as future HoF manager Bruce Bochy elected to refuse the DH in Oakland versus the A’s. It was rad … and it continues #TheLegendofMadBum

Here’s Brisbee’s tempered opinion on that game.

And here’s Andy Baggs waxing prosaic.

While AlPav’s take includes legends Kruk and Kuip chatting the coolness.

Obviously the injuries to arguably better, or at least day-to-day bats like Pence and Panik and Tomlinson made this decision possible and for me it is an excellent compromise to the insane lunatics who were asking MadBum to hit in the Home Run Derby – which I hope never happens.

Berman dropped in to write about the G-men during the hot streak. And indeed it felt to a lot of us like June Swoon was out of the picture until those pesky Swingin’ A’s came to town.

I haven’t been writing much but I did go on radio to talk Giants with Adam the Bull.

I also went to an American League game for the first time since 2012 (A’s vs. Mariners then) and got to see Big Papi’s likely last hit in Texas as the Red Sox came to Dallas.

The Rangers beat the Crimson Hose in both games I went to, and they looked really good doing it. Shin-Soo Choo was very impressive. And a lot of the Rangers can hit. I saw Prince rip one down the line for a homer that was an awesome display of power.

all right more when I get a chance.

Go Giants!

Love,

MTK