San Francisco Giants Baseball # 23: What Standings Were Those?

What Standings Were Those?

       The Giants begin the longest home-stand of the season on Tuesday, against the San Diego Padres.  In fact, they play 18 of their next 21 games at home.  The mirror image of this stretch was that period in April, when the Giants played 18 of 21 on the road, with the three they played in San Francisco being those that Atlanta took.  The third was the Easter Sunday ambush, that represented one of the two times this year, that the Giants lost after leading going into the ninth.   Both were against the Braves. 

In Sunday’s game in Houston, we saw the Giants get the leadoff batter on base nine of eleven innings, with seven consecutive opening batters reaching base safely.  Statistically, the Giant in this slot all year has lagged greatly behind the rest of the National League.  Simply knowing that the Giants’ leadoff position has batted .235, ranking fifteenth of the sixteen NL teams, allows us to see a glaring difference in this year’s team, compared to Andres Torres’ success last year.

Collectively, this season the Giants leadoff spot has an on-base-percentage of .294, again coming in fifteenth.  They have scored 69 runs (13th), drawn 34 walks (dead last) and stolen seventeen bases (13th).  For these reasons I see the nine lead-off batters reaching base Sunday as being a harbinger of good things to come.

I will be the first to proclaim, that I am not interested in seeing the Giants reach the playoffs, only to get the boot in the first round.  I’m not saying that it has to be world series or bust, but I am saying the same thing I said last year: It’s more important to be able to sustain a playoff hunt, than it is to merely reach the playoffs.  Better to have been squeezed out than to have squeezed in, only to make an early departure.

Monday morning’s S.F. Chron featured a front-page box with the words “Idle Threats” at the top.  Within the box was a listing of the sordid details: sixth inning, runner on second, no outs; seventh inning, first and third, no outs; eighth inning, bases loaded, one out; and finally ninth inning, bases jammed, two outs.  

The article clearly highlights the fact that these base runners were left stranded, a continuing frustration for the Giants.  However, when a team is struggling as fiercely as the Giants are, it cannot recover its balance all in one day.  They need to gain some consistency, and setting the table is a key way to going about it.

The Giants play San Diego tonight, the start of a two game series at home, before Houston comes into town to play the remaining four games of our season series.  With the day off yesterday, and something upon which to build having taken place on Sunday, the G-Men need to get mentally prepared to play competitive baseball. That might be best accomplished by avoiding contact with the National League West standings.

The Giants need to assume that every team coming into AT&T Park is in first place, and that to put anything other than top effort into each game, is foolish.  Having gained a half-game last night, and sitting only one game off the pace, the Giants must play aggressive small ball to get the engine purring again, and then get ready to go down to the wire with the Snakes.  Throw away the standings and let’s play some National League baseball. 

San Francisco Giants Baseball # 22: Set the Table, Please

Set the Table, Please
And Put Away Those Batters

The Giants salvaged the final game of their series against the Houston Astros on Sunday, and took a step forward to salvaging their season.  This was a contest that epitomizes the concept of winning not being the most important part of the game.   Playing baseball the way it was designed to be played, with passion and fanatical determination, is the most important part of baseball, and we saw a series of excellent baby steps in returning the Giants to last year’s successful form.

In a game filled with unusual circumstances, and statistical oddities, the two areas that emerge as most significant are the bull pen, and the leadoff hitter of each inning.  Each demonstrated the tenacity that we came to expect so routinely last season.  I realize that “last season” pops up in the conversation, but how is it possible to ignore it?

Many Giants fans have adopted the attitude that “This season has taught me a lot about loyalty...last year they won the big enchilada, and this year, they don’t got to win nothing.”  They accept the Giants and their record just as it is.

I belong firmly in this school of thought.  By the time the bottom of the ninth was over, I was convinced this was a tremendously entertaining game, regardless of the outcome.  Though Mike Krukow was enthusiastic about Dan Runzler’s major league debut as a starter, because of how poorly things had been going, he thought a guy making his first major league start would amp up the team.

We’ll never know if he was right, because Runzler didn’t make it out of the second inning.  If he were throwing strikes, and they were just clobbering the ball, that would have been one thing. However, he walked three batters in that inning, the third one being Henry Sosa.  Sosa was the ‘Stros‘ starting pitcher, the Giants’ farm prospect, who was traded for Jeff Keppinger.  

Bruce Bochy sent Righetti out to talk to Runzler, stalling for time, while he went to the telephone himself to make the call to the bullpen.  Bochy did not try to conceal his annoyance at the walks.  When Duane mentioned that there was smoke coming out of the manager’s ears, Kruk deadpanned that the top of Bochy’s head had actually exploded.  The Giants’ manager, himself a former catcher, is not a fan of the free pass.

The key element to focus on, is the fact that the bull pen proceeded to pitch nine and a third innings of scoreless ball, without the services of either Sergio Romo, their set-up man, or their closer, Brian Wilson.  Bochy used the entire bull pen, except for Javier Lopez, and every single fireman performed like a champ.

For drama, take Affeldt’s ninth inning, when he faced J.D. Rodriguez with runners on every bag and one out.  He made three consecutive, ridiculously nasty pitches, and J. D. grabbed some pine.  The red hot Carlos Lee then ended it with an infield ground ball.  Affeldt went on to pitch a clean tenth.

How about lead-off batters getting on base in seven consecutive innings, and nine of the eleven innings altogether?  The Giants recently set and extended the record for consecutive solo home runs; they did this because of low productivity from the top slot(s).  Having seven consecutive lead-off base runners is a huge development in this area.  Whether they ended up scoring or not, is secondary; they were getting on base, and in the most innovative of manners.

Mixed in with a couple of outfield singles were a hit batsman, a walk, two swinging bunts, and a third strike/wild pitch.  Because of the exemplary performance of the bullpen, the Giants only had to capitalize on one of the seven lead-off base runners.  Pablo’s home run in the top of the eleventh, after his two-strike out/hit into a double-play day, made up for earlier transgressions.  It was the sort of ending that we encountered frequently from Pat the Bat, or U-rib-e.

This year, it seems as though we wind up losing one to nothing, or worse yet, six to nothing.  It all has to do with getting the table set, so that the timely big fly, delivers some Belt-power.  When was the last time this season, that the Giants hit a three-run home run?

Today represented only one game.  The Giants were lucky to have gained a full game on the Snakes, and are only one and a half games behind.  If ever there was motivation to get back on track, it should be the fact that they are still within capable grasp of top slot. 

Just as those seven lead-off batters got on base, or just as the bullpen pitched nine and a third shut-out innings, the Giants have to find a way to git ‘er done.  They showed us today they haven’t forgotten how; the time has come and the time is now. 

San Francisco Giants Baseball # 21: A Question's Not Really a Question

“A Question’s Not Really a Question

If You know the Answer Too”   

The San Francisco Giants dropped the second game in two nights to the upstart Houston Astros.  The ‘Stros have now won four in a row, and it’s hard to blame lackadaisical play on the part of the Giants, though getting shut out for the second consecutive night on Friday, speaks louder than anything I can say.

There are some very exciting young players on this Astros team.  When Jose Altuve led off the game with an improbable inside-the-park-homerun, it was hard to do anything but tip your cap to him.  There is hardly a reference to Altuve, that does not include the fact that he is five foot seven.  What difference does it make?  Mike Fontenot isn’t any taller.

Madison Bumgarner blamed himself for not being able to put the ball where he wanted it.  So give credit to Houston for being able to do just that.  Does that make Houston the better team?  Checking their win/loss records helps clarify that.  If the Giants were fighting tooth and claw, and were losing each game by a run, then I might even be a little more worried.

The Giants are 6-16 in their last 22 contests.

The fact that all phases of the game appear to be experiencing technical difficulties, allows me to regroup a little and place the blame, or the reason, if you will, on the concept of a general team malaise.  There is some sort of dynamic going on, team-wide, which has served to propel the team backward, instead of advancing.

There were times last fall, when nothing seemed to go wrong, or if it did, the Giants quickly corrected it.  They took advantage of key miscues, they created offense through consistent hitting by Torres and Sanchez at the top of the order, and they kept the pressure on their opponents, by knocking them in.

Now the struggling teams, which have been forced to capitulate in their efforts to compete this year, have brought up a bevy of young minor league prospects, who have nothing to lose and a whole lot to gain.  Individual effort on the part of all of these prospects, combines to create a spark that ignites a young team and produces noteworthy results.

If the Giants were performing the way they did late last season, this would not be an issue.  However, just as good things result from unified effort, and produce the residual effect of causing other good things to happen, so goes the reverse.  Madison can’t place the ball exactly where he wants it.  Altuve gives it a better-than-expected ride, and Cody makes a desperate, but futile effort to snag the drive, and the ball takes a pro-Astros bounce.

That seems to be a lot of bounces going the wrong way, but these things generally balance themselves out, over the course of a season.  The key is to rely on the veterans who have been there before, to be able to advise younger players, how to approach this kind of team collapse.  Just as one bad bounce starts the chain reaction downhill, one fortuitously placed, seeing-eye-grounder, is all that is required to get things started in reverse.

We have the core of our starting pitching intact, even if Jonathon Sanchez’ next start has been pushed back, and we have the fact that the Diamondbacks have lost four straight.  That’s one of those huge beneficial elements that fits right in.  After all, where would we be if the D-Backs were not sliding downhill as fast as we are?

We would be out of contention, and and getting a close look-see at the current Fresno Grizzlies.  Then we would be like Houston, with a roster of quick, eager-to-dazzle Darren Fords and Brandon Crawfords.  Let me think here.  Do we really have to be out of contention to infuse some of that energy into our flat lineup? 

As John Prine once noted, “A question’s not really a question, if you know the answer too.”

  For now, just wait for the ball to stop bouncing like an erratic rabbit, and begin to resemble the Energizer Bunny.  That might put the necessary charge back into the Giants’ collective battery, so that they can jumpstart the offense and stop the current stall. 

San Francisco Giants Baseball # 20: The Latest Injury: Pride

The Latest Injury-Pride

There’s nothing “wrong” with the Giants.  They are in the midst of a 3-5 road trip, the first four played in Atlanta.  They managed to eke out one victory, with Timmy taking the final game down to the wire, before losing 1-0.  Many Giants fans ran that “turnabout is fair play” notion through their minds, as they contemplated that score. 

Tim Lincecum pitched one of the most masterful games in baseball history last October, blanking the Braves in the NLDS opener, 1-0.  He struck out fourteen, and allowed two hits.  Most significantly, he did it in the postseason, where it counts most.

A first-year pitcher named Mike Minor out-dueled Timmy the other day, because the Giants were unable to score even one run.  There is nothing wrong with the Giants' starting pitching, and if there is one component that can be singled out as most key to success, it has to be starting pitching.

Giants starters have a 1.72 ERA on this current road trip.  How it is possible to have that sterling of an ERA, and yet also possess a 3-5 win/loss mark is baffling.  Rather, it is misleading.  Teams with starting pitching, which can dominate like that, are usually amidst the division leaders.  

Hold on a second; the Giants are among the contenders.  For a moment there, with all of the weeping and wailing going on, I thought we had fallen out of contention.  Fortunately, the Diamondbacks must play the same grueling 162 game schedule as the Giants, and they are having an equally rigorous time against the same two teams that gave the Giants fits.  What a surprise.

I would list the current injuries that the Giants have reported, but I do not have adequate space.  Besides, I am beginning to believe that this injury streak has gone from “As the World Turns” to “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” in the sense that the Giants have simply endured a spate of injuries that defies explanation.

In the interests of regional sanity, I am going to offer a possible explanation.  Last season was a special season for the Giants, because everything fell into place, including masterful pitching performances and minimal injuries.  The Giants placed a total of nine players on the disabled list last year, compared to twenty-two, so far this year.

Last year the players recognized that their success was due, in large part, to their lack of meaningful injuries.  No spotlight rested on any given player, who might be icing up a sore shoulder after the game, because there did not seem to be a reason.  In contrast this year, the Giants have had a series of high-profile injuries, and the overwhelming string of minor dings right now seems extreme.

Every player who experiences the normal pitfalls of a long season, as real as they are, seems to encounter a reporter with a notepad, to record the ongoing problems that crop up.  Conversely, the same sorts of problems probably arose last year also, but did not draw attention, because the backdrop was different.

Our biggest injury (besides Buster) is that of pride.  The Giants are used to getting it done, and this current downward spiral is infuriating.  Therefore, they are getting hot under the collar, and more frustrated than ever at these rookie pitchers who come in here wanting to show up Tim Lincecum.  There is a lot of motivation for a kid like Mike Minor to be able to put into his resume, that he out-pitched Timmy.

Therefore, each and every Giant, with Aubrey and Cody leading the way, is trying to kill the ball every time he swings.  They swing at pitches outside of the strike zone, and they are “trying to tear the cover off the ball.”  They need to return to small ball, an example of which was the four sacrifice flies the other night.

Hitting for singles, and making contact with the ball, is the only way to snap out of a cold spell.  That and winning a couple games.  Much has been said about the weak schedule that the Giants have to play.  They need to set their sights on that two and one-half game deficit, and play small ball for small gains.

The Giants are not going too overtake the Braves in the wild-card race, so they better overtake the D-Backs now.  Otherwise they will have an extra month this October, to rest their weary bones, while they watch the playoffs on TV. 

San Francisco Giants Baseball # 19: We Don't Need No Ice Cream Socials

We Don't Need No Ice Cream Socials 

The Giants are happy to be getting out of Atlanta, recognizing that if the playoffs were beginning in the immediate future, we would soon be out of the picture.  However, we still have thirty-seven games left, and that is close to one-fourth of the season.  There is a lot of 2011 left, and after last October’s improbable march to the world series, I do not wish to discount the Giants‘ chances.

The other morning I suggested that the Giants were not likely to benefit from the fact that the remainder of their schedule features teams with losing records, except for the six games we still have left against the Diamondbacks.  However, I have re-evaluated my thought process, and decided that I was incorrect.  That's the same thing as being wrong.   Allow me to explain.  


      All major league baseball teams are comprised of superior athletes with extraordinary talent.  The teams that rise above the others, contain catalysts of one form or another, which elevate them to a slightly higher plateau.  However, all teams have potential to defeat any team in any specific contest.


       As early as this weekend, we could do some ground-gaining in our division, because Arizona has to play three against the same Atlanta team that just punished us, while San Francisco has to play the Houston Astros.  The Giants have the better end of the deal.  In one of the scheduling oddities of the season, the Giants have not yet played the 'Stros, but will do so seven times in the next ten games.  The Giants would be wise to ignore the fact that Houston has the dubious distinction of possessing the worst win/loss record in the major leagues.  

The instant the Giants start to anticipate a series along the lines of an ice cream social, they will perform as they did when the Pirates came to town, staggering under the assault of yet another team, gunning for the world champs.  I rechecked the schedule and verified the fact that there are no events, aside from baseball games, to be found.  So I sure expect the World Champion Giants to take the field tonight to play ball, 'cause we don't need no ice cream socials.

The Pirates, unlike the Astros, are one of the teams in the middle of the pack, a unit which has improved dramatically, but is still one or two components away from top form.  The Giants must take these kinds of teams seriously, because all major league teams have excellent elements, and must to be able to perform competitively on the same playing field, or else the fans would stop attending.

This means that teams like the Astros, even with the worst record in baseball, still win a third of their games, and can rise to specific occasions, as the motivation warrants.  Houston has precious little to play for this season.  They have an equal number of players on the roster as the Giants, and they all play 162 games.  A team with a losing record faces a greater challenge to stay focused and positive through that long schedule.

Therefore, a team like the Giants makes their job easier, because there is a different atmosphere at the ballpark.  There will be many Giants fans in the stands, and there will be a pleasant tingle of anticipation in the air, as the reigning champions of baseball swagger/stumble their way onto the field.

Yes, the Giants were unquestionably the best in baseball last October, but that was yesterday, and yesterday is not as important today, as the mustard on your hot dog, when you are talking about this year's standings.  What is important is that the Astros are a team of major leaguers, two of whom recently parted ways, Jeff Keppinger going to the G-men, and Hunter Pence to Philadelphia (abandoning a sinking ship).

With our offense sputtering the way it is, an individual pitcher or two can make any given series very painful, as Mike Minor and Tim Hudson showed.  Houston also has individuals who are capable of providing them with as much of a chance, in any given series, as any of the contending teams.

This brings me back to my earlier observation, that I may have been hasty in my assumption that a weak schedule is counterproductive for a contending team.  All major league teams consist of the most superior players available on any level.  Defeating a team of these superior athletes, whether any specific group contains the absolute best or not, develops confidence.

Confidence is the swagger in a team’s purposeful stride out onto the field at the start of the game.  Winning ballgames hones that sense of confidence.  A team that has the last fourth of its season left, has plenty of time to rest some dinged-up players, plenty of time to establish winning ways, and plenty of time to let that chemistry develop, before the playoffs begin.

Championship teams get to the top because circumstances align themselves in such a way, that they can achieve confidence.  Once success has been established, that confidence plays a huge role in future contests, be they of the one game-or the 162 game-variety.  The Giants need to use last year’s success as a springboard for the final fourth of the season, to gear up for the upcoming playoffs.

San Francisco did not make the schedule, but they sure had to play it the way it was designed.  Therefore, they have already played the toughest teams, in an unbalanced manner, leaving the weaker teams still left to play.  Go ahead G-Men, be the neighborhood bully, and beat up on the weaker teams.  Let’s see if you can’t recapture that confidence, that swagger, that winning produces, and then recapture that magic.  I’m talking about the magic that had us not stop believing, until we crammed ourselves into an open square in downtown San Francisco, while a city and a region wept with joy and relief.

 

 

San Francisco Giants Baseball # 18: The Poster Boy

The Poster Boy

I have heard many references to spoiled, overpaid athletes.  I have never agreed that major league ball players are overpaid; they are entertainers, and in our culture, who else gets paid as much for as little as three hours' work?

I can’t fault the salary, because players do something I can’t do, besides hitting a hard slider.  They must be willing to leave home and family for prolonged periods of time, and they must be willing to put their careers ahead of everything else in their lives.

They must also be willing to take a lot of abuse for their teammates, especially if they fill the catcher’s slot.  Not a game goes by that the catcher does not take a ball off the mask, or into his body, at speeds exceeding a racing Michael Bourne.  Last night Matt Cain threw an off-speed pitch that bounced six feet or more in front of the plate.  Eli Whiteside simply threw his body in front of it, as it ricocheted off the gravelly turf and into his chest protector.  

Catchers have to be so savage.  Last night I saw an example of a catcher being as tough as my ninth grade physical science teacher, who doubled as a nun.  I saw something that I have never seen before, when Eli Whiteside slid head first into second base, and did a classic face plant, inadvertently grinding his face into the dirt, which isn’t really dirt, as much as it is tiny pieces of rock.  

I have seen players do that before, but never to the extent that a hamburger face extended from forehead down through chin, including nose, upper lip, and lower lip.  The camera focused on Eli’s face, as he gritted his teeth, and set himself for the trainer to apply something directly to the sandpapered flesh.  Eli’s body positively jolted, as that ointment hit the raw spots.

The astonishing thing is that seconds later, he had to jam that catcher’s mask on over those burns, and hustle out to the plate.  When you consider what happened to the first guy the Giants had behind the plate, and how those ankle ligaments got separated from the bone, it’s amazing that Eli could still trot out there as though it were all in a day’s work.

The face plant is not all in a day’s work.  If I were Eli, I would have wanted to say, “That should have happened to someone other than me.”  But catchers don’t whine, because they can’t whine.  Says so in the catcher’s manual.  If you don’t believe that catchers don’t whine, just watch that film clip of Eli’s face being tended to.  Someone who would suggest that Eli Whiteside can’t take pain, needs to back the truck up, and take a second look.  And if that doesn’t convince you, have your next door neighbor/carpenter buddy, run a belt sander over your face, and we’ll review the question.

That picture of Eli should be the poster picture for the Giants‘ soon-to-be-coming hot streak.  Though writhing inwardly from pain, Eli gets the blood wiped off, and crams the mask over his abrasions.  Likewise, the Giants, though writhing inwardly at the injuries which have wracked them, wipe the collective blood off their wounds and square off against their opponents.

No Giants player will use injuries as an excuse; no true baseball fan will use injuries as an excuse.  Indeed, Bruce Bochy would never use injuries as an excuse.  However, and I am treading on shaky ground here, the Giants might just possibly use injuries as an explanation.  There’s a difference, but not one that Eli would understand.   

All Eli knows is that there is no way in Turner Field Stadium, that he is coming out of the game.  There is only one backup, and Bochy can’t take the chance that Chris Stewart might sustain a serious enough knock to have to be removed.  That would mean the Panda would probably assume the catching duties.  

With the way the injury dog is snapping at the Giants’ heels (or throats), there is no way we want to see Pablo Sandoval behind the plate.  So suck it up, Eli, and remember next time that the subject comes up, that you are nothing but a "spoiled, overpaid athlete."  But remember also, that you are our catcher, and we also felt that pain and, as always, along with pain, comes gain.  I have an image of a Giant who won't admit that anything can get in the way of forward progress.  How do I measure forward progress?  The final score of last night's game was Giants 7, Braves 5.  This could be the start of something sweet.  Thanks, Eli.


[Eli Whiteside was removed from the game in the seventh inning, more than two full frames later, when dizziness forced him to exit.]

San Francisco Giants Baseball # 17: For Best Results, Please Chill

For Best Results, Please Chill

The Giants have lost the first two games of this Atlanta series, both crushing walk-off victories.  The Atlanta Braves are doing the same thing to the Giants that the Phillies did, providing a liberal portion of a dish, best served chilled: revenge.

Last October the Giants took three of five from the Braves, four of the five games decided by one run.  Much has been said about last year, and the Giants’ unlikely rise to the top.  All this season, it has bothered Giants fans that the power-polls have never placed the Giants any higher than fourth, and that was only for one week.  All of this season, it has bothered Braves fans that they could not win the series for Bobby Cox and the city of Atlanta last October.  Which is the stronger motivator?

The East Coast Media has constantly given short-shrift to San Francisco; ESPN Sports is so busy tracking the Red Sox and Yankees, that they barely have time to notice the West Coast.  If Giants fans are upset, they should look at the number of offensive categories the G-Men rank at or near the bottom, and then see how they stack up against the contenders.  

If you tell me that they were not much better last year in those categories, you will get no argument, but you will also get very little support for the idea that they are poised to do it again.  We saw very little enthusiasm against the Phillies, except for pitching (Barry, notwithstanding), and we are seeing insufficient spark against the Braves.  What will it take to fire them up?  Buster being hurt?  Sure, for a while.  But now they need another catalyst, an incident, or a wayward comment, to get the adrenaline flowing.

Something was sure working earlier in the season, when the Giants led the majors in walk-offs and last inning victories.  For more than three weeks now, the Giants haver struggled mightily, and Bochy has been unable to find the key.  He says there is still a lot of time left, that this is only August.  But then it will be September, and the Giants must out-rattle the D-Backs.  When?  When does it start?

It starts when everyone stops whining and settles back in their seats.  It starts by recognizing that after this series, the Giants play the rest of their season out against teams with losing records, except for six games against the Diamondbacks.  What a setup for success.  The best thing to do, please, is chill.  We have played all of the hard teams, and now have the easy part of the schedule remaining.  Isn’t that a good thing?

What if we do well the rest of the year, against the lower echelon, and then have to face the Braves and Phillies in the playoffs?  After the way the Giants were man-handled recently by both clubs?  I want to be optimistic here, though I’m not feeling on solid ground.  If we need good teams to play to get our competitive edge up, but we can’t beat them anyway, how does that bode for our future in October?

I don’t want to suggest that it doesn’t bode well, and my whole perspective is that winning is not everything, but it would be nice to think that the season still has possibilities.  The reality is that those possibilities are lining up more favorably for the other guys than the local nine.  I’m happy to be proven wrong, but I’m not seeing it yet.  Keep the candle in the window, but don’t bother to light it. Unless something ignites the Giants’ competitive fire, nothing will remain but a funeral pyre.