SB Nation User Blog: EliminateMe

Happy Elimination Day!

EliminateMe — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:14:33 -0000

With last night's loss, the Giants are now officially, mathematically, and logically eliminated from playoff contention. They remain 9.5 games behind the Dodgers with only 9 games left to play.

So, today is the moveable feast known as Elimination Day! The day when we are relieved of the burden of trying to believe the Giants still have a chance. It can be a stressful internal tug-of-war between the fan and the realist, trying to root your team on while knowing intellectually that they are out of it, and in fact have been since April.

Today we also celebrate the start of meaningless games, bringing the season full circle. Just as pitchers and catchers report first to spring training, we have only pitchers and catchers left with anything really to play for: Tim Lincecum competing for the Cy Young, and Pablo Sandoval trying to prove he's ready for a starting role next season.

So, eliminate a glass of your meaningless drink of choice and join me in a celebration of Elimination Day!

Giants not historically bad

EliminateMe — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:07:50 -0000

Giants not historically bad

Thanks to Tim the Enchanter's 16th win, which was the team's 63rd, the Giants are now guaranteed of losing fewer than 100 games. The 1985 team will remain the only Giants team in history to reach triple digits in the loss column. Hooray for mediocrity!

Ryan Rohlinger, Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster

EliminateMe — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:01:23 -0000

And the Final Jeopardy answer: "What are things that are rumored to exist, but are rarely seen?"

On Aug. 17, Bochy had this to say about Rohlinger:

"I think he'll settle in. It takes a few games. I think he'll get more and more comfortable with playing time."

Rohlinger last started on the 21st, and got his first big league triple. Since then, he's played one inning at third base on a double-switch, and had one pinch hitting appearance...and, presumably, caught up on his summer reading.

I realize he didn't exactly get off to a blazing start to his major league career. But two token appearances in a week is ridiculous. Have they lost all confidence in him already? If so, why not send him back down?

What Rebuilding Looks Like

EliminateMe — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:43:37 -0000

I'm reluctant to hold up the Washington Gnats as any kind of an example of a well-run franchise, but as far as rebuilding goes, they at least have some sort of clue:

Late Thursday, the Nationals gave infielder Felipe Lopez and catchers Paul Lo Duca and Johnny Estrada their unconditional releases.

They're bringing up 23-year-old 2B Emilio Bonifacio, who they got from the D-Backs for veteran Jon Rauch last week. Lo Duca was a $5M disappointment and that goes on Bowden's head also.

"We are going to turn the page. We are going to get younger the last two months of the season and we are going to continue to develop young players," general manager Jim Bowden said.

Sounds just like a Sabean statement, doesn't it? Except for the fact that they actually did something instead of just saying it.

Maybe the Giants shouldn't DFA Vizquel, out of respect for a future Hall of Famer. Maybe Aurilia can still be traded for scraps in a post-deadline trade. But there's no conceivable reason not to DFA Roberts at the very least, as he is untradeable and serves no purpose on the roster.

756 Ball Not Going to Cooperstown

EliminateMe — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:02:47 -0000

So it turns out that publicity seeker M*rk Eck* is not quite as free with his money as he'd like us to think:

"The owner's previous commitment to unconditionally donate the baseball has changed to a loan. As a result, the Hall of Fame will not be able to accept the baseball," the Hall said in a statement.

Eck* claimed that voters in his online poll voted to mark the ball with an asterisk and donate it to the Hall of Fame. Not surprisingly, this was the option that offered the best long-term publicity potential for Eck* himself. But he must have decided it wasn't $750K worth.

The final word on the subject belongs to Barry:

Bonds called Ecko an "idiot" when the designer announced plans to hold the vote.

Lincecum leads league in Ks

EliminateMe — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:48:27 -0000

There's a long way to go in the season yet, but it's very cool to see Tim Lincecum's name atop the national league leaderboard for strikeouts. Cool and at the same time, very strange. It made me wonder, who was the last Giants pitcher to lead the league in strikeouts over a whole season?

It wasn't Jason Schmidt, whose 251 Ks in 2004 were eclipsed by Randy Johnson's 290.

It wasn't John "The Count" Montefusco. He struck out 215 in 1975, won Rookie of the Year, but was well behind Tom Seaver's 243.

Gaylord Perry's best season as a Giant, in terms of strikeouts, was 1969 when he recorded 233 Ks, but the leader that year was Fergie Jenkins with 273.

It wasn't Juan Marichal either. He struck out 248 in 1963, but Sandy Koufax struck out 306 and won the MVP that season.

In fact, as it turns out, no San Francisco Giants pitcher has ever managed this feat. The last NY Giant to do it was Bill Voiselle (who?) in 1944, against a WW2-weakened league. Last one before that was Carl Hubbell in 1937. Christy Mathewson led the league five times between 1903 and 1908.

Both Hubbell and Mathewson, of course, are Hall of Famers whose numbers have been retired by the Giants. Not that I'm saying Lincecum is a hall of famer. I'll wait at least one more season before starting that drumbeat.

Giants "developed" Dan Giese?

EliminateMe — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:06:15 -0000

In a bizarre, perhaps deadline-driven MLB story , David Biderman cites Dan Giese , recently called up by the Yankees, as proof of the Giants' strong farm system.

That would be the Dan Giese who played exactly one season in the Giants organization, at age 30, after playing eight seasons in the farm systems of Boston, San Diego and Philadelphia.

The article also comments on how Giese "has continued to show the talent he did last year in the Bay Area." For those of you who may have forgotten - I had - Giese pitched 9 1/3 innings for the Giants last September, going 0-2 with a 4.82 ERA. His peripherals were better than that indicates, but we're talking about less than 10 innings - and less than 10 so far this year with the Yankees.

Good for Giese making it back to the bigs, but I don't think the Giants can stake a claim to any success he might have.

Kawakami's Keepers

EliminateMe — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:48:09 -0000

Tim Kawakami, apparently working on a deadline so tight as to rule out actual thinking, has a piece in today's Mercury News listing the "keepers" for both the Giants and the A's. He concludes that the A's have a big advantage in "keepers", which apparently means players that Tim Kawakami likes.

For instance, you would think that Jonathan Sanchez, who is only 25, in his first season as a full-time starter, and is among the top 10 in the league in strikeouts, would be a keeper. But what does Kawakami have to say?

Jonathan Sanchez (no - good stuff, but he's averaging less than six innings per start)

True, he's averaging less than six innings per start. You know who else is averaging less than six innings per start? How about Oakland's Dana Eveland, Justin Duchscherer, and Rich Harden, all of whom made the "keepers" list.

Here's another keeper for the A's:

Daric Barton (not a great start, but the talent's there)

As contrasted with the Giants' first baseman:

John Bowker (proving he's a non-keeper)

Bowker: .269/.300/.452, 4 HRs

Barton: .221/.331/.322, 2 HRs

So by playing better than Barton, on a worse team, Bowker is proving that he's not as good?

Anway, he goes on to toss a bunch of players into one bucket or the other with a depth of analysis that rarely goes beyond "borderline yes" or "borderline no", and comes to the laughable conclusion that:

I counted everything that matters, and everything that will matter for a while.

Apparently, the only thing that really counts is the number of words Kawakami needed to turn in yesterday.

Steve Holm!

EliminateMe — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:49:31 -0000

Over in the Baron's Grizzly thread, hometownboy linked to this Chronicle profile of our backup catcher. As the article mentions, Holm really wasn't on my radar, so it's nice to find out a little about him.

In the few ABs I've seen from him, I've been pleasantly surprised by his approach. He looks pretty comfortable up there and seems to know what he's doing. He's not likely to sustain his .835 OPS over the season, but he has looked like he's prepared to face major league pitching.

Holm was an infielder in college, then converted to catcher in the minors. That helps explain his slow movement through the system. It also means he has some experience playing 3B, 1B, and even a few games at 2B, which is nice flexibility in case of emergency.

Sabean had this to say about him:

Early in spring training, for whatever reason, he seemed really confident. The coaches took notice, the pitching staff liked throwing to him and one thing led to another.

And Bochy weighs in:

He spends a lot of time preparing for the game and following the game plan well. He's more of a cerebral-type catcher. He's not just winging it back there.

Is that an implied contrast to Notgardo and/or GRod?

My favorite quote, though, is Holm's own about the difference between the minors and the majors:

Your pitchers can do a lot more. It makes it a little more fun to call a game because they can accomplish what you want them to do.

That reinforces Bochy's comment above, about Holm having a plan, but I also like the attitude, that he's having fun back there.

Poll

Where do you think Holm's ceiling is?

Minor leagues

8 votes

Career backup

81 votes

Interim starter until Sandoval is ready

32 votes

Multi season starter

13 votes

Future All-Star

3 votes

Future Hall of Famer

19 votes

156 votes | Poll has closed

Chulk Activated

EliminateMe — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:31:41 -0000

As expected, Vinnie Chulk came off the DL ~~today~~ and will be available for the St Louis series. (Update: He was actually activated Wednesday and pitched 2 innings. I are a idiot.)

As others on MCC have noted, Yabu was the ostensible long reliever, and replacing him with Chulk leaves nobody to fill that role. Chris Haft noticed too:

For the near future, if a starter gets knocked out early, the Giants won't have a likely candidate to turn to.

"Every day it could be somebody different," Bochy said.

Which is not really too surprising, considering that even when they did have a long reliever they used him in late game situations. I suspect they weren't too worried about overusing Yabu because they didn't expect to keep him long. But with nobody in the bullpen who's pitched longer than 2 innings this year, an early exit by a starter probably means a six-pitcher night.