SB Nation User Blog: natteringnabob

Your California League-Leading SJ Giants

natteringnabob — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:05:27 -0000

Your California League-Leading SJ Giants

Neal hits his 13th HR! Tied for 1st after beating VIS tonight.

PS. If CT staff is reading this blog, this team is terrible and you do not want any of these players. They can go about their business. Move along.

PPS. If Brain and the BRASS!!1111! are reading, you do not want these players on your roster tomorrow, skipping two levels of minor league play.

Something Special in SJ Tonight...

natteringnabob — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 06:30:35 -0000

I don't want to take away from the inevitable minor league thread, but I went to my first SJ game tonight and am too excited to sleep yet. For all of you that have posted advice about the games in various forms, eternal thanks. The churros are very tasty, and there is (sorry for the cliche) fun for the whole family. It is very low key but that just heightens the excitement of watching these kids I have heard so much about and listened to a few times.

Anyway, something pretty special happened, besides a great night at the park. Take a look at this box score and see if you can spot something very special:

SJ 5, Modesto 2

If you didn't see anything out of the ordinary, go back and look at the pitchers' line.

No hitter through 5, and he only struck out the beer batter twice among the carnage. (Interestingly, the beer batter becomes the "apple juice batter" after alcohol sales stop, which is pretty funny... people actually did run down to buy half-priced Martinelli's).

Other random observations: Posey was DH, so Lowenstein "caught". The line is very charitable to him as he dropped I dunno how many third strikes or foul tips, and in the first inning did so enough to get a batter all the way to third. On the other hand, Modesto's catcher Wilin Rosario for Modesto played a very fine game and seems to have a painfully accurate and powerful ~~arm~~ cannon. Bocock was 0 for 4 with a K and a couple of miscellaneous fielding miscues that seem not to have made the official scorecard. Edlefson pitched a powerful 9th inning. Neal got nothing much to hit all night; I'm surprised he only ended with one walk because he got nothing but head-high or in the dirt most of the time until he almost killed the pitcher with a rocket late in the game. Posey and Kieschnick also got little much to work with. Villalona looked a litle like Pablo, digging himself into 0-2 counts every at bat and then working them full.

A great night of baseball, largely because I went expecting to see neighborhood windows menaced by ZOMG DINGERZ and instead watched a young man just mow down a team.

If some of you have a chance you might pop out on the homestand before they ship more of these guys to CT.

Player-Umpires?

natteringnabob — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:46:36 -0000

Player-Umpires?

I thought this was pretty interesting, another cool aspect of MILB. Click through to the original April story, where the author talks to a couple of the player/umpires about their experience.

MLB Quick Pitch says Matt Cain is "on the block"

natteringnabob — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:03:21 -0000

MLB Quick Pitch says Matt Cain is "on the block"

I don't have a link- just saw this on the show

I know there have been a thousand of these "rumors", but I thought this one was worth bringing to your attention, to help keep a running count. The context was a discussion of players generally "available" or unavailable, and after discussing Sanchez as generally available, Jon Heyman said "there are GMs out there" that have said that Matt Cain may "become" available too.

I suppose the "sources" could be the scurrilous rumors already posted here, but passing it along for whatever it's worth.

Livan Hernandez= complete game

natteringnabob — Wed, 27 May 2009 01:53:40 -0000

Livan Hernandez= complete game

He pitched great, almost as if it were game 7 of a World Series...

OT: Tony Kornhole departing MNF

natteringnabob — Tue, 19 May 2009 04:20:02 -0000

OT: Tony Kornhole departing MNF

It's very interesting... I developed a horrible case of Kornheiserophobia a few years ago which prevented me from watching MNF. Now, it seems his fear of flying will cure my irrational fears of being drowned in craptastical blather every Monday evening.

New MLB Stadium too Hitter Friendly?

natteringnabob — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 23:57:00 -0000

New MLB Stadium too Hitter Friendly?

In the Fox Mandatory MLB Ballgame...
Red Sux 13, Yankees 11, 8th inning

That new Yankee Stadium is really a problem... hope the fences are moved out next year as the new weather across the parking lot is really tough on the Yanks pitching...

ACME Chophouse: No Cha Cha Bowl On Menu

natteringnabob — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:13:51 -0000

ACME Chophouse: No Cha Cha Bowl On Menu

I suspect no posters here spend this kind of loot for pre-game food, but I could be wrong. In any event, I'm glad to know I haven't missed anything there.

Early work for Giants works wonders

natteringnabob — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 01:08:05 -0000

Early work for Giants works wonders

Re "wonders": I do no think it means wha you thin it means

/inigo

What Happened to Archived Minor League audio?

natteringnabob — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 15:42:39 -0000

What Happened to Archived Minor League audio?

For the past couple of years, I've enjoyed listening to random minor league games on weekend mornings, since even the most attention-challenged of us can't listen to SJ and Fresno and SF (and eventually Salem-Keizer) all at the same time.

I've looked around MiLB.com and can't seem to find it. There used to be hotlinks on the schedule, but those seem to only refer to the .tv application now.

Any ideas? Is it buried somewhere on the site or is there another application somewhere that's taken over? SJ and Fresno don't seem to post archived games, which is too bad since I'd think they don't really take up too much space (even if they were podcasts that could be downloaded, unlike the old streaming application they had).

Thanks to any who read this far...