SB Nation User Blog: tobias

Trading Matt Cain? (Poll)

tobias — Sun, 24 May 2009 19:38:59 -0000

For the second straight year, the Giants offense is completely toothless. They've spent the past season and a half at or near the bottom of the league in runs scored, home runs, pitches/at bat, BB, OBP, SLG, OPS, OMG, WTF, and BBQ. They have nothing even remotely similar to a genuine, consistent power hitter. Brian Sabean has brought in a new emphasis on speed and moving up runners, but the roster he has assembled continually fails in this aspect of the game.

Now, talk has begun that Sabean is in the market for a bona fide hitter. Matt Cain is being mentioned as someone Sabean might consider trading to bring in a real offensive threat. Clearly the Giants have to look outside their organization if they want to beef up their offense.

The question is, do we want to see Matt Cain traded in order to do that? And do we trust Brian Sabean to make a trade that will help the Giants?

Poll

On the topic of trading Matt Cain...

He shouldn't be traded under any circumstances.

131 votes

I'm not against trading him, but I don't trust Brian Sabean to make a good trade.

170 votes

I'm in favor of trading him now, while his value is high, and have confidence that Sabean and his braintrust can pull off a good deal.

42 votes

343 votes | Poll has closed

Renteria says "Hello DL"?

tobias — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:47:53 -0000

"Juan Uribe receives word that he'll be getting a lot more playing time as a result of the injury to Edgar Renteria. And someone shoves a trumpet in his face."

If Edgar Renteria goes to the DL with his hamstring injury, who picks up the slack? Last night we talked about the idea of Emmanuel Burriss moving over to short and Kevin Frandsen being called up. I'd be happy if this happened, but I don't think it will. Burriss has worked hard to get comfortable at second base. I don't think the Giants will want to mess with that.

I almost sort of picture Bruce Bochy thinking long and hard about giving Rich Aurilia a week of starts at short, just to "get Richie going". This would be unfortunate, since the only use of the phrase "get Richie going" should be in relation to helping him clear out his locker, or giving him a ride to the airport.

I think Juan Uribe gets slotted in at shortstop until Renteria comes back. Burriss stays at second base and Eugenio Velez maybe gets a turn or two as Burriss' backup.The result: there's really no need to call up another middle infielder to replace Renteria.

OK, so who replaces Renteria, then? If it was up to me, I'd bring up what the Giants need most--more than another middle infielder, more than another relief pitcher...a hitter. Why not use this as an opportunity to call up Jesus Guzman? Give him a few starts at first base, particularly against LH pitching, see how he is progressing defensively, give him a few pinch hit opportunities. The Giants get to add a badly needed bat, (taking away a lot of AB's from Aurilia in the process), and they still have Ishi for late-inning defense. It's low-risk, potentially high reward.

That's what I'd like to see them do.

Wow Teemu...Bitter much?

tobias — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:36:58 -0000

Wow Teemu...Bitter much?

Teemu Selanne seemed to have a need to go out of his way to send a little disrespect Yevgeni Nabokov's way.

From the linked OC Register article:

"...Despite plenty of pressure on Nabokov, including eight shots during two third-period, power-play opportunities, the closest the Ducks came to scoring was a Teemu Selanne shot from low in the right-wing circle that clanged off the far goal post near the 17-minute mark.

"It was just one of those nights when the goalie was standing on his head," Selanne said. "He’s a good goalie, but not that good."

First off, I had to laugh at Selanne hitting the pipe with that shot late in the third period. Hey, at least he's improving. It's not like he completely missed an open net at a key moment in a playoff game vs. Detroit, right?

But thought his little snipe at Nabokov was pretty childish for someone who is supposed to be one of the class acts of the NHL.

BSG Feature at Mays Field

tobias — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:36:19 -0000

I got an email from my friend Gar, who has gained a little bit of notoriety this past year as "Batting Stance Guy". He's been on MLB Network a bit lately.

Anyway, the Giants are going to have a "Guess the Stance" feature between innings on JumboTron this season, and Gar asked if I could help him get the McCoven's esteemed input on the following two questions:

1) Who are your favorite current Giants' hitters? (Top two or three)

Mine = Bengie, KF Panda and FLew

2) Which current Giants have the most weirdest, most memorable, most unique stances and swings? Here I'd go with Richie (with fake bunt), Winn and Bengie.

Please help out and post your answers to these two questions. Thanks...

Giants promote Evans, Shelley

tobias — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:07:17 -0000

Giants promote Evans, Shelley

More evidence that Sabean and the Giants are embracing the ways of Sabermetrics.

Batting Stance Guy on MLB Network

tobias — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 00:42:19 -0000

My friend Gar sent me a link for a piece he did on MLB Network recently. It's fun to see these stances shot in a studio with clear picture and different camera angles, instead of just the usual fuzzy youtube video shot in the backyard from a single camera. I also enjoy the way he interacts with Harold Reynolds and Mitch Williams. Dude seems really at ease.

Look for three ex-Giants: Jack Clark, Ryan Klesko and Joe Carter. He does both a "Braves Klesko" and a "West Coast Klesko", and the "West Coast Klesko" pretty much captures the famous "Klesko pose" shot that used to grace MCC when Klesko was a Giant in '07. Watching him do Carter's HR in <em>front of Mitch Williams</em> is pretty surreal. Then he turns around and does a creditable Mitch Williams. Pitching Stance Guy. Williams seems like a good sport and looked like he really enjoyed it.

Not sure what's up with the MLB Net guys and their matching sweat suits. Looks like they're in some weird cult or something.

Travis Denker's Bat

tobias — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 20:01:33 -0000

For the last several years, I've played in a softball league. Last season, I noticed one of the guys on my team started wearing a Giants cap. This is Orange County, so it always merits a comment when someone else (besides me) sports a Giants lid. Anyway, he tells me that a friend of his is the father of a guy in the Giants' farm system. I ask him who, and he says "Travis Denker".

Fast forward to about a month ago, when the Giants released Denker, and I'm lamenting with my friend about what an idiot Brian Sabean is, to let a bonafide middle infield bat get away when middle infield bats (well...bats in general, really) are in such short supply with the Giants. So my friend, goes, "Hey, you want one of his bats? Now that he's on the Padres, he's not going to need his SF Giants model bats." I go, "Yeah, sure, that'd be awesome." So last week, my friend drops by my house and hands me this brand new Travis Denker Louisville Slugger. It's really a nice looking bat--blond maple, real smooth, with the hollowed out end. And it's autographed.

Pretty sweet--oh, what might've been!

via i102.photobucket.com

Timmy Winning Player-voted Awards: Priceless

tobias — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:32:50 -0000

I was very excited to see Tim Lincecum win the Players' Choice award for Outstanding Pitcher, and the Sporting News Pitcher of the Year award. These player-voted awards are far more meaningful, in my book, than the Cy Young.

The players pay much closer attention, in my opinion. They watch each others' performances over the course of the whole season, not just in September. Most of the players have the added advantage of having actually stood in a batters box (often multiple times) against each pitcher in question.

And players, for the most part, have a much better idea of what makes a dominant, outstanding pitcher than the scribes and talking heads on TV do. And this was Lincecum's first full season. Players didn't just vote for him from reputation, the way they may have voted for perennial award winners in the past. He earned this.

The tried and true BBWAA process for voting the Cy Young works more like this:

- STEP ONE (April-August): Watch "Big Name" pitchers and Yankee/Red Sox pitchers. Ignore everyone else.

- STEP TWO (September--compile list of 2-3 "Finalists"): 1) Peruse stats page in sports section; see who is leading the league in Wins, ERA, Strikeouts and Saves. 2) Add in best pitcher from a contending team. 3) Add in any aforementioned "Big Name/East Coast" pitchers. 4) Ask sportswriter pals who they are voting for.

- STEP THREE (October): Vote for whoever has the best outing in their final appearance of the season.

Great job Timmeh!

Who will be the first Giant to reach 10 HRs?

tobias — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:33:42 -0000

Which San Francisco Giant will be the first to reach 10 HRs this season?

It's a scintillating race; albeit one in which the contestants all seem to have forgotten where the finish line is. But eventually, one would think, someone will reach that rarefied air of double figures in home runs. Why is it so important that FanPosts be 75 words long? Beats me. I always thought that brevity was the soul of wit.

Who will it be?

Poll

Who will be the first Giant to reach 10 HRs?

Rich Aurilia

5 votes

John Bowker

62 votes

Fred Lewis

51 votes

Bengie Molina

9 votes

Aaron Rowand

54 votes

No Giant will hit 10 HRs this year; in fact the Giants will fail to hit another HR the rest of the season.

36 votes

217 votes | Poll has closed

Giants All-Star Pitching (GASP) Updated

tobias — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:42:12 -0000

A few All-Star games ago, SF Chronicle baseball writer John Shea wrote the following:

"No Giants pitcher has had success in an All-Star Game since Carl Hubbell."

Given the Giants' more recent All-Star pitching history, it's understandable that Shea would see things in an entirely negative light. But this remark was so howlingly off the mark that I feel an almost annual compulsion to deride it and refute it. The fact is, until Atlee Hammaker arrived on the All-Star scene in 1983, the Giants had a rather remarkable record of success in All-Star Game pitching.

Since moving to SF in 1958, Giants pitchers have compiled a 6-3 record, with an ERA of 4.18 (26 ER in 56 IP). However, a closer look at the record book reveals three distinct eras of SF Giants' All-Star Pitching performances: The first, I call the "Marichal Era" from 1958-71. Second is the transitional "Vida Era" from 1972-82. And then there's that period of time I like to call the "Atlee Era", extending from 1983 to present.

During the "Marichal Era", from 1958-71, Giants' pitchers went 5-0, and allowed just 4 ER in 35.1 IP, for a 1.02 ERA. Marichal, for his part, was remarkable--allowing just one earned run in his eight All-Star appearances, covering 18 innings of work.

One other thing--Stu Miller's '61 outing at the Candlestick Park All-Star game is often cited as another example of "The Curse". But check out Miller's line from that game: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K. And he was the winning pitcher. Stu went on to toss three more scoreless innings in the *second* All-Star Game that year, at Fenway Park (that game ended in a 1-1 tie). Miller's very impressive '61 All-Star totals: 4.2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K. In the years prior to the "Atlee Era", Giants' pitchers were 6-0, with a 1.43 ERA (7 ER in 44 IP).

Little did Atlee Hammaker know when he took the mound in Comiskey Park on that fateful night in 1983, that he was about to usher in a stretch where Giants pitchers would go 0-3, with an ERA of 20.86. The Atlee Era also was marked by the first instance of an SF Giant being the losing pitcher in an All-Star game (Jeff Brantley,'90).

Out of their first ten "Atlee Era" appearances, Giants pitchers emerged unscored upon in just two of them (Mike Krukow in '86 and Rod Beck in '94). A sign that the Atlee Era may be ending: With Brian Wilson's performance in last night's All-Star game following Jason Schmidt's two scoreless innings in 2003, the Giants now have consecutive scoreless All-Star pitching appearances for the first time since 1982 (just prior to the Atlee Era).

My conclusion is that Giants' pitchers are not cursed. They are merely suffering through the "Atlee Era"--a bad stretch which hopefully will soon come to a conclusion, and give way to another good era.

Here are the numbers:

'58: Antonelli (DNP)
'59 (1): Antonelli 0.1 IP, 0 ER (WP)
'59 (2): Sam Jones 2 IP, 0 ER
'60 (1): McCormick 2.1 IP, 0 ER
'60 (2): McCormick (DNP)
'61 (1): McCormick 3 IP, 1 ER / Miller 1.2, 0 ER (WP)
'61 (2): Miller 3 IP, 0 ER
'62 (1): Marichal 2 IP, 0 ER (WP)
'62 (2): Marichal 2 IP, 1 ER
'63: Marichal (DNP)
'64: Marichal 1 IP, 0 ER (WP)
'65: Marichal 3 IP, 0 ER
'66: Marichal 3 IP, 0 ER / Perry 2 IP, 0 ER (WP)
'67: Marichal 3 IP, 0 ER
'68: Marichal 2 IP, 0 ER
'69: Marichal (DNP)
'70: Perry 2 IP, 2 ER
'71: Marichal 2 IP, 0 ER
'76: Montefusco 2 IP, 0 ER
'77: Lavelle 2 IP, 0 ER
'78: Blue 3 IP, 3 ER
'80: Whitson (DNP)
'81: Blue 1 IP, 0 ER (WP)
'82: Minton 0.2 IP, 0 ER
'83: Atlee 0.2 IP, 7 ER / Lavelle (DNP)
'85: Garrelts (DNP)
'86: Krukow 1 IP, 0 ER
'88: Reuschel (DNP)
'89: Reuschel 1 IP, 2 ER
'90: Brantley 0.1 IP, 2 ER (LP)
'93: Burkett 0.2 IP, 3 ER (LP) / Beck 1 IP, 1 ER
'94: Beck 1.2 IP, 0 ER
'97: Estes 1 IP, 2 ER (LP) / Beck (DNP)
'98: Nen 1 IP, 1 ER
'99: Nen (DNP)
'02: Nen 1 IP, 1 ER
'03: Schmidt 2 IP, 0 ER
'04: Schmidt (DNP)
'06: Schmidt (DNP)
'08: Wilson 0.2 IP, 0 ER

"Marichal Era" (1958-71): 5-0, 35.1 IP, 4 ER, 1.02 ERA
"Vida Era" (1972-82): 1-0, 8.2 IP, 3 ER, 3.12 ERA
"Pre-Atlee Era" (1958-82): 6-0, 44 IP, 7 ER, 1.43 ERA
"Atlee Era" (1983-present): 0-3, 12 IP, 19 ER, 14.25 ERA

GASP Totals: 6-3, 56 IP, 26 ER, 4.18 ERA

Juan Marichal - All-Star totals: 18 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 9 SO, 2-0 W-L 0.50 ERA