My beautiful and talented wife was at a preschool open house today.

On the wall there was list of the children's reactions to hearing a jazz record.

Child 1: I do not like jazz. It was scary and made my ears hurt. Why was there no singing?

 

Child 2: There was no singing because they were sick.

 

...

 

Child 3: There was no singing because they died.

Full disclosure: none of these is my child, but he has met Child 1.

Because, why not.  See the beta at www.McWhiskyChronicles.com

Thanks:

PocketfullofPoseys for the original idea

bgunn for suggesting we swoop

yoyomonster for volunteering as editor (and appreciating P3-laptop-on-the-dresser hosting)

cornball for the superlative haiku

Yoyomonster and cornball, please contact me for your login infos.  Anyone else who'd like to write about whisky, whiskey, Champagne, whisky or whisky, please drop a like as well.

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It is very clear that those since Sept 12 are not just a random sample of his sliders. Since then his sliders have been noticeably faster, about 3mph. His other pitches -- fastballs, change ups and curves -- are only about 0.2 mph faster in since then. So it does look like the new grip has resulted in a new, faster slider. Since that date he has also thrown the slider much more often.

From a nifty article by Dave Allen at Baseball Analysts.  Read the whole thing.  Click it.  Click!

via www.laundertakers.com

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Really.  Freaking love it.  I mean, who doesn't?

So, Jason Heyward and Rick Porcello.

Heyward is the guy I wanted at #10 instead of Bumgarner back when.  Not that Mr. Bumgarner was so much a bad pick as, y'know, really, more pitching?  All he's done so far (after crushing the Sallie League last year, which granted Bumgarner did himself) is hit .325/.438/.650 in the pitcher's paradise that is the Florida State Leage.

Go ahead, Sabean lovers, say it with me: "small sample size, small sample size, small.." and reach for the brown paper bag.  If some internet crank like I could see it, what was keeping the Giants brain trust?

And then there's Porcello.  Alderson was a fine prospect, but the only think keeping the team from a much, much better prospect were bonus demands.  Nothing personal, but screw bonus demands.  This is a team blowing $20m a year on Barry Zito.  Leaving Porcello lie for want of $10m (and I bet they could have had him for less; taking a year off doesn't help you make the big bucks down the line, y'know?) was just stupid.  I mean, Timmy 2 is fine, but he's in high A.  Porcello is in the majors today.

Now, I am as big an idiot as Sabean in my way.  Brackman or Smoker don't look too hot right now.  But still, on Heyward and Porcello, I think I look pretty good.

Yeah, it's short-season A ball, and he's a four-year college player who's only two years younger than Matt Cain and didn't even make it out of rookie ball last year.  Still, you have to give the man props.  His line tonight: 7 innings, 7 strikeouts, 7 ground balls, 7 fly balls.  No walks, no hits, no wild pitches, no nothing.  And his season thus far looks pretty impressive: 29 innings, 27 strikeouts, 8 hits, 2 home runs, 3 runs total.

He has not walked a batter.  Including last year, he has walked one (1) batter in 45 professional innings.  It's like he saw wood bats and said to himself, I can just pound the strike zone against these things.  (His walk rates in college are fine, but nothing like this.)

I'm a sucker for these names.  50th rounders don't usually go anywhere (Brian Horwitz, who went undrafted, has managed a cup of coffee), but after performances like tonight's, you have to give it up.

So, go Mike Loree.  Tonight, you are the man.

Now, I liked Pablo Sandoval last year.  Not as a real prospect, but as someone interesting.  He played catcher, at least sometimes, and after he hit 338/346/581 in June and 304/309/543 in July at age 21, I figured, hey -- even in the Cal League, a name worth watching.

This year, he wasn't promoted, then hit like Babe Ruth in April.  Et voila, he was, perhaps justly, seen as a real prospect in a system almost entirely bare of hitters.  Promote the man now, cried the assembled masses.  He's clearly too good for high A.

Since that incredible April, he hit a merely solid 321/385/431 in May and a disappointing 243/263/378 in the short portion of June we've played.  Neither of which worries me.  Both of which remind me that anything can happen in a hundred plate appearances.

Now, Sandoval did step up in the spring and 453/500/895 for a month.  That's a good thing, and portends more hope for future performance than a Giants fan can usually expect from a non-overaged hitter in its farm system.  I have hopes.  Still, until he puts up more months like that, there's no rush to promote him, and he won't be much of a hitting prospect outside this very thin system.