This is the kind of thing that gets to me.  YOU ARE GIANTS FANS.    There is no hope, no salvation, no light at the end of the tunnel (maybe an on rushing K-Ingleside with an unconscious driver...).    Remember 2003?  2002? 2000? 1997? 1993?  1989?  1987?  1962????

It's hopeless.  We are doomed to have our spirits crushed.  Again.  Further.  Just when you thought that there was nothing left to crush.

This team (2009) cannot hit.   It has one great starter and one damn good one.  The back of the rotation is shaky, and the bullpen is way over it's head.   If we do make a move, you can guarentee it will destroy the future team and probably not work.

Now let's BRING BACK THE PESSIMISM!

Remember that car commercial where that guy is driving with his buddy who catches him with the "Play: Micheal Bolton"?

This post is inspired by the "indy rock gods" thread posted a couple days ago... I bring you the flip side.  Which is the single most indefensible, indy-rock-cred shattering musical guilty pleasure that you have?

NON-IRONICALLY.  And I am not talking stuff that could be considered vaguely retro nostalgia cool, like Def Leppard, or Loverboy, or Pat Benatar (what?  yes, speak up, I am old).    Not even "Bad" by MJ, which has some (albeit little) coolness factor, or Manowar or Gwar or something intentional/unintentionally funny.

I am talking the pop music equivalent of Air Bud 2: Golden Receiver.  And you have to really like the song too... as in put it on a mix CD and sign aloud in the car on the way to work like I did this morning (alone of course).

Since I know that it's going to come up, I am not sure if Disco counts.  It might count depending on your age bracket.  If I asked this ~10-15 years ago, Disco would definitly be in the "super lame" category, but I think it's been given new respect in the Millennium.

Oh, and I have a *great* one.  So great that I am going to make you wait for it.   I will post my bombshell after I get 25 (for Barry!) from you dudes.  Not that I have any indy rock cred... but still

EDIT: I forgot the best part... I am sure that such an outpouring of embarassment will be awesome karma for the Giants going forward in 2009.  So if you don't pony up, you hate the Giants!!!

Hey MCC I am looking for 2 tickets - good seats if you got 'em -  for the Wednesday day game 9/9 after labor day weekend vs. the Podracers. 

I would use stubhub, but I am annoyed at them for the moment.   I am especially interested in section 75, 75 is probably the best section of all the sections.   That or 109.  I hear 109 is a good section.  Seriously, looking for lower box something on the order of $30-$50 per.

(originally appeared in Gameday thread part II of postponed RJ 300 game @ Nats)

Your! 2009 Giants Drinking game.

Get an alcoholic beverage. Define a “drink” and a “chug”. A chug should equal 1 12 oz. beer, 1 shot of hard liquor, or 1 4 oz. glass of wine. There are approximately 10 drinks to a chug. Feel free to alter to your taste/liver/probability of getting up in the morning.

Take a drink whenever: 

• Any Giants player swings at the first pitch
  
• Any Giants player hits into a double play
• Any Giants pitcher walks a batter
• Rich Aurillia fakes a bunt
  
• Sandoval hits a ball no where near the strike zone
• Brian Wilson puts the lead of man on.
• Fred Lewis looks at strike 3

Chug a drink whenever

• Bochy Double switches
• Velez gets picked off (sadly no longer on roster)
• Molina or Sandoval draws a walk
• Aaron Rowand runs into something
• Burriss gets an extra base hit- Giants get a runner to third with no outs and fail to score
• Molina or Sandoval hit a triple (or inside the parker!)
• Schierholtz gets into a game
•  Giants get a runner to third with no outs and fail to score

OK, this is wierd.  I am going to make a defense of the Sabean De-Boch-able that is the April 2009 25 man roster.  Also - the original thread hit 1200 comments and is busted like a Dravecky Wing.

Consider that I am highly critical of Sabean's (and a lesser extent, Boch's) decisions WHEN THERE IS EVIDENCE that they are wrong.  That means, if a decision is a scouting or coaching decision, I have no choice but to shrug and hope they know what they are doing.  I also do not care, nor take as evidence, anything said to or by the media that is not independently verifiable.  Finally, I am totally ignoring spring stats, as they are utterly meaningless.

In order of MCC outrage:

6th and 7th Relievers:  What ever.  It's a shit sandwich and we all have to take a bite.

Burriss over Frandsen.   Well, I think it's clear that 1 should start and the other should start in AAA.  THIS POINT IS KEY.  Because if you have both on the ML roster, then many of the shenanigans below don't make sense.  They both need the reps.   I cannot imagine the 2009 Manny out hitting the 2009 Kevvie but I suppose it could be close enough that Burriss' defense (and we certainly could use IF defense) is the deciding factor.  So, "meh" but have little hard evidence other than Burriss projects to a .300 wOBA and Frandsen  a .318 or so.  It's certainly possible that defense closes this gap by a lot, and neither of these guys have reliable def. stats.

Bench  - Other than the guys guarenteed to make the team:

Uribe: wOBA(avg proj) .300

Velez: wOBA (avg proj) .317

Torres: wOBA (avg proj) .313

Aurillia: wOBA (avg proj) .319

Uribe can play 3B/SS/2B.  Aurillia can play 3B/1B.  Velez "2B/LF".  Torres: OF

None of these guys are prospects, and another year in AAA doesn't really do squat for them.  I would have put Phelps or maybe even Bowker on the the team instead of Aurillia - but perhaps their 1B defense is really unacceptable poor.  In any case, one will come up if Ishikawa commits suppuku with the bat.   Note that if you cut Aurillia, you cannot get him back (no way he goes to AAA), and that leaves only Pablo and Uribe as 3B.    You could take Guzman instead... but he can't play D and is probably well served with some glove/bat time at AAA.

Uribe also backs up SS/2B... but that leaves only 1 back up MI.  Enter Velez.  He's only going to play 2B if 2 of Burriss/Renteria/Uribe are down, and the other is playing 2B...   There are also some (extra inning?) shenanigans where Aurillia is playing 1B, Pablo C, Uribe 3B, Burris/Rent/ SS and Velez is needed to play 2B.

So what it comes down to is Torres vs. Holm vs. X.    I don't have a problem AT ALL with Sandoval playing C.  He should play all the C his chunky lil' body can handle.  He is only going to be a star at C, he will never be more than a solid regular at 1B/3B because his bat isn't that good and neither is his IF defense (this is just a guess, btw so please don't argue... the fact remains no matter how good a 3B he is, he will be a better Catcher, relative to his peers, if he can stick at the position).

The only "problem" with Pablo as Bengie's primary backup is that you can't give them both the same "off" day.    You *can* PH for Bengie, and slide Pablo over (down?) anytime you want, because you have a couple other guys who can play 3B.

So really - would you rather have Holm on the bench than Torres?  Keep in mind that Holm has about 1 whole season of PAs - TOTAL - in the last 3 years.  And Velez isn't really a back up OF - he's the 3rd string 2B and pinch runner.  Now, does Torres defense suck?  I dunno.  But I bet it's better than Holm's OF defense!   Or Velez' for that matter.  Would I rather have Bowker or Phelps than Torres?  Sure.  I suspect what is going on is that someone on GINTS BRASS decided to take the "statement" that "AT&T really has two centerfields" to heart, and refuses to play a mediocre corner OF in RF.  So while Winn and Rowand can both play CF - the other is needed to play RF.  Lewis is probably the worst of the 3, so he can sub at RF in a pinch if the other two are down... but then we need someone to play CF - and that has to be Torres.

Now - there are other solutions - mostly involving Frandsen, but if you start from the assumption that one of Burriss and Frandsen goes to AAA... the roster they came up with is not really that wacky.

Finally - I COMMEND Giants' brass for thinking a little outside the box here and not going with the obvious "back up catcher wasting 25th spot"

The Redsox just traded Coco Crisp to the Royals for relief pitcher Ramon Ramirez.  Crisp is like a younger, slightly worse Randy Winn.  He is due <$6M next year with a small ($500K) buyout for 2010.

Marcel projects Crisp with a .321 wOBA and Winn with a .329 (both.8+ reliability).  I think Winn is probably the better defender, but it's hard to say because Crisp usually plays more CF.  Still, he's certainly cheaper and younger than Winn.

Ramirez is a solidly average bullpen arm.