The Giants got a Quality Start from Tim Lincecum, but Ian Kennedy shut down the Giants offense. That's about all you can say about this game. Key Lines:
Gregor Blanco- 2 for 3, 3B, BB. BA= .289. Blanco got on base but made a key error that led to the unearned first run of the game for the D'Backs. He also got CS.
Ryan Theriot- 2 for 4. BA= .203. Theriot seems to be winning a job as the starting 2B and #2 hitter.
Melky Cabrera- 1 for 4. BA= .373. Melky ended up tied with Randy Winn for the most hits in a month in SF Giants history. Kind of a meaningless stat, if you really think about it. Just stay hot, Melky!
Tim Lincecum- 7 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 5.82 Timmy still had come command issues but he battled through them and ended up with a QS. I still think he will come around and reel off a run of QS's.
The Giants remained 5.5 games behind the Dodgers in second place in the NL West despite the loss as the Dodgers also lost to the BrewCrew 6-3. Matt Kemp tweaked his hammy again and came out of their game early.
The Giants get tomorrow off after playing 20 consecutive games. Madison Bumgarner will pitch the first game a of 4 game series vs the Cubs on Friday evening facing Paul Maholm. The Cubbies come in on a 3 game winning streak albeit against the Pathetic Padres.
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let me be the first to give my condolences to mr kemp.....hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha....eff him...eff the bums...hope his leg falls off and hits tommy right in his fat behind
ReplyDeletemeaningless stat? sure, it was in sept of whatever when winn did it, during meaningless games...this is may, and melky basically carried a giants team trying to find its way...did you see melky's big smile
belt did it again...tried to milk a walk out of a ball thrown right down the middle..sorry, i dont like the guy...i honestly preferred craw's at bat, where he fought to a 3-2 count then k'd swinging on one of those fb ladder pitches....
dont like belt...wont like him if he becomes a star...so there
what the hell is on roberts neck and why is that allowed not to be covered up?
guess riot really was injured...he looks ok now...but if he is the starting 2nd baseman...sabes is gonna make a trade
Feel bad for Kemp. I really like him as a player. Don't feel bad for the Dodgers though. They need bad things to happen to them. I guess I can reconcile that by saying if some player somewhere in baseball has to have chronic hammy problems, might as well be the Dodgers best player.
DeleteNot sure why you don't like Belt. I'd like nothing better than for him to get red hot and become the player he appears to be capable of becoming. It looked like he was late on the fastball all night. Kennedy isn't exactly as soft tosser, but he ain't exactly a flamethrower either. If Belt can't catch up to Kennedy's heater, then I'm not sure whose heater he can catch up to. I mean, THAT is a big problem! Kruk and Kuip keep talking about him "wrapping". Not sure what that means, but I'm going to guess he pulls the bat back behind his head as he starts his swing and that makes it way too long. It may be so ingrained in him he could be aware of it and be trying to correct it, but just can't help himself. If that is the case, or if he's just being stubborn, I would say he needs to go down and work on it in Fresno.
Too early to tell on a 2B trade. I doubt Sabes makes a deal before July. That gives Riot a month to get something going and there may be bigger needs by then, like 1B.
Arias moves to 2B when Pablo comes back. Let The Riot get his sea legs now so he can be useful the rest of the year. Riot becomes back up 2B, plays when Panda needs a day off and Arias plays 3B. Also Riot becomes a "red ass" vet PH off the bench.
DeleteSo go Riot for now, beats watching Burriss flailing away.
w
DrB,
DeleteIt seems to me that Belt doesn't really follow through with his swing. I'm not sure if it is just the way his swing works or what, but it does seem that he only follows through like 3/4 of the way. I'd like to see him succeed, but his swing doesn't always inspire confidence. I hope we all feel much better about him a month or so (if not sooner). Maybe Belt should work with Barry. ;)
Yeah, I agree on Belt being late. Seems like all year he's fouling off to the left side. When he's driving the ball, it's in the left-center alley.
DeletePlease dear God, no Bonds. See my rantings on game threads a few days ago. Bonds served us well on the field. Let's, please, just leave it there.
Belt might do well to make a phone call to Bautista. I read a Sports Illustrated article on Bautista early last season. He more or less said that the key to his (late in his career) success was "starting my swing earlier." He didn't really elaborate into the particulars, and of course it's not as easy as that.
But, I'm starting to see what all the concern is over him being tentative. He is. Drop the head on the ball. Swing with authority. I think by trying to be selective and swing at strikes, he screwing up his timing on fastballs
Bacci, if Belt goes ahead and becomes a star, you'll like him. Problem with that is, Belt seems to be regressing. What happened to the HRs?????
Good point on Bautista. The Giants should do everything possible to try and make Belt work. Belt has all the raw materials: his big and strong and has a good eye at the plate. They just need to help him find a swing or approach that puts all of that together. It's too early to give up on him yet, though.
DeleteTK,
DeleteYeah, Belt defintely has a funny looking swing right now. I think he's compensating for his long swing by pulling his arms in and chopping at the ball. Not that it would solve all his problems, but I think he needs to choke up on the bat by a good 2 inches and/or back off the plate a bit. You can see that on any pitch in the inside half of the plate, he has to pull his arms way in to have any hope of getting anything but the bat handle or his fists on the ball. His arms are so long, he could choke up and back off the plate a bit and still cover the outside half of the plate.
Bochy rarely does this, so I was surprised, but having The Riot bunt after Kennedy had walked Timmy and Blanco in the 6th was a bad, bad move. Squandered a big opp. Especially with The Riot swinging the bat well. Make Kennedy throw some strikes, eh? For a guy with a bad fielding rep, Theriot has been making some nice plays. I'll always take the guy who makes the plays over the athlete with more range but more clank (looking at you Burriss).
ReplyDeleteBaggs in his chat hinted that it would be Pill going down when Pablo gets back. I think it'll finally be Burriss. The Giants have tons of rope for the guy, its got to come to an end at some point.
Missed a big opportunity to get going last night and gain on the bums. Now we have the resurgent cubs for 4. I guess my only other observation is with the Hairstons starting to age, did they transfer their mojo to Goldschmidt? Timmy wasn't great, but he avoided the big inning. I just wish he'd throw outside pitches to Goldschmidt. At this point Lincecum and the Giants are keeping him in the majors. Oh, and Edlefsen gas canned it up but good, but everybody saw that coming a mile away.
I thought the bunt call for Riot was a good call. He didn't execute and that's not OK for a lifetime #2 hitter type.
DeleteNot sure what everybody is up in arms over Edlefsen for. He had a 2.70 ERA coming in. Romo and Casilla were probably not available and Hensley had pitched the 2 previous games. Not sure who else you put out there.
Romo has slight injury per CSN, will be rested until Friday.
DeleteGiving away an out in the 6th? After Tim Lincecum drew a walk? Can't agree on this one Doc.
DeleteRe Edlefsen I'd say Affeldt would be a nice candidate. He got squeezed on the leadoff walk a bit. Shane Loux? This is the problem with Wilson going down, the pen gets rearranged and the depth, which is a huge advantage, gets weakened. I would not be surprised if Sabean is more concerned with his RH 6-7th inning guy than securing a 2B on the open market.
You could see that Goldschmidt was charging hard on Theriots bunt attempt. Yeah, might have been a nice time to butcher-boy it. As a 3rd baseman from way back, nothing is quite as thrilling as having a guy pull back a bunt while I'm in mid charge. Slows your roll right the hell down...
DeleteIn most circumstances, I am not a fan of sac bunts. In a close game that is likely to be decided by a run or two, I would gladly give up the out to move two runners from first and second to second and third.
DeleteAs for the execution, Doen't matter if Goldschmidt is charging. That bunt has to go down the 3B line forcing the 3B to field it. Riot got it too far away from the 3B line so Kennedy could field it and have an easy throw to 3B.
Bacci is right, Belt has shown nothing to make us believe he will eventually be productive. Sabes should have seen Moneyball before drafting him, there was that one scene where Billy didn't want to draft a guy because he had an ugly girlfriend which equals no self confidence. Belt's girl looks like she fell out of the ugly tree and landed face first. His at bats look a lot like a guy who doesn't think he belongs and that is a big problem. Management has done a lot of things well this year but the Belt situation is a total disaster and they should leave him in Fresno the rest of the year.
ReplyDeleteI am still not sold on this offense. Seems like we have to still catch all the breaks and have everything go right in order to win. Some things have worked themselves out as Boch took my advice and has been putting Blanco at leadoff and Melky at 3 but we need one more piece for me to feel comfortable. I would love a 1B with middle of the order pop but would settle for a 2B who can bat 2nd allowing Pagan to bat 6th when Panda comes back. That would give us a pretty productive 1-6 in the lineup.
Timmy is a disaster. It doesn't matter how well he pitches, for 20 million he needs to win games or he ends up being the RH version of Zito. It has nothing to do with the velocity either, his accuracy is the biggest concern and the fact that he continues to have problems putting the ball where he wants to is a huge problem. In his previous slumps he has been able to figure out the problem within 4-6 starts but this was his 10th start with issues. We can't afford to have another Zito-like contract on this team if we are going to be elite. Either he needs to lower his asking price making him a 10-12 million a year pitcher or find another team that will pay him and pull off a trade before he leaves after next year.
Luckily we don't have to be concerned with Timmy's lowering of his asking price at this moment.
DeleteThe worriers only have to fret about his next start presently.
Timmy has always wanted to be a free agent. His 2012 makes that easier to take. Agree with BLSL: No need to worry about contract on Timmy anymore. That's business for winter of 2013.
DeleteI stand by what I've said. We've seen the last of Timmy collecting hardware. He can still be a very good pitcher. But he HAS to start dealing with the pitcher he has become.
Goldschimdt's HR last night is an example of that. Most pitchers accept that the certain guys own them. They reign in their ego and they pitch accordingly in game-critical situations. Timmy hasn't gotten mentally to that point yet.
That ugly girlfriend thing is about the dumbest thing I've ever heard. When are people going to finally wake up and realize that when it comes to Billy Beane, the emperor has no clothes? Just exactly what has Billy Beane ever accomplished with the A's that makes anyone think he is a good GM or that his many pet theories actually, you know, produce a winning team?
Deletebeane never said it. the movie alleged that a scout said it...wasnt in the book...never happened
Deletebeane's moneyball was not created by beane and is used by almost every org today looking to get undervalued players
sabean uses a form of it to grab dumpster dives and players like blanco...he also uses it in evaluating pitchers...he doesnt for power hitters
beane's prob is that he is stuck with a cheap criminal owner...so no matter what he can get...that player is gonna be gone the second he succeeds
Glad to hear it didn't happen because it's just about the stupidest notion I've heard of in a long time.
DeleteAs for Beane in reality, yeah, he does have an arm tied behind his back, but there are GM's who have to work with similar payrolls who have done more with them than Beane. I do kind of like his idea of leveraging talent. I've advocated a similar approach by the Giants at times, but he's squandered it by trying to leverage it even further. He tried to get too cute with the Holliday trade too.
Sabean has been dumpster diving for a long time, picking up relievers from all sorts of places.
DeleteI would imagine that you can't dumpster dive for a power hitter. Either you got it or you don't, there are not many players like Bautista who suddenly figures it out. It is not like you can develop it.
And if almost every org is trying to use Moneyball, then how did Sabean get Blanco, even though he's never been a starter, he did show skill at getting on base before. Just read that apparently he has some sort of bone spurs that he just finally had removed, as they happened after his first good season and hammpered him since, until this season now that he got them removed. I've never read Moneyball, but it seems to get everyone looking for OBP guys like Blanco, yet he slipped by everyone.
ogc,
Deleteevery org uses it in one form or another. not every team takes every player. moneyball was started by beane's mentor, sandy alderson. so saying that sabes has used dumpster diving or a long time, doesnt mean he doesnt use moneyball in the equation.
every team has stat heads in their fo now. thats moneyball...im sure that before he grabs someone off of waivers, sabes consults with those guys too.
sabes was old school...but he has adjusted with the times...the current giants are a moneyball team....not a lot of power, but they are getting on base....and you are gonna score runs when you do that
as for dumpster diving for a power hitter...happened with pat...but that was kinda a once in a mill thing
Self confidence is probably the single biggest intangible factor in a major leaguers success. Whether having a hot girlfriend or not makes a difference is debatable but if you don't believe in yourself then this game will chew you up and spit you out. Self confidence is also incredibly important when picking up on chicks so if you don't have the self confidence to go up to a pretty girl and ask her out, what makes you think you can go up against the nastiest pitchers in the world and think you are getting a hit?
ReplyDeleteFor someone who loves to use stats to form their opinions on baseball topics I find it kind of hypocritical that you rag on Billy Beane. Most of the people who are posting here are using some of the same forms of evaluation that he does to make baseball decisions yet he is an idiot because he hasn't won anything? The next time you talk about someones WAR or OPS or any of those other concepts that wouldn't be mainstream today just remember who was the first real baseball person to embrace the computer when it came to making baseball decisions.
First of all, people can be self confident in one area of their life and extremely shy in others. For instance, I am an extremely confident test taker. I know that if I have studied my material I will ace any test you throw at me. I do not agonize over questions. I either know the answer or I don't and if I don't, my first guess is my best guess. I am almost always the first person to hand it in and walk out of the room. At the same time, I am extremely shy about talking to anyone on the phone and was extremely shy around women when I was of dating age.
DeleteSecondly, I I have found that a lot of guys who think they have to get the most beautiful girl do so out of insecurity. They are afraid of being made fun of by their buddies if they have a plain girl or they are intimidated by a highly educated girl, so they go for the intellectually non-threatening arm candy girl to mask their own insecurities no matter how much of a money pit she is.
Just because Billy Beane uses stats does not mean he uses them in the right way and just because Brian Sabean doesn't go around bragging to the press about how much he uses stats doesn't mean he is ignorant about them or that he doesn't use them.
All valid points but you can't totally dismiss the notion that self confidence is a good thing when it comes to succeeding in the major leagues and it does correlate to dating. You are entitled to your point of view but the fact is that most guys (especially those of us that are capable of dating attractive women) will all agree that a womans looks are first and foremost. If the girl is a bimbo then you just move on to the next attractive woman until you find one that matches what you are looking for in a girl aside from her physical attractiveness (there are plenty of hot girls with great personalities).
DeleteIf you settle for a girl who isn't very attractive but has a great personality then you aren't trying hard enough. It is a very basic human trait that even the most sophisticated of men will agree upon. Stepping into the batters box is very similar to stepping up to a hot girl at the bar, I really shouldn't have to explain all the similarities (if you don't step up to the plate you will never get a hit, you struck out with that girl, I got to second base with her last night, etc.) You can say what you want about whether it is right or wrong or how you personally have experienced it but in general there are a lot more guys that think this way then the way you think, just a fact that you don't have to agree with but should definitely recognize.
I'm not saying that it is the end all be all but it also isn't "the dumbest thing I have ever heard". That is a very close minded opinion that shows short sidedness. Again, it doesn't have to be right in your mind for it to be true. Belt is a perfect example of someone who has all the physical tools but just looks lost at the plate more often then not probably a lot like he looks at the bar with his buddies on a saturday night when staring at a hot chick in a mini skirt.
The times that I have seen Belt have success there is something you can actually see in his eyes, his approach is totally different almost like a guy who has nothing to lose and who doesn't care if he strikes out. His base hit to win a game a month or so ago (down by 1 run, hit a line drive in the left center gap driving in 2, wish I could remember against who) or the third time he was called back up last year and hit a homerun in his first at bat and then hit the game winner later that night. He needs to have that mentality every at bat just like a guy who doesn't care if he gets turned down by the girl at the bar he is hitting on. The guy at the bar doesn't care because he knows that eventually he is going to find a girl to go home with him that night if he keeps trying, Belt just looks like he wants to go home with his tail between his legs most nights.
Pato, I agree with you on Belt. There is confidence/lack thereof going on that is getting in the way of his talents. I, like you, see it in his body language and yes, his eyes.
DeleteNot my exchange, but FWIW, your views on human attraction are simplistic at best.
While it's true, ball players, as a rule, are pigs. And yep, that bravado pulls a lot of good looking trim. But, I played with several outstanding ballplayers who could barely talk to girls. We're talking high school and Jr. College. But, the talent is relative. And at the level we were at, these guys had had all the confidence in the world on the ball diamond. And a ton of success. And in the case of these guys, it did not translate into confidence with girls. Lack of confidence in one area does not mean a lack of confidence in all areas.
Not that I completely disagree with Beane. Lack of confidence with girls is a somewhat decent bet that the ballplayer will lack confidence in baseball. But it's not an absolute.
BTW, every "fact" you've stated above is just an opinion.
And, in your self-aggrandized opinion of yourself, you really objectify women. Who knows if you're a looker or just full of internet crap. But it's pretty clear you don't have any respect for women. Or the faintest idea of what they want. And with that attitude in the bars and clubs, I've gotta believe that bimbos are about all you're gonna get. I hope, at the very least, you're a damn good ball player.
Oh, and do a google images search for Katie Hamilton. That'd be Josh's wife. You know, the best player in the game right now. She's not exactly hot.
Pato is right, I was like that 3years ago when I was back in HS, had no self-confidence with the attractive chicks (couldn't even talk to them) and it was the same thing in class when I had to do presentations and other stuff and in sports (played volleyball). Now, that am in college, I can talk to them and have even dated a few. Women bring confidence in a guys life, especially attractive ones, like DrB said a lot of your buddies will pick on you and make fun of you if you have an ugly GF. Although personality plays a big role in finding a partner, whats the first thing most of us look at first? Face and body.
ReplyDeleteI wont say that Belt struggles at the plate come with him having a not so hot GF but it can mean that when he gets in a big slump (like he is now) hes gonna have more trouble coming out of it cause of the self-confidence factor.
Its ridiculous that a GM wont sign or draft a player just because his GF or wife isnt pretty. Thats just insane.
One last thing,
Hot and beautiful are 2 different things.
OMG! I can't believe we're even having this discussion here. I think this wins the prize for the most ridiculous discussion on this blog so far, and it's not real close.
ReplyDeleteYes, I totally agree! How we got there from talking about athletes with confidence problems, I have no idea.
DeleteAll I can say is that the heart wants what it wants, whatever shape or form it is.
Just google searched Katie Hamilton... definitely not ugly. My guess is that she has one of the biggest hearts on the planet as well to have put up with Josh and all of his escapades. She is probably an amazing person and the reason Josh isn't in a box right now but my guess is he never would have noticed her if she were 300 pounds and looked like a beast.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it was a famous rapper who first said it but don't hate the player, hate the game! Accusing me of objectifying women is like accusing Marvin Benard of being responsible for the steroid era. Maybe you don't have cable tv in the cave you live in Kelly but have you paid any attention to who is doing most of the objectifying of women these days? I'll give you a hint, her name starts with a K and rhymes with Wardashian!
Well, if nothing else it seems that I have stirred up another controversy on your site Dr. B! I should be a sports talk radio host, at least then I would actually make some money doing this.
I don't think I'm that old (46). But, I gotta tell you, I have no idea why the Kardashians are famous. I know, I sound like some shut in. But I'm kinda proud I've managed to avoid all knowledge on that subject.
DeleteAnyway, Pato, wanted to apologize. I shouldn't have gotten personal. I am sorry about that.
I was over at a friends house a week ago and I got stuck watching the Kardashitians with him (his choice, I didn't fight it but in retrospect wish I had). You aren't very old and you are 100% right on the money to want nothing to do with that garbage. No apology necessary, keep doin what you do!
Delete