Lincecum lost again, and the Giants dropped three games behind the Rockies with today’s 4-2 defeat.

Again, Lincecum pitched tired, and was reached for three runs, raising his ERA to 2.43, and dropping his record to 12-4. The Giants eked out 6 hits, struck out 11 times, and walked just twice, which will certainly get you another loss.

5 Responses to “…. Beat”

1. The Other Robert says:

   August 24, 2009 at 12:43 pm

   “The first part of Tim’s observation is correct. The second part is incorrect however. The Giants are not going to get out of the hole by ‘becoming themselves again’. They are in a hole because they are exactly themselves.”

   Not to get all sycophantic or anything, but this contribution by mia seems to say it all, and say it with a certain clarity.

   Reply
2. +mia says:

   August 24, 2009 at 9:28 am

   “We’ve kind of been beating ourselves here the last couple of days,” Tim Lincecum said. “Hopefully, we’ll find a way to get out of the hole and become ourselves again.”

   ————————————————————————-

   The first part of Tim’s observation is correct. The second part is incorrect however. The Giants are not going to get out of the hole by “becoming themselves again”. They are in a hole because they are exactly themselves. Posers, pretenders, fakes, fillers, false hustlers, oldsters and porcelain money grubbers brought together under one big circus tent by the failed policies of Giants Management. A roster save for Lincecum and Cain would be vying with San Diego and Arizona for the NL West cellar….again.

   Sorry to inform you Tim that this is what pretending teams do. They eventually revert to who they are. Rowand running the bases in Cincinnati like he was coming off of a 50 mile forced march. Rowand pegging a crucial throw to the wrong base with no chance…again. Garko cutting off a Shierholtz throw that would have drilled the tying run by 6 feet. Sandoval dropping Shierholtz’ perfect throw, to kill a rally the night before. And on and on and on. These are things the Giants have been doing for years during the Sabean era, not just this season. It is just more apparent now.

   That is the beauty of a 162 game, 7 month season. Front runners who capitalize on temporary good fortune, are eventually exposed by August and September. Because by this time, the real teams have determined their shortcomings, fixed them and have come together as a cohesive unit with tangible leadership in all 3 sectors. Pitching. Defense. Offense.

   The Cardinals go out and pick up a Matt Holliday and get rid of a useless outfielder even though he is the son of a coach. The Dodgers pick up a left handed closer in George Sherrill this year and a Manny Ramirez last year. The Giants trade away a promising prospect for a clank-gloved Shea Hillenbrand and their no. 2 pitching prospect for an old infirm infielder who hardly plays and when he does is a basket of strains, sprains and torn cartilage.

   A good team can overcome dropped relay throws or mistaken cut-offs, or the inevitable misjudged fly ball, and uneven pitching performances. Good teams are built like the Rockies. And Cardinals. And Yankees. And Red Sox. And Phillies. And Rays. And Dodgers. Good hitters who take team at bats and have decent power guys scattered up and down the lineup. Hitters with power who can turn 4 hits into 4 runs and a win like the Rockies did yesterday. Not hitters who can turn 11 hits into 1 run and a loss like the Giants did on Thursday in Cincinnati.

   Unfortunately the Giants are a team which leads the world in just about every relevant pitching category but it is also a team that barely cracks the top 1/3 in wins and losses. This is not an accident. This is how this team was built. This a team that places more emphasis on batting average than any other hitting statistic. It is the one area in which they are not in the bottom three. It is the one offensive statistic that is referred to over and over again by Larry Baer, Brian Sabean, the radio teams, the post game shills, Bochy. Everybody. Scoring, OPS, OBP, SLG, Homeruns, RBIS, K/BB, Pitches/AB and so on are never mentioned. All offensive categories in which they rank at or near the bottom. But in batting average they are ranked 16th out of 30 in all of Major League Baseball and are ranked 8th in the National League. But what about the contenders you may ask? What about their batting averages?

   Dodger .274
   Marlins .266
   Braves .265
   Giants .261
   Rocks .261
   Cards .261
   Phils .259
   Cubs .253

   And Freddy Sanchez is a proven .300 hitter and 3 time All-Star.

   Its a good thing the Golden Gate Bridge is not a free agent.

   Reply
   • Uncle Joe Mccarthy says:

     August 24, 2009 at 3:26 pm

     +mia, dont get down on pablo…the kid is doing his all

     you can continue getting down on bochy and sabean all you want though

     neither can justify keeping nate out of the starting lineup in order to play winn, who has no future with this team and can not help in a stretch run

     neither can justify continuing to play both winn and rowand despite defensive and offensive lapses, and then only give short try outs to players like bowker and kfran

     and sabean cannot justify either the garko or the sanchez trade

     i feel bad for both cain and timmy…the weight of this team was placed on their young shoulders…and it wasnt fair

     i just hope that our current bow tied leader has the balls to rid this org of both at seasons end

     and i hope this org is smart enough to give decker and interview for the skip job…and if the mets are stupid enough to fire minaya and hire sabean, that we immediatly grab minaya

     Reply
     • +mia says:

       August 24, 2009 at 5:01 pm

       Yeah. You’re right about Pablo. I didn’t intend it to be a criticism of effort on his part. It is patently unfair for the Giants to have put so much upon him. My thrust was that on a good team, the vets would pick a kid up in a situation like this, rather than hang him out to dry.

       The criticism making the rounds today about his hack swing late in yesterday’s game with Velez on 3b by a bunch of fucking second-guessing frat rats, wine sippers, and basement dwelling jock sniffers has really got my goat.

       You bring up Frandsen. I didn’t like anything about this kid from the first time I saw him play in 2006. I thought he had slow feet, slow hands, little bat speed, and insufficient baseball instincts to cut it at the MLB level and had essentially been awarded a roster spot based upon his potential marketing and p.r. value: “friend of Righetti family; loss of brother to terminal illness, gritty local college player, outgoing personality etc.

       Having said all that and in view that he did work hard and played well against the September call-ups before blowing his knee out in 2007 that he deserved much much better treatment than he received from the Giants organization. And in spite of the horseshit way he has been jerked around in situations that were almost set up to make him fail this year; jerked around enough that his 2009 stats are completely worthless in fact, his 2007 OPS of .710 is higher than this year’s performance of Freddy Sanchez, Ryan Garko, Edgar Renteria, and certainly Rich Aurilia.

       Kevin Frandsen is not my type of player. I think he is a player with few tools, but was fucked over so badly by Sabean and Bochy that he has now come across as sour and ungrateful. But with free-agency came choice to a certain extent. While players still get hung with bad labels, they at least have a chance to go elsewhere and seek second and even third opinions.

       Players talk to their agents. Agents talk to each other and their other clients. The word gets around. Its no accident that the Giants since Baker left have been getting the short shit of free agents. And it is no accident that the Guerreros and Kents and Hollidays, and the rest of the true “impact” free agents go elsewhere while the Giants end up signing guys like Armando Benitez, Alfonso, Hillenbrands,Rowand, Renteria, Zito ad nauseum.

       You reap what you sow.

       Reply
3. Uncle Joe Mccarthy says:

   August 23, 2009 at 10:16 pm

   of course timmy is beat

   bochy the saviour of pitchers, did to him what he did to peavy…over pitched him when it wasnt needed

   add to that the emotional stress of neer having a signifcant cushion…and you get a spent pitcher

   saying that…timmy’s worst is still better than most pitcher’s best

   but look who was out of the lineup again….the saviour….freddy sanchez

   this team is not going to the post…and sabean needs to be handed his walking papers at seasons end

   as an aside….the rox may have been playing with the radar gun in an effort to get into timmy’s head….it may have worked a bit, as he did give up 5 bbs

   Reply