So that’s that.
Five games in the loss column with 21 games remaining, the rest of this season will pretty much be a tease. Maybe we’ll win some games here and there, but there’s just no way we’ll pull ahead of a team that is that much better than we are. No way. In fact, I should’ve remembered that this was a tease all along:
…. The Giants have no chance of competing for a championship this season.
The minor league system has been restocked, and there should be help, in the form of real hitters, coming up next season, and hopefully we will see the Giants become a team that has a steady supply of good, young talent in the future. It’s important that Brain Sabean remembers that championships are built, not bought.
…. The Giants should be sellers, not buyers. They should be looking to unload the collection of overpaid mediocrities masquerading as middle of the order talent. They should be looking to trade Winn, and Rowand and Molina, and Renteria, and collect even more minor league talent, young talent. They should wash their hands of these money sucking role players, and start looking to 2010, because none of these players will be around when Giants players are pouring champagne on each other.
The Giants have two studs right now, two. Cain and Lincecum. Pablo Sandoval looks pretty good, albeit a little rough around the edges. Perhaps Burriss grows into an everyday second baseman. Fred Lewis will be 29 years old at the start of 2010, and he’s done exactly, what? Maybe Jonathan Sanchez will be part of a contending Giants team. Maybe. Who else in yesterday’s lineup will be?
The Giants need three or four elite players to come up through the system in the next two seasons. A first baseman, Posey, and an outfielder or two would be perfect. Then the players that Sabean is so fond of would actually have real worth. Signing the Aaron Rowands and the Randy Winns of the baseball world would be a fine strategy if the Giants got 90 home runs and 250 runs batted in from their first baseman, left fielder and their catcher.
Trading anybody younger than 28 years old in an effort to make the playoffs this season would be a huge mistake, because you’d be betting half your stack knowing that you’re a 10-1 underdog.
I wrote that after the first fifty games. We all know what’s happened since then. The Giants went out a threw a nice June on us, and took the Wild Card lead, and so we all took the bait, (well, all of us except +mia). Sabean went out and traded not one, but two players younger than 28, for two more “veterans” and the Giants watched helplessly as the Rockies stormed by them like an interstellar cruiser.
On June 1st, the Rockies were 20-30, and had been outscored by 20 runs. Since then, their record is 62-30, and they’ve outscored their opponents by 118 runs, a stretch of dominance that is matched by only one team, the best record in baseball –91-51– New York Yankees. And, without question, it is the Rockies who are the best team in the NL right now, and whether they catch the Dodgers or not, we’re not gonna catch either one of them, so it’s on to 2010.
Meanwhile, the lack of offense has another casualty, with Tim Lincecum’s bid for his second Cy Young Award now gone to the wayside. He’s had seven no decisions or losses in games in which he’s gone at least seven innings and given up 3 runs or less, which means that he has no chance of catching Wainwright or Carpenter, since neither one of them has lost in a month. All in all, a decidedly depressing finish to a decent enough run. A big bat would’ve certainly made things a lot more interesting, but more than likely would not have changed the final standings.
Well, unless we would’ve had a full season of Adam Dunn, who now has 37 home runs and counting towards his sixth consecutive season of 40 home runs and 100 walks.
21 Backtalkers
the only good things to come out of this season will be the termination of both sabean and bochy
sabean has proven once and for all, that he is not a good judge of talent, and is not adverse to making deadline trades just for the sake of making a trade….and now, because of his foolishness, the giants are out 2 young pitchers who couldve easily been used as a package for an offseason deal
bochy cannot motivate players…and he refuses to change his approach to managing the game
both refused to commit to either a run at the playoffs or having a true rebuilding year….and therefore, both must go
Unfortunately, they will be back…mediocrity, a Giants tradition!
…and I’m coming to SF for work and have tickets to Monday and Tuesday. I didn’t expect a WC berth, but was hoping (read: dreaming) of this Rockies series being something. Maybe…just maybe>
John, I question whether the Rockies are the best team in the NL at this point. You’d really pick them over the Cards facing Carpenter and Wainwright? Not me. Also, I doubt they’re better than the Dodgers, either. Head to head, Dodgers lead them 12-3 this year, and even during the Rockies hot second half, LA went up to Colorado and beat them two out of three. Dodgers seem to be stepping up to whoever the competition might be in the NL West, witness what they’ve done to Giants and Rockies whenever it starts to get close in the standings.
Yeah, well, did you really read what I wrote? The Rockies haven’t had a hot second half, they’ve been scorching for almost 100 games now. Over that same span, the Dodgers have been 50-40, and have outscored their opponents by 68 runs. The Cards have gone 55-37, and outscored their opponents by 61 runs. As I wrote above, the Rockies have gone 62-30, and outscored their opponents by 118 runs, which is almost as much as the other two teams combined.
The Rockies run is quite a bit more impressive to me. The Cards have been on a nice roll, no doubt, since they acquired Holliday, but a month and a half isn’t the same as two thirds of a season. But, you’re right, the Cards look great right now.
I think the Rockies, like the Dodgers are the two best teams in the NL with possibly the Dodgers holding an edge simply because of their regular season dominance. Of course that can all change in a couple of weeks. The Rockies are reminding me of Terminator 2 who no matter how many parts get blasted away, keeps up its relentless pursuit of its prey.
I think the Rockies match up well with anybody simply because of the way they grind down opposing pitchers. Like the Dodgers. And like the Dodgers, the Rockies excel when the homeplate umpire has a strikezone the size of a Rubic’s cube.
The Giants, flail early and often. They help opposing pitchers reduce the number of mistake pitches they are likely to make. The Dodgers, Rockies and Cardinals and teams that are designed to win championships have team at bats. They are not just a motley collection of individuals looking to justify their bloated and over-extended contracts, keep a roster spot, or be a Saturday matinee hero. That’s why fucking asshole headhunters like Vicente Padilla and others like Kevin Corriea, Aaron Harang, Wade LeBlanc, and even fucking Colonel Harlan Sanders, can go extraordinarily deep into games against the Giants.
When you are rolling up dozens of 8-11 pitch innings, and making the other guy throw 15-30 pitch innings consistently, you are going to wear that team out. As the Rockies and Dodgers, Angels and Brewers did to the Giants when the strikezone was small.
Pablo Sandoval may be the next Vladimir Guerrero, but as of September, he is slow, fat and even Krukow said on the broadcast, “out of shape”. Which is exactly what the fuck many folks were concerned about in June and July.
This fucking organization is disgusting in its ineptness. Its ineptness is exceeded only by its arrogance by continuing to insist, going on 7 seasons now, that Sabean’s “different direction” is anything but a continuation of provably false assumptions on what it takes to win championships.
The Giants are, and have been, fucking last, next to last, or working fucking really hard at being last in every fucking meaningful offensive category for 5 fucking years. And that is on management.The Giants are not even close to average. They are horseshit. And overpaid horseshit at that. And Sabean continues to sign, acquire, trade for, and overpay the same types of garbage liners year after year after year, and in the process waste the careers of guys like Bonds, Lincecum, Cain and others.
Last night, if anybody had been at the game, in the parking lots and seen the sea of blue obnoxiousness and contrasted it with the catcalls and anger from Giants fans who were having their noses rubbed in it for no reason other than Giants greed and incompetence, than you will understand the level of frustration and antipathy I have for Giants management and ownership.
Mr. Neukom, take note.
Rebuilding Year Indeed!
Good points, John. Yes, I did really read what you wrote – I guess it was the fact that you said it was “without question” that the Rockies are the best team in the NL that caught me by surprise. I think there’s a real question there, notwithstanding the stats you posted. Perhaps I’m more focused on potential playoff matchups, such as the Carpenter/Wainwright issue, than just looking at who has done better over a longer stretch of the season. If the Rockies have to face down the Cards’ starters in October, their regular season run won’t mean a thing.
Well at least all you guys were right about Penny sucking ass.
Well, no I wasn’t. He’s been terrific since he got here, and I certainly didn’t see it coming.
almost everyone was wrong about penny
no one saw how motivated he would be to succeed….plus, it seems that al lineups are just better than the nl
still, he only pitches once every 5 days…not enough to get us over the top
No that was me. He still sucks ass. Just not since he got here. Yet. Hopefully not while he’s here either.
Personally, I never said a word about Penny but go ahead and color me surprised.
And if anyone saw this coming, after last year with the Dodgers (6-9, 5.04 ERA), and this year with the Red Sox (7-8, 5.61 ERA, BAA .301), go ahead and step right up.
Well, I did predict he would sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night
I thought he still had the stuff to be good, just probably not as good as he’s been so far.
He’s been freekin dominant. Like Matt Holliday dominant after he went to St. Louis.
Change of scenery does make a difference. Amazing all these guys who were shitting themselves earlier are having big success at their new locations
Pedro Martinez in Philadelphia
Cliff Lee in Philly
Matt Holliday in St. Louis
John Smoltz in St. Louis
Brad Penny in SFO
Garland in LAX
Giambi in Colorado
Thome in LAX
Off the top of my head, the ones that have not been change-makers are Peavy in Chicago, and Sanchez and Garko in SFO
Padilla in LAX, even more so than Garland.
Yeah. Trying to wipe the look of his smug mug from my hard drive.
And every one of those guys went from the AL to the NL. Can’t think of one player having similar impact going the other way.
On a completely unrelated note, I want to see lots more Dan Runzler.
You are completely wrong. Wow. The Giants have a legitimate chance of pulling off the wild card. And as for Lincecum’s chances for winning the Cy Young award? What are you talking about? You really think his chances are gone? I would say he is still clearly the favorite. Number one in Ks, ERA, complete games, etc…Yeah, he doesn’t lead in wins, but he didn’t lead in wins last year either. There is no way they are going to deny Lincecum the Cy Young because he is four wins off from the leader. No way. Wins is the most worthless stat for a pitcher. He is clearly the most dominant pitcher in the NL.
Giants can take the wild card.
Lincecum will definitely win the Cy Young.
Just watched a brief interview that Greg Papa did with Bill Neukom. The usual yada, horseshit for public consumption blather smirk act appropriately appreciative towards ticket buyers. Etc. Understood. I would do the same. Here is where it got a little interesting.
After posing the question concerning exercising the Giants’ club option on Sabean’s contract and/or offering Bochy a new contract, Neukom again emphasized that he was going to wait until after the season was completely over. Pressed harder by Papa for an inclination Neukom refused to budge saying that it would be the ENTIRE SEASON that would be reviewed.
Than they go on and on about how the pitching has been great and they throw up this graphic of team ranking in pitching
Strike outs — 1st
Shutouts — 1st
ERA — 2nd
Complete Games — 1st
Batting Average Against. 2nd
What was not shown, discussed nor alluded to were the following batting stats
Runs Scored 26th
OPS 29th
OBP 30th
BA 24th
RBI 28th
HR 29th
Would have been nice to have a balanced picture of the team, instead of the same old shit. He doesn’t strike me as stupid. I just don’t know if he is prepared to battle hammer and tong against the Yankees, Angels, Dodgers, Red Sox, and Cardinals for the impact players needed to compete for now and the future.
My gut instinct tells me that he has his eye more on staying on budget and competing and not striving for a championship. He remarked that the although the Braves were criticized for not winning championships he maintained that their run of 14 consecutive division titles was the single greatest accomplishments in professional sports.
Well, fuck that. I will take 5 Niner Superbowl victories over 14 NFC West titles anyday. He is going to be who I thought he was going to be. A guy more concerned with asses in the seat and using a “competitive” team to accomplish it and thump his chest for playing countless meaningful games every September.
Oh well. Look for Sabean and Bochy to be back, or somebody else in that vein. The suits continue to rule all. Blah.
[...] it looks like I might’ve been wrong about the Rockies, (or, at the least, I was a bit hasty) and maybe, just maybe, they’ve hit the wall. If they [...]