Giants win the pennant!!!
Is there a more improbable World Series team in recent memory?
What a performance by the pen. 6-plus innings of no run ball, after Sanchez spit the bit. Really, just a simply unbelievable performance by the pitching staff since the beginning of September.
As for the team management, and in-game coaching, I am eating every bit of crow there is in my house. While accepting the NL trophy, Sabean looked and sounded humble and classy, as did Baer, Bochy, Neukom, and NLCS MVP Ross. (Sidebar: The NLCS MVP was probably Wilson, 3 saves and a win in as close a series as you are ever gonna see).
What is there left to say tonight? Did I doubt this team? You bet. Did I doubt Bochy? Absolutely. Did I question the signings, the trades and the free agent pick ups by Sabean. As often as I had the time to do so.
What am I supposed to say here?
On many counts, I have been proven wrong.
The Cody Ross pickup, which was clearly __and understood at the time to be– a blocking claim, worked out pretty well, wouldn’t you say? The Aubrey Huff signing? Anyone who predicted this kind of season from Huff –especially his defense– send me the link –the dated link– and I’ll make you a star. Freddie Sanchez? He sure came on late. I was wrong on him, no doubt. Bochy made enough mistakes in these playoffs to last a lifetime. In the post-season, it always comes down to pitching. In the end, at least so far in the NL, the Giants had more of it then everybody.
Ask Joe Girardi, the manager of the defending champion NY Yankees:
…. Girardi did not throw a pitch or swing a bat. His job was to put players in the best position to succeed. One of his greatest strengths is his preparation, and his choice to flip Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes in the rotation, based on several relevant factors, seemed to make sense. Hughes went 0-2 with an 11.42 E.R.A. at Rangers Ballpark, and Pettitte, though he pitched well, worked only once, held back Friday in advance of a potential Game 7 start.
Once he makes a decision, Girardi says, he never second-guesses himself. He trusts his instincts — or the numbers — and accepts the outcome, for better or worse. By not bringing in Rivera to pitch the ninth inning of Game 3, with the Yankees trailing by two runs, Girardi left himself open to criticism when Texas hammered three other relievers for six runs. It put the Yankees at a 2-1 series deficit with Burnett scheduled to pitch a crucial Game 4.
Bochy swapped his pitchers, and it didn’t work, actually. Sanchez came in on a rush, cruising in his previous 80 or so innings. He failed to record a win against Philadelphia. He went 8 innings in the series, allowing 8 hits, 5 walks, 5 runs (4 earned), and failed to get out of the third inning in tonight’s penultimate game. He posted a 4.50 ERA in the series, and if it weren’t for the outrageous performance by every pitcher Bochy called upon, would have likely been the goat of the NLCS.
Instead, he was saved by his teammates. OK. Johnny like that.
Bochy used Wilson in an unusual fashion, and it worked some of the time, and it didn’t other times. He pinch hit, pinch ran, made double switches, moved his outfielders around….
Some of his moves worked, and some didn’t.
The Giants are in the World Series because of their otherwordly pitching staff. Simple as that.
Ask Joe Girardi what he would’ve given to have Jonathan Sanchez and Madison Bumgarner as his two worst starters.
Go Giants!!
Appreciate it!, What great looking at. You must continue the good work the great work.
There are some fascinating points on this article however I don’t know if I see all of them center to heart. There may be some validity however I’ll take hold an opinion until I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we wish more! Added to FeedBurner as well.
Can I just say what a relief to find someone who actually knows what theyre talking about on the internet. You definitely know how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More people need to read this and understand this side of the story. I cant believe youre not more popular because you definitely have the gift.
If you want to buy beats Solo hd , our website may be a good way you can go.
he said that posey will not make it as a catcher
mccrappy doesnt know shit about the game….http://monster-beatsbydreshop.com/
Fuck McCarver.
Fuck Joe Buck.
Fuck the Philly Fans.
Fuck Chase Utley.
Is this true that Bonds in going to get off from the steriod inquiry?
I, too, was impressed by the Front Office types at the awards ceremony. All were gracious, classy winners. All were appropriately humbled by the team’s accomplishments. All of them recognized the “specialness” of the moment. I think all of them realized what a huge organizational effort it takes to get this far. And the players played great baseball! That’s ultimately what it comes down to. They deserve to celebrate, and so do we. (And I’m eating a fair amount of crow as well.)
FOUR MORE WINS!!!
The Giants have one of the worst eight-man lineups ever to make a World Series
I could only think of the ’88 Dodgers who beat the A’s on the back of one dominating pitcher.
The Giants have two of those, and a lights out closer.
“and a lights out closer.”
Rivera is a lights out closer.
I can’t think of a game where The Beard didn’t let the tying run get on base. I go through every pill I can find in my house when he comes in. That said, it is always a HUGE relief when we somehow end up winning.
Which is nice.
I understand where McCarver is coming from–as a catcher, Posey’s offensive value is much more than it would be if he were a first baseman or outfielder. However, you can see he’s beat up; except for his 4-hit game on Wednesday, he’s swinging like crap. Bochy needs to find ways to give him a break.
The Giants have one of the worst eight-man lineups ever to make a World Series, and yet they made it. Texas is a better team and should win — but Philly should have won too, and it didn’t.
Go Giants.
He who forces the most mistakes wins the most. Look at Victorino, and Ibanez. Two dropped flyballs they normally catch, lead to Giants runs in one-run victory games. Sometimes its that simple
better team how?
on paper? paper doesnt win championships
Interesting analysis of Giants’ payroll: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/10/a-look-at-the-giants-roster.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
I have to tip my cap to Sabean for sticking to his guns and not trading pitching for hitting. It worked. And for all the bad moves, he really did have a great year of both shrewdness and luck.
Quick question if you all don’t mind: Anyone know if there is a way to listen to Kuiper calling the final out last night on radio? Right after Buck made the TV call I was pissed to have forgotten the radio. Anyhow, wasn’t able to find an audio archive on the KNBR website, strangely. Thanks
Not Kuip but here is Jon Millers … http://tweetmic.com/p/rmpqrsijz77
thanks. i am due for a new ring tone.
The recipe for a Championship…..
4 & 2 Playoff Road Record
AMAZING!
I don’t regret or take back a thing I said. This team is wacked and you all know it. It is an impossible team and I am very happy that they are where they are, but BULL SHIT this aint=baseball.
I’m a Giants fan. I am so happy. But, shit. It’s so fucked up. It’s like saying your child abusing uncle is okay, sort of.
What? This ain’t baseball? I don’t even know what you want here.
Well, actually it is baseball. Its actually very typical post-season baseball. And by that I mean a lot of overly tired, naggingly-injured players being over-coached by dumpy old guys in spandex, with too much riding on bad umpiring, constantly being interrupted by the horrible Fox Sports blithering idiots named Buck and Mac.
The games are filled with mistakes on all sides. Running, pitching, fielding throwing, pitch selection, game management and everything else that goes into a game.
For those of you at home keeping track of such things, including 35 spring training games, 10 LDS and LCS games and 162 regular season games that all started last winter thats 217 major league games in 236 days.
Think about it.
+mia wrote:
“For those of you at home keeping track of such things, including 35 spring training games, 10 LDS and LCS games and 162 regular season games that all started last winter thats 217 major league games in 236 days.
Think about it.’
no wonder i’m so fucking tired
i was wrong about burrell, wrong about huff, slightly wrong about edgar, somewhat wrong about freddie, totally wrong about ross….right about guillen (fucking cancer should not get an lcs or ws share….his share should go to molina)
the team jelled….and that was in great part to the coaches….my god, they even listened to bam bam during this series
its all gravy now….would like them to win, but weird things happen to this team in the ws
fuck the smug phoolies…fuck their retarded manager who didnt even know uribe’s name….fuck their boo happy fans, who seem to have even less of a life than i
giants play host to the first two games of the greatest championship in pro sports….fuck the experts
i drove down to philly for the game today, just got back to nyc. incredible atmosphere and energy. gutsy outstanding pitching, particularly jeremy affeldt tonight. oswalt was no slouch either. i still can’t believe victorino ran so far and so fast to get under that fly, only to drop it.
the silence of the air going out of that stadium with uribe’s home run i will long remember.
i don’t know what was more shocking–timmy coming out to pitch the eighth, or his not taking a windup, pitching from the stretch.
i am already sick and tired of all the slurping of sabean. i have given him props since july for the bullpen he assembled by trade. and for huff. but this accidental collection of position players is … well, we’ve covered that ground many times on this blog. and scotts will be reminding me to enjoy the result if i keep it up. what a series; what a season. four more wins.
Here’s Sabean from TK’s column:
“As Brian Sabean told Dick Tidrow during this game: “This is a street fight, and we win those.”
This is one instance where Sabean’s 1980s mentality fits. Giants forced the Phillies into some bad mistakes.
Two Utley moved grounders that an mvp should make in the post season.
Howards muff of Polanco’s throw into Posey.
The best though was rectum-face Victorino not freezing on the line-drive to end the 8th inning, and getting doubled up by Huff snagging Ibanez’ line drive. It was a Bobby Richardson-Willie McCovey moment.
As some of us were concerned about, Sanchez did not pitch well on the road, he put the Giants in the hole early in both of his starts with command issues. He’s got A- stuff and C+ control. Thats not who you want in the two slot if your’e opening up on the road.
Bah. There’s plenty of offseason to dissect the rights from the wrongs. Maybe if the Giants win the Series Sabean retires upstairs and the inner struggle for the soul of the baseball operations will move forward.
I don’t think anybody sees this team as the core going forward. Buster Posey and the pitching staff, yes.
But everything else is flux going forward. And thats for the off-season
Like everything else in life when it breaks your why, don’t ask why…just fucking go with it.
Party on.
I heard what McCarver said, he said something about Posey not lasting as a catcher, something to the affect he should be in the outfield. Catching is a hard position…blah, blah, blah. I couldn’t believe he said it…I commented to my husband how ludicrous it was for McCarver to say that!! So tired of these announcers not giving the Giant’s their props!
at 23, posey is a better catcher than mccrappy ever was
I just wrote a similar post. I wonder how many other Giants fans/bloggers are doing likewise as we speak.
John,
I appreciate your passion and agree with many of your criticisms of Bochy and Sabean. I’m eating my fair share of crow tonight too, but I have to comment about your consistent criticism of Bochy’s use of Wilson. Perhaps the greatest travesty of the modern game is the group think that has evolved about the use of closers. It simultaneously leads to over paying them based on a meaningless stat (saves) while preventing them from being brought in during the highest leverage situations in the game. When you have a REAL closer – that is a guy who is your best and most reliable reliever – you WANT him brought in in the 8th, even more so with men on base – because he’s your best reliever. There’s little to no evidence to suggest that he can’t handle 5 or 6 outs, any failures are anectdotal, not statistically significant. Meanwhile there is 2 years of outstanding performances to support that he is the Giants’ best reliever. Why would you want anyone else out there with the game on the line? Most other managers would be afraid to use their closer any differently than they;ve seen other managers use their closers over the last 10 years, but Bochy consistently got his best guy in for the most important outs. That is something to be commended. He makes plenty of other mistakes so we don’t have to invent any non-existent ones. Thanks for the effort in keeping this blog up – I read almost all the Giants blogs – and it’s great to have a different and thoughtful perspective. Go Giants!!! And Boch – keep bringing in Wilson whenever the game is on the line!
Nice post. As soon as Lincecum gave up that second hit, I was screaming for Bochy to bring in Wilson. The Giants didn’t have any lefty’s left in the bullpen. Romo’s no-show this postseason forced Bochy’s hand to do something different. At that point, Wilson was the best arm he had left in the pen. Unfortunately, he had to bat with the bases juiced in the 9th, but the odds of the Giants sending 6 to the plate without scoring a run against Lidge were about 1 in a 100. Up 3-2, the Giants didn’t need any more runs to win the ballgame. They needed outs. Wilson was best equipped to deliver outs.
THEY NAMED CODY ROSS MVP
INCREDIBLE SERIES WHO WOULD OF THOUGHT IN AUGUST
JOHNNY I”LL BRING MY CROW OVER GOOD EATIN’N
GIANTS WIN!!!!!!!!!!!
In the post game show, Krukow made a reference to something stupid McCarver said about Posey. Anyone know what it was? (I was listening to the radio broadcast, not the TV Bozos.)
McCarver saying something stupid, insulting and irrelevant is to be expected.
McCarver saying something smart, respectful and insightful would be comment worthy.
He’s been a condescending buffoon for over 40 years now. Guys like him make me want to repeal social security. Maybe we can deport him to Asshatastahn
he said that posey will not make it as a catcher
mccrappy doesnt know shit about the game….
What an incredible joy. Every second has been worth it. Congrats to all.
Been saying this for close to towo months.
ALIGNMENT COMPLETE.
It’s our time baby. Great Win…and the Series is next. We will finally bring it home to where it belongs.
Great to see MLB and it’s sponsors lose a couple hundred million because there will not be a Yanks/Phils series. NOt what Selig and other Corporate Fuckheads wanted.
Just a couple things to get off my chest to start a great week.
Fuck McCarver.
Fuck Joe Buck.
Fuck the Philly Fans.
Fuck Chase Utley.
Fuck Fox and it’s East Coast Bias.
There’s much more…but, feeling better now.
Don’t sell the Gigantes short. Think the better team did win here. This is a team of Destiny…Keep the faith.
GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT
Stay Hot Gigantes