Well, first off I would like to say I had an awesome weekend aside from being a SF Giants fan as my wonderful GF was back in town and it was awesome watching some Giants playoff baseball with her...
Now, to tonight and the Giants this weekend, well done...
I had been saying that the Giants needed to win 1 of the first 2 games in Texas, because we needed to take control of the series and ensure we left with at least 3 wins. My reasoning was that if we lost the first 2 games, we would be facing Cliff Lee with the pressure on us and I didn't want to have to come back needing to win 2 (especially with Sanchez the scheduled starter in game 7).
Game 4 will be remembered for one thing: Madison Bumgarner pitching like he was Tom Glavine...at the age of 21. This kid is younger than me and pitched maybe the best game he has pitched the entire season in a Giants uniform. I was hoping that Jonathan Sanchez would be able to utilize his off speed stuff to regulate the strong fastball hitting Rangers lineup...he did not. Where Sanchez failed, Bumgarner succeeded and it looked like the Rangers hitters were often guessing wrong. He made one of the best hitters in the history of baseball, one who rarely strikes out even on balls in the dirt, look completely lost at the plate. He stuck the changeup low and outside and no one could make hard contact with it. He kept his slider down and whoever was unlucky enough to swing either fouled it off or struck out. A couple of balls were hit hard against him, but not hard enough as the Giants defensive minded OF was always there to make the catch. Its pretty amazing to have a guy like that as our 4th starter in the rotation...he won't be for long as he clearly is going to be a top end starter before too long.
Torres and Huff both had big games for us and did enough damage to get us through the game offensively. While the Giants didn't score 10+ runs again, the hitters for the most part were very patient and made pretty solid contact. Ross and Uribe both just missed hanging pitches that ended up landing at the warning track, even with the wind blowing in towards home plate. When Huff hit his HR, the camera angle made it look like it was a lot closer to the foul poll than it was, thankfully it wasn't close and he got us off to a great start.
Tomorrow isn't a must win, but I would be more than happy to beat their ace again and take the series in Texas...
Shout Outs:
Madison Bumgarner: Amazing. Didn't try and get too tricky, just threw his stuff on the edges and worked his change up in when hitters looked to be timing his fastball / cutter. Timmy / Bumgarner / Cain = Best rotation in baseball for a long time...
Aubrey Huff: He was so key to our regular season success, especially in the middle of the year and he was key to tonights win. Madison utilized that lead in the way he pitched, by attacking the strike zone and making guys attack bad pitches. Plus, that ball was SHOT out of the park, only question was whether or not it was foul.
Giants Defense: Great work all around, could have easily been a different game without the amazing infield play and smart Outfield defense.
Troy Smith: I loved Singletary starting him over Carr, as what do we really have to lose. He looked off to start, but he made enough plays to get us the W. Some of his passes were scary, but you have to like this:
and you know Singletary loved this
Predictions for Tomorrow:
Lee vs Timmy, Survival vs Clinching....
I think this will be closer to the Game 1 we expected. Both pitchers will be dialed in and I think the Rangers will feel a lot of pressure, making those nasty breaking pitches of Timmy all that more appealing to swing at. The Rangers did a great job of laying off the change up and Slider in Game 1, with the threat of elimination I think they will be looking to swing early in the count. I think Lee will locate his curve better and will limit the Giants to a couple runs. I think Bochy will give Burrell a shot again to prove himself and it will work. I think the Giants win this game 3-2, with Wilson finishing the game with 2 runners on...perfect torture.
I will take a ten nothing shutout as well...
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Take Control of Series...Game 4
Game starts in 30 minutes and don't want to be tied going into game 5 going against Lee in his home territory. This isn't a must win, but like putting the pressure on the Rangers in game 5, with a must win situation. We have the better pitcher going tonight and I like our lineup with Ishikawa in. I think Posey is due...
More to come later
More to come later
Friday, October 29, 2010
Game 2 - Cain I Kick It? Yes We Can
Cody Ross...it may be time to hit some HR's if you want to keep your postseason MVP, because Matt Cain is making a strong push.
I have seen some great performances this year from our Big 4 (the 5 minus Zito) and this has to be one of the best. Cain wasn't perfect tonight, but when we needed him to be, he made perfect pitches to get us out of big innings. Cain's strength tonight was his ability to mix his pitches for strikes and keep the rangers batters off balance. When they guessed right, they were able to hit the ball well, but more often than not they were on their toes.
Cain was working his change up and nailing the outside corner with that tailing change up, getting most batters to lay off thinking it was a fastball. It was moving downward and it seemed no Rangers batter was able to get under it and drive it. His fastball was shooting out of his release and although the highest I saw him hit was 93, his change of speeds had the Rangers late on his fastball and early on everything else. He did exactly what hes done all postseason: limit base runners, pitch out of jams and not give up a single earned run. Timmy may be the Freak, but Cain is our workhorse who will hide behind the ace and have himself one hell of a career. This year, no one makes me feel more secure as a viewer than Cain, so in my opinion, he has been our best pitcher and always keeps us in the game.
Other Props:
I have hated on Renteria for 2 years and I still think he was a terrible pick up for this team in need of a impact bat at SS, at the price tag of 10 million. However, tonight he showed the fact that he can be quite clutch and turned on a pitch that 95% of the time as a Giant he pops up near third base. I have not seen him turn on a pitch like that since he was playing in Boston.
Rowand, you still suck and you capitalized on a bullpen that was in shambles.
Moving On:
Was funny watching the game tonight at the same spot (Kennedy's in Lower North Beach), because you could tell people were still recovering from cheering and drinking too much the night before. The crowd was tamer, the glasses less abundant, but people were still having a great time. SF is the smallest big city I know of, as I managed to run into a: former coworker, former manager, former teammate from middle school baseball with 2 other kids from middle school and a family friend. This was just walking up Green street to get home...
Its going to be an intense game 3, because it is a must win for the Rangers and they go against a nasty lefty in Sanchez who can be lights out when hes on. I think the pressure on the Rangers will help the Giants out, as I think they will be looking more to swing than be patient, which will surely help the erratic stuff of Sanchez. Lewis is an under the radar guy who has a great tailing fastball and a nasty tight slider which is really tough on Right handed and Left Handed hitters. He is basically the Andres Torres of pitchers as he had to go to Japan for 2 years before anyone here wanted him back. Great story, but I hope we get to him early and put the pressure on the Rangers to make something happen. My key to game 3 is going to be Sanchez's change up, as that pitch will be huge in helping him get through all the right handed bats in that rangers lineup. Lots off these guys hit fastballs well, so without the change up, he will be in trouble if he isn't on with location. The development of the change has been huge in his improvement, so it will likely be key on Saturday night.
Shout Outs:
Monte Ellis: Looks like he is back to caring about playing Bball and is laying off the scooters. He dropped over 40 in his first game and I look forward to seeing if he can go back to being that 50% efficient scorer that he was during the "golden age" of the Nelson era.
Shannon Brown: A little late, but boy did he look good against the Rockets. Everyone was talking about Gasol as the only key to that trade, but Brown was amazing at Michigan State and I knew he would be an impact player at some point. If they can teach him how to play a true PG and he makes some small adjustments, he could replace Fisher and be ever more dangerous. I hate the Lakers by the way...
Hope everyone has a good Friday, I don't know when I will be on next...but either way, GO GIANTS!
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| From NineBuck on SFGIANTs Forum |
I have seen some great performances this year from our Big 4 (the 5 minus Zito) and this has to be one of the best. Cain wasn't perfect tonight, but when we needed him to be, he made perfect pitches to get us out of big innings. Cain's strength tonight was his ability to mix his pitches for strikes and keep the rangers batters off balance. When they guessed right, they were able to hit the ball well, but more often than not they were on their toes.
Cain was working his change up and nailing the outside corner with that tailing change up, getting most batters to lay off thinking it was a fastball. It was moving downward and it seemed no Rangers batter was able to get under it and drive it. His fastball was shooting out of his release and although the highest I saw him hit was 93, his change of speeds had the Rangers late on his fastball and early on everything else. He did exactly what hes done all postseason: limit base runners, pitch out of jams and not give up a single earned run. Timmy may be the Freak, but Cain is our workhorse who will hide behind the ace and have himself one hell of a career. This year, no one makes me feel more secure as a viewer than Cain, so in my opinion, he has been our best pitcher and always keeps us in the game.
Other Props:
I have hated on Renteria for 2 years and I still think he was a terrible pick up for this team in need of a impact bat at SS, at the price tag of 10 million. However, tonight he showed the fact that he can be quite clutch and turned on a pitch that 95% of the time as a Giant he pops up near third base. I have not seen him turn on a pitch like that since he was playing in Boston.
Rowand, you still suck and you capitalized on a bullpen that was in shambles.
Moving On:
Was funny watching the game tonight at the same spot (Kennedy's in Lower North Beach), because you could tell people were still recovering from cheering and drinking too much the night before. The crowd was tamer, the glasses less abundant, but people were still having a great time. SF is the smallest big city I know of, as I managed to run into a: former coworker, former manager, former teammate from middle school baseball with 2 other kids from middle school and a family friend. This was just walking up Green street to get home...
Its going to be an intense game 3, because it is a must win for the Rangers and they go against a nasty lefty in Sanchez who can be lights out when hes on. I think the pressure on the Rangers will help the Giants out, as I think they will be looking more to swing than be patient, which will surely help the erratic stuff of Sanchez. Lewis is an under the radar guy who has a great tailing fastball and a nasty tight slider which is really tough on Right handed and Left Handed hitters. He is basically the Andres Torres of pitchers as he had to go to Japan for 2 years before anyone here wanted him back. Great story, but I hope we get to him early and put the pressure on the Rangers to make something happen. My key to game 3 is going to be Sanchez's change up, as that pitch will be huge in helping him get through all the right handed bats in that rangers lineup. Lots off these guys hit fastballs well, so without the change up, he will be in trouble if he isn't on with location. The development of the change has been huge in his improvement, so it will likely be key on Saturday night.
Shout Outs:
Monte Ellis: Looks like he is back to caring about playing Bball and is laying off the scooters. He dropped over 40 in his first game and I look forward to seeing if he can go back to being that 50% efficient scorer that he was during the "golden age" of the Nelson era.
Shannon Brown: A little late, but boy did he look good against the Rockets. Everyone was talking about Gasol as the only key to that trade, but Brown was amazing at Michigan State and I knew he would be an impact player at some point. If they can teach him how to play a true PG and he makes some small adjustments, he could replace Fisher and be ever more dangerous. I hate the Lakers by the way...
Hope everyone has a good Friday, I don't know when I will be on next...but either way, GO GIANTS!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
World Series Game 1!
Well...we won game 1...
[Insert applause, hugging, drinking, dancing, celebrating]
I could not be happier with the result. There are some negatives to look at, but I am ecstatic
If there was 1 thing to take away from this game, it is that the Giants beat a pitcher who has never lost a game in his entire postseason history. Lee has been amazing in the playoffs, but tonight, our hitters were ready for his stuff and hit his mistakes. I believe the key factor in our success was looking to drive the ball up the middle and not looking for the home run. If you look at possibly our worst hitter (Burrell, who I suggested could have a huge game) he was swinging for the fences and didnt change his approach. Huff, Sanchez, Uribe and others were able to change their swing to connect with Lee's nasty stuff on 2 strikes. The big inning was a combination of not swinging at slop and not looking to drive the ball out of the park. Lee got wild, we swung at the right pitches and didn't try and do too much
I thought Burrell would be a big part of the win and I was terribly wrong...but Uribe did hit a 3 run shot! (I called him against Lee, I know). We made Lee bring the ball over the plate and when he did, we shortened up our swings after the 2nd inning and drove the ball for base hits. Our hitters made adjustments and Timmy made enough fixes to get us through the game with a win. A key for success. Timmy didn't have his nasty changeup today or even a slider or curveball that broke off the plate. He was throwing his fastball up and over the plate, was missing with his secondary stuff and we still won. He did enough to win today, but will need to adjust to win in game 4. His fastball was not hitting the spot low and away, so he wasn't as hard to hit. The changeup / split was either in the dirt or dropping into the strike zone, a bad combo. Either way, he did enough to get through almost 6 and we got the win, much to my surprise.
So, my predicton for tomorrow:
Wilson is a fastball heavy pitcher, who likes to throw offspeed stuff to Righties, which doesn't bother me. Uribe, Burrell and Posey all like breaking pitches, and I expect us to hit him well. Cain is dominant against Righties and Texas has many of them around their lineup, so I think he will do pretty well. I think Cain goes at least 7 against a team that tries to take a lot of pitches and I think Posey takes a big slider deep and gets a couple base hits. Giants take it tomorrow 5-1 after a dominant performance from Cain and a big game from Posey.
Either way, a huge tonight and more stuff to come tomorrow. Love my Giants and love my life...
[Insert applause, hugging, drinking, dancing, celebrating]
I could not be happier with the result. There are some negatives to look at, but I am ecstatic
If there was 1 thing to take away from this game, it is that the Giants beat a pitcher who has never lost a game in his entire postseason history. Lee has been amazing in the playoffs, but tonight, our hitters were ready for his stuff and hit his mistakes. I believe the key factor in our success was looking to drive the ball up the middle and not looking for the home run. If you look at possibly our worst hitter (Burrell, who I suggested could have a huge game) he was swinging for the fences and didnt change his approach. Huff, Sanchez, Uribe and others were able to change their swing to connect with Lee's nasty stuff on 2 strikes. The big inning was a combination of not swinging at slop and not looking to drive the ball out of the park. Lee got wild, we swung at the right pitches and didn't try and do too much
I thought Burrell would be a big part of the win and I was terribly wrong...but Uribe did hit a 3 run shot! (I called him against Lee, I know). We made Lee bring the ball over the plate and when he did, we shortened up our swings after the 2nd inning and drove the ball for base hits. Our hitters made adjustments and Timmy made enough fixes to get us through the game with a win. A key for success. Timmy didn't have his nasty changeup today or even a slider or curveball that broke off the plate. He was throwing his fastball up and over the plate, was missing with his secondary stuff and we still won. He did enough to win today, but will need to adjust to win in game 4. His fastball was not hitting the spot low and away, so he wasn't as hard to hit. The changeup / split was either in the dirt or dropping into the strike zone, a bad combo. Either way, he did enough to get through almost 6 and we got the win, much to my surprise.
So, my predicton for tomorrow:
Wilson is a fastball heavy pitcher, who likes to throw offspeed stuff to Righties, which doesn't bother me. Uribe, Burrell and Posey all like breaking pitches, and I expect us to hit him well. Cain is dominant against Righties and Texas has many of them around their lineup, so I think he will do pretty well. I think Cain goes at least 7 against a team that tries to take a lot of pitches and I think Posey takes a big slider deep and gets a couple base hits. Giants take it tomorrow 5-1 after a dominant performance from Cain and a big game from Posey.
Either way, a huge tonight and more stuff to come tomorrow. Love my Giants and love my life...
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
I've got a BLOG! I hate these things, what was I thinking...
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| Real Fans Grow Beards... |
So what will be my first topic of this Blog? Well clearly it will be the most important topic in the Bay Area in 8 years, the upcoming Sit / Lie...WORLD SERIES BABY!!!
Once you have watched the above link, we can continue to discuss the fact that San Francisco's own Giants are in the world series. Now, when speaking to Dodgers fans, Padres Fans, Yankees fans and even other Giants fans I like to act like I am not surprised, but ARE WE REALLY IN THE WORLD SERIES? I mean, I get it, pitching and defense win playoff games, but how in the world did we get by the Phillies? The Braves, I wasn't really shocked, but we just beat the most complete team on paper in 6 games, without ever really scoring any runs.
At the beginning of the season, on one of the days when I was feeling optomistic I mentioned this team could be like the 2001 Diamondbacks, but I wasn't really being serious and I was thinking of Pablo Sandoval as our Luis Gonzales type "he hits or we lose" player. Lincecum was Randy J, Cain was Schilling, Huff was old Matt Williams, Pablo was Gonzo, Freddy Sanchez was Craig Counsell, you get the idea. Think about if I told you this before the season:
- Pablo Sandoval will hit .260 with 13 hr's and less than 70 RBI
- Tim Lincecum will have an era a point higher than last years and a Walks + Hits / Innings Pitched as high as his rookie years
- Aaron Rowand will hit .230 and put up 11 Hr's
- Barry Zito will have a terrible 2nd half
-Mark Derosa will suck and then sit for the whole season
- Affeldt will not be half the set up guy he was last year
You would tell me that we had no shot to make the playoffs and we were destined for 2nd to last behind Arizona, LA and Colorado (no one thought Padres would be good...enough to fall apart). Well, we are in the World Series, thanks to some fantastic pitching and some shrewd work by a GM that I cannot stand.
Brian Sabean (the Giants General Manager for those who dont know) deserves credit and blame for this season. He brought us into the season with a roster that was not playoff bound and lacked any real middle of the order. While the bats are still nothing to write home about, its good enough to support our pitching staff and get us to the world series, so good job Brian Sabean (This is hard to say after watching Giants baseball for the last 8 years). He still has a lot of work to do to get this team to be a every-year contender (GET A BAT: Dan Uggla, Dunn, someone who will hit 30 Hr's), but I will give him the benefit of doubt.
Well, tomorrow is game 1 and I have to admit I don't know what to think. We are going against maybe a top 5 playoff arm in the history of baseball (Check it Out) in Cliff Lee and I am not exactly excited to be facing him. My expert (in my own opinion) opinion believes that certain guys will do well against Lee and some will not see anything well out of his hand. Uribe is a guy who historically hits Lee pretty well and I think Uribe hits lefties pretty well because he doesnt have to worry about the curveball or slider tailing away like from a righty. Ross is another guy who could easily pull a Lee fastball into the left field bleachers, but I have to think after the NLCS, Ross will be seeing a steady diet of outside and low fastballs, with a curve or two in the dirt. My "key player of the game" tomorrow will be Pat Burrell as I think he will be hitting in front of Cody Ross and will see some good pitches to hit from Lee. I have a vision of Burrel getting a runner on base in the 1st and shocking the world by taking Lee deep, don't get too excited though, I also envisioned Pablo becoming a 35 hr hitter this year (seriously watch the two HR's he hit in Florida last year, SHOTS). With Timmy on the mound, our team always has a shot, but Lee is one hell of a puzzle to solve.
I have no idea where this blog will go, but I am sure it will be dominated by Giants baseball for the next couple weeks. I hope to develop some sort of cycle where I can talk about fantasy stuff, some currente events, good music and many other things.
So, my "check this out" item of the day is a unique song currently being used by the NFL in commercials and being blasted by a certain co worker, ENJOY!:
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