The Belt Line

Brandon Belt has a huge problem. He's the Giants savior at 1st base without a safety-net. I understand the stat-heads who cry every time he's sat down for batting like a 12 year old against major league pitching. "He takes walks!" I get it. His OPB can't be ignored... it is tantalizing. But he has a problem in pressure situations. He can't get the fucking bat off his shoulder to protect the inside half of the plate. He either takes the pitch or swings and misses. If a lefty hangs one over the outside part of the plate he'll crush it. This is against type which is the problem that stat heads have when evaluating him. If he fouled off more inside pitches he'd get a better selection to choose from. The Giants brain trust seem to be all batting average and power numbers. You can blame Barry Bonds for that mind-set, but it doesn't change the fact that a batter needs to create a situation that gives him the pitch that he wants. Belt allows pitchers to dictate what he does. He'll eat up a pitcher who disrespects him or decides to pitch what he wants opponent be damned. But a major league pitcher will pitch to his weakness and allow a weak single, or strike-out to get to the weak underbelly of the Giants offense. Allow a hit to a guy who can crush it, or pitch a double-play to the chump behind him and finish it? I'll walk him all the fucking time! He needs to be a THREAT to be valuable. That means not allowing a walk or a weak single on the inside pitch but flipping it foul and saying "I'M NOT LETTING YOU DICTATE A WALK OR A K! I'M FUCKING HITTING THIS THING!"

A pat on the back and a quick update

Ok, so I know it's ugly to brag online without proof... but I fucking called it! Yesterday as trade rumors were swirling about Hunter Pence I said "It's gonna take Schierholtz, Tommy Joseph and maybe one other player." What did it take? That EXACT package. I can't tell you how pumped I am for Scuturo and Pence. They were my two top players I wanted over the last year and a half. I also wanted Cuddeyer last off-season... but that is for later. We got-heem! I would like to think that my fantasy GM is making the right calls, but I doff my cap to monsignor Sabean. He got both players for cheaper by waiting than I would have by pulling the trigger when I wanted. I see now that the "I want, I want, I waaaaaannnnt" that fans go through is not always the best way to create a ball-club. Last year the offense was HORRENDOUS. We needed a fix! But we were still in first place when we acquired Beltran. He got off to a cold start and then injured before tearing it up in September. Too bad the rest of the team hit .127 while he hit .823 (or so it seemed). I don't blame Beltran for choosing a more comfortable home field over $$ from the Giants. But now we have Pence for 1.4 years and a possible Cabrera extension to define an outfield. Crawford and Belt are getting an audition by fire to join Posey, Sandoval and a pitching staff. If things work out next season we have to deal with center and second. Those are two positions that can be filled in by Sabean's usual veterans and magic cast-offs. That leaves a big IF on the Brandon's and signing Melky, but I'll take that over the crap-tastic line-up of 2011.

2010 showed us that the playoffs are a crap-shoot, but if you get there you gotta like the chances of a deep pitching staff and a line-up that knows how to scratch together just enough runs to wear down the opponent. We might be building a team that can be competitive for the next 3-5 years. (World series not guaranteed)

Embrace the bizarre

Tonights game was weird. I would have bet A LOT of money 2 days ago against the Giants scoring 18 runs in the first two games in Atlanta. I would have bet a TON more in the 8th inning. And then all hell broke lose. WTF just happened? Blown save in extra innings... then 2 three run home runs? By Crawford and Blanco?!?! Holy Hell.

At least we've progressed in 2012 to the point that I don't end this post with...

And the Aubry Huff played second.

Gentle Reminders

If Melky Cabrera can get 10 hits in his 100 at bats he'll tie Pablo Sandoval's hit mark from last season! That would leave him with a .294 batting average which would have been 2nd best on the 2011 Giants.  Wow, our offense SUCKED last year. Ok, so...if a certain Puerto Rican Center fielder steals 3 more bases, that would tie him with a certain Puerto Rican Center Fielder from 2011! Ok, so that one isn't as fun because Torres only had 24 more at bats than Pagan has so far. Let's try another! How about Triples? Whoa Nellie! We have a team total of 30. 2011? A whopping total of 24. OOH how about another positional comparison? Guess what position has to get 17 more hits to equal the positional total of 2011? If you guessed catcher you win another glass of scotch or liquor of choice you must be drinking. We have 74 more games to play this season. If you aren't drinking heavily at this point you must still have the euphoric glow of last nights game glistening off your... um... never-mind.

But holy crap, did you see that game? Timmy looked pretty good. I'm not going to jump into the whole "Yay, he's back! We're never going to lose again" camp that has sprung up after every decent start by Timmy this year. I think Timmy DID find a formula that can lead to greater success in the 2nd half. Rely on that fastball and pound the bottom of the strike-zone. He left a few pitches up in the zone that might have been clobbered by a major league team, but we faced the Astros so alls well that ends well. Also, I came to realize why Sabean might be over enamored with Veterans. Crawford has had a problem all season with rushing his throws. His rushing things have led to needless errors, which lead to needless, hurtful runs. Sanchez tonight did the same thing in the 9th inning which allowed the tying run to cross the plate. That was a rookie mistake, but it was an aggressive mistake. Sanchez doesn't have to be our savior at catcher. What Sanchez does have to be is decent catcher and provide less than embarrassing at bats.

Critique of the SF Fans

This is an open letter to some of the Giants fans out there;

Stop, please just stop. Stop posting to message boards. You make us look like a pathetic bunch of whiners. We all know that there is an east coast bias in sports media. Get over it. Stop whining and complaining at every perceived slight. The national media had every right to question the validity of our all-star selections. Pablo Sandoval had no right being an all-star starter. An all-star, yes definitely... but a starter? There were FAR more questionable voting irregularities (or atrocities depending on your vocabulary of choice) Brandon Crawford? Brandon Belt? FREDDIE SANCHEZ!? We should be ashamed of ourselves. And yet, when the national media blasted us for Panda we all had a collective hissy-fit. He's great, we get it. But the defensive attitude was poorly written and didn't give credit where credit was due. If I attended college and missed 1/3 of all lectures and assignments should I get to graduate suma-cum-laude or get an incomplete? I'd take the incomplete and be happy about it! So before the results of the game your bitching did nothing but give us a black eye.

Now that that's over with, I'll eat crow. I've watched a boat-load of Panda and I've never felt comfortable with Panda facing an elite pitcher in a pressure situation. Hell, if anyone out there thought Panda would hit a triple in that situation, I've got a trip to Vegas I'd like you to join. Everyone of the Giants tonight was awesome. We couldn't have done better. The entire world is backtracking as fast as they can to give the Giants props for winning the game. I was so elated that I went and read as many articles I could. But to my dismay, the boards weren't filled with proud Giants fans. You were still butt-hurt over perceived slights. One post complained that "the surprise in the voices of the authors still seem to belittle the accomplishments of theses players throughout the season." I'm a Giants fan and I'm hella surprised! The article was written by ESPN's Jayson Stark who has been more fair to the Giants than most other writers out there. Get over yourselves. Not everybody is going to cream their jeans for a team in 2nd place in the worst division in baseball.

The Giants were superlative last night. If we can harness that magic for the 2nd half of the season we'd be a huge disappointment if we didn't make the NLCS. But what we DO have to be proud about is that our grandmothers know how to create fake email addresses. We did granny proud. That is all. Also, the Giants kick ass!