Greetings to all of our friends who love the two-time World Champion SF Giants! The G-Men are now 16 and 12 and having a weird year so far Let’s start this blog off on a philosophical note. There are a 162 games in a season and you can’t win every one. If the G-Men finish with 92 wins they are an almost certain lock to win the NL West (they are now in 2nd place behind the torrid Rockies) or to get into the playoffs. 92 wins translates to a .567 season long wins versus losses ratio. The Gigantes are currently winning at a .571 clip. They are where they need to be so undue worry isn’t justified. April has been weird. For example, the G-Men have already been involved in 5 series where there were sweeps. The Giants won three of them (Rockies, Padres and Diamondbacks) and lost two… Read more
The Czar's Giants Blog
Giants v. Padres; Giants v. Diamondbacks
The G-Men after 15 or so games It’s very early in the season but never too early to start worrying. The G-Men came out of the gate pretty well (they have won every series until the last one) and are currently 9 and 7, but are third in the NL West after being swept by the Brewers in Milwaukee over the last three days. The hot team right now is the Rockies (they are supposedly no pitching but great hitting – however they have had both great pitching and good hitting so far and they are pounding every team they are playing). The Diamondbacks are second in the NL West at 8 and 6 and the Dodgers and the Padres are both below .500. The G-Men have had problems on the mound and at the plate. Currently the hitter with the best batting average on the team is Barry Zito,… Read more
The Boys Are Back in Town!
Greetings to all of our friends who love the two-time World Champion SF Giants! This is the first Czar’s blog email of 2013, so get ready. Coming up are a few pre-season games and the opening series against the Cardinals and the Rockies. The exhibition home stand features (as usual) the A’s on Thursday 3/28 at 7:15. The A’s (who shocked baseball last year by winning their division and getting into the ALCS before falling to the Detroit Tigers) have a fine young pitching staff, Yoenis Cespedes in left, Coco Crisp in Centerfield, Josh Reddick, Seth Smith, a solid bullpen and Manager of the year Bob Melvin. While the A’s are really good they are unfortunately in a division with the VERY scary Angels (with Mike Trout) and the Rangers. The Giants have very few positions to fill going into the season (see below) so the principal contests now are between Cole… Read more
Orange October: Giants are 2012 World Champs!
This is last blog of 2012 and the G-men are the World Champs, a most satisfying year. It’s Orange October and the parade will be on Wednesday (Halloween, the Czar’s birthday) at 11 am. This year the City will come to a standstill. You thought that the 2010 parade was great? Wait until you see the parade this year!! Wear Orange and Black! The Regular Season: Our boys finished the regular season 94-68, 8 comfortable games in front of the Dodgers, which one hopes becomes a habit. The regular season was marked by signposts of what was to come. A career year (and a NL MVP for sure) for Buster Posey (the Willie Mac award winner, The Hank Aaron award winner and the Comeback player of the year), a tight pitching staff that had ups and downs but more ups. Timmy had a poor late season but Cain was the… Read more
Giants v. Cardinals (National League Championship Series)
The Series: The G-Men are playing the 2011 World Champion Cardinals, who got in (like they did in 2011) via the wild card. This is going to be a hard fought NLCS. The Giants are the home team based on winning the division (and a better record) but the G-Men split the season series with the Cardinals 3-3, with a 1-1 split in SF and a 2-2 split in St. Louis. The Cardinals (team BA of .271 and Team ERA of 3.71 are as close to the Giants (team BA of .269 and Team ERA of 3.68) as you can get. The Cards have more HR’s (159 to the Giants 103) but less stolen bases (G-men 118 versus Cards 91). Can you say evenly matched? The question will be momentum and desire. The G-Men are coming off the most emotional comeback in the history of the NLDS, three games down… Read more
Giants v. Rockies, Padres and Diamondbacks
The Positives: The G-Men are currently 7 and half games in front of the NL West and cruising towards a division title. The magic number (Giants wins and/or Dodger losses) is 11 with 15 games remaining. The Giants would have to really tank at this point to not make the playoffs but meltdowns have happened so now is not the time to be overconfident. The Giants are playing very solid ball and have the 5th best record in all of baseball. They are loose as a team and having fun (anyone who saw Casilla’s first major league hit last night in the AZ victory can see that – it was a hoot). In terms of position players Buster is now the favorite for MVP, and he should be. He is an awesome ballplayer, batting .329 with 20 homers and 90 RBI’s and an arm so good that no runner in… Read more
Giants v. Diamondbacks, Giants v. LA
The Positives: The Giants are playing good solid ball. August has been a very good month (unlike last August) and it seems like every day brings someone else contributing a solid play, a key hit or (from the pitchers) getting a key out. The team is displaying good balance and Bruce Bochy is managing every game like it’s the playoffs. Of course being 4 and half games in front of the Dodgers and 8 and half games in front of the Snakes is pretty nice also. The heart of the team is Buster Posey, who has to be the MVP this year. Hunter Pence hasn’t been hitting like he should but he is nonetheless an energetic player who plays good defense (we don’t miss Nate’s arm in right field). The Panda is still in a slump but is hitting just enough. Angel Pagan has been hotter than a pistol (as… Read more
Giants v. Braves
The Positives: As of this morning, the Giants are in second place in the NL West, one half game behind the Dodgers. Given what happened with Melky this week, that’s the positives. OK, for more, Buster Posey is practically single-handedly carrying the team, Brandon Belt and Crawford are playing very good ball and hitting well (both averages are climbing, and Crawford has an 8 game hitting streak), Hunter Pence is starting to show what he can do (which is attack the ball; his swing is vicious), and the PANDA IS BACK! The Questions: What was Melky thinking? That he wouldn’t get caught? That his agents would protect him? That the Barry Bonds lesson has been forgotten? A 50 game suspension basically means that he’s never coming back to the Giants (I agree with JT Snow) and we need to move on. The question is how? Soriano hates SF (and he’s… Read more
Giants v. Rockies, Giants v. Nationals
The Positives: The Giants are still in first place in the NL West, one game in front of the Dodgers and playing their best baseball of the year; at least on the road. The G-Men are on top of the National League in average runs scored on the road (more than 5 runs a game) and in the middle of the pack on runs scored at home. The boys are coming off a very healthy 5 and 2 road trip where they swept the Rockies at home and split a series with the Cards in St. Louis (a tough thing to do). This is after a pathetic 3 and 7 home stand where they got swept by the Dodgers and barely survived the Padres and the Mets. I’m sorry that so many of you bravely went to the last home series and came away disappointed but I was also. The… Read more
Giants v. Padres, Giants v. Mets
The Positives: The Giants are in first place in the NL West, 1.5 games in front of the Dodgers and playing their best baseball of the year. They are finishing up a 4 and 2 road trip having won 2 out of 3 from both the Braves (nipping at the heels of the Nationals in the NL East) and the Phillies (hurting for reasons that are not all that clear because they are a very good team). This follows up on a horrible 1 and 5 road trip before the All-Star break, redeemed by the G-Men practically singlehandedly winning the All-Star game (four Giants on the roster, with the Panda hitting a three run triple and Melky a two-run homer) and assuring that the NL has home field advantage in the world series. The pitching is as good as it ever has been. Lincecum has had two good starts in… Read more
