Snakes and Seattle

Welcome to the 6th Czar’s blog of 2015 celebrating our World Champion San Francisco Giants!

It’s June and so far, so good?

We are now a week into June and the Giants are 4 and 4, after getting swept by the Pirates at home to start off the month (they did not look good in that series, in fact they looked pretty bad, making errors and bonehead plays and failing to hold leads), and then taking two out of three from the Phillies and two out of three (so far, if they win tomorrow it will be a sweep in NY) from the Mets. At worst that is a 4 and 2 road trip (and maybe 5 and 1) which is a great start to the road trips this month; anything a team can split on the road it is doing well.  

However the rest of June (after the Mariners leave next week) is a steady diet of the NL west  - the Dodgers in LA and the Rockies and the Padres at home.

The Giants team we are seeing at the moment is a hitting machine on the road; especially against mediocre opposition (which defines the Phillies and the current version of the Mets) in hitter friendly ballparks.  Aoki and Panik are battling for the team lead in BA (both well over .300), home runs are coming in bunches on the road from Crawford, Belt, Panik, Duffy and Maxwell  - - and Buster Posey is just nails all the time in all aspects of the game (someday you will tell your Grandchildren that you saw Buster play). Buster leads the All-Star voting for a damn good reason – he’s the best player in baseball, wunderkinds Mike Trout and Bryce Harper notwithstanding. The team leads the NL with scoring (and BA) on the road and the scoring reflects the RBI’s being put up by Posey, Crawford and Belt, the new power hitters and the G-Men version of Murderer’s row.

However, the inconsistency between the road games and the home games (in the last series anyway) is troubling.  The Giants thrive on the basics, hitting for average and station to station, keeping the line moving, piling up just enough runs to win close games and playing solid defense behind very capable starting pitchers and lights out relievers (except Casilla, sometimes – he did cough it up against the Pirates).  So, when small errors pop up it seems like the team falls apart (yes, the Ferrari metaphor again).  Sometimes the G-Men seem so finely tuned that they actually look fragile.  That worries me, and leads to the question of who has owies.

Are the injuries piling up and what is Bochy going to do for the All-Star game?

Blanco is on the DL with a concussion from a thrown ball in practice (shades of Belt last year). Isn’t it possible for professionals to watch out for balls being thrown in their directions?  That field has been awfully dangerous. Gregor has been playing very well so that is a loss and with Pence likely to go on the 15 day DL with a bad wrist (retroactive to last week I expect) the load will fall on Maxwell and whatever outfielder is available from the River Cats.  Like I said, fragile.

On the All-Star side of things no one can say that Heston didn’t look like an All-Star pitching a no-no as a rookie last night.  Thankfully I recorded the game because it competed with the Warriors being taken down by LeBron James and the Cleveland wrecking crew. I wonder how many of us had a similar experience?  It was almost surrealistic and it will be repeated tomorrow afternoon when Game 4 of the NBA Finals is up against the last game of the road trip (Timmy is pitching).

In terms of call-up’s McGehee is back up from Sacramento after hitting something like .372 there and is now a bat off the bench and an occasional starter. However what has transpired with him and Duffy is incredibly inspiring.  Duffy earned the starting job, no question there, but the class and respect with which Duffy treated McGehee, who is now mentoring Duffy, is an example of all that is the best in sports, and in life.

Maybe Duffy isn’t ready for the All-Star game yet but he’s already there in my book.

A word about pitching.  Strickland is up and is looking awesome.  If Casilla screws up at all the innings responsibility is going to shift I expect. The rest of the bullpen staff is so dependable that we are shocked when someone (you listening to me Affeldt?) gives up runs.

Soon there will some real controversy with the starters.  Heston came up for Cain.  Well, Cain is now doing re-hab starts. Do you send Heston down?  Who do you demote?  And Peavy is finally putting together some good innings in his re-hab starts.  Who goes down or to the bull-pen then? I suspect that the Cain and Peavy situation will keep them on the DL for at least another month regardless of how healthy they really are.

That’s what we have to look forward to in June!

The Upcoming Series against the Snakes and the Mariners

Arizona, even though it’s last in the NL West, 6.5 games back of the Giants, wants nothing more than to do to the G-men what the Pirates did to the Giants in the last series. The Snakes have three big hitters in Goldschmidt (.338 BA), Inciarte  (.294) and Pollock (.320) but their pitchers (they of the high ERA’s) love pitching in AT&T.  This is not the time for the G-Men to lighten up one bit

Seattle, even though with about the same record as Arizona (and 4th in the AL West) has an incredible combination of hitters (Nelson Cruz and Robinson Cano especially) and a stable of starting pitchers with ERA’s under 2. Do not overlook the Mariners. They will be trouble. I’m just glad that Ichiro has gone to the Yankees or the game would really be a zoo with Japanese reporters all over the place because of the “will Aoki go to the All-Star game as a Bochy pick” controversy.

More about that in the next blog post when the All-Star rosters start becoming clear.

It’s time for baseball!

Ciao, and GO GIANTS!

The Czar

Atlanta & the Pirates - the NL East and NL Central is in Town

Welcome to the 5th Czar’s blog of 2015 celebrating our World Champion San Francisco Giants!  The rules are below. 

It was the worst of times, and now it is the best of times

It’s now hard to recall the month of April, when the G-Men were in last place in the NL West. On April 17th the Giants were 4 and 17 and had lost 5 straight at home.  Since April 18th the boys have been 23 and 11 and are now one game back in the NL West behind the Dodgers, who have cooled off from their torrid start. 

Put another way, a quarter way into the season, if the playoffs were to start tomorrow the G-Men would be the wild card (and how scary would that be to the rest of baseball?)

Why the turnaround?  Well, for one thing, the team is leading the NL in batting average, and is in the top 5 in on-base percentage, slugging and OPS.  The situational hitting is awesome and they are batting .307 with runners in scoring position. Crawford alone is batting .444 with RISP and the entire starting infield is batting at or around .300. On the pitching side the starters for the last 34 games have an ERA under 4 and Bum’s ERA is 1.80 over his last four starts.

The numbers however don’t really tell the story.

What does is the precision with which the team is playing since mid-April. The G-Men now look like a fine-tuned machine hitting on all cylinders (as versus a minor league team trying to find their way).  The Giants are like a Ferrari playing against muscle cars. Bochy and Wotus (his defensive adjustments are genius)  putting players in and out, adjusting the line-up for the best match-ups, using the bullpen at exactly the right time and keeping the players fresh are playing baseball like they are conducting the SF Symphony Orchestra. What a joy to watch.

Getting Hunter Pence back didn’t hurt one bit either.  He is an essential piece and his hitting and presence are clearly major contributing factors to the May run.

The problem with being a Ferrari in a field of Dodge Chargers though is that it’s awfully easy to get out of tune.  Regardless, the personnel changes cannot be faulted.  McGehee is now at Sacramento and Duffy is starting at third (making the entire infield home-grown Giants players – Posey, Belt, Panik, Crawford and Duffy – I don’t think that there is another MLB team that can say that). That’s a testament to the front office, Brian Sabean and Bobby Evans

It is really unfortunate that there wasn’t room for ishikawa (who came off the DL this week) but it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for him to be parked at Sacramento for a call-up when needed. 

More personnel changes are clearly also in the works. Matt Cain will soon come off the DL and someone will have to be moved. Who will it be?  Right now all the starters are playing well, including Vogelsong. Strickland came up and is pitching lights out in the 7th and fits smoothly into the relief core. Maybe Strickland goes down because he has options, or maybe Machi (the least effective of the relievers) goes down.  Peavy is in rehab starts at San Jose and is getting shelled.  He might be done.

Can this pace be sustained?

Traditionally the Giants have loved May and hated June.  The month to come is really significant. Right  now the Giants are on a pace for a 110 win season. If they can keep it up that would be in the territory of the 1927 Yankees (who finished 110-44).  I don’t think that we are in that league (certainly not from a HR perspective – that team had Gehrig and Ruth) but again the Ferrari versus muscle car metaphor is a good one. In June the long grind begins.

Looking back at the last month of baseball (not to mention the last road trip) the G-Men swept the Angels and the Dodgers at home (the LA sweep was truly sweet – not just a sweep but a three game shutout) and the Brewers on the road.

There is no hotter team in baseball right now than the Giants and in every series from now on the target will be on their backs.  That is how it should be for the world champions.

I watch every game in awe. Bochy is the master at keeping an even keel and almost all of his moves are working right now.  When the biggest open question is how many of your starters are going to make the All-Star team (Crawford, Posey and Bumgarner for sure) you are having a pretty good time. 

The bottom line is that it’s time for the manager and the coaches to keep the team on an even keel and playing at this level.  We are one game behind the Dodgers and headed upward.  The Dodgers are still living off their torrid start in April. We could pull into first place over the next seven games at home.  That would be sweet.

The Upcoming Series against the Braves and the Pirates

The Braves are playing .500 ball and are holding strong in 3rd place in the NL East.  They just beat the Dodgers at home (but lost the series) and are coming into AT&T with something to prove. So far Atlanta has been steady, sweeping the weak teams (the Marlins and the Brewers), playing well against the teams out of their division and losing to the Nationals and the Mets.  This four game series will be a test for the Giants playing at home. The G-Men are the stronger team on paper but the Braves are solid and have always played well against the Giants.

After the Braves are the Pirates, who are in third place in the NL Central (2 games over .500), which is a dog fight all of its own.  The Pirates are holding their own (barely) against the Cardinals and beating up on Miami and the Mets (who are leading the NL East).  The Pirates are a good team and will be a test for the Giants pitching staff,

These are two good teams and the next week of baseball at China basin will be a lot of fun.

It’s time for baseball!

Ciao, and GO GIANTS!

The Czar

Giants versus Dodgers

Welcome to the 4th Czar’s blog of 2015 celebrating our World Champion San Francisco Giants!  The rules are below. 

Hunter Pence is back and we are in awe of Brandon Crawford

This has been a good road trip for the G-Men. A split with the Astros and taking three out of four against the Reds, a team that usually hits the snot out of the ball at Riverfront stadium, except that for this series the Giants were the big boppers, with multiple HR’s and double digit scoring for the first time this season. The Giants really like Riverfront and a lot of guys (not named McGehee) got very healthy there.

The biggest news of the road trip was Hunter Pence coming back from the DL and his broken arm (early for the Saturday game) and raring to play.  The storyline was that Hunter was hitting the ball hard in Sacramento for the Rivercats and texted just about everyone on the team (including Bochy) telling them that he was an “offensive machine” and ready to go.  He was not lying: 2 for 3 on Saturday night and 2 for 4 with a dinger today.  How long he can stay at .500 with a 1.000 slugging percentage is anyone’s guess but welcome back Hunter Pence – he is energy personified.

Hector Sanchez went back to Sacramento when Pence came up (good, Hector needs to play and Susac is the better catcher right now) and Maxwell went to the bench where he will be a dependable power bat in pinch-hitting situations. This is a much more well- rounded team than it has been for the last month without Pence.

Good hitting is contagious.  Belt (“Mr. Streaky Hitter”) suddenly got hot, hit three HR’s in Cincinnati and is batting .321.  But the real story is Brandon Crawford, .285 BA, 6 HR’s, 8 doubles, running away with the team lead in RBI’s with 25 and playing all-star caliber shortstop. It does seem that that a couple of grand slams helps the RBI totals.  Let us not forget Aoki, Pagan, Duffy and Panik - all doing well and playing solid baseball. Buster, as always, is in a league of his own – and he does own Riverfront.

The bullpen continues to be the strength of the Giants, who have played in (and won) more one-run games (usually low scoring – this trip was an aberration) than any other team in MLB. Casilla’s three K’s today in the 9th inning on 9 pitches was about as inspiring as a bullpen can get, especially after watching Chapman blow 102 mph heaters past the Giants hitters and still getting touched for hits. The starting pitching is also coming around.  Bum is rounding into mid-season form and the other starters (including Heston who had a complete game in Texas but got knocked out in the third inning today) are delivering 5 or 6 good innings, which sets up the bullpen.  We are seeing the beginning of a pattern that might hold throughout this season. I still don’t trust Vogelsong but he has looked real good in his last two starts.

Right now though, it’s all good.

Good Defense, good pitching, timely hitting and above .500 in second place in the NL West

The mantra of the season will be good defense, good pitching and timely hitting.  While it seems like we should care a lot more about the obscene number of runners left on base in scoring position, or the low team BA, or (until the recent series and ignoring Buster Posey) the incredible lack of power, the fact that the G-Men are two games over .500 and behind the Dodgers in second place the NL West is something that would have seemed like a pipedream three weeks ago  And, as noted below, the LA team is coming into town on Tuesday night for a 3-game series (which will culminate on Thursday with another Bumgarner/Kershaw shootout).

The two biggest lingering questions that I see right now are: (1) what is going to happen when Cain comes back and will he be the Matt Cain of old, and (2) when is Bochy going to get fed up and lose all patience with McGehee, who is still hitting below the Mendoza line and is on track for the all-time MLB record for hitting into double plays. Even when he hit his grand slam on the last home stand (nice to be sure) he followed it in the same game with two more double plays.

Is there anyone out there that doesn’t think that Matt Duffy (the “Duff Man”) shouldn’t be our starting third baseman?

The Upcoming Series against the Dodgers – early season at the OK corral?

This may be the most important early three game series of the year. First the G-Men swept the Dodgers at home in April to break the losing streak and start what is now a really impressive winning streak but then lost two out of three at Chavez Ravine.  These three games will either tighten up the NL West and show the Dodgers what a world series championship team can do when clicking on all cylinders, or it will showcase the powerful offensive Juggernaut that is the team that shall not be named and further separate them from the pack. Get ready for fireworks.

After this series the G-Men go on the road to face the Rockies (will they – or can they? - trade Troy is the question there) in Colorado and then onto the Braves in Atlanta for another Tim Hudson homecoming.

It’s time for baseball!

Ciao, and GO GIANTS!

The Czar

Angels, Padres and the Marlin's - 10 game series

Welcome to the 3rd Czar’s blog of 2015 celebrating our World Champion San Francisco Giants! 

The Giants really are that bad but if so how come they are doing as well as they are?

Anyone who has watched the Giants in April should be wondering how a team that appears to be so wretched has actually won10 games.  The Giants have a team BA right north of the Mendoza line, have stranded 174 men on base, have hit into more double plays (21) than any other team in baseball (thank you Casey McGehee), are scoring an almost MLB low of 3.0 runs per game (thank you Phillies for being worse) and have a pitching staff ERA somewhere above 4. In short, when you only score an average of 3 runs per game and give up an average of 4 runs you can’t expect to win many games.

Sure there are excuses, plenty of them. Injuries abound. Pence is still out with a broken arm (due back at that end of May), Cain is still out with a tight forearm but is starting to throw and may be back this month, Peavy is out with back problems and Ishikawa has a bad back. However a lot of team have much longer injury lists than the Giants.

So how come the G-Men are only 4 and half games back in the NL West (maybe the toughest division in MLB) after the worst April start since 1991 (not a memorable year)?

The answer to the question, I think, is Bruce Bochy and the bullpen.  The pen continues to be exceptionally strong and most of the games the G-Men won (like last night with a bottom of the 9th walk-off) were one run nail biting affairs. Those kind of games tell you that the manager has kept the team in the game until something good happens (like taking two out of three from the Dodgers or winning on the road).

It’s now May and let’s see if the torture of one run games can’t be abated a bit in favor of better baseball. However I still suspect that we are in for low scoring tense games for quite some time to come.

Who is good, who is not good and who cares?

The good includes the team’s only .300 hitters, Aoki and Pagan.  Nori is a gamer and the best lead-off hitter we have had in quite a while.  He gets on base, leads the team in steals (with 6 as of last night) and is an all-around pesky player. Pagan (clearly healthy now) hitting in the three hole has been a revelation.  He has been a tough out and leads the team in hits (with 32).

The RBI and HR leader is Crawford, who continues to be probably the smoothest shortstop in the game.  Maxwell has been a breath of fresh air with good defense in RF, the most dingers behind Crawford (tied with Posey who is, well, Buster Posey) and a dazzling smile.  However, and watch this when you see the game, the league is starting to figure him out and he is now getting a steady diet of off-speed pitches and junk, which he is going to have to learn to handle

After that it gets really thin.  Belt is really scuffling, McGehee should be sent down to the minors to get rid of the yips (and his reputation for hitting into double plays is, as it turns out, well deserved – how much rope Bochy will continue to give him is the real question) and find his stroke and the bench has been quiet. The G-men have very little power, and it shows.

Future bright lights continue to be Panik and Duffy (and Susac off the bench) but they are basically rookies and it shows (although Panik’s walk off last night was a thing of beauty).

The real problem is the starting pitching.  The best pitcher on the team (from an ERA perspective) right now is Heston. Bum however looked great beating Kershaw this last week and I think that his season is going to just get better and better.  Beyond that it’s a wasteland. Peavy was a train wreck before he went on the DL, Vogelsong is giving up HR’s in bunches (it’s tough to come back from two three-run dingers in 4 innings) and may be done. As for Timmy, well which one are we going to get is always the question, the Timmy that throws strikes and pitches like an All-Star or the one that is throwing batting practice to the other team?

Hudson, for his part (and he pitches today) looks ready to retire.   He is adequate if the bullpen can support him but I don’t see any fire there and if that is the case it’s going to be a long year for him  before he retires at the end of this season.  We need a healthy Matt Cain back for starters. There is no pitching depth in the farm system so maybe Sabean has something in mind; if so, we will have to wait and see what happens.

The bottom line is that the G-Men are lumbering along like an old car not hitting on all cylinders but doing just enough to get us to the next stop. Maybe Pence returning (to continue the analogy) will be the sparkplug we need to start playing better in every facet of the game

I guess that we all have to remember that THE GIANTS  ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS and everyone else is not.  That felt good to write.

The Upcoming Series - a cage match

This series coming up, the Angels, Padres and Marlins are important from a number of perspectives.  All three teams are playing around, or below, .500 ball so it will be a good test of the Giants will.  All three teams have better team ERA’s, BA’s, runs scored (and every other conceivable stat) than the G-Men so we will be underdog’s in every series.  If the Giants can hang in there at home, or win more than they lose (and last night was a great start) then we can start to move up the ladder of the NL West.

It’s time for baseball!

Ciao, and GO GIANTS!

The Czar

Welcome to MASH -- McCovey Cove style

Welcome to the 2nd Czar’s blog of 2015 celebrating our World Champion San Francisco Giants!  

It is hard to believe how many injuries have occurred four games into the season, and how quickly many of them seem to be healing.  Pence broke his arm in the spring but the cast is off and he should start hitting soon, meanwhile he is a super cheerleader.  Cain was scratched before his first start with forearm tightness and is on the DL, hopefully not for long. Belt hurt his groin on a pop fly but didn’t get put on the DL and is expected to be playing this weekend. Ishikawa remains in Sacramento where I expect he will be for a while and Peavy’s back stiffness seems to have abated enough for him to start Sunday against the Padres.

Regardless of this litany of owies, the G-men are 3 and 1 in their first 4 games. They took their first series of the year against the Snakes, and won a 12 inning stunner against the Padres last night behind Hudson, who looked very good, and a parade of relievers including Kontos, who got the W.

Does anyone else feel like we are still in the playoffs?

How are the pre-season offensive projections working out?

Well, it is really early but right now the top of the order looks REALLY good.  Nori Aoki (.412) and Joe Panik (.250 but timely hits) are setting the table, Pagan (.333) is hitting like the second coming of Joe DiMaggio, Buster is hitting game winning HR’s and Crawford (.278)  is absolutely awesome, with clutch hits and clutch defense.

Casey apparently has a case of the yips (at least looking at his two errors last night) but is still hitting .293 with a dinger in his first three starts.  We haven’t really seen Belt break loose yet but Duffy, with 7 at-bats, is hitting .429 and Hector Sanchez, with 8 at-bats, is hitting .375. Not too shabby.

The point is that the lack of offense in the pre-season hype is not what we are seeing at the beginning of this season, at least in Arizona and San Diego so far. The G-Men are scoring runs with style, grace and regularity. It is a really fun team to watch, especially when stuff like Pagan getting brushed back in the “gum” incident and taking it out on Craig Kimbrell for a triple happens.

Is the pitching there, as advertised?

With the exception of Cain going down and Vogelsong giving up two 3-run dingers in Arizona in the game that was lost down there (you don’t win games where you give up runs like that), the pitching has been strong.  Last night was awesome. Hudson for 6, then the bullpen through 12 in a one-run game that felt like the playoffs.

Tonight is Lincecum. Saturday is Bum, Sunday is Peavy and Monday is Heston.  Not like they drew it up last week but the G-Men are carrying 13 pitchers to get through this run of 23 games without a day off so the depth is there.  The bullpen looks strong and everyone is contributing, with arms in Sacramento if we need them.

I think, based on what we have seen so far, that we can feel  real good about this team.

The Defense – just hit it to Crawford

The defense has been good. The runs against isn’t bad defense but three-run homers (we are a little worried about Vogie, he needs to pitch less innings), which are not defendable.  Crawford is starting out the year like a human highlight reel, reaching balls beyond the range of any other shortstop in the game, doing trick tosses for double plays and having an arm like a cannon.  Supposedly Tulo is the best SS in the game.  You will have your chance to compare them next week.

What impresses me the most is the team balance and the coaching.  Lose Pence and put Blanco or Maxwell in, shift Duffy all over the infield (he is taking balls at 1st base in practice today), Lose Belt and shift Posey to 1st and put Hector behind the plate so he can get two hits and catch a great game.  Because of the managing, coaching (except for Roberto Kelly getting the yips in his first game) and the set-up of the team the Giants right now are playing like a well-oiled machine - - like, dare I say it - - world champions!

The NL West and the next series

The NL is certainly going to be a dogfight.  There are three games left against the Padres and, frankly, if we split in San Diego that is a great opening road trip.

On Monday the Rockies come into AT&T, as yet undefeated (but they opened with a sweep of the Brewers and are playing the Cubs right now – the G-Men will be their first NL West series). The Rockies will be a test for the pitchers and I’m just sorry that I’m going to miss that series. Things to watch are, obviously, all of the Rockies hitters who have a team batting average right now hovering around .400. This will be a serious test of the defense.

On Thursday the Snakes come back into town.  I don’t expect them to do much better than they did in Arizona but they are not a group to be overlooked.

Then, starting on Tuesday the 21st the Dodgers come into town for their first series of the year.  LA might only be 2 and 1 at this point but they are not to be trifled with considering Kershaw and Grienke and the ability of Adrian Gonzales to hit 7 HR’s in 3 games and to be batting almost .800

That’s it. It’s time for baseball!

Ciao, and GO GIANTS!

The Czar