f13.net

Considering our lack of enthusiasm for even getting a fantasy league together (luckily I had others to join!) this thread will probably just consist of me posting to myself, but figured I should start one for general discussion.  The Giants have actually made it back to the playoffs after 7 years, and I was at one of final games against the Padres (which had a very intense atmosphere) so I'm very much excited to follow.

First bit of grand news so far:  Roy Halladay throws a no hitter (http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2010/10/06/phillies-pitcher-roy-halladay-tosses-hitter-reds/), only the second time that's ever happened in post season history (first time was in 1956). 

Impressive to see, he's an awesome pitcher.

I guess we could all make predictions now as well.  I'm going to go with bias and say the Giants will win the NL Pennant.  I'm going to say the Devil Rays will take the AL. 

Obviously, without the fucking rally monkey to stop them, the Giants will beat Tampa in the world series.    :awesome_for_real:

I am really, really, really glad we didn't have to play the Phillies in a short series. Atlanta has a somewhat softer rotation. Of course with our hitting, we'll probably make them look like Halladay/Oswalt/Hamels anyway.  :oh_i_see:

Rabid Braves fan here. Everyone in this town thinks Atlanta limped their way into the playoffs and is totally doomed. I'm slightly more optimistic given that San Fransisco is basically the same type of team as the Braves: all pitching and wildly inconsistent hitting. In the first game, both teams are tossing their obvious aces at each other to try and grab the all important first win. Lincecum has gotten stronger over his last 5 starts, only giving up 7 earned runs, and going 4-1. If he gives up 2 runs or more, however, the Giants usually can't figure out a way to rally and win. Lowe is 5-0 over his last five starts, giving up only 4 earned runs. If I'm looking for an edge on the game one starters, I think it goes to the Braves.

On the hitting side, the Braves are riddled with injuries. We lost our best hitter in Prado, we lost our leader in Chipper, and we lost our starting first baseman in Glaus. Due to injuries and trades, we're not playing any of the same infield we started the season with. The Braves are a patient team that coaxes a lot of walks, has struggled with timely hitting, and is a non-threat to hit the long ball. Thing is, so are the Giants. Nobody on either team is hitting well down the stretch. Nobody is clubbing the ball into the stands. Hitting is a wash.

When you look at the team defense, Atlanta has struggled mightily in the field due to the constant lineup changes, trades, and injuries. There's no consistency out there and it shows up in second half errors. San Fransisco, OTOH doesn't make mistakes. On the season, they are tied for the fewest errors and best fielding percentage in the league. Advantage goes to the Giants on this one. Braves will make at least a few errors in the series, and they have to hope they won't be hugely costly.

I hear that Halladay guy is kinda good. I am rooting for Texas- I enjoyed Cliff Lee during his brief stay here, and would like to see him stick it to the Yankees and Phillies.

I'm rooting for either the Rays or the Rangers simply because neither has one, but I really don't see anyone with the pitching AND offense to take down the Phillies. The Rays are probably the only team with anywhere near the starting pitching depth that Philly has, but they don't have the experience. I think the Braves will actually squeak through against the Giants, but then... you know, Phillies.

You're giving the Yankers no chance against Philly, Haemish, assuming they win the AL?

That is correct. No matter how good that lineup, I don't think their rotation after Sabathia can outduel the Phillies rotation.

I would agree with that as well, but the Phillies are prone to go into a hitting funk not even their pitchers can protect them against. There are a lot of games where they score 1-3 runs. Either they can pitch with that or not.

How about them Rangers?  :grin:

They're my home town team and holy crap has this been a long time coming.  I pray I'm not jinxing the series by being happy about it after only two games.

I wouldn't want to play us in a short series either.  :heart:

I wish baseball ONLY had playoffs, it's the only time I actually enjoy watching it.


PS: I hate when I have to wait out a 15 second timer because Ingmar posted something, wah!

Paelos, I don't really think the Giants really limped into the playoffs.  We had a grood record, and (amazingly) the NL west was actually very competitive and hard fought this year.  We can be shaky and a bit streaky, but I'm very happy with the team composition.  We have top to bottom talent in our batting rotation, with no major weakness's.  Only problem is we don't really have any big bats either.  Still, the whole order is very capable of producing, even if our offense has run production trouble.  Then they are supported by one of the best pitching staffs in the Majors right now (most of it home grown).  So I think we actually have good chances this year, though its going to be hard fought.

Braves have a great squad as well, in a similar way (as you said).  But your right that they've been hamstrung by injuries.

Also:  Wooooooooo!  Its nice to see that Lincecum is back to form and seems to be staying there.
Eh, I think that's how it is for everybody.  Baseball is the only sport I watch during the normal season.  I only watch any other sport during their respective playoffs.

Suffice to say I disagree to an extreme degree. Our offense is mediocre at best.

I disagree with you on a few points. Yes, you limped into the playoffs. Any team with a 3 game lead and 3 to play that is forced to win on the very last day of the regular season limps into the playoffs. This is not a disputable fact. The Braves were the same way. I agree with you that SD was extremely competative, but yall faltered at the end.

Let's also face another fact. San Diego fell apart. I can point to the EXACT date where everything went to hell for them, and they couldn't recover. August 25th. On that day, the Padres hold at 6.5 game lead over the NL West with 37 games left. If they play even .500 ball from that day on, they cruise to the division championship with 94-95 wins. Instead, they lose a record 10 straight, and go 4-13 for their next two and a half weeks, including losing 3/4 against the Giants. When they finally wake up from that nightmare on September 12th. Everybody is tied up. It was an epic collapse.

You say your order is good top to bottom. I'd say they are consistent top to bottom. All your batters are ok, none are outstanding except Posey, and he's a damn rookie. You are capable of producing but you are wildly inconsistent. Huff if your best power guy, but he only has 26 HRs, and his average goes from .367 in July to .224 in August. A lot of your guys are feast or famine like that. It's a problem the Braves had as well. They would win games by 13 one night, and lose two in a row by getting one run in the rest of the series. It's maddening.

All in all, I think the Giants have a better shot at overcoming their issues while they are in San Fran, but once this show goes back to Turner Field where the Braves have a sparkingly record and the real ace on the mound, things could get interesting. If we split the series tonight in SF, you might not see it come back to the west coast.

San Diego's success was simply not sustainable, though. The 10 in a row was a fairly spectacular way for them to choke, true, but that just was not a 95 win team. They were about as good as us - dangerous in a short series, not enough offense to be in the high 90s win-wise.

I fucking despise Philly and everything that comes from it, except Iverson when he was playing there. So I expect them to win the world series again.

Actually San Diego was way shittier than either Atlanta or San Fran. By the end of the season they were second to dead last in NL average, while the Braves and Giants were 6th and 7th. The funny thing though in that streak was it wasn't just hitting. Their pitching evaporated in late August and was giving up 5+ a game. Unless you are the New York Yankees, you aren't overcoming a 5 spot on the board every night.

Average means very little, if you want to make comparisons look at something with more value like team OBP or slugging or even just runs scored. Mind you this doesn't directly change your point, since they sucked at those too, but batting average is just a bad stat to look at. 12th in runs scored FWIW, Mets/Nats/Pirates(lol)/Astros all were worse.

Atlanta's big problem is injuries. Losing Jones and Prado took a pretty decent hitting team and pushed it down into our neighborhood, and we already had the edge in pitching and a very big edge in defense. Play the series 10 times and I think the Giants win about 7. The one advantage you can milk is we haven't got much left handed hitting to speak of.

Our starters also got nailed too. Medlen, our young phenom, had to have Tommy John, and Jurrjens is injured with some knee issue that I think hides something larger.

We have run production trouble as I mentioned.  What I meant is that all of our players have proven talent, and can still be dangerous.  I don't really feel we have anybody left who is a shitty hole in the lineup, which is frankly a big change for us (where usually half the team is a no talent hole that can never be counted on to do anything other than fill in slots on the roster around the name Bonds).  We don't have any big players, however, so this means, as Paelos said, we tend to be a feast for famine team based on how many players are on a hot streak or not.  Looking at the team hitting stats, we are consistently ranked in the 6th to 8th range in the NL in almost every hitting stat, which isn't bad by any means.

Luckily we have great pitching to even out the low dips from our offense, giving us a winning record.  Also, good pitching always trumps good hitting in the end, which I also think will help us in the post season.  This is why I think we have a shot.

If any of that makes any sense.

What doesn't make sense is why are all these Bay Area fans coming out of the woodwork who I didn't know lived in/around SF?

Bay area fans hardly ever have anything to talk about in the playoffs.  I sympathize with them. :-P

Tee hee at the Giants pitcher totally fucking up his baserunning because OH GOD I AM ON BASE HOW U PLAY GAEM. Knocking in a run made up for that though.  :heart:

I love Rick Ankiel!

I was at the Rangers - Rays game tonight.  Ugh.

Pulling Colby early put way too much pressure on our bullpen, couldn't string any hits together on their relievers, and Feliz looked young and nervous.  He's just not the confident shut-down closer we need to win playoff games (yet).  The game could have been quite a bit worse, we got away with giving up a lot of walks and singles before the 8th inning.

Is there anybody else here who cares about this series at all?  Texas teams seem to be persona non grata in these parts while the Rays simply don't have any fans at all, which is a tragedy as they are an excellent team and should be a blast to root for.

Edit: punctuation.

Everyone I know of on the west coast is pulling for the Rays and frankly I'd imagine that every non Yankees fan is a fan of them. Sadly they are up against a team that is in receivership and hasn't been to the playoffs in forever. Also I like the Rangers despite the Texas thing because I remember Nolan Ryan being a Ranger when I was a kid.

I was rooting for the Rangers (I guess I still am!) because they at least have fans that give a fuck about them.

I'm behind the Rays in this series only because, as an Angels fan, it's impossible for me to root for the Rangers unless they're playing the Red Sox or... well, I think it's just the Red Sox.

Man what a series so far, I may not survive this.

EDIT: Also a special thank you to Brooks Conrad.  :grin:

We actually have owners again, Nolan Ryan and Chuck "The Money" Greenberg.

Fucking Brooks. We're on so many backups at the fielding positions, we're playing backups to backups. Ugh.

Yeah, ditto.  This series has been very intense.  Friend of mine went to the 49ers game today and they showed the very end of this game on the big screen before the football game started.  Stadium got very loud he said.

My condolences to your friend.  :why_so_serious:

Suprise Suprise (http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/10/11/brooks-conrad-held-out-of-braves-game-4-lineup/?synd=1)  :awesome_for_real:

The extra  :uhrr: thing is he should never have been in there in the 9th inning in the first place, Atlanta could have put Diory Hernandez in as a defensive replacement once they had the lead.

Well, you were sort of right!


EDIT: Also, I will now acknowledge that baseball can be exciting! This series stressed me the fuck out and I only KIND OF care about the SF Giants.

I was at the game tonight. Braves continued to show that we were completely hobbled and there was no good way around that. The Giants earned hard fought victories in their three games and they should be commended for sticking it out on the road in one of the hardest stadiums to win in all regular season.

That being said, if the Giants continue to hit the way they did against the Braves, Philly will grind them into dust. There is no reason any of those games should have been close with all the defensive fuckups, bullpen letdowns, and general sloppiness the Braves showed. Philly will not do that, and I can only hope your team catches lightning in a bottle because I hate the fucking Phillies.

I don't think you have a chance in hell, but I'm hoping otherwise. Good luck. Otherwise I'm going to have to deal with ANOTHER Philly/NY world series, and that makes me want to just give up watching the sport.

Yeah it is going to be rough I think. On the plus side, we did split the season series with them, and Sanchez beat both Halladay and Hamels. But... yeah.

Did people hate the Phillies before they started winning?  I don't pay enough attention to the national league most of the time.

Rangers - Rays game 5 in two hours.  I need everyone's good juju to help us win here.  I can't imagine there are many series where the home team loses every single game.

Philadelphia teams are pretty easy to hate in general*, because of the fans. Throwing batteries at Santa Claus and all that.

*Exception that proves the rule:

If you are in the NL East, yes. Yes always.

I think the Giant's pitching is good enough to put the Phils in check on paper.  The Atlanta series wouldn't have been close at all if our normally solid bullpen hadn't taken a couple of notable shits.  It's the Giant's kids first time in the post-season, though, which means a few jitters are inevitable.  So I don't expect the odds are in their favor against the seasoned Phillies.  However Lincecum, Cain, and Sanchez are destroyers of worlds for their past few starts.  They've kind of peaked at the right time.  And Bumgarner isn't that far behind them.  If they manage to keep it up, we'll win.

HELL YES RANGERS WIN RANGERS WIN ON TO THE ALCS

where we will face the Yankees who we demolished in the season series, so I am quite hopeful.  I even have a ticket to a possible World Series game, awwww yeah.  I won't even care if Philly 4-0s us if we can just get there over the Yankee's prostrate (figurative) corpse.

Edit: demolished is a bit strong, we swept them in our September series against them.

The Phillies starting pitching was arguably better, pitching two complete game shutouts (no hittter!) against a much better hitting team than the Braves. If both teams pitch as well as they did I believe the Giants will lose as the Phillies were also a better hitting team than the Braves during the regular season while the Giants were much worse than the Reds were.

The Rangers have always been the red-headed stepchild for sports in the DFW area.

I'm really proud of them. They're a good group of guys and after 39 years consisting of absolutely no postseason success at all, they deserve it.

Welp, guess I'm rooting for the Rangers, since I hate every other team left. I hope they sweep the Yankees and the Phillies.

Awww, what have the Giants ever done to deserve any hate?

Anyways, go Rangers.  You've got the matchup that instantly makes almost everybody in the nation a fan of your team for a week.   :awesome_for_real:

Barry Bonds. We can still smell him from here.

I can see his Mardi Gras sized head from Georgia.

I'm a Cubs fan. 1989 ring a bell?

This team could probably use BB frankly.  :-P

Since these series have three teams I'd usually like to see at the bottom of the sea, one with Tim Lincecum and Buster Posey on it, and it isn't 2002... Go Giants!

(I still don't think they have much of a shot though.)

Slightly above zero, slightly below a snowball.

Oh come on, just beating the hell out of your team during an important series shouldn't be grounds for eternal hatred.   :-P

I mean, being a cubs fan, you'd have to hate every team!

I'm a Cubs fan. We even hate ourselves.  :awesome_for_real:

It tingles the Will Clark bell, yes.

It also tingles the Fuck Dave Stewart bell.

It was the earthquake.  That's the only reason they won!

And yes, Will Clark was a childhood hero.

Everybody thinks that the Phillies are the Phillies from the last few years.  They're not.  They drove in a few more runs that the Giants.  But noting HR, BA, OBP, and almost every other stat, and it's closer than you probably think.  The Giants do tend to GIDP's.  I will have to grudgingly admit.

We "tend to" ground into double plays like Rick Reuschel "tended" to be fat.

"A few more runs" in this case means ~0.5 a run per game more. Given how dominate certain pitchers on both staffs can be, that could be the difference.

It's true.  But I'm just sayin'.  It's not as wide a offensive margin as I thought before I heard them talking about this on KNBR the other day.  That .5 runs is probably close to the difference between Citizen's Bank and AT&T.  It's a really close matchup on paper until you get to one undeniable truth.  If it gets to the bullpen, the Giants win.

Giants 2010 bullpen ERA: 2.99
Phillies 2010 bullpen ERA: 4.02

Now, with that said, the Giants aren't exactly the kind of team that sees a lot of pitches and gets into the bullpen.  But they are much better at it now with Posey, Fontenot, and Burrell than they were at the beginning of the year with their endless parade of free swingin' hacks.  I hope neither team chokes, because if so, it will be a classic pitcher's duel series.

Actually, nah, fuck that.  I hope the Phillies choke.

Hoping for a Philly choke is definitely my plan. Starters are close to even, we do have a better pen (and better defense by a bit) but nearly 100 runs on the year less is a really big offensive gap. Fontenot isn't an improvement over Panda offensively, either, basically the same OBP and less power, but he doesn't have the fat guy baggage or the weight of failed expectations, so he's playing. Brandon Belt can't get here soon enough.

That reminds me, I hate that our 1/2 hitters are sitting at like a .340 OBP each, but it isn't like we have any other real choices. I might be inclined to move Ross up into the #2 spot until he cools off, maybe.

Those full season stats for Philly are meaningless. They were horribly injured with several starters out for most of the mid-season. In September, they averaged 5.26 runs a game, and went 20-6. That's what the full team is capable of, and the reason that people think the Giants have no chance. The total stats are misleading due to the injury factor.

Oh and the Phils averaged 4.33 runs per game in their sweep of the Reds. The Giants scored more than 3 runs in one game, their loss.

The Phillies played one contending team in Sep.  The Braves.  They had two series against the Mets.  Then Washington, Florida twice, and Milwaukee.  If they score 4 runs per game against Giants pitching, then the Giants will definitely lose.  But I don't see it happening.

Also.  Fontenot has five more feet of range to his left than the Panda, easily.  But yea, offensively it's sort of a wash.  The reason I mentioned him is because he sees more pitches than the never-saw-a-pitch-in-the-dirt-he-didn't-like Panda.

Pitching will not help you against the Phillies. Trust me. They have it too. I've watched the Braves play them 18 times and you will not win if you don't score 4 runs.

What, no game tonight? :(

I'm rooting for the Giants & Rangers. Brian Wilson's interview on Rome is Burning about a month ago was badass.

Sabathia's getting rocked in the first.  Is... is this joy I feel?

Edit: Well, so much for that.  Rangers got robbed on a chance to go up 4 and probably knock Sabathia out in the first on that horrible call at the plate.  Fucking Yankees.

Rangers up 5-0 so far. I'm starting to feel hopeful.

Call was right. Just saying.

5-0 now Rangers. Fuck the Yankees!

 :heartbreak:

ARRRRG!

I'd rather beat the Yankees in the World Series anyway...  :why_so_serious:

Was at game.  Very tired.  Very depressed.  Hate Yankees.  Hate how Ron Washington uses our bullpen. :facepalm:

Yeah, at the start of the 2nd the Rangers radio guys said they saw an angle were his elbow was tagged.  I'd love to have judged for myself, but you know... MLB.TV national blackouts and all :uhrr:.

Well, the Rangers came out today and did more of the same except their bullpen didn't blow it.

Talk about a squandered opportunity last night though. They could be up 2-0 going to New York with Cliff Lee starting. That would have been about as good as it gets. Oh well. At least it's 1-1 and we have Lee taking the mound next.

Woo, one more year of my life gone

Sweet baby Jesus would it kill the Giants to win by more than one goddamn run?!

My fingernails have been gone since the All-Star break.

No nail-biting tonight. One run won't get the job done.

Bleh.

It was a pitching melt down last night.  5 runs, which is normally great, wouldn't have gotten the job done either.

Defense was not sharp either. Getting out of Philadelphia with a split is still a pretty good position to be in I think.

I agree. The question is what do you do now? If you win Game 3, with 2 to play at home, the momentum is going to carry you a long way. You absolutely have to win tomorrow to put the Phillies off balance. I don't think you can bring it back to Philly and have a chance if they only need one of two games to clinch it at home.

Same thing we always do, try to run out a vaguely passable lineup and hope for the pitchers to come through.

Dammit, I need more than that.  :awesome_for_real:

Tell me you can beat these fuckers! I hate the Phillies!  :mob: :angryfist: :tantrum:

Cliff Fuckin' Lee.

That is all.
 :awesome_for_real:

:heart: :heart: :heart:

Dude's so non-chalant about the whole deal.

"How did you hand the Yankees their worst postseason loss in history?"

"I threw my fast ball to see if they could hit it. They couldn't, so I just mixed up speeds and got ahead in counts."

It's that fucking simple kids.  :uhrr:

Just how depressing is it as an Indians fan that Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia were both on our roster at the same time at one point?

Cliff Lee was on the Phillies last year too. Their pitching staff this year could've been: Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Cliff Lee and "it doesn't really mattter" (Cole Hamels) :awesome_for_real:

They probably don't feel the need to make a move to pick up Oswalt from the Astros this year if they'd have kept Lee.

Also.  I'm totally malingering.   :awesome_for_real:

Heh look! The Phillies borrowed the Braves bats!  :awesome_for_real:

 :drill:

The best part of the Rangers-Yankees series (after Lee & Hamilton) is watching NY "fans" clear out early. They may have a $200m payroll, but give them some respect for making the post season.

Oh man oh man, I am grinning ear to ear alone in my apartment.  This is so sweet.  I'm just barely old enough to remember being kicked out of the playoffs the three years we went in the 90s.  It is a delicious payback. 





so far

I won't gloat over the Rangers winning, because the Yankees will not go away until the last pitch is thrown, but I have been impressed with the Rangers offensive lineup and their pitching strategy in this series. This series could have been swept if they didn't gag the first game away.

As for the Phillies!  :awesome_for_real:

If I'm Charlie, I'm not letting my guys pitch to Cody Ross for the rest of the series. Take your base and we'll worry about the other guys in your sad little lineup.

Krukow said it best.

"Uhhhuuuuhhhhhuuuuuhhhh."

The Phils deserve to lose this series if they insist on pitching to Posey. I don't get it. 4 hits and 2 RBIs??? WTF!

Kid's pretty good.

Rangers are in the World Series.  YESSSSSSSSSSSS

I've waited 30 years to see it, but it feels pretty good to be a Rangers fan right now.

Born in Texas, lived there for 13 years, but I was always a Braves fan since I grew up in Georgia. I will say this though, I'm proud to see the the Rangers have finally got some good ownership, and I loved watching them knock off the Yankees. I will be rooting for them full-force in the World Series to get their first championship in franchise history.

(Most people don't realize it's a longer no-championship drought than the Cubs).

Best day of the baseball season, every season. Yankees lose.   :awesome_for_real:

Woot! I might actually watch some of the World Series now that the Rangers are in it. They were the only team I gave a shit about after they beat the Rays. With the way the Phillies and Giants have been (not) scoring runs in their series, I wouldn't put it past them to get their first championship ever.

With two underdogs in the Series, I don't know who to root for. I'm going to watch as much as I can. Hopefully the bats from San Fransisco hulk up to keep things interesting.

Root for the Giants, the Rangers didn't even exist the last time the Giants won the World Series.  :grin:

Root for the Rangers, they've never been to the World Series before at all, Washington Senators years included.   :oh_i_see:

The last time they won the World Series, they were the New York Giants.

So, screw that. Go Rangers! :grin:

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Also:
Haven't the Cubs not won a world series in 102 years, and the Rangers franchise was only founded in the 60's (as the Senators)?

Yeah, the Rangers franchise was founded in 1961. The Cubs have it all over everyone basically. Their closest competition is something like 40 years behind (the Indians). I think the Giants are 3rd.

True, but I meant as the Senators/Rangers. What I didn't realize was that the Senators that became the Rangers was only 61, while the Senators of the Connie Mack days that I assumed was the Rangers Senators actually became the Twins upon further inspection. I didn't know there were actually two entirely seperate franchises that bore the name "Washington Senators."

Hell, I didn't even know you could do that in pro sport.

Three now thanks to the current stinkers in Washington.

And of course you could. There have been 2 separate Baltimore franchises (Colts then the Ravens) and two separate Cleveland Browns franchises in the NFL.

I know you can have two different franchises in a town, smartass. I've just rarely heard of them being named the exact same thing.

Houston didn't rename itself the Oilers for example. Nor did Washington rename itself the Senators currently.

I'm still pissed that they didn't name the new Washington franchise The Senators.  The suck must be fully resurrected!

They probably don't want to mix their baseball with politics.

The Giants have a huge disadvantage as they traded their catcher of the past several years to the Rangers.  So he's going to have a pretty good game plan.  Of course it only matters if it's executed on the field.  But it's still kind of worrisome.

If you're on the fence about who to root for, then root for the Giants.  Or I'll personally kill you.  There has never been a more likeable team than our torturous freaks.  Fear the beard.

They ARE pretty likable, even though they torment the fuck out of anyone who roots for them.

I would have said that our beastly good offense finally getting fully into gear was enough of an advantage, never mind who used to play for whom. 

I do like the Giants now that I've learned a little about them, but my Rangers are still going to rock them like a hurricane.   :rock:

I am super paranoid about talking shit given our history oh Jesus I hope I didn't jinx anything

Ingmar will kick me out of the apartment for saying this, but if the Rangers wind up winning, I would be happy for them. Maybe that's why Ingmar was secretly hoping the Yankees would advance, then everyone in the US would be totally behind the Giants. But the Rangers are all cute and likable TOO, oh no!

While I'm a flaming Giants fan, and will be quite crushed if they lose, I don't have anything against the Rangers.  If the Giants hadn't made it they'd probably be the team I'd actually pull for out of everybody else. 

So I wont feel so bad when the Giants inevitably choke at the very end as usual.   :why_so_serious:

Rangers are near the bottom of my would-root-for list given their former ownership (and that's all I'll say about that.)

I probably would have picked the Rays to root for otherwise, they are doing all the right things from a baseball standpoint, winning a ton of games, and getting no love from their local fans, it is kind of sad.

You have a problem with Tom Hicks???

 :awesome_for_real:

Noting the political slant of this board, I can't believe that anyone here would root for the Rangers considering the prior "W" affiliation.   :grin:

Both W. and Hicks' previous ties to the Rangers shouldn't color this current team. Both those regimes fucked this franchise up and down. Nolan Ryan's group has got them in the Series.

Just wait until they play up all the Rangers drug recovery stuff. They are putting Tim McCarver as one of the World Series announcers. How in the holy hell does this moron keep getting to announce big games? The day he tells me something I don't know, I'll drop dead.

That doesn't make Rangers-Giants any more interesting. 

Amen.  He just continually insists on spouting unfounded and ridiculous bullshit.  It's like he thinks saying wrong shit makes him edgy.  He and his dipshit partner need to go.  I tried to listen to our local broadcasters do the game on the radio while watching the TV broadcast with the sound off.  But the radio delay is actually faster than TV, so you see things seven seconds after they're announced on the radio.

Might be able to get around the different delays by streaming your local radio and running a seven second buffer up on your computer, if your setup allows that sort of thing, and if your local radio has a stream.

MLB doesn't let the actual game broadcast be streamed by KNBR, we get an ESPN radio feed instead during playoff games. If you want the local broadcast stream you have to buy the GameDay Audio thing I believe.

Aaaaaaaaand Cliff Lee's been knocked out of Game 1.

:yahoo:

oh god don't jinx it

They showed Bonds on screen, my good will towards the Giants is low enough now that I'm comfortable with that.

Look what you did! I hope my monkey friends haunt your dreams.

That was uglier than it needed to be.

The Giants were afraid people weren't stressed enough, so they tried to get some "wtf!" in there at the end.

Those 18 combined runs, 25 combined hits, were with the two aces on the mound.   :uhrr:

Our defense showed how porous it can be with Cruz and Vlad in the outfield, and with Michael Young going through an everything slump.  This "no DH" thing is bogus, man, you National League teams need to get with the program.

AL needs to man up and stop being sissy's.  Make your pitchers fight like everybody else!

Oh, also,  :drill:



p.s.  And yes, I think the Giants decided to start giving them away at the end because holy god we can't actually win an important game by more than 1 run!  Do something!

This is me resisting the urge to talk shit since it's only one game.  This... is hard....

A little culture shock for the DFW TV news people:

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/sports/_They_re_Smoking_Weed__Dallas-Fort_Worth-105903773.html?ref=nf

Yea, Hamilton was qqing because they were blazing in center field and he could smell it with his born again nostrils.  Sometimes I'm proud to be from the Bay Area.

Hah, the Giant's park (whatever the name is) was already on my list of places to see a game in before I die or they tear it down, now it's doubly so.

It's currently AT&T Park I think, and if you do get a chance to go there, you totally should, because it is awesome.

 :awesome_for_real:

That said, my sense of impending doom is growing stronger.

 :awesome_for_real: :awesome_for_real:

 :awesome_for_real: :awesome_for_real: :awesome_for_real:

It was the performance enhancing weed.

I felt bad for the dude who was the starting pitcher for the Rangers.

a) He was totally hot.
b) He left for what I am sure felt like a frustrating reason.
c) He had to watch the relievers suffer their way through another inexplicable 2-out run-scoring-fest.

I'm gonna sleep on the couch tonight!  :why_so_serious:

I quit watching after they Rangers bullpen decided they were going to walk the entire lineup.

I didn't.   :grin:

That's when I started watching!


"I have to see this catastrophe for myself!"

AL is a bunch of sissies with their DH and not having to really manage the lineup - OH NO I HAVE TO MAKE A DECISION WHETHER TO PH!!1!!one

See, I like that there is a league where people who can smack the fuck out of a ball can go and play and do their thing. But I prefer no DH 'cause watching pitchers bat, especially pitchers who haven't swung a bat in ages, is never not hilarious.

We just need to have our entire bullpen taken out back and shot, I guess.  It's tough, but I think they're just in pain and can't be saved, like a lame horse.

Really though I am baffled.  Some, at least, of these guys were very solid in the regular season, and they have done nothing but melt down entirely at the slightest provocation in the playoffs.

Hopefully coming home does... something.

Help, I have to watch this game all by myself 'cause Ingmar is off playing D&D in the game I don't play in. :(((((((((((((((((((((((((

Oh, Giants!  :awesome_for_real:

THAT is how I expected this series to look.  Rangers win if they get their four runs, otherwise Giants.  We'll see if it goes back to insanity later on.

So far this is going more or less with what I considered the best-case scenario.  :heart: I figured of the 4 starters Sanchez was the most likely to blow it, and that Lewis on the road was going to be tough on top of that. Tomorrow is a toss up but I am feeling pretty optimistic now, having to beat Cain in his house even if they get past Lincecum is going to be a tall order. Double Cain's home stats and he's in the Cy Young race, while Timmy has been better on the road.

The Rangers are toast. Who would have guessed at the beginning of the year the Giants would have an easy driver's seat to the World Series Championship? If you did, you were getting 18-1 odds.

While I hate to see my hometown team lose, I couldn't have picked a better team to do it than the Giants.  It's been ages since they've won a World Series, and now that they're sans Bonds they are very likable, and seem to have a lot of character.  I'd rather have seen the Rangers take it, but this is an alright consolation prize.

Don't talk like that, it's not over 'til it's over, never give up never surrender!   :angryfist:

Yeah, I'm not sure why people are talking like it's over, the Giants have blown this before!  :why_so_serious:

Yes, this, sadly.

If anybody can do it, I'm sure its us!

Having said that, I'm now forced to go into SF to drink at a bar every night just so I can actually be there when we finally win.  Please die quickly for the sake of my liver and wallet Rangers!

Well, I was totally off when I said that pitching wouldn't beat hitting in these playoffs. Pitching owned hitting in the fucking face.

Grats Giants!

Welp, congratulations Giants and Giants fans.

I'll only be sad for a little while, this season was still a HUGE breakthrough for us.  Here's to hoping we can keep it up over the near future.    :beer_mug:

Winning celebrations look really goofy in baseball, two dozen guys hopping around in the middle of an enormous empty field.  :-P

I don't see the Rangers have much trouble from the AL West for a while assuming Arte Moreno (the Angels owner) doesn't completely break the bank this off-season.

:Insert Giant Smug Smiley Here:

Nah, you had good points, guess it could have gone either way.  I've just pretty much had it beat into my face over the years by defeat in bets that good pitching always comes out on top.  I no longer trust in scary lineups to carry a team.

I am very drunk and happy right now.

I especially enjoy that the outfielders have to run forever before finding someone to hug.  :heart:

Also,  :awesome_for_real:!

Tied House totally exploded for the Renteria HR.  :heart:

I cried real tears.   :grin:

Oh hey, we had a WoW guild get together dinner there (first time I've ever met 'internet friends" irl.  Was somewhat worried at first, but because it was mountain view, they were all doctors and engineers).  Fair warning, the wait staff are all Horde.

Grats, Giants! I was mildly pulling for Texas (since Seattle sent them a couple of guys this season, so it was the closest I will ever see to a Mariner in the WS), but the Giants were my 2nd choice going into the post season, so all good here. Plus local kid Tim Lincecum (his high school is about 5 miles from my house and a friend teaches there) was awesome, even if he looks like the kid from Dazed And Confused all grownsd up.

Even my mom has become a baseball fan at least for now - partly I think because Tim looks and carries himself a lot like her late brother, who was a baseball fan himself (and a pot smoker). I bet Tim kind of wishes he was 6'5" like my uncle was though.  :-P

The person I might be happiest for though (besides me) is Mike Murphy, the Giants equipment manager. He was a bat boy in '58 when they first moved here and has been with the team ever since. Nice that he got to be there for a win before he retired (although you get the feeling he might be one of those guys who never retires.)

Also, it almost brings a tear to my eye that the Giants fans at Arlington Stadium were chanting "BEAT L.A." after the game.  :awesome_for_real: