MLB 2011

[Rasix]

National League West 4 life.

[Ingmar]

I don't think we can chalk all those guys up to doping. Adam Dunn's falloff has affected every part of his game from walk rate to batting average, it is too much to explain by 'he's off the juice'.

[ghost]

I don't think we can chalk all those guys up to doping. Adam Dunn's falloff has affected every part of his game from walk rate to batting average, it is too much to explain by 'he's off the juice'.

Hey man, I like being judge, jury and executioner.  Leave me to my hyperbole.   

[Paelos]

I disagree that speed and pitching make things boring. Stolen bases and people flying around is a lot of fun. Think Ricky Henderson baseball.

[Ingmar]

The problem is that most 'small ball' is actually pretty shitty strategically. Rickey stealing 100 bases worked because Rickey also rarely got caught (80% success rate for his career). Brett Butler stealing 40 and getting caught 20 times? Not so good for your expected runs. Giving up an out for a base by having someone who can actually hit (IE not a pitcher) bunt? Bad math involved there too.

[Paelos]

Giants...

It's the Astros. Come on!

[Ingmar]

I've resorted to reading happy articles about our minor leaguers.

[Paelos]

I've resorted to reading happy articles about our minor leaguers.

PS Colorado has won 5 in a row. Here they come!

[Sjofn]

The Giants won but ... barely. Against, like, the worst pitcher in baseball.

SIGH



Tomorrow their little newbie pitcher Surkamp is starting. I hope he is acceptable!

[Paelos]

Let's take a look back at my horrible May predictions!

The NL West:

I had - The Rockies in first, the Giants coming up second.
What happened - Dbacks??? I had them last. To be fair, that shocked everyone. Colorado is winning, but I think they are too far back. Giants are in second.

The NL Central:

I had - Cards in first, Reds coming up second
What happened - Brewers started murdering the ball, and the Cards have collapsed. My prediction of Cards then Reds holds except for the Brew Crew eating it up.

The NL East:

I had - Braves then Phillies with the wild card.
What happened - Phillies then Braves holding onto the wild card. Still time for the Braves to move up, but the Phils don't show signs of stopping.

The AL West:

I had - The Rangers in first, the Angels in second.
What happened - So far, that's what's happened.

The AL Central:

I had - The Indians in first, the Tigers in second.
What happened - Right now that's flip-flopped. The Tigers are on a tear late winning 8 of the last 10. I think they will walk away with it now.

The AL East:

I had - Boston in first, Yankees in second with the wild card.
What happened - So far, that's spot on. We'll see how it breaks down since the difference in winning that division is only a game, but they are both in the playoffs.


So to recap, I'm better at predicting the AL than the NL, which is hysterical since all I watch is NL 

2/4 of my NL teams are going to make it, and 3/4 of my AL teams are going to be in the playoffs most likely.

[Sjofn]

Arrrrrgh, I know that the Giants shouldn't have even been IN the position they were in versus the Astros today but DeRosa was totally fucking safe arghghghghghghghghghghgh

Ahem.

[Paelos]

Arrrrrgh, I know that the Giants shouldn't have even been IN the position they were in versus the Astros today but DeRosa was totally fucking safe arghghghghghghghghghghgh

Ahem.

Astros. 

[Sjofn]

Now we got owned by the Cubs. 

[Paelos]

Wow, that's just hard to watch.

[HaemishM]

So are the Cubs.

[Paelos]

Braves play a series with the Nats. I'm hoping we can remember they are the Nats and not World Series contenders. We don't match up well against them historically.

[Rasix]

Wow, that's just hard to watch.

Depends on your perspective. 

[Ingmar]

I am nearly certain we could score more runs with the 30 year old journeyman dudes from our AAA team.

[Paelos]

Wow, that's just hard to watch.

Depends on your perspective. 

And if you win, you get the Phillies! Congrats!

[Rasix]

Big IF.  We're awesome at dropping tons of games in a row.  I'm not sure how the hell you're supposed to beat the Phillies in the playoffs.  Throw a bunch of shutouts?

[Sjofn]

Big IF.  We're awesome at dropping tons of games in a row.  I'm not sure how the hell you're supposed to beat the Phillies in the playoffs.  Throw a bunch of shutouts?

Have some awesome pitchers and hope your hitters have a hot streak at the right time seemed to work last year! I would dearly love to see them lose in the playoffs again, they piss me off. They act like all this is a mere formality. It's sort of ... sort of like the Patriots were the year they went 18-1. 

[Paelos]

Dammit Braves, you suck against the NATS!

[Sjofn]

GYEEEEE

(Sorry Rasix. But still.)

[Rasix]

><

[Sjofn]

We're your Padres or something.

[Ingmar]

Did the math, it would take an extraordinary set of circumstances for the Giants to catch the Diamondbacks now, and while the Giants schedule the rest of the way is favorable, so is the Diamondbacks.

Offseason priority: fix the outfield. And maybe get a new trainer.

[Sjofn]

How about a non-assy shortstop? Crawford is good defensively but you keep telling me how bad his bat is!

[Fordel]

Try getting people that can hit the ball, that is my expert opinion.

[Sjofn]

Well, one of the people that can hit the ball will be back next season. So that's nice! I think "people who can hit the ball" falls under Ingmar's "fix the outfield" thing, though.

[Fordel]

I'm just saying, even with my vast knowledge of baseball (which falls between 'How many touchdowns did you shoot' and 'How u mine 4 fish') I can see how not being able to hit the ball is holding you back! 

[HaemishM]

The Giants entire problem can be summed up by "You can't score runs." You don't even have to watch a game to know this, just look at their stat line. Scrappy got them a World Series ring, but scrappy is a very flimsy commodity. They need to trade a big arm for a big bat or two medium-sized bats who can hit for average and clutch. Oh and get Buster Posey out from behind the plate before his career is over before it gets started.

[Rasix]

I'm not going to say anything for fear of jinxing our chances. 

[Ingmar]

The Giants entire problem can be summed up by "You can't score runs." You don't even have to watch a game to know this, just look at their stat line. Scrappy got them a World Series ring, but scrappy is a very flimsy commodity. They need to trade a big arm for a big bat or two medium-sized bats who can hit for average and clutch. Oh and get Buster Posey out from behind the plate before his career is over before it gets started.

Posey isn't going to be a good enough hitter to be a star level player at any of the positions he can play but catcher, so he needs to stay put. People keep saying we should move Panda to first base too but that doesn't make sense for the same reason. As a 3rd baseman, he's a plus hitter, as a first baseman he'd be average to below average. We have a bit of a 1B logjam between Belt, Huff, and now Brett Pill anyway.

In any case I don't think we need to trade a pitcher (I wouldn't cry much if we could move Sanchez for something useful but this season has really reduced his trade value), but we do need to stop giving people with mediocre career lines big free agent contracts after career years. We also need to stop jerking around the young guys; Belt needs to start every day, period. Ross and Schierholtz should be a strict lefty/righty platoon in the OF, their numbers are fine as long as we don't let them hit against their opposite number, but both are miscast as starters. I think Torres had his one good year last year but someone has to keep CF warm for Gary Brown for at least another year so if we can't get a reasonable free agent there we're stuck. That leaves one OF spot for Belt if we really think he can field it I guess, but he should really be starting at 1B where he is a plus defender, which means a good-hitting LF should really be our free agent priority. 2B/SS are the other problem areas, Crawford can field but he can't hit a lick, and Freddy Sanchez keeps getting hurt. Supposedly Pill has put in some time at 2B, but I have a hard time picturing a 6'4" 215 pound slugging first baseman type fielding second adequately.

So yeah, a left fielder and a second baseman are the priorities, and maybe a decent one year rental in CF if we can find one. The best free agent OF is probably the guy currently on the team already (Beltran) but he's old enough that I'd probably be irritated if we signed him (I doubt he'd go for a team-safe 2 year-ish deal).

[HaemishM]

If the Giants don't make the playoffs, re-signing Beltran would be an expensive mistake. He will never produce for what you pay for him.

[Ingmar]

It would be a mistake, but probably a less horrible mistake than Rowand or Huff in terms of expected performance, but that's only if we can get him for 2 years, and I'm sure he'd never sign a deal that short, he's looking for his Last Contract. Overpaying for a few marginal wins isn't the worst thing in the world when you have a reasonable expectation of the player actually delivering said wins. Plus, from what I can tell the other available alternatives are mostly your Josh Willinghams and such.

I do keep hearing about the possibility of us throwing a giant pile of cash at Jose Reyes, too. Makes me nervous, that's a high risk/high reward move.