Thursday, October 09, 2008
Quick and Dirty LCS Predictions
When the Giants aren't in the playoffs I tend to take a somewhat apathetic approach to October baseball. I normally root for the National League in the World Series as a rule, and I always root against the Yankees and, more often than not, the Red Sox. Sometimes there's an awesome team, like this year's Rays, that I root for to win the whole thing because I like underdogs and and feel-good stories. Most times, though, I just watch to watch baseball, without a whole lot of rooting interest.
This year, though, is a different story. I'm treating the 2008 NLCS like this year's Presidential election. It's too important not to have an educated interest in. You see, watching the Dodgers move on to the World Series is about as repulsive as watching the McCain/Palin clown act raise their arms in victory on November 4th. Just as the country is nearing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Giants fans are on the brink of a nightmare scenario involving a Dodger team parading around the streets of LA, led by a spoiled man-child and a pornstached cowboy whose injury-hiding ways are only mildly less embarrassing than Monta Ellis's.
So, yes, I'll be watching this NLCS about as intently as I've ever watched a non-Giant playoff series. If it comes down to the pick-your-poison scenario of a Boston-LA series (just like it did in the NBA Finals this year), I may just implode in on myself and take on a new existence in the astral plane just to get away from this crap.
Philles over Dodgers, 4-2
Even if the Dodgers had the lineup of the 1939 Yankees and a pitching staff anchored by the perverted love-child of Tom Seaver and Sandy Koufax, I still wouldn't pick them to win this series. Even if Tommy Lasorda tied me up and waterboarded me with Ultra Slim Fast, I still wouldn't give in and pick the Dodgers. Even if Ned Colletti set his mustache on fire and hopped around ablaze for our amusement on live television, I still wouldn't pick the Dodgers. Even if...well, you get the idea.
The Phillies have a lineup that is miles better than LA's. They've been hotter than LA the past month (for all the talk about Manny, the Dodgers are just 30-25 with him). They're awesome on the road while LA sucks away from Dodger Stadium. Their run differential was way better than LA's. All this could mean nothing in a short series, I realize, but my money would be on Philly even if they weren't squaring off against a team affiliated with Satan.
Red Sox over Rays 4-1 (but I hope I'm horribly wrong)
I really, really want the Rays to win the World Series. They're a fun worst-to-first story and they are the perfect model of how every franchise should be run. They have colorful players (how can you not love Grant Balfour*?) and their roster is made up of a lot of utility guys like Ben Zobrist, Willy Aybar, and Eric Hinske who, when utilized correctly, are huge assets due to their positional flexibility and ability to hurt you in platoon matchups. I love players like that, and teams who use them wisely to win. Don't ask me why, but it probably stems from my love of the 1986 Mets, who had a lot of that type of player.
So I love the Rays this season. Unfortunately, the point of this little writeup isn't what I want to happen; it's about making me look smart. I think the Sox are still better in almost every aspect, especially if Josh Beckett is healthy and himself. The Rays' offense is a little sketchy and I don't have a lot of confidence at all that their pitchers can hold down the Boston attack. If Scott Kazmir gets past the fifth inning in any of his starts against the Red Sox and their collection of walk machines, I'll give everybody reading an ITunes gift card (no, not really, but wouldn't that be sweet? Those things are money as Christmas gifts). Pitchers who routinely run up high pitch counts tend to meet an early doom against Boston.
So I really, really want the Rays to win, but every rational baseball fiber of my being says that the Red Sox are just the better team. Hopefully I'm just an idiot and the Rays sweep their way into the World Series and ride through the streets of St. Petersburg in the parade that no one will turn out for.
*In Game One of the White Sox-Rays series, Balfour and Orlando Cabrera got into a little shouting match for reasons that really aren't clear to me. The two were facing off at a crucial point in the game. Seventh inning, bases loaded, two out, Sox down by three. A base hit plates two, an extra base hit ties the game.
Balfour threw his first pitch high for a ball, and Cabrera for some reason kicked dirt at him and started cussing. Balfour dropped some F-bombs of his own, but order was maintained before anything came of the whole back-and-forth. Balfour finally struck Cabrera out on a 98-mph fastball and stormed off the mound yelling for Cabrera to sit down. After the game, all I heard were teammates trying to justify Balfour's behavior by saying, basically, hey, he's a crazy Aussie who gets fired up and loses control in these situations, like the douchebag fiancee in Wedding Crashers. It's just Balfour being Balfour.
Fine. My problem isn't with Grant Balfour. My question: What the fuck was Cabrera doing? He's a light-hitting shortstop facing a guy who is out there throwing 98 mph petrol and the first thing he can think to do is taunt the guy? Not sure here, but I'm guessing when MENSA held tryouts, Cabrera missed the cut. The look on Balfour's face immediately after Cabrera kicked dirt at him was priceless. It was like, "Did this scrub really just do that?"
All the post-game chatter focused on Balfour's nuttiness, but I think he was completely justified in screaming at Cabrera after he blew him away on strikes. If some lousy player kicked dirt at me and started talking shit for no reason like that, I'd be pissed off, too.
This year, though, is a different story. I'm treating the 2008 NLCS like this year's Presidential election. It's too important not to have an educated interest in. You see, watching the Dodgers move on to the World Series is about as repulsive as watching the McCain/Palin clown act raise their arms in victory on November 4th. Just as the country is nearing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Giants fans are on the brink of a nightmare scenario involving a Dodger team parading around the streets of LA, led by a spoiled man-child and a pornstached cowboy whose injury-hiding ways are only mildly less embarrassing than Monta Ellis's.
So, yes, I'll be watching this NLCS about as intently as I've ever watched a non-Giant playoff series. If it comes down to the pick-your-poison scenario of a Boston-LA series (just like it did in the NBA Finals this year), I may just implode in on myself and take on a new existence in the astral plane just to get away from this crap.
Philles over Dodgers, 4-2
Even if the Dodgers had the lineup of the 1939 Yankees and a pitching staff anchored by the perverted love-child of Tom Seaver and Sandy Koufax, I still wouldn't pick them to win this series. Even if Tommy Lasorda tied me up and waterboarded me with Ultra Slim Fast, I still wouldn't give in and pick the Dodgers. Even if Ned Colletti set his mustache on fire and hopped around ablaze for our amusement on live television, I still wouldn't pick the Dodgers. Even if...well, you get the idea.
The Phillies have a lineup that is miles better than LA's. They've been hotter than LA the past month (for all the talk about Manny, the Dodgers are just 30-25 with him). They're awesome on the road while LA sucks away from Dodger Stadium. Their run differential was way better than LA's. All this could mean nothing in a short series, I realize, but my money would be on Philly even if they weren't squaring off against a team affiliated with Satan.
Red Sox over Rays 4-1 (but I hope I'm horribly wrong)
I really, really want the Rays to win the World Series. They're a fun worst-to-first story and they are the perfect model of how every franchise should be run. They have colorful players (how can you not love Grant Balfour*?) and their roster is made up of a lot of utility guys like Ben Zobrist, Willy Aybar, and Eric Hinske who, when utilized correctly, are huge assets due to their positional flexibility and ability to hurt you in platoon matchups. I love players like that, and teams who use them wisely to win. Don't ask me why, but it probably stems from my love of the 1986 Mets, who had a lot of that type of player.
So I love the Rays this season. Unfortunately, the point of this little writeup isn't what I want to happen; it's about making me look smart. I think the Sox are still better in almost every aspect, especially if Josh Beckett is healthy and himself. The Rays' offense is a little sketchy and I don't have a lot of confidence at all that their pitchers can hold down the Boston attack. If Scott Kazmir gets past the fifth inning in any of his starts against the Red Sox and their collection of walk machines, I'll give everybody reading an ITunes gift card (no, not really, but wouldn't that be sweet? Those things are money as Christmas gifts). Pitchers who routinely run up high pitch counts tend to meet an early doom against Boston.
So I really, really want the Rays to win, but every rational baseball fiber of my being says that the Red Sox are just the better team. Hopefully I'm just an idiot and the Rays sweep their way into the World Series and ride through the streets of St. Petersburg in the parade that no one will turn out for.
*In Game One of the White Sox-Rays series, Balfour and Orlando Cabrera got into a little shouting match for reasons that really aren't clear to me. The two were facing off at a crucial point in the game. Seventh inning, bases loaded, two out, Sox down by three. A base hit plates two, an extra base hit ties the game.
Balfour threw his first pitch high for a ball, and Cabrera for some reason kicked dirt at him and started cussing. Balfour dropped some F-bombs of his own, but order was maintained before anything came of the whole back-and-forth. Balfour finally struck Cabrera out on a 98-mph fastball and stormed off the mound yelling for Cabrera to sit down. After the game, all I heard were teammates trying to justify Balfour's behavior by saying, basically, hey, he's a crazy Aussie who gets fired up and loses control in these situations, like the douchebag fiancee in Wedding Crashers. It's just Balfour being Balfour.
Fine. My problem isn't with Grant Balfour. My question: What the fuck was Cabrera doing? He's a light-hitting shortstop facing a guy who is out there throwing 98 mph petrol and the first thing he can think to do is taunt the guy? Not sure here, but I'm guessing when MENSA held tryouts, Cabrera missed the cut. The look on Balfour's face immediately after Cabrera kicked dirt at him was priceless. It was like, "Did this scrub really just do that?"
All the post-game chatter focused on Balfour's nuttiness, but I think he was completely justified in screaming at Cabrera after he blew him away on strikes. If some lousy player kicked dirt at me and started talking shit for no reason like that, I'd be pissed off, too.
Labels: bad predictions, dodgers suck, grant balfour, orlando cabrera is a dunce
Friday, September 28, 2007
Mission: Don't Lose 90
That should be the goal this weekend. Sweep the Dodgers, in their house (payback for last season's final series), and prevent a 90-loss season, which just seems to carry a sort of bad stigma forever and ever. An 89-loss year stinks, but somehow it doesn't look so bad when you flip open the Baseball Encyclopedia twenty years from now and reminisce (ha, yeah right) upon 2007.
I'd love to watch the games this weekend, but the they aren't being televised either today or tomorrow and the Sunday game interferes directly with my football enjoyment. Giants-Dodgers, classic rivalry, yet not on TV. If both of these teams were in contention this season and we couldn't watch them play on FSN or anywhere else, I'd be pissed.
-Not much to yak about this week, as I've been busy with a new job and other assorted life things. Next week I'll cobble together my usual hilariously inaccurate playoff previews and do some Giants postmortems. Yeah, that means it's going to get ugly.
Here's the TGIF random video for you. It doesn't really need any introduction. Have a great weekend!
I'd love to watch the games this weekend, but the they aren't being televised either today or tomorrow and the Sunday game interferes directly with my football enjoyment. Giants-Dodgers, classic rivalry, yet not on TV. If both of these teams were in contention this season and we couldn't watch them play on FSN or anywhere else, I'd be pissed.
-Not much to yak about this week, as I've been busy with a new job and other assorted life things. Next week I'll cobble together my usual hilariously inaccurate playoff previews and do some Giants postmortems. Yeah, that means it's going to get ugly.
Here's the TGIF random video for you. It doesn't really need any introduction. Have a great weekend!
Labels: dodgers suck, finding solace in a bad season
Monday, September 10, 2007
Spoiler Alert
Poor Jonathan Broxton. After giving up only two home runs all year, he surrendered two game-winners this weekend, to Dan Ortmeier and Ray Durham, respectively, to drop the series against the Giants. Now the Dodgers' once-promising playoff hopes are nary a flicker. Broxton certainly hasn't reached Niedenfuer levels of choke-a-tude, but nearly killing your team's postseason hopes in the span of three days has got to suck.
Not that I, or any, Giants fan should feel much sympathy. Since our team is going nowhere this year, the best thing to cling to now is that sweet sense of schadenfreude as the Dodgers' season goes up in flames. After dropping the series this weekend, the Dodgers are now five-and-a-half games back of the Diamondbacks in the NL West, and two-and-a-half back of the Padres for the NL Wild Card. Our old buddy, BP's Playoff Odds Report, saw their playoff odds sink from 33% at the start of Friday's game to 23% at the start of today. They aren't done, per se, but it doesn't look good. Again, to paraphrase Pete Townshend, schadenfreude, reign o'er me!
What the Giants' series win also accomplished was it ended the Dodgers' unacceptable dominance at Mays Field, a winning streak that extended to 11 games. Instead of meekly rolling over in a potential spoiler matchup like in the final weekend of last season, the Giants made their stand. The 1982 incarnation of Joe Morgan would have been proud.
With the Diamondbacks coming in, the Giants have the opportunity to play the party pooper once again. Funny thing about the DBacks: they lead their division despite a horrible run differential. They sport a shiny 81-63 record despite being outscored by their opponents by 29 runs. Usually that's an indication that a team sucks (Arizona's Pythagorean Record is 69-75), but somehow the Snakes are getting it done this season.
Remember another team that ran into the playoffs despite being outscored by other teams? That's right, the 1997 Giants, a team that would get crushed 19-3 one day, then come back and win a few 2-1 games in a row. As we all sadly know, that team didn't fare too well in the postseason (Wilson Alvarez, meet Devon White), so perhaps it's a bad omen for the DBacks.
Not that I, or any, Giants fan should feel much sympathy. Since our team is going nowhere this year, the best thing to cling to now is that sweet sense of schadenfreude as the Dodgers' season goes up in flames. After dropping the series this weekend, the Dodgers are now five-and-a-half games back of the Diamondbacks in the NL West, and two-and-a-half back of the Padres for the NL Wild Card. Our old buddy, BP's Playoff Odds Report, saw their playoff odds sink from 33% at the start of Friday's game to 23% at the start of today. They aren't done, per se, but it doesn't look good. Again, to paraphrase Pete Townshend, schadenfreude, reign o'er me!
What the Giants' series win also accomplished was it ended the Dodgers' unacceptable dominance at Mays Field, a winning streak that extended to 11 games. Instead of meekly rolling over in a potential spoiler matchup like in the final weekend of last season, the Giants made their stand. The 1982 incarnation of Joe Morgan would have been proud.
With the Diamondbacks coming in, the Giants have the opportunity to play the party pooper once again. Funny thing about the DBacks: they lead their division despite a horrible run differential. They sport a shiny 81-63 record despite being outscored by their opponents by 29 runs. Usually that's an indication that a team sucks (Arizona's Pythagorean Record is 69-75), but somehow the Snakes are getting it done this season.
Remember another team that ran into the playoffs despite being outscored by other teams? That's right, the 1997 Giants, a team that would get crushed 19-3 one day, then come back and win a few 2-1 games in a row. As we all sadly know, that team didn't fare too well in the postseason (Wilson Alvarez, meet Devon White), so perhaps it's a bad omen for the DBacks.
Labels: dodgers suck, finding solace in a bad season, playing the spoiler
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Dogs and Cats Living Together
Okay, I can't find a link for this anywhere, but apparently the Giants have traded Mark Sweeney to the Dodgers for a player to be named later. Talk about making a deal with the devil. I suddenly feel very sick. If this is true, it must be the first trade between these two teams since...when? I can't remember off the top of my head, and I'm too lazy to look. Did the Giants trade Trenidad Hubbard to the Bums in '98? Sounds sorta familiar.
Given the way Sweeney has hit this season, perhaps this is just a nifty sabotage job being carried out by Brian Sabean. Maybe get a potentially useful player from our arch-rivals for a little-used pinch hitter who will probably end up hurting them in the end? Brilliant!
To be fair, Sweeney did take over second place on the all-time pinch hit list this season, which was kinda cool, and he hasn't been horrible as a Giant by any means. I guess he just sort of symbolizes the utter failure of Sabean to net an impact first baseman over the years, when there were a few floating out there begging to be picked up (cough Carlos Pena cough). I'd wish him good luck, but...it's the Dodgers, after all.
Update: All right, here's that link we were all so worried about. Ahhh, so nice and warm and it feels so good, I...uh, I mean...turn that camera off!
And to answer my previous query, the last time the Giants and Dodgers made a trade was in 1985, when the Giants got our old buddy Candy Maldonado for Alex Trevino.
Also, Trenidad Hubbard was actually sent to the Indians as part of the Matt Williams/Jeff Kent trade. Wow, see what three seconds of research will do for you?
Given the way Sweeney has hit this season, perhaps this is just a nifty sabotage job being carried out by Brian Sabean. Maybe get a potentially useful player from our arch-rivals for a little-used pinch hitter who will probably end up hurting them in the end? Brilliant!
To be fair, Sweeney did take over second place on the all-time pinch hit list this season, which was kinda cool, and he hasn't been horrible as a Giant by any means. I guess he just sort of symbolizes the utter failure of Sabean to net an impact first baseman over the years, when there were a few floating out there begging to be picked up (cough Carlos Pena cough). I'd wish him good luck, but...it's the Dodgers, after all.
Update: All right, here's that link we were all so worried about. Ahhh, so nice and warm and it feels so good, I...uh, I mean...turn that camera off!
And to answer my previous query, the last time the Giants and Dodgers made a trade was in 1985, when the Giants got our old buddy Candy Maldonado for Alex Trevino.
Also, Trenidad Hubbard was actually sent to the Indians as part of the Matt Williams/Jeff Kent trade. Wow, see what three seconds of research will do for you?
Labels: dodgers suck, mark sweeney, trade stuff
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Bummed
I think it's safe to say that this is the absolute low point of the Giants' season. A month ago I was at Mays Field when the Giants' lineup got dominated by the immortal Lenny Dinardo and the A's finished off a humiliating sweep. I walked out of the stadium that day thinking that, no, it just couldn't get any worse than that. Well lo and behold, it has, tenfold.
I was actually up and excited going into this series. Yes, I spend a lot of time bitching about how the Giants suck and that their lineup is old and boring, but come on, it's the Giants and Dodgers. No matter how bad the Giants are, no matter how hideous they are to watch, no matter how much Cammy Blackstone makes me never want to watch another FSN Bay Area broadcast ever again, I'll still get excited about Giants-Dodgers. They're the Bums, after all, and who doesn't want to see the Giants be the sub-.500 force from the grave that prevents the Dodgers from advancing to the postseason?
Well, it didn't happen in this series and, except for the riveting comeback in yesterday's game that just proved to be a big, fat dry hump, the Giants looked like the same old boring, punchless team with no hope and no prospects. Meanwhile, the Dodger sweep was led by a group of upcoming young players, most notably Russell Martin, who's awesome, and Matt Kemp. It's enough to make a weak-hearted fan like me immensely jealous. The Dodgers showed the kind of talent and poise that makes a team, well, good. Now excuse me while I re-read that sentence and then go throw up all over the place.
The Giants are now 38-51 and, forgive me for saying this, all you delusional optimists out there, but their season is done. Now it's time for this franchise to go out and give us a reason to care again. Mr. Sabean, you just got a two-year extension, yay for you. You're very fortunate that the word "accountability" is not in Peter Magowan's vocabulary. You got the vote of confidence, now start earning it, right freaking now.
Do whatever you can to get rid of the chaff on this roster. Get some young guys in, get some guys with potential. I don't want to watch this team anymore if it involves sitting through more awful at bats involving Pedro Feliz or Dave Roberts or Rich Aurilia. If you make some trades, get some young players in here, some players with upside, any upside, even if it turns out later that they suck, I'll watch, and I'll like it. But this veteran mediocrity dancing bear show has got to stop.
I understand that the Giants aren't going to get young impact players with the veterans they've got now. Maybe the most valuable piece they have is Ray Durham, simply because of his position and his history of productivity, but even he isn't a player who is going to bring back a whole lot of talent.
The team might have to surrender Noah Lowry to get something really good in return, and if that's the case, so be it. Break some eggs. Trade Lowry to a team looking for pitching and try to get a building block, something close to a sure thing. Package some of that young pitching together (not Cain and Lincecum, obviously), and try to get a young bat that this team can build around.
The last time the Giants were this bad it was 1996, and the Giants had the same bleak outlook for the future. Then Brian Sabean came in and brilliantly rebuilt the roster into a contender. Can he do it again? I don't like the fact that he was brought back. I thought it was time to go in another direction, and so did legions of other Giants fans. Now is his shot to prove everybody wrong. That involves getting younger and getting rid of the veteran deadwood, and if it doesn't happen very fast, it's going to be very hard to continue investing any kind of energy into supporting this team.
I was actually up and excited going into this series. Yes, I spend a lot of time bitching about how the Giants suck and that their lineup is old and boring, but come on, it's the Giants and Dodgers. No matter how bad the Giants are, no matter how hideous they are to watch, no matter how much Cammy Blackstone makes me never want to watch another FSN Bay Area broadcast ever again, I'll still get excited about Giants-Dodgers. They're the Bums, after all, and who doesn't want to see the Giants be the sub-.500 force from the grave that prevents the Dodgers from advancing to the postseason?
Well, it didn't happen in this series and, except for the riveting comeback in yesterday's game that just proved to be a big, fat dry hump, the Giants looked like the same old boring, punchless team with no hope and no prospects. Meanwhile, the Dodger sweep was led by a group of upcoming young players, most notably Russell Martin, who's awesome, and Matt Kemp. It's enough to make a weak-hearted fan like me immensely jealous. The Dodgers showed the kind of talent and poise that makes a team, well, good. Now excuse me while I re-read that sentence and then go throw up all over the place.
The Giants are now 38-51 and, forgive me for saying this, all you delusional optimists out there, but their season is done. Now it's time for this franchise to go out and give us a reason to care again. Mr. Sabean, you just got a two-year extension, yay for you. You're very fortunate that the word "accountability" is not in Peter Magowan's vocabulary. You got the vote of confidence, now start earning it, right freaking now.
Do whatever you can to get rid of the chaff on this roster. Get some young guys in, get some guys with potential. I don't want to watch this team anymore if it involves sitting through more awful at bats involving Pedro Feliz or Dave Roberts or Rich Aurilia. If you make some trades, get some young players in here, some players with upside, any upside, even if it turns out later that they suck, I'll watch, and I'll like it. But this veteran mediocrity dancing bear show has got to stop.
I understand that the Giants aren't going to get young impact players with the veterans they've got now. Maybe the most valuable piece they have is Ray Durham, simply because of his position and his history of productivity, but even he isn't a player who is going to bring back a whole lot of talent.
The team might have to surrender Noah Lowry to get something really good in return, and if that's the case, so be it. Break some eggs. Trade Lowry to a team looking for pitching and try to get a building block, something close to a sure thing. Package some of that young pitching together (not Cain and Lincecum, obviously), and try to get a young bat that this team can build around.
The last time the Giants were this bad it was 1996, and the Giants had the same bleak outlook for the future. Then Brian Sabean came in and brilliantly rebuilt the roster into a contender. Can he do it again? I don't like the fact that he was brought back. I thought it was time to go in another direction, and so did legions of other Giants fans. Now is his shot to prove everybody wrong. That involves getting younger and getting rid of the veteran deadwood, and if it doesn't happen very fast, it's going to be very hard to continue investing any kind of energy into supporting this team.
Labels: baseball depression, dodgers suck
