by Gregg Pearlman
The Giants celebrated the Gregg Pearlman Annual Birthday Game by beating the Dodgers, 18-4. The next day they celebrated the Tommy Lasorda Annual Birthday Game by losing to the Dodgers, 1-0. See if you can guess which game I attended. Go on. Guess.
I'd had it in my mind that I'd be seeing the one on September 19, even though there was rather clear evidence, in the form of a message on my answering from my sister (who, along with my brother-in-law, attended the game with my wife and me), rather unequivocally stated that the tickets were for the September 20 game.
I found out at 10:30 Saturday morning that we didn't need to rush to make plans for the game, as we'd have another 25 hours or so. Well, that was okay; hell, I got to watch the Giants kick the living, pulsating crap out of the Dodgers, which is always a good thing; I got to see them hit two grand slams; I even got to see Doug Mirabelli's first major league home run, which I called, along with the grand slam by Jeff Kent -- after which, my brother-in-law Bill called to apologize for the tickets being for the Sunday game rather than the Saturday game. Well, of course, such an apology was completely unnecessary; heck, I've gotten to witness the clinching of a pennant by the San Francisco Giants -- in person! I attended the 21-2 victory over the Cardinals in 1988, which featured not only Chris Speier hitting for the cycle, but also five Giants home runs, the last of which -- by Ernest Riles (and something I'd predicted for weeks) -- was the franchise's ten-thousandth. So I wasn't bent out of shape over not attending the game on my birthday.
On the other hand, the sense of foreboding started up pretty quickly afterwards, because (a) I knew that the pitching matchup the next day would be Shawn Estes against Carlos Perez; (b) I had been 5-0 at the 'Stick this year (or, to be more accurate, the Giants had been 5-0 with me in attendance); and (c) I remembered that the 21-2 game was followed by a 3-2 victory, and the Giants' 18-1 win over the Padres in 1986 was followed by a 1-0 loss. In other words, the Giants -- and this is probably true enough of most teams -- have a way of shooting their wad offensively, and not having enough the next day.
Which is what happened yesterday, when Shawn Estes was beaten by a first-inning home run off the bat of Trenidad Hubbard -- a former Giants Tweak, now a Dodger hitting like someone other than Trenidad Hubbard -- was that the Giants could do nothing against Carlos Perez, and the best chance they had at scoring was thwarted by miserable clutch hitting. Brian Johnson, of all people -- I tend to forget he was actually a quarterback at Stanford, which requires some running speed -- legged out a leadoff triple to right field, even beating the cannon throw from Raul Mondesi (who now refuses to play center field). Dusty Baker brought up Marvin Benard, a lefthanded hitter, to pinch-hit against the lefty Perez, which was odd because Dusty usually is the kind of guy who'd send up Kim Batiste for Babe Ruth in order to get the platoon advantage, and because Stan Javier was available (as were guys like Doug Mirabelli, Ramon Martinez, and Dante Powell, but Dusty wasn't about to use them in that situation). Benard whapped a grounder at second base -- no help, as the infield was in. Ellis Burks (batting leadoff, if you can imagine) then walked, bringing up Bill Mueller... who hit a ground ball on which it was absolutely impossible to turn a double play -- in fact, I was cheering, because clearly pinch-runner Armando Rios was going to score, tying the game -- but somehow the defense-deficient Dodgers did turn the double play, ending the inning, and basically ending the game. It just wasn't gonna happen.
Couple this with the Mets' 5-0 victory over the Marlins, and you have a pretty crappy day at the yard.
The Giants are now four games back in the wild-card hunt, with but seven to play. The Cubs and Mets each have five games left. This means that as early as tomorrow -- Tuesday -- it could all be over. And this has been brought about by some appallingly inept performances against teams the Giants should've pounded, specifically the Rockies and Diamondbacks.
Darryl Hamilton's three-run homer off of the execrable Alvin Morman iced the game of Friday, September 11, and effectively wiped the Giants out. A 1-0 loss in extra innings the next day didn't merely hammer the lid shut; it also plopped a 16-ton weight right on top of it to prevent the possibility of opening. Barry Bonds brought a little hope to a joy-free world the next day by getting to his nemesis, Chuck McElroy, for a game-winning home run in the eighth, but this emotional, hard-fought, badly needed victory, which should have been enough to buoy the team and carry it through Phoenix unscathed, wasn't.
Monday night at the Bank One Ballpark: 14-2, Arizona. Race over forever. Tuesday night? The Giants blew a 6-0 lead and lost 7-6 in extra innings; a two-run homer by Matt Williams started the Diamondbacks' comeback. Coffin nailed even further shut, then obliterated by a meteor. The Giants managed to win the finale, 6-5, giving us just enough hope to think that if they hammered the Dodgers over the weekend, hell, it could get exciting the following week.
So on Friday Barry Bonds beat lefty Scott Radinsky (immediately thereafter seen muttering, "Dumb pitch! Dumb pitch!") with a thrilling, late home run, and Robb Nen nailed down a 4-3 win. Saturday's win, of course, was the 18-4 job. So here we were, three games behind both the Mets and Cubs... but then came yesterday.
And now it's over. Irrevocably, and all but mathematically. Yecch. Not that I really need to do this, I suppose, but here are those recent results:
"Yeah, the Giants took 2 of 3, but this one more than offsets it for me. I can't think of a worse way to lose than this (except maybe to Jeff Juden)."
"I know, they are (finally) out of the wild card chase," says Richard. "However, nothing is ever more important than beating the Dodgers, and in a series where I feared they would come up small, they came up very big indeed.
"Friday: a crushing defeat for the Bums which knocked them out of the playoffs, thanks to Barry Bonds (and not just with the home run) Saturday: each and every moment. Sure, one could say they should have saved some of those runs for Sunday, but I would actually consider it a decent trade to give up a subsequent game in exchange for humiliating the Dodgers on national TV (no matter how un-widespread the feed was). Sunday: sure they lost, but Estes was masterful, and all of a sudden, he generates more confidence within me going forward. This was a fairly dignified loss against a pitcher who pitched a great game.
"I have been quick to jump on the Giants when they have disappointed me this year, so I wanted to go on record as praising them this time even though they didn't do everything they might have needed to for the standings. Some things did go pretty right with the San Francisco Giants in 1998."
The beginning of the end, really, was the moment Alvin Morman came in against the Rockies a week ago Friday, though Steven R. says, "The minute Julian Tavarez entered the game, I turned to my daughter and said, 'Get ready for the fireworks show,' because the game was over. Morman isn't any good, but neither is Tavarez. This will be his second consecutive 'I'm no better than Jose Bautista' season... how many will we sit through before we give up on the guy?"
"There's an order of magnitude difference, though," says Jonathan. "Tavarez is no good, meaning he's fit for no better than back-of-the-bullpen type work. Morman's simply not a major leaguer; as far as I know, he has never done anything to deserve a major league spot.
"Tavarez isn't better than a good Bautista season, but that's good enough to be a third- or fourth-best righthanded pitcher out of the bullpen."
"We had the supreme pleasure of witnessing this firsthand," says Tim D., in very great seats -- front-row field boxes, first-base side, right where the Office Depot sign is -- and as soon as I saw Morman get up in the bullpen with Mesa at his side, I cringed. I said to my wife, 'They better not bring Morman in.' Well, just as I finished the sentence -- three-run blast. Crap! Second time we'd had these great seats, second time they lost; guess I will be in the cheap seats from now on! As we were walking out (who the heck would want to stay for fireworks on a night like that) I said I would have rather seen Jim Poole than Morman -- and, well, dammit, I would have."
There's just nothing like it, is there? Just sitting there, knowing something awful's gonna happen and that your helpful suggestions of "No! Not Morman! Please!" would fall on deaf ears, just because you're a paying customer and not uniformed personnel....
Tim I. says, "Kind of like a game I went to in June (maybe not coincidentally the day after Kent's injury), where Dusty had the tying run coming to the plate in the form of a pitcher with two out and two on in the seventh, a lefty on the mound, Jeff Ball available on the bench in a situation calling for power and he used... Alex Diaz.
"Pop out. EEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Those always amaze me. I mean, what could the man be thinking? My guess is, "Tommy called me and told me to throw the game."
Tim I. says, "Sorry, Dusty. Rupert's orders. You understand." (Which reminds me that during the Saturday game, the camera got a shot of Tommy Lasorda in a window box, and Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper were calling him baseball's greatest ambassador, etc. -- just heaping praise on him, and asking him to wave for the camera, which he did, presumably because he was watching the game in his box and heard their request. Then Kuiper said, "We're just kidding, Tommy," and Krukow said, "Yeah, we think you're a meatbag." Lasorda at least smiled a little.)
Well, the stuff with Morman, Diaz, the myriad other things that have gone wrong... it's been par for the course lately. For the first several weeks of the season, it seemed that everything Dusty tried, no matter how improbable, worked like a charm. I'd wonder why Charlie Hayes was starting over Mueller or Snow... and Hayes would hit a crucial bomb. I'd think, "I can't believe you're sending up Rey Sanchez in this situation," and he'd poke a ground ball up the middle to drive in the go-ahead run. Hell, even Alex Diaz drove in the game-winner on Opening Day.
But for at least the last month and a half, nothing's worked right, except the tail end of the Marvin Benard streak. Walk a guy intentionally? The next guy will walk, too. Or get a hit. Bring in the lefty to face the lefty? Boom! Bring up Benard as a pinch-hitter against the lefty with the tying run on third and the infield in? Ground ball straight at an infielder. Have Sanchez drop a sacrifice bunt, down a run in the ninth? Double play. Just amazing.
Start Shawn Estes against the weak-sister Diamondbacks? Nice 14-2 blowout.
Joe Roderick of the Contra Costa Times quotes Jeff Kent as saying that the 14-2 loss "was pretty close to an embarrassment for a team fighting for the wild card. This one really hurt us." He sure got that right.
"Estes is simply awful," says Jon R. -- who was right at the time; I mean, how could he know how great Estes would be yesterday (and yet to no avail)? On the other hand, why get on him for being wrong when I could so much more easily praise him for a fine example of Earnest Ragging? He says, "He can't be counted on for anything at this point. Oh... correction. He can be counted on for something: short-circuiting postseason plans for the Giants. Should Dusty not give him another start? Why not start Brock or [Steve Soderstrom]?"
"Estes out," agrees Carlos. "I'm not mad at him, he's just not ready. He may be a cerebral lefty, but he's still a lefty."
Which brings up something else: Anyone else sick of hearing -- either during broadcasts or in the next day's paper -- about Estes having trouble "concentrating"?
"Now, this 14-2 painful drubbing was not my fault," insists Dan M. "I told Dusty, I says, 'I didn't come all the way to Arizona to see no Danny Darwin, or a lineup of Javier and Carter. Don't go pinch-hitting in the third f***ing inning, and make sure the boys cover second base.' I even yelled down to him in the first, (from the left field foul pole, yeah, but sound carries well in the BOB) 'Get up somebody who can throw with his arm, not his head!' Did he listen? No-o-o-o. I says to him, I says, 'Let Bailey stay in, wouldja? He got an out on two pitches.' But no-o-o-o, the Marlboro Man coughs up another bazillion runs. I tell ya, it ain't my fault!"
And it ain't. Tim I. says, simply, "Dear Shawn, Please try again in March. You ain't got shit right now. Love, Giants fans."
Well, Tim didn't know about yesterday either, but knowing it now doesn't help any.
"How can this happen to a team in the wild card running?" says Scott.
"Because it's the Giants," Tim says. "I thought that was already abundantly clear."
"At least we scored," says "Brags," referring to Barry Bonds' home run.
"Ah, if he was any good, it'd've been a 14-run homer," says Brian P. "This was just Bonds padding his stats again."
"What's really sad is, that's the first thing I thought when he hit it," says Richard. "Poor guy. He should demand to sit every time the Giants are more than four runs ahead or behind just to avoid the confusion. But then, of course, people would complain about that...."
New to the group, Brags expressed his hope that Brian and Richard were being sarcastic. Just to make it clear, they were being sarcastic. That's the kind of thing Bonds-bashers are always saying about the guy, and it's become a resident joke in the Giants newsgroup.
In any case, here we all are, agonizing over our Giants, rooting fervently for them to win... the wild card: a second-place "championship." I'm thinking that if the Cubs (or, hey, the Giants; Dream Mode cancel) go all the way, the fact that it'd be two straight wild-card teams winning the World Series might call attention to the fact that there's something screwy about the wild card....
"You know, the only thing about this is that if the wild card wins again, Bud Selig might decide that people like it better when the underdog wins and not let division champions into the playoffs any more," says Richard.
Yes, but imagine this possible scenario: The Giants and Dodgers are tied atop the National League West. (See, you have to imagine it, because thanks to Rupert Murdoch, we'll never again experience it.) It's game number 162. The Giants' and Dodgers' starting pitchers are, respectively, Wilson Delgado and Jose Vizcaino. The starting lineups are peopled with pitchers. Defensively the infielders and outfielders all take positions sitting down near the outfield fences, not wearing any gloves.
I'm guessing the Dodgers, however, would be the first team smart enough to have every batter walked intentionally. The down side is games going on forever....
"After all," Richard continues, "it's not that big a leap from radical realignment to radical playoff surgery."
How come baseball's getting scarier and scarier instead of more and more fun?
"If the Giants have to be out of it, it's time to start ragging on the not-acting commish once again."
When is that not appropriate?
"Well, I went to bed last night with a shred of hope; I wake this morning ready to put a fork in this season," says Dave F. "It is done. The Giants cannot overcome this deficit given so few games to play. The Giants went into the All-Star break at 52-37. Estes looked like he was starting to hit his stride with six-plus shutout innings over the hated Dodgers. Since then, the Giants have been a very mediocre team. All the teams in the NL wild-card chase appeared to want to miss the playoffs, at least at times, but the Giants failed to take what they were offered.
"I haven't really looked hard at the statistics, but certainly the biggest problem has been the decline of the pitching staff, particularly the starters. The Giants have put up 669 runs at this point, fourth in the NL. Staff ERA is 4.17, seventh in the league, but has really been on the decline. Estes, who never seemed to get it together this year, went from fair to something far worse, particularly since coming back. Orel Hershiser seems to declined throughout the season, as has Darwin. Mark Gardner has thrown some good games lately, to my surprise, and Rueter, our staff ace at 4.26, has been okay, for a third starter. We just have nothing close to a number-one or even a number-two starter. Think about the first playoff games: the Astros start Randy Johnson, the Braves start Greg Maddux, the Padres start Kevin Brown. The Giants start Gardner or Rueter? We won't have to worry about that.
"The bullpen went from fantastic to pretty good. Losing Steve Reed hurt a lot. I guess Steve is having some serious health problem over in Cleveland, however, so it's hard to say how much difference he would have made this year. I'd sure like to have him next year." (Turns out that's true about Reed: he just had blood-clot surgery.) "Well, hopefully I can shake off this depression soon. As a Giants fan, you usually have to go through this moment once a year, often much sooner than mid-September."
"The only positive spin I can put on this," says Jack K., "is that I no longer have to worry about the Giants anymore this year. I will still watch and/or listen to every remaining game, but I think it will be like listening to Spring Training games. Sure, you'd like to see the Giants win, but it really doesn't matter too much if they lose. I actually feel kind of relieved, simply because I have known deep down for about a month that it wasn't going to happen. At this point, about the only worthwhile thing left to root for is the Giants finishing ahead of the Dodgers for a second straight year. Winning two of three from LA over the weekend would probably just about clinch that."
Indeed it did. In fact, the 4-3 win -- stirring comeback that it was -- eliminated the Dodgers from wild-card contention. ("And if that ain't cool, I don't know what is," says Billy -- who's not even a Giants fan, but a Braves fan who rightly hates the Dodgers.) They'd have to do some serious digging to finish ahead of the Giants. This year, anyway.
"Obviously it's unfair to blame one or two people for an entire team's shortcomings," Jack says, "but if I had to point the finger at two people, they would be Shawn Estes and Brian Sabean. Estes has been unbelievably awful in September, but I'll be generous and chalk that up to a two-month layoff. But even before he went on the DL, he was 7-8 with a 4.42 ERA. Hardly staff-ace statistics. He pitched terribly on the road all year, and just didn't seem to handle the role of 'staff ace' very well. I haven't totally given up on him, but I have a lot of questions about him, and I think I'd rate his future as 'iffy,' as opposed to a year ago when I was absolutely positive that he was a bona fide stud who would anchor the Giants' staff for the next several years.
"Sabean may very well be operating under a tight budget, but I am not very satisfied with the job he did this year. He just had to know that Stan Javier wouldn't give the Giants enough as a starting right fielder, yet he waited until late July to address the problem. His solution? Bringing in Joe Carter, who is over the hill and a serious defensive liability. [And wasn't that great, say, five years ago, either. -- GP] I'll give Sabean credit for quickly putting an end to the Carter Experiment and bringing in a legitimate right fielder in Ellis Burks. Burks has played quite well [albeit mostly in center field -- GP], but where would the Giants be without Marvin Benard? Had Benard not done such a great job in the leadoff role, the acquisition of Burks may not have meant as much. I just hope Sabean doesn't get too high on Benard and pencil him in as a starter next year. The Giants have a long history of seeing journeyman-like players go off in August and September, reward them with a starting job, and see them go up in smoke. Remember Mark Carreon? How about Rick Wilkins? To a lesser extent, there is Brian Johnson. J.R. Phillips seems to ring a bell. To go back even further, I can remember Steve Decker. You get the point.
"Getting back to the subject, Sabean's biggest crime was that he never addressed the starting pitching, which fell apart right after the All-Star Break and never really improved. Randy Johnson was acquired for two Houston prospects whom Baseball America ranked as their seventh and eighth best prospects. Sabean has said that Seattle wanted far more from the Giants than they ended up getting from the Astros. Maybe so, but he also said that Houston was the last team 'at the table,' meaning he gave up on acquiring Johnson, while Houston did not. If the Giants had landed Johnson, this wild-card race would be pretty comfortable for us. The Giants would be up by two or three games. Sabean's idea of improving the Giants' pitching was trading for Jose Mesa and Alvin Morman. Mesa has been up and down, but his downs have hurt far more than his ups have helped. Morman has been unbelievably bad. I never thought I would say I miss Jim Poole, but Morman makes Poole look like Sandy Koufax. His rationale for the trade was to deepen the bullpen, but I guess it never dawned on him that the reason the pen was so taxed was because the starting pitching was lousy. Maybe management won't go the extra mile this year, maybe they're content with having just a competitive team and is waiting for 2000 to roll around. If that's the case, then shame on them, too."
"The one thing I wonder about is whether this 'don't trade 'em' strategy will eventually pay off," says Carlos. "I mean, if Russ Ortiz matures (I heard that a lot of teams wanted him), then BFS will be considered prescient years from now. I just don't know.
"It's kind of Jekyll and Hyde. Last year BFS bet the farm, this year he (kind of) protects the farm and switches the team around in midseason. At (the very) least he's unpredictable, except for that 'Proven Major Leaguer' syndrome."
"Tma" says, "The Giants also seem to have a history of new GMs coming in, the team suddenly doing better for a season or two, and then going to hell. This has happened with the Rosen/Craig regime, with Bob Quinn, and now possibly with Sabean? But anything is better than the Tom Haller years. When I get despondent about the Giants' current situation, I think back to the days when finishing over .500 was considered a great season."
"I think this is kind of unfair to Al Rosen," says Richard. "He took an absolutely dead-in-the-water franchise (thanks to Tom F. Haller) and gave us five great years. I think the Giants had the best record in the NL the last five years of the 1980s. I would always take that."
Agreed. Just the last few games of the '85 season, when Rosen and Craig took over (and the Giants went, I think, 6-12) gave a feeling of, "There's a new sheriff in town, and he means it," but also, there were reasonably smart drafts and personnel choices, plus some damn good trades in 1987, especially. It was really in '91 and '92 when people started to wonder just what the hell was going on with Rosen and Craig.
"I think they were both just tired and ready to retire," says Richard. "Tom F. Haller was an absolute loser." I think that's kind of unfair to absolute losers, to which Richard says, "You are right. I apologize to absolute losers everywhere I should have said 'Tom Haller was obscenely incompetent.' That is an adjective instead of a noun and thus not directly threatening to any particular group of individuals.
"As a GM, he was stupid as the night is long. Put it this way: every trade he made was for a Joe Carter or an Al Morman, and he always gave up a Steve Reed, whose arm was never dead at the time of the trade."
Do tell: He is the guy who traded Jack Clark for David Green, Dave LaPoint, and Gary Rajsich, right? The fact that we got Jose "Gonzalez" Uribe out of this in no way vindicates the deal.
"And that was just one of his many sins," Richard says.
"I have read your site, and you must fear that you know far too much. Be warned about revealing so much of the truth to the masses. I also know that you think I am a nutball for stating that baseball is run by Satan, but you must admit that confirmation of this truth has of course come by the allowance of our Dodgers to insert a player back into the game after he had already been removed. Even though you will discover that this kind of tampering to benefit the Dodgers is nothing compared to the obscure but profound privileges that will be given us in the future, I will remind you that further revelation of these conditions will be bad for you, your site, and especially for your contributing editor Dave Beck who has masterfully unlocked the secret of the free agency conspiracy. Fortunately, at least for now, the fans are too stupid to know any better.
"Signed,
"Kevin Malone
"General Manager, Los Angeles Dodgers"
(Okay, the identity of the writer is not exactly a mystery to me, or even not-all-that-sharp-eyed EEEEEE! readers, but the main intent of the message, aside from "to be silly," was to point out something Dave had heard during the 18-4 games, namely that -- to hear Vin Scully tell it -- the Dodgers were evidently allowed to bring in a pitcher who had been removed earlier in the game. Scully evidently characterized it as an "exhibition game" in "explaining" why this might have happened. What I believe happened, in fact, was that the Dodgers broadcasters became confused by the presence of two different Dodger lefties in the game, both sporting uniform numbers in the sixties, and had at first mistaken one of them for the other, which is why they thought the same guy had come in twice.)
"I know you naysayers will say you'd take his numbers any year. Well, my thinking is that a players year is relative to what the rest of the league is doing that year -- i.e., in a slow offensive year, yes, I would take Barry's year, but in this highly offensive year: sorry, Barry, not nearly good enough."
"'Love, Chuck McElroy,'" offers Tim I.
"Let's see," says Dan M.: "Second in the league for RBI by a lefthanded hitter, not nearly good enough. Gads, unless he wins the MVP every friggin' year, Bonds will just not be good enough for some people!"
"Heck, I'm just thrilled that the words 'highly offensive' are finally being used in this most rehashed of topics," says Greg L. "I look forward to the day when runs scored in the first six innings are valued at only half the value of runs scored in the last three innings so that slacker Bonds can be exposed for the selfish, stats-oriented jerk he is. Sarcasm mode off. Kirk out."
Norm's heart is in the right place, no question. Still, my response: "Jonathan: Please field this one. I'm just too tired."
"Not me," Jonathan says. I've done my duty this week. Steven?"
Steven, probably wisely, declines comment.
"Some people just can't see the forest for the trees," says Dan. "I'm still gagging on an earlier statement about picking up 10 one-million-dollar arms!"
When it came time to doing the last installment of EEEEEE!," I had 48 messages related to the whole "Bonds is overpaid" thing. I probably cut out at least 60% of it, including some very usable stuff, because I just got too damn tired of it. "I like the dude," protests Noah, who started the whole thing last week. "He's just a bad fiscal load. He couldn't even get the Giants into the playoffs. And if it's not his fault, spend his salary on more players."
"This strikes me as odd," says Brian: "Get rid of the good player because he couldn't get the bad players into the playoffs? Why not get rid of the bad players and use their salaries for more players? Then you'd still have the good player and, hopefully, more good players to go with him."
"Brian has succinctly stated what many here have been trying to get Noah to accept," says Dan. "Well done. Noah keeps talking like Bonds whole salary comes out of his pocket. Y'know, I guess I'm one of those foolish fans, I just don't care about salaries (they are all overpaid compared to the real world) and I just want to keep the best left fielder in baseball. His triple in the tenth against Arizona to bring in the lead run is all the justification I need."
"Sorry to disagree with you guys, but I think Noah was right," says Anson. Even with last week's game-winning home run and last night's game-winning triple, Bonds is way overpaid and doesn't help game attendance a whole lot. The Giants should trade Bonds and his $9 million salary for... nine million Beanie Babies. Beanie Babies are the only proven guaranteed attendance draw in every major league ball park this year, averaging nearly 50,000 fans per a game. If the Giants pass out 35,000 Beanie Babies per home game, it'll still last them over three years. By then we'll be enjoying the nice comfort of Pac Bell Park! Who needs Barry Bonds?"
The triple itself led to predictable comments along the lines of, "If he'd really been running hard, he would've had an inside-the-park home run." And in his article about the 14-2 loss, John Shea of the San Francisco Examiner says, ) says, "> Then came Bonds' second at-bat, and with one mighty swing, the Giants were down only 13. It was Bonds' 34th homer of the season, and it was so insignificant that Bonds' celebratory raise-the-roof routine consisted of one palm raised to eye level.
"If this is a lost season, the guys might as well get their numbers, right?"
"So, if I understand this correctly," says "Tma," "the point being made here is that Bonds shouldn't try to hit home runs when the Giants are losing by a lot?
"It's interesting how people will blame the best player on the team when a team is doing badly. One time when I was visiting Seattle, the sports section was full of letters about how Ken Griffey Jr. is lazy and selfish and the Mariners should get rid of him.
"If only the Giants had a lineup of 35 Marvin Benards, they'd definitely have taken two out of three from Arizona...."
I think we're all tired of it, you know? We San Francisco Giants fans, well, we're sure not lucky enough to know what it's like to root for a World Champion, but we sure as hell know what it's like to see The Best Player In The Game every day -- as we did in the 1960s, too; the difference is that we were smart enough to recognize it then. And for those of us who don't now, we have people like "Tma," Tim, Dan, Greg, Jonathan, Brian, and Anson to help put things into perspective.
The downside here is that people are going to believe what they want to believe, and perceive what they want to perceive, facts be damned.
"I was planning on going to the Dodger game this Saturday, but it just occurred to me that your turn in the rotation will probably come up that day. I'd rather watch you get shelled on TV at home -- at least I can change the channel and watch some college football (cough! choke!) and the beers are cheaper and colder. Lord knows I'll need a few to get through the first four innings, but chances are you'll be back in the showers by then, anyway.
"Checklist of things for you to do this winter:
"Sincerely,
"Seth."
"Sad but true," says Glenn. "I feel the same way. Don't know what the problem is, but screw it... don't go out there, it hurts too much to watch."
Henry Schulman of the Chronicle quotes Dusty Baker as saying, "Either he is going to have to work out of it, or we have to go in a different direction. He has to go back to the drawing board and find something in his next bullpen (practice)."
Well, again, Estes did everything right yesterday except win, so whatever happened between Monday and yesterday seems to have worked.
And amazingly, the last appearance for Alvin Morman was a success also, in the sense that he gave up no home runs. Of course, it came during the 14-2 loss, but what the hey?
"I guess I put it in perspective like this," Richard says:
"After this season, it will not be enough for me if the Giants don't resign him. It won't be enough for me if nobody signs him. I want him to be humiliated in some very public way for being the useless pitcher that he is. And I want BFS to be humiliated right next to him for trading for this idiot."
"So," guesses Jeff C., "I assume that you don't want the Alvin Morman Rookie Card for which we all pitched in a penny for your birthday?"
(I'm not sure how fair all this is. Morman had only had one rotten outing (out of two; or maybe just the one) when according to Satoshi, he pulled his suck muscle.)
Tim I. says he was buying all that Richard had to say about Morman until the bit about Steve Frey: "Damn. That is really pushing the envelope, Richard," he says.
As for the idea that Morman has never helped the Giants, " Tim says, "Define 'helped.' If the Giants were winning by 20 and Morman ate four innings and the Giants still won by six, would that be 'helping the team' as he rested the bullpen and, ah, 'preserved the win?' That -- or in a blowout loss after the Giants have conceded defeat -- are about the only ways Morman can help -- eating innings when the outcome is no longer in doubt. But really, can't some other kid from AAA who might actually have a somewhat bright future do the same thing?
"Seeing Morman being used to play the lefty-righty games is not much different than watching Snow bat righthanded. You have to think in those moments that playing the lefty-righty percentages has to be a losing bet. "It's a scary thought, but if I thought that the only way to get rid of Morman was to coax JFC out of retirement and re-sign him, I would advocate it. Morman truly does suck.
"I think one of the reasons that the Giants went with Nen and didn't want to keep Beck was due to age and the fact that Beck was a rather 'old' 29- or 30-year-old because of his weight," says Jon R. "It's obvious that Beck doesn't hang out around the weight room too much -- I'm sure his body fat percentage is higher than most players and higher than trainers would like. So, of course it's probably this very thing that allowed the ball that hit him in the bottom of the tenth [of a recent Cubs victory] to stay more playable -- it didn't bounce away as wildly and as quickly and as far as it would have if it had hit 'harder tissue.' So it's very possible that Beck's extra layer of flab helped cushion the ball so the shortstop could make the play... which, by the way, was barely playable as it was.
"So, you name it -- probably if the Giants cut someone for any type of physical shortcoming, that very trait would serve to help that player win with some other team. Probably in the future a pitcher who had vision problems and whom the Giants let go will probably come back and pitch a no-hitter against them.
"It should also be noted that against the Diamondbacks, Billy Mueller took a shot off of his clavicle. Of course since the ball hit something hard, it bounced in such a way that making a play was impossible. I'm sure that even in an extremely obese person, the clavicle would be hard enough and pronounced enough to be a hard enough surface to launch a ball erratically. At least it would be the hardest body part available.
"I'm sure if the Giants had a Sumo wrestler playing infield the ball would find a way to hit his clavicle... or maybe his shin, and bounce erratically about a quarter-mile away. The same Sumo wrestler playing for the Cubs would make all three outs in an inning while catching the ball in his folds of fat. Either that or Sosa would drill a line shot off his head and it would go over the fence with a game-winning homer. Take your pick."
"Managing general partner Peter Magowan... expects the payroll to remain the same for next season.
"'We'll wait for the recommendation of the baseball people, where they have holes and what they need,' Magowan said. 'It won't be $80 million. My guess is it will be where it ended up.'"
Roderick notes that "Besides payroll, another thing has remained unchanged: the Giants will lose millions again, despite a projected attendance of 1.9 million.
"The team reportedly lost between $10 million-$15 million last season, and the losses could approach that range this season.
"Magowan acknowledged the Giants would lose money again but did not confirm how much the losses would total.
"'Twenty-two of the 28 teams lost money last year,' Magowan said. 'I'm getting a little tired of people writing that we lose money every year. We can afford the losses. We expect to lose money. There's no reason to panic. Our object is to get into the playoffs.'"
I'm not sure how to feel about any of this. First, I'm never sure whether or not to believe that the teams actually lose money. Second, why does it continue to lose money, and can't some supermegazillionaire pour more into it? What the hell? I mean, if over three-quarters of the teams expect to lose money, and if Magowan's not concerned, why should some rich person the Giants might court worry about it? Why not just pony up the dough?
Edith isn't buying. She says, "Trade away Rueter, the only consistent starter the Giants have had this season, and a young lefty to boot, for an older center fielder they won't need if Ellis Burks/Marvin Benard/Armando Rios step up, and then go looking for a 'starter who can eat up innings'? And suggest that Kevin Brown fits that description?"
"Burks does not want to play center," says Randy; "Benard is below average defensively and as a leadoff hitter, and Rios is a bit green, but might be worth a shot."
Greg says, "Edmonds is 28 [and ergo hardly an "older" center fielder -- GP], making $2.8 million (not sure how long he's tied up for), fields his position very well, and is in the top five in the majors in OPS for center fielders. Only the Angels, who seem intent on not keeping both Erstad and Edmonds, would trade someone that cheap and that good."
"Seems to me Brown qualifies as more than someone who eats up innings, and is easily out of the Giants' price range," Edith says, "while Rueter is on contract and has only gotten better from year to year."
"Well, I think Rueter was a lot better last year," Greg says. "I think he's been more up and down. His value in my mind is that he's young and lefthanded, but he depends on precision location in order to be successful. I wouldn't advocate getting rid of him, but at his best, he's no better than a number-three starter. If he can be used as chattel to get somebody really good, I'd be all for it."
"I agree that Rueter has been valuable this year," says Randy, "but with Gardner and Ortiz in the rotation already next year and both having less trade value, another starter that can be relied upon to go only seven innings usually and often tires earlier is a huge burden on the pen. If the Giants had a Randy Johnson, Maddux, or Brown to give them a complete game every few weeks, then having three guys that go six innings might be okay."
Edith says, "The Giants have lots of good arms in the farm system, but they're all a couple years away. I think Aurilia has been good enough to see as the regular shortstop for a while. Sure, he's slowed down at the end here, but he's also never played this many games before and you have to give him time to adjust to a full season. I think Wilson Delgado is making himself more and more expendable... he had a good season batting, but his defense (his main selling point) was down in Fresno this year, maybe as a result of frustration over not being called up. If you could get a solid pitcher in a deal for him, that would be good. I think Dante Powell's about used up his 'prospect' status -- a center fielder with speed who bats .230 in the PCL is not going to be anyone's starter of the future -- and he's had a couple of years to try to prove it, so he's tradable (especially with Rios making the kind of impression he has with the Giants in spring and September and having the season he did in Fresno (26 HR, 103 RBI)). To me, Ramon Martinez is the real untouchable: great batting average, incredible fielder, personable guy. In a couple of years he'll be your starter and you'll be grinning from ear to ear."
"Too old at 25 to be a real prospect, and not a lot of power," says Greg. "I wouldn't mind having the guy back up Kent, who's somewhat injury-prone, but he's not the future at second in my mind, and with Kent tied up for a few years, short of a serious injury, that position is not up for discussion for a while."
"Okay, I'm not suggesting that Ramon Martinez replace Jeff Kent," Edith says. "Note the 'couple of years.' Kent is signed through 2000 and not beyond. Martinez could easily be the 'quality backup' and move his way into the lineup. Secondly, I'm not basing my opinion of Martinez solely on his time with the Giants, though his composure in his 3-for-3 debut and against Kevin Brown the following day were admirable and likely to stick in my mind for quite a while. I saw Martinez play a couple of games in Fresno right at the trade deadline, and I saw him in a couple more in Fresno in mid-August. He plays absolutely seamless defense, or at least did in those four games and the three I saw him in The City, and bats for average. While he certainly doesn't have the power that Kent does, you will remember that prior to Jeff Kent second base was not widely considered a 'power' position."
"The issue for me is pitching," says Greg. "Despite some holes in the lineup that you could drive a Mack truck through, the Giants are scoring runs, they're just giving up way too many runs and their starters are pitching too few innings."
Carlos says that the Dodgers announcers were saying that the Giants are:
"Well, based on the other number-one starters we have pursued in the past, I suspect Social Security will pick up the tab on this one," says Greg L.
"[Signing Hamilton] would be stupid," says Greg, "not because Hambone's a bad player, but because he's coming off a career year, he's old, and he's gonna cost more than he's worth. Here's a wild idea: How 'bout if we go after Bernie Williams?"
"They have the worst first baseman in the NL," Greg says, "a terrible starting pitching staff, and they think their problems can be solved by getting Jeff Blauser. If this last rumor is true, BFS cannot be fired fast enough. Aurilia has slumped hard at the end of the year, but he is even still an average shortstop at the plate and he is still young."
This is something that hadn't occurred to me. I bet Kate's right.
Copyright ©1998 by Gregg Pearlman
Last updated 9/21/98 Gregg Pearlman, gregg@EEEEEEgp.com