Time To Leave an Impression

The time is NOW to leave an impression- on every visiting team- that playing at AT&T is where the San Francisco Giants call home. Now is the time to make an impactful, if not an indelible orange and black mark, on any team who thinks they can have their way with our San Francisco Giants.

With the Chicago Cubs, smarting from having been swept by their cross-city rival Chicago White Sox, arriving in San Francisco for a four-game series, they may be ripe for the picking (on). As good as the Cubs have been they are reeling right now and the Giants have to take advantage of any potential sign of weakness and exploit it.

Bilk them, milk them, abuse and misuse the reeling Cubbies because you've got to do something to right the ship that has you as the team with the league's worst home record.

Going into tonight's game, the Giants are exactly ten (10) games below .500 percent. AND they are TEN games below .500, (14-W and 24-L) at home. It's time to leave an impression...

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Giants Notes: The Giants are a combined 25-9 in games started by Jonathan Sanchez and Tim Lincecum. (All the rumors had the Giants looking to send Sanchez elsewhere. This just goes to show that sometimes the best trade is the one that isn't made.)

Veterans Rich Aurilia (.287), Ray Durham (.290), Randy Winn (.295), Aaron Rowand (.297), and Benji Molina (.307) continue to add stability to a team whose youngsters are contributing more and more as Fred Lewis (.281) and John Bowker (.274) are inserted into the lineup.

Sure, Omar Visquel is struggling to find holes in the field when he bats, but he still fills holes when he's at the shortstop position. His field vision and physical conditioning are so superior that it's not likely his replacement will cover the ground he does or have the innate ability to know where to go with the ball. Omar has such an uncanny knack it appears to the casual observer that he's anticipating but it's the experience of the gifted athlete. A team can only hope the player, who has the uneviable task of replacing Senor Omar, hits for higher average.

(thanks to the Fresno Bee for the Sanchez/Lincecum fact)

Kevin Marquez

Hello, Goombye...Pretty Much the Way It Is

Before yesterday's outstanding pitching performance, by announcer Mike Krukow's favorite rising star, Jonathan Sanchez, a Gigante was designated for assignment.

Charles Vincent Chulk, born on December 19, 1978 and drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays during the 2000 amateur draft (in the 12th round) is no longer Vinnie Choke. Or Vinnie Boom Bah. Or ... fill-in your own nickname. He's designated for assignment Vinnie.

In his stead is a youngster, from the Connecticut Defenders, (whose won/loss record is currently at W-35 L-41) the Giants' Double-A affiliate, who has been deemed the next phenom to wear the orange and black with the rest of the big leaguers.

His name is Sergio Romo. His numbers read as follows: W-1 L-3, ERA-4.00, G-24, Saves-11, IP-27, Hits Allowed-22, Runs-12, BB-7, K's-30, HR-1. (When Vinnie Chulk becomes Vinnie Goombye and I, personally, referred to him as BoomBah, Home Runs allowed is a statistic that apparently matters to Giants' brass as well as yours truly.)

Note: Jose Elephant Ear Castillo has been playing very good defense lately and been hitting well too. It was high time I showed Jose Elephant Ear some love. Because I truly believe: If they are wearing the orange and black it must be recognized when they are worthy.


Kevin Marquez (thanks to San Francisco Giants' website)

Leave Him In There

Yesterday's line score of the Giants/Royals game:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
SF 2 3 1 0 4 0 0 0 0 10 16 2
KC 0 0 2 1 2 5 1 0 X 11 14 2

When starter Tim Lincecum left the game after pitching a long 5 innings it was left up to the law firm of: Yabu, Taschner and Chulk. And when Yabu failed to get a single out it was apparent the Giants would be in trouble. Taschner managed an out but got the hook from Manager Bruce Bochy in favor of Vinnie "BoomBah" Chulk and he got the batter to hit a liner right at Emmanuel Burriss. But the kid doesn't have the ability to scan the field, the way years of playing have taught Omar Visquel (one of the game's best students), and he was unable to spot the runner way off third base, choosing instead to go the short route to second base and that runner was able to get back in time. Vinnie made the pitch but the play was not executed.

Now, Vinnie "BoomBah" was the only reliever getting outs. Why didn't the Giants' brain trust leave him in there to start the 7th inning? Yabu was useless, getting none of the four batters (he faced) out. Yabu served no purpose other than to fuel Kansas City's fire, at which point the Giants' coaches should have treated that as if a reliever got injured (before the game). Because they were a reliever short, since Yabu stoked (or was it stroked) the Royals without retiring a single batter.

Instead they bring in rookie Alex Hinshaw and he had to deal with the tight strike zone of Bill Welke. A bad combination. Young Alex got tossed-his first time- as he was removed from the game and complained about the ump's lack of a strike zone. It should have never happened because the better move would have been to leave Vinnie Chulk in the game. He's still on the roster because he absorbs innings by getting outs. Sure, the ball may go out of the ballpark, hence the name BoomBah (sound ball makes off the bat), but yesterday was Vinnie's game to win or lose.

At least one bad coaching decision and a no-show by Yabu cost the Giants a win. Here's a couple of quotes (one in the Comments section) to take your mind off of yesterday's brutal Yabu Dabble Do .

Walk tall as the trees
live strong as the mountains
be gentle as the spring winds
keep the warmth of summer in your heart,
and the great spirit will always be with you. - American Indian proverb, "unknown tribe"

Unknown tribe? Immediately I flashed on the Unknown comic. The guy with the paper bag on his head and eye-holes cut out. Why? Because I just learned that George Carlin passed away.

His characters Biff Barf or the hippy-dippy weatherman Al Sleet were classic. Or how about the Seven Words That Can Never Be Said on Television? He was arrested 7 times-how apropos is that- because he refused to drop the bit. He was a man with a high degree of intelligence and he served us well. As do all people who put smiles on our faces and make us gasp for air- and grasp for the chair we just fell out of- so that we can continue to breathe another day. Then we can gag once more as these gifted people push our buttons in a way that makes us laugh again.

Kevin Marquez

Need to Win at Home

Before any games were played on Saturday, June 21, 2008 the standings were like this:
Arizona W39 L35
Los Angeles W34 L39 4 1/2 (Games Back)
San Francisco W32 L42 7 (GB) *****(14W 24L at home)
San Diego W32 L43 7 1/2 (GB)
Colorado W31 L43 8 (GB) 19W 18L @home

The Giants need to overcome the dimensions at AT&T the way Roger Craig's Giants overcame the elements at Candlestick Park.

Throughout the Giants' lineup there is balance. They just have to maintain that the way they are going to score runs is through proper fundamentals and solid execution. (The Giants' players appear to forget what it was that got them there after a game when they produce more than 5 runs.)

Here's a look at their statistics at this point in the season.

Fred Lewis AVG-.285, R-46, 2B-15, HR-6, RBI- 22, SB-12, CS-4.
Ray Durham AVG-.294, R-27, 2B-16, HR-X, RBI-24, SB-5, CS-1.
Randy Winn AVG-.303, R-39, 2B-22, HR-5, RBI-29, SB-10, CS-1.
Benji Molina AVG-.315, R-24, 2B-17, HR-6, RBI-45.
Aaron Rowand AVG-.307, R-34, 2B-20, HR-8, RBI-39.
Rich Aurilia AVG-.291, R-12, 2B-10, HR-5, RBI-23.

You can see that Fred Lewis may be the only youngster in the list but actually the way the Giants are bringing their youngsters along has worked so far.

Not listed, yet still contributing a lot are John Bowker (Avg.-.264, R-18, 2B-7, HR-7, RBI-29) and Emmanuel Burriss, who still doesn't have as many at-bats as Eugenio Velez (AB-87) but is hitting .299 and has stolen 6 bases in 8 attempts. And his playing time has increased while Omar Visquel struggles at the plate.

But understand that players such as Ray Durham and Rich Aurilia, although they started off-Bengi Molina-slow this season, both have begun to put up numbers Giants' fans are more accustomed to seeing. So you can see why their names are in the lineup more often than not.

I don't buy the Barry Zito has lost it story. As a member of the Oakland Athletics he had scrappy ballplayers who did what it took to win games. Unfortunately, the Giants are not there yet. They are beginning to find ways to win and execute small ball better but still they are on the losing end of many more games where simple execution is as difficult as getting a consistent strike zone out of the home plate umpire.

Hope continues to spring eternal, as we approach the halfway point in the season. You still have to be pleasantly surprised by this group of guys donning the orange and black. And the front office seems to be pushing all the right buttons when it comes time to bringing someone up to the big club.

Let's hope they continue with the progress and no matter what the won/loss record is, it'll bode well for a potential free agent wanting to play for the San Francisco Giants.


(thanks to Baseball-Reference for the current stats)

Kevin Marquez

Tales of Yesterday and Today

(Every bit of information, I am about to share, was heard on yesterday's San Francisco Giants' radio broadcast. The informant is, top-notch announcer, Jon Miller. As always, I check with Wikipedia to get the details as accurate as possible.)

First the Tale of Woe...Regarding Giants' third-baseman Jose "Elephant Ear" Castillo...
He has 16 hits in 78 at-bats with runners in scoring position. AND, is 0-H for 11-AB, with the bags f.o.g'd (full of Giants).
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As he was looking over the This Day in Baseball notes, Jon Miller remarked that on this day, June 18, (in 1962), Hammerin' Hank Aaron belted a home run into the centerfield seats, making him only the third player to have ever hit one in those seats. Remarkably, this was one day after Hall of Famer Lou Brock reached the unreachable the day before.

And so it went for the 1962 New York Mets, losers of 120 games.

Casey Stengel reminded them of the dimensions and encouraged the pitchers to make the hitters hit it out in centerfield, rather than the much easier left field and right field foul lines.

Here are the listings of the dimensions at the Polo Grounds, where the Mets played their inaugural season (1962) in the major leagues.

1890: Left field line-335 feet
Center field- 500 feet
Right field line- 335 feet
1911-1922
Left field line-277 feet (not posted)
Centerfield- 433 feet (not posted)
Right field line- 258 feet (not posted)
1923-1957
Left field line- 279 feet (not posted) Sometimes listed at 280 feet.
Left field Upper Deck Overhang- About 250 feet
Shallow left field- 315 feet
Left center field #1- 360 feet
Left center field #2- 414 feet
Deep Left center field- 447 feet (left of bullpen curve)
Deep Left center field- 455 feet (right of bullpen curve)
Centerfield- approximately 425 feet (unposted) corners of runways
Centerfield- 483 feet (posted on front of clubhouse balcony..Sometimes 475 feet.)
Centerfield- 505 feet (unposted) sometimes given as total centerfield distance
Deep Right CF- 455 feet (left of bullpen curve)
Deep Right CF- 449 feet (right of bullpen curve)
Right Centerfield #2- 395 feet
Right Centerfield #1- 338 feet
Shallow Right Centerfield- 294 feet
Right field line- 257 feet, 3 3/8 inches (not posted) Sometimes listed as 258 feet.
Backstop- 65 feet. Sometimes given as 74 feet from home to backstop.

Putting these mammoth dimensions into play and knowing that the '62 Mets lost 120 games, you can see how unbelievably unfortunate Casey Stengel's team was and why they were fondly referred to as the amazing Mets.

Kevin Marquez

Worst Play Was By Fan

Ivan Rodriguez led off the top of the 7th inning with a well-struck line drive into the open spaces (known to AT&T regulars as Triple's Alley) and that's just where the mobile backstop wound up, at third base with a leadoff triple.

Ivan's nickname is Pudge. And I've always wondered why that was. Perhaps when he first came up as a nineteen year-old stud, with the Texas Rangers, he had some baby fat? Because for most of his career he's been lean and mean and one of the best ever to play catcher. Or was it out of respect for the star catcher at the time of Ivan's arrival, Carlton Fisk, inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame in 2000, whose nickname was also Pudge?

He possesses one of the best arm's and has always maintained the ability to get around the bases very proficiently. Currently he has 120 career stolen bases and been caught 58 times, just over twice as many steals as times thrown out. Not bad for someone in a crouch, most of the time, wearing the Tools of Ignorance.

After a grounder to second-baseman Ray Durham made it one out, up came clutch pinch-hitter, Edgar Renteria. He ripped one out to rightfield where Randy Winn reached across his body to snare and then, in one motion, he turned and threw a strike to Benji Molina at home. Molina caught the ball and made a swipe tag that replays showed ruffled Rodriguez' sleeve but the ump, trying to get a better vantage point, was out of position and unable to see the ruffled sleeve so he called Rodriguez safe.

When you are in motion you are seeing a blur rather than a clearer, better focussed picture. Some of the intricacies that help the development of the play unfold are sullied and you miss the necessary details that would allow you the best chance at making an accurate call. This leaves you in the predicament of assuming something happened ... and we all know about the word "assume"...(it makes an ass out of u and me.)

Add to it that the player involved was the cherubic Ivan Rodriguez, a Hall of Famer to be, and Tom Hallion chose the "safe" call.

Tigers 4 Giants 3.

In the bottom of the 8th, the Giants exploded for 5 runs. Three of the runs came across on John Bowker's 6th homer of the season and then Fred Lewis, who earlier homered, rapped a double down the left field line. Only on this play some boneheaded fan reached over to get himself a souvenir and would've cost the Giants' a run except that home plate umpire, Tom Hallion, redeemed himself for the 7th inning gaffe- which he exacerbated by promptly tossing Giants' skipper Bruce Bochy- by deeming that the runner would have scored had the reprehensible act of the fan not occurred.

The play by the fan was far worse than Tom Hallion's running toward the first base line in hopes of getting the better angle on the play. Hallion's mistake was that he tried to do too much in too little time. The manner in which the catcher caught the throw and then had to make a swipe tag shielded Hallion from seeing the play at the moment Pudge was tagged out.

The fan selfishly wanted a souvenir and Giant fans', as well as the orange and black, were fortunate the home plate umpire made the call that the runner would have scored if the fool hadn't interfered. (Sorry, but I cannot in any way, shape or form consider that guy a fan!)

Giants went on to win and a selfish act, for once, didn't cost the Giants a run or the game.

Kevin Marquez

Ichiro Suzuki - Can Do What He Wants on Diamond

In the April 21, 2008 edition of ESPN magazine there was an article on how base stealers stop stealing so many bases at the age of 33.

Born in Kasugai, Japan on October 22, 1973, Ichiro Suzuki is 34 and currently has 29 stolen bases, having been caught only two times. (See Comments on This Day in Baseball for one of Ichiro's stellar achievements so far in his career.)

I recall reading an article how his manager (John McLaren) challenged him to steal more bases. It appears Ichiro is up to the challenge, even if his team is otherwise floundering.

This just goes to show that when you are talking about someone who truly is a cut above most of those in the field of play you should always allow for the possibility that the great ones can do anything they put their minds to, regardless of age.

Maybe someone saw the article and brought it to Ichiro's attention. Maybe not. With all the media attention Ichiro gets I've got to think someone ran it by him, if only to amuse him. And he took stock and used the "bulletin board gossip" as a motivational tool to once again show everyone that Ichiro Suzuki can pretty much do what he wants on the baseball diamond.

(inspired by ESPN magazine article Steal Sign, April 21, 2008 edition)

Kevin Marquez