Giants Sweep Padres, Announce 2012 Will Be Horrible

This is how hard I don't care. (Courtesy of SabeanMetrics Suparblog)

The Giants had an exciting couple of games. Matt Cain pitched amazingly on Tuesday, the bullpen blew a lead, and the Giants won on a walk-off twelfth inning hit by Mark DeRosa while Carlos Beltran plugged his ears in the dugout and sang "My Country 'Tis of Thee" at the top of his lungs. Tim Lincecum pitched amazingly on Wednesday while Carlos Beltran hit is 299th and 300th career home runs, the latter of which was a splash hit. I had a lot to say about these games and how I'm torn between really wanting Beltran to come back in 2012 but he clearly loathes every second in San Francisco.

But after today's win, the Giants announced they were cutting ties with their CEO Bill Neukom, AKA "That guy who oversaw the only World Series title ever for San Francisco." This was shocking, but was topped by the reason given for his dismissal: The owners were not happy with the way he ran the club, pointing out that he increased payroll this year and spent money too freely, when the ownership was hoping they would be building a "rainy day fund for leaner years." This is horrifying, and it basically telegraphs something the Giants fanbase never suspected. The ownership isn't concerned with continued excellence and competition and playoffs. They're concerned with grabbing as much cash as they can before the glow of the championship season wears off. It's not surprising at all when you realize the only reason that people buy and own professional sports teams is to make off with boatloads upon boatloads of cash. But it comes as a real blindside to San Francisco fans, who never suspected for one second that the ownership would turn into Peter Loria West.

Neukom didn't oversee the Zito or Rowand contracts. He was at the helm when that trophy came home to San Francisco. He did everything he reasonably could to keep the team competitive and attempt a repeat this year, and even with a team decimated by injury all season long, they've pretty much ensured every home game was a sellout for the entire season. I don't know what else he could have done. And the Giants brass wants a smaller payroll and a "rainy day fund." It's infuriating and in one fell stroke we can all see the writing on the wall. Next year will not be good. Not at all. Here are the people who are already on the 2012 payroll:

If they're wanting to cut payroll across the board for a rainy day, it doesn't look like long-term contracts for Cain and Lincecum will be a thing to look forward to. It doesn't look like the roster will be shored up in a thin free agent market during the offseason. It doesn't look like the people who own the Giants have any interest in a Giants team that competes and plays to win. It's hard to wrap my head around right now.

Giants Win 8-3 a Month Too Late

Mike Fontenot makes this picture. He's standing on the top step, I believe.

The Giants jumped out to a 3-0 lead behind Eric Surkamp on homers by Cody Ross and Carlos Beltran. They added a run but then the Padres cut the lead to one run, making it 4-3 against the Giants squishy young middle relief. Then the Giants -- for the first time all season -- went "Oh whoops, let's get some more runs" so Pablo Sandoval went out and drilled a three-run opposite-field homer. They just added more runs, like it was no big deal. Like they were the Red Sox or something. Back-to-back 8-run games. You know when it would have been nice to have back-to-back 8-run games? AT LITERALLY ANY OTHER POINT IN THE SEASON. This is the type of game they should have been having against the Astros, or the Cubs, or the Astros again, or hey, against Arizona. That would have been cool, too. But now the Giants are just playing out the string, so of course now is when they suddenly decide they can hit the baseball with their wooden batons. Whatever.

I would really like Carlos Beltran to return next year, but all reports indicate he's doing everything short of sitting in front of his locker, openly muttering "I've made a huge mistake" over and over.

Giants Take Series Against Padres, Brandon Belt Given Funeral at Sea

The Giants gained a game on the Diamondbacks, then lost it again. Whatever. Brett Pill came up and hit two home runs in his first two games, so Brandon Belt will never play another game again, ever. Bochy continues to start Orlando Cabrera every day, even against right-handers, even when he drops routine pop-ups that lead to back-breaking runs.

I watched the Giants lose to the Padres yesterday live from sunny Petco Park in San Diego, which is a fine stadium with plenty of Giants fans around. I have been to two Giants/Padres games at Petco this year, and both games featured a Giants loss, but a coupon for two free Jack in the Box tacos, so I'm torn as to which side of the ledger these games fall on.

The Sabean/Bochy strategy of which players are valuable and worth starting and worth giving lots of leeway when struggling and why is absolutely baffling and defies all logic. If 2012 is anywhere as big a disaster as 2011 was, I think Giants ownership HAS to try to start fresh by ousting one or both of these guys, World Series goodwill or no. But I'm fearful that the ownership is just as pleased as punch with the status quo, and will continue to be so, indefinitely. The Giants offense has finished dead last or near to it in five of the last six seasons. They had a league-average offense in the other year. They can develop and craft pitching like nobody's business. They have pitching scouts out the wazoo who are out of this world. Dave Righetti must be like some kind of crazy Pitcher Whisperer, the George W-looking freak. But by this point, far removed from the heyday of Bonds, Kent, and Burks, it's plain as day that Brian Sabean has absolutely no idea how to evaluate a hitter's worth, and Bochy understands even less what stats to look at.

Here's the perfect Bruce-Bochy-in-a-nutshell insight into how Bruce Bochy thinks: With both Mike Fontenot and Brandon Crawford (both left-handed batters, both far better defensively than Orlando Cabrera) available to start at SS against RHP Aaron Harang, Bochy went with righty Cabrera, citing Cabrera's lifetime 3-for-5 against Harang. There's small samples sizes, and there is THIS. Five at-bats. Five at-bats that happened in 2003. It's just...I can't...

Bumgarner and Sandoval Crush Padres 7-2

Madison Bumgarner had a good start a few games ago. 8 IP, 0 ER, 11K. He had a pretty good start yesterday, too. 8.1 IP, 2 ER, 13 K. Two games at the tail end of his year 21 season, a year removed from pitching the most innings of his life and being a postseason hero. This dude just turned 22 and is going to be good for a long, long time. He's having a better season than Tim Lincecum. Do you like pitching? Stick around for the next ten years of Madison Bumgarner. It's really going to be something.

On the other end of things, we have Pablo Sandoval. Dude hits multi-homer games and plays third base better than you ever thought a fat guy could. He's wacky, he's got newfound discipline, and he's just getting better. He had a bad sophomore season in 2010, going through a divorce, depression, and every box of Pop'Ems in the immediate vicinity. Now he's the guy who hits RBI ground-rule doubles in the All-Star game and belts homers in Petco Park like it's no big deal.

2012 keeps looking up, and the Giants have these two guys on lockdown for the next several years. That's really exciting. Not to mention Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, and two guys absolutely tearing it up above expectations at the low levels of the minors, Gary Brown and Joe Panik. The future looks good. Let's get there already.

TIM LINCECUM, Giants Win 2-1

Good eye, ump. (h/t @8thInnWeirdness)

Tim Lincecum is an unstoppable beast. If he was on the Phillies or the Yankees or the Brewers or the Astros, or any other team with an unstoppable offense, he'd be 32-1. He does everything amazingly, even with a...let's say..."questionable" strike zone, as seen above. He'll give you 8 innings and less than two earned runs, all you have to do is give him two to three runs. Sometimes, he'll even bust out his own RBI single that ends up making the difference in the game. Tonight was pretty special.

Carlos Beltran had two hits, including his first home run as a Giant. That was pretty cool. And even though Brandon Belt made a huge baserunning error that culminated in an inning-ending double play, he had three hits, including a triple, and a stolen base. Good thing he was batting seventh! Note to Bruce Bochy: don't bat your hottest, best, and most patient hitter seventh. It's sort of an "unwritten rule."

A series split with the Padres to stay two games back. I'll take it. The Astros come to town tomorrow for a four-game series, and hopefully they won't walk all over the Giants QUITE so much this time around.

Giants Don't Get No-Hit, Lose 7-5

Ump: "Hey, maybe you should learn to win, asshole."

The Giants have a terrible call go against them, Matt Cain gives up his first home run in 80+ innings, and after that, it's academic.

For the first five innings or so, it looked like the Giants were going to get no-hit at home against the noxious Mat Latos, so it's a great thing that didn't happen. The whole first half of this game was one of the Giants' patented "find new ways to lose/squander every available opportunity" games. Aaron Rowand grounding out to kill a bases-loaded situation where Latos had just walked three Giants in a row. Three massive, ridiculous Giants errors. Aaron Rowand hitting an infield popup with a runner on third and one out, which would have brought the Giants within one run. The Giants wasting leadoff runner chances. Going 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Aaron Rowand swinging at pitches that bounce in the other batter's box. Hmmm...I'm seeing a common theme here.

Oh yeah: Aaron Rowand started against a right-hander because Nate Schierholtz is injured. Yep. Also, Carlos Beltran was activated today, but didn't start, because he can probably only bat left-handed and refuses to bat righty-on-righty. Beltran did show up for a pinch-hit appearance with a couple of runners on, and promptly popped up to the infield.

Late in the game, the Giants scratched and clawed to tie it up, which is the most that they've looked like the first-half Giants since...well...the first half. Ramon Ramirez promptly coughed up a double, a nearly-disastrous sac bunt, a single, a wild pitch, and another single to lose the lead and the game in the top of the ninth. But the Giants were out of this game in the top of the first inning when they fell behind 1-0 and everyone in the park knew it but them. It's heartening to see that they didn't just roll over. Maybe if they hadn't had those three errors! Maybe if that blown call hadn't gone in favor of the Padres! Maybe if Miguel Tejada's pinch-hit liner in the eighth hadn't been right at the third baseman's glove! Maybe if Aaron Rowand wasn't completely worthless! Sometimes it's just bad luck I guess. It's really hard to tell when the Giants are a hard-luck team, or just a bad team. Pretty much indistinguishable at this point. The rallying cry from the Giants community is "They're bad, but they're not THIS bad." That's...that's not a good rallying cry.

The Giants fell to two games back today, because the Diamondbacks were able to snap their losing skid against an inferior team. Say, that sounds like something that the Giants should try! Whoops!

Brandon Belt Can't Do It By Himself: Giants Win 6-4 in 11

Bochy showed remarkable restraint not striking Runzler dead right there.

For once, the Giants almost lost a game due more to terrible starting pitching and worse luck than a completely anemic offense. After taking a 3-0 lead in the second inning behind a Brandon Belt home run, pinch-starter Dan "Herp de Derp What's a Strike Zone" Runzler gave up four runs in the third inning, then got yanked. It was real bad. The only thing worse was the Giants' luck. Baserunning gaffes, screaming line drives belted directly into Astros gloves, errant pickoff throws that bounce directly back to the second baseman, a wandering strike zone, Giants leadoff hitter reaching base in seven straight innings with no runs scored, and on and on.

It was only a monstrous home run by a Pablo Sandoval (who, until that point, had been 0-for-5 on that day) that allowed the Giants and their poor shellshocked bullpen a way-too-hard-fought win and, for the first time in seemingly forever, brought them within a game and a half of the Diamondbacks. It shouldn't have been like this. They shouldn't have been avoiding an Astros sweep today. An eleventh-inning win over the Houston Astros should not feel like a victory over the 1927 Mecha-Yankees. But such is the state of the team at this point. The Giants take the day off tomorrow to watch the D-Backs rough up the Marlins, then return home for six games against the Padres and Astros. If they take two of those six games, I'll weep fat tears of unimaginable joy.

Belt had four hits today, so it's a good thing he was sent down to Fresno all those times. Really took him to another level.

World Series Champions Defeat Phillies 4-1

The Giants make the Phillies so queasy they get Andy Capp-style nausea bubbles

Today was pretty great. First, the Belt/Burrell rumors weren't true. Then the Padres came back -- twice -- to beat the Diamondbacks, taking some of the pressure off of the Giants. Then Carlos Beltran arrived and said all the right things and didn't look weird in the Giants uniform.

Heck, it almost didn't need a weakened Tim Lincecum to shut down the Phillies for six innings. Almost. Chase Utley can't hit Lincecum. Can't even see him. Jeremy Affeldt? No problem, bro. Utley can crank a double off him no probskis. Lincecum? Utley's standing up there like he's batting against a...g-g-g-ghost!

Beltran went 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts. No worries, pal, don't rush things, we'll take it from here. The Phillies lost their first back-to-back games at home since MAY. The Giants took the series. Feels good, man.

In less-than-awesome news, Brian Sabean today pretty much came out and said that Brandon Belt has no chance of winning the starting first baseman job. That stinks out loud, but now that it's out in the open, it's a little easier. Belt will be coming into games late and getting maybe one at-bat per. It's better than nothing. Huff is bound to have SOME positive regression. He certainly can't get much worse. There's also a tiny, tiny, minuscule chance that Sabes is working on a Zito trade. That would be...well, that would just be spiffy.

But for today, a series win. A four-game lead. A shiny new Beltran. I'll take it.

Giants Squeeze Out Series Win, Beat Padres 4-3 in 11th

Cody Ross shows Brian Wilson how many walks he gave up in that half-inning

The suicide squeeze. Bochy almost never uses it, but he used it yesterday, and it was awesome. The Giants tied a San Francisco record with six stolen bases, which they hadn't done since a Mike Krukow start in 1987. The Giants won another extra-inning game against San Diego, but if Eli Whiteside hadn't spent ten second trying to lie to an umpire while a dude was running to first base, it never would have gone past regulation. So it goes with these schnooks. Thank god for Chris Stewart, who executed two perfect sacrifices, including the game-winning squeeze, and started a game-saving 2-5-4 double-play on a bunt in the bottom of the eleventh. Go to hell, Eli Whiteside.

I've been sort of dancing around this all season, but Brian Wilson really isn't that great of a pitcher, particularly in save situations. "More guts than stuff" is pretty friggin' apt, but I have a feeling that bubble is going to burst at any time. I honestly trust him less than literally any other person in the bullpen, including Santiago Casilla and Jeremy Affeldt. If Sergio Romo were the Giants closer, I would breathe a sigh of relief knowing he was coming in for the ninth. With Wilson, it's how many walks and hits he's going to give up before wrapping the thing up. To be fair, he blows (relatively) very few saves, and I really hope for him to do well. When his stuff is working, it's ridiculously nasty, but all too often he is counting on a notoriously wide strike zone, nibbles at corners and ends up walking dudes, and either doesn't trust his filthiest pitches or can't find them. I can't think of a time where Wilson has come in for a save and I've thought, "Oh, we've got this one." Doesn't happen. But I guess that's what makes being a Giants fan so stressful/exciting, and I guess that's more fun and entertaining in the long run than games where you just score a billion runs and don't have to worry about saves at all. Phillies and Yankees and Red Sox and Rangers fans must be just so bored.

I was actively rooting for the Dodgers all weekend, but the Diamondbacks proved too much for them. Now I'm expecting the Dodgers to roll into AT&T and take two of three while stealing all of the guest towels and busking for bus fare back home. The Diamondbacks are hosting the Brewers, who I'm hoping just maul and annihilate them for three straight, but the snakes gave them fits back in Milwaukee, so who even knows any more.

Pennant fever: catch it!

Barry Zito Returns to Form, Giants Lose 11-3

Well, at least it's always fun to see a live baseball game, regardless of the outcome. Let's try it again today.

I Only Missed the Ten Uneventful Innings; Giants Win 6-2 in 12.

Aubrey Huff did something awesome [citation needed]

When the Giants loaded the bases with nobody out in the top of the twelfth, I wondered how they were going to screw this up. When Michael Tejada was announced as a pinch hitter, I thought I had my answer. Sure enough, Tejada popped up in foul territory on the first pitch, then Andres Torres struck out. I thought man, that's it. The Giants aren't scoring here and the Padres will hit a few bloop singles in the bottom of this inning and walk it off. BUT NO. Fightin' Mike Fontenot drew a four-pitch walk for the go-ahead run, and Sandoval and Schierholtz tacked on four insurance runs for the hell of it.

The Giants still tried to give it away, though. The Padres loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning, and Wilson had to come in with the bases loaded and one out and only gave up one run (charged to Javier Lopez), which I think counts as Wilson's second-least-stressful save this season. Least stressful overall if the All-Star Game doesn't count.

So three and a half games in first place, and I'm rooting for the Dodgers to sweep the Diamondbacks this weekend. I'll be attending the game tomorrow, along with 25,000 other Giants fans in San Diego (weep for the 8,000-10,000 Padres fans in attendance). During last night's game, I realized what the best thing is about playing the Andrian Gonzalez-less Padres at Petco: the game almost certainly won't be won on a walk-off home run.

Giants Win Game of the Year 6-5 in 14 Innings

Nailed it.

This started off as a terrible game. Really, just abysmal. Stranded leadoff runners by the bucketful. Giants swinging and missing at balls bowled slowly underhand across home plate. Everyone not named "Andres Torres" or "Pablo Sandoval" looking like they were swinging a rolled-up wet carpet. Madison Bumgarner giving up five runs. I noted on Twitter that this was a real stinky butthole of a game and a pretty lousy-looking team (in so many words).

These days, it seems like if you want to have your team look like just the best team around, you should play the Giants. The Padres, for seven or nine innings there, looked like they were the Bronx Bombers crossed with the Big Red Machine and huffing Swingin' A's fumes. Driving balls to the gaps, stealing a million bases, striking out the side on one pitch. Nate Schierholtz launched a mammoth home run off of the right field foul pole in the middle innings to bring the Giants within one run, but then the Padres scored again. Two runs? Insurmountable.

But in the eighth inning, Pablo Sandoval crushed a bomb to Triples Alley that he thought was gone. He only ended up with a game-tying double, but it was enough at the time. The Giants bullpen nodded and said, "We got this." Sandoval made just the best possible play to end the top of the ninth inning with a man on third, and the bullpen was off to the races, retiring the last 17 batters they faced. Giants pitchers ended the night with 19 strikeouts and one walk. Think about that for a second. I'll wait.

The Padres and Giants spent the last five innings trying to out-not-score one another, but only the Giants were getting men on base. The bottom of the fourteenth opened with the Padres inserting a pitcher named Pat Neshek, whose delivery can best be described as "oh my god what am i looking at." He hurked and jerked and threw a ball to Nate Schierholtz, then got a swinging strike, then a foul. Just as I was thinking, "Man, wouldn't it be awesome if..." Neshek spasmed and frothed and threw a ball out over the middle of the plate, and Nate Schierholtz hit just the highest fly ball I've ever seen. The Padres right fielder drifted back slowly and settled under it against the wall and... PANGGGG... it bounced off the tin roof top of the wall and into the cove. Juggernate's first two-homer game, and the Giants had their tenth walk-off win of the season.

A lousy game that was a must-win for the Giants became one of the best games I've seen this season. The Giants had this game in the bag multiple times and couldn't put it away. The offense needs at least one bat. The return of Mike Fontenot will be a cause for celebration. Yeesh. But this was a big, big win. What a game.

Giants Hand Out Complimentary Runs, Waste Rallies, Lose 5-3

"Gregerson? Who is Gregerson? My name is Guy Incognito."

The Giants are allergic to getting hits with runners in scoring position. Legitimately. They have a note from their doctor, and everything. "RISP-eratory failure."

Other things the Giants are allergic to:

- Hits without runners in scoring position

- Executing a hit and run

- Not grounding into double plays

- Home runs

- The Padres

- Bees

- Managers with normal, human-size heads

- Not getting injured

- Baseball bats

- Baseball gloves

- Beads

- Grass

- Gluten

(By the way, the Giants have lost the last two games with the tying runs in scoring position and less than two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. Blast these allergies!)

Giants Hate America, Lose to Padres 5-3

Okay, so now we need TWO hitters.

It should have been closer. Wasted opportunities. It could have been the Giants' tenth walk-off win of the season. Wasted opportunities wrapped inside a thin layer of squandered chances and served atop a bed of regrets.

This was only the third game of the season against the San Diego Banes of my GD Existence. Thanks to the unbalanced schedule, fully 20% of the remaining games are against the Padres. That is not hyperbole. Look it up. One in every five games from here on out is the worst two offenses in the National League trying to out-not-hit one another. The second half of the season is not going to be fun.

No trades forthcoming. The only combo-breaker in the Giants lineup of guaranteed outs is Pablo Sandoval, who is having a historic baseball-mauling streak that is being squandered on the rest of these mandolin-hitting suckbats. 13-game hitting streak, but 9-game extra-base hit streak, which equals the San Francisco team record. He's really brutalizing the ball to all fields and being the bounceback thinner Panda we all hoped he'd be at the beginning of the year. Now he just needs to hope some of that magic pixie dust wears off on Huff, Torres, Ross, and everyone else in the lineup. Tejada and Schierholtz are probably the two hitters in the lineup who aren't swinging at pickoff throws to first. And that is TERRIFYING.