Your 2016 Giants: They're Down, They're Really Down

(oops, had wrote this on 4/21, intending for it to publish late that night, but for some reason still had it open and unpublished until now).

The Giants just lost their fifth straight game, and 8 of the last 9 games, sinking to 7-10.  Giants fans are moaning everywhere.

P.P.: Almost Without a Hiccup: A Catching Tale

Post Posey, how have the Giants done?  Not so bad so far.
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Sabean on KNBR Regarding Posey Incident: Hate Reveals Underlying Position

Wow, there is something about Sabean on KNBR that just brings out the worse in him.  From his almost opening statement of "I'm not an Idiot" to his epic battles with Ralph on-air to this comments about the runner who broadsided Posey.  Still, if a GM's worse sin is mouthing off about a questionable play, I'll take it.

Haters Will Find Reasons to Hate

I think the reaction I'm seeing among Giants fans to Sabean's statements is more a reflection of the underlying feelings of the reactor towards Sabean, than to the statement itself.  True, I can understand that one does not usually want your GM mouthing off publicly.   I disagree with those who think that this embarrasses us, it really only expressed what anybody who knows baseball was already thinking: the Giants want to retaliate against the Marlins and badly.  No brainer.

And then discussions degenerate to statements against Sabean, how lousy he is, with labels of "one year wonder".  No wonder that I got stricken off MCC's blog list, these people are just haters and they just want to have their cake and eat it too:  enjoying the wonderful World Championship that Sabean brought us while simultaneously giving him the back of the hand and dismissing his accomplishment.  I have to think that the Giants fans who are upset about Sabean's statement on KNBR are really more upset with Sabean and looking for a reason to grouse.

Could Sabean be Protecting Players?

And any long-time Sabean observer would know that Sabean is very calculated and sparse with his statements generally.  He does not, using one of his Sabean-isms, open up his kimono very often, he likes to keep things close to the vest, releasing as little information as he can to the public, generally.  He is very much like a lawyer in that way.  

So when he makes a statement like this to the public, I have to wonder if there was some purpose to it, though I do acknowledge that perhaps he just simply put his foot into his mouth, as he is usually very guarded with his comments typically.  But if you listen to the KNBR podcast, he was pretty even keeled throughout the interview, certainly not as hot as he has gotten previously talking with the Razor.  Maybe slightly near the end, but the Razor kept bringing it up, so I blamed it more on his history with Ralph than the situation itself.

The only thing I can think of is that he is doing this to get the league to shine their spotlight on the Giants players so that our players will have to think twice before taking matters into their own hands, as Sabean intimated with his comment about talking with Matheny (who basically said that baseball players take matters into their own hands on the field, when asked about the play).  I think that inclination on the players' part is intensified when the player taken out (whether by play at play, take-out slide at 2B, HBP to batter) is one of the best players on your team.  So, if anything, the MLB will tell the umps to put the pressure on the Giants when they face the Marlins to take it out on them via baseball and not via any other methods or the umps (and the league) will come down hard on the Giants player(s).  

In this way, Sabean would save his team from losing anyone to suspension by the league (or future injury, like when Krukow retaliated against the Cards and ended up in a fight that resulted in an injury to him and took him away from playing for the team).  And we should be grown-up enough to know this, you just can't apologize and think it all magically goes away, the Giants players will want revenge, and sometimes the stars take it upon themselves to do that.  The Giants can't afford to lose any more of their stars.

And the Sabean Naysayers do not recognize that he has kept the stars on the team.  They worry in anguish over Fred Lewis, John Bowker, Jeremy Accardo, Todd Linden, Tim Alderson - "What will the Giants do without them?!?!?" - or contracts like Barry Zito or Aaron Rowand, while forgetting that Sabean has put together a great team - second best ERA in majors three straight seasons and headed for a fourth up there - with stars like Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, Brian Wilson, Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval, and potential future stars like Brandon Belt, Zack Wheeler, Gary Brown, Heath Hembree, Eric Surkamp.  He has made much better decisions regarding keeping who really matters, while these Naysayers excoriate him for a decision about the 25th man.  And they attribute the 2010 Championship to luck.  I would love for them to say that to Huff's, Burrell's or Wilson's face  (In fact, I dare them to say it to any of them in a serious tone :^).

Some of these Naysayers are saying that Sabean embarrassed the team.  I say that these Naysayers embarrasses the team.  I would bet that if you go out to baseball fans from other towns and told them that fans still want to get rid of Sabean, even after last season, they would think the Giants fans are crazy.  These other fans can see the stars and the success, they don't see the minor mistakes that Sabean has made over the years (and they are minor if his successes are so big enough to make up for them).

I would understand it if Sabean had traded away, Andre Ethier and Carlos Gonzalez, and didn't have much of anything to show for it, but Joe Nathan is the only real mistake (Francisco Liriano would be a total pain to manage, how do you manage for your ace not being around for a whole season? You can't).  We won the World Championship, what more do you want?

What's the Problem?

In any case, I have no problem with Sabean saying this publicly.  It only speaks to what anybody with any baseball knowledge would know:  players have their own little world where they will make the other team pay for transgressions.  Sure, I would have preferred Sabean kept quiet about it, but it is not like it's big news or anything.  Particularly to anyone who is in baseball, I would think.

You would either have to be a newbie or totally oblivious to not know that the Giants players plan some sort of retribution, at some point.  It was obvious with the Prince Fielder bowling stunt, it was obvious now.  I took it as a given, having watched baseball for roughly 40 years now.

Macho is as Macho Does

It's a macho sport, with macho men, and if you harm us, we will harm you.  That's the code that  allowed the runner to even think about spearing Posey in the first place, the same macho thinking that has led many runners to run into catchers like this, though, to be fair, this is the first time I've ever heard a runner admit that he avoided home plate and focused specifically on the catcher to blast the ball out of his glove, which makes it more despicable in my mind, because he could have scored easily if he had went for the plate.  

I understand it if the catcher was blocking the plate.  We can never legislate that away, there will always be violent collisions at home plate.  But Posey was far away enough from the plate.

Tom Tolbert, in the Sabean interview, kept on going on and on that if you protect the catcher, then the catcher cannot then try to tag the runner trying to score.  I don't see why the catcher can't do that.  That is his job.  

If that is legal for the runner to knock the ball out, then why can't the runner running by firstbase try to knock the ball out the glove of the first baseman?  Why not crash into one of the fielders trying to tag you out?  Why is it not allowed at any other base?  Because it don't make sense.

And people forget that long ago, fielders were targets for baserunners.  So people who want to keep things as they were are basically advocating to a return to those days with their attitude.  The job of the fielder is to tag the runner and the runner is not allowed to interfere with that job anywhere except for home plate, where they are allowed to plow into the catcher and hope for the best, as the runners sometimes get hurt too.  That has to change.

Look and Listen to Details of the Incident Before Commenting

I think anybody who does not understand my position hasn't seen the hit nor heard all the the Runner's comments.  A former football player (I think on ESPN, might be one of their talking heads) said that if an NFL player had done what the Runner did to another player in the NFL, he would have been suspended and fined.  If the extreme macho sport of NFL football would outlaw and condemn such a play, what more do people need to know about how bad this was?

Yet I see a lot of pontificating by a lot of the baseball talking heads across media.  This reminds me of the time Barry Bonds said a joke about Babe Ruth in a press conference, which, as one of our local scribes noted, everyone in the room knew he was joking around and not serious, but some joker from AP puts out that quote without any context, so then everyone in media who didn't bother to ask one of the reporters actually IN the press conference for clarification, took a potshot at Bonds (which again goes to my thoughts above about how people expose their underlying feelings by how they react to things; they already had an axe to grind with Bonds and saw an opening and took their shot;  I didn't see any follow-up apologies for their misunderstanding of the situations, or if there were, it was buried in the back pages where they put all their errata).  

I would bet that not many of the reporters even bothered to look at the video of the hit and then go and read all the comments that Cousins made, particularly the great video on sfgiants.com showing the hit from a number of different angles, it seems very clear to me after looking at that, but can understand if they only saw one certain angle (or didn't even bother to look at the hit themselves), they might not feel the same.

Yeah, it was juvenile to say that you don't care if you don't ever see the Runner again, as Sabean said.  Frankly, the way he's playing, he's going to be sent down to the minors soon.  And his minors stats are very fringy, he'll be lucky right now to carve out a career as a journeyman bench player.  The Giants probably won't get to see the Runner when they swing by Florida in August, he is playing that badly.  Sabean, to me, was just echoing what any of us are feeling.  His sentiment was brute, but honest and truthful.

Biased Comments

Andy Baggarly, as usual, as a really nice report covering different angles on the situation in an article in the Merc, which includes interviews with the Runner's agent and former coach on the USF Dons.  The agent gets all huffy about this in his quotes, but he's also the agent for Freddy Sanchez, and if the Runner had took out Sanchez at 2B and injured him severely, he would have been the first guy on the soapbox declaring that something has to be done to protect his client.  

And the former coach backed up his former student by saying it was clean baseball that happens all across the country.  Except for one thing:  the NCAA has rules prohibiting that when the catcher is away from the plate (from what I've read, I don't know what the exact rules are but I've read multiple times that such a play would not have been allowed under amateur rules).  So if his catcher was taken out like that, by an ILLEGAL move per NCAA rules, he would have been on his soapbox talking about what a lousy SOB that Runner is.

I have to quote the agent here, gave me a good chuckle:

"He apologized until he was blue in the face, reached out until he was blue in the face, but obviously nobody cares. That's their prerogative. But it's time to drop it and stop talking about it.

"I promise you that if Buster Posey or Huff or Ross had run over John Buck and injured him in that same play, the Giants players would be celebrating a great hard play that gave their team a victory, and I don't believe that Brian would be talking about how dirty a hit it was."

If someone had run over the agent with a car and made him an invalid in severe constant pain, then "apologized until he was blue in the face, reached out until he was blue in the face, but obviously nobody cares," let's see how eager he is to drop it and stop talking about it.  His team of lawyers would not be singing "Kumbayah" with the person who ran over him, I promise you that.

And just because Sabean and the Giants might do the same thing that the Marlins and the agent are doing had they been in the same situation does not make it right.  There is right and wrong.  What the Runner did was wrong, even if it was within the rules of the game as we currently played it.  And it is especially wrong because he planned it as he was taking off from the base and didn't even consider going for the plate when Posey was clearly away from the plate.  At minimum, he should have been called out for going out of the base path, not scoring the winning run; just put insult to injury.

Wrong is Wrong

It was wrong 40 years ago to my adolescent mind when Pete Rose plowed down Ray Fosse, when I was a baseball newbie, it is wrong today.  Wrong is wrong.

Just because people allowed it before does not make it right.  People should not be giving death threats to the Runner (or his family who lives in the area; though hopefully one family member will give him a cold shoulder at family get togethers), but neither should runners be plowing down a catcher who was clearly off the basepath.  Moreover, in any case, the rules should be protecting the catcher from violent collisions, not encouraging it.  

The rules should not put the notion in the head of the runner that the best option, as he confessed in interviews, was to aim himself at the catcher and spear the guy while he is vulnerable.  You would think he would know better, he went to a religious college, one would think that ethics would be a class he was required to take to graduate.  Seemed pretty clear cut to me when I was young, still seems very clear cut to me now:  fielders should be protected.

If that is not true, then why have rules changed over the years to protect the fielders from the runners?  Why not let the Ty Cobb's of the game sharpen their spikes and aim them with bloody intent at the fielders daring to tag him out?  Why not let players today take out the middle infielder at second base by sliding way out of the basepath?  

As people make pains to say a lot, baseball is just a game.  I understand that but it seems that people forget that notion, probably because the players are being paid.  Did the Runner really think that nothing bad physically would happen if he chose to run into the catcher?  It might not be foremost in his mind, but he surely had to have realized, at some level, that there were good odds of a severe injury happening either to him or to Posey by making his decision?  Was the run worth so much to risk serious injury to himself or the catcher?  It is only a game, after all.

And an apology makes it all good, boo-boo gone?  What world does the agent live in?  If he's really, really sorry, maybe he'll give up his spot on the roster and help Posey get around town.  And if he's really, really, really sorry, he'll make up for the millions of dollars that Posey might  miss out on because of these injuries.  And if he's really, really, really, really sorry, until he's blue in his face and lungs, he'll have someone run over his leg and see how it feels to live with that.  

He had an opening to score.  He didn't take it.  He decided that risking injury to himself and the catcher was the better choice.  Why the hell can't people see how wrong that is?  

See the 2010 National League Rookie of the Year Bust a Move!

Got this from SF Chronicle

What a great, great promotion for Major League Baseball!  This picture should get people fighting for the turnstile trying to get into their respective home parks to see a great young talent!  The NFL is so stupid for putting in rules to protect their players, just let guys fly through the air and crash into some of their best players and let what happen, happens, because it is part of baseball.

Of course, if we really held to that sentiment very, very strongly, obsessively so, we would go back to fielders using gloves that barely covers, let alone protect their hands, no more batting helmets, and base runners can still slide into bases like Ty Cobb, with his spikes sharpened for maximum damage to the fielder who dared to try to tag him out.  And pitchers can be head-hunters again.

Still not seeing how this works for the benefit of baseball. I didn't like it when it was Ray Fosse, an Indian's player for the American League (I admit it, I'm a National League snob), I especially don't like it when it is the Giants prized rookie in his first full, ooops, season.  I ain't having it!

Do Something to the Injurer Too

This is the idea I've had for a long while.  I really don't like horrible injuries happening in sports, period.  It made some sense 40 years ago when they didn't make that much money and it was a dog eat dog environment, in the very raw sense in that humans desperate to stay in the sport they love will do everything they can to stay there.  Today, it's a multi-million dollar business for these superstar athletes, why risk having them permanently injured, that only takes away from the sport, not add to it.

It's ancient, but the old "eye-for-an-eye" comes to mind whenever I thought of how to punish for injuries.  And I don't mean literally, where we go and bust up the runner's leg and see if he is really feeling remorse now.  The way I see it, if one player (whatever sport you are talking about) injures another player through their action, they should be suspended without pay until the other player returns to the field of play.

It was an accident, you say.  Well, why is the player (and team) who gets injured is the one who suffers then?  Yes, I understand it was an accident, an act of god, if you will.  It is random.  So move on.

Well, good, then that player and team will suffer too.  That's not random, but hey, you can move on too.  Senseless moves deserves senseless punishment.  Why do the other team get to take out the other team's player, even by accident, and then don't suffer in any way either?  Injuries are random, OK, I know that, but that's life too, this will randomly affect you, the injuring party, as well.

Our guy hit in the face, broken bone, out to DL?  Your pitcher, off the field, suspended until our guy returns to the field again.  Our guy taken out at home plate when he wasn't even blocking home plate?  Your guy, off the field, suspended until our guy returns to the field again.  Our guy taken out at second base turning the double play?  Your guy, off the field, suspended until our guy returns to the field again.

This is a rule that will make players think before they decide to make risky decisions that could damage another player.  Not that the Marlins would miss their 25th man as much as we miss Posey, but maybe the runner might consider the consequences of his actions better next time, than to decide to take a flying tackle away from home plate in hopes of knocking the ball out of the catcher's glove.

Again, tell me why it is OK to do in the context of home plate when the runner cannot even touch the infielder without penalty at any of the other bases?

Accidents Happen

And I don't think that this rule will ever eliminate injuries.  And I understand a lot of times it really is an accident that they did not intend to do (but when you are barreling into a catcher who might not be ready to take the collision, what the f*** do you think is going to happen? Reminds me of the lame excuses people use about driving while intoxicated).  But then, with my proposed suspension, the other player will share some of that pain.

And, of course, lame 25th man players like that runner might think twice about a risky move like he did, if he thought he would have to sit indefinitely while someone takes his place on the roster and potentially Wally Pipp him.  That's raw human desire right there.

And I understand that the runner has some rights as well regarding home plate.  If the collision happens at home plate, I can live with that, you cannot legislate away all collisions and injuries but at least we can do something about the rules allowing the runner to make a risky and poor decision.  I'm just looking more for minimizing these collisions and injuries.

And I realize that there is a grey area regarding the catcher's responsibilities with regards to injuring the runner as well.  As in, I'm not sure what happens if the catcher causes injury to the runner due to regular baseball versus negligence or improper procedure by the catcher.  Could have a panel of three catchers, known for their defense, to rule on such instances.  In any case, I think the pendulum going way in the other direction is acceptable.

And it is not just me.  Both Bruce Bochy and Duane Kuiper have spoken out about it, as well as a variety of media members.  It don't make sense in terms of running a business, and ultimately, that is what this is for the people who could implement some rules regarding this.  Regular reader and commenter, Marc, noted in his comment to my other post that if baseball would just enforce the EXISTING rules (my emphasis), that would help to limit these types of unnecessary collisions. Hopefully the MLB will be listening this time.

Giants Thoughts

First, there is a great article on the injury, describing it in medical terms, best I've ever read in 40 years in explaining an injury and the ramifications, in SBNation by Dr. Ali Mohamadi.

About the Pudge rumors, I would add that it would be my educated guess that it was started by either 1) a reporter who was making an educated guess on who Giants might talk to and/or 2) a Washington Nationals leak because they want to trade Pudge.  According to what I've see/heard somewhere, Pudge's defense isn't so good anymore, and so it would not make sense to acquire him given the importance of the catcher with the Giants pitching rotation.

The more I think about it, the more I think Eli Whiteside will be the starting catcher for the rest of the season.  He really knows our pitchers well and Posey at some point will be back in the dugout and given his advice and input.  I noticed that in terms of ERA, he was the first to have an excellent ERA with Jonathan Sanchez, basically Bengie Molina and Dirty just didn't mix well, even when Dirty was doing well, for the most part, he had a very high ERA when Molina caught him still.  In any case, trying to get a catcher now in a trade will be very costly, the other team knows that there is a level of desperation in the move, and will ask for more.

The Giants will just have to do with less offense and hope that the other players can just do more with what they got.  And if Whiteside can hit more like 2010 (.696 OPS) than 2009 (.607 OPS), that would help greatly towards the rest of the players not needed to do more in Posey's absence.  Hopefully he has learned something along the way.  I would note that his BABIP was .299 in 2010 vs. .284 in 2009, so that was a large part of his gain in OPS, and something he will need to continue.

Giants: MLB's Rule Maker

I am just overwhelmed by Buster Posey's probable season ending injury (fractured fibula and other assorted ligament damage that are more problematic), and wonder when baseball will come to their senses.  Unfortunately, it might take Giants' fans' pain again for MLB's gain.  I've been complaining about this for almost 40 years (not all of it blogging :^), but there should be a rule about taking out catchers at home plate.

I can still remember when I first thought this: seeing Pete Rose take out Ray Fosse at home plate in the All Star Game, around 40 years ago.  It ruined Ray Fosse's career, at least in term of what his peak season would have been, and the irony was that the two of them shared dinner the night before.  I just couldn't understand why the rules would allow that, and I am for Pete Rose being in the Hall of Fame.  Still, that was just not right.

I know some people say it is just a part of the game.  And I understand that, I just looked at the replay, that is just part of the game the way it is now.  The unfortunate thing is that Posey was in an awkward position trying to field the ball, and as far as the runner knew, Posey was fielding the catch and trying to tag him.  But it is like the play where the QB's leg is crushed when the rusher catches him the wrong way, at the wrong angle:  you can see Posey's leg twist ugly like that QB and you just know it was bad.  

There was no way the runner could know that Posey did not have the ball.  He made the decision to nail Buster rounding third, particularly with all the recent news of Schierholtz termiNating runners at bases.  But with a clear lane to the plate, if there were rules about this, he wouldn't have made that choice, he would have just headed to home plate, and if there is a collision, so be it, you can't legislate every risk of injury away.

As far as I know, runners aren't allow to run into the firstbaseman, secondbaseman, shortstop, or thirdbaseman to jar the ball loose.  At least any more, there used to be more danger for infielders long ago, and the MLB rightfully changed the rules to protect the fielders better.  Yet the MLB allows open season on the catcher like this, which is not allowed in any level of amateur baseball.  How many more Rookies of the Year, rising stars will the MLB lose before they try to do something about this?  

They have changed the rules over the years to right wrongs and the Giants have been a part of that in recent years.  After the 1993 seasons where the Giants won 103 games and didn't make the playoffs, the MLB changed the rules to allow the best team not a division winner to make the playoffs as a wildcard.  After the 1997 season when the Giants, one of the best teams in baseball, got pushed out of the playoffs in a short 5-games series, they moved to correct it by making it a 7-game series.  Now, if they change the rules because of this, this will be another case of the Giant's pains being the MLB's gain.

Giants Thoughts

The Giants were already in need of hitting the DL already, with Darren Ford and Mike Fontenot hurting from recent injuries themselves.  They announced the call ups of Brandon Belt (taking Ford's spot), Chris Stewart (catcher to replace Posey), and Brandon Crawford (SS/MI to replace Fontenot).  To clear space on the 40-man roster for Stewart and Crawford, the Giants DFAed Henry Sosa (former top pitching prospect who stalled in the upper levels) and Ryan Rohlinger (he was being groomed for future MI role but hasn't been hitting in AAA this season).  

Judging by today's lineup - Burriss at SS - I expect him to get first dibs on the starting SS position and his hot hitting up to now probably helped earned him that spot.  It sounds like Belt will be playing in the outfield (Larry Baer just said on KNBR that Huff is staying at 1B), but given that Cody Ross, Andres Torres, and Nate Schierholtz are our top 3 hitters for the month of May as of yesterday's game in terms of OPS, I have to think that the current mix and match tactic will continue.  

Not really a platoon, though Ross is not that great a hitter against RHP, but I don't think Bochy will sit him against all RHP either.  It does not sound like Aubrey Huff is going to play any games in the OF, so it would be my guess that he will be sitting against certain (but not all) LHP, particularly since he has not really heated up yet, allowing Belt to take games at 1B (though he is a lefty too, but the Giants have previously said that he's not up here to sit, so I assume that will hold now as well, as he reportedly fixed whatever problem he had earlier).

I hope Belt did fix his problem, but given all the strikeouts he's piling up in AAA, I don't see how he don't strike out a lot up here still.  And if he can't hit homers in AAA, how is he going to do it in the majors?  So I'm wishing for the best, but cognizant that he might get sent back down when Sandoval is ready to come back up.

I think the Giants are just in survival mode offensively until Sandoval returns off the DL.  WIth him, we would have a legit middle lineup threat and that might make it easier for the hitters around him to get pitches they like.  And we have the pitching to survive the next two weeks with a .500 record, that should be more than good enough to survive.

Meanwhile, Whiteside and Stewart will probably share the catching duties, Burriss will start at SS, Crawford will get occasional starts at 2B, 3B, and SS, and as noted Huff will be at 1B, except the days when Belt is not playing LF, and Torres, Ross, Schierholtz will be sharing CF and RF, except when Belt is playing 1B.  Burrell will be the PH.

GO Giants!