Sold Out

So here we are, perusing the mlb.com site and reading up, or trying to, on the various observations of, lessons learned from, and wild guesses about the current League Championship Series, which, both of 'em, are providing America with some mighty entertaining baseball. I mean, there isn't a bad story in the bunch.

The Yankees? With very few exceptions, they're a team of unknowns and kids. The Plucky Underdogs wearing pinstripes? The last time that happened was, what, 95 years ago when the wise old men of baseball thought Babe Ruth and his homers were a passing fad. Enjoy 'em now, before these guys are in your face and in the tabloids every week.

And who doesn't like the Houston Astros, even if they are in the wrong league? Justin Verlander is one of the class acts in the game, on and off the field, and is Jose Altuve the second coming of Joe Morgan or what? Their once-ridiculed little ballpark has now picked up some seasoned charm, and we still think they're the better team, assuming they remember how to hit this weekend.

Even our designated Evil Empire, the Dodgers, the Blue Meanies of LA-- you don't have to like them, but you sure have to admire a team this good, this complete. Dave Roberts as managerial genius-- who saw that coming? And considering these guys haven't been in the Series since 1988, we Giants fans can continue to feel a bit smug even if they wind up winning the whole thing. They had their dynasty, from the late forties to the Eighties. This decade was ours.They still gotta catch up.

And the Cubs are a lot more likable now that they're struggling to stay alive and no longer the Anointed Ones of last year. (Yes, we contrarians were pulling for Cleveland.) Joe Maddon gets thrown out twice in two games? How can you not like that-- the Dumbledore of the Dugout gets angry and dirty in the umpires' face, arguing two of the most inexplicable calls we've seen in, like, ever.

Oh, it's four great stories, all right, no matter who moves on.


But speaking of stories, we were reading two of them this evening, one on the ALCS by the veteran scribe Richard Justice, and another on the Kershaw-Quintana matchup looming tonight, this one by Doug Miller.

Quoting Justice: "After winning 101 regular-season games and then getting past the Red Sox in the American League Division Series presented by Doosan, the Astros are playing a potential elimination game."

And a few clicks down, here's Miller: "(I)n this National League Championship Series presented by Camping World..." and, a little later, he brings up the Dodgers' "three-game sweep of Arizona in the NL Division Series presented by T-Mobile."

What in the name of Red Smith is goin' on here?

Are these veteran sportswriters (some of who have been around for years) now really, and truly,  actually contractually obligated to add the name of the TV sponsor whenever they mention the Division or League Championship Series by name?

Is somebody gonna get sued if they don't?

Is there nothing or no one these owners and the MLBPA won't sell for a sponsorship buck?

Look, advertisements have been all over the game since the 1800s. Big signs on the outfield walls.  "Hit this target, win a suit!"  Airplanes trailing banners circling over the ballpark:: " E A T  A T  J O E S ". Cheesy middle-inning promotions for this, that, or the other. Multimedia scoreboards with an unending parade of commercials. More recently, corporate sponsorship of stadiums. The constant on-air sponsorship of every "offical MLB product," from jockstraps to beer to laptop computers and tablets.  "This first pitch sponsored by the Ginsu Knife Company, or whatever." We're used to hearing it.

But-- seeing this in print-- casually inserted, like a throwaway line in a play-- it's jarring. It's unsettling. It's bizarre, and weird, in a thousand ways that the other intrusions aren't.   Somehow it just seems wrong; that print, that the written word, is especially defiled by this in ways that the other media aren't. You know? It's like... well, it's like going to see your favorite band play. The big sponsorship placard behind the stage-- Black Death Malt Liquor Presents the Simpletones!-- well, that's one thing. But then in the middle of your favorite song, the band artfully, or artlessly, what does it matter, the band works a well-known advertising jingle into the third verse, repeats it a few times during the coda to drive home the message, and then carries on the rest of the show without a hitch. Ya know?

                    "Please," I said, holding up my hands, "no more."

                    "Lemme tell you the weird part." He was pleading.

                    "Weird part?" I yelled. "Weird part?"

                                                                       -- Peter Gent, North Dallas Forty


Here's the weird part. I've been reading Richard Justice for years. He may not be Roger Angell, but he doesn't need to be. He's pretty good.  There is no way on earth Richard Justice, or Dan Jenkins, or Paul Zimmerman, or anyone who carries or has carried a legitimate byline, would voluntarily insert this-- this tripe into his column. 

But, at the end of each article, after the byline, comes the familiar disclaimer: "This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs."

Well... then who? If it wasn't MLB, the clubs, or the union, then who in tarnation is demanding these odious little promotions be inserted into what's supposed to be a writer's own story?

Who indeed? Do we even want to know the answer?


Well, we've once again gone off our policy of not discussing off-field matters. Sorry about that. This one shook us up, far more than perhaps it should have, or maybe not. These are uncertain days. Sometimes you don't know how to respond... is it really The Latest Outrage, or are we just being extra-curmudgeonly this evening?

But we can't help it this time.

This stinks.

End of the Regular Season

	W	L	GB
LA	104	58	-	Team's most wins since Brooklyn '53.
Arizona	93	69	11	NL's sleeper team in playoffs?
Colorado	87	75	17	League-record fourth wild-card bid.
San Diego	71	91	33	Beat Giants 12-7 on year to earn spot.
GIANTS	64	98	40	"Badness comes in waves."

As this train wreck of a season wound down and we glanced only intermittently at the daily scores, the tendency to sum things up oozed forward like an oil slick, enveloping all it reached. We opined to a family member at one point that it was as if all the good breaks-- the shattered-bat doubles, the opposing runners sliding into first and killing rallies, the career .170 hitters driving in key runs, the defensive replacements that turned certain hits into inning-ending outs, the uncanny ability to choose the right relief pitcher for the right moment, the pinch-runners and pinch-hitters and 25th men that turned games around, all the things that built the Giants' marvelous and improbable dynasty of success over five incredible seasons-- all of them turned, malevolently, as in a horror movie, into the opposites of themselves, and all of them descended upon the San Francisco Giants at once like locusts, not over five years but over five-plus months that seemed as though they'd never end.

Or maybe we just want to believe this was a one-year meltdown, and things will perk up again next year and we'll be back in the hunt a year after that. It is baseball, after all, the sport of spring, and hope springs eternal, and all that, even when a fan's natural reaction more closely resembles that which initially greeted the "Rite of Spring" than that which anticipates next year's spring fantasy camp.

How bad were the 2017 Giants? Let's see. They nosed out the Padres for next-to-last in runs scored (639, or just under 4 per game). They allowed 776, good for ninth in the league, and were about average in unearned-to-earned-run ratio. They finished three games worse than their Pythagorean projection. Their defense was about average: pretty good in errors, not so hot in range. Their defensive efficiency record was awful, 14th in the NL, but that's because their pitchers gave up more hits than any other team's except the Mets.

Looking at one of our favorite stats, "Wins Above Average By Position," we see the Giants were below league average at every position except catcher. The outfield was an aggregate nine wins below average, which all by itself is enough to drop the team to a 72-90 mark. Perhaps most disappointing of all is that at two key positions where this team has shined brightly-- shortstop and second base-- Joe Panik and Brandon Crawford were below average, slightly below to be sure, but still below average. Team pitching, by contrast, was right about average-- the starters a little bit below, the bullpen slightly above, which will no doubt surprise you as it did us. Then again, this team is not used to having an "average" bullpen. And, just to drive the point home, the Giants had the worst pinch-hitters in the league, too-- three wins to the bad.  All told, the Giants were thirteen wins below average, which would leave them right about at their Pythagorean mark of 67-95. It is no comfort to note that the Padres, who finished seven games ahead and kicked the Giants' collective butt in the season series, were minus 17.  

Buster Posey, of course, is the most valuable Giant, earning 3.7 WAR with his .320/.400/.462 marks. Brandon Belt, everybody's favorite whipping boy, earned 2.8 despite missing the last two months; not all of it was on defense, either (.823 OPS).  Crawford's 1.8 was by far the lowest of his career and he earned most of it with the glove. Panik earned one WAR with his .768; it's not comforting to note that his fine 2015 season is the one that stands out, and that his 2017 numbers essentially reprise last year's.  And that's it for position players, gang; everyone else is down in the statistical noise.

Though he made only 17 starts, Madison "Enduro Class" Bumgarner was far and away the most valuable Giants pitcher with 2.8 WAR. This is well off his annual 4-to-5 level, but still tops on the team, as is his 3.32 ERA and 1.09 WHIP. Those who fear he's "lost it" because he finished 4-9 may note the numbers don't support that; what "Bum" lost this year, aside from time, was any kind of offense to back him up.  By any measure the hardest-working pitcher was Jeff Samardzija, who led the team in innings, starts, strikeouts, wins, and, yes, losses. We like "Shark" because he doesn't walk people (32 BB in 207 innings) and he and Bumgarner were the only starters to average less than one hit per nine IP.  How does a 1.14 WHIP yield a 4.42 ERA? Homers-- 30 of them. 

Johnny Cueto will likely blame his forgettable season (8-8, 4.52, fewer WAR than Cory Gearrin) on the blisters that pestered him much of the way; that frailty also may have cost him a handsome payday had he exercised his opt-out provision. Now he's staying, and we're fine with that. Cueto will be 32 next year and should still have one or two "ace"-level seasons left. As for Matt Moore-- well, we're reminded of Terry Mulholland's ill-fated return to the Giants back in 1995. If there was a starting pitcher in the league worse than Moore, we didn't see him. But, you don't just give up on a left-hander who won't be 29 until next June, and the Giants didn't, so we'll see Moore start 2018 in the rotation. As for the number-five guy, Ty Blach was good early, and Chris Stratton good late. They're essentially the same age; Blach, being a left-hander, will likely get a longer look.

Gearrin, who walked "only" 25 men in 58 innings after a terrible start, and Hunter Strickland were the best in the bullpen this year, and if you believe that says more about the bullpen than anything else, we won't argue.  They all seem to average about a walk every other inning, which ain't good. The humongous Mark Melancon contract is beginning to look like the whitest of white elephants; does anyone even know when and whether he'll pitch again? Sam Dyson was OK-- not fine, just OK-- in the closer role. Even with Will Smith expected to return, this is a group that needs a lot of work. But let's hope the lesson about paying big bucks for big-name closers has been learned; in the last 20 years the Giants have done it thrice, and only the first one, Robb Nen, paid off. And if you'll remember, when Nen, who saved 43 games in 2002, went down with injury in 2003, little-known Tim Worrell, obtained in trade, took over and saved 38 games. Yes, you need a closer. No, they're not as rare as their agents think they are, and past performance is no indicator of future success. 

Roll the statistical parade... Posey was fifth in the league in batting, eighth in OBP-- and 31st in slugging and 20th in OPS...  Any doubt that he lacked a reliable supporting cast is shown in his run and RBI totals, minuscule by comparison to the other .300 hitters... If you think Posey's low RBI count is because he "can't hit in the clutch," we've already sent a virus to infect your electronic devices... Crawford led the club with 34 doubles (12th in the NL) and 77 RBI... Denard Span, with 73 runs (43rd) led the Giants... Gone are the days when we hit a lot of triples. Crawford managed only one, with Panik and Hunter Pence leading with five... Bumgarner hit 3 homers in 34 at-bats and slugged .471, better than any Giants regular... Matt Moore's ERA, worst in the league, was three-quarters of a run higher than the "runner-up," San Diego's Clayton Richard, another lefty. It was also the worst ERA in all major-league baseball, eclipsing five American Leaguers, none of whose teams made the postseason, either... The league hit .283 against Moore and Ty Blach; only Richard and teammate Luis Perdomo were worse... Moore issued a lot of walks, too, but no other Giant was near the top... Samardzija's 30 homers were fifth-worst in the NL... We got a league leader! "Shark" was tops in the NL in innings pitched, and also sixth in strikeouts and fifth in WHIP... As usual, Clayton Kershaw dominated the leaderboard, and though his numbers were not spectacular this time, they're mighty good, especially that 0.95 WHIP. He was "only" eighth in strikeouts; Max Scherzer led with 268 in 200 innings and also led with a 0.90 WHIP... Zach Greinke (17-7, 3.20, 215 K, 1.07 WHIP) had a fine year... Watch out for Arizona. In addition to Greinke, here's Paul Goldschmidt, as good a player as there is in the game today: .297/.404/.563, fifth in the league in OPS, with 120 RBI and 117 runs scored... For a team that lost 94 games, the Reds have some good players-- like Joey Votto, who added 36 homers, 100 RBI, and 106 runs to his league-leading 1.032 OPS, and like Billy Hamilton, who stole 59 bases while being caught only 13 times (82%) and hit 11 triples. If he'd just learn to take a walk, he'd be a great player, score 105 runs instead of 85, and his team would win a few more games. The same can be said for Miami's Dee Gordon, who led the NL with 60 steals at a 79% rate... Charlie "Colorado" Blackmon led the league with 387 total bases while winning the batting title, just ahead of Giancarlo Stanton, whose 91 extra-base hits (59 homers and 32 doubles, no triples) was tied for best in all of baseball with Cleveland's amazing Jose Ramirez and his 56 doubles....  Another interesting Red, former Giant Adam Duvall, led the league with 11 sacrifice flies; he is one of the most extreme fly-ball hitters in the game (11 GIDP in 587 AB for a slow guy). He slugged .480 with 31 homers; do you suppose the Giants could have used him? He learns to take a few more walks, his OPS could leap a hundred points... Votto was walked intentionally 20 times, and the Cubs' Anthony Rizzo was hit by the pitch 24 times... Because he is the greatest player in the game, we have to include Mike Trout's numbers: .306/.442/.629 for a best-in-baseball 1.071 OPS. He stole 22 out of 26 bases, too, but his run and RBI numbers were way down. We were pulling for the Angels to overtake Minnesota for the wild-card just because of Trout, though let's not deny the Twins have some real players too... No twenty-game winners this year. Cleveland's Corey Kluber (0..87 WHIP), teammate Carlos (1.10) Carrasco, Kershaw, and 34-year-old Jason Vargas of Kansas City are your 18-game-winners... A year after his lights-out, perfect-save-record season, Baltimore's Zach Britton saved fewer than our own Sam Dyson and was eclipsed by teammate Brad Brach... What did we say about past performance and closers? Not that we wouldn't take a chance on Britton-- for the right price... LA's Kenley Jansen approached perfection with 41 out of 42, and the Cubs' Wade Davis was 32-for-33. Where's the man he replaced, Aroldis Chapman? Still effective, with 22 saves for the wild-card Yankees, and still striking out 12 men per 9 innings, but his departure didn't seem to hurt Chicago a lot... The Red Sox' Chris Sale struck out 12.93 per 9 and 308 overall, just two of his many impressive stats... Toronto's young Marcus Stroman induces ground balls at a higher rate than any other pitcher, and led everyone with 34 double-play balls, more than one per start... The Royals' Trevor Cahill, whom we remember from his NL West days, uncorked 16 wild pitches, a petty number compared to some we've seen in past years, but more than anyone in 2017... Oriole lefthander Wade Miley is the game's wildest pitcher: 93 walks in 157 innings earns him a Matt-Moore-like 8-15 record... Moore himself was tied for 15th, behind such worthies as Justin Verlander, Gio Gonzalez, and Robbie Ray...  Our own Jeff Samardzija tops the list of fewest walks per 9 innings pitched, in the company of Kershaw, Kluber, Sale, and Greinke. We've always believed that pitchers who give up a lot of solo homers are preferable to pitchers who walk a lot of guys, but we'll admit "Shark" puts that theory to the test.

Who has the best infield in the National League? Is it the Dodgers, with Cody Bellinger at first, Corey Seager at short, and Justin Turner at third?> How about Washington-- Zimmermann, Murphy, and Rendon? The Cubs bring Rizzo, Javier Baez, and Kris Bryant to the sward, and Colorado goes around the horn with Mark Reynolds, D.J. LeMahieu, Nolen Arenado, and Trevor Story. Arizona has Goldschmidt at first and Jake Lamb at third, but are less settled up the middle. When you consider Bellinger and Seager are 22 and 23, respectively, it's hard to deny LA, but they're still searching for a quality second baseman. Let's see which group does the best in the postseason, which starts tonight with Colorado visiting Arizona. Oh, how we love these wild-card elimination games, which reinforce the value of winning the division title at all costs. It's good for baseball that the wild-card remain a "settle-for" proposition, which was not always the case prior to 2012.

Five of the top six spots in  NL runs scored are occupied by the playoff teams; the 77-85 Miami Marlins nosed out the Dodgers for fifth place. Surprisingly, nine teams, led by the Brewers and Mets, hit more home runs than did the Rockies in this homer-happy season. Colorado was also 9th in team ERA; their postseason foes finished 1-2-3-4, as in Dodgers-Diamondbacks-Nationals-Cubs, with about half a run separating first-place LA from number-four Chicago. In other words, no real surprises here, except to note that Milwaukee was right up there on both charts, and that the Mets' once-vaunted young pitching staff finished with a 5.01 ERA, far worse than even the Giants. As they say in social media, "SMH". We didn't see that one coming.

Just as in the NL, in the AL the five postseason qualifiers were among the top six in runs, with Houston leading the pack. Texas outscored Boston for fifth place, but finishing 11th in ERA helps explain that 78-84 record. Four teams with losing records-- the Rays, Angels, Blue Jays, and Mariners-- finished ahead of wild-card Minnesota in ERA. Cleveland, as may be expected, was tops at 3.30, the best in all baseball, better even than LA, and the DH be damned.   

The Indians' sensational 22-game winning streak, perfectly timed as August rolled into September, is the longest in American League  history and second-longest in baseball history. (Who owns the longest? Need you ask?) They outscored the opposition 139-35 while posting a team ERA of 1.70 during that streak.  But then we have the Dodgers, who from June through August were on an incredible roll, pushing their record to 90-36 at one point. Had they continued at that pace they'd have won 120 games. Of course they didn't; LA then endured a brief tailspin and finished out 14-22 to end up at "only" 104-58.

Will those two teams and their historic achievements collide in the World Series? Can either the Dodgers or the Nationals, perennial playoff disappointments over the past five years, get over the hump at all? Would an Indians-Astros series be potentially the most interesting ALCS in decades? We have no idea about any of this, but speculating in this manner sure beats speculating over what will happen this offseason for our team, the San Francisco Giants. 

At least for another month or so.

Goodbye, Old Paint

It seemed somehow wholly appropriate that when Matt Cain walked off the mound for the last time yesterday after pitching five scoreless innings, that he did so with a fragile 1-0 lead. No doubt many among the  40,394 fans who gave him a heartfelt standing ovation remembered all too well how many close games the retiring Giant veteran lost over the course of his 13-year career despite outstanding efforts such as this one.  Whether or not it's appropriate that this Giants team, true to form, managed to lose yesterday's game as well is one we'll leave to the court jesters among us. For one day, it was all about one man and what he's meant to a team, to a following, to a community, and to a city. The City. The Giants. And us.

Matt Cain won, or started and pitched well in, five of the biggest victories in Giants history, and that's History as in "All the way back to New York history."  None of them were easy. Even Game Two of the 2010 World Series, in the books as a 9-0 blowout win for Matt Cain, was a tight, 2-0 game when he left; the Giants obliged his successors with a late-inning seven-run outburst. We remember Matt baffling a great Philadelphia team in the 2010 NLCS, Game Three; battling for his life and winning the 2012 NLDS clincher at Cincinnati; taking the mound, cool and calm and collected, and pitching the Giants to a Game 7 win in a 2012 NLCS they really ought to have lost; and pitching seven strong innings in the last game of that long, long, season, a game the Giants eventually won, of course.

Chris Haft, who often shows a real appreciation for the fans' point of view, posted a fine tribute to Matt, and his impending retirement, a few days ago on the Giants' website. We urge anyone who hasn't read it to do so: http://m.giants.mlb.com/news/article/255418550/giants-matt-cain-shares-memories-of-career/

We were fortunate enough to see Matt Cain pitch as a rookie in 2005, and several times since. We like Dave Righetti’s "foundation" metaphor, as Matt’s career spanned the team's complete overhaul from Barry Bonds-and-a-supporting-cast to a pitching-focused championship club. His stellar postseason record and the June 2012 perfect game are testament to his capabilities that were often hidden year after difficult year. The clear perspective and maturity in his comments here speak to the man's character, as do his teammates' remarks. Matt Cain has left his baseball heart in San Francisco, he’s as true a Giant as can be, and we're grateful to the Giants' management that he got one last start before the home crowd, so he could walk off with the applause and dignity he so richly deserves.

Just going by the numbers, Matt Cain ranks as the fourth-greatest pitcher, and twelfth-greatest overall player, in San Francisco Giants history. And that doesn't take into account his brilliance in the 2010 postseason (one earned run in three starts, two wins), his fine starts in each of the three 2012 postseason clinchers (two wins), the perfect game, and all those one-hit and two-hit losses back in the early days.

Cain accumulated 32 wins above replacement between 2005 and 2013. And, sadly, he retires with the same count. The four years since his surgery have been rough ones for him, and for us all. He got his third  ring in 2014 after spending most of the season on the DL, unable to contribute. He endured this cruel final season with a good number of fans openly calling for his outright release.

Well, that's all behind us, and behind him, now. He's one of the good guys. The real good guys.

Will number 18 go up on the wall five years from now? Maybe so, maybe not. At the moment it's nice to think about.

Goodbye and Godspeed, Matt Cain.  You've nothing left to prove, big guy. Be there for your family now, as you were there for your teammates and we fans during your time with our Giants.