Category Archives: Baseball

Lincecum’s Season is Even Worse Than it Looks.

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Tim Lincecum pitched so poorly over the first three months of the season that he lowered the bar of expectations practically down to the ground. The Giants won only two of his first 14 starts. When he was able to put together back-to-back quality starts in June, observers started to breathe easier, believing that the turnaround had begun.

Only it hadn’t. And hasn’t still. And I’m saying, it’s not out there.

What has become abundantly clear is that Lincecum is totally over-matched by the better teams on the Giants’ schedule. If anyone was surprised that the Nationals knocked him around Wednesday afternoon, well, they haven’t been paying attention.

Here is a list of the teams Lincecum has earned wins against this season:

  • Mets (2)
  • Dodgers (pre-Ramirez, no Kemp)
  • Astros
  • Padres
  • Phillies
  • Rockies

The only team on that list over .500 is LA, and Lincecum got them in the middle of a 7-game losing stretch during which they scored 5 runs and were shut out five times.

Here’s a list of the teams against which Lincecum gave his team a chance to win, although he did not get a W:

  • A’s (when they were four games under .500)
  • Astros

Lastly, there were two games where Timmy could honestly be called a “hard-luck loser,” when he pitched well but the team lost. Here’s that list:

  • Rockies
  • Diamondbacks

That’s it, folks. 11 decent starts out of 25, and only one of them against a team that you could expect to see in the playoffs. By the way, only four of Lincecum’s losses have come at the hands of what you would call the game’s elite teams, so the rest of his losses have come to some bad teams.

Wondering how Timmy has fared against baseball’s best (Nationals, Pirates, Rangers)? 0-4 with 21ER in 16.1 IP, ERA of 11.57.

So here’s the good news. If Bruce Bochy plays it straight the rest of the way, and nobody gets skipped, Lincecum has eight starts left. Five are against teams he has a chance to beat (Cubs, D-Backs (2), Rockies, Padres). The other three are against the Dodgers twice and the Braves.

What’s my point? Let’s quit waiting for Lincecum to go back to his 2008-10 levels. Maybe he’ll find that gear in the off-season. Let’s just hope he gives the team a chance against the lesser teams on the schedule, and expect him to get pounded by the good ones.

And be grateful that there aren’t more good ones!

A Few Tweaks that Could Save The MLB All-Star Game

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Okay, I just can’t help myself. A sports “opinionator” is powerless when it comes to an issue like MLB’s All-Star voting.

First, a few disclaimers. I’m a baseball purist, and I’m older than 25 (okay, significantly older). Those two things may, unfortunately, have become redundant, but as the kids say today, “it is what it is.”

Since the job of All-Star voting was returned to the fans in 1970, the annual listing of the players who were “snubbed” has become as big a part of the game as the list of the guys who get in. Teams have always campaigned for their players, and players who got lots of national TV exposure always had a big advantage.

Because of that history, it’s tempting to look at the results of this year’s selection process and simply say, “well, you can’t make everyone happy,” and leave it at that. Unfortunately, if you’re an “opinionator,:” you need to try to figure out a way to fix it. So here goes.

There are several challenges to fixing this system, not the least of which is that baseball itself has absolutely no interest in doing so. They’ve made several changes to the player selection process over the last few years, including adding much-needed roster spots, but none of these has gotten to the unfortunate root of the thing, which is that most fans are woefully unqualified to pick an All-Star team.

Oh, I can hear it now, all the wailing, “It’s the fans’ game!”

Hey, you know what? Not anymore. You see, one of those changes a few years ago was to take the home field advantage in the World Series and give it to the league that won the All-Star Game. To me, that means it’s no longer “the fans’ game.” It’s serious business, as any team which has led the World Series 3-2 and lost it in seven games will tell you. In fact, you may be surprised to know that 20 of the last 25 World Series were won by the team that played the first two games at home.

It’s ironic, isn’t it, that the very thing that the Commissioner of Baseball came up with to make the game more “meaningful” (meaning: interesting for top players to play hard in) also had the effect of taking the role of the fan out of the selection process. Well, except, it didn’t. In an incredible convolution of logic, the All-Star Game became hugely important in the pursuit of the Championship of the Sport, and yet the most important factor in the game, the selection of the players, was left in the hands of mechanics, schoolteachers, astronauts, six-year-olds and other, less-qualified people.

And here’s the best part! Baseball is thrilled! This year’s voting broke all records! People voted from their computers, from their phones, from kiosks at the ballpark! Early and often (25 votes at a time). This is not going away, folks. So, let’s get back to trying to fix it.

The concern amongst reasonable people is not that Pablo Sandoval won the starting NL 3rd base spot over David Wright. Sandoval doesn’t suck, and Wright is still on the team. No, the problem isn’t what happened out here in San Francisco, it’s what ALMOST happened.

Okay, I just can’t help myself. A sports “opinionator” is powerless when it comes to an issue like MLB’s All-Star voting.

First, a few disclaimers. I’m a baseball purist, and I’m older than 25 (okay, significantly older). Those two things may, unfortunately, have become redundant, but as the kids say today, “it is what it is.”

Since the job of All-Star voting was returned to the fans in 1970, the annual listing of the players who were “snubbed” has become as big a part of the game as the list of the guys who get in. Teams have always campaigned for their players, and players who got lots of national TV exposure always had a big advantage.

Because of that history, it’s tempting to look at the results of this year’s selection process and simply say, “well, you can’t make everyone happy,” and leave it at that. Unfortunately, if you’re an “opinionator,:” you need to try to figure out a way to fix it. So here goes.

There are several challenges to fixing this system, not the least of which is that baseball itself has absolutely no interest in doing so. They’ve made several changes to the player selection process over the last few years, including adding much-needed roster spots, but none of these has gotten to the unfortunate root of the thing, which is that most fans are woefully unqualified to pick an All-Star team.

Oh, I can hear it now, all the wailing, “It’s the fans’ game!”

Hey, you know what? Not anymore. You see, one of those changes a few years ago was to take the home field advantage in the World Series and give it to the league that won the All-Star Game. To me, that means it’s no longer “the fans’ game.” It’s serious business, as any team which has led the World Series 3-2 and lost it in seven games will tell you. In fact, you may be surprised to know that 20 of the last 25 World Series were won by the team that played the first two games at home.

It’s ironic, isn’t it, that the very thing that the Commissioner of Baseball came up with to make the game more “meaningful” (meaning: interesting for top players to play hard in) also had the effect of taking the role of the fan out of the selection process. Well, except, it didn’t. In an incredible convolution of logic, the All-Star Game became hugely important in the pursuit of the Championship of the Sport, and yet the most important factor in the game, the selection of the players, was left in the hands of mechanics, schoolteachers, astronauts, six-year-olds and other, less-qualified people.

And here’s the best part! Baseball is thrilled! This year’s voting broke all records! People voted from their computers, from their phones, from kiosks at the ballpark! Early and often (25 votes at a time). This is not going away, folks. So, let’s get back to trying to fix it.

The concern amongst reasonable people is not that Pablo Sandoval won the starting NL 3rd base spot over David Wright. Sandoval doesn’t suck, and Wright is still on the team. No, the problem isn’t what happened out here in San Francisco, it’s what ALMOST happened.

Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford, second-year Giants starters who each looked like they could get sent down to the minors at various points this season, both finished second at their positions in the All-Star voting. Crawford, whose glove is magnificent but is hitting under .240, missed getting the start by only 350,000 votes.

Aubrey Huff, who has 9 hits in 58 at-bats, finished 17th in the voting in the outfield. Freddy Sanchez, who has not spent one minute on the active roster this season, finished fourth in the balloting at second base. Both of them had over 1.9 million votes. Really!

This should scare MLB. Because of the World Series appearances in 2002 and 2010, the Giants have a very strong fan base in the 18-34 age group, and they are wired to the teeth. The fact that they’re not competent to vote for All-Star teams is not their fault. If you take someone who’s never driven a car and give them the keys, you bear some responsibility for what happens.

Okay, that’s the problem, what do you do to fix it? First of all, there has to be a way to remove people from the ballot if they haven’t played enough games. That would have taken care of not only Sanchez and Huff, but Sandoval. Pablo missed 35 of the team’s 80 games this season, and that alone should remove him from consideration for a starting spot.

Secondly, there could be a minimum performance standard for position players. Maybe a player needs to be in the top 10 in the league in any of the key offensive categories to be eligible to be voted on. This can’t be that difficult. I understand that there are still paper ballots that are printed way ahead of time, but any votes for ineligible players would simply not be counted. That would take care of the Belt and Crawford situations, which came very close to being very embarrassing for MLB.

Lastly, it’s time to recognize that things in the world have changed since 1970, and we need to let go of the rule requiring each team to have a representative in the game. It was a nice rule when it was first implemented, but again, now that the game counts, a manager has to make sure he’s got all the positions and pitcher spots covered. Ron Washington chose a rookie closer from the A’s, Ryan Cook, because he needed a relief pitcher. Cook’s been a nice surprise, but he has 7 career saves in 10 career opportunities. And he’s an All-Star? Over Josh Reddick? Really?

So there you have it. We keep fan voting, as ridiculous as the concept is, and just try to limit the damage. If they don’t do something, the Giants could have the whole starting eight next year. There’s no market that has the combination of sellout crowds, high TV ratings and internet penetration that the Giants enjoy, and they’re not afraid to use it.

Giants Fans, Isn’t It More Fun This Way?

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Published December 14th, 2011 at CSNBayArea.com

Giants fans entered November with visions of household names like Beltran, Reyes, or at least Rollins, but once again found themselves hitting the Internet to learn about their new guys. Melky Cabrera? Angel Pagan? Really? This is the best they could do?

You know it’s been a slow offseason when there’s a spirited Twitter debate about which backup middle infielder to keep.

My belief is that the Giants have chosen the right path here. They’re committed to pitching, which we saw carry them to the championship in 2010. That means they need to have the money to keep Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain happy long term, and it means they can’t commit to big contracts for hitters.

It also means more tight games, more strategy, and more interesting baseball than most teams will play, but I’m in favor of that style. I’m very pleased that they’ve going to start with Brandon Crawford at shortstop. It seems like he turns a hit into an out every other game, which more than makes up for his weaknesses at the plate. When Orlando Cabrera was playing short down the stretch last year, you could see how much Giants pitchers had come to count on Crawford to make the tough play, or the tough double play.

I’d like to propose another way to look at this for Giants fans who cry themselves to sleep thinking about the ones who got away. Obviously, winning the World Series in 2010 was pretty cool. I think the fact the Giants came out of nowhere made it even sweeter!  Do we really want to become like Yankees or Red Sox fans, where every season has a “World Champs or Bust” sign on it?

Here’s an interesting fact about salaries in baseball. Everyone knows that the Yankees have the biggest payroll. Since free agency started, they’ve always been one of the top one or two teams.

Did you know that starting in 2002, the margin between the Yanks and whoever was No. 2 started to grow?  In 2001, they were basically tied with Boston. In 2002, they were $17M higher than the Red Sox. In 2003, they were $35M higher than the Mets. In 2004, they were $57M higher than Boston, and ever since then they’ve been between $30M and $80M higher than whoever was in second place.

OK, that’s not that interesting; it’s just a bunch of numbers, so let’s look on the field. In the six years between 1996 and 2001, when the Yankees were bunched with the highest-paying teams at the top of the payroll chart, they were in the World Series five times, winning four titles. Since 2002, when they began to pull away from the pack and entered their own stratosphere, they have been in “just” two World Series, winning one.

I’m not trying to make a point that you don’t need to spend money to get to the World Series. I am saying that (and Cubs and Mets fans would back me up on this) spending the money is no guarantee that you’ll even make the playoffs, much less the big show.

Here’s a breakdown of the past 10 World Series participants and their Opening Day payroll rank:
2011: Cardinals (11), Rangers (13)
2010: Giants (10), Rangers (27)
2009: Yankees (1), Phillies (7)
2008: Phillies (12), Rays (29)
2007: Red Sox (2), Rockies (25)
2006: Cardinals (11), Tigers (14)
2005: White Sox (13), Astros (12)
2004: Red Sox (2), Cardinals (12)
2003: Marlins (23), Yankees (1)
2002: Angels (15), Giants (10)

How does that break down?
Positions 1-5: 4 appearances, 3 wins
Positions 6-10: 3 appearances, 1 wins
Positions 11-15:  9 appearances, 5 wins
Positions 16-20:  0 appearances
Positions 21-25:  2 appearances, 1 win
Positions 26-30:  2 appearances, 0 wins

Over the past decade, the Giants have consistently been in the second or third group, which gives them a great chance to play in October every year. They need to be creative, clever, and a little lucky to win.

That worked in 2010, and I’m a little surprised that so many fans seem to have forgotten all about that. I think two months before pitchers and catchers report is a little early to hit the panic button.

Remember Matty Alou and Great Baseball Trivia

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Published November 4th, 2011 at CSNBayArea.com

The death of Matty Alou this week is a sad event for Giantsfans, even those of us who were too young to see him play with his brothers in the Giants’ outfield.

Their slice of history is as important to the team’s early days in San Francisco as Willie Mays’ basket catch and Juan Marichal’s leg kick. It may come as a surprise, therefore, that the fact  the three brothers played together in the outfield one day is only one of two incredible pieces of trivia about the Alous.

The other fact is the single most interesting and amazing sports trivia item I’ve ever come across, and that’s saying a lot. I hosted a sports trivia radio show for three years. My nickname in high school was “Fun Facts” Cannon. I know my trivia, and what I’m about to drop on you will astound you.

The three Alou brothers each had their own special moment in the sun, and the fact that they all did the exact same historic single thing is mind-boggling.

Felipe, Matty and Jesus Alou were each the first batter to ever come to the plate in a brand new stadium. Two of these events happened just one month apart!

On April 12, 1966, the Atlanta Braves opened Fulton County Stadium with a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The leadoff hitter for the Pirates that day was Matty Alou.

One month later, the St. Louis Cardinals unveiled Busch Stadium, and the visitors were the Braves. Batting first, Felipe Alou.

In 1969, the expansion San Diego Padres had their first game in San Diego Stadium. The Houston Astros were their first opponent, and Jesus Alou led off the game. He also had the first hit, the first stolen base, and scored the first run ever in that ballpark.

Let’s stop and think about that for a second. What has to happen for someone to have the distinction of being the first batter in a new stadium? Your team has to be the visiting team in that first game, and you have to be in the starting lineup, and you have to lead off. To make the feat even more unusual, when Felipe did it against the Cards, it wasn’t even Opening Day, and it wasn’t the Cardinals’ home opener! It was just the date they had the stadium ready to go.

How many baseball stadiums were built during the career of the three Alous? Felipe was the oldest, and he played from 1958 to 1974. Matty played from 1960 to 1974, and Jesus played from 1963 to 1979.

So there was a 21-year span in which there was an Alou playing Major League baseball, and during that timeframe there were 17 new ballparks opened.  Seven of those were in the American League, however, and the Alous were almost exclusively NL players.  One of the National League ballparks opened during that span was Candlestick Park, and since Felipe was the only one of the brothers in the big leagues at that time and he was playing for the home team, we have to eliminate that one as well.

That leaves us with nine ballparks opened in the National League while there was an Alou around, and they were the very first batter in a third of them. How weird is that?

The problem with this kind of trivia is that you can’t form it into a question. Believe me, I’ve tried over the years, so I could get the word out about it, but there’s no way to do it. You just have to find someone who loves baseball enough to realize how amazing it is, and I hope I’ve found that audience here.

One more interesting note about the Alou brothers: While I mentioned that they played almost exclusively for National League teams (8 of the 12 existing teams, in fact) they did spend a little time in the senior circuit as well.

They didn’t play together, but they all played for the Oakland Athletics late in their careers, Felipe in 1970, Matty in 1972 and Jesus in 1973 and 1974. Matty and Jesus won their only World Series rings with the A’s; Felipe came close with the Giants in 1962 but never won a World Series.

Three brothers, all played for the Giants, all played for the A’s, in the area where the only other trio of major league brothers, the Dimaggios, were born and raised. That’s some good baseball stuff right there!

Adiós, Mateo. You will not be forgotten by Giants fans.

If The NCAA Can Get Replay Right, How Hard Can it Be? MLB, Pay Attention!

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Published on October 24, 2011 at CSNBayArea.com

Baseball’s refusal to take instant replay seriously has evolved from a minor nuisance to a full-blown disaster over the past several years, and it reared its ugly head again in Game 3 of the World Series. Well, actually, it sent a little warning shot in Game 2, as well.

The Game 2 play I’m referring to was the ball hit by Adrian Beltre in the ninth inning that looked from every replay angle like it changed direction after hitting his foot, before caroming out to shortstop. The ball was ruled a fair ball, and Beltre was an easy out at first base. Fox’s new  “TSA Scan-Cam,” as I like to call it, showed a small white dot on Beltre’s toe, in case the physical reality of a ball hit down and to the left that suddenly went to the shortstop wasn’t enough evidence of the ball’s foul-ness. Readers of a certain age will recall the Warren Commission report on the JFK assassination as using similar logic to that of the umpires on Thursday night.

That play was fairly quickly forgotten, because, after all, the best Beltre could have gotten out of the situation was another pitch to hit from the Cardinals’ flame-throwing closer, so you can’t make a concrete case that the call changed the outcome of the game.
Besides, on Saturday night the umpiring crew, allegedly selected on merit these days, presented proponents of instant replay with some real honest-to-goodness ammunition. They blew a call that prolonged an inning that produced four St. Louis runs, an excellent head start in a game the Cards wound up winning 16-7.  Many baseball experts have attempted to make the point that the call didn’t cost the Rangers the game, but I don’t see how you can definitively say that. Get that call right, and there are two outs with nobody on, which the percentages tell you is a big difference from one on, one out.

Rangers pitcher Matt Harrison, who had been pretty effective so far, got the next batter to top a ball toward first. With two out, that’s an easy play to second or first, but Mike Napoli tried to get the runner at home and threw it away, allowing two runs to score. Harrison, who should have been on the bench watching his team hit, then allowed a single and a ground-ball out (the fourth out of the inning, by my count, but only the second official one), and was removed by Ron Washington.

So not only did the Cardinals get four gift runs from the blown call, but they got the Rangers’ starter out of the game, and there’s no way to know how that impacted the outcome. This was not just any game, it was Texas’ first home game, and the game after the Rangers had wrestled home-field advantage away from St. Louis. They had it, if not taken away from them, made a much more difficult task than it would have been had MLB had any kind of decent instant replay system.

We know these things have happened in baseball for years, and one of the most ironic things about Game 3 was that the beneficiary was the St. Louis Cardinals, the team that got the worst hose job of all time in 1985. They were in the process of putting away the Kansas City Royals in Game 6 when Don Denkinger went to sleep on a play at first base, opening the door for a Royals rally that not only won that game but carried right through Game 7.

Back in 1985, however, instant replay was still considered a technological marvel, and we all had kind of a Star Trek “don’t change the course of history” attitude toward it. There was the “human error has always been part of the game” argument, which is one of the dumbest things anyone has ever said. The NFL was still years away from getting its act together, and I don’t remember anyone suggesting that baseball should start using replays to get calls right.

But time marches on, and the NFL, college football, the NHL and the NBA have incorporated some form of instant replay. The best MLB has been able to do is to look at replays to determine whether home runs were actually home runs, which comes into play a handful of times per year. Other fair/foul calls and outs on the bases have been distinctly excluded from review, leaving the umpires to just “do their best,” which has never really been good enough.

The folly that is MLB’s stance on replay was made clear just about two hours after the blown World Series call. Wisconsin and Michigan State had played 59 minutes and 56 seconds of inspired football with tons at stake for both schools. Wisconsin was playing to remain undefeated and a candidate for a BCS championship game berth, and Michigan State was playing to stay in the hunt for the Big 10 Championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl.

With :04 on the clock and the score tied, Michigan State launched a Hail Mary pass that wound up in the hands of one of their receivers on the 2 yard line. He immediately put his head down and tried to get in the end zone, but was thrown back by two defenders. The referees called him down on the 1, and the game was going to overtime. Except that every play in every college game is reviewed by a replay official, and after a very short period of time the announcement came that the call had been overturned and it was indeed a touchdown.

In real time, it looked like the refs had gotten it right, but the first look at a goal-line replay showed that the ball had broken the plane of the goal line ever so briefly. If the Badgers had gone on to win in OT it would have been a faulty verdict, and should they have played for the BCS championship the whole season would have been a sham. Because of instant replay, that won’t happen.

There’s no way that college football can do this and Major League Baseball can’t. I could go on and on about the reasons they’ve given in the past, but the debate is over.  Human error on the part of the players we can’t fix, but we can help those human umpires, and we need to.

Giants Show Repeating is Harder Than it Looks

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Published September 7, 2011 at CSNBayArea.com

I think I’m going to surprise you with my next statement. Outside of the New York Yankees, only one Major League Baseball Team has repeated as World Series Champions since the Reds did it in 1975-76. I’ll give you the rest of the column to come up with the team that did it, and I’ll bet some of you can’t.

This topic is of particular interest these days in the Bay Area, as it becomes increasingly clear that barring two very unlikely events (A D-Backs’ collapse and a Giants’ hot streak), the local lads will be added to the long and distinguished list of World Series Champions who came up short in their bid to repeat.

So what’s so hard about repeating? You’ve got great players, obviously, with the playoff experience you need and the confidence to know they can do it. That’s what the announcers always talk about when they break down a series. The team that’s “been there before” is always given an edge over a team without that experience.

Well, maybe that experience isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and in fact, maybe it should be looked at as a detriment! Is it possible that players who haven’t won a World Series have a fire in their bellies that goes out once they win one? That no matter how much they all talk about how much they want to defend that title, it’s just not quite as important as winning it the first time?

I think the Giants, while not a classic example of this theory, have shown some signs of it. Last year, they had less playoff experience than the Phillies, and it didn’t matter at all. Cliff Lee’s experience was supposed to give him the edge over Lincecum in the World Series, and it didn’t matter at all.

This year, the experience hasn’t helped them. When Aaron Rowand and Miguel Tejada were jettisoned from the club last week, several anonymous players told the media that their demands for playing time in the face of overwhelming evidence that they weren’t getting the job done was wearing on their teammates and the coaches.

I’m sure there are others in that locker room whose playing time was impacted by the arrival of Carlos Beltran and the other trade deadline acquisitions who have not been able to keep their frustrations to themselves, but let’s zero in on Rowand right now. Here’s a guy making a very high salary, with two World Series rings, and a long succession of terrible at-bats this season. You’d think a guy like that would be able to say to himself, “Aaron, let’s be a team guy, work real hard to get on track, and make the most of whatever opportunities come our way, and help this ballclub try to get back to the World Series.”

But he couldn’t do it … even though he did it LAST YEAR, and it worked out perfectly, except for one thing. His ego, without which he never would have made the major leagues, could not take another year of being a reserve on a good team. I think if the Giants had traded him to Houston for Jeff Keppinger he would have been very happy if it meant he would get to play every day.

I’m not saying it makes him a bad guy, either. I’m saying it shows how hard it is to get 25 guys “pulling on the same rope.” I think it also illustrates how masterful Bruce Bochy was last year at getting so many players to accept lesser roles than they were accustomed to. I think what we learned is that players will do that once, but they won’t do it year after year, even in a case like Rowand’s where he’s made much more money than his production would have indicated.

You can almost understand a player’s desire to be selfish if he’s early in his career and he hasn’t had that big payday yet, but Rowand and Tejada are not that guy. They are, however, players getting toward the end of the line, and in Rowand’s case, another ring was not going to change his life. He’s trying to squeeze as many at-bats out of his remaining days in the majors as he can, and I don’t blame him, but nobody forced him to sign that contract. That’s the one thing that kept him on the bench for the Giants this year rather than playing for another team, nothing else.

The Yankees have had two things going for them that helped them solve this problem: 1) Their owner never accepted not winning the World Series as a successful outcome of a season and 2) That owner would back up that stance with the money to bring in a couple (or a few) hungry veterans who wanted to get their championship ring before the clock ran out on their careers, and they would accept any role on the team to get it. It’s unbelievable that they won three titles in a row, and came within a whisker of adding a fourth in 2001.

So what team is the only one besides the Yankees to repeat since 1974? How about the Toronto Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993?  There weren’t very many players who were integral to both teams, just Joe Carter, Roberto Alomar, Devon White, Tony Fernandez and John Olerud. On the other hand, here’s a list of players who were on one or the other team, but not both: Rickey Henderson, Dave Winfield, Paul Molitor, Candy Maldonado, Dave Stewart, Tom Henke, Jimmy Key, and David Cone. Jack Morris was on both teams, and had a great 1992 season, but was 7-12 in 1993 and didn’t pitch in postseason.

So my theory is that the simple fact that the Giants won a championship last year made it harder for essentially the same club to come back and win it this year. Add in injuries to Posey, both Sanchezes, Sandoval, Wilson and about ten other guys, sign one aging veteran who turns out to be terrible, make a deadline deal that kills whatever chemistry you still had, and it’s amazing that they’re as close to the D-Backs as they are. If only those players weren’t so darn human!

Giants fans quick to boo, quick to forget 2010?

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Published August 29 2011 at CSNBayArea.com

Since the beginning of August, the experience of being a Giants fan has changed pretty dramatically. It’s understandable that there’s some angst out there, and frustration, and even desperation regarding the chances to make the postseason.

What’s surprising to me is the anger! Listen to the talk shows, read the #sfgiants posts on Twitter, check the comments here on the CSN Bay Area site and those of the local papers, and you’re bombarded with angry fans who sound like 5-year-olds who’ve had their favorite toy taken away. Oh, wait, do 5-year-olds swear? OK, 15-year-olds, then.

You’d think that the Giants were the Yankees, a perennial contender and occasional champion, who had disappointed their spoiled fans by daring to miss the postseason. Is it possible that Giants fans have gotten this spoiled this quickly? With one measly championship?

Let’s review. In 2010, the Giants were the feel-good story of the young century, finally delivering a World Series championship to their faithful fans who had patiently waited over 50 years for it. They did so with some spectacular pitchers and despite a lineup of statistically ordinary players, including a guy, Cody Ross, whom they claimed on waivers just to keep him from San Diego.

During the offseason, management was in a tough spot. The players who had brought this championship needed to be rewarded, of course, but the fact remained that they were still relatively ordinary players. Now we’ve found out that without the fairy dust that was apparently being sprinkled around last year they’ve become even more ordinary.

August is drawing to a close, and the fans have every right to be disappointed. But let’s take a step back. No Buster Posey. No Freddy Sanchez. No Jonathan Sanchez, for all practical purposes. No Barry Zito for the most part, although for three weeks he looked like he was going to help. Practically no production from Andres Torres. Miguel Tejada has done the impossible; disappoint despite extremely low expectations. Ross was hurt in spring training and has never recovered. Aubrey Huff must be the least productive starting first baseman in either league.

I could address the offense, and it’s tempting, but I’m kind of in a hurry to get to this next part. For the last two weeks, in the most desperate time for this desperate team, they’ve been without Brian Wilson and Sergio Romo, their best two relievers. Don’t get me wrong, this is a fine bullpen, but you take the top two guys out of any team’s ‘pen and make them play for a few weeks like that, it’s not going to be pretty.

Sunday’s loss to the Astros was the third time in the past two weeks that Romo and Wilson were unavailable and the bullpen gave up the go-ahead run, and it actually happened twice in that game. What would the situation look like if the Giants had won one or two of those games, let alone all three?

So, I get the disappointment. It’s obviously much more fun when your team wins all the games, or even just all the close games. But I don’t think Giants fans have any right to be angry. It may feel good to dump on Ross, but believe me, if the Giants felt like they had a better option, he’d be in there! This was a team that started off weak on offense, and then was decimated by injuries. Have people forgotten that they put six players on the DL during one 10-game road trip, and had five more miss games for minor injuries?

You hear a lot of resentment about Giants fans. They’re called front-runners, bandwagoners and worse. One of the reasons is the perception that they all just showed up last year in September, and rode the wave through the playoffs. Now, I know that’s not true. The Giants’ attendance has been excellent ever since they moved to AT&T Park, despite some pretty bleak seasons over the past few years. But when you hear fans booing a team that won the World Series last year and is only a handful of games out of first place, it’s hard to argue with their critics.

So man up, Giants fans (including the many women who follow this team). Nobody promised you a World Series championship every year. I expect to have to explain that to my 7-year-old daughters, to whom history extends back one year, but I would think that grown-ups would have a better attitude about this. Root for your team, be bummed out if they don’t make the playoffs, and thrilled if they do. After all, as we all learned last year, victory is much sweeter when it’s unexpected.