Game Thread: 9/17 GDT Giants @ Mutts

[Stokes1931]

Pagan CF
Blanco LF
Belt 1B
Posey C
Pence RF
Sandoval 3B
Crawford SS
Abreu 2B
Petit RHP

Young, Jr. LF
Lagares CF
Murphy 2B
Duda 1B
Flores 3B
den Dekker RF
d’Arnaud C
Tejada SS
Wheeler RHP

 

[calsnowskier]

Bochy mentioning that Scoots may be done for the year.

Good. Let him rest up and let's see Abreu and Noonan the rest of the way. Maybe see a bit od Adrianza as well...

 

[Band of Brothers]

Happy Birthday to Orlando Cepeda...The Baby Bull

 

[tzill]

5-2 good guys.

Mutts 0-1 vs. Petit
Gs 2-19 vs. Wheeler.

 

[Band of Brothers]

Hunter Pence just won the player of the week award. Awesome week by him.

 

[Band of Brothers]

Giants have done a fantastic job tonight taking pitches and being patient. Wheeler struggling walking everyone. 60 pitches into the 2nd inning already.

 

[Band of Brothers]

Belt has hit 2 HR's tonight almost anywhere else in the league but all he has is a big hang withum . Unreal that last one was launched.

 

[Stokes1931]

Did Blanco just lay down a sac bunt?

Who's managing this team? Where's Noggin?

 

[Band of Brothers]

Angel on base 5 times

Pagan was the difference tonight.

Giants patient at the plate.

Walks made a difference.

Shaky in the 9th but Romo stopped it.


Good for Pagan who came close to getting the cycle. The former Met player has a day.

Go Giants !!

 

[1phlapdown]

Pagan was the difference tonight.

He makes the team go. When we lost him the season went down the crapper.

 

[tzill]

Four in a row. I'd have liked to see a sharper Petit, but at least we won.

Horse going tomorrow.

 

[msgkings322]

He makes the team go. When we lost him the season went down the crapper.

I know all teams have injuries, yadda yadda, but this year it's fair to say we had more than normal, and to key players (who we didn't know how key they were at the time: Pagan and Casilla).

If we have normal health next year, get LF sorted, and solidify the rotation, we should be back to 90-92 wins. Of course, we have to count on Cain not sucking again, Panda playing for his next contract, Belt continuing his late season emergence, etc. That's a lot of ifs, and nothing is guaranteed.

That said, I bet the line on us for 2014 is something like 80-82 wins, unless we make a huge splash over the winter.

 

[SF11704]

: If we have normal health next year, get LF sorted, and solidify the rotation, we should be back to 90-92 wins. Of course, we have to count on Cain not sucking again, Panda playing for his next contract, Belt continuing his late season emergence, etc. That's a lot of ifs, and nothing is guaranteed.

This is what I think makes 2014 a very interesting year for us Giant fans. We are LOADED with a ton of 'IFs' and traditionally you don't look to trades or the FA market to try and resolve an 'IF'. You let it playout and hope for the best. Just not too sure how many 'IFs' can go south on us before we are caught up in the storm. Cain and Panda are really big "IFs" in my book. I think in 2014 our season may well be a reflection of what those two can contribute to our cause.

I'd love to resign Herk at this moment in time. But, only if he plays as he's playing in this moment in time. Many of us seem to have forgotten just how he played in August. His numbers weren't anywhere near what he's doing at the moment. I'm not too sure about July either. For me Herk is also an IF ... if we can sign him and if can can play like he's playing now ....

 

[msgkings322]

This is what I think makes 2014 a very interesting year for us Giant fans. We are LOADED with a ton of 'IFs' and traditionally you don't look to trades or the FA market to try and resolve an 'IF'. You let it playout and hope for the best. Just not too sure how many 'IFs' can go south on us before we are caught up in the storm. Cain and Panda are really big "IFs" in my book. I think in 2014 our season may well be a reflection of what those two can contribute to our cause.

I'd love to resign Herk at this moment in time. But, only if he plays as he's playing in this moment in time. Many of us seem to have forgotten just how he played in August. His numbers weren't anywhere near what he's doing at the moment. I'm not too sure about July either. For me Herk is also an IF ... if we can sign him and if can can play like he's playing now ....

Well, that's always the case. That's sports. You can have your roster set, look at guys and say 'ok we got 3B, C, CF, etc covered' but then a reliable guy like Cain has an off year and it hurts. And there's really not much you can do about it. Maybe in 2014 Posey will have a bad year, you can't ever really know.

And it's true of all your competitors too. The Dodgers look pretty sharp but who knows what kind of slumps and injuries they will have in 2014? Now, teams like that have the unlimited funds to cover up problems that we don't have, but that's also just how it is and how it's always been.

So yeah, I'm counting on Cain coming back to form, and Panda doing well in a contract year, and Pence having year end 2014 stats that look like 2013, even if he gets them in a streaky way like this year.

My point is we have a plausible, achievable path to winning the division next year. And like all contenders we have plenty of things that can go wrong. The good news is we aren't a team with no shot at all, like perhaps 10-12 of the teams out there.

We can't stand pat though, we need to address LF, bring Pence back, and solidify the rotation.