OK, So What Changed?

[Stokes1931]

On July 28, the Giants were 17 games over .500. They were coming off a 2-1 series win against the Philth at Philly. They were not hitting all that well, but they were hitting enough and winning games.

Since then, they have 12 games under .500, and cannot hit the ocean if they fell out of a fooking boat. (Thanks for that one, Crash)

We lose the opening game of 11 straight series, and do not win another series until early September. We lost a series to the Pirates who had lost 10 in a row. And we may just get swept, at home, by a Dodger team that has won 15 of 18.

So, what changed?

Posey got hurt? He got hurt in late May.

Franchez got hurt? He got DL'ed in June.

The pitching has been stellar all year, though definitely feeling the pressure of having no run support early, and a complete inability of the Giants to come back and win once they fall behind.

So, what changed?

Other injuries have piled up, to be sure. But they were dealing with injuries all season. Every team has them.

I have never seen a team fold the way this one has offensively. It is beyond nightmarish. While I am not a fan of Bochy as a skipper, either in his stubborn inability to play small ball, and his inability to develop young players in favor of grizzled vets, he must be tearing his hair out over this.

So, what changed?

Team chemistry?

Lack of talent?

Team wide slump?

Bad managing?

No clubhouse leadership?

The pressure of living up to expectations?

The constant TV shows and interviews?

Someone stole Jobu's rum?

The baseball gods are unhappy?

What the hell happened to this team that was doing reasonably well? We were in good shape on July 28th. And now this nosedive. :sick:

 

[recon]

Basically the same thing that happened to the Flyers this past season.

 

[calsnowskier]

Maybe all the hitters were sucking in their gut and trying to look pretty for the girls. then Beltran came, and they figured they did not have to suck their guts in anymore.

All of the sudden, everyone is unbuttoning their pants and farting in public. No one is even trying to score anymore. They figure they got their nookie now either way...

 

[Driaz]

I don't know what happened to the Giants, other than the injuries.....

Y'all did have an above average amount of them this season.....

It just seems like the past month, my team has been almost unbeatable, and you guys can't seem to win a game no matter what.....

I'm honestly happy for that circumstances, but still not sure why you guys just fell off the map like that.....

 

[ColinCoby]

The shitty lineup was bound to do us in eventually.

I don't know the numbers...but how has the SP and bullpen performed since July 28? The team had so little room for error all season; a minor regression in pitching is all that is needed to expose the weaknesses of our beloved, flawed team.

Losing Nate hurt. The continued shitty hitting of Ross, Huff, OCrap/E6, StewWhite etc. couldn't last forever if the team wanted to stay ahead of the D-Backs.

Panda and Beltran having nagging injuries certainly didn't/hasn't helped.

In short, the team had very, very little room for error since Poseygate. Injuries and above average (but no longer unhittable) pitching pushed us over the cliff.

 

[ColinCoby]

I want to add that I think most of us were damn surprised the whole Giant world didn't come to an end when Posey got hurt. So the Giants not winning the west doesn't come as a complete shock.

What IS shocking is how horribly they've played over the last month. Just totally embarrassing. Who knows... Maybe the terrible offensive production will inspire the ownership even more to bring in some bats for 2012.

 

[Robotech]

I think it's pretty simple. We just didn't have enough offense to continue winning at the rate we were earlier in the season. ColinCoby's right on the mark. The offense was bound to doom the season.

Last year's offense was underrated (at least by the national media and fans of other teams) and played a big part in our success, IMO. Last year, I felt confident that the Giants could come back from a 3 or even 4-run deficit (remember that great September game against the Doggies where Burrell and Uribe homered?), but this year, obviously not so much. Hopefully, we can make some upgrades for next season.

 

[SF11704]

The gas can went completely dry. After the AS break we went almost opposite of the 2010 team. In 2010 we did what had to do to win. SD helped with a 10 game slide. In 2011 we just didn't have the ability to keep winning with little or no runs. One pick-up (Beltran) couldn't carry the total loss of production that this team had.
Not all one player either. It was across the board. Torres, Huff and Ross were horrible. Burrell was not Burrell from last year. We never recovered Uribe's contributions. Our SS position did nothing for us. Posey and Freddie hurt but they were only the tip of the problem.

 

[gp956]

I'd look at it in a different way. What went right after Posey and Sanchez went down? They played good defense up the middle, and Nate and Pablo carried the offense. Remember Pablo had the 21 game hitting streak, and Nate hit about .380 from mid-June to mid-July.

And then trading for Keppinger, Torres going on the DL, and Crawford being sent down killed the defense, which directly lead to losing a couple of series at the start of the death spiral.

 

[OzzieGiant]

And then trading for Keppinger, Torres going on the DL, and Crawford being sent down killed the defense, which directly lead to losing a couple of series at the start of the death spiral.

+1 I think some people rarely misjudge just how bad our defence has been since Kepp Beltran and Ocrap came on board - now Kepp has somewhat made up for it with the bat and probably grades out in front of Font or anyone else we had - OCrap on the hand definitely grade out behind Crawford and I am not sure Beltran has performed better that Nate – moot point I know.

Beltran has been a major disappointment, I was quite excited when we got him and just assumed Wheeler was regressing, but looking at Surkamp, how Wheeler has done and what Beltran has contributed – this was borderline a disaster trade.

 

[msgkings322]

+1 I think some people rarely misjudge just how bad our defence has been since Kepp Beltran and Ocrap came on board - now Kepp has somewhat made up for it with the bat and probably grades out in front of Font or anyone else we had - OCrap on the hand definitely grade out behind Crawford and I am not sure Beltran has performed better that Nate – moot point I know.

Beltran has been a major disappointment, I was quite excited when we got him and just assumed Wheeler was regressing, but looking at Surkamp, how Wheeler has done and what Beltran has contributed – this was borderline a disaster trade.

Sadly, no matter how Beltran did when we got him, missing the playoffs makes it a disaster move. No one wanted to lose Wheeler, but missing the playoffs was unacceptable after a championship, so no matter how it played with Wheeler in the future, if we could have looked back and said "well we made the playoffs" then you'd have to judge the move a success.

No playoffs = disaster trade. We could have just as easily missed them and kept Wheeler.

But still the right move. The FO had to do something. We'd be way more pissed and be assuming we'd have made the playoffs with him if we HADN'T got him.

Bottom line this season just SUCKED. But at least we are still floating on some championship fumes...

 

[msgkings322]

On the radio Dave Fleming mentioned something that we should add to the list. Before last night Ramon Ramirez had given up 10 ERs in his last 15 innings, and that doesn't include other guys' inherited runners he allowed to score.

So rather than blaming 'the pen' for part of our collapse, maybe Ramirez deserves to get the lion's share?

He basically decided to suck super hard right at the most high leverage part of the season.



:smow:

 

[Robotech]

On the radio Dave Fleming mentioned something that we should add to the list. Before last night Ramon Ramirez had given up 10 ERs in his last 15 innings, and that doesn't include other guys' inherited runners he allowed to score.

So rather than blaming 'the pen' for part of our collapse, maybe Ramirez deserves to get the lion's share?

He basically decided to suck super hard right at the most high leverage part of the season.



:smow:

For sure. RamRam has been a gas can for a while now. Had Romo been available for the series finale against the D-Backs, we might have won that game.

 

[NineCoronas]

+1 I think some people rarely misjudge just how bad our defence has been since Kepp Beltran and Ocrap came on board - now Kepp has somewhat made up for it with the bat and probably grades out in front of Font or anyone else we had - OCrap on the hand definitely grade out behind Crawford and I am not sure Beltran has performed better that Nate – moot point I know.

Beltran has been a major disappointment, I was quite excited when we got him and just assumed Wheeler was regressing, but looking at Surkamp, how Wheeler has done and what Beltran has contributed – this was borderline a disaster trade.

It's more than that. What happened to the Giants this year is one of those things that can't be explained.

 

[tzill]

It's more than that. What happened to the Giants this year is one of those things that can't be explained.

 

[msgkings322]

Possible...but again if he's this innocuous, so what?

 

[gp956]

Known Nolan Alternates:

AlvinTostig'sSon
HarbaughHooey
jimsan15
Mozart'sGhost
NineCoronas
Sisyphus
AlbertFlasher
Hysteria

He's blaming all these alternates on his drunken son and brother. Not sure if that is two different people or not.

 

[calsnowskier]

Known Nolan Alternates:

AlvinTostig'sSon
HarbaughHooey
jimsan15
Mozart'sGhost
NineCoronas
Sisyphus
AlbertFlasher
Hysteria

He's blaming all these alternates on his drunken son and brother. Not sure if that is two different people or not.

From ESPN, or only the one here? If he was the one from ESPN, that is surprising...

 

[msgkings322]

Known Nolan Alternates:

AlvinTostig'sSon
HarbaughHooey
jimsan15
Mozart'sGhost
NineCoronas
Sisyphus
AlbertFlasher
Hysteria

He's blaming all these alternates on his drunken son and brother. Not sure if that is two different people or not.

Wait, what? Are you kidding?

 

[gp956]

From ESPN, or only the one here? If he was the one from ESPN, that is surprising...

The one here. He started borrowing known handles, just as he did with ElJim's handle at The Fanatic.