Author Archives: TortureCast

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About TortureCast

The podcast by and for fans of the San Francisco Giants, hosted weekly by our duo of Chad King and Eric Nathanson.

Are you Concerned About the Pitching?

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Let’s take a quick glimpse into the Giants spring training stats as of today. Ok, we all know that some players just “tinker” in the spring and settle down once the regular season starts, and this IS a small sample size, but it’s worth noting that the Giants have some new players that may be giving Giants fans a little indigestion.

 1. Jeff Samardzija

8.31 ERA in 13 IP, .382 BAA, 1.92 WHIP, 3 HR, 21 H

Maybe he took a little of the American League with him in his luggage. Hey, and I spelled his name correctly!

2. Jake Peavy

8.53 ERA in 12.2 IP, .450 BAA, 2.37 WHIP, 4 HR, 27 H

He always starts slow?

3. Madison Bumgarner

10.57 ERA in 7.2 IP, .371 BAA, 1.70 WHIP, 13 H 

Ok, we’re not really concerned, right? (about his sore foot, obliques, maybe his shaven beard that supplied him strength?)

4. Johnny Cueto

16.62 ERA in 4.1 IP, .409 BAA, 2.54 WHIP, 9 H

So, he used the word “testiculos” yesterday. So, there’s that.

5. Matt Cain

10.12 ERA in 2.2 IP, .538 BAA, 3.75 WHIP, 7 H

I want this guy to do well this year….so badly. Really. He’s such a nice guy.

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Honestly, he and Samardzija give me the most concern. Jeff is a horse like Matt used to be, but Cain is just an injury factory at this point, and his career is definitely on the downward trend.

I listed all five of these pitchers, despite their low inning totals, because, well, THEY’RE THE STARTING FIVE! Combined they are:

9.82 ERA in 40.1 IP, 13 HR, 77 H

I’m pretty sure I could’ve pitched to 3 batters without significantly raising these numbers much. Thirteen! homeruns in 40.1 innings? 77 hits?! Egad, it’s batting practice, or they are helping some minor leaguers out.

Now, this could be just a bad week for starters in the regular season, and certainly they won’t have this line during the year, but does it give you cause for concern?

 

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Torture Never Sounded This Good (well, at least these Giants’ interviews are cool)

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(cue Barry White)….You just might love the Giants more than your S.O., bae, or discreet one on the side, but even if you just kind of lust after the Giants, why not spend Valentine’s Day listening to Buster Posey whisper about the DH, or Hunter Pence profess his love for dogs. Perhaps a little bed talk about sore backs with Joe Panik is your thing. Whatever it is, Posey, Panik, Pence, Belt, Crawford, Cain, Duffy or Tomlinson, you’ll find it in our TortureCast interviews from this weekend. Because after all:
 

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Media Day Interviews: 8 Giants!

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The wonderfully talented Veronica Belmont joined me at AT&T park today to interview as many San Francisco Giants players as possible. No, we couldn’t interview them all, but we did make it through eight of the more important Giants: Buster Posey, Matt Cain, Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, Hunter Pence, Joe Panik, Matt Duffy, and Kelby Tomlinson.

I COULD list all of these interview separately below, but it’s after 1 AM, so I’m going to just give you the link to the interviews of Podomatic. Because

Here it is! 

http://torturecast.podomatic.com/

 

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Interview with Bruce Bochy at Pebble Beach

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Download the interview here or stream it below!

[audio http://torturecast.podomatic.com/enclosure/2016-02-09T21_28_19-08_00.mp3]

Chad covered the AT&T Pebble Beach Chevron charity shootout which pitted the Giants against the 49ers. We were able to catch up with Giants manager Bruce Bochy to talk about his golf game, the offseason acquisitions, and how his weight fluctuates like Pablo Sandoval’s.

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Interview with Matt Cain at Pebble Beach

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Download the interview here or stream it below!

[audio http://torturecast.podomatic.com/enclosure/2016-02-09T21_32_57-08_00.mp3]

Chad covered the AT&T Pebble Beach Chevron charity shootout which pitted the Giants against the 49ers. He was able to catch up with Giants pitcher Matt Cain to talk about his golf game, the offseason acquisitions, and his lack of fear of decapitating the crowd on the first tee. Also be sure to check out our interviews with Bruce Bochy and George Kontos, and look out for player interviews from this Friday’s “Media Day” at AT&T Park!

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Interview with George Kontos at Pebble Beach

MLB: San Francisco Giants at Pittsburgh Pirates

Download the interview here, or stream it below!

http://torturecast.podomatic.com/entry/2016-02-09T21_36_09-08_00

Chad covered the AT&T Pebble Beach Chevron charity shootout which pitted the Giants against the 49ers. He was able to catch up with Giants reliever George Kontos to talk about his golf game, the offseason acquisitions, and his first purchase with his new contract money. Also be sure to check out our interviews with Matt Cain and Bruce Bochy, and look out for player interviews from this Friday’s “Media Day” at AT&T Park!

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Episode 99.2: Puppy Monkey Baby

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Download the episode here, or stream it below!

I hope you are singing “Puppy Monkey Baby” in your head right now.

Now that the Super Bowl has happened, Eric and Chad take you through the maelstrom of Giant happenings over the past month. And spring training is almost here.

We talk about our grades for the Giants’ offseason, Juan Uribe is too expensive, the Giants have the highest payroll in 2021, Belt is heading towards arbitration, where Timmy may go, Vegas World Series odds, and Chad will be covering the Giants vs 49ers shootout at Pebble Beach and Media Day at AT&T Park with the internet’s own Veronica Belmont!

And, baseball is almost here!

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Episode 99.1: Sharkcueto

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Cueto getting ready for his press conference in the black and orange.

Download the episode here, or stream it below!

Technically, this is episode 100, but we want to put off the celebration, but to be honest, when you include all of our bonusodes, we’re well over 100. Numbers.

The Giants signed two big starting pitchers, and their names don’t start with a G. Willie and Chad talk about how Samardzija and Cueto make the Giants better than last year and how the Dodgers got worse.

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Episode 99: World Series Review and a Very Hot Stove

He’s like a creepy cousin. But, we want him. Does that make this weird? Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images

Download episode #99 here, or stream it below!

[audio http://torturecast.podomatic.com/enclosure/2015-11-05T14_06_35-08_00.mp3]

So, the Giants are no longer reigning champs. Big deal. They’ll do it next year, of course. Eric and Chad get together on Skype to discuss how the scrappy Royals made it all the way back to the World Series and how they won it after 8 of their 11 wins secured in comeback fashion, and the parallels drawn to the Giants’ 2012 six elimination game wins against the Reds and Cardinals.

The Giants are also banking cash in large piles after declining the options on Nori Aoki and Marlon Byrd. Greinke, Price and Cueto may all be #1 targets of Bobby Evans and his staff, but we also ask if they may spread the money around a bit to a greater quantity of second-tier pitchers and a couple of outfielders. All we know is that this will be an exciting offseason as the Giants attempt to reload with more available cash than they’ve ever had, and during an offseason flush with quality starting pitchers.

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Episode 98: That’s All She Wrote

That’ll do season, that’ll do.

Download the episode here, or stream it below:

[audio http://torturecast.podomatic.com/enclosure/2015-10-05T23_22_27-07_00.mp3]

Since 2011 we’ve brought (almost) weekly podcasts to chronicle the San Francisco Giants’ season with cheer, torture, profanity and hope. We’ve been fortunate enough to cover two World Series championships, but this year was not meant to be. The Giants finished 84-78; in second place in the NL West. To be honest, given the injuries, this was not a horrible record, but surely far short of where the Giants and their fans wanted to be.

Willie, Chad and Ben get together to wrap up the season in Episode 98 of the TortureCast. We offer up what went wrong and right for the Giants, and what their offseason priorities should be. Chad also has correctly predicted the last two season win totals at 88 in 2014 and 84 this year. Vegas had them at 84.5 wins for the over/under. No money changed hands.

We offer our postseason winner predictions and who we want to win. All three of us settled on Cubs (want) and Cards (should). Besides, the Giants and Cards have alternated the NL pennant the last 5 years. Why should that change? It would only give credence to the even year magic that they will surely experience next year as they pass around their fourth commissioner’s trophy.

Chad

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