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The Friday Five: Hello Big Apple

Johnny Cueto and Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants

AP Photo

Guess what? The San Francisco Giants are tied for first place again. The Dodgers just lost 4 straight to the Marlins (thanks secret agent Bonds), and both teams now have identical 12-11 records. After being swept by Arizona to open a 10-game homestand, the Giants responded by going 5-1 the rest of the way to bring their record back above .500.

Let’s dive right in to this week’s Friday Five.

1) The Giants start a 3-game series in New York against the reigning NL champion Mets this weekend. The Mets are 13-7, have won 6 straight games, and 9 of their last 10. The last 3 teams they played were the Phillies, Braves, and Reds, so the Mets did their job beating up on the bottom of the NL. Somehow, Neil Walker leads the Mets with 9 home runs but Yoenis Cespedes and Michael Conforto are the hitters to be most worried about this weekend. Continue reading →

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by | April 29, 2016 · 11:37 AM
by | April 22, 2016 · 12:58 PM

The Friday Five: Barry Returns

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Are you ready for an old friend to drop in?  I am. This 5-game losing streak sucks and the San Francisco Giants could use some inspiration. The Giants are 7-10, barely ahead of the Padres for last place in the NL West. There’s six games left in this homestand, it’s time to kick it in to gear.

1) The Miami Marlins are coming to town for a 3-game series at AT&T Park this weekend. You may have heard, Barry Bonds is their hitting coach. It will be the first time Bonds ever steps foot in AT&T Park in an opposing uniform. It’s not going to be weird though, right? It’s going to make sense seeing Barry standing next to Don Mattingly in the visitor’s dugout wearing a Marlins uni. Sure, why not? Nope, still weird. It’s going to take an adjustment. More on Barry later. Continue reading →

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by | April 15, 2016 · 12:37 PM

The Friday Five: Beat LA, Again

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AP Photo

 

We’re through 10 games of the 2016 San Francisco Giants season and the team currently sits at 6-4. Right now it’s a tie atop the NL West with the Dodgers, who share the same 6-4 record. Although we all know that 3 of those 4 losses came at the hands of our guys in orange and black.

So let’s look ahead to the weekend and recap another week that was in The Friday Five.

1) It’s time for Giants-Dodgers part 2. The series kicks off with Madison Bumgarner vs Clayton Kershaw tonight at Dodger Stadium. Let’s hope this time Bumgarner and the bats don’t leave it up to the bullpen. Saturday night has Johnny Cueto vs Scott Kazmir. It appears that Cueto is all right after taking a tumble during the comeback victory over the Dodgers last week. Continue reading →

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by | April 8, 2016 · 10:51 AM

The Friday Five: Beat LA Edition

 

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Wow! What a week to start the season for the San Francisco Giants. We all expected that they could hit and score runs in Miller Park, but to score 12 runs against the Dodgers in the AT&T Park opener? Nobody saw that coming. Let’s hope these guys stay healthy because this team is fun to watch. Now, onto The Friday Five.

1) The Giants have 3 more games at home against the Dodgers before their first off day of the season on Monday. All 3 pitching matchups for the rest of the weekend have some intrigue. Friday night it’s Matt Cain returning to the hill in what we all hope is the beginning of a return to glory. Some guy named Ross Stripling is starting for LA. He’s never pitched above double-A and is making his MLB debut because the Dodgers lost all their starters to injury this spring.  Continue reading →

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by | April 1, 2016 · 1:02 PM

The Friday Five: April 1, 2016

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Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

As the 2016 San Francisco Giants season is about to get under way it’s time roll out what I hope is a regular feature here on TortureCast. Welcome to “The Friday Five”. Each week I’ll take a look at a few different things going on with the Giants. It’s a chance to look ahead to the weekend as well as catch up on anything that you might have missed during the previous few days.

  1. The long, cold void of winter is over. Monday morning at 11 am the Giants open their regular season in Milwaukee. Madison Bumgarner (career: 85-58, 3.04 ERA) gets the ball for his 3rd straight Opening Day start. In the previous two openers Bumgarner has allowed 1 earned run in 11 innings of work. The Brewers send RHP Wily Peralta (35-37, 4.04 ERA) to the hill for his 1st career Opening Day start. The current Giants roster is batting .361 against Peralta so we may see lots of scoring in tiny MIller Park to start 2016.
  2. In case you missed it, earlier this week Andrew Susac was optioned to Sacramento. With that move Trevor Brown won the backup catcher role to start the season. I’m sure we’ll see plenty of Susac as the season moves along, if he can stay healthy. I poked around the Giants 25-man roster this past Monday.
  3. In ex-Giants news, the former lovable panda known as Pablo Sandoval has lost his job as the starting 3rd baseman in Boston. The 29-year old will begin the second season of a 5-year/$95 million contract on the bench. Feels like the Giants dodged a bullet when Pablo decided to leave town.
  4. Tweet of the week, make sure you check out this Brandon Crawford piece:

     

  5. To finish off “The Friday Five” every week I’ll link to various Giants and baseball related stories that caught my eye during the previous 7 days. Here’s a few to get us going.
  • We’re recording our 100th episode of TortureCast this weekend. Submit your questions to be answered on the show. See if you can stump us with trivia, share a favorite moment from the show, or just drop a line about the 2016 team.
  • In the SB Nation season preview, Grant Brisbee looked at what teams would look like without trades or free agents. It’s fun to see which teams some of today’s stars originally signed with.
  • The Giants were picked to lose the Wild Card game in that SB Nation preview.
  • Over on ESPN, two of their “experts” pick the Giants to win it all. To be fair, most have them in the playoffs and 5 of 31 analysts have the Giants winning the NL.
  • Sticking with the prediction theme, Sports Illustrated’s panel loves the Cubs and no one picks the Giants to win it all.
  • Finally for the predictions, Fox Sports checks in with theirs. Once again the Giants don’t get much love.
  • Make sure to head over to r/SFGiants. It’s fun place to interact with Giants fans from all over the world.

It’s great to be back for another season of talking about Giants baseball. You can follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and make sure to subscribe to our podcast on Stitcher and iTunes.

Don’t forget, our season preview is coming in our 100th episode this weekend. Thanks for all of the downloads, listens, and shares. It’s going to be another interesting Giants season.

-Eric

@2outhits

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by | March 30, 2016 · 8:02 PM

Almost Episode 100

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As many of you know we’re getting ready to record our 100th episode of TortureCast. Late Sunday night, from all corners of the country, we will join forces to bring you episode 100. Wait, you didn’t know? Where the heck have you been? WE’RE ABOUT TO RECORD OUR 100TH EPISODE!

It’s kind of a big deal. I mean, who thought we’d be here? We’re just one little show that was started by fans of the San Francisco Giants. Now, we’ve been doing this show for so long, the team actually lets us in the clubhouse. It’s a reality that was once a dream for every one of us on the show. We’re still not sure how we got here.

So, why should you care that it’s our 100th episode? Well, here’s your chance to be a part of the show. Is there a question about the Giants that you’ve always wanted to ask the guys? Fire away in the comments below. Feel free to ask anything from our favorite all time players to our most memorable moment as Giants fans. In other words, keep it in bounds and we’ll probably get your question on air.

Thanks so much for supporting us through the first 100 episodes, we hope we’re all here for 100 more. Subscribe on Stitcher or iTunes.

If you’d like to submit questions on social media please follow us on Twitter or give us a like on Facebook.

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by | March 28, 2016 · 12:09 PM

Giants roster is set, let’s play ball!

 

MLB: Arizona Diamondbacks at San Francisco Giants

We’re a week away from baseball games that count and it looks like the San Francisco Giants have set their 25-man roster for the trip north to Milwaukee. Yesterday, the Giants announced among nine cuts, Mac Williamson, Jarrett Parker, and Mike Broadway were optioned to Sacramento as a few other players were reassigned to the minor league camp.

This leaves 26 players for 25 spots but Andrew Susac has been slowed by injuries this spring and he’ll likely start the season on the DL. That gives Trevor Brown the backup catching spot which isn’t too bad. He’s batting .324 this spring and pitchers don’t seem to have a problem working with him.

Here’s how the roster breaks down, the Giants will carry 13 pitchers:

IF

Brandon Belt 1B, Joe Panik 2B, Brandon Crawford SS, Matt Duffy 3B, Kelby Tolinson INF, Ehire Adrianza INF

OF

Hunter Pence RF, Denard Span CF, Angel Pagan LF, Gregor Blanco OF

C

Buster Posey, Trevor Brown

SP

Madison Bumgarner LHP, Johnny Cueto RHP, Jeff Samardzija RHP, Jake Peavy RHP, Matt Cain RHP

RP

Chris Heston RHP, Georger Kontos RHP, Cory Gearrin RHP, Hunter Strickland RHP, Josh Osich LHP, Javier Lopez LHP, Sergio Romo RHP, Santiago Casilla RHP

I know, try to contain your excitement about that powerhouse bench. All we ever ask for is depth. It seems like every podcast we’re talking about a lack of depth and how it would be so nice to feel like the Giants have a strong bench. By deciding to carry 13 pitchers Bruce Bochy is left with a bench of Blanco, Tomlinson, and Adrianza. We’ll probably keep talking about depth on the next show.

All three of those guys have shown versatility and apparently Adrianza is stronger this season. I don’t know, I didn’t make it to Arizona this year, but how many times are we supposed to get excited about him? Let’s just hope that changes this year. Show us something Ehire!

It’s a little strange not to see Jeremy Affeldt’s name on the roster. It’s time for Osich to carry the load of the other lefty in the bullpen. I have to admit, I don’t know much about Cory Gearrin. I guess he seemed fine towards the end of last season. Let’s hope it’s not an issue but at least Brodway can be summoned from Sacramento.

The question of the spring has been the starting pitchers. Since Chad addressed that issue there have been good outings by Cueto and Shark and it seems that Matt Cain will indeed be the 5th starter. I suspect the Giants will break up Cueto and Samardzija in the rotaion once the season gets going. It may be taxing on the bullpen to have Peavy and Cain on consecutive days.

Overall health seems to be good for the Giants, although I will keep my fingers crossed until next Monday just in case. Make sure to follow us all season as we have new shows, articles and videos coming to the site.

Follow us on Twitter or Facebook. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel or just make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast on Stitcher or iTunes. There’s all sorts of interviews there if you’re waiting for the season to start.

Our season preview show will be coming up soon for look out for that. It’s almost time for another even year to begin.

-Eric

@2outhits

 

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by | March 20, 2016 · 6:31 PM

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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by | September 30, 2015 · 3:20 PM

Turn out the lights, the party’s over

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The long, strange trip known as the 2015 baseball season is coming to a close for the San Francisco Giants. After a brutal 8-0 loss to the rival Dodgers yesterday the Giants are officially eliminated from making the playoffs this season. But hey, it’s an odd year, what did we expect?

Personally, I thought the odd year BS would end with this team but alas, it was not meant to be. I’m not ready to look ahead to 2016 and what will surely be another title, so today let’s look back at 2015 and wonder what if.

So where did it go wrong? It seems easy to say injuries. I don’t want to pin it all on that but let’s just get it out of the way now. By my count 16 different Giants spent time on the DL this season. I have no idea how many games they all missed, I’m sure someone did the math. There’s fewer pitchers than you’d think. Here’s the list of players that missed games due to injury in 2015.

Pitchers

Tim Lincecum

Matt Cain

Jake Peavy

Mike Leake

Jeremy Affeldt

Position Players

Hunter Pence

Joe Panik

Brandon Belt

Andrew Susac

Nori Aoki

Gregor Blanco

Angel Pagan

Hector Sanchez

Ehire Adrianza

Juan Perez

Casey McGehee (remember him?)

That’s a long list with a lot of key guys on it. There are FOUR players finishing the season on the DL with concussion related symptoms and there have been a lot of tweaked sides and backs. It’s been ugly, it took away the guts of the team, it just plain sucked. If I missed someone, comment below. With this season it’s entirely possible for that to happen.

The Giants have 82 wins right now and will finish with a winning record. They were a good but not great team when it’s all said and done over a long season. Even with the high turnover the Giants offense leads the NL in hits, batting average, and is tied for the lead in OBP. They’ve scored the 4th most runs in the National League. So offense wasn’t really the hang up this season. Sure, there could be more long balls. We all like dingers. But the Giants offense held its own this season.

There were three things that really hurt 2015. The Giants didn’t play well in 1-run games, the starting pitching was inconsistent, and a lack of depth was exposed. I’m not trying to call this season a failure. Sure I’m glad the team is over .500 but the goal always was, and forever will be, winning championships.

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Chad said it all the other night with that tweet. Had the Giants won just a few more 1-run games they’d be playing the Dodgers for first place right now.

Part of the reason for those close losses all season? The starting pitching. Do you know who has the 3rd most starts for the Giants this season? Ryan Vogelsong. Didn’t see that one coming did you? Chris Heston had the no-hitter early and was a lot of fun but then he lost control of where pitches went and had to take a break. What if the Jake Peavy that has been on fire since returning from the DL had been there all season? Who knows. What the Giants had was a dominant Madison Bumgarner and a revolving door of starters. He can carry a team through a month, not a whole season.

I’ll admit it. I like watching Kelby Tomlinson fly and Jarrett Parker trot around the bases. Marlon Byrd has been average and Alejandro De Aza arrived just a month too late. In fact, all the good depth arrived just a little too late. Nobody on the bench turned in to “that guy” for late game situations. The best bench player was Matt Duffy who took the third base job and never let go. Between the starting pitching and depth it’s no wonder the Giants lost so many 1-run games down the stretch.

That’s ok. It’s time to breathe, take an October off and watch some other teams battle it out. Let the odd year BS be your chance to catch up with loved ones plus your blood pressure and liver will thank you. It’s kinda nice to have that luxury.

We recorded Episode 97 the other night if you missed it. The TortureCast crew is at the game tonight. Follow along on Twitter. Also make sure to like us on Facebook, check out our podcasts on iTunes or Stitcher and subscribe to our Youtube channel.

-Eric

@2outhits

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by | August 10, 2015 · 8:34 AM

The weekend that wasn’t

I really wanted to put a positive spin on this past weekend. I wanted to say that when Joe Panik and Andrew Susac return the team will be better. The Mike Leake Injury is a fluke. He may very well come back and pick the rotation up. It’s all going to get better. That’s what I want to think deep down. It may all be true.

I can’t do it. This weekend hurt. The Giants have dealt with being a streaky team all year so this just may be how it is. I don’t know.

There’s eight weeks left of baseball to be played and the Giants face the Dodgers 7 more times. I’ve thought all along the best shot is the NL West. The Cubs are a good team and have the ability to win more games than the Giants. The Dodgers are vulnerable and the Giants can catch them. It’s suddenly “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain” with LA.

I guess those are some things that could happen. But I don’t know that now. You don’t know that now. It’s just swell the Giants have a day off to regroup. There’s hope for this season yet and the Giants have been winning lately at home. In their last three homestands the Giants have gone 4-2, 4-2, and 5-1. Positive vibes, I’m hoping to keep them.

Last night I wasn’t feeling them. Below is what I wrote after the game. This is after I took a walk in the rain while the sun was shining. If you want to read about an agonizing weekend, keep going. If you don’t, good for you for being so positive, because I’m not feeling it right now.

Come back Susac. Be ok Aoki. Please continue to hit baseballs Joe. I miss the team.

So, that weekend sucked. The Giants went in to Chicago and didn’t win a game. From the beginning the Cubs jumped ahead and they never looked back. There were only three times in the whole 4-game series that the Giants really put pressure on the Cubs. One of those was with no one on base.

The Buster Posey at bat in the 9th inning on Thursday was the first. It was a one run game but you could see Cubs fans worried about the at bat. Posey is a credible threat. He’s an MVP and 3-time trophy winner. Along the way Posey has won a batting title and hit some clutch home runs. So Cubs fans had a reason to be worried. Buster flew out, the inning was over after Hector Sanchez did something.

Matt Duffy in the 9th inning on Saturday with Nori Aoki on base was the second time the Giants threatened the Cubs. Even then, Duffy hasn’t homered in a while. He was more likely going to shoot a single through the right side or drive one to a gap, but not homer. This one’s kinda iffy.

The most agonizing sequence of the entire series was the 9th inning on Sunday afternoon. The Giants couldn’t get anything going against Jake Arrieta all day but managed to hang around thanks to Jake Peavy and the bullpen. It was only 2-0. The Giants were within striking distance. Brandon Belt led off with a floating hit. Brandon Crawford followed that with a screaming double down the right field line. It was an impressive piece of hitting considering Rizzo was playing close to the bag with Belt on first base.

Things were looking good. The Giants are one of the best offenses in baseball. They should put a crooked number up. Hector Rondon wasn’t as sharp as he had been on Thursday night. Ehire Adrianza got hit in the foot on a 1-2 pitch. Rondon was all over the place. Finally, things were going the Giants way. Maybe they can pull this out and have a happy flight back from Chicago feeling like they got one back.

Then Hector Sanchez swung at three straight pitches that never looked like strikes. All 3 bounced in the dirt and he swung right over the ball. Next was Angel Pagan. Today was supposed to be his day off but because Aoki got plunked in the head earlier he found himself in a situation to redeem some of the talk about how he shouldn’t be out there anymore. Pagan gave it try. He did his best. He really did. I can’t get on him for this at bat. He fouled off 3 pitches with a 2-2 count before missing one.

Gregor Blanco was the final hope. That’s ok. He’s the guy that’s getting buzz on social media lately. Everyone believes in him. With Pagan’s knees and not so good hitting Blanco has become the backup quarterback of the Giants. Everyone is clamoring for him to play so of course he’ll come through. And he fought and fought until he just stood there. He struck out looking on a pitch he should have fouled off to the left side. Instead of keeping up the fight or coming through the Giants struck out three straight times.

It was a kick you in the soft spot series for Giants fans. I can’t wait until they get home.

-Eric

@2outhits

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