Download the episode here, or stream it below
Chad goes solo in this short 103rd episode to talk about the latest homestand and road trip, who’s hot, and who’s not (*cough* Jake Peavy *cough*), and what to do about the struggles from the back end of the rotation.
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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
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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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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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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Download the episode here, or stream it below!
Although this is audio recording 145 (or thereabouts), we’re celebrating the 100th episode of the TortureCast! No big cake. No confetti. Just us.
Ben, Eric and Chad gather around the proverbial campfire to talk about their expectations for the 2016 season, including their predictions for the number of wins for the Giants. Now, Chad has something at stake, as he’s predicted the EXACT number of wins for 3 of the last 4 years: 84 last year, 88 in 2014, and 92 in 2012. The only year he was off was 2013, but he predicted his low of 82, which corresponded with the low bar of 76 wins, the lowest since 2008.
The year’s predictions:
Chad: 90 first place
Ben: 86 first place
Eric: 94 first place
Willie: 93, f
We also discuss our favorite episode, the coolest thing we’ve done as a part of this podcast, and our predictions for most HR, lowest ERA and best batting average.
Come join us for our centennial!
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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.
“If they think you can help the team out, they’ll call you up.”@BCraw35 on the @SFGiants
https://t.co/kKv9VsjP28 pic.twitter.com/qdiDPf5c4r
— The Players’ Tribune (@PlayersTribune) March 31, 2016
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
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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
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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.
=========================
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?
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.
Giants are 18-27 in 1 run games and 3-15 in their last 18 (2 in a row). What the season could’ve been with a .500 record in those games.
— TortureCast (@TortureCast) September 29, 2015
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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
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