Tag Archives: San Francisco Giants

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?

bumgarner-giants-2016-spring-usatsi

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?

 

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by | February 14, 2016 · 4:45 PM

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

tcint
(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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by | February 13, 2016 · 1:24 AM

Media Day Interviews: 8 Giants!

posey

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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by | February 9, 2016 · 10:50 PM

Interview with Bruce Bochy at Pebble Beach

IMG_6274

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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by | February 9, 2016 · 10:47 PM

Interview with Matt Cain at Pebble Beach

IMG_6285

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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by | February 9, 2016 · 10:43 PM

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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by | February 8, 2016 · 11:28 PM

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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by | November 5, 2015 · 2:08 PM

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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by | October 5, 2015 · 11:28 PM

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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