Tag Archives: TortureCast

Episode 48: The Pablo Sandoval Episode

Panda Pinkomonium

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Hey, the Giants are in first, the Dodgers in last. What else is there to be happy about?!

Talking Points

  • Giants have second best record in NL, in first place, Dodgers in last, took 3/4 from 1st place Braves
  • Giants rotation getting better, but still 12th in NL for starters (4.25 ERA)
  • Zito (3-1, 2.75 ERA) and Bumgarner (4-1, 2.18 ERA) have remained mostly issue-free, but Lincecum (3-2, 4.07 ERA) hasn’t achieved true consistency and Vogelsong (1-3, 7.78 ERA) has one quality start in seven appearances.
  • Cain won his first two May starts, yielding three runs over 15 1/3 innings. That’s a 1.76 ERA.

The Week in Review

  • Lost 2/3 vs Philly, won 3/4 from ATL
  • Giants now have the BEST BA in the NL at .266, 3rd in runs, 3rd in RBI

The Big Question

  • Can Lincecum perform like this again? 7 innings, 0 runs, 2 hits. Vintage.
  • Giants ASG dark horse, go!

Armchair Manager

  • Should Gaudin move up in depth? 21 IP, 1.27 ERA, 21K, 15H, .195 BAA

Tweet At Me, Bruh

  • Willie: kyleconaway: Hey @Williedills, I love you and all, but your #Giants can go straight to hell. #GoBraves #TomahawkChop4Life
  • Chad: “Thomas Todd ‏@HammerheadT @chadk21 @williedills @friedduck @TortureCast Damn, why didn’t we think of that?” That’s right, we’re on YOUTUBE!

Our New Favorite Guy

  • Panda and his pink fingernails and homeruns
  • Scutaro finding his groove again

We Should Hate This Guy

Why We Will Win It All

  • Chad: Giants will make a deadline deal to solidify their rotation if Vogey doesn’t come around
  • We have bullets in the chamber besides who we have right now. If we need a move to solidify, wherever that may be, it will happen

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Episode 47: The Rod Beck Episode

RIP Shooter. You were a good one. We tip our glass.

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WTF GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS!!!!!

Willie and Chad kept this podcast much shorter than usual, mostly because Willie wanted to throw himself out of his apartment window after that crushing, epic, utterly pathetic choke-job the Warriors pulled in San Antonio. They blow a 16 point lead with less than 4 minutes left!! Then leave Ginobli THAT WIDE OPEN for a 3 pointer with 3 seconds left in double OT!!!!??

But, we digress and get back to talking Giants baseball and their tonic that was a 6 game winning streak.

Talking Points

  • Giants have now swept every other team in the NL west, mental edge from here on out?
  • 0.5 ahead of COL, 3rd best record in NL after tonight’s loss
  • After 32 games last year, they were 15-17 and 6 GB of LA

The Week in Review

  • Cain won his first start!
  • Panda caught fire, Scutero hitting again, Posey getting back to normal Posey

The Big Question

  • Vogelsong: 7.20 ERA after 6 starts. Can he work through this?
  • You can review Chad’s article about Vogelsong’s struggles.

Armchair Manager

  • Do they do anything about Vogelsong right now? No, we agree to wait until the All Star Break, then they may need outside help.

Tweet At Me, Bruh

  • Chad: Wendy Thurm @hangingsliders: Well, at least the #Dodgers will be in last place in a few minutes. So there’s that.
  • Willie: KingEyeballKing: @TortureCast Walk off HR in the bottom of the 10th, or as the Giants call it: just another day at the yard.

Our New Favorite Guy

  • Willie: Guillermo Quiroz
  • Chad: Hunter Pence…on fiare

We Should Hate This Guy

  • Chad: Spurs and refs and who was assigned to cover Ginobli
  • Willie: God, if he wins us games like Mark Jackson says, then this one is on him

Why We Will Win It All

  • Chad: When the starting pitching turns it around
  • Willie: Offense never goes quietly and we’re in every game no matter what.

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Episode 46: The Kirk Rueter Episode

Woody being Woody

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We welcome Eric Nathanson to the show. The man behind 2outhits.com and a Giants fan out of…ahem, Chicago?! We start out the show trying to understand how such a die-hard Giants fan developed this way WITHOUT EVER HAVING BEEN TO SAN FRANCISCO! Willie also tests both Eric and Chad’s knowledge with a little Giants trivia.

Talking Points

  • What the hell is going on?! The sky is falling!! 5 losses in a row!

The Week in Review

  • Lost 2/3 to AZ, swept by SD. 4 out of those 5 could’ve easily been wins, have only been outscored by 7 runs over the 5 game losing streak (3 went extra innings)

The Big Question

  • Vogelsong and Cain? Can they right the ship quickly?
  • You can review Chad’s article about Vogelsong’s struggles.

Armchair Manager

  • Is it time to send Hector down? Could we use some bullpen depth?
  • Should Marco be moved down in the lineup?

Tweet At Me, Bruh

  • Chad: Jason Collins ‏@jasoncollins344hAll the support I have received today is truly inspirational. I knew that I was choosing the road less traveled but I’m not walking it alone
  • Willie: MLB: “Everybody knows somebody who’s gay. If you can’t deal with it in 2013, you need to go somewhere and hide in a cave.” – @LaTroyHawkins32
  • Eric: @pourmecoffee: Gay people play sports. You can deal with this America. I believe in you.

Our New Favorite Guy

  • Willie: Timmy: getting back into his stride perhaps? Lotsa Ks, less wild and finally accepting of Posey perhaps?
  • Chad: Bumgarner: 1.87 ERA, 3-0 sub 1 WHIP, country bumpkin can PITCH!
  • Ben: Brandon Crawford: Seriously, Matt Kemp WISHES he was as gifted a hitter as Brandon Crawford.
  • Eric: Hunter Pence: That guy plays every play like it’s his last. And how can you not love the stilted motions?
  • Honorary Mention: Jason Collins and Robbie Rogers: Look, we’re all San Franciscans here (well, some honorary). This should be pretty obvious.

We Should Hate This Guy

  • Chad: I’m abstaining for positive energy and kharma for the team
  • Willie: Chris Broussard – slamming Jason Collins on the air as not a christian because he’s gay. Nice job being a bigot, homey. Good luck with that.
  • Ben: Almost anybody who writes in the comments section.
  • Eric: I have the same hate for Broussard, but love for Giants

Why We Will Win It All

  • Chad: If we stop playing like shit
  • Willie: We are getting the slump out of the way early. After 5 straight losses we’re only 2 GB and still above the Dodgers. Suck on that.
  • Ben: Depth depth depth.  Also, Nick Noonan.
  • Eric: Bruce Bochy is the best in the biz in a short series.

We want to thank Eric Nathanson for joining us on this extra-long, but thought-provoking episode of Torturecast! Don’t forget to follow him @2outhits on Twitter!

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The Vogelsong Enigma

Vogelsong is struggling to return to 2011-2012 form. And he hates cereal bowls a lot. (photo: dailyrepublic.com)

We love the game face. We love the bull-dog determination. We love the playoff performances last year that helped them win it all.

But everything has gone south for Ryan Vogelsong so far this year. The question is, why?

I’m not going to pretend that I know, and I’m going to guess he would just called it an unlucky slump, and there is certainly some truth to that. I’m not trying to single Vogey out in this article, as Cain is worth of one as well (so that may be coming soon). However, Vogelsong is that guy we all pull for, the underdog, and I want to at least consider why this may be happening.

In a stunning turn of events for the first 25 games of the season, the Giants are second to LAST in starting staff ERA at 4.27 and only ahead of the team that just swept them (SD at 5.33). This is abhorrent, Twilight zonish, perplexing. This staff is supposed to be part of the NL-elite, not within the neighborhood of the Padres or Rockies. Of course Cain and Vogey are the two main culprits, with ERAs of 6.59 and 6.23, respectively. Only Bumgarner is keeping the Giants from the cellar of this statistic, with a sparkling 1.87 ERA.

Back to Mr. Game Face’s statistical breakdown:

Vogelsong has a .303 batting average against and has allowed 10 BB and 7 HR in 30.1 IP, while his WHIP is almost as high as my cholesterol at 1.55.  He gave up 17 HR ALL SEASON last year in 189.2 IP and only 8 HR by the all star break when he had 110.2 IP.

Why so many big flys?

Clearly when batters start hitting the ball out of the park with more frequency than a Kardashian getting fat, they are not being fooled. Hitters are making contact more often with pitches in the strike zone, and more alarming, is the BABIP has skyrocketed into 2012 Timmy territory from .284 to .330. Homeruns per nine IP is a video-game like 2.08, almost triple what he allowed last year, and approximately 1 out of 5 fly balls have traveled over the fence, just a bewildering statistic. Most of the other metrics (K%, BB% and pitch selection) have not changed dramatically, and the problem seems to be isolated in not being able to fool opposing hitters as often with balls in the strike zone. This may be correlated with a drop in the timing differential between his fastball and changeup, two pitches that make up 60% of his pitches delivered. His fastball is 1.4 MPH slower this year (89.4 vs 90.8),  and the change up, ironically, is slightly faster by 0.4 MPH, which makes the timing differential an average 1.8 MPH smaller, which is a sizeable 23% difference. The lowered chance of throwing opposing hitters’ timing off will only serve to hurt Vogelsong in the long run.

I’m not hitting the panic button yet, and neither should Giants fans; it’s only 5 starts, for crying out loud. He did tail off for the last 2 months of the regular season last year, but we can’t say it’s the start of his decline connected to this year, as he had a stellar playoff run. If tossing bowls of cereal across his kitchen gets him motivated, then lets all hope he has stock in Crate and Barrel and a good maid service.

– Chad

Stats that will alleviate your panic:

  • Giants are only 2 games back of AZ/COL
  • After 25 games last year, the Giants were 2 games worse at 12-13 and 5 GB of LAD.
  • The Giants have lost all 5 of Cain’s starts; surely that will turnaround (right?)
  • Giants are second in batting average in the NL at .267
  • Giants are second in batting average in the NL with runners in scoring position
  • Torres won’t EVER do that again
  • Scutaro won’t EVER do that again
  • Ok, those last 2 aren’t stats

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Episode 44: The Willie McCovey Episode

Stretch

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It’s been a while, but the boys are back with the first podcast of the 2013 regular season.

Talking Points

  • Giants return with 21 of 25 members from the 2012 WS team
  • Surprise guys who made the team, Nick Noonan and Guillermo Quiroz
  • We talk a bit about our amazing experience at Media Day in February, and the opportunity to interview many of the Giants players. (if you missed it, go to our YouTube channel for the treasure trove of video interviews with Posey, Lincecum, Belt, Crawford, Zito, Romo, Bochy)

The Week in Review

  • Giants first week of the 2013 season and they go 4-3, taking 2 of 3 from LA and losing the last 2 to StL, and winning the first one from Colorado.
  • Pence is HAWT: 3 HRs in the first 7 games, .292
  • Lots of cold hitters: Scutaro, Posey, Belt, Torres all under .200  

The Big Question

  • Any concern about Cain or Vogelsong or Lincecum? Nahhhh

Armchair Manager

  • Would you have pulled Cain earlier on Sunday?

Tweet At Me, Bruh

  • Chad: “Bay Area Sports Guy @BASportsGuy Get me some shots of sad cheerleaders, stat! AND Wendy Thurm @hangingsliders: Obligatory sad cheerleader photo dot tumblr”
  • Willie: @Nicolevolgelsong is now following us, we win

Our New Favorite Guy

  • Willie: Chad Gaudin – great pickup, really good stuff and looks like he’ll be a fixture in the pen this year
  • Chad: NICK NOONAN! first hit and fun name
  • Ben: Brandon Crawford, Honorary Mention: Aubrey Huff

We Should Hate This Guy

  • Chad: The designer for the Giants WS Gold jerseys…SF logo on a HOME jersey?
  • Willie: Clayton Kershaw
  • Ben: Jose Castillo

Why We Will Win It All

  • Chad: Because they have home gold jerseys with the SF on the chest
  • Willie: This team should be better with no Huff, Torres back and Lincecum should at least be better than last year, full season of Pence and Zito having a resurgence
  • Ben: SMALL SAMPLE SIZE

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Your #28 Giants Jersey is good through 2021

Posey can buy lots of jerseys for us, probably every fan to walk through the gates of AT&T.

Yesterday the Giants made sure that my Buster Posey jersey will not go out of date until the year 2021. Who cares about the money? It’s financially the equivalent to me as earning the Nobel Peace Prize; it’s out of the realm of possibility and into fantasy.

(view our interview with Buster Posey in February below)

Inevitably people will know the value of this deal, but I’ve had a completely opposite visceral reaction that I had to the Zito signing in 2006. At that time, I assumed Zito was on the downtrend of his career, and the Giants were overpaying for a “former” Cy Young award winner. However, even though Posey’s contract is bigger that Zito’s, I completely approve of it, as do many Giants fans and national baseball writers. How can you say no to the reigning MVP, batting title winner, Comeback Player of the Year, and Rookie of the Year. This often used stat really rings true, the SF Giants are 2 for 2 in World Series championship years with Posey and 0 for 53 without him.

I’m sure that later in his tenure with the Giants, he’ll be playing first base and DH in interleague games, and perhaps he won’t be today’s Posey in year 9 of this deal. However, even if the Giants don’t win another World Series while Posey is here, and even if he performs under our expectations in the second half of his deal, it’s still a worthy payment to a man who has helped bring 2 championships to the great city of San Francisco. That’s worth something, isn’t it?

Chad

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Episode 43.5: The Bryan Srabian Episode

We interview Bryan Srabian, Social Media Director of the San Francisco Giants

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Willie, Ben and I had the delightful opportunity (did I just use the word, “delightful?”) to interview the Social Media Director for the San Francisco Giants, Bryan Srabian. We could have easily talked to him for many hours (and we wanted to), but we still squeezed in about 50 minutes of very interesting talk about how social media is used as a marketing tool for the Giants and other Major League teams.

We hope you enjoy listening to this interview as much as we did!

You can follow Bryan Srabian on Twitter @srabe.

Chad

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Episode 43: The Dave Dravecky Episode

This dude is inspirational and will forever be a Giant

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We welcome in the new year with our first TortureCast of 2013. Unfortunately, Ben couldn’t make tonight’s recording, but Willie and Chad discussed the recent deals to avoid arbitration for Posey, Pence, Blanco, Arias, and Mijares. We also bitch about the BBWAA and the injustice of not a single player being voted into the Hall of Fame, as well as pimping FanFest on Feb 9, the excitement of pitchers and catchers reporting on Feb 12, a banana in an unfortunate hole, and we dream about the possibility of Bruce Bochy driving Jim Harbaugh down Market Street with another championship trophy for THE City.

Talking Points

  • Buster Posey ($8m) and Hunter Pence ($13.8m) sign one year deals to avoid arbitration
  • Giants control Posey through 2016 and will probably seek a long-term deal sometime this year
  • Other Giants that signed one year deals to avoid arbitration: Arias ($925k), Blanco ($1.35m), Jose Mijares ($1.8m)
  • Only arbitration-eligible player left is Romo, who filed for $4.5 million and the Giants countered with $2.675 million
  • BBWAA chose not to vote in Bonds and Clemens, in fact, NO ONE made it in

Coming Up

  • FanFest is Feb 9 at AT&T Park
  • We will be interviewing the Giants “Social Media Consigliere,” Bryan Srabian this Saturday to talk to him about his job and FanFest!
  • Pitchers and catchers report Feb 12!

Tweet At Me, Bruh

lomotweet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • SFG10032: @TortureCast – Turns out Hunter Pence is a pretty hardcore Blizzard gamer. Pretty cool. http://t.co/ZZK9rsab

We Should Hate This Guy

  • Willie and Chad dish out serious hate for the BBWAA who “made a stand” against the PED users. It’s an F-ing game, and you are not holier than any of these athletes that you help to create. Baseball ignored the issue, you voted them as MVP and Cy Youngs, STFU.

Why We Will Win It All

  • Willie – Wrapping up the last big pieces from last year and didn’t fall in love with guys who won’t help, Sabean is making all the right moves and there’s no reason to think he won’t make the right moves at the trade deadline either.

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Episode 42: The Jackie Robinson/Hot Stove Episode

it burns…like a Brian Wilson non-tender

We shake off the World Series hangover with an episode to review the Giants’ moves in the offseason thus far, and we even challenged ourselves with listening to our season preview episode that we recorded at The Public House (at AT&T Park) with Thomas and Danny from Two Guys, a Glove and a Coke Bottle.

Talking Points

  • Scu-Scu-Scutaro signs 3 yrs/$20 – We all like this one, even if he sucks at age 40
  • Pagan signs 4 yrs/$40m – Thank the baseball gods that he signed one day before Victorino signed with Boston for 3/$39m!
  • Affeldt signs 3y/$18m – Quality signing, he likes the stability of the Giants
  • Pence will be signed, probably for $13-$14m in arbitration, Giants not seeking long term contract, though
  • Torres is Back! 1 yr, $2m
  • Blanco is arbitration eligible, probably won’t cost that much
  • Sabean and Bochy contracts extended through 2014
  • Dodgers with the largest payroll in MLB history at $225m
  • Melky gets 2/$16m from Blue Jays who are loading up for a run at it

The BIG Question

  • What will happen with Brian Wilson? We all concur that the Giants had to make the business decision that they did, and that frankly, Wilson is being a whiny douche if he’s hurt by their non-tender. He doesn’t deserve $7 million for a year after his second Tommy John. In fact, he earned $8.5 million last year for two appearances before he went on the shelf. Suck it up, sign an incentive-laden contract with the Giants and we’ll all move along as a happy family.

Revisiting our 2012 Pre-Season Predictions with GiantsPod (4/1/12 @ Public House)

  • Chad put out an over/under of 92.5 wins for the Giants and EVERYONE LAUGHED AT HIM
  • The group reset the over/under to 87.5 wins, and everyone took the over, except the self-titled “realist” Thomas
  • Chad also put the over/under for games Freddy Sanchez plays at 100 HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
  • What does Crawford have to hit to be worth it?we all said .230, he hit .248 and played dazzling D down the stretch, I say he surpassed expectation
  • Thomas says Blanco will not be on the roster by the All Star break
  • Hamate bone was a freak injury – thomas
  • Danny says now that steroids are over…
  • Danny says top offensive player won’t be Posey or Pablo
  • How high would we go for Cain extension? The highest we said was 125 over 5, he got 127 for 6 with an option for 7 that could bring it to 141
  • Willie wanted to win a WS and defend with the exact same team. Well, he’s pretty much getting his wish
  • Why will the Giants win it all? (asked in April, 2012)
    • Willie predicted that the Giants would win it all because they weren’t going to have a freak injury
    • Ben – rotation getting better
    • Michael (from The Grubby Glove) – Dbacks won’t come together, Bumgarner steps up big time, says division winner
    • Chad – dumb luck!!! hahhaha
    • Danny – second wild card
    • Thomas – “we won’t, I’m a realist”

Tweet At Me, Bruh

  • Bryan Murphy @Every6thDay: Obviously, the Giants will have to raise ticket prices significantly to afford Andres Torres, but that’s what happens w/ a break-even team.”
  • “Miss Erin ‏@Love4PatTheBat: Brian Patrick Wilson, you quit your pouting and come back to those who love you and tolerate your insanity! @BrianWilson38 #SFGiants”

Our New Favorite Guy

  • Chad – Brian Sabean for signing Pagan a day before Victorino signed with the Red Sox
  • Willie – Duane Kuiper for his joke during the parade, asking Affeldt to take a swing after he called a homer for Pablo and say Swing and a miss!

We Should Hate This Guy

  • Willie – Magic Johnson, go muck up basketball if you’re gonna get all ridiculous in a sport, although basketball is pretty screwed up already

Why We Will Win It All

  • Chad – They’ve brought the gang back (mostly)

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We Are THE CHAMPIONS – per Ashkon Music

Ashkon is one talented musician. He brought us the rally cry cover of “Don’t Stop Believin‘” in 2010, last year’s “Feeling Like a Giant,” which is our opening tune, and now today, he debuted this pearl that got some of us all teary-eyed.

 

From 2011:

 

From 2010:

 

Let’s hope something is in store for 2013!

– Chad

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