Archive for ‘Offseason 2012-2013’

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Year Of The Giants

by Kevin on November 5, 2012 at 12:01 am
Thankfully, there's no Giants in hockey or basketball. Because that'd be weird.

Yes, on Sunday, the Yomiuri Giants won the Japan Series title, their second in four years.  And it is the first time the black and orange on both sides of the Pacific have won their respective championships in the same year.

However, that may be more the fault of the American version of the team.

The Yomiuri Giants have now won 22 Japan Series titles since the Japan Series started in 1950.  Before that, the Giants won 9 titles from their inception in 1934 in the old Japanese Baseball League  (consider it the days where the NL existed before the AL made a World Series possible).  Interestingly, there were Giants champions for five consecutive years in the 1950′s, but the only year from 1951-1955 that Yomiuri didn’t win it was the only year that the New York Giants did (1954).  There was a close call in 2002, but we shalln’t discuss what happened that year.  That dominance means that the Yomiuri team regards themselves as the “New York Yankees” of Japan.

That kind of hurts.

There is a great partnering opportunity for these teams.  The Japanese team got their name from one Lefty O’Doul, a famous Giant and San Franciscan, naming the burgeoning Japanese powerhouse after his former American team, and encouraging them to use the name and uniform colors.  O’Doul is criminally not in the American Hall of Fame, but is in the Japanese Hall of Fame, and is considered one of the founding fathers of Japanese Baseball.

But the teams have more in common than just a name, colors, and a little history.  Yomiuri manager Tatsunori Hara said this about his team:

“The word ‘team’ should be stressed,” Hara said. “We played as a team. I used many players and different lineups and it all came together.”

That sounds a ton like Bochy and the San Francisco Giants.

Heck, they even both own a controversial home run record.  Sadaharu Oh hit 55 home runs in 1964, which is tied for the Nippon Professional Baseball single-season record.  However, that record has been challenged by foreigners three times, and three times they’ve faced Oh-managed teams late in the season.  In almost every at-bat, they were consistently given walks.  Two players (Karl Rhodes and Alex Cabrera) have tied the Oh record, but none have broken it.

I’d love to see the Giants and the Giants share something more than just a name.  Especially with San Francisco hosting next season’s World Baseball Classic, and Japan’s domination of the event so far, it’d be nice to see something done to link the two teams.

But, I guess the San Francisco Giants just haven’t won enough.  But I hope they’ll change that, soon.

On the other hand, some things don’t need to be shared…like this Pokemon mascot…

That's either Pikachu after the Jenny Craig diet, or a Golden Retriever that stuck it's paw in an outlet.

That’s either Pikachu after the Jenny Craig diet, or a Golden Retriever that stuck it’s paw in an outlet.

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Predicting The 2013 Free Agents

by Kevin on November 7, 2012 at 12:01 am
As long as Victorino doesn't become a Giant, I consider this offseason a win.

I used to enjoy these.

I tried getting it going with my friends, but none of them were as hardcore as I was, so no one else got into it.

I tried doing it with the strangers on online message boards and websites, and maybe five would do it.

Then I realized the reason.

It doesn’t matter.  No one remembers who predicted what wrong, and the only one who remembers who got it right was the one who did.

No, these aren’t my official predictions.  It includes a pessimist’s view (Pagan leaving…which he very well could) and an optimist’s (Michael Bourn coming in).  Of course, a true optimist would see Pagan staying and Bourn joining, with Pagan moving to left where his outfield lapses wouldn’t make as big a difference…but that won’t happen.

The hot stove is burning…hey, what did you think was going to fill your time with the election over?

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It’s The Ultimate Reclamation Project

by Kevin on November 9, 2012 at 12:01 am
An outfield of Jason

It’s the small moves that make a season and a team.

I admit, when the Giants picked up Ryan Vogelsong, I thought it was to sell tickets in Fresno.  I was wrong.

When the Giants found Pat Burrell on the scrap heap, I expected it to be a non-factor in anything.  Nope.

Cody Ross?  It seemed like sacrificing a roster spot to stop a rival.  Well, not just.

Marco Scutaro?  A fine veteran bench player.  Yea, well, much more than that.

It’s amazing how many of these guys the Giants have picked up and found a way to get good, and even great, things out of.  I admit, I thought Huff still had something left (and got some credibility with people for seeing that).  But I was in the minority.  Almost every other move has been the kind of thing that surprised me.  From the big busts like Burrell and Vogelsong, to the never-weres like Andres Torres, Gregor Blanco and Joaquin Arias.  They all have had such big contributions…

So, why not Jason Bay?

Bay has a Burrell feel about him, except for the lack of ridiculous amounts of groupies.  He was never really an elite hitter, but he was a guy who’d hit above-average, and had the potential to lay out 20+ doubles and 20+ home runs.  But with the Mets, he couldn’t do both in the same season even once.

Now, he’s cheap.  And on the market.  And the Giants need a left fielder.

Could the Giants coax one last year of a talent outburst out of him?

I have to imagine that Bay, having seen what the Giants have done with scrap heaps like him, is having major internal debates about this.

30-HR Bay: There’s power for a right-handed batter pulling the ball, and doubles if I go the other way.

.165-BA Bay: And we haven’t hit a home run there since 2006.

30-HR Bay: The Giants have gotten guys who have struggled for years to win again!

.165-BA Bay: Yea, for just one year, then they’re off towards retirement.  They’re like talent-vampires.

30-HR Bay: But they won a world championship, without a closer, their star pitcher sucking, and a career minor-leaguer in left field during the playoffs!  Imagine what they could do with me, even not at my best!

.165-HR Bay: That career minor leaguer still outhit us last year.

30-HR Bay: But the name!  The name is perfect!

.165-HR Bay: It’d be perfect in Tampa as well, and a hell of a lot warmer.

That last note is of no small consequence.  I can’t find the stories saying it, but I seem to remember Jason Bay saying he didn’t like the cold weather here.  But, hell, things change.

I don’t know.  There are some pretty good outfielders on the market, but at high costs.  I suppose the Giants couldn’t do worse than a low-cost option to really improve the offense.  But on the other hand, he’s Jason Bay.  He was the Mets’ version of Barry Zito.

…

Well, now that’d really set him up for a playoff redemption.

It’s the small things, though.  Which means, if it merits a comic strip being written about just the possibility happening, it’s not going to be a small thing, I guess.

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Like Kissing The Friendzone

by Kevin on November 12, 2012 at 12:01 am
Only children never quite get this saying.

Yes, in addition to commentary on the Giants, we have some characters, and they have lives too!

As a disclaimer, since three people will believe otherwise… The topic of this and the upcoming comics are a story I’d planned to touch upon since this comic was first brainstormed years ago.  I wasn’t even planning to do it this week, but the ridiculous cliché about ties and the timing in the third-slowest week for baseball topics made it too perfect.

On that note…a tie???  Really?  I suppose this was how it was going to be.  After all, the Niners couldn’t win after losing Alex Smith so early…but they’re too in need of wins to keep up in the NFC playoff chase to lose.  So, compromise.  Dating couples across the country can’t do it, but apparently the football gods can.

Also, a lack of ties is another reason why baseball is superior to football.  (Well, in games that count…)

I don’t really get all that upset about ties…it’s mostly how this one came about.

• Alex Smith got hurt, and the back-up is a talented guy who’s more raw than the fish at your average sushi restaurant.

• The Niners got hit with seven penalties, which cost them some big moments (including stopping the Rams in overtime and getting one more chance).  But they also needed some huge penalties against the Rams to win (like the first play in overtime).

• The officials were downright replacement-ish, ‘losing’ over a minute of gametime, and missing at least one delay-of-game penalty against the Rams, who had the punctuality of Eeyore on downers in this game overall.

• 2 fake punts worked.  In the same game.  Both against the Niners.

• David Akers missed an overtime field goal.

And, mostly, I’m upset that this happened against the Rams.  Not that I harbor any ill will against the former Los Angeles team.  Frankly, they’ve been in St. Louis so long that I just don’t care about them either way.  It’s more that they’re cellar dwellers (even if they have more talent than, say, the Raiders), and the Niners should be beating those teams when they can.

This was an ugly game, and it leaves the Niners in third place among NFC playoff seeds.  Then again, with how the team handled this last bye week, maybe they shouldn’t try to get a bye in the playoffs.

I’m a big fan of Harbaugh, but dude needs to get his team in order for next Monday Night’s important playoff matchup with the #2 seeded Chicago Bears.

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Casual Fan Of You

by Kevin on November 14, 2012 at 12:01 am
Be careful of those who cheer you to your face, and boo you to your back.

I don’t think I’ve known a single guy in the last few years who hasn’t felt this way at least once.  A few girls in the same boat, too.  I’m not sure what’s worse, though, whether the girl/guy you would like to date or be in love with is just a casual fan of you…or if the girl/guy you’re dating is the one who’s just a casual fan.

Anyway, if you want some baseball-related talk with this emo moment, here you go:

• My thought on the big Miami/Toronto trade?  Only that South Florida is a hotbed of baseball talent, at least in the amateur sense, and that it deserves a better professional presence than this ownership, which is by far the worst in sports.  Hank Schulman even pointed out that the Marlins are the only team that charges the visiting press for parking.  It’s a small thing, sure, but the small things are what are most telling about men like Loria.

• Manager of the Year?  I’m not upset that Bochy didn’t win.  I’m a little surprised he didn’t get second place.  But I voted for Davey Johnson myself.  He did well with a volatile situation in Washington, and as strong as the Giants were down the stretch, he made sure the Nationals hung onto the top seed just as well.

• The most interesting thing about the recent few days?  This comment from Hank Schulman, buried in his write-up about the Manager of the Year:

…how Bochy handled the Cold War between Posey and Tim Lincecum…

It was a brush-off comment, to be sure, but to my memory it’s the first acknowledgement by anyone who could be remotely familiar with the situation that there is something going on between Posey and Lincecum.  And he even added his own emphasis by capitalizing it.  Journalists don’t break the general rules of capitalization for just anything.

Don’t think this won’t escape the attention of the Lunatic Fringe.  In a season that will be spent defending a world championship, that will have Brian Wilson trying to return from Tommy John surgery in a free agent year, and that will have a focus on some cheap position players to start coming up to replace a veritable free agent exodus that could happen after next year, the Cold War/Spat/Thing between Posey and Lincecum (the biggest free agent of all) should be the biggest and most important topic on the minds of Giants fans.

But there’s time in the offseason.  The offseason’s for a lot of self-reflection, even non-baseball related.  Jamie’s story will find its way into things over the coming weeks as well.

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Why We Watch

by Kevin on November 16, 2012 at 12:01 am
Not exactly a surprising MVP choice.

Well, that speech isn’t exactly Lombardi….but close enough.

I could write you a long story of meeting Buster Posey when I was covering the minors, how shy he was about the attention he was getting, how focused a player he always was, and how I felt bad for writing that he was greedy and that the Giants shouldn’t have given him a record bonus out of the draft, not because I was wrong about him being worth it, but because I couldn’t see that greedy player whenever I looked at him.

But I won’t.  You’ll get the heartfelt stories of how good a guy he is everywhere else.  Seriously, he’s like the anti-Bonds.  People can’t help but throw the words “Good guy” at him as if they were skee-balls at the boardwalk.

He’s a good guy.  I don’t need to convince you of that, and I’m not going to say they’re wrong.

So here’s what I’m going to tell you: It’s nice to see a good guy win.

There’s a long-standing belief in my life that good guys don’t really win.  They do well, but people like the bad guys, the guys with backstory and doubt and character arc.  Everyone wants a good guy in their corner, but they want to be in the corner of a bad guy who turns good.  Or just a bad guy.  Whether it’s romance, or professionally, or even just among friends…that’s how I’ve seen it.

Maybe it’s a Hufflepuff complex.

But a good guy won MVP.  And I’m not saying that other guys who’ve won it aren’t good guys.  I’m not saying that Justin Verlander’s whole third-inning didn’t make him look like a collar-popping Atherton kid…and I’m not saying that a basement refrigerator has erased all my doubts about Ryan Braun.  I’m just saying, I have no doubts about Posey, and it’s not just because I’m a Giants fan.  He’s a good guy.  And I like that a good guy can win so damn convincingly.

Maybe it wasn’t his good guy nature that helped him win.  It’s not like I’ve heard bad things about Andrew McCutchen.  Hell, it probably had nothing to do with being a good guy.  It had everything to do with putting a team on his shoulders, handling a playoff push with grace, and flat out dominating the National League when it truly counted the most (not because of the months it happened in, but because of who was no longer batting beside him).  It was a different kind of good that won him the MVP.  A kind of goodness…even greatness…that can’t be learned, trained or anything else.  You just have it.

But then, most good guys aren’t trying to win an MVP.  They’re just trying to get ahead, do their own thing, or heaven forbid, be loved.

And if the MVP can be won by a good guy on the west coast who’s about as showy as a 2004 Honda Civic and about as sparkly as…well, whatever the opposite of that Twilight guy is…

Maybe there’s hope for us good guys to get the little things.

Of course, one probably has nothing to do with the other, but give me my emo moment, dammit.

Congratulations, Buster.  You deserved this, and you make Giants fans proud to root for you.  That’s been easier said than done with our recent past of MVP winners.

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Keeping Up Appearances

by Kevin on November 19, 2012 at 12:01 am
Hell, if there were award for bullpen catcher, I'd be voting over and over for Billy Hayes.

This is serious!  Vote for Lou Seal now!

And yet…it’s not so serious.  Cartoon Network?  Hall of Game?  What?

Seriously.  This is a show that is going to be hosted by Shaquille O’Neil and Nick Cannon.  Nick Cannon?  Really?  This is a guy who, in the last two years, played a character named Robby Bottoms.  In sports terms, that’s like being a bench player in the Italian League.

This is a show with only six categories: He Got Game, She Got Game, Most Awesome Mascot, Alti-Dude (X-Sports only, but not dudes only), Dynamic Duo, and That’s How I Roll.  This feels like the unwanted love child of the MTV Movie Awards and the ESPYs, shortened because they know they wouldn’t even get enough advertisers for 90 minutes.

Seriously, the That’s How I Roll category contains Jonny Gomes, apparently only for having a mohawk.  And Brett Keisel, for, um, having ‘da beard’, and unruly piece of facial hair.  That he grew in 2010.  *ahem*  Originality?  I mean, hell, Brian Wilson didn’t exactly start beards, but the fact that as a relatively active sports fan and have never heard of Brett Keisel before makes me think that he’s a knock-off.

Oh, and Ryan Lochte’s also nominated.  I mean, I don’t have someone to root for, but at least with Lochte there, I have someone to root against.

The Mascot nominees are just as bad.  Aside from Lou Seal, there’s Rocky from the Denver Nuggets, Louie from the St. Louis Blues, and KC Wolf.  It’s easy to tell who they like: Rocky gets a video for his nomination…only one other nominee I saw out of the entire other 24 got a video.  And it’s of Rocky doing something legitimately cool; a behind-the-back shot from midcourt.  They could’ve found something cool that Lou Seal has done, right?  I mean…um…slip-sliding across the tarp?  Or, um, paddleboarding in a race?

But the others…I mean, KC Wolf?  What do wolves have to do with Chiefs other than historically demeaning Kevin Costner films?    And his costume is…well, maybe it’s nice for Missouri.  I don’t know.

But, anyways, Lou’s a Giant.  And he’s up for an award, even if it’s an easily mocked award for an easily mocked show.  Sure, it may not carry the prestige of an MVP, or an All-Star Game, or even an ESPY…but, hell, you’ve got to beat the Astros just as much as you’ve got to beat the Tigers, right?

Go vote for Lou.

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Unfair Controversy

by Kevin on November 21, 2012 at 12:01 am
Remember the days when there was a Steve Bono controversy?

This quarterback controversy must be powered by Giants fans bored with the early offseason.

It’s silly.  Alex Smith is, and should be, the starting quarterback of the Niners.

Colin Kaepernick had one good game.  It was a surprising game, as I don’t think anyone was expecting to see the poise he had, which I think was the best part of him to see.  But he’s still a very, VERY talented quarterback who is a bit raw.  He has more talent than polish.

But one game does not make a starter.  Let’s see him do it in an unfriendly road environment (although we might this week against the Saints, depending on Smith’s concussion).  We need to see him do it after other teams have seen a lot of game film of him.

For now, Kaepernick is a very encouraging backup and what Harbaugh was using him for before this game; a change of pace quarterback who can run the wildcat.  But now, teams will have to respect his throwing ability.

In the future…Kaepernick could be the QB of the future.  Now I can really see it.  But he could benefit from the Rodgers path, even if Smith is no Brett Favre.  Let him get in some time, but also watch a great team play and how to lead a good team.  His day will come.  But it won’t be this season, and probably not next.

The first season in that new stadium, though…maybe.

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Things To Be Thankful For On Black Friday

by Kevin on November 23, 2012 at 12:01 am
All I know is that I'm not paying for a 'Big Time Bats', just because of how much they are advertising.

It’s Black Friday, and that means, be safe out there!  Don’t go crazy, and don’t go after the really cheap stuff, because it’s never worth anything.

After all, on Cyber Monday, there will be more deals.

And you might want to make sure you check out The Lunatic Fringe on Cyber Monday.  We might be able to help you with your holiday shopping…or at least, a gift for yourself.

Stay tuned.  And hopefully, you have a wonderful holiday weekend!

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Cyber Monday Deals

by Kevin on November 26, 2012 at 12:01 am
It's still better than being trampled at Walmart.

You know what would be the most amazing gift you could give any Giants fan this holiday season?

How about the 2012 World Series Film and the Complete 2012 World Series Box Set?

The Lunatic Fringe is going to be giving away Three Sets of the World Series Film and Box Set!  You can win one to give away to your friends…or give to yourself.  We don’t judge.

The Box Set contains all four World Series Games, plus Game 5 of the NLDS, Game 5 of the NLCS (#RallyZito), and Matt Cain’s Perfect Game on June 13th.  The World Series games will include every game in both the TV Audio, but also provide the dream of turning off Joe Buck and listening to our announcers on the radio!  (You can also listen to the Detroit announcers, if you like indulging in the pain of others…)

The 2012 World Series Film is a documentary style capture of the San Francisco Giants’ amazing run to their second championship in three years.  The film catches all the highlights of the World Series, along with interviews with the players from both teams.  It also includes the complete NLCS Game 7, with both TV and radio broadcaster audio, as well as highlights from the Parade.

You can choose whether you want Blu-Ray or DVD!  Give these away together, or split them up and give two great gifts!

So, how do you win one of these?  Simple!  Head over to our Facebook Page, Twitter Feed, or Google Plus Page, and then post your favorite memory from this season!  We’ll then have a drawing from everyone who has posted, and pick out three winners!  It’s that easy!  You can enter once per Social Network (but only if you do a different memory on each)!  Entries must be received by December 10th, and is open only to U.S. Residents.  Also, we’ll retweet any memories posted on Twitter!

Merry Christmas, Giants Fans!

 

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