POLITICS AND BASEBALL............. STFU!

I turn to Baseball to escape politics. "Mentally". I mean it's impossible to escape politics. It's there whether you talk about it or not. The less you talk about it, the more empowered the politicians are. I started this blog because I needed a break from the 24/7 battle I was fighting as a political activist. I would never dream of mixing the two.

Last night however; while watching a certain female political talk show host, they went live to Anaheim where a bunch of "mostly Hispanics" were protesting the All-star game. But not the 2010 game, the 2011 game scheduled for Arizona. The protesters were mad at Bud Selig because Selig also refuses to mix politics and Baseball. This would be one of the few great things Selig has done for the game.

Since I don't have video of the interview (and I don't want to discuss the protest) I'll simply say that the interviewer shredded the protester. I mean, she made him look like Kanye West at the Grammies. It was pathetic. It was like watching a person drown. (only I had no feelings of throwing him a rope) He truly hurt his cause because he was so stupid. The protest is stupid. Bringing it to a Baseball event was down right offensive.

And just when I felt I couldn't take any more;(I'm yelling at my TV "STFU") the poor misguided tool adds: "and I hope the San Francisco Giants stars help win it for the national league".

Baseball and Politics.......... Worse than watching your parents have sex.

The Buster Posey Tour

Does the price of admission guarantee you a site of Buster Powey hitting a homerun deep to RCF? That's how it seems the last 6 games. BUSTER POSEY is hitting .351/7 home runs /23 RBIs and scored 21 times in only 1n only 37 games. (134 ab-bats)

It makes you ask how long would Bruce Bochy have kept Bengie Molina behind the plate? Bengie who is currently hitting .190 in Texas, was starting behind the plate forcing Buster to play 1B , thus forcing Huff to play a corner OF etc......

Bochy's handling of Posey alone should be enough to get him fired. But what's worse is Bochy's treatment of Lincecum and Huff. Sometimes you have to have faith in your bull pen to save the arms of your rotation. If not; you get sore arms in the 4th inning. Remember, these are young arms in the rotation. No pain does not mean no gain when "stretching out young arms (ucl/mcl) Keep an eye on the over-usage of Madison Bumgarner. He's already got 82 innings pitched at AAA Fresno. The balls weigh the same. How long if ever, will Bochy shut down Bumgarner? He's only 20 years old. He can't even celebrate with Champagne yet.

This is a great play off team. It has horrible managing. Just be Glad we have Buster Posey to keep things light.

Standing in the presence of Greatness

I thought when I saw McGwire, Canseco and Bonds play, that we were all so lucky to witnessing a golden age in baseball. But the only gold was the color of certain anabolics and disigner steroids kicked out by "under the radar" laboratories like BALCO. The closest I ever got to seeing greatness was getting to watch and meet Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Willie McCovey over the years. I did get to see Micky Mantle once at the Oakland Coliseum.

I have to confess that my favorite ball player of my life time, is Orel Hershiser. Orel has a record that will be hard to beat. I have good reason to believe that his record comes with no asterisk*. His performance at the 1988 world series was legendary. His performance in that season was magic.

I never got to see Mohammad Ali other than on TV, nor did I get to see Larry Holmes. (truly the greatest) I got to see Steve Young and Jerry Rice. I met Joe Montana and Dwight Clark. I drank with many Oakland Raiders. (wish I could remember all of them)

I'm proud to have seen "The Great one" Gretzky play even if it was in L.A. I never saw Mario.

I never saw Michael Jordon, The Bird or Magic.

But the current generation will have the chance to say they saw Stephen Strasburg. I don't like to use Hyperbole but this kid has some serious stuff. When I watch him pitch, I think of Mark Prior and "what could have been". I don't just think of guys like Nolan Ryan or Tom Seaver, I think of guys like Walter "The big train" Johnson. Maybe even Cy Young. He's only 21. He's an effective machine. He's been able to block out the distractions. He has the composure of a closer and the stamina of an old school "Grover Cleveland Alexander" with a 91 mph change up.

So far, only one word describes this kid. Greatness.

Externalities ~ Homecomings and Pat Burrell

I will be the first to admit that I was furious when I heard Sabean was signing Pat Burrell. Pat is a product of the Steroid era. (I know that doesn't disturb my S.F. readers.....BLB ROCKS) but as far as I'm concerned, I can't wait until everyone who played in the 2003 All-star Game is out of the game. The only 2 players who WEREN'T juicing in that game were Ichiro and Todd Helton. (Helton was battling Crohn's disease and still is)

Pat Burrell is from Eureka Springs, Arkansas. (not far from where my mom was born) and moved to California some time after the dust bowl. He went to Highschool in San Jose where he developed Bay Area roots. Out of Highschool, he attended the University of Miami where he won the Golden Spikes Award. (an award given to the best amateur Baseball athlete) Coincidentally Pat has 2 other Golden Spikes winners on the GIANTS in Tim Lincecum and one "Buster Posey". Last year's Golden Spikes award was earned by D.C. Phenom Stephen Strasburg.

Originally Sabean was not interested in signing Burrell. In fact Sabean signed him to a minor league contract (taking Buster Posey's place) with an advancement clause of a month.

When players come home it isn't always a good thing. Allstar outfielders Darryl Strawberry and Eric Davis were putting up obscene numbers in New York and Cincinnati respectively. But when both went home to L.A. in 1992 they were welcomed by poor childhood influences that did little to promote their career. (you do the math)

Adrian Gonzalez on the other hand came back to his hometown of San Diego and played as though Petco were a hitters park hitting 36 HR's in 2008 and 40 in 2009.

The 33 year old veteran of Philadelphia and Tampa Bay seems to be relaxed in his "home" environment. He's proving to be an asset to the team in more ways than one. He has been seen coaching Andres Torres on playing the massive outfield grass in Colorado. He's been seen helping the young phenom Buster Posey with hitting tips.

Pat Burrell is a new Ball Player. Instead of a big guy that was headed for the DH in the A.L., he's turned into an integral part of the San Francisco Roster.

My congratulations to the Right Handed outfielder.

GIANT SHORTSTOPS ~ and BIG SHORTSTOPS

My first shortstop Hero was Hal Lanier Then Alan Trammel. Now Troy Tulowitzki.

With the exception of one Hallard Lanier, the rest are/were capable of hitting 30-40 honest home runs.

I never cared for guys name Jose,Robbie, Johnny, Ozzie, Omar, Edgar (even on steroids) oscar, Raphael, or even "BIP". Shortstop has turned into a light power position. The league is getting saturated with guys like Hanly Ramirez, Elvus Andrus, Troy Tulowitzki, JJ Hardy, Sterling Castro, and with the exception of the latter, these are 6' shortstops not 5'9' guys from Puerto Rico. The GIANTS have plenty of great talent in the Organization. The one troubled spot in the Line up is Short stop. As mentioned many times before; Edgar Renteria is not even a shadow of his 2004 season. He continues to make bad throws. (Is his arm gone?) He struggles with laying down a bunt, and shows no reaction except for a casual sway back to the dug out. And he's simply not in the game mentally anymore. On Dexter Fowler's 2nd triple (to LCF) Rowand fired a ball to the cut off (Renteria) who bounced the relay to Sandoval at third. HE DIDN'T EVEN TRY! The next night, Renteria would go 0 for 6.

Juan Uribe who (for 3 weeks in Renteria's absence) was the sweet heart of the National League making web gem after web gem and keeping up with Aubrey Huff every time Huff hit a home run. When Renteria returned off the DL on June 16th, both Panda and Uribe adopted a "survivor" frame of mind wondering who was going to get benched so Renteria could play. Their nervousness was really obvious as they double clutched and bobbled simple grounders. I have a feeling that Edgar Renteria needs to be traded ala Bengie Molina. Then let the starters know that they're secure in their jobs. THEN if URIBE continues to slide to an unacceptable level, I would then call up UCLA 4th round draft pick Brandon Crawford.

Many famous Hall of Famers started their careers as Shortstops. Micky Mantle was a shortstop. Robin Yount played his whole rookie season as a shortstop. Eric Davis was a shortstop. Matt Williams was a shortstop. Baltimore CF Adam Jones was a pitcher/shortstop. This list goes on and on. Oh and of course, Alex Rodriguez was a gold glove shortstop before humbling himself in the New York Organization.

This GIANTS NEED TO ADDRESS their smelly issue between 2nd and 3rd. (one way or another). It's this writer's opinion that Renteria be traded for a young #5 right handed starter. If Uribe can not return to his late May or early June production; I would trade him as well and promote Brandon Crawford.

Bruce Bochy vs. Buster Posey

Bruce Bochy broke into the majors in 1978 with the Houston Astros. (1st round, 24th pick) He was never a very good catcher and for his 9 years in the bigs as a player, he never got more than 154 at-bats a season (his rookie year with Houston). He has a lifetime batting average of .239 while collecting 26 lifetime homeruns. Bochy would be the back up catcher year after year to average catchers like Alan Ashby in Houston and Terry Kennedy in San Diego. One wonders if this had an affect on Bochy's paradigm of starting catchers. In Major League Baseball; there are two types of catchers. The Alpha catcher that starts 6 out of 7 games, and the back up or beta catcher that pinch hits and gives the alpha a rest. It's common knowledge that the beta catcher knows his place in the hen pecking order and is fine with it. Beta catchers aren't usually as talented as the Alpha catcher and usually makes the squad because of his ability to pinch hit.

The Golden Spikes Award is awarded annually to the best amateur baseball player. It is awarded by USA Baseball and sponsored by the Major League Baseball Players Association. Though the award can be presented to any amateur player, it has always been given to a college baseball player.

Former Florida State catching star Buster Posey was a first round draft pick by the San Francisco Giants in 2008. (1st round, 5th pick) He was also the recipient of 2008 Golden Spikes award. (an award recently won by Stephen Strasburg, Tim Lincecum and in 2002 by Mark Prior)

In 2007 Posey was awarded the Coleman Company "Johnny Bench Award"

In Buster Posey's 2010 May 29th debut, he drove in 3 runs. He is currently hitting .302 with 2 homeruns and 11 RBIs. Buster Posey is on a completely different path from that of the 1978 Bruce Bochy. The problem is; Bruce Bochy is now Buster Posey's manager.

From an outsider's observation, it appears that Bochy has done everything to stall the progress of Buster Posey. I could be wrong (and I hope I am) but I can't see the virtue in making Posey play out of position for 29 games while allowing the slumping (and terribly out of shape)Bengie Molina to start behind the plate. It came down to Sabean trading Molina to Texas before Buster would have a chance at catching for the parent club. However in a San Francisco Chronicle article, it was reported that Bochy wanted Eli Whiteside (the back up catcher) to catch the Majority of the games during the transition to let the pitching staff get "use" to the Golden Spikes/Johnny Bench award winner. In the 4 days since the Molina trade, Posey has played first base once and was pulled out of today's game early so Whiteside could pinch run in a game the GIANTS would lose in the 15th.

Is it possible that Bruce Bochy has a chip on his shoulder concerning Buster Posey (a fan favorite)? Bochy said he was going to bench Posey against the Rockies' super star Ubaldo Jimenz in San Francisco. But he added if he did, he would be booed by 40,000 people in the stands. I think this is when the animosity started. During the recent 15 day losing streak, Bochy was trying every new line-up he could think of to play 11 position players. Most of the time Posey was squeezed out of the line up to make room for Edgar Renteria at short stop. (a move Bochy refuses to admit isn't working) Renteria took Uribe's position at shortstop, pushing Uribe to 3rd base, pushing Sandoval to 1st base, thus benching Posey.

Bochy has the talent on this team to compete in a weak NL west division. He has one of the most sought after talents that he is treating like a walk on try out. Does Bochy have his own "Good ol' boys club"? Molina (36 years old) was on a 4 for 59 slump yet continued to start behind the plate. When benched, Eli Whiteside would start.

Now that Molina is gone; the new plague is the performance of Edgar Renteria. (a one time all-star gold glove short stop) Renteria is 35. His defense is not what it was in his St.Louis days. He's spent 35 days on the DL in the first 3 months of the 2010 season. Since his return, he's hit into multiple crucial rally ending double plays. While going 0 for 6.

I have always avoided placing blame on the manager. In fact, I've given Bruce Bochy credit for the 1st place finishes he took his San Diego teams to. Yet once I started looking at the catchers he's managed, with the exception of Bengie Molina in the last 3 years, most of his starters had there time behind the plate split up amongst the back up catchers. Ramone Hernandez averaged 350 at bats per season in San Diego. It's really safe to say that Bruce Bochy favors back up catchers.

Buster Posey has been compared to Minnesota's Joe Mauer. Mauer had 523 at bats last year.

Major League Baseball is full of great managers that were awful players. Many of them were back up catchers(Gene Lamont) or utility infielders (Tony LaRussa/Sparky Anderson) Some feel that rookie prospects have to "pay their dues" before they are given a chance in the bigs. This seems to be the issue with Bruce Bochy. Some of Bochy's recent statements would scare me if I was an owner of the team. When asked recently about the log jam of talent, Bochy replied:"I can't play all of them". Then in another statement he said: "I'll get them all in there". This isn't the sound of a bold leader. This is the sound of someone trying to please everyone. We know you can please some of the people some of the time etc......

Buster Posey could easily be the best catcher in San Francisco GIANTS history. Not even Tom Haller would disagree with that. But if Bochy treats Posey the same way he treated Ramone Hernandez; don't be surprised when Posey is looking at Yankee dollars once he's a free agent.

The GIANTS and The Cherry Tree

I spent Yesterday cutting back a tremendously overgrown cherry tree. I had two very effective tools. I had a hand axe and a set of trimming sheers. (designed for cutting small branches) I whacked away at this huge tree for an hour or two. Then I came upon a really stubborn limb.

It was too small for the axe, yet too big for the hand trimmers. For some reason I started thinking about the GIANTS roster issue and current losing streak.

It finally came to me that using the axe was futile. Just as going in and making whole sale changes would be on the GIANTS roster. I also realized that trying to take big bites with the hand sheers was painfully futile as well. Both methods ended in defeat.

I decided to relax and take simple small bites with the hand sheers. I cut through this one branch quite quickly with this approach. It wasn't necessary for any of the other branches except this one.

What does this have to do with the GIANTS?

At the end of June people were panicking and saying the GIANTS needed a left handed hitter. They NEEDED PRINCE FIELDER. Some were even saying TRADE POSEY AND BUMGARNER for FIELDER. (as if we didn't have enough overweight ball players in this organization) I call that drastic. (STUPID) Sort of like using the Axe.

At the same time screwing with the line up and making little tweaks here and there without a plan was simply aggravating the whole 25 man roster.

Then the Molina trade came. It was a small move, but many parts seem to be falling into place. Today the GIANTS played the regulars where they played during the previous winning streak and they played with more confidence. Letting Travis Ishikawa start at first base was brilliant. (see yesterday's article about "Ishikawa is too good to be sitting on the bench) With Molina gone the GIANTS could make steady progress just as I did on that stubborn branch. The key was to remain calm and utilize a plan. In the last two weeks it looked like Bochy was just trying to please 11 guys when only 8 could start. That turned all 11 into part time players with no regulars. It's OK to platoon your left fielder or your DH (in the AL) but in this game, you need consistency day in and day out to play championship baseball.

For two weeks, it was obvious that Bochy was panicking and without a plan. Yesterday Aubrey Huff said, "Sometimes you just got to say screw it and relax and try to have fun". There were plenty of smiles in Colorado today. Congratulations GIANTS on ending your 7 game losing streak.

BTW, HAPPY AND GLORIOUS INDEPENDENCE DAY AMERICA!