When the Giants Come to Town, It's Bye-Bye Baby

06.02.2007
Post-Game 6/1: The Suspense Is Killin' Me

No, not the suspense of tonight’s game, which was over by the third inning. It’s the suspense of meeting the Giants’ new closer, or next closer, or closer-of-the-day. Whoever it is, he better have closer face, as explained here by the good citizens of Fire-Joe-Morganville. (It’s funny. Read it.)

PLODAG: Randy “Notmando” Messenger, making his Giants debut with a scoreless inning. Guess who also threw a scoreless inning in relief tonight? 
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[June 2, 2007 4:44 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Josh from Hollywood said
[June 2, 2007 6:28 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Will C said

Linden also pinch-hit for Benitez in the Florida game. Now all we need to do is trade Pedro Feliz for Josh Willingham and the whole gang's down there in the sun!

Some of Messenger's peripherals are pretty gross but nobody's hitting him with power and I can hardly complain - I was in the "trade Benitez for anything" camp.

I like Brad Hennessey as the closer.

[June 2, 2007 12:50 PM]  |  link  |  reply
BawLa said

Randy said that he just developed the slider and the split-finger pitches last year so he is still pretty raw. But I like his size. He is this truly a "Giant". He didn't throw the slider last night, but he did have a nice curve and decent command on his fastballs. I think we made out of this deal pretty well, considering that most of us would have been happy with a bag of potato chips for Mando.

I for one, have been expecting Randy Winn to cool off, but it just isn't happening. Even when he has an 0-4 night, he hits every ball hard and to gaps. If we can get Roberts back and producing, then the top of our order will have a little more punch.

[June 2, 2007 1:19 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Elbo said

Yes, 'Mando did throw a scoreless inning for the Marlins, but that four-pitch walk to the leadoff man couldn't have inspired too much confidence.

[June 2, 2007 3:31 PM]  |  link  |  reply
SC said

Then he gets 3 outs on the next 5 pitches.

[June 2, 2007 3:42 PM]  |  link  |  reply
BawLa said

Can't you guys just let Mando go? Why would you even follow him after all the crap he left us? The same goes for everyone who dwells on the fact that Accardo and Nathan etc, etc, are performing well. Well thats great, but they aren't Giants anymore so GET OVER IT!

[June 2, 2007 6:43 PM]  |  link  |  reply
bbstucco said

I have no idea who this person named Benitez is. Not a clue. Nathan? Accardo? Nothing. Ex-Giants abound.

Doesn't mean I can't hate Sabean for making the deals that scooted them out of town, though.

But I am firmly convinced that Randy Messenger will be our savior.

[June 3, 2007 2:27 PM]  |  link  |  reply
BawLa said

bbstucco - I have no problem if you hated the moves Sabean made at the time he made them. But if you are judging him based on how you see the players performed well after the trade then there is no vilidity to your feelings. Anyone can sit back and make judgements about the past after you see the outcome. But Sabean was making the moves to give us a chance to win at the time. And most of us thought that Pierzinsky and Hillenbrand were guys that would give us that extra edge we needed. They didn't perform - it happens. The real question is has Sabean learned from his mistakes? We shall see.

As other people have noted, a bunch of our pitchers seem to have more success after going to another organization. Which speaks volumes to me about how maybe Rags needs to go.

[June 3, 2007 5:33 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Jonathan Bass said

The Nathan trade was ridiculous at the time and many said so. Nathan had closer stuff and was coming off a year with a 20+ scoreless inning streak and a sub-3 ERA. Trading him away from a team in dire need of bullpen help and a big bat to protect Bonds for a singles-hitting, weak-armed catcher was an absolutely ridiculous mistake. It is perfectly legitimate to question the move.

I also continue to have serious questions about Righetti. We've had a lot of young arms in the pen with great stuff over the past few years(Nathan, Accardo, Wilson, Correia, Taschner) and all seem to fail here and blossom elsewhere. No one can tell me that a Mazzone or someone of his ilk couldn't build a great pen with the arms that the Giants have. I like the way Boch is managing the staff this year in-game, but I still sense that we're not getting the between-game development of our young pitchers.

[June 3, 2007 7:29 PM]  |  link  |  reply
bpfastball said

"And most of us thought that Pierzinsky and Hillenbrand were guys that would give us that extra edge we needed."

Pierzynski maybe (though I was not for this trade at the time), but there was no way on God's green earth Shea Hillenbrand was going to help the Giants last year.

All due respect to the Nathan, Liriano and Bonser deal and it's place in the pantheon of all time bad Giants trades, but I think Accardo for Hillenbrand was equally as bad, if not worse, because it proved Sabean didn't learn shit about holding on to good young pitching after his deal with the Twins went south.

It's also what petrifies me about potential trades in the next couple months.

[June 4, 2007 11:01 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Lyle said

Good point, bp. As Jonathan said, the trade was bad at the time, particularly with Nen's injury status. But the fact that Sabean didn't learn anything from it...