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

03.31.2008
3/31/08: The Script

Dodgers 5, Giants 0. It's important to avoid pegging a season to Opening Day. It's what non-fans do. You show up at work the next morning, and the non-fans, having glanced at the newspaper headlines over some guy's shoulder on the bus, say to you, because they know you're a big fan, "Wow, looks like they're going to be bad this year!" Non-fans don't quite understand that baseball takes 162 games, not 16.

Having said that: Yuck. In the post-game show, Mike Krukow said it's too bad the game went according to the script that lots of people have already written for the Giants, and to those people, Game 1 proves the script right. I have no illusions, either, but what am I going to do every time the hitting sucks, the defense is a bit leaky, and the $126 million starting pitcher throws like Josh Fogg? Write a post that basically says, "We all told you so" and drop a picnic basket full of all-caps f-bombs? Booooooooooooring.

Side note: Chris Haft at mlb.com reports that Zito lacked zip on his fastball; Zito himself made post-game comments on the need for more speed. Um, hello? Has the Bonds Eraser also worked on your memory of Zito's 2007? The radar gun hasn't changed a whit. This is not a new problem.

But again: this we all know. What I'd like to do instead is talk about the upside of each loss. In his pregame comments earlier today, Grant put it nicely: "A good season will be measured by achievable goals." In other words, now that we all agree that being a Giants fan in 2008 is the equivalent of cheering for your spastic 7-year-old when he hits the ball forward instead of backward in T-Ball, let's find something in each crap-ass game we can view through rose-colored glasses.

Today's upside: Brian Bocock. Bless his naive single-A soul, but didn't he know he was supposed to swing at anything and everything against big bad Brad Penny? Instead he walked twice, and for good measure made a sparkling play in the field (I hope they post the video clip). Yeah, he got picked off by one of the sneakiest leftiest malos in the game, but that's still a major-league strap-it-on how-do-you-do welcome-to-the-bigs-rook kinda day.
 


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[April 1, 2008 2:49 AM]  |  link  |  reply
mxmob33 said

That article does seem rather ridiculous considering Zito sat in the low 80s all of last year as well. Unless by "small tweak away", Zito means a visit to Giambi and Tejada for some "B12".

[April 1, 2008 8:19 AM]  |  link  |  reply
bbstucco said

Hey! That new third baseman hits into double plays! Just like our old third baseman! In fact, he looks just like the old guy, but with less power and an inferior glove.

Hey! Our opening day starting pitcher (now 0-4 on opening day) throws in the low 80's, just like he did last year. And the hitters were able to sit on his fastball and smack him around, just like last year. And we have him for 6 mor years!

Hey! Our big new aquisition actually got 2 hits, but of course, was batting 6th. Because that's where you put your biggest offensive threat, right?

Hey! This game went exactly the way we (lunatic frigne) said it would. Hmmm.

[April 1, 2008 10:16 AM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive replied to bbstucco

If we grant you that it did go exactly as you all said it would, if the script changed and didn't go exactly as you all said it would, then would you all said that you got it wrong?

I didn't think so.

[April 1, 2008 11:28 AM]  |  link  |  reply
bbstucco replied to obsessivegiantscompulsive

Oh come on now. If the Giants ran off a 10 game winning streak and looked awesome at the plate, if Durham started hitting his way out of a paper bag and Castilla provided the offensive spark we're missing and so forth, we'd all give credit where credit is due. We're fans, we want the team to do well.

We've spent a couple of years saying "Hey, that thing Sabean's trying to do, it's not workming, and it's going to make the team even worse!" And the team has failed to reach .500 for 3 years and this year look to be possibly the worst team in baseball.

It's not fun to say we told you so. I'd rather say "Wow. We were all wrong, Rich Aurillia still has 20+ HR power and Vizquel's got another .275 season in him. I never would have thought it, but hat's off to Sabes for having faith.

But that's not going to happen.

Play the kids. Lose 110. Get the #1 pick in the draft. Come back to mediocraty in 2009, compete in 2010.

[April 1, 2008 10:52 AM]  |  link  |  reply
reeky said

Señor Malo, you are right. This is going to be a lemon the size of the sun, so it's time for everybody to drink the lemonade. Lots of it. Gallons and barrels and shiploads...Hey, the kids are alright! Gotta love that 8th-inning lineup!!

Hey, we could be rooting for the 1899 Cleveland Spiders where Attendancee was so bad that games were played in other cities.

And here is a look-on-the-good-side list from that team's press:

- There is everything to hope for and nothing to fear.
- Defeats do not disturb one's sleep.
- An occasional victory is a surprise and a delight.
- There is no danger of any club passing you.
- You are not asked 50 times a day, "What was the score?" People take it for granted that you lost.


But I love Zito's line about the missed called strike on Kent: "That could have been the difference right there." Yeah, sure baby, anything you say. Never mind the other balloons with stitches. The problem with Zito? Can we say "anti-contract year"? I'm sure somebody's run the numbers on how players improve in the year before their contract comes due. Zito's in the 7-year opposite of that effect. Our only hope is a non-performance lawsuit, or DFA and eat the $100 mil.

Oh well, the *real* season starts today -- go Cain!

[April 1, 2008 11:33 AM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM replied to reeky

Yeah, drink the lemonade, but don't drink the Kool-Aid. We're certainly not absolving the brass for getting the team into this mess.

[April 1, 2008 1:25 PM]  |  link  |  reply
the gene hackman said

I'm a believer in velez, so far.

You might say I'm veleasy like sunday morning.