[Mick]

1727042775[/url]']
Giants swept the Royals on the road, winning 2-0 today. Snell pitched six shutout innings, nine strikeouts, he's 5-3. 1.23 ERA since he came back in early July. Giants are 77-79. Ryan Walker got his ninth save. Probably see him as closer next year. I think both Walker and Ty Rogers will have 80+ appearances by end of year.

The game reminded me of the Kansas City World Series in 2014, Giants winning in seven. Bumgarner pitched 21 of the 61 innings in that series. That was a great game 7...Huddy started, gave up both runs early, was out after 1 2/3. Affeldt came in for 2 1/3rd, he actually got the win. Bumgarner threw five full innings in relief, giving up just two hits and no walks.

The Giants were supremely lucky that year. Not only did they win the single wild card game vs. the Pirates, they only had two starting pitchers that won more than nine games in Bumgarner (18-10) and Lincecum (12-9). Tim Hudson (9-13), Ryan Vogelsong (8-13) had rough years. Peavy, Cain and Petit rotated for the fifth spot, starting 39 games, going 13-16. The core four (Affeldt, Romo, Lopes and Casilla) had  superb years, but so did Jean Machi (7-1) and George Kontos (4-0).

The 2014 series was interesting. Buster Posey had a terrible series, going 4 for 26. Affeldt pitched in four games...the only other pitcher who appeared in four games was a toxic young pitcher named Hunter Strickland. You may remember that Bryce Harper took Strickland deep several times, and Strickland would hit Harper with a pitch in retaliation...three years later. In the subsequent melee, Michael Morse took a shot to the head that effectively ended his career. 

Strickland had the second worst ERA in that 2014 series. The Giants spent five years trying to turn Strickland into a reliever, couldn't do it. He's still pitching. He's so unpopular with his teammates that he has never spent more than a single consecutive year with any other team. He spent 2023 in the minors, then went 3-1 with the Angels this year in 69 appearances.  He's played with eight teams in a 10 year career.

Posey going 4-26 tells only a part.  He caught every inning.  And that series was about pitching.  He was exhausted at the end of that series.

Posey caught every inning of every playoff game during his tenure.

I'd throw in hitting and fielding, too.  Pence, Sandoval, Belt and Crawford had great series at the plate, as did Arias and Duffy in limited roles. The Giants only had two errors in seven games and gave up no unearned runs. The Giants turned nine double plays in seven games. By way of comparison, the typical team averages slightly more than one error every other game and three DPs every four games. The Giants considerably outperformed both metrics.

If you're referring to the Big Four (Affeldt, Romo, Lopez and Casilla; total ERA 0.00) and Bumgarner (21 IP, 0.43 ERA), I totally agree. Petit, Hudson, Strickland, Machi, Vogey and Peavy had a collective 8.56 ERA and a 1-3 record. Overall the team's ERA was 3.98, a half-run above their 2014 regular season ERA.

I thought Bochy did an incredible job, outmanaging Ned Yost (Royals), Mike Matheny (Cardinals), Matt Williams (Nationals, and winner of Coach of the Year) and Clint Hurdle (Pirates, 2nd in voting for Coach of the Year). Bochy had a really good team, but only Buster and Hunter had MVP votes, finishing sixth and 11th respectively (out of 25).

[Mick]

1727042775[/url]']
Giants swept the Royals on the road, winning 2-0 today. Snell pitched six shutout innings, nine strikeouts, he's 5-3. 1.23 ERA since he came back in early July. Giants are 77-79. Ryan Walker got his ninth save. Probably see him as closer next year. I think both Walker and Ty Rogers will have 80+ appearances by end of year.

The game reminded me of the Kansas City World Series in 2014, Giants winning in seven. Bumgarner pitched 21 of the 61 innings in that series. That was a great game 7...Huddy started, gave up both runs early, was out after 1 2/3. Affeldt came in for 2 1/3rd, he actually got the win. Bumgarner threw five full innings in relief, giving up just two hits and no walks.

The Giants were supremely lucky that year. Not only did they win the single wild card game vs. the Pirates, they only had two starting pitchers that won more than nine games in Bumgarner (18-10) and Lincecum (12-9). Tim Hudson (9-13), Ryan Vogelsong (8-13) had rough years. Peavy, Cain and Petit rotated for the fifth spot, starting 39 games, going 13-16. The core four (Affeldt, Romo, Lopes and Casilla) had  superb years, but so did Jean Machi (7-1) and George Kontos (4-0).

The 2014 series was interesting. Buster Posey had a terrible series, going 4 for 26. Affeldt pitched in four games...the only other pitcher who appeared in four games was a toxic young pitcher named Hunter Strickland. You may remember that Bryce Harper took Strickland deep several times, and Strickland would hit Harper with a pitch in retaliation...three years later. In the subsequent melee, Michael Morse took a shot to the head that effectively ended his career. 

Strickland had the second worst ERA in that 2014 series. The Giants spent five years trying to turn Strickland into a reliever, couldn't do it. He's still pitching. He's so unpopular with his teammates that he has never spent more than a single consecutive year with any other team. He spent 2023 in the minors, then went 3-1 with the Angels this year in 69 appearances.  He's played with eight teams in a 10 year career.

Posey going 4-26 tells only a part.  He caught every inning.  And that series was about pitching.  He was exhausted at the end of that series.

Posey caught every inning of every playoff game during his tenure.

I'd throw in hitting and fielding, too.  Pence, Sandoval, Belt and Crawford had great series at the plate, as did Arias and Duffy in limited roles. The Giants only had two errors in seven games and gave up no unearned runs. The Giants turned nine double plays in seven games. By way of comparison, the typical team averages slightly more than one error every other game and three DPs every four games. The Giants considerably outperformed both metrics.

If you're referring to the Big Four (Affeldt, Romo, Lopez and Casilla; total ERA 0.00) and Bumgarner (21 IP, 0.43 ERA), I totally agree. Petit, Hudson, Strickland, Machi, Vogey and Peavy had a collective 8.56 ERA and a 1-3 record. Overall the team's ERA was 3.98, a half-run above their 2014 regular season ERA.

I thought Bochy did an incredible job, outmanaging Ned Yost (Royals), Mike Matheny (Cardinals), Matt Williams (Nationals, and winner of Coach of the Year) and Clint Hurdle (Pirates, 2nd in voting for Coach of the Year). Bochy had a really good team, but only Buster and Hunter had MVP votes, finishing sixth and 11th respectively (out of 25).