Game 4: Giants - Rangers or "A Night with a Tortured Giants Fan"

Today, I'll just write my thoughts as the game progresses. That should be entertaining. I'll try to filter the language for the young people. But hey, NO GUARANTEES.

Fox Pre-Game nonsense:

We can't even get to the first pitch before I'm ready to turn the sound off on these guys.

First, in pre-game Eric Karros makes me reach for something to throw at him by saying, 'Whoever wins this game, is going to win the series'. Maybe Mr. Karros doesn't read my blog, but it's Game Five that becomes the pivotal game and that's IF the Rangers win Game Four. Sheesh, and this guy played in the bigs, he should understand momentum.

Then Buck and McCarver do the pre-game happy talk and Buck says that Bochy doesn't want to go to Game Five versus Cliff Lee even up at two games apiece. Certainly not the preference, but correct me if I'm wrong here Bucky-beaver:
a) the Giants beat Cliff Lee and
b) the Giants will have Tim Lincecum on the mound, a guy who does a lot to inspire confidence in a manager.

My wife says they are just trying to build drama and interest for the casual fan, who if we believe the initial rating returns (second lowest rated WS game), are not watching anyway. But by doing that, they lose credibility in the eyes of the knowledgeable, hard-core baseball fans who certainly are viewing these early games. A delicate balancing act, I suppose.

I put the remote outside of my immediate reach, since I won't be flipping tonight, and these guys are under my skin already.

Burrell and Sandoval are on the pine, replaced by Nate Schierholz and Travis Ishakawa. Right now, the right thing to do. Burrell has been a windmill for most of the playoffs. Sandoval has been one for most of the season. All about the approach. Both are hot / cold, 'all or nothing' type hitters as a result. Burrell is more patient at times, so his recent demise is more surprising. Plus he has been in the World Series before. Kudos to Bochy for utilizing the bench when he needs it.

1st inning: I don't know what Posey is looking for up there, he seems to be taking some hittable pitches lately and putting himself into bad counts.

Both pitchers searching for the whereabouts of the strike zone. Can't say that either pitcher is at fault. Blue seems to be a little tight today. Maybe they're getting paid by the hour tonight.

2nd inning: Giants catch a break on the Ishakawa DP, not called on the 1B side. Out by a quarter stride, that call has to be made at this level.

Hamilton makes a great catch to save a run in CF. Both pitchers are struggling with the umpires tight strike zone so neither one may go more than six innings. Hopefully, that favors the good guys innings 7-9. Keep it close guys and steal it in the end.

Umpire opens it up (a little) in the second, he must be hearing it from both sides. He's not calling pitches on 'the black' or on the border of Foxies Pitch Tracker service. Nobody will bitch if you call that one. And you don't get graded as a miss, within the margin of error.

Bumgarner still pitching behind too much. That's going to come back to bite him. We'll see who gets an easy inning or two first. Top of the order in the third for the Gigantes, gotta make something happen.

3rd inning: Torres leads off with a double and I finally agree with the announcers, 'why is Sanchez bunting?' This isn't Lee - Lincecum dealing aces where one run is precious. Swing away, Boche!!

The Rangers scouting report on the Giants must be littered with 'sliders away'. And that would make it a decent report. Sanchez battling. Usually good things happen for hitters when you see > 5 pitches in an AB. Nope. He doesn't move the runner, pulls it to 3B and grounds out. Bad AB.

HUFF JOINS THE PARTY THE WAY WE LIKE!!! ALBEIT SANS THONG. CRUSH DADDY!!! GIANTS 2-0.

Posey looks at borderline strike three. Pitch Tracker confirms, outside by quite a bit. That's what happens when your approach is confused up there. You lose the benefit of the doubt. Not much doubt about that one though. I thought catchers usually get the benefit of the doubt. Maybe not in the bigs. Or maybe Buster's not smelling so nice back there today. ;) I wouldn't want to see Bumgarner and Posey get crossed up. Somebody could get hurt back there. Nah, stakes are too high to screw around here.

That's a Ball / Strike miss and a Bases miss so far. One in favor, one opposed. They even out long term, but short term - still BRUTAL.

Fox shows the classic Nolan Ryan - Robin Vetura bout which Ryan won by TKO. CLASSIC!! There are some things that never get old.

Bumgarner settling in. A breezy third inning.

4th Inning: Uribe just missed one. He didn't think so, he struck the pose before he left the batters box, but the wind may have knocked it down. Now Hudson breezing, a rocket grounder to the 2B, two quick outs. Rangers bullpen busy already. Can't take any chances tonight.

Renteria hits a long single, nice play by Cruz to hold him there. Had double written on it. Cruz got out his eraser. Could be a big play, that doesn't show up in the score book.

Schierholz down quick two strikes. Now 2-2, not bad, making him work. Lazy fly ball ends the Giants half.

Young busts the no-no, not by much, great effort. Another great effort by Sanchez to get one on the tag of Young. Hamilton hit a rocket that Bumgarner deflects to Sanchez. One on, one out.
Vladdie tries to tie it with one swing. Bumgarner makes him chase. Good pitch. The change-up is so very underrated.

POSEY THROWS A SEED TO SECOND TO NAIL HAMILTON TRYING TO STEAL!!! NICE CATCH / TAG BY SANCHEZ.

If he's not the Rookie of the Year, a crime has been committed. I know the ballots must have been cast before all this happens, but how dumb do you have to feel now if you didn't vote for this kid and you see what he's doing in this environment. He didn't get demonstrably better overnight, right?

5th Inning: Ogando the new pitcher for Texas. Giants looking for a tack on or two. Torres hits a lazy fly. Sanchez up. Hey how many times do you see a guy make a great play in the field and bat second in the next half of the inning? OH, SHUT UP SLAVIK!!! No, I won't!!! Mathematically and in real-life it happens about as expected: about 11.1% or 1/9th of the time. In other words, it's a relatively random occurrence when the guys leads off, we just attach more weight or notice it more when it does happen, giving the impression that it happens more frequently than it actually does.

While I was typing that Stat 101 / human behavior / mind tricks primer, Huff struck out meekly, making Ogando look like an All-Star. Weak half inning offensively. TORTURE RETURNS!!

Speaking of which, I'm a bit torn here. I hope that isn't the only hit Bumgarner gives up but I don't want to see him get hit any further. Ross screws me up further with a great defensive play to rob Ian Kinsler. Way to screw me up further Cody!!! I love 'The Cody Ross Experience' And I kind of hate Kinsler. Maybe it's the hair. Or his demeanor. I'd like him if he played for us though, so don't go pissy on me Ranger fans.

Bungarner finishes the fifth economically. That helps. If he give six, all good, Seven and I might go all Chris Matthews and get a tingle up my leg. I'm sorry, that's just not something a man should say about another man. Don't remind me about some of my Buster Posey posts or things I've said in the past about Phil Simms, that's different. Simms won a Super Bowl, dude. So it's all good.

6th Inning: Speaking of Posey, weak grounder to third. They have a good report on him so far. Or kryptonite. Ross goes for the downs, on a ball in the dirt. These guys are starting to piss me off. Slider ends Ross. Good advance scouts these Rangers must have. Uribe hacks. Ogando throws a slider to Odessa. So wild he strained an oblique. Dude, a run of the mill slider usually sits Uribe. Just don't hang the sucker. Ogando leaves with a tummy ache. Hockey players worldwide ROTFLAO!!!! Me too. I just consulted my copy of the Rangers advance scouting report on Uribe and it says "pick a slider, any slider, even the cement mixer spinner - anywhere close, he'll hack". Rangers advance scouts worldwide Rolling On The Floor Puking. Not sure if ROTFP is a universally recognized acronym for that, but I have some time to kill while the Rangers reliever relieves himself, or warms up or whatever.

McCarver has a spider over his head, which a) I hope is real and poisonous and b) poised to strike if he says anything stupid, which he is due for. Darren Oliver in relief. Bad stuff happening, we're not capitalizing as Uribe skies weakly to Molina. Baseball gods will not be happy, are poised to strike Giants. You can just feel it. Bumgarner the only thing standing in the way.

Mitch Moreland has another great AB for a single. The Giants should tape his AB's and make their hitters watch it until their eyes bleed. Never mind the 'Tom Emansky: Teaching the Fundamentals of the Major League Swing'. Parts I or II. Just dial into the Moreland approach and good things will follow. Are you listening Hensley?

Another DP, looks like he may have beat that out, though. LOVE THE DP. Umpires best friend. No replay, must not have been as close as it looked. Oh no, here we go. OOPS, BLUE ANOTHER ONE!!! Dude is having a tough night over at first. Maybe that angle is not working out for him.....But,........he's the major league umpire and I'm not. Not to go all teenage girl on you but, 'Life is so not fair'. I wonder how Jacklyn is doing?

7th Inning:
Ishakawa 打席に弱い ( phonetically: Daseki ni yowai ) weak at bat in Japanese. Giants offense is as boring as it is torturous, so I was using some advanced Google features....oh look, Renteria gets another hit. Next game, he bats all times in the order. Schierholtz looks over a slider away, for a backwards-K. What a surprise, that these guys would pound sliders away against the Giants. What are they thinking? Ewwwwweeeee, Torres shoots the gap, double to knock in Renteria. Giants 3-0. And Sanchez taps back to Oliver to end the inning.

Nice rendition of God Bless America for the seventh inning stretch. Texas does patriotism right, we're really going to miss them if things gets worse in this country and they exercise their rights to secede. But I digress. As I often do.

O'Day warming up. He's the kind of pitcher that you love to see coming in and then he shuts you down. Bumgarner K's Michael Young, He's dealing. He got a break on one that Young didn't like, but Bumgarner is getting the benefit of the doubt. Young still had a chance to hit and Bumgarner threw one past him.

Hamilton gets sawed off and Uribe is so distressed, he boots it. That freaking hurt from here. E-Uribe. Bumgarner has to get tough here. He has Guerrero down 1-2.

Tries to make him fish again. No bite. 2-2. Big AB. Misses 3-2. Still just one pitch away.

GOT HIM WITH THE CHANGE!!! HAT TRICK VLADDIE!!!

Don't let up here. Cruz can hurt you. Base hit. Nice piece of hitting by Cruz. Shot it right up the middle

Kinsler brings the tying run to the plate. Strike One. Good pitch. Kinsler not happy. Lazy liner to Cosy Ross ends it. Now, Kinsler has a good reason to be not happy.

BUMGARNER, TOUGH AS NAILS!!!

Casilla warming up in the bullpen. Bummgarner starts the inning for me, somebody has to get on first. Maybe score a run. They may never get to Bummer. We'll see how Bochy handles it.

Eight Inning:
Oliver still in for Texas, Huff grounds weakly to 1B.

The Darren O'Day - Buster Posey match up Part II. Gosh, I hope Buster reads my blog. If he did, he would know exactly what to do.

I outlined it here:
http://slavieboy.blogspot.com/2010/10/moreland-explains-his-game-winning-hr.html

Buster Posey also had a disappointing key AB versus Darren O' Day. As soon as Washington brought him in I said I like the matchup, but it was clear O'day wanted to get him on the sidearm curve to the outside corner or darting off the black. Posey made no visible adjustment to his stance or position in the batters box to accommodate that pitch. The guy doesn't throw hard enough to break a pane of glass (easy for me to say, I know) so you crowd the plate more, dare him to fit one through a mail slot to hit the inside corner, at the same time Posey would be in better position to punish the outside corner. Not second guessing, I told my wife before the pitch, when Molina went out to talk, if he throws the curve to the outside corner, he'll get him, he's got to go the other way. And sure enough, he went there, and worse it seems as if Posey tried to pull it instead of going the other way (he may have been out front). Generally, if you try to pull an outside pitch, weak grounders to the pull side or popups ensue. Bad AB.

We shall see if he learned something. If he didn't, I'm going to be REALLY MAD!!! Not so much that he pissed away another AB, but that he doesn't read my blog. THAT WOULD REALLY PISS ME OFF, BUSTER!!!

1-2 pretty quick. No discernible change in approach so I can feel my pulse quicken. Fouls one off.

HOME RUN TO DEAD CENTER FOR BUSTER POSEY!!!!! OMG, MAYBE HE DOES READ MY BLOG!!!!

Or maybe he's just a major league hitter and I'm just a fan writing a blog. But who cares now, right? Giants up 4-0.

Cody Ross goes down, Uribe up. We got the tack on run we've been looking for. Uribe doesn't leave anything on the table with his swing. EVER!!! Have to take the good with the bad, I guess.

Uribe fouls to 1B to end it. Four up with six out left. I like our chances here.

Francoeur leads off against Bumgarner. 2-1 to start. Francoeur just misses leaving the yard to left. One out.

Bengie Molina up. Bumgarner dealing at 91. 1-1 to start. Misses outside 2-1. Still throwing hard. Molina hits an 'at 'em ball ' laser beam liner right at Cody Ross in LF for the second out.

Lopez and Wilson warming up in the bullpen. Bumgarner at 102 pitches. Moreland up for the Rangers. Good AB expected here. 1-2 count to start him. Moreland has him right where he wants him. MadBum misses 2-2 count. Misses in the dirt 3-2. I like this Moreland kids hitting approach a lot. Got him looking.

BUMGARNER IS NAILS!!!!

WE GO TO THE NINTH INNING - GIANTS 4, RANGERS 0!!!

9th Inning: Derek Holland in for the Rangers. Let's see if he can throw a strike. Starts 2-0. Maybe not.He throws a strike and the Rangers fans cheer. I'm detecting sarcasm. He walks Ishakawa. Now I sense building anger and disgust.

Strike one to Renteria. Throws one under his hands strike two swinging. Strike Three looking to Renteria. Looked good. Renteria didn't offer. No argument.

Schierholz up. Painted the black outside to Nate. He stays there he'll get him, lefty / lefty. Schierholz skies to center, two outs.

Torres from the right side. Torres even at 2-2. Fouls a 95 MPH heater off. Looking for a gapper here. Nope, grounds out third to second.

Here we go, onto the ninth, top of the order due up for the Rangers. I think Bumgarner starts the inning. This may be the last game he has to pitch this season. He's a little high in the pitch count, but with the adrenaline flowing, I think I let a batter tell me that he's done for the night, then go to Brian Wilson for the close. That's the Nolan Ryan approach to developing pitchers. Old School. I think I like it here for us too.

Nope. Brian Wilson opens the ninth. Great effort by Bumgarner. Beard don't fail us now.

Elvis Andrus lines to Schierholz in RF for the first out.

Michael Young. Strike One. Misses for a ball. Misses again. Strike Two. Got him with a half swing. Two outs.

Josh Hamilton steps in. Close the deal, Brian. Strike One. Swings at a slider inside, strike two. I think he has him. Got him on a half swing.

WILSON CLOSES!!! BUMGARNER GETS HIS DUE TONIGHT!!!

Giants are up 3-1 and look to close it out tomorrow.

We've been here before and closer actually.

So hopefully the boys take nothing for granted and close the deal.

Moreland explains his game winning HR and why the Giants are Boom or Bust

Mitch Moreland explains his approach to his game winning AB versus Jonathan Sanchez and by contrast demonstrates why the Giants tend to be boom or bust. IMO. Moreland may be on the verge of becoming the Rangers answer to The Cody Ross Experience. A folk hero in the making.

from espn.com
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs/2010/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=5748057

Moreland collected four hits in a mere 20 regular-season at-bats against lefties. But against Sanchez, he simply refused to be denied. After going up 2-0 in the count, he hit a long foul fly to right field. Then came a fastball for a called strike to even the count. Sanchez followed with four straight sliders and changeups, and Moreland fouled off all four to hang tough at 2-2.

"It was kind of down and in, and I just reacted. I'm not going to say if that's my sweet spot. I don't even know if I have a sweet spot."

Finally it came time for one more fastball, and Moreland didn't miss it. He drove the pitch into the right field seats to put Texas up 3-0 and give his hometown cause to bust its buttons with pride.

"I just wanted to stay short and get the barrel to it,'' Moreland said. "It was kind of down and in, and I just reacted. I'm not going to say if that's my sweet spot. I don't even know if I have a sweet spot.''

Moreland was willing to 'stay short' or shorten his swing to battle Sanchez. The Giants demonstrated in the ninth inning versus Neftali Perez, that they would rather go down flailing like windmills in overdrive than shorten up their swings to make contact. The pitcher is supplying the power, throwing 97-98 MPH. A screaming, line drive gapper in one of those spots would have worked just as well as a HR. And until you had at least one guy on base in the ninth, bringing the tying run to the plate, you have no business swinging from your heels. Just dumb, wasted, unproductive AB's. Not even a loud foul ball in the bunch.

Buster Posey also had a disappointing key AB versus Darren O' Day. As soon as Washington brought him in I said I like the matchup, but it was clear O'day wanted to get him on the sidearm curve to the outside corner or darting off the black. Posey made no visible adjustment to his stance or position in the batters box to accommodate that pitch. The guy doesn't throw hard enough to break a pane of glass (easy for me to say, I know) so you crowd the plate more, dare him to fit one through a mail slot to hit the inside corner, at the same time Posey would be in better position to punish the outside corner. Not second guessing, I told my wife before the pitch, when Molina went out to talk, if he throws the curve to the outside corner, he'll get him, he's got to go the other way. And sure enough, he went there, and worse it seems as if Posey tried to pull it instead of going the other way (he may have been out front). Generally, if you try to pull an outside pitch, weak grounders to the pull side or popups ensue. Bad AB.

Rangers win MUST game as Giants revert back to BOOM or BUST

The Rangers won a game they HAD to win. The Giants lost a game it would have been nice to win. Any time an NFL game features a game where one team MUST win versus another team that would LIKE to win, I go with the team that MUST win. The old cornered rat thing. Or the boxer, backed into the corner. The only way out is to punch back. If you curl up and take the hits, it's not long before you are counted out.

And so the Rangers win 4-2. The Giants will not sweep the series. But who really thought they would? If you told me after three games, 'the Giants will be up 2-1' I would have taken it. The difference in the game: The Rangers 2 HR's were a 3-run blast and a solo versus the Giants 2 solo jobs. That's it.

Andres Torres gets his signature hit. The Cody Ross Experience continues with another HR, his fifth of the post season. Huffie laces a laser beam double. Burrell is struggling. PAINFULLY STRUGGLING.

The Rangers still have to run the table at home and get one in Frisco, so we're still in pretty good shape.

I like the match-up today MadBum versus Hunter. Both young pitchers so who knows which pitcher shows up. If Bumgarner settles in early, he can be tough as nails.

GO GIANTS!!!

"Oooo-ree-bay" - Cain is more than able - Redemption for Renteria and Rowand

I'm not sure you could ask for anything more from a game than what the Giants received yesterday. I sat in stunned silence towards the end of it, saying quietly to my wife, "It's as if everything that could go right for the Giants, has gone right". Scary right.

Matt Cain cements his reputation as a top of the rotation, big-time ace pitcher.
Juan Uribe continues to play out of his mind.
Edgar Renteria DOES discover the Marlins post-season magic.
Aaron Rowand delivers a line-drive laser dagger to the 421 sign in right-center.
Buster Posey continues to play Buster Posey like baseball.
The bullpen shows its incredible depth and versatility.

The earlier comparisons to the '69 Amazing NY Mets may not be too over the top. Superior pitching once again. Timely hitting and great defense. Role players coming through when asked. Even down to an opposition potential HR hitting the top of the wall and -- instead of bouncing over the wall the ball bounces back into the field of play, seemingly violating all laws of nature and/or physics. Brings back memories of the 1973 Mets and the "Ball on the Wall" play.

from ultimatemets.com
1973 Regular Season Game 153
September 20, 1973
Mets 4, Pirates 3

http://www.ultimatemets.com/gamedetail.php?gameno=1939&tabno=B

Karma? Magic? Catching lightning in a bottle? Team of destiny? I don't care, take your pick. Call it what you will. I just know its starting to feel real. I can only remember feeling like this about the '69 and to a lesser extent the '73 Mets. (A lesser extent because the '73 Mets lost the World Series, after being perhaps the least deserving team on paper to ever appear in a World Series). The Rangers have had everything go wrong for them short of having a black cat walk past their dugout.

METS V. CUBS 9/9/1969 - THE BLACK CAT GAME

I thought it very Tim McCarver like of Tim McCarver to deliver the stupidest line of the evening. Late in the game, after the Rangers bullpen blowout, he delivers a gem along the lines of "Well pitching is winning this game for the Giants, but not theirs". Is that right? Correct me if I'm wrong Timmy-boy but the score before the meltdown was 1-0. The Rangers ended the evening still stuck on 0. I think the Giants pitching did more than their fair share in winning this game for the Giants by virtue of the fact that -- by pitching a shutout - they guarantee that you don't lose. At worst, we would still be playing. Therefore, I think the Giants pitching did in fact win the game for the Giants, the Rangers pitching just made the game less artistic --something more akin to a Spring Training "B" game for the last couple of innings.

Granted the Giants caught a bit of a break when Wilson raised a blister, but that may be symptomatic of the problem the Rangers are facing. The scene from Hoosiers where the coach measures the height of the basket at the big time arena and tells his players "Same height as the basket you guys are used to". What got you here should be good enough to get you through. It seems as if perhaps the blister may have raised from squeezing the ball a little tighter, trying to get a little extra movement or a little extra break. In baseball, if you take care of the little things, the big things fall into place. The Rangers are feeling the effect in a negative sense.

Last night, the Rangers relievers had the same look of awe that the Hoosiers team did when they first walked into the big-time arena. Awe-struck and feeling out of place. We'll see if some home cooking set their minds right and puts the wheels back on the cart.

HOOSIERS. CLASSIC!!!

The same thing when the reliever threw 13-14 straight balls (I lost count). Then the deer in the headlights look. The 'WTF is going on?' countenance. The wheels came off and they couldn't put them back on. The next reliever did the same thing. Overcompensation.

I see this a lot in HS or PONY ball. A kid throws a pretty, picture-perfect breaking ball. Then the next one he tries to make it break even better than the last one. Better than perfect. And drives it into the dirt, or hangs it. Overcompensation. Instead of just repetition. Repeat. Lather, rinse, repeat. Over and over again. It's the root meaning of the word mechanics. To be machine-like, perform the same act -- over and over again, the same way each time, with mind-blowing repetition and efficiency.

Whatever it is, the Giants seems to have it and the Rangers don't.
At least for now.

Maybe it's because the Giants have had to play all season on a razor-thin margin of error due to the lack of offense. They've played 'playoff-like' baseball -- minus the playoff intensity -- all season. Now, it's just second nature. I noticed in the Matt Cain post game interview that the first thing Cain did was deflect credit from his own efforts to those of catcher Buster Posey. This is a trait that this team has demonstrated throughout the playoffs. The glory is shared and spread around liberally. Its a nice quality for a teammate to have.

The next game may be the first pitching match-up in a while where I don't think we have an advantage. And that's only because of Sanchez' last outing. Before that he was beginning to show signs of elevating to near the Cain / Lincecum level as a shut down starter. If he comes up big-time / lights out on the road, that will be the start he will be linked to for a long time. If it's anything near the meltdown versus Philadelphia, it will take him a while to shake the hit to his reputation. So Jonathan is -- fairly or unfairly -- facing a World Series opponent on the field as well as one between his ears. He has to contain his emotions and direct /focus them in a positive direction. If he does that, he can carry the franchise one step closer to the prize.

GO GIANTS!!!

Giants torture Rangers and Cliff Lee

How great can life be when the day after your ace goes to the hill in Game 1 of the World Series, Giants fans are more thrilled with the performance of the offense than that of "The Freak". That's the situation we find ourselves in this morning.

Don't get me wrong. Old two-time Cy Young Award Timmy battled and won against another teams high profile ace. And the Giants are sitting very pretty, with a favorable pitching match-up on tap tonight, with Cain vs. Wilson.

Timmy and the boys have been making a habit of taking on some hot aces - and prevailing - on this magical run.

As noted in Yahoo Sports:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-worldseriesnotebook

Six of the last seven teams to win Game 1 went on to win the World Series. … The Giants handed Cliff Lee his first postseason loss in eight decisions. They also gave Roy Oswalt and Roy Halladay their first career postseason losses in the past two weeks. Halladay had thrown a no-hitter in his only postseason start before losing to the Giants in Game 1 of the NLCS. Oswalt was 5-0 in the postseason before losing in relief in Game 4 that series.

Timmy overcomes an early "brain fart" to steady the ship and allow the offense to do it's thing.

Even without his best stuff, Lincecum lasted longer than Lee. The hard-throwing righty allowed four runs and eight hits in 5 2-3 innings with three strikeouts and two walks in a 93-pitch performance as the Giants were victorious kicking off their first World Series since a runner-up finish in 2002 to the Angels.

“When you get here and you get to the playoffs, you start to realize it’s not so much about your stats or if you get a hit here,” Lincecum said. “It’s just who comes out on top at the end of the day.”

Uribe continues to hit out of his mind, delivering clutch daggers almost nightly.
Posey continues to play beyond his years.
How cool is the continuing Cody Ross story?
And 'The Beard' makes an appearance, when it appeared as if he might get the night off.
Sanchez joins the party last night with his bat.

All against the seemingly invincible Cliff Lee.

This offense may be poised for a breakout. And it couldn't come at a better time. If Huff and Sandoval can join the party, who knows? Maybe Renteria rekindles some of that old Marlins playoff magic? I would never mention the contract again. Rowand too, if given the opportunity.

This is a chance to write a new chapter in Giants baseball history. Something that many past legends have tried - valiantly at times - but failed to do.

Lincecum, the new face of the franchise since Bonds’ departure after he broke Hank Aaron’s home run record in 2007, will try to lead the Giants to their first championship since the franchise moved West in 1958.

That’s something Bonds couldn’t do. Or Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda. Mays was ill and missed the game, but McCovey and Cepeda were among those recognized on the field before the start.

This crew would instantly elevate to a higher celebrity status than many current Hall of Famers in San Francisco enjoy. An opportunity like that does not come along very often.

It was nice to see Barry back in the yard - back in the House that Barry built - and it would be really nice to see Willie back tonight.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-worldseries-maysmccovey

Willie Mays was sick and missed throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before the World Series opener.

Mays was announced earlier Wednesday on a list of six Hall of Famers to throw out first pitches before Wednesday night’s game against the Texas Rangers.

With Mays absent, Orlando Cepeda, Monte Irvin, Juan Marichal, Willie McCovey and Gaylord Perry went on without the Say Hey Kid.

All that baseball talent and history, all but Monte Irvin a part of San Francisco Giants history, and not one Bay Area World Series title. There's just something not right about that. Maybe something the baseball gods are looking to rectify

Cain. At home, where he is generally a very, very lights out kind of individual.

Two to nothing heading to Texas would be ideal. In spite of the euphoria from last night, if the Rangers win tonight, they have done their job.

However, if the Giants do go up 2-0, I like our chances moving forward.

GO GIANTS!! Bring it home.

You-Ree-Bay does it again!!!.....Torture never felt so sweet!!!

Juan Uribe comes through for the Giagntes again. And in doing so he gives the network and the nation what could be billed as the 'Futility World Series'. Both franchises have long recent histories of NOT finalizing the dream. Of NOT getting this far. There are no Yankees or Red Sox here. Just a battle of the two League Championship underdogs. The Giants and the Rangers. HOW SWEET IT IS...

These are opportunities that do not come around very often in the life of a franchise. I understand the time-worn cliche that gets tossed around after a team's season has ended "Wait 'til next year". It's what you're supposed to say in that situation. The reality is, on this level, the wait tends to be measured in decades. We may just as well be saying "Wait 'til next decade".

Don't believe me? Since 1969 when the divisional format was put in place -- a total of 42 seasons -- The Giants have appeared in the Championship Series with an opportunity to play in the World Series a total of six times. A rate of once every seven years.

In 1971, they lost to the Pirates 3-1. As a twelve-year old fan, I listened to many of the games on the radio in school and then ran home to see the end of the game still in progress.

In 1987, the next appearance, sixteen years later, losing to the Cardinals 4-3.

In 1989, we beat the Cubs 4-1 to advance to the World Series.

In the 1990's, no appearances at all. Maybe to make up for the two appearance in the 1980's.

In 2002, the Giants beat the Cardinals 4-2 to advance to the World Series.

And now, 2010 they subdue the Phillies 4-2, to advance to the World Series once again. Perhaps the third time will be the charm.

But once every seven years, just to play for the opportunity to get to the World Series. Six chances in 42 seasons. Three World Series appearances now in the last 42 seasons. Oh-for-two so far. Again, perhaps the third time will be the charm.

GIANTS WORLD SERIES APPEARANCES

1962 vs. New York Yankees
1989 vs. Oakland A's
2002 vs. Anaheim Angels
2010 vs. Texas Rangers

I was just a little Bambino Giants fan in 1962 ( three years old ), so I have no real recollection of that series. However, it was within my lifetime. And my dad related how close the Giants came to winning that series, only to fall short. So just as I feel the spine tingling joy and elation whenever I see the immortal "Shot Heard 'Round the World", I feel the pain of that series in my heart.

So close. "Next year, we'll do it". Each year that our team is finally eliminated from contention, those words are the salve we rub on the wound to our heart. The wound just gets greater each year. And becomes harder to heal. The cumulative build up of pain and trauma from each passing year or decade of failure.

Yahoo Sports Steve Henson reviews the Giants painful World Series futility as follows:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=sh-nlcsgamesix102310

Uribe draws strength from late cousin

The Giants have yet to win a World Series since moving to San Francisco from New York in 1958. They lost in seven games to the Yankees in 1962 when Willie McCovey’s line drive with two outs in the ninth inning of the finale found a glove instead of a gap. They lost in seven games in 2002 to the Angels, memorable for the Giants’ Game 6 collapse and manager Dusty Baker’s 3-year-old son getting whisked away from home plate by J.T. Snow(notes).

And they were swept by the Oakland Athletics in 1989, a World Series remembered mostly for the 7.1 magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake that shook Candlestick Park moments before Game 3 was to begin. Jose Uribe was there, a singles hitter and slick fielder, a fan favorite and a lively presence in the clubhouse. A 10-year-old Juan Uribe watched on television.

What he also touched upon here and elaborated on further earlier in the story was the link between Juan Uribe and former Giants SS Jose Uribe, who died in 2006. I was not aware of the link between the two, although I wondered about it many times.

The great thing about the World Series is some of these rich, beautiful stories are allowed to come forward and flourish. On the national stage.

Uribe described his emotions throughout the game and the Series and it may in part answer the question as to how he is able to be such a clutch performer for these Giants.

(Jose) Uribe was the shortstop on the Giants’ 1989 World Series team and a cousin of current Giants infielder Juan Uribe before he died in a car crash in the family’s Dominican Republic hometown of Juan Baron in 2006. He taught Juan how to play baseball, taught Juan to love the Giants, and when Juan circled the bases Saturday night after hitting the eighth-inning home run that sent the Giants to another World Series, Jose was in his heart.

“God helped me a lot, and my (cousin) helped me a lot,” Juan Uribe said softly in a quiet corner of a raucous visiting locker room at Citizens Bank Park, his eyes red from emotion, his body soaked with bubbly. “I love him. He taught me everything. He’s with me today.

So there you go, Uribe flies into Giants lore on the wings of his cousin. I always knew he was clutch, now I know the rest of the story. (apologies to the late Paul Harvey)

Uribe produced the winning run twice in the National League Championship Series, and his opposite-field blast on a changeup by Ryan Madson(notes) took out the two-time defending NL champion Philadelphia Phillies once and for all, by a 3-2 score in Game 6. It was as close to a legendary “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!” moment this star-crossed franchise has had since Bobby Thomson’s Shot Heard Around the World in 1951.

So baseball fans nationally will not get the Yankees. They will not get the Phillies. And if perhaps they turn the channel away from this series en masse -- in anger over this being a seemingly less than marquee match-up -- they may miss one of the more competitive, evenly matched World Series in recent history. And one that will have some rather compelling story lines.

"We had such a diversity of contributions from everybody," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "Not bad for a bunch of castoffs and misfits."

The Rangers clearly seem to have a more potent offense. The Giants will counter with their strengths, starting pitching and bullpen depth. Both teams fight hard and compete extremely well. The Rangers did not walk past the Rays and Yankees in succession without good reason. The fact is, they seemingly buzz-sawed right through both teams. Teams that I thought were pretty much 1-2 going into the playoffs.

So the Giants may be underdogs in this match-up as well. That's OK.

"We fought, we scratched and clawed," said Giants left fielder Pat Burrell, who won a championship ring with the Phillies in 2008. "I don't know how we did it but we did it."

Clearly, I think that's the situation they are most comfortable being in.

“Right now it’s heaven, but it was torture for that final strike,” Giants first baseman Aubrey Huff said.

From torture to heaven in one pitch. HOW ABOUT THAT?? That's baseball.

The San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers - 2010 World Series.
Now that's sweet.
PLAY BALL!!!

Uribe puts Giants one small step away

Uribe put the finishing stroke on the masterpiece, but in reality this is becoming a huge team effort. Cain dominates last night to put the Phillies behind the eight ball. Bumgarner pitches tough as nails early before giving way to the bullpen. Posey continues to show he is something more than your garden variety rookie catcher. Huff, Sanchez and now maybe even Kung Fu Panda are revitalized. The outfield rotation is providing just enough offense to win games.

One small step away, but it will take one Giant effort to get there.

I like our chances. I think the Phillies bringing Oswalt in to hold last night was almost a act of desperation, a borderline panic move. We'll see how that influences the Phillies tonight.

Our ace versus their ace. A fair fight, but I like our chances. Lincecum is just cool enough to pull it off.

And as good as the Phillies pitching is, I agree with what Eric Karros said last night - not so fast boys - the Phillies have to beat Lincecum, Sanchez and Cain in rapid succession. If they do it, I'll be the first to tip my cap to them and say good luck in the World Series.

But I like our chances better right now.

Win at home and split on the road and we're home free

The Giants cannot be dissatisfied with their work in Philadelphia. A split is about as good as you could hope for there. And if you defend your ground and take two of the next three at home, then all that needs to happen is you go back to Philadelphia only needing to split another two game set to advance.

Easier said than done, but that's what it comes down to at this point. Lincecum put the Philthees backs to the wall with his gem. Sanchez almost matches Oswalt before fading.

I like the match ups for SF. Cain vs. Hamels is a draw. Bumgarner vs. Blanton should favor the Giants. Then comes a Lincecum - Halliday rematch of heavyweights for the upper hand heading to Philly.

I can't see either team sweeping, so IMO it comes down to who takes two of three in Frisco.

Cody Ross continues his Cinderella post-season. I think he stays in SF next year and hopefully beyond. Burrell would be a good keep as well.

Perhaps Guillen, Rowand and Renteria should be looking for real estate agents ASAP.

Amazing that with all the Sabean back-slapping that nobody has mentioned that this may be the first team in recent memory to have it's TOP THREE players in terms of salary off the playoff roster or out of the lineup by choice of the team and not due to injury.

Zito $18.5M - Rowand $13.6M and Renteria $10M the TOP THREE - $42.1M of the team's total payroll of approx. $88M on the bench. ALMOST 50% of the payroll non-productive. Perhaps Sabean deserves a promotion to head up the Obama administration economic stimulus team or special advisor to Ben Bernanke's QE2 effort.

OK, OK. I'll say it, like a good little Giants fan - "If they make it to or win the World Series it's all worth it." But remember this, if they don't then -- much like the national debts effect on the economy -- this will considerably hamstring the Giants efforts to grow in the future.

Did I mention that DeRosa's $6M salary puts him in the 5th spot salary-wise behind Tim Linceum?

And that he has as many hits as I do in this post-season?

Oh, I have mentioned it in the past? Well good, because it bears repeating.

GO GIANTS!!!

Tim Lincecum - "Another One Bites the Dust"

Tim Lincecum "Another One Bites The Dust" Tribute Video Movie

Tim Lincecum "Another One Bites The Dust" Tribute Video Movie @ Yahoo! Video

Let's hope another one (the Phillies) bites the dust tonight.

Lincecum v. Halliday, need I say more?

The anticipation to this match-up is building to frothy levels. One of the most anticipated pitching match-ups in playoff history is how it is being billed.

They don't always match the build up, but the build up is merely to get eyeballs to the screen.

As far as pre-game build up, I liked the Gooden - Ryan 1986 match-up personally. The young gun versus the the older veteran. And it only made #7 on Fox's list:

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpps/sports/top-10-playoff-pitching-matchups-dpgonc-km-20101016_10141775

7. 1986 NLCS, Game 5 -- Dwight Gooden (Mets) vs. Nolan Ryan (Astros)

This taut encounter featured two of the blazing-est fastballs anyone’s ever seen. The game went 12 innings (pretty notable until you consider that Game 6 went 16 innings), and Gooden went 10 of them. Ryan, however, worked “merely” nine frames. Combined they struck out 16, walked three and gave up two runs. Ryan was more dominant on the day (12 of those 16 Ks and just two hits allowed), but Gooden’s Mets won the game and eventually the series.

This is a much better list, but only #1 and #2 were really built up to this level.

http://blogs.delawareonline.com/philledin/2010/10/16/best-pitching-matchups-of-the-postseason/

2. 2003 ALCS, Game 7: Pedro Martinez vs. Roger Clemens

I’m a huge Cubs fan, and I was still working off the hangover of the blown NLCS against Florida, but this matchup managed to convince me to watch baseball again despite my depression. And if misery loves company, this game provided me with many Boston fans to share my pain. The Red Sox touched Clemens for three runs in the third inning to bounce him from the game while Pedro was solid through six. And then came the seventh. And Grady Little. And Pedro stayed in the game. And Aaron F’ing Boone.

1. 2001 World Series, Game 7: Roger Clemens vs. Curt Schilling

Roger Clemens’ numbers in 2001: 20-3 with a 3.51 ERA and a Cy Young Award.
Curt Schilling’s numbers in 2001: 22-6 with a 2.98 ERA and finished second in Cy Young balloting.

Schilling was starting on short rest after allowing just one run in seven innings in Game 4. Clemens had won Game 3 after allowing just three hits in seven innings. But Game 7 was for a World Series title, and the two lived up to the hype. Clemens struck out 10 and allowed just one run in 6.1 innings. Schilling threw 103 pitches and allowed just two runs and six hits in 7.1 innings. Neither ended up figuring in the decision as the Diamondbacks finally found a chink in Mariano Rivera’s armor in the ninth, and Randy Johnson ended up collecting the win after 1.1 innings of relief.

In the Giants corner, Lincecum historically does well against the Phillies and Halliday, surprisingly struggles against the Gigantes. At least according to fangraphs.com review:

http://www.fangraphs.com/

If this were the mainstream media, it would be so easy to say something semi-resolute and catchy about this matchup. Tim Lincecum has a 3.17 ERA and a 0.99 WHIP in seven career games against the Phillies. Roy Halladay has a 7.23 ERA and 1.61 WHIP in three games. OMGz! Don't count the Giants out! They have Halladay's number!

Hardly. Of course. Those numbers are career splits, and what do starts against other iterations of these lineups even mean? Diddly. And then, if we try to boil it down to splits in this season, we get one poor game for Halladay against the Giants (seven innings, ten hits, five runs, five strikeouts and no walks) and one excellent game for Lincecum (eight and a third innings, three hits, two runs, 11 strikeouts and one walk).

However, I concur with the authors citing of Grant's comment from The McCovey Chronicles as well.

"Every pitcher is Roy Halladay to the Giants. You know what kind of pitchers do well against the Giants? The ones with noses." - Grant, from the McCovey Chronicles in his post called "Sizing up the Phillies' starting rotation"

Here's hoping that the reality does not match the build up and the Giants strangely pile up enough early runs to drive Halliday from the mound. Lincecum gives six or seven strong innings and then hands it over to the bullpen and hope for the best.

I sensed a little bit of "fear of the moment" in Brian Wilson's eyes as he struggled to close out the series versus the Braves. If he goes all Robb Nen -- or worse, Armando Benitez -- on us, we are cooked.

GO GIANTS!!!

Roll them bones, Bennie

Fuel, food, health insurance and unemployment (9.6% stated, 17%+ actual) are rising
- the government stopped counting 7.5% "frustrated workers", Who wouldn't be frustrated?

Incomes and house prices are falling
- when housing prices decline, consumers "perceived wealth or wealth effect" declines
- currently 24% of homes and the consumers attached to them - are "underwater"

Social Security income frozen - no increase

Some 40M Americans live in poverty (14% of all Americans, 20% for children under 18) or on food stamps (the modern day soup kitchen) are rising

- According to the OECD, only two countries have higher poverty rates: Turkey and Mexico (congrats Amerika)

Taxes are rising on the federal, state and local levels

The Federal Reserve is openly stating that it wants to ignite inflation by devaluing the dollar
- in reality they are simply propping up insolvent banks
- when housing prices decline in value, banks balance sheets suffer
- currently 24% of homes and the consumers attached to them - are "underwater"

Herein lies part of the problem. The Fed looks to a price gauge that excludes food and fuel costs.

However, consumers make spending decisions based on rising and falling food and fuel costs.
So right off the bat, there is a disconnect. Consumers see inflation and act accordingly by tightening their belts.

The Fed doesn't see inflation, so it ignores it as part of the problem.

To consumers, Price of Consumer Goods are the measurement of inflation / deflation.
To The Fed and the banksters, Asset Prices are the measurement of inflation / deflation.

Bank lending strategies are driven by their outlook on the direction of asset prices because it affects loan coverage and default risks which influences their capital ratio requirements. Is asset prices deteriorate - default risk rises - capital ratio requirements rise - lending falls.

Rising assets are a win / win for both banks and consumers in that they increase banks ability to lend. But simply pushing more "potential" money out there does nothing on the surface to create the incentive for banks to lend more, businesses to hire more or consumer to spend more.

Each constituency waits for a move to be made by the other, so everyone stands frozen.

The Fed is trying to engineer consumer spending by making people "feel" wealthier by artificially driving up the value of their 401K while consumer see the value of their most precious wealth assets, their home, plummeting in value.

It's a con game by any measure. And the main thing consumers are not seeing is their incomes rising. Their can't be an increase in spending without an increase in income. The Fed is putting the cart before the horse trying to engineer inflation to induce spending? That's economic insanity.

Can you say vicious cycle?

Are we heading in the right direction or the wrong direction?

For consumers drowning in debts, with home prices plummeting it seems as if these guys are throwing nothing but lead-lined life preservers.

From Marketwatch.com
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/consumers-paying-off-debt-not-likely-2010-10-13?dist=afterbell

Today, Bernanke said that even with all the measures these guys are taking to save the banks and the financial system, nothing that he is doing will help unemployment in the short-term.

Let's review:
NO HELP FOR THE UNEMPLOYED
NO HELP FOR HOMEOWNERS
NO HELP FOR SENIOR CITIZENS
ALL THE HELP IN THE WORLD FOR THE BANKSTERS

Sure, this plan will work. Why wouldn't it? ;)

The Federal Reserve's first round of Quantitative Easing did ease interest rates, which in theory made house more affordable.

The continuing unemployment made the lower interest rates moot since people either can't afford or do not have enough confidence to make such a major purchase.

So the money stayed (where it still resides) on the banks balance sheet

They are papering over they myth of a recovery generated when FASB 157 was effectively gutted.

We went back on mark to market accounting and back to the fairy tale, believe in the tooth fairy myth of mark to fantasy accounting.

And now QE2 will reinforce that and give us more of the same myths when what we need is a dose of reality.

This quote from the NY Federal Reserve's Brian Sack:
- QE “adds to household wealth by keeping asset prices higher than they otherwise would be…”

WE WILL ALL FEEL WEALTHIER AND SPEND OURSELVES FURTHER INTO DEBT IF WE JUST ARTIFICIALLY INFLATE ASSET PRICES HIGHER THAN THEY WOULD BE IN REALITY. GREAT!!! AN ECONOMY BASED ON FAIRY TALES AND FANTASIES.

Of course, this is a Federal Reserve that has not received as much blame as I believe it serves for getting into the mess we are in through its incompetence.
- Fed policy under Greenspan and Bernake created the housing and credit bubbles we are dealing with today.
- The Fed missed the boat on sub-prime lending
- they were wrong on the spillover effect into the general economy
- they failed to see the recession coming
- they failed to see unemployment rising to these levels
- which led to the near total breakdown of the financial system

If you give people "free" money, don't be surprised when they "spend" it, until they discover the economic principle known as TINSTAAFL ("There is no such thing as a free lunch).

Given the Fed's track record, why should they be seen as prescient now?

Some people in the financial markets wonder if the Fed is "running out of bullets", I worry more about them continuing to fire their guns. The economy can't take much more of their "friendly fire".

Further injections of money into the system appear to be a foolish exercise given the results of the last $1 trillion injection of QE1. We need only look to Japan for a textbook example of how a zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) or "free-money" has largely failed to lift Japan's economy out of the mud for the better part of two decades.

One can hope that all this talk of QE may be posturing by the Fed ahead of the November G-20 in S. Korea on exchange rates. A high stakes game of poker between central bankers. Convincing China and other major exporters to accept an upward revaluation of their currencies will not be easy. The Fed may be trying to force these countries to make an adjustment. The risk of failure could result in a trade war.

We could easily transition from a currency war (devaluations, beggar-thy-neighbor policies) to a trade war (tarriffs/protectionist policies) to a military war (bombs/guns) . Wars have been fought for less in the past. This is a very high stakes game the Fed is playing and the pot just got very big.

The stock market of course cheers the "free" monopoly money the Feds provide much as a crack-whore cheers free crack from a drug dealer.
- we are in the throes of a stock market "bull rally". Some see this as a stock market "BS rally".

Time will tell who is right and who is wrong. The Fed can print money but it hasn't translated into jobs because banks aren't lending. And consumers are not willing or able to borrow. I can't blame either party for acting as the are currently. It seems like the Fed is sitting there, like the devil, encouraging both parties to continue their previous reckless ways when they know it would be wrong and harmful to do so.

I'm not sure how given the recent "Forclosure-gate" disclosures and how interrelated declining house prices are to the declining health and welfare of both banks and the consumer are, that another round of QE2 does nothing more than kick an already well-kicked can further down the road. We need a program that creates jobs, not one that brings a dollar that is already "worth less" closer to one that is "worthless".

Given some of the comments from other members of the Federal Reserve, it does not seem as if there is unanimity of opinion within the Fed on the wisdom of proceeding down this path. A few have openly questioned the direction Bernanke seems to want to take.

I found this quote from a from a former Fed-head rather telling:

From Bloomberg:
http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ayMiHOOvieuo

“It’s pretty much a crapshoot,” former Fed Governor Lyle Gramley, now senior economic adviser at Potomac Research group in Washington, said of using an inflation target to support prices. “We don’t really have any background of history to know how it’s going to work.” Still, “it’s worth trying.”

WOW!! We're risking our economic future, as well as that of our children and grand-children on a crapshoot? Are you kidding me?

And it seems as if we have a degenerate gambler running the Federal Reserve?

STOP THE INSANITY!!! The definition of which is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

The phrase I keep hearing people of all stripes saying is "This will not end well".

The NLCS is set - Giants survive to face Phillies

The Braves self mutilation continued to aid the Giants efforts. First came 2B Brooks Conrad's debacle in Game 3 and last night SS Alex Gonzalez kept trying to hand the game to the Giants.

The Giants would oblige by trying to muff the game right back into the Braves hands. A veritable comedy of errors finally turned tragic for the Braves, who send Bobby Cox off into the sunset with a real stinker. He deserved better, but his great career stands on its own.

Derek Lowe pitched valiantly in defeat. Bumgarner nearly matched him on the other side. Burrell provided a portent of doom, doing his best J.T. Snow imitation getting thrown out at home.

Our #2 hitter can't bunt a guy over when we're trying to tack on an insurance run. Heck, he couldn't get him over at all. Then Renteria -- a major league SS -- can't make a Little League play, but gets bailed out by Gonzalez not running it out to 1B. AMAZING!!! Bad baseball, yet compelling drama and suspense.

For some reason, the baseball gods chose to punish Gonzalez more than Renteria. Tough choice there, BB gods. Could have gone either way.

Every game in this series was decided by one run, the Giants were fortunate to win three of them. Game 1 is scheduled for Saturday at Philadelphia and features a marquee matchup of aces - Tim Lincecum vs. Roy Halladay.

These Giants, I can't call it "Bochy-ball", because there really is no positive characteristic to how this team plays.

Maybe "Botchy-ball" because of the way they seem to win in spite of the, at times surprisingly glaring ineptitude and botched opportunities?

They are slow, they don't run, don't hit and run, don't advance runners, kill rallies with DP's yet somehow score just enough runs to win. Keep it up, eight more times, the fundamentals be danged. The Tom Emasky people will not be asking for Giants highlight reels for their video series on baseball fundamentals.

Hopefully when the Phillies read the reports from their advance scouts, they either become grossly overconfident or pull multiple oblique muscles from excessive and prolonged laughter.

The Giants are fortunate not to have been stretched to five games. They get to start with Lincecum on the mound and have about the same amount of rest as the Phillies. So we're starting off even in those two areas. Otherwise, on paper, the Phillies are clear favorites. Fortunately, the games are not played on paper, they are played on fields. And on the field, the Giants and Phillies have split six games this season. So we have a chance.

For the Giants, regardless of how things turn out against the Phillies, this NLCS series win makes for a very successful season. I would have hoped for them to be in the NLCS in the spring, but not reasonably expected it. Even though I predicted a Rays - Giants World Series.

So the team has exceeded expectations and set up the next couple of years to be solidly in contention and poised to advance into the playoffs. That's all you can ask for.

Cody Ross -- the guy the Giants claimed so that the Padres couldn't -- provides the offense. That's the difference maker right there, Giants fans.

BTW, if there are any ROY ballots still out there undecided how to vote, I think Mr. Posey made the decision a little bit easier, if the Joe Morgan contrarian indicator wasn't enough for you.

GO GIANTS!! And Go Rays!!!

Boom or Bust offense goes boom, then bust - dooms Giants

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/teams/sfo

“WE DIDN'T BURY THEM EARLY. WE KIND OF WENT IN CRUISE CONTROL AFTER THE HOMER.”

- 1B Aubrey Huff on the Giants' 5-4, 11-inning loss in Game 2 of the Division Series. Pat Burrell's homer provided a three-run lead in the first, and Matt Cain

This kind of summarized the game and the latter part of the season for the Giants. A big bop by Burrell stakes Cain to a three run lead and only one run after that for support. So we have two manufactured runs in twenty innings and one of them is of dubious quality given that it has been tainted by replay and even if it wasn't, was produced via a SB by Buster Posey. The other run produced via an RBI from P Matt Cain. Not good.

Even when they try to play small ball it blows up. Renteria leads off an inning with a nice bunt, is advanced by another bunt by Torres, but the inning ends in a DP grounder by Posey. DP's have killed the offense all year, the Giants lead the NL by a wide margin.

I didn't like bringing in Wilson when they did, given that it was somewhat off the script. Not second guessing, just had a feeling when managers go off the plan like that, it seems like a desperation move when the Giants were in command. Why not let Rodriguez bail out Romo and hand the ball to Wilson to start the ninth rather than come in and clean up the mess. Even Mariano Rivera seems to close better when he can start an inning rather than come in with guys on.

Had the same feeling right before Ankiel hit his jack, thinking out loud 'if he leaves one up Ankiel will jack one into orbit'. Next pitch gone. I saw him hit one just like it in the Florida HS state championships against Dunedin HS. I think that ball is still in low earth orbit.

Portent of doom. I should have kept my mouth (and mind) shut, I guess.

Wilson, to his credit, took the fall.

The Giants then called on Wilson, who has never had a six-out save in his career, according to STATS LLC.

“Sometimes the save can be in the eighth inning,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He was fresh and we’re trying to stop it then. At that point we’re going with our closer to try to get out of the eighth. I have no concern with Willie going two innings.”

Wilson did lead the majors this season with 10 saves of longer than an inning but he couldn’t come through in his first career postseason appearance. He wouldn’t blame coming in so early for his mishap, calling that a “crutch.”

The momentum swings to Atlanta and so does the venue. Giants just have to suck it up and take one of two there. And more boom, less bust.

END THE FED, NOW!!

THE FED'S DUAL MANDATE:

12 U.S.C. § 225a.
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Open Market Committee shall maintain long run growth of the monetary and credit aggregates commensurate with the economy’s long run potential to increase production, so as to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.

HAVE THEY BEEN GOOD AT EFFECTIVELY PROMOTING MAXIMUM EMPLOYMENT? NO.

HOW ABOUT STABLE PRICES? NO AGAIN.

Could you stay in your job if you were as incompetent as these guys are? I don't think so.

These guys need to be replaced. Fired. And if they don't like it, take them off in handcuffs or chains. And bring back prisoner torture until they are tried and convicted for their thievery and economic mischief.

Because QE1 was such a rousing success, this week the Fed has let on that they are now considering a round of QE2. The hair of the dog that bit you to cure a hangover. Works every time. Fixes the hangover, does nothing for the underlying alcoholism.

Their twisted economic theory that says we should rob wealth from the poor, the elderly on fixed income, the savers to protect the bankers, Wall Street and the rich via the hidden stealth tax increase that is inflation. They are openly destroying the dollar to prop up asset prices.

But not the assets that the middle class owns, like their homes.

This is like a reversal of the Robin Hood economic theory of robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Bernanke believes the poor and the middle class should pay to protect the financial system. Just like his scum-bag acolytes like Charlie Munger and Warren Buffet.

The guys should all hang together. Literally.

Here is what the Fed has done to the value of the dollar in their 97 years at the helm. A 97% depreciation rate. At that rate, the dollar will not only be WORTH LESS (two words) in three more years, it may become WORTHLESS (one word).

The threat of QE2 was met with mixed reviews.

The best review I heard was that the Fed can print money, but they cannot figure out how to print jobs. In theory, if they were able to, they would have done so by now.

"When the Fed buys long-term government debt from the private market, it shifts interest rate risk from bondholders to taxpayers," Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota warned last week.

Philly Fed President, Charles Plosser agrees: "Asset purchases in our current economic environment can do little if anything to speed up the return to full employment," Plosser said in a speech last week. "Because I see little gain at this point, and some costs, I would prefer not to engage in further asset purchases at this time."

"We are following policies that unless changed will eventually lead to lots of inflation down the road," said Warren Buffett at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit Tuesday. "We have started down a path you don’t want to go down."

Chicago Fed’s Charlie Evans disagrees (and he’s a voting member next year!) and said yesterday that he favors "much more [monetary] accommodation than we’ve put in place." MUCH MORE than $2Tn - take that Japan and your puny $500Bn pledge!

All the things we own, going down in value. Effectively being destroyed by these thugs.

All the things we pay for, food, fuel are going to go up in price. Commodities, the inputs for most of the things the middle class consumer needs, have skyrocketed on just the mention of another round of this failed Quantitative Easing policy.

Oil is heading back towards the $90-$100 a barrel level. Say hello to $5 / gallon gasoline.

Agricultural commodity prices have skyrocketed.

Don't worry we don't count oil and food costs in calculating CPI.

Our government is morally bankrupt as well as financially bankrupt.

The congress can no longer dip into the peoples wallet for Stimulus2 because:

a) we have elections and
b) the government is broke.

But the Federal Reserve is not elected, yet they have the future of the American economy in their hands.

Never mind what happened the last time Bernanke did this. He cranked up commodities through the same crap with the dollar and triggered the worst of the slowdown economically in terms of its impact on ordinary people, because energy and commodity prices ramped.

We keep making the same mistakes by repeating the same failed policies. Rinse, lather, repeat. The definition of insanity.

Piling more debt upon an already unsustainable amount of debt no longer works. The whole law of diminishing returns. Households know this, you can't get out of debt by paying your bills with a credit card.

Consumers are deleveraging, they are tired of being in debt. They are starting to understand those old-school phrases like "Neither a borrower nor a lender be" and "the borrower is a slave to the lender". Good for them.

They have daily experience with the inherent evils of "usury interest" whenever they open their credit card statements and are just now beginning to see why the system of "fractional reserve banking" is no longer magic. You can't create money out of thin air endlessly. The system collapses upon itself like a house of cards. Like a Ponzi scheme. They all unravel eventually once you run out of suckers and fools. And I think finally, American are tired of being played for fools.

Kevin Duffy of Bearing Asset Management described the process very well back in a 2007 article titled, 'IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD' :

Yes, indeed it is.

Fractional reserve madness

The lure of easy money begins with the government printing press. First, the central banker buys an asset typically a government debt instrument writes a check on itself and deposits it into the banking system. Since the bank never "redeems" the check, this is equivalent to creating money out of thin air. The banker, happy to receive fresh "reserves", loans out all but a sliver. This new money ends up back with the banks, is counted again as reserves, mostly lent out, and so on and so on.

Through this process of fractional reserve banking, credit is expanded at a multiple of the initial central bank deposit. Through such a system, the creation of money and credit (the promise to pay money) looks like an upside-down pyramid - essentially a pyramid scheme on top of a counterfeiting operation.

As James Grant has counseled, the inflation process gives a finite pool of capital the illusion of an endless sea of liquidity, in effect "turning all the traffic lights green."

Such a scheme is a concoction of government privilege (or mercantilism), not laissez faire. The so-called "capitalists" are no longer efficient allocators of capital to its most productive uses, but beneficiaries of and cheerleaders for a monetary fraud in which capital is debased, taken for granted, abused. As long as they remain chummy with their friendly liquidity provider of last resort, they can act recklessly without fear of igniting an economic forest fire or if they do, without fear of having to bear the costs. And as long as the value of their collateral is constantly inflated, they never feel the need to worry about default.

Liberated from the gold standard straightjacket, the system has few restraints. For starters, the counterfeiter has an incentive not to draw attention to his racket. But the effectiveness of his ongoing propaganda campaign has weakened this deterrent. The real inflationary action, however, is in credit expansion. For example, in the last 6 years, the Federal Reserve has grown its balance sheet less than $300 billion while the nation's money supply has expanded by $4.3 trillion, or 14 times as much. In other words, the central banker can bait the hook, but lenders and borrowers still have to take the bait.

This new money is never evenly distributed, but instead gets funneled into whatever narrow area happens to capture the public's fascination. As prices and valuations soar, greater doses of credit are required to keep the game going. Either more marginal borrowers are drawn in at ever more precarious levels or greater leverage must be applied to existing borrowers. This is what ultimately doomed the housing bubble. In the end, nearly anyone who could fog a mirror was getting an invitation to join the party.

The trouble with pyramid schemes is that they're not designed to go in reverse. Eventually, the number of willing dupes is exhausted. The same people who panicked late to get into the game are just as likely to panic when the music stops. The longer the music plays, the more leveraged and unstable the inverted credit pyramid becomes. As the late economist Hyman Minsky observed, "stability is unstable."

I love these two analogies of the fallacy of QE2 from Richard Koo, the Chief Economist of Nomura Research Institute:

In describing the negligence of such monetary policy Richard Koo uses the analogy of a doctor who simply tells his patient to take more of the same medicine he originally prescribed:

“At the risk of belabouring the obvious, imagine a patient in the hospital who takes a drug prescribed by her doctor, but does not react as the doctor expected and, more importantly, does not get better. When she reports back to the doctor, he tells her to double the dosage. But this does not help either. So he orders her to take four times, eight times, and finally a hundred times the original dosage. All to no avail. Under these circumstances, any normal human being would come to the conclusion that the doctor’s original diagnosis was wrong, and that the patient suffered from a different disease. But today’s macroeconomics assumes that private sector firms are maximizing profits at all times, meaning that given a low enough interest rate, they should be willing to borrow money to invest.. In reality, however, borrowers – not lenders, as argued by academic economists – were the primary bottleneck in Japan’s Great Recession.”

Dr. Bernanke has misdiagnosed this illness one too many times. At what point does someone tell him to put the scalpel down and step away from the table before he does even greater harm?

Koo describes the failure of QE1 as a tool to promote economic recovery in the following. Mr. Koo is keenly aware of the the experience of a Quantatative Easing strategy as it has been applied in Japan for the last decade or more. It has been roundly noted as a dismal failure.

Koo goes a step further in describing the failure of QE to promote private sector recovery.

“The central bank’s implementation of QE at a time of zero interest rates was similar to a shopkeeper who, unable to sell more than 100 apples a day at $100 each, tries stocking the shelves with 1,000 apples, and when that has no effect, adds another 1,000. As long as the price remains the same, there is no reason consumer behavior should change–sales will remain stuck at about 100 even if the shopkeeper puts 3,000 apples on display. This is essentially the story of QE, which not only failed to bring about economic recovery, but also failed to stop asset prices from falling well into 2003.”

This mea culpa came from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the Telegraph (UK):

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100007777/shut-down-the-fed-part-ii/

I apologise to readers around the world for having defended the emergency stimulus policies of the US Federal Reserve, and for arguing like an imbecile naif that the Fed would not succumb to drug addiction, political abuse, and mad intoxicated debauchery, once it began taking its first shots of quantitative easing.

My pathetic assumption was that Ben Bernanke would deploy further QE only to stave off DEFLATION, not to create INFLATION. If the Federal Open Market Committee cannot see the difference, God help America.

We now learn from last week’s minutes that the Fed is willing “to provide additional accommodation if needed to … return inflation, over time, to levels consistent with its mandate.”

Ben Bernanke has not only refused to abandon his idee fixe of an “inflation target”, a key cause of the global central banking catastrophe of the last twenty years (because it can and did allow asset booms to run amok, and let credit levels reach dangerous extremes).
Worse still, he seems determined to print trillions of emergency stimulus without commensurate emergency justification to test his Princeton theories, which by the way are as old as the hills. Keynes ridiculed the “tyranny of the general price level” in the early 1930s, and quite rightly so. Bernanke is reviving a doctrine that was already shown to be bunk eighty years ago.

and this

So all those hillsmen in Idaho, with their Colt 45s and boxes of krugerrands, who sent furious emails to the Telegraph accusing me of defending a hyperinflating establishment cabal were right all along. The Fed is indeed out of control.

The sophisticates at banking conferences in London, Frankfurt, and New York who aplogized for this primitive monetary creationsim – as I did – are the ones who lost the plot.
My apologies. Mercy, for I have sinned against sound money, and therefore against sound politics.

Fed is trying to conjure away the hangover from the last binge (which Greenspan/Bernanke caused, let us not forget), as if to vindicate its prior claim that you can always clean up painlessly after asset bubbles.

Are the Chinese right? Are the Americans and the British now so decadent that they will refuse to take their punishment, opting to default on their debts by stealth?

It does seem as if the Euro is being rewarded for taking their governments and Central Bank taking the path of fiscal austerity and sound monetary policy. At least for now. I don't see how intentionally torching your currency can be the answer to what ails the American economy. And it is not worth the costs it will impose on the poor and those who saved and invested prudently. Profligate spenders and gamblers are being protected and rewarded.

So we have these Fed idiots disguised as experts, protecting their own special interest under the guise of protecting the middle class. I call BS on that one. They don't give a rats fat ass about the middle class. None of them.

And as the Obama administration continues to hemorrhage economic advisers, I can only advise the President to consider taking the term "heads are going to roll" more literally Romer, Orzag, Emmanuel (not an eco advisor) and Lawrence Summers have all beat a hasty retreat.

To be followed soon by the incompetent, criminal Secretary of Treasury Geithner. Hopefully, no later than the soon after the elections. He doesn't have the confidence of this country's business community, the international community, heck he doesn't get respect around Chinese school children. That should have told you all you needed to know about old Turbo Timmy. And he calls the Chinese currency manipulators when the Federal Reserve is doing it's own brand of manipulation.

This from the blog The Economic Collapse:

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/federal-reserve-officials-americans-are-saving-too-much-money-so-we-need-to-purposely-generate-more-inflation-to-get-them-spending-again

Does increasing inflation as a way to stimulate the economy sound like a good idea to any of you?

These are supposed to be some of the brightest economic minds that our nation has produced.

Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the folks running the Federal Reserve do not have a clue about sound economic policy.

Anyone who lived through the "stagflation" days of the 1970s should know that inflation does not spur economic growth.

But now some of the most prominent Fed officials are publicly proposing that we should purposely generate more inflation so that "real interest rates" (interest rates with inflation factored in) will go down.

For example, during a recent interview the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Charles Evans, made the following statement....

"It seems to me if we could somehow get lower real interest rates so that the amount of excess savings that is taking place relative to investment needs is lowered, that would be one channel for stimulating the economy."

If you truly grasp what Evans is proposing here, your jaw should be dropping.

He is basically coming right out and saying, "Hey, let's go out and crank up the inflation rate so that American consumers will start recklessly spending their money again."

So are Americans really saving too much money?

Of course not.

Just take a look at the chart below.

Americans are actually still saving far, far less than they used to. As you can see from the chart, in the 1960s and 1970s Americans would usually save somewhere between 8 to 12 percent of their incomes.

Today, we are still well below that level. But we have made some progress from the reckless days of five to ten years ago when Americans were living far, far, far beyond their means and basically saving next to nothing....

So now some top Fed officials want to undo all that. They apparently want Americans to grab their credit cards and to run out to the stores and spend wildly like they did a few years ago.

But spending recklessly is not going to repair our economy. In order to have a healthy, balanced economy you need to have a healthy personal saving rate. Encouraging Americans to spend every last nickel they have may boost economic figures in the short-term, but it will make our long-term problems even worse.

These guys need to get it together rather quickly before there's Revolution in this country.

Hopefully, it's a peaceful one.