Sorry, but Flannery SHOULD shoulder the blame. And this is not 20/20 hindsight or second-guessing because as the D-Backs OF was picking up the ball, I was screaming at the screen "Hold him, hold him up" meaning Posey at third and after the story jump I'll illustrate some of the reasons why I feel this is a concern for Los Gigantes.
from Bay Area Baseball:
Bay Area Baseball: Flannery shoulders the blame after Giants' 3-1 loss to D-Backs:
SAN FRANCISCO -- Madison Bumgarner, not one prone to hyperbole, said Sunday that Giants third base coach Tim Flannery "takes his job as seriously as anybody I've ever seen." And indeed, after Flannery's decision Sunday to send Buster Posey home on a double by Pablo Sandoval with nobody out in a 1-0 game backfired with Posey being thrown out, nobody took it harder than Flannery.
"I feel terrible," Flannery said. "With nobody out that can't happen. I feel responsible for the game, I feel responsible for Bum not getting a win and getting a loss. It comes with the territory over there.
"There's days you have a moment that you help win games and then occasionally you're in the middle of helping to lose a game. And that's how I felt today."
Moreover, nobody questioned about the game afterward placed the onus for the loss on Flannery. Manager Bruce Bochy said it "looked like Buster was going to make it" and credited Arizona shortstop Cliff Pennington for "a great relay throw." Posey said he hadn't re-watched the play yet, but "that's the way it goes sometimes -- they made a good relay and a good throw to the plate."
Bumgarner, who subsequently took the loss despite allowing one run over seven innings, offered maybe the strongest vote of confidence in Flannery.
"I don't think anybody's blaming it on him except maybe himself," Bumgarner said. "He's a great third-base coach. I'm just thankful that he's part of this team. He takes it personal, but you're not going to be right every single time. (Pennington) had to make a perfect throw, and he did."
'via Blog this'
First, what's wrong with starting the inning with 2nd and 3rd with nobody out? Let's check on the risk-reward equation.
The run expectancy from starting an inning in that situation for 2013 is 1.8777 versus a runner on second and one out run expectancy of 0.6474 according to the folks at baseball Prospectus and their handy run expectancy calculator.
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/sortable/index.php?cid=1405164
So you are gambling on picking up 1 run, to tie, while risking losing 1.2303 runs -- a losing proposition.
See, statistics can be fun. Third Base coaches have to literally have this calculator in their head as well as the other real-life situations and weigh them out in split-second time. Not an easy task, for sure. But that is why they get the big bucks.
Plus you are sending the franchise into a potential slide versus a catcher blocking -- if you lose your franchise catcher and clean-up hitter for any length of time, what does that do to your chances going forward? Can you say, SEASON OVER?!?
You still have your 5-6-7 hitters coming up and while Hunter Pence has been doing his best impression of a helicopter swinging the bat lately, you gotta give him a chance to come through with two RBI ducks on the pond.
Just BRUTAL base-running lately. Almost CUBS-like bad base-running. Worse than Torture for this team.
That should be the new rallying cry for this group. Or maybe You thought Torture was Bad...?
Plus, this is on top of sending two guys to their deaths at home plate yesterday, in the same inning, to kill a potential rally. At least the Giants held on to win that one. But still, lately Flannery has been demonstrating all the poise of a degenerate gambler at the casino down there at 3B and he should start getting some attention.
I don't know if he's starting to double down on prior bad decisions or if the pressure of guys not coming through with big hits ( the all-important Avg. with RISP metric ) is beginning to flow into his decision-making process, but it's a bad look no matter how you look at it for the Giants.
Although, it could have been worse. If Posey ends up sprawled on the ground like after the Cousins collision, like I said earlier, it's likely not just GAME OVER, but SEASON OVER for the Giants.
And to channel my best Chris Berman, for the Giants it's like the rock-star Meat Loaf used to sing when he led the band by the same name, ( and isn't that ironic? ) .......now don't be sad Giants fans, cause two out of three ain't bad.
So here fellow Giants fans....enjoy a slice of Meat Loaf ( and who the heck names their kid Meat Loaf? Oh well, I guess it worked out for him).
...belt one out with one of the best gifted, dramatic voices in rock and roll history
...have a good cry if you must, but then strap it back on in a hurry because the Reds are coming in next and they need to make up some ground as well.
...and since you can never stop with one slice of Meat Loaf, here is one of the best baseball-themed rock and roll songs of all time ( about the 3 1/2 minute mark, if you don't know what I mean).
....and yes kids, back in the day your parents looked like that and acted like that, so don't let them tease you about how you look and act. However, they also did go through a lot of the same stuff you go through as well, so you should be able to use them as a resource.
There, better now. I'm over it, proceed with the baseball season.
P.S. - Happy Anniversary to Mrs. TheSlav on our 14th wedding anniversary. XOXOXO. <"( );::::::;~
( This is not in lieu of a card )
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