The Definitive Brandon Belt T-Shirt / Belt Knows Best by BreakingT - McCovey Chronicles

I like this shirt. A better shirt would be "It's not a strike until Brandon Belt says it's a strike."

from McCovey Chronicles:

https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2018/5/22/17382466/the-definitive-brandon-belt-t-shirt-breakingt-belt-knows-best?ref=digest

The Definitive Brandon Belt T-Shirt

BreakingT has captured Brandon Belt's Player of the Week-winning week in this striking cotton blend.

Bryan MurphyMay 22, 2018, 4:23pm PDT

Brandon Belt was just named the National League's Player of the Week in part because he hit 5 home runs over seven days. He also got into some trouble arguing the strike zone with Doug Eddings. But Belt knows the strike zone, probably better than anyone! And to commemorate his performance for the week and for calling out Doug Eddings and for his historic 21-pitch at bat earlier this season, 

Order your Belt Knows Best shirt by clicking on this link.

Sent from my iPhone

Finding one stat to represent each Giants hitter - McCovey Chronicles

I'm not sure Giants fans needed a fancy computer to confirm this stat, but....He probably leads the majors in toppers back to the mound. Those two stats are probably highly correlated.

from McCovey Chronicles.com
Finding one stat to represent each Giants hitter - McCovey Chronicles:

Hunter Pence: 0 barrels
According to Statcast, in his 61 plate appearances in the majors so far this year, Hunter Pence has not barrelled up a single ball. Barrelling up a ball is a key part of hitting it hard, which Pence has had trouble with this year. This is the thing that you can see from home on TV. He’s just not hitting the ball like he used to.

'via Blog this'

Also, it's good to see the numbers confirm that Brandon Crawford is back to hitting the ball hard, Andrew McCutchen is really, really hitting the ball hard and often and Evan Longoria maybe should mix in a walk every now and again. And Belt, while he might not be Freddie Freeman, is still pretty darn good.

Also, not news that Kelby Tomlinson has no ISO. He's still pretty productive with his AB's. Buster Posey, only 2 HR's...really? Yeah, I guess I can believe that. He goes through this and then he'll go on a 2-3 week tear and gets back on pace for around 15 HR's. Not too worry....yet.

Brandon Belt's Epic 21 Pitch AB

This is just hunkering down and battling with two strikes to the extreme. Belt always seems to take AB's to a 3-2 count and he did here as well.

Kudos to the pitcher for throwing that many strikes in a row and eventually winning the battle of the AB.

Belt would win the war with a HR later (from seeing so many pitches earlier?) and the Giants held on to win 4-3, so this battle could have been the difference in the ball game. If nothing else, Belt is the King of Little Things. Therefore at times his value is under-estimated or forgotten by fans, myself included.

6-9, dudes! - McCovey Chronicles

Let's do the math.
6-9 = .400 ball.

• .400 ball = 65-97 final record
• 65-97 record = zero improvement over last year. 
• Zero Improvement over last year = UNACCEPTABLE!!

from McCovey Chronicles:
Chroncast #76: 6-9, dudes! - McCovey Chronicles:

Yes, the Belt Wars get some play in this week’s episode, which is admittedly not the most topical discussion to have, but still feels pretty relevant to the first 3 weeks of the regular season. But rather than watch pitches go by, we take a swing at other topics including: did the Giants make a mistake sticking with Beede over Suarez? Is Mac Williamson simply too good to be on the Giants? Is the definitive Josh Osich the one we’re seeing now? We also tackle your Twitter questions.

'via Blog this'

• OK, Longoria and McCutcheon aren't going anywhere. 
• OK, Pence goes down to AAA, Williamson goes to AAAA or LF, whatever. 
• Whoever authorized keeping Beede over Suarez needs their head examined. 
• Whoever still sees something in Osich also needs their head examined. 

Belt is the least of the Giants many problems right now, although he has Joey Votto-itis minus the production. Swing the bat once in a while, you're not Ted Williams and the Moneyball - OBA love fest is over, replaced by exit velo and launch angle.

You get neither with the bat on your shoulders.

Oh, and fire Hensley Meulens, please.

Giants announce Brandon Belt's new six-year deal - Giants Extra

Good news for Giants fans and long over due. The nucleus stays together and next up should be Panik and Duffy. But there is time for those two. I like the ladder approach where in almost every year down the road, usually only one guy is up for renewal.

If the brass can also thread the needle on transitioning the starting staff and bullpen from veterans to youth, the Giants should be in the fight for titles for the next decade.

From Mercury News:
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/giants/2016/04/09/giants-announce-brandon-belts-new-six-year-deal/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+giantsextra+%28Giants+Extra%29

Giants announce Brandon Belt's new six-year dealSAN FRANCISCO — The Giants plan to keep their core together for quite some time.

The team officially announced a deal with first baseman Brandon Belt that keeps him in San Francisco through 2021. The six-year contract replaces his current one-year, $6.2 million deal for this season and extends it another five years for similar financial terms as Brandon Crawford's six-year $75 million deal.
Belt's final two years of arbitration are now locked up, along with four years of free agency. He, Crawford and catcher Buster Posey are now locked up through 2021, with Posey's deal including an option for 2022.
Those players are all part of a home-grown core of position players that also includes second baseman Joe Panik and third baseman Matt Duffy, who are both under team control through 2020.
Belt is a career .271 hitter coming off a season in which he batting .280 with career highs of 18 home runs and 68 RBIs despite missing time with a concussion. He also finished second in the Gold Glove voting at first base last season and led the National League in fielding percentage at the position at .997.
Jimmy Durkin is a sports writer for the Bay Area News Group.
Sent from my iPhone

The Brandons and the Giants' Farm System | Huffington Post

So now the comparison goes from Casey McGehee vs. Pablo Sandoval to Matt Duffy vs. Pablo Sandoval.  For the Giants, it seems as if a veteran retread has to come in and fail miserably before a rookie can come to the rescue. Dan Uggla begets Joe Panik, Now Casey McGehee releases Matt Duffy from Prospect Prison. Before that one of the Molina's blocked one Buster Posey's path and Brandon Crawford had to wait for one of the Cabrera's to falter.

It's always something. 

from Huffington Post:
The Brandons and the Giants' Farm System | Lincoln Mitchell:

The Giants' ability to produce impact players from within has been central to their impressive success in recent years. The evolution of the Brandons from solid regulars to stars, and the development of another not very widely heralded prospect, Joe Panik, into a very solid starter are the most recent examples of this. The Giants have also gotten a bit lucky with their farm system. For example, although it is unlikely to look this way at the end of the season, Matt Duffy, a player about whom a year ago all but the most intense Giants fans had heard nothing, is quietly having a better year (.279/.324/.388) than the major star, Pablo Sandoval (.251/.317/.371), who he replaced. In an era that is more competitive, with more teams, and more safeguards against dominance by wealthier teams, the Giants continue ability to produce quality players from within is an extraordinary accomplishment and one that goes a long way towards explaining those three rings.

'via Blog this'


It almost seems as if this franchise is mentally locked in to their early 2000's draft and player development record, which was putrid. However, since about 2005 or 2006,  the Giants have been about as good at drafting and developing as any franchise going. The Bonds era was laden with free-agent signings and lost draft picks, the post-Barry era is loaded with draft picks and home grown talent.

The results speak for themselves. Bonds era, zero championships. The post-Bonds era, three World Championships. Draft and develop rules.  The Huffington Post has a sports section? Sheesh!!!

Giants baseball - fun and frustrating

It is fun to be a Giant and a Giant fan. Fun, but frustrating as well, as this story alludes to. Who would have thought we would have been cheering .500 so soon after hoisting the pennant? But that's what it means to be a Giants fan.

from Giants Extra:
Dominant Bumgarner takes no-hitter into the seventh as Giants blank Padres - Giants Extra:

“I mean, it’s just fun to be a Giant,” Romo said. “It’s just really fun to be a Giant.” 

Especially now. It’s not easy to stand at .500 after 26 games when you’ve mixed in an eight-game losing streak. Having a legitimate ace certainly helps – especially one that already has come out on the winning side twice against the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw. 

“Conviction, brute force, pitching finesse – he can kind of do it all and it’s impressive,” Romo said. “Now he’s finding his stride. I think that’s what’s going on with us as a team in general. We’re all finding our ways to contribute and it’s fun right now.” 

Casey McGehee remains on the other side of the glass, though. The third baseman committed a throwing error to start the game, he stunted two rallies with disastrous at-bats and the murmurs of dissatisfaction from the sellout crowd have bloomed into throaty boos."

'via Blog this'

It's fun because you get to watch excellence on a nightly basis in the form of Bumgarner dominating opponents and making it seem routine. It's fun watching Brandon Crawford perform magic with his glove every night and make it look routine. It's fun watching Buster Posey grow from rookie to regular to star and perhaps eventually to legend. It's fun watching the uniquely talented Hunter Pence perform at an all-star caliber level and do it in a manner that is certain not no to make any past or future Tom Emansky video tapes. It's fun watching Romo throw slider after slider by batters who know it's coming and still can't hit it.

At the same time, it's fun watching Lincecum transition from power to finesse and frustrating to watch him struggle with it at times, sometimes from one start to the next, careening from excellence to frustration like a drunk driving home at 3 AM.

It is frustrating watching McGehee melt down on a nightly basis and last night was a microcosm of his brief stint with the Giants. The first inning error was on Belt, who seems to waver in and out of his own private morass with the bat and more recently, with the glove as well. Both look lost at times on the field. McGehee looks almost as if he's playing scared or tight. Gripping the bat too tight and the ball too tight is a sure recipe for disaster. If anyone was a candidate for a slump-buster it's Casey McGehee.

But that is Giants baseball. Fun and Frustrating. Many times, on the same night.

Crawford makes it look easy as usual

http://m.mlb.com/sf/video/topic/69972428/v57184983/ladsf-crawford-makes-a-great-play-to-turn-two/?c_id=sf

3/29/15: Brandon Crawford fields a tough grounder and makes a great play to start a 6-4-3 double play

"The great ones make it look easy..." and this was far from an easy play. Crawford just makes 'em look too easy, too routine. He's going to have to start doing back-flips when he goes out to his position or something, to become more appreciated. 

Other than that, Matt Duffy continues to make a strong case to stay on the roster and pushing Adrianza or perhaps Arias off. Both of the A-teamers are out of options and Arias has a decent sized contract, but neither one will slip through waivers unclaimed IMO. Adrianza appears to be wilting under the pressure of competition from Duffy. 

Justin Maxwell is starting to make the case to replace the power void in LF due to the loss of Michael Morse. First, he will likely start in RF due to the Pence injury, but once Pence gets back, perhaps a more permanent slot in LF. Blanco returns to his back-up at every OF position role. 

Belt continues to rake and there is some pressure on him to provide more power. His average is up. Posey is Posey and Pence will be Pence, but Belt needs to add more this season. 

McGehee seems to be scuffling a bit. I wouldn't mind seeing more out of him at this point. The McGehee v. Sandoval stat watch/comparison will be fully operational from Day One with Pablo continuing to open mouth and insert foot. 

I don't see why it was bad for the Giants front-office to admonish Pablo about his weight but it's OK for David Ortiz to do so. Move on Pablo, move on. You're a Red Sox now, trust me, we get it. You will fit in nicely there. 

Missing: Hunter Pence's bat | Have you seen me?

Hunter Pence has one home run in his last 112 at-bats, postseason and regular season, dating to Sept. 1. (AP)

Right now, Pence's bat is MIA. It should be on a milk carton in the SF Bay Area, much like his beloved motor scooter was when it went missing. The bat is a much more important article. It simply must be found before the end of this series.

from CSN Bay Area:
Giants notes: Bochy hopes hitting can turn around | CSN Bay Area:

ST. LOUIS – The Giants won five of their first six postseason games. The Giants hit .177 with runners in scoring position. Something look out of place here? “It probably has to turn around a little bit,” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy, prior to Game 2 of the NLCS Sunday night at Busch Stadium. “You’re going to have to get some timely hits against the team we’re playing right now. It’s going to be a battle with these guys.”

'via Blog this'

Here is a general description:

No questions asked for the safe return prior to Game 3 in SF.
REWARD: Undying gratitude of an increasingly tortured Giant fan base.

2014 Playoffs:

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Michael Morse	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.000	1.000	2.000
Ryan Vogelsong	1	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	.500	.500	.500	1.000
Andrew Susac	2	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.500	.500	.500	1.000
Brandon Belt	7	25	3	9	0	0	1	6	6	5	0	1	.360	.469	.480	.949
Pablo Sandoval	7	32	5	10	3	0	0	1	3	6	0	0	.313	.371	.406	.778
Buster Posey	7	32	2	10	0	0	0	2	2	2	0	1	.313	.371	.313	.684
Travis Ishikawa	7	18	1	5	1	0	0	1	2	3	0	0	.278	.350	.333	.683
Joe Panik	7	33	3	9	0	1	0	2	2	1	0	0	.273	.314	.333	.648
Hunter Pence	7	29	4	7	2	0	0	1	3	5	1	1	.241	.313	.310	.623
Brandon Crawford	7	29	3	6	1	0	1	5	2	8	0	0	.207	.250	.345	.595
Gregor Blanco	7	32	1	4	0	0	0	2	3	2	1	0	.125	.200	.125	.325
Juan Pérez	6	10	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	.100	.182	.100	.282
Tim Hudson	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
Jake Peavy	2	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
Yusmeiro Petit	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
Joaquín Árias	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
Madison Bumgarner	3	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	5	0	0	.000	.100	.000	.100
Gary Brown	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
Matt Duffy	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000

Panik's 1 K in 33 AB's really shows what a hitting machine this kid could be when he actually gets comfortable with being in the major leagues, don't you think? Belt's stat line is phenomenal as well with the 6 BB's combined with 5 K's, but adding 6 RBI's.  

I get that you have to understand what the opposition is trying to do to you as well. They don't want Posey beating them, Pence and Sandoval can be pitched around, at times both will get themselves out. Pablo is racking up some 'harmless hits' and the guys around / after him, the Brandon's, have to clean up and they have. Eleven of the Giants twenty-one RBI's are from the Brandon's and the only two HR's hit, also from the Brandon's.

We need a little more diversity in the offense San Francisco!!! Or maybe we need to bring back Brandon Hicks. WDIK?   ¯\_( )_/¯