Giants reliever Josh Osich thriving since his call-up - SFGate

 The health concerns perhaps demonstrate why Stephen Okert may have placed higher on most prospect lists. From a pure "stuff" standpoint, it's probably a wash. If this kid can stay healthy, he has a chance to replace Affeldt down the road. What is it they say about drafting pitchers?

"You need to take two, because one will break."

The Giants may need both of these guys to replace Affeldt and Lopez relatively soon.

from sfgate.com
http://m.sfgate.com/giants/ostler/article/Giants-reliever-Osich-thriving-since-his-call-up-6374261.php

It's funny, because the man doesn't look fragile. Six-two, a solid 220 pounds. And he throws 98 mph, which, contrasted with much of the rest of the Giants' pitching staff, looks like 128 mph.

And effective? Small sample size, as they say, but the Giants called up Osich from the minors Friday, and in four relief appearances, he has faced 13 batters and allowed no hits. In the Giants' 4-1 loss to the Mets on Wednesday, Osich pitched the eighth inning and 1-2-3'd the heart of the Mets' batting order on routine grounders.

---

He runs down the list of the bad stuff, dating back to college at Oregon State.

"Ulnar-nerve surgery, 2009, 2010 Tommy John (surgery), 2011 tore sub-scap(ula) muscle in shoulder, 2012 impingement, 2013 I had a radial-nerve injury, 2014 another impingement."

Sent from my iPhone

Giants capture 3rd title in 5 years - Dynasty? YES!! YES!! YES!!

It's cool that this is even a discussion. When they have to compare you against the top teams of all time, some of whom played in an entirely different era that was more conducive to building a dynasty ( ie: teams that played before the dissolution of the Reserve Clause ).

from Yahoo Sports:
New dynasty: Giants capture 3rd title in 5 years - Yahoo Sports:

Eight players have been on all three winning World Series teams: Bumgarner, slugging third baseman Sandoval, Posey and relievers Jeremy Affeldt, Javier Lopez, Santiago Casilla, Sergio Romo and Tim Lincecum. Matt Cain, too, but he was hurt this year.

General manager Brian Sabean, longest-tenured in baseball, can't put a finger on why the mix keeps working. He is proud of the core of players who were drafted and came through the system and played such a huge part this time.

"It's a testament to player development and scouting. That's what we all hope for, that you can plug your holes from within and build your team from within," Sabean said. "That's a surefire way to kind of keep things moving forward. It prevents you from having to go into the market, whether it's free agency or more so the trade market."

'via Blog this'

I'm more concerned with how many of the core guys can be re-signed. I think Pablo can be had for 5 / $90 which would be in the same neighborhood as the Hunter Pence money his neophyte agent was looking for at the beginning of the season. If it gets much higher than that either through Pablo's agent overplaying his hand or another team submitting a crazy bid and Sandoval is gone. Oh, and Pablo, tell your dumb-ass agent that comparing your contract to another teammates is bad form. There are plenty of other comparables he can make a) behind closed doors and b) after the season is over. By the way, I define a crazy bid as one that takes Pablo's number significantly over Pence's numbers and approaching or greater than Buster Posey's number. Let some other team take the chance on that one.  

Romo I think can be had by taking the $5M I believe he was making and the $5M Vogelsong received last year and splitting it $5.5M Romo and $4.5 Vogie or 60/40. You might lose both if Vogelsong gets a nice offer from another team, but Affeldt has the bullpen bar set at $6M and deservedly so. Plus, Casilla will be due a nice raise shortly, to say nothing of Bumgarner. Bumgarner recently signed a team friendly extension that seemed fair to the pre-legendary Bumgarner, but might have to be looked at again quite soon.

World Championships come with a cost, but it's a nice cost to have. WTH it's not my money, pass the hat among the billionaire owners.

Giants win in typical Giant style!!!

Let the debates begin!! The Giants confound the experts again, as all the Fox pre-game talking heads picked the Royals to win, and yet the Giants win instead. They announcer didn't notice the Giants had a chance to win until about the seventh or eighth inning and never gave them their props. And friggin' Buck whines and jokes about why he's despised as an announcer. He's a horses ass every step of the way.

Aside from Bumgarner's performance for the ages, the Giants amazingly close this one out without a HR in the series, with an 0-12 performance from their 1-2-3 hitters tonight and without much of an offensive contribution from their top offensive player.


The debate today seemed to center on whether or not this third title in five years stamps the Giants as a "dynasty". In modern day terms, I think they qualify. Chicago columnist Phil Rogers was on Sirius/XM saying that the Atlanta Braves were more a dynasty  since they won /dominated more consistently over a longer period of time in spite of not winning more than one World Series title. Leaving out the irony of a Cubbies sportswriter commenting on "what makes a dynasty", does he really think that Braves fans wouldn't trade an occasional flop for more World Series success? This USA Today graphic doesn't even list the Bravos.

This was Panda, as cool, calm and collected as Bumgarner would be later. And he backed it up with his own signature performance, both in this game and this series. Pay the man, just pay the man!!

If the Giants could find money under the seat cushions to pay Hunter Pence after he came over and sparked the team. If the Giants feel they could find enough money in the budget to make a competitive run at Jake Peavy, who openly flirts and makes googly eyes at both the Cardinals and the Cubs while the Giants are competing for this, Pablo's third Giants title, while Peavy by comparison pisses down his leg with his performance in the World Series and spends his free time polishing his future free-agent bona-fides, then you guys better damn well sign Pablo Sandoval first. He means more to the franchise and more to Giants fans than Jake Peavy ever while, so put that in your calculations and smoke it.

from CSN Bay Area.com
http://www.csnbayarea.com/giants/giants-re-signing-sandoval-well-do-best-we-can

“

Pablo’s at the top of that list. We all know it. Every negotiation is different. Every intention on the part of the player is different. I know we love Pablo and he loves the Giants and we’ll see what happens.

”

— Giants GM Brian Sabean

And how about Jeremy Affeldt. Under-rated, under-appreciated Jeremy Affeldt. Turning in another spit and bailing wire performance that gets the ball to Bumgarner with the outcome still intact after it looked like Hudson had tilted momentum the Royals way. Affeldt righted the ship and I suppose for that gets awarded the victory. More folks than the official scorer should appreciate what Affeldt did getting the Win in this game.

from CSN Bay Area.com
http://www.csnbayarea.com/giants/affeldt-tearful-upon-being-named-winning-pitcher-game-7

“

I couldn’t be more honored that I was a part of this. I can’t wait to see the people in San Francisco. We pitched, and pitching wins championships.

”

 — Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt

And how about Joe Cool, Joe Fundamentals or whatever nickname eventually sticks doing it with his glove rather than his bat. Where would we be without him righting the ship at 2B this year? And thank God for replay, right? Poetic justice. 

Way to go, Joe!!! Hanging around Brandon Crawford is beginning to rub off on your glove. Hopefully, your bat rubs off on his a little bit more down the road.

It looks like any game that ends in a Buster hug is good for Giants baseball history. If it's not Wilson, Romo and now Bumgarner, to say nothing of Cainer and Timmy for their no-no's and perfectos, these man hugs never get old.

And last but not least, Bumgarner clearly makes the grade among scouts and old-school pitching aficionados.

I guess the amazing, unbelievable, unassuming way the Giants won this year and in some of the same ways, the other two years, makes it somewhat easy to dismiss them an under-rated, lucky and undeserving of matching up with other juggernaut teams from the past and present. I can tell you as a close observer of this team, luck has nothing to do with it.  Pluck and perseverance and stick-to-it-iveness and stick-togetherness DOES. certainly. The essence of the word TEAM. 

Three titles in five years and we could be celebrating and debating about four titles in five years if they don't lose Posey to Cousin's cheap shot heard 'round the Bay Area.  That's not luck chumps. And what some of these guys would know about championship mettle is beyond me. What a brain-dead Chicago columnist would know about what constitutes championship mettle after watching a team that hasn't displayed it in over a century and whose last feeble attempt at same resulted in "Curses Bartman" to say nothing about blaming your failures on a Curse of the Billy Goat is kind of like, well, a Chicago football columnist opining about good, solid QB play. 

Celebrate Giants and Giants fans, You've earned it. Let some of there other guys piss and moan on each other while you're having another parade. 

Giants core strength

The Giants not so secret weapon. Two lefties and two righties provide Bochy a ton of flexibility and maneuverability in the late innings. As we have seen lately it has allowed him to leave both Matt Williams and Mike Matheny lying in a cloud of second guessing the wake of their series with the Giants.

from Yahoo Sports:
Giants rely on core of 4 relievers - Yahoo Sports:

Santiago Casilla, Jeremy Affeldt, Javier Lopez and Sergio Romo are among the seven players who have played in all three postseason runs for San Francisco since 2010, providing stability to a role that can be so hard for some teams to fill come October.

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Giants, Affeldt Agree To Three-Year Deal: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com

Good news. This is a good deal for a guy that fills an important role and does it well. The money sounds about right making it a good fit all around.


from MLBTradeRumors.com
Giants, Affeldt Agree To Three-Year Deal: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com:

The Giants and left-hander Jeremy Affeldt have reached an agreement on a three-year deal that will be worth around $18MM, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.

The 33-year-old Affeldt was a critical component to the Giants 2012 World Series title, pitching to a 2.70 ERA, 8.1 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 with a sky-high 59.9 percent ground-ball rate in 63 1/3 innings. Unlike many southpaws, Affeldt was effective against both right-handed (.656 OPS) and left-handed batters (.621 OPS).

'via Blog this'

Giants Notes: Huff, Scutaro, Pagan, Affeldt: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com

You would think they could wait to announce some of these roster moves until AFTER the parade, but I guess there is some procedural requirement that they announce the contract options immediately in order to benefit the player.

The fans seem to be enjoying themselves and generally staying busy anyway. Perhaps SF should schedule the parade ASAP before some of these guys kills themselves or tear down the city. Stay classy, SF.

from MLBTradeRumors.com
Giants Notes: Huff, Scutaro, Pagan, Affeldt: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com:

Giants general manager Brian Sabean has the makings of a dynasty centered around strong pitching and affordable young position players such as Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval and Brandon Belt, writes Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca. Here are some links surrounding the team that captured its second World Series title in three years last night...

• The Giants will decline their $10MM club option on Aubrey Huff, tweets Andrew Baggarly of CSN Bay Area. The news isn't much of a surprise given Huff's injuries and struggles at the plate since 2010. Huff's contract contains a $2MM buyout.

• MLB.com's Alden Gonzalez spoke to several members of the Giants organization about the impact that Marco Scutaro had on the team following his acquisition from the Rockies.

• Gonzalez's colleague, Chris Haft, writes that the Giants and Scutaro will "likely forge a deal" this offseason, as the 37-year-old is too valuable both on and off the field to let go.

• Haft also writes that Angel Pagan is expected to receive a multi-year contract with an average annual value perhaps in the $10MM range in a thin free agent market. Sabean will need to determine if Pagan is worth that to his team.

• Haft goes on to say that Jeremy Affeldt could be in line for a multi-year deal on the free agent market. That, along with the presence of Jose Mijares could mean that Affeldt will find himself wearing a new uniform come 2013.

'via Blog this'

The Ryan Vogelsong story continues -- AMAZING clip from 'The Franchise'

OK, I admit -- I'm biased -- but this is just such a wonderful story.



Vogelsong's Father In-Law - The Franchise: A Season with the San Francisco Giants - SHOWTIME

Giant's pitcher Ryan Vogelsong and his wife Nicole remember the inspirational father in-law who provided non-stop emotional support throughout the rocky early years of the player's career.

----

I could watch this every day...or until the next episode comes out. GREAT STUFF.

The Jeremy Affeldt speech about the Stow incident....the clips of the guys leaving their families for the early season road trip....the Posey incident....the Cody Ross Experience.....Barry Zito's struggles....Panda's weight (and BA) fluctuations.....lots of great feature and story lines. And did I forget to mention the madcaps Aubrey Huff and Brian Wilson?

One of the faces of the franchise -- Lincecum -- is barely feature in Episode One (I think DeRosa appeared more often) and it was still pretty good.

TO THE VICTORS, GO THE SPOILS.

The Franchise: A Seaso...: Episode One - SHOWTIME Baseball

Watch the full one-hour first episode of SHOWTIME's new docu-series. Winning the World Series proves to be a tough act to follow for the San Francisco Giants. Episode one follows the team's biggest players Buster Posey, Matt Cain, Brian Wilson, Freddy Sanchez, Tim Lincecum, and Pablo Sandoval through the early days of the season.

Barry Bonds to Pay for College of Beaten Giants Fan's Kids - FoxNews.com

Good stuff. Way to go, Barry.

Barry Bonds to Pay for College of Beaten Giants Fan's Kids - FoxNews.com: "The all-time home run king still has some pop left in his bat.

Former San Francisco Giants great Barry Bonds will pay for college for Bryan Stow's kids, according to NBCBayArea.com. Stow is the Giants fan who was severely beaten and left in a coma outside of Dodgers Stadium last month.

Stow family attorney Thomas Girardi tells the website that Bonds made the pledge to Stow's son and daughter after visiting the family in the hospital April 22."

According to Deadspin:

http://deadspin.com/5805284/barry-bonds-will-pay-to-send-beaten-giants-fans-kids-to-college

Stow's lawyer spoke to NBC Bay Area to reveal the Bonds story:

Stow family attorney Thomas Girardi said that former slugger Barry Bonds has donated to pay for their college education. He said the family has talked about turning other donations back to the fans if this suit is successful, but said the gift of a college of education is something they treasure and will keep.

Bryan is a single father. He has a son and a daughter who are both in grade school.

Bonds visited Stow on April 22, while he was still in a Southern California hospital.

Sources close to Stow told NBC that Bonds also spent an hour in Stow's room and left a signed baseball bat for Stow's children. At the time, there was no mention of a donation to a college fund.

It's kind of noteworthy, too, that Bonds did this over a month ago—shortly after the verdict came down in his stupid trial—and that he didn't say anything about it to the press. Stow's lawyer mentions it here only because the family was so excited to have such a gift AND from a Giants icon, to boot.

So, please, a moment of thanks for Bonds's generosity, before you return to cursing him for eternity.

P.S. Reportedly, Giants ace Tim Lincecum also donated $25,000 to the Stow family fund.

from YahooSports.com
LHP Jeremy Affeldt visited hospitalized Giants fan Bryan Stow, who is in critical but stable condition after a brutal beating in the parking lot at Dodger Stadium, at San Francisco General Hospital on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. Affeldt told the AP that Stow opened his eyes and seemed responsive when Affeldt introduced himself, held his hand and said a prayer for his recovery.

Giants and Dodgers stand united in support of injured fan - Big League Stew - MLB Blog - Yahoo! Sports

Good move on the part of both teams. This use of a rivalry in sports as an excuse to commit mayhem has to end somewhere. We are not soccer fan. The difference in the colors of our favorite teams uniforms cannot be an excuse for violence and hatred.



Giants and Dodgers stand united in support of injured fan - Big League Stew - MLB Blog - Yahoo! Sports:

"'When the last out is made, that rivalry ends on the field.'

Those were the words of  pitcher Jeremy Affeldt(notes) on Monday night as his San Francisco Giants teammates joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in a pregame show of support for Bryan Stow. The 42-year-old Giants fan — a paramedic and father of two from Santa Cruz — remains in a medically induced coma after he was attacked by two Dodgers fans on opening night at Dodger Stadium.

Whether or not Affeldt's words can ever really resonate with the cowards who use differing team allegiances as a pitiful excuse to attack others remains up for debate. But given Monday night's situation at AT&T Park — where increased security was on the lookout for any forms of retribution —  it was a solid way to place the game in its proper perspective.

As Jamey Carroll(notes) of the Dodgers put it: 'There's no room in this game for hatred and violence. It is about respect. This is America's national pastime ... Let's keep it that way.'"

GIANTS ADD LHP JEREMY AFFELDT

Good move adding a solid LHP to the end of the bullpen. Two years @ $8M total makes it a good move economically as well. Still need a little more depth in the bullpen, mainly middle innings and long relief duties, but it's a start.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-giants-affeldt&prov=ap&type=lgns