We were robbed!

If this picture and this video don't show how safe Ishi was yesterday then the quote by Mets catcher Henry Blanco in this story will.


“He was safe all the way,” Blanco said, grinning. “Good for us.”


This call cost the Giants the winning run in the 9th inning.  A good start from Jonathan Sanchez and a rally against closer Francisco Rodriguez were completely wasted.  Now, the Giants did have another chance to get a runner home from third with 2 outs in the 9th inning but the call clearly took the wind out of the Giants sails.


It is unbelievable that MLB continues to let these calls go on.  They keep going on and on with no end in sight.  What is going to take to get baseball to finally come into the 21st century and bring in instant replay?  Is it going to take a blown call in the playoffs?




Well maybe not.  


It's probably going to take the World Series being decided by a blown call to get instant replay to decide things other than homeruns.  


The fact that instant replay is being used to make sure that homeruns are called correctly shows that MLB does have some interest in getting calls right.  


The 2 biggest arguments against instant replay are time and the human element.  


First of all, you don't need to have instant replay to overturn every call.  A typical baseball game doesn't have very many calls that are that closely contested.  If you limit managers to so many challenges a game then you don't have to worry about managers abusing the privilege and limiting the amount of time a replay can be reviewed to say 2 minutes would add 8 minutes to a game if both managers used each of their challenges and they both took the full 2 minutes to review.


As for the human element, you can never take that out of baseball unless there are nothing but robot umpires umping the game.  You wouldn't allow instant replay to determine balls and strikes so the human element would not be completely eliminated.  You also would only have a few challenges per game so the human element would not be taken out of the game on calls in the field as well.  MLB has already taken the human element out of homerun calls so why should they be worried about other calls in the field?


Lastly, Phil Cuzzi needs to be replaced as a major league ump.  Fire-Sabean.com has a post about  Cuzzi and blown calls that will make you wonder why this guy even has a job.  Cuzzi's explanation of the call will also make your blood boil:


  Cuzzi said that he had not yet seen the replay. "I'll look at it, but I figured I'd eat first,” he said, laughing. “He made a decent attempt to put the tag on him. That’s what it looked to me, and that’s why I called him out.”


So a guy makes a decent attempt to make a tag and the runner is out?  Seriously, has this guy read the rule book?  I haven't read it for a while but I don't remember anywhere that it states that a good attempt to make a tag will result in the runner being called out.


If there wasn't enough reasons to think that Giants baseball was torture already, I think this will add another one.


Link of the day:


Rich Lee draws.  This guy is awesome and he has the best Giants art I have ever seen:

No runs? No Problem!

GIANTS 1 - METS 0

Well the Giants offense has started the second half in a slumber having scored a lousy 3 runs in the first 2 games.

They are 2-0 in those games!

It also marks the first time this season that the Giants have won a game 1-0.  Which is pretty amazing when you consider the Giants pitching staff.  Up until last night, the Giants were 0-8 in games which they had scored 1 run.

Normally I would be lamenting the fact that The Giants offense has gone back into a deep slumber but not tonight.  I guess I'm OK with the offense when the Staff has a 0.00 ERA!

Zito was Lincecum-esque.  He actually was even more dominating than Lincecum was the night before by racking up 10 k's and allowing only 2 hits, one of which was a bloop double by Carlos Beltran in the 7th, in 8 innings pitched.  I guess he really was pissed after his last outing.

The Giants did manufacture the run that they did get however.

In the fourth inning, Aubrey Huff drew a one out walk, Buster Posey followed with a double, and Pat Burrell brought Huff home with a grounder to second that brought a throw home which Catcher Rod Barajas just couldn't hold on to.

This sequence of events prompted the always quotable Huff to remark: " I don't think I've been pumped up to score a run in the fifth inning, ever. It was a nice atmosphere at the yard tonight. It kind of felt like a playoff-game atmosphere." 


He also added:


"Not that I would know what it feels like"


Man I love that guy.


Links of the day:


I got two today.

First off Bengie Molina Hit a grand slam against the Boston Red Sox last night.  To top that feat, he also managed to hit for the cycle.  This made a bit of history as Molina was the first catcher ever to hit for the cycle and hit a grand slam in the same game.  Molina is hot BTW.  This was the second night in a row that he slammed a HR!


How did he celebrate after he walked around the bases for the ever elusive triple to complete his cycle?  


He came out of the game with a strained hamstring.


Congratulations big money!


The second link was actually pointed out in a blog post by El Lefty Malo who was able to find a little nugget of sense in the Dontrelle Willis signing.  It shows his stats against left handed batters this season.  Situational lefty anyone?

Giants roll to start second half!

GIANTS 2 - METS 0

I'm glad the Giants didn't wait too long to get on track in the second half.

Going into the break there was some concern that their hot streak was mainly the product of playing two of the worse teams in the NL.  There was some concern that the second place New York Mets would roll into town and put an end to the Giants little string of success.

Instead, the Giants won for the eighth time in the last 10 games.  They moved to 3.5 games back of the first place Padres and only 1 game back of the third place Dodgers.

If you told me two weeks ago that the Giants would be only 3.5 games out of first place after the first game of the second half, I would have had trouble believing you.

Instead, the Giants have been scoring runs while being led by the shot in the arm that is Buster Posey, The pitching has improved due in no small part to the return to excellence by Tim Lincecum. Most importantly they look like a team with confidence again.

Youth led the way again last night.  From Timmy's complete game shutout, to Pablo Sandoval's double of the wall in the second, to Buster Posey's RBI groundout in the 8th to go along with having scored the games only other run up to that point.

I have to say that the young players playing more often has been refreshing to say the least.  Earlier in the season when the Giants were struggling and they were playing nothing but veterans every day this was a depressing team to watch.  Now, win or lose, we are getting a glimpse of the Giant's future.  We are seeing what guys like Posey, Bumgarner, Ishikawa, and Schierholtz can do while being given somewhat of an extended look for the first time.  The future looks bright indeed!

Link of the day:

22gigantes posed the question during the break if divorce is getting to Pablo Sandoval.  This theory holds some water with me since I have long thought that Pablo's struggles this season have looked to be more mental than mechanical.  His celebration after lining his second inning run scoring double last night would make one think that he was feeling a little more loose to start the second half.