2nd Coors Sweep

[holiday613]

Great series sweep against the Rockies which is hard to do in their house and we did it twice..Easy to get carried away with all this winning but there are some worrying trends that if they don't corrected will bite us in the ass and will cost us come playoff time..We can't expect to continue on this winning streak if guys like Bryant, Longo, Posey continue to look lost at the plate..We might be able to overcome their shortcomings in the short term but ultimately we are doomed..I expect the Giants coaching staff to right the ship..My beef with Casali is well known here..I just don't understand the love affair with him..He screwed up once again by not tagging the runner out in the 7th ( Solano throw was poor though)Joey Bart should be the backup the last 6 games and Casali should come down with a Giants phantom injury..Regarding our bullpen, I fault Kapler today by bringing in Alvarez/Zittell ahead of Doval/Castro who have been our most dominant relievers..It's high time Gabe adjusts with what his eyes tell him and not go with his heart..Again, hard to complain about a team winning 102 games thus far, but I truly believe it could be a lot less stressful, with a little more foresight..

[reedonly]

Not to defend Kapler but I think he went Alvarez/Littell first to get them involved in the bullpen. Krukow was talking about this on the morning show and said that the championship years had a "core four" but they are trying to develop a larger dominant core. They have depth in the lineup but they are also working on depth in the pen.

[Islandboagie]

You say we could still win in the short term with the roster we have, and I agree...The good thing is the post-season IS short term, so maybe, just maybe we can pull it out with a little timely hitting. But the problem is we could potentially be playing two teams (Brewers and Cardinals) that had our number in the regular season when we were playing well, and we haven't done much to get better since then.

When Posey went on the IL for 10 days back in June or July (?) they could have called up Bart, but they opted to call up Tromp instead, who is now with another team. So if Casali or Buster gets injured now, we have to rely on Bart who only started 1 game this year. For all the depth we have, and the up and down moves we've made, to have our top prospect catcher not ready to assume the role at the big league level if he is called upon for the post-season is ridiculously unprepared. You and I both believe Bart should be the catcher backing up Posey now, but at very least he should have had enough games at the big league level this season that he could fill in comfortably going into the post-season if he is needed.

Heliot Ramos should have gotten a call up this month. Despite our winning, I still think it is equally important to get ready for next season as well. Ramos and Bart are the next in line to be potential leaders of this club and are projected to be on the roster next season. I'm not saying Ramos should've stuck, but could he be worse than Dickerson has been this season? He should have at least gotten a taste.

The Giants love Tyler Rodgers because he gives a different look on the mound. Hitters are not used to looking at the ground for the ball leaving the pitcher's hand. That's why he been successful. So when we have been drowning in bullpen overuse over the last month+, why wasn't Sean Hjelle called up to make a start or two? He's nearly 7 feet tall, that is also a different look, much like Rodgers. I wouldn't expect Hjelle to dominate, but our "bullpen games" have been hit or miss. Hjelle could have at very least given us some innings and our offense would have just had to catch up..that's no different than Cueto gave us. The difference is nobody has seen Hjelle, and his height alone would make it something hitters would have to get used to.

Calling up Hjelle to make a few starts would have enabled other September call ups like Bart and Ramos, because we wouldn't have had to flood our roster with relief pitchers.

Unfortunately it's a little late for any of these moves, we'll just have to hope they get hot and beat teams that previously beat us.

One thing I will say that has made us slightly better is having Doval. He made Machado look silly on three sliders, and blew away the middle of the Rockies lineup. He could be crucial in the post-season.

[reedonly]

Doval might end up being really key. This morning, Krukow compared him to what Rodriguez did in 2002 for the Angels.

[reedonly]

The Belt thumb fracture is a really unfortunate. Yesterday, Krukow was complaining that Belt should *not* have been bunting in that situation because he was dialed in (hit 2 home runs the day before) and it was not a situation that required baserunners. Before the actual diagnosis, he said he was optimistic because Belt was able to pull the batting glove off without discomfort and manipulation did not cause him to wince. I guess it hit one of those little bones in the thumb area. They're now saying he will be out for the last week of the season and probably deep into the playoffs. Hopefully, Ruf can get up to speed soon but its a huge dropoff in the field whether its using Wade, Flores, or Ruf. 

[Islandboagie]

Call up Bart, start Posey at first.

[reedonly]

This morning Krukow was saying that when Posey rests, there's little drop off with Caselli defensively and offensively. I usually agree with Krukow but are you kidding me? Maybe he needs to broadcast from the same ballpark as the one they are playing at instead of in Oracle. It's beyond obvious.

[klaiggeb]

I'm surprised you would say that. If he wants to talk about blocking balls, or framing pitches, I agree. But throwing arm?

At the plate? It's not even close.

He is nuts!!!

[holiday613]

Longo and Bryant supposed 2 of our big power righty bats stinking up the joint for weeks now..Automatic outs and Kapler keeps throwing them out there...Horrible