The Giants were relatively quiet in the offseason, looking inward to improve on a disappointing 2011 season. Names like Sanchez, Posey, and Bumgarner were spoon-fed to confused Giants fans who were looking for some fresh lumber to spark a second deep playoff run in three years. Instead, they are left making Spring Training speculations like Fontenot/Theriot, Pill/Belt, and Blanco/The World (Blanco’s winning). The Omega Man of the Giants off-season may be Nate Schierholtz, who appears to have lost a job that he was promised at the end of last season. While this may be bad for Nate, it may not be all bad for the Giants. Continue reading
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Close to Home
While TGaGaaCB is a baseball podcast, Thomas and I have made no secret of our love for football. I’m a big 49ers fan, and Thomas is a fan of the Colts 49ers Titans whatever team Peyton Manning is on. The football world has been shocked by Bounty-gate, the discovery that former New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams ran a “bounty” program, giving players financial rewards for injuring opposing players.
Now, football is an intensely physical sport, and people do get injured regularly just playing the game, even if there is no foul play or specific malice involved. Players are encouraged to hit hard and do everything it takes to help their team win, and to pretend otherwise is naive.
Still, this whole thing just feels wrong, and I’ve been having a hard time figuring out exactly why. Maybe it has something to do with this: Continue reading
Joe Panik Isn’t the Shortstop of the Future; This Isn’t Terrible
Troy Tulowitzkis don’t grow on trees. Jose Reyeseses can’t be made from a Promethean mold. JJ Hardys don’t get released by two teams and then blossom into elit- sorry Brewers and Twins fans, got a bit off track there. Point is, there aren’t a lot of quality big league shortstops in the known universe. Few can combine an above average bat with crisp glove skills and enough speed to go deep into the hole and up the middle. The Giants are a team that has especially had trouble at the position, choosing to sign veterans like Juan Uribe, Miguel Tejada, and Orlando Cabrera to make sure Panda has someone to talk to. Since the latter two vets failed to give even mediocre production at the position, the Giants have been forced to look to their homegrown talent to fill the void.
The Giants’ current shortstop, 25-year-old Brandon Crawford, has the aformentioned slick glove but lacks the offensive tools to be considered a long-term solution in San Francisco. Fortunately, the Giants used their first round draft pick in 2011 on a shortstop from St. John’s University named Joe Panik. However, the scouting consensus is that Panik and his plus hitting and limited defense would be better served at second base, creating an even deeper hole for the Giants to climb out of at the shortstop position. But hold on right there. Why? Why would Panik be better served at second in the big leagues, and where does this line of thinking come from? The answer is essentially defense, but it’s complicated.