Giants Year-in-Review: 2008

Now that we've had some time for the accomplishments and failures of the 2008 baseball season to soak in (and that it look like the Dodgers are on their way out of the postseason), lets take a look at the 2008 season.

Two goals were not accomplished, Bary Zito did not lose 20 games and the team did not lose 100 games. Zito got his act together in the second half and pitched like a serviceable 3-4 starter. The team, inspired by Pablo Sandoval, played very well in the second half of the season to finish with 72-90 record, or about 10 games better than I could have hoped. Perhaps I underestimated how hard it is to lose 100 games, even San Diego only lost 99 games.

Given my low expectations, I have to call this season a success. The Giants played 24 rookies, many of whom were rushed to the big leagues from the low minors. Much of the Giant's tallent still lives in the low minors so the end of next year should also be a good chance to see more tallented guys coming up. A good number of the rookies will see significant time next year.

Offense: The offense severely lacked a lot of things. The Giants were 14th (of 16 teams) in the NL in on base percentage, 15th in runs scored, 15th in slugging precentage. They were the only team in the majors that did not hit 100 home runs and the next lowest homerun total for a team hit 17 more bombs than the Giants. The preception that the team used its speed well is also a bit incorrect as the Giants, lacking any great base stealers on a team with a lot of fast guys, only had a 70.1% stolen base percentage (effective stealing is around 80%).

Power makes up for a lot of problems with an offsense, but from what I've shown you above, they also need to find good on-base guys. AT&T Park is a tough place to hit homeruns, but the Giants are going to have to do better. They are more than "one bat" away from having a solid lineup. Prince Fielder or Mark Teixeira would help a lot, but they won't be able to carry the whole offense.

Pitching: The pitching was 9th in the NL in ERA, 2nd in strikeouts, 12th in WHIP (because they allowed the 2nd most walks in the league), and 8th in runs allowed. I can imagine those numbers would be a lot worse without Tim Lincecum's unbelievable year. The media rightfully so blames the poor bullpen performance as one of the key areas of weakness for the Giants, but it would also be nice to have a 5th starter.

One through 4, the Giants have a good if not great rotation. Zito makes a good 3 and Sanchez is a flakey 4 who has flashes of brilliance. The fifth spot is a big hole, which will get bigger if the Giants trade Cain for a serious bat. Looks like its a good thing the Giants didn't trade Lincecum for Rios last winter.

The bullpen has a lot of work to do. I think it is tough to break young guys in in the bullpen, and the Giants certainly did that, calling up all sorts of parts from Fresno to pitch the 6th-8th. Romo has earned a spot in the bullpen for next year, but other than that things are a mixed bag. Hinshaw and Sadler walk too many people (29 in 39.2 innings and 27 in 44 respectively) to be dependable bullpen guys (who by definition must come in and throw strikes). In spite what everyone says, I'm still not a big Brian Wilson fan (1.44 WHIP, .263 BAA). Thats not to say he's a lot better than some of the guys they've had in there recently, he's just no Joe Nathan. That being said, he has a strong upside and I hope he can keep anchoring the back of the Giants bullpen.

Keep in mind as you see offseason moves that relief pitching is a crapshoot. Many relievers are effected by their previous years workload. Robb Nen would alternate average and exceptional years, even in his prime. I'm not a fan of ever giving big contracts to relievers, especially not 7th and 8th inning guys (see Scott Eyre). That being said, the Giants need to add one veteran relief pitcher who can fill a 7th-8th inning role and mentor the young arms.

So all things considered, I think the Giants are in as good a position now as I could have hoped. The offense was as bad as I thought they would be, but the Giants managed to win a lot of close games. Things will only be better next year as the younger players get more seasoned.

Love that Crazy Crab

Crazy Crab Night is in the books. The Giants lost badly to the Brewers but the loss hurt a little less because we were able to visit with Crazy Crab. Here is our picture with the crusty crustacean at our exclusive pregame party.


I've met some famous people in my life, but none lived up to the hype more than Crazy Crab. He was an ornery shellfish, who criticized us for enjoying our delicious crab sandwiches while eating his brothers. I've never seen a mascot that talks back. Of course, most mascots don't wear Air Jordans either.

In person, he was a bit smaller than I would imagine. By far the most impressive feature was his eyes, which are black disks mounted on nails so the swing around when he moves. I also enjoyed the Giants hat stapled to his head.

There was disappointingly little Crazy Crab in the actual game. He almost made out with Lou Seal on "Kiss Cam" and he danced at the 7th inning stretch. At about the 5th inning, he made a defiant dash across the infield. Unfortunately, I only got the run from 3rd to the dugout.



If it looks like the guy who shot that video might have been drinking, you either could be on to something or it might have just been shot using a cheap point and shoot camera that is really hard to hold steady.

Over all, it was one of the funnest games I've seen at AT&T park. My enjoyment had to do more with the the good company, Crazy Crab, and catching the Silver Bullet train than the game. Long live Crazy Crab!

Ray Durham: a good Giant, a good trade

Today, Ray Durham was traded to Milwaukee for high minor league left-hander Steve Hammond and low minor league outfielder Darren Ford. This was a good deal for the Giants and for Durham and signals that the white flag has been raised on 2008 for the Giants. The team was slumping going into the All-Star break and is still slumping and it is time to pull the plug and dump some veteran players.

Ray is now in the middle of a pennant race on a good team. He should be in a position to be a role model for Ricky Weeks and get significant playing time off the bench or at second base. That should be a much better situation than a team that was trying to find a way to push him out of the lineup in favor of younger players.

Impressively, the Giants held on to Durham long enough for his value to jump up to a point where they could unload him without having to eat salary. It is estimated they saved $3M in this transaction/salary dump.

Neither of the prospects are can't miss guys, but you can't expect too much when the main reason for moving a player is to get salary relief and open up playing time for other guys. Ford is supposed to be an athlete who needs to learn how to play baseball. I'm always a bit skeptical about these sorts of projects, but we'll see in 2-3 years how he's ended up.

Durham was a very good Giant. He came over as a lead-off hitter and left as a number 3 or 5 guy in a weak lineup. I admire his professionalism and his ability to hit well this year after a tough 2007. He made a lot of great plays for the Giants and I thank him for the memories and wish him best of luck in Wisconsin.

Crazy Crab Day is upon us!

Crazy Crab Day is now just 24 hours from being a reality. I've got a crew of 7 to travel on Caltrain to the game tomorrow. I'm very pumped about this. I'll do everything in my power to have a picture with Crazy Crab on this blog in the very near term.

Today, I'll leave you with some important Crazy Crab links to help you prepare:

My previous thoughts on Crazy Crab
Rehab the Crab!
Crazy Crab's MySpace page

Giants and the Brewers tomorrow! We get to see two of the game's top pitchers, Cain and Sabathia. As they say, there are still good seats available. It's been way too long since I've been to a baseball game.

Rehab the Crab!

It's been a while since I've had a Giant's post, and since the team is now on pace to lose over 100 games, I'd rather talk about the mascot. However as a furry marine mammal, Lou Seal will get plenty of love elsewhere. I'm of course talking about Crazy Crab, one mascot removed from Lou.

My first interaction with the mythical crab was in the Pac-Bell (long before SBC and AT&T) Park bleachers at the end of a Giant's loss. An inebriated bleacher bum kept screaming for "the crab". He discussed his displeasure with having a harbor seal as a mascot and kept campaigning for the return of Crazy Crab. I blew him off as a hooligan.

The cry for the crab continued. I finally spent some time researching Crazy Crab and was surprised to find a complete history detailed on the SF Giants webpage. Maybe that guy wasn't crazy, there really is a Crazy Crab! Plus, since I found this on the internet, it must be true!

So in honor of crazy crab, I'm going to post the one Crazy Crab sighting since the 80's right here in this very blog. Those of you who've been tuned into this station for a while will know this is the first video ever, which is kind of a big deal.



Well, that's it for now. Be sure to visit www.rehabthecrab.com and sign the petition to bring back Crazy Crab. Either that or sign the petition to go back in time, not sign Zito, Aurilia, Roberts, et. al.