A dynasty is born, just like we all predicted

Ha. What a lie. No one saw this coming. Well except for me, kinda.

I think once the ball got rolling during the NLDS though, we were all convinced that the Giants would take these playoffs and make them their bitch.

It's been the story all three times-- unfolding differently, yet the same. They just get rolling, the pitching shows up when it needs to, and the rest is history.

Of our three World Championships though, this one was the least expected, and the closest contested. Sure 2012 required multiple massive comebacks in the NLDS vs. Cincinnati and the NLCS vs. St. Louis, but the World Series was a 4-0 breeze against Detroit.

There were no such breezes in 2014. In fact, it was nothing but a strong and steady headwind.

The way in which this team ground out series wins one after the other, how they won big games on the road, and how they bounced back after tough losses was nothing short of incredible.

The way this mix of young and experienced players gelled together and turned this into another winner was unexpected, and a joy to watch.

Between Bruce Bochy's steady hand, Panda's consistency, and all the clutch plays-- Ishi's NLCS Walkoff, Panik's insane double play, Morse's unexpected contributions... it's just hard to put it all into words. But hey, that's October for ya.

This cute Colorado isn't worthy of Madbum.

And is there anything else you can say about Madison Bumgarner that hasn't been said already? He is a monster among men, a pillar of strength, and the type of dedicated, broad-shouldered, fearless man on which this country was built and why it has prospered.

High enough praise for him? Probably not.

Just like his World Series MVP present, the mid-sized Chevy Colorado. It could never be enough.

This is a metaphor for Bumgarner. Ford or Ram work too.

Get that man a Silverado 3500 dually 4x4 with the Duramax Diesel. Madison Bumgarner ain't no sissy gas engine. He's a big ol' American diesel capable of pulling 20,000+ pounds of steer. He has the torque and dependability to pull an entire organization and city with him. Without his brute force and excellence, this team would've been stuck on the side of the road in Pittsburgh.

If Bum is the truck, Bochy's driving, Pence is the fuel, Panda is the dual heavy duty batteries, and Buster is the tires. The rest of the players make up various parts, and Hunter Strickland is in the trailer passed out drunk and being carried along as dead weight. But enough of all that nonsense.

We'll all remember each World Series title for different things. For obvious reasons, nothing will top the feeling we got for the 2010 title. The delirium and euphoria of the first time could never be replicated. 2012 was the one we all got to enjoy, the icing on the cake. 2014 will forever be etched as the title that clinched the Dynasty-- the Madison Bumgarner World Series; the "House Money" run that no one expected. It is as unique and beautiful as the other two.

I can say that no matter what happens for the rest of my life as a Giants fan, that my life was made-- THREE TIMES-- and no one can ever take that away. Even if they never sniff another title as long as I live, I'm satisfied.

But I'll always want more. Let's do it again.

The ideal NLDS roster... and reality

Now that our playoff-clinching victory high has turned into anxious impatience for the NLDS to begin, it's time for rampant speculation and widespread knowitallism.

Yup. This is why you read stuff.

To keep it simple, there are some interesting rules for playoff rosters. Read away:

To be eligible for a team’s playoff roster a player must be on any of the following: (a) the 25 man active roster, (b) the disabled list, (c) the bereavement list, or (d) the suspended list as of August 31st at midnight. The only exception is that a player on the 60-day disabled list may be replaced by another player from the team's 40-man roster (as of August 31) who plays the same position (i.e. position player for position player, or pitcher for pitcher), with the approval of the commissioner of baseball.

Sooooo with all that said. If I'm Bochy and Sabean, this is my 25 man NLDS Playoff roster, and I'll throw some explanations of why I would even bother making a list that probably won't be a reality come Thursday. Indulge me.

Infielders/Catchers (8):

Aubrey Huff
Freddy Sanchez
Juan Uribe
Pablo Sandoval
Mike Fontenot
Edgar Renteria
Buster Posey
Eli Whiteside

Outfielders (6):

Andres Torres
Cody Ross
Pat Burrell
Jose Guillen
Nate Schierholtz
Darren Ford

Pitchers (11):

Tim Lincecum
Matt Cain
Jonathan Sanchez
Madison Bumgarner
Ramon Ramirez
Javier Lopez
Santiago Casilla
Jeremy Affeldt
Sergio Romo
Chris Ray
Brian Wilson

Left out: Travis Ishikawa, Dan Runzler, Guillermo Mota, Barry Zito, Aaron Rowand, Eugenio Velez, Manny Burriss, etc.

This is a bold list. Renteria over Ishikawa? No Zito AND no Rowand? Ford?! Yes, yes, and a million times yes.

Rationale:

Zito left out

I almost feel like quoting the Dany Heatley Sharks commercial. Aw what the hell. Dany Heatley/Barry Zito is a lousy pitcher, but he's a great hockey player/guy. Heatley couldn't throw a strike, and neither could Zito on Saturday in a crucial game against San Diago. He was trying... he really was. Barry Zito wanted so badly to do well, and he didn't have it. He hasn't really had it since September 19th. And although that wasn't that long ago, his most recent performances have been alarming to say the least.

Yes, he's a veteran, and yes, he once did well in the playoffs with Oakland, but that only pulls so much weight. With all due discretion and sensitivity... that was like 8 years and 5 miles per hour ago. Furthermore, the game he started against San Diego WAS a playoff game. It was a must win, just like a potential game 4 at Turner Field would be.

How could you justify Zito on the roster? I don't get it. If indeed we need a 4th starter (which we likely will), how is Zeets a better option than Madison Bumgarner?

Zito's pros: Veteran, has pitched in big playoff games before, had a 2.84 ERA in a stretch of starts from 9/8-9-19, his lone start against the Braves came in Atlanta in which he threw 7 innings of 2 run ball and struck out 10.

Zito's cons: Has a near 9.00 ERA in his last two starts with a 9.00 BB/9 rate, cannot come out of the bullpen, has a 5.09 ERA on the road this season, and would be a wasted roster spot if a 4th game isn't necessary, was booed on Saturday and reportedly aggressively heckled by drunken GTL enthusiasts in the Marina on Sunday night.

Bumgarner's Pros: In 10 road starts this season The Carolina Kid has a 1.91 ERA. In the month of September, he has a 1.13 ERA and opponents hit only .246 against him. Has amazing poise for someone his age. He can work out of the bullpen if necessary and has done it recently. He is from North Carolina and would not be affected by any strange weather.

Bumgarner's Cons: He's a 21 year old rookie who has never pitched this many innings in a year before, let alone in a playoff game.

In addition, arguably the Braves' best hitter, Jason Heyward, hit only .249 against lefties this year. Neutralizing the powerful rookie is key.

Ford vs. Rowand:

Rowand hit a clutch HR on Friday, he makes $12.5MM this year, and would gladly engage in some form of masochism or self-mutilation if it meant he could play sometimes. That being said, he doesn't offer much to the team. For the last 3 months, this once proud baseball player has been reduced to a cheerleading ghost, a constant reminder of how much better we are with Andres Torres and what an absolute albatross his contract is.

It's unfortunate that it's come to this, but I can't feel too bad for the guy. He's filthy effing rich, he has a World Series ring from his days in Chicago, and I'm sure his wife is pretty good looking.

The case for Ford is a stretch. This isn't a video game or fantasy baseball. And yes, I know he never got big league at bat and he hit .251 in Richmond. What I also know is that there is a profound lack of speed available on this team without him. With Torres and to a lesser extent Schierholtz the only fast baserunners on the team, Ford could be an insanely valuable weapon in the late innings. Think Dave Roberts for the Red Sox... how'd that work out?

The fact that Ford was brought up on the last day of August made him eligible, and it was a smart foresighted move by Sabean and Co. The kid can play some OF if absolutely necessary, and as we saw in the game against Colorado, the guy can flat out fly and win a game for you with his legs. This probably won't happen, but that's my argument, and I don't get what angle Rowand has for making the playoff roster over the speedster.

Renteria:

This guy is banged up, old, and I have no idea what he has left. He is a backup at best, and it's a mystery what we can expect from him. That being said, he's a repeated playoff hero and has a severe knack for clutch hits. Even this year, his avg. with runners on is higher than his avg. with the bases empty. In addition, he's the best backup option to Juan Uribe. Although Fontenot can play SS, it is risky to have only one backup middle infielder available.

Ishikawa:

Ishi is a good guy and he's been a great pinch hitter and late inning defensive replacement. Unfortunately, there is just no room for him. He is best suited for late inning at bats, but the Braves employ two filthy lefties as their 8th and 9th inning guys, making him veritably useless. Perhaps next round.

Bullpen:

It's too bad we can't take all these guys, because Runzler and Mota are solid arms. Unfortunately they both experienced injuries late in the season and haven't made enough appearances lately to prove that they are indeed "back". Mota pitched great against SD the other day, and Runzler seems to be working out the kinks, but unfortunately they don't make the cut.

As for what will probably happen? Well, it's probably not as pretty. As Murph and Mac pointed out Tuesday morning on KNBR, the Giants are a very conservative organization that doesn't make any rash decisions and are not known to ruffle feathers. Sacking both Zito AND Rowand from the active roster would cause a bit of a media storm and would be a minor distraction. Also, we're talking about $30MM of dead weight sitting on the bench...

...Oh well

If I were to make a bet, I would say that the Giants ruin my perfect roster by keeping both Zito and Rowand over Ford and Ray. Doesn't make sense baseball-wise, but it's a reality. Let's hope Sabes gives this a read.

Coming up tomorrow, a look at the Braves, how the lineups match up and pitching schedules.

PS: My playoff guarantee made over a month ago came true. Trust in the Dodgerhater!

Aubrey Huff to the Giants... The Sabean haters will have a field day

In case you haven't heard, Aubrey Huff is a Giant.

This is definitely one name that I hadn't heard throughout this seemingly interminable offseason.

Look, before we piss and bitch, moan and groan, let's just throw out a couple things to get them out of the way.

-- Huff is a career American Leaguer other than a 68 game tour with the Astros in '06

-- He is 33 years old

-- Huff has played significant amounts of RF in addition to being primarily a 1B/3B

-- He has a career line of .282/.340/.472 (.812 OPS)

-- He's never hit less than 15HR in a season since 2001 (his 1st year as a starter)

-- He's never had more than 53 walks in a season

-- He's one season removed (2008) from a 32 HR, 108 RBI, 48 double, .912 OPS season

-- Huff's career BABIP (Batting average on balls hit in play) is .296 (not too shabby)

-- His career UZR\150 numbers: 1B: -4.0; 3B: -4.4; RF: -9.8 (1B w/BAL in '09 was -.3.5

-- Bill James predicts him to go for 20HR/66RBI with a .267 average

Now that you have some background, let's look a little deeper into this.

First of all, this is a textbook "low-risk, high-reward" signing. Yes Huff is 33, and yes, he had a horrendous year last year split between the Baltimore Orange Birds and the Detroit Philanderers. There is no defending that. I will not get into any specifics, because it was by far his worst season, and based on the man's track record, it was negative fluke. For 1 year and $3MM, you could do A LOT WORSE.

Not to say that this could be a waste. With another primary infielder added to the mix, we are certainly looking at a fullish looking roster (without even getting into the 40 man roster business). As the MLBTR article says, it looks like Huff is going to be primarily a first baseman, although he's capable of playing 3rd.

In 2006 when Huff last played at least 90 games at the hot corner, he posted a -7.4 UZR/150 rating. That compares well with Kung Fu's '09 rating of -6.4, DeRosa's '09 rating of -8.7, and Juan Uribe's number of +4.8 (in only 44 games). It shouldn't matter much, as Huff should rarely see 3rd. I was simply illustrating that he's capable.

Plus, Huff's arrival pushes DeRosa to LF, his best defensive position.


(----> Huff is on the left. Come on. How can you not like this guy? If nothing else, Brian Wilson has a new beer pong partner for Wasted Wednesdays at Bar None. Check out the link at the bottom of the article for the story after you read it all!)

"Great." you say, "More mediocre old guys.

If by "mediocre old guys" you mean guys past the age of 32 who can't steal any bases or hit more than 25 dongs, then yes. We have another mediocre old guy.

Without looking at what positives Huff could bring to the table, I'm already expecting to see Grant over at McCovey Chronicles pulling his hair out through his blog post.

The anti-Sabean movement among hardcore Giants fans (read: blog-reading, obsessive fanatics like us), seems to have been getting worse and worse. I mean, yeah, I get it, but who would you have preferred?

Personally, I would have preferred Carlos Delgado, who hit 38 dongs in '08 with a -3.4 UZR/150 at first base. However, while Huff was having a dreadful season in '09 at the plate, Delgado was recovering from severe hip surgery. In addition, he would not have come for $3MM and one year. He certainly would've required 2 years, at something more like $12-16MM. Which naturally would have spurred raucous complaining about signing old guys to long contracts among the legions of unrealistic fans out there. Of course, we'll see how Delgado's situation turns out, but Huff's one year deal is indicative of the "New Sabean".

Like many of us, changing how we operate is difficult. Sabean has doled out so many bad contracts to 30+ year old free agents (Winn, Rowand, Roberts, etc.), that he is no longer capable of signing anyone to anything more than a 2 year deal, while still not capable of avoiding 30+ somethings altogether. He's simply too gunshy at this point-- and with good reason. He'll still get blasted by the anti-Sabean mafia, but he's in a no-win situation. Just be grateful that Adam LaRoche blew off our offer this past week.

And hell, if Huff hits 12 home runs and plays average defense, he's gone next year without hurting us too badly. So let's just look at what we've got in our bag of tricks... I mean, collection of thirty somethings:

CF Rowand
2B Sanchez
3B Sandoval
LF DeRosa
1B Huff
RF Schierholtz/Bowker
SS Renteria
C Posey/Whiteside

Util: Juan Uribe, Travis Ishikawa, Andres Torres, etc.

Hey, I don't hate it. What the lunatic fringe needs to understand is that this is SOOOOO much better than last year. Remember? A.U. Velez? Fred Lewis? Matt Downs?

If you still can't stand it, at least Huff is a part of Bill Simmons's "Lindsey Hunter all-stars". Of course that being male athletes with names that sound like chicks. This list includes Andrea Bargniani, Ashley Lelie, Shannon Sharpe, Kelly Washington, Brook & Robin Lopez, etc.

That and, uh, this:

And here is the link to the story behind Aubrey Huff and that topless hottie. If you are gay or under 18, don't click on it. Seriously, don't make me the weirdo here.

Things got a little weird when Aubrey was in studio for "Bubba and the Love Sponge".

BENGIE!

Bengie... pulling a Kirk Gibson! I wish he'd done a fist pump, just to draw the ire of the Dodgers and their retard fans!

Not too much to say tonight other than... WHAT A HUGE WIN!

Also, we've hit two dongs in two consecutive games. That's always nice. Also of note is that yesterday, Juan Uribe and Travis Ishikawa combined for a solo and three run dinger respectively.

Today, it was Juan Uribe and the injured Bengie Molina. Interesting.

I certainly have no problem with Uribe going yard. Man he really crushes the ball. For a guy with 8 yardshots, Uribe looks like Albert Pujols up there when he gets a hold of them.

Joe Martinez on the slab tomorrow. Let's do this!

-- Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Santana in the booth on Tuesday night with Kruk & Kuip. That was certainly strange. The guy is a great man, but definitely on his own wavelength. Way to go making baseball political too man... talking about "Eight years of fear under George Bush."

I don't know about you, but I felt safer under Dubya. Haha. I'll just leave it at that.

Interested to hear if any of you readers has gone to one of the "Heritage Days" this week. I guess it was Italian night tonight, followed by Jewish, African-American, and Irish.

I love how the Irish night is on Friday. Seriously... out of all those groups drinking hardcore at the game, that's the one that will need a day off the next morning! The Brian Wilson shirts look SICK too. I would spend $20 bucks on that shirt by itself. Getting a ticket to the game is just an unbelievable throw in. I'm thinking about going myself. I just won't tell anyone that I'm only 50% Irish. I guess I can round up. It would suck to be 49%!

Let's get rowdy!

Buy special tickets to Irish Night (and other nights) here.

Another heart-attacker

Nothing comes easy with these guys!

Great to see Uribe and Ishikawa going deep. I really think that Travis has gotten a fire lit under his ass since the arrival of Garks. Unfortunately, that hasn't translated into too many hits. He's still pluggin away though, and his three run dong tonight was huge.

As for Lurch Howry... well, the guy is simply a disaster right now. He threw 7 pitches, and 6 of them were balls. He was removed in the middle of an at bat with a 2-0 count. I can't remember the last time that's happened to a Giants pitcher, except when injured. The guy has absolutely derailed!

It may be time to make up an injury for Lurchy like they do for Rich Aurilia and get him on the DL. Just call it swine flu or arm fatigue, or an anxiety disorder, or strike zone-itis. Whatever... just fix this guy! He cannot find the strike zone to save his life, and is seriously down on himself. Each game is too critical to have liabilities in the bullpen. This also includes Justin Miller and Merkin Valdez, who have derailed almost as severely as of late. These three guys have combined for some absolutely ghastly statistics.

Since August 20th, Miller, Valdez, and Howry have combined for 4.1 IP, 13 ER, 11 BB, and 9 Hits. That of course comes out to a 27.00 ERA and a 4.62 WHIP.

Us fantasy freaks just threw up in our collective mouth a little bit. Good Lord. When you can't trust 43% of your bullpen, you've gotta make a roster move.

-- Despite throwing 91 pitches in the last calendar week (including 41 last night), Brian Wilson trucked himself out there again. Things were looking okay, but you could tell he didn't have his best stuff. As Kruk and Kuip pointed out, his velocity was down, and when he did reach his normal speeds, the balls were wild. Bochy had little choice but to put him out there, but I think Romo for the 9th would've been a better choice from the get go. When closers are throwing 97-100 mph for over 100 pitches in 8 days and 41 pitches within 24 hours, you're looking at a disaster. With the back of the rotation coming up, the bullpen situation is looking scary.

God forbid this happens, but what if Sanchez and Martinez bomb out in 4 or 5 innings? Who will Boch cart out there? These guys seriously look like their arms are going to fall off all at once. The only guys I'd even want to throw tomorrow are Romo and Medders. Wilson is off limits, Affeldt is effective but exhausted, and How-Merk-iller is a trainwreck.

Right now in AAA Fresno, there are a few names that jump out at you, but none have been throwing particularly well lately. Despite decent ERA's on the year, Geno Espineli, Alex Hinshaw, and Osiris Matos have all been knocked since August 16th to the tune of a 9.53 ERA.

A better bet might be to call up Kevin Pucetas or Ryan Sadowski to move into a long reliever role, despite the fact that both have been working as starters. Obviously, I'd lean toward Pucetas because of Sadowski's last outings at in the bigs.

Anyway, let's hope The Spaniard shuts down the D-Bags tomorrow.

Keep the faith. We're still in this. Tuesday's win was a huge statement. It wasn't easy or pretty, but hey, we beat one of MLB's best pitchers and were able to reload after a 14 inning demoralizing disaster. That really says something.

Get well Freddy Sanchez and Kung Fu!