Where were you when you first heard the news?
I received multiple text messages this morning and confirmed this while Facebooking and driving on 101.
Our Golden Boy Buster Posey was indeed called up today-- something that we were hoping for, but not expecting. Sabean and Bochy have been noncommittal about calling up either of our blue chippers all year.
It really makes all the sense in the world.
With Bengie Mo walking on rubber legs and Eli Whiteside being a weak offensive option, this really seems like a no brainer. It also means that Bengie's quad injury is not progressing well.
We don't know how much PT Buster will get, after all, we're in a playoff chase here. More than anything though, this will give Buster a sense of what it takes to play at an extremely high level. He'll catch bullpen sessions for major league pitchers, he'll get to take a few hacks, and most importantly, this cup of coffee in the bigs will give him a crash course on what to expect next year when he inevitably takes over the starting catcher position. Rookie catchers are traditionally eased into things, but I'm anticipating a rapid fire transition.
PS: Those of you in fantasy keeper leagues, I hope you have the #1 waiver priority, otherwise, you ain't landing him.
It'll be exciting to see this youngster. I cannot wait!
Penny looks like a Silver Dollar
Or maybe a gold Sacagawea!
These coin jokes doing anything for you? No? Okay.
So, still any doubters out there?
(Crickets chirping)
Look, as I said before, this was a great move. None of us expected an 8 inning shutout performance, as Aaron Rowand said during the postgame show, but I fully expected a quality start. At this point, a 6 inning, 3 ER outing would've been awesome. Consider how badly Joe Martinez and Ryan Sadowski pitched in each of their three final starts for the Gyros.
In case you forgot, their final three starts combined resulted in a 9.48 ERA and disasters all around.
The whole point in this is this is a veteran guy battling for his career and a contract next season. He's a big, burly, surly son of a bitch out there with a chip on his shoulder-- the type of wild card you want on your side in a good old fashioned Western shootout or bar fight.
The AL East is a whole 'nother animal, and when you're coming off an injury, trying to get your velocity back, adjusting to a new city, new team, and a new league full of hitters-- not to mention a slugging DH around every corner... well yeah, I'd expect a few struggles too.
And lest we all forget, the Red Sox technically didn't get rid of him; Penny requested his own release, and it was granted. This is simply the perfect situation for the horselike Oklahoman, and Lord knows he made the correct call.
Plus it looks like he can even be better. His fastball topped out at 97 tonight and he was consistently hitting 94-96, which had been a concern. I reckon that if his splitfinger gets back to being a swing and miss out pitch, we've got ourselves a #5 with the stuff of a #2 or #3. God I love this rotation.
He's not a savior, but he doesn't need to be. He needs to be solid and give us a chance to win every fifth day. He's a little bit too down.
Plus he HATES the Dodgers. Rock on big man.
Game Notes & Quirky Observations
-- I'm not as anti-mascot as Mike Wilbon, but I think generally they're pretty lame. That Philly Phanatic though... great! The guy opened up the game by "flashing" the Giants dugout, and dancing around like a sex pervert. Hilarious. Touche Phanatic. Touche.
-- Aaron Rowand truly is the king of the unproductive out. God I hope there's a stat I can find out there about this...
-- Haha! Ryan Howard grounded into to the shift in right field in the second inning. That's gotta really tick a hitter off.
-- Thank God Andres Torres got on base (and got the RBI). I had to see his routine to confirm my suspicions. I'd like you all to know that he uses running gloves. Allow me to explain.
He bats barehanded a la Nate Schierholtz/Vlad Guerrero. But-- in a bizarre twist of fate, whenever he reaches base, he withdraws not one, but two, white batting gloves from his buttocks pocket, and places them on his hands for running only. He must have a really nice manicure he's trying to protect. I've seen him do this multiple times and I'm actually assured by people who have played the game at the college level that this is not totally unheard of.
I only wish he switched chains in the same manner. Like he hits with that huge silvery pit bull chain, then reaches base, calls time, hands that chain to Roberto Kelly, and puts on a sleeker, lighter gold chain for baserunning. Hilarious.
-- Speaking of habits, Krukow took great delight in pointing out "...that The Panda does somethin' I've never seen before. When he's in the field, he chews bubble gum, but when he takes his AB's, he puts in a dip."
Krook and I have noticed the same thing!
And we're not talking about any dip here. Pablo is putting in like a quarter can of Skoal every time. As a guy who chews his share of the stuff, I can say that that is one significant lipper!
It just lends more credence to the fact that ballplayers are extremely superstitious, especially when it comes to their oral fixations... whether it's Skoal, Red Man, seeds, bubble gum, or what have you. Pablo definitely doesn't disappoint in this category.
-- If you haven't noticed, I've begun spelling Mike Krukow's shortened nickname to the more phonetic "Krook" as opposed to Kruk. Because we cannot being thinking of John Kruk while referring to Krook. Not on my watch.
-- Before Uribe slammalammadingdonged that ball about 420 feet into left field, he took two MASSIVE cuts. I could almost sense his homer was coming. Man, he really swings as hard as anyone in baseball. And to think, he was given a non-guaranteed minor league deal coming into Spring Training.
GREAT MOVE SABEAN!
-- I have begun to fast forward through Aaron Rowand's at bats. Messed up, I know. I started doing it this weekend, and was about to do it after Uribe's dong, but the remote fell down and did this crazy football bounce. Naturally it was too far away to get. That remote was clutch! Aaron Rowand went yard.
It was surprisingly, the fourth time the Gyros have done that this year.
-- Ever heard of the website FMyLife? Well in case you're old and haven't, FML has little stories of people's bad life experiences and they all begin with "Today," end in "FML". They may be made up for all I know, but here's one that I'm going to submit. Pretend I'm a Phillie fan:
Today, at Citizen's Bank Park at the Phillies game, I saw Tyler Walker and Jack Taschner warming up at the bullpen at the same time. Then they came in the game one after the other. FML.
-- They didn't give up any runs up there, but mark my words, those two guys and that effed up bullpen are the reason Philly won't repeat as champions.
-- Yesterday on the CSN ticker, did anyone else do a double take when they saw this scroll by?
"Exclusive interview with award-winning rapper Ice Cube on Chronicle Live"
I missed it, can anyone fill me in? Has he abandoned the Dodgers and Lakers and become a Warriors and Giants fan? Did Greg Papa try to be cool and end up looking more white? Comment below please.
-- Sanchez threw a helluva game yesterday. Krook referred to his strike three pitch on Ryan Howard in the 2nd inning as "abusive."
Howard got the last laugh though as he singled in the only run of the game.
-- Colorado won again. Bastards.
-- Never thought I'd say this in a million years, but GO METS!
