August 4 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

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Here are the top 5 August 4 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

1960 at Philadelphia, the third San Francisco team is 7 out on game 99, still in the race but we've been walked off by the Phillies in back to back games.  We're down 7-6 with 2 out in the 7th, Willie McCovey triples home 2 off of Jim Owens.  We win this game 8-7 but can't gain any ground on the lead and never get closer than 7 the rest of the way.  McCovey had 46 triples in his 22 year big league career, 45 of them with the Giants.  This was his 126th big league game and his 8th triple.

1963 at Cubs, it's game 110, back on July 20 we were 10 back, but come into this one 4.5 out and we are in this race. 1-1 in the 10th, Willie Mays homers off of Lindy McDaniel; this is a 175 OPS+ 10.5 WAR season for Mays, the third best season of his career.  Mays won 2 MVP Awards, which seems a little light, he had 11 seasons of 8+ WAR which are MVP quality seasons, let's take a look at how many he should have won.

1954 - won MVP, 9.9 WAR, he was about a win and a half better than Robin Roberts, Mays deserved the award.
1955 - finished 4th, 9.2 WAR, Campanella won, he had 6 WAR, that's not close. Snider finished 2nd, he was about a win and a half less than Mays, that's not close. Banks finished 3rd, now he had 8.25 WAR, still shy of Mays but a Banks vote is reasonable.  No one else is close, Mays should have won the MVP in '55.
1957 - finished 4th, 8.45 WAR, Aaron won, he was just shy of an 8 WAR season, Musial finished second, he wasn't close, about 6 and a half WAR, Schoendienst was third, he was about a win why of Musial - Eddie Mathews (finished 8th) is actually right there with Aaron, a little more than half a win short of Mays.  Mays should have won this also, the Aaron vote isn't terrible, but Mays had the better year.  He should have 3 MVP Awards before the move to San Francisco.
1958 - finished 2nd, 9.6 WAR, Banks won, Banks was terrific, his WAR is 9.55 - that's a dead tie, it should have been a closer race than it was (Banks got 16 first place votes, Mays got 3) but this is a coin flip vote and Banks was a deserving winner.
1960 - finished 3rd, 8.5 WAR, Dick Groat not only won but the only other guys to get any first place votes were also Pirates (Hoak, Clemente). Groat was nearly 2 wins shy of Mays, that's not close. Don Hoak finished second, he was a 5 WAR player, come on 1960 writers, get with it. Banks finished 4th, he had an 8 WAR season, so he was a reasonable vote, if not quite as good as Mays. Mathews and Ernie Broglio but had 7+ WAR seasons.  So look - it's Mays again, this should be his 4th MVP Award and I'm being generous by not giving him '58.
1961 - finished 6th, 8.25 WAR, Frank Robinson won, he was about half a win short of Mays, it's not a lot, but Mays was better.  Cepeda was second, he was two wins short of Mays.  Pinson was third, we was a couple wins short as well.  Clemente was 4th, and his WAR was about 5, just not in the same universe as Mays.  Joey Jay was 5th, and his WAR was half of Mays's.  Half.  You know who had the same WAR as Mays? Ken Boyer, 8.25.  He finished 7th.  You know who was better?  Aaron.  8.8 WAR even though he finished 9th.  He's who got screwed in '61.
1962 - finished 2nd, 9.9 WAR, Maury Wills won, he had 5 WAR, it's an embarrassing vote.  Frank had a terrific year, 8.9 WAR, but Mays is easily the best player in '62 and should have received his 5th MVP Award.
1963 - finished 5th, 10.5 WAR, come on baseball writers, a 10 WAR season finishes 5th in the MVP race? Koufax won, he was deserving, a 10.25 WAR, you can't feel badly about giving him the Award, but the way I approach is the MVP is that, everything being equal, you go with the position player, as the Cy Young is an award that exists.  Dick Groat was second, shouldn't have been.  Aaron was third, had an 8+ WAR season, but that's not close. Dick Ellsworth had a 9 WAR season and finished 18th, such a disaster by the writers.  This should have been Mays's 6th MVP Award.
1964 - finished 6th, 10.95 WAR, the baseball writers are missing the show, Boyer won, Callison second, Groat third, none of them close.  Santo had a terrific year, 9.25 WAR, he finished 8th; Dick Allen had 8.8 WAR but even that's not close.  No one's close.  This is Mays's 7th MVP Award.
1965 - finished first, had 10.95 WAR.  Mays won and should have won.  MVP Award #8.
1966 - finished 3rd, 8.4 WAR, Clemente won and shouldn't have, but Mays should have been behind Santo, Santo should have been behind Marichal, and they all should have been behind Koufax.

So, that's it.  Mays won 2 MVPs and should have won 8 (or maybe 9, but we'll say 8).



1964 at Mets, it's game 107, we're 2 games out of first, so right in the thick of it as we open up a series in New York. It goes 14, 3-3, Jim Davenport singles in what turns out to be the winning run off of Galen Cisco.  Gaylord went 10 in this one. We move a game and a half out and never get closer than that.  Broadcast of the game on WOR in New York was interrupted for the LBJ address to the nation explaining the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

Walk off 1973 home vs. Dodgers, we were 5 out on the 28th, but have lost 4 of 5 so are now 7.5 out here for game 109. Saturday afternoon at the Stick, bottom of the 11th, 2-2, Tito Fuentes homers off Jim Brewer to win it for the good guys.  Fuentes hit 45 career home runs, this is his only walk off.

2014 at Mets, on June 8 we were 10 up, as recently as July 23 we were 2.5 up, but here we are in game 113 two games out of first place (although we still have the second best record in the NL) 3-3 with two out in the 9th, Pablo Sandoval doubles home Gregor Blanco off of Jenrry Mejia and 4-3 will be the final score.  Sandoval signed at 16 years old, made the club at 21 and the next year took over as the starting third baseman.  He largely kept that job through this season; Sandoval was a career 123 OPS+ bat with the Giants.  He signed with the Sox and was a disaster, getting released during the 2017 season and returning to the Giants organization.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

August 3 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

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Here are the top 5 August 3 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

Walk off 1978 home vs. Dodgers, it's game 108, we're 20 games over .500, a half game up in the West on the Reds and starting a series against the third place Dodgers.  42,000 paid for a Thursday night game at the Stick. With 2 outs in the top of the 9th, Lee Lacy tied the score with an inside the park home run when Larry Herndon and Jack Clark collided in the outfield (probably, it should have been called a catch by Herndon).  Now it's 4-4 in the bottom half, Darrell Evans singles home Terry Whitfield off of Terry Forster to send everyone home.  We were a game up at the end of the day; it had been seven years since we had spent a day in first place after the All Star break.   McCovey hit homer #504.

1982 at Atlanta, we're 13 out, playing out the string...or so it would appear...we're about to go on a 10 game winning streak that's going to bring us all the way to 4 games out of first, this is win number one. Down 3-2 in the 9th, no reason to think at all anything was about to happen in 1982 - when Tom O'Malley hit a 2 run homer off Gene Garber. We win it 6-3. We drafted O'Malley in the 16th round in '79 as a high school second baseman from Pennsylvania. 2 picks prior the Pirates took Ron Wotus out of a Connecticut high school; as of this writing he's spent nearly two decades as a Giants coach.  This is O'Malley's rookie year and the best year of his career with the bat (102 OPS+). We decide to go with him at third base, pushing Darrell Evans to a backup role and then over to first base in '83. It never really takes and in early '84 we send him to the White Sox for nobody.  O'Malley finishes his career as a Met in 1990. O'Malley hit only 13 career homers, this was the 2nd (he hits his last homer against us, off Scott Garrelts, 8 years and two weeks later).




1993 at San Diego - what's our record?  It's 71-35, holy cow this is a good club.  We're 7.5 games up in the West...now, that's actually down, on July 22 we were 10 up, but c'mon, stop worrying.  Here, we're down 7-5 with 2 out in the 7th, that's not Will Clark's fault, he hit a 3 run homer in the 5th - and he's up again in this spot, against former teammate Mark Davis, and he ties the game with a 2 run triple. It's a 6 RBI night for the Thrill.  We're gonna win this game 12-7.  Here are Clark's career numbers against Davis: 8 for 17, 1.471 OPS.  Everyone knows Clark's homer off Nolan Ryan in his first game - he kept hitting Ryan, 12 for 36, 6 homers, career OPS of 1.274. How about Will vs. Roger Clemens? 8 for 20. 1.406 OPS.

1999 at Arizona, it's game 107, we're only 3.5 out of first, playing the first place Diamondbacks - 2 outs in the 8th, despite only giving up 3 hits on the night (7 innings, 2 hit ball by Livan Hernandez, in his second San Francisco start) we trail 1-0, Charlie Hayes hits a 3 run homer off Omar Daal and we win it 3-1. Hernandez was already an international phenomenon when he defected from Cuba as a 20 year old in 1995; he pitched in one game for the Marlins in '96, and finished second in the Rookie of the Year race in '97 (Scott Rolen won). We got him at the deadline, just a week before this game, for Nate Bump (our first round pick in '98, he spent 3 serviceable years in the Marlins pen) and Jason Grilli (our top pick in '97. Grilli was the 4th pick overall, a right hander out of Seton Hall, so this was a big roll of the dice trade for the Giants, the top pick overall in '97 was Matt Anderson a pitcher from Rice, he threw 7 replacement level seasons.  The Angels took Troy Glaus just before our Grilli selection; the Jays Vernon Wells right after. Lance Berkman went 16th. Jayson Werth 22nd. We took an Arizona St outfielder Dan McKinley 49th. He got to AAA with the Expos organization but not above. Grilli is still in the league, now 40 years old, as of 2017, he's pitched for 9 clubs, currently he's in the Rangers pen).  Livan was a Giant for four seasons, the only one with an ERA+ over 100 was 2000, his career Giants ERA+ was 92, so he was just a guy, but a guy who you could count on to take the ball - 240 innings in 2000, 226 in '01, 216 in '02.  Just before the '03 season we sent him to the Expos for Jim Brower.  Livan finished up his career in 2012 as a Brewer.  This was Hernandez's first Giants win.

Walk off 2001 home vs. Phillies, this is game 110 and we are rolling, on the 25th we were 6.5 games out but haven't lost since, 8 straight wins to bring us to a game out of the lead in the West (and a half game out of the WC) starting a weekend series against the Phillies, it's 2-2 with 2 out in the bottom of the 9th - Andres Galaraga hits a 2 run walk off homer against Turk Wendell.  We move a half game out in the West (and never get closer).  The version of Galaraga who the Giants got was old man Andres, he was 40 when we got him at the deadline from the Rangers for not very much - he hit in 49 games for us, producing a 127 OPS+.  He left after the season to go back to his original club, the Expos, but would then return in 2003, and again, even as a 42 year old, was solid with the bat, with a 118 OPS+ in just under 300 plate appearances.  He finished his career the following season with the Angels.  This was Galaraga's second Giants homer, the 372nd of his career.  It's only his second career walk off - he's going to hit one more and it's going to happen next month.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

August 2 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

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Yesterday


Top 5 August 2 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

1964 home vs. Pirates, game 105, we're 2.5 games behind the Phillies, this one's fun - it's 1-1 with 2 out in the 8th --- and Duke Snider singles home the go ahead run off of Bob Friend, that 2-1 score holds up. Here's how much of a Dodger Duke Snider was - he was born in LA, went to Compton High School (he and Pete Rozelle were on the same high school basketball team) and signed with the Dodgers as a 17 year old.  Those, of course, were the Brooklyn Dodgers, where he played from '47-57, then moved with the team west to LA until they sold him to the Mets before the '63 season.  The Mets then sold him to us this season.  Duke Snider played in 91 games as a San Francisco Giant as our fifth, maybe even sixth outfielder - really among the last guys on the bench. He didn't hit, his 75 OPS+ was his worst since '47.  He hit 4 Giants homers - the first one was a game tying two run 9th inning homer in Los Angeles.

1966 at Mets, here's a game, game 107 on the season, 18 over .500 and in a tie for first in the NL with the Dodgers.  We're down 3-2 in the 8th, Ozzie Virgil singles home 2 off of Jack Hamilton, we go on to win 5-4.  Virgil was a New York Giant, signed in '53, up in '56, got a couple hundred appearances as a utilityman in '57.  He didn't go west, we dealt him to the Tigers for a utility guy named Jim Finigan who was unproductive in 23 games for the first San Francisco club.  We got him back this season in a deal with Pittsburgh that sent Matty Alou to the Pirates.  Virgil couldn't hit, in 42 games this year he had a 49 OPS+, he gets in one more game 3 years later and finishes his career as a Giant. He had 19 San Francisco hits.

Walk off 1975 home vs. Astros, we walked Houston off the day before and, despite remaining 15.5 games off the lead, do it again here.  31 combined hits in this one but it ends on a wild pitch, 7-7 in the 10th, Bobby Murcer at the plate, a Jim Crawford wild pitch scores Mike Sadek with the winning run.  Von Joshua homered and tripled.  This was Joshua's career year; he grew up a Dodger, signed at 19, up at 21 and spent six largely unproductive seasons as a backup OF.  They let him go before this season and we picked him up, threw him in center field, and he had a 120 OPS+. Joshua had more WAR in '75 than the rest of his career combined and not by a little bit.  And then in '76 it fell apart, he couldn't hit and after 42 games we sold him to the Brewers.  He finished his career as a Padre in 1980.

1998 at Philadelphia, game 110 on the season, a dozen games out in the West but only 3.5 behind the Cubs for the Wild Card spot, up 1-0 in the 2nd, Ellis Burks hits a 2 out, 3 run homer to give us a 4 run lead in a game we'd win 15-3.  Kent and Bonds followed with homers- the first time we had gone back to back to back since '82 (Smith/May/Summers, it's happened a total of 10 times in San Francisco history as of this writing) Bonds went 4-4 with a homer and double, stole a base, then got hit with a pitch in the 7th and charged the mound (Rueter retaliated and the benches cleared a second time).  Burks had an 18 year big league career, 3 of those years in San Francisco. Burks was a deadline deal in '98 with the Rockies, we sent them Darryl Hamilton and it was an enormous win.  Burks never hit anywhere as well as he hit in San Francisco, with OPS+ of 128, 147, and 163 as our right fielder.  He left for the Indians after the 2000 season.  Burks was a 5+ WAR player as a 35 year old in 2000, that's the 27th best season for a right fielder in franchise history.  This was Burks' second game as a Giant, his 226th career homer and his first Giants homer.

2009 home vs. Philadelphia, we're 7 out in the West headed to the 105th game of the season, but we're first in the Wild Card race, down 3-1 with two outs in the 5th, Freddy Sanchez hits a game tying double off of Cole Hamels and we go on to win it 7-3.  The Red Sox took Sanchez in the 11th round in 2000 as a shortstop from Oklahoma City University (we had the pick just before, we took a righty from Oral Roberts named Jackson Markert, he only got 15 games as high as AA and was out of baseball after '04). Sanchez was the Pirates starting third baseman when he hit .344 in '06 and their second baseman when we got him at the deadline this year for Tim Alderson, a top pitching prospect who never made the big leagues and retired after the 2016 season.  Sanchez took over as our second baseman and remained until injuries ended his career during the 2011 season.  He was okay, with a career Giants OPS+ of 98, dead at his career level.  This was his very first game as a San Francisco Giant.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

August 1 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

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Yesterday

Here are the top 5 August 1 moments in San Francisco Giants history.



1971 home vs. Pirates, coming into this first half of a doubleheader the Giants are 22 over .500 with an 8.5 game lead in the West.  We're down 7-6 in the 8th, 2 out, bases loaded, Willie Mays clears the bases with a 3 run double off Bruce Kison and we're gonna win this one 11-7.  Clemente, McCovey, and Bonds all homered in this one. We go on and win the second game too, grabbing a 9 game lead with 52 remaining.  Mays had just 62 career regular season games remaining with the Giants.

Walk off 1975 home vs. Astros, we're 16.5 games out, there's no way to get back in the race, we came into the bottom of the 9th trailing 2-1, Willie Montanez homered off JR Richard to tie it, and the next batter, Chris Speier homered off Richard to win it.  Montanez broke in at 18 with the Angels in '66 and then spent the next 4 years in the Cardinals system.  They sent him to the Phillies in '70 as a replacement for Curt Flood, who didn't report to Philadelphia after traded by St Louis. As the Phillies center fielder in '71 Montanez is second in the NL Rookie of the Year race behind the Braves Earl Williams.  That turned out to be the best year he'd ever have; we got Montanez early this season in a swap for Garry Maddox, he's okay as our first baseman - 110 OPS+ in '75, 116 OPS+ in 60 games in '76 before we moved him to Atlanta for Darrell Evans.  Montanez pretty much moved every year from that point, ending his career back in Philadelphia in '82.  This was his 6th of 10 Giants homers.



1982 at Houston, we're 13 games out and it's game 104, so it certainly looks like the season is over from this vantage point, Nolan Ryan went 9 for the Astros, but this is the 10th, 2-2 with 2 out, Jack Clark (again) hits a 2 run homer off Frank LaCorte, we only got 6 hits but won this one 4-2.  We didn't know it then - but two weeks later we'd be 4 games off the lead.

1998 at Philadelphia, like 16 years prior, we came in 13 off the lead, but there's now a Wild Card and we're only 3.5 games from that spot. Orel Hershiser going for the Giants, former Giant Mark Portugal going for the Phillies - both are long gone with one out in the 10th inning when Rich Rodriguez faced Kevin Sefcik with the bases loaded and the Giants up 8-7.  Rodriguez got him 6-4-3 to end the game. Rodriguez was a Giants bullpen lefty for three seasons, we signed him from the Royals system after he spent the first 6 years of his career with 3 NL teams.  He was stronger in '97 (131 ERA+) than this one (109) or the last one (82).  Rodriguez left for the Mets after '99 and finished his career as an Angel in '03.

2008 at San Diego, we're 11 out and 19 games under .500, up 3-2 with an out in the 10th, Brian Wilson on the mound facing Kevin Kouzmanoff, he grounds into a 6-3 double play to end the game.  Brian Wilson was 21 years old when we drafted him out of LSU in 2003 in the 24th round.  Nothing else came out of the 24th round in 2003. Or the 23rd round.  Or the 22nd.  You see where I'm going with this.  Wilson joined the pen inauspiciously in '06, was very good in just 23 innings in '07 and became the Giants closer this year. He was okay - had a lot of saves but a 95 ERA+, it's really 2009 when Wilson hits and then 2010 when he finishes 7th in the Cy Young voting and is worth 5 WAR.  That's the third best season for any reliever in Giants franchise history.  Wilson gives some ground in 2011 and then misses almost the entire 2012 season with injury.  He returns as a Dodger at the end of 2013 and then his career ends after the following season.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

July 31 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

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Yesterday

Here are the top 5 July 31 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

1967 home vs. Pirates, we're 9 games out, 4-4 in the 8th, Jack Hiatt hits a grand slam off of Roy Face and we're going to win this 8-4.  Hiatt spent five seasons as the Giants backup catcher, we got him before the '65 season from the Angels for Jose Cardenal and sell him to the Expos just before the start of the 1970 season.  He was fine, Giants career OPS+ of 112, you don't hate Jack Hiatt as a bench guy in the 60s and in '67 he really hit well, had a 134 OPS+.  Hiatt had 22 career homers, this was his 7th, it was his first of two career grand slams.



Walk off 1988 home vs. Braves, we're 4.5 out after winning the front half of a doubleheader, we are definitely still in this race, gaining 3.5 games on the lead in the past couple of weeks. We get the sweep, with 2 outs in the bottom of the 10th and a 2-2 score, Will Clark beats Paul Assenmacher with a base hit that scores Robby Thompson to win the game.  Will finished 5th in the NL MVP race for the second straight year; this was his best year with the bat thusfar, he had a 160 OPS+.  Clark was a 7 and a half WAR player in '88, this is his second best ever season (the best is '89, in fact, that's the best season for any first baseman in franchise history) and the 8th best for any Giant first baseman in organizational history.

Walk off 1992 home vs Braves, game 102 and we come in 10 back, 3-3 in the bottom of the 9th, Will Clark just tied the game with a double, and here, with one out, Craig Colbert singles him home off of Alejandro Pena to win the game.  Colbert played 72 big league games as our backup catcher in '92-3, he didn't hit enough to stay. This was his 25th big league game, it looks to be his 12th big league start, his 13th major league hit.

Walk off 2001 home vs Pirates, we were 6.5 out a week before, but come into this one on a 5 game winning streak that has brought us to 4 games out of the lead.  It's 7-7 in the bottom of the 11th, 2 outs, Pedro Feliz singles home the winning run off of Marc Wilkins to keep the winning streak alive. The Jason Schmidt trade was the day before.



2010 home vs. Dodgers, we're at game 105, 14 over .500 and down 2.5 out of first place, we only get 5 hits, but LA just gets 3, Barry Zito strikes out 6 and gives up 3 hits through 7 innings.  We're down 1-0 in the 8th, two out, Pat Burrell hits a 2 run homer off of Jonathan Broxton, and 2-1 is the final score.  Pat the Bat was the number one overall pick in 1998, the Phillies took him as a 21 year old third baseman from Miami (Mark Mulder went 2nd, JD Drew 6th, the Giants took Tony Torcato, a high school third baseman 19th and immediately after the Indians took CC Sabathia 20th). Burrell came up in 2000, finished 4th in the Rookie of the Year race (Rafael Furcal won). Burrell became the Phillies starting left fielder and stayed there (hitting the ball almost every year, until finishing his Phillies career with a 119 OPS+) in 2008.  He went to Tampa in '09 and didn't hit at all, the Rays let him go early this season.  We signed him in late May and he filled the left field hole with a 136 OPS+.  Burrell's last season was 2011. This is his 66th game as a Giant and 8th home run.

See you tomorrow. Go Giants!