Jeff Fletcher | June 15, 2011

Hey guys, it’s been a while. As I explained in that last post that had been sitting atop my blog for the past, oh, three weeks, I’m now the Editor of the Giants and A’s magazines, which doesn’t leave me as much time for blogging. But it does leave some — as I sit here and wait for things to edit — so here are a few things that have been kicking around in my head…

Realignment? Sure, what the hell

I personally don’t see the need for all this realignment talk. I like things the way are. So what if one league has two more teams and the AL West has only four teams, while the NL Central has six? Alas, if it’s going to happen, I am OK with the Astros moving to the AL West. It would create a nice little rivarly between the Astros and Rangers and it would make the trips easier for the three West Coast teams if they do a whole week in Texas.

The main problem, to many folks, of going to 15 teams in each league is that there would have to be at least one interleague series going at all times, which would take away some of the “excitement” over those games. Well, the excitement is gone already. Anyone really jacked up about seeing the Indians in San Francisco or the Marlins in Oakland this month? Yes, interleague games in September may be kinda weird for the pennant races, but there are already inter-division games in September, so what’s the big deal? The Giants hosted the Brewers last September. Is there any difference between that and the Giants-White Sox? Besides, I’ll bet the schedule-makers would be tricky enough to save the September interleague matchups for those that may not impact the pennant races (Royals-Pirates!).

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Jeff Fletcher | May 20, 2011

My loyal blog followers may have wondered what’s happened to me over the past week. Well, I’ve been absent for a good reason. I’ve been spending my time figuring out my new job: editor of the Giants and A’s magazines.

I’m pretty happy about the opportunity to continue working in the baseball media (I was afraid I might have to go work at Starbucks) and to keep doing so in the Bay Area, covering teams I know very well. I’m looking forward to doing something just different enough to be a challenge, but just similar enough to be comfortable.

If you haven’t checked out the magazines at the ballpark or in the team stores — you can even subscribe to the Giants here and the A’s here — you should do it. There’s stuff in them that you won’t find anywhere else. The cover story in the June Giants Magazine, on Madison Bumgarner, is especially good. Oh, and that Josh Willingham story on the cover of the May A’s Magazine is also excellent. (See what I did there? I wrote those.)

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “That’s great, Jeff, but what about this blog? And what about your Twitter account? We don’t want to have to wait a month to see what you have to say about the Giants and A’s!”

Well, no promises.

I will still be watching lots of Giants and A’s games and going to the ballpark regularly to work on stories for the magazines, but I can’t promise I’ll be blogging or tweeting as frequently. Also, I am now in a partnership with the Giants and A’s, so you’re all smart enough to know what that means.

Thanks to all of you who have supported me and followed me during my between-jobs limbo. Don’t stray too far. Never know when I’ll be there again.

Oh, you should also be sure to check me out tonight on Chronicle Live. They’ll be cutting away from their wall-to-wall Sharks coverage for a little baseball. My segment is supposed to be at 5:45. I’ll be checking in from AT&T Park, where the Giants and A’s will be beginning their interleague series.

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Jeff Fletcher | May 11, 2011

Expanding on a little on a point I tried to make in 140-character … chunks while most of you were sleeping…

It was a pretty easy storyline to draw last night. The Giants opted to keep Darren Ford on the roster instead of Manny Burriss or Ryan Rohlinger. Then, a few hours later, there was Ford coming out to pinch-run, easily stealing second and scoring the winning run from second on a “single.”

Brilliant!

To which I say, no so fast (pun intended).

Ford absolutely provides something to the Giants with his speed. He is the fastest guy on the roster, and he can definitely do things that no one else on the roster can do. However, I think it’s easy to get carried away with the value he provides in relation to the roster spot he occupies.

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Jeff Fletcher | May 9, 2011

Just watched MLB Network’s latest in the 20 Greatest Games series, Game 7 of the 1991 World Series, which was No. 2. (No. 1 will be Game 6 of the 1975 Series, on later this month.) I … freakin … love … these … shows. At the risk of sounding like a shill for the house organ, which MLB Network is, I have to admit that these programs are exceptionally well-done and quite entertaining.

Inspired by this program, I decided to come up with my list of the top 10 games that I’ve covered in my career, which dates back to 1997. Putting them all in one post doesn’t give me the ability to be suspenseful with a countdown, so I’ll start at the top.

1. 2003 NL Division Series, Game 4, Giants vs. Marlins

The Marlins won, 7-6, to win the series, with J.T. Snow getting thrown out at the plate to end the game. It’s easy to start here. In fact, this was No. 19 on the MLB Network list.I didn’t get a chance to see the MLB Network show on this game, so I’m hoping the series will eventually be available on iTunes or I can catch it when they show it again. You can see a brief synopsis here.

A lot of stuff was going on here before the game even began. The Giants lost a heart-breaker in Game 3, thanks to Jose Cruz Jr. (who won the Gold Glove that year) dropping a fly ball. That set up a debate as to whether the Giants should bring back Jason Schmidt on three days rest to start a do-or-die Game 4, or if rookie Jerome Williams should go, saving Schmidt for Game 5. In one of the defining moments of Felipe Alou as a manager, he flat-out told the media that “Schmitty said he couldn’t go.” Ouch. Jason, meet the bottom of the bus. Alou never cared much about babying his players or looking out for their feelings. He was old school, in that way.

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Jeff Fletcher | May 8, 2011

I happened to be otherwise occupied throughout the entire time that Justin Verlander was working on his no-hitter Saturday, so I missed it all till after it was over. Fortunately, MLB.tv had compressed the game in a handy little package that showed all 27 of his outs, one after the other, in about five minutes. So I watched the whole thing, and as I did I couldn’t help but notice an awful lot of really weak contact. Verlander only had four strikeouts, but there were lots of easy popups and grounders.

And that made me think, once again, about one of my pet issues with a segment of the baseball community. I’ll just call ‘em the FIP People. It’s not just those who value Fielding Independent Pitching, but all of those who still believe in the underlying premise of FIP, which is that pitchers have no control over anything but walks, strikeouts and homers.

Giants and A’s fans, you’ll want to hang with me here, because this comes up with guys like Matt Cain and Trevor Cahill, who foolishly allow batters to put the ball in play rather than striking them all out.

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Jeff Fletcher | April 25, 2011

So far it sure looks like the 2011 Pablo Sandoval Revival has been a success. He looks good at the plate and better than last year in the field. Physically, he looks more like a ballplayer and less like, well, a ball. I believe that he’ll end up doing much better than he did last year.

But (there’s always a but), we need to still be aware of something. Here is Sandoval’s monthly production, from last year:

2010	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
April/March	.368	.433	.575	1.008
May	.234	.275	.342	.617
June	.234	.305	.340	.645
July	.232	.302	.295	.597
August	.312	.348	.560	.907
Sept/Oct	.224	.274	.313	.587

Get my drift? Even in his miserable year, it took more than a month for him to fall apart. So even this hot start (.319/.382/.565, with an OPS of .947) is too small of a sample size to be confident he can sustain it. Last April he was better than he is now, and look what happened.

I won’t be sold that Sandoval is going to be an above-average offensive producer until he’s finished the whole season at an above-average level, but he’s off to an encouraging start. I wrote just before opening day that I figured Sandoval would be good for an OPS of .830 this year, which was right between ’09 and ’10, and I still think that’s a reasonable landing spot for him when it’s over.

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Jeff Fletcher | April 23, 2011

I don’t root for the Giants. I root for myself.

For me, baseball is, primarily, the way I earn my living (as best as I can). The fact that I enjoy it is, frankly, secondary. The good part about that is that I get paid to watch baseball games. I also don’t have an emotional investment that makes me miserable when my team loses. On the down side, I don’t get the highs either. I will never experience what you Giants fans did last year when your team won the World Series.

And, sometimes, there are situations like the one I’ve found myself in with Madison Bumgarner.

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