Hector Sanchez Has Been A Valuable Backup Catcher

During Spring Training last March, I lobbied for the Giants to have Hector Sanchez be the team’s backup catcher. The Giants did as I hoped and allowed Sanchez to be the team’s backup catcher over Eli Whiteside and Chris Stewart. So far the decision has paid off for the Giants and it was most obvious against the Los Angeles Dodgers, whom the Giants just shutout in three straight games. In two of those games, Hector Sanchez was behind the plate for a pitcher who was pitching shutout baseball.

                When I talked about having Sanchez become the team’s backup catcher, I talked about how important it was to have a player who can hit the ball, especially on days they needed to give Buster Posey a rest. I didn’t think the Giants would actually go with the catcher who can hit because traditionally, the Giants have been reluctant to try young players from the minor leagues on the Major League roster.  Plus the Giants seemed more concerned about having a backup catcher who can handle the Giants pitching staff rather than one that can hit offensively which is why throughout most of this last offseason they leaned toward bringing back Whiteside and Stewart.

                Sanchez so far has not only proven that he can hit the ball well for a backup catcher, but that he can play defense pretty well too. That was the concern of the Giants going into the season but Sanchez has eased those worries. He has caught for every game Barry Zito pitches. Last season while rehabbing in the minor leagues, Zito first experienced what it was like pitching to Sanchez and during his minor league stint, Zito succeeded with Sanchez as his battery mate.  Zito last year praised Sanchez’s catching abilities and said how comfortable he felt pitching to him. Zito may have been the one to convince the Giants front office to keep him on the roster this season and they did so, thinking it would benefit Zito. Zito showed his comfort with Sanchez against the Dodgers. After struggling for three straight starts, Zito pitched seven innings of shutout baseball and got the win against the Dodgers on Monday. After how bad Zito has pitched throughout his career with the Giants, anyone who can make Zito look like a decent pitcher is a winner in my book. Sanchez then did something he has not done often this season: he caught for pitcher Tim Lincecum. Lincecum had been struggling all season with the Giants. Sanchez, however, helped Lincecum regain his confidence and Lincecum responded by pitching seven innings of shutout baseball and getting a win against the Dodgers.

                It is no coincidence that Hector Sanchez has a way of helping struggling pitchers regain their form. Zito had struggled recently only to get a big win against the Dodgers with Sanchez behind the plate. Lincecum had been struggling all year but once he pitched to Sanchez he was his old self again. I don’t know exactly how Sanchez keeps these pitchers calm under pressure but whatever he is doing is working. This is not a knock on Buster Posey. Posey is clearly the leader of the team’s pitching staff and he has a World Series ring to prove it. However, having a backup catcher like Sanchez who can catch the pitching staff well is a great asset to have. The Giants wanted to give Buster Posey more rest this season after his severe injuries last year but circumstance could have easily forced the Giants to play Posey too much if the backup catcher was not playing good. That could have been the case if Whiteside or Stewart were still the backup catchers. Instead, Posey gets to rest every five days thanks to the good play of Sanchez. This keeps Posey fresh and could be a reason Posey is hitting the ball so great right now. That rest could pay huge dividends down the stretch as the Giants try to reach the postseason. Having a great catcher like Buster Posey is valuable. Having a good backup catcher like Sanchez is a luxury. Not many teams can say they have both.

Cain’s Perfect Game a Moment to Remember

For sport fans, there will always be moments that we never forget as they are rare and do not happen often. Fans always remember those moments that seemed unlikely such as witnessing a team winning the championship or someone setting a record that hadn’t been broken for years. It is those moments that fans know exactly where they were and what they were doing. For me and Giant fans around the world last night’s game against the Houston Astros was one of those moments. Matt Cain pitched a perfect game, the first in Giants franchise history.

            I will be the first to admit I did not watch most of the Giants game where Matt Cain pitched a perfect game.  I regret it, but who can predict the future and say, “Hey, I better watch tonight’s game because someone is going to throw a perfect game”?  Matt Cain’s perfect game was just the 22^nd perfect game thrown in Major League Baseball history and the first in the Giants 129 year history. So let’s just say a perfect game is rare. Anyone who says they knew Matt Cain was going to throw a perfect game is full of it.

            Still it was hard for me to miss most of that game knowing that I missed out on history. In fact I was going to go to the game with my dad but I told him I couldn’t go because I had plans. My dad then ended up planning on taking my mom but just a few hours before the game, he changed his mind and didn’t use the tickets. While I did not see most of the game, I did look a few times on my I-Phone to see how the Giants were doing on the scoreboard. I checked the score in the fifth inning and saw that it was 10-0 Giants. I then checked how the offense was doing on the stat sheet and saw that they were crushing the ball. It slipped my mind to see how Cain was pitching on the stat sheet so I had no clue that Cain was in the middle of history. I eventually went home to my place and was very close to not bothering watching the Giants game. It was around 10 PM and I figured the game was over and the Giants won due to having a ten run lead. Plus it was against the Astros so it wasn’t like I needed to see the game.  

            Luckily I did turn on the TV and the first thing I noticed was that Cain was in the middle of a count with a Houston batter. I then saw that it was the bottom of the ninth inning and there were already two outs. I heard the fans screaming like I never heard them scream before. It was as if Cain was pitching in game 7 of the World Series. I was thinking to myself, why were the fans acting so excited?  Sure, the fans have always been passionate but not to the level they were cheering. I was thinking, come on guys. They are playing a lousy Houston team and the game was already in the bag as the team was leading 10-0. It’s not like this would be the Giants first win of the season and it wouldn’t be the last, but I never head the fans act like this for other Giant wins. What made this game so special for this kind of reaction? Then I realized Cain was still pitching and had a chance for a complete game shutout. So then it hit me and I said to myself, “Is Cain pitching a perfect game?” I then saw the box score on the TV screen show the stats: no runs, no hits, and no errors.

            That’s when I knew what I was so close to missing completely: a chance to see a perfect game. Then Cain makes a pitch and the ball gets hit hard. I saw Joaquin Arias stumble with the ball and I thought, “Oh no! Don’t mess this up!” It brought me back memories of Juan Uribe, whose one error was the only blemish to Jonathan Sanchez’s no-hitter in 2009. That cost Sanchez a perfect game.  However, Arias recovered and made a great play and just like that I saw Cain pitch a perfect game, even if it was for a brief time. I called my parents right away, and when I told them that they missed out on going to a perfect game, they were shocked. Unlike me, they didn’t see the ending to the Giants game and were shocked that Cain threw a perfect game.

            Even though the moment was brief, I will always remember where I was and what I was doing, when Matt Cain pitched that perfect game on June 13, 2012. It will be just like Game 5 of the 2010 World Series. People always ask, “Where were you when the Giants won the World Series?” Well now people will ask the same thing of Matt Cain’s perfect game, the first in Giants history. It’s rare moments like these that fans like me cherish. It’s moments like these that go into history books. It’s moments like these that the media will always bring up. It’s moments like these that we will tell our grandkids about. It will especially be great moment for the lucky fans who were fortunate enough to witness the history live in the ballpark where it took place. My memory of this great game may not sound as sexy as some other stories that I am sure people can tell you, but it is one I will continue to tell people till the day I die. It is a moment that I will always cherish.

Giants Should Give Up on Freddy Sanchez

Freddy Sanchez suffered another setback on his rehab from an injury he suffered last year.  After getting setbacks from his injury to his shoulder, Sanchez now has hurt his back. I tell you, Freddy Sanchez is like fragile glass. You can touch him softly in the chest with your finger and he would manage to suffer a chest injury.  Every season that Sanchez has been with the Giants he has been on the disabled list with some freak injury. Sanchez reminds me a lot of Sharks forward Martin Havlat. Like Havlat, there is always a freak injury that Sanchez gets.

            I do not think Freddy Sanchez is going to return to the Giants this season. He is in his mid 30s and has not played since last June. That is why the Giants need to pull the plug on Sanchez now and put him on the 60 day disabled list and then show him the door of free agency at the season’s end. By doing this the Giants can add a more useful player to their 40 man roster since a spot will not be taken up by an injured Sanchez. The Giants can hope and pray all they want that Sanchez will return and help the Giants, but it is becoming more and more wishful thinking. Even if Sanchez does return, he will not be the same player.

            The Giants need help now. They are playing average baseball where they lose just as many games as they win. That is not going to cut it if the Giants are going to make the playoffs this season.  They need to get more offense. This offseason they didn’t get enough offensive help through free agency because the team was banking on Buster Posey and Freddy Sanchez being healthy again. Posey is back but Sanchez isn’t and that leaves a big hole in the team’s struggling offense.  Sanchez was expected to fill the number two slot in the batting order. He was expected to get on base a lot and give batters like Posey and Sandoval a chance to hit him home.  Since he is not in the lineup, the team has been struggling to find a player to fill that slot in the lineup.

            The team cannot continue to struggle on offense by waiting for Sanchez to come back. They need to go out now and find another second baseman through a trade. Who they get and what they give up is not a concern to me. The Giants need to do something to spark this offense and a trade is the best way to do it. If they can’t do that, call up another minor leaguer and see if he can give the Giants some offense. A trade acquisition or minor leaguer couldn’t do any worse than Emmanuel Burriss or Ryan Theriot right now.

            I criticized Giants General Manager Brian Sabean last offseason for letting go of Jeff Keppinger. I thought he would have been a good replacement for Freddy Sanchez in case Sanchez got hurt. Keppinger is now batting .298 this season, a much better batting average than the second basemen the Giants currently have. I still don’t understand Sabean’s reasoning behind letting Keppinger go.

            However, that’s in the past. The Giants have to admit they made a mistake and cut their losses with Sanchez. The gamble didn’t pay off for the Giants. Yes, Sanchez was a good Giant and he contributed a lot for the team when he was healthy. He was a big part of the Giants World Series team in 2010. However, like many other Giants from that great 2010 season, Sanchez has faded away. His contract expires at the end of the season and the Giants would be stupid to resign him. The Giants need to give up on Sanchez and let him retire.

Sharks Should Consider Getting Roberto Luongo and Rick Nash

A few weeks ago I said how the Sharks needed to start rebuilding their team if they were ever going to be a Stanley Cup contender again. Looks like the Sharks ownership group still thinks the team could contend next year and it sounds like they do not want to rebuild. While they are telling Doug Wilson to make changes, it sounds like they want to make changes so that the Sharks can win it all next year. That is a mistake on the Sharks part and I made that clear in my last article.  Having said that, if they Sharks want to play to win it all next year here are a few moves I would make if I was Doug Wilson.

            The first move is to get goaltender Roberto Luongo from Vancouver. Reports have surfaced that Luongo has asked for a trade and Vancouver seems willing to do so. The Sharks should jump at this huge opportunity. Luongo is a much better goalie than Antti Niemi. While Niemi has won a Stanley Cup, Luongo came close with Vancouver last year, losing in game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Still Niemi only won his Cup because he had a great supporting cast around him. Luongo has been to more all star games than Niemi, has better stats, and has been known to steal more wins for his team than Niemi. Luongo also can win under pressure as he lead team Canada to an Olympic Gold medal in the last Winter Olympics.

            So how do you get a player like Luongo? Well, the Sharks would obviously have to give up a star player and that player is Patrick Marleau. It’s a trade I think Vancouver would accept. Marleau will be turning 33 next season, so he would be a few months younger than Luongo who already is 33. Marleau gives the Canucks more offensive power and speed. Plus Marleau is only under contract for two more years while Luongo is under contract for 10 more years so the Canucks would be more than happy to have less money to pay to a player. The contract for Luongo is a concern to me given the length of time and that he won’t be a free agent until he is 43. However, if the Sharks are going to ruin their future by having a win now mentality, a few good years from Luongo is worth the risk of a huge contract especially if he wins the team a Stanley Cup. Giving up Marleau for Luongo straight up is a no brainer for me. Marleau is not a winner. Never has been and never will be. It would be great for Marleau and the Sharks if they parted ways so that each side can start fresh. Getting Luongo improves the Sharks defense big time.

            So how do you replace the offense that you lose for trading Marleau?  Well, if the team gets Luongo, they will no longer need Niemi and he would make great trade bait for an offensive player. Niemi only has a salary cap hit of 3.8 million dollars and in today’s NHL that is easy to move to another team. If I am Doug Wilson, I would trade Niemi to Columbus for none other than Rick Nash. Nash is a goal scorer who averages out over 30 goals a season. Sometimes he scores 40 goals a season. With Joe Thornton at his side making passes, Nash can be an offensive machine for the Sharks. Plus Nash is only 27 so he is in the prime of his career. Nash wants out of Columbus and wants to play for a team that will get to the playoffs. The Sharks are that kind of team.  Columbus would be more than happy to rid itself of a player who still has six years left on his contract. Plus in return, Columbus would get a Stanley Cup winning goaltender that could get Columbus in the playoffs. The trade would work out for both teams.

            Whether or not Doug Wilson makes these kinds of trades is yet to be seen, but if he is serious about competing for the Stanley Cup next year he should definitely get Luongo and Nash on board. Together, those two can help the Sharks go a long way.

The Sharks Need to Start From Scratch

The San Jose Sharks playoff loss to the St. Louis Blues was probably the most embarrassing series I ever watched and it proves that big changes need to be made to this roster. Year in and year out, the Sharks tweak their roster with hopes of winning the Stanley Cup and each year they come up short. Tweaking the roster will no longer do the trick. This team needs to be blown up.  The Sharks need to get rid of most of their current players and start all over again with a brand new team. The reason I say this is because the Sharks are not getting any younger. As the players age on this team, the Sharks are only going to get worse and pretty soon they will not even make it to the playoffs. Most of the players on the Sharks have been with the team for quite a few years and have failed to win the Stanley Cup for San Jose. So what makes the Sharks think they will win it all when the players are getting older? If this current Sharks team couldn’t win it all in the prime of their careers, they certainly won’t when they reach the end of their careers. Better to trade many of the current Sharks now while they still have value to other teams, rather than wait for the players to get older and then not have any trade value.

                The Sharks currently do not have many prospects in the minor leagues and their farm system was ranked by some as one of the worst in the NHL.  This happened because the Sharks traded so many prospects and draft picks in the years past for players who could help the Sharks win it all. The risk hasn’t paid off for the Sharks and now they need to rebuild their farm system by trading away current players for draft picks and prospects.  Rebuilding the Sharks will not be easy for some Shark fans to take as it will mean that they will miss the playoffs for a few years and will be a team that no longer is contending for the Stanley Cup. I admit that it will be hard for me to see this team in a rebuilding mode, but in the long run it will be good for the future of this franchise. A few years of being a bad team will mean the Sharks can get some high draft picks and those picks can be used to rebuild their farm system.

After a few years of rebuilding their farm system, the Sharks will have many prospects ready to play for the team and give them a better identity then they had before. Maybe after years of rebuilding the Sharks, the team will have players who have heart and will play big in the postseason when it matters most. A new identity for the Sharks may mean the team no longer has a reputation of being playoff chokers but rather a team that can win the Stanley Cup. The Sharks current roster has an identity of playoff underachievers.

Guys like Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau have been the face of this team and they are the reasons this team hasn’t gone all the way. It is because they don’t have the heart to win the Stanley Cup. You can’t have a new identity and a new team until those players are gone. Yes, both of those players have no-trade clauses, but I am pretty sure if Sharks General Manager Doug Wilson made it clear to them that they are not wanted anymore, they would waive their no-trade clauses. Who wants to play for a team that doesn’t want you?  Thornton was a good Shark and brought a lot of excitement to this team especially during the regular season. He is without a doubt the best player to have played in a Sharks uniform. However, his postseason numbers are not as great as his regular season numbers. Add to the fact that Thornton will be 33 next season and he is already shown signs of aging.  His passing isn’t as great as it use to be and he has gotten slower. Thornton should be traded while he still has value to other teams, and the Sharks can easily get prospects and draft picks for him.  Marleau should be traded for the same reasons as Thornton. Marleau has been a great Shark with great moments in the regular season and postseason. However, he also will turn 33 next season, and he also shows no heart in games that matter the most. Wilson should trade Marleau while the team can get good players in return.

Wilson shouldn’t stop with Marleau and Thornton. He should also trade an aging Dan Boyle, a slower Douglas Murray, an average goalie at best in Antti Niemi, an inconsistent Ryan Clowe, a physically weak defenseman in Marc-Edouard Vlasic, an injury prone Martin Havlat, and an overrated Torrey Mitchell.  All of the players I just mentioned have flaws to their game and can also bring the Sharks some players from other teams in trades.  It would also free up salary cap space to give the Sharks a chance to sign new players. The only players I would not trade are Logan Couture and Joe Pavelski. Both of those players are still young and have a lot promise in the future with the Sharks. Everyone else is trade bait to me.

Last but not least, Wilson needs to fire head coach Todd McLellan. McLellan clearly had a horrible system in place for a talented team like the Sharks. Instead of having the team use its speed to bring the puck into the offensive zone, he had them play a game of dump and chase the puck in the offensive zone. The Sharks had a horrible year at scoring because of this system. Plus the Sharks penalty kill was horrible and that blame should be on the coach for implementing a flawed defensive game. McLellan for four years had one of the best teams in hockey and yet he couldn’t win them the Stanley Cup. It’s obvious he didn’t do a good job at motivating this team.

All of the changes I mentioned above have to happen for the sake of the franchise. They had a great run with the current group of Sharks but all great runs have to come to an end. The Sharks need to start from scratch. If they wait till later, it could hurt the franchise in the long run. Better to cut your losses now while it’s not too late.

The Sharks Proved They Are Weak

There was a lot to not like about the Sharks loss to the St. Louis Blues in Game 2.  They couldn’t score one single goal. The only goal they could score was in the wrong net (thanks Vlasic).  The Sharks constantly were playing defense instead of offense. They couldn’t get many shots on the St. Louis net. They also allowed St. Louis to take many shots on the Sharks net.

                While all of those above problems irritated me, it didn’t bother too much. I figure the Sharks can bounce back from those problems. What really bothered me was at the end of the Sharks game, when the team had a chance to send a message to St. Louis, they got beaten up really bad, literally. I was hoping to see the Sharks physically fight the St. Louis Blues at the end of the game. I wanted to see them beat the heck out of those players. I wanted the Sharks to send a message that this series isn’t over. I wanted the Sharks to show they were a tough team that was a force to reckon with. Instead, the Sharks tried to fight the Blues, and then they lost the fights.  They looked like a bunch of wimps who couldn’t fight if their life depended on it. The Blues showed that they were the tougher team and that they were not going to be pushed around by a bunch of wimpy players like the Sharks.

                It was embarrassing to watch my team get manhandled by the Blues. In the middle of the game Joe Pavelski, got into a fight with a Blues player and the Blues player beat the heck out of Pavelski.  Pavelski proved that he can’t fight for squat. Later in the game Marleau got punched in the face by a Blues player and Marleau didn’t punch back. That upset me as it shows that Marleau is a coward who isn’t willing to stand up for himself. Then when the game was over Dominic Moore was thrown to the ice by a Blues player and punches were thrown at Moore. Then Justin Braun was at the receiving end of punches thrown by another Blues player.

What made me upset the most was how Douglas Murray handled his fight with a Blues player at the end of the game. Murray is a big strong man who I always enjoyed watching because he knocked people over with hard checks. He also has had a good number of fights where he beat up other players. Against the Blues, however, Murray was a big coward. All he did was hug the Blues player and hang on to dear life. While he didn’t lose the fight, he certainly didn’t win it. He didn’t throw any punches when he could have easily done so. I was disappointed in him. As big as he is, he obviously was small in his heart.  He should have beaten the tar out of the Blues player. I can see players like Marleau, Pavelski, Moore, and Braun all losing fights. They are not the fighting type of players and they are not paid to be enforcers. Murray, on the other hand, is one of the tough guys for the Sharks and he acted like a wimp. He should have been there for his team and stood up for them and he failed to do so.

So I say to the Sharks, congratulations! You have shown the Blues that they can push you around and that you will not respond well. You have shown that you can’t fight when you need to. You have shown that you will have a hard time beating the Blues in this postseason because you cannot play the physical postseason type of hockey that is needed to win a series. Hopefully, you Sharks can prove me wrong and will fight the next game. However, if you are going to fight, win!

A Preview of the Sharks vs. Blues Playoff Series

One of the biggest reasons why I wanted the Sharks to win the Pacific Division was because I wanted the team to avoid playing a team like the St. Louis Blues in the first round of the playoffs. Well, I didn’t get my wish and the Sharks are going to play the team that dominated the Sharks the most this season. Not only do I not like the Blues as a Sharks fan, I do not like the Blues as a hockey fan. The Blues are the most boring team I have ever watched in hockey. They play a very conservative style of hockey that makes soccer look like a game of basketball. I don’t think the Blues are good for the growth of hockey as they are a team that doesn’t score a lot of goals. All they do is get that first goal of the game and once they get that lead, they play prevent defense the rest of the game. They clog up the middle of the ice so that it is hard to get the puck past the blue line into the opposing team’s offensive zone. If a team is lucky to get past the blue line the Blues usually prevent the other team from getting a shot on goal. That is why the Blues have two goalies that have a lot of shutouts. It’s not because the goalies are as good as Patrick Roy. It’s because the goalies don’t face a lot of shots.

                Watching the Sharks face the Blues during the regular season made me want to fall asleep. The Sharks scored just three goals against the Blues in four games. They got shut out by the Blues twice in St. Louis. What was even more amazing is that the Sharks were one of the best teams at shooting pucks to the net as they were one of the top teams in the league in shots on goal. However, against the Blues the Sharks had a hard time even attempting shots on net.

                There are a few keys the Sharks have to do if they want to beat the Blues in the playoffs. The first and biggest key is to score the first goal in the game. When the Blues score the first goal of the game, it is very hard to catch up in the score as they thrive on playing prevent defense. By scoring the first goal, the Blues have to change their entire game strategy and that is playing from behind. They are not a good offensive team so if the Sharks can score first, it makes the Blues play in unfamiliar territory that they are not good at.

The second key is to stay out of the penalty box. Out of the 11 goals the Blues scored against the Sharks this year, five of them came on the power play. The Sharks were a very discipline team during the regular season and they will need to be disciplined against the Blues. However, penalties are going to occur no matter how much a team tries to avoid them. That is why the Sharks need to be a much better team on the penalty kill than they were in the regular season. They need to block more shots and they need to put more pressure on the player that has the puck. They need to use their speed to force the Blues to make a play faster than they are prepared for.

The third key for the Sharks is to put shots on the net. Wayne Gretzky once said, “You miss all the shots you don’t take.” That is the biggest reason why the sharks lost every game against the Blues this season. It is because they were afraid to take shots. They were always trying to play cute with the Blues and tried passing the puck too much looking for that perfect shot. The problem is the Blues don’t give you time to make a shot so you have to take one as quick as you can. That means the Sharks have to take ugly shots. They may be easy shots for the goalie to save but it’s better than not shooting the puck at all. The more the team shoots the puck the better. That’s how the Sharks won their games this year and that was by outshooting their opponents. There will always be a few ugly shots that a goalie doesn’t stop cleanly and it sometimes causes the puck to deflect for a rebound that a player can shoot right in the net.  The Sharks probability to score is higher the more shots they take.

The fourth key to the Sharks winning is to make more clean passes. During those games against the Blues the Sharks were just dumping the puck into their zone hoping to chase the puck down by the net before the Blues get the puck. The problem is the Sharks are not that fast and whenever they dump the puck in the other team gets there first. I hate the dump in type of hockey play and it’s a type of hockey play that I think is overrated. It never seems to work. The Sharks do their best when they pass the puck smoothly and quickly. This spreads out the defense and it opens up the ice for the Sharks.

The final key to the Sharks winning this series against the Blues is to play Sharks hockey. That means playing the high offensive style hockey that suits to the talents on the Sharks. They have skilled offensive players such as Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Logan Couture, and Joe Pavelski. I hate when I hear the Sharks coaches talking about “grinding out” for wins. They think that by playing conservative hockey, the Sharks can get those ugly goals and win by a small margin. The problem is “grinding out” is not the Sharks style of hockey. That’s the Blues style of play and they would love nothing more than the Sharks to play to the Blues boring style of hockey. Unfortunately, the Blues are better at “grinding out” victories. That is why the Sharks got to stop with the conservative hockey approach and make the Blues play a high scoring offensive game. When it comes to a more high power offense, the Sharks win in that game.