‘The Franchise’ Episode 8: The Season Finale Brings Reflection

It ends tonight.

I think I would give “The Franchise: A Season with the San Francisco Giants” a solid B grade. There were times where it failed with situations in which it really had a chance to provide an interesting view — the Carlos Beltran trade and the brawl with the Philadelphia Phillies, especially.

But overall, it gave us some great personal stories, and it generally did what it was supposed to do. It gave us a pretty nice amount of access to the clubhouse. It gave us the lives of the players both on and off the field. The episode about Brian Wilson’s relationship with his father, and Tim Lincecum’s private nature was the highlight episode of the season, by far.

It may not have excelled in all fields, but I think this was a very successful endeavor for Showtime (I have yet to look up the ratings), and I hope that it is able to get a team to sign on next year. The Giants have enough characters to make a follow-up season watchable, and I think they would agree to do it. But their story has been told.

In the final episode, four players who have been profiled in detail described their experience with the series and talked about what 2011 means to them.

Pablo Sandoval talked about how much he has committed himself to his craft now, losing 40 pounds over the offseason.

Ryan Vogelsong calls his own story — a pitcher who hadn’t played in the majors since 2006 comes back and turns into an All-Star — incredible. “I think, in 2011, I was supposed to have this story happen, and you guys were supposed to be here to film it.”

Brandon Belt talked about how embarrassing it was to cry on TV when he learned that he had made the big-league club out of spring training. But his year has also been about a yo-yo-like existence between San Francisco and Fresno. “It’s been a lot of ups and there’s been a lot of times where I said, ‘Hey, I’m done.’ I had just kind of given up the year, and I just didn’t care about anything. But … I took care of business so that I can get back up here as soon as possible.”

Barry Zito’s story for 2011: “Watching my team go out there, and I couldn’t be a part of it.” Injuries have ruined Zito’s season, a year in which he is making $18.5 million and many have called for the Giants to release him.

“I hear things here and there. … I rip my own heart out daily. That’s a big thing, that I can go to sleep at night knowing that I gave 100 percent. It hurts bad that it wasn’t enough in some instances. But you take it personal. And that hurts.”

Tim Stauffer’s Tuesday Start Was Not A Walk In The Park. It Was Several

Instead of those boring headshots, I'm going to post baseball card photos from now on. You can never go wrong with baseball cards

San Diego Padres pitcher Tim Stauffer has a pretty good idea of where the ball’s going when he’s on the bump. Going into last night’s start, he had walked 43 batters in 166 innings pitched. He walked 24 in 82.2 innings last season. So, you know, he’s got pretty good control.

But last night, he turned into Rick Ankiel, circa 2000-01. OK, maybe he didn’t miss that badly, but he certainly missed a lot.

Stauffer walked seven Dodgers and only got five outs. He walked six in the second inning alone, including pitcher Hiroki Kuroda with the bases loaded and three consecutive batters in a span of 14 pitches. He threw just 25 strikes in 61 pitches and became the 11th pitcher to walk a lucky seven in a game this season. But all of those guys reached at least the fifth inning; Stauffer couldn’t get out of the second.

Stauffer became the 19th pitcher since 1919 to walk at least seven batters in less than two innings pitched. And man, look at some of the names on that list! Do you remember how bad Daniel Cabrera was? Or how Russ Ortiz won 21 games in 2003 despite walking more than 100 batters? Ben McDonald! William VanLandingham!! Bob Feller, who is one of the 16 players to ever walk more than 200 batters in a single season. That is some tasty stuff.

And thanks to Anthony Bass, who relieved Staffer after that seventh walk and then gave up a grand slam on his first pitch, Stauffer is also just the fifth pitcher since 1919 to allow at least seven runs while pitching so few innings and giving up that many walks.

But hey, at least he didn’t give up that many hits. In fact, Stauffer was so busy throwing pure junk, he gave up just one hit. We’ve had a few guys — Edwin Jackson and A.J. Burnett jump to mind — throw no-hitters while issuing walks without care. But they didn’t give up seven earned runs to go with it. Thus, Stauffer became just the third pitcher since 1919 to allow seven runs in three or fewer innings on no more than one hit. The Cubs’ Ryan Dempster actually did it twice: In 2001 with the Marlins and 2003 with the Reds.

I don’t expect this to happen to Stauffer again unless, like Ankiel, it becomes more of a mental than physical problem. There’s reason to expect that either, but there was no reason to expect he would match the Dodgers’ attendance in walks in one start.

My One College Football Prediction For 2011

It’s all pointless.

All preseason polls are worth a price somewhere between that gum on the bottom of your shoe and a used VHS copy of “Snake Eater III: His Law” starring Lorenzo Lamas. I’ve seen that movie. I believe I was nine years old, and it was the first time I saw a woman’s tunnel of love on film.

Anyway, back to college football …

I absolutely refuse to post another top-25 preseason poll. Even though everyone knows you can pretty much pick and slot whatever teams wherever you want, I put too much pressure on myself to actually be correct on something that will turn horribly wrong after just a couple of weeks. So while a bunch of bloggers will throw out their own top-25, I’m just going to pick one team. One team to NOT win the championship that will probably win the championship. Follow?

You see, I’ve been so wrong in the last two years that it actually stands out. In 2009, I said Alabama, AP preseason No. 5, was the most overrated team. I’m not sure why, but I think it had something to do with the Crimson Tide’s lack of offense. Or at least my perception that they lacked enough offense. They ended up winning the national championship.

I said Oregon, AP preseason No. 11, was the most overrated team to start 2010 because of the off-field distractions caused by LaMichael James and the loss of Jeremiah Masoli. They reached the national championship game.

So who am I tabbing as a disappointment this year and as a result, indirectly vaulting into January’s BCS title game?

I Am Clayton Kershaw’s Good-Luck Charm

Well, not really. Dude’s been pretty dominant all year long, and he’s making me feel pretty smart for picking him to win the Cy Young prior to this season.

At home, Kershaw is 10-1 in 14 starts with a 1.80 ERA. But when I’m in attendance, Kershaw turns it up a notch, obviously in an effort to impress me. On Monday, I went to my tenth Dodgers game this season and for whatever reason, Kershaw has been the starter in 40 percent of those games. In those four starts, Kershaw has allowed a total of four runs and nine walks with 32 strikeouts. He has an ERA of 1.04 and a WHIP of 0.78.

Most impressive is the fact that Kershaw has pitched 34.2 innings in those four starts. Some simple multiplication tells you how awesome that is, especially when you consider Kershaw had a really tough time just making it out of the sixth as little as two years ago. Now he leads the NL in innings pitched.

Granted, one of those games — April 21 versus the Braves — went 12 innings, but which starting pitcher is expected to throw more than nine innings in any game ever?

I will be going to one more Dodgers game this season — Sept. 21 versus San Francisco. I have no idea if Kershaw will be on the mound. I would like it if he’s not because while watching him work is really fun stuff, I’m sick of going to the games that the Dodgers actually win. But if the Giants and the Dodgers keep their rotations the same for the next three weeks and I do get to see Kershaw yet again, he’ll be matched up against Tim Lincecum. I’ve got no problem with that beauty.

Lastly, this is something that I probably would have held off writing about until one of those “Running Off At The Electronic Mouth” posts, but I really need to wean off those things. For one, they don’t get almost any views and secondly, it is kind of a cheap way to mention things (read: covering my ass) I should have written about earlier in the week.

I know I’ve said this before. But this time, I’m gonna mean it.