2nd Round With Gigantes

2nd Round With Gigantes

Sean O’Donnell and I got back into it. Our last exchange got heated. He is still a Giants fan and I am still a Padres fan. We picked it back up with more heat. Enjoy.

NICHOLAS MCCANN May 4th 2:20pm PST

Dear Sean,

Our last email exchange was fantastic. It really moved the needle. Thanks for helping me build my brand: always being right.

Look, the Padres are up and down. The defense is shaky and the bullpen isn’t really dependable. Every time Bud Black brings an arm in during a game, I can feel the entire fan base hold its breath. I don’t really think Bud Black is a problem, but there are glaring issues that we have to address. Padres fans-myself included-wanted to win a championship in April, and because that is impossible, we got frustrated.

We got spanked by the Astros and then swept the Rockies. Have you seen this Arenado kid? That’s gonna be an NL West problem for a long time.

Nick

P.S. When are you going to publish your Chili Davis Chili recipe?

 

SEAN O’DONNELL May 4th 6:43 PST

My dearest Nick,

I haven’t really been paying attention to your squad. As I mentioned before, the NL West is a little harder to follow now that I’m out in Jersey. I know more about the Yankees (Teixeira is gluten free!) than the Friars. What does carne asada taste like? I can’t remember.

Since our last correspondence, the Giants seemed to lose every game for what felt like a fortnight, before taking a broom to the entire LA market. Did you see Buster caught for Timmy yesterday? It was like Mom and Dad getting back together, if only for a Sunday, and with the full knowledge that it probably won’t happen again, because Dad is becoming a free agent this fall.

I’m looking forward to this series. You’re on our turf now, and that comes with some home field advantages. Steve Perry lurks somewhere in the terrace section and threatens to lead the crowd with “Don’t Stop Believing” or “Lights” at any moment! Did you see Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield play the national anthem on Saturday? People lost their minds! Tell me, does anyone give two squirts when Jon from Buck-O-Nine tries so hard to get noticed singing along to “My Town”, that he gets himself ejected, and as he is dragged from Petco, can be audibly heard yelling “I WROTE SONGS IN THE KEY OF BREE”. No. Not two squirts. Not at all. Now maybe if it was Steve from Sprung Monkey…..

CHILI DAVIS CHILI

(serves 2 people)

Ingredients:

2 15 oz. cans of Chili (preferably Hormel)

1 bottle of Green Flash “Le Freak” beer

Fritos (optional)

Heat chili. Pour in beer. Watch your team become a dynasty (Fritos optional).

Good luck!

The Giants beat the Padres 2-0

 

NICHOLAS MCCANN May 5th 6:23am PST

Sean,

Pull it back a little. Buck-0-Nine is the official 3rd Wave Ska Band of The Kept Faith. I guess you missed the meeting. Look, I know you’re all the way in Jersey, but for all intensive purposes, you are the darkness at the edge of my town…my street…give me piece of mind that can’t be beat…all that.

The Padres got Bummed last night. There is no way around it. Madison Bumgarner was dealing and he was pretty close to unhittable. The game started strong for us with Angel Pagan breaking a nail, but it was all down hill from there. I watched the game with the sound off for two reasons: (A) we were recording the reboot of the Kept Faith Podcast and (B) I didn’t want to hear the announcers go over the tired history of the Padres never throwing a no-hitter. We get no hit a lot, and when it happens, the broadcast crew has no choice but to dust off their old material and tell us about what we’ve never had.

Thankfully Justin Upton stopped it from happening. It’s too early in the season to deal with that kind of nightmare.

Nick

P.S. I’m working on a Kevin Mitchell Meatloaf. You basically get trashed on Anchor Steam and try to make the loaf with one hand.

 

SEAN O’DONNELL May 5th 6:20pm PST

Hey Nick,

Good stuff, man. You go ahead and find any little way to get excited, even if it’s “We broke up your no-hitter!” When Madbum is good, he’s the best. He’s a man. A real man who drives a truck. And last night he put it in gear and ran over your squad. Let me help you up.

Tonight the Giants face Andrew Cashner, being caught by his separated-at-birth teammate, Derek Norris. Tell me, keepers of the faith, what is up with these guys and that look? Do these two not go to the same barber? If Mick and Keith were The Glimmer Twins, then hereby I dub these two, “The Dimmer Twins”. Seriously though, they look like the worst waiter at Pokez.

So what? So we didn’t get the no-no. It’s like I’ve always said, “no-no worries”. We’ve ridden that horse into the ground. I don’t need a no hitter, or a perfect game. I just want Vogy to go out there and punch The Dimmer Twins in the mouth. My cup runneth over.

Yours in Boch,

Seanny Drama

 

The Giants beat the Padres 6-0.

NICHOLAS MCCANN May 6th 7:39am PST

Sean,

That look you’re speaking of is “Deep El Cajon”. Heard of it? It works most of the time, but apparently not when we go to the bay.

I guess the Pads forgot their bats in Colorado. I really need them to score some runs today. They don’t even have to win. At this point, it’s about not completely embarrassing ourselves.

Whether or not the Padres get swept, the debut of Austin Hedges will be the dominant story in the final game of this three day undressing by your squad. It’s been rough watching Buster Posey’s career. It would be great to have something like that at catcher. I’m not saying Hedges will be anywhere near him, but on the side of my most optimistic/wishful thinking brain, I’m allowing myself to believe he could be sort of a Yadier Molina type: a wizard behind the plate who incrementally gets better as an offensive player.

But of course he could just be bust. So I ask you to give it to me straight. To close out this exchange, on a scale from Ben Davis to Buster Posey, what is your one game review of Austin Hedges?

Nick

 

The Padres beat the Giants 9-1

SEAN O’DONNELL May 7th 9:30am PST

Nikki Picks,

Well there you have it. You guys piled on a beauty yesterday. I wanted the back-to-back So Cal sweep special, but we can’t always get what we want.

You want to know my thoughts on Austin “Benson &” Hedges. What I want to know is, why bring this kid up right now? Norris may look like a bar back at a b-market Hooters, but he’s good, and he’s currently living up to his “good-ness”. I would think you would want to let this kid get every day squats behind the plate. Can we maybe bring up the fact that selling off your farm team for players people have heard of is just a slice of the GM pie? How is AJ “Always Jammin” Preller going to actually manage the Padres as a whole? Time will tell, but I feel like you would have to move one of these guys, and I’m guessing that’s Norris? Then that’s a lot of pressure on a rookie C with good defense and middle of the road offense.

He’s not gonna be Ben Davis, and he’s not gonna be Posey(although his AAA stat line is close to what Posey’s AAA line was when he was called up…yeah, I did some research). I think he can be successful, but remember when we talk about defensive catchers who develop some pop later on, it’s usually like 5 years from where Hedges is at. Let’s bury this in a time capsule and dig it up in 2020.

What will a “Hillary-in-her-2nd-term” Hedges look like?

See you again in June.

Forever yours,

Sean

The Padres lost the series to the Giants 2-1. They meet again in June and so will Sean and I.

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Nick was born in San Diego in 1980. He started The Kept Faith on blogspot in 2008.

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