"It's time," Benitez said. "Armando's back."

by fanofvanlandingham on Apr 21, 2007 1:13 PM PDT Comment 22 comments

Third person? really? really, Armando? I guess my point is this:
although he looked like he had a pretty good mix of pitches (two seam fastball, four seam fastball, slider, splitter) last night,
is he allowed to go third person already?
Also consider he has yet to have a 1-2-3 save.

Poll

Where is armando?

"back"

3 votes

on the bus "back"

18 votes

parked, waiting to leave to come "back" , eating a subway sandwich

20 votes

In a white castle heckling the guy working the register for not doing his job

38 votes

79 votes | Poll has closed

This FanPost is reader-generated, and it does not necessarily reflect the views of McCovey Chronicles. If the author uses filler to achieve the minimum word requirement, a moderator may edit the FanPost for his or her own amusement.

0 recs | Comment 22 comments

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Comments

Re: "It's time,"

Where did you read this? Link?

by beagle on Apr 21, 2007 2:43 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Re: "It's time,"

http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20070421&content_id=1921530&vk ey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=sf

I wish John Miller would just commentate my life.

by fanofvanlandingham on Apr 21, 2007 5:24 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: "It's time,"

Armando Rios?

Mandowear | comics | Sugarman FTW

by Natto on Apr 21, 2007 4:05 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Re: "It's time,"

Who is Armando Rios?

by BeckyDR on Apr 21, 2007 6:00 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: "It's time,"

http://www.baseball-reference.com/r/riosar01.shtml

Mandowear | comics | Sugarman FTW

by Natto on Apr 21, 2007 6:03 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: "It's time,"

yeah, after I asked that I Googled him and was coming back here to say "nvm, I found him :)". Well, hopefully he was a better Mando for your team then Blownítez has been ;).

by BeckyDR on Apr 21, 2007 6:11 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Best Mando Ever

Armando Rios, journeyman at best, was somehow a centerpiece in the trade that brought us Jason Schmidt from dopey Pittsburg in 2001. Schmidt's best years followed.

The Rios deception was Sabean at the Height of his Sleight of Hand powers.

Sabean has since gone insane, but nobody seems to have noticed, and he still goes to his office every day.

by Moggeee on Apr 21, 2007 9:54 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Best Mando Ever

Unless Sabean knew that Rios was juicing and would tear his knee in fluke play his first game with the pirates, I think it was more luck than deception. I won't say Armando was a good player at the time, but the current Giants could sure use a hitter of that caliber in right field.

Besides, and this is the part that everyone seems to forget about that trade, what the Giants gave up in that deal only got them three months of Schmidt (which didn't work out as well as they planned, since they missed the playoffs in 2001). The Giants had to re-sign Jason, and at a hefty price in pre-insane FA market dollars. From the Pirates POV, they would have ended up with nothing if they kept Schmidt, so it's tough to say they were ripped off even though both Rios and Vogelsong suffered career-altering injuries.

Fool me seven times, shame on you. Fool me eight or more times, shame on me.

by Bhaakon on Apr 21, 2007 11:47 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Best Mando Ever

it's not really tough to say. They WERE ripped off in that trade. Your point that they would have gotten nothing for Schmidt is incorrect. They would have gotten a number one draft choice as compensation, and it is the job of the GM (Littlefield) to make sure that he holds out for a spectacular prospect if he pulls the deadline trigger. Armando Rios was NOT a big time prospect, he was a lefty bat off of the bench, and any Giant fan could have told you that Vogelsong was not one of their better pitching prospects. Anyway you look at that deal it was a total heist.

Armando "Houdini" Benitez countdown to 300 saves: 284

by rxmeister on Apr 23, 2007 7:21 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: "It's time,"

"Hey, I know that dude"

by Rusty the Mechanical Man on Apr 21, 2007 9:45 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Smoke, Mirrors, and Plenty 'o Luck

I'll give you a call when Mando's WHIP shrinks from 2.0 territory.

by Moggeee on Apr 21, 2007 4:14 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Benitez said. "Armando's back."

It was weird watching him. About half of his pitches have looked really good, and the other half have looked flat, hanging, and slow. By luck and a little skill, he's getting it done, but I'm not giving him credit yet. A few more, Benitez. Give me a real reason to be excited.

Coming to you by proxy (I adopted: Dave Righetti!)

by howtheyscored on Apr 21, 2007 4:16 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Someone got the quote wrong

What he actually said was "Mando got back." And then he did the butt. You know, the Butt Dance! Doin' the butt. This line of song virusing is getting us nowhere.

My Adopted San Francisco Giant: Notgardo Alfonzo

by tk on Apr 21, 2007 4:24 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Re: Someone got the quote wrong

But Armando has always been the master of the nervous save. He IS back. Last year he would have blown these games. You're NEVER getting 1-2-3 saves out of Armando Benitez. So load up on your Maalox because it's going to be a looooong season.

Armando Benitez countdown to 300 saves: 283

by rxmeister on Apr 21, 2007 5:40 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Back in line at the Krispy Kreame maybe...

Last night I saw our portly closer with my own eyes for the first time this season....really, really disappointed. Flash me the 3/3 stat all you want, but I'm not buying it. I was talking with my friend as we left our seats and we both agreed that there's something seriously wrong with a Trevor Hoffman/Rob Nen/Mariano Rivera (not this year) 1-2-3 save and a 25 pitch: hit, walk, 1, walk, 2, lucky 3rd out save by our buddy Mando.

What was most telling was hearing the comments after the game from Molina. When your catcher goes public in the 3rd week of the season saying he has to try especially hard to reign in the closer and keep him focused, that's not a good thing.

Proud adoptive papa of the one, the only, Omar Vizquel.

by PacBellBoozer on Apr 21, 2007 8:00 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Re: Back in line at the Krispy Kreame maybe...

Is that on a link somewhere?

Giftwrap it and FedEx it to Rainman.

Waiting for the Resurrection. Ask for Mr. Blue.

by victor frankenstein on Apr 21, 2007 8:39 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Back in line at the Krispy Kreame maybe...

Sadly, I don't think so. It was on 680 and we had already missed it by the time we were climbing into the car for the trip home.

Kruk, Kuip, Flem, and Jon were making reference to it in their post-game comments. Right around the part where they were talking about doing play by play for Wisconsin ice-fishing.

"I think I got one, eh."

"...Nope"

Proud adoptive papa of the one, the only, Omar Vizquel.

by PacBellBoozer on Apr 21, 2007 11:28 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: "It's time"

Armando has "never been the master of the 1-2-3 save"?

Bullfroggery.

His WHIP is 1.88 this year, 1.57 last year, 1.37 the first year with the Giants. His career WHIP is 1.20, and during his best years, was more like 1.05-1.20. In his year with FLA, it was 0.82. If he keeps up the 1.88 pace in 2007, it will represent his worst year ever (from a WHIP standpoint) and not by a small amount.

His BAA this year is .238, last year .267. His career BAA is .192 and, during his best years, more like .150-.190. With the Giants, Mando has given up .95 hits per inning. Prior to coming to the Giants, his career avg was .65 hits per inning.

According to my kalkulations, the "old" Mando is most definitively not "back." If anything, he is getting worse by nearly every measure...four consecutive saves notwithstanding.

I suggest we trade him as soon as possible before the "new" Mando starts showing up in this year's stats.

It's never too early to panic.

by leewhee on Apr 22, 2007 10:34 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Cross your fingers and trot him out there?

"No computers" Sabean must be aware of the ominous trend in this guy's overt performance, combined with the more hidden "peripherals" decline.

But Sabean's history shows he will ask Bochy to keep trotting Blow out there until he stinks up the joint (already in progress) AND gives away apparent victories, like Cain's gem.

How awful THAT would have felt today.

by Moggeee on Apr 22, 2007 4:05 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Cross your fingers and trot him out there?

I am pretty sure that even if Mando were somehow due to a planetary misalignment to convert 100% of his save opportunities we would still hate his ass. He cannot put toothpaste back in the tube. If you find your wife sleeping with your best friend, regardless of the future of your marriage, you can never be best friends with your best friend again. Mando has fucked your Giants for more than 2 years. There is no going back, simply because your pal says "I'm back!"

Save Matt Morris. Save The Pitchers. Save The World.

by E Ticket on Apr 22, 2007 5:32 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: "It's time"

I saw most of Mando's saves when he pitched for the Mets, and believe me most of them were of the hair raising variety. As a Met hater I was always frustrated when he escaped with yet another save. You might get an easy save when he came in and faced the bottom of the order, but big time hitters always had no problems with him. They would lay off the sliders and splits and tee off on that 98mph straight as a string fastball. Lesser hitters couldn't catch up to the heat or lay off the pitches in the dirt, but good hitters killed him. So once again I'm going to go with the "see with my own eyes" argument, over the stats argument. There was a reason the Mets fans booed him out of town, and the low WHIP doesn't change that. I guess we can compromise and say that Armando was dominant against bad players in meaningless early regular season games, but spit the bit when it counted.

Armando "Houdini" Benitez countdown to 300 saves: 284

by rxmeister on Apr 23, 2007 7:27 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Molina on Mando Action!!! NSFW

Did anybody hear Molina's take on Mando on KNBR last Friday after the "save" or as I like to call it the "only semi-shitting the bed appearance?"

Molina said that it is tough with Mando and that you have to be constantly on him every single pitch to keep his head on what he is doing.

WTF!!!

We pay this guy bags of cash and he can't keep his head on what he is doing?

Doctor to family: Well we did everything we could but your son has passed.

Family: But you were just removing his tonsils.

Doctor: yeah but I was having a hard time concentrating and I slipped a couple of times. I really need the nurses to watch me and make sure I keep paying attention.

Eatin' D-Backs and crappin' out Rockies.

by camwoody on Apr 23, 2007 11:53 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs