San Francisco Giants Link Dump, 11/19

I got you a pony! Just kidding, it's links.

Is Madison Bumgarner the World's #1 Starting Pitcher?
According to a Bill James system, Bumgarner's fantastic postseason shot him up the Best Pitcher in Baseball charts, from number 10 all the way to number 2. Hey, second isn't bad, especially considering how otherworldly Clayton Kershaw is. The man's got Cy Youngs, he's won an MVP, his teams have gone to the playoffs . . . it's tough to think of anything Kershaw hasn't accomplished. No gaping holes in that resume. No, sir.

Baseball Therapy: Against the Grind
It's tough to objectively measure the job a manager does. If you go by his career performance compared to his team's Pythagorean W-L, you're basically just measuring how good he is at using his bullpen. If you want to take into account leadership or clubhouse presence as compared to a manager's peers, you have to use something like Drama Under Manager Bellweather, a stat that relies on anecdotal evidence, making it problematic at best. So BP came up with a little test to see if any managers can help their hitters stave off fatigue over the course of the season. It's an interesting concept, except it says Mike Matheny is good at some part of managing, so if you want to utterly disregard it, I'll understand.

MLB Auction
Do you like...THINGS? No, no, it gets better. Because these are baseball things, signed by baseball players, on sale for you, the baseball fan. Not only that, but the things are Giants things, and the players who signed them are Giants players, and the charity it benefits is a Giants-related charity. Pretty wild coincidence that a Giants fan is linking all that Giants merchandise on a Giants blog. I just hope someone out there has even mild interest in these items.

How difficult is it to find a shortstop? Just ask the other 29 MLB teams in the Derek Jeter Era
You may not have heard this, but Derek Jeter retired this year. And as it turns out, he's been the starting shortstop for the New York Yankees for 19 years. Boy, you'd really think a player like that retiring would get some sort of media coverage. But since Jeter came into the league, every other team has had to use several starting shortstops, as seen in the infographic (read: spreadsheet) here. It's a fun way to waste a few minutes on  nostalgia, then realize that Jose Vizcaino was the Giants' starter at short in 1997 instead of Rich Aurilia, and then shrug that away, because in the end, nobody gives a shit about Jose Vizcaino.

Frida The Chihuahua Is San Francisco's "Mayor" Today
It is a tragedy that Frida's reign ended at 4 PM yesterday, as she is easily the best mayor San Francisco has ever had.

Ex-Giants pitcher Ray Sadecki, obtained in Cepeda trade, dies
.