San Francisco Giants Link Dump, 9/30

This wait for the wild card game is taking forever. I don't care for that. I don't care for that at all.

How Garlic Fries at SF Giants are made
It's hard to remember, what with Kruk and Kuip hyping newer concessions like the Ghiradelli Sundae, Crazy Crab Sandwich, and Every Child Within Thirty Miles, but the go-to snack at Giants games used to be the garlic fries. This is the story of how those garlic fries are made, but they do skip a few parts at the beginning, so: When a mommy potato and a daddy clove have a hot, dirty, unnatural love for each other, sometimes they have a very special hug inside a deep fryer, and what comes out is pure magic.

The 2014 Baseball Playoffs Hateability Index
The most important part of this index was getting the Cardinals right, and the Wall Street Journal did a heck of a job. You can quibble over the other results – maybe you think the Tigers should be more hateable that the Giants, or that the penalty for players suspended for PEDs is too harsh – but those are minor quibbles. While it may be trendy to hate the Cardinals right now, it's for a good reason: The Cardinals are awful and no one likes them. So if you think that Giants fans are notoriously annoying, it's true! We are. But at least we don't root for the Cardinals, who are the absolute worst.

The Dodgers also grade out as less likable than the Giants, which brings up the important point of neener neener neener.

Awards season from players' perspective
We've heard what baseball writers and more baseball writers and fans and still more baseball writers think about awards voting, but what do the players think? Should Clayton Kershaw be able to win the MVP? It's pretty clear to me that he should be ineligible, solely because Kershaw being MVP would make Tommy Lasorda happy, and it is the greatest moral imperative to prevent Lasorda from experiencing any happiness whatsoever. Your choice is clear, BBWAA. Vote . . . I dunno, whoever. Cueto, if you want. Just not Kershaw.

MLB Playoff Myths: Beware the Misleading Narratives!
Grantland takes a look at beliefs about the playoffs, and if you think that the title implies they'll be doing some debunking, well, that's very observant of you. So, momentum going into the playoffs doesn't matter, and neither does second-half record, and there's no evidence that pitching and defense win championships. So what that tells me is that the Giants are already most of the way there to winning the World Series. All they have to do is start Morse in left and Lincecum on the mound, and the momentumless, mediocre-in-the-second-half team with crappy pitching and defense will go all the way.

PUIG DESTROYER Get You Amped For The Baseball Post-Season Grind With Full EP Stream
This band makes many compelling points regarding the number of people who care about your fantasy team.