Leave it to the Giants to ruin a perfectly good Willie Mac Award afternoon with news of their strangest injury in a season full of them. Bruce Bochy brought it up in the dugout after talking about Brian Wilson’s progress (Wilson threw off a mound today, seems to be doing a little better, will rest this weekend and might be shelved if the Giants are out of contention) by saying, “Have you heard about Affeldt?”
Nobody had, and Bochy gave us the details. While using a “paring knife” to separate frozen burger patties (you’d think baseball players could afford fresh ground Kobe beef, but whatever), Affeldt lacerated his right hand “pretty bad,” according to Bochy. Bad enough to cause nerve damage that required surgery yesterday, and as a result Affeldt will miss the rest of the season. Video of Bochy bringing up the painful subject to the assembled media is below:
Affeldt had a solid year overall (2.63 ERA and 1.15 WHIP in 61 2/3 innings, helped by .244 BABIP), but if he never pitches for the Giants again, he’ll be remembered mostly for two things: his game-saving outing in Game 6 of the NLCS and this year for the speech he gave along with Jamey Carroll of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the wake of the Bryan Stow beating.
Next up is a video that isn’t necessarily bad news … unless you’re a fan of Brandon Belt and/or Brandon Crawford. In talking about Brett Pill, Bochy used language that was quite telling. Quite a few not-very-subtle messages to all those pitch-takin’ whippersnappers on the roster, including:
“Looks like he’s trying to take advantage of his chance to show what he can do up here.”
“He’s not playing with any fear.”
“He’s letting the bat go.”
“I like the aggressive swings that he’s taking.”
“He’s not backing off.”
A word of advice to position players coming up through the Giants system. When you get your chance, swing your ass off.
Besides some other depressing news (Nate Schierholtz went to Denver to have a specialist look at his foot and seems like he may not be back this season; Barry Zito might be back soon), there was some overall good vibes in the dugout with the announcement that Vogelsong won the award most everyone knew he’d take home. Vogelsong said he couldn’t remember who he voted for, then said he voted for Mark DeRosa. In the video Vogelsong talks about what it was like to inspire people with his story, and how his story changed throughout the season.
