A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

I know Chap has been in a slump but his power is there, man. He’s just been in a funk. Soler I don’t know about. He is worrying me whether he’s injured or not. It’s wild to me that the brass considered both Black and Jefferies, twice, and still picked Jefferies both times. I get it, he’s got a short leash but Black is on a different planet than Jefferies. It really makes you wonder if they have any fucking idea what they are doing or how to do it.

The Giants have scored 148 runs this year. That seems like more than they’ve scored, aye? Anyway it’s good for 23rd in MLB. How in the fucking hell have they scored more runs this year than 7 other teams?

Larry Baer is such a shill. He was on KNBR yesterday celebrating “winning a series on the road”. I had to turn him off he’s such a joke.

Now we start a legit home stand. A critical home stand. The Reds are playing like shit but unlike us they have good young players. And then we get LA, lol.

Oh well, can’t hide all season in Colorado. Time to man up.

I got a couple of emails from our good friend Stix:

Carstie Clausen	Wed, May 8, 9:16 AM (20 hours ago)
to me

Craig:  Hope you are doing well and greetings to all Flappers with whom you may still be in touch.  Miss the camaraderie a bunch…even if this early spring has been a frustrating start to the season.  Team needs desperately a spark plug.  Thought that Yaz would have made his usual jump into carrying the team after his dinger in Baahstin, but didn’t happen.  Slater seems to have lost his mojo…ditto, Wilmer.  Over in SacTown, Schmitty has turned into an RBI machine with plenty of doubles.  If he can carry that energy into the show, a #6 or seven batter might be his prime spot.  Luciano has focused on batting rather than slugging and has a B.A. in the 280’s.  He is pressing Ahmed to produce in the #9 hole.  Ramos is also maintaining a high BA, along with some dingers.  He too may be in the cards to essentially replace Slater.  Soler is an enigma…low BA and single-shots on long-balls.  Chapman:  WTF.  Tuned into gameday yesterday evening and the Korean “martial artist” was absolutely tormenting the Rockies starter by fouling off pitch after pitch.Ideal leadoff man.  Best of last year’s team was this ability to wear down opposing starters.  Late-Night Wade is having him a growth-spurt and is well positioned in the three-hole

 Turning to the mound, there will be a massive logjam of quality starters (barring major injuries) by the second half.  Eight of them.  Expect interesting Tradewinds by the Deadline.  One or more of the starters may join (surprise, surprise) Hjelle as longmen. Current outlook is that the team is gradually jelling…just needs one or two sparkplugs to energize the lineup.  Obviously, the team was not yet ready for Bahhstin and definitely Harper powering the Philthies.  Perhaps the return engagements in SF will balance things out a bit.  At this point, maintenance of something around a .500 record is the best outlook.  Can you imagine a team with FIVE aces?…it could be in the cards.  Patience, my friend.

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Carstie Clausen	Wed, May 8, 6:53 PM (10 hours ago)
to me

Craig:  Thanks for the response.  Still living in an apartment 6 miles from the homestead.  Was out there today for hours, getting the potato patch prepped and other fun stuff, like water from the little hand-pump along with fresh mint just coming up and a bunch of perpetual onions, dating back to ancient Egypt…well not those particular ones.  70 degrees this afternoon after a very nice winter and a schizo spring.  Considering transforming the place into a spiritual sanctuary and a school of country living, most likely for younger folks looking for survival skills and a peaceful lifestyle.

 So how you been?  Still in touch with some of the original Flappers.? You did quite the service keeping it up and even when not getting on the Flap I sure liked rubbernecking to get the feel of where the Giants are at.  Hoping you’re in good health and successfully coping with life in the faster lane.  Any time you have any insights into Los Gigantes, drop me an e.m.

 Enjoy the coming summer.  -stix

Nice time for Colorado who some how have the 25th team OPS in the league. How is that even possible playing half your games in Colorado?

We scored 5 runs so that translates to like 2.8 runs at a normal park. Don’t be fooled. We can’t hit.

Wheeler shuts a lot of teams down so I’m not going to use yesterday’s game to rail away on our offense. Again. It’s one of the worst constructed teams in the league (old, slow and weak). But we didn’t need to see Wheeler spin that gem to know that.

Like what Black showed. He should have been showing this for both Jefferies implosions. Just gotta stretch him out a little more and he’ll be yet another arm in the starting rotation that we can trust…..

Well, on the plus side we broke a 9 game streak of scoring less than four runs. Think about how pathetic that is for a moment.

Still 4 games left on this terrible road trip. Say, I wonder if we’ll be able to score 4 runs a game in Colorado?

Thorpedo Anna was very very good to me in the Oaks yesterday. The Derby is wide open. Not even tossing out a pick. There are 7 horses I think who can win.

I saw the box score that we lost again. Pfffttttt……

Watching Red Sox fans cheer Yaz’ bomb yesterday made me think, is there any possible way Zaidi could send him there and maybe even get a little value? Probably not as they’d be his only suitor but you can’t tell me their ownership team hasn’t at least thought about it.

Philly tonight. I’m out of town for a few days but will keep the blog chugging along as that is my sworn duty and solemn oath.

Look, I’m not an idiot. I don’t believe in fairy tales or angels or any of that stuff. Although I have seen some recent videos over the years that have me on board with UFO’s. So I know our offense is one of the worst in the league and when you score 2 runs you probably aren’t going to win. But it enrages me that the Giants would have a payroll of 197 million dollars AND legitimate pitching prospects in triple A and yet they still insist on trotting out this abject loser Daulton Jefferies to the mound for a game that counts.

AND THEY HAVE DONE IT FUCKING TWICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Zaidi sucks and if Melvin supported this idiotic plan then he sucks too.

Just an awful showing last night. For a month our stud starting pitchers have masked the pathetic offerings of the offense. On a rare night when Webb didn’t have it and he turned to the O for answers they came up emptier than Wimpy sadly displaying his pockets.

And tonight it will not get better as that joker Jefferies some how is getting another start. Why don’t we let one of our exciting young starters from the minor leagues start this game?

I’ve never been to Fenway. But many times over the course in my life I’ll be standing next to or near a wall, look up and think to myself “that looks about 37 feet high. Goddamn that’s high.”

What is Flap Nation’s experience with Fenway and The Green MONSTER?

Feels like we are gonna smoke these Boston fools.

It’s Winn. As in “all he does is…..”. I’m telling you, this dude is gonna be a solid #3 for us and possibly even a #2. And we are going to need him and any other available quality pitcher if we are going to keep running out this shit hitting offense. 3 runs? Yep, that’s all you get Winn, go make it happen.

20th in the league in bombs, 24th in SB’s. Once again, when faced with the question of “Would you rather be strong or fast?” we meekly answer “we shall be neither….”

Thursday: we scored 0 runs thru 6.

Friday: We scored 0 runs thru 8.

Saturday: we scored 1 run thru 9.

I mean, what the fuck? We are at home. We are facing shitty pitchers. And the offense literally is chortling balls.

Our pitchers deserve better.

Look, the Pirates aren’t very good. They are probably even worse than their 13-14 record. And we got shut down by a complete scrap heap nobody. But a win is a win. And man, that crowd was ROCKIN’ after Bailey hit that bomb.

Day 3 of the draft. Finally. Now is when Lynch and Shanny cook.

Love the Niners first round pick–Slick Rick. That dude is electric. People are going to compare him to Gray and that’s not fair. Gray was a reach at 3, he doesn’t have the skills of this dude. Personally, I wanted them to trade Deebo but I guess no one wanted him or maybe they saw what we all see– a dude who is going to keep getting injured as he gets older. Pearsall and Aiyuk are boys maybe there is still a plan to somehow move Samuel. Either way, even if they keep them both they are for sure losing 1 of them at the end of 2025 so why not add a stud like Rickey? We have nothing after Samuel and Aiyuk…..

If you liked Candlestick you’ll love tonight’s game. Cold and windy. If you’ve never been to a game at Oracle it can get just as cold as Candlestick at night when those winds get going. The ballpark structure minimizes it a bit compared to Candlestick but make no mistake it can get cold as fuck in that park on certain nights.

The Snell situation continues to get worse. At least it’s not his arm. And actually we lose all the games he pitches in so maybe this is a blessing in disguise. Either way, yuck.

Speaking of *yuck*, man, Soler looks like shit. I’m not totally against him swinging for the fences since that’s why we got him. But in order to hit a home run you are required to swing the bat. In the 7th inning with a chance to blast one with two mates on base he chose to become a spectator and watch the final 2 strikes whiz right past him, striking out on 3 pitches. That is not gonna fly, big boy.

Still, minus Snell our starting pitching staff actually looks a little bit better today so….yeah.

And now the pitching staff is feeding off itself. Hicks. Winn. The 2024 CY winner. Harrison and Snell will soon follow. With all 5 of those studs clicking in unison the pressure will come off the offense and it will begin to slowly coalesce. It’s not even May yet. The Giants have a chance to be great this year.

I have always liked this guy and had confidence in him. He looks like he’s turning a corner and that would be huge for us this season. I hope his arm can handle all those splitters he’s throwing. If it can, look out, we got a legit MLB starter in this rotation.

Hey guys– sorry we had a service interruption. I was responsible enough to keep the yearly payments on auto pay but not responsible enough to recognize when my card expired. Anyway, I was a big fan of seeing Melvin and Williams show a little fire yesterday. I don’t think we saw that in 4 years combined from Kapler.

And while I wish we had won the game we still split the series vs a team that was in the World Series last year. So despite our record i like where we are right now. Team is still coming together. Plenty of time left.

We bounced back from another Snell loss with a really nice win. They competed and kept playing hard till the end. What more can you ask for? Bailey was amazing. Do they technically not count that as a Splash hit since it landed dry in a boat?

Hicks and His Hot Licks get after it again today…..

I had something come up last night and I left the game 2-1 with Dbacks leading. Never made it back to the game. Fired up the box score today and I literally thought it was a mistake.

What happened?

Now that’s how you start a home stand. No torture. Leading the league in innings pitched again, Webb is well on his way to winning the CY this year.

That W probably made the trip back across the country a little easier to deal with. And with no days off we face Arizona tonight. At least they played a day game. But this has been some weird scheduling to start the season (to say the least).

10 game home stand starts now. We are facing 3 good teams but we’re at home, we’re only 3 games out of first place. Time to fuck.

Man, yesterday was tough. And I’m not talking about that boring Giants game. Why do all of their SP’s punch us out 10 times a game?

I’m talking about the Warriors. That was ugly. Straight up embarrassing. It was shocking how slow and clunky they looked. The Kings were playing at a different speed. Klay looked like a bewildered high school player out there. Steph got his pocket picked like an old lady in the park. And to make matters worse, I lost a round of golf to my main men in Sacramento, Eric and Hal. The dreaded beam has been lit.

Time is undefeated. There will be a transition that will be tough for many Warrior fans. Personally, I am excited about it. They have some useful, fun young guys. Time to embrace them and build around them.

Forgetting that the Marlins are terrible, that was an incredible win last night. Early on we watched the Marlins get way too much wood on Kyle’s fast yet predictable fastball. The other guy was striking us out like we were a parade of high school dropouts. And yet somehow, on the road, we dinked and dunked and singled and sacrificed our way to a win.

Look, we didn’t look like a very good baseball team. We were all-out to come back and barely beat one of the worst teams in the league.

But a satisfying win nonetheless…..

I guess we’ll just have to see about Snell. He’s got year’s like this in him. When he’s not winning a Cy Young he’s frankly very average. Still, he had no spring training and it’s not like we have any other options. Marlins tonight. I hate this Florida swing.

Watching the game with my dad, there was a moment he said “watching baseball is like watching grass grow.” I’ve personally never felt that way about the game. It’s possible the 2024 Giants offense might inspire that thought to pop into your head more frequently than if you were of a fan of a team that could hit.

Agree with everyone on the last thread about the old and tired players we have that need to go.

Headed back to Ca today. Looks like a lot of rain in front of me.

Weird start to the season. Why do we have to go all the way east this early in the season? At least we had a day off. Our synergy of shitiness continues as we drop ever so slightly to 26th and 26th in bombs/SBs.

The Masters got off to a fantastic start yesterday (excluding my boy Clark who stumbled to a +1). It’s so fun to see Tiger have a decent round (he still has to finish it and that means 23 holes for him today). I can’t imagine he can cobble those old and fused bones together enough to play 4 straight quality rounds in a row. But it’s fun to dream. It’s truly amazing what he’s doing off the tee. He’s driving the ball further than many of the other young bucks out there and he’s doing it with a fused ankle. He get no lower body push that’s all upper core that’s driving the ball. It’s astounding, really.

Would love to see the douchy Bryson stumble to like a 78 today. Or maybe save that for Sunday. Hate the guy.

Easily our best off season pick up. So far. With yesterday’s 3 stolen bags we have achieved balanced synergy. 25th in the league in bombs, 25th in the league in stolen bases. Konnichiwa.

Today I drive to Medford so will be out of pocket a little.

FYI Clark is winning the Masters.

Last year we were slow and weak. That bothered me greatly. You can’t be both and have a great year. For certain, if you are slow and weak you’ll be the most boring team in the league. That is not even debatable.

I haven’t checked the stats on this but it just feels like HR’s are down across baseball up to this point in the season. Would love it if someone could research that for me. We have 10 bombs this season which puts us at 14th place in MLB along with some other very good team (the Rangers, the Cubs, for instance). But we are DEAD LAST in the SB department. In fact, SF is tied with Flap Nation in that category. We both have 0 stolen bases this season.

I don’t mind being slow. But if SF is gonna be tied with us Flappers for last in the league it would be nice if we were blasting the ball out of the park with a little more frequency.

I’m not worried about Snell, it’s not like he got bombed.

What an ending! We got another close one that ended up the right way. Tonight we get the unveiling of Snell. Again, I am not super hot on this guy because he always seems he’s about a hair out of place of reverted back to #4 material. But if he’s remotely close to what he was last year he helps us a TON.

Eclipse day! I don’t really care about this I gotta be honest.

Oh baby, that one got ugly early. It started with Lee not seeing the first fly ball of the game and ended with me turning the game off some time in the 6th inning.

Low batting average alert: some of these guys are starting to go really really low. Yaz: .071. Chappy: .189. Soler: .212. Estrada: .171. Lee: .200.

And they could go even lower with Webby pitching. He’s not known for run support.

Really got to hand it to Jordan Hicks. Making this transition to starting pitcher so seamlessly has been fun to watch. Of course there is the constant and looming concern about whether a guy who throws that hard can pile on this many innings so quickly and not eventually blow out his arm. But that hasn’t happened yet so I’ll stop worrying about it.

I really like Keaton Winn. If he can somehow turn the corner and be a reliable #4 we are really gonna be cooking with gasoline at that point…..

Only quibble is that we are playing the Padres again. Also, playing at a .286 clip kinda sucks. But whatever! It’s Opening Day!

I think I’ve only been to one of these. 1999? Stick was packed that day.

Relax. I couldn’t be any more chill. We have a bunch of new players, who I like, who just got here. The team will jell, especially with the steady Melvin at the helm. Lots of teams are going to get swept by LA in their Latrine.

I agree with Snarkk and Bozo on the last thread. I am genuinely excited to go to some games this year. As long as we maintain our health we are going to be tough to deal with as the season wears on.

Yeah, if our ace is going to pitch like that the outcome is pretty much guaranteed. At least my boy Soler joined the par-tay. The game to take from them was the bullpen game. This dude Bobby Miller is a beast. Harrison gonna need his A+ game tonight for us to have a chance of not getting swept back to San Francisco.

That one just kinda felt like we were out of it from the first inning on. Disappointing but just one game. My boy Lee as well as Chapman and Conforto continue to rake. Would like to see Soler join the party at some point. Webb facing what appears to be a bullpen game from LA tonight.

Super busy yesterday, missed the entire game. Can someone explain why SF used this guy to start the game? Faulton whatever his name is. Why didn’t we use Mason Black or Carson Whisenhunt? Like, actual prospects. We aren’t in a division where we have the luxury of just gift wrapping wins for our villainous opponents.

You wanna talk about bumping up the excitement meter? Gimmie more J-Lee whacking the ball all over the yard. Gimmie more 100 MPH CHEESE outta J-Hicks. Gimmie more M-Chap showing off his magnificent oppo-power. Gimmie more T-Murph who literally rolls out of bed ready to hit like a man.

Honestly I could do with less of blowing a 9-1 lead to a 9-6 lead but whatever, a win is a win.

Finally we have a reason to watch this team again…..

I thought a surprising number of people were fretting about our bullpen going into the season. I wasn’t one of those people. Then of course the bullpen chokes the game away. I only listened to that inning on the radio but it didn’t sound like too many of those balls were hard him. I shall continue to not worry about the bullpen.

Exciting Friday evening matchup in San Diego tonight…..

…..and man do I need it. This Winter was rough. The losses I took in my life were great. I had been lucky enough to live most of my life without experiencing much death. I know it’s corny to say this but time really does make things a little better.

And one thing I am genuinely excited about is the return of baseball.

It isn’t even the hope I’m feeling about the team this season. I’m just excited to have the game back. This is the first morning I’ve woken up and felt happy and positive in….I don’t remember how long lol.

I no longer take this feeling for granted. I embrace it and will try to string days like today together. Baseball can fix anything, gents. Even a sad Big Flavor.

All I gotta say is, “thank God for Snell.” I respect those who got up in their feels last night with Sandoval’s (hoepfully) last at bat in SF. He was one of the faces on the “3 in 5” dynasty. However, I wasn’t one of those people. I can’t get over what a shameless marketing ploy this was. The Giants love selling old feelings back to their fans. They don’t even re-brand it they just trot it right back out there for us. And so many Giants fans just eagerly gobble it up.

And remember, at the start of Spring training, before we signed Soler, Chappy and Snell, the entirety of the spring coverage was *the return of the Panda*. LOL. I was so pissed off at that.

At least with Snell in the bank I didn’t get caught doing the slow burn I would have done over this Panda marketing scam. Snell really changed everything in terms of what our pitching staff *could be this season. And it’s funny I don’t even really like Snell. Largely overrated unless all his shit is working. But for our needs he is critical to having hope for this upcoming season.

And while I love those 3 in 5 I care a lot more about winning another one. I just can’t sit there watching boring baseball (and when you are slow and weak you are the boringest) and try to trick myself I’m enjoying it just because we have those 3 beauties on our mantel. Now? hey if we don’t sustain any major injuries this year (I know, I know eye roll) we absolutely can compete for a post season spot and as The Panda and his boys proved to us more than once, get in and anything can happen……

Luciano with another bomb this weekend. He’s only hitting .237 but he started out hitting shit so temper that percentage. He’s probably your starting shortstop. Everyone cool with that? I guess if Ahmed is the other option then we’re all quite cool with it. If he can’t though why not bring Schmitt up? He and Chap would lock down that side of the infield even if he can’t hit…..

this timeline is just….outrageous.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39784809/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-mizuhara-theft-line

this is the part that should sink Ohtani. This is just plainly unbelievable that he’d be wiring $500K payments over and over and not bother to ask who or what it’s for:

Asked if Ohtani knew the person owed the money was a bookie, Mizuhara says his friend “didn’t have any clue.”

“I just told him I need to send a wire to pay off the debt,” Mizuhara says. “He didn’t ask if it was illegal, didn’t question me about that.”

Asked if Ohtani knew the person owed the money was a bookie, Mizuhara says his friend “didn’t have any clue.”

“I just told him I need to send a wire to pay off the debt,” Mizuhara says. “He didn’t ask if it was illegal, didn’t question me about that.”

Mizuhara says that, after Ohtani agreed to pay the debts, the two of them logged into Ohtani’s bank account on Ohtani’s computer and sent eight or nine transactions, each at $500,000, over several months. They added “loan” to the description field in the transactions.

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I’m not sure which I believe less, that Ohtani married a woman or that he didn’t have anything to do with this gambling fiasco

Webb had a 10.97 ERA in 6 spring starts. Anyone worried?

Slater is hurt again. Elbow, arm, something like that. Always something with that guy. Despite being a good Stanford lad I’ve grown tired of his unhealthy ways (not to mention his mediocre production). This likely means we could see Matos make the opening day roster–a far more interesting scenario.

Ok, so wordpress sucks, noted. Finally got back in after signing in and out again and that’s after trying everything else and getting totally ghosted by the WordPress support team who can truly and completely go chortle my balls……

Grading the off season: Gotta go with an A. Farhan started slow and finished strong. It’s impossible to say we aren’t better than we were last year. Certainly from the standpoint of how incredibly boring our players were. But also, this team is just flat out better. Am I a huge Snell fan? Hell no. It shocks me that this guy has won 2 CY’s. But for max 2 years? He’ll do just fine. And he instantly takes the pressure off Harrison and even the infirmed who now don’t have to feel like they need to race back to the roster.

Matt Chapman? Again, not the biggest fan. It’s got a little bit of a “Longo” feel to it, right? But is he better than Casey Schmitt? Come on, yes. He’s a huge upgrade.

Soler? Yeah, bring him aboard. Legit power. We kinda need that after rolling out the weakest and slowest team in all of baseball last year.

Robbie Ray? Yeah, I mean, NOW I’m cool with it. Getting Snell helped me feel ok with this move. Whenever Ray comes back, if he’s even remotely the same, he will be a valuable rotation piece as the Summer wears on.

Jung Hoo Lee? Shit, that’s a lot of scratch to pay for guy from Korea but he’s got personality to burn as well as speed. I’m down with this guy. He just feels right.

Tom Murphy? Hell yes. This guy has legit power in his bat. More right handed power is a good thing. Perfect back up catcher.

Jordan Hicks? Again, NOW I’m cool with it. They say starter but I see him more valuable in the BP and locking down our 8th inning with serious gas. We’ll see how this works out.

Renel not getting re-signed? Eh, I don’t really care about that. She was fine. I’m not in the majority that is handwringing her loss. They’ll find someone else and we’ll get used to that voice in short order.

Again, this in an A off season. Farhan spent more money than everyone but the Dodgers. He brought in players who not only make the team better but who also tote around flair and excitement. As long as we don’t incur a single injury this season I like our chances. lqtm.

Ok gents, today is going to be a rough day. At high noon we have to put down the greatest cat to ever live, my man Carson. He gave us the best 17 years a cat could give to a family, through his diabetes and other health issues he stayed strong. But his little heart just isn’t working right any more. Time to say goodbye to this good ol’ boy. .

Unca Chuck here, just trying to help Craig with OneFlapDown.

He;s having issues getting into his account.

Just checking in on this Robbie Ray stuff. Mid move. I’ve got no problem ditching the Horrible Haniger and Disco. And we definitely need starting pitching (although you could argue Disco could at least give us something in the first half of the season, something Ray cannot do).

To me, this feels like Farhan is selling us a shiny bauble. “Hey Giants fans! Look over here! A Cy Young winner!!!!!” Bottom line: Ray has had 2 very good full seasons in his career. A bunch of other average years. He’s 32. Oh, and he’s got that thing Farhan LOVES: he’s got an opt out after the 2024 season. So here we go again, if he sucks he stays if he’s good he bails. Although we might have a little insurance on that one since he’s already making so much maybe he doesn’t leave even if he has a good season because no team would be dumb enough to give him more than he’s making now.

Anyway, he’s not even going to be available till mid season so I can already hear Farhan now: “When we get Ray back this will be just like the big trade deadline move that I would fail to make otherwise.”

Whatever, we stink and LA is a million times better than we are. I couldn’t be looking any less forward to this upcoming baseball season…….