A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

People will say, “it’s spring training, it doesn’t count.” But when you give up 9 earned runs in your final start before it does start to count that isn’t gonna make anyone feel good. Stripling, like Manaea, is just another guy. Don’t call me a Doomer, I just want everyone prepared for what’s going to happen to the Giants this year. Clubber Lang said it best…..

I haven’t seen enough spring training baseball to have a take on this but so far I am in favor of the rules changes. At least the pitch clock for sure. I hadn’t realized how much the game has dragged on till I watched a game where the players were actually playing and not standing around stroking their balls and spitting. I don’t get it though, baseball has always been about stroking your balls and spitting. When did it turn into an extra 45-60 minutes of game time?

I am the biggest stolen base advocate out there but I’m worried this maximum throw attempt rule will do too much for the runner.

The shift change is also something I support.

What about Flap Nation? What looks good/bad to you guys?

All I wanted for Christmas were new players. Honestly, that’s where most of my frustration stems from with the Giants. I’m tired of platoon guys. I’m tired of none of our hitters doing anything particularly well other than keeping that OPS/OBP up. Estrada, Wilmet, Crawford, Yaz, etc….just don’t do it for me anymore. I want a home run chase. Or a guy who leads the league in stolen bags. Baseball, and specifically my team, has gotten kinda boring for me.

Having said all that and now that the dust has settled I am fine with us not getting Correa. Or Judge. Or Rondon. But you know what? All 3 of those guys would have held my interest in the team this year. Even one of them. We got Stripling and Haniger and….twins. Lame.

Anyway, Merry Christmas Flappers. I have appreciated you guys and this place for many many years. But it is time to take a break. I have backed off my plan to dump the blog–at least for now. I think what I need to do is to take a step back, not worry about the team or writing threads or anything else for a while. This place used to be therapy for me but not anymore. Maybe in a few months I’ll find a different reason to fire it back up again. Spring time really is an exciting time and a re-birth or a re-boot of this wonderful place might be just what the doctor ordered.

But for now, let’s shut this old girl down for a bit.

If you guys need to get in touch hit me at bigflavor77@gmail.com or on twitter @1flapdown77

Conforto. 2 years. Boring. He has an opt out after 1 year so either he’s good and he bails or he sucks and he stays. That’s a Farhan specialty that I think he should probably fucking stop doing.

So the Giants have run and hid on this pretending they don’t have to answer questions because this is a HIPAA issue. But there are a LOT of questions that should be answered that wouldn’t violate Correa’s HIPAA rights.

For instance….

“His medical records with this information were available to every team in MLB who was interested in seeing them. Did you review these records prior to making your offer? If not, why not?”

“What did you do prior to making the offer that would qualify as due diligence?”

For Farhan to issue a 2 sentence press release that ended with “We wish Carlos the best” is a complete and total cop out.

I’m not really even that interested in what the medical issue was since I think there’s a high likelihood there was no medical issue in the first place. I just want to know the process. Right now the Giants look like a complete and total clown show run by buffoons in over their heads.

What research did they do prior to making the offer? According to Slusser all of this was available to any team who wanted to see it PRIOR to making the offer.

They announced this signing A WEEK AGO. Supposedly the Giants found something in his physical and doctors disagreed. That’s from Slusser. I don’t really understand what that means. If the Mets don’t flag the same thing when they do their physical then what exactly is going on here?

At best this makes the Giants look like incompetent bush-league run fools.

At worst, Farhan needs to get fired.

Can you imagine a Boras client ever doing business with us again? Hell, ANY big contract guy is going to treat SF like the plague going forward.

This is our Chernobyl.

I’d still love to know the offers Zaidi received for Rodon. I don’t think i’ll ever get over him not trading him at the deadline and only a fool would think we were offered nothing for him. If the offers weren’t good enough, like I said would love to know what they were.

Regardless, Farhan gets a passing grade for this off season. I’d say C+ or so. He picked up a stud and 3 other guys who make us better plus he kept Joc and he didn’t bring back Belt or Longoria something I thought he might do.

But today isn’t about the Giants it’s about basking in the glorious glow of yet another NFC West title…….

Really surprised to see the Niners 3.5 favorites tonight. It’s one thing for Big Cock Brock to do what he did in the friendly confines of Santa Clara–it is quite another thing to go up against the 12th man in Seattle. And supposedly he’s banged up, too. At least the weather will be decent.

Seattle can’t stop the run, maybe we just have BCB hand the ball off all game and we steamroll them.

Still, if I was a gambling man I’d probably take those points. Games with these chumps are usually close.

Ok, uh, yeah, about that “Farhan doing nothing in the Winter” stuff…..

THIRTEEN YEARS. That’s the first thing that jumps off the page. I think the longest deal Zaidi did before this one was 3 years for the broken LaStella.

I mean, short term this guy is no Aaron Judge. He’s not going to sell tickets and he’s not going to carry the team.

But he’s an excellent baseball player and you can’t have too many of those guys.

The contract is absurd but I’m not going to hate on this. Zaidi was backed into a corner because of how far ahead LA and SD have gotten AND, and this can’t be understated, how TERRIBLE our farm system has been at producing hitters. You can’t grow ’em you gotta go buy ’em……

Welcome aboard, Carlos.

Imagine losing Rodon (which is happening soon) then doing almost nothing in the off season then trying to sell to the fanbase that you’re better this year because we picked up Hitch Maniger or whatever his name is and Sean Manaea.

It’s ludicrous.

But this was Farhan’s off season. Underwhelming AGAIN.

The negative way to look at this is that we exchanged Rodon for Manaea thus automatically making us worse. A more negative way to look at it is realizing that Manaea sucks. I don’t think he was even still in the rotation with SD by the end of the year.

This is a glorified Brebbia Aisle pick up. He might do ok here because most pitchers do ok/better than ok at Snoracle Park. But we are worse today than we were at the end of the season. And that is the wrong direction for a team to go when facing the behemoth’s in our division.

Quite an interesting game vs my arch nemesis. Any rational thinking football fan knows that Joe Montana is the greatest QB of all time. And yet there are still those who believe that honor goes to Tom Brady. Absurd. Brady never would have lasted even half this long if he had to operate under the rules governing Montana’s time. And longevity is what has allowed Brady to achieve this this fake level of greatness. Perfect is perfect and Joe was 4 for 4 in his SB appearances. You give me 1 game I need to win and I pick Montana as my QB 100 out of 100 times…..

The oldest going up against the youngest. Can’t beat a match up like this. If Brady doesn’t regret coming back for this year already he’s going to after this game…….

While Farhan continues to sit on his hands, AJ Preller continues to make bold moves. I personally wasn’t targeting Bogaerts but he’s yet another star who makes a team already better than us, better than us. It’s easy to say “Boy I’m sure glad we aren’t getting saddled with a deal like that” but you know what? How many years you guys got left? How many years are we now stuck behind LA and SD? I’d like to see us be competitive in the NL West at least a few more times before I die.

Right now, LA and SD are so far ahead of us it’s embarrassing. And with the payroll flexibility Farhan has he should be the one feeling most embarrassed…..

9 Years. 360 Large. Turns out the pull of good ol’ Linden Ca isn’t what it once was….

For the first time ever I do think we were actually in this. The original Yankee offer was known so it looks like he went back to them with the Giants offer and allowed them to match it. He shopped our offer, that motherfucker…

Oh well. I actually feel like we dodged a bullet here. Although I would have celebrated had we gotten him.

Now Farhan is truly on the hot seat. No more Brebbia aisle bullshit. He can sign 37 catchers this weekend if he wants to and dump all of them by Monday.

But he needs to get in the game. The Man’s Game. Stop acting like you’re broke.

It’s wild how many people I talked to yesterday who now have me believing in Big Cock Brock. One game smokescreen? Or is this guy gonna take the reigns and run with it?

I like Bozo’s call at the end of the last thread. We don’t get Judge, then we go get Correa, Nimmo and the Japanese pitcher.

Either that or we don’t get Judge and then Farhan plows his way through the Brebbia aisle with all the discount coupons he can cut out at one time.

I’m just sick to death about this Grappy news. Question: When was the last time some rando QB took over mid season and brought a team to the Super Bowl? Did Brady do that with Bledsoe? I can’t remember if this is the possible comp or not. Either way, anyone think Brock Purdy is the next Tom Brady?

Don’t even bring up Cam Newton’s name. He sucked even when he was good. All Cam cares about is Cam. He would be a complete waste to sign.

Uh….at least Kapernick’s well rested?

Ugh. What a waste of a great defense. We’re done this year.

Big game today. Today is the day I decide how quality this Niner D is. It’s been nice shutting down the Andy Dalton’s and Colt McCoy’s of the league but it was only a few weeks ago that the Rams and the Chiefs dropped 31 and 44 on us, respectively.

This Miami offense is legit and we have the added pain in the ass of having their coach know us inside and out.

Shut Miami down and I’ll be on board with this being an elite, special defense.

Spain losing is a bad omen for them winning the whole thing. I am starting to question whether I know enough about soccer to bet on it……

Had a buddy text me last night asking if I remember the Matt Cain perfecto. LOL. Yeah, I would say I remember that one. One of my greatest predictions of all time.

Unlike Spain who appears to be rolling over like a dog.

As I understand it today is Win Day for my favorite soccer team and my all time favorite soccer player of all time, my mainest of men, Alvaro Morata—he got us this far and he shall carry us on his back to the next round!

I never post political stuff but this is just too funny. I get about 20 emails a day from Trump’s camp begging for money. A couple of years ago I signed up for the emails. When they asked for my name I just put in Fuck You.

So all the emails start out Fuck, which is funny just in itself. Read this one:

For starters, the % impact is always going higher. It used to be around 400%. Now up to 1300%. It is never explained where this magical extra money comes from. The Percentage Impact Gods? I don’t know. Next, apparently my name Fuck You, who Trump has specifically asked to see on his list, is supposedly going FIRST on a 2024 Donor List. The FIRST ONE. All these dudes do is beg for money, how could this be the first donor list?

Anyway, they all make me laugh but this one especially so.

That win certainly wasn’t as fun as the Mexico win but the W is all that matters. I personally think the waters are going to get very steep vs Miami. Who is going to cover Hill and Waddle? Those guys are insanely fast and they have an arm that can get them the ball. I guess we’ll see. Our D is great but those 2 guys are studs and then you’ve got Jeff Wilson Jr. playing with a chip on his shoulder. Think we could use him now with Mitchell banged up again? As I said at the time, it was completely stupid to trade that guy.

They say he resigned and that’s probably true although it’s also entirely possible the alumni had a *talk* with him and all parties decided this was the best way to handle it. Shaw has earned going out on his own terms.

Whatever you want to call it, he’s gone. I don’t rejoice because I don’t see how Stanford competes at the highest level anymore with the way the landscape and the rules have changed. Shaw is smart, maybe he just couldn’t see a successful path forward either.

But it is past time for a new voice to be heard on the farm. A new voice with new plays that don’t involve running off tackle over and over and over and over and over and over…..again.

His time at Stanford was very successful. Those days are long gone.

Black Friday, over. A day which saw me golf and buy absolutely nothing.

Michigan a +7.5 dawg? Harbs blows covers like these when he’s the favorite, gotta think he’s got something up his sleeve as a dawg.

What’s happening in the World Cup? Has Spain won it all yet?

Happy Thanksgiving, Flappers. Our 13th at this fine establishment. I honestly thought I’d have deep 6’d this place by now but it just hasn’t happened yet. We always had some great holiday threads. Feel free to post your best meal/side dish for today. Twinner, Stix and Snarkk used to always bring the heat, as I recall.

Here was Thanksgiving #1 if you care to tip toe back to the past….

Now that was more like it! Finally a game that went the way we thought it would go. This team is going to be peaking come playoff time. This is our year!

Pretty excited for the Niner game tonight. We should be fine but AZ always seems to play tougher than they look and who knows what can happen at that altitude? Hope everyone stays hydrated.

Giants are interested in Mitch Haniger which is fine with me I guess. Although this line at mlbtraderumors was more than a little concerning….

“Due to a ruptured testicle and a torn adductor muscle, Haniger played in just 63 games in 2019”

Ouch.

I am so done with this guy. Luke is too here’s our text exchange.

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ZZZZzzzzzz. Man, I remember when this day was one of the most exciting days of the year. This year I had to check to see where it was even getting played. I went to exactly 1 game at Cal’s stupid stadium–yes, THAT game.

I’ll watch a little today if I get bored.

Speaking of twitter accounts that are worth following, you really should give this guy a follow. He’s a diehard Yankee fan (he’s also the guy who exposed the Astros for trashcan cheating) and he puts out awesome short vids like this one.

I like Joc, I really do. He’s probably our least boring hitter and that goes a long way with me when you consider the long LONG line of boring at bats we trot out there every game. I still don’t get 19 mil for a platoon guy.

Farhan also made a bunch of other moves that weren’t interesting in the slightest. “Goodbye Vosler” is about the extent of it.

Now that he’s brought back Joc and fiddled around with a bunch of Rule 5 BS it’s time for him to do some man’s work. Spend some money…..

Excited about the win but I’m just about done with Shanny. A supposed offensive genius, he still can’t get anyone open. He still runs the same boring things that defenses laugh at and see coming. And if he does get something to work he inexplicably goes away from it. CMC, Kittle, Deebo, Aiyuk….and then it’s Jennings who’s getting targets. LOL.

I dunno man, Kyle just can’t do this at the level we need him to do it at…….

Excited for tonight. Kyle and Jimmy have everything they need. If they can’t score points tonight I give up. At least 35. Goddamn what is so wrong with scoring 35 freaking points? Teams do it all the time. We did it once this year vs lowly Carolina.

Come on. Score some goddamn points with these 4 studs you have.

Just keeping the line moving……..

eom.

Congratulations to Dusty. And the Astros definitely earned this championship.

And now we head off into the typical darkness of Winter. Somewhat different this time. Feels a little darker, a little more uncertain.

I have a plan for how I want The Flap to go out. Not sure when. It’s hard, shutting this down is going to be like putting a pet down.

I’d like to say I’m counting the days till P and C’s report but that just isn’t true. I love baseball but not the way I used to. And as we get further away from 2014 I’m finding it hard to muster up the emotion I once had for this great game. Maybe that’s a penalty for winning those 3 beauties over such a short period of time. I don’t know.

This World Series has really lived up to hype for me. If only McCormick rhymed with *Fence but it doesn’t and that’s the only bummer here.

Day 2 of the Breeders Cup, gents. Now this is a day that always lives up to the hype for me.

Is it possible that today is the final day the Flap gets a baseball game thread?

We shall see, we shall see…….

A Co-No is just not the same thing to me but still fun to watch. All of a sudden, Houston is back in the drivers seat. Despite his struggles in the WS I will take Verlander 10/10 times over Syndy and a bunch of bullpen guys.

Critical game for both teams.

Let’s roll.

Another interesting move by Dusty to let his pitcher give up 5 (FIVE!) bombs before pulling him. They say McCullers was tipping his pitches. If that’s true I would think the Astros would have noticed that as well and told him about it.

Two studs squaring off tonight, should be a great game–and nearly must win for Houston.

What a delightful Niner win yesterday. CMC has made all the difference and it will be interesting to see if Jimmy and Kyle can screw this up with FOUR stud offensive options once Deebo gets back.

Game 3 tonight in Philly.

Feels like a loss in LA today but this team’s surprised me before.

Breeders Cup cappin’ week gents I’m gonna be knee deep in it so if I’m preoccupied

that’s why.

Dusty at the helm as his team blows a big lead in a World Series game….hmmmm where I heard this tale told before?

I wonder if, at some point, we stop talking about it being bad luck for Dusty?

The GREAT Richard Dreyfuss turns 75 today. If you haven’t watched Let it Ride before and you want a nice pick me up, I highly rec’d it. Made in the 80’s it still holds up remarkably well today…..

Ok, are we doing this yet? Goddamn that was a lot of waiting around. Game 1 now probably favors the pitchers cause they’re used to sitting around like this. Still excited to watch the series. Great match up.

One interesting thing about this series is that I have absolutely no idea which way it will go. Houston hasn’t lost a post season game yet and the Phillies are the hottest team in the post season. So, who you like?

Regarding the Flap. I think I have an idea about how to end it but I’m pretty slammed with lots of stuff right now and don’t want to feel pressure to drop the hammer on a specific day. So the end of the World Series is no long the drop dead date.

That is the question.

I go back and forth on this one. My brain gets all the reasons not to give this dude 400 large but if it actually happened I’d be stoked. Just like the rest of you. Admit it.

I still don’t think it has a chance of happening because getting used for leverage by other agents is just how we roll.

But it’s fun to think about…

I am absolutely rooting for the Astros to win. Nobody deserves a ring more than Dusty Baker. The cheating scandal pissed me off at the time but that’s the funny thing about time…it fades a lot of shit away. I just can’t get worked up about it anymore. Yes, it will be displeasing to see Altuve smile and accept a ring. But Dusty is the man, man. A forever Giant who I will always love.

What we have learned this post season, and I guess we already knew this, is that it doesn’t matter how good your offense was in the regular season. In the post season, none of it matters. I think I read that the Yankees are hitting .128 in this series. LOL. The Dodgers WISH they were hitting .128 right now……

Ok here’s my idea with CMC today: use him as a decoy. Sure, run a few plays to him but his real value today could be keeping double teams off Deebo. Why not, right? Why just sit on the sidelines with a hoodie on? He doesn’t need to know the plays to be a decoy.

I am SO STOKED about this CMC news. Went to bed early, woke to it. WOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Look, they just picked up the most dangerous overall RB in the league. And I clearly don’t understand anything about draft capital cause people are sweating a 3rd, 4th, and 5th? Are you kidding me? We just blew three first round picks on what is likely to be a bust. CMC is a proven special player.
Kyle must be creaming in his jeans right now. First of all, this gets Deebo out of the backfield, a completely played out idea. You can put CMC in the wildcat. Put him in the slot. Keep him in the backfield. The possibilities are ENDLESS.

He’s healthy. Kyle’s has no excuses.

Let’s roll.

There is no way the Flap could properly end without a nice long thread from this man. Stix, for a long time we wondered if you were dead—with nothing but a few online articles about your terribly unfair incarceration to find on the internet, it was a fair assumption. Then you came back–something Twinfan and probably some of the others were never able to do. Your *resurrection* was one of my favorite things about this long run the Flap has been on. Thanks for everything you did for the guys here. You showed us that hope can be a real thing. It’s good to believe in something once in a while…..

Carstie Clausen	Wed, Oct 19, 6:44 PM (11 hours ago)
to me, carstie

Flav:  Guess maybe I’ve been quietly mourning the immanent demise of the Flap.  You’ve done one helluva job keeping all this together on a friggen DAILY basis for all these years.  Congratulations, kudos and best wishes.  As the publisher of Minnesota’s most broadly read monthly newspaper Common Sense: A Northwoods Journal for a total of 56 editions, including doing half the writing (or more) almost all the photography, all the bookwork and general accounting AND servicing the nation’s second longest paper-route from May of ’73 to Jan. of ’79…I probably could write a book about burnout.

 So after seeing “where’s stix” from WilleDav and an “I dunno”, from you, maybe it’s high time to not only surrender, but also fess up.  You see, I’m not only a FANatic (SFG’s exclusively) but also a maniac.  Well, maybe not the type of that ilk that most folks could roll right off their tongues, but as someone who gets caught up in manias.  Over the past nearly 3 months it was an average of six hours per day lovingly toiling at the old homestead, totally rebuilding a freestanding rubble-stone wall around the perhaps 160 foot perimeter of the central garden.  No mud!  So first, it was digging out the old wall, which was built onto the oval edge of the central garden, as that was the only way I could eliminate the combination of reed-canary and quack grasses, accompanied by goldenrod which had infiltrated the garden from the “moat” around the whole raised-bed structure.   When the goldenrod and reed-canary roots mutually entangle it may be somewhat akin to two drunk octopuses fucking. After that, it was assembling pebbles beneath the new combination of stones so that the infiltration would not be so apt to take over during my five plus years of “vacation”.

 The rocks had come from several townships in my county and overlapped to about three other jurisdictions.  Happening mostly in the 70’s and somewhat in the early 80’s with the able assistance of the Bullshit Valley Special (my now on blocks ’49 Chevy pickup; I was the biggest rock pile thief in all of Clearwater County.  One time as was loading up at a rock pile I’d spotted in an abandoned cow pasture, the owner came up in his slightly newer rig and his first words were “Oh, you’re TAKING rocks.  You can take all of them if you want to and there are more in my fields if they’re not enough”.

 A week ago yesterday was the most recent adventure, as the weather was about to take for the worse, from 75 degrees last Tuesday to 15 above (thank goodness for that) yesterday morning.  All at the same time, by late Wednesday I got the first symptoms of the worst cold (and longest-blasting) during my 78 years.  No energy.  Brainfog.  Still minor hangover-type symptoms, but most of energy is back and no longer need to sleep more than 12 hours per 24.

                                                                                                                                                — A Preview of Coming Attractions —

 Now for my main course, the future of  Los Gigantes.  Nice to see the LaBumbos crash and burn.  Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving bunch of the best athletes big money could buy to attempt to finally get another championship.  Next year they will hafta gaze up at Oracle and see those 2010,2012 and 2014 Halloween Machine banners and grunt and moan.  At least they have the consolation of making the Big Buck$.  Roberts must be pulling his hair out and the Googs hafta be wondering why they paid all that $$$ for the first Championship since’88, obtain that highest run-differential in multiple decades and still fall flatter than the top of a pool-table.

 So here’s the beginning of the good news.  Mark your long-range calendars: 2024 should maybe be circled.  Wouldja believe an all homegrown outfield featuring both speed and power?  A dream too good to be true ever since the strapped owner traded off a passel of high level outfielders back there in the Dark Ages following #24’s retirement and all those gawd-awful trades.

 Speed?  Hard to distinguish between Vaun Brown, a 24 y.o. Tenth round signee from clear back in ’21 and Grant McCray, 21, who was a 2019 pickup, but dealt with injuries over his post-Covid intro in 2021. Brown vaulted all the way from San Jose at low A, through high at Eugene and finished off at Richmond in AA and amassed 43 steals over those 3 levels.  McCray bounced from S.J. up to Eugene and guess what???  43 steals.  Two of em with Willie Mays stolen base levels.  So which one bats lead-off? McCray could get the nod with his nine triples, but then his 170 whiffs vs. 67 BB’s signals a need to learn to be more discerning at the plate…but then again at 21 and likely to face some pretty formidable Eastern League pitching at Richmond, he maybe needs some personal attention from our new G.M. who is said to be a player development specialist, as well as daily suggestions from his hitting coach and perhaps also if the Flying Squirrels possess a veteran catcher.  One shouldn’t sniff at a 383 OBP, but compared with Brown’s sixth best in MiLB sizzling .437, perhaps the first nod would go to Brown for game openers.

 Youth?  Had yet to mention the Giants’ #3 prospect Luis Matos who will not even achieve legal drinking age until early next year.  By baseball standards of today, Matos is not at all a big dude, what at 5’11” and a wispy 160 pounds.  However, when the kid from Venezuela launches into one, those skyrockets could match the production of many an MLB slugger.  He had a rough season, relatively speaking, at Eugene this past season as a quad injury had messed badly with his performance at the plate, as compared for last year at San Jose, where he wowed Baby Giants fans with his slashing stick.  In the latter part of the N.W. League season, he rebounded with some drive and then his first few days in the Arizona prospect league he started off with a bang, sagged for a spell and later on caught his rhythm once again.  Most serious Giants fanatics already know quite a bit about Matos so I won’t add any more details.  Likely in ’23 his season once again commences at Eugene, but a quick return to form might land him in Virginia where the warm, humid summer breezes may enable the tropical tornado to strut his stuff.

 Back to Brown who will begin at Richmond, let’s fill in some more stats.  Oh, yes, power.  Well, the poor guy could not even slam a couple dozen dingers as he topped out at 23.  Ah, not too bad after some of the outfield “products” the Giants developed in the past bunch of years. However, when we have a look at that sterling .437 OBP, topped in the minors by only five other guys, we can all take note.  Now, throw in his SP of 623 which was third best in all the minors and we conclude with an OPS at 1.060 adding up to numero Uno in MiLB and we have a winner.  Ditto with his .346 B.A.  Yeah, I can see that guy leading off for S.F. in the not very distant future as a threat not dissimilar to Ricky Henderson with that speed/power combo.  If Brown stays healthy and can handle E.L. pitching, he may even get to skip Sacramento and make The Show at some point in the second half.

 Still young and amenable to upgrades, McCray had him a good year at those two levels. He excelled at S.J. where he set a baby Giants record as their first 20-20 HR’s & SB’s since that city replaced Fresno as the neighborhood development center.  His 897 OBP at the two levels, with a .a514 S.P. setting the pace.  Perhaps Grant could bat immediately after Brown in the two-hole as he scored a total of 104 runs this past season on 141 hits, with 20 doubles bringing him to 52 XBH’s and contributing to his 79 RBI’s.

 Batman and Robin were known as the Dynamic Duo.  Could SF go into the ’24 season with a Dynamic Trio in the O.F.?  Could happen…and if it doesn’t there are a couple more outfielders in the pipeline who look promising.  Exciting and dynamic outfield.  So the logical take on 2023 outfield acquisitions by Zaidi and Peppermint Pete might be limited to two lines of approach.  They could focus on a relatively inexpensive power-bat who is in his mid to late 30’s, a Ruf replacement so to speak.  Or…they could offer someone like Brandon Nimmo a front-loaded two year contract to the 30 y.o.  Mutual options.  Absence of a no-trade clause.

 First base and shortstop along with a second ace (DeGrom?) may be the likely acquisition targets.  Maybe add in a competent veteran (preferably L.H) setup man and a post-season run centering on 90 wins could be in the offing in ’23.  Should Harrison smother E.L. hitters early along, a rotation consisting of Webb, DeGrom and Harrison could bring on a 2010 S.F. surprise.

…at the tag end comes my sneaky part.  I’m hoping this vision of the future might help make a couple or more of the Flappers to get up a weekly replacement as a cooperative venture.  Otherwise…Man, I’m sure gonna miss you guys.

  -stix

Last night was a good time to lament the Beltran trade. Me? I haven’t sweated that for a second. You have to give up something to get something and Sabean went for it at the break in 2011, that’s all you can ask for in a GM. He couldn’t have known that Beltran would save his best hitting for after they got eliminated (or close to getting eliminated, that’s what I remember about his time here). He also couldn’t have known that he was kind of a bitch, too, as the Cheating Scandal showed.

Wheeler is one of the rare starting pitching prospects who pan out. It’s cool to see him still bringin’ it after all these years. Of course I wish he had stayed a Giant but at the time the trade made sense–risk/reward that just didn’t pan out.

Rainout last night in NY. Not sure what weather looks like today. Man, retractable roofs should be on every stadium back east…….

Dubs today! Woo Hoo!!! I heard on the radio today that NEXT year the luxury tax on them would be 450 million–not what they’d pay tax on. That’s the tax! Incredible figure and another testament to Lacob and the way he owns the team. We are so lucky to have Joe Lacob and his group.