The New Contest AND the All Star Game Contest
Here’s a post from last night, it’s regarding the new contest. Email me if you have any questions. For now, just send me what you think their W/L record will be at the end of the year and whether or not you think they make the playoffs.:
From Michael:
“Stage 1 Prize ( pick season W/L record and Yes or No for Playoffs): Intel Pentium Dual Core PC/2GB DDR2 RAM/160GB SATA II HD plus 1 Terabyte External Hard Drive/DVDRW/512 MB HD4600 Graphics Card/Windows 7 Home Premium/InWin Fanqua Computer Case
Stage 2 Prize ( NLDS)- to Desktop PC add Mini HTPC/Dual Core Atom/2GB DDR2 RAM/500GB Hard Drive/DVDRW/External USB Blu-Ray Drive/Integrated Intel Graphics Controller PLUS 22″ LCD Monitor
Stage 3 Prize (NLCS)- to Stage 1 and 2 Prizes add Asus Eee PC 1001PX-MU27-BK Seashell 10.1 inch Atom N450 Netbook and Wireless Router”
Deadline is this Thurs at 5pm….
Regarding the All Star game contest. here’s who is still in it. Again, from Michael’s post last night:
“Here are the contestants for today. If you win, send your address to Flavor and your new PC will ship before the end of the week. Has to be a street address and an adult available to sign. If Flavor and Zumie tie, ( or Flavor, Zumie, and Blade) the tiebreaker will be first guy with a hundred bucks in my Paypal account… alright, alright, I’m kidding. Uh, tie breaker will be…………. how many runs the NL scores. If it’s still tied, how many HRs in the game total. Get the picks to me. twinfan1@hotmail.com
Sandog looks REAL good with me out, BTW.
3Bagger: Wilson, Lincecum/AL/14
BLADE: Wilson, Lincecum/NL/11
Flavor: Wilson, Lincecum/NL/9
Zumie: Lincecum, Wilson/NL/9
SANDiggityDog: Wilson, Lincecum/NL/8″
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
This is a story in the Bee interesting stats. comparing the 1968 pitching to the 2010
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/13/2885889/pitchers-stage-a-throwback.html
Thanks for the new contest, Twin. Awesome.
Flavor – I’ll get my predictions to you.
On a separate note:
Remember when folks were bagging on Sabean for dealing Tim Alderson for Freddy Sanchez? Well, here’s the latest on Alderson the “Pittsburgh Post Gazette:”
“The Pirates made two surprising moves in the minor leagues Monday, demoting pitching prospect Tim Alderson from Class AA to A, and reacquiring shortstop Brian Bixler.
Alderson, a 21-year-old right-hander, has mostly struggled since being the only player acquired in the Freddy Sanchez trade last summer: In 17 starts for Class AA Altoona, he was 7-5 with a 5.62 ERA, with opponents batting .307 with 10 home runs in 89 innings.”
To read the entire article: http://tinyurl.com/32njdeo
Speaking of Sabean, he was on KNBR earlier with Radnich reminiscing about Steinbrenner. Without a doubt, he best performance ever. You could tell he was genuinely speaking from the heart and conveying the truth. Not the usual sidestepping of questions and ambiguous answers. Great interview.
Should be an interesting ASG. Pitching should dominate again. I went AL just because they have proven winners and always seem to pull it out. But looking over the pitching staffs, think perhaps this might be the NL’s yr. I’d guess 3-1 NL.
Wow. Alderson’s still young, but that sure isn’t a good sign . . .
I hate already being eliminated from the contest. Tonight’s game even has less meaning. I didn’t think Timmy was gonna make it. And by some of his earlier comments, you could tell he was a little surprised himself. Hinted even that he wasn’t deserving of a spot. Now Uncle Charlie will most likely use him tonight and fuck up our rotation for the second half. The All-Star Game truly sucks.
Dennis, my sentiments EXACTLY. I too did not think Timmy would make it.
And on top of it all, the ASG is a fucking sham.
Two things that need to happen IMO:
1) Shitcan the rule that every team must be represented. If it was truly an “All Star Game” then the best team would be fielded, regardless of which teams were represented, and how players many from each team.
2) The fact that the winning league gets to host the World Series is a fucking joke.
I think the team with the best regular season record should host the WS.
Even tho I am eliminated from the contest…I’ll probably still sneak a peak.
Don’t know if you all saw Kawakami’s piece on the Gigantes yesterday. Here is an bit of it that pretty much sums up the second half:
“The schedule is a lot tougher in the final 74 games: LOTS of games against the Dodgers, Padres and Rockies, who killed the Giants before the break, and ALMOST NONE against the teams the Giants have blasted so far.
The Giants compiled a very respectabale 47-41 record before the All-Star break mainly feasting on 5 lousy teams, going 21-7 (.750) against those teams but only 26-34 (.433) against everybody else.
Bad news: The Giants only have a total of 3 more games left against that 5-team awful conglomerate, but 71 against non-awful-conglomerate teams.
* The first-half breakdown vs. the bad teams…
-Giants 7-2 vs. Houston. (Series done.)
-Giants 4-2 vs. Pittsburgh. (Series done.)
-Giants 4-2 vs. Washington. (Series done.)
-Giants 2-1 vs. Baltimore. (Series done.)
-Giants 4-0 vs. Milwaukee. (Three more games at SF.)
Those games against the 5 teams made up 31.8% of the Giants’ pre-break schedule, but will make up only 4% of the remaining slate.
Yep, those teams make up 5 of the 8 worst records in baseball, with Arizona being the only ugh-o team the Giants have played or will play this season. (The other two bottom-8 teams are Seattle and Cleveland).
* Now the Giants’ current record against the teams they have not played well…
-Giants 1-5 vs. LA Dodgers. (12 games left.)
-Giants 1-7 vs. San Diego. (10 games left.)
-Giants 4-6 vs. Colorado. (8 games left.)
That’s a combined 6-18 against the top three NL West teams, in only 27.3% of the pre-break schedule.
The Giants still have 30 games left against those three teams, which comprises a hefty 40.5% of the remaining schedule.
So they will have to be better than they were, just to tread water, and the Giants will have to be markedly better than they were in the pre-break schedule to challenge for the NL West title.”
If we can’t beat the better teams, then we don’t deserve to go to the playoffs. I’m looking forward to the second half. The Giants are in the hunt. That’s the great thing about sports. We don’t know what the second half holds. Starting rotation must be consistent to give us a chance, though.
I wouldn’t want it any other way. Storm out of the gate against our division and take it over. Kawakami is a little weasel who can find fault in a fucking rainbow:
“the color scale seems a bit off”
Cal – I’m no Kawakami fan, but he certainly made some good points. Suck it up and beat your rivals in the West, or go home.
With inter-league play and free agency there isn’t much distinction between AL and NL players,unlike when we were kids.Then ASG had some appeal then because it was the only time an NL fan could see some great AL stars.The fact that this game decides home-field advantage in the Series is an abomination. (Thank you Eric Gagne, for our 2002 road trip.)
I say junk the damn game.I’d rather watch ab all-rookie game or The Futures game instead.Send the rest of them home for a well-deserved rest.
I received the tiebreaker pcks from Flavor and Zumie for tonight. Recap:
If the AL wins, it’s 3Bagger
If The NL wins, here are the picks:
BLADE: NL/11
Flavor: NL/9
Zumie: NL/9
SANDiggityDog: NL/8
So I do need a tiebreaker pick from Blade ( in case there are 10 runs scored and the NL wins).
So who ended up winning the June contest?
Chi: Soph tried to use Kawakami’s piece to posit that he agreed with her “predifiction”.. but actually Tim’s piece isn’t really all that doomer. While he does point up the schedule, in some unquoted parts of his analysis he seems to think they WILL be be better in the second half and significantly ( for Kawakami) he does not write them off. His view is not terribly different from many here: Posey, Bumgarner, Ishikawa, and to a lesser extent Schierholtz make it a better team entering the second half, they need a big second half from Sandoval, and Tim/Matt need to excel. None of this is earth shattering, and none of it that unlikely. I still expect them to take the West and do it going away.
I agree Twin. I was just highlighting the part about the schedule, as it makes it clear…beat your fucking division rivals or forget about the playoffs.
I think the starters in general need to be better (as pointed out by Sabean in a recent piece). Too many BBs and deep counts.
Otherwise, I agree with your synopsis, and I too think they win the West, even if they don’t add another piece.
I’d rather take on our rivals in the division for a significant portion of the second half as the schedule is set up. I think we still win the division, but an extra bat would sure make me fill better.
I agree, Head. I still like them adding someone like Willingham or DeJesus (for prospects), as opposed to a big name bat that costs a SP, etc.
That is probably far more realistic than Hart, Fielder or Dunn…but I saw that the Red Sox are circling around DeJesus…
Steinbrenner’s contribution to baseball was that he made it more money hungry. Not good. He pushed along the salary lunacy, resulting in now perpetually non-competitive small market clubs like the Royals, Pittsburgh, Orioles — even though they have good to great ballparks. If U were already a Yankee fan, he was a great owner. If you’re not a Yankee fan, he helped to screw up the economics and competitive balance of MLB…
Selig is who allowed those teams to be “perpetually non-competitive” by not instituting requirements on how they spent their revenue sharing bucks. Steinbrenner took advantage.
I agree. If there is to be revenue sharing, then the clubs receiving the shared revenue must be accountable on how they spend the bucks (adding players, etc.).
Slusser pretty much confirmed on “Chronicle Live” the other day that the only reason the A’s signed Sheets for 10 million was because of the league finally looking at how teams spent their revenue sharing bucks. Florida, the Padres, Pittsburgh, and the A’s were “informally” advised to bump their payrolls. Selig needs to go further and mandate a percentage of revenue sharing to go to payroll.
Instead of instituting a policy of how to spend their revenue sharing money, just mandate those teams get less of the revenue-sharing…
Selig, the ex owner, is a lapdog. He dances to the tune of the owners, Steinbrenner and the Yankees and the RSox the lead musicians…
here here…Selig is a buffoon…
Twin, I sent my tie-breakers in (but I had to send it twice, i.e., just in case my email is still messed up, this is what I sent: I just saw the latest Flav blog post . . . My tie breaker NL score is 6; and 2nd tie breaker for total HRs is 3).
Good luck to all you Flappers still in the contest tonight.
Snarkk, Twin: You guys are not really that far apart. Corrupt system, with Steinbrenner and the other major market honchos as the chief villains from one end and guys like that Luria of the Marlins sucking it up on the other end for their personal profit margin. Fuck them! There should be salary caps on both ends, high and low.
My position is consistent and remains so: No team should be allowed to spend more than double the salary total of any other team. If any owner attempts to spend more or less, MLB should divest them of their ownership rights and put their team into escrow until better ownership (preferably fan-subscription as has been so successful with the Green Bay Packers) is duly installed.
Baseball needs a thoroughgoing housecleaning and it should begin with Bud Selig personally apologizing to Barry Bonds for freezing him out of the game as a scapegoat for the performance-enhancing which began primarily with Oakland and the Bash Brothers in the late 80’s and then got picked up by the likes of Sammy SoSo, who along with towering infernal Mark Maguire, pissed Barry off when they went ballistic on homers while being far inferior hitters overall, scarcely suitable for carrying his jockstrap. My feeling is that Bonds looked at all that hype over homers and figured if that’s what it takes, i’ll show the bunch of them. He did too.
I couldn’t agree more, Stix. Well said.
I think schedule is everything; and there ain’t enough games to lose in your division and still win.
Quote: f we can’t beat the better teams, then we don’t deserve to go to the playoffs. – zumy
Yes the same rules the Giants started this season remain:
Quote: they need a big second half from Sandoval, and Tim/Matt need to excel – TF
I know pitching gets more important as a team approaches championships, pitching we have. I know offense comes and goes with some streaks (+ or -) deciding a ton. That only leaves depth, coaching and grit.
GetGrittyGmen
GoGiants
may the second half be filled with G words, garlic fries and oranGe jersey days.
I can’t remember who said it here (or perhaps it was something I read in an article), but all of the leagues are “capitalistic” – with your “haves” and “have-nots.” Ironically, the one exception and MOST SUCCESSFUL is football, which is socialist in nature.
Frankly, I am disgusted with basketball, more so now with the “Decision” and all that entails, e.g., player collusion (Wade, Bosh, and James); Commissioner that fines an owner for speaking the truth, but ONLY criticizes the player (James); refs who give a pass to the stars; and, a sport in general that is all about the name on the back of the jersey, instead of on the front (as is the case with football).
Stix, you make good points about baseball . . . Personally, a number of things need to be done to improve baseball . . . However, the great equalizer for the small market teams is the baseball draft, farm system, and colleges. If addressed competently by a MLB franchise, a small market team CAN WIN. In basketball, that’s nearly impossible, especially if you have idiot owners (see Warriors Cohan) or even smart owners (see Clippers . . . both make money for doing jack shit and are laughing all the way to the bank).
I gladly accept the No-Prize for accurately predicting the winner of the HR Derby.
RIP Steinbrenner. Dude relentlessly pursued championships and got it done.
Flap Fantasy League All Star Break Standings
Rank Team R HR RBI SB AVG W SV K ERA WHIP Total
1. Bladerunners 10 11 10.5 7.5 7 11 7.5 12 6.5 9.5 92.5
2. Hillbilly Giants 8 12 12 4 10 7.5 3.5 10 5 11 83
3. Giant Head 12 6 10.5 11 8 1.5 12 2 11 7 81
4. NoTalent 7 8.5 8 9 5 7.5 11 11 4 9.5 80.5
5. Flavor 9 8.5 5 7.5 6 5 9 9 3 7 69
5. Tizzle 5 7 6 6 1 9.5 3.5 7 12 12 69
7. Ferretball 4 4 4 12 4 6 10 6 6.5 7 63.5
8. Clowns R Us 6 5 7 1 3 12 7.5 8 8 5 62.5
9. Unca’s Army 11 10 9 5 12 4 2 3 2 3.5 61.5
10. Wilco Joe 2 3 3 10 9 3 1 4 10 3.5 48.5
11. PawliesPandas 3 1 1 3 2 9.5 5 5 9 2 40.5
12. IrishGiants 1 2 2 2 11 1.5 6 1 1 1 28.5
Shit! I was in 4th place not too long ago . . .
Well, I still enjoy the ASG. As Knapp writes, it’s a hell of a lot better than the NFL and NBA versions. I also agree with her about the representation rule. Maybe if teams were shut out consistently, their fans would demand better.
No Philio, the girls are getting Bea’s car repaired, maybe this weekend. Nice they’re both big baseball fans, although they love the A’s… we’ll watch the game together this evening.
Steinbrenner had a little something to do with the two titles in the 70s, mainly bringing in Reggie. But other than providing a large checkbook, he had almost nothing to do with assembling the team that dominated in the late 90s since it was built while he was serving a 2-year suspension. In fact, had he not been suspended, prospects like Jeter, Mariano, etc., might well have been traded off for the kind of stiffs he used to bring in during the 80s.
My favorite Steinbrenner moment was when he called Hideki Irabu a “fat pus-sy toad.”
Pussy toad? Is that like a squidbillie?
Do toads even have . . . oh nevermind. . .
It really meant “full of pus” (yuck). Then again, maybe he did mean it the other way.
I’m curious Mike – how did Flav’s PC perform on Performance Test?
Hey, Uncle Charlie! Please don’t use Timmy you goddamn POS country bumpkin boob of a manager.
Other than that, good luck to you and the rest of the NL tonight.
Interesting stat.
the Blue Jays’ Jose Bautista leads baseball with 24 home runs, making this the first All-Star Game since 1995 when there wasn’t at least one hitter with 25.
forgot to finish my thought on that stat, that is another reason why I don’t think teams can find a big bat to go after and why more teams will try to develope one in their farm system.
Cheers Fellas. I’m Back in Black just in time for the ASG after spending some time with my parents up in Redding while my dad recuperates in the hospital from a broken leg.
I had very limited internet access, but Redding does have a local station that carries the Giants on radio, so I was able to keep tabs on the Orange and Black. Good to see Ishi making the most of his recent opportunities and I must say MadBum is giving them more than I thought he would.
One perk was that my mom has Dish Network at her house and I was able to watch a couple of the ESPN 30 for 30 bits that I don’t have access to here at home.
It was an odd moment to be sure when my 85 year old mom and I watched the one covering “The U.” She was quite disgusted by the behavior of the Hurricanes, but even she got a kick out of Randall Hill doing the George Jefferson dance after he made a big play…
GO SENIOR CIRCUIT!!! Stop the bleeding already and hook SanDog up with a Flaptop!!!!
John Shea tweets there are no plans to pitch Timmy unless the game goes extras.
NO EXTRAS!
SanDiggity Dawg, welcome back. Once again you and I have picks in that are almost identical— gotta love yours though, “8 or under”….
BLADE– I didn’t do that test yet, I’ll check it out when I get home. Why am i doing this?
Definitely feeling good about my chances at this point.
Also meant to post that I routinely caught the 10 O’Clock news on KGTV while I was up there and was amused to see Mark Ibanez still doing sports. I’m 45, and it feels like the guy has been doing sports on that station since I was in Junior High.
I’d actually like to see Tim pitch in the ASG tonight. Why are we so hung up on him pitching against the Dodgers? All the games count the same. We’ve got 5 stud pitchers on that staff, I trust all of them to start a game against the Dodgers. Or should I say, I am cautiously optimistic no matter who takes the mound each game……
It’s either Tim or Matty with his 0-8 in 14 lifetime starts vs the Dodgers. I like the odds better with Timmy thanks.
Steinbrenner passing doesn’t mean much to all you guys based on the posts I’ve seen today. I have always followed the Yankees and totally understand why their fans and current and past players are honoring him the way they are today—that reverence is 100% real. He was the perfect owner for a New York team. And some of those spoofs he did with Billy Martin were a kick. I was sad to hear that he died today, he’s a huge part of baseball history……
Flav, Ill let Twin address that, since he asked and “hinted” that he has a surprise for you (maybe . . . LOL) at the end of the season.
well if he had any faith in me he’d wait for me to win one of these freaking things fair and square. 🙂
I’d like to be in 3baggers shoes tonight– only guy who picked the AL? Nice. And he’s got Yankees up and down that line up that have a little more motivation tonight to make it happen. And don’t think Steinbrenner is sitting this one out. He’s not breathing anymore so winning is now his most important thing to do. He’s out there somewhere, probably kicking and swearing at his *handlers* for just a couple more hours to watch this game. THEN he’ll go where ever he’s gotta go………
I have no idea who Amber Riley is but she’s got a fabulous voice and that was a very cool, touching moment…….
My feelings exactly regarding the PC . . . I don’t know too many people that have a PC that’s circa 2002 (maybe Stix was the lone ranger in that category until he won his PC). By the end of the season – if I haven’t won here – I’ll probably end up buying one of his creations.
Can’t we just call it a tie?
Still waiting for Huff to get his call . . .
Just run the fucking tests and get me the scores, Flavor. I’ll do the thinking around here..why, indeed…
Steinbrenner was perfect as the Yankee owner. MORE perfect? Trump, Spike Lee, maybe Gotti…
SanDog: you and 3Bagger are the favorites. Either of you have a Walnut Creek shipping address, better get a new one pronto 😉
Chuckles, Huff probably would have had a shot instead of Kuo but after his rant, no chance. But Unca_Chuck Manuel thinks his second baseman is Dolly Parton so who knows?
Rod Carew is one of the most in-shape 65 year old’s I’ve ever seen. he threw a seed to Hunter…..
Buck/McCarver just came on so the mute button just got used……
Who wins tonight? I would have felt better about the NL if Timmy was pitching an inning. That staff is still rock solid. And both teams have a line up full of great hitters. I still think the NL wins this one but I’m not feelin’ my 9 run total prediction. It’s probably going to go low. I threw a few bucks on some players to *hit first HR* as well as *MVP* just to keep it interesting if my *NL/9 run* bet loses or never comes into play……..
MVP picks? I think it’d only be fitting if a Yankee won, so I’ll say Jeter.
These All-Star Games, a guy can be MVP for moving a runner to 3rd. I’ll go with NL chalk: Pujols…
The game goes 14 innings, and Timmy pitches two shut-out innings for the MVP.
Hey, all events conspired to make this All-Star game all about the Yankees.
MLB and ESPN are swooning.
And Fox, too.
Dirty little secret about Jiminez- he hasn’t been all that good lately.
The last start was good Zum . . . 3 before that sucked wind. Nice DP started by him
twin– did the test, as soon as it finished the page froze on me. My *score* was 244.8. How’s that? Please convert that into an SAT score so I can understand how I did…..
Was not impressed by Charlie Manuel picking his own Ryan Howard for the AS team. Even less impressed by him batting cleanup. He is a dangerous hitter, but not so much this season.
there was a small window thingy hidden behind the frozen page. These are the numbers (sorry it won’t let me copy it):
Passmark rating: 244.8
CPU mark: 304.6
2 d graphics: 204.4
3d graphics: 118.3
Memory Mark: 297.1
disc mark: 181
I got a 1200 on my SAT’s, these numbers add up to more than that. Does that mean I fail?
Girardi and Jimenez could play Rondo Hatton in a film bio…
Flavor: sounds about right for a 5 YO PC. We’ll get you fixed up one way or the other… do you know how to do a screen shot and E-Mail it? If you do, go to “System” in the Performance Test program and get a screen shot and E-Mail me the result. You might have to do a couple to get it all. Otherwise send me the info you have about your PC: Processor, Memory, Graphics card, hard drive (s) and size, DVD and CD Drives, etc.
We’ll see how it goes tonight, Flavor.
Just unmuted the game, McClueless said something like “longoria lightening fast on inside pitches, AL pitchers know this but not national leaguers”….I just re-muted him. WTF year does he think this is? 1988? Does he think there isn’t any inter league play or that advanced scouting isn’t *advanced*? Ubaldo just missed his spot, he knows Longoria’s kill zone. We all fucking do. McClueless is still living in the 80’s…….
The twilight is brutal in these West coast All-Star games.
9 runs? I’m not thinking so anymore.
Maybe the way to get some action in these games, have the guy who beat Canseco pitch to both teams…
All this scoring shows that baseball is so much better than soccer! (grin)
Corey Hart, with that little underbeard he wears, looks like somebody outta a Civil War movie. Question: Does he look more like a Yank or a Reb?
He looks more “Yeti” to me.
Actually, I could see Hart as a Pennsylvanian German baptist, which means he would be pacifist.
Jeter can’t believe an ump would ring him up. “Come on, dude, I’m Derek Jeter!”
The last thing Pat Tillman said as his own guys were shooting at him: “Hey, I’m f###ing Pat Tillman!”
That’s fucked up.
Good pitching shuts down good hitting. That soccer analogy is pretty apt for the first few innings. Yawwwwn.
It’s true.
Read Krakauer’s book.