A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

I’m hardly one to ever bring the slightest bit of attention to myself (by the way, my new nickname is *Big Shady*— please make a note of it) but it’s “Prediction Day” and time for a “look at me” moment. In truth, this will be the lamest Prediction Day since we started doing them back in 2007. Back then, we actually could form some genuine disagreements on how good or bad the team was. I came in with 74 wins that year (took a lot of heat for that ‘doomer view, by the way) and I wasn’t too far off as they stumbled in with 71. The next year I thought they were in complete disarray and predicted they’d win 63. They were, in fact, pretty bad but not as bad as I thought and they won 72. 2009 was an easy call, I knew they’d win 88 and that’s what they did. Bingo–on the freakin’ nose, baby….but I digress……

By the beginning of last season, everyone was pretty much on board (I said 90 wins) and we were all pretty much clumped together in the late 80’s—early 90’s win total area. I think Ed and Stix both nailed it cold with 92 (correct me if I’m wrong or if I overlooked your 92 call) and then of course there was the “Perfection Prediction” from That Fucking Clown who told us we would be winning the world series in 2010. That man knows his predictions……

This year, frankly, will be a little underwhelming. If we were all clumped together LAST year I can only imagine what 2011 will look like as we prepare to defend our world series title as WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS OF THE WORD. But what the hell, it don’t cost nothin’, throw yours into the wind and see which way it blows…….

I’ve already said that I think we are going to start the season slowly. With 22 of our first 33 on the road and Brain Wilson and Cody Ross sidelined we are in for an uphill battle in April. We also have to deal with the obvious new issue of all teams gunning for us–when the WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS shows up in your yard, you are trying just a little harder to take that team down. And there’s a risk of us playing a little tight as we adjust to this new role of WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS OF THE MOTHERFUCKING WORLD (sorry, I’ve probably repeated that title to myself in my head about 5 million times since Cruz swung through that pitch). And with little information coming out about Zito’s car accident from last night, I will avoid giving you my opinion on his impact on the first 60 days of the season and just hope the best for him that he isn’t seriously injured…….

With all that said, I think we start out 15-18 over our first 33. Not a great start but nothing to panic over. The baseball season is a long haul and after our first 33 we have 129 to go with most of those at home. So while I think the Spring is going to drag a little I think we turn up the volume big time across the Summer months. We’ll have to go 77-52 after our slow start but I don’t see any reason what we can’t do that and end the year with another 92 wins. So that’s how I see it fellas. Toss your number into the ring……

Well, at least it’s an early game today and then a quick trip down to LA. For me, the Bay Bridge Series has disintegrated into Dead Men Walking. Did you see Anderson’s at bat in the first game? I shouldn’t call it an at bat, he was standing there with a bat watching pitches go by. He must have been steamed to watch Dirrrrrty swing away freely in the next inning. Come on, if you’re so afraid of your pitcher getting hurt swinging a bat or running out a ball in play then you have some conditioning problems….

I’d rather see all the teams use the final day before the regular season as a get-away-day and just take care of the mental prep for the game versus LA. How many of today’s player’s are going to be doing anything other than going through the motions? Actually, that’s how you get hurt sometimes…….

Brandon Belt…..Come on!!!!!!!!!!!! ……er……down?

We find out later today. He didn’t do anything to leverage Sabean into keeping him on the opening day roster but the Ross injury has absolutely brought him into the mix. And if the Giants are really thinking of Huff in RF and DeRosa at 1B then I am doing an about face and saying give Belt the job. DeRosa is a fine little “fill in the blank” guy and he’ll help us out in that role this year. But he’s just a *guy*. His spring training of ’11 was pretty much exactly the same as his spring training in ’10 (when he was still injured).

2010: 6 runs, 14 hits, 19 total bases, 1hr, 6 rbi’s, 3bb’s, .639OPS

2011: 6runs, 14 hits, 18 total bases, 1hr, 6rbi’s, 3bb’s, .707 OPS

Blah, blah, blah….underwhelming.

While Belt didn’t go all “Randy Elliot”  on us, he definitely had his moments and showed his star potential. Is he ready? Who knows, only one way to find out. If he’s overwhelmed by mlb pitching THEN you go the deRosa route. And while it would be a smart buisness decision to call him up on April 11th or later (to delay his service time by a year), the Giants are making so much money right now I would think they could eat that year. Remember, if Belt is the real-deal it isn’t that important to delay him a year since Sabean will likely buy out his years anyway the same way he’s done with his other studs……..

Now that it looks like an almost certainty that Wilson won’t be available on Opening Day, Bochy has some thinkin’ ta do. We’ve got a lot of quality relievers in that pen but how many of them do you trust to close out games? Closing is one of the most difficult jobs in all of sports (in my opinion). The main contenders for the job are: Romo, Affeldt, and Casilla. Mota actually used to close a million years ago but I doubt Bochy is thinking about using him now. Kroon has the most experience but probably won’t make the team.

Forget what Bochy is going to do. What would YOU do?

The Giants wrapped up a Spring that has to be considered a success— no major injuries, everyone got their work in, the vets did what they had to do and the kids showed some good promise. But, like all teams, we are heading into the season with some question marks:

1) When will Wilson be available? If I’m Marc Kroon I take the assignment to Fresno and give it 30-45 days. There will be a clearer picture by then–either Wilson comes back fine, Romo et al fill in admirably or Kroon gets the call up to be our closer. Either way, he pitched very well this Spring…….

2) Is Pablo ready to be “Pablo ’09” or just a skinny version of last year’s train wreck? I’m cautiously optimistic on him reverting to form…….

3) When will Belt get called up? If they wait till April 11th the Giants delay his service time a year. That’s just good business. Could it be that simple? I’m still not sure who is going to play first base with Huff heading to the OF for at least most of April……

4) Zito—the grand daddy question mark of them all. He should do what Prince did a few years back and change his name from *Zito* to *?* That would be so perfectly zen of him……

Not that badly…..

Too much is being made of having to play our first 22 of 33 on the road. If anything, I am EXPECTING them to start slow. The Giants wouldn’t admit this, but I bet they start the season playing a little tight—World Champs, everyone is gunning for them—if they go out trying to prove that last year wasn’t a fluke it wouldn’t shock me if they play a little tight in April. Couple that with the uncertainty of Wilson, Ross being hurt, Belt starting the season in Fresno, Freaking Rowand playing, AND the fact that we are playing most of our first 33 on the road? That’s a slow start waiting to happen, baby….

But it doesn’t mean a thing. You play 162 games, not 33. We are going to hit the Summer months with most of our games at home, Belt manning the 1-bag full time and I think we are just going to steam roll June through August (barring any major injuries)……

Baseball isn’t like football, a sport where a fast start is usually so important. So I’m not going to sweat FOR A SECOND what is likely going to be a slightly under .500 April. And you shouldn’t either……

UNFUCKINGBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOWZAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

WE ARE THE CHAMPS OF THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!

YES YES YES YESSSSSSSSSSSS  ))))))) TREMENDOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WE DID IT ! ! !

I feel…peaceful

San Francisco

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG IAM COMPLETELY NUMB THIS TEAM IS UNBELIEVLABLE 56 YEARS OF TORTURE IS OVER.GOD I LOVE THIS TEAM!!!! And All of the FLAP NATION!!!!!!!!!!!

I can’t believe we’re the World Champs having to trot out shitty lineup after shitty lineup each and every day.

And oh yeah, we did it with NO Whitey. I love this team. I love all you guys and gals.
I’m so happy for everybody.And I’m so happy for our beloved “Blockhead.”
Plain and simple; Bochy is the goddamn man.

I can die happy now. There are NO WORDS…

I’m tearing with pride like a father looking at his kids…

I’ll write about this more tomorrow, I’m sure. For now, I’m just so happy for these guys, everyone of them. We’re going to sit down to the cassoulet now, then to the bar “en parade”… my Clover is on ice… I just kissed Lisa and Zeke and Bea… Bea didfn’t like being third…

VICTORY!!!!!!!

Woo-Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG!!! We did it!!

Just downed my last Old Milwaukee and it was nice and cold! Damn World Champs! Kinda nice! Gotta get one of those Tee shirts!

What a team!!!!!!!!!!

Unreal. So happy, but don’t know how to act!!!

Thank you, Giants!
Thank you, Flappers!
Thank you, Flav!!!

So happy…..

Yes, warrior heroes in the annals of history, as Twin rightly said it. I am numb and speechless. As I said in the new thread — lovely video by Magnus — our hearts can never feel that same hunger again. Ever. Our hearts are wild with joy, and some of that wild joy will always reside within if we choose to tap it. I mean that. And thanks again, Craig, for this cathedral.

I feel vindicated, relieved, validated, whole, serene, humbled, moved, grateful. I used to think it would have to be a letdown after all these years (I’m 62 on December 18). It’s not.

I am honored to be the first (or the last) to Comment on this immortal video: a humane and warm tribute to our beloved and immortal heroes, true warriors; and to the long and sweet-tortured — and now redeemed — fierce loyalty of Black and Orange Nation. Our hearts are now bursting with wild joy — and our hearts will never again be quite empty (or hungry) quite the way they were. Ever. Again.

No coincidence that the birth of the Flap leads immediately to a World Championship!

Where were you 10 years ago Flav? Well done and I am really speechless…Go Giants!

Some golf tomorrow, some boozing and cigars heading to a wipeout on election day, life does not get any sweeter in a 48 hour period!

We’re all winners tonight.

What a season. The San Francisco Giants are World Series Champions. I am so happy.

Flav, thanks to you, and thanks to one and all here on the Flap for making this season one for the books. I’m numb, I’m completely numb at the moment. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. Bruce Bochy just told Jaymee Sire he feels numb as well. I know how ya feel skip. I know how ya feel.

Thanks skipper, and thanks thanks to you all. I just heard Flem’s call of Rent’s HR.
He had a Peter Brady voice change moment when he said it’s “gaaaaawnnnn.” You guys gotta check it out. It’s a winner. Goddamn. We won. We really, really, won. Let’s start the parade!

Thank you too, Craig. It’s been over an hour and I’m still shaking with joy, speechless and ecstatic all at the same time. I may not sleep tonight and don’t really care. Congratulations to every one of the great Giants fans here. What a special team. Long-suffering no more: World Series champions!

sweet dreams…is this for real? is it?

I echo every word Te said.

Just watched your video. I started laughing and laughing at the pure joy of it all. Thanks for letting us all get together..

The Flap made it all the sweeter for this SoCal Giants fan..

i’m just now starting to come down. the boys and i went busting out onto the street and just howled.

bless the flappers (and the splashers).

the giants are the world series champions.

i burst into tears when i first said that (surprised the boys! heck, it surprised the shit out of me).

San Francisco Giants. World Series Champions. I’ve been waiting to say that for over 45 years. It looks and sounds even better than I ever imagined. I called my best friend since we were in second grade. Giants fans together. He saw my number on his phone. He picked up the receiver and greeted: “Fucking Giants – World Series Champpppppppsss!” Priceless…

I can’t even begin to know how the players must feel–I know I am emotionally and physically exhausted.

Since I can’t verbalize it to them, I will say it here before my friends in Giants-dom: Dad, Grandpa, they won! They won!

The World Champion San Francisco Giants.
I’m still trying to absorb that. That’s going to take some time to sink in.

Woke up this morning on the North East coast of North Carolina and the SF Giants were still the World Champions. Went back and watched the highlights and started tearing up all over again.
Thank you Flav, thank you Flappers and most of all, thank you the 2010 World Champion San Francisco GIANTS.

Like I’m sure many of you did, I had to check the interwebs again when I woke up this morning to make sure this wasn’t some cruel, sick joke. It’s not! The San Francisco Giants are World Series Champions! Getting teary eyed again just typing this.

These men will be heroes in SF for as long as they live- and beyond…

Barry’s really dealin’ these days, isn’t he? 2.49 Spring ERA. Sparkling. Of course his 1/1 bb/so ratio is a bit hard to swallow. He’s holding opponents to a .197 ba–of course when you’re walking guys all day long it’s kinda hard to get the bat on the ball. But hey, Zito got a 2.49 ERA this Spring. Last Spring, his ERA was 6.35. The year before it was 5.12…

Of course, nothing Zito ever does is a harbinger for anything that is about to happen next. Therefore, I have what is quite possibly the most difficult contest we’ve ever held here at The Flap…..

What will Zito’s ERA be for the month of April? We could have 1,000 people participate in this one and it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if no one came within a full run of his actual ERA. But have at it, email me your pick to bigflavor77@gmail.com. I will throw some Giants schwag at the winner…..

Speaking of contests, it’s time to vote on the POTW— to the right you’ll see a page titled “This week’s Posts of the Day”– Click on it and you will find 7 entries. My personal favorite, if I read this correctly, was Ted actually doing a Capt Kirk impression with his post. That was gold. But maybe I was reading too much into that and he was just drunk. 🙂

If his right calf injury is as serious as it looked, this could have some fairly far reaching implications to the opening day line up. Schierholtz could go from “guy we’re trying to ditch” to our starting right fielder. Who else could Bochy run out there? Maybe DeRosa? He could put Huff out there and that would be another reason we could see Belt opening day—but with the Giants just needing to delay Belt’s service time by 10 games or so, I would be surprised to see that happen. If it did, the easy chop would be Ishikawa. Tough one to swallow, I like Ishikawa……..

The Bonds trial hasn’t made any sense to anyone (including me) but I think I’ve finally figured out why it’s happening: ego. If you are the D.A., how would you rather spend your time? Prosecuting dirtbag drug dealers and murderers? Or prosecuting Barry Bonds where you get to see your name in the paper every day and sit 10 feet away from the HR King for a few weeks? What a sad joke this all is………

With our stellar ST record, I was surprised to see us near the bottom of the league with a .258 batting average. The Milwaukee Brewers are hitting a mind blowing .337 as a team. Crazy. We’re 4th in the league in ERA which is no surprise. I WAS surprised to see the A’s 2nd to last in team ERA at 5.65. That staff is one of the best in baseball….

Wilson is saying he’s going to be ready for opening day. Uh huh. Right. Something still isn’t sitting right with me about him, specifically how he conducted himself in the off season. If you are going to brag about your hooker-laden trip through Thailand, show up on late night tv shows dressed like a fool and associate yourself with Charlie Sheen (winning!) then you better be able to answer the bell when your job starts. And he just hasn’t been able to do that. First the back injury and now an oblique thing has popped up. To me, that’s a guy who just didn’t take care of his core this Winter. And for a pitcher, you just have to do that. He can SAY he’s going to be ready for opening day but even if he is physically able to pitch he simply hasn’t thrown enough innings to be READY for opening day. He’s pitched 5 freaking innings….

Brian Wilson has earned the benefit of the doubt for all he’s done in his career for us. But these core injuries are an ominous sign. And when you put yourself out there the way he did this off season you’re also gonna need to be accountable for the flip side of the fame and focus that you bring on himself. There’s a fine line between winning(!) and, well, not winning……

I don’t read the Splash regularly anymore so maybe some of you can correct me. But it seems to me that this *hatchet job* came out of nowhere. Or has Schulman been regular reporting on how bad Tejada has looked this Spring? If he hasn’t been doing that, then his blog thread seems to be odd. And here’s the thing, it’s not even a hatchet job. He goes off on the guy in his first paragraph saying he can’t hit, his arm is weak and he has no range. And then he immediately follows it up with “oh but by the way, I’m sure he’ll be fine in the regular season” with no reasoning behind that prediction at all.

Huh?

Look, if you’re going to write so many inflammatory accusations and then immediately write that the dude is going to be fine then you should have never written the blog post in the first place. I haven’t read ANYTHING that has consistently said Tejada looks awful this Spring. I haven’t read anything about him looking good, either. For the most part, the news coming out of Arizona has been largely positive about the team and the players.

So why did Schulman feel the need to so obviously draw negative attention to Tejada? Was that his weird way of trying to defend him? Jeez, if that’s what he was doing then it’s a good thing he’s not one of Barry’s lawyers. And again, since when did Tejada need that type of defense? No one is writing or saying anything consistently bad about Tejada’s Spring performance. Therefore, there was no need to defend him.

It’s my suspicion that Schulman wrote that blog post for no other reason than to watch the lemmings at the Splash fight with each other. Throwing raw meat into the shark tank can be fun to watch, I guess, at least for some people.

The bottom line with Tejada: at this point in his career he should be playing 3rd base. That’s not an inflammatory comment it’s just a fact. And with his power declining he’s at a crossroads there, too. If he tries to bang the ball out of ATT all day long, he’s done. But he could salvage his OPS and be valuable to us if he takes advantage of the gaps in our park and hits 35 doubles. And I posted all of this before Spring Training even started and I used actually numbers to support my claim…..

So there, I was hardly unnecessarily negative about the guy, I’m just looking at him objectively, and I didn’t go out on some dumb ass limb and say that “I think he’ll be fine when the season starts” since there’s no reason to throw that little piece in unless he’s simply afraid of seeing Tejada in the clubhouse. Which, frankly, after that random blog post that contradicted itself and was written for no reason, maybe he should be……

and just for the hell of it……..

If Bochy is playing Belt at 1B and Huff in LF this late in the Spring season I’m assuming the Giants are seriously considering having Belt break camp as the starting first baseman. Either that or Bochy is just taking a casual look at what the LU COULD look like with Belt and Huff in it and a split squad day is the best time to do that.

I’m having a hard time understanding why Pat the Bat isn’t automatically considered out starting LF this year. You like OPS? You get it from Burrell. After he got away from the weirdness of AL pitching he put up the following OPS numbers for us in 2010:

June: 1.021

July: ugly. But this was proven to be his 1-off month

August: .932

September: .864

His well documented World Series failure was an aberration to an otherwise outstanding year. If you think Belt is going to bust out of the gate with OPS’ in the .900’s every month then by all means, give him the job. I just don’t subscribe to the theory that a guy beating up spring training chumps should be handing a coveted starting 1b job at the major league level.

Do you all know who Chris Davis is? He’s a monster. Or at least, he’s supposed to be. We’ve been hearing about his 40HR potential for a few years. So far, we’ve gotten zip out of him. But spring training? Oh baby, Chris Davis OWNS spring training. In 2009 he banged out 5hr’s and hit over .300. In 2010 he hit .364 and this year he’s tearing the cover off the ball at a .409 clip with four bombs.

And yet in 2009, at the mlb level he hit .238. Last year he hit .192 and bounced back and forth from AAA. He’ll probably do more of the same this year…….

I’m not saying Belt would fail if he started the year with us. I’m saying, he’s still an unknown at this level. And we have a perfectly good, known quantity right now in Pat Burrell (unless you want to argue against the value of OPS as a stat). I hope Belt starts in Fresno and The Bat starts the season in LF………

On another baseball related note: The Mets released Oliver Perez yesterday. A few days before they released Luis Castillo. And this is being done by a team that is apparently on the brink of financial ruin. And yet they still ate 18 million in contracts. I hope Sabean takes note and finally pulls the trigger on releasing Aaron Rowand……..

OK, I’m breaking my own rule right now. Spring training stats don’t mean anything. They just don’t. And yet, Darren Ford leads the majors in stolen bases, in only 20 at bats. I know he’s picked up a lot of those with PR opportunities and that’s the point.

What makes more sense, carrying a guy on the roster who makes a ton of money who’s largely worthless, or carrying a guy on the roster who makes nothing but can literally win games for you off the bench? Actually, forget Rowand, I’m tired of talking about his dumb ass. If Belt doesn’t make the roster it’s fairly well confirmed that Burrell will start in LF. The pattern last year was to give Burrell his 3 at bats and then take him out in the 8th/9th before he could fuck up anything in the outfield. Nate is loosely penciled in as the guy to do that. But why not have it be Ford? He only plays center field so it would have to be Torres who moves to LF, but I like the idea of using Ford off the bench every time we’re in a tight game and need a secret weapon as a PR. Then just send him in when The Bat gets ready for his early shower.

Look, it’s either Rowand or Nate that has to go. Nate’s fiddling around with his usual underwhelming Spring stats and Rowand is sucking hind tit as he will be doing for the rest of his time in the big leagues.

Darren Ford is more valuable than either one of them in terms of a guy who can win a game by himself literally any game he’s put into. If that’s not value I don’t know what is………

I still don’t think it’s going to happen but there are enough national news articles on it right now so it’s worth kicking around again. Let’s say Sabean hands the first base reigns over to him. I’m actually fine with the idea (all I ever said was that I was certain it wouldn’t happen). Who goes?

Not as easy a question as you might think…

Travis Ishikawa? You could make a case to bounce Ishi but I wouldn’t do it. His defense alone should keep him on a major league team. JT Snow played for 7 seasons after his final 20 HR season in 1999. And I do believe that Travis Ishikawa will be a hitter in this league. How good isn’t an issue. He’ll be good enough to start for a few years with his defense saving him for that period of time……..

Pat Burrell? Negative. The Bat will lose his gig if Belt makes the squad but he could be a valuable RH power bat off the bench. Plus, he could spot start against pitchers he’s murdered (that list is long) and who knows, if he gets hot Bochy could keep running him out there till he cools off. The fact that he is only making a million dollars is another reason why it would be stupid to release him……..

Nate The Less-Than-Great? I don’t think they would have to release Nate, they could trade him for shit the way they traded Franny and Lewis. If they ditched Nate to the Indians for cash and some decent porn, I would give a half hearted thumbs up on that move. I like Nate but he just hasn’t seized his many opportunities. Plus, he shaves his beard in that George Michael’s 5 o’clock shadow thing and I hate that………

Aaron Rowand. I just don’t see a reason to keep your worst outfielder on the team just because he makes a lot of money. What do the Giants care about 24 million? They could eat 24 million during a 7th inning stretch. Release him, move on and never speak  his name again (unless you are recalling his glorious catch to save Dirrrty’s no hitter)…….

So if it comes down to releasing Rowand or trading Nate, and I’m Neukom, I release Rowand. It’s time. End this nightmare now……..

If you look to the right you’ll see a widget that says “This Week’s Posts of the Day”– review the entries carefully, there are six to choose from.

#1 is from Loo, one of the favorites to win the Safeway Card.

#2 is from Macdog, my main man on the scene in Philly

#3 is from Zumie–normally one of our most level headed bloggers, showing up here with a bit of an edge

#4 is a tandem post from Denny and Ted

#5 Ted strengthened his shot at winning this week with yet another entry

#6 is from Ferrethead. This one was actually from our Fantasy Baseball Message Board but the venomous potty mouth usually unseen from such a lady was impossible for me to ignore, so I posted it here.

So there ya go, 6 entries this week. I’ll probably close the voting tomorrow am. Blogger with the most total POT-week’s at the end of the season wins the coveted Safeway Card……

Quick pick highlights for the Tourney:

1 ) Princeton to beat Kentucky

2) St. Peters to beat Purdue AND THEN Georgetown

3) Notre Dame, Washington and St John’s will go to the Elite 8

4) Ohio State will win it all

Toss out your best predictions in this thread. The best ones that actually come true will find their way to a widget on the right side of the blog….

16 days to go till it matters…….

Giants still have a lot of guys batting over .300. Of course, when one of them is No Whitey Stewart who is currently toting around an OPS of .897, you take these numbers lightly. Vogelsong has a sparkling 2.13 ERA but he’s walked 7 in 12.2 innings pitched. Pablo and Huff lead the team with 3 bombs a piece. Lots of other guys are doing things too, you can check out all their stats here:

http://tinyurl.com/49pngvw

Hey, here’s a shocker out of Arizona: RIch Harden has been……drum roll….shut down again! I have never seen an individual anywhere in the world (sports or otherwise) have so many lat problems in their life. I said it when it happened, it’s like clockwork. Harden “feels some discomfort” and they decide to give him “a few days off, maybe a week. There is no problem”. Then he hits the 15 day DL. Then the 60 Day. If there was an Olympic event in “Sitting on the DL”, RIch Harden would be a gold medal winner……

And their stud closer Bailey is out again with an elbow problem. Again.

The A’s get injured by the dozens every single year. How can this happen to a team EVERY….SINGLE….YEAR. To me, this has to be related to some kind of conditioning philosophy flaw that Beane has when he hires the trainer and the conditioner. They’ve gone through several so it’s not like it’s one guy’s problem…..

Either that or the A’s just hire a bunch of pain-intolerant sissies (actually, I’ve heard for years that Harden is EXACTLY this). But that wouldn’t explain the rest of them…….

I guess it could also just be chalked up to bad luck……

Sorry, ANOTHER A’s thread! But when your team is The Champion of the World with the best record in Spring Training and no holes to fill anywhere on the roster, you have to start reaching for topics……

If you asked him, and he was honest, where would he say he would most prefer to play out the rest of his career? He won a World Series with the White Sox, would he enjoy a return to those glory days? He said earlier this Spring that one of the greatest moments of his life was getting a standing ovation at a Bears game when he was flipping the pre-game coin. Imagine that, Aaron Rowand getting a standing ovation….

Maybe he’d like to go back to Philly where he had his best offensive years. They freaking love that guy in Philly……

THe White Sox are pretty set at OF with Pierre, Rios and Quentin, but those corner guys could get injured any second and Rios is always good for one brutal half of baseball every year. Maybe he starts as the 4th guy and takes over when the inevitable happens?

Philly’s OF is less determined. Victorino has CF locked up but Ibanez has worn out his welcome in Philly. What about a L/R platoon with him until one of them sucks worse than the other and is demoted to the bench for good? Heck, even a trade for Ibanez makes sense—give both of them a change of scenery….

He couldn’t possibly pick the Giants as his dream team, right? How bad is it going to feel for him having Andres Torres calling him off balls all game long? And with our fans on their toes ready to give the dude the booing he deserves, wouldn’t he appreciate a fan base that is at least willing to give him a chance?

So learn how to play left field, chump. It just might make your over-paid/under-producing ass easier to move…….

I get that they are “stretching him out”, seeing if he can be a starter. But yesterday unfolded strangely with Runzler finding out he was the starting pitcher when he found a baseball and a copy of the Dodgers roster in his locker. Then, according to the Chronicle, Runzler “unaccustomed to the role, asked starting pitchers what their normal pre-game routine is”. Huh? If we have been reading about the possibility of converting Runzler to a starter since last December, why would Runzler be wandering around the clubhouse on March 12th seeking out this information? Shouldn’t Raggs/Gardner have been at least TALKING to him about this, if not actually having him practice it?

Weird.

That will be at least moderately interesting to follow. There is so much I don’t know about the legal system. For instance, I read that Barry’s lawyers are working to get voice mails he left in ’94 for his girlfriend thrown out as evidence. Apparently, the prosecution says that Barry sounds “irritated” on the voice mails, and that since irritability is a sign of steroid use, the voice mails FROM NINETEEN NINETY FOUR!, would support the accusation that he was on steroids.

Huh?

Sorry, but if that’s an example of evidence I wouldn’t be sweatin’ this too hard if I was Barry. I’m assuming some of you legal guys could shed some light on why the prosecution would use something as evidence that seems like a total reach and why the defense would be trying to get something that seems so trivial thrown out……

Barry Bonds is an asshole. He was born irritated……..

Being 11-4 isn’t anything to complain about. Or care about. There are a few minor disappointments so far this Spring:

1) Brandon Belt is showing us why he’s going to start the year in Fresno. Hitting .250 with a .323 OBP is just not good.

2) Marc Kroon isn’t getting much of a look. He’s nearly the career saves leader in Japan and he throws close to 100 mph. He’s only pitched 3 innings so far this Spring, I was hoping to see more of him.

3) Rowand is hitting .111 and is hurt. The .111 isn’t much of a shocker but the fact that he can’t even make it onto the field is a disappointment. Sabean can’t “Pittsburgh” anyone with Rowand unable to even play.

4) We are stuck with another year of El Presidente. Stewart is doing nothing, as expected. I still don’t understand why we don’t have a credible back up for our best hitter/player….

Kansas City has the best record in the AL right now, by the way……

5 innings, 1 hit, no runs? We’re all good right? Yeah, right. I hope no one gets sucked into believing that this guy is doing anything other than submitting one of his random, unexplainable work efforts. Zito is like a really bad famous artist–you don’t know what you’re looking at or why you’re looking at it. Yet there it is before you, in all it’s unglorious glory….

SOme would argue that yesterday’s performance is a good thing. There is no “good thing” in the world of Barry Zito. It’s all bad. He is NOT a competent starting pitching at any slot of one thru five. He needs to be judged as a member on our starting staff, not any random staff in baseball. I don’t expect us to be able to find someone as good as our *other* four. But winning one game since last July 16th is unacceptable as anyone’s #5. Certainly ours.

So I’m not going to say anything about yesterday’s performance other than continue to wonder what the Giants are planning on doing  after he starts the season 0-3 with a 6.52 ERA…….

The *beat guys* (I love that term) seem to be suggesting that one of the relief spots is going to come down to Vogelsong or Runzler. I’m not sure how that makes any sense. For starters, one of them is RH and one is LH. And then there is this difference: one of them sucks and one of them has a ton of potential and an electric arm.

Assuming you can unglue your eyes from the babe emerging from the sea, as if from nowhere to love you long time, please take a moment to look above her. You should see a *page* to click on. It says “March Week 1 Posts of the Day”. There are six entries for this *week*. Please review them and vote to the corresponding number in the Poll. If you don’t think any of them are better than the current POTW you can vote for #7.  As I said earlier, the blogger who gets the most POTW’s gets a $50 gift card to Safeway at the end of the season. $50 plus the adulation and admiration of the Word Wide Flavor Nation should be more than enough……

A quick check of the Spring Training stats show us that most of our guys are hitting the ball well right now. Ross, Torres, DeRosa and Posey are all hitting over .400 with Posey murdering the ball at a .643 clip. Rowand is not duplicating last Spring and is now hitting .111 and is on the shelf for a few days with a bad hammy. That’s not good, he’s tough to trade to Philly if he’s hurt……

The thing I like about this start is the number of hits with RISP. I haven’t seen a stat on it but every time I turn on the radio it sounds like someone important to this year’s team is driving in runs (Sandoval especially)….

With nearly half the roster hitting .300 or better, even though it’s Spring Training, the offense is doing just fine. I wish I had something to complain about but I don’t. I guess I’m a little tired of Renel as the PA announcer. I think  we could use a change in that department. Other than that, I got nuthin’…..

Warriors owner Joe Lacob was being interviewed in Philadelphia yesterday. He was asked a question about bloggers and he responded with this: “They aren’t real fans because they don’t buy season tickets.” Well excuse me Mr. Lacob, but you can go fuck yourself. If this guy is so far out of touch with reality that the only fans of his team that he’s willing to acknowledge are the ones who hand over thousands of dollars a year to him, as I said, he can go fuck himself. Joe Lacob should fall down on his knees and thank God that there are any Warrior fans anywhere! I’m not going to list off the obvious reasons why Warrior fans don’t ALL buy expensive season ticket packages. The reasons are obvious, or at least they should be to anybody but a fool….

What does Lacob think about the fans who buy walk-up tickets? I wonder if he’s able to hide his disdain for them. “Look at that family of four,” he thinks to himself. “Vile beings, only willing to purchase a single game ticket. Despicable…”

I don’t go to Warrior games anymore for a lot of reasons. One big one is that I just hate the commute from the South Bay at that time of day. But the other main reason is that…..they suck. And they’ve sucked forever. If they improved and I decided to jump on the band wagon I wonder if Lacob would refuse to sell me a jersey if I’m not a season ticket holder? I’ve got a City shirt that I bought at the last game I went to a couple of years ago. I guess I should stop wearing it…..

What if I watch a game on TV? Is that a no-no in Lacob-World? From now on, I’ll just feel too guilty to watch a W’s game on tv knowing their owner thinks I’m a fraud…..

Let me start by saying, I LOVE Brandon Belt. It’s an exciting story. A 5th round 2009 pick and he’s almost ready for The Show? It’s not too often that your college batting average/OPS is worse than your pro batting average/OPS. Someone has gotten a hold of Belt and taken him to the next level. And if you’ve ever heard this kid interviewed, he is a rock solid person who has learned how to handle the media at a very young age. He still lives in the small Texas town he grew up in……..

Sorry, barely had time to get the BB up this morning. There just isn’t that much newz coming out of AZ today. Ford blasted a bomb, where did that come from? Posey hit one 450 feet; nice.

Twin threw out a topic at the end of the last thread about our surprising defensive stats last year. This is “talk about whatever you want day”. baseball, football, your opinion on the BB of the Day. Whatever. I’ll check back with you guys later.

I’ve been reading Bruce Jenkins, like you all have, for the better part of two decades. On Saturday morning, his column, The 3-Dot Lounge, used to be the first thing I’d check out over breakfast. I’ve since discontinued my subscription to the Chronicle in protest of their pathetic treatment of Barry Bonds after he broke the HR record. But I digress….

Watching all these NBA players agree to buy outs got me to start fantasizing again about the Giants buying out Zito’s contract. He’s owed 57.5 mil through 2013 plus the 7 mil buy out option in 2014. Can someone explain to me why the Giants can’t buyout Zito’s contract? If the NBA players union has no problem with it why would the baseball players union take a negative stance on it? I did some light googling on this and came up with almost nothing on whether or not a baseball team can buy out a player’s contract.

Pretty typical Spring training game yesterday: Belt showed off lots of skillz prompting calls from the blog world for his coronation. I’m done with my “Spring Performances Don’t Matter” rants…..I think. There’s certainly no harm in the fans getting excited about a new young player. As long as Sabean doesn’t fall into the trap, I’m cool with it. Belt is going to start in Fresno regardless of what he does here. But getting off to a great start certainly is nice to see……

For the same reason, I can’t get too down on Zito (although it would be harder to get *downer* on him than I already am). Pitchers are just trying to find their way to proper mechanics during the Spring, especially the first start. Walking 5 of 13? Whatever, that only matters if he does it in April…..

I’m bumping the Flap Fantasy League to 16 teams. It means we will have less great players to stock our rosters with but it’s the same playing field for everyone so it doesn’t really matter. If you want to play and are a vet-Flapper, shoot me an email. We’ve already got new faces registered and I’ve got invites out to a few others who expressed interest. I also have some requests from bloggers I don’t know but I’m really more inclined to invite people who hit the Flap with some degree of regularity. I’d even be fine with some of few lost souls at The Splash who might want to play. Anyway, I probably won’t close out the league for another week or so. Send me an email if you want to play. bigflavor77@gmail.com . Ten bucks to play, just to keep you interested, top 3 pay out. You can paypal me or check/money order me. And you don’t need to know how to play, BLADEinCOLORADO won it all last year and it was the first time he’d ever played………