A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

Screw *basking*. Screw it all to Hell. I’m pissed off at this team right now. PISSED OFF.  In the past I’d just go fire down a few Pliny’s to kill the pain. He’s an elder, he knows more than me. But tonight I choose to vent my pissed off-ness via the blog world. My blog. My words…..

My List of Seven Idiot Giant Players Who are PISSING ME OFF.

In descending order of anger…….

Freddy Sanchez: He’s hitting ok but his throws are smoking pole and that at bat in the 9th today was pathetic. Down 3-0, needing base runners, he’s leading off. First pitch comes and he LUNGES for it and rolls in to the infield. Stupid. Take some pitches, work a count and god forbid you actually take a walk.

When the Nationals were busy handing over that absurd contract to Jayson Werth (they will end up regretting that deal ALMOST as much as the Red Sox will end up regretting the Crawford deal) it would have been nice to see them consider filling the other holes on their roster. Much like in Pittsburgh, when old Giants’ castoffs are your aces (Correia in Pitt, and Livan in Washington) you have some big problems.

I’m just not that impressed with the current National’s team that we are facing tonight. Timmy should shut them down and I think Dirrrrrrty will have his 2011 break out game on Saturday. Sunday we get to tee off on Zimmerman who just isn’t fully back yet from his TJ surgery (he could be decent starting next year though)…..

The Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings (GiantHead explodes with a double digit gain, Pawlie is teetering towards the brink of a double digit score and Berra’s Bombers can put the gas mask away for at least one more day as he manages to stop the bleeding with a “0” pt move in the standings)…….

Volgelsong versus Karstens. Man, I bet the Pitt fans turn out in droves to catch this match up. Is it possible to log a negative attendance figure?

I’m not worried about this hitting slump. They went through this stuff last year, it doesn’t last and they’ll hit out of it soon enough. Like everyone else, I like the numbers Burriss has put up and it will be interesting to see if he can hit now. I don’t put a lot of stock into all those sb’s, Decker is sending his runners on every pitch. The only thing I care about with Burriss is, has he learned how to bunt?

Big Niner Draft today. I’m a little sluggish for this one with all the lock out bullshit going on. I’m guessing that Harbaugh trades down and ends up picking up either Dalton or Locker with a late first round pick. I think both of those guys are going to have a good NFL career, Locker especially. That guy had a shit O-line and literally no TE during his time at Washington. And I am double-down with the guys that go back to finish school. He’s big, he’s a leader and I think he’s going to have a very good pro career, hopefully with the Niners…….

“I’ll tell you what, that was one of the most impressive displays of speed I’ve ever seen on a baseball field.”–Bochy

When your manager says that, I’m guessing you feel pretty good about staying on the team. I don’t know how they are gonna do it, but the Giants need to keep Darren Ford at the major league level. I don’t give one whit if he ever takes an at bat. This dude would win a dozen games for us a year by just pinch running late in a game. He would generate a pretty impressive WAR number for a guy who never bats. I still say Walker lolly-lobbed that ball over to first and he should have known who was on third. Hell, everyone knows who this guy is already. Opposing pitchers (Morales in Colorado and Hanrahan last night) seem to have a panic attack as soon as he strolls on to first base.

Anyway, Nate probably goes when Torres comes back up. I’m not sure if we’ve got a player who’s about to come down with a phantom injury, but somehow, some way, Darren Ford needs to stay up here……..

According to a tweeter, the Giants are making it known that Nate is on the block. Tough to decide if he’d bring any value at all. He’s more productive than Bowker and Franny. Freddy put up much better numbers than Nate did last year, but Freddy was starting full time. We got very little for those 3 guys. Cash? Something like that. With Ishikawa slipping through waivers untouched, a guy who’s basically the same as Nate (can hit a little with great defense) I really have no idea what we could get from Nate. Probably more cash, that’s about it…….

I hate hockey. The year they sat out was the greatest year of my life. I love pretty much all sports, I just never got into hockey. Bummed they won last night, it means my facebook news page will remain cluttered up with Sharks shit…..

I am intrigued by the Pirates this year. Not only do they have a ton of stud position players who are fast and who have power but they’ve got a closer who throws harder than Wilson–with location. The reason they aren’t winning their division right now is easy to pinpoint: Kevin Correia is their ace. We should beat them but man, if that team ever gets any starting pitching, watch out……..

The Flap Fantasy  League Standings (Denny makes a move, Kevin free falls, FH continues to do her best impersonation of Jim Marshall and Ed almost unbelievably drops another point (the lowest point total any team  can have is 14)…..

That little 3 gamer series just never got going, did it? Actually, despite the result, yesterday’s game had it all. They came back from multi run deficits twice. That’s hard to do and there’s no quit in this team at all……

Now they get to go play in the prettiest ball park east of ATT—But Pittsburgh is no pushover. That team has some of the most exciting (though currently slumping) position players in the game–Andrew McCutchen, Jose (you say tomato, I say) Tabata, and Pedro Alvarez. An interesting side story will be to see how Brandon Wood does in the National League–I’m betting that he hits more HR’s this year than our current shortstop………

Off day today so the floor is yours……

The Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings (Pawlie’s lead grows to a mind blowing 20.5 pts and Berra’s Bombers drops to an unthinkably low score of 24 despite that bomb from Molina 🙂  Seriously, how can anyone NOT love all things Molina??)

Hanson and Hudson are good but they aren’t THIS good. So far, returning home has been anything but what the doctor ordered. Sure, we’re playing bad defense, not getting timely hits and our pitchers are coming up short in situations they usually close the door. But for me, the bigest fail has been the top of the line up. Friday night, our first 4 hitters were 0-15, yesterday they were 1-15. That’s pathetic.

To say we are missing Torres at the top is an understatement. We’ve just got no speed at all anywhere in the LU but that’s really more of a secondary concern since we can’t seem to get anyone on base to start with. I’ve got no feeling at all today of how we are going to do vs Beachy….

But it’s Easter, a day for eating and indulging. Let’s see if the Giants table setters can do something metaphorically similar…….

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(Tizzle makes a move, Gianthead goes fathead on us, FH can’t sustain her green number, and I continue to lay in the weeds plotting the league’s demise)…..

I like Gwen Knapp. I don’t find her columns especially interesting but I almost always agree with her perspective. But in her column about Bonds and the HOF today she wrote “He would have been a first ballot shoo-in based on his performances through 1998.” I shook my head sideways. I don’t think his body of work through ’98 does it.  Between his debut in ’86 and his 1998 season he won 3 MVP’s (he actually won them in ’90, ’92 and ’93).  In those 13 seasons he had an OPS over 1.000 in 7 of them. Pretty dominant. *Hall of Fame* dominant? Sorry, but 7 seasons of dominance isn’t enough to ticket you as a shoo-in to the Hall of Fame…..

He did win 4 more MVP’s after ’98. And there was, of course, the 73 bombs in 2001. Now THAT should get you into the Hall of Fame! Longevity. Dominance. That’s HOF material. But of course, now we know how he did THAT.

Will he make it into the Hall of Fame?  I think he’s a shoo-in to NOT make the HOF. I think the writers are itching to stamp their imprint on the steroid-era and keeping out all the steroid guys is going to be the way they do it. By steroid guys, I’m talking specifically about any of the players who testified before Congress or who have been involved in BALCO or any prosecution. Off the top of my head, that’s Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Giambi, Palmiero, Pettitte and Clemens. I’m probably missing a couple and there were obviously other users, but those are the guys who lied to everyone. At least to their face.

From a numbers stand point, Sosa is the MAIN guy who keeps them all out. He had settled into a nice little 30 HR/yr career. Nothing too special. Nice. Most people forget *nice*. Then he and McGwire go viral on everyone in ’98. He puts up 66 bombs that year, follows it up with 63. Over a 4 year period Sammy Sosa hit 243 home runs. Juuuuust a little of the top.

They can’t keep all the steroid guys out, but they can keep the liars and the *fatheads* out because there’s a concrete list of those guys. And if you don’t think the Hall has a problem with keeping out the best of the best just look at how long Pete Rose has been standing outside in the rain without an umbrella….

The Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings (Unca and CrazyDiamonds make big moves, Blade free falls double digits and FH finally sees the glory of a green number!)

Actually, the Mets are giving them a run for that title, too.

If you’re Matt Kemp, how long is it before you decide to start spending your best waking hours hanging around Rihanna again? Seriously,  I don’t know how the players will be able to maintain their focus with this circus unfolding—media asking them the same questions over and over.

Does anyone know the rules about this take over? If Coletti wanted to add a bat at the break, could he do it or is he bound by a strict budget? Can he trade salary away?

There is something so infinitely perfect about the Giants winning the World Series and the very next season the Dodgers get taken over by Major League Baseball….

Fun Stat of the Day(!)

Felix Hernandez pitched 249 innings last year. He only gave up a run in 209 innings. So in an era where most pitchers struggle to pitch 200 innings in a season, King Felix pitched 209 shutout innings. That’s unbelievable……

the Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings –Pawlie storms to an unprecedented lead, Dirt free falls down the standings, Unca refuses to take Denny’s shit lying down!

Leave it to Eric Byrnes to tackle the hard hitting social topics that even the greatest media giants won’t dare face. Last night on the drive home from a rousing 21-16 win on the softball field, I listened to Byrnsie on his Sportsphone gig as he listed off all of the “Special Events” that Baer and the Giants have meticulously planned for the coming season. Assuming I now know how to operate the *snipping tool* you can view this calendar here:

Now, what Eric Byrnes knows about racial equality could probably be fit inside a small sock–with room to spare. But in this case, it’s possible that he might have stumbled upon an actual point. The population of black player is at an all time low– according to a super quick internet search, it’s around 8%. Before the Giants called up Darren Ford, they had exactly zero black players on their roster. Now, I love beers as much as the next guy, but if we were going to sub out a *night* for an African American Heritage Night that could be the night to eliminate. Do we really need 2 Filipino Heritage nights?

Black players have left baseball behind for many different reasons. One way to chip away at that would be to donate money and resources to low socio-economic cities in the area in an effort to encourage more involvement in the sport. I am positive the Giants are already doing this. Why not take a night to trot out one of them big ‘ol checks and celebrate the contribution of African Americans to the history of this great game?

The Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings (Pawlie extends his lead, Denny makes a huge move, Ferrethead continues her decent but Ed is falling at a faster rate)

All the sports sites have their *power rankings*. I actually almost never look at them because they don’t ever seem to match who I think are the best teams in the league. I’m assuming Colorado was pretty high up as recently as Sunday night. I will admit that I was fooled into believing they were one of the top teams in the league, too. But if that’s the case then where do the Power Rankings put the Giants? We’ve been bitch-slapping the Rockies for 2 straight games, it hasn’t even been close. Now, it helps that we’ve come out and buz-sawed them in both first innings–that’s made it easier for our pitchers to pitch with a relaxed lead. But the first inning is just as important as any other. If we were doing this at ATT I’d say, “Well, it’s just 2 games, they play better at home, etc” but we are doing this to them in their yard!

Darren Ford or Brandon Belt? We all know what’s going to happen, Belt is going down. Baggs threw out the slim possibility that it could be Ford but why would we do that? So Belt can sit on the bench and watch a few more games? Ford’s speed is intoxicating. He can’t hit but how great would it be to have this guy on the bench all game just waiting for the late inning pinch run? He’s almost an automatic stolen base. Or two……

The Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings (Pawlie hangs on, Blade Rises, Ed Maintains His Vice-Like Grip on Last)….

The Rockies found out that the SF Giants are not the NY Mets. I don’t think you could have scripted a game to go much better. Three bombs in the first inning? Timmy throwing a no hitter into the 7th? Basically, that was a good ol’ fashioned beat-down. A beat down that I didn’t not expect, frankly.

I’m sure the Rockies were bummed that Ubaldo’s start got pushed back a day– Lincecum vs Esmil Whoever turned out to not even be a fair fight……

How ’bout the story about Nate’s brother scoring the ball that Nate hit into the upper deck? Very cool. Was anyone else surprised at how few fans were at this game? Come on Denver, your team has the best record in baseball and you’re staying home to watch Dancing with the Stars? Weak……

The Flap Fantasy Baseball League Standings

As I said yesterday, this is going to be an exciting series to watch unfold. I am really interested in seeing how we match up against one of the best teams in the National League. Sure, we stride into town with our shiny rings in tow, but the Rockies are the current measuring stick. For starters, they’ve got the best record in baseball. And while they have a decent pitching staff, it’s their offense that will be waking Bochy up in the middle of the night. You guys have probably all seen the “double rainbow” guy on youtube. That dude could just as easily have been looking at the Rockies starting line up: “Oh my God, OH MY GOD!! It’s so beautiful! What does it all mean?”

For starters you’ve got Fowler on top and while he’s only got 2 sb’s this year, that guy has speed to spare. Plus, he’s killed us in his short career. Then you get into the middle of the LU and you’ve got Bonds and Kent….I mean, Cargo and Tulo—the NL MVP voting could easily come down to a runoff between those two. Pick your poison, especially in their park–either will kill you. Then there’s the resurgence of Todd Helton to follow, he’s *only* hitting .342. Steer clear of him, if you can, at least till his back gets balky again. And their catcher, Iannetta, is waiting near the bottom of the LU to pounce on you if you aren’t careful. I predict a very strong year from Mr Iannetta. He got squeezed last year by Tracy who never really gave him a chance and kicked him down to the minors for much of the season. But this guy has big-time power emerging. He’s not going to hit .280 but he could easily hit 25 bombs this year with an OPS over .850. Seriously, watch out for this guy……

How will we do? I’ve got no clue. We are throwing our 3 best pitchers at them, 3 of the best pitchers in the league. But I am far from confident that they can buzz through this line up. We are the World Champs and the Rockies have to go through us to prove they’re for real. But part of me feels like Rocky in his first fight vs Clubber Lang. Prediction: Pain……

Am I the only one who’s starting to get fascinated with this guy? He’s got a 1.54 WHIP (bad) and a 6.23 ERA (awful). And yet he’s only given up 1 bomb this year and opponents are only hitting .245 off him. How is that possible? Zito is throwing 81 mph fastballs. That’s right around what a middling high school varsity pitcher throw them at. So you’re telling me that a guy throwing high school fastballs to major league pitchers has only given up one hr in 13 innings? I find that astounding….

And now he’s hurt.

I’ll save all the “blessing in disguise” talk, though I think we can all feel reasonably confident that if he doesn’t get hurt we lose that game. And it’s jut an ankle, he’ll be fine. The dude survived a pretty substantial car crash without even incurring a scratch, I doubt an ouchy ankle will keep him out too long. But when he comes back, what then? More 81 mph fastballs? More 6+ ERA’s? He’s still got the single win since last July 16th……

A…..B…..Z

The Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings (Pawlie extends his lead)….

I just finally had the chance to watch the trailer clip of “The Franchise”– 34 minutes long. I’ll tell ya, the only thing I didn’t like about that was the name of the show. It makes it sound like it’s all about Timmy and based on the trailer it’s about a lot more than one guy. Man, I watched that Kroon clip 3 times. What a guy and what a story it would be if he ever made it to the club…..

There were things I learned, I had no idea Franchez married his high school sweetheart (I think Belt did, too). 1700 people went to my high school and I think 2 couples got married that are still together. Huff and Wilson were hilarious. And what was up with that Torres workout? I’m down with the old school turn-your-backyard-into-your-gym-thing but my man, working out in the long jeans shorts? That’s a bad look……

the trailer did it’s job for me, I won’t miss an episode when it finally starts to air…….

The Flap Fantasy Baseball Championships (Pawlie storms to the lead)…..

We’ve got a tricky little 2 series roadie coming up. The D-backs have decent bats and a crap pitching staff. But, they are at home and while we should go in there and light up the scoreboard this is exactly the type of team to have a let down against. They are at home and their team ERA of 5.97 and 1.61 WHIP has to start going down at some point, right? There’s not one pitcher in their rotation that scares me……Colorado will be waiting for us after the trip through Arizona and the meat of their batting order is frighteningly good right now…….

I’m not going to include EVERY POTD in the POTW vote anymore. I’ll include the ones that seem to stand out more than the little one-liners (though some one-liners will still make it to the vote). I offer my sincerest apologies if  the integrity of your literary genius has been compromised in any way in the POTW voting 🙂

The Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings

Rough Trade’s post seems to be winning the poll. I voted for it, it brought me back to a very special time in my life.  The late 70’s were a trip for me. I was 8, my parents had just gotten divorced, my whole life seemed to be falling apart and in an effort to fix the family stuff my dad was incessantly dragging me to Giants baseball games. I wasn’t complaining. Baseball was new to me and this was the one thing we could do together where we didn’t have *life* interrupt us—come to think of it, baseball is still that way for me today….

Anyway, he took me to the *Ivie game* in May of ’78 and that’s why I voted for Rough Trade’s post. We were sitting a million miles away from the game. I remember being almost scared by the number of people I saw. The stadium was packed and the energy was electric.  In the 3rd or 4th inning the crowd was properly juiced on the beers they were buying from the isle and a chant of “Fuck the DODG-ers” broke out. It was mostly just in our section, my dad didn’t partake, but this chant thing seemed like a fun thing. It died down after about a minute and as soon as it did I decided to start my own chant so I started yelling “Kill Don SUTTON!!!” in that rhythmic chant tone that crowds d0. I yelled it twice, you know, to get the chant going. The response was swift and negative. Everyone in front of me turned around in horror and my dad, born and raised in Virginia, gave me a look that said “Shut the fuck up immediately”. Of course, I did.  I bowed my head in my hands and I remember feeling a great sense of remorse about saying what I said. But to this day I don’t understand why it was ok for the crowd to be screaming the word “fuck” over and over in front of children……

Just a random memory as we all  continue to walk the earth…….

I haven’t really followed Barry’s trial too carefully. I don’t care about it and I’m not super-down with the law. I rely on XOOTSUIT and SNARKK for the majority of my legal counsel. But man, I was surprised that Barry barely slid by on his perjury charges. On the “did someone other than a doctor inject him” charge he lost 11-1. WOW! Imagine what it was like for that lone wolf to persevere through nearly 4 days of deliberation. We like her….

The Game: It was a good ‘un.

Post of the Week (!!!!!!):

Read the the widget to the right titled “This week’s posts of the day!!!!”. You will find 10 contestants. Please vote for the best of the week.

The Flap Fantasy Baseball League Standings (The Clown extends his lead)…

Last night’s game was everything Monday’s game wasn’t. Coming back from a 3 run deficit against Lady Billingsley is not an easy task. Rowand came through not once but twice and that’s the only reason he beats out Mota for POTG—if Mota doesn’t do what he did this game is over. I just don’t know how to do a split-screen picture of 2 dudes or they would be co-POTG……

Posey got it going, Pablo’s double was electric, Wilson chipped his ERA down to a svelte 19.29. Hell, even Belt got a hit….

Our defense still sucked but you can’t have everything. Great win…..

Bozo the Clown is in first place. As noted by Snarkk, Mayan 2012 is upon us…….

The Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings

I’m sorry, but there is literally nothing that I want to discuss about last night’s game. Ugly. Horrendous. Embarrassing. Talk about whatever you want today but I am not wasting valuable pixel space on that atrocity……

The Flap Fantasy Baseball League Standings:

Bryan Stow. A man I don’t know……

I’ve struggled with this. There’s nothing about the Dodgers or their park that should necessarily be a reason to focus my wrath upon them because of their fans. All parks have their fan base that isn’t really a fan base—-just a bunch of idiots who want to get wasted and fuck with people. There are wannabe gangster-bullshit-pussies at every game. Bryan just happened to stumble upon the wrong two people. That’s just bad luck…..

I’m not going to Game 1 but if I was, and I had the stadium mic, this is what I would say: “Most of us  love this game. Turn to the fan dressed in Dodger gear near you and shake their hand. Maybe give them a hug. Bond with the people that share the same love of the game that you do…..”

The hoodlums that attacked Bryan have nothing to do with baseball. Remember that………

If you’re interested in helping out Bryan Stow and his family:

https://www.sfpcu.org/newsArticle.aspx?id=1579

The Flap Fantasy Baseball League Standings

Does Zito seem to pitch on an inordinate number of Sundays? It always seem like that. There’s something so wrong and yet so perfectly tortuous about Zito pitching on a day associated with religion. Let us all hold hands and pray for a miracle!

I’m not a religious man but isn’t there something about resting on Sundays? Not working? Something like that. Maybe that’s the ultimate sin that fuels Zito’s Law. God is pissed off at him that he’s working all these Sundays. Oh well, who knows…..

I always like to try to predict how Zito’s Law will reveal itself in an actual game. Today’s pitcher is Kyle Lohse. He’s your classic journeyman #5–think Barry Zito with 1/100th the bank account. He’s started 4 games against the Giants in his career and we’ve clobbered him at a .340 clip. I’ll go ahead and say Zito’s Law applies itself today with a stellar outing from Lohse. Maybe Lohse could have had a better major league career if only he’d changed his name to something like “Wihn”……

Remember: “Whatever can go wrong in a Zito start will go wrong”. It’s a law……

Those are some good looking bad boys, aren’t they? I think Ishikawa was dressed about as appropriately as possible. I really wish they had surprised us with Molina at the end. Anyway, good stuff……

Twin might have deleted a comment and that sometimes can throw off the thread. The last one is messed up so this one will be our game time thread…

Dirrrrrty is right where I want him to be. Some complain about his pitch count but he is one of the premier strike out pitchers in either league–strike out pitchers are usually going to have high pitch counts. This year he’s been victimized by cheap blooper bullshit hits. Those will even themselves out. He said he’s cutting down on his walks this year and I see evidence of that, he’s throwing the ball where he wants it to go rather than losing control and having no idea where the ball is going. 15 strike outs in 10.2 innings? That’s good…..

Who didn’t feel that game slip away moments before it actually slipped away? I was listening to the last inning in my car before we started baseball practice and even after he go the first two outs I didn’t didn’t feel comfortable, something just wasn’t right. The LONG at bat to Theriot was the clincher, the way he was fouling off pitches you just knew it was about to happen. Wilson is hitting 95 on the gun and that 3-4mph’s slower than he can fire it. I’ll just assume that he’s still settling into the comfort of health and in a few appearances he will be back to his old self. The fact is, he hasn’t been hit hard in either of his games so I don’t think there’s anything to worry about here……

How ’bout Manny Ramirez? I had a good ol’ chuckle at that yesterday……

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I really enjoyed reading the end of the last thread. There were two things that all Giants fans could agree on when it came to the ‘Stick: 1) the weather sucked and 2) there were a lot of bad seats. Zumie had me lol’ing about being in the upper deck CF and  not being able to see the ball and just watching which direction the players were running….

I remember a game in August of ’89 vividly–not the *game* actually but the trip up there. At the last minute my buddies and I decided to hit a day game.  We hopped in my ’73 Capri and headed up 101 from Palo Alto. We were sportin’ the sweet Summer tans, it was a hot day so we had the AC blaring and the windows open to still feel the warm breeze blowing through the car. Before  we hit Brisbane the windows were rolled up and we had the freaking heat blaring. It still amazes me that it can be 30 degrees colder in SF than it is in Palo Alto, a city maybe 25 miles or so south….

The ‘Stick was all I ever knew growing up so the cold and the view didn’t really ever bother me. It was more funny than anything else. We’d be literally shaking while watching a game and just going “What the hell is wrong with us that we are sitting outside in the cold watching our team lose again”. But back then it was the whole package— pre-game tail gate—game—post-game tail gate—sit in traffic talking about the game or anything really. Today’s Giant game really has none of that—we head to some micro-brewery before the game and enjoy our $10 beer in the warmth of the indoors. We sit in awesome seats. We hop on the train and get taken home swiftly and efficiently.

Torture? Today’s Giants fan has no idea…….

Actually, if you’ve never sat in the dead CF bleachers at ATT and you want a slight memory of what it was like at Candlestick, go sit in those seats. There’s a pretty good wind tunnel that runs through there. On cold days it will almost remind you of the good ‘ol days……

Baer will have the stadium polished shinier than their World Series rings this weekend. And that’s nice. We’ve got the best ballpark in the world. But to me it will never replace Candlestick where we had baseball and comaraderie and the genesis of memories that still, to this day, burn brightly even if the sun back then didn’t……

We’re coming home 2-4 and that’s a hellavu lot better than 1-5. Friday should be an electric time at the park, it’s Opening Day and our players receive their World Series rings. *Our players* carries a bit a hazy definition. According to Baggerley, Be-Mol is sitting at home twiddling his thumbs–says he’d love to come. Giants still haven’t invited him. Come on Larry Baer, send out that invitation. That would be an outstanding opportunity for Giants fans to be able to properly honor his service time for us. Molina was the bridge to Buster, he endured the lean years but always seemed to do it with honor and a genuine commitment to the game. Only the bestest BB’s had a better rack. He should be there…..

There’s also the somewhat sticky issue of how Travis Ishikawa should dress if he decides to come to the ceremony. But I think this is a no-brainer–you wear the SF jersey. Waiving him was a business decision as well as a baseball decision. There was no one else to waive at the time. And the hard fact is, no one else wanted Ishikawa or he wouldn’t have cleared waivers. The Giants are as close to *home* as it gets for him these days and he absolutely earned that ring. Wear the jersey that you and your brothers wore and be proud of it. I think we are going to see Ishikawa come up at some point this year, too……..

I’m jealous of any of you that get to go to that game. Last Winter I convinced myself that it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to miss and I’d be happy to watch it on TV. That was a con-job that I pulled on myself. I’d give anything to be there…..

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Ok, ok, we lost yesterday’s game to them—one dumb inning that was bungled by the home plate umpire. Our bullpen sure stepped up after Bumgarner departed, didn’t they? 5 scoreless. Of course, the Padres can’t hit. At all. Here is the current batting averages of their *top 7* hitters (using the word “top” just feels wrong):

.176

.154

.143

.154

.214

.222

.188

Cam Maybin is the big lumbar at .222……

Obviously, batting averages are subject to wild swings at this point in the season, but Murderer’s Row they are not…..

Timmy should toy with them……

Now, if we still can’t hit, continue to play shitty defense and make mental mistakes we can probably expect to lose another one in the 2-1 range.

The Flap Fantasy Baseball League Standings

I am seeing bad things for the Padres this year. Their pitching staff, so dominant for most of last year, is going to fail them this year. I’ll take Bumgarner/Lincecum VS Harang/Stauffer all day long. And their hitting will be as bad as usual. I’ll be surprised if we don’t sweep them in this little 2-game series……

The right side of the blog, once the home of my glorious bikini babes, you will find a boring wasteland of words. Please review the page that says “This week’s posts of the day!” There are 9 of them. Please vote for your favorite for *post of the week*. The winner will take one step closer to securing the Safeway(!) gift card at the end of the year……

The Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings

I was only about to catch the first two innings of the game—took the rest of the game in on the box score and a drive home listening to Marty Lurie. Some things I wasn’t able to understand: How did Zito make it through 6 innings throwing an 83 mph fastball? Was his curve ball unhittable? Why was Runzler allowed to pitch to all those right handers? Thames hits lefties quite well. Did Aaron Rowand actually hit a home run? Box scores don’t lie, do they? And it wasn’t in the box score but Lurie was skewering Tejada for swinging at a pitch at his shoe tops when apparently he should have been taking. It must have been ill timed because Lurie wouldn’t skewer chicken much less a Giant. Huff had a bad game in rightfield but it’s hardly like he’s forgotten how to play the position. If anything, he should have had more time this Spring to re-acclimate to the outfield. Some of you guys remember “Zito’s Law”–*when he pitches, bad shit happens*. Again, I didn’t see most of the game but it sounds like his law was in full effect last night…….

Ok, what do you want me to do with the BB’s? We love ’em but I’m wondering if it’s time to move on from them. Cast your vote, I will consider the results in my decision…….

The Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings

Unfortunately, all signs are pointing to Zito taking the hill this evening at 5pm. Bad idea. I’m sure that Barry is saying all the right things to the medical staff. He’s a gamer. Game on. When your skills have eroded to near career ending I guess all you have left is your *game face*.

There is an awful lot of manly-manly-ness in baseball. There’s no crying in baseball. There’s no whining in baseball. And for the most part you wouldn’t ever beg out of the starting line up because you feel sore…..

But this is different. Zito was in a major car crash. His neck and back, at the very least, have to be awfully stiff and sore right now. For a pitcher, stiff and sore is not exactly the way your back is supposed to feel when you take the mound. Besides his obvious range of motion issues in his wind up, how do you think he’s going to cover balls hit near the mound? How’s he going to cover first base? Jeez, how’s he even supposed to check the runner at first base if he’s having trouble turning his neck?

This is a guy who was throwing 82 mph fastballs in Spring Training. And now he’s been in a car crash. That new ‘stash isn’t expected to improve anything either. I am firmly entrenched in the “ABZ (Anybody But Zito) Camp”. I would have wished to see Zito skip a start and move Bumgarner up to pitch tonight. Hell, the could have called Voglesong up to pitch and I would have preferred it. ABZ, baby.

I love being wrong so let’s see Zito prove me so. But I think what we are going to see is a guy gingerly take the mound armed with his game face and little else and leave about an hour later in the third inning after giving up a bunch of walks/hits and runs.

Don’t ever listen to what the player says. They all lie. He’s not fine…….

Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings

Yeah, yeah, still basking and all but I can still call out my team for sloppy play while still gettin’ my bask on, can’t I? When we go up 3-1 the game is supposed to be over. With our pitching staff, that’s just the way it goes. But when you factor in mental mistakes and some general bad luck, I guess we can’t count on mailing in a win. The  President of the Under Achieving Club (Posey) says “I don’t know if I’m trying to do to much. Maybe it’s being anxious and jittery and trying to go out and get the ball.” You could take that quote and throw a blanket on the rest of the team. They’re playing tight and when you play tight you play dumb and bad things happen. That’s what’s going on with us right now. This isn’t *opening season jitters*. They better get used to how to handle this because they are going to be spending the entire season defending their crown. EVERY team is going to be gunning for them. And somehow, we need to manage that pressure into the execution of plays. Right now we are just executing ourselves…….

Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings

Get ready for games like this all year. I don’t mean the score, but the energy and the way teams are gunning for us–that’s going on all year. If we lost 10 in a row and head into Minute Made Park, the Astros would be as pumped as they can get to take down the World Champions. We wear the target 24/7……

The Good:

Brandon Belt: I am obsessed with players who take pitches and walks. OBSESSED. Besides the obvious benefits of working a count in your favor and piling pitches on to a pitcher’s arm and getting a pitcher into the stretch, getting on base is sort of an essential pert of the game and you can’t do that trying to hit line drives all day long. Brandon Belt did it all last night in terms of taking pitches and working counts. Grade: A-

Timmy: He wasn’t as dominating as Kershaw but he was awfully good and he hit Uribe which is also good if you like story lines and the rivalry. Grade: B+

Pat the Bat: He sent me right back to last July when he sent that laser beam into the left field bleachers at ATT. I said it then and I stand by it: that was the loudest I’ve ever heard it at ATT (I was sitting near the bricks down the RF line). Of course, he also made an error but that’s what you get with The Bat–hitting and fucking up in the field. Grade: B

Pablo: He made a great catch in the 6th, it was a catch he doesn’t come close to making last year. Grade for losing Weight in the Offseason: A+

The Bad:

That 6th inning Laurel and Hardy play by Posey and Pablo. Assuming Pablo didn’t give Posey an automatic signal to throw I’d say that play was 75% on Buster, 25% on Pablo (Pablo did seem to half heartedly call for the throw but Posey’s decision to throw it, as well as the throw, was atrocious). Grade: F

Tejada: His throw to 2nd was a joke and he went 0-4. He also looks old. Grade: F-

The Batters (minus Belt and Pat the Bat): It was Opening Day so I’ll cut them a little slack but they were ridiculously impatient, refusing to take pitches and swinging at anything Kershaw threw up there. Pablo looked especially bad and the ESPN announcers were almost rude in how they attacked him for it. Unfortunately, he fed their attack with a few examples of his most absurd, wild off balance swings I’ve ever seen. Grade: D-

If this were last year, a loss like this would have bothered me more. I simply haven’t built up enough stamina to perseverate on a loss. We are the World Champions and the b-a-s-k-i-n-g continues on…….

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