A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

I didn’t want to call it “The Greatest Contest of All Time” because that would just be over the top. But this one ranks right near the top. Free entry in a contest pitting 18 dudes against each other to win a brand new, hand made PC? Absurd. And yet it’s happening. In no particular order, meet the esteemed contestants.

ChiPower: a great Flap vet, always positive in nature and a bigger Giants fan I don’t think I’ve met. He is also part of the single best WS trophy tour pic I think I’ve ever seen. Check it out in the photo bucket.

UncaChuck: blog owner of ninersforever.com, football is his game but he spends tons of time time rockin’ the Orange and Black as hard as anyone over the last 40+ years or so. He also shares a unique kinship with the next player……

SanDawg: My main man from San Diego and the guy who named my dad *Bobby Bowden* after he met him a few years ago during a golf game. I don’t think I’ve called my dad *dad* since ‘dawg gave him the nickname. He’s *BB* to me, from here on out. SanDawg has also dutifully sired 2 sons, 50% of them are dating one of Chuck’s daughters. And with but one Unca daughter remaining, I think we can all do the math and identify the ultimate output. 🙂

Snarkk: The Flap’s unpaid legal counsel, a 2-time Flapalooza attendee, and a Cal fan. Two out of three is still very good, especially in baseball.

MacDog: one of my east coast correspondents and photographer of “Wreck of the Fortuna”.  Also, his daughter appears to be a legit softball player.    And while his smile looks a little forced in pictures, his love of the Giants is as free flowing as a twig traveling on the shoulders of a mighty stream…….

Rooster: the one fucking Dodger fan in this contest. Please, everyone, destroy him. Unfortunately seems like a good dude or I would be reveling in the fact that he has to root for that putrid, shit team. They last won a World Series when I was in high school. Ouch. Strap your eye goggles on my man and gear up for the 2013 post season! That has to be a good look for you, right?

AllyKat: He rocks the Peninsula just like I do and he is super down with Jonny Monnell getting a start one day. He rep’s the San Carlos bar scene pretty well, too.

Salty: one of a handful of bloggers here who rises above the bullshit and never gets into it with anyone. Well done dude, I really appreciate that. You remind us that at the end of the day, we all are rooting for the same team (except for the dude 2 places above you in this thread).

Blade: Another 2 time Flapalooza attendee and he makes it all the way out from Colorado. He owns a great travel blog, too: aroundtheworldwithblade.wordpress.com. He also recently took down the Flap Fantasy Baseball Championship of which he is a 2 time winner…..

Manny: Drops in and out at the Flap, always comes across as a big time Giants fan from somewhere, I’m guessing, in the midwest

Pawlie: My main man from New York. Esteemed author, lover of good ol’ fashioned mall tits, and he’s literally never missed a conversation with a stranger wearing SF Giants gear.

BirdDog: lots I could say about this dude, all good, but this thread I wrote 3 years ago covers some of it: https://oneflapdown77.com/2010/10/19/great-cody-ross-story/ . Goddamn, I miss that time……

WilcoJoe: a diehard Giants fan who simply dominates Giants games in Houston like no other out of town Giants fan I’ve ever seen or heard about. I would LOVE to hit a game with this dude one day. Looking forward to his first Flapalooza extravaganza one of these years……

SportsDude: So-Cal dude who represents us at Dodger games. Keep a low-pro, Dude, though I guess you already know that.

IrishKevin: Probably the worst fantasy baseball player I have ever seen but he’s got a great attitude and is always trying to improve. And he’s a huge Giants fan from the Sacramento area.

Sidewinder: A disciple of Chuck’s blog ninersforever.com, he’s trying to make the switch to a new sport. Tough crossover but definitely a dark horse in this contest, he’s trying to bring back the gold to the red & gold……

WesFromRoseville: I think Wes is the only contestant in this thing who’s never posted here. He made a very compelling argument for why he wanted to play in an email. I liked what he wrote, so he’s in.

BoxHead: He shows up at the blog from time to time with thoughtful posts and cogent perspectives. He’s usually gone as quickly as he appears but he’s a showman, a rapscallion, you take guys like that in small doses and appreciate your interaction with them later on in life, maybe during thoughtful reflection…..

Flavor: ’nuff said.

____________________________

most of you have sent me your picks for the first wild card game tomorrow. If you haven’t, stop stalling, this contest ain’t gonna win itself……

****DEADLINE TO ENTER (IE, SEND US AN EMAIL SAYING YOU ARE PLAYING) IS TODAY, MONDAY AT 4PM****

If you read the blog even half-way regularly you know that Twin has decided to put on another one of his famous contests. For those who read less than half-way regularly, these are always lots of fun. The prizes are always rad, usually hand made PC’s by Twin himself. More than a half dozen vets here can vouch for the quality of these units that they won competing in his contests. And you don’t have to spend anything to participate unless your internet provider charges you for sending an email. If that’s the case should focus your free time on finding a new internet provider……….

All Flappers are welcome to participate in the contest. I know the blog world is fraught with lurkers who read but don’t write—you come to this site, you’re a Flapper. I’m inviting you to come out from the shadows. All you have to do is email me or Twin and say you want to play. That’s it. And if you just want to play for fun and don’t want the PC if you win that’s totally cool. Just play for the “W”. I don’t anticipate hearing from a lurker cause that would be in conflict with the whole *shadowy* thing. Nevertheless, you are invited. The only contingent is that me or Twin have seen you post here before I typed this thread (or that you make a good case for why you want to play in the email you send me)……

Here are the rules of the contest:

You start by picking the winner of the wild card games–1 point for each game picked correctly. You get another point for picking the correct winner of the NLDS and ALDS, the NLCS and ALCS and the ultimate World Series winner. You will also pick the number of games it takes for your predicted team to win each series. You get an additional point each time you predict the number of games it took for your team to win the series. Example: In the ALCS you predict that the A’s to beat the Tigers in 4.  If the A’s win in 4 you get 2 points. If the A’s sweep the Tigers in 3 you get 1 point. If the Tigers win you get nothing.

Now, let me stop to reiterate (from previous threads) a critical component to this contest: Do NOT send me all of your picks for the playoffs in one long email. We are going *series to series* here. 

There is a World Series tie-breaker thing that I’ll discuss later as the contest unfolds.

The way the contest starts: The first pick you will send me via email will be your prediction of who will win the Pitt/Cinn wild card card game on Tuesday. You can send me your pick anytime before first pitch of game. Your next pick will be your prediction for the winner of the Cleveland wild card game (their opponent will be determined tomorrow).

After both of the wild card games I will create a Standings page that will exist on the right side of the blog. And whether you won or lost your WC picks, you will then send me your NLDS/ALCS picks. And so on and so on. The standings will change accordingly.

If you want to play just email me or Twin before the first wild card game is played. Our emails are bigflavor77@gmail.com and michael.scott2@mchsi.com

Another detail of the contest: When you send me an email containing your prediction I will send you back a confirmation email locking your pick in. I check email every 2 hours daily.

Any questions, kick ’em down. We’ve got about 15 players confirmed so far but that number is growing…..

________________________________

a couple of updated notes:

1) some of you are sending me predictions for the Tampa/Texas game. Do not do this. It’s not a wild card game, it’s a tie-breaker game to determine who will face Cleveland in the AL WC game

2) don’t announce who you are picking in the thread. I mean, you can if you want but it puts you at a disadvantage if others know who you have picked–this will be of increased importance once the wild card games are over. I’ll release everyone’s picks once each series has started and the picks are locked in.

First of all, the Giants did NOT overpay to keep Hunter Pence. He would have gotten 5 years/90 million from somebody. It’s possible he would have gotten more like a “J-Werth” contract of 7 years/120mil+. And an Ethier or Upton deal in the ballpark of 75-85 million was virtually guaranteed.

Buster Olney talked to one baseball exec who summed it up this way:

General Managers don’t just look at the basic stats anymore, those days are long gone. And anyway you cut it, Hunter Pence is one of the top outfielders in the National League. Add in his durability, attitude, clubhouse presence and his motorized scootering abilities and you are talking about a player that any team in the league would want starting in their outfield. And the fact that he’s put up elite outfield numbers at AT&T Park, something a guy like Aaron Rowand never had done by the way, is another line on his resume that wouldn’t get ignored. And he was going to get paid handsomely for his resume.

Here’s where Pence ranks overall in the NL outfielder list for WAR:

Here’s where he ranks for offense/WAR (again, NL outfielders only):

I’m not a big WAR guy because it factors way too much defense and base running into the number and I could care less about defense and base running from a fantasy baseball perspective–as long as they are being benched BECAUSE of their defense and base running, I ignore that metric. But WAR is a good tool to evaluate a player’s overall worth to the team. By the way, that’s why we won’t be doing any “Woo Hoo” for signing Shin-Soo Choo this off season. Shin-Soo’s agent jizzed in his pants when he saw what Pence got, he will get his client at least that and possibly more…….

As the year went on, I came around on signing Pence mostly because he ended up having a very good year, there is obviously nobody out there better who we can just plug into right field and I don’t feel like we overpaid for him. Those are the main reasons I am behind this signing.

If it doesn’t work out, it will be over soon enough. Although that’s what Angels fans are telling themselves about Josh Hamilton who’s deal is backloaded to pay him $32 million in each of the last 2 years of his 5 year deal. In those same 2 years (’16 and ’17) the Angels will also be paying Pujols $25 and $26 million and that deal runs through 2021 where Albert will get paid $30 million to sit on their bench……

So there are worse contracts out there for other fans in other cities to trip on. I’m not trippin’ on Pence’s deal. I’m glad it’s done and happy he’ll be a Giant for the next 5 years…..

Macdog said, on September 27, 2013 at 11:12 pm (Edit)

Y’all have the Quest for 3rd. I had the Drive for 75! And with tonight’s win, the Giants have overtaken the 74-88 Cincinnati Reds of 1991 and will not be known as the Worst World Series Defending Champion That Actually Tried. But why stop there? Let’s keep drivin’ and pass the ’86 Royals (76-86) and ’67 Orioles (76-85) and try to catch the 2003 Angels (77-85).

I woke up wondering about where we stood compared to past WS champs and I find out that MacDog has done all the research for me. Well done, my man!

Personally, I care more about not ending up in last place in the NL West which we have mathematically avoided thanks to the Colorado Rockies and Blade’s early season prediction. But sure, let’s finish with 77 wins. The more the better.

Here’s a pic from a fan who snapped this during Brian Wilson’s weird confrontation with Larry Baer after the game last night.

Wilson was apparently airing several pent up grievances including wanting his 2012 World Series ring and demanding that the Giants stop using his images in stadium video. What a whiny little be-atch this guy is……

The Giants have reported tried to contact Wilson several times to give him his ring and were ignored every time. And if this d-bag thinks he owns the rights to the freaking videos of him that get used on the stadium screen then he’s got more hubris than I ever thought he had. I had wished Wilson well but after this girlish tantrum I say “good riddence.”

Seven years, in the books. 126 million dollars. Last night he earned his 63rd regular season win with the Giants. It was a very Zen-like move of him to polish off a career that saw Sabean pay him 2 million per win, exactly. But it was his 2 playoff victories that we will remember him for. #rallyzito

I’m gonna stay away from Bochy’s senior moment last night:

In many ways his career in SF can be summed up in this single picture from last night’s game:

So long, my man. Don’t forget to feed your unicorn regularly. Service the wife as needed. Steer clear of the sharks, they bite ya know. And safe travels…..

6 runs/49 frames.

‘Nuff said….

I watched the end of the Buc’s game on mlb.com last night. Grilli, who was in the process of blowing the save, gave up a hit to the outfield. Byrd stumbled and fumbled the ball but McCutchen was there to pick it up and fire it in, though off line. Morneau managed to snare the desperate throw and flip it to Martin who tagged out Schierholtz at the plate–*BUCffoonery* in all it’s abject glory. Here’s the play if you missed it:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2013_09_23_pitmlb_chnmlb_1&mode=video&content_id=30882403&tcid=vpp_copy_30882403

Is that not the perfect way for an incompetent franchise like the Bucs to reach the post season for the first time since 1992? Jesus, that was a long time ago. I was just graduating college at Lewis & Clark. Will the Thrill was our 1st baseman. Tiny Felder was one of our outfielders. Righetti was in the bullpen. The Bucs? Tim Wakefield was a rookie in ’92. I think he’s about 123 years old right now. And finally retired. Barry Bonds and Kirk Gibson were teammates. I bet that made for an interesting clubhouse.

What were you doing in ’92?

Pittsburgh’s dry spell makes me appreciate “2 in Three” all that much more……

Now that we’ve accepted the cold reality of missing the playoffs this year, I’m wondering who you are all rooting for (if anyone) the rest of the way. In the AL, I’m finding myself leaning towards wanting to see the Royals snag one of the wild card spots. Growing up, I was a big George Brett fan, I like their uni’s and I have always thought their ballpark has stood the test of time–seems like a very cool yard. And if any of you caught that walk off grand slam yesterday then you can tell that there’s some magic swirling in KC this year.

I also wouldn’t have a problem with the A’s winning it all. Before our *Two in 3* I might have had an issue with it but the fact is, I like several players on their team. And with gallons of shit coming up and into the dugout recently you kinda have to almost feel sorry for the A’s.

In the NL, it’s all about the Pirates. Great story. Great city for baseball. The “We are family” days could be coming back. That was such a fun time in baseball history……..

Twin is back and so are his contests. This one will be a post season contest. The prize is a desktop computer that he can tell you about. He’s given away many of these and they are awesome. If you’re interested in playing, email me (bigflavor77@gmail.com) or indicate in the comment section below that you want to participate. Twin has a running list already. Here are the rules:

Before each series (and 2 wild card games) you email me the team you think will win along with how many games it will take them for your team to close out the series. If you pick the correct winning team, you get a point. If you also pick the correct number of games it took for them to win, you get another point. Obviously for the wild card games you just pick the team. You will email me your picks four times:

1) before the wild card games

2) before the NLDS and ALCS

3) before the NLCS and ALCS

4) before the World Series

your email should look something like this: “Reds in 5. Tigers in 6”.  Note: the division series are 5 games, the championship series and World Series are 7 games. DO NOT EMAIL ME YOUR PREDICTIONS FOR THE ENTIRE POST SEASON. After each series ends you will send me your picks for the upcoming one. If you forget to email me before the games start you are not eliminated from the contest you just wouldn’t get a chance to earn any points for that series. I will send you back a confirmation email locking in your picks.

Tie Breaker Rule: You will also predict the total number of runs scored by both teams in the world series. This will be used as a tie breaker if there’s a tie after the WS is completed. I will create a “Contest Standings” page so that Flavor Nation and the rest of the world can follow along.

If you picked everything perfectly, you would have a total of 12 points. If someone tied you with 12 points, the tie breaker of *total runs scored in world series* will decide the ultimate winner.

Jon Miller was recently interviewed by Howard Medgal (“Sports on Earth”) and was asked to break down the failure points of the 2013 season. He said pretty typical things that we’ve all discussed, but I did find this comment interesting (in response to the challenges the Giants face in keeping up with the free spending Dodgers):

“The cost of a superstar bat, or a superstar pitcher, has to go to the mortgage every year,” Miller said. “And they still have to put money into revenue sharing — one of the haves. Or maybe the way they look at it, maybe, they have to write a check to Oakland, write a welfare check to Oakland, which is a different story.”

Now, I know the Giants refinanced their stadium loan so it’s not going to get paid off by 2017 as had been originally planned. But I don’t understand Miller’s comment at all. He uses the $20 mil annual finance payment as an excuse (or a *reason* depending on how you look at it) for why they can’t go after a $20mil/year bat but makes no mention of their monstrous yearly revenue. How could the mortgage payment be the reason they don’t go after a big bat?

And the re-fi was done so the team could develop the parking lot across from McCovey Cove. They’re going to build parks and restaurants (another future revenue bonanza for the team).

Miller should have stuffed his mouth with a couple of those tasty ballpark hot dogs before he tried to answer this question……

________________________________________________

Post season Prediction Contest:

Twin is organizing a (see above). If you’re interested, please indicate that you want to play in the comment section below. Here is his post from yesterday with some details:

I mean, uh… “Hey you kids!!! Get out of my pool!!!” Apparently the Dodgers decided to take a team-wide dip in the D-backs pool after they won the NL West in Arizona yesterday. Journeyman infielder Willie Bloomquist had this to say: “I thought it was tired and disrespectful. It’s surprising because they have a lot of veterans on that team. I thought they had more class than that.” Other D-backs, including some in management, felt the same way.

Look, get over yourself, Bloomy et al. It’s not like the Dodgers planted a keg by the pool and brought in all the hookers lined up for that evening’s festivities. What’s “tired”, at least in my opinion, are baseball players constantly feeling disrespected by opposing players for the slightest celebration reactions. Celebrating is part of sports and no group of professional athletes gets more worked up for no reason than baseball players. Now, I was one of those who thought Prince Fielder’s bowling ball celebration was pretty funny so maybe I’m the wrong person to ask about this stuff. And I’m certainly not trying to defend a freaking disgusting Dodger. I sure hope Eye Goggle Boy was wearing his goggles when he jumped into the deep end. But I AM defending players who want to let loose and celebrate as long as no one gets hurt. And Bloomy’s feelings getting hurt don’t count…

If the Dodgers clinched in our park and, after all the home town fans had left (as was the case in AZ yesterday), the team decided to take a few trips down the Coke bottle slide to celebrate it wouldn’t bother me in the slightest. The absurdity of it would make me smile.

I’ll say this though: After engaging in one of the biggest baseball brawls in recent years a few months ago, and after the Dodgers hit 5 D-backs in the last 2 games (with AZ not retaliating even once) and THEN having LA throw their impromptu pool party, I’m guessing things could get a little *bean-bally* next year between these two rivals……

I discovered something completely awesome about being 17 games out of first place with 10 to play: I can watch the Giants blow a 3 run lead in the 9th, lose in galling fashion and not really sweat it too much. I guess being 56-2 after 8 innings isn’t worth as much as it once was….

I’ve only been half-way paying attention to this Finnerty’s phenomenon but the morning KNBR crew just interviewed a co-owner of the bar (Brian Stapleton) and it’s kinda blowing my mind how many Giants fans are going to these NY games via Finnerty’s. Five bus loads for EACH GAME? And even at 10am (EST) you could hear Finnerty’s rockin’ in the background of the KNBR feed. That bar is flowing freely with booze and good spirits before today’s game. Good times.

Of course, MacDog and Pawlie already made Finnerty’s *famous* here at the Flap and many of their pics were dumped into the Flap Photo Bucket long ago. Nice to see KNBR catching up with acknowledging that fantastic oasis for Bay Area sports fans….

Are any of you east coasters hitting any of these  6 NY games? Five bus loads of Giants fans for all 6 NY games. That is still blowing my mind……

Romo has had kind of a weird year. Mostly because we’ve been out of it most of the year, he’s been largely an afterthought. He’s managed to log 35 saves in 2013 and that ranks tied for 11th in MLB. When I evaluate a closer I look almost exclusively at his K/BB ratio. Closers who throw pitches that get him, whether they’re ground balls or fly balls, are more likely to fail than closers who miss bats with their pitches. Once again, Romo has checked in with a stellar K/BB ratio of around 5.5:1. His WHIP is outstanding at 1.05.

An interesting stat I’ve started to look at more closely has been what a pitcher’s OPS is (as in, the OPS of the opposing batters). Curiously, for pitchers who have pitched 40+ innings this year, he’s 42nd at .597 surrounded by fellow closer’s Farquhar, Blafour, Grilli and Ziegler. I thought he’d be ranked higher than that.

Something that’s surprised me this year about the closer’s: there hasn’t been a huge turnover as in year’s past. Without looking it up, I can only remember the Seattle closer (Wilhelmsen?) and League losing their jobs due to ineffectiveness this year. A few others got hurt and were replaced. But it always seems like there is a much more volatile turnover for the closer role each year (due to repeated gas can implosions). Maybe I’m imagining that……

We get to face our ol’ buddy Zack Wheeler today. Reading his name doesn’t make me cringe, in fact I feel absolutely nothing about him. He never did anything for the Giants other than act as currency which is how I view all minor leaguers until they actually make it to San Francisco. Of course, I wish Sabean had traded the underwhelming, underdeveloped, under-everything Gary Brown for Carlos Beltran back in the day. But it didn’t happen and at the time of the trade Sabean would have caught a huge amount of shizzle for parting with Brown > Wheeler. It is what it is, Wheeler is at the show and Brown is hitting .231 in Fresno and will likely never pan out as a major league hitter. I’ve accepted that.

Wheel’s is gonna go over the 100 inning pitch limit in today’s game (unless we ‘HunterPence’ his ass early on) and I would say that his numbers to date are close to what you might expect from him so early in his promising career. Of course, he already beat us earlier in SF back on July 10th so today’s game won’t have that little something ‘extra’ that it had back then. His SO/BB split is 81/40 across 95 innings. Not bad. Not dominant. He’ll likely cut down on those walks as he gets more experience. He’s given up 10 bombs. He’s gonna have to cut that number down, too.

Anyway, I don’t give a whit about Wheeler except that I hope the Giants pound him into the ground today…..

Though I am still disgusted and embarrassed from last night’s pathetic Niner game, I can still find reasons to swell with some pride thanks to the Giants:

1) We are now in 3rd place. Questfor4th was inaccurately named.

2) We took 3 of 4 from The LA Art Dealers and it should have been a sweep. As I said during their 48-8 streak (or whatever it was), this team is going down in the first round of the playoffs. Although part of me wants to see the A’s beat them in World Series.

3) Hunter Pence is a man-child. Pay him whatever he desires. I think I felt the same way about Randy Winn after he went insane for a month back in ’05 or whatever it was.

19 runs scored. The most ever at Dodger Stadium. Think about how many thousands of games the Dodgers have played at Dodger Stadium and they have never scored more in a game than the Giants did last night.

Epic win. Finish off the LA Art Dealers today and I could give a shit less what happens in New York this week…..

It’s embarrassing how easily Clayton Kershaw dominants the Giants year in and year out so it was very cool to beat him last night AND reward Bumgarner with a win after so many limp, pathetic offensive failings in his starts this year. And with the magic number at 4, the Giants control their own destiny if they want to avoid having to watch The LA Art Dealers celebrate in front of them this weekend. With last night’s inspired play I’m thinking they just might pull it off.

Pretty insane weekend for sports and gambling. Mayweather/Alvarez (I see Mayweather pummeling him), Alabama vs A&M (Alabama covers) and then we have to wait all day Sunday for the premiere NFL game so far this season with the Niners playing the Shehawks (Niners cover and maybe win).

Oh, and there’s still 2 Giants/Dodgers games to be played.

Let’s get ready to rumble!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Irritating. Entertaining. Irritating again. That’s how that game went for me. My dream of a sweep is over. Bee Sleezy does nothing for me. Anymore.  Maybe we misunderstood Sabean back in July. He didn’t say it was a “Bad Penny year.” He said it was a “Brad Penny year.” That’s even worse…..

Easily and without question, we now embark on the most anticipated 13 games of the season. Sadly, that anticipation is tempered by our entrenchment in last place. But LA/NY/NY/LA looks good on paper, doesn’t it? Anyone back east going to any of these games?

I’d like to think we will call on pride, gamesmanship, professionalism—whatever we got left—to put forth competitive efforts for each of these games. I’d trade sweeping the  LA Art Dealers this weekend in exchange for getting rolled the rest of the road trip. Not interested even a little bit in seeing Eye Google Boy and his band of idiots celebrating the division crown in front of us.

As long as Bochy has Pagan at the top of the LU for the next 4 in LA, I’ll feel confident that the team will take this serious and put forth a professional, motivated effort.  If we go down there with our attention half-assed and everyone staring at each other waiting for the*other guy* to do something, this could be a long, ugly weekend…….

Vogelsong fell apart last night in the 5th inning and we are still in last place. Ugh. I didn’t pay attention to his velocity but 0 strike outs in 5 innings is not a good sign. At this point, I would pull the rip cord on Voggy’s season.  He’s pitched a couple of good games since he came back on August 9th that’s all I need to see to exercise his option next year. Again, if you’re paying Barry Zito 7 million to surf off into the sunset then you find the scratch to pay Vogelsong 6.5 million to pitch for us in 2014. You know he’ll work his ass off this Winter, that is a total guarantee.

Voggy got hurt this year and I think he probably tried to come back too soon at least in terms of coordinating his timing/velocity/game ready conditioning etc. And he’s such a serious dude he’s probably not handling these failures too well and that frustration is likely contributing to what we’re seeing now. No reason to keep running him out there with very little to gain except more mashed up nails in his mouth.

The one thing I’m not on board with: the theory that the WBC did this guy in. What is he, an 84 year old man? So what if he had to get his program going a little early? People are talking about all the WBC players who have gotten hurt but a lot of those injuries were freak injuries including Voggy’s broken finger.

Bottom line is that we’re shooting for 900 innings or so out of our starters next year. No one’s giving those innings away. Timmy, Voggy, Gaudin, Petit? Who are your ideas for filling out the back end of our rotation? Cain and MadBum barely make a line. We’ve got 3 massive holes to fill.

_______________________________________________

Here’s a guy I wouldn’t mind seeing surf with Zito next year: Jose Mijares. He sucks. Massively and badly. Turn him into kindling. Not me. But someone should…….

Brandon  Belt past 500 plate appearances last night and all signs are pointing to him being a critical piece in the line up for the 2014 season. Aside from Buster’s bomb, Belt was the man last night doing what we will always need him to do: drive in runs. His two hits were brilliant swings, the first one beating a breaking ball like he knew it was coming and the second one driving the ball impressively in the opposite direction for the walk off win in the 10th inning.

On a team that has had no identity since Pagan went down in May, Belt has stepped up and gone beyond just putting up a nice OPS. But I was surprised to see where he ranked vs NL first basemen on bb%.

Votto is walking at an unnecessary rate but it works on that team with so many other hitters in their line up. Plus, as the identified team superstar in the line up, there are times he just has to take his walks and eat them. We need Belt to do more than take walks and he’s doing those things this year, especially since he sat down for a few games and had brett Pill take over the reigns at 1st base. Doesn’t that seem like it was a dream?

Side note on NL 1st base power: Outside of Goldy, this group is hitting home runs at an underwhelming rate. I’m not sure if I can ever remember a limper collection of first basemen in the NL, at least when it comes to home runs. Regardless, Belt is having a very productive year. He’s taken the next step and while I don’t think he has another step in him I also didn’t think he had the step he just took in him. But where he is right now is a good place to be. We are lucky to have him.

__________________________________________

Angel Pagan:

Did anyone catch Pagan’s post game dive attempt on top of a group of STANDING TALL, JUMPING players? That’s quite a leap to try to make (he failed, only getting about 2/3 the way up the *mountain of men* before giving up and coming down). If he was looking to re-injure himself he gave it a pretty nice go with that stupid move. I’m guessing the surgeon who preformed the work on his hammy a few months ago would probably frown on him trying to leap to the top of a group of standing, moving men.

Flapalooza is the type of party that just keeps on giving. I wasn’t ready to handle or manage the explosion of pics that came out of this event. I’ve dumped some into the photo bucket and a bunch on to Facebook. ChiPower has created some type of shared album on The Book that we can contribute to though I admit to not knowing how to do that at first glance. If you want to access my FB page just email me and I’ll give you the link to my page.

Final Note on 3.0: There were several noticeably absent faces due to probably a bunch of real life 3-D reasons. But seeing as how we were all wandering around the park with “We Score We WIn” shirts on one of the biggest absentees was FerretHead who designed the “WSWW” sign and proudly donned it at one of the playoff games last year. It unintentionally became a physical mascot for The Flap and now, the Flap jersey’s that will be worn at all future Flap Stormings. Luckily, she managed to see some of the pics on Facebook and here was her response:

I promised the blog a story that would blow minds and I will make good on that promise. First, let’s have some fun with numbers. It will help us later when we try to set odds on the chances of this unprecedented turn of events happening in real life….

There are 29,541 students who go to SF State in The City.

There were a few less than that at Flapalooza 3.0. Ten Flap vets made it out to the yard last night with a couple of significant others in tow……

Two of those 10 were these guys:

On the left is San Dawg from San Diego. On the right is UncaChuck from the Bay Area. Neither of these guys have ever met each other or spoken to each other before yesterday.

And now, to the story:

Chuck was the last of the Flappers to walk into the Public House around 4 o’clock or so. He walked up and said “Flav!” and I recognized him from Facebook and other places I’d seen his picture. We go around the table and introduce each other. When he gets to San Dawg, Chuck said: “Hey, don’t I recall you saying at the Flap that your son goes to SF State?”

“Indubitably. Nice memory. In fact, he just graduated this year.”

“No kidding?” Chuck said. “Hey, MY DAUGHTER just graduated from SF State this year, too!”

We all had a hearty chuckle about this unlikely coincidence and most of the table fired off the requisite “small world!” comment….

Great story, right?

Um, except that’s not what happened. That was an alternate ending I wrote to keep myself steady as I picked up the pieces of my brain that were blown and scattered all over Marty Lurie’s laptop after I watched the actual story unfold in front of me. Sit down, take a few deep breaths, and read on……

______________________________________

Chuck shows up last and we go around the table introducing ourselves. When he gets to Diggity he goes, “Hey, is your last name K__________?” San Dawg has a fairly unusual last name and I’m protecting it from the masses. But he goes, “yeah, that’s my last name.”

“Oh, I saw it on an email chain last night that had all the details of Flapalooza 3.0.,” says Chuck.  “I’ve got another question for you.”

“Uh, ok,” San Dawg cautiously replies.

“Do you have a son named Matt?”

“Yep, Matt is my son,” says San Dawg.

“Oh yeah? Well that means that YOUR son has been dating MY daughter for the last couple of months!”

Now as I’m watching this surreal scene develop I start thinking “there’s no way this is for real” and I interjected with “Ok, you guys are just fucking with me right? You set this up just to blow my mind, right?”

Nope. It was all true. Two Flap vets who have only casually interacted on my blog over the last few years, who have never met in person and who live 600 miles away from each other have kids who are dating each other. And they discovered this during the first minute of meeting each other for the first time.

Insane…….

There were many other rad things about last night that I’ll recount later today, but I wanted this story to stand alone.

__________________________________

some of you guys have indicated you’d like a custom Flap shirt. Snarkk has generously offered to coordinate that for you, all you have to do is email me with your contact info and he’ll be in touch. Trust me, they are very good quality shirts and 1 of a kind. I hope FerretHead reads this! Obviously, your handle would go on the back, not mine.

my email is bigflavor77@gmail.com

__________________________________

I really like this pic:

Pawlie working his magic. Blade heckling from the peanut gallery . . .

The Fllappers in all their unabashed glory . . .

As last night’s game unfolded, I was dumbfounded by 2 questions, impossible to answer:

1) How was a journeyman no-name nobody pitcher, designated twice by the Giants this season, pulling this off?

2) How did a journeyman no-name nobody pitcher, designated twice by the Giants this season, score a wife with such a spectacular rack?

Well done on both counts, Mr Petit. And by the way, she definitely did not marry for that last name. Hey Now!!!!!!!!!

I didn’t see the post game show and maybe this was discussed, but Hunter Pence was playing too deep on the Chavez at bat. The AZ announcers said that Pence was “respecting Chavez’ power”. Huh? With Petit dealing all night and a pinch hitter at bat (with marginal to not that much power) you don’t play that deep. Chavez was trying to do nothing more than break up the perfecto, he’s not a guy who swings from his shoes. And I’m not putting that on Pence, I’m putting it on whoever aligns the defense from the Giants dugout. I think it’s R-Kelly…..

Before the game I posted this:

Flavor said, on September 6, 2013 at 4:46 pm (Edit)

Dammit, I missed the the millionth hit. Saw Blade at the gym this afternoon, he’s excited, as I am, about Flapalooza 3.0 tomorrow! I hope tonight isn’t a high scoring game, those are always followed by duds the next day. And I can enjoy a pitchers duel easily but tomorrow I want to see a bunch of Giants running around the bases, balls bouncing up against the wall, the crowd going crazy. And I want to see Brandon Belt hit a home run tomorrow. In fact, I’m feeling it and I am predicting a bomb from both Belt and Sandoval. Pagan will hit a triple (if he plays). Hunter Pence will do something 3 times, either strike out 3 times or get 3 hits. That vision isn’t coming to me as clearly as the other ones……

So hopefully, this now means we see some runs scored tonight.

I saw this building on the way to work yesterday. It’s weird, I drive by it all the time, never noticed the name on it:

MacDog snapped the best pic of the year, though:

Speaking of pictures, we will take a bunch of them tonight. I’ll dump the ones I take into my twitter account as the day/night unfolds. I’m not a tweeter, I re-tweet more than I tweet.  I’m mostly on twitter to  follow the sports news breakers that I care about as well as a few people that I know. If you want to *follow* our slow, meandering path to the SF county jail you can do it here (I don’t even know what my handle is, have to go look it up now):

@1flapdown77

That was rather obvious, can’t believe I had to look that up.

If you listen to KNBR 680, Pawlie Kokonuts will be on Marty Lurie’s Show today around 2pm.  Flappers will be be displaying keen attendance…….

Another day, another day in last place. Last night was a good example of how last place teams play. I was pretty impressed with the sheer collection of stupidity between Flannery and Belt when it came to Gerardo Parra. Flan should know you don’t run on that guy and Belt had the play RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM, he saw the ball kick right back to Parra and he ran anyway. Idiotic.

For the record, Matt Cain is scheduled to pitch at Flapalooza on Saturday. That’s cool. We can pull Snarkk off suicide watch now that we know Zito isn’t pitching. Another reason to be excited about the Cain start:  it’ll be the first time I’ve ever seen a guy in a horse head wearing an orange sombrero slam a beer. And while I grasp at reasons to pay any attention at all to that game, that’s a pretty good angle right there…..

________________________________________

Also, a fun day for the blog stats widget. We’ll be passing 1 million hits today. The day before Flapalooza 3.0, that’s kinda rad.

Runs scored per game  since the all star break (reverse order):

13, 2, 1, 8, 3, 1, 4, 5, 1, 4, 6, 1, 5, 1, 3, 0, 5, 6, 14, 4, 5, 2, 2, 3, 2, 4, 1, 1, 4, 3, 1, 4, 2, 9, 3, 1, 0, 2, 3, 5, 3, 0, 1, 4, 2

I’ll take ESPN’s word for it, so that all adds up to 154 runs scored since the all star break. 45 games. 3.42 runs per game.

0 runs: 3 times

1 run:  10 times

2 runs; 6 times

3 runs: 7 times

that makes 26 games (out of only 45) that  they didn’t score enough runs in a game to win since most people would expect 4 runs should be given to the pitchers per game. Unless you expect them to have a team ERA under 3.00.

And I’m late so I can’t finish this thread, will try to get to it later today. Feel free to chime in on what I started…..

Some of my friends on Facebook were not feelin’ Kieschnick’s boddy language last night, Some examples:

“Who is this Kieschnick dude? He has as much enthusiasm as a corpse.”

“He stands there like a knot on a log.”

Admittedly, this wasn’t the hardest core Giants fan in the world. But she was still watching the game, she gets credit for that.

How much does body language matter to you? Belt’s slumpy shoulders are well documented.

Personally, I think it DOES matter, A lot. Especially when it comes to the other team perceiving your mind set. If an opposing pitchers sees a hitter slumpin’ it up or hang doggin’ their head I think it gives an edge to that pitcher. Same thing if a batter slams his helmet down or breaks his bat over his knee—

If you’re competing you like it when your competitor gets frustrated or *appears* frustrated. That’s a win right there.

And if I was a young player I would give an outward appearance that had a little more energy to it than what Kieschnick is showing these days.

Dear Barry–

It was noted here in the comment section last week (I think) but I wanted to shout out to Christian Arroyo who won the MVP of the Arizona Fall League. Sabean took a lot of heat for his first 2 draft picks and while this certainly isn’t an indicator of success at the MLB level, it’s certainly not a BAD thing that your 18 year old first round pick just won the MVP of the Fall league.

He hit .326 in 45 games with 39 RBI’s, an impressive 25 extra base hits and 47 runs scored. Sure, he probably saw nothing but fastballs but it’s still a nice outcome so early in this young man’s career.

Ryder Jones, who blew off my Cardinal to turn pro, hit nearly as well– .3176 in 37 games. Jones is going to take a shot at playing third base but he’s actually considered a good pitching prospect if it turns out he can’t hit at these levels. So far, so good though.

And Sabean and his staff, at least today, deserves huge props for drafting these 2 players much earlier than anyone else had them getting drafted……

After watching The White Shark’s impressive blast to right field, I was reminded that he doesn’t do that too often. It was his second bomb of the year. He’s got a legit shot at passing the now shutdown Torres. With 27 games to go, he just might win that HR battle (it’s *races* like this that you have to embrace if you’re truly behind #questfor4th). The other *race* I’m eagerly watching: Will we hit 100 team home runs this year? We’ve got 79. Can we hit 21 in 27 games? Um, no. Mathematically, I guess it’s possible. But one hundo is probably not going to happen this year.

I was going to write a thread about the pathetic HR production from our OF this year but it’s already well known and I didn’t really have it in me this morning to look up all the other NL collective outfield HR stats. And really, it doesn’t matter where your power comes from. Cano has 25 bombs for the Yankees and that’s obviously a lot coming out of 2nd base. They’re near the bottom of the AL in team bombs, though.

The home run is NOT an overrated scoring tool but it’s not the ONLY way to score. If you’re stealing a ton of bags that’ll put enough runners in scoring position to produce an effective offense. We have stolen 55 bases this year, that’s 11th in the NL. So being 2nd to last in bombs and 11th in SB’s and an ugly picture starts to paint itself….

Walks are another important tool for an offense (especially if you can’t hit home runs). Walks are critical for many reasons. Obviously, they put men on base. They can move a runner into scoring position. They put a pitcher in the stretch. And, most importantly to a fantasy player, they protect the player’s batting average. The only way to sustain the hit of a low batting average is if the hitter is a big bomber. Alas we don’t have anyone like that and it’s one of the reasons I get irritated when people jack off to Belt’s OPS. It’s nice that he gets on base but he’s the wrong guy getting on base. He’s supposed to be the guy driving guys in. Thankfully, since he made the necessary adjustments at the plate courtesy of Dominic Freaking Brown, he’s been doing that in the 2nd half. Anyway, I digress. What was this paragraph about? Walks? That’s right. Well, we don’t take those very well either. We’re 11th in the NL with 375.  Belt piled up most of those in just a couple of games in June…..

The ONLY thing our offense does well is not strike out. We lead the NL with only 871 whiffs. Our problem is that we make contact with the ball but it stays in the yard. We also hit into a lot of double plays (110) and that’s 5th most in the NL….

If you do get a bunch of guys to 2nd base either by a double, a stolen bag, a bunt, a walk etc….. you still have to drive them in. St Louis is still hitting an out-of-this-world .326 with runners in scoring position. We’re ok, 7th, at .251. Same thing with RISP/2outs: .235 is good enough for 6th in the NL.

Throw in the dreaded *park factors* and it’s completely obvious why we have the worst offense in the NL (if you exclude Miami who kicked the shit out of us this year). We don’t hit home runs, we don’t steal bases and we are in Average-ville when it comes to hitting with RISP.

In short, this team has zero offensive identity. And when you don’t know who you are, you get a lot of guys standing around staring at each other waiting for someone to do something. Standing on 2nd base and firing off an inspiring salute to the dugout can only carry you so far……