Glitzy Sports Weekend
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Lot to like out of what you see as SF battles LA, esp late game last couple days. Great to pin an L on Kershaw and a blown save on Jansen in their own yard in front of anyone who stuck around to see it.
And as Twin mentioned, Uribe looks like he has returned to 2010 form. I like the guy I just hope he doesn’t hit a clutch 3 run bomb for them in playoffs…unless it’s in a losing effort.
I enjoy college football and watched some of TCU vs. Tex Tech the other night in renewal of old Southwest Conference match up; Tech was in these weird gray unis, at home. Even tho they should blow them out, I think it’s cool S is playing the Army. Anyone at a service academy has a pretty rough life, only made harder by having to spend time away from studying to practice and play a demanding sport like football.
John Feinstein wrote a book about army vs. navy and he followed both teams during a b-ball season in a conference that didn’t award scholarships. That was a good read, far removed from D-1 all American life. These guys are busy preparing for a career that doesn’t include the NBA or NFL.
My mom (gamer) flew out there for the Stanford/Army game. She’s sitting in the endzone rockin’ it and sending me pics right now.
I saw a lot of red in that end zone where Army just kicked a field goal.
for z;
although ellis ( .266 career ba) has not shown an afinnity for ‘clutchy’ behavior throughout his career- .265 ba w/risp, .243 2 outs risp, and .250 in the 9th inning ( not reallly a ‘clutch’ stat, but of obvious importance), his numbers are better this year- .273 ‘regular’ ba, .278 risp, .262 2 outs risp, .342 9th inning. others this year- .284 late and close. .317 tie game.
he’s a guy i’ve always liked.
blade- thanks for asking. i just got tired.
last night- another good game. even most of our losses have been pretty good ones. on gonzo’s shot that romo kick saved- i spotted crawford close to second base when the ball caromed to arias. it looked liked he had a good chance of fielding it.
uribe- arias and uribe would be a great utilty tandem. and with crawford hitting so poorly against lefties, uribe would get plenty of starts. and we’ve lacked a good dominoes player.
tonight- rarely have individual starts been so important, money wise. timmy has 3 more starts this year. the outcome of these are worth miillions and maybe the diff between a 1 year deal at the qualifying offer figure of about 14 milion and at least a 3 year deal at 15-18 mill per year.
I think the fate of Timmy’s next 3 starts may be the linchpin to what happens in the off season. If we get more of the same — 1 good start and a couple that keep his ERA around 4.5, then I think the quest for a more productive OF really becomes a secondary concern.
The reason the Dodgers don’t miss Kemp is because they have the kind of pitching we were supposed to see from our guys. This year, there is a vast chasm between the quality of their staff and ours, much bigger than that between the position players.
What’s ironic about my continual harping on the need to improve the pitching is that I actually prefer drug fueled offensive output to dull 60s style austerity. I want to jack off to those hot OPS numbers again 🙂
in any case i see a corner outfielder ( pence has become the most attractive of all of the free agent outfielders and may have played his way out of here), a starting pitcher, a couple veteran relievers, and a utility infielder as the priorities. if pence leaves, we may have to trade for the outfielder. the others are available in free agency in good quantity and quality. imo.
i still think they’ll end up keeping timmy and vogelsong. but they could be the 4/5 starters. i like garza big time, would love to have uribe back.
I guess one the things I’ve taken for granted is that we are holding on to Pence.
Based on what I’ve seen this year, my focus would be on adding 2 quality starting pitchers and strengthening the bench. That may not be within financial reason — I’ll admit that I pay very little attention to the business side. IMO, Hector/Arias/Uribe as starter plus a trade for someone like Adam Jones (assuming Belt or Sandoval are gone) would not strengthen the offense nearly enough to compensate for another year with a 4.X team ERA, or even a 3.8. I don’t think the Dodgers’ staff performance is going to decline next year.
my belt/romo air trade for adam jones would be acompanied by acquiring mccann. i think this lu would work:
pagan
scutaro
posey
jones
sandoval
mccann
crawford/uribe platoon ( uribe and mccann switch spots when uribe starts)
blanco/perez platoon
i realize some will differ about lf and platooning crawford. but the lu is without doubt better than the team will *really* end up with.
If you swap out Pence and Belt for Jones and McCann in your proposed line up, how much offense/defense are you really giving up? I don’t see any realistic or even position player scenario that makes us much better than a 500 team without greatly improved pitching. I am not hopeful that Timmy, Gaudin, Vogey, and Petit will provide that. And, Madbum and Cain are probably not going to be as good as Kershaw and Greinke.
damnit, “or even mildly unrealistic”
well, as i said, i don’t think the line up that opens the 2014 season will be as good as the line up i propose. and i think that madbum, garza, cain, timmy, vogie or ‘pick ’em’ will be a good rotation. will all that plus a couple relievers, the utilty guy, and casilla/hembree be better than what the dodgers will put out, at least on paper ? no. will anything we do overtake the dodgers, on paper? no, again. imo.
Fair enough, I agree the roster won’t be as good on paper as LA’s no matter what moves they make, at least any that are within the operational financial constraints. I don’t think McCann and Jones would produce many more runs for the team than Belt and Pence, if any.
i’m presuming they lose pence. but we’ll see. this could get real bad if that’s the case and they don’t make a major trade or two. pagan and rabbits on either side of him doesn’t thrill me. i mean, like, they need a *few* homeruns…
What’s the deal with Stanford?
Backup QB takin snaps,Shaw doesnt want to cover the spread?
rumble….rumble…..rumble….
BF forgot that Ohio State is playing the Bears in Berkeley. 😉 Especially with Stanfoo playing down to its competition — a game Army team back along the Hudson. I’m headin’ out right now to Memorial Stadium. Should be a great afternoon of college ball at Cal. We’ll see how many points get scored, could be a track meet. I’ve no illusions about who should win, but it’s hard to beat an afternoon game in Berkeley, especially in the new Stadium and with the Buckeyes in town, which is as rare as a comet…
I was in a meeting with a The Ohio State senior administrator yesterday, and he mentioned that they brought their entire 300 person marching band to Berkeley. It sounds like it’s going to be akin to a Giants/Padres game at Petco.
when i was a boy in pittsburgh, it seems that the pitt marching band was considered one of the best. and they really were good. how did they find all those double jointed kids 😉 no way knees can go so high. they had a cool backfield then- the 3 C’s- fred cox (went on to be a great placekicker ), bob clemons, and jim cunningham, ditka was the tight end. all 4 were drafted by the nfl. that ’60 team ended up with a disapppointing seaon- including three 7-7 ties.
but hey. who doesn’t love a marching band? nobody, that’s who 😉
brutal- there went the spead on alabama/a&m.
1/2 point loss. Glad I didn’t bet it. That would have been infuriating after they were up so much earlier…..
Chi, if you are around – send me a photo of you and Gail from the Flap Fest (and any other’s you think would go with my blog post). Thank you senor.
I’m just catching this on ESPN in the gamecast, but with Ohio State rolling up 343 total yards on Cal with 7 minutes left to go in the 2nd quarter, I’m wondering if Cal is remembering to send out their defense when the Buckeye’s have the ball. Valid question.
I am literally on my hands and knees begging Timmy for a great start tonight. I don’t care about the k’s, though they would be nice. I need him to give me an ERA under 3.00 and a Whip under 1.14 or so. A W would mean I’d send him a Christmas card with my jizz all over it. Not sure how he’d take that but it would be heartfelt. I have Ubaldo and Fister already checking in with stud performances. Timmy puts me over the top tonight if he goes off. Make it so, you Freak…….
Nolasco bringing his D game. Love it!!!!
Me too. Good luck on your pay league. Hoping you score the big money.
Base hittin’, base hittin…
Uribe! Still paying off for us!
Nick Noonan is a freaking numbskull. Is he aware he’s batting 8th?
Thank you. I wanted to scream at the guy.
Get that run back, Giants.
Cal’s takin an “Ass Whuppin” by “Thee Ohio ST Buckeyes”
Way over matched by Buckeyes huge OL..
Damm the baby on the line is the center at a puny 6’5 297 beefer.
the los angeles generals…
Haha, Puig just puiged himself. Art dealers should start considering bringing in CF about 60 feet each at bat , lol
Nice job Hunter!!
Eat shit Dodgers
Ok Giants, stop teasing me. What are we when we score 4 runs? Like 50-17? Something like that?
Timmy’s soiled Christmas card is coming.
And dude, like I said, it’s heartfelt. Discard immediately if you’re not feelin’ the physical, concrete part of the gift!
Yes.
7-1 is good, but I’m a greedy fucker, I want more, more I tell ya.
That was brutal for Nolasco (Pawlie too, since he owns his Bum ass in the Flap). 😉
OH Yeah!!!
Panda tore the cover off that one.Shades of Roy Hobbs.
Did I say Fuck the Dodgers?
Oh yeah.Well that’s ok, I will say it again Fuck the Dodgers!
I’d like MLB to start testing Puig more frequently. He’s dumb, a + test would make me so happy and he’s yoked to shit. He is likely on the juice, I’d set the odds at about 60% or so.
no clue on where to throw the ball. his default target seems to be *somewhere* in the infield
curse of the pitching coach…”throw strikes but don’t give him anything to hit.”
And Donnie does make 2 trips, here in the second f-ing inning.
I got to run to b-ball. Pls, bochy should not need Romo tonite.
Cal at least will be fun to watch when they have the ball, as they are tonite. They will set a record for most points scored (my guess being 50) in a loss…might get em tonite too.
I’m awaiting our good buddy, a Flap vet, the Gloating Rooster to start crowing about the Dodgers mid-season record of 48-10 or whatever the fuck it was.
He’s probably out to dinner, and if I know The Rooster, dinners during games like these last a LONG time.
One lasted nearly 2 years…
Where’s Rooster?
Heh heh didn’t see yer post, Craig.
if the scores hold, we move into a tie with the ‘sons of norgay’ for 3rd place.
Sons of Norgay???? Colorado?
I wish they had done this to Nolasco back in June when the games still mattered.
Even Timmeh gettin a smokin flair basehit!!
the ‘zito duck fart’…
Feeling better Bozo?
Are do we want to pile more runs on?
I Say Fucking pile it on these pricks!!
8-1 is good Kat, but I want more, I want double digits tonight. Yes, fucking pile it on.
New post on my blog about the Flapalooza 3.0 . . . http://aroundtheworldwithblade.wordpress.com/
I’m bbqing, drinking a beer, watching the game and trying to read this new post and I’m not juggling this shit too good. 🙂 I love the beginning. Can’t wait to read the rest. Wish you lived out here, you’re a fucking hell of a dude….
Flav, thanks for saying that. The feeling is mutual and the Flapalooza 3.0 was easily the BEST day while I was out there. Not just saying that, because my entire time was wonderful out there.
All of you guys rock! Looking forward to seeing you, and possibly a few of the other Flappers when I return in late December (albeit with the Christmas holiday, everyone will probably be booked). 🙂
Where is that chicken shit Rooster?????????
at dinner!
You might not have been around back then but he had a notorious night of shit talking a prediction and then when it went completely south he came back like 6 hours later telling us he was at dinner and had missed the game.
Classic.
But I do like that dude.
I like Sandy better, but yeah – he seems like a good dude for a Dodger fan. Did I just say that. OH NO! Commit me . . .
capon is usually pretty cool but occasionally he can’t help himself and reverts to troll talk. he had started on the splash as a complete troll, but he came around pretty quickly. maybe the surgery that caponized him did the trick 😉
Timmy on Fire with the stick!!
Still not quite enough for me, 12 – 1 sounds good but 15 – 1 would sound much better.
Have to say,Belt’s duck fart was the best.ive seen all year!
Makes Zito or Timmeh’s look like line drive smashes!!
HOLY SHIT Hunter
Grand Slam!! Career high 7RBI’s
as the $$$$ for resigning just keeps increasing for him.
Blade-just checked out your blog re Flap 3.0. Great stuff, man!
One point of clarification: I did not name Beer Can ‘Beer Can.” I heard Marty call her Beer Can while he was on the air. Later, I approached her and said something like “How’s it going Beer Can?” I wasn’t sure what kind of reaction I’d get, but she was very friendly and obviously has no issue with that moniker.
Really great to see the Giants playing a strong series vs LA. Also, proud of those Cal Bears for putting up a better fight v Ohio St. than my Aztecs did last week.
Too funny Dawg. My source in Syracuse (Pawlie) gave me that flub info . . . I will revise it. Thanks!
ahhhh leave it as is-don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story!
LMFAO. OK.
Yeah fuck it Bozo,,Let’s drop 20 on these pricks!
Damm now im pissed,were only up 10 runs.
Way to go Tim!! Pluck the Puig!!
I want to win by 14. So right now 17-3 would be just fine by me.
What looks like the game of the year and I have no TV, no internet video feed – just ESPN Gamecast Giants dots circling the bases again and again. 🙂
I wish they had done this to Fife back in . . . oh, never mind, just let it go.
night all. another nice sports day tomorrow.
Wow Boch finally throws C Monell a scrap of a gnarly bone.Up 14-3 and working with his batterymate Hembree figures he cant really screw this one up.
And yes throw in that baseball for his 1st big league knock!! Way to go Jonny!!
OK. I’m good. 17-3 works for me.
Brandon Belt: Announcing his OPS presence with authority!
Snarkk– I’m looking for a recap of the Cal game and you are the Flavor Nation Man on The Scene. They only gave up 608 yards total and that’s impressive when you consider they gave up 1,250.193 yards in the first half. Somehow, the Cal D managed to change the foundation of math and time. But seriously, how was the game?
That was right in the solar plexus, especially in lieu of it coming from a Stanford man. Poor Tom.
We Score!
We Win!
We score 17 you better win.
Just dig stickin it to the Dogpile!
That. Is. Awesome. AK!
Like
Thanks Blade.
Quest for 20 runs is still possible!!!
Another thing ive never seen 2 Giants getting their 1st big league hit (Monell &Adrianza) in the same game,pretty cool and rare i assume.
Well that’s awesome Giants just scored the most runs ever in the history of the latrine, 19 fucking runs, Beautiful!!!
Take that — and stick it up your blue and white sombreros, L.A. Art Dealers!
Wow, what a beatdown. I hope they bring some of that on their visit to the Bronx next weekend.
I just beat off all over Timmy’s Christmas card. Where do I send this? Wait….what did I just do?
Uhh . . . Well . . . Umm, the good news is that it has plenty of time to dry before you send it off in December. 😉
Then again if it doesnt dry out,it still looks like white somewhat sticky snow for Tim to figure out. 🙂
Damm,did we just pass our run total for the season in this game?
Lincecum with 2 hits — dude is just padding his stats now that it doesn’t count.
Salary clause push in his batting contract James.
Belt only 4 points behind Buster in the OPS race now. If Belt overtakes the MVP and is leading him by a point or two before game 162, what will Bochy do with his line up? Will he bench Belt to protect him from the pressure and give Buster the chance to do a Ted Williams and come up big time?!
I am a Rooster Booster. I suspect that poor Foghorn secretly wanted to be at the Flapalooza. If the world is right again, and we are back on top next year, I say he should get an invite.
kinda enjoyable evening….
Winning scores from last year:
Aug 3 16-4
Aug 8 15-0
It’s all random distribution.
3 of 4 would certainly be sweet. Cap of the weekend with the Niners and Giants winning their games.
Report tomorrow from Strawberry Canyon on Cal v. the Buckeyes. Pretty much what I expected. And, folks, Cal has a QB — and future Heismann candidate…
Yeah, Goff looked like he’s got game. I didn’t think Cal would win, but they did do enough to show that they look like they are heading in the right direction. So far anyway. It’s early but promising.
He learns to hit the long one (most of which he overthrew), look out. that TO on the int right after cal recovered the fumble kinda hurt. TD to Treggs was a beauty tho, laid up and over the DB who had him covered well.
Time of possession is funny stat–Cal gave up first 3 scores in 6 minutes worth off *defense*.
Good lord. I was away from any type of media from 1pm till the end of never yesterday only find out this morning from my SFChronicle that the Giants prime bitch slapped the Artless Dodgers last night. Strange to read that such a consistent HR hitter averaging 25 dingers a year is 30 years old aiming up to a career 400+, 3 time all-star…and, frankly, I had never heard of Hunter Pence until 2/3 into the 2012 season.
And I call myself a baseball fan
Yep – that was a serious, grade AA beat-down last night – went to a friend’s house to watch the Mayweather fight – wasn’t much of a fight – Alvarez never got close to getting a clean shot in on that Mayweather guy – anyways, I know you won’t believe me, but I wasn’t in control of the remote so I never once checked in on the score of the game and didn’t see or hear what went on until I opened this morning’s paper – glad I missed that one.
Now we get the battle of the near 6 ERA V brothers, Vogelsong and Volquez – sure not the series I was anticipating it would be at the start of the season.
49ers-Seahawk game should be a good one tonight, haven’t taken a look over at Niner’s Forever yet, unca, but you predicting another “handily” won game for the 9ers? Don’t bet on it.
I’m calling another close one – a good, hard-fought win for…… one or the other – could go either way.