According to Olney, We Suck
Our preferred Rose Bowl meal— Flavor’s Meatball Bonanza:
I heard on the radio that Buster Olney has ranked his top 10 starting staffs and that the Giants didn’t make the top 10. He also gave honorable mention to a couple of teams that weren’t the Giants. Not knowing where Olney would finally rank SF, we know it’s not in the top 12. He had Detroit 1st and the Dodgers 2nd. St Louis might have been 3rd but I didn’t write the top 10 down and that’s all I really remember. I was too stunned to remember much of what I was hearing. I think the Giants have a top 10 rotation in mlb. Maybe top 5. But Onley is very highly regarded so maybe he’s right. We’ll see.
I shudder to think where Olney would rank our offense…..
Anyway, happy new year to all of you guys and enjoy watching the Cardinal win another Rose Bowl tomorrow. I know I will. 🙂
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Johnny Rocket’s?
Sometimes a person just has to have a burger. I had one the other day from a place called “Country Boy’s” or “Country Kitchen” or something like that. Good burger.
Now, THAT looks like a tasty burger!…
No pretzel buns, though. 🙂 🙂
the pretzel bun would take it over the top!
The Giants pitching staff is potentially very good, but who knows? It could be great this season, or it could get ugly early. It’s been many years since Giants fans have had this type of uncertainty about the Giants’ pitching.
Roberto Clemente died 41 years ago today. That’s a LOOOONG time ago!
I saw him play at the ‘Stick in game 2 of the 1971 NLCS.
Thanks for the reminder of my age… 😉
Greetings and salutations on the pending New Year. It IS an even numbered one. Those have been good for SF of late. Also greetings from the Icebox of the Nation as my HIGH temp today was Twenty-frogging-TWO degrees below ZERO. I really feel sorry for those poor Canuckle ballers less than 100 miles north of me. For them below zero = -1 Celsius, which is something like 30 degrees in real temps. Now i can understand Celsius for some little place like Belgium or the Netherlands where neither 90 degrees nor ten below are often encountered. Places like that it does make some sense to get all laboratory scientificalatious about measurements and such ~ But Cana-frozen-duh? Give me a break.
Olney MIGHT be right if Cain does not show the uptick he provided in the latter part of last season; if Bumgarner suddenly and unaccountably slips; if Hudson starts showing his age; if Timmy’s resurrection was a flash in the pan and IF Vogie’s bad season was not a one-off. Looks like a lotta IFs to me. We are not even talking bullpen yet.
Even year, gang. It starts in less then 8 hours here in the Icebox of the Nation.
Olney thought we sucked right after the 2010 WS. The guy is a tool.
well, if you take the negative slant on all these coin flips (if you want to call them *coin flips*) then you believe Cain’s first half of 2013 is who he really is now, that Voggy is totally done, that Timmy’s best days are way behind him and that Huddy is now just a 38 year old pitcher with nothing left to give. I’m assuming he likes Bumgarner.
I would agree that Voggy is probably done but I think there’s definitely an upside slant to take with all the other guys…..
This re-tooled rotation is changed only by Huddy. And, he’s 38 with a healing fracture in his push-off ankle. Let’s face it, it is only a hope that this rotation improves upon last season somehow by the changing of the years, or the roll of the dice, or just by the utter jettisoning of Zito. It’s going to be the Year of the Horse for the Chinese, so maybe Cain will be gangbusters. There is nothing else on which to base any awaited improvement from 2013. It could happen. It might not — in which case they’ll need to call up the most ready of the minor league starting arms and hope some more. I still would like to know why Gaudin was deep sixed. He seemed to me to be a perfect choice to help out as long guy / spot starter or insurance if somebody’s arm blew up. But, pffffft …. and no details I’ve seen/heard from any of our esteemed “insider” beat media on why…
Pure speculation here but that misdemeanor trouble Gaudin has hanging might be what tacitly lead the Giants away from Chad. Rightly or wrongly they do have a definite idea on what kind of behavior they expect from their players. Chad may have fallen a foul of this and they have liked what they have seen from Yusmeiro Petit in the same role.
The Vegas imbroglio is the obvious reason, sure. Baer doesn’t like bad PR from anywhere he can control it. But, I’d like to know from the inside if that was really it, or something else. He definitely helped out Timmy; which I think would generate a vibe to keep Gaudin around…
Well Celeste, if you are right (and you may be…remember doing things “The Giant Way”) this is one time I wish the Giants would “look the other way.” I like Petit, but he doesn’t have the experience Gaudin did. I would have loved to see Chad in our pen, again. And don’t get me wrong, I like Petit, too.
If I ate that burger in the photo, I’d have to finish it with a chaser of 4 fish oil pills…
Just past 10am January 1 in China, and just want to say happy new year to Flap Nation. At least over here, the world is still alive in 2014. Hope it’s a good one for everyone!
Oh, and Craig and Steve, thanks for the shout-out on Face Book. Yep, see ya’ll *around* somewhere. Hope I can attend a Flaplooza this summer when I’m back visiting in July into August….
That would be the Awful Awful from the Nugget in Reno…Jealous with envy!
NICE. You win. I knew Dirt would nail this pic but I thought of a couple other guys (you, GH and maybe another one or two) who would have gotten it too. The background gave it away, eh? Happy New Year’s guys. I’m out till the Rose Bowl.
I think if all cylinders are firing like we know they can then yes we have a very good rotation. The problem with most sportswriters, Olney included, is that they only state how a situation looks on its face. They very rarely see what is possible only what is most obvious. On its face Matt had a down year. Timmy still struggled. Ryan was out of whack and injured and 36. Tim Hudson broke his ankle. Only MadBum had a to-a-sportswriter obviously good year! This is obvious assessment that Olney most likely thought of when ranking MLB rotations. They never look into circmstances or how pitchers ended the year.
Matt pitched far more like the Matty we have come to know in the second half. Timmy had a 3.53 ERA from June 4 onwards. Tim Hudson was pitching really well when he got injured. And Ryan will most definitely benefit from an injury-free full off season. And MadBum will remain MadBum. Do we have questions right now, yes. And sportwriters don’t consider how these questions may be answered in 2014. They want to deal in certainty (as they see it but all rotations have questions. It is that just those questions with those top rotations have yet to be asked.) Our questions have been asked…we just don’t know what the answers are yet. If answered positively we will have a great rotation.
Very well said. HNY to you all!
Happy New Year, Flav, and all the rest of you Flappers! As for your Cardinal, it’s gonna be Sparty all the way! (My wife went to MSU.)
Awful Annies in Auburn, CA? Happy New Year, Craig. And the same to all you other knuckleheads (love that motorcycle) and lad(ies). Make it a healthy and happy Year of the Horse, Flappers!
Happy New Years Flappers!
…I was gonna guess that was an Awful Awful. Haven’t had one of those yet, but its gonna happen someday.
Is that a Big Kahuna burger. Looks tasty!
Awful Awful at the Nugget, eh. I definitely have to one…that’s a damned good looking burger.
Just before 8am January 1 in the picturesque Peak district, UK, and just want to say a very warm new year to the Flap Nation. As usual no baseball news over here. Hope it’s a good one for the Cardinal, for the #5 NFL playoff team and all y’all, hear now?
Happy New Year, Ed! Good to see you.
BLEEP OLNEY!
I love college football, but gotta admit I haven’t watched 1 minute of bowl games. Today first two are Nebraska and their loony tunes coach in one and then UNLV vs. North texas…
Pac 12 doing pretty well so far, so let’s hope Shaw can continue to uphold dignity, etc. I used to like Lute Olson’s U of A teams but my buddies used to give me a full ration about embarrassing the left coast when he used to get bounced out of the tourney early.
Interesting to see what Shaw does if sparty takes away his power running game.
S-Dawg, how’ your roundball season going? Remember, JVs is all about developing players, and the kids adjusting and figuring out what they can do/need to work on, not the Ws. Hopefully they become backbone of program in a couple years but varsity is another thing altogether. Some kids can’t make that adjustment either, when the lesser skilled kids have fallen by wayside and you are going vs. best of the best, bigger and stronger, quicker and smarter. Hope you having fun…everyone else too.
I hate reading all the columns about what happened last year, but 1 story from couple weeks ago was way cool.
At end of a hockey game btw USA and Canada played in NorDakota, won 4-1 by USA there was a huge on ice brawl…and this is a women’s Olympic team tune up.
Seems someone took a run at USA forward, one of her teammates jumped into her defense with a payback shot, and here we go. Ryane Clowe used to do that for Sharks, and it’s something else cool about hockey. No, you do not light up our best players or smaller guys without paying for it. And I don’t think there is anything wrong with fights over it, either, to prevent open season on stars/little guys.
wouldn’t it be cool if you do that in football? Some db lights up a receiver, and then next play you call a sweep and a 300 lb lineman with head of steam pancakes him? Or maybe two of them double team a linebacker and rub him out of the play?
I was going to guess about the burger but Wilcoe beat me to it. That is some good grub. The new year is here and so far I have gotten news of a good friend with a baby on the way and a liver becoming available for my beloved uncle. I don’t pray often but I am this morning.
Happy New Year to all.
New year, hopefully some good luck and a miracle for your uncle, my man.
The Awful Awful (awfully big and awfully good), the saving grace of a disastrous trip to reno. (I don’t gamble, don’t drink anymore, and hate smoke) I was only up there for a tahitian dance comp that my daughter was involved in. Anyway, howsit flappers? I think I’m at the point where my expectations for the season are cautiously optimistic. With the exception of Bum, if they don’t all have bounce back seasons, it will be a looong summer.
A Happy, and above all healthy, New Year to all except the following:
Oh, OK, no exceptions. Except the casts and production people of every reality TV show ever made. And the woman who pushes the Phillips capsules on the airplane. And big meanies. And Fox news. And the people who stole my “Stay Kool Pillow” formula.
And my paperboy and his rotten family..
My wife started singing the fight song at the first sight of the Michigan State band during the Tournament of Roses parade. If this keeps up, I may just end up pulling for Stanford by game’s end.
lol, there’s ALWAYS room on the farm for new fans, Mac.
THis is the most confident I’ve ever been for a Stanford bowl game so that probably means your wife has this one in the bag. 🙂
And I apologize in advance for our stupid band. That shit was mildly funny back in the 70’s. Now it’s just totally played out.
I used to have a Stanford sweatshirt that my brother got me some 30 years ago when he briefly lived in the Bay Area. Haha, wish I still had it.
Sarge you got it too? I’m surprised so many here have had that burger. I thought Dirt would be the only one to get it.
Twin, happy new year. You guys still have paper boys? I haven’t seen a paperboy in years. Now a days it’s always an adult driving around way too fast in a really shitty beat up car.
Well, he’s in a car for quick get aways, but yeah, we do have paper boys, girls, and LGBT delivery professionals here.
Yeah, we stayed in Reno for three days and ate there four times. The awful awful alone is almost worth the three hour drive from Pinole… I’m really surprised that newspapers and paperboys are still around. I hope Stanford does well, always love to see the PAC-12 let everyone know we are a force to be reckoned with
One of my great made up jokes: when people ask me if I went to Stanford (because I’m a big fan and I grew up in Palo Alto). I look ’em right in the eye and say “Hell yeah I went to Stanford…..(long pause)…FOOTBALL GAMES!!!!”.
I’ve never understood people who don’t get why you’re a fan of a college team that you never attended as a student (Ray Ratto is the worst about this). I’ve been a Cardinal fan my who life (and an Indian fan before they went Cardinal). Hey, I didn’t *go to* University of the 49ers or ever live in the City but no one wonders about my alliegence to them…..
It’s because we live in the bay area, if we were in Texas or Alabama no one would think anything of it. My allegiances are on the other side of the bay, because I used to hang out in Berkeley, grew up about 15 miles from campus, loved LaVal’s pizza and 50 cent buds on game days. I’m no rabid fan, but I get it….I was a huge Ray Ratto fan about 15 years ago, but his last couple of years at the Chronicle and subsequent tenure at csn have been pretty mediocre. He has an occasional gem, but they’re pretty few and far between…also, I want in on the next flapapalooza
Ratto’s lame. Everything he says is designed to portray himself as this disgruntled, testy old man who can’t stand anyone or anything. No one is like that all the time. It’s like people who smile hugely in pictures. Just freaking smile normal, no one is that happy all the time.
It would be great if you came to Flap 4.0. We get new guys every year and it’s always a lot of fun.
and if you guys are looking for immediate guidance turn on the Wisconsin/South Carolina game. It’s awesome, 6:40 left.
anyone making anything good today? Seems like a good thread for Twin’s blog today. I’m rolling with my famous meatballs—
Stick all this shit in a bowl: 1 lb pork sausage, 1/2 pound hamburger. 3/4 cup bread crumbs. 2 eggs. 1/4 cup parm cheese. salt/pepper. Roll into meatballs about the size of a small rubber ball. Fry that shit up. Sit down in front of your tv with toothpicks and a warm tomato sauce (that has been simmering all morning) and you are about to have the best Rose bowl meal of your lifetime.
We have pork chops marinating in strawberry balsamic vinaigrette.
Happy New year Flappers! Sounds like a great snack Flavor. Marinating Chicken as we speak (soy sauce, onions, garlic, pepper, oregano . . . Bake uncovered for 45-60 minutes at 375 to 400 degrees, turning over once). Going to couple that with rice and a salad – spinach/romaine mix, carrots, cucumbers, avocado, cherry tomatoes, red onions, and a balsamic vinegar/olive oil dressing. Oh yeah, almost forgot, I’m accessorizing Casa Blade with an attractive date. 😉
that sounds great, Blade. As you can probably guess from the pic, no chicks at Casa de Flavor today, lol. Just me and a buddy. My daughter is still skiing in Sun Valley with her grand parents.
Actually Flavor, I would have guessed the opposite, you sly silver tongued devil. 😉
I just uploaded a pic of our Rose Bowl meal in the main thread. If you have any heart problems it’s probably best not to even look at that pic, lol
I think I’ll go find a new BBOTD, upload her, and I will have bided my time perfectly with the Rose Bowl nearly here. And I ran 5 miles this morning so I’m allowed to eat that shit. lol .
“Big Flavor” would be a fantastic name for a celebrity chef…
or an out of work, over the hill, gay porn star. 🙂
How long does it take you to run 5 miles, BF?
6 minutes, give or take a nano second
actually my run this morning meandered partially through the heart of the campus and I was surprised with how little Rose Bowl propaganda I saw. Almost nothing. Granted, the kids are gone but you’d expect to see banners or something. Literally, almost nothing. I saw some roses in a few windows of the dorms. That’s it.
If this was the SEC, Stanford would get kicked out for their pathetic lack of support for their Rose Bowl team……
When I went to school at Bloomington, Indiana (IU), they had cement trucks painted like basketballs during March Madness. Everyone worshiped Bobby Knight and no one complained when he strangled his basketball players. 🙂
Weird frickin’ weather . . . It snowed this morning. Then the sun came out. Now we’re having a blizzard like downpour of snow. Supposed to be dry and sunny today. Uhh huh.
it would be nice if the officials were watching the same game i was.
for dinner, beef tenderloin, twice baked potatoes, asparagus with hollandaise, and popovers. no cholesterol issues.
agreed. WTF was up with calling PI when the ball is 20 feet over the head of the receiver? MSU has gotten so fucking lucky in this game, Stanford should dominate the 2nd half..
I have a new post on my blog- “Tech Flopperinos of 2013”
featuring the iPotty!
http://zekesplace.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/2013-tech-flopperinos/
How about a new page with what we’re eating today? I’m taking Craig’s idea but I can’t post over the iPotty. Too bad there’s no time to get your USB Happy Fork in time for your pig out…
I already did it- look to the right for “What to eat , Flapper-Style”
Just dropped in on the Rose Bowl a bit into the 3rd quarter. Not looking good. Stanford needs to find another gear. Dammit!
Let’s go Stanford! TD for the win, and I cover (laid 2.5).
Happy New Year Flappers!
Cue the Shaw bashers.
As much as I despise Harbaugh, my biggest fear is that the Niners replace him with David Shaw.
Shaw with two dive plays into the line (and how has that worked all day?) and Stanford can’t even get the first down, let alone the TD, and he wastes his time out besides. Brilliant.
I wondered above what would happen if Michigan state took away his running game. Guess he answered it–just keep doing it regardless of results. The radio guys said sparts had too many guys up on the inside plays and they were too strong and too fast. Funny they saw it and Shaw didn’t.
Blah ending to the Rose Bowl. Lack of creativity. Smashmouth football has its limitations….
Dantonio ate Shaw’s lunch. Shaw announcing he would stay at Stanford was the only good decision he made this week.
Shaw, not surprisingly, reminds me of harbaugh: just because you can go big and run most of the time doesn’t mean it will work all of the time. you have to have a plan b. it’s not embarrassing. so they made you change? now make them change. try some crossing routes. they had one play that looked like a fly sweep left where number 39 was completely uncovered when they ran, of all places, up the middle. run it to the right and throw it to him. it also looked like the stanford safeties got schooled.
Being a Cal backer, I don’t normally get all teary when Stanford loses at anything, but I always root for the Pac12 teams in the bowl season, especially the Rose Bowl. I didn’t see the game, but saw highlights tonight. The blogs are unanimous in bashing Shaw relentlessly. That late Q4 4th down dive into the line when it looked like they were running into a green brick wall waiting for them — yeah, that was an idiotic call. It looked to me like Harbs calling for the jumbo package, when the opponent stacks 9 on the line. Duh, it doesn’t work. And, why is the Tree kicking a 39 yd FG with 5 minutes to play, and even if you make it (kicker did), you’re still down by 4, so you still need a TD to win, and no guarantee you get the ball back after the kickoff. Why not just go for the first down? That one’s more than a little weird. The Big 10 sucks eggs, and I hate the thought of the Pac 10 losing to it…
Zumie said “Blah ending to the Rose Bowl. Lack of creativity. Smashmouth football has its limitations….”
Yeah, especially when you are facing the top run D in the country. WTF, after seeing that not work for almost half the game, you would think that Shaw and crew would change it up. Nope. I can see now why so many Stanford fans are down on Shaw. His ass outta be fired, immediately.
Fire Shaw? Are you freaking kidding me? maybe he got outcoached yesterday, but all in all the guy has been great for Stanford IMO. I actually despise Stanford, but I think Shaw is impressive. I know Flav is probably working on his “Fire Shaw” manifesto as I type this, but I think they’re lucky to have him.
@ Willie: im still having fun coaching HS hoops. Both teams have losing records, but we’ve had some nice wins and the kids are getting better and having fun.
@ DMD: do you dislike Harbaugh for his coaching ability or his personality? If it is the former, you guys are a tough bunch to please.
…and while we’re on the topic of college football, i want to give a shout out to Zumie for noting that my beloved SDSU Aztecs won their bowl game. This years seniors played in a bowl in each of their 4 years-something I never could have envisioned coming to pass-even with the glut of crappy bowl games these days.
I’m not a Stanford fan, but always like to see the Pac 10 win in bowl games. And I was being overly reactive re: firing Shaw. I have watched my share of Stanford football games, and feel overall that Shaw does a good job. But he got a little more than out-coached yesterday. I mean really, after a quarter-plus of getting your jumbo package shoved up your ass, you would think he would have changed gears. That was one pathetic coaching job IMO.
Dawg, Harbaugh and Roman certainly have taken the brunt of a lot of dissatisfaction with the play calling this year. Me being one of them. Some of this was due to the fact we had no WRs, but there were times where this team still struggles with getting plays in on time, getting any kind of offensive flow, and most especially, getting 1st downs on 3rd and short. What Shaw did yesterday is EXACTLY what Harbaugh and Co. try to do for the Niners. Bring in the Jumbo package and try to stuff in through the line.
Problem is, EVERYONE knows what’s coming and the defenses will put 9 guys on the line. You can’t block 9 with 8 and expect it to work. It didn’t yesterday, and it doesn’t for the 49ers.
If they had any sense (and maybe Harbaugh will try things differently in the playoffs), they would put in 4 WRs, spread them wide, and THEN run up the middle. Or (gasp!) run play action. AnNd hit VD on a 4 yard drag route. The point being, the Niners have killed a lot of their own drives by doing what Shaw did yesterday. Sucks that it lost the Rose Bowl for Stanford. That play got stuffed all night. And in the AZ game, the Niners had 3 3rd and 1s, and 1 4th and 1. They ‘gained’ -10 yards. 2 went for 0 yards, and 2 went for -5 each. No 1st downs. That is a recipe for disaster in the playoffs.
The part about the Niners that crawls up my ass more than anything else is not getting the plays in on time/delay of game. And it is not always the inability to get a play in…many times the play is in, and Colin looses track of the fucking play clock. The team overall must get better at this.
I get what the Niners are tying to do. Grind it – grind it – grind it. Chew up clock and keep the other team’s offense on the sideline. This could be very important in the upcoming game. The less Rodgers is out there, the better.
Heard this morning that the forecasted “high” for the game is 0. That means most of the game will be played in sub-zero temps. But the Niners have won in environments like this before (their dismantly of Da Bears 19-3 being one of my favorites).