A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

“There were a lot of bad deals to be made and we certainly didn’t want to be a part of it”— Brian Sabean.

What does this mean? Was Sabean out there looking to give up literally NOTHING for reinforcements? Because that’s not how trades work, Brian. We know for a fact that he was in on talks for Bonifaco and Denorfia. I’d like to think he had a conversation with Texas about Rios. Or with Tampa about Zobrist. But those 2 guys didn’t get moved so let’s look at the first two players and see what this ultra-step price was that Sabean was afraid to pay for fear of participating in a “bad deal.”

(And I’ll preface this by saying, what you think of Bonifaco or Denorfia is not important. You can argue whether either is an upgrade on Panik or Blanco, I say it is but that’s not the point. Sabean has been quoted as saying he didn’t want to participate in a “bad deal.” So let’s see what those guys cost……)

Bonifacio went to the Braves (along with lefty reliever James Russell) for a class A catching prospect that was a 2nd round pick in the amateur draft in 2013. In 356 at bats this year in the SALLY league, he’s hitting .279 with 5 home runs. Granted he’s only 21, but if you can’t hit better than that in a straight-ass fastball league, you are not a blue chip prospect–you are a fringe prospect, and Sabean has boatloads of those guys. And I will refer you to the SF Giants minor league link to the right to see all the catchers we have at different levels who are hitting as well as this chump.

Now to Denorfia— The Padres wanted Escobar for him and Sabean said no and pivoted to Boston and that’s how we got Peavy. But what did Seattle give up for Denorfia? They gave SD Abraham Almonte who is a 25 year old outfield who sucks and a 25 year old pitcher who is just spinning his wheels in the minor leagues at a variety of different stops for the M’s. So essentially, Seattle gave up 2 guys who they don’t want who aren’t in their plans who no one considers prospects for Chris Denorfia— a guy who Sabean DID target, this is fact. We have OODLES of guys like these guys in our shitty farm system……..

So what gives here? Does Sabean not understand the concept of countering? Fine, you don’t want to give up Escobar but there are PLENTY of players littering their minor league system at all levels who match up with Almonte and Kohlscheen.

So where were these “bad deals”, Brian? Where were the deals that you felt like you were gonna get totally fleeced and that’s why you did nothing today?

Answer: Sabean has lost a step. Whether he can’t pull the trigger because he’s gun shy or maybe he just doesn’t have a realistic idea of what his farm players are worth. I don’t know. But saying “there were a lot of bad deals out there” should only have been in the context of what they might have acquired that wouldn’t have ended up panning out. There was nothing they could have given up, relative to what the Braves and the M’s gave up (or what the Yankees gave up for Prado) that would have ever in a million years been considered by the fan base to be a “bad deal.”

What could Adam Duvall have fetched? The Giants don’t even consider him a prospect but he could have easily gotten any of the guys listed above.

Sabean’s hands are warm tonight and our season is OVER………

Super weirdo roadie coming up against the Mets, the Brewers and then the Royals. They better not sleep on the Mets who outscored them 100-85 in July (so far), We never play well in Milwaukee. Or maybe that was Zito never pitched well there. I can’t remember. And then we have to go play a decent KC team where we are forced to use the DH. With our 10 cent bench that should be a cute match up, right?

But the glorious key to all of this is that all 10 of these games will be played AWAY from AT&T. I’m tired of hearing about how impossible it is to score runs at AT&T. The opposition scored 30 runs over this last hommie stand. And our pitching wasn’t terrible. You can score runs in San Francisco if 37.5% of your starting position players play in Fresno and not San Francisco.

A’s just traded Cespedes for Lester and Gomes. Wow! Action packed day for at least one team in the Bay Area….

Lots of stuff going on right now—Uggly and Colvin released. Possible other moves pending. Sounds like we are not in on Bonifacio…

Uggly finished his career with the G-Men with 0 hits in 11 at bats and 3 errors. I’m not sure if you could find a worse 4 game career in the history of baseball. His OPS+ was -73. That might be a record. Sabean had lightning in his brain when he decided this pick up was a good idea…..

San Dawg laid down the gauntlet and challenged me to rise up and lead Flapper Nation out of the valley of darkness. I’ve tried all morning to come up with something that i could truly believe in writing and, sadly, I’ve got nothing. This reminds me of the time we were at the game last April and we were trying to get up to the Club level. I was wandering around looking for the elevator or escalator, Diggity was trailing behind. Suddenly, he realized I was lost and he just goes, “How can this happen? You’re Big Flavor…”

Absolutely one of the funniest moments of that game…..

And when San Dawg reads this thread, I imagine he’ll say the same thing as he did that day. Sorry, my man, I’m lost  in the darkness like everyone else.

Because the bottom line is this: this isn’t a bad stretch and they aren’t losing because the team is pressing or gripping or whatever Krukow said this morning on KNBR. They are losing because they have too many bad players playing for them. There’s a reason Dan Uggla was let go by the Braves. And it wasn’t to clear a pathway for the vaunted Tommy Freaking LaStella. It was because he was done. Kaput. Cannot play mlb anymore. Can play beer league softball with Byrnes if he so chooses….

Look at the bottom of today’s line up: Panic, Blanco, Susac, Lincecum. You simply cannot score runs consistently when 44% of your line up, IN A ROW, sucks like that. AQnd it doesn’t matter if Uggla or Arias or Arianza or whoever gets subbed in there.

So that’s all I got today. Another loss is looming. And the sun has set on our season…..

Well, when you’ve lost 5 in a row and you can’t score runs, I guess the natural move is to call up Travis Ishikawa to the rescue. Too bad, I was enjoying watching Duvall try to run into one every now and again.

Cain to see Dr Andrews…..

As my old man said a while ago, the sun is setting on this season……

The alarming part is that this was not a surprise, or should not have been a surprise, to anyone. Just like Uggla sucking worse than a replacement player should not be a surprise to anyone. Peavy pitched better than his results, I lay a lot of that on Buster. He has to do a better job of blocking balls and his half assed effort in looking Dee Gordon’s way led to a run being scored. You don’t look a guy back without the ball, dawg….

So that’s out of the way.

Now what?

Just have for a quickie thread change. I’m going on record predicting a very good start from Peavy tonight. Now, in order to get a win we have to score at least one run and I have no faith or confidence in that. But it’s happened before, it’ll probably happen again.

There’s games where you lose and there’s games where you get your asses kicked. And then there’s games where you just chalk it up to smoking massive amounts of someone else’s pole.

And I feel like all three of those things happened last night.

If Two Trip’s master plan was to re-arrange his rotation so that his best pitchers could embarrass us in our own house then his plan is off to a masterful start.

Kershaw tonight……

So how important is this 3 games series? To us? To them? They re-arranged their rotation for this series and frankly, I think that was a great move. I’m glad we have Timmy going tonight, he’s been so good at home. But Voggy and Petit following him? Not much we could have done about Petit but I really wish Bum or Huddy were going this weekend….

So how many games do you think we HAVE to win, considering the opponent, the current NL West standings and the fact that this is at home? I’m assuming we all agree zero would be a disaster and no one in their right mind should think we have to sweep the Dodgers this weekend…..

Never have I been less confident about a Giants team with the best record in the league. Our best paid pitcher is likely gone for the year. Our center fielder is barely able to hit off a tee these days. Our 2nd baseman is going to break off into 47 pieces at any moment. And our most promising young hitter is getting worse from the concussion he suffered, not better. It’s shaping up like a lost year for Belt.

We continue to beat up on bad teams. If you’re Sabean, what do you do? Seriously, what do you do? Personally, I would start with trying to acquire Zobrist or Bonifacio–a guy you could plug into multiple different spots. Because that’s what this team is going to need for the rest of the year. And the plugs we have now aren’t plugging up anything.

I suppose you could take a shot at a starting pitcher but they are always in such high demand, I can’t see Sabean having the bullets to fire at a target like that.

Or do you just ride it out with the crew you have?

In terms of finding trade partners, it just feels like, to me, that Sabean would be bringing piss to a shit fight…..

That was a satisfying win. The one thing you can always count on with this team is that they don’t give up. And as a fan, while that should be the minimum that you get from the players you root for, it’s not something that all fans for all teams get game in and game out. So I appreciate their effort.

Having said that, we shouldn’t delude ourselves as we did before into believing that the best record in the NL meant we were the best team in the NL. And by 1 percentage point, we nearly have the best record in the NL….again. This is a team with gaping holes. It was nice that Jeff Manned the Ship that went down in Philly last night. But we can’t count on loser fringe pitchers to cough it up every game.

With the trade deadline quickly approaching, Sabean doesn’t have his “bad penny” excuse to fall back on this year. As usual, pitching will be the hardest asset to acquire. That has to have Sabes doing a slow burn because pitching is his favorite thing to stock pile. He doesn’t have the balls or the booty to go after David Price. I would think a more realistic target would be Bartolo “Two Slices” Colon. He’s pitching tonight, and I expect Pat the Bat to be in Seattle taking a look at The Man Who Demands Extra Mozzarella on that Shit…..

Bonus: the strip joints in Seattle suck so Pat might actually have both eyes and his brain on that game tonight…..

The thing I used to loved about this blog is still the thing I love most about this blog. Yesterday, Zumiee makes a random, innocuous comment about hitting up A&W for lunch before the Giants game:

Today I had lunch at one of the original old A&W places, from back when car-hops brought things out to the car. I had root beer in a cold glass mug. Good times.
Now I’m ready for some BASEBALL!

And then, despite a game going on (and a good one at that) the rest of the Flap community bobs and weaves through the baseball related thread with personal stories about burgers and best places to eat, and such. Finally, as the blog was shutting itself down, San Dawg tied it all together with an epic POTD. That one had it all, didn’t it? Sports played, lessons learned, childhood memories, humor and even a “bad ass” reference. It probably had other things, too. And then freaking Loo goes over the top of Diggity’s epic post with some cherry finality that had me laughing out loud this morning…..

So thanks to all of you guys who make this blog the BEST San Francisco Giants blog anywhere on the internet…..

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The Giants beat down big, bad Cliff Lee and tonight we get to face the dude of a thousand names. I always thought it was awesome that when Roberto Hernandez decided to fake his birth certificate to de-age himself he went with “Fausto Carmona”. You gotta have some flair and a little bit of ballsy stupidity to enter the US with a made up name like that. He probably figured that if the baseball gig didn’t work out he could get a job working as a magician at the circus. “The Great Fausto!”. Yes, I know I’ve said that before. I continue to amuse myself. Carry on.

Yesterday was disappointing but not surprising. The Giants have several back up players who shouldn’t be on the 40 man roster. You bat Sanchez/Arias/Blanco back to back to back and 0 for 10 sounds about right.

And if you thought it would get easier than Brad Hand (or whatever name is)  you would be mistaken as there are few in the world easier than Brad Hand.  That name almost sounds made up.

Cliff Lee comes off the DL tonight. Joy.

Though for some reason, I’m strangely optimistic. Pence and Morse have historically hit him well, pummeling him for 15 hits in 24 at bats. And that’s when he was still good. Lee is 36 and coming back from another elbow injury so I think we take the “glass half full” approach tonight.

But there is no magic wand to fix the bottom of our order. There’s no guy behind the guy. With Belt out and Scoots on a *1 day on 5 day off* work program we are going to see all the “Blanc-ias-anza-paniky-chez” we can handle…..

And Pablo can’t hit left handers anymore so maybe I’m tasting less liquid in that glass after all…..

Is it too late to pick up Cody Ross for this series? 🙂

It’s nice to see the Giants taking concussions so seriously, he said with heavy sarcasm. Brandon Belt got beaned in the face on a throw during batting practice and still ended up starting the game. And remember, the beat guys were mentioning BEFORE the game that they thought Belt’s back was acting up because of how he was moving around prior to the game–turns out, it wasn’t his back but rather his head, which probably felt like it was about to explode. And that’s the main issue I have with letting him play: if the writers noticed something was wrong, the freaking training staff should have known better and sat him down.

After scoring he was removed from the game with all of the usual concussion symptoms including nausea and dizziness. He should never have been allowed to play yesterday.

And in case anyone needed a reminder during the game, here’s how close the bad throw from Salty came from possibly doing some serious damage to Belt’s head:

It’s 2014, not 1954, there is concussion protocol. It doesn’t matter what the player says. And it is disturbing that the Giants played Belt yesterday when he should have been at a hospital having actual  medical professionals checking on him. He dodged a literal bullet last night. He’ll likely go on the 7-day concussion DL.

Hey, we scored 17 runs in our last 2 games. A bounty, to be sure. If we lose 2-1 the next three games that averages out to be 4 runs a game. That’s enough to win all 5 right? Well, not all runs are created equal.

But last night was a great sign, they knocked around a pitcher with very good stuff. I’m actually not sure why more bats don’t  miss his pitches. Eovaldi seems like a guy that has all the pitches necessary to dominate and then he just doesn’t. Actually, tonight’s pitcher is a lot like that, too. Henerson Alvarez has sick stuff but his strike out rate is rather pedestrian.

Some of their failures is related to the battles they have with the catcher. Did any of you catch Eovaldi shake off Salty on the pitch he threw Crawford that ended up in the stands? I wonder what their conversation was like later.

Gotta keep it rolling tonight…..

I feel like I’m awakening from a bad dream. So excited for baseball again. I built 20 different fantasy line ups at 4am. I’ve cleared my schedule so that I actually get to watch the entire game this afternoon (those 4pm games are not easy to make).

Buster has had a long, long rest. God knows he needs his rest. Maybe he starts the “2nd half” raking. His OPS is at an alarmingly low .753. I’d like more from my 167 Million Dollar Man.

I wish we weren’t playing Miami. They are one of those teams that always seems to give us fits while the rest of the league wipes the plate with them.

But whatever, I’ll stop now. I’m starting to get negative and this is a day for positivity. Positively.

Do you think it’s possible that the Giants go 40-27 the rest of the way? Because that would get them to 92 wins and if not the NL West crown, certainly a playoff spot. They have the worst record in major league baseball since June 9th. THE WORST. If that’s a little too sobering for you, on June 8th they had the best record in baseball. THE BEST.

So who do you think this team is? The worst? The best? Something in between?

So much of their fate depends on whether Angel Pagan comes back healthy. And of course, if they manage to acquire the vaunted Ben Zobrist. 🙂

Personally, I don’t think there’s any way in hell they go 40-27 the rest of the way with the currently assembled team. Blanco has to stop playing regularly. And the offense has to start supporting the pitchers who are absolutely pitching well this season.

I’m most concerned about the closing position. If the team does start to hit well enough to win regularly again they aren’t going to be blowing people out. They’re going to be playing nail biters and that means lots of closing opportunities for Casilla. And the last thing a struggling team needs is a closer blowing a bunch of games for them.

The psyche of the team just couldn’t handle that.

I think they go 30-37 the rest of the way. Yes, call me a “doomer” I can handle it. I’ve doomed it up before, I’ll doom it up again. Put your predictions in the comment section below and/or click on a poll answer.

Bob Welch died in June and Tony Gwynn died a few days later. The All Star game was a perfect spot to honor the memory of both men and the contributions they made to the game. And yet there wasn’t a single reference to either of them. This made no sense to me. Is Selig only down with honoring the baseball legends who are still alive? The only thing I can think of is that mlb didn’t want to take anything away from the focus of saying “goodbye” to Jeter. And if that’s true, that is simply shameful. What other reason for ignoring their deaths could there be?

Tonight is the Derek Jeter Game. At least, that’s how the media is presenting it. I can appreciate what Jeter has done in his career I just have absolutely zero emotional feelings about him. I’m not planning on watching the game but who knows, maybe I’ll click on it by accident.

Hey, if you’re tired of Chris Berman’s boring schtick you should check out some of these videos of him that ESPN has pulled from youtube. Pretty hilarious stuff.

http://tinyurl.com/mbpjdzu

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Also, congrats to BLADE who outdueled DIRT in the HR Derby Final last night. Blade, you are the Flap HR Derby Champion for the year! Celebrate!

The Home Run Derby passed its prime a long time ago and needs a complete make over. The first and best way to improve it would be to get rid of Chris Berman. His bombastic calls have got to go. He calls each one like it’s an actual home run in a real game and the “back, back, back, bullshit” is beyond played out. Have some hottie in a bikini who knows nothing about baseball call the Derby. Or have nobody call it. We all know what a home run looks like.

Secondly, it goes on way too long. I’d make it one round of 30 swings.

The only thing I’d keep is the little leaguers shagging in the outfield. That’s pretty cool and something they’ll remember their entire lives.

Since it’s unlikely that the HR Derby rules committee will heed my recommendations by the start of tonight’s contest, we can entertain ourselves by trying to pick the winner of this thing. Bragging rights only. Here’s a list of the competitors, you get one guess. Put it in the thread below. First answer is your final answer.

Bautista, Cespedes, Donaldson, Dozier, Adam Jones, Frazier, Morneau, Puig, Stanton, Tulo.

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This is like a scene out of Schindler’s List:

World Cup Day. I admit it, I’m going to watch. Go Argentina. Or FIFA. Or whoever.

Let’s see if we can score a run today. Because if we score one, we will score 5. And that should be enough to win today.

When we score first, we are 38-11. When their opposition scores first, we are 13-32.

Although Pawlie taught us this lesson back in 2012, right?

Butter him up baby ’cause Timmy’s on a roll!!!!!!

Thank God for Lincecum who has literally risen from the dead to stabilize a shaky pitching staff.

Today marks the return of “Bad Back Scutaro”. My enthusiasm of his inclusion in today’s starting line up is completely tied to my excitement of not seeing Arias/Adrianza/or Hicks in the starting line up. Just seeing him out there will feel good, right?

Speaking of guys who need to do more, Michael Morse has hit 1 home run in his last 31 games. Wasn’t it about that long ago that we saw him grimace in pain at the plate after a painful swing? It would be nice to see him pop one out today and get back on track…….

It’s hard not to appreciate what the A’s are doing this year. They sometimes list 3 catchers in the starting line up—and I’d take any of the 3 over just about any hitter in our line up. If they don’t play all 3 in the same line up they platoon them. Platooning your catcher position is a brilliant plan. You always get the right match up, you keep their legs fresh and you don’t have to pay them anything.

As I look over at our 167 million dollar man who takes days off all the time I can’t help but wonder what our team would look like had Sabean taken Bean’s approach to filling the catcher position…..

But whatever, the A’s are a much better team than we are. Problem is, most teams are. Now we get to find out a new level of embarrassment with the D-backs coming to town.

Anyone feel confident about taking this series? Can I get some of what you’re smoking?

Day Game today. Hicks likely taking his final at bats in the major leagues……

Can the Giants hold the lead? Cain is barely able to hold the lead! 

Top of the 7th . . .

Now we have them right where we want them. In our house. Our hizzle. Cespedes has announced he’s going to idiotically defend his HR Derby crown. His wrist is already starting to hurt again. All of the balls they hit to right center will die in Hunter’s glove, somewhere between the archways. Jason Hammel will pitch to his 2013 ERA of 4.97. Runs will flow freely, like wine from a box. Cain will dominate.

The A’s have no fucking idea what’s in store for them tonight.

Well, that was one that ran true to form, yes? Without Pagan and Sandoval and with literally no one above replacement-level to play DH, the Giants were set up to get destroyed last night. And with Sonny Gray taking the ball tonight, expect another beat d0wn.

Someone on KNBR mentioned this morning that the Giants should skip the DH and just let Bumgarner hit. If you compare Bum’s OPS to the OPS of his replacement-level teammates, it seems on the surface like a good idea. But once you go without a DH you must go without the entire game. And I don’t think anyone wants or needs to see the likes of Casilla busting ass down the first base line again.

I said this at the beginning of the season: the Giants look great this year; as long as not a single player gets injured. Last night, without Pagan and Sandoval, you have a line up stacked with shit. And a line up like that isn’t just a target for a stud team like the A’s to feast on— The Cubs would take us out to the woodshed, too.

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I’ll give Sabean credit, at least he’s honest. We’ve always joked about wondering whether or not other GM’s even have Sabean’s phone number. Now Sabean is confirming that they do not, in fact, return his phone calls. When Kawakami asked Sabean if he was in on the Sa-marg talks, he replied “We contacted them in the middle of the month and they gave us the impression on 2 or 3 occasions that they’d get back to us. Which they didn’t.”

Ouch. So Sabes and his people can get as far as Theo’s secretary before getting stonewalled. Frankly, it bums me out to find this out……..

….and I’m home.

So, when you are an NL team having to play in an AL park, this is what the bottom half of your line up looks like:

Colvin, Blanco, Arias, Crawford.

That is just not that impressive.

Although the A’s bottom 4 goes Vogt, Lowry, Callaspo and Gentry.

Also underwhelming.

I’m going to bet that their bottom 4 out homer us 1-0 tonight with Callaspo getting the winning bomb (in this mini bet of their bottom 4 vs our bottom 4)

And no it’s not just you, we should all be very scared about what the A’s are going to do to us in this series—taking us out to the woodshed time….

Morse is catching some sh!t on the internet for his over-celebrating tie-making home run but I thought it was awesome. Talk about a month’s worth of frustration coming out in one swing. It’s so awesome when a baseball moment like that bubbles up out of no where.

And what’s up with Belt only hitting one bomb? I clearly said “one or two” in my thread yesterday. That bastard owes me another one today. 🙂

If you missed it, go read Pawlie’s post from last night about meeting Andres Torres. Just awesome stuff.

…..and that straw is named Eric Stults….

I don’t think there’s any other way to put it or anything else to say about it.

Maybe Belt hits a bomb or two today and washes away the fetid memory of Eric Stults.

I’m out of town and moderately off the grid and I just heard that a hurricane passed by or through North Carolina. I swear to God, the first thing I thought of was “good thing that fuckin’ clown decided to raise his house after the last one.” I checked the comments in the last thread, sounds like he’s ok and he broke off one of the great one-liners in Flap history:

“Living along the Hurricane Belt is kinda like being a Giants fan: You pay the price and you get to ride the ride.”

If he was able to generate that type of gold with a maelstrom swirling around,  I’m assuming he’s just fine.

Today we play a team with the worst offense in the league and will be facing a starting pitcher that is one of the worst in the league. We should roll tide today, right? 11-3? Something like that?

Or lose 3-1 because we suck.

Happy 4th to all you guys and anyone else even loosely associated with Flavor Nation. This is my favorite holiday of the year and no, I don’t light shit on fire. Just love the day. Gonna go bone up on the contestants in this year’s hot dog eating contest. I’m guessing that is NOT one of Loo’s favorite competitions to watch. 🙂

31 years ago today, this happened. Was there anything more “4th of July” than this? Raggs throws a no hitter striking out Wade Boggs while Billy Martin does a quiet, nervous burn on the bench during the final out. You know, nowadays we just don’t seem to have moments like this anymore. I guess that’s why they’re *moments* you never forget……

Well, whether it was the new BBOTD that put him over the top or just skill and experience, Timmy did what I didn’t think he would do: follow up his no hitter with a quality start. And man, we needed that. However it can’t just be “Tim for the Win” every 5th day. It’s time for more of his teammates to step up.

Normally, my confidence would be shot for a game like tonight’s against Wainwright. But I’m buoyed by the haunting afternoon haze of the newest BBOTD. The sun has set according to my dad, but as far as she’s concerned, the future is still brilliant and alive………

Someone needs to name her. Nominees go in the thread below…….

Well, whether the sun has set or not on the 2014 Giants season, we still have 80 games left to play, starting tonight v St Louis. And if you look at it that way, we either have plenty of time to right this sinking ship or plenty of time to tread water in the sea waiting for the sharks to come devour us–long one of my greatest fears. Is there a worse way to die? Maybe getting chopped up in a wood chipper? Anyway, I digress.

The Cardinals are throwing another pitcher at us that we know nothing about. Marco Gonzales who was their first round pick LAST year. He’s the first player from that round to make it to the big leagues and I don’t know about you, but I am tired of the Cardinals churning out dominant pitcher after dominant pitcher from their farm system.

Let’s light this fuck up.

The latest BBOTD, the one that I think holds so much promise, gets her first test tonight……..