Nice Start to a Road Trip
Three of 4 in New York? Plus an actual DJ Loo sighting? MacDog = the New BuzzSaw? Wither RealBuzzSaw? Is that even possible?
I’m blown away right now. I’m going to put this forward right now and stand by it till the end of the season no matter the outcome: a DJ Loo union with another Flapper is equal to a rally thong or something better. And I don’t know what that means, but it might be found gold. Baby.
The Dodgers are getting killed again as I write this……
We are in such an awesome spot to bounce forward. It’s almost like the next 2 series are a joke. Milwaukee and their bowling pin bullshit we never win in their house of horrors. KC is literally DH Hell for our hitterless team. I dunno, normally I’d be negative and pissing on myself with the sun setting and shit but DJ Loo was a found and seen man tonight.
Anything is possible……
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
No pics?!?!?!? Not even a blurry cell phone pic? A grainy shot of DJ emerging from the bathroom at Citi field? A shadowy figure behind the grassy knoll?
Devastating news . . .
Sorry guys. I asked DJ if I could take his picture when we went to get beers. He politely declined. I’m going to honor that.
I like it. It adds to the mystery. Photos are not as accurate as we pretend they are. Plus, I can identify. I tend to dislike most photos of me. (And I take pictures of others poorly.) (Why am I still up?)
I concur.
I guess that’s true…
DJLoo, man of mystery . . .
…took the words out of my mou– keyboard.
Andres Torres is a free agent. I’d sign him to a minor league deal; not sure he’d take it. Unclear to me whether he opted out or the Red Sox released him from Pawtucket.
If ya’ll didn’t read MacDog’s post at the end of the last thread, catch it…. Very cool.
just read it; epic
The legend.
The myth.
The Loo!!
Stay thirsty my friend!
August, the DogLoo Days of Summer.
It sounds like it was a great day at the Yard for you two and to top it off, a get outta town win. Can’t beat that.
The LooDog connection. There’s got to be a movie in there somewhere.
Music by Sublime. . .
Excellent call on the Sublime, Charlie.
MacDog’s re-cap of the game on the last thread was epic. Give it a read if you haven’t already.
Yes. Mac’s post at the end of the last thread is very cool. POTD IMO. And while I was initially devestated re: the no picture news, I am actually on-board with the mystery angle, etc. A Mets or YankMee-Giant game in NYC has always been on my bucket list (hell, just visiting the city is, too). Hope to make it a reality some day.
Anyway…the fact that the Mac-a-Loo-za happened is just too fucking cool.
We should be happy we have Morse. I realize is sucking, but he is a major league hitter, albeit a bad one at the moment. J Perez is NOT a major league hitter. .176 with 1 homer and 2 rbi’s in 53 at bats. That’s a joke right. NO WAY his defense makes up for that lake of offense.
Kershaw is due for a loss. Best 2 consecutive months ever? Close maybe. Hopefully he comes back to earth a bit in July.
July is like eleven months from now. Long wait, but it might be worth it.
I agree sportdude. On yesterday’s thread, I initially said no way in hell I sign Morse, but that was a quick and not thought-out comment. I could see possibly signing him after this year, but only for a year or two, max.
Blanco had a very good game yesterday (hit, walk, run scored, stolen bag, and a killer throw to nail a runner at 3rd. With that said, if Pagan truly returns in the next couple of days, I could see somewhat of a platoon between Morse and Blanco. Or, if Morse finds a groove, he gets the brunt of the starts, and Blano is a late-inning defensive replacement.
Speaking of Pagan, I just read a piece on his first rehab with the Griz. While he went 0-4, he did play the entire game, and I have seen nothing about any pain or a set-back. Hoping like hell to see him join the team for at least a portion of the series against the Brew-crew.
I had yesterday’s game recorded, and watched the last couple of innings. Fuck. Romo’s 8th inning was brutal…27 pitches, I think, but he did keep the Mets scoreless.
I am predicting a 1-2 swing with the Brewers and then 2-1 in KC, translating to a 6-4 roadie and two series wins. I’ll take that all day long…
Hey Chi: Your predictions for the roadie mesh perfectly with my own from yesterday. How did that happen?
I would say that great minds think alike, Stick!
Nice story on el Caballo Loco, with an accompaning video. We need this guy’s .307 BA and .356 OBP at the top of the order, again. I am with Craig, the Mac-a-Loo-za thing is just one more reason that I see good things happening for our boys in the Orange and Black.
http://tinyurl.com/m8ekz7h
James mentioned the Morse angle yesterday and I think he and others are right.
Any LU with blanco in it seemed to draw a lot of complaints; as Chi pointed out, with Pagan in CF there is only Perez and Blanco to run in LF instead of Morse. Deal with it off season, unless there is a waiver deal, and the guys morphs into Cody Ross. Would you take Alex Rios?
Great post from Mac (and Loo)…any word from GH? Wonder what Met fans think about lack of activity/where team is headed? Neither Was nor Atl have been dominant, but both clearly class of division. I question playing Wright if he is really f-ed up. He just doesn’t look the same and is having awful year at the plate. Guys that are hurt often do something to compensate that winds up making things worse in long run.
PK, Andres coming back again I don’t see. Good luck to the guy, and I don’t blame him for going FA to avoid another month of AAA ball in summer, typical move for vets that feel they can play ml ball. But not here.
When Pagan is activated, someone will have to go buh-bye. I am sure it will be Perez. Agree on everything you say re: Torres Willie. Love the dude for all the good memories, but I just don’t see it as a good fit with this club, right now. Rios piques my interest only slightly. His OBP is not great, and he is 33. I would not want to give up a lot for him…so the interest on my part is marginal.
I knew the Loo-Dog term sounded familiar! Nice call on the Sublime! Maybe someday those 2 can take a van to Garden Grove together.
Seriously, very cool of you two to catch a Giants game together at Citi. And Panik went 3 for 4!
..and RIco Carty hit .366 one year! That is amazing. Has a right-handed batter come anywhere near that mark since then?
lqtm
I blew my chance to meet a couple of Flappers…had not seen their posts about attending, sorry MacDog and DJLoo…
Had a great time at the game yesterday with my 15-year old son. We had incredible seats behind and to the left if you are looking at the hitter of home plate. First row in the second set of seats, so no viewing obstruction, just a little hot as hell. But what a game and day. We got there at 9 am and did not get back to Virginia until 12:45 am after dinner in mid-town and a trip to the Freedom Tower and 9-11 Memorials…breathtaking and moving for you west coasters.
I emailed Flav that we met Dave Fleming as was entering the press/VIP entrance by chance. He is from Virginia and went to school with my brother in law when they were little kids for a couple of years. Not sure he got who I was married to, but he was nice enough and thanks me for introducing myself and giving him a family update.
But what a fun game. Only time I got hot was when we had no out in the 7th tied 3-3 and Blanco at second, Posey at first and Panda up. Wright was playing way off third and Duda playing behind Posey. Blanco could have jogged to third and Posey would have had a huge break as well.
I was yelling for Bochy to send the runners to make sure they stayed out of a DP. And then of course Panda hits one up the middle and if Blanco had a head start, would have easily beaten the throw, but c’est lavie, great Giant win and Citi Field now off the check list. Tons of Giant fans were there.
MacDog, where were you guys sitting?
GH, sorry, I just now saw your post. We were in 420, just to the left behind home plate. Yeah, too bad we couldn’t connect, a 3-way mini Flapalooza would’ve been even more cool.
So how did the Brewers get so good all of a sudden? If I remember right, last year SF pitching stats were near bottom of league, same place Brewers were. What’s so different about them this year?
Other than Carlos Gomez, Aramis Ramirez, Lucroy and Fed Ex Braun, I don’t know them at all. Thoughts?
FRod is having a wonderful resurgent season as their closer (32 saves). Scooter Gennett, their rookie 2nd baseman, is also raking at the plate (.305 BA, 8 HR). He replaced Weeks. The other key player for them Willie is Khris Davis and he is a stud, with 17 HR and 54 RBI, albeit his SO rate and OBP sucks, especially compared to last season when he was better then decent.
Lucroy is having a solid year as well
Willie mentioned him . . . He asked who else was responsible regarding their good season.
Wily Peralta (not sure if he is related to Wile E. Coyote) is having a good year, too. He’s sporting a 13-6 record with a 3.52 ERA. I think he is matched-up against Peavy in the final game of the series.
Don’t discount Jimmy Nelson, whom the Giants are going against tonight. In his past two outings – both at Miller Park – he’s been very strong, as Nelson has held opponents to a .196 BA with nearly as many strikeouts (11) as baserunners allowed (12). He’s getting our team at a great time, as they have wilted at the plate over the past 10 games, slashing a line of .216/.264/.308 with 81 strikeouts and only 29 runs. We’ve face planted more than most teams in terms of getting on base against right-handed pitching – .292 wOBA versus RHPs ranks 24th in the majors. Last, but not least, Timmy needs to step up his game – in his past two outings (7 2/3 IP, 14 H, 11 ER) he has sucked. I’m not certain, but Pagan may be back this evening . . . I hope.
Blade – the pitching match-ups are exactly why I am calling for a 1-2 swing through Brewtown. 2-1 would be great. A sweep would be phenominal. Anything over 1-2 is gravy. Mmmmm, gravy.
At home…different story on the road, no?
Nelson at home is what I indicated . . . or, were you referring to Tim??? Out of here for awhile (lunch with someone).
Offense …seems they have hit better on the road.
Haha, I met these guys a few times. They opened for a buddy of mine on a tour. Later after the singer had died I lived in Long Beach and used to deliver pizzas to the house of the former band members that became the DubAllStars or something like that.
It’s better that there was a Loo sighting without a corroborating photo.
As in a close encounter of the 3rd kind, photo evidence would just confuse the tale…
williedav, Mets seemed in disarray and was almost comical watching Bobby Abreau come out to pinch hit and then get yanked. I heard on the drive home he was yanked but had not heard more specifics. It is shocking he was still hanging on, well I guess not now. I did not really banter with the Mets fans because they don’t seem to have any coherency as an organization with their roster.
I just joked with the ushers and the Mats fans that I was just hoping for a 3-2 game…was pretty close. I was wearing a very fly set of new blue pumas with orange laces (not paying attention when I purchased it and wearing it up for the drive from Virginia) and all the Mets fans were ragging me for wearing the Mets colors on my shoes with my Cain jersey. Was all good natured. I am not the type to start giving home teams smart ass comments about my team. But my son and I were definitely the loudest Giant fans in our section except for a 8 year old girl at the end of the game cheering Buster et. al.
Sublime, oh man. Used to work in whse. with a guy who really liked them, and I got tired of them really fast. Funny thing was, another guy was more into real Jamaican reggae and used to go see Gregory Isaacs, Steel Pulse, Wailing Souls and others when they would play either in Santa Cruz or SF. And of course he liked the old stuff, Marley and Wailers, Peter Tosh, Third World, Dennis Brown.
Another couple guys were more into heavier rock, like Metallica (Master of Puppets era) Alice in Chains, or Tool.
In interest of peace and harmony I let them play whatever music they brought in (or KSJO on radio or Howard Stern), and when they left on delivery routes I’d listen to jazz or blues or latin jazz.
I personally really like the ska sound’s fusion of raggae, rock and punk, and felt they were one of the better of the genre. Bradley Nowell was the genius of the band, IMO. Another musician lost way to early to heroin…
Yep, saw them in Santa Cruz on the first date with my now wife. Got my tooth knocked out. Long story involving douchebags and jagermeister. I think it was after or before the next show they played that he had ODed. Strange thing was that SCPD had posted flyers all over town the morning after their show about a bad batch out there and it could be dropped at the police department no questions asked. I don’t know that those two things are related but it always sort of stuck out with me. One of those only in Santa Cruz things.
Cannot edit from work…but what I meant to say in my previous post was I like the fusion of ska, rock and punk that Sublime and others made popular.
Steel Pulse! They were a great live show. Sly and Robbie were the bomb. Used to see bands like Eeek-a-mouse Yellowman, and King Sunny Ade in Berkeley all the time.
Saw this yesterday on ESPN. Puig lollygags the throw in after making a catch and Pujols tags up (to 2nd!) on him, and then disses him.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/albert-pujols-tags-up-on-yasiel-puig–mocks-him-afterward-065205979.html
yeah, saw that. Check out Trout giving Puig a ration from dugout. Mutumbo this.
what an annoying tool Puig is. Supremely talented, from neck down. No idea how to play the game the right way, still.
What would have happened to him back in Mays’ day? Some vet would have been all over his ass for allowing a guy to take extra base on pure laziness. It’s a wonder Puig can get his head between clubhouse doors.
Yeah, he’d likely be out of teeth by now as guys like Drysdale, Marichal, and Gibson would be drilling him in the face every game.
Puig…a six tool fool.
Sounds like start for a song title.
too bad Gianthead and son did not meet up with Mac and Loo; wasn’t in the providential cards, I guess
I apologize if this is not the appropriate place to post. I’m a newbie. Just have a question I’d like to throw out at the risk of getting my head chopped off. What is Buster more afraid of, Making a play at the plate, or catching Timmy?
Good question David. However, (IMO) I am not certain he’s afraid of either, despite the conjecture you see in sports columns and blogs.
By the by, welcome to the Flap! Hope to see more of you. 🙂
Welcome, David. That’s an important word. Since 2009 or so I’ve come here precisely because I have felt welcomed. Good to have some new blood.
David – no need to apolgize. As Blade says, you are welcome as long as your posts are civil, etc. I do not believe Buster is afraid of either.
I think with the “play at the plate” you are referring to a tag at the plate? If so, Buster has been instructed by management to play off-line and not block the plate, and to use a swipe tag on those plays (this to help minimize the chance of another Scott Cousins type of situation.
I don’t think Posey would be affraid to catch anyone. I believe having Sanchez (and Susac tonight) catch Timmy is purely Tim’s preference. That has been beat-up, down, and all around. I see it as a non-issue.
Welcome to The Flap, David.
When he caught 140 or so pitches from Lincy against San Diego and they didn’t get any hits, we don’t think he was too scared…
WSwins – I had completely forgot that Buster caught Timmy’s first no-no.
http://tinyurl.com/n872vpa
So David’s first post is what they call in politics a “push poll.” A poll that’s trying to push a certain belief.
He’s absolutely afraid of a play at the plate. Who wouldn’t be after that horrific ankle injury. Although I’d probably call it more *nervous* than *afraid*. He’s probably more irritated than anything else at having to catch Timmy.
“saw them in Santa Cruz on the first date with my now wife. Got my tooth knocked out. Long story”
Oh man, Dirt, that’s something else. 🙂
The Flappers bring a lot of history to the table!
lulz, thankfully it wasn’t her that knocked it out. When she stuck by me through the self medicating (jager) I knew she was a keeper.
Yep….there have been some damned good stories shared on this blog. Just one more reason why we should all be eternally grateful to Big Flavor for providing us this spot. Thanks, Craig!
Surprised that most of us got out of our 20s.
You and I probably lead that list, Blade. Holy smokes…I shoulda coulda been dead, easily, ten times over.
. . . But for the grace of God.
Posey was scheduled for a day off today. Morse out again…
Pence RF
Panik 2B
Belt 1B
Sandoval 3B
Blanco CF
Crawford SS
Perez LF
Susac C
Lincecum RHP
Oh, and I forgot…Blanco in the FIVE HOLE? WTF…
Yeah, if I wasn’t so &%^#$!@), Blanco in the five spot would be hilarious.
Reading up on the posts today. A variety of subjects sounds like a great time by the Flapper boys in NY.
And yes welcome David, always good to have new perspective on things. As far as saying bone headed things, don’t worry I have said a few, the guys are cool here. It gets heated occasionally, but nothing serious.
Blades comment about getting out of our 20’s, yes indeed. Drunk driving laws were extremely lax, worst case spending time in the drunk tank that always smelled like roses. And then there was the hot boxing in the car. Cheech and Chong come to mind on that. Fun times the when I was 18-25 years old. We all must be Cats and have 9 lives during those times.
1.5 out in early August I guess Bochy is playing the long game here but Panik, Blanco, Perez and Susac in the same LU isn’t exactly inspiring confidence.
What the hell kind of name is “David”?
Hebrew?
Thanks for the welcome guys. The question was a little bit sarcastic, however a couple of points on each thought. Even though Posey has caught Lincecum, including the first no hitter, I don’t think he likes to catch him. Case in point, the day game after night game a couple of days ago. Bochy was set to rest Posey, who came to him saying he wanted to play. [This is a good thing, particularly right now when Buster is swinging a hot bat.] But he did so with the clear intention of sitting today with Lincecum on the mound. I understand catching is a tough position, and you need some rest, but the Giants can not afford to not have his bat in the line up every fifth day. Suck it up, go to Bochy and tell him you don’t need a day off when Timmy is pitching.
As far as plays at the plate go, sure, they are telling him not to block the plate. But I am sure they are not telling him to stand 2 feet in front of the plate and have to make a huge swiping tag on every play. He has given up at least 4 runs with his timid play, some very crucial, because of his unwillingness to stand in position that will give him a reasonable chance at making a tag without the big sweeping motion so difficult to pull off with a catcher’s mitt.
Go Giants!
Go after Goliath, not Posey.
I get your point, David. And I agree that even with the new direction Posey is getting re: plays at the plate, he probably could have been in better position on a few occasions. It is hard to say how much is memories of the injury being in the back of his crawl on those plays.
I absolutely agree on he needs to be in there regularly when he is swinging the hot bat. Shit, put Posey at 1st and Belt in LF (he is certainly at least a minimal upgrade over Morse defensively).
DJLoo, I’ll work on the name.
They changed the rules, David.
Word is, Angel (baby) Pagan is set to return Thursday night in Milwaukee.
David knows that, Chuck. He’s saying Buster sometimes positions himself where he has absolutely no shot at the runner. I thing there’s something to that…
Out of position, yeah I can see that. Absolutely no shot at the runner (not sure I agree there).
I’m curious about this new Cubs prospect, Baez . . . He was called up and is playing this evening. Grabbed him in one of my FL leagues.
Today’s line-up, yikes. Timmy better have his A+ game today.
It’s almost as bad as what the Mets threw out there against Snot Boy the other day…
I can’t remember if this has ever been mentioned here, but Timmy has the second most current number of starts for a pitcher pitching for a particular manager. Jerrod Weaver has the most, for Scoscia.
Z, I would have thought Cain would be there as well, but now his injuries have brought him past Timmeh I guess?
David, I’m with you on Posey’s D. Since the injury and before the rule change, he seemed to be out of position for most plays at the plate. Although, I’m not sure if it was his, or managements call. As far as catching Timmy, I’ve always thought it was more of Tim wanting more of a rah rah guy behind the plate, but who knows?
Right after I posted the line-up I had commented about Blanco in the 5 hole (WTF). Just heard on the pre-game that he is 7-46 against RHers. And Bochy starts that over Morse on the bench. That definitely shows you they are putting a premium on D right now.
Agree Chi. As much as I abhor Blanco in the lineup, I will take him over Morse, who is also clueless offensively lately . . . So as you pointed out, defense trumps the nonexistent offense of both. There was a chance Pagan would be back by tonight (at least I read that), but that obviously isn’t the case. Pfffttt.
I have heard nothing more than he could join the team for this series, but my guess is we see him for Thursday’s game. Hope I am wrong and he is back tomorrow. I am ready to see that fucking salute from 2nd base, dude!
Any of you Eastern guys (Loo, Mac, Pawlie) or any Flapper know why this stadium has a roof, e.g., snow, rain, heat, cold, or all of them?
Milwaukee is in the Midwest, so probably all the above. Bud was covering all his bases so to speak.
Thanks Bozo . . . I had to Google a U.S. map, because I honestly had no idea where it was. lqtm.
Blade, add tornadoes to the list. When Selig got the State and City to build the thing he probably had every bell and whistle included. You would have enjoyed the town during your party days, those Midwest ladies sure like to play after the snow melts.
Actually, I should have said I forgot where it was . . . Never been there, but one of my best friends (a Packers fan) is from there and tells me the same positive things about the place. Like I said, I just looked at a map and essentially, it looks similar to Chicago (except farther north and probably worse insofar as weather).
Man, I’d sure like a clearer view of the pink tube top behind home.
Not certain of the exact stats, but Timmy “owned” Gomez before that bomb. Something like zero for 12 or 15. Pfffttt . . . so much for that.
What is it with the culture of the Giants staff where they don’t go for the kill on opposing pitchers? Wondering how many times this season those guys have singled and scored. Seems like several of those occasions have been via homers by the leadoff or 2-hole batter.
Kind of a mindblowing stat from Krukow at the beginning of the game: the Giants haven’t won a series from a team with a winning record since early June, two months.
Well, they have their chance in Brewland, and again against KC. I still think they drop two here and win two in KC.
I knew this line-up spelled trouble that first second I saw it. Perez is so fricking weak at the plate. Jeez…is sitting Morse for D really that smart in a hitter’s yard like MP?
SABR folks would say no. They would generally say start Morse today, I think. SABR folks tend to think defense is a little over-rated compared to offense. Granted, Morse has been struggling, but this park could play to his strengths, and not Perez’s strengths as a hitter. (Does Perez even have strengths as a hitter?)
At a collective level, it’s not even a question of SABR or old school. Logically, there is simply no way that a team’s defensive skills are more important than what it does on offense because the pitcher plays such an important role in preventing runs.
Thanks for the response on that.
I remember well Bill James talking about why he started Sabermetric type of analysis in the first place. He heard Whitey Herzog say that Ozzie Smith saves the Cardinals two runs a game with his defense, and that sounded absurd to James, and was easily proven to be absurd, yet nobody in the baseball world had thought to challenge Herzog on that. It just “sounded” right. But the numbers easily proved it false, and Bill James was on his way.
wow
That is why I referenced “In a hitter’s yard like MP” in my post above. I would have started Morse….
Any dude named Lucroy should have played at Jarry Park, where pataphysics kept out the elements.
Basically the Giants threw a Spring Training line-up out there today, and it’s hard to blame Bochy as much as Sabean. The Yankees started Prado today; he would have been a nice stop-gap for the Giants. Did they even try for him?
Same division Zum, i.e., it would have been very difficult for Sabes to get him, Denorfia, or anyone within the Division.
Ah, I’d totally forgotten what team Prado was on.
This is a good read…
http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/88003136/jake-peavy-san-francisco-giants-pennant-race-red-sox-trade#!bwN0vS
Plus I think that Bochy is “guilt starting” Perez anyway because Bochy still feels crappy about not making a defensive replacement late in the game when Peavy had the perfect game going. Kuiper said the next day that Bochy was really second-guessing himself, and Kuiper didn’t say what it was about, but it was obviously about not replacing Morse after the 6th inning of Peavy’s game.
I think that’s just flat-out second-guessing, and Bochy needs to let it go. Bochy has to make a judgment about his best chance to win. That game was 0-0 at the time. He needed offense, too.
Damn! Thought our boys were finally on the board!
FUCK YEAH!
Hell ya!!!
PANDA!!!
I mean really. You almost HAVE TO resign the Panda.
Get outta here. Panda Express.
Unfrickingbelievable! I seriously doubted their ability to score a run with this line up. My bad.
Not only is he getting hot (he and Posey are both streaky hitters), but the dude has played pretty damned good D this year, too. Open the fucking checkbook Charles Johnson.
Now we are seeing the $100 m Panda.
He keeps playing like this for rest of the year, it’ll be North of 100 mil…
Let’s add on here. WTF…let’s get greedy!
The power of the 3-run HR to change a game. An Earl Weaver special.
Joe Panik may soon be quietly omitted from the list of lamented line ups.
Agree, James. I like the kid. Not saying he is a lock, but I like him more and more all the time.
Fucking weenie race…pour me another cold one!
Why the fuck Perez slid into the base I have no idea??? Worse, why managers don’t fine these idiots is beyond me too. Are the fans the only ones that know you get to 1st base faster by running through it?
Agree Blade. When Pagan gets back Perez is back to Fresno. He does make more than his share of bone-headed blunders.
Speaking of that Panda D…
Giants got lucky there. Should be 4-3. Suck it up Timmy and close the inning out.
Wow. What a job to get outta that jam! Time to score some more runs!
Nice start by Timmy. Gave us a chance in this game – now it’s up to the hitters and relievers.
That shut-down inning was never in doubt. 🙂 🙂
Fuck! You CANNOT make a mistake in this yard!
Crap.