A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

Today, I want everyone to look for garbage trucks. If you see one, take notice, you just saw yourself a good luck charm. Notice as many as you can, The Giants need all the help they can get….

But before tomorrow’s game, we have the AL wild card game. It’s shaped up to be quite interesting with Lester facing off against The 29 year Droughters. I think Oakland wins and I think KC plays too tightly tonight. All the pressure is on the Royals and when you’re carrying the hopes and dreams of 29 years gone by for 40,000 fans, that could easily tighten the players up to the point of failure.

So remember, look for garbage trucks today. If you don’t see one before game time tomorrow, we are in big, big trouble….

Edison Volquez, the SP for the Pirates on Wednesday, has had a remarkable career. He was traded for Josh Hamilton in 2008 and promptly turned into one of the most dominant pitchers in the NL. His success lasted exactly one year. After 3 years of injury and mediocrity he was traded to the Padres for Matt Latos where he was healthy for 3 years but still painfully mediocre compiling 20-21 W/L record and an unsightly 4.96 ERA.

In August of last year, the Padres finally released him.

He was picked up by The Art Dealers the next day and started 5 games for them, winning none of them.

And then the Pirates signed him to a deal and he turned into “2008 Volquez* again going 13-7 with a 3.04 ERA.

And now he’s starting a do-or-die playoff game on Wednesday. Weird. Wild. Stuff.

This dude has stuffed like 5 different careers into one career.

Game 162. The final day of the season (likely, for everyone). Again, I will be glued to football.

The Giants get to sit back and relax while the Cards and the Pirates go all out on each other as the NL Central crown is still undecided. The Cards are burning Wainwright and the Pirates are burning Brandon Crawford’s brother in law.

Are you guys happy with where we are today? I am. The baseball season is a grind. Only 10 teams make the playoffs. And this isn’t the NBA, anything can happen in the playoffs.

I’m proud of my team for fighting through injuries and long stretches of general suckitude to persevere this year. So you’re telling me we have a chance?

We have a chance……

I am totally fine with a road wild card game. I think I almost prefer it. AT&T has been a gorilla on the back of our team for going on 2 years now. I’m not talking so much about our home record which is ok (although much better in years past). I’m talking about the general malaise that oozes from the crowd with each failed at bat. It’s just a drag, man. We don’t need that negativity for a game like this.

If we’re on the road and go a few innings without hitting I feel like we have a better chance to *bat out of it* than if we were at home stuck in that quicksand vibe that you know we would be getting from our fans. Don’t get me wrong, Giants fans are great–as long as the Giants are winning. When there’s adversity, I’ll give them credit, they don’t storm the exits. But they don’t do too much to help, either. They usually go straight for their cell phones or the garlic fries. And there is a lot of *crowd sighs* every time one of our players strike out. Ten thousand A’s fans make more noise than 40,000 Giants fans. It’s true.

And I just don’t think that’s what a weak hitting team like ours needs right now……

Well, I’m excited, I really am. Wild card, shmild card. Yes, we have won 2 of the last 4 World Series. And while teams like the Dodgers look at us green with envy (having just about no recollection of the last time they won) we can’t worry about that now. The wild card game is a playoff game and after missing the playoffs last season, I am more than ready to gear up for another game and, possibly, another world series championship.

I don’t care if it’s the Pirates or the Cards. I don’t care how many of our players are hurt or sucking. I don’t care if it’s just one game. I just want to feel that buzz again…..

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Tonight, the WIllie Mac Award will be given out. It’s anyone’s guess as to who will win. Lots of deserving players. My vote would be for Petit. I think what he did this year was critical and under appreciated. Today would be a great way to honor his contributions.

Well, that’s out of the way. Time to move on to the wild card.

The Giants have more pressing issues to sort out–like who is going get hits, drive in runs, etc. Because it damn sure hasn’t been Hunter Pence or Pablo Sandoval. And we can whine all we want about the pitching but without Pagan and Morse (and, essentially, Pence and Pablo) we can’t lay all the offensive expectations at the doorstep of Chris Dominguez.

So who’s going to step and drive in runs for this team?

You can’t win a baseball game with hope and magic.

I still can’t get over what a self-absorbed pussy Yasiel Puig is. There is nothing lamer than a guy who mills around waiting for an umpire or a catcher to get in his way before going bezerko. He’s just a joke. And no, I wouldn’t want him on my team. He’s got a golden arm, that’s true. But his hitting is overrated. He’s got one more RBI than Brandon Crawford and he usually hits in a much better RBI spot. His babyish attitude about literally everything makes him not worth the hassle. Now, if he turns into a 30-30 guy somewhere down the road, I would change my tune about wanting him on my team.

Ask Matt Kemp if he wants Puke on his team and I think we all know what the answer is.

I admit it. I didn’t watch the whole game. Getting up at 4am has it’s limitations on when you ultimately shut your eyes to go to sleep.

But I caught the end of the game on mlb.com.

Glad we won, now I feel that we can at least relax a little on the wild card.

The baseball gods are shinning down on Gregor Blanco. He IS the White Shark once again.

He’s gonna have to be if we want to make any noise in the post season this year. I have counted out Pagan and Morse for the rest of the year…..

someone took a picture of Strickland and it looks like a painting. Check it out

Leave it to Flannery to chill everyone out and put all this in perspective:

Not a lot to say about this weekend series vs the Padres. It’s difficult to win when you are playing your bench players. And Belt just isn’t ready to be out there. But it is what it is.

Me? I’m watching football today.

Jesus, last night’s game was frustrating. That Padre pitcher was lit up for 6 straight starts. The he faces the Giants and I’ve got to listen to Krukow wax poetic about the loads he’s firing off in the broadcast booth about this guy.

And while I appreciate Pagan trying to play, anyone who saw him get up after that stolen base could see he’s not right.

Every time I feel like this is over the Giants win and the Dodgers lose to suck me right back into believing again.

So maybe that will happen again today…

Seeing as how Kershaw gets to take Edwina Jackson out to the woodshed today, it’s safe to say that Tim Hudson needs to bring his A-game to his start v San Diego. At least we’ll have the crowd on our side and while I haven’t heard from him, I’m trusting that my main man on the San Diego scene, San Dawg, will be storming PetCo Park at some point this weekend.

I’m watching the A’s free fall and wondering something: If Beane screwed this up in New York he’d be gone a day after the season ended. But if the A’s miss the playoffs, he keeps his job, right?

While we rest up today, I call on the Cubs to rise up and do what they did for us back in 2010.

The good news: The Dodgers have the worst VMI number on the board today (-21.73).

The bad news: They are facing T. Wada who is just not a very good pitcher.

If you want to learn more about the fascinating impact of visual memory index on hitters and pitchers, check out this site:

http://www.baseballvmi.com/fantasy-baseball-index-sports-weather

I am going to trust in guys like Javier Baez and Jorge Soler to stay hungry and focused, not get intimidated by Zach Greinke, and do enough to beat the reeling Dodgers like the drum that they are…..

I hadn’t stopped to think about the impact of the Ryu injury, but it could be a big deal. The Dodgers are going to come out of Colorado like most teams, with a chewed up pitching staff. Then they have to go to Chicago, a team filled with a bunch of young, strong power hitters who are looking to make a name for themselves, not quit on the season.

Two day games today and if all goes right we’re two games out? With a Dodger team that now has only 2 reliable starting pitchers?

This isn’t over……

Good day for a Peavy start. He’s one of the only pitchers I trust these days.

The Giants have hit another patch of quicksand. When I was a young lad and watching Gilligan’s Island and Batman regularly, I would worry a lot about quicksand. It seemed to always be quite the problem on those shows. I worried about how it would impact my life as I got older. Turns out quicksand wasn’t something I needed to worry much about as an adult.

But it’s a big deal in the Giants season. They’re stuck in it right now. And the season hangs in the balance.

This weekend sucked for Bay Area sports. I’m still doing a slow burn over that pathetic Niner game that was gift wrapped for the Bears. And after we took the first game of the series 9-0 I had dreams of a sweep. 17-0 was a quick wake up call and Kershaw is starting to piss me off. And what’s up with Puig sucking against every other team in the NL West except the Giants?

Gotta re-start the drive tonight in Arizona but I’m not gonna lie, I’ve got a bad feeling about this…..

9-0 and then 17-0. Two weirdo games that you really can’t make anything of except each team won a game and each team lost one.

Kershaw v Yuzzie-Pet today…

Like most of you, I’m still living off the high of that game last night. Easily my favorite game of the year. It wasn’t just a W, it was an *in your face* win. It was an clear announcement that this isn’t over yet. And getting a win to start the series might take off any pressure that would have been on had we lost and been forced to beat Grienke and Kershaw to take the series….

It’s really amazing. No Belt. No Morse. No problem. This September run is so different from 2010 and 2012 but it has a great feel to it.

Can’t wait to watch the rest of the month unfold…..

There are a lot of games that, on paper, don’t really interest me.

Tonight is not one of those games….

Game on.

It’s nice to see the D-backs staying focused and professional through the end of the season. Jeez, what happened to professionalism? These guys are laying down like dogs. I suppose I should be happy about it, these wins go straight in the bank and at this point in the season each one is like gold. I just have no respect for them.

Remember in 2010 when the Cubs took out the Padres near the end of the season? I think they might have swept them or something like that allowing us to still have a chance on the final game of the season.

Now THAT is a team to respect and honor.

Remember that game back in 2010 vs the Dodgers where the Giants hit 4 home runs and won? I’m pretty sure Burrell hit one and Uribe might have hit one to win it. Well, last night’s game didn’t remind me of that game at all. But I remember the feeling after that 2010 game and it was like, “this could be a special year.” And frankly, last night’s game didn’t give me that kind of feeling either. 

But last night’s game was pretty cool–about as cool as a second baseman who’s hitting ,327 (an average that would lead the NL by a wide margin if he had enough at bats).

…about as cool as a scrap heap starting pitcher needing only 84 pitches to fire a complete game.

….about as cool as a September stretch run against the boys bathed in blue…..

This was a pretty fun play to watch:

http://gfycat.com/AbsoluteWelltodoBlackpanther

Giants face Wade Miley tonight– a lefty I’ve never really been too impressed with but he does pop in now and again with effective appearances. 

But tonight, we must crush him. 

And so it has come to this. Nineteen games remaining. All against the NL West. As it should be. If you’ve resigned yourself to the wild card being the more attainable goal, you have to feel pretty good about our standing. If you think the NL West crown is still a possibility, you’re right, it is definitely a possibility. 

All I know is that I’m happy to be done with AL ball. At least until October….

I’m excited that the Giants game is this evening because otherwise, I might not watch it. Today is Christmas and the Breeders Cup all rolled into one. There is nothing like Week 1 in the NFL. Fantasy football is the king of all games fantasy. I’m not going to disclose how many teams I’ve got going at fanduel.com today. I played almost everyday in baseball this Summer and never came close to this number. But there are simply too many angles this week and too many noobes trying the daily game out for the first time. It’s free-money Sunday. 

I wonder how fantasy games have come to affect the attitude of the players. This has become an enormous business. I watched a regular Joe win 1 million dollars a couple of weeks ago on a single day of fantasy baseball. And make no mistake about it, the players know about the action on them. They play it themselves on the “other” sports in their home games. There are not one but TWO million dollar tournaments today at fanduel. After Kaep runs for a TD and he’s doing his kiss-his-arm thing, is he thinking, “I just helped someone win a hundred grand with that run.” 

The impact of the players scoring individually has turned into a billion dollar legal industry. And it’s only going to get bigger. The NFL (and all sports) love daily fantasy games. It’s been a boon for them with fans who normally wouldn’t care about a game suddenly glued to the tv to root for an outcome. Everyone wants a piece of this action and you can see the explosion  of advertising on the radio, tv and internet. 

Daily fantasy sports has been a revelation for me and with my favorite team choosing to start a domestic violence perp in Dallas today, I’m happy to be able to distract myself from my pathetic Niners with a real interest in pretty much every single other game out there. Let’s get it on….

See ya around 5:07pm….

For you late West coast sleepers, you get to roll out of bed this morning to a MadBum/David Price showdown. Not too shabby for blowing off that worm.

What can you say about Jake Peavy except that he’s one of our MVP’s this season. Not only has he pitched brilliantly but he’s clearly a *clubhouse guy* and with Cain going down and Timmy pitching like shit, this staff probably couldn’t have weathered his absence. 

Detroit must have looked at last night’s humble line up and remembered 2012 and just said to themselves, “Who ARE those guys?” 

I can’t keep logging in and looking at that anymore so here’s a pm thread with no game for no reason other than to get that fat fuck Dodger fan off the main thread……

Niners are screwed this weekend, by the way. Dallas is going to beat them. I know, it’s hard for me to admit it. Hope I’m wrong…..

Also, this is fantastic. Submitted by “Team Lukie” who refuses to post here but reads the Flap every day.

I choose not to discuss the Sherpa land train wreck today. Instead, I am posting a thread about this guy. Someone on the internet called him the Dodgers “biggest fan.”

This pic makes me happy inside. Jesus, think about how much volume is *inside* this guy. Little known fact: Elvis Presley died on the toilet with 20 pounds of shit still inside his body. I think there is now physical photographic evidence that this guy has him beat…….

Niner Thread because I’ve been disturbed by this since I found out about it over the weekend……

Jim Harbaugh was on KNBR this morning proclaiming how he’ll never tolerate domestic violence from any player on his team. It was a cute speech. Forgive me if I gag. Why is Ray McDonald still practicing with the team? Why hasn’t he been suspended pending this investigation? Pay him, I don’t give a shit. That’s what they do with cops and other people who get suspended during an investigation. 

There is no time to wait for this to work itself out in court. That could take a while and besides, the NFL isn’t bound by the legal system when it comes to suspending players. Ray Rice didn’t get convicted of shit. So, regardless of what you think of his absurd 2 game suspension, waiting around for the legal system to sort this out and THEN react is idiotic. And unnecessary. 

The Niners have a terrible track record with addressing their out of control players off field behavior. Example: Aldon Smith left a drunk tank at 11am and then practiced THAT DAY. And he played every snap of the game that week. Despicable. He was asleep at the wheel at 6am on a residential street doing a 16 inch burner in some dudes lawn for 3 minutes. And a point of interest: Ray McDonald lives on this street…..

They fucked up then and they are fucking up now. Suspend McDonald immediately. There is ample evidence to do so. His pregnant girlfriend has bruises all over her face and neck. How did they get there? I don’t know but that is enough evidence to suspend him. Suspend him while you are doing due diligence. And it should have happened immediately upon his arrest and the pics of his pregnant girlfriend. The New England Patriots cut Aaron Hernandez THE DAY he got arrested…..

The Niners need to act right now, not spout off bullshit about how “domestic violence will never be tolerated.” Please. Who the fuck DOES tolerate domestic violence (or support it)? Words mean nothing. Act now or the easy going Niner fan base is going to react with a severe backlash. Mark my words, this will affect them at the gate and elsewhere if the team allows this dipshit to play this weekend……

A question I’d love to hear Harbs answer: If Ray Rice was on your team, would you let him play? Or would you release him since you have no tolerance for domestic violence? And yeah, it was your own bro who fucked that one up.

Jim Harbaugh is at a critical point in his career right now. This will affect his legacy and everything he does going forward. This has nothing to do with the legal system and/or Ray McDonald’s rights. The NFL isn’t bound by that system or his rights anyway.

The Niners have the ball right now. And so far, they are engaging in a long, slow fumble……

Romo’s slider doesn’t slide in Colorado and even though Bochy knew this he was forced to have to use him. Predictable results ensued. 

I had a fantastic Labor Day dinner and didn’t sweat that loss one bit. 

We still won a game yesterday. 

And my glass half full approach to life continues on……

I’m not sure, but I think 15 runs is the most runs I’ve seen the Giants score (in person). I’m guessing I’ve been to 250 games or so in my life. I vaguely remember being at a game in the 80’s where Darrell Evans hit an absolute BOMB into the bleachers (and a second one later in the game) and the team won 18-1. But I might have just dreamed that.

There is a fairly hilarious video taken of me dancing inside the stadium. If my buddy decides to send it to me, I’ll post it here. It’s good to be able to laugh at yourself.

Headed into altitude now. And I’m not just talking about Coors Field. This team is flying HIGH these days! 

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interesting observation about the Lincecum appearance. When he got called into the game the crowd went INSANE and gave him what felt like a one minute STANDING ovation. After Braun hit that monster bomb there was barely a low groan from the crowd. But every time he would throw a simple strike they erupted in celebration. It was the oddest scene—40K literally trying to will their former hero back to glory…….

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as many of you know, my daughter doesn’t give much of a shit about baseball. That always makes taking her a bit of a financial grind since I know she won’t appreciate the seat she gets ($350 for the 6 of us to sit in the center field bleachers) and I know going in that I’m on the hook for buying her some gear once inside the park because she likes the “look” of a Giants fan. 

So around the 4th inning she’s bored and wants to shop. Check out how many freaking people are in this store in the middle of the game! If anyone wonders how much dough the Giants haul in with merchandise sales, well, they just shouldn’t wonder anymore….

I got out of there pretty clean– 1 tank top for $32 and arm socks for $15. At least she LOOKS like a fan. 🙂 Cute as hell too.