A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

Right now, that 5 goes Bum, Cain, Peavy, Huddy, and Timmy. I think it could be argued that either Voggy or Yuzzie=Pet should be in that 5 but for the start of the season, those are your 5.

Bum: No worries here, moving along to….

Cain: I was worried about Cain until I heard Kruk discussing him on KNBR yesterday. As we know, Kruk’s assessments can be dangerous to the ears if not listened to carefully. For instance, I never look directly into a Kruk assessment, at least not long than a second or so. But he made an interesting point when he said that Cain can finally extend his arm without restriction and that his curve ball is back and it’s deadly. Cain’s biggest hurdle is probably mental but I’m fairly confident he’ll get over that and start to let the ball fly…..

Peavy: This will be the same comment for Huddy. I think that if Bochy manages Peavy’s innings this year, and if it were me this is where I would use Petit and Voggy most aggressively, Peavy will probably be productive. I wouldn’t let him go past 5 innings. This would take a different mindset by everyone but it was clear that both he and Huddy were out of gas at the end of last year. I’m a big believer in limiting innings of your old starting P’s and in theory the Giants have 2 guys in the bullpen who could piggy back a game with Peavy and Huddy.

Huddy: read above

Timmy: he worries me the most. I’m not buying this “Daddy fixed everything” story. Having said that, Kruk says Timmy is light years ahead of where he’s been in previous springs. Kruk, Jesus….I guess the only thing to do is hope Kruk’s correct and that Timmy will end up having a solid 2015. Maybe not Cy Young-like, but something productive. That would be quite the turnaround but weirder things have happened in baseball…..

Marty Lurie does a bit on KNBR every Spring called “Three Outrageous Predictions.” Callers call in and make “three outrageous predictions” for the upcoming season. It’s not as bad as it sounds. The goal is to predict something that *could* happen though is not likely to happen. Before you decide this is a stupid thing to do, if I had predicted last July that the Giants would beat the Royals in Game 7 of the World Series that year you would probably declare that an outrageous prediction….

#1: Tim Lincecum will throw another no hitter in 2015. Hey, he just needs to cobble it together for one game and we all know he’s got no-no’s in that arm…..

#2: Hunter Strickland will be the closer by Aug 1 and he will dominate. Lots of things will have to happen/fall apart for this prediction to come to pass.

#3: Matt Duffy will garner some rookie of the year votes. Like prediction #2, some things will have to fall into place for him to make this happen. But I really like Duffy and if he gets a shot at an infield position for an extended period of time in 2015 I think he’s going to run with the chance……

What are your *Three Outrageous Predictions?”

Picture needs no caption

Looks like Nate the great Schierholtz isn’t going to make the team in Texas. Why wouldn’t we bring him back to play for a month while Pence heals? He knows right field as good as anyone. He knows the team, uh, he knows where the stadium is located….reaching here.

But I’d rather let him play than Maxwellwhoever….

Serious question for Flap Universe: If you hadn’t paid any attention to ST what would you say if one of your buddies said, “Hey, the Giants are 19-6!”

You’d probably be pretty stoked. Maybe fire off a knowing dude head nod to the nearest stranger.

But then you remember that your buddy is dyslexic and the Giants were actually 6-19.

Now how would you feel?

For those wondering about Timmy’s game yesterday it was a lot like last year and the 2 years before that. Low velocity, no command, 7 k’s in 5 innings.

So there’s that……

At this point, I’m hoping we maintain our last place finish in the spring training standings all the way to Opening Day. If you’re going to fuck something up why not go all the way with it? And if I truly don’t care about spring training stats, and I don’t, then why not have some fun with it?

So while I want to see sharper fundamentals on defense, line drives that are caught off the bats of our hitters and a .350+ BABIP for our pitchers, I’m going to give myself a knowing dude head nod every time we lose for the rest of the spring.

After you win another World Series and then follow it up with a 6-18 to start the spring, this is really the only way for me to make it to opening day without breaking something……

____________________________

For those of you who enjoy Shop Talk with Shoptaw, here’s the article he wrote about the Giants after interviewing me and a couple of other Giants bloggers.

http://www.cardsconclave.com/2015/03/26/playing-pepper-2015-san-francisco-giants/

The Warriors winning the Pacific Division, for the first time in 39 years, should be jazzing me up a little more than it is. I’m stoked but I feel like kind of a fake-o fan having not been into NBA for the last 10 years or so. I was a big RUN TMC guy. But then years of sucking combined with incompetent ownership saw my allegiance dull a bit. Plus, I got tired of NBA dudes doing nothing but jacking up 3’s and/or guys waiting till an entire side of the court was cleared out before they could go play 1:1 over and over. The NBA game, to me, is a lot worse than it was back in the day. The product sucks and a big part of that is the “1 and done” game getting played at the college level. Most of these kids aren’t ready to play in the NBA. But I digress because……

Steph Curry brought me back. He does things on a court I’ve never seen done, certainly not around these parts. I’m a little too young to remember Rick Barry. Outside of his unusual free throw style, I hear he did some things never seen before, too.

But it’s impossible to not like this Warriors team. Draymond Green is a throwback in every sense of the word. And for guys like David Lee to lose his starting gig and not even play a min some games (like last night) and be cool with it because he’s a total team player–well, you just don’t see NBA players act like that anymore.

Still, in terms of me being a fan of the team, this is a full-on bandwagon jump. It’s a Nestea Plunge into a sea of “We Believe’s”. And it’s still an exciting time for me to be a Warrior fan.

__________________________-

And don’t even get me started on the highest high I’m currently riding with Stanford heading to the semifinals of the NIT (said with heavy sarcasm).

There was an anonymous poll of mlb players recently conducted by ESPN. I’ll post the link at the end of the thread but here were some things that stood out for me:

Regarding PED’s: AL slugger: “I think the number is probably about 10 percent, but that’s not counting Adderall as a PED. If you included guys who are using Adderall, wow, that number would be through the roof.”

Who’s the most overrated player in MLB?
AL All-Star: “I like Bryce Harper. I think he’s going to be really good. But the attention for him — and for Puig, to a certain extent — is overkill. It’s just been hype so far.” Puig was voted 2nd most overrated.

65% of players dislike the new rules eliminating home plate collisions.

The players predict the World Series will most likely be the Cardinals or Detroit

Here’s the link:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10647688/anonymous-mlb-players-strong-opinions-rule-change-espn-magazine

If you were wondering about MadBum’s feelings about the contract he plays to, well, you shouldn’t wonder anymore. He was asked about in the San Jose Merc yesterday and his comments, if genuine, makes me think he really is fine with his team friendly deal.

Check it out:

“You know, that was life changing money for me.”

“Now that things turned out the way they are it’s easy to ask these questions. But you know what, that’s good. I want to be asked these questions. It’s a lot better than the other way around.”

“I grew up poor. I don’t need a lot of money to get by. I mean, I ain’t playing for money, I guess.”

I could understand if this is how he felt as a rookie country bumpkin, but after years of living the life of a pro ballplayer it’s a little surprising that he still feels this way. And hey, don’t forget his world series bonuses. I mean, that’s how El Presidente gets by. No reason Bum can’t feed his family that way, too. 🙂 🙂 🙂

While basking in the glow of yet another World Series supernova, I think it’s easy to forget how bad we were last year for nearly 3 months. But we started the year well, got enough wins to make the playoffs and then our experience took over. Will that be the same recipe in 2015?

I’d like to think we take a different route this year. Yes we suck in literally all aspects of the game in spring training so far. But I don’t feel confident that we can turn it on and off so easily as we did in 2014.

I think the plan needs to be letting the offense suck shit until we find out if the pitching holds together. If the pitching staff performs in April, May, June…..then I think Sabean will have to go out and find a bat or two. Otherwise, I can already hear “bad penny year” coming from his lips some time before July 4th…..

Those were some awesome posts by you guys on the last thread……

And now for some negativity.

At this point, it’s not outrageous to consider that Pagan is going the way of Glass Sanchez. We are now forced to consider an outfield of Ishikawa, Aoki and Blanco. I suppose Perez could fit into that mix. Unless Maxwell does something, anything, to distinguish himself I have to hope he’s not in the mix on Opening Day. If they all suck, I’m inclined to go with the guys who suck and yet still contributed to us winning a World Series 🙂

But truly, this is one of the worst teams, as presently configured with healthy players, that I’ve seen the Giants put out since maybe 2007 or 2008. Guys like Maxwell were on those teams.

Argue me wrong.

I’m glad I don’t work in The City where I’d have to drive by this slow death everyday. I wish they’d just pulled it with one big BOOM and all we would have had left is some rubble barely visible through the smoke.

Taking Candlestick apart piece by piece is just agonizing for me. And yet I can’t stop watching these drone videos that are getting posted. I never, EVER hated The Stick. I remember laughing out loud when it would get super cold.

Without question I miss the left field bleachers the most. I had so much fun literally growing up out there.

And now they’re gutting her like a dead fish. Some sadistic fuck is slicing her into pieces.

As Spring Training rabbles in the background, today begins the start of one of the top 3 sporting events of the year. Two billion dollars will be lost in unseen work productivity today. Here at The Flap, that number could soar even higher…..

I’ve got no idea how many brackets I’ve filled out across the internet. Fanduel, Draftkings, Yahoo, Espn, CBSSports, private work bracket, family and friends bracket……It’s probably around 100.

I’ve got Arizona winning it all on just about every ticket…..

Your pick?

If Bochy isn’t worried about his team right now, he’s definitely frustrated with it. They have the worst SP ERA in spring training and they’re hitting .235 (which I haven’t looked up but it doesn’t sound good).

He went off on them to the media yesterday in an effort, I’m assuming, to wake their asses up.

Pagan’s back is hurting again, by the way.

I find it ironic that yesterday’s thread was titled “Fragile Arms” and on the same day promising 49ers linebacker Chris Borland retired from football citing a possible “Fragile Brain” as the reason. He was 24.

The day after Patrick Willis retired I was consoling a friend who was distraught with the news of his favorite linebacker leaving the game. I told him, “Hang in there bro. We’ve got Chris Borland waiting in the wings.” He perked up.

And now this? I was expecting to read that Borland had suffered several concussions in his career but according to him he’s had 2. Two. TWO. And he’s never been diagnosed with one in an NFL game.

Whatever, no one’s holding a gun to his head, so to speak. He can do what he wants. Later Borland, good luck with that history degree from Wisconsin or whatever you received (or studied while you were in college).

I’ve felt for a while now that football is going to have a tough time succeeding in the next decade or so if the league continues to enforce rules that belong in flag football, not NFL football. But if the NFL is going to start losing young studs like Borland in preemptive attempts to protect their brains then the NFL is FUCKED.

Why not just choose to be a baseball pitcher instead of a football player (when you’re in high school). Risking a possible TJ surgery sure beats risking having your brain scrambled. This is what we’re going to start seeing.

Brutal break for Zach Wheeler who was diagnosed with a torn UCL. The spike in major arm injuries to pitchers in the last 5 years is shocking. How can teams feel confident in giving a starting pitcher with 1500 innings on his arm a 150 million dollar deal? And those are just major league innings. Think about how many innings those arms threw in the minor leagues? College? High school? Babe Ruth? Little League?

Sabean’s approach to go draft heavy on pitchers always seemed like a strange move to me. I’ve always felt he should have drafted more hitters and they’d be forced to play at ATT till they could bail as free agents. Then you sign pitching free agents who would WANT to come pitch in our park.

Clearly, my approach was incorrect. Whether Sabean did this on purpose or not, we’ll never know. But he must love the fact that he gets the best years of the arms of his pitchers while almost never having to go pay a pitcher big bucks to come to SF and break down……

Here’s a graph that shouldn’t surprise anyone. It only goes to 2013, I’m sure it spiked again since. mlb pitchers only

I didn’t hear the interview with Huff on 95.7 but I read the Facebook post. I’m going to stand behind the Panda on this one. And not just because I don’t trust guys who use that many exclamation points to make their *point*. Huff is talking about the Sandoval he knew in the 2010 world series run. Panda had pretty much eaten his way off that post season starting line up. And while Huff was around for one of Sandoval’s revivals in 2011, he was gone for most of 2012 and a dim shell of his 2010 self in the 2012 world series. I wonder how Pablo’s teammates felt about him the night he blasted 3 bombs off “That Damn Pitcher?” The 2010 team was filled with crusty old vets who probably didn’t take too kindly to Sandoval’s fat and spotty production. I chose to believe that Huff was long gone by the time Panda turned a corner in his career by refocusing on what it takes to be a winner and believe me, his teammates know they don’t win ’12 and ’14 without him. Maybe he wasn’t as beloved as we thought in the clubhouse but Aubrey Huff squawking from his Facebook account is just static to me.

The Will Ferrell thing was fantastic. I can’t imagine anyone who didn’t enjoy that. And I’m not a big Ferrell fan. He’s ok. Does some things epic. But all in all, I don’t go out of my way to see him in a movie. But what a treat he gave the fans and the players yesterday. And it’s tough to go against anyone raising money for anything that has to do with cancer.

Check out all the highlights at mlb.com if you missed any of it.

__________________________

buddy just walked into my office, he’d been at spring training. Dude likes to get his hats signed. Here’s how Miller signs his autographs now. Pretentious? Or is that how you’d sign a hat if you were in the HOF?

Hector Olivera, the latest Cuban to hit the market, is said to have 6 teams interested in him. You guessed it, the Giants are listed as one of the six.

He’s 30 and wants a 5 year deal. I’ll put him closer to 33 and I don’t want this guy on anything more than an invite to camp.

So I will be happy after Sabean gets outbid on another foreign player.

Now watch us get him.

For those of you wondering……

What do we glean from this? Someone named “Lollis” is on the team. Our HR leader is Gary Brown (1) tied with Duvall, Carbonell and Quiroz. Brown is also the SB leader with 2. So clearly, we’ve found a short term replacement for Pence, right?

Man, Gary Brown must really not be able to hit a breaking ball.

Snarkk’s 10:15 post from last night was a good way to end yesterday’s discussion of Sandoval. It’s important to note that The Panda didn’t say anything bad about the SF fans, he just didn’t say he missed us. And really, who cares if he didn’t say he missed us? First of all, this is his job, we are far more emotionally involved in the players than they are with us. Secondly, he just left, if he’s ever going to miss SF fans he has to have time to know what he’s missing.

Regarding his comments about missing Bochy and maybe Pence, that’s just too weird to even take seriously. Literally EVERY SINGLE dugout video shot that I ever saw of Sandoval was of him yucking it up with fellow players. It’s not like he sat exclusively next to Bochy (and occasionally Pence). The dude was routinely the life of the clubhouse. He had very strong ties to his fellow players. I don’t care what he says now.

Anyway, I’m not gonna get caught up anymore in all this “who did he miss? who didn’t he miss?” This non-story is starting to read like a really bad romance novel. I’m going to focus on who are 3rd baseman is now, not the guy who’s gone……

How badly do you think they want it? I’m talking about The Repeat.

In 2011, I remember them being a little overwhelmed by what they had done. The team partied hard. The only thing that stopped Huff’s party was a problem with anxiety. And then Buster’s ankle blew and the season went with it.

In 2013, I vaguely remember wondering where the emotional fire was on the team. I’d have to go back and look, but I wrote at least one thread about it appearing that the team was struggling to find that internal drive to win it all again. I also recall lot of people blaming the WBC and a short off season on the Giants troubles in 2013.

And now here we are on the cusp of another title defense. I don’t remember another spring training that I was less into. I’ve enjoyed hearing Jon Miller on the radio and I’m exciting about baseball starting again. But honestly, my internal drive for what might become of the 2015 season is rather low.

Maybe this will all change when real baseball starts. We’ll see.

Draftkings has their mlb contests up for opening day and I’ve spent the last 2 hours looking at what each player costs. This probably doesn’t interest any of you.

But at the top right of their homepage there’s a box that says “Contest Goes Live in:” and next to that it says 717:59:03

So we’ve only got 717 hours to go before real baseball is back and all is right again in the world.

But he’s no Scott Cousins. He’s not a malicious idiot. The reality is, this was just an unintentional mistake. An unfortunate fallout of spring training. I gave this guy shit on twitter last night and was blasted by Cubs fans and Black’s old college teammates. I could care less what twitter idiots think of me, I mostly use it just as a news source. Honestly, I’ve been more pissed off at some shitty rides Corey Black used to give me down in Southern California. lqtm

I get it, poor Corey Black feels bad. But this guy hit 14 hitters last year in only 124 innings (while also tossing 15 wild pitches). That ball he threw Pence? He can say he was trying to go inside but the fact is, he had no idea where it was going and if you saw the video, Hunter had no where to go. That pitch probably hit 14 other guys last year.

So whatever, he feels bad, he didn’t do it on purpose. It’s baseball, shit happens. But we’re now missing one of our best players because of this guy–so, fuck him.

I think we’ll be fine covering this internally. Blanco can cobble together a decent enough month. It would be a major problem if we asked him (or Perez) to handle the job for an entire season.

So this really isn’t that big of a deal…..

Eli Whiteside has lived the life, hasn’t he? His peripheral major league career has now mercifully ended and yet he’s still in the game. As many of you know, he’s the bullpen catcher for the Giants now. Here he is displaying his multi-layered skills by throwing BP today:

His transaction log reads like the stamps at the back of Blade’s well-traveled passport:

Somehow, he made 2 mil in the major leagues. Throw in the bonuses from those 2 world series’ he watched from the bench and he’s probably over 3 mil.

I have no idea what he’s making as the BP catcher. With his luck, he’s probably pulling down what Bochy is making…….

Sometimes a thread just kinda writes itself….

It is time. The defense of our great crown starts today. Bumgarner will pitch the first inning. The last time he pitched an inning? That wen’t pretty well….

Our REAL defense of our great crown starts April 6th in Arizona. The Giants don’t even play a home regular season game until April 13th.

But if you’re in the mood for a lazy day listening to the sweet sounds of John Miller and Kuip, tune into KNBR today. This week the game will be on radio today, tomorrow and Sat/Sun.

One more day until real baseball. At least, baseball games that don’t count. Tomorrow the Giants play the A’s. Barry Zito will  be the starting pitcher for Oakland…

That last sentence isn’t true but that would spice this spring up a bit, yes?