A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

After watching Zimmerman ink 110 mil and Cueto reject 120 mil I am reminded of why I don’t want the Giants to sign any free agent pitchers. I get it, it’s not my money. All I care about is performance and we never see pitchers who sign 100 mil+ deals work out. They leave the best years of their careers on the back of their baseball cards. Every. Single. Time.

This epic weekend of sports continues today with Stanford v the despised Notre Dame. Not going to this game but definitely will be watching it. Cardinal should roll……

There was twitter rabble of the Warriors possibly losing to the Suns last night. A 19 point drubbing took care of that nonsense.

No Giants news or even rumors has predictably slowed the blog down. Hope you guys don’t mind my “other sport” references until we have something baseball related to banter about…..

As we continue through the dead zone of the baseball off season, I continue to be fascinated by the Golden State Warriors season of perfection. Tonight they go to Phoenix shooting for win #17 (this season). The Suns are 7-8 but always seem to play us tough in Arizona. They have a back court tandem of Knight and Bledsoe that some are comparing to the back court that “couldn’t work” of Curry and Ellis. I see the comparison.

My daughter became a teenager today and, as such, Black Friday holds a different meaning for me…..

Still thankful for #3in5. Still thankful for the family and friends still in my life. Still thankful for Flappers far and wide.

Enjoy the day, however you choose to enjoy days…..

First things first: I do not like Kobe Bryant. For starters, he made Todd Fuller look really bad. Lqtm.

But seriously, for many, many reasons, I don’t like him.

Yesterday I called him delusional and here were some of his comments after the game last night:

“I could have scored 80 tonight, it wouldn’t have made a damn difference….I could be out there averaging 35 a game and we’d be what, 3-11?”

Listen up cry baby: you COULD NOT have scored 80 and you CAN’T average 35 a game anymore. You are done. Retire already……

“Everything ends badly or else it would never end…..”

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If you’re someone who likes to plan ahead, if the Warriors keep winning they will TIE the all time win streak record of 33 (Lakers, ’71) on Christmas Day vs Cleveland. Wow, think any ABC execs are rooting for that to happen?

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Barry hit 28 bombs with an OPS of 1.045 in his final season. Imagine if he had been allowed to keep playing. You KNOW it would have gotten ugly for him, the same way it’s falling apart for Kobe…..

Is tonight the night? Or does the pathetic Kobe channel his last reachable vestige of greatness and deny Golden State their place in history?

Non-Warrior fans are probably like, “what’s the big deal about breaking this record?” And the answer is, it’s a very big deal. The Dubs were the worst franchise in sports for decades. They made the Giants five decade Championship drought look like a winning streak.

So playing winning basketball and chasing perfection is a prime interest to basketball fans around these parts.

And to break the record against the team from LA that was everything the Warriors couldn’t be for 30 years?

Oh man, I am going to enjoy tonight’s game……

As if you needed a reason to put you over the tip top of excitement: Draymond Green Bobblehead Night…..

’nuff said.

Maybe I’m biased against Dave Roberts because he was a Giant during one of the worst times in franchise history. But I’m not sold on him being this *can’t miss* hire. In fact, I’m kinda glad he got the job. Can you imagine a newbie manager trying to match wits with Bruce Bochy? If the game is close next year, advantage Giants…….

Tomorrow night the Warriors will make history. After pummeling the Lakers into submission, they will be the first team in NBA HISTORY to start 16-0. And I can’t think of a better team to do it against. Golden State spent the better part of 3 decades smoking Laker pole. Now LA stinks and Kobe is delusional with his recent comments about his game. I freaking LOVE it…….

What would it cost to sign both of those guys? 300 million? More? I have to believe that ZG has quietly watched and appreciated how the Giants conduct their business on and off the field. He has GOT to want to get into a clubhouse like that. But who knows, maybe he doesn’t want that. I know he has his anxiety disorder under control but I think it’s clear that Grienke is a guy who beats to his own drum. Maybe he wouldn’t want a guy like Hunter Pence shoving Kale in his face every 5 seconds.

But man, those 2 guys joining the rotation? Winter is approaching, I might need to write a haiku about it…..

Cardinal….

Still blown away by the Warriors win last night. I watched the first half. Steph and Green in foul trouble. Dubs playing no defense. Chris Paul, he of the *doubtful* tag pre-game, raining in 3’s like he was firing away at a pop-a-shot machine….

I turn off tv at halftime…….

They win by 8.

Insane.

A couple of weeks ago when they were 6-0, my buddy jokingly asked me what the odds would be of them going 82-0. I said 5,000-1? Would you bet on that? I mean, it would actually be something more like 10,000,000 to 1, right?

Today, I think I’d lay a bet at 1,000-1 and not feel like a complete idiot.

Giants in on Shelby Miller? Fine, as long as he doesn’t cost too much. he’s definitely a *buy high* guy with an xFip more than a full point above his actual ERA.

But he’d definitely be able to stabilize a slot in the rotation…….

If you’re Freddy Freeman and you’ve been told you aren’t getting traded under any circumstance that’s gotta bum you out a little, right? To be the only guy left behind on that sinking ship?

The Brandon Crawford signing was a nice reminder of how good the Giants are at sustaining their team. We get to actually be fans of players who, by and large, don’t go anywhere. That’s old school baseball. Contrast that with Billy Beane and the lotto numbers he’s addicted to playing in Oakland.

I just scanned the A’s roster from 2010. I think Eric Sogard and Coco Crisp are the only guys still on the team. That’s going back a long way, I know. But I bet if I checked 2014 there wouldn’t be THAT many more players still on the team.

Locking up Crawford won’t be the most exciting thing to happen to the Giants this off season. But it will be one of the more comforting things to happen to the Giants this off season. and I appreciate Giants management for giving me a team to care about year after year…….

Come on down? At least, come on down and enjoy your minor league deal. If you like big dudes, Kyle Blanks is your guy. He’s like a less healthy Mike Morse. But whatever, if he can cobble together a healthy season he wouldn’t be the worst back up plan for the OF and/or first base vs LH pitching…..

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With Duffy finishing 2nd in the ROY voting, I thought it would be relevant to see where my favorite Giant of all time finished. Super interesting 1986 NL ROY voting, eh?

…..still out of town. Been in mountains and not really checking news. Any news or rumors to get excited about?

Kuip on radio this am saying he fully expects to big free agent pick ups. Who are your two guesses?

I’m out of town this weekend but I’ll be checking in and will post a new thread if any big news crops up.

Chris Davis….Cespedes……J-Hey…..the names fly around but will anything come of it?

Wake me up when something happens…..

Nice GG win for Brandon Crawford. Of course, they’re upset in Atlanta since Simmons didn’t win. I don’t watch Braves games so I have no frame of reference. But I can’t imagine a better defensive shortstop in the league today than Crawford.

Pre-2010, this award would do something for me. Post 2010? Eh, it’s nice. Happy for Crawford. That’s about it.

Sad news. I followed this guy’s career for some reason. He had a sick curve ball and a lively fastball. Got hurt and, like many injured pitchers, started a long, slow slide into various ranks of the minor leagues. Pitched for the Giants last year but I think he was released or became a free agent. And then at 29, out of nowhere, dead.

Yesterday’s Niner game was unexpected. It wasn’t just that I thought Gabbert was going to be horrible, because I did think that. What was a shocker was how the NIner defense contained the most productive running back/wide receiver combo in the league. And they did it with back ups and scrubs. Gabbert is going to get more praise than he deserves. He threw some passes that were on time and accurate. We haven’t seen much of that around these parts in a while so that was refreshing. Where did those clean pockets come from? And come on, this is the NFL. No one gets here by accident. Even the worst players are talented……

It got me to wondering, when has a “Gabbert-thing” ever happened to the Giants? When has a good player fallen on hard times and been replaced by someone who I didn’t think was going to be any good but turned out to be good? It’s probably happened at some point. Maybe a closer change?

Did Heston replace Lincecum? I can’t remember. But that would be the closest recent example I can think of that loosely relates to Gabbert replacing Kaep.

Thoughts?

New thread.

The exchange at the end of the last thread shows why fans aren’t GM’s. What seems a no brainer trade to me (Panik and Belt for Harvey and Duda) was shot down by a few of you. The point isn’t to rattle that specific discussion up again but it is interesting to see how differently we view talent and production.

I don’t see the Giants making a trade for 2 reasons: 1) we don’t have young players that other teams covet and 2) Sabean overvalues all of his players.

Free agent signings? So much for Leake giving us first crack, apparently the Giants haven’t spoken to him yet. Screw him. I don’t want Mike Leake for anywhere close to the deal he’s going to get offered by other teams.

Happy to hear the Giants declined BOTH the options on Aoki and Byrd. Two nice enough players but not nice enough to soak up 13 million dollars next season.

Keep your options open, see what happens. if they don’t get the free agents they start off targeting I’m guessing one or both of them will be around as a back up plan.

And if there’s nothing left to choose from, I’m down with Parker and Kid Specs getting a shot somewhere in the OF.

You have to wonder about Dusty’s desperation to get back into managing. I mean come on, The Nationals? I can see Baker shaking his head some time in June thinking, “I’m too old for this shit.”

Everyone talks about how he manages people and Bonds often gets cited the most often as his gold standard success story in player management. But that was a pretty long time ago, the game has changed and Baker is nearing *old man” territory. Additionally, everyone is different and Harper and Bonds strike me as two pretty polar opposite divas.

I’m not sure what he’s going to do about all the bat tossing, umpiring targeting, tantruming punks that litter their line up. Who knows, maybe they were all just mirroring the temperament of their last jackass manager.

No one questions the talent on the Nats but……

I just don’t think this is the slam dunk everyone else seems to think it is.

Jeeeeezus.

While we’re waiting for the hot stove to warm up, I thought we could take a look back at who the hottest free agents were 5 years ago. Here they are: Cliff Lee, Carl Crawford, Adrian Beltre, Jayson Werth and Adam Dunn.

Uhhhhhhhhhhh…..

Honestly, I don’t really mind all the dumb rumors although I pay almost no attention to them. The problem for me is when and if we get one of these chumps at 100 million dollars (or more). It almost never works out. I’m not going to do it now, it’s too early, but let’s play a game and see who can come up with 5 free agent pick ups that worked out over the course of their contract. Minimum deal: 100 million. Let’s say you can go back 10 years. If you can’t come up with 5, just come up with 1. One.

And….go!

Shoulda gone with my first instinct. KC in 5. Wanted leeway. Turns out leeway was unnecessary. LeeMay, on the other hand, was pretty decent ball player back in the day. He’s 72 years old now.

Final game celebrations are pretty typical, aren’t they? Usually, it’s a strikeout to end it. The pitcher does some type of celebratory  move as he awaits the onrushing catcher. One of them jumps into each other’s arms. The pile begins to form, tighten and bounce slowly. Every 3 seconds the network pans to the losers dugout and capture faces staring blankly at the widening, bouncing pile. There’s always a single shot of the rich ownership group shaking each other’s hands so hard it looks like an arm or two might get ripped off…..

And you want a *full circle* story line? Salvador Perez is the last out in Pablo Sandoval’s glove last year. This year, he’s the World Series MVP. That’s an incredible 365 days…….

Congrats to the Royals. They earned it and were it not for an angry North Carolinian, they’d have 2 in a row……

With KC primed to take out the Mets tonight in 5, I think we would be remiss in not honoring this day for what it is: the 5 year anniversary of Timmy throwing that single digit in the air, *fuck yeahs!!!!!* flying as freely as his flowing black hair. Below him players celebrated wildly. I remember that moment like it was last night.

Never forget your first……