A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

Maybe it’s time to peek in on Marco Scutaro and see how he’s moving around. We need infielders!

Last night’s game isn’t going to go away for a while. As James said, he’s going to remember that game 10 years from now and just like the Brenly game, I think he’s absolutely right. I’m not sure which Giant was worse. Mac Williamson literally goosed a ball over the fence for an HR for the A’s. Tejada dropped a ball that little league infielders catch. And Pagan was playing like he was asleep out there. What was that all about?

As the A’s march towards this absurd sweep, tonight we get to watch Bumgarner hit in place of a DH. That’s will be fun to watch. Until he’s no longer in the game and we have to send a reliever up there to hit. Whatever, Boch will just use a PH like he normally would. I doubt we see a pitcher hit for us tonight (besides Bum).

Let me be clear about this: I don’t like bullpen guys. What do they have to do? Go out there for 1 inning and throw as hard as they want? Boo hoo. If Peavy has a clean first inning tonight and then gets blown up in the 2nd we’d be calling for his retirement.

So I have very little patience for guys who can’t go an inning without giving up runs.

And we are halfway to the A’s sweeping us.

That brings up a valid consideration: Maybe we aren’t as good as our record indicates. While we’ve been busy slapping each other on the backs and dropping knowing dude head nods on all those who pass, it needs to be acknowledged that we have been beating up on some pretty average/pole smoking teams this year.

But, there is no dominant team in either league unless you want crown the Cubs ass. And we all know that success in the regular season means nothing come the post season……..

That giant ass……

A stance on the mound so wide he could ride 2 fine steeds at once….

The meticulously oiled mustache….

And that herky jerky two pump chump wind up…….

Everything about that guy I want to go away.

And it happened again. The pitiful A’s who are 16.5 games out of first place came into our park and smacked us around.

I could easily see the A’s sweeping us.

If you’re ever hit with great angst about the Giants not scoring 4.2 runs a game or the bullpen sucking or whatever, go read the 2 posts from Dodger fans that Zumiee re-posted last night. That’ll give you some perspective on being let down as a sports fan. If that doesn’t work, go listen to “18 and Life” by Skid Row. No real reason, that song just happens to be playing in the background as I type this. Although Rickey, man, kid never had a chance, did he? lqtm…..

Count me in the camp of NOT wanting to see the A’s right now. Inter-league is lame and a time that has passed itself by. And while the A’s might be the worst team in the league they are also the type of team who can cause you problems. For additional reference, please see: the Phillies this past weekend……

So let’s not sink down to the level of Beane’s half-sunk ship. Step on the throat of these fucks and stomp the piss out of them. Don’t give them any reason to think they’re in this…….

Here are the last names of the 4 SP’s we are facing this series: Mengden, Graveman, Manaea, Overton…..

I don’t want to hear any bullshit from Krukow about the Giants “not having a book” on any of these guys. Read the scouting report. They’ll all young guys with talent who aren’t ready to be regularly productive mlb starting pitchers.

STPOOT (stomp the piss out of them)

Well, they lost that game.

It is unacceptable to score 2 runs for Bum in two straight starts. And they were lucky to get those 2….

Nola is actually a decent pitcher so the Giants hitters need to show up today.

Unlike the last 2 games where they were MIA.

No. More. Blanco.

Give the man a rest. He needs a rest……

Plus, it’s Sunday where run totals go to die. I’m telling you, if you want to make a lot of $$$ bet the under on every Sun across MLB. Over time and after withstanding some variance, you’ll clean up……

I missed the end of the game. What can I say? I’m a baller with a bedtime. Kudos to those of you who clawed your way to that win.

“Money in the bank” goes tonight and I can’t see how they lose this game….

My newest irritation with Mike Krukow (after pitchers who “will throw anything at any time” and his constant pre-game blather about what type of strike that day’s umpire will be calling): always calling a runner fast or declaring that he has good speed. Regardless of how fast or slow they actually are…..

What bothers you most about our beloved K/K tandem?

Another day, another W. This is what the Dubs season felt like. Wins piling on top of wins with the fans starting to become a little immune to how awesome a win is. We need to appreciate these now, there will be darker days ahead.

Tonight, the Phillies come to town and they stink. They can’t hit and their pitchers give up gobs of bombs. How will that translate into this weekend series? It’s baseball, anything can happen. I don’t think we’re as good as our record. It doesn’t make sense that we can lose some of our best players and we start winning MORE. But whatever, enjoy the ride. Peavy at home as been a pretty good ride. Peavy anywhere has been a surprising good thing.

Ranking our starters in terms of reliability you’d probably have to go Bum, Cueto, Peavy, Smarge and then Suarez who is just a cheaper version of Petit who, frankly, I’d still rather have on the team…..

I still think Derek Law looks completely out of shape. He’s like a skinny Rick Reuschel. And those teeth. Jesus, when he smiles, they’re everywhere. It’s like he’s got 83 teeth in his mouth……

But the dude can pitch. And that interview of him after the game was one of my favorite all year. He’s just a genuine, cool ass dude.

I’m gonna let the worrywarts freak out about Smarge. His problem right now is simple. His off speed stuff is flying just out of the strike zone forcing him to throw too many fastballs that all travel around 94mph and hitters are sitting on them and blasting them. He’ll be fine.

Pena. Gillespe. Osich. Law. Just pull a name off the scrap heap and Sabean will turn him into a contributing major leaguer.

It’s like we might never lose another game again…….

The last time the Giants scored 15 runs in Pittsburgh: Aug 18, 1982. They won 16-9. Jack Clark had 4 hits and 6 RBI’s. Leonard had 5 ribbies. Duane Kuiper pinch hit in the 7th inning and had 2 hits in that inning.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT198208180.shtml

So where does everyone stand on Gillespe? Clearly, he doesn’t like being referred to as “Boring Ass”. And all Ramiro Pena does is spray ropes all over the yard.

Screw Arroyo, who needs him?

Uh oh…….

So whattya gimmie for a *Ramiro Pena*? This is the kind of shit the Giants do that I hate. Just because this cat has been in the big leagues at some point in his career they’re going to start him. Note to Giants brass: shitty utility guys do not belong starting for any length of time, ever.

Arroyo isn’t going to get called up because of the tired, played out excuse we’ve always gotten: He might not be ready and we don’t want to damage his psyche. Excuse me but fuck that. I’m tired of treating ballplayers like they’re PTSD victims. If you call him up and it turns out he’s not ready you just tell him that and send him back down. He’ll be fine. It’s not like he’s going to cry a puddle of tears and be ruined forever.

Give Arroyo a shot. You know he wants it. And he’s earned it.

Ok, I’ve washed that epic meltdown off and turned my focus to….baseball. That’s it. For the rest of the Summer my sports attention is on one thing: baseball. And as Summer gets under way today, that’s not a bad place to attend.

Pittsburgh reminds me of Cleveland so I do not like them one fuck. And though I’ve never been to either place I want the Giants to destroy the Pirates today…..

It’s possible I haven’t *completely* washed that epic meltdown off yet. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Ah, Game 7. Is there anything better? Elimination. Winner take all. Sudden death. All the……(see headline).

In that way, 2012 was magical. Still hard to believe. Down 2-0 to the Reds? No problem. We’ll just reel off 3 straight in your yard. Down 3-1 to the Cards? Howsabout another 3 straight in yo face?

But today is a Game 7 that I’m treading lightly towards. I can trick myself into believing the excuses for the last 2 beatdowns. No Draymond in Game 5. Had to play in Cleveland in Game 6. But the constant in both of those games was the awakened beast that is Lebron. He’s made me question Curry’s MVP win and I thought I stood unshakably behind #30.

Whatever happens, and I have absolutely no feeling at all about what will happen, it has been an an amazing ride gifted to us by OBD. If the Giants blew a 3-1 lead in the WS it would devastate me. If the Warriors blow it? Eh, I’ll be bummed but I’ll get over it. There are some people I’ll have to swiftly unfollow on twitter, but I’ll get over it…….

The Shark is back on the beam and Tampa Bay looked tepidly average, at best. I’m guessing they look better today against Suarez who I continue to have no confidence in. And could Matt Duffy get a hit, like, on the road? His splits have wandered into the absurd. He’s hitting .356 at home and .126 on the road. I think the mental aspect of his game has to get looked at. Nothing explains those splits this far into the season. If you want a silver lining, he’s got 2 bombs on the road, 1 at home……

American League. East coast. DH. Dumb ass dome. This one is shaping up as a major challenge.

Baseball played indoors is the worst. I do have fond memories of the Astros playing in the Astrodome but that was because they had the most bomb-ass uniforms in the history of baseball. Two flaps worth of credit at The Flap Store for the first Flapper who can name this cat without googling him.

Some might disagree but I thought baseball uniforms from the 70’s were the absolute best and all teams should be forced to still wear them. Daily fines for teams that don’t seems about right.

Ugh. But tonight, Tampa Blah. I mean Bay. Sorry. Between the static temperature, players who cast no shadow and the empty echos in the darkest part of that tin cylinder, it will be a challenge for the Giants to get up for this game. I’m predicting we come out slow and slodgy. Hope to see some rallying emotions as the game wears on…..

Day off today. How’s a 6 game lead feel to ya? If Zumiee went to every game we’d have a billion game lead.

The NL first place teams are stretching all over the place. Nats up by 5. Cubbies up by 9.5. And the Art Dealers 6 back of us.

Things could change but I don’t think it will. Our starting pitching is too good and our hitting is fine. The only thing that will take us down this year: injuries.

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I’m glad today is an off day because…..OBD.

Game 6.

Les go.

I’m surprised Belt’s clown feet don’t get hit more frequently. They make quite a target. As much as I have to grudgingly admit it, we can’t lose him for any extended period of time. We’ve kinda used up our passes on guys getting hurt, haven’t we? Name a current starter who could go down and we’d be fine with a replacement player. Can’t do it.

So let’s just hope nobody gets hurt the rest of this season and I can’t even finish typing this sentence without worrying…….

John Shimmey goes today. I like our chances……..

Coming off a tough, emotional series with the Dodgers, last night could have been a big let-down game. It was not. The top of the order were hitting right out of the gate and we got a fairly easy victory over an underrated team.

I can’t believe all the steam this “Braun story” is getting. There is NO WAY we get this dude. Unless the Brewers want to pay 80% of his deal and we know that isn’t happening. I don’t want him for free. He would be guaranteed to hit significantly worse over the course of an entire season at AT&T. He’s aging. And now *probably* without his precious steroids. And we’d be stuck with him through 2021! Plus if he gets popped again that a 162 ban. Not worth the risk.

Also, the guy’s a dick. All Melky did was hastily put together a fake website. Dumb? Super dumb. But he didn’t chuck some poor guy just doing his job under the bus. That was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen an athlete do.

Fuck Ryan Fraud. Forever.

Great game last night. The theme for that series started and ended with the word “battle.” So close to sweeping those be-atches…

Ok, now to a topic that doesn’t seem to want to go away: Bumgarner in the home run derby. I haven’t worried much about this since I didn’t think there was a chance Bochy would ever let it happen. But there seems to be a swell of support for this gimmicky idea and I want to know what you guys think about it.

My take: I’m 100% against it. I don’t want any non-baseball related activity to ever possibly injure one of our star players. For instance, I want Hunter Pence to screw his fiance much more gently during his DL stint so he doesn’t injure his remaining hamstring. Make love, Reverend! No hard fuckin’ till after you get back on the field…..

I get it, that’s pretty cautious. But I care more about the Giants overall performance than some dumb ass exhibition. Ask Apollo Creed what he thinks about exhibitions. Oh, I’m sorry, you can’t. He’s fucking dead!

Having your pitcher win the home run derby is something a dopey city like Cleveland should celebrate. If your city doesn’t get to celebrate actual championships those are the things you spend your time getting jazzed about.

But not here. Not this area. We are about flags flying forever.

Not dumbass exhibitions where our star player could easily screw up a lat swinging as hard as he can for 45 minutes…..

These have been fun games to watch. Regardless of the outcome. Although I’m probably just saying that because of last night’s outcome.

And big props to Snarkk and San Dawg and others for comments last night that transcended the game and the sport. Whenever I find myself reading posts more than once I know they are pure gold. Those are too long to put into the POTD but I am going to flood the POTD-best of a little later today when I have more time.

Peavy tonight! Fuck yeah, why not?

Santiago Casilla’s a trip. Have we ever had a pitcher like him? His Giants career is like a book with 40 chapters. He’s been here 7 years which is a long time for a reliever. He’s 31-19 with a 2.27 ERA and 104 saves.

And everyone hates him.

Well, he’s 35 now and when he climbs the hill he’s just an absolute shaky fuck, right?

Bochy already got the ball rolling with the inevitable the other night when he used Casilla and 2 others for the 9th inning. After last night’s bomb given up to the underwhelming Justin Turner I expect Bochy to finally go public with something like “Casilla needs a mental break or some time off from closing” or some shit like that. Bochy’s got that speech down pat. He yanked him from the gig back in 2012 only to give it back to him in 2014. It’s amazing how long Casilla has been around and how many different times he’s been closing/setting up/etc.

But the bottom line is that we need him. Our relief core is, collectively, pretty unreliable. Let’s see him blow some guys away in the 7th and get his confidence back up. And now I finally get to see “my guy” Hunter Strickand take a stab at this job.

lulz, gonna make us put the call out for Casilla.

Again.

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Also, Two Flap Up Happy Birthday to the greatest QB of all time, Joe Montana. He turns 60 today. That, uh, blows my mind……

I’m not sure if you could put together a bigger sports evening if you could hand picked the events. OBD take on the Cav’s in Game 4. In light of their utter dismantling in Game 3 this now becomes an extremely interesting game.

If you somehow aren’t interested in that you can glue your attention to Giants/Dodgers and Kershaw.

It doesn’t get any better.

Not much to say about last night’s win. I was positively slayed by DJ Loo and his “stall shower/Tilex”exacta.

And it was *cha cha ching!* for San Diggity and *his* Cleveland Cavaliers.

Zumiee got tickets to the game? How’d HE get tickets to the game!?!?!?!!?!? He walked into AT&T like the Godfather, said “win the damn game” and the Giants made it so.

That makes Zumiee 293-0 in his career of attending Giants games……

Random thought: how many Giants games do you estimate you’ve been to in person? I’ve never had season tickets. I’ll say 200 but might alter that number as I ponder it on my drive in to work this morning……

Another come-from-ahead loss.

We said. Could easily be the headline to today’s thread. Boston, as I expected, didn’t come into our park and blast the ball to the moon as Kruk and Kuip seemed to think they were going to do. But they were professional hitters and that was all it took.

We were minus Pence and Posey. Other guys have to step up. The roster isn’t 8 guys and a bunch of pitchers. The rest of the players are paid very well to be ready when their number is called.

I’m not optimistic about tonight. Probably a low scoring game. Maybe Babe Bumgarner wins it for us…..

I actually think Suarez is going to do ok tonight. Boston likes to blast the ball out of the yard and that doesn’t really work at AT&T. Plus, they’re playing NL rules in an unfamiliar yard. I dunno, it just feels like he might not get blasted.

And who put this game on the schedule? Boston flies all the way out here for 2 interleague games? Then back to Minnesota? I bet they’re stoked about this trip. lulz.

It’s too bad Cleveland is doing well. I would have liked to have seen the Giants pick up Rajai Davis for 2 months.

Assuming they pick up a guy without a big contract, who are some of the names you’d like to see us look at? I’m on record as going with Carl Crawford just for the jokes on LA.

Nice little day break before Boston comes to town. I find it awesomely ironic that the Red Sox have such a potent offense WITHOUT Sandoval. Like Toronto, I expect them to come into town and be a little off playing the National League game. And since it’s only a 2 game series, they’ll be gone before they can do any real damage.

Dubs. What can you say? This is in the bag……

Busy today, just a quickie to get ya going. Carl Crawford got Df’d today. Money well spent. If we didn’t have to pay for the next year and a half of his deal, I’d let him run around in right field till Pence got back. He could be the ghost of Reggie Smith. Loved that dude in ’82.

OBD tonight at 5pm. Les go.

When AJ Pollock went down for the year for the D-backs everyone said what a big blow it would be. Like if the Giants lost Pence. I didn’t agree then and I don’t agree now. The Giants and Arizona are built completely different and are run differently. Also, I think everyone overreacted at the value of Pollock. AZ wasn’t going to ever be as good as the pundits were thinking. Same way SD wasn’t going to fulfill promise last season.

Loo brought up the idea of taking Markakis from the Braves who would be salivating at the idea of shedding the rest of his deal. The Giants beat writers scoffed at this idea when I proposed it and one of them, I think Baggs, said the Giants would only be looking at a 2 month rental. Suggested our sights be set closer to Jeff Francour.

Can I raise a topical point? Why should the Giants just be looking for a 2 month rental? Because Angel Pagan is such a rock solid reliable player? This is beyond stupid. The Giants are the worst team in the history of baseball at developing outfielders. So the pipeline is bare and broken UNTIL they produce one.

During the season, that means trades are the only way of acquiring legitimate mlb talent. Tell me what could possibly be wrong with picking up a steady outfielder like Markakis for the long haul?

When and if Pence came back this year, BELIEVE ME there would be a spot for him. And there will be a spot next year. And probably the year after that.

I’m not saying that Markakis is the answer, but the idea that the replacement has to be some shit-done player like Francour is ludicrous. If they’re going to do that, just do the Mac-Park thing instead. We need good outfielders. Lots of them. We should stockpile them.

Markakis is available? Great. Come aboard. You got a brother? Bring him too.

Yesterday was the first time in years when the Giants played and finished a game before I even knew they were playing. Man, that was an early one yesterday.

Into Missouri we go. Honestly it doesn’t rile me up the way it used to. Not sure why.

Warriors 2nd team took down “The Land” last night. That must be a fun pill for LeFlop to swallow.

Here’s a sampling of tweets from their resident idiot fan after the game ended last night.

Well, we are about to find out what the hybrid of Parker and Williamson can do. I don’t see either of them wrestling the job from each other but a successful platoon could be in the offing. Oh Adam Duvall, where for art thou? lol.

I know they’re giving the ball to Al-Su today but the back up plan has to be a quick entrance for Chris Stratton, right? If they’re worried about putting too much pressure on the kid it makes sense they’re keeping him in waiting in case Suarez needs assistance. And if he isn’t needed as a long man then things must be going ok for Suarez, right?

There are still 585 tickets available for the game in Atlanta tonight. I noticed yesterday that there were 747 tickets available so they’re going….slow. I have no idea why this has caught my attention. If anyone gets a chance to eyeball the number of fans at game time please let me know. I’m betting 40% full and I’m starting to obsess on what all these people are doing with their unsold tickets.

They hit 9 home runs in Colorado last night. Seriously, they need to move that team to another city. It is absolutely absurd what happens to the game up there……