MLB, NBA, NFL
This is going to be an interesting series against San Diego. They stink but they have a lot of good, young hitters who are going to, at the bare minimum, play hard. I’m not sure that’s the best opponent for our aged vets. I’d like to think (pray?) that Smarge gets back on the beam tonight pitching in the friendly’s of AT&T. We’ll see.
The NBA “resting” thing is the biggest scam in professional sports. All these guys do is freaking rest in the playoffs. The Warriors last played on Monday and they’re still loitering around waiting for a second round opponent. Resting players so they’ll be fresher for the playoffs is a complete and total scam….
There’s a flicker of flame in the black hole darkness of Santa Clara. It’s the Niners draft so far. And then they go bang!bang! to start the 3rd round. Les go!!!!!!
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Yeah Lynch did more in one day than Baalke did in his entire tenure with the Niners.
And I know it’s all in the past, but I’ll never forgive Cabana York for diddling around for YEARS keeping that dolt around and spoon feeding Niner fans utter bullshit.
I’ve always said I would love to see a real life (uncut) look at the GM’s during the MLB trade deadline. All of the back and forth between GM’s, last minute deals, Sabean hanging up on other dudes for making (in his mind) ludicrous trade proposals, would be fascinating.
The NFL war rooms on draft day is probably more like watching a game of chess play out. Entertaining but in a completely different way.
back from 3 days in Portland. Don’t know what they did to offend the sun but I didn’t see it til late yesterday afternoon.
found the numbers on Puig vs. cards in playoffs:
2013 10 Ks 22 ABs
2014 8Ks in 12 ABs
Didn’t see any of it after Monday night but split vs. LA plus some inspirational play was very cool. Great read catching up on posts here!
Giants owe the Pads big time– like to see them re establish some dominance.
speaking of which, wore some GS gear to a vendor sponsored dinner Wed night at Widmer Brewery. Instead of Portland fans turns out one of the hosts is from…Cleveland, who gave me earful of LBJ as best player yada yada.
Wilco– not a tv show, but this is still interesting and funny.
http://www.gq.com/story/nfl-draft-2017-war-rooms?mbid=social_twitter
This is hilarious. Love the review of the Bengals war room.
These are great. Regarding the Jets war room “I assumed the Jets chose draft picks while hanging out behind a Secausus grease dumpster”
Those are fucking hilarious…had me laughing my ass off out loud here at work.
Anyone else catch Kruk on knbr this morning? Man he skewered Belt.
The whole team needs skewering. I didn’t hear it, but I can say it’s tired already. Belt and the rest of the team need to hit. Nunie must be Spanish for Buehler?, Buehler?…
This team, from Posey and Pence to Belt and Craw…and everyone else, has always been streaky as hell. I don’t see that changing anytime soon. If you are looking for consistency at the plate, over long stretches of time, this team is probably not the place to look…
Baalke passing on Dak Prescott alone was enough to fire his ass. Your franchise QB was hanging there like a nice ripe grapefruit and the dipshit passed on him. Buh bye.
On the NBA, there should never be two days off between games in the playoffs. The Dubs played on a Sunday then had to wait until Wednesday for game two. That’s bullshit. It all comes down to TV and greenbacks. The only time I can see it making sense is in the Finals when cross country trips are likely.
The Jazz are likely going to finish off the Clippers tonight. Even more than the Spurs, they are the one team that concerns me most. They’re big, tough, play good D, control the tempo with their half-court sets, they rebound. They are exactly the kind of team the W’s could be vulnerable to.
Regardless of how shitting the Niner’s war room is (Flav’s 7:11), I think the Niners did great. Trading down one spot and getting four picks in return (two 3rd rounds with one of those next year). The Niners need an upgrade at so many positions, I like the move a lot.
Was surprised to see McCaffrey go at 8. Most mocks had him projected late in the 1st. Good on him…I really like him…he’s a fucking bruiser who can run and catch the ball.
McCaffrey is a stud. He will thrive in Carolina.
I missed Kruk’s monthly flame job on Belt. I guess he just rubs Kruk & Kuip the wrong way because they rarely have anything complementary to say about him. It’s pretty ridiculous. Any mention of the $20M man who grounded into 2 rally killing double plays yesterday? If I remember correctly, Belt was on 2nd both times.
Posey is hitting .367, with 17 singles out of 20 hits. He’s off limits for any kind of criticism. Ever. Pence is doing jack, where’s the criticism of him, he’s making more than Belt, Belt has more HRs. Having Pence leadoff is a joke…
Pretty much. To be honest, I don’t have a problem with Posey’s performance. I will say that watching his at-bats yesterday, I noticed the outfielders were playing shallow and moving in. Basically no respect for him driving the ball. Bochy’s obsession with having him in the clean up spot bugs me. He should be in the 3 hole. Especially when Nunez is a black-hole of suckitude.
I’ll say again, I believe this is and should be Bochy’s last year. IMO part of the team problem is tired leadership. He’s been around a decade. Time for some management energy in that clubhouse…
I’m not necessarily a fan of the Mets manager, but he sometimes get fiery, and we never really see Bochy do that. Maybe Bochy does it in private with the team, but sometimes a team does need to get lit up by the manager. I know that Bochy doesn’t get walked on by his players. And we saw him grab Casilla and bring him back to the mound after Casilla tried to walk off early in disrespect.
Bochy is a Hall of Fame manager. He’s been awesome. But it’s a wearying, tiring job; and he has health concerns. Plus, some new ideas wouldn’t be a bad thing. Maybe a little more SABR-conscious. Can you imagine Madden batting Nunie third all these games? No way that would happen.
A summary of hilarious Kruk’s appearance on KNBR this morning. This is from memory, if someone else heard it feel free to modify.
Regarding Nunie and Buster: “they’re just in a rut.”
regarding Belt: “He can’t hit the high fastball. Everyone in the league knows it. Until he makes an adjustment they’re just gonna keep getting him out with the high fastball.”
Saying an mlb hitter can’t hit a fastball is basically calling him a huge pussy. Kruk said it like 5 times in one segment.
Some folks talking about Boch being “old and tired.” Fuck, the same could easily be said of Kruk, IMO.
Yeah the other thing that was said was Posey .356 is soft since he has not hit for extra bases.
Belt has a .365 OBP, and runs OK for a big guy. He could be batting leadoff, but Bochy’s too old-school and not SABR-enough to bat a big firstbaseman leadoff. Francona used to do it with Youkilis all the time. And Madden has done it with Schwarber.
I’d go
Belt
Arroyo
Posey
Pence
Crawford
Nunie
Panik
Centerfielder (who? good question)
Pitcher
Or bat Arroyo leadoff and Belt second. Arroyo’s already proven himself a better hitter than several guys on the team.
I don’t know if I agree with that because of the small sample size. There’s no real book on him yet. But I love what I’ve seen so far. He has a great looking swing. The comparison to a right handed Joe Panik seems accurate to me.
Here is a link to KNBR’s podcast page. Today’s Kruk talk is about mid-way down…
http://www.knbr.com/all-knbr-podcasts/
Yeah, the game Monday night, Belt was easily thrown out at home by fucking Puig playing WAY in on Buster.
The shit Belt gets while others skate is tiring. Like Rowand never catching flak while floundering at .205 (I bet he takes 500 more swings after the game!).
He sure as hell got flak from me. It’s hard to imagine anyone not dissing a .205 BA.
Belt should be leading off. his OBP isn’t what you want, but is better than Pence’s. And he takes a shitload more walks.
Lynch was like Kevin Costner in Draft Day yesterday, burning the cell phone 24/7 to come up with a sucker GM like the Bears dude to wheel and deal and the 49ers struck gold!!
Yeah, I would give the Niners an A+ on the first round. Trade down one spot and pick up three additional picks. Fuck yeah…Bears got schooled on that one.
Ha, good comparison.
Pretty good movie too.
One thing that struck me about seeing Arroyo in person is that he’s built pretty solid like Pedroia or even Trout. I could see him hitting for power as he fills out.
Agree.
Got him on 2 of my DFS LUs tonight. He is “dirt” cheap (excuse the pun) . . . That wont last long I suspect as he improves.
@hunterpence Last night was EPIC STEAK date night w/ my beautiful amazing wife @letsgetlexi !! https://t.co/pYt7Y12dpr
Priorities
At least he’s still hungry for something…
Ge ain’t vegan anymore?
Tickets to the game yesterday were provided as part of a work event/team building exercise which is pretty funny (or sad!) because the company is currently in the process of being acquired and it is quite likely that 50% or more of us will be out of work in the next 12-16 weeks. Oh, well…we’ll always have that Giants game!
We sat in the upper deck and I always like to observe the fans around me to see how into the game they are. There was an Asian guy on my left that slept through the whole game. I honestly thought he was blind by the way he acted every time I tried to get out of the row. Turns out he was just tired, I guess. To my right was my work colleague. He’s Syrian and basically had no idea what was going on. On top of it he was wearing a dodger blue SF hat. I was giving him shit about being a closet dodger fan throughout the game. Sadly, my smack talk was lost in translation. He “really enjoyed” the view of the bay though. This morning he commented that the team seemed “really relaxed”. In front of me was a group of selfie obsessed skanks that got up mid at bat every half inning to flash their duck lips and peace signs. Good times.
LMAO on the “selfie obsessed skanks!” Maybe they would want to hook-up with Kat and get their skank on!
Dirt and Wilco Joe are both very funny and great story tellers…
Holy shit, I’m practically crying with tears of laughter after reading that NFL War Room link from Flavor. Frickin’ hilarious . . . Especially loved the photo and comments about the Cowboys war room:
OH FUCK YEAH. Now we’re talking. This room has Jerry Jones’ fingerprints all over it. I guarantee he cornered the architect and was like NOW LOOK HERE SON I WANT BIG FUCKING SCREENS! AND A BIG FUCKING TABLE! AND I WANT IT LOOK LIKE I’M THE HEAD OF AN ALIEN FEDERATION YEEEEHAWWWWW! Man, I bet Jerry serves good conference room food, too. I bet you can get a whole smoked brisket and then put it on the city’s tab. GRADE: A-
“There’s no real book on him yet.”
Good point, LJ. Teams will be working on trying to figure Arroyo out, and then he’ll have to adjust to that.
Somebody told me that they are practically giving away Giant-Met tickets on something called Groupon…
I’ll be going with my buddy who’s in on some kind of partial season-ticket plan, but one of these years I’m going to tell him let’s just get find cheap tix at the park just because of instances like this. Have you seen their last few games? There’s been no one there.
They had an excuse one night last week when the 7 train was completely knocked out.. Although the weather hasn’t been good, it’s true, the “crowds” at Citifield have been embarrassingly bad…
When I was checking-out prices to yesterday’s game a few days ago, there were tickets beginning at $9. I think the cheapest parking pass was $30 or $35. That is seriously fucked-up when your parking costs you twice as much as the game ticket.
9 bucks??
My 1st cold one cost more then that..
I noticed the other night that the MLB Network referred to the Giants’ long sell-out streak as an “announced sell-out” streak, pretty much acknowledging that teams can have “sell-outs” without actually selling out. A team can set their “sell-out” goal number at whatever they want to.
Giants’ TV ratings have to be terrific, though. I know tons of people who watch Giants games. From all walks of life.
If you’re listening in snarkk, get our tickets for the August game you mentioned and/or the San Jose Giants game as well. See if Willie wants to go and/or anyone else. Will pay you back when I see you. Again, I’ll be back on August 1st from SE Asia.
Hey – whatever you guys line-up, let me know. I would be interested, and would prefer a SF game (shorter drive time, etc.).
Will do Chi. I forgot the team (Snakes???), but he did say there was a Sunday game he preferred (afternoon start time). Without looking at the schedule, I’m not certain.
As much as I campaigned for Cespedes, I can see why so many teams didn’t bother. He’s injury-prone, rarely hustles, and I would probably hate his incredibly talented lazy ass by now…
But we’re still down with Puig, right Loo?
Absolutely!
Puig is a homeless man’s Cespedes…..
I’d take Cespy over Puig in a New York minute. You can’t teach puigheadedness.
Hell, lets give Morse a start. Dudes rockin’ a 5000 OPS right about now. (funk soul brothers)
You got it…
blade, the game I was talking about was Sun Aug 6 at 1:05 v Dbacks. The Sat game is at 6:05, which I don’t particularly care for the time. Paul mentioned he’d be in town during that early Aug time frame, so I shot out that Sunday game as a suggestion for a Flap gathering. If U and Chi and Paul are up for it, I would be– that’s enough for a quorum, and all others welcome obviously…
Count me in!
Pence still goes all out – all the time. He’s just older, not as good, and breaking down.
Glad for him and his happy marriage – I have no doubt he’s a great guy.
The annoying (to some of us) videos etc are just part of today’s world.
2B: Joe Panik (L)
LF: Brandon Belt (L)
RF: Hunter Pence (R)
1B: Mike Morse (R)
SS: Christian Arroyo (R)
3B: Conor Gillaspie (L)
C: Nick Hundley (R)
CF: Drew Stubbs (R)
P: Jeff Samardzija (R)
Thanks for posting San Diego’s line up Loo . . . Oh wait . . . Never mind.
you could take a positive view of this and say “hey! Morse, the kid, etc…” or you could look at this and just go “this team has a top payroll? Seriously?”
Never mind the playoffs – .500 ball is a fantasy…
What is wrong with Posey? Just a day off?
Pav: Nothing wrong with Posey, just a planned day off.
At the moment, the Giants have the 3rd worst record in MLB, which has to be considered a surprise; and who’da guessed that it would be the Blue Jays and Royals at the bottom?
Blue Jays were obvious IMO, i.e., traded Encarnacion, Josh Donaldson DL, Bautista shitty, and Tulo shitty the last couple of years (and on DL again).
Ok, so far it appears we have a developing mini Flapalooza on Aug 6 at ATT with me, zum, blade, Chi, and Paul. I assume View level so we have access to all the internal bars, etc?…
Paul will be required to bring along a few teacher’s pets…
lulz . . . The Visa requirements would be onerous in the age of Trump.
If they’re Russian pets, they can pass right thru customs at SFO…
Snarkk, you mean the Club Level.
The View Level is the upper-deck.
Yeah, that’s it, zum…
The Red Sox stuck a 5-spot on Arrieta in the first inning. Ouch!
I like it! 🙂
Watching the A’s at ‘Stros here at brewpub. Friggin Aoki is with Houston, batting about .360 or some shit. And we’ve got pence leading off in his spare time in between making dumbass vids with his wife…
Dirty blonde beer server here with a slinky smile and freckles coupled with a pair of 34DDs. One pint of Evil Cousin at 8% Abv may not be enough…
I can’t commit to the Aug 6th game but if I’m in town I’ll def meet you guys up there. I don’t really sit in my seat anyway so buying a club ticket that day and just loitering around the club level will suit me just fine. 🙂
Cool..
The soundtrack during batting practice is terrific. 60s era John mayall?
not sure why Gillaspe doesn’t get more regular run. We have the worst offense in baseball and he seems to come up with timely hits when given the chance. Seems rather obvious, right?
I’ve thought the same. Not obvious to Bochy apparently…
Fucking Belt loafed after that ball like Barry used to do. But I tolerated it with Barry because he was the greatest athlete in the history of the universe. A guy like Belt needs to bust his ass on that—an he didn’t.
He certainly deserves enough at bats to get into some kind of groove. It seems like he’s been on the bench the whole year. Pretty hard to hit well doing that.
Hacman looks absurd in that hat, I hope the Giants paid him some coin to go along with this giveaway.
Hac Man’s in the house!
I’ll never forget that series he had. Throw in the instant classic one flap down and it’s one for the ages.
Anybody else think Belt loafed after going after that ball? I thought he’d get killed on here for that.
Definitely a bone headed play.
good story, dirtrocksinreno
If Belt’s going to play LF like that, then just put Morse out there.
Ok, what can some you Cal fans tell me about David Webb?
Davis Webb
Project. And I can also tell you that no NFL QB should ever be first-named “Davis”
also, Cal sucks. 🙂
I said Cal fans, lulz.
Niners drafted a QB named Beat Hard. lqtm….
Hand owned Pence and Morse there.
HOMERROYO!!!
Sipping my morning coffee, just “turned on” the game (MLB), and Arroyo homers. I like the timing. 🙂
Arroyo Grande!
Last week Kruk said Arroyo needed to stay in Sacto so he could fail first. Now he’s chirping away about him being a “killer in the batters box.” lol
Yeah, huh, similar to Sabean throwing Panik under the bus when he first came up out of necessity, “Obviously he wasn’t ready..”… right.
Kruk is FOS, as usual. I saw Arroyo for two ABs in Scottsdale and could tell the kid was a hitter. Everybody here called for him to come up ASAP as he was clubbing at a .450 clip in Sac. Kruk was towing the company line as long as it was towing Arroyo to stay in AAA – now the line is towing him at ATT, so Kruk adjusts accordingly…
Stubbs has a .258 OPS? I didn’t think that was even possible.
Wow, what a catch by Panik.
Out of the cellar!
Ha! CLASSIC!!!!!!!
I always thought “In Your Direction” from this album was a cool deep track.
As for a Flapalooza game on Sunday August 6th, I will try to arrange my presence at said stellar event. I might have to fly back to Vietnam a day or two before that, it just depends on finalizing some work details. The Sunday day game might be doable if I can finagle something….
Right now August 6th looks doable for me. I’d love to get in on that.
Mac I like D Webb from Cal a lot–did great job as one year grad transfer. He can hit long and pretty accurate short. Not very mobile and did most of his work out of the gun/spread, but I think very proficient.
Wilco might have more insight based on his Texas (?) history.
I sincerely hope Arroyo’s psyche is able to handle hitting game winning jacks…
WillD, thanks for the Webb report.
Phils pitcher Mark Leiter Jr., son of former Giant Mark Leiter (95-96), made MLB debut tonight vs. Dodgers with a 1-2-3 7th. Wish it came in a win.
stats I saw today show Webb put up similar numbers to Goff, 4300 yrds and 37 TDs in his only year in system.
Again, wilco might have seen more of him from Texas Tech days or high school. Nice touch tho.
If you stop for a drink and a salmon salad the late night Bart ride to the east bay isn’t bad. Arroyo has to stick, play every day until he bumps into a slump, but be no further away than the bench. What a great jolt he is.
This bum is the Gorkys of the bullpen.
here ya go. Something very cool to put this game out of our misery…..