A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

There have been 511 pitches thrown in these two games, most of them by the team that supposedly has a terribly pitching staff. Exactly two of them have been hit out of the park, both by one of the least likely hitters to do so. I can’t remember a more remarkable two game exacta between these two teams.

Today and tomorrow is the definition of playing with house money. I can’t believe Holland can keep this going but in my wildest imagination I didn’t think the first two games would have gone the way they did so I am going to be positive and hope Holland can go 5 innings of 1-2 run ball.

Now, it is time for the rest of these jokers to start hitting. Or even one of them other than Little Joe.

WillieD and San Dawg met up for clams and deviled eggs last night at The Goose. Sorry I couldn’t make it boys.

It’s been a while…..

I remember a morning back in the mid 70’s and my dad brought the Sporting Green over to the breakfast table. He sat down with a big smile showed me a similar standings. It went something like…

Giants

Reds

Dodgers

Astros

Braves

Padres

…something like that. Remember when that’s what the NL West looked like? I don’t. But I remember him showing me the standings that day like it was yesterday. Our reign did not last long I think we slipped down the next game.

Cueto is trotting his lumpy ass out there today. It’ll be tough to match the magic of yesterday. I’m really looking forward to the ring ceremony on Sat. What an exciting, momentous achievement that ceremony will honor…..

Remember that poem Chi used to post about some dude staring out the window waiting for something to stop or start or some shit? It’s just like that, baby…

Everyone is something. Maybe you’re a father, a brother, a husband…An American. A vocation…..a Giants fan.

There’s great history in being one of those. It’s why you give that stranger a knowing dude head nod as your hats cross in the street. It’s why you came here today.

We get another opening day today but of course I’ve thought about our old friend Twinner who misses his first one in 60 years. And Stix is still on the 3-6 year DL. He’s as “day to day” as it gets, eh?

The team is in an impossibly tough situation to start the year and things could look bleak  if you choose that take. Me? I’m as positive as a motherfucker. I don’t know where this is coming from. Maybe complacency has set in due to those 3 beauties. Maybe I have fantasy baseball to distract me from the tunnel vision of a single team’s fan hood. Maybe I’m just getting older and don’t have it in me to complain about something I have no control over. You know what I have total control over?…..my attitude.

And I choose to be 100% positive about this team, this day and the rest of this year. Kinda feels like I’m channeling my *inner Twinner*, dig?

Our challenge this year is obvious, you don’t lose your #1 and #2ish starting pitchers a week before the season and have a lot of optimism going into the season. Our pitching staff was on thin ice before they got hurt. But we have better hitters and I’m hoping that the damaged goods we got in Melancon is going to create an opportunity for someone at the end of the game.

Baggs tweeted out the 2010 opening day line up and it’s worth noting that team looked, on paper, to have a lot of holes.

Rowand, Renteria, Sandoval, Huff, DeRosa, Big Titty, Bowker, Uribe, Lincecum

Tomorrow’s line up might look like:

Panik, Belt, McCutchen, Posey, Longoria, A-Jax, Pence, Crawford, Blach

With the obvious upgrade at P in 2010 I don’t see a single hitter I’d rather have than the 8 we are trotting out there tomorrow….

Do you?

Baseball is about to start again. The time of year when everything becomes exciting again. People are moving a little faster. The days are warmer and longer. The year has finally awakened. Energy is happening!

And because of that, when I received a large, heavily taped package in the mail from Loo, I figured I was about to open up some type of baseball related keepsake. I was wrong. After cutting through 6 inches thick of tape I unwrapped this beauty:

Many of you could care less about horse racing but it’s part of me. Zenyatta is my favorite racehorse of all time and Loo, remembering this and my 50th birthday, sent me a framed picture of her winning the 2009 Breeders Cup Classic, the day she beat 11 of the best boys the world had to offer, atop the past performances of all 20 of her races.

I just sat there staring at it for like 2 minutes. My daughter is home from Costa Rica, we were about to sit down to the first dinner we’ve had together in months, and she was like “Daddy, come on, dinner…” but I just kept staring “hold on, Katie, hold on.”

So with the sun going down I decided to have her snap a pic of me on the deck with the California western hills behind me:

There are all kinds of love in the world and one of them I have is for the Flap community. You guys never cease to amaze me and I can’t believe we’ve kept this place going for a solid decade. Friendships made, world series trophies won, people come and go, sometimes people go forever, but this place stays rock solid strong with some of the best Giants fans in the world.

Go do something nice for someone today and surprise them with something that will move them. It’s one of the most powerful things you can do in your life…..

I can’t promise this will be the last time I post this. Even if you don’t know a thing about horse racing I defy you to watch win #14 (starts at the 6:29 mark, this is the Breeders Cup Classic she won, in the picture Loo sent me she’s crossing the finish line), #17 (the best call I’ve ever heard) and #19 (makes me cry every time I watch it) and not be inspired to go out and do something rad today…..

Loo, I was so excited last night I tweeted a pic of your photo to Vic Stauffer, the guy who calls win #17 and win #19 (among others) and he tweeted this back to me:

Anyway, yesterday made my day. That’s all I have to say….

I wanted to see who else was struggling to find a true *opening day* starter for Thurs. Here are the teams in the same boat as us (and Ty Blach).

Miami: Jose Urena

Detroit: Jordan Zimmerman

Oakland: Kendall Graveman

Cinn: Homer Bailey

Chicago: James Shields(!)

LA Angels: Undecided

Blach is a gamer, he was lights out vs LA in a critical game in 2016. I think he pitched a shutout. He’s got some Kirk Reuter in him so who knows, it’s baseball, let’s see what happens.

First Smargerine, then MadBum, then Curry and now….I’m forced to root for Duke’s dumbass. Ugh. I did two pay brackets and I’m top 4 in both. Of the remaining entries with a chance, I’m the only one who picked Duke to win it all (in both of them). Duke is only a rung below USC, Notre Dame and Penn State on my list of “College Programs I Love to Hate”. And you can probably take out the “Love to”. I’m probably better off if they just lose today.

I’m over all the hand wringing about losing our 2 pitchers. The season isn’t over. We just have to change the way we win games. It’s time for these guys to hit like men. LIKE MEN. Manly Men. They couldn’t have done that last year and I have doubts about them doing it this year. But they’re going up there with wood in their hands. Wield it, goddammit.

Like a man…..

I still can’t get over the probability of this. Having 2 pitchers hurt in consecutive days is bad enough luck. But if you had tasked me with this: “Flavor, I’ve got some bad news for you. Two pitchers from the pitching staff are definitely getting hurt over the course of the next two days. There are 13 names in this hat. Whichever two you draw out are the ones who get hurt. Go.”

I could have picked out any two. Gearrin and Blach. Dyson and Fernandez. Watson and Osich. But no. Bum and Smarge. Me pulling those 2 names out of a hat, exactly those 2 names, has a ONE PERCENT PROBABILITY!!!! That is absolutely insane and I can’t get over it. And that’s to say nothing of what the actual odds (much less than 1%) were of those 2 guys getting hurt on consecutive days because the odds of TWO GODDAMN PITCHERS GETTING HURT ON CONSECUTIVE DAYS ALMOST NEVER HAPPENS ANYWAY!!!!!!!!!

Two trips ago in Reno I was playing Let it Ride and I got dealt a straight flush (3 handed) back to back. Back to motherfucking back. Later we calculated the odds of that happening to be 250,000-1.

And for some reason, this morning, the odds of exactly Bum and Smarge being the two pitchers who got hurt on BACK2BACK days feels much longer to me than 250,000-1. I am still having trouble processing all of this….

But I’m not going to sit here and say “we’re fucked” because we aren’t yet. We still have a revamped offense. We still play half our games in a pitchers park. Our defense, at least in the infield, is gold glove caliber all the way around the horn.

It’s just incredibly disappointing. It’s not even April yet…..

“The only thing I care about in ST is health and it looks like we have that…”

….words that did not last true for very long.

We got some good news with the MRI with the pec strain. Most of you (not me) think Smarge sucks anyway (as does Parker) so maybe this good news is actually bad news for you.

Holland can fill in under the right circumstances, at least in the short term. Maybe they can try to hide him at AT&T. No road starts, please.

Look, if this was last year this would be a big deal. We would lose every start Holland gets. But our offense is going to be better and as long as no one else gets hurt we should be able to win the 7-6 games that Holland will be pitching in.

Giants dropped a two touchdown shutout on the D-Backs last night. Ready for the season to start, let’s go…..

The only thing I care about in ST is health and it looks like we have that. I keep hearing about Posey’s ankle but he’s also batting .539 this spring so…..Belt doing what he always does this time of year, hitting .400….again, let’s go…..

The Thrill was interviewed by Tolbert yesterday afternoon on KNBR and he had my attention nearly immediately. I turned it on mid-segment and was like “Who is this guy who is so directly calling out Brandon Belt?” At first I thought it was just some yahoo calling in but it became clear that it was someone Tolbert was interviewing. He basically called Belt a “pussy” for not being able to ever play a full season and claimed that he says this to his face in conversation. Even I, one of the great Belt skeptics of his generation, started to silently defend him. “Come on Thrill, it’s not like his concussions have been stubbed toes.” But he bookended the near *pussy* call-out by suggesting this is the year Belt puts it all together—if he can play the entire year.

He also said Smarge throws too many strikes and that Duggar could play a gold glove center field RIGHT NOW.

Seems to me a gold glove center fielder might be a nice starting piece if he’s flanked by 2 dudes who are far less than that……

Anyway, The Thrill says what’s on his mind, no doubt about that…..

If Parker (who sucks) makes the opening day squad it would make no sense. This guy isn’t someone you stick on the bench for his secret weaponness. I keep being haunted by his 3 home run game. That really happened, right? That wasn’t a dream? It sucks (as he does) that a batting coach couldn’t ever get that twitchy, nervous sucking fuck to ever settle himself in the batters box. So much power shrouded in so much suckiness…..

I’m getting excited about Brandon Belt. Come on, how many times can a guy realistically get hit in the head? He’s gotta be good for avoiding that this year, right? He’s going to be 30 this year, can this finally be go-time for him?

Between Belt’s tender temples and Longo’s loooong stretch of health that is bound to end who wants action on Panda getting under 350 at bats this year? Cause I’m taking the over…..

If that headline doesn’t grab you, come on…..

With Daniel checking in today (hopefully) I was going to ask a tricky question like “If you could trade the Giants org for the Cardinals org, straight up, would you do it?” But there’s an obvious answer there. Not that the masses at AT&T would get it right. Our season ticket holders are in love with the names of the players they know and the merchandise they buy. Baer has brilliantly marketed the team to the fans, especially the female fans. And that’s largely why we are stuck with so many aging players with fat dollars coming there way in the next few/several seasons…..

But would hardcore Flappers trade our team straight up with St. Louis? I’m not sure if we could find one who wouldn’t. They have better mlb players who are far more position flexible than our guys. And their farm system is always better. I can almost sign off on them having a better manager at this point. Not because I like Matheny I just think Bochy is done-zo, man.

So I’ll ask it this way: Is there anyone out there who WOULDN’T trade our org for their org straight up?

And for Daniel, is there a current Giants position player you would want over one you already have? Maybe Longoria over Gyorko?

What I have learned about our good friend San Dawg: Do not challenge his knowledge of 1970’s Giants players. I asked him point blank what Von Joshua’s career batting average was. He was reflective for a moment. Then said “.273”.

That quiet, knowing wisdom earned him a free dinner. This dinner:

Some of you locals should know where those bad boys came from…..

Our other good friend, Daniel, has uploaded this season’s “Playing Pepper” series for the Giants. Besides myself, he interviewed 2 other Giants blog writers. I enjoyed reading their responses and hope you guys take the time to check out this link. Daniel says he will be around on Monday to kick it around with everyone.

http://www.cardsconclave.com/2018/03/16/playing-pepper-2018-san-francisco-giants/

The Pac 12 has one team in the tourney field of 64. That is embarrassing. I had planned on them being a bet against this year. Tough to bet against them if they aren’t playing. Kinda feels like Arizona is going to make a deep run, eh? With all the crazy stuff they’ve had to deal with this year, playing in a conference that’s as low as it’s maybe ever been, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them go all the way—just because they aren’t supposed to.

Sorry, had to get that out there. Super disappointed that such a crazy dolt sold out an appearance so close to where i live….

Giants are inching closer to the top spot in Cactus League. After a slow start, they are 10-8, only 2.5 games off The Cubs. Hey, this could be the only race we’re in this year, right? Goddamn right I’m following it.

I need any of you with March Madness knowledge to cobble your best predictive powers together and give me ONE team you like this year. No #1 seeds please. And no more than one team, please factor in the point spread for the first game. This is just for the Thurs/Fri games……

I will be putting these picks together into one glorious, giant Flap parlay ticket so there’s a lot riding on this. 🙂

The Phillies designated Tommy Joseph.

Hey, it’s a slow Spring whattya want?

From Baggs:

“Sandoval might have been in good and grateful spirits last season after he rejoined the Giants, but he has truly settled back into a comfortable skin this spring. He’s the happiest that I’ve ever seen him. And while his presence with the club might continue to be polarizing for many Giants fans, including those who hate the way he blithely shuffled off to Boston after the 2014 season, the bet here is that the Panda is poised to win some people over.”

Is that why some Flappers are down on him? Because of how he left? Or is it because he’s not the same guy anymore? Because if he stays in shape and happy I am down with that kind of Panda sitting on the bench, plugging into first and 3rd base as needed, and providing some left handed pinch hitting smack.

Anyone else? Who would you want to do this job if they cut Panda loose?

Lots of talk on the radio about Chris Shaw, Mac Williamson and Duggie Fresh. One of those guys, maybe even 2 of them, could break the string of 40 years of failed outfielder development.

If it comes to pass, it’s perfect timing. Pence and his quirky bullshit are just about out the door. I haven’t paid attention to the details of this, but it sounds like Mac has changed his swing dramatically. While that might not pay off now (or ever if Bochy has anything to say about it) it’s at least a hopeful thought to have.

Buster Posey is turning 31 this year. Pence is turning 35. Richard Sherman is turning 30. All those guys seem, to me, like they should be a lot older. I barely even remember what the Giants were like before Posey. I think we used to argue a lot about Big Titties Molina. Pence hasn’t been here as long but he feels like he’s been in the league since the 90’s. Sherman is someone I’m excited about. If we get him. I love old school moves like your hated rival joining your team. Even if he’s on the back end of his career I think the Niners could really use his attitude and aura in the secondary.

Anyway, Posey got a cortisone shot in his ankle. Hope that helps. Pence can’t seem to play in the outfield anymore. That’s going to be a problem in the NL.

Great on the field report from Snarkk last night. Had me jones’n for some real baseball….

Huge sirens going off in Dubs Town. Curry hurting his ankle again on a play where his ankle didn’t bend is a reminder of how tenuous our yearly trip to the finals is.

I’m ready for some March Madness seedings, when does that happen? This Sunday. I’m ready for some bubble teams and some madness…..

Giants are 4-7 in Cactus League games. Third from the bottom. All the bad teams have the worst spring records so far. Just saying.

Bum and *Big Spin* Stratton had 12 K’s in 6 innings yesterday. Not bad.

Belt’s hitting .421.

That’s it for the Spring Report.

Now about March Madness…..

Super bored this morning so I checked the spring training stats. The Giants have, get ready for it, 19 guys hitting over .300. Now, we aren’t talking about a ton of at bats but that stat surprised me.

Reminds me of this epic line from Let it Ride. “The last grand that jockey saw was the Grand Canyon.”

Check out this headline at The Athletic. I haven’t read the article yet. What could A’s players possibly bring to the table in terms of *reflection* on *The Freak Years*? Like, who the freak wrote this headline?

Question for you March Madness nutheads: I’m giving myself a crash course on this season and I’m looking over the team stats–seems to me, the most important team stats to look at would be the following (maybe not in this order):

Turnover margin, 3 point FG % defense, assist to turnover margin, rebound margin and/or offensive rebounds a game…..

Am I missing any you think are critical to March Madness analysis?

If anyone was wondering about how important Spring Training results are, look no further than Chris Berman managing the team yesterday. I understand he’s a Giants fan but was there some other reason for this?

Did anyone catch the A’s getting sued by the players union? I asked my A’s fan buddy about it, does it bother him that his team won’t even spend the minimum amount of revenue sharing on even player development, and he said “Doesn’t bother me at all. A couple of years ago the Astros would be getting sued and they just won the World Series.”

That kicked off a pretty spirited debate as I argued that it would NOT have been the Astros unless they pocketed the entire revenue sharing checks like the A’s did. He said “I’m not worried, they’ll sign Lance Lynn and get there.” Sure, now that they’ve been busted they HAVE to sign a “Lance Lynn.”

I don’t understand why so many A’s fans sit around like sheep every year watching Beane fail again and again….

Someone named “Kyle Jensen” has hit 4 home runs for us this Spring and the way I stopped myself from researching him was by typing “Chris Marrero” into google. That’s how I get myself to stop doing lots of things that would otherwise be a waste of time….

I’m a few days into my voyage with The Athletic and I would describe it as….ok. Just ok. I like the pictures that I otherwise wouldn’t be seeing. Bum looks in shape. Cueto doesn’t look as bad as I thought he would look. Pablo too.

The articles? I guess I’m overly conditioned to accessing free ones online. There is just so much information out there I don’t feel like I’m getting anything new or *extra* with The Athletic.

But whatever, it’s only $8 a month. I pay more for a Spotify membership for my daughter that I can’t seem to be able to cancel. Have any of you tried to cancel Spotify? It’s like trying to legally disown a child. It’s impossible….Anyway, since all the beat writers have me blocked on twitter (save Baggs) it’s probably a good idea for me to keep a lifeline with the locals.

Tim Kawakami was the first to block me over something stupid. He’s the worst. Schulman is second worst. But he probably blocked me for something more worthy. I really think it’s bullshit that all of these scribes, who wouldn’t have these high number of followers if it wasn’t for the publication they work for, can so indiscriminately block fans from accessing information.

Anyway, I’ll set the 0/u on Jensen bombs today at 0.5. Who wants some????

As you can imagine, the Dodgers holding their grand ring ceremony in front of the Giants is causing a few waves on twitter. This was a pretty good response to an especially idiotic LA fan (in defense of LA fans, MOST of their responses on twitter seem to recognize this is a very stupid idea)….

Also, for those interested (and those bored by it looking for it to all go away and for baseball to start) you’ll be happy to hear that Winx won her 23rd straight today. She beat shit, as usual, I think she’s pummeled *Who Shot the Bar Man* in every single one of these wins. Poor horse. Anyway, she dominated. She’s the one in the blue silks. Always.

Also, quick question: a lot of people think this is good. I am not one of those people. Anyone get why this is getting some plus pub?

I got tired of only ready 87 words of their articles on twitter….

I do feel bad for newspapers, having grown up learning how to read with them. I canceled my Chronicle subscription years ago after they published several hack jobs on Barry right after his career ended. I thought it was bullshit that they used him all those years for content and then turned on him—for more content. I wrote them a letter about it and actually got a response but it was mostly just trying to get me to re-up my subscription.

More recently (this year), the reason I don’t read newspapers is because I had to start using *readers* to read anything written on paper–newspapers, magazines, directions on cans/bags of food……publications like The Racing Form. That is extremely irritating so I read almost everything online these days.

Enter: The Athletic into my life this morning.

Any tips from you guys who already have it? Or just click on stuff and start reading?

What kind of sick bastard would make this glorious burger go away forever?

Final bite of an O burger. Powered these bad boys down for 40 years….