A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

With but a final game to go in Big Bad April, I trust we can expect all of the hand wringing to be over when it comes to the schedule. I was never a *schedule hand wringer* because I worry more about the Giants playing the bad teams than the good ones. But by any measure, coming out of April at .500 (technically we’ll be +1 or -1) has to be considered a huge success considering the burden of angst many Flappers carried around to start the season.

We are winning because of our pitching and our power. The Giants are 4th in the NL in home runs. That is astounding coming off last year. I guess it has something to do with having some different hitters, too. And Belt has decided to start swinging the bat. Go back to his 4 strikeout game on April 9th and look at what he’s done since. He’s been crushing.

I’m not expecting smooth sailing ahead. But we didn’t bury ourselves in April and there is a lot to be positive about going forward. Stay healthy, get Bum back, we’ll be fine…..

Cueto is incredible. He throws 40 pitches in the first two innings but still niggles out the win. And his ERA is still well below 1.

Fun fact I read from Baggs this morning: Panda is one of two major leaguers to ever hit 3 world series home runs AND throw a pitch in a game. The other: Babe Ruth.

This DJ Snelton fella has got a lot going on. Looks like he’s injuring himself multiple times per pitch.

Panik gone for 6 weeks. We can survive that. It’s a nice opportunity for Specs or even this Hanson kid.

For everyone panicking about the *brutal* schedule to start the year: We are guaranteed of at least splitting vs LA. Win tonight and we go 6-4. Hovering around .500, we are in great shape as we await Bum’s return.

Here’s a pic of San Dawg continuing his attempt to circle the globe and meet every living Flapper. He met up with Mr SportsDude last night. I think Rooster said he wanted to go to but he’s disappeared lately. Could be that 4-5 April record that’s discouraging him. Either that or another long ass dinner keeping him away…..

“Walker Buehler” may be one of the dumbest, most awkward-to-say white guy names of all time. Especially for a pitcher.

But there’s no doubt he’s got the stuff. A k-machine who will mow through many of our over anxious free swingers. I’d like to think we are going to take some walks but we don’t take walks anymore.

Not really worried about the bullpen getting burned up (what a job by them, eh?) last night. That’s really more of a concern for tomorrow if they get used heavily today in either of these games. But for today? Nah. Run ’em out there.

If Stratton shows up with a new-baby hangover, I’m guessing Cueto is planning on throwing a complete game tonight and it’s going to be fun to watch him try to do it.

Man, if you like pitching MLB has the slate for you. Kluber, deGrom, Strasburg, Severino, Keuchel…and Manaea coming off his no hitter.

We get Ryu vs Holland and that’s fine with me.

Haven’t heard anything about Mac’s neck but I’m assuming this is something that is going to linger and screw with him….

Just try to get 2 and be done with LA for a while…..

Loo, did you ever discover what was under the tape?

Got a day to stew on yesterday’s beat down. It could be worse. We could be Dodger fans. There’s something not right with Kershaw. When was the last time that dude walked 6 guys?

We have 4 big home games coming up, 2 on Saturday. Till then I might go check out the “Ohtani tracker” at espn. Gotta know what’s going on over there….

If I didn’t have to work I’d pay the $2 to go sit in section 330 and watch Scherzer pitch. Two bucks. Back in the day, didn’t it cost a buck to sit in the bleachers at Candlestick? Something like that? So many good times out there….

Not too sure what else there is to say about Mac. Last year we would have lost a game like that spending the evening complaining about how nobody could move Belt over from first base or some shit.

Today is a loss. Sorry, I don’t see any clear path to victory. It would be fun to watch the master work today. But who knows? Now that Mac has done away with The Ground Attack, maybe he blasts one and we get a sneaky win.

The most impressive thing about Mac is his power to the opposite field. It’s prodigious. This is how you win games in baseball today. It’s not about pining your hopes on guys niggling walks and stringing a couple of singles together. Bochy keeps sitting there with that dumb grin on his face after Mac crosses home plate like he doesn’t understand how runs can be scored this way….

Thankfully the Giants went out and got 3 men who can hit home runs (Longo, ‘Cutch and Mac) and they have a 4th, Belt, who hits them when he swings the bat. Posey, he’s good for 12-15 this year. That’s enough power to win in today’s game.

Stratton is the co-MVP of the season (along with Cueto). What he’s doing this year is remarkable and it makes me wonder this: Did he just take his time figuring it out in the minors or did the Giants fall ass backwards into this hitting on him just because they had no other options (like Blach I might add).

I’m not worrying about their record it should be significantly better than it is. It’s April, if we keep getting this type of pitching, get Bum back, AND keep yackin’ and jackin’ the ball out of the yard this is going to end up being a very entertaining year for Giants fans who haven’t jumped ship already….

A couple of weeks ago I raged about Belt not fouling off a close pitch and instead passively leaving it up to the umpire to ring his ass up. Yesterday I gave him a knowing dude head nod for finally swinging the bat.

And even though that at bat didn’t result in a hit or a run or even moving a runner along, it was critical to the general wounding of the pitcher and their bullpen. Later in the game he continued to swing the bat and blasted one to right field outer space.

All I’ve ever wanted for Belt is for him to swing the lumber. Use the talent God gave him. His eye has talent too. He uses it to spy balls and strikes and he used it to spot that large lady he locked up low those many years ago. But those days are over. Swing the bat. Like a man.

I never got around to watching Taxi Driver. Maybe this afternoon. I’m 45 years late on seeing it, I feel good about waiting till my schedule opens up.

I was going through scenarios that would draw a direct line to how the Giants could have won last night’s game but when you strike out 17 times you don’t deserve to win so fuck them.

I’m nearly out of toothpaste. I’m gearing up now, preparing  myself, so that I’ll be able to harness the energy and focus needed to spot and purchase this:

Don’t even get me started on potato chips. I’ve completely given up going down that aisle. And I haven’t had a bowl of cereal since the early 80’s so I won’t be able to participate on that debate but feel free to kick that one around….

Shocker, we hit 3 home runs and won easily. Like it or not, this is how you win games in today’s baseball world. Hitting singles, taking walks, having dudes loiter around on the bases….that’s not how it’s done anymore. Of course you need pitching too. We got that and an 8-1 drubbing was the outcome.

Willy hit a ball 434 feet. I wonder how many balls Hunter Pence would have to hit and string together before they equaled 434 feet?

It’s still only April but the team is beginning to evolve. And Bum could be back by early June?

It would be unwise to give up on this team….

See anything stupid with the tag links at ESPN?

I will never click on the *Ohtani Tracker* so I don’t know what they are tracking. He’s going to be in Anaheim tonight, is that what they are tracking?

If you have to click on the *Ohtani Tracker* to get even more info on this dude who only plays like 4 days a week anyway then you are seeking too much information about him.

I don’t feel like an away inter league series is going to be the thing that fixes our limp bats….

One thing we can all agree on: this team isn’t going to be having too many laughers. We aren’t going to coast to wins by blowing out the opponent.

We’re facing another tough foe today and I can already hear Krukow crying about the match up. Kruk’s always going cry. We’re either facing a tough, established vet, a stud lefty or a pitcher we’ve never seen before–to Kruk, that’s the most difficult of all tasks.

Anyway…..

Total stud effort by Cueto last night. Apparently you need a little hitting to go along with stud pitching, eh?

Our hitters, who are not this bad, need to be accountable for this nonsense. Pence should voluntarily retire. But this isn’t all on him.

Again, I am really not worried about our hitting. We know it’s better than this. It’s just disappointing that we continue to lose games with pitching performances that are worthy of wins….

But this isn’t as dire as everyone is making it. If they Giants had won 2-1 last night we’d be singing their praises today. If you truly don’t think this team can score 2 runs, this revamped offense, then I can see why you’re giving up.

The offense is not this bad. It should be fine. The pitching has actually been better than expected and Smarge and Bum will return.

Hey, the good news is that Pence absolutely crushes Ray, he’s hitting .538 off him and I can’t stop laughing right now….

Ah, so THIS is why we should have won more games in San Diego. I can’t see a clear path to a winning Arizona trip. Three stud pitchers are waiting for us and then…..Los Angeles?Yeah, this is going to test everyone. One thing we can be sure of: Bochy will huddle and cling tightly to any and all vets on the roster–with a healthy dose of Gork’s and Blanco mixed in….

With the great Hunter Pence Sock Day looming, time is running out for action…..

They’ve played 15 games. In 8 of those games they’ve scored 0 or 1 run. They have exactly 2 regulars who are performing at/above expectations: Buster and Panik. So right there, you get your answer on why the offense has scuffled so badly this year. Their OPS is stuck in the mid 600’s because they’ve forgotten how to take walks and hitting doubles, a stat they’ve always been near the top because of where they play, has become troublesome too. There is not enough urgency, as usual everyone is stilling around waiting for someone to do something. It’s annoyingly professional of them.

San Diego ran circles around the Giants. Almost literally. There is not enough *happening* happening. This team needs a spark…

Any loss is disappointing but there were encouraging signs. Both Longo and McCutchen homered. I am not worried about Longo being unproductive this year. It takes time to adjust to a new league. His contract sucks and the Giants will be eating a lot of the back end of that deal but he will be productive this year.

A win would be nice today although not expected. Beede (who sucks) will have his hands full facing off against one of the Padres better pitching prospects. Will Belt continue to sit vs these lefties? The Giants are near last in the league in walks this year, they aren’t going to improve on that number with Belt sitting out…..

___________________________

William Nack died on Friday. A brilliant writer, he captured the essence and beauty of horse racing and what it meant to be a fan of the sport. RIP.

“The gift of reverie is a blessing divine, and it is conferred most abundantly on those who lie in hammocks or drive alone in cars. Or lean on hillside fences in Kentucky. The mind swims, binding itself to whatever flotsam comes along, to old driftwood faces and voices of the past, to places and scenes once visited, to things not seen or done but only dreamed.”

Tyson Ross is lame. He always seems to handcuff us and he hasn’t been good in like 3 years….

Hard to score runs when Cutch, Posey and Longo(ut) go 0-12…

Up and down is what we are going to be until our pitching staff gets restored to mlb levels. I’m calling a win today, that base hit had to have taken a lot out of Richard the other night. lqtm….

It was nice to get an easy one, right? That unfolded exactly as I thought….

Here was my “wake up in the middle of the night” thought for the day: Who wouldn’t want robot umpires? It should and would be uniformly accepted by everyone in the game….

Why the umps would want it: They have to be sick to shit of these catchers framing every single ball into the strike zone. It’s a near impossible job anyway. Pitches coming in from all possible crazy angles, you have to make a split second decision on every one….seems to me a big fatty like Cowboy Joe would rather collect his paycheck for 1/10th the headache. He could still sit back there and call plays at the plate, fair/foul, close pop fly catches, etc….

Why the pitchers would want it: No more worrying about Kruk’s precious personal ump strike zones. Just one uniformed, unbiased zone.

Why the hitters would want it: Brandon Belt has the best eye the world has ever seen. You don’t think he wants to share it with an equally brilliant robot eye? Shit, he’d probably fall in love and leave his large wife for one. “Sorry baby, I’m leaving you for a strike zone that will always be the same size as the day I married her….” lqtm.

Anyway, who am I missing? The fans? The game will go faster and that’s apparently what fans want according to mlb.

Counter argument?

Yesterday was a perfect example of the preseason fears that some pudits had for this team–the other team hit a little better than we did and pitched a little better than we did. Dyson is losing Bochy’s trust fast but we may have found something in Suarez—I love his windup, he hides the ball well, and he didn’t seem overwhelmed by the excitement of his first big league start.

I am optimistic about Stratton tonight, he will pitch well enough to win. San Diego is coming off a heated series in Colorado and teams, in general, don’t hit well in their first game away from Coors. The question is, will we hit enough to win?

Not as dramatic as his walk off bomb the other day but still just as effective. Also, it was nice to see Longo celebrating in the pile at home plate, it was actually the first time I’ve seen the dude show any emotion at all.

Beede was underwhelming, as we suspected he would be. Today another debut, I don’t know much at all about Andrew Suarez but I’m guessing he’s going to be a little better than Beede.

As usual, our issue will be stringing together some hits vs the D-Backs starting pitcher. I swear, every game seems to zip immediate to the 4th or 5th inning and we’re getting shut out on 1 hit with a bunch of K’s.

Start fast for once?

If you had told me that Derek Holland was not going to be the problem this year…..

Four games we have scored one run. Two games we have scored zero. I’m renaming the team “The San Francisco Binary’s” until further notice.

I’m tired of hearing about all of the good pitching the Giants have been facing. This is the big leagues. There are stud pitchers everywhere. Remember that guy who shut us down on opening day? Gonzales? He got blasted by the Royals yesterday. Two innings, 8 hits, 4 runs, showers.

I don’t mind strikeouts if they come with home runs. Belt, Longo and McCutchen have 33k’s between them and 3 home runs. That isn’t going to cut it.

The good news is that I’m still a lot more concerned about Holland being a problem a problem this year. The hitting should come….

With Brandon Belt still passively waiting around for that perfect pitch to drive, we impatiently wait for tonight’s game to begin. Strangely, Hunter Pence has the best numbers against Zach Godley (4 for 5 with 2 bombs). Belt has a walk against him (4 at bats), of course.

The Giants are doing what you would hope they would do without their ace and #3, they are surviving. That could be changing quickly. Arizona is all business. Solid starting pitching, good hitters. Not sure what to expect from Holland tonight. Maybe he’ll be an “AT&T” guy but that’s really just hoping he will be more than anything else….

Now I’m off to begin the day, a day where Patrick Reed is a major winner. That sucks and makes today a little less than what it could have been….

My main man in Reno, Dave Anderson, opined in a text to me: “McCutchen? McClutchen.” Indeed, PaSalon, indeed….

That bomb isn’t going to carry the significance of the ’97 Brian Johnson bomb because of the time of year but I can guarantee I will remember that one for the rest of my life. Where was I the day the Giants beat the Dodgers in the 14th with a walk off 3 run bomb/McCutchen’s 6th hit of the game?” Easy one.

His reaction out of the box was legendary. Those are the types of games that don’t just bring a team together–they bring a player to a team. To a city. Andrew McCutchen is a San Francisco Giant now and I bet he woke up so happy this morning. I know I did….

I got this reminder at Facebook this morning. Man, happy birthday Twinner. From wherever you are, I bet you enjoyed that one last night….

Ok, THIS ONE they should be able to get in. Not with this moment as any indication, it’s pouring like a motherfucker right now. My daughter’s flight back to Costa Rica already got canceled. Props to @virginamerica for quickly getting her on another flight tomorrow….

Anyway, I’m cautiously optimistic about the game today. Stratton is proving to have a reliable major league arm and I think the Giants are going to do better against Hill this time around. Shedding the mental weight of the season’s opening series, they should be able to track and mash that curve ball a little better tonight…..

Anyone jazzed about The Masters? It’s shaping up to be an epic weekend. Several of golfs biggest names are poised near the top to battle and it’s going to be fun to watch them target that pussy snake-in-the-grass Patrick Reed (somehow currently winning)….

Pouring rain right now. Should last all day. Expect this one to get postponed rather quickly….

Fun little win easy win vs a boring Mariners team. I got a kick out of seeing who’s clogging up the top spots of our team batting average so far this year:

A day off today before LA comes to town. The schedule to start this season is stupid…….

The optimist in me points to outscoring the Mariners 4-2 after the first inning. And Longo(ut) finally got a hit and it was a beaut.

Unfortunately, too many guys were still just waving and chopping at the offerings from a below average pitcher.

Today is an intriguing match up. Cueto looked great in his first start and King Felix has been declining for a couple of years (though his first start was a pip, too).

Opening Day. A day of excitement and new beginnings. A day laced with history and dripping with tradition. Except in 2018. We are playing the Mariners a team of scant history or tradition. I had to look up how many times we’ve even played them. I guessed 9 and was wrong.

But whatever, we’ve got our *arch rivals* 16-13 and it’s opening day so really, what is there to complain about? Now that A-Jizz, Longo(ut) and McLuvin’ are at home in a *hitters* park they should rake, right?

At least we have an opening day pitchers duel for the ages. Marco Gonzales vs Ty Blach. I have heard of one of those guys….

Anyone going?

Here is a pic of Xoot and Chi at the game today. Nice boys! Flapper Representation

Another one from Chi: his buddy, his daughter and him

If you had told me before the series that we were going to get a split I would have taken that and been happy. But man, not like that. That didn’t feel like no split. And I don’t want to hear Bochy or anyone else in the org lecturing us on what great pitching the Dodgers have. They aren’t a 0.50 staff, are they? Who’s that good?

The 3 new guys were bound to have an adjustment period but that was ridiculous. The two main acquisitions hit 48 bombs last year. The way they hit this series I’d be happy if they hit 48 moderately deep fly balls this year.

Bright side: We scored 2 runs in 4 games and split the series. That’s hilarious.

One more thing: I am putting the call out for Dugger. The Giants look predictably tired already. A level-headed veteran team will tend to look like that when they aren’t hitting. With no sense of urgency I’ll take a spark like Dugger and A-Jax can head back to the bench and continue with his stoic gaze…..

Last night’s game was a cringy reminder of the team that lost 98 games last year. They couldn’t hit, they couldn’t field, their starting pitcher labored….

The offense is going to be better but what if Longo and McCutchen are done like Melancon? They look like they can still hit and field but their execution says otherwise. Melancon came to us as damaged goods. I don’t think Longo and McCutchen are damaged goods. But could they suffer as dramatic a drop off in one season? Let’s decided after May happens……

The Art Dealer’s grand ring ceremony was yesterday and look at this: Dodger players so embarrassed by their pathetic fake ring party they were caught HIDING their rings behind their backs in the hopes that the Giants wouldn’t see them. Sad I tell ya, just sad…..