A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

Well, here we are. July 31st. Our supposed *Super Bowl*. Sadly, Zaidi has been as inactive as….Sabean? I’ve fully braced myself for an onslaught of absolutely nothing happening—what a travesty that will be. And I will reign condemnation down upon Young Z. This is your damn job, man. This is why you were brought in here!

If I wanted the Giants to keep all the old guys around and/or trade or sign more old guys I would have advocated for them to keep Evans and Sabean!

Z has improved the team with some solid, under the radar outfielders (Pillar, Yaz and Dick). But there is so much more that needs to get done. Fuck this year and this idiotic pipe dream chase for one damn game.

Do what you were brought in here to do Young Z. My wrath will be swift and painful should you fail….

The man with the black shoes kicks off this roadie. I, too, am hitting the road–driving up to Black Butte today.

A quick check of the rumors is yielding nothing.

Unless Zaidi pulls a rabbit out of the hat I see us sitting this one out.

And that sucks.

Still clicking along at .700 ball over our last 10 games. If we keep that clip up for the rest of the year the WC is guaranteed. I don’t suspect we will keep that up but who knows?

Day off today and then Philly. Could see that one going either way…..

The reasons to sell are obvious. We are chasing a pipe dream just to maybe get to play a 1 game play-in. Hey, that game is great but is it worth it to risk our future for one game?And once the August swoon kicks in and we regress back to who we are we’re going to feel like idiots when we finish near the back of the WC chase and held on to our few appealing trade pieces.

Trade everyone.

Was that perhaps the best catch a Giants fan has ever made? Cradling a baby in one arm he bare hand catches the winning home run wearing a Mays jersey in a road park. If it wasn’t the best catch it was right up there.

https://www.mlb.com/gameday/giants-vs-padres/2019/07/26/566325#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=videos,game=566325

Ok, I am now officially on the road. Let the madness ensue….

I’ve nearly resigned myself to Bumgarner staying. And I’m ok with it. Disappointed, but ok. My stance is that we should improve the minor league system with anything substantial but if that offer isn’t out there for Bum I don’t want to just see him get moved for the sake of movement. And I do get the irritating emotional attachment the fans have to him. And the players would *revolt* apparently.

I left my emotional attachment to these guys in my past a long time ago. When Will left, that was kind of it for me. It was just too much to get attached and then watch them leave. I still love my team and there are players I’ll never forget but I don’t have that “No we can’t lose these guys!” mentality. I can watch *Giant greats* move on and play for other teams. I wanted to watch Bum do it one more time on the big stage and I think we’re going to lose that opportunity because of this fruitless wild card chase…..

Having said that, I could care less about TFLR, Watson or Dyson leaving. If those 3 bring back 2 legit guys who can play for us in a year or two I’m all for it. Hopefully they’re bats but we probably need starting pitching too, just like everyone else.

If we keep everyone? Eh, whatever. The minor league system will sort itself out, Zaidi is a stud who knows what he’s doing unlike the clueless Sabean/Evans tandem. It might take an extra year or two but that isn’t the worst thing in the world, right? Once the deadline passes quietly, we get to watch this *chase*. I think it’s going to peter out when the injuries start or, more likely, we just can’t sustain this incredible run anymore. But it might keep the dog days at bay, there’s something to be said for that…..

Tomorrow I’m going out of town for 10 days I don’t want to worry about this anymore. If history is any indication some major hammers are going to start to drop. Whenever I leave town shit goes down. Watch.

After all these extra inning games and emotional rollercoasters, this team could use a day off. This upcoming roadie looks nasty but I also thought that about the last one and they went 7-1.

How long has Encarnacion been doing this “parrot” home run trot? Seems like he’s ripping off our own one flap down himself. I understand the arm is in a different angle but is he the first player to bust out a “one flap down” like trot since the great Jeffrey Leonard?

One underrated really fun thing about this incredible run the Giants have been on: Every win seems to crown another hero. You could also say this has been an ongoing example of *team baseball*. There is something to be said to having a bunch of scrubs, players that no other team wanted, coming together and making this happen. It does have a very *2010* feel to it, doesn’t it?

The main difference between then and now is that the 2010 had a rock solid pitching staff of studs. And that’s probably the main reason the Giants can’t keep this run going especially into the dog days of August and September.

Cue up the “Well if Zaidi becomes a buyer that fixes that….” crowd.

And that isn’t the worst argument in the world.

Of course it would have to be 51-50 for the first time we’re over .500 this year. This has been a crazy run. What is currently worrying me today: Z gets goaded into standing pat at the deadline and the Giants swoon in August and we’re left holding a bag of shit. Whatever, I guess that wouldn’t be the end of the world—as long as he doesn’t pass up any good offers for Bum and/or Smith I’ll live if he keeps them around for the rest of the year.

I’m cautiously optimistic tonight, the Cubs have one of the worst VMI numbers on the board for hitters so maybe Anderson shackles them a bit. I hope our guys got some sleep last night, they’ve been burning the adrenaline at both ends lately and we are facing an unknown guy tonight—this almost always ends badly. But maybe they just pitcher-duel it till we get to our bullpen and then wait for one of the young men to come to the plate and blast us to another walk off victory.

We’re at .500 again. Me and the housewives are nervously awaiting 1 game over .500 and what that will feel like…

Ok WillieD, let’s go. Where’s everyone stand on this?

Not much to say about yesterday except it was ugly and a stark reminder of how bad this team can be. Really excited to see the debut of Conner Menez. With him and likely Zach Green in the line up we might be seeing Z tip his hand a little as to what he plans to do by July 31….

Well, that was an utterly ridiculous way to win a baseball game. But hey, when you are the best team in major league baseball you’re going to get those type of breaks. Kruk kept talking about how we “took down” Thor and DeGrom but did we really? They dominated us. The Mets offense has been pathetic. Or do Bum and Black Shoes get all the credit?

Who knows? We are at .500 today and that is as absurd as it is amazing.

.833 ball since Flapalooza. At that clip we can pass LA……

When faced with the daunting task of leapfrogging 8 teams, I casually tossed out the need to play .700 ball to get us into the post season. There was also the #AHOFO post which put the call out to the universe to *win out.* I believe that feat would have taken us to 122 wins for the year. The latter was a joke, the former….I guess that was kind of a joke, too. How could this terrible baseball team play .700 ball the rest of the way?

And then came June 24th, one of the many low points in this lost season. The Giants were in the middle of getting woodshedded by Colorado. The blog was apathetically irate if that’s even possible. And then I got this text from Diggity:

I went back to the blog with this idea, found the saddest sack post I could find (shockingly it was Snarkk 🙂 🙂 ) and posted this:

And from there, we began to slowly get the band back together again. I gathered enough of our finest men to storm Oracle with one valiant, sustained push. This pic was taken just before the coup.

I know we look calm but let me tell you, I looked into the eyes of the troops before we went into battle. They knew how serious this was, they knew the task they faced and they knew the consequence should we fail. Flap Nation was counting on us. We could not and would not let them down…..

After the dust settled our mission seemed accomplished. There wasn’t much left to do besides sit back and wait. There’s even a rumor that I was sitting back and waiting so good I fell into a deep sleep on the train ride home. 🙂

What followed was perhaps the most unexpected run in San Francisco Giants history. A run we are still on. We’ve played .823 ball since that game. EIGHT MOTHERFUCKING TWENTY THREE BALL……

I’m not sure where this ends but after 3 years of losing I am happy to ride this out with no expectations whatsoever. From here until the trade deadline I will remain positive and hopeful. I support any move Z decides to make with the caveat that I get to grade them immediately. Simply put, I am a proud Facebook housewife until July 31st.

Through the magic of snapchat my daughter created this for you all. Enjoy!

#AHOFO

Niggled up to 3.5%, the Giants are taking #AHOFO quite seriously. In a million years I never would have thought we could sweep Colorado in Nepal and take 6 of 7 from them and the Brewers.

I’m still positive Z will do the right thing and sell. But there is nothing wrong with enjoying some W’s. You can hear it in the voices of the announcers, too. They are so happy. They have to call all these games, we’ve been terrible since literally the all star break 3 years ago. That would wear on anyone.

Bum tonight.

A fun gambling story:

Updated odds. We went up 0.5% after last night’s win.

Question for you (and some of you may already be there). At what point, percentage wise, do you hit the buzzer stopping Z from trading and force him to become a buyer? 5%? 15% 20%? It’s your buzzer and you control his fate. If we kept adding a half point each day we’d get very close to 10% by the day of the trade deadline…..I’m already on record yesterday saying that if you guaranteed us the 2nd WC spot today I’d still want Z to sell.

I’m not sure how we pass the Pads last night, leave the cellar for the first time all season, and yet San Diego still has double the chance we do of making the post season…..

Once again, my predictive powers were on full display, all you needed to do was take a look at that headline: Mile High Beat Down. Man, I know how to call ’em, eh?

It was high time to put that thread in the past. Possibly the most wrong I’ve ever been about anything in my life.

What is up with Brandon Crawford? The dude gets 7 hits in a game 2 years ago….then does nothing for 2 years….then hits 3 bombs and 9 RBI’s yesterday. He. Is. A. Weirdo.

There are nearly no words for what Smarge, DRod and the bullpen did. Without question the best pitching performance on a single day in SF history at Coors Field—more improbable than Zito’s complete game shutout back in 2012. Considering everything they had stacked against them that might be the most impressive pitching performance since Nomo threw his NoNo.

Freshly updated odds to make the post season/win WS

Agree with Loo, how can we be 2.3% to make the post season but 0.0% to win the WS? That’s nonsense. Even if we snuck in as the 2nd WC we’d be listed at no worse than 20-1 at that point which is 5%. How can Fangraphs get away with 0.0%??????

A double header in Colorado. I can’t envision an acceptable outcome. I mean, mayyyyybe you say Smarge has been pitching well, he somehow keeps it going and DRod feeds off that in Game 2?

Also, the Rockies have been in Colorado playing. I always say they are most dangerous in that altitude when they’ve played a series or two there and are waiting for fresh meat off the plane. If Colorado and their opponent are STARTING the series together in Colorado (in other words, Colorado is coming home off a road trip) things are a little more fair. The visual memory index numbers I look at daily prove this. Granted, we’re just talking about one day and I guess anything can happen on a given day but……

We get blasted today and recovering from this day long shellacking might set them back 2 weeks making it a lot easier for the housewives on facebook to absorb the blows Z will be delivering them at the trade deadline….

While most of you have probably forgotten him, I still watch the daily videos put out by the Angry Tiger Fan. Every day he churns one of those out. The vitriol varies but the exasperation is constant. The Tigers are a terrible baseball team run by fools and owned by clueless elite. Not only do they get killed every game but all the young players they have up are bad and the ones down below can’t be much or they would be able to bump the current sad sackers they run out there. And they just gave their GM an extension! Talk about no hope and you are talking about what the Tiger fan base is mired in.

So from that standpoint I feel fortunate to at least get to watch Giants games this year that are in the realm of competitive. There are players I enjoy watching like Pillar, Panda, The Dick and Smith. And we do have some pieces down below, percolating, coalescing. Legit prospects are on the way!

So I’m not sweating losses like last night’s in the slightest. Our men showed moxie and verve. If they had just thrown in the towel when The Conner Joe’s from Kokomo showed up on Opening Day that would have made for a long season….

Black Shoes today! Another reason to watch the game…..

It seems we should have been aiming high all along. We’ve been sitting around here feeling sorry for ourselves and fucking off. That was the wrong course to take. Snagging the 2nd wildcard spot appears to be a mindset. Therefore….#AHOFO.

Really interested to see how Bum pitches today. The last thing we need is for him to come out and get blasted. At this point teams aren’t evaluating him on single games but they do need to know he’s healthy before they pay up. Whatever that payment will be.

I posted this on the other thread earlier this morning. This is just outrageous and I’m thinking about buying a bible later today. Where do you get one of those?

We’ve got 7 games right out of the blocks that should quell the swell of enthusiasm for the Giants big move on the last wild card spot. Milwaukee AND Colorado. This should actually be very interesting. The Giants have played better on the road this year than at home. But The Brewers are better than we are and Sherpa Town always sucks for us. Regardless, there can be no more long losing streaks this season. It starts right now and continues on through September. Play .700 ball.

Let’s see if they can do that.

When you *stare at a pool up above* for too long one of 2 things can happen: 1) you can let the weight of the failure consume you. Paralyzed by this, you realize your game is doomed and your life’s work effectively ends. Or, 2) you pull yourself up by your boot straps and find a way to fix the problem.

Luckily, my main man Loo is a #2 guy.

With that problem now solved what else do we need to knock out of the park today? Because that home run was a walk off, well done Loo. Honestly, when this is all over and we’re toasting the greatest game to have ever been played on a blog, I think we’ll have finally found something to replace The Masterpiece over here to the right >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The HR Derby was fun to watch but it also made me a little sad. One by one a young stud strode to the plate and blasted ball after ball deep into the night’s sky. Where is our Alonso? Our Vlad Jr? Our Acuna?

This is one reason why being a buyer at the break is such an idiotic idea. You have to DRAFT these guys or trade your “Bum’s and Smith’s” for them. Baseball has changed dramatically in many ways over the last few years. Young players dominate the landscape. Some fans don’t like that because they don’t know who any of these players are.

I’m far less interested in the all star game than I was the HR Derby. I fired up several teams at draftkings just to niggle up some interest.

And now to more important things. Loo’s contest is closed. Here are the entries.

True, we are 5.5 out of the 2nd wild card spot. I guess that looks exciting to the *facebook* crowd. The problem is that there are 8 teams in front on us. It is nearly mathematically impossible for 8 teams to tank when they are playing each other regularly  throughout the rest of the season. Maybe 3 or 4. But not 8. I suppose if we played .700 ball the rest of the way, as we did for the first time this season over the last 10 games, we could do it. Does anyone see us going 51-22 the rest of the way? At best we can rip off a 7-3 stretch once or twice a year (even the Tigers did that once earlier this season). But to do that the rest of the way is just not realistic. We need to not get emotional about this, accept that the only way to fix this massive shitstorm caused by Sabean and Evans is to trade away anything of value by July 31. And if we can somehow dump some salary along the way that’s a great move, too.

Look, we were two lucky at bats away from being swept by the Cardinals. It was nice to get those 2 wins but we’d be better off losing more than we win and getting a top 5 pick in this years draft. That is absolutely still the most likely outcome this year especially if Z does what he needs to do which is to trade Bum, Smith and anyone else of value.

We’re on pace to win 75 games (for the first time this season) and that would be bad for the future of the franchise if we hit that number. Win 68 or so, we’re golden…..

So I’ve collected myself a bit since last night realizing there are still 3 weeks of games to go before the trade deadline. Maybe Bum misses a start? Either way, he has to come back and show he’s healthy or no team is going to offer shit for him.

Slater, Pillar and all the Dick you can handle. That outfield might not produce too many wins but it’s the outfield I’d like to see trotted out there for a few weeks straight. Three hungry, fast dudes. Why not?

The bright shine from last Friday’s Flap supernova is gone. Dimmed and diluted, we are back to the reality of this hopeless season. You know, watching PomPom get blasted might not be so bad if he didn’t take a 30 minute dinner break in between pitches.

Anyway, none of this is surprising. Tonight is our best shot at snagging a victory but a sweep is still the most likely outcome.

With the Cardinals in town, good ol’ Daniel is back and he’s created a *guessing game* of sorts, I encourage you all to fill this out:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSecXxkWb7-ZksJ594MottSjFgGdLYZda4CR8jCfpnExm42Jsw/viewform

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Loo’s contest is ending soon, please enter it. Guess where Bum and Smith will end up and a tiebreaker guess of a 3rd player’s destination/fate.

If you want any more evidence that the powers that be in MLB don’t *get it* any more, look no further than the schedule today: No Giants baseball. In fact, there are only 12 measly games scheduled for today, probably the best day of the year for baseball in America. Freakin’ pathetic….

Anyway, I’ve got DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince rockin’ Summertime in the background as I type this and then will get ready for the Palo Alto Chili Cook Off, Spiderman at 6:15 and fireworks at Shoreline to finish the night off.

On second thought, who has time for baseball?

Happy 4th, ya’ll.

We don’t have the horse power to keep this offensive machine revving like this for long but it’s fun for a little while, right? Longo showing off why he’s our team WAR leader with two bombs.

Our boys have scored 42 runs since Flappers descended upon Oracle last Friday demanding MORE from the team.

________________________

Ok, we have a new contest. Loo declined the $25 Amazon gift card he won last Friday night and chose to put it up for grabs with the following game:

“Pick the teams that Bum and Smith get traded to. Simple as that.
Tiebreaker: Pick a 3rd Giant who will get dealt (or waived, DFA’ed whatever) and the team he lands on.

Picks must be in before Bum throws another pitch in a few days, so nobody gets too influenced by rumors as the deadline nears.”

Loo, can you manage the picks as they come in?

I am going with Bum to Astros, Smith to the Rays, Tie breaker: Tony Watson to the Dodgers

Bombs away last night in San Diego, something they almost never do down there. Good to see them playing the game the way it has to be played these days to win consistently. Lots of of jibber jabber on twitter about what to do with “our glut of outfielders.” lol. Seems to me it’s rather simple. Pillar plays every day all the rest platoon their way into the line up. Very nice to see a good Stanford man paying dividends as soon as he gets here. More #slatertaters please.

While I’m not certain how this is all going to fit together once Klay comes back, I was excited to see the Warriors pull the trigger on something bold. THIS is how you stay on top, not re-signing all your old guys over and over again (Sabean and Evans never learned this).

Meanwhile, even after a someone decent month of play, the Giants remain the 2nd worst team in the NL. I’m not sure how it’s possible that the Mets have a better record than we do but that’s our reality. Time to hit the road down in San Diego. I see there is another rookie sharpening his knives, waiting to take us out to the Padre Woodshed.