A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

I was definitely caught off guard by the Bochy farewell party. I was glad to just be listening on the radio as I drove around doing errands. I was already tearing up like a girl, it would have been worse had I been watching it.

We had quite a ride, that 3 in 5. Each year truly had its own magic. The only real constant was Boch and his staff. I’ve accepted I might not see another SF World Series title in my lifetime. And that’s ok. Living in the Bay Area, I have been blessed with more championships than I deserved.

And now it’s on to the post season–it is stacked with teams I like and/or riveting story lines. I remember the nervous excitement I felt in the Fall of 2010 as everything was beginning. Me and my buddies were growing beards and dying our hair black. Man, seems like just yesterday.

Finally, mercifully, this day is here. Yesterday Zumiee asked for any memories from the 2017/2018 season. I struck out as I’m sure all of you did, too. But 2019? Maybe it’s because it’s still so fresh (or raw depending on your attitude) but this season will leave (the stain?) of many memories. The Yaz bomb in Boston has to be at the top.

For me, the Pillar grand slam vs the Padres, even in a game they horribly ended up losing, was a huge memory. I was sitting in the SF airport waiting on a late plane and doing a slow burn at the *masses* of Flap Nation who loathed 1.0 and all of a sudden he…..hits a grand slam. The next day he had 4 more RBI’s and his march to the top of the leader board of nearly every SF offensive category had begun….

My favorite Bochy memory? Probably his greatest move as a manager was turning Timmy into a reliever in 2012. That was a watershed move at the time and the risk of disruption to the team was enormous. But Lincecum accepted the role and the rest is history. Bruce Bochy is the greatest and most decorated manager we’ve ever had. I love him and will salute him whenever I see his big head pop up on my tv screen. But it’s time for him to go. There’s nothing wrong with that, everything ends sooner or later.

Anyway, this season was rough. It sucks because baseball is so long and if you’re not going anywhere it just feels like a waste, another year away from the glory of 3 in 5 and another year closer to…..who knows what.

I need the winter to kick in so that I can get romantic about the game again. The months will tick off, Chi will post that poem about that dude staring out the window waiting for the snow to melt or the leaves to bloom or some shit and I’ll get excited about the season starting. But this morning, right now, I’m choking on the *dreck* and drowning in the misery.

End this season already.

That was a predictable woodshed ass kicking that a below average team usually gets from a team that is significantly better. Seeing the Dodgers up close and personal like this will be a good reminder for Young Z about the task that lays before him. He can’t honestly think trotting out the Belts/Craws/Poseys next season is going to get us anywhere close to LA. He knows this he’s just trying to figure out a way to jettison them without the facebook housewives throwing themselves off the ledge.

Kevin Pillar was a worthy WM winner but I’m surprised Vogt didn’t get it. Even Yaz wouldn’t have surprised me. I’d definitely bring him back next year. He doesn’t take walks. Boo fucking hoo. Give me an entire team of Kevin Pillar’s and I’d be proud to charge into battle with that group of men….

I am really looking forward to this season ending and we can get on to the post season. I guess I enjoyed this season more than last because of Pillar, Yaz and some of the new pitchers who weren’t terrible. But this season was still a grind. Not Orioles or Tigers-grind, but it was long and the ending was predictable and lame. Now, I did say “last place guaranteed” and that didn’t happen. But when you’re 21-26-33-35 games out of first place, man, that’s all the damn same. The team did get better after the beginning of the year with all the new blood. The old blood was what they thought they were—slow and weak…..

Still, Young Z is in charge and I trust him. He’s got the team headed the right direction.

Can’t wait for us to take the next step…..

Gotta love Kuip after Davis hit that walk off: “On a night we knew the ball would carry….”

Uh, the game ended 2-1. Before that bomb in the 9th there had been zero extra base hits. All singles. There were more SB’s than extra base hits.

Jaylin Davis looks like a ball player, he walks like a ball player, I hope he gets a legit chance to play next season….

Even though it ended with an L, you have to think Boch looks back on last night’s game as memorable. Posey AND Bum homering in the same game? And in the last game Bum pitches for him? That’s awesome.

Of course, Bum was not awesome. He was just ok. Maybe that’s his new awesome? Even pitching in his preferred, protected yard he gave up 3 bombs. I’m not gonna kill myself if we offering him (and he accepts) a 3 year deal. I still think he’s going somewhere else….

Bumgarner back home in his preferred venue. I didn’t realize his home/road splits were so wide. He’s got a 2.80 ERA at Oracle but a 5.29(!) on the road. That’s an ominous sign. Additionally, his WHIP is under 1.00 at home (0.91) but 1.41 on the road.

You guys really want this guy back? Even on just a 3 year deal?

I am 100% against signing any free agent pitcher for any high dollar amount. Until they fix the free agency rules you’re just paying for what the guy did and awaiting his ultimate, unavoidable TJ surgery……..

Been out of the loop, haven’t seen a baseball game in a few days. I see we won yesterday though. Everyone still in on Logan Webb?

One thing we can say about the Niners: they tried hard till the end. They could have packed it in after all those turnovers.

Feels like we should be able to knock Atlanta around a little, right? They’ve clinched, besides Matt Joyce trying to settle a score, what do they have to play for? And the Giants? Add on to that 2K baby.

In Reno this weekend for the annual Stanford/Oregon game. Don’t ask why we meet there, that’s just what we do.

Cardinal in a shocker?

Well, he got there. 2 big ones. Auto HOF. His boy Posey has a lot more work to do to get there.

Bum today.

Sweeping these guys would be great, let’s do it.

Incredible game last night. One we will never forget. Yaz bombs. Giants use 13 pitchers including 2 Smith’s. I can’t even begin to wonder what happened to Gail. Her current mental and physical state may be in jeopardy. Chi, please check in with good news about her.

Fingers crossed…..

It’s too bad this series doesn’t mean anything. Can you imagine if this were 2010 and we were storming Fenway Park with Huff, Torres, Timmy and the gang? As it is, we have to settle for Yaz cheering his grandson from a luxury box. Those tv shots will be dramatic, won’t they? Eh, I’d rather have the games matter…..

Big BIG start for Webb. It doesn’t get much bigger than The Green Monster and Co.  He’s got the composition for a task like this. Let’s see if the stuff and the location is there.

Regardless, this is far more interesting than the Marlins or Pirates in San Francisco……

Yesterday, Marty Lurie was debating with his harem about who might be the starting second baseman next season. They all seemed to circle around the idea of it being Dubon. This took a few minutes for them to all sign off on.

Seriously, who else would it be? They never even mentioned Solano but I guess it could be him. Why wouldn’t we just trot Dubon out there? There’s literally no reason.

Exciting set of games in Boston, probably more exciting for their fans then for ours. Yaz returns, in a sense. I hope his grand dad will be at these games though I haven’t seen that confirmed yet.

Lots of interesting NFL games today. Of course out here we have a re-match of Super Bowl XVI. That was the game that took me to the promised land. And really, I’ve never looked back–at least in terms of taking down championships. As a fan of Bay Area sports, I recognize the fortune that has been sprinkled upon my life’s timeline.

I remember Super Bowl 16 well. Still to this day that was probably the sickest I’ve ever been in my life. Quarantined in my mom’s room (the only other room with a tv) I watched that game alone vomiting into a green bag. What a glorious day that was. Where were you guys for XVI? What was going on in your life back then?

I would love to get an accurate attendance number for today’s Giants game. If any of you watch an inning of that you are a better baseball fan than I am.

Beede getting into the 7th was a nice ceiling for him to break past. I haven’t checked, but I’m guessing that’s the first time he’s done that at this level. Five strikeouts and only 1 free pass. That will be the key for him and will determine his future success at this level.

I can’t watch these games. Sorry. Not all the way through. An inning here and there. Pittsburgh and Miami in September? I just don’t have it in me and it’s boring ball to boot. I am excited for the mlb post season though. I miss being a part of that but there are definitely story lines all over baseball that will be exploding this October.

Fire that shit up already.

The Marlins. Ugh. This is definitely not turning into a September to remember. How many more wins till Boch gets to 2K and GH creams himself? Five?

Black Shoes goes tonight.

I think.

Yesterday Jonathan Villar’s blast set the MLB all time HR record for a single season! Of course, that just broke a record set 2 years ago. And there’s still 3 weeks left to add on to it….

Look, in today’s game this shit ain’t gonna cut it:

You wanna win consistently in today’s game? Have some decent starting pitching, a dominant bullpen with guys throwing 100 and dudes who blast the motherfucking ball out of the park.

Sabean and Evans never caught up to this concept and that’s why they’re gone. Hopefully by next season our weak and slow core will be gone, too.

Young Z, make it so……

Cueto returns and locks down a W. I lock down another 10 spot from Diggity. Lots of lockin’ down going down last night.

All eyes on Logan Webb tonight. Can he be a piece next season? Why not?

Here is the first part of the letter Stix wrote to Chi. I only snipped it because it’s long and I don’t really know how this is going to show up in the main thread. It was cool reading what he wrote. He and Twinner have something in common, they both just disappeared one day. But with this letter it kind of brings Stix *back to life*. Can’t ever have that happen again with good ol’ Twin. Anyway, the rest of his letter he breaks down the Giants in some detail. If you want to read the whole thing email me and I’ll forward it to you.

Sounds like things kinda fell apart for our men in orange and black. I mean, come on, we literally have no bullpen left. In some ways this is a sadly ironic way to play out the Bochy string.

But good news Flap Nation, we have an exciting game tonight! As long as Cueto doesn’t get hit by a bus or a train he is scheduled to start tonight earning me a cool ten bones from Diggity and saving me from paying out 40-1 or whatever it was I offered up.

So let’s go Cueto, toe that rubber and sling one in the direction of Buster. That’ll do, my man, that’ll do……

The Pirates? In a meaningless September game? Gonna be a grind to watch even a little bit of this.

Regarding the move by Bochy to bring in the core to replace Slater and Solano: It was known Urias was only pitching a couple innings, I have to assume he kept all his players informed of the move pre-game. It was unnecessary and I want to watch the younger guys play too but this was classic Bochy. All season long, everyone kept telling me about this wistful September send off that was coming. Well, it’s here,  this is the kind of shit you should be eating up. To me this is massively underwhelming and his last month of managing does nothing for me but if there is a crowd out there for it, by all means, enjoy it…..

Black Shoes Beede has gotten a lot of shit thrown his way lately, almost all of it deserved. But he pitched like a man last night and he gets a knowing dude head nod for that. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out the fact that Ty Blach once shut out the Dodgers, too. But let that not take away from what Black Shoes did.

NFL @draftkings today! Hope you’re all playing.

I agree with what Blade said at the end of last night’s thread: this Dodger team is just not that imposing—they can hit, don’t get me wrong. But so can pretty much every team. Kershaw is not the same dude. Ryu crashed back to earth a while ago. Maeda *ain’t cut from that cloth* as Draymond liked to say…..Buehler, ok he’s a stud. A Young MadBum blossoming before our eyes. So they have ONE guy? Come on.

They don’t have the pitching  to compete with the Astros. And isn’t winning the World Series the only thing that should matter to them?

Ha, they’re going to lose again this year and Flavor Nation will continue to laugh quietly to itself. Three decades and counting……

Bum basically gave up 2 big leads yesterday. A four run lead and a 3 run lead. I know Gustave technically gave up the actual 2nd lead but he was only in there because Bum couldn’t shut the door after he was gifted ANOTHER big lead. At that point I figured we were done—even basically waved the white flag to Daniel on twitter….

And then like he’s done for most of the year, sans fanfare or accolades from most in the Giants community, our trusty 1.0 stepped to the plate and delivered.

A fun win that keeps our 0.1% post season hopes alive.

lqtm….

I feel like Alex Dickerson was sent from the future to destroy us. This dude shows up out of nowhere raking everything in sight. The Giants go on a tear fueled nearly completely by him and win enough games to convince Young Z not to trade Bum or Smith. Then the trade deadline passes, he gets hurt, comes back, he’s 1 for his last 21. And the curve of our season mirrored nearly exactly his production. It’s like this was all a big joke played on us by some shithead Dodger Baseball God….

Bum vs Wacha today. That sounds like a match up from post seasons past. But the only thing Wacha ever did in the glorious run of 3 in 5 is give up the bomb that Ishikawa hit.

What a hit that was…..

Beede yanked at 72 pitches. This was one of the many reasons this fake wild card chase was never going to work out. Our young pitchers were going to either run out of gas or have their arms protected as their innings rose to *dangerous* levels in September. I’m not sure what qualifies a young arm to approach *dangerous inning levels* but it’s probably an underwhelming number….

And now D-Rod. Ugh. Make it stop…..

Heading into St. Louis and I think, I THINK, Tyler Beede is pitching. I guess I’ll find out when someone with an SF hat toes the rubber. Surprise me.

Had to chuckle at Kat’s comment about Kent. “The $ lies in the RBI’s” was a great line. Nowadays it’s more like “the $ lies in the wRC+” –doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

How is Adam Wainwright still pitching? I would have thought age and injuries would have ended him years ago. Good for him that he can keep on plugging away at this level.

Hey, at least Logan was good. I am cautiously penciling his name into next year’s rotation. After the way D-Rod fell off the map though, it’s tough to pen anyone’s name into toeing the rubber next season…..

Young Beedah goes today and I have zero faith that a competitive effort is in the offing.