Mad Hatter in P-Town
If we could live in The Hat thread forever, what a glorious blog it would be. Alas, reality is always close by. Here’s a text from my main man in Portland, Luke, who has been doing a slow burn this Winter.
60 just seem way too low for me. Our pitching staff isn’t terrible. We have a bunch of guys who should keep us competitive enough to win something in the low 70’s. Of course, that’s assuming we have good luck with injuries. Dubon and Davis are going to be fun to watch. Despite the bloated numbers in the outfield I think Davis is still going to have a breakout year. He figured something out in the minor leagues last year and he deserves a chance to show it can transfer to the big leagues.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
70 is probably ceiling. Last year offensive numbers were bad–13th or 4th NL for runs HRs BA OB Slg OPS. Davis for pillar, plus healthy Dick, full year of Dubon, OK. Projections for Yaz foresee downturn from.500 slugging. so should be better, but still lot of old guys in there regularly who haven’t been good in a while.
Pitching, which imo wasn’t exactly upgraded in off season, another story. If either smrdz or cueto do reasonably well one of them would be gone by deadline. Webb will be on innings limit of 130 ish, so 20 starts max. Gascan and Smyly are both coming off not very good seasons as SPs. who else is there other than Beede and bunch of guys with ERAs over 5.00? Watson and Blevins are only vets in pen. Have to admit Giants won more than they should have with help of Smith, who had monster save streak. Who closes now?
Giants last year were plus 7 run differential on road where they hit (scoring 130 more runs than home). and minus 102 at home where they don’t hit and even worse considering the yard, don’t pitch well either allowing only 27 fewer runs than on road. So yard didn’t help those other than Bum very much.
This season is a wash, and I really do not care how many they win. Evaluate the kids and see if there are any keepers for the way forward. Tread water until we can shed some of the boat-anchor contracts.
I look forward to having baseball back, regardless of how bad they suck.
Exactly!
Something else to factor in: Giants last year vs. NL West were dead even 38-38.
9-10 vs. AZ
12-7 vs. Rox
7-12 vs. LA
10-9 vs. SD
Everyone except for Rox improved in off season, so playing .500 vs. West seems highly unlikely.
Getting rid of vets making $$ is one thing. Replacing them with better players quite another. Do Giants have a 1b SS in system that are better hitters than Belt or Craw? A 3b replacement that can hit 20 HRs? Better SPs than Cueto or Smrdz, let alone Bum or closer Smith?
Sucking is bad. Boring is worse.
The ’85 Giants were fun.
Or was it just because I was 35 years younger and could only see them play the Mets?
Don’t sleep on Dubon or Davis–either could get your motor running. ANd I’m serious about Davis. Look at what he did in a full year of minor league ball last year(minus the time he spent in SF). That guy had a lightbulb go on I think
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=davis-003jay
My boy Jaylin Davis is the only legitimate 5 tool player on the roster.He’s had over 1,800 plate appearances now in the minors and he’s freakin 25 now.Giants and especially Z&Kapler need to take The training wheels off him and hand him the CF job with 500 AB’s and I’m sure he puts up solid numbers..
Dubon,Davis&Yaz are the only 3 players that I get excited about.Though I will add Johnny “Shimmy” Cueto hoping he can bounce back, the guy is fun to watch ( Luis Tiant of the modern day) and really knows how to pitch.Honorable mention to the cryer Wilmer Flores, who can play multiple positions and he does hit in the clutch.Plus his walk up music is Friends theme song kinda cool 😎
Imagine if you will, the Dick is able to stay healthy and hits 30 bombs, Yaz becomes a decent CFer and gets his 20 and Davis puts up ROY & MVP numbers. How about if we take a journey into a wondrous land where Posey is swinging well after his hip has fully healed and also the new coaches have changed the plate approaches of Craw, Longo and Belt with major success. Not to mention a journey of sight and sound as Dubon’s play gets him some AS votes. What if the Starters move into a land of both shadow and substance and are able to put together a solid season with the resurgence of Jeff the Alphabet and Johnny C? And between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge, Anderson and Adon become so lights out that they, and the rest of the pen, are slamming the door on other teams.
That’s the signpost up ahead – your next stop…
i love the way this wondrous land sounds.
Some amazing stuff being posted here lately with Stix still to come…
I swiped it all from the Twilight Zone intros.
I do look forward to getting Stix back, I bet that first freedom post will be something epic.
Also, I do believe that the Giants started losing when ol’ Stix got busted, so we’ll have that going for us.
Sounds wonderful. Lots of “ifs” here. And you know how that goes…
“If” my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle…
“Is there a plan to be competitive at some point?”
That question kind of boggles my mind a bit. There’s no way Z wants to lose year after year, and get fired, and have his baseball career harmed. Of course there’s a plan to be competitive at some point. Z has been on the job about a year and 1/4. It’s going to take the word that a lot of Giants fans don’t want to hear………patience.
Lol
That’s awesome!
And I love that the catcher is lefthanded in the video.
LMAO…that’s some funny shit…
I’m on board with Bozo’s expedition to wondrous lands. A few things of interest to me;
*Do Webb & Beede progress
*Can Gausman realize his potential.
*How the club fills the late innings hole left by Moronta’s injury late last year
*When Anderson moves to a late inning role
I’m going to be + and say Gausman and Smyly get better pitching at Oracle. Then you add Cueto and Smarge and Webb or beede…hey at that point you aren’t talking bout being the worst team in the league. willieD made a good point tho, we could trade off our decent pieces at the break and then really take a nosedive in the standings
I’m excited to see Cueto but he’s already gone in my mind. It seems like the club is anticipating a repeat of last year from Smarge. I’m not sure that would be enough to entice other teams but he should be a solid rotation piece.
What decent pieces?
“Bobby” is in your head!
OK. Magnus and other former fellow Flapaloozers know this ain’t idle talk: If Sandog promises to wear the Hat, there’s a good shot I will swoop in from ‘Cuse. Why not? Ars longa, vita fuckin brevis. (Plus, maybe I can cajole and coerce TedSpe out of Flap retirement just so we can see him mop sweat off his forehead.)
Pawlie –
Would be awesome to have you out for another Flapalooza. Once the season begins, let’s figure out a date and make it happen.
Yes! Think about how long it’s been since his brow was mopped
If Bozo is right about Wondrous Land, he gets automatically elected as the sole member of the Eternal Insanely Positive Optimists’ Hall of Fame (EIPOHOF).
Only in the Twilight Zone will we see that post become reality, Pawlie.
The pieces we’d sell off, if they perform, would be Smarge and Cueto. And if Z freezes up again because the team has another 2% chance to make the post season I will officially start to hate him
Can’t see anyone taking Cueto’s bucks no matter how he’s doing.
And Smarge ain’t putting any contender over the top.
Maybe I need a Bobby pep talk.
My dad was a very positive guy, but he’s gone a long time.
My mother, on the other hand could depress a hyena…
Z proved last year he knows how to wheel and deal. His problem was he half assed it to try to keep the women and Baer happy. with a year under his belt maybe he just gives everyone the finger and trades anything not nailed down
I’m hoping a contending team has an injury to their SS close to the trade deadline which puts value to a vet like Crawford to pickup.And then I realize I’m still stuck in the Twilight Zone without reality a possibility..
Craw is a sabermetric nightmare nowadays. No GM is going to be interested in him.
He’s such a unique situation. A local kid, with that iconic photo of him in the newspaper as a kid, sad because the Giants might be leaving SF. Two time champion with the Giants. Hit that grandslam in his first game, right after the game when Posey’s leg was broken. The grandslam lifted our spirits a bit.
That huge grandslam against Pittsburgh in the Wild Card game. I was in a pub-type restaurant, with TVs all around the room. Total strangers were high-fiving and hugging. Incredible experience.
But he’s in serious baseball decline now. It’s too bad.
Honestly he’s not a problem for me. If he continues to play great defense that’ll work. He stands out as shit because our team can’t hit and he’s just a huge part of that problem. But if everyone else was hitting would we notice him?
Sad it has gotten to this point.
Brandon Crawford according to B/R
Due to age and expected regression is not even listed on SS ratings..
Giants play Cubs at Wrigley on Aug 31 – Sept 2.
Gonna be hot, sweaty and Old Style weather.
First Mon-Tues are night games, Wed day game…
Rising stars game had its moments but those dudes, collectively, can’t hit 3s and they must have missed 20 dunks.
Giants will be like this years warriors..except now splash brothers on the horizon…I like the “land’ though.. Go Giants!
By deadline smrdz or cueto $$ would be down to $10 mil. Giants might even help to upgrade prospect(s). No one is looking for next Scutaro it’s all about pitching. Plus Cueto has 1 more year of control so he wouldn’t be pure rental like smrdz would. And he is a draw, fans love the guy. I think Dirt’s right it’s not if, only when.
re: Z plan to be competitive, I think it’s long term and he’s looking at 2022/23. Bart and Ramos for next year, Luciano and couple other prospect guys like maybe Bishop or Wilson 2022.
Belt and Craw will be gone by then along with Smrdz and Cueto. And no Gascans and Smylys in rotation.
He follows Padres plan of going all in with young pitching, which will mean at least one year beyond 2021 of struggling to find an ace or two and then acquiring depth, like what Pads did this offseason.
So 2022 would be year #4 of Z ball.