A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

I just read that Yadier Molina wants to play “several more years.” He’s 38. That got me to wondering about Big Titty’s age and I guessed he was 50. This is what the pandemic has turned me into. He’s only 45. Then I clicked on ‘Titty’s stats and it really is incredible that in his final, underwhelming season in his painfully average career he ended up playing for BOTH the teams that made it to the World Series. That’s a pretty cool thing to be able to tell your grand kids.

We have all read a lot about the possibility of re-opening and/or re-starting the various sports leagues. But one thing I haven’t seen are actual polls done by their respective player unions. Do we have an accurate idea of how many players will actually agree to go back and play? Or do we have to wait for a firm plan and then they vote? What percentage need to sign off on it for this to be a go? We’ve heard from a few random players interviewed by ESPN or Yahoo but will their be enough players who will vote yes agreeing to play their sport in the middle of a pandemic? And will there be some who just say “I’m not doing it.”

The imaginary dance between Puig and the Giants continues. This is from mlbtraderumors.com:

“For what it’s worth, it wasn’t long ago that the Giants reportedly showed interest in Puig, who has a couple important connections in San Francisco. Zaidi and manager Gabe Kapler were both members of the Dodgers organization during at least part of Puig’s run with the Giants’ archrivals from 2013-18.”

I’m not sure knowing Z and Kapler constitutes *important connections*. He’s been in the league for 7 years I’m sure he knows a lot of people in the game.

But, I will say, at least Z and Kap don’t hate Puig the way we know the Giants old management regime did. Actually, that’s a guess, maybe they hate him more, almost everyone in the Dodgers org hated Puig when he was there.

Still, Kap does appreciate a nice male physique and Puig certainly fits that bill. I’d like to think Zaidi only appreciates the shape of a number and isn’t swayed by the look or personality of other humans. So these are the two best arguments I can come up with for why the Giants might now want to sign Puig. Also, Bum is gone.

There is still zero evidence that Puig would want to come to SF. It’s a million miles away from Miami, it’s also not a team that’s even close to something the mainstream media would be covering on the basis that we stink (and 98% of Puig’s existence is getting people to look at him). It’s also not a park conducive to hitting home runs, besides the peak of his biceps, that’s all he cares about.

So, it’s never been a fit and it’s not one now. I’ve gotten to the point where I look at the Giants and they’ve been so boring for so many years I wouldn’t fall apart if Puig was signed. It would at least be a little interesting to watch his antics.

But as a baseball player he’s always been overrated, he’s death to clubhouse chemistry, and now that he’s on the wrong side of his career curve he would contribute nothing to the team in terms of wins.

If you want to take a look at what an empty .800 OPS looks like see what Puke did with Cleveland last season in 207 plate appearances:

2 bombs, 25 runs scored, 23 RBI’s, fucking worthless. But hey, shiny .800 OPS!!!!

It’s on ESPN right? I actually haven’t turned my tv on in a couple of weeks. Honestly, what is there on tv that I can’t get from my lap top? Well, besides The Last Dance.

Is it good? Why should I watch this?

Least controversial take of the day: This was a great draft.

Everyone is praising Staley for telling the Niners about his plans to retire and I guess that was admirable of him because it allowed them to form a back up plan and trade for Williams. But am I crazy? If he told them a day earlier they could have just drafted Wirfs.

We are now back to no sports but that was fun while it lasted, eh?

I’m completely passed my negativity phase from Day 1 of draft day and I’m in full blown *wait and see but nervously excited* mode. It’s impossible to hear Kinlaw’s life story and not be happy for him. And while I do have a bias against the Pac 12 because it’s so weak compared to actual powerhouse conferences I am willing to trust Shanny on this Five Lettered Fellow and hope for the best.

Today is still legit, you can get a real player or two on Day 3 if you mine the right nugget.

Got an email from Chi–he said today is the 6 year anniversary of a Flapalooza. It’s possible this is the one we found out about Unca’s daughter dating Diggity’s son.

Rice, Moss, Carter, Owens, Largent, Monk…..Aiyuk?
Our newest Niner name doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue when you think of great wide receiver names. Am I the only one who thinks his name needs more letters?

Look, in the age of Covid it’s easy to be negative. And I got there very quickly after round 1 of the NFL draft.

I am not an NFL expert. I have no idea if Jeudy, Lamb or Jefferson will become an NFL star. But there is a great likelihood that one of them will. And I don’t think there’s anyone out there who thought Aiyuck would go as early as 25 nor is there anyone out there who thought the Pac 12 was a powerhouse conference. So not only did we trade up for probably no reason but we passed on 3 other dudes who all might be better than him.

And this Kinlaw thing, sure he’s cheaper and younger than Buckner. But there is no guarantee he’ll be even close to as good. We already had Buckner. If this was the plan why didn’t we just keep Buckner and ditch Armstead? Pay up for the quality you already HAD.

Whatevs, maybe it all works out. I was certainly wrong about the Bosa pick. But I was right about the Solly Thomas pick. I guess we’ll find out about these 2 new fellas if the NFL ever opens up again…..

Here’s something to be positive about: Some time over the next 24 hours The Flap will pass 2 million all time hits. Congrats, that is an enormous feat that Flappers around the globe should feel good about.

Jesus Christ, ok, let’s GO! Something sports related that’s not the Outlaw Golf Tour or horse racing. Like it or not, we get to watch Roger Goddell in his jammies announce the NFL draft from his basement. I, for one, can’t wait.

I read an interesting, easy to understand article this morning about the economy. Interested in your take, should you have one:

https://www.ccn.com/3-reasons-why-the-dow-will-crash-below-20000-in-2-weeks/

If you’re interested in baseball news this was just penned by the commissioner, it was set for immediate release and contains critical information. lulz

What do your grocery stores look like? I stopped going to Trader Joe’s, the lines are too long. And you weren’t going to catch me in a COSTCO or a WALLMART before the pandemic hit, certainly not now.

I either go to the Safeway in Los Altos or Menlo Park (depending on whether I need to go into work) or the Piazza’s in Palo Alto. I would say 90% of the shoppers are wearing masks, maybe 50% are wearing gloves. I’ve recently been struck by all the designer masks everyone is using. I still just use a red or blue bandana depending on which gang I’m looking to rep.

Random thought of the day: Captain and Tenille, Donny and Marie, Sonny and Cher…..you don’t see terrible duet singing couples anymore. That seems like it was just a 70’s phenomenon, aye? And why was it popular then?

Just finished reading a very depressing NY Times article from Sunday detailing the long road we have ahead. I’m going to do what most everyone else is going to do when it comes to treatment or a vaccine: I’m going to sit and wait. And wait. And wait.

The other stuff, sports, our old way of life, etc seems further away today. We just haven’t come to grips yet on how quickly our world has changed and how some things are just never coming back. As Americans start to grasp this we are going to see bigger protests and very likely anarchy oozing out all over the country.

The highly esteemed and honorable Pa Salon just sent me Season 10 of Curb Your Enthusiasm and it is H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S.

This is concerning if they are trading down for MORE picks.

If they get ballsy and trade up I’d be down with that. The Niners have a good core they are returning nearly everyone. They need an impact offensive player, preferably a stud wide receiver. They have drafted pretty terribly at that position over the years since Rice. Who could forget JJ Stokes. Later it was AJ Jenkins. And most recently Dante Pettis. And I’m calling bust on Pettis now unless he was dealing with some major under the radar injury. That dude was so far into Kyle’s doghouse and you know he must suck considering the WR’s Kyle ran out there last season. But we need to hit on a stud and we need to do it this year while the window is still open.

We have 2 first round picks. If I had to I’d trade both of them to the Raiders to get to Jeudy and then get back a couple of the Raiders 3rd round picks (they have 3 this year). Who’s with me on that one?

Try to figure out who the SF Giant player was included with these guys in the trade (hint, he was the main piece in the trade) and who was he traded FOR (as in, who did we get in return). Second hint: the guy we got we were very happy with.

You are allowed to check your work. If you think you know who it is go ahead and check baseball ref. But obviously this is an honor system game. I probably should be including the name of the SF player here. But I think that might make it too easy. The player we traded and the player we got from Atlanta are both very recognizable SF Giant names.

Ok, go, two flaps up to the first guy who gets it…..

Well, Oaklawn has a pretty nice looking card today, so there’s that. What’s everyone got planned for today? Does it being a weekend change anything for you or is every day the same?

One of the coolest things about the internet is all the pictures that get shared. I’m not talking about dumbass selfies. I’m talking about pictures from the past. I saw a pic of Fiona Apple today and couldn’t believe how old she looks now, lol. Of course I haven’t seen her in many years, she went pretty deep underground I guess. Actually, that was the best thing about Facebook when it first came out—getting to see what people look like after all these years. Then, Facebook got incredibly stupid and listening to people spout off their political opinions all day gets real old real fast–so I rarely go there anymore.

I also love old sports pics. This one slid across my twitter timeline today, it’s incredible.

That’s The Big O, a guy I never got to see play. The symmetry of this photo is incredible not to mention what looks like a near impossible physical position considering the moment. I stared at this picture for several minutes.

Anyway, that’s all I got today. Have a good one and stay safe.

Read a quote from Mike Trout that was a little irritating. He, as well as a few other prominent players, said there are red flags about the plan to re-open baseball in these *quarantined* cities in Arizona and Florida. —specifically, he said he didn’t want to miss the birth of his first child and that it would be too hard to be away from family “for a few months.”

Uh, ok, that’s fine, he’s allowed to feel that way. But the consequence for not playing is no salary. I’m sure a lot of these guys are cool with that at least from a living day to day standpoint. Still, that’s a lot o’ scratch to leave on the table.

I read a good quote on twitter when this all started, it was someone who was mad at the people who wouldn’t quarantine at home. It went something like this: “Your grandpa got called to war. You’re getting called to sit on the couch. Go sit on the fucking couch.”

I think if I was a ball player making millions of dollars a year I’d be cool with saying hasta la vista to my family for a few months. But maybe that’s just me……

Jackie Robinson walking home after his debut on 4/15/47

I just thought this was a cool pic

Following the Outlaw golf tourney online today. Caleb Gorbahn is the *eagle man* on the Outlaw tour. Eric Lilleboe pretty consistently hits the top 10. Two different set of brothers, the Paul’s and the Longmire’s are playing. Good God, what is happening to me?

Well, the haircut is in the books and we’ve played the A-Z Name Game—extra credit goes to Loo, Kat and Mac for taking that game to heights I never dreamed it would go.

I can’t find anything this morning on where we are with the 2020 baseball season proposal—I’m guessing there is work happening behind the scenes on the design.

I missed the Zenyatta special on tvg last night and can’t find a link anywhere–if anyone has that, please post in the comment thread. Thanks.

Ok here’s a fun game to play if you are completely freaking bored as I am right now. I saw this on twitter, I didn’t invent it. Without looking at any rosters, come up with the first or last name of a Giants player for each letter in the alphabet. It has to be the first name you think of (like when I picked Aardsma I always remembered he had a cool name that started with Aa and that was the first name that popped into my head when I thought of A. I struck out on Q and X. I spent the longest time on F for some reason. And I used a nickname for M but I went with it because that’s the first name that I thought of when I got to M. Give it a whirl, this took me like 20 minutes to do. And try not to read my list if you haven’t done so already, it will mess with you doing it completely by yourself.

Aardsma

Beck

Chili Davis

Deion Sanders

Evans

Fred Lewis (this one took forever for some reason)

Gott

Hammaker

Ivie

Julian Tavarez

Krukow

Laskey

Moon Man

Nen

Otero

Pablo Sandoval

Q–come on.

Reuschel

Swift

Tomargo

Uribe

Von Hayes

Willie Mays

X–nope

Yastremski

Zito

_________________________

This is a screenshot from my recent google searches. A nice snapshot into the boredom of today’s world:

To be completely honest, I don’t care about the format mlb chooses, I could live with anything that I’ve heard so far. And if they try this, I’ll obviously watch the games. I mean, come on, everyone would. I don’t have any faith this works but if they roll out the product we would all accept it, right?

I’m giving her 2 flaps up for holding a steady hand during her first try ever at cutting my hair. And the result was pretty good, I think.

And if you’re jonesn’ for yester year, give this a listen….

My clippers came late last night. The box has been sprayed and is awaiting an unboxing in the quarantine area at Casa de Flavor. Katie has been put on notice that this is happening.

So now the only thing left to do is wait for it to happen.

@super70ssports posted this pic today.

that’s all I got today…..

Well, the Carona just got Greenberg from Let it Ride. When you start fucking with some of the character actors from my favorite movie of all time, that’s going too far. I’ve had it up to *here* with this virus and I’m waving my hand over my head right now…..

Can someone explain Trump’s new delusion of voter fraud to me? I get a ballot in the mail, I fill it out, I send it back. If I wanted to commit voter fraud I suppose I could fill it out with the names of someone other than who I’m voting for. I don’t see how that changes an election. How could I sit at my house and fill out tens of thousands of ballots? Does any of this make sense? What am I missing here about voter fraud?

A package arrived yesterday. Normally I wouldn’t turn that into an entire blog thread. But these are desperate times. I was so excited to open it but I remembered what Snarkk said to do with packages so I lysoled the shit out of it and quarantined it in my garage overnight.

I just opened it. My heart was pounding. It felt like Christmas even though it was just another dreary Covid19 morning. The package was from San Dawg. Months ago I mentioned off hand to him that my Toomgis coffee mug was starting to show a little wear and tear, not surprising since I use it every morning. So he sent me a new one along with a package of unopened baseball cards. I now have a set of Toomgis coffee mugs.

The best card in there was a Trevor Baur and for some reason a card commemorating the moon landing. I’ve always been a big Bauer fan, here is my scouting report from him nearly a decade ago:

Maybe “superstar waiting to happen” didn’t quite pan out. But he’s very good, he’s extremely bright and I appreciate his social media posts.

Anyway, THANK YOU to the great San Diggity Dawg who managed to spruce up an otherwise impending day of monotony. If you were wondering, both mugs were payment for bets lost although to be honest I haven’t really kept track of the most current bet. I don’t think it’s even been resolved yet. Still, now I have 2 Toomgis mugs.

And the day begins!

I don’t know why but it feels worse to do nothing during the week than it does on a weekend. And that shouldn’t be since all these days are the same now. I’ve got a few Zoom meetings to get through. Workout for an hour or so.

After that? Same old shit…..

I try not to watch these daily Trump briefings, they’re just so stupid and he’s so incredibly petty. But I do catch bits and pieces. I watched him say he wants the NFL to start in September. “They want to get back, They’ve got to get back,” he said. In the same conference he said he didn’t see a vaccine for 16-18 months. I’m not sure why I care that Trump is giving a timeline for a vaccine since I’d lay even-money that he couldn’t even spell the word vaccine. But you can’t tell sports to re-start in a few months and in the same breath say we’re a year and half away from a vaccine.

Personally, I think his timeline is off. And that’s weird because he’s saying so many dumb things I would have expected him to predict we’d have a vaccine this coming Wednesday. But a year and a half seems long. This has become the collective goal of the scientific world, I’m thinking we get a vaccine significantly sooner than 18 months.

I still don’t see how football starts in September, nor should it.

Ok, this weekend the plan is to have my daughter give me a haircut. This is all assuming I can find a store open that sells clippers. I’ve never done this before. My hair is easy to cut, I normally go #1 on the sides, #4 up top. But I’m thinking of just going #1 all the way around to keep it simple.
Any advice from those who do this or have done this would be appreciated.

In general, I’m not an April Fools guy. I especially don’t like people who tell jokes. I just like funny stuff. Make it up yourself. Be original. The idea of everyone getting together on a certain day to try to fuck with each other seems played out and rather staid. AMIRITE?

So I was looking forward to not having to deal with the *fools* this year. And then this happened…..

I was sitting on the couch watching Schitt’s Creek Epi 6 of Season 2—not something I would ever even consider watching in my non-quarantined life but whatever, it’s actually not that bad.

My daughter comes up behind me, giggling, with her hands behind her back. Nearly shaking from the bubbling giggles, she says….”daddy, um….close your eyes.” Now, only a fool would close his eyes when told to and I’m talking about ever; and certainly not for an obvious trap such as this. But she says she’s not leaving until I do and to be honest I didn’t have much else going on at the time. So I slowly closed my eyes and then quickly reopened them. No good, she was ready for that. Still giggling she says, “just do it….” So I close my eyes….

BAM! She slams a a whipped cream pie right in my face! Katie turns and runs away like a deranged hyena with me trailing closely behind with only part of one eye open that had thankfully dodged the attack. When I caught up to her we hugged and laughed harder than we’ve laughed in years. Literally tears rolling down our faces.

It was so stupid and so absurd but the perfect thing to break up the monotony of this new world. So I can’t hate on April Fools day anymore. Not after that.

Look, if someone tries to April Fools you today you tell them to go fuck themselves. That’s straight from the CDC actually.

Roger Goodell seems to be pushing forward with the NFL draft. I’m not sure how I feel about that. The bigger issue: how will the season start in September? Even without fans? As the great OSF enlightened us, and I can’t emphasize enough what a fresh take that was, I still haven’t read anything anywhere pointing this out, we won’t be able to have a sports season without a vaccine.

Now, maybe there will be a vaccine by the fall although that seems pretty quick. There are a lot of great minds working on this 24/7 though so I guess you never know, right?