A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

Lots of buzz about who might get moved today. So far, no stars have been moved, as expected. Supposedly the Rangers are floating Gallo and Lynn, both of who I would love to have but I can’t imagine Z paying the asking price.

My plan would be to roll deep with the guys you have. No trades. This team has been fun to watch for the most part–they deserve the chance to keep it going and try slide into the last post season spot.

On a more self serving note, it appears I have had a tweet go viral (at least for me, most of my tweets get ignored and/or liked by Diggity and another friend or two).

But not this one, check out these stats. Shit’s going viral faster than motherfucking Covid.

Here is the actual tweet (yes, I know it’s funny, thank you in advance):

I’ve re-considered my thoughts on JBJ. While his bat would be a certain drain on our production it’s not like it would be any worse than Dickerson who has clearly let the lightening out of the bottle. And he would be an enormous upgrade defensively. If we offered little and Boston accepted I’d be fine with that. I still want to the team to try to snag that final post season spot. Why not?

Very sad to wake up to the news that Clifford Robinson had passed away. He was always one of my favorite players mostly because of his attitude and the way he carried himself–he was a total badass. I was going to Lewis and Clark when he was just beginning his career with the Blazers. I was at a club he was at one night, he was dancing in the middle of the dance floor with like 3 chicks, he was high as fuck. I told my girlfriend “hey that’s Cliff Robinson” (he was “Cliff” at the beginning of his career before he went to “Clifford”) and we went out and started dancing right next to him for a while. It was so much fun. I don’t know why this memory has always been so vivid for me but I remember it like it was last night.

A’s traded for La Stella—to me, that’s about the ceiling of what we can expect regarding moves before the deadline. Some “La Stella’s” getting moved and others not at his quality level.

14 innings. Zero runs. Man, that felt just like the old days, right? Now we get to go to Arizona and face their best pitcher. Tough assignment.

I still don’t know why Gausman isn’t better. His stuff is incredible. Maybe he needs to locate it better but it looks completely unhittable.

I don’t know about you guys but I am diggin’ the fact that we have a dude named “Luis Basabe” on our team. Come on, rearrange that last name a smidge and add a couple of LL’s and his last name is literally “Baseball” .

I am tired. I’m tired of watching friends stay unemployed. I’m tired of businesses and schools being closed. I’m tired of watching the virus run rampant through our country. I’m tired of watching Americans get shot and/or killed for no reason. I’m tired of fucking riots. I’m tired of the nonsense that still is happening on a nightly basis in my second home Portland. I’m tired of societal division. I’m tired of fires. I’m tired of smoke. I’m tired of worrying about a close family member who is facing a terminal illness…..

Surprisingly, I’m not tired of wearing a mask. I have merrily embraced the mask culture. I spent too many years letting strangers breath on me. I will probably continue wearing a mask in many public buildings long after Covid is gone…..

I attribute most of this lingering tiredness to a slew of mismanaged crisis’ in our country. And while I appreciate having a place to vent about my ongoing staid state of mind, this is not the place for it.

If you go to the blog on your phone this is what you should all be seeing (I don’t know why it doesn’t appear on your tablet or laptop):

When I started the blog I named it “THE San Francisco Giants Blog–Unauthorized”. I thought that was a little too “TMZ” so I changed it to
“THE San Francisco Giants Blog—A Place to Talk About Giants Baseball”.

Just like with Facebook, Twitter and other places the Flap morphed into something other than what it was originally intended to be. I enjoy a lot of what the blog has become. But the political stuff is ruining this “place” that I started with the purest intentions.

So, we are going back to our roots. This is a place to talk about Giants baseball. Other topics are of course allowed and encouraged. The recipes you guys post are meals I still make to this day. The music videos, eh, I’ll leave that for others to enjoy.

But we are ending all the political talk. There are many other places you can vent your thoughts about that subject. No more Trump talk, pro or con. Those posts will be immediately and summarily deleted……

I don’t care if this is a sham season. I don’t care if there are no fans in the park. That was one of the best, most exciting games the Giants have played in years. Belt is swinging the bat and actually making contact. Solano is walking it off. What world is this?

Ok, I have to share one quick Trump grifter email with you. A couple of days ago we discussed me sending in $5 just to try to make it on the chyron as “Fuck from California” and you guys properly talked me out of it because it is just another one of his petty grifting scams. But they sent me an email with a pic of what the glorious moment could look like, here it is:

Now, the pic is funny in its own right. But look at the tv. That has to be a tv from the early 80s right? Who would own a tv like that today? Maybe someone in the midwest. Someone poor and probably uneducated. It is just so obvious who they are trying to target with these pathetic money grab ads. It’s 2020 what type of person still has a tv like that?

The type of person who would send The Grifter in Chief his last $5……

Big series starting tonight, one in which I have no feeling whatsoever—my gut is traditionally inclined to expect a trip to the woodshed but this has been a weird year so I’m cool to watch it unfold….

Trade deadline is next week. I am on record as saying nothing significant will happen for obvious reasons already stated. But it’s still fun to kick around trade ideas so where do you guys stand on this one:

Cueto and Flores for Clint Frazier. I really don’t think the Yanks would do this but they have been decimated by injuries and both Cueto and Flores could be a huge boost to their post season run. For our part we get rid of Cueto’s salary in 2021 and the buyout. If they didn’t offer Frazier would you take Andujar? I probably would just to get another future piece although I’m not a biug Andujar fan. Still, getting rid of that Cueto contract would be nice.

I’d also be just as happy to watch him pitch the rest of the season. He’s been very good and entertaining and I put a high price tag on that this season. (same feelings about Wilmet, btw).

Ouch. This now hurts more than I realized. Fucking kick this guy OUT of fan base immediately.

I have not been paying attention to the MLB 2020 post season structure. But with the exciting news that the Giants are currently IN I decided to look it up.

Eight teams from each league get in. Three division winners, 3 runners up, and……two *best teams remaining* baby. That’s where we slide in.

Currently 7th, we are looking back and down on the Mets who are in 8th.

Make no mistake this is a sham season. The Cardinals are in right now and they’ve played about half as many games as everyone else.

But as long as they’re gonna keep bulldozing through the pandemic why not enjoy the run? What else you got to do?

Anderson stepped up huge and Kap let him be huge– a very important game for both of them.

It’s hard to enjoy baseball right now but I’m trying. Know lots of people displaced by the fires. Air quality is shit. Buddy of mine went back to his house in Felton to look for his cat.

Got him.

this is an incredible pic.

55 years ago today.

I’m still struggling with this new, STUPID, wordpress editor, let’s see if this pic shows up.

How about Wilmet? This guy just keeps on raking. The top of our line up looks great with Slater, Yaz and Wilmet. It falls off dramatically after that but maybe Bart can spark up the second half.

Crawford hit his 100th career bomb. I went back and forth on whether that sounds like a lot. On one hand, he’s had such a wet noodle bat for as long as I can remember, it sounds like a HUGE number. On the other hand, he’s been on the team for hundred and hundreds of years, he’s bound to run into 100 balls over that amount of time…..

I didn’t expect to wake up this morning to Stix quoting Tupac lines:

Untouchable…like in Elliot Ness? 

WordPress has completely changed their format for writing and uploading threads. As it is with anything new these days, it’s unnecessary and worse than the old way. 

So this thread will be short and sweet and hopefully this loads properly. 

Belt, Fatso, Crawford………yesterday was a throwback game for the ages. Too bad they can’t do it more than once every few weeks. Fires are terrible here today, ash was falling on my car on the way to work. I didn’t check the air quality index but it has to be terrible. Wouldn’t be surprised if both baseball games in the Bay got canceled today…..

This guy…..

I don’t like this guy.

Any manager with a brain wouldn’t be putting him in a meaningful spot. Let him work out his problems in the bullpen with his coach or in blowout games.

But Kap is brainless…..

I’ll give Kap credit. He tried the *take a big lead* approach and that didn’t work the first two games. So yesterday he tried the *get your ass kicked right out the gate and mount a furious comeback* approach. Sadly, that too failed. I hope he was taking copious notes on how to hold a lead as the A’s did with no problem on Sunday….

That was, WITHOUT QUESTION, the most embarrassing series we’ve ever played against Oakland.

Maybe there is a way to look this up: Has there ever been 2 games back to back with a worse pitching line than this?

You’re like, “Come on Flavor, you’re being dramatic, of course there has been.”

Well then, show it to me. Because until I see it with my own eyes I declare this to be the worst back to back pitching performance in history—certainly SF Giant history.

I hate Kapler for many of the same reasons you all do. But the MAIN reason I hate him is for ruining the victory laps I was planning on taking for making one of the most direct and accurate calls of all time:

and then come on THIS ONE was the one. I could have looked like a complete dipshit had he not hit one after this bombast, aye?

That was just…..fucking awful. The manager’s job is to push the right buttons. Kap is not pushing the right buttons. I don’t understand why Belt can pinch hit but not play late inning defense. Jesus Christ, defense is the ONE thing he CAN do. You send him out to CATCH the ball not to try to HIT the ball. This is managing 101, man.

Had this exchange with Krueger last night. I think he wants there to be action at the trade deadline because it’ll spice up his job. I just can’t see it happening. But I guess we’ll find out.

“Many people are saying” that this is the best Oakland A’s team in the Billy Beane era. High praise. I’m not too worried about them tonight because we have our rock going for us. Win day. Johnny C Time. Let’s go!!!!!

As the bottom of the 6th ended, Krukow confidently stated, “a four run deficit is nothing to these guys.”

So I decided to screenshot the batting average of “these guys” the moment he said that…..

And, shockingly, that four run deficit didn’t budge and they lost by….four runs.

It’s weird, I do like our hitters better this year. But the Bore Core still haunts every inning. And while we all love the youngsters like Dubon, well, he’s hitting .205. Although that’s nearly double Pence so Doobie probably struts a second longer when he passes Pence’s locker……

3-7 on that roadie. That’s actually about the ceiling of my expectations….

What a game and an example of resiliency. I would love to know how much of that is influenced from the top and how much of that is just the players being pros. Pence getting to blast off vs the team who brought him up must have been such an awesome feeling for him.

And! Bonus stats! Zero catcher interferences AND zero errors.

An incredible turn around compared to the embarrassment of Monday night……

Not much to say about that game. It was not as close as the score indicated. Another catcher interference call. More errors. No hit through 6 or whatever it was. The Giants embarrassed themselves on many levels last night. You can be boring and irrelevant, that doesn’t mean you have to be embarrassing, too.

I am not ok with Kap having a learning curve. He got hired to do this job, it is a prestigious and coveted position. He needs to be able to handle all aspects of it. I don’t care if this is a throwaway season, Z didn’t know that when he hired Kap and Kap didn’t know that when he accepted the position.

You get a job like this, sure you can get better at it over time. But you gotta have the team ready to play. You have to be better than this. The team you lead has to be better than this.

We have our secret weapon *undecided* going for us today in Houston. Who knows, the Asterisks have been pretty beatable now that they don’t know what’s coming every pitch.

On paper this one looks like it will get ugly but maybe Kap stays out of the way enough during the game and we steal a W.

Man, ONE OUT AWAY from a coveted QS. So close. Feel bad for Pence, nobody would feel worse about blowing it in that situation. But, it happens.

Jon Heyman called Kershaw the best pitcher in history (or something like that i was too busy laughing to read it closely).

Well, we got our one reliable pitching performance for the week. It is back to the rosary beads today….

I’ll tell you, I must be like some kind of savant or something, I don’t know how I keep earning these prestigious Trump awards…..

Look the Dodgers just have much better players than we do. There’s no shame in admitting that, they have better players than most teams. While I think our hitting has improved some it is going to have a hard time making up for the pitching which is not good. I’m hoping Z and Kap understand you can’t piggy back and patch work your way through a game. At least you can’t do that over time, with average pitchers. If we had better hitters we would be more competitive in games like last night but you know what? We do have better hitters than we did a couple of years ago so I’ll take what we have and like it.

Hope you all watch The Travers today! The Flap’s OFFICIAL horse mascot this year, Uncle Chuck, is running and trying to defeat the great Tiz the Law. Let’s hope he gets it done and brings home a much anticipated and richly deserved horse racing crown to the Flap.

3:15 PST. TV: Fox (sorry about that)

Thirteen years ago. Man where are the days going? Feels like 13 years was right about when the pandemic started, eh?

I will always love Barry Bonds but the 3 beauties we got after he left make what Barry did almost appear small. To me anyway.

LA tonight. The great thing about a series with these losers is that you just never really know how it’s going to play out. Always a surprise…….

That was a win from years gone by. Belt leading the way with a bomb, a well pitched game. Solid.

Honestly, that’s about as good as we’re going to get from out pitching staff, all things considered. Obviously you need good pitching to win but we don’t really have that. We have “just ok” pitching. We are going to have to swing the bats to win. End of story.

I kinda had it this morning with all the Trump emails telling me they’re going to match 600% of my never-to-arrive donation so I sent them back this:

They responded asking me if there was a problem with my order or if I want a refund. LOL. I know it’s just automated and nobody read my email but it still gave me a good chuckle…..

I honestly don’t have enough wall space for all the certificates and pageantry they want to bestow upon me:

I actually missed the Dickerson drop. I came back in the room, it was slow motion of him at the fence and the ball bouncing away. I never actually saw a replay. Was it an easy ball to catch? Either way, that dude isn’t in the line up for his defense.

Wonderful to see Tromp and Yaz go yard. Even in Colorado, it’s great to see at least a couple of guys hit the ball over the fence.

The defense has been terrible, probably chalk that up to the Covid break and not enough time to get their timing back on everything.

This little 5-5 start to the season has been fun but reality is about to hit, hard. I expect Colorado to blast us tonight. Rockies laying in the weeds, Giants needing a game to get their barrings in Nepal.

Regardless we are now on a ten game roadie vs the Rox, The Dodgers and The Cheaters. If we somehow win 2 I’ll be impressed. I don’t see how our pitching staff competes even on equal footing against those 3 teams and having to start off with the staff getting decimated in Denver, man, this is going to get ugly, early.

Also, yesterday was a big STRIKE TWO for Kapler. That Triggs nonsense had me doing a slow burn till….well I’m still doing it. Made no sense. MAYBE you give a vet a little rope but when it’s obvious to everyone watching that this kid had no business being on a major league mound yesterday it makes you really question if Kap has any idea at all what he’s doing. Imagine the players on the field watching that in real time. They had to be questioning Kap’s managerial skills at that point.

________________________________________________

email inbox today. The subject lines are always the start of the best comedy

When your OPS is Ronnie Lott’s number, you are not having a good year.

Today Mr. .042 likely gets another start and his job is to hit the baseball with his bat and have it be recorded as a hit.

Hunter Pence will go down in history as one of the greatest Giants of all time.

And it is time for him to get a hit…..

Last night was a great sign in terms of how the players view Kap. It wouldn’t have been surprising to see them come out with a flat performance the day after Kap’s two-step blunder. But they came out focused and strong and handed it to the Rangers.

One thing I don’t get about the scheduling: with all this juggling do they have to keep to any form or rules? If it were a regular season and a game got canceled they’d make it up. But with 30 games canceled already do they just try to make those up whenever and against whoever they can make it work with? Because if that’s the case I could see MLB pulling this off still.

Signs are pointing to it not working and if they just straight give up that’s what we’ll have to accept I guess.

my emails today. Stix I promise I’ll get to that article after dinner….