A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

The A’s got wacked by the White Sox yesterday and when I heard that was their 5th straight post season loss I lqtm. “Stupid A’s,” I mused. Then Minnesota lost and I head that was their SEVENTEENTH post season loss in a row. WTF????? I was certain that was a mistake. But nay, it was accurate. How does a playoff team loss 17 times in a row at anything?

Once again, mlb blew it. They were the only sporting event going yesterday, they had 4 games and they still ran all 4 on top of each other. Manfred is incompetent.

Barn is on fire today. EIGHT games! Woo Hoo let’s go!!!!!!

I can’t make any sense of this bracket, at least in terms of who I think will win it all:

Everyone thinks The Reds are overmatched. What if Bauer fires a gem in game 1, which he absolutely could, and they take command of that series? Or Bieber tonight vs the Yankees? To me, and I know this is contrary to how I look at the state of *today’s game*, most of these series will come down to how the aces do–because there really aren’t that many aces. Toronto is going with a freaking opener today for mud’s sake.

Will also be interested to see if the A’s lay another post season egg. I’m not looking it up but they have been pretty terrible the last several years whenever they make the post season (which, if memory serves has mostly been in the play-in game?)

Hey, we got wall to wall baseball the next 2 days. Screw the Giants, enjoy this!

Our season collapsed in frustrating fashion but it was really hard to get too worked up about it. Yes, the ump was terrible. But do any of you really think any of our hitters were going to touch Rosenthal? In the strike zone or not?

It was fun to see McCovey Cove filled up under such a resplendent sky. And how great was it to see Hunter Pence take part in the fun? We didn’t make this post season but that is almost a badge of honor. I’m not going so far as to say it’s a sham. It HAS been fun to watch baseball again. But this season was pretty stupid. DH’s, 7 inning games, cut out fans, that dude trotting out to 2nd base starting the 10th……

Our hitting shocked me this year. Kap and his staff deserve credit for that. I think. They certainly went out of their way to TAKE credit for it. I’ll trust them on that one…..

Kap had his moments of idiocy but overall he was fine. I’m willing to believe he’s going to get better. One thing that has to get better is our pitching which was just not very good.

There were many weeks in a row I didn’t think we were going to see any baseball this year. And we got 60 games. Every single one of them did the job of distracting us from the terribleness of 2020.

Ok, so what has to happen today? We need to win and the Brewers need to lose. Our old pal St. Louis needs to step up and beat a pretty beatable team. Both games go off at roughly the same time.

Also, the Niners facing The Giants.

Lots of Giants action today.

This is my second attempt at writing today’s thread. The first time I sat down opened my laptop, couldn’t type anything, closed my laptop and went to buy bagels. I have now returned to try again……

The one thing that is clear as day is that Kap doesn’t know how to manage his bullpen. He seems to have a pre-set idea of what he’s going to do in the later innings no matter what the moment is. I wonder how much influence Andrew Bailey has in these decisions. If the answer is “not much” maybe he needs more……

“out of adversity comes opportunity.”

It’s entirely possible that the post season will be that much sweeter if we make it because of last night. Let’s see what happens today.

Well, here we are. The final regular series of 2020. It certainly doesn’t feel like it should be ending so quickly but that’s what a 60 game season will do to you. We might get in if we win 2 games, we will likely get in if we win 3. San Diego’s motivation level is low so we might have a chance. Either way, if they do get in I’ll feel better about their walk of shame spot because they will have at least beaten a top team to get in……

Back in the post season saddle.

I don’t know how much resistance Colorado is putting up. They have a distinctive *Seattle* feel to them. But whatever, we can only play the teams on the schedule. While part of me doesn’t want to see them make the playoffs due to the extremely high chances for nationwide embarrassment, I really don’t have anything else to do these days other than root for them to win ball games.

Therefore, “go fast and win”–name the movie for a notch on your Flap trivia belt.

Lots of contributors last night—I heard on the radio today we don’t have the tie breaker so we need to take down the 8th spot like men, outright. Tie breakers are for pussies anyway.

Cueto was awful. And this improbable season seems to be settling into something fairly predictable. Yaz is proving to be the MVP of the team. Without him, fairly rudderless.

If the season ended today they would have surpassed my expectations. And Kapler, after a horrendous beginning, has turned into something not really that noticeable—probably the best thing you can hope for in a good manager.

Kokonuts just sent me this pic of him and Dennis Z having lunch. He says afterwards they played catch. Am I imagining this or is Dennis Z the dude who always started his comments here by telling us he takes a shot of whiskey each morning before saluting the flag? Eh, that’s a lil’ different than how we roll out here in the am but I will always proudly salute a fellow Giants fan.

And just like that, he disappears into the Oracle night sky……

Enormous game tonight if you are hoping we make the post season…….

All these NFL injuries are directly related to not playing any pre-season games. There are too many pre-season games in a typical year.

Zero is not enough games……

This is probably the biggest game of the year. Not just for our playoff chances. If we zero-out again in completely pants-down bent over the couch fashion it really will be more of a blessing in the long run. Who wants to watch this team get embarrassed by LA in the first round? We have no chance of being competitive in the post season playing like we have been playing lately against good teams.

Being terrible against the good teams is, frankly, what the Mariners are. So this 0-7 vs A’s/Pads isn’t really making a lot of sense. Unless you think we’re Seattle. Which we aren’t.

I’ve accepted that The Grave Duggar is buried deep on a depth chart somewhere. I need more Luis Baseball in my life. Let’s see him get a start today. And I woke up feeling either Wilmet or Solano was gonna go off today. Let’s see that happen, too.

Need a W. Anxious to see Gausman’s stuff today.

This is really outstanding and a testament to how well this has been managed over the long haul. NBA and NFL, too. The three major sports are doing a great job with this.

We got a little problem with Yaz but I’m not that worried. Could it be time for The Grave Dugger to resume his digging?

Beating up on Seattle is fun but shit gets real again tonight.

I’m sure this lady is a good Giants fan but she’s just not operating at a The Flap level of consciousness.

There we go, that felt good. Feasting on Seattle. Why can’t all our opponents be Seattle? I’m interested in your take on this quote:

I’m not saying Kap and his band of “approachateers” haven’t given these guys something new to think about at the plate. But for Crawford to discount the *closed* stadium seems a little off to me. Hey, he’s the one on the field, he would know. But it’s probably a lot better for your ego to say something like this, especially when you are in the twilight of your career, than admitting the park is playing much easier for hitters this year. Intrinsic vs extrinsic debate. I’ll go so far as to say it’s a little bit of both.

If there is one thing you want to thank Z for it should be on not re-signing Bumgarner. That deal is now teetering on *worst mlb contract in history*. He has, by far, the worst ERA in the major leagues for pitchers who qualify. Timmy, Cain, Bum….what is it about Giants pitchers who completely fall apart when they hit their 30’s?

Are the Giants playing today? I thought yesterday and today got canceled but they’re listed as playing today. Seattle is listed as the home team.

I guess you could argue we just aren’t very good at 7 inning double headers. Of course, those were against the 2 best teams in the league so maybe we just aren’t very good at playing the best teams. Either way, we are back to playing the friendly Mariners and it’s a good time to get back on the Covid-Free beam with a success……

NFL is back and I really can’t believe it, actually. But if they’re willing to play I’m willing to watch and gamble. And it sounds like we have some good news about the Giants—if I’m understanding this correctly, and I am out of town so I might not be, The Dick had a false positive test and and subsequently tested neg twice. That is excellent news.

I’ve been tested 6 times (and once for antibodies). Everything has always come back negative. I know it’s frustrating to have Dick test false + but that doesn’t change the importance of testing. I had a buddy of mine the other day say, “what’s the point of getting tested? You could walk outside right after the test and get it.”

True, idiot, but if you test + then you know it’s time to immediately quarantine and begin contact tracing. I’m not sure what so hard to figure out about this. If you find out you are + at any point in this take the necessary steps to get better as well as keep yourself away from other people.

(and yes, I recognize this thread straddles the line of political talk. That’s all I’m going to say about it).

We were rolling along and all of a sudden, BAM! Fucking Covid. It doesn’t really matter who it is. Might make a decent story to hear, I guess. But the reality is our momentum has now come to a crashing halt. It did give me a chance to go find and post this clip:

So now, we sit and wait. We have all gotten pretty good at this this year so just sit down and do it.

See what dopey Zaidi did? Release the Panda, team turns to crap. How else can you explain the direct correlation between the release and then the sluggish 6-1 loss? Exact same thing happened when we got rid of the powerhouse known as Duffy. In fact, at this stage of his career he has a lot in common with Duffy—no power, no speed. And that combo plays quite poorly in today’s game…..

No no, it was time for the Panda to go go. Truth is, he and Pence never should have returned. There is no WAY Zaidi made that move on his own. I’m sure that decision came from management—they never gave Giants fans enough credit for understanding the game, they think all we care about is the name on the back of the jersey. But after the pandemic hit and they don’t have any fans in the park anymore anyway AND we have been playing solid ball despite the impotent production we got from Pence and Pablo, it was time for them to go.

Their era ended in 2014. It’s incredible to me that management thinks so little of us that they thought they’d have to bring those 2 guys back to keep our interest in the team……

I might change that to my new laptop password. What a beautiful ass number….

But maybe it’s time to stop all the winning. The only team I want to face in the first round is the Dodgers. That’s it. I can’t imagine a better way to kick off the post season nor a better outcome than knocking their asses out in round 1 of a best of 3.

Are they more likely to win? Of course. But that’s the beauty of it. We got nuthin’ to lose.

Two tweets stuck out last night, here they are:

I have no idea how many games remain. All I know is that we are .500 and have a 58% chance to slide into one of the “walk of shame” post season slots.

After all these years of boring nonsense, I will take that.

One of my favorite things about horse racing is the language. A tie is called a “dead heat.” A horse that’s never won before is called a “Maiden”. A day when the track is closed is called a “dark day.” It goes on and on.

Baseball is like that, too. Single, double, triple, home run.

And the *stolen base*.

I’ve been fascinated by people who are fast my entire life. To me, speed is the ultimate human coordination. I would give anything to be fast. I’d rather be fast than have the ability to fly although to me it’s kind of the same thing. Rickey Henderson is my favorite non-Giant player of all time.

There are a lot of things I miss about the way baseball used to be played. The stolen base dissolving in importance is the thing I miss the most.

In 1974 Lou Brock stole 118 bases. He was 35 years old. That stat will forever blow my mind.

RIP

Well, Bum made it through 4 innings. San Dawg did try to lure me into this bet but I declined:

In the end, we could not agree on a bet.

Seeing Bum in another uni didn’t really do much for me one way or the other.

We are still riding that 39% chance into the post season……

Well, this is going to be QUITE the day. Horse racing and Bumgarner. That is quite the exacta. Thankfully not competing for my time.

Funny story. I woke up, hadn’t had coffee yet, was at Draftkings and I clicked on the SF pitcher for tonight’s game. It said Cahill. I was like, “What, Bum’s pitching today I thought.” Lol. Then I remembered I needed to click on the AZ pitcher if I wanted to see Bumgarner’s name……

Anyway, I’m a pretty sentimental person when it comes to almost anything. I will hold the memories that country fuck’s given me FOREVER in my heart.

But we need this game. I hope we light his ass up.

Derby weekend, Flappers. I shall be occupied today and tomorrow. Go Giants.

Well, you can’t love the 23 runs scored on Tuesday and then complain about the loss yesterday. Coors Field is a joke, the goal is to not let the joke be on you. Tough loss but utterly understandable in that environment.

post season chances actually went up with that loss for some reason from 39% to 42%.

How do I know Dickerson reads the blog? Because he looks like he plays with a chip on his shoulder. And on the early morn of Aug 30 with smoke billowing just outside my bedroom window I wrote this about the reason the Giants should pick up Jackie Bradley:

Before the ink even set to dry on those fateful penned words, The Dick set out to prove me to be quite the fool. He’s gone 7 for 10 with 4 bombs and 8 RBI’s. In two games played. Astounding production and if Z and Kap had been waiting on him to heat up they were right to do so.

When asked by Baggs where this surprising offensive explosion came from, Dickerson snarled, “Tell Flavor he can stick that bottle of lightening right up his ass.” And somewhere up above, Twinfan raged…..

Even with our suspect pitching staff we have a run diff of only -1. The final post season “walk of shame” spot is ours for the taking if we want it badly enough…..

No surprises yesterday, Clev and Marte were the two biggest names to get moved. Even Clev in that 9 player deal, there weren’t any top prospects moving around. The Giants? Look, they weren’t going to trade Luciano, Ramos, or Bishop, after that the prospect mantle is pretty bare. I applaud Z for not making a move just to make a move. And we got the tatted up Banda! Come on, our street cred went up yesterday. You can’t put a price tag on street cred. I’m tired of living off the faint memory of what the Bowker Gang used to do for us…….