A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

People are like “Good riddence 2020” and I’m like “Careful what you wish for.” 2021 could EASILY be worse.

Paul lamenting his mark on the world in the last thread, I wouldn’t spend that much time worrying about it. Kids allow you to leave behind some type of genetic imprint but nobody knows who you are after a couple of generations. My friend did a family tree for me and I was struck by all the people in Ireland from 1750 or whatever who are responsible for me being here today. Funny names, too. But, ain’t nobody knows who they are anymore.

Nothing to say today except goodbye 2020. I went to an awesome Super Bowl party with my buddy The Boney One back in February. That was the last time I did something social and wasn’t spending the whole time worrying about this damn virus.

Dubs starting to come together a little bit–which was to be expected. Of course, this was Detroit so……..but that Wiseman block and coast to coast slam was EXCITING!

Do any of you guys follow Trevor Bauer on Twitter? He seems like quite the easy to disrupt drama queen. And his agent looks more like someone’s hot girlfriend than an actual agent—she tweets like it too.

Well, we don’t have to worry bout Bauer. We shop in the Brebbia aisle…….

Cubs salary dumb Darvish to Padres and honestly that’s probably a good move for them. It’s a fantastic move for the Padres who are really spicing up this off season with bold moves. When you look at what they are doing and then look at what we are doing (Gausman, Desclafini, and I think someone else I’m forgetting) and you see a true tale of two different paths.

Have we improved? Eh, maybe a little. When San Diego does what it’s doing it really doesn’t matter if we get a teeny tiny bit more competitive…….

So the Padres get Snell. Hmmmm. I see. Well one thing we now know for certain: the Giants will not be making a run at the NL West crown any time soon.

San Diego gave up 4 players, only one of who I recognized (Mejia) but a quick glance at what others have written about it tells me Tamp Bay got quite a haul. This looks like a clear win for both teams.

I wonder if they’ll let Snell pitch more than 5 innings a game?

Another NFL Sunday, another team without a core group of players. This week it’s Cleveland without all their WR’s. Hooper absolutely can play like a wide receiver and they’ll probably use Hunt out there, too. And they’re playing the Jets so a Flapper could suit up in the slot and probably snare a few catches from Baker.

I haven’t checked the news yet. These days I always open it up with at least one eye covered…..

When I saw the Dubs were only 10 point dawgs I texted my buddy in Colorado and said “Milwaukee, make it so”. I know it’s only been 2 games but this has been predictable. Steph can only do so much. Ouber and Wiggins suck. Wiseman is a baby. They need Draymond back to scream at some dudes, play some D and get the ball moving around on offense…..

Josh Bell got moved and that got my mud flowing. Not that I wanted him in particular but teams are starting to shuffle pieces around. Now let’s go Z, it is time……..

Santa Anita picks will be in the comment section as the day goes on. First race early, 11am our time….

I was going to just have yesterday be the Merry Christmas Flap Nation post but goddamn it it’s Christmas MORNING and I can’t just leave it hanging. We did our Christmas last night. Katie came over with her boyfriend and we ate a wonderful meal of Filet Mignon, mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus in between 2 high powered heating lamps. It actually worked, it felt like camping which I typical loath but last night was fun.

I don’t know about you guys but I might have a wee too many NBA draftkings line ups going today.

But what the hell right? I get basketball and a football game, all day. Who knows this could be the greatest day ever. (I tell myself this every day and maybe one day it will come true).

MERRY CHRISTMAS FLAP MOTHERFUCKING NATION!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas eve morn. I’ve got my coffee and my laptop. Carson is sleeping next to me freshly pumped up with his morning insulin dose of 5 units. He looks so peaceful you’d hardly know anything was wrong with him.

This year…..I don’t have to tell you about this year. Most Americans are enduring this holiday season, not celebrating it. But I just looked at some travel info and the flight traffic looks about normal for this time of year. So stupid. I wish I was in Reno right now playing poker and getting ready for a great day of racing at Santa Anita on Saturday. Alas, that’s not going to happen because I’m not a selfish idiot unlike so many of my fellow countrymen.

But there are lights at the end of the tunnel, my friends. The vaccine. The promise of a new administration. Baseball, at some point…..

I couldn’t be any more thankful for getting through this year relatively unscathed. Yes, lots of bad things happened on a micro and macro level. And this is going to be a tough Winter. But we’re all still alive and my general positive and hopeful attitude remains in tact.

Hang in there. I can’t say it’s going to be all right because I have no idea what’s going to happen or what situation you’re in personally. One thing I do know is that Flappers stand together and stay together. That has been proven unequivocally over the years.

Go Giants and Merry Christmas…….

Warriors looked predictably ragged last night. I have low hopes for Wiggy because he just doesn’t fit the offense—loitering on the wing waiting for a pass is not how to play with Steph Curry. But Oubre surprised me (in a bad way). He was moving all over the court which I liked but his shot looks terrible–like the timing is off his jump shot. He would let it fly and it usually obvious from the start it had no chance of going in. WiseGuy did some damage in garbage time. He’s fun to watch out there.

If anyone has any Giants news (or ideas about how to improve the team) let’s hear it…….

Hello Tuesday. Right out the gate we got Dubs and Brooklyn. I think the Nets probably roll tonight, the Warriors really only has Steph and a bunch of guys who haven’t learned how to play with him yet. But Golden State will get much better as the year goes on and if Steph stays healthy they are definitely a playoff team…….

Listening to someone on the radio eulogizing Kevin Greene and he kept referring to him as a “sack artist.” That label has always made me LOL. Like, there’s nothing artistic about sacking the QB. Especially in Greene’s day, the goal was to pummel the QB with as much force as you could inflict. But no, they’re known as “sack artists.”

Rumor that the Reds are open to trading flame thrower Luis Castillo. Let’s hope they get more than Casey McGehee for him. Yikes. Sometimes it’s the trade you don’t make that’s the best one of all.

Cincy is also trying to trade Sonny Gray.

We can afford neither of the asking prices.

I mean, come on, Ty Cobb did most of his damage hitting against those goofy bastards. If he came back from the dead today he probably WOULD go 0-2,523 hitting against the stud pitchers of this era. But still, I bet that pisses off a guy like Bake McBride who grinded his way on the daily on to retire with a career batting average of .299. For some unknown reason I was always a big McBride fan.

Really enjoyed yesterday’s thread. I might go read it again at some point today…..

here’s Zumie’s scorecard. Nice cursive!

I recognize this is a bit of a cop out but we have ten years of this blog and doing anniversary posts is quite easy to do when you have a run like that. Also, it fills the winter gaps. So here is the post from exactly 7 years ago….

https://oneflapdown77.com/2013/12/18/candlestick-a-reluctant-goodbye/

Who did I leave off that list that you think should be on it?

Ok, it seems we are back on the beam and I CAN post something today…….

Zaidi saying “there’s room to add one more SP free agent.”

I should hope so. Our rotation looks significantly underwhelming.

A aged Cueto, followed by Gausman and DeSclafani? Then who? Webb? The TJ’d Beede?

Our starting pitching is terrible……..

David Dahl is off the board, Texas signed him. There are still a handful of useful FA bats out there but Z might want to git goin’.

Rumor circulating, mostly because of Rosenthal, saying the Giants are a good fit for Bauer Outage. I’m not getting that one at all. Since when is it a good fit for a middling team to throw 200+ million at a starting pitcher? That one made no sense to me.

There’s an article at ESPN about what it would take to get Snell but it’s behind their paywall. The price for Snell will be HIGH

That was a heck of a game last night and anytime I get to watch Cleveland lose at something it’s good times. Does anyone know who the Niners are starting at QB this week? Are we going to see Beat Hard bravely stand like a statue in the pocket until someone decapitates him? Or is it going to be the lazy gaze of Mully who stares hypnotically into coverage only to throw it to someone not wearing a Niners jersey?

Ok, we are moving from the sadness of a Christmas tree and an aged cat to the nostalgia of a Summer 70’s trip. Before my parents got divorced in ’76 we went to Twain Harte with a couple other families fairly regularly. It was good times. Cabin on the lake, fishing off a pier, swimming out to a big ass dock in the middle of the lake that I was always too much of a puss to swim to by myself……

I wonder if Twain Harte is as I remember it? Probably not, nothing stays the same–except people man, people don’t change…..

I can’t deal with the Niners right now.

Rachel, my friend and former workmate, asked to see a pic of my tree. I like making Rach smile and I know this will do just that. Katie and I got to the tree place yesterday at 3:30 after she got off work. They had 8 trees left. We took the most fucked up one and decided to challenge ourselves to revive him. You should have seen this thing when we dragged his ass off the lot, he looked like a Flapper walking out the bar sideways at 2am.

And here is a pic of the elder statesman, Carson. This will be his 13th Christmas and maybe his last. Everything ends at some point, right?

After hearing the terribly sad news about Snarkk’s MIL I hope we all spend this holiday season appreciating what we had, what we have and what tomorrow will bring. Loo is right, live in the now. It’s too easy getting caught up in what used to be. The holidays make that shit worse, I know.

Tonight I live in the now. And it’s fucking awesome.

The Niners are essentially out of it and that’s ok some years are just brad penny years—Sabes taught us that. Sure, maybe they win out. And maybe Jessica Pyfer will win 7 races today.

Still, there are interesting games to watch. Though it’s a match up of two terrible teams, you’ve got the revenge factor with the Red Rocket vs the Bengals. Jalen Hurts is starting in Philly. Kyler Murray is always a show. And speaking of revenge game, how about Alex Smith today? Or, to a lesser extent, Jordan Reed?

The tree is up and today is a football day…….

I went to draftkings today to do a few college football line ups all centered around Little Ricky from the University of Texas and to my dismay there have been a LOT of games cancelled today:

So I cannot hook em horns today as I had planned. It does appear SDSU is playing the mighty BYU. Upset chance? Eh? Gonna go out on a limb and assume not even the strongest Aztec supporter thinks an upset is in the offing today…..Looks like we are getting a tree today at 3pm. So there’s that.

Feels almost a little normal seeing a Friday with college football, basketball and then NBA action tonight. If only things were normal…..

I got a little pep in my step after watching Frank Gore Jr. zig zag this one to The House. Great to hear that name on a call like this…..

New fav follow on twitter is this guy: https://twitter.com/ryanfagan

He’s not funny or anything, but he opens up a pack of baseball cards from a particular year each day, takes a pic of a dozen or so of them and says “tell me your favorite story about one of these players.” He mostly just focuses on the early 90’s for some reason—possibly the lamest time for baseball cards. But it’s still a fun go.

Man, some of you guys with the open disrespect of The Grave Duggar must really like tempting fate. Duggar might not have all the tools some of you elitists look for in a player. But he’s got that nickname. And that should be enough to cull the respect he deserves.

Mock the Grave Duggar at your own peril. Kat is probably rethinking some of his comments right now after I warned him he’d have to sleep with one eye open for the remainder of his life……

Since we are deep into the darkness of the baseball off season I thought we could take a quick look at our newest pick up. The Whistler.

Is this the second coming of Sergio Romo? Who throws this many sliders?

Just an all out disgusting putrid egg laid by the 49ers last night. It was like they were intentionally refusing to use Deebo. Where were the jet sweeps? Mostert had NINE carries? And the lack of a pash rush was stunning. Was that poor game planning or incompetence?

I suppose the disrupted schedule may had played into this a little…..

Props if you appreciate the title of today’s thread and know where it came from.

Do I want the Niners to make the playoffs? Goddamn right I do. Do I have any idea of what needs to go down to make that happen? Absolutely not.

I suppose they could start by winning tonight’s game, right? California has banished them to Arizona, it’s always hit or miss when a team’s schedule gets disrupted like this. You’d think it would be a negative but look at what the Cardinal just did in the same circumstances on Saturday. They waxed Washington as an 11 point dawg.

Yes, I think the Niners can and will win this game……

It’s weird to be back in lock down and yet NFL is going on like usual. There are some interesting match ups today even without the Niners playing. Can the Giants keep in close in Seattle with Colt 45 QBing? He’s one of those “game managers” right? Taysom Hill is still doing whatever it is he does with Brees set to possibly return next week. Brees fractured 11(!) ribs? How is that even possible? Niner fans are rooting for the Rams today, right? Yuck.

Despite all the craziness in our world today, I am really looking forward to the upcoming baseball season. Spring time has always been “let’s go time!” “Re-start time!” “Chi looking out that goddamn window time!” And with a likely vaccine making its way through our communities soon it may be “the best of ALL time.” Of course the Giants are not projected to win the World Series. Far from it.

Turning $100 into $6,000 sounds nice, right? Unfortunately, those odds also reflect an unlikely outcome for our team this upcoming season. So what does Zaidi have to do to get the oddsmakers to dial down those odds a bit? Though he’s still new here, I don’t see him making a big free agent splash. There is still too much unknown with what 2021 will look like and when fans will be allowed back inside the ballparks–like it or not, this will affect the bottom line of all organizations–nobody is going to want to spend. So expect Z to continue his dumpster diving ways looking to hit on the next Yaz/Dick/Gausman.

The reality is, 2021 might be a year or two early for us to start day dreaming about another World Series appearance. But baseball again? Hey, at some point we’re gonna have fans high fiving strangers like lunatics packed inside of Oracle Park. Man, I’ll be dreaming about that till it happens…….

Word is the Giants are interested in Ozuna? Eh, I don’t know about that one. I don’t see why the Giants, or any team actually, will go out and spend big money this off season. Nobody knows what next season is going to look like. And until we get fans back in the stands the owners aren’t going to spend money.

What is spring training going to look like? When is the season going to start? When will fans be coming back and at what capacity?

These are all legitimate questions and I think the Giants are far more likely to go the dumpster diving than they are going to be getting into contract with a coveted free agent.

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Carson today saying goodbye to Zoey. Or maybe it’s *hello* soon, I don’t take for granted any more days this cat is with us.

There are an insane number of non-tendered bats out there that would make us better: Renfroe, Cornfield, Dahl, Duvall, Mazara, Rosario, Naquin, Martinez, even Almora. The question is, who will Z go after? Gotta think it’ll be a righty with the recent signing of Dick. Honestly, there are a LOT of bombs on the list above.

You guys know me. I loved cats so much I decided to start a cat blog. “A place to talk about cats.”

Ok, well not really. But I couldn’t move on to other more Flap-like topics until I posted these pics. The first one is a glimpse into the past. A young San Dawg, circa 1988, decked in dockers in a room with a lot of shit in it. He has a story about that cat but instead of digging it out of my text I’ll let him tell it at some point today…..

The next two are from the Great Mac Dog. I don’t know the names of his two grizzled vets but I’m sure he’ll tell us in the comment section.

With Covid cases raging out of control and with a dearth of sports options on the immediate horizon, I have decided today’s thread will be…….

cat pics.

Here’s a pic of Carson the day he got home from the vet with his sensor on. Not a happy kitty.

And here he is last night after I took the sensor off because it stopped working. Happy kitty.

Here’s a pic from a couple years ago. Carson all stretched out. Big boy.