Bring It On
I know the chances for the Giants this year are dim. I just want some baseball again. I can get into watching other teams play, especially if I’ve got a couple dozen draftkings teams going. I’m also looking forward to fans back in the ballparks. This cut out stuff has gotten pretty staid. As soon as they start green lighting fans back I’m going I don’t care what our record is.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
MLB.com power rankings list the two usual suspects looming over the NLW as #’s One and Two. You will likely know without having to think about it. Yankmees come in third. Giants at 22nd. About right at this stage of the game.
Yikes, only eight teams listed worse than the Giants. The good news is two of them are the D-Backs (25th) and Rox (29th).
First game vs angels this Sunday? Somehow that amazes me. Oasis or mirage? No. It’s the real thing.
Are they billing it as a rematch of the 2002 WS?
I can’t look…
Bonds could probably still start in LF.
Only if the Giants can get those asinine rally monkey 🐒 sticks banned from the park would I watch..
“I think we have the capability to shock a lot of people.” From newly acquired N Tropeano, pen guy who used to be roommate of Coach Bailey. This is theme voiced by Gausman and others, the underdog no respect card. Typical of ST bravado when everyone feels good and players are all just happy to be out there again, but ultimately might be something to it.
The mob may not have invented bravado, but they sure perfected it…
Shock value would hinge on energy plus synergy. All 30 teams will have a buzz going, what with a full slate of 162 on tap…and that’s after spring training is in the books.
With the stupendous array of no-names and has-beens, the hunger level of Giants 25-man and those aspiring to that status should provide some starter-fluid. If management could ($$$) convince our recently retired cheerleader-in-chief to get behind the pulpit for a nice little sermon during the waning days in Aridzona, we’d have a Pence in hand in the hunt for the pound.
There being a plethora of Dogs in blue, filling up the pound, the shock value of a stirred-up band sporting orange and black (if they can maintain the momentum into May), might come as a stunning surprise to that gang of All-$tar$ and inflated egos.
Right now, SF players are so far down under the Dogs, that nobody wants to take them seriously. Hunger can be a great motivator. Disrespect can bring out a synergy between the worst and the best that a team can assemble. Will they flatline psychologically or would they go balls to the wallz out of sheer pluck and determination?
Historically even, if any team can get those Dawgs to baller the bluuz it’s the “descendants” of that bunch which called Coogan’s Bluff in ’51.
Why should the Dogpile take the Giants are anyone serious in the NL West when they have won 9 straight division titles? The only satisfaction comes when they fuckup in the playoffs every year( last year is still a covid fluke championship which I don’t count) and even let the Giants win 2 W/S championships as a w/c team lol 😂..
There are 31 pitchers in camp. Enough fuel for a very long flight. Power may give out early though, like a bad 777.
Huh, didn’t realize that according to Chron story by Shea about Lurie hiring Frank Robinson to manage in 1981, “…during a trip to Lake Arrowhead, Lurie ran into a former OF whose playing career ending in 1986 and was contemplating the next chapter of his life. Lurie asked him if he’d join the Giants coaching staff.”
That was Dusty Baker, “a Giants coach for 5 years and manager for 10.”
Shea adds, “The Giants have had two Af-Am managers, and Lurie brought them both aboard.”
Lurker Luria lured them in.
Being short on LH starters and with Kapler expressing positive vibes on his performance as a non-roster invitee last season; Caleb Baragar is being stretched-out this spring to get some serious innings under his belt. As primarily a starter throughout his minor league career in SF’s pipeline, the 9th round Indiana U grad, could become a surprise again this season, according to the Foghorn site.
Should the southpaw make the cut, the most logical assignment would be as a long-man reliever and a spot starter. With several off-days in April and a heavy schedule in May, he may well see light exposure early on and then face some heavy traffic. First, he will need to claw his way through extremely heavy traffic in an overload of prospective bullpen faces, some of whom will sport extensive MLB track-records, to emerge into the rarified ethers of the 25-man.
IF SF starts climbing from #22 in pre-season power-rankings, they will propel from three tangibles and one intangible strength. The bullpen is not only loaded, it is overflowing. Versatility R us…lottsa interchangeable parts. Solid veteran core, now hinging on informal team captain Buster Posey, to lend stability for a long haul and those inveterate Dog-Daze of late summer. The intangible? Pissed off and energized by the not so surprising disrespect just might could make for a ” what the fuck, let’s go get em attitude.
I thought the Giants were doing that with LHP Connor Mendez? Wasn’t he making starts for the Giants and throughout his minor league career?
Yes, when he’s not working at the brewery in Amsterdam…
We very well could be around 80-82 wins. Not too far-fetched proivided we can beat the dregs of the West in AZ and Colo with any kind of regularity.
And Happy birthday, Flavor!!!!!
“The Giants already cleared one 40-man spot by putting John Brebbia on the 60-day IL as he rehabs from Tommy John and they technically could have done the same with Tyler Beede, who also is recovering from elbow reconstructive surgery. But Zaidi said the front office felt it was too soon to go that route with Beede, who is throwing well in camp and could be back in May or June.”
A good start would be nice.
Builds confidence…
Stuck 2 months in The Brebbia aisle can’t be fun 🤩
Nobody starves in the Brebbia aisle…
I’m optimistic some if the Giants could stretch out both Barager&Mendez to possibly give them a second lefty option. I do like the future in both Seth Corry & Kyle Harrison both lefties who have been starters throughout there careers and are both high draft picks..
I liked last years draft with Bailey and Harrison. It’s one reason I feel good about the team. Get another couple of drafts like that and I think we will be sitting pretty nice.
I think it is going to be a pretty rough year on the field and I think the mid 70’s wins projections are spot on. But I’m fired up to listen and watch and hope to get to a few games in person. I have no complaints whatsoever about the offseason. This is not the time for them to be spending big bucks. Trot the Bore Core out there all season long, mix in some of these reclamation projects, along with a couple youngsters, and let’s roll. This year, I have no expectations and am fine just enjoying Giants baseball and supporting guys like Craw and Buster who have done some great things in orange and black.
I think next year, we push off the bottom and start heading back toward the surface. Knowing that is just one year away is huge for me.
Hey Loo, that guy messing with Rangers star Artemi Panarin is someone I remember from Sharks. more of a thug than a hockey player, big nasty dude. Best season for them 12 goals 222 PIM.
To his k’s?
Still swings like a girl with no power..
Looks like Ted Williams reincarnated to me…
Where is that guy’s head now? The Giants should consider adding it to the coaching staff.
I mean, look at the crowd starting the gather around the cage! Just the sound alone was probably turning heads all over the complex.
those two should have same amount of hits at major league level this season.
Yeah, this’ll be the fare thee well tour for at least Belt and Crawfish, if not Posey and Longo. Johnny C i guess we will see what happens there but he likely gets bought out for his $5 mill after this year unless we somehow sniff the playoffs and the future looks so bright that we gotta wear shades. because $50 thou a year is what I spend on beer.
Cueto says he feels like a kid again, but hey I would too if I was 35.
The Graveduggar is making adjustments!
He looks like vintage Luis Gonzalez right there.
I’m sure all of those balls are peppering the grassy knoll beyond left field in Scottsdale.
Lol SanDog,
I bet they’re new woman coach Alyssa Nakken could beat GraveDuggar in a HR contest..
Well, they are peppering the dirt behind him.
that’s fantastic brutha.
Especially when you hit like he does—seldom.
Gotta admit, things GD fans come up are funny but he’s a River Cat if he ain’t dfa’d off 40 man first.
You say GD, and I go here . . .
Shun Yamaguchi instant Flap fav as he takes #77
Real disgusting what Ted Williams whacked out kids did to him, after his death, and had his head severed off and now frozen separately from his body in Arizona..
His final major league at bat was a HR, pretty cool way to go out on top!
I’m wondering if he ever thought “I’m going to quit while I’m AHEAD?
I have seen allegations that the people in charge of the cryonoggin have not treated it well.
Well, they are using it as a paperweight.
Zaidi should give it a call. Lot of coaches work via zoom these days.
Z on the now up to 9 SPs in camp. “It doesn’t make sense for us to focus on the Opening Day roster…We just know that we’re going to need at least 7, 8, 9 SPs to get through the season. We’re trying to focus on what is a reasonable workload to get out of these guys over the course of the season and seeing if we can do the math to get up to 162 games.”
Fuel for a very long trip.
Saw something recently that said Luciano bulked up some and is now up to about 200 lbs. from 180 listed on fangraphs profile. They rated him 10th best according to ZiPs projections, and said this:
“While he’s unlikely to stay at SS it’s not going to matter, as he is arguably the best teenage hitter in all professional baseball.”
Hopefully full season will put an end to the 2020 stat lines and give more real credence on player evaluations. Lot of guys over 60 games who either did well like Gausman or didn’t, like Cody Bellinger or Marcus Semien.
Bellinger had slugging pct of .455 that made his OPS .789. On Dodgers alone, this was worse than Smith Seager Turner Pollock Betts and even Chris Taylor. Muncy was even worse though he did have 12 HRs.
So full season should help sort things out for everyone. Can small sample success guys like Belt and Crawford carry that over for 6 months or do they regress back into more similar numbers of past few seasons? Is Cueto as bad as he was last year or will full ST prepare him for better things?
Young players missed development, old players got a rest. Article in the NYT this a.m. about the half dozen teams deliberately tanking. It’ll be a strange season. But what the hell it’ll be a season.
Expecting no miracles, but maybe a pleasant surprise or two.
It would be out of character for me to make an unqualified prediction, but if Crawford and/or Belt stay healthy, they’ll put up numbers similar to their best seasons, Crawford 780 OPS and Belt around 850.
Do you believe in MIRACLES???
Only Al Michaels knows for sure!
Maybe the Giants need to bring him back in the booth,
to make this dream come true!
Slusser has column in Chron about Yaz, and mentions he missed a week last season with calf injury and it bothered him even when he returned. Kapler said he planned to get him more days off, and said, “I’d rather see him play 150 games at peak capacity, or maybe even 145, and always recovered instead of trying to push him into the lineup every single day.”