A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

I’m disgusted with this team, their manager and the GM. So it’s probably best to just let Stix take this one today….

Carstie Clausen	4:28 AM (1 hour ago)
to me

Flav:  Couldn’t sleep, so here’s my take.  -Stix

        How Low Can they Go?

 Getting swept by the LaBumbos in a four-gamer hadn’t happened in over two decades.  THAT was an abortion.  Complete collapse.  Plenty of blame to go around:  Atrocious defense. Flailing offense.  BBIP from somewhere in the twilight zone. RISP even worse. Team spirit flatlined.

 Couple days ago the MLB site featured a photo of a couple of the Dodgers stars gleaming and gloating.  Message of the picture?  “Ain’t we great?”  My take was $$$$$.  The Googenheimers are willing to shell out the Shekels like picking up Mookie Betts from a hapless Boston organization (shades of one George Herman Ruth getting sold off by the Boston owner back in the early 20’s because he needed money to fund an opera).  Then the free-agent acquisition of Freddy Freeman who had starred for Atlanta.  Meanwhile, the Johnson consortium has Zaidi up to his elbows sifting and sorting through the garbage, dumpster-diving on steroids.  Baseball’s #1 problem is systemic.  Ownership.  Half or more of them simply do not care.  Giants are front and center in that category.  “Money doesn’t talk, it swears”…Dylan.

Looked like Zaidi, Harris, the scouts and evaluators were building up a credible farm system.  Well yeah.  Richmond, Everett and San Jose are fielding winning teams and with a fair amount of genuine prospects.  But when it comes to Sacramento…Ramos and Hjelle. Previous upper management sure got them some doozies.  Logan Webb and Austin Slater look to be the only diamonds in a heap of coal.  Maybe Duval.  Bart even showing signs of life.

 Helluva season last year.  Led by the brilliant Buster, the Bore Core played out its last hurrah with those up from nowhere 107 wins.  Right now my pre-season projection of a 78-82  win-loss projection looked as airy faerie as this year’s supposition.  Team spirit is flatlining.  Longoria looks like toast and both the infield Brandons are looking somewhat similar to that other “Brandon” in the District of Corruption.  No there, there, quoting Gertrude Stein.  As for that city’s once vaunted team, now their superstar is up for grabs to the highest bidder.  They want a ton and then some…like Harrison, Luciano and +++.

 Fuggidaboudit.

 A certain #1 curmudgeon here on the Flap would have loudly grumbled “stoopid”.  That silly notion must have him spinning like a whirligig from six feet under.

 So where do we go from here?  Start with our could have had been Dusty Rhodes from the ’54 champs, Darin Ruf.  Some contender could sure the hell use an absolutely primo pinch-hitter and occasional DH and even a rare performance on the field.  It could require a three team deal if SF is seeking a high-quality reliever.  But I think he might just fetch an intriguing second-tier low minors prospect, at least a good contact hitter and defender.

 YaZmaTazz:  Would Boston like to run out the red carpet for a piece of family nostalgia for a competent right-fielder?  Unless the original Evil Empire quickly picks up Benintendi, the Sox might like to sock it to them by bringing home the grandson.  Nostalgia still has street-cred in baseball…particularly if the guy has a decent track-record.

 There are a lot of Post-Season contenders out there.  Surely one of them lusts for a proven product, even if an upcoming free-agent.   Rodon could bring in a haul, let’s say a AA starter with considerable promise, plus maybe a high-A reliever who has some chops. If Zaidi and Harris are good bazaar bargainers, maybe they could do even better, should there be a team which has a “win now” philosophy and figures they can  spare the cash before F.A. status kicks in.

 Would Atlanta experience a considerable eJoculation to get their storied Post-Season slugger back?  There would be an offer, perhaps one SF couldn’t refuse.

 Yeah, it’s re-build time.  Gather up some replacements.  Bring in a few of the kids from off the farm.  R.J. Dabovich looks to be one helluva reliever.  Doing just fine in Richmond after starring in Eugene.  He’s young, but could be ready to at least get his feet wet by exposure to The Show.  A few quality appearances and he could turn into a fixture.  Our bullpen has turned into shit.  But that shit is well dried.  Maybe needs a spark.

 Now as for management on the field.  We sure could use a Casey Stengel, who committed a lot of magic from bursts of intuition.  Or John J. McGraw, much more of a Giants heritage than Stengel.  Seems like almost all the Flappers are getting pretty leerry of Kap on the head.  Too much mix and match on the basis of L-R stats.  I’m sure both Pederson and Belt are seething about the disrespect.  Would appear that juggled lineups and a mishmash of relief roles has got the whole squad in a tailspin.  Giants should have won at least one of those four in LaLaLand.  Some of that flailing and failing on the field could be resultant from a vibe of uncertainty.  Ballplayers are conservative types when it comes to roles and positioning in the lineup.  This season there’s been waaay too much of that.

 My expectation is walking papers handed out by October…if not sooner, should upper management be well attuned to the attitudes of not only the guys on the team, but also to the fan-base.