A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

There is no way the Flap could properly end without a nice long thread from this man. Stix, for a long time we wondered if you were dead—with nothing but a few online articles about your terribly unfair incarceration to find on the internet, it was a fair assumption. Then you came back–something Twinfan and probably some of the others were never able to do. Your *resurrection* was one of my favorite things about this long run the Flap has been on. Thanks for everything you did for the guys here. You showed us that hope can be a real thing. It’s good to believe in something once in a while…..

Carstie Clausen	Wed, Oct 19, 6:44 PM (11 hours ago)
to me, carstie

Flav:  Guess maybe I’ve been quietly mourning the immanent demise of the Flap.  You’ve done one helluva job keeping all this together on a friggen DAILY basis for all these years.  Congratulations, kudos and best wishes.  As the publisher of Minnesota’s most broadly read monthly newspaper Common Sense: A Northwoods Journal for a total of 56 editions, including doing half the writing (or more) almost all the photography, all the bookwork and general accounting AND servicing the nation’s second longest paper-route from May of ’73 to Jan. of ’79…I probably could write a book about burnout.

 So after seeing “where’s stix” from WilleDav and an “I dunno”, from you, maybe it’s high time to not only surrender, but also fess up.  You see, I’m not only a FANatic (SFG’s exclusively) but also a maniac.  Well, maybe not the type of that ilk that most folks could roll right off their tongues, but as someone who gets caught up in manias.  Over the past nearly 3 months it was an average of six hours per day lovingly toiling at the old homestead, totally rebuilding a freestanding rubble-stone wall around the perhaps 160 foot perimeter of the central garden.  No mud!  So first, it was digging out the old wall, which was built onto the oval edge of the central garden, as that was the only way I could eliminate the combination of reed-canary and quack grasses, accompanied by goldenrod which had infiltrated the garden from the “moat” around the whole raised-bed structure.   When the goldenrod and reed-canary roots mutually entangle it may be somewhat akin to two drunk octopuses fucking. After that, it was assembling pebbles beneath the new combination of stones so that the infiltration would not be so apt to take over during my five plus years of “vacation”.

 The rocks had come from several townships in my county and overlapped to about three other jurisdictions.  Happening mostly in the 70’s and somewhat in the early 80’s with the able assistance of the Bullshit Valley Special (my now on blocks ’49 Chevy pickup; I was the biggest rock pile thief in all of Clearwater County.  One time as was loading up at a rock pile I’d spotted in an abandoned cow pasture, the owner came up in his slightly newer rig and his first words were “Oh, you’re TAKING rocks.  You can take all of them if you want to and there are more in my fields if they’re not enough”.

 A week ago yesterday was the most recent adventure, as the weather was about to take for the worse, from 75 degrees last Tuesday to 15 above (thank goodness for that) yesterday morning.  All at the same time, by late Wednesday I got the first symptoms of the worst cold (and longest-blasting) during my 78 years.  No energy.  Brainfog.  Still minor hangover-type symptoms, but most of energy is back and no longer need to sleep more than 12 hours per 24.

                                                                                                                                                — A Preview of Coming Attractions —

 Now for my main course, the future of  Los Gigantes.  Nice to see the LaBumbos crash and burn.  Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving bunch of the best athletes big money could buy to attempt to finally get another championship.  Next year they will hafta gaze up at Oracle and see those 2010,2012 and 2014 Halloween Machine banners and grunt and moan.  At least they have the consolation of making the Big Buck$.  Roberts must be pulling his hair out and the Googs hafta be wondering why they paid all that $$$ for the first Championship since’88, obtain that highest run-differential in multiple decades and still fall flatter than the top of a pool-table.

 So here’s the beginning of the good news.  Mark your long-range calendars: 2024 should maybe be circled.  Wouldja believe an all homegrown outfield featuring both speed and power?  A dream too good to be true ever since the strapped owner traded off a passel of high level outfielders back there in the Dark Ages following #24’s retirement and all those gawd-awful trades.

 Speed?  Hard to distinguish between Vaun Brown, a 24 y.o. Tenth round signee from clear back in ’21 and Grant McCray, 21, who was a 2019 pickup, but dealt with injuries over his post-Covid intro in 2021. Brown vaulted all the way from San Jose at low A, through high at Eugene and finished off at Richmond in AA and amassed 43 steals over those 3 levels.  McCray bounced from S.J. up to Eugene and guess what???  43 steals.  Two of em with Willie Mays stolen base levels.  So which one bats lead-off? McCray could get the nod with his nine triples, but then his 170 whiffs vs. 67 BB’s signals a need to learn to be more discerning at the plate…but then again at 21 and likely to face some pretty formidable Eastern League pitching at Richmond, he maybe needs some personal attention from our new G.M. who is said to be a player development specialist, as well as daily suggestions from his hitting coach and perhaps also if the Flying Squirrels possess a veteran catcher.  One shouldn’t sniff at a 383 OBP, but compared with Brown’s sixth best in MiLB sizzling .437, perhaps the first nod would go to Brown for game openers.

 Youth?  Had yet to mention the Giants’ #3 prospect Luis Matos who will not even achieve legal drinking age until early next year.  By baseball standards of today, Matos is not at all a big dude, what at 5’11” and a wispy 160 pounds.  However, when the kid from Venezuela launches into one, those skyrockets could match the production of many an MLB slugger.  He had a rough season, relatively speaking, at Eugene this past season as a quad injury had messed badly with his performance at the plate, as compared for last year at San Jose, where he wowed Baby Giants fans with his slashing stick.  In the latter part of the N.W. League season, he rebounded with some drive and then his first few days in the Arizona prospect league he started off with a bang, sagged for a spell and later on caught his rhythm once again.  Most serious Giants fanatics already know quite a bit about Matos so I won’t add any more details.  Likely in ’23 his season once again commences at Eugene, but a quick return to form might land him in Virginia where the warm, humid summer breezes may enable the tropical tornado to strut his stuff.

 Back to Brown who will begin at Richmond, let’s fill in some more stats.  Oh, yes, power.  Well, the poor guy could not even slam a couple dozen dingers as he topped out at 23.  Ah, not too bad after some of the outfield “products” the Giants developed in the past bunch of years. However, when we have a look at that sterling .437 OBP, topped in the minors by only five other guys, we can all take note.  Now, throw in his SP of 623 which was third best in all the minors and we conclude with an OPS at 1.060 adding up to numero Uno in MiLB and we have a winner.  Ditto with his .346 B.A.  Yeah, I can see that guy leading off for S.F. in the not very distant future as a threat not dissimilar to Ricky Henderson with that speed/power combo.  If Brown stays healthy and can handle E.L. pitching, he may even get to skip Sacramento and make The Show at some point in the second half.

 Still young and amenable to upgrades, McCray had him a good year at those two levels. He excelled at S.J. where he set a baby Giants record as their first 20-20 HR’s & SB’s since that city replaced Fresno as the neighborhood development center.  His 897 OBP at the two levels, with a .a514 S.P. setting the pace.  Perhaps Grant could bat immediately after Brown in the two-hole as he scored a total of 104 runs this past season on 141 hits, with 20 doubles bringing him to 52 XBH’s and contributing to his 79 RBI’s.

 Batman and Robin were known as the Dynamic Duo.  Could SF go into the ’24 season with a Dynamic Trio in the O.F.?  Could happen…and if it doesn’t there are a couple more outfielders in the pipeline who look promising.  Exciting and dynamic outfield.  So the logical take on 2023 outfield acquisitions by Zaidi and Peppermint Pete might be limited to two lines of approach.  They could focus on a relatively inexpensive power-bat who is in his mid to late 30’s, a Ruf replacement so to speak.  Or…they could offer someone like Brandon Nimmo a front-loaded two year contract to the 30 y.o.  Mutual options.  Absence of a no-trade clause.

 First base and shortstop along with a second ace (DeGrom?) may be the likely acquisition targets.  Maybe add in a competent veteran (preferably L.H) setup man and a post-season run centering on 90 wins could be in the offing in ’23.  Should Harrison smother E.L. hitters early along, a rotation consisting of Webb, DeGrom and Harrison could bring on a 2010 S.F. surprise.

…at the tag end comes my sneaky part.  I’m hoping this vision of the future might help make a couple or more of the Flappers to get up a weekly replacement as a cooperative venture.  Otherwise…Man, I’m sure gonna miss you guys.

  -stix