Arizona Not Matching Up
Might be overreacting to just one game but it looks like the Phillies are home free into the World Series. I can’t see how they’d lose tonight with Nola going in that insane atmosphere they have there. Texas is no pushover though. Great to see Bochy doing so well, seeing him in the dugout reminds us all of some good ol’ memories even if he’s in that weird looking uniform…..
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Think the Phillies have this. Douchebags spent their load getting there as we saw with the Padres last year. Rangers may even pull off a sweep and have to go Rangers over the Philly.
Was listening to a Bill Maher podcast and did not realize he had a piece of the Mets. He commented about about the significant financial pressure of capital calls during the Covid impact in the 2020 season and was happy to selll and make some big money. I never realized that multiple ownership groups had to step up with such capital demands. Do people think that is how Charles Johnson may have gained majority or complete control by buying out others (and we know that the original Magowan group had a lot of older Bay Area family money not big new tech money) and that is how he inserted his family into the key mgmt positions?
Hello Flap Nation!
I hope you are well. About a week ago, I responded to a tweet asking what 3 words you would say to the owner of your favorite sports team. My reply was “Eliminate Triples Alley.”
Fast forward to this past Sunday, and I was heading toward my gate at SFO to return to SD after a weekend in the city, when I look up and Farhan was maybe 15 feet in front of me heading toward me. Instinctively, I said “Farhan” and stuck my hand out and he paused. I told him I was a huge Giants fan and then asked him if I could tell him one thing. He said ok and I asked if they ever consider bringing in the fence in right center. He replied that they brought in the fences already when they moved the bullpens, but of course that answer did not satisfy me and I came right back at him that bringing in the center field fence 8 feet was a baby step and that I think our ridiculous right center punishes our team and hurts us attracting free agents. I even threw out my favorite “I believe our ballpark is why Bryce Harper is not a Giant” hot take.
Anyhoo, he laughed a little bit when I said that and again tried to come back with something about how they have already addressed the fences. I again said they need to do more, and then told him that I hated the Kapler firing—which is true. He actually said something along the lines of “I’m not happy about it either.” I did say I was looking forward to seeing who they hired, told him it was great to meet him and I appreciated him engaging with me for a minute. We then shook hands again, and he was off.
On a funny side note, I was wearing a Tigers hat at the time. (I played for the Tigers in Little League and have loved their hat ever since)
I do regret not asking for a selfie, telling him that I love his style and that I back him 100%, and thank you for the magical 2021 season—which in my mind should have bought at least 5 years of full support for both Kap and Zaidi.
But my number one regret is that I didn’t trot out my hottest take of all—which is that I think someone over his head fired Kapler—which I totally believe btw. I think one of the main owners (maybe Big Charles himself) saw that hijinx on the mound with Brebbia on the day they got eliminated—-which WAS a very bad look—especially from the one camera angle where that goofball Brebbia is not smiling while grabbing Kapler’s arm, and you can’t see that Kap IS smiling during the exchange. I think someone with ownership juice took a look at that and said this guy has no control of the team and I want him gone now. And that was that.
He obviously would not have confirmed that take, but I would have loved to have seen the look on his face when I said all that.
Firing Kap still pisses me off—especially with 3 games left, which was a total prick move by the Giants.
Anyway, it was great to meet Z and he was genuinely friendly with me, which was awesome. I was already a big fan, but now I’m all in and really pulling for him and backing him 100%
As I reminded Flav, I ran into Sabean down by Oracle just a few days after the 2010 series. He talked to me for a little bit too, but was pretty standoffish. I took a picture of him (which was weird, I know)
I had to pass that along to you all as I figured you’d get a kick out of it.
Take care fellas!
SanDawg
Fantastic. Thanks for sharing
Very cool. Don’t think they are gonna mess with the fences anymore. As far as Farhan goes, I’m just not thrilled with Farhan being a lame duck.
I’m not happy about that either. I’m glad the guy is still around and I hope it works out, but it really would have made more sense to either keep or fire both guys.
Maybe Wotus or my Woodland High Homegirl Nakken will take the managing gig with a lame duck Farhan. I definitely think that will scare off some other candidates.
Good to hear from you Chuck—I hope you and your family are doing well. Tell them all I said
hello please.
During Giants Rox game at the O late in season (Fox or ESPN don’t remember) they had mic on Rox rookie CF N Jones and even in day game he said park was tough to hit in. This is known league wide how difficult it is to yank one out of there to RF and RCF for LHs given wall and wind. Add in all the midweek night games when Kruk gets his “pitching weather” during what passes for summer in SF, and there you go.
Belt had 1 good HR season 2021 in entire career, and other top one for LHs post Bonds was Huff with 26. Yard is still tough.
The stat that drives me nuts is that we haven’t had a 30 homerun guy since Barry!
That is fucking ridiculous. We have changed managers, hitting coaches, execs etc multiple times in that time frame and it never changes. The one constant has been our shitty ballpark.
FIX IT.
If I had a chance to bend his ear I’d say “we either need to get more athletic or stronger”. We can’t be neither.
Were we more athletic and stronger in 2021? I guess we maybe were will all those home runs.
Padres have some great athletic and strong dudes on their team. White Sox too.
my point is that we can’t be neither. We are weak and we are slow. That doesn’t work in today’s game and you could argue it’s never worked in any time period.
oooops
They could judiciously move the IF eastward and extend the wall behind the plate to accommodate some of those BarcaLounger seats that seem so popular now.
Big Chas J is vegetating in luxurious “memory care” at his estate in Fla. Bank on it.
Great job SanDawg a flapper on the spot getting face time with Farhan and a question in as well with a genuine response!
You guys know that a possible Giants manager hire could be Dusty Baker who’s only signed for this year and the Astros aren’t really making an effort to resign him.Dusty doesn’t have ties with Z like Kapler did which is a good thing,only maybe his age and Z’s supposed commitment to the new hire involved in going out and recruiting prospects could be a downfall as Dusty beats to his own drum and doesn’t give a rats ass about analytics and he’s proved he’s right like Bochy.
If Dusty did get the job a bench coach like Vogt are Eckler would be great hire for his staff imo..
I don’t think Dusty would touch this front office with a 10 foot pole. I think he’s gonna retire.
Farhan is at least respected by the baseball community, so I’m not sure how that plays out with his lame-duck status.
2021 was the outlier of all outliers. Posey, Crawfish, Belt, and Longo all had MUCH better seasons than they had shown in recent memory. The pitching was solid. We all said before the season that we needed to get younger and faster. We didn’t, but it still worked out.
And we were very close to advancing over the Dogs.
But we also said that reupping the bore core stalled out the rebuild for a couple years. And we are feeling that now.
What sucks IS the lame-duck status of Farhan. RIGHT NOW they should either re-up him or cut him loose. All this does NOW is give the team a year to dick around with losing out on big-name free agents, flounder, and suck, depending on how the rookies do.
What free agent hitter is going to want to come here given the likelihood of a green manager and a lame-duck GM for 2024?
It buys the front office a year of saying ‘rebuild’ while they set up the team for another regime change after the 2024 season when it goes into the tank.
And that scenario really pisses me off.
Ng just quit in Miami because the Ms only picked up their side of a one year option instead of signing her to a longer new contract. Zed’s in a similar situation, although Ng’s team made the PS. If he doesn’t get a new long term contract quickly, he should walk.
FAs take the $$ and laugh all the way to the bank. Kris Bryant signed long term deal with Rockies, one of worst run franchises in all baseball.
The “rebuild” would look a lot better if Gausman was starting 31 games as he has last 2 years since leaving Giants, instead of an opener like Brebbia. Z lack of reload moves after 2021 without Posey have imo helped create where Giants are now.
The BC weren’t part of the OF problem, which unfortunately Z hasn’t been able to solve. there were FA OFs he passed on, including one raking right now for Phils.
Well, the last 3 regimes couldn’t sign a big free agent. Or develop an outfielder worth a damn. Still waiting for Hunter Bishop . . .
I’d take Tommy phucking Pham at this point.
Game 1 of AL, 2 pens combined for 5.2 innings of hitless relief. Game 2 Rangers got another 3.1 innings of 1 hit relief (HR by Alvarez off Chapman), though closer did walk tying run into scoring position. After Valdez fell apart early Stros pen gave up only 1 hit in 6.2 innings.
Starting pitching, HRs sure. But support staff behind SPs well done so far.
October 17 1971 WS MVP Roberto Clemente homered off Mike Cuellar in 4th and Steve Blass went distance in Game 7 2-1 W. Clemente only played one more season before his death in plane crash December 1972.
AZzzzzzz is going down without a fight.
Stat of the day. Rangers set a record that can’t be broken(at least in the current format). Won 6 of 1st 7 post season games in 1 post season with 6 on the road! Crazy