A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

You wanna talk about bumping up the excitement meter? Gimmie more J-Lee whacking the ball all over the yard. Gimmie more 100 MPH CHEESE outta J-Hicks. Gimmie more M-Chap showing off his magnificent oppo-power. Gimmie more T-Murph who literally rolls out of bed ready to hit like a man.

Honestly I could do with less of blowing a 9-1 lead to a 9-6 lead but whatever, a win is a win.

Finally we have a reason to watch this team again…..

I thought a surprising number of people were fretting about our bullpen going into the season. I wasn’t one of those people. Then of course the bullpen chokes the game away. I only listened to that inning on the radio but it didn’t sound like too many of those balls were hard him. I shall continue to not worry about the bullpen.

Exciting Friday evening matchup in San Diego tonight…..

…..and man do I need it. This Winter was rough. The losses I took in my life were great. I had been lucky enough to live most of my life without experiencing much death. I know it’s corny to say this but time really does make things a little better.

And one thing I am genuinely excited about is the return of baseball.

It isn’t even the hope I’m feeling about the team this season. I’m just excited to have the game back. This is the first morning I’ve woken up and felt happy and positive in….I don’t remember how long lol.

I no longer take this feeling for granted. I embrace it and will try to string days like today together. Baseball can fix anything, gents. Even a sad Big Flavor.

All I gotta say is, “thank God for Snell.” I respect those who got up in their feels last night with Sandoval’s (hoepfully) last at bat in SF. He was one of the faces on the “3 in 5” dynasty. However, I wasn’t one of those people. I can’t get over what a shameless marketing ploy this was. The Giants love selling old feelings back to their fans. They don’t even re-brand it they just trot it right back out there for us. And so many Giants fans just eagerly gobble it up.

And remember, at the start of Spring training, before we signed Soler, Chappy and Snell, the entirety of the spring coverage was *the return of the Panda*. LOL. I was so pissed off at that.

At least with Snell in the bank I didn’t get caught doing the slow burn I would have done over this Panda marketing scam. Snell really changed everything in terms of what our pitching staff *could be this season. And it’s funny I don’t even really like Snell. Largely overrated unless all his shit is working. But for our needs he is critical to having hope for this upcoming season.

And while I love those 3 in 5 I care a lot more about winning another one. I just can’t sit there watching boring baseball (and when you are slow and weak you are the boringest) and try to trick myself I’m enjoying it just because we have those 3 beauties on our mantel. Now? hey if we don’t sustain any major injuries this year (I know, I know eye roll) we absolutely can compete for a post season spot and as The Panda and his boys proved to us more than once, get in and anything can happen……

Luciano with another bomb this weekend. He’s only hitting .237 but he started out hitting shit so temper that percentage. He’s probably your starting shortstop. Everyone cool with that? I guess if Ahmed is the other option then we’re all quite cool with it. If he can’t though why not bring Schmitt up? He and Chap would lock down that side of the infield even if he can’t hit…..

this timeline is just….outrageous.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39784809/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-mizuhara-theft-line

this is the part that should sink Ohtani. This is just plainly unbelievable that he’d be wiring $500K payments over and over and not bother to ask who or what it’s for:

Asked if Ohtani knew the person owed the money was a bookie, Mizuhara says his friend “didn’t have any clue.”

“I just told him I need to send a wire to pay off the debt,” Mizuhara says. “He didn’t ask if it was illegal, didn’t question me about that.”

Asked if Ohtani knew the person owed the money was a bookie, Mizuhara says his friend “didn’t have any clue.”

“I just told him I need to send a wire to pay off the debt,” Mizuhara says. “He didn’t ask if it was illegal, didn’t question me about that.”

Mizuhara says that, after Ohtani agreed to pay the debts, the two of them logged into Ohtani’s bank account on Ohtani’s computer and sent eight or nine transactions, each at $500,000, over several months. They added “loan” to the description field in the transactions.

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I’m not sure which I believe less, that Ohtani married a woman or that he didn’t have anything to do with this gambling fiasco

Webb had a 10.97 ERA in 6 spring starts. Anyone worried?

Slater is hurt again. Elbow, arm, something like that. Always something with that guy. Despite being a good Stanford lad I’ve grown tired of his unhealthy ways (not to mention his mediocre production). This likely means we could see Matos make the opening day roster–a far more interesting scenario.

Ok, so wordpress sucks, noted. Finally got back in after signing in and out again and that’s after trying everything else and getting totally ghosted by the WordPress support team who can truly and completely go chortle my balls……

Grading the off season: Gotta go with an A. Farhan started slow and finished strong. It’s impossible to say we aren’t better than we were last year. Certainly from the standpoint of how incredibly boring our players were. But also, this team is just flat out better. Am I a huge Snell fan? Hell no. It shocks me that this guy has won 2 CY’s. But for max 2 years? He’ll do just fine. And he instantly takes the pressure off Harrison and even the infirmed who now don’t have to feel like they need to race back to the roster.

Matt Chapman? Again, not the biggest fan. It’s got a little bit of a “Longo” feel to it, right? But is he better than Casey Schmitt? Come on, yes. He’s a huge upgrade.

Soler? Yeah, bring him aboard. Legit power. We kinda need that after rolling out the weakest and slowest team in all of baseball last year.

Robbie Ray? Yeah, I mean, NOW I’m cool with it. Getting Snell helped me feel ok with this move. Whenever Ray comes back, if he’s even remotely the same, he will be a valuable rotation piece as the Summer wears on.

Jung Hoo Lee? Shit, that’s a lot of scratch to pay for guy from Korea but he’s got personality to burn as well as speed. I’m down with this guy. He just feels right.

Tom Murphy? Hell yes. This guy has legit power in his bat. More right handed power is a good thing. Perfect back up catcher.

Jordan Hicks? Again, NOW I’m cool with it. They say starter but I see him more valuable in the BP and locking down our 8th inning with serious gas. We’ll see how this works out.

Renel not getting re-signed? Eh, I don’t really care about that. She was fine. I’m not in the majority that is handwringing her loss. They’ll find someone else and we’ll get used to that voice in short order.

Again, this in an A off season. Farhan spent more money than everyone but the Dodgers. He brought in players who not only make the team better but who also tote around flair and excitement. As long as we don’t incur a single injury this season I like our chances. lqtm.

Ok gents, today is going to be a rough day. At high noon we have to put down the greatest cat to ever live, my man Carson. He gave us the best 17 years a cat could give to a family, through his diabetes and other health issues he stayed strong. But his little heart just isn’t working right any more. Time to say goodbye to this good ol’ boy. .

Unca Chuck here, just trying to help Craig with OneFlapDown.

He;s having issues getting into his account.