A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

Any way you slice it, winning 4 series in a row is very very nice. Yanks coming to town. Did I hear this right, we are doing a Judge bobblehead game? Is that typical, that we do a bobblehead of an opposing player? Maybe I’ve got this wrong.

As I said on the last thread, I was prepared for Snell to have an *outie* year. But this has gotten ridiculous. In the post gamer he said he is usually better in the 2nd half because he’s gotten to know the hitters in the first half. What? He’s been pitching against most of these guys for years. And for the guys he doesn’t know there are these things called “scouting reports” that he can refer to. All he does is throw off speed shit anyway. Fucking nibbler. Sure the K’s are there but what’s it gotten him? Zero wins, 10.42 ERA.

He’s proving to be an outrageous bust.

You’d hard pressed to put together a 6 game streak that had so many mood swings.

Tues: Epic, gut punching loss

Wed: amazing comeback win

Thurs: Unreal comeback win maybe the best game I’ve ever seen

Fri: amazing comeback win

Sat: amazing comeback/extra inning win

Sun: epic gut punching loss

This isn’t how baseball typically goes. No duds. All of them edge of your seat chaos.

It is Memorial Day. Never understood why people say “Happy” Memorial Day. A day to honor, respect and remember those who were lost fighting for our country.

Compared to Friday night’s game, yesterday nearly had me nodding off. And yet AGAIN we come from behind and fuck our way to yet another W. I’m not sure what taking more ground balls is gonna do for Luciano. This appears to now be mental. And this is a bad time for that.

I think I remember reading Mac is going to today’s game. Manaea got a little payback on his mind but probably less now that Kap is gone. Manaea no likey Kappy.

I didn’t want to overstate it but I texted my buddy dafingaZ last night wondering if that was…the best….baseball….game…..I’ve ever……seen? Considering just regular season games and not considering implications of the win (like it didn’t send them to the post season or win them a World Series).

Think about it carefully and weigh in. I know recency bias is in play here but have you ever seen a better SF Giants baseball game in your life?

Everyone is talking about these last 2 comeback wins and for good reason. We have become conditioned to not believing they can do that. But enjoy the good times while they are here and now we get the Mets who, frankly, seem even worse than their actual record. Tell me we’ve got some east coast Flap representation at these games?

Well, another game I clicked off early only to find out we some how ended up winning. Lose a game late, win a game late, maybe I should just wait and flip these games on in the 8th inning.

Paul Skenes tonight. This is gonna be must watch…..

Yuck. I left that game in the 8th inning and then the texts started rolling in. “What the fuck was that?” “Worst loss of the year!” “Unreal”. I went to the boxscore and couldn’t believe it.

Now Pitt tosses Jones today, Skenes tomorrow. Exciting but this could get ugly, fast.

How the hell is Ranger Suarez 9-0 and dominating the league?

What a treat we have in store for us in Pittsburgh. We get to see both Jared Jones AND Paul Skenes pitch. Also, the return of Snell. All in all a pretty exciting mid week series.

I saw almost none of these 3 games with the Rockies, caught some of Sunday’s game on the radio. The box scores look real real nice. Tempered, as this was Colorado who is bad, but this weekend seemed to be a positive indictment of the youngsters. It will be very interesting to see what Farhan does with all the old-heads when they return from all of their injuries……

I’m out of town still….

Carstie Clausen	Sat, May 18, 8:20 PM (9 hours ago)
to me

Flav:  Team got what it desperately needed…new sparkplugs.  Rib-Eyes and doubles, baby.  THAT is offensive to the opposing team, but it works for the winners.  Eleven Rib-Eyes in two games ties Matos tied with a certain fellow name of Clark, when it comes to that stat.  NINE doubles for the team today.  I love me some doubles.  They are best called pitcher-wreckers.  Nine of em.  Think about that.  Giants must have somehow survived something like five games where they didn’t come up with that many two-baggers the whole while. Then there was today.  Okay, so it was against the Rockies…a squad never known for kick-ass pitching.

 When not only do you sparkplug the offense by a three-run dinger in the bottom of the first, but also haul in an otherwise home-run ball, second of this short season; we gotta think Champion sparkplugs.  Cue Springsteen:  “Center Field”.  Could this 22 Y.O. be the second coming of the MAN who celebrated his 93rd birthday just a few days ago?  Jumping the gun a whole bunch, but what’s not to like?  Here the ownership springs for a ton of money to acquire a new C.F.er and then tragedy…of a baseball sort …strikes and he’s down for the season after a leaping stab and a conjunction with the fence.

 Then this Venezuelan kid, who was the team’s outstanding stand-out in Spring Training gets the call.  Seems like he was moping after the disrespect as he was relegated to Sac-town. Enters The Show for his second round…and promptly STEALS the show.  Even with Ohtani present, Hollywood couldn’t top that drama.  So piss on the MLB site with their constant featuring of that Japanese superstar…and his Yank-Me Cohorts.  Maybe,  just maybe, there is a new Big Dog in town…perhaps even more than one, as the patience of Zaidi & Co. worked its magic with Heliot…who appears to finally have got his act together.  Those two outfield assists in one game may not be an M.L. record, but are damned well impressive.  Luciano’s first ever Rib-Eye on Friday night was a smile to remember.

 Oh ye of little faith.  Read the comments on the Flap a couple, two, three days back.  Lots of kvetching.  Tired old team and all that.  Hardly a positive attitude in the lot.  Sure and I went through some WTF moments throughout April and into the first part of may…and then all those injuries.  Were the Flap a ship, some of the guys would have maybe jumped overboard.  But by day by day attention to the River Cats, the possibility of help on hand just happened to be the best I’ve seen in years.  Sac-town was loaded for bear. Heliot Ramos was leading the pack, with a solid spring.  Luciano had made the switch from a potential power hitter with loads of strike-outs to a more selective and patient hitter, upping his B.A. and OBP as he was figuring out how to be a consistent hitter.  Way I perceived Matos was that he was miffed by what he may have considered as mistreatment by being sent down to AAA at the ripe old age of 22.  But once he got the call…all was forgiven and motivation was peaking.

 Tune in some more popular music:  “The kids are all-right”.  Not that the on the field array that Zaidi and ownership  had assembled was such a shit, sad sorry bunch of misfits that early action tended to indicate.  Chapman, for example, took a lot of flak by Flappers to the tune of “the dude’s washed up”…bad choice and on the downslope.  He wasn’t the only one, but the pattern which I noticed as really killing the offense was the BBIP factor.  They would hit the ball…sometimes with hard contact…but somehow those holes were not there and a lot of loud outs ensued.  The team, as concocted simply did not seem to have the jell factor…no cohesion, no spark.  We were witnessing a bunch of ball-players who simply could not get it together as a TEAM.

 Then something incredible happened…waaay beyond what a Hollywood screen-writer could concoct…big downer with all those injuries to key performers.  And what the fuck happened?  Call it a “Coogan’s Bluff” style miracle if you will, but those call-ups, products of the farm system, provided the spark and in today’s game at least…all those veterans who had been struggling suddenly caught the vibe.

 Baseball is a funny kinda game. Amidst all the stats and the geometry and fine tolerances of the contest…there is an often overlooked factor:  Magic.  Recall those three even years from 2010 to 2014.  Those three World Championships did not come by chance. There was a certain magic in the air.  The improbability of Timmeh and the Panda were almost something you would read in novels.  Take the gambling-infested NFL and NBA and you get a lot of talented athletes…but just how often does an under-rated and overlooked team win it all?

 Go back a hundred years.  In 1924 the words “Major League” meant one thing and one thing only…baseball.  Recalll the term “The National Pastime”?  Baseball has slipped it’s status.  Why?  Mainly because most Americans live such humdrum lives that they think that magic is a guy who pulls a rabbit outta a hat.  So the media types hype those Sooper-Stars…even while the dumkopf writers refuse to give Barry Bonds his due and elect him to the Hall of Fame.  That business has become a laugh, albeit a tragic one

 Maybe the May 18, 2024 victory was a one-off.  But I choose to think that there’s still some magic in the game.  What would have been the Vegas odds that a group of youngsters would have emerged to energize a beaten-down and battered team to the tune of no fewer than NINE devastating doubles in one game, while perking up veterans such as Soler, Estrada and Chapman to performances which we all had hoped would make for a newly resuscitated presentation.

 Last team in MLB to win three games in a row had a new look today. Been pretty pissed at the MLB “power rankings”, where those so-called sports writers have consistently rated Los Gigantes as #23.  If Hicks does his 5-6 innings of superb moundsmanship tomorrow, my thought is that he will get enough run support to stretch the streak to four wins in a row.  When Snell strolls to the mound in that East Coast swing, maybe, just maybe, those prognosticators might give the Giants just a little bit of respect…particularly if those Pipeliners keep putting the timber to the orbs.

And with that win, we stave off a double digit number out of first place in the NL West. But honestly, going 3-3 against Cinn and LA is about the best we could have hoped for. Especially after losing JHL for the season.

What is a realistic goal at this point? .500? Sounds about right.

Ever since the Monday night loss, last night seem inevitable. I even told the butcher I thought we would lose 10-2. Of course there’s no way to prove that short of me bringing the butcher to the Flap to confirm. But I did say that.

The real bad news here is that our shittiest players are also our healthiest players. Why does it always happen that way?

LA rolling out an opener tonight. They don’t care. They know they can beat us any number of ways with very little effort.

The Kids (Rammy and Matty) accounted for half our hits and all of our runs. Maybe that’s something to take away from last night’s loss. We have too many injuries right now but when guys get healthy I hope we somehow keep these youngsters in the line up every day.

Fun Mothers Day walk off win. They kept trying to give that game away but Schmitt took care of business to give himself a batting average this year.

Lots of men down. Medic! Let’s see how they cobble this together with the Dodgers coming in to eat.

I know Chap has been in a slump but his power is there, man. He’s just been in a funk. Soler I don’t know about. He is worrying me whether he’s injured or not. It’s wild to me that the brass considered both Black and Jefferies, twice, and still picked Jefferies both times. I get it, he’s got a short leash but Black is on a different planet than Jefferies. It really makes you wonder if they have any fucking idea what they are doing or how to do it.

The Giants have scored 148 runs this year. That seems like more than they’ve scored, aye? Anyway it’s good for 23rd in MLB. How in the fucking hell have they scored more runs this year than 7 other teams?

Larry Baer is such a shill. He was on KNBR yesterday celebrating “winning a series on the road”. I had to turn him off he’s such a joke.

Now we start a legit home stand. A critical home stand. The Reds are playing like shit but unlike us they have good young players. And then we get LA, lol.

Oh well, can’t hide all season in Colorado. Time to man up.

I got a couple of emails from our good friend Stix:

Carstie Clausen	Wed, May 8, 9:16 AM (20 hours ago)
to me

Craig:  Hope you are doing well and greetings to all Flappers with whom you may still be in touch.  Miss the camaraderie a bunch…even if this early spring has been a frustrating start to the season.  Team needs desperately a spark plug.  Thought that Yaz would have made his usual jump into carrying the team after his dinger in Baahstin, but didn’t happen.  Slater seems to have lost his mojo…ditto, Wilmer.  Over in SacTown, Schmitty has turned into an RBI machine with plenty of doubles.  If he can carry that energy into the show, a #6 or seven batter might be his prime spot.  Luciano has focused on batting rather than slugging and has a B.A. in the 280’s.  He is pressing Ahmed to produce in the #9 hole.  Ramos is also maintaining a high BA, along with some dingers.  He too may be in the cards to essentially replace Slater.  Soler is an enigma…low BA and single-shots on long-balls.  Chapman:  WTF.  Tuned into gameday yesterday evening and the Korean “martial artist” was absolutely tormenting the Rockies starter by fouling off pitch after pitch.Ideal leadoff man.  Best of last year’s team was this ability to wear down opposing starters.  Late-Night Wade is having him a growth-spurt and is well positioned in the three-hole

 Turning to the mound, there will be a massive logjam of quality starters (barring major injuries) by the second half.  Eight of them.  Expect interesting Tradewinds by the Deadline.  One or more of the starters may join (surprise, surprise) Hjelle as longmen. Current outlook is that the team is gradually jelling…just needs one or two sparkplugs to energize the lineup.  Obviously, the team was not yet ready for Bahhstin and definitely Harper powering the Philthies.  Perhaps the return engagements in SF will balance things out a bit.  At this point, maintenance of something around a .500 record is the best outlook.  Can you imagine a team with FIVE aces?…it could be in the cards.  Patience, my friend.

___________________________________________

Carstie Clausen	Wed, May 8, 6:53 PM (10 hours ago)
to me

Craig:  Thanks for the response.  Still living in an apartment 6 miles from the homestead.  Was out there today for hours, getting the potato patch prepped and other fun stuff, like water from the little hand-pump along with fresh mint just coming up and a bunch of perpetual onions, dating back to ancient Egypt…well not those particular ones.  70 degrees this afternoon after a very nice winter and a schizo spring.  Considering transforming the place into a spiritual sanctuary and a school of country living, most likely for younger folks looking for survival skills and a peaceful lifestyle.

 So how you been?  Still in touch with some of the original Flappers.? You did quite the service keeping it up and even when not getting on the Flap I sure liked rubbernecking to get the feel of where the Giants are at.  Hoping you’re in good health and successfully coping with life in the faster lane.  Any time you have any insights into Los Gigantes, drop me an e.m.

 Enjoy the coming summer.  -stix

Nice time for Colorado who some how have the 25th team OPS in the league. How is that even possible playing half your games in Colorado?

We scored 5 runs so that translates to like 2.8 runs at a normal park. Don’t be fooled. We can’t hit.

Wheeler shuts a lot of teams down so I’m not going to use yesterday’s game to rail away on our offense. Again. It’s one of the worst constructed teams in the league (old, slow and weak). But we didn’t need to see Wheeler spin that gem to know that.

Like what Black showed. He should have been showing this for both Jefferies implosions. Just gotta stretch him out a little more and he’ll be yet another arm in the starting rotation that we can trust…..

Well, on the plus side we broke a 9 game streak of scoring less than four runs. Think about how pathetic that is for a moment.

Still 4 games left on this terrible road trip. Say, I wonder if we’ll be able to score 4 runs a game in Colorado?

Thorpedo Anna was very very good to me in the Oaks yesterday. The Derby is wide open. Not even tossing out a pick. There are 7 horses I think who can win.

I saw the box score that we lost again. Pfffttttt……

Watching Red Sox fans cheer Yaz’ bomb yesterday made me think, is there any possible way Zaidi could send him there and maybe even get a little value? Probably not as they’d be his only suitor but you can’t tell me their ownership team hasn’t at least thought about it.

Philly tonight. I’m out of town for a few days but will keep the blog chugging along as that is my sworn duty and solemn oath.

Look, I’m not an idiot. I don’t believe in fairy tales or angels or any of that stuff. Although I have seen some recent videos over the years that have me on board with UFO’s. So I know our offense is one of the worst in the league and when you score 2 runs you probably aren’t going to win. But it enrages me that the Giants would have a payroll of 197 million dollars AND legitimate pitching prospects in triple A and yet they still insist on trotting out this abject loser Daulton Jefferies to the mound for a game that counts.

AND THEY HAVE DONE IT FUCKING TWICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Zaidi sucks and if Melvin supported this idiotic plan then he sucks too.

Just an awful showing last night. For a month our stud starting pitchers have masked the pathetic offerings of the offense. On a rare night when Webb didn’t have it and he turned to the O for answers they came up emptier than Wimpy sadly displaying his pockets.

And tonight it will not get better as that joker Jefferies some how is getting another start. Why don’t we let one of our exciting young starters from the minor leagues start this game?