A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

I have no real opinion on this upcoming series. When you look at their roster the Cardinals look like a team that should have a better-than sub .500 record. But what do I know, I looked at our roster in the Spring and thought we’d have a win total in the 60’s– we damn near got that by the all star break.

Maybe I can coax our friend Daniel into stopping by later today and giving us the low down on his team.

It looks like the dream is dead for my *Gausman starting the all star game* bet. He’s pitching today and that would line him up to pitch the last game before the break, too. Disappointing.

i’m not one to say I told you so but….

I found this yesterday looking for pictures from 1988 lol. I can’t remember who gave it to me. Pat the Bat wishing the Flap well.

Today is probably my favorite day of the year. I hope you guys have a good one.

Nice to get back on the Win Train. Thairo announced himself with authority. Wood showed he might be able to do this without the sticky stuff afterall.

Don’t forget what tomorrow is>>>>> the 100 year anniversary of this classic party:

I’m going through old photos looking for something from ’88 and I stumbled upon this old pic. I’m guessing 15 year old Big Flavor?

This is just like the Dodger series, no time to panic, we were in another game just didn’t get the timely hit…..uh….

Baseball goes like this. You have bad stretches over 162. That’s why you bink those wins, they come in handy later to withstand stretches like this one….

Who knew it was gonna be *Breeze to 50 then stop*…..

Still in………..FIRST PLACE

With our lead down to 1.5 games it is a good time to face the D-backs. Honestly, I’m not worrying about the standings anymore. LA and SD will be in full stride soon and it’s very likely they pass us in the standings. But who cares? If we fill the gaps we have and we stay close there’s no reason we can’t be in this race all Summer.

It is time to get back to winning games.

I guess the good news is that we were in both games. It’s not like we got taken to the woodshed. And now we return to the comfort of the warm Arizona heat. Sure, bank wins, yada yada but this team has holes and I don’t think Z can just keep filling them from AAA–although I do hope Jaylin Davis finally gets a shot and he might with Sock Man looking at a stint on the injured list.

Really excited for tonight’s match up. I, like many of you, love The Gasman and would have probably picked him as my favorite current Giant if not for The Grave Duggar.

A split in LA was about the best we could hope for. Losing tonight will be a big momentum swing on the season. So, just win baby, just win.

If you could only pick one, who would it be and why? My answer is easy and obvious: he brings his shovel to work. What started out as just a great nickname has blossomed into one of the best stories in years. He has the best OPS on the team. He’s their fastest player. And their best outfielder. The Grave Duggar is MY GUY.

But there are so many to choose from.

You have to pick 1.

Go!

More Flap representation. Here is Chi and his daughter at the game yesterday:

I’d love to know the time on Grave Duggar’s 1st to home plate sprint. That dude was FLYING around 3rd. Now leads the team in the most Flap jizzworthy stat of OPS (.969).

Not much to say about Casilla. He can’t hit but he just gets shit done. I hope they don’t drag this Buster thing out though. If he can’t re-boot his body it’s time to get Tromp up here.

We very nearly have double the number of wins to losses. This is just an incredible never before seen year unfolding before our eyes.

Have the A’s moved to Las Vegas yet? What a pathetic franchise. Dave Kaval is a clown and the latest in a long line of clowns who won’t be able to get a stadium deal done. I will say this, the A’s have some of the best renderings for fantasy stadiums I’ve ever seen. Every single one of them is breathtaking work of art.

Spanking the A’s is always nice. Let’s do it again…..

Whatever happens, if we win, please PLEASE leave that stupid trophy behind.

Nothing to worry about these days with guys named Brebbia and Sherfy closing the door.

Who are these guys?

Admit it. When SockMan strolled to the plate in the 13th inning you wanted to see it too. Come on, that’s “tell your grand kids” stuff right there. When he flailed away twice notching two quick strikes I’ve never been so confident in something happening in my life…..

At that moment I was jump starting my car. No longer listening to the radio and deeply shrouded in some pretty intense superstition, I wasn’t leaving my car till that goddamn game was over. The game was now on my laptop and for some reason I had the away feed going at bilasport. Suddenly SockMan did the unthinkable. He swung and made contact!!! I think that surprised both me and the Angels announcers. All of us silent, we just watched as the ball traveled unbelievably AWAY from the catchers mitt. As it landed some 409 feet from the plate the first and only thing the Angel announcer said was “That is not a strikeout….” and then the 3 of us went back to a few more seconds of stunned silence……..

Ten walks. 31 k’s. An emergency catcher sighting. Supposedly Gausman and Ohtani pitched great but no one will remember them or that. The Giants scored 7 runs on 2 hits in the 13th inning.

Mostly fueled by some pretty intense incompetence, that game was an all timer. We’ll never see one like that again….

Disco is now firmly entrenched as our #2. Another great performance by him. Bank those W’s.

I know it’s not going to happen, but what about The Grave Duggar getting some of these Slater starts? I know that scares Kap because he give up a little of his match up leverage but it does seem that while still an outstanding Stanford man he might not be quite what we’re looking for when it comes to a reliable lead off hitter. Just something to consider.

I know I’ve touted him before but if you aren’t following JomBoy on twitter you should start. This is a great breakdown by him:

Also I’ve already grown quite tired of these pitchers who act like they can’t believe they’re getting checked. The whole reason it has gotten to this point is because of them–they were all cheating. Stop putting on this stupid public display like you can’t imagine why this is happening…..

Even after we took down the 3 beauties I continue to dislike the Angels. Hate is too strong of a word. I did hate the Rally Monkey. I find it hilarious that they are now wasting not one but 2 generational talents on another hum drum season. Every year they stink. I always want to see them lose. I hope we make short work of them.

I know it’s early but it’s hard to not like Sammy Long Legs. He throws strikes, gets k’s, and he’s got a variety of pitches he seems able to command. Plus he’s a lefty.

Now we sit back on our off day and watch the Dodgers and the Padres beat up on eachother.

It was just one game so probably shouldn’t make too much of it. But if you asked “Geez what has happened to Alex Wood?” that is a legit question to be asking. He’s now got an untidy 8.50 ERA for the month of June. The most obvious answer is that he’s lost without his precious Spider Tack. But who really knows…..

I’m excited about Daddy Long Legs start today. Finally get a chance to see what he can do without that stupid opener mucking him up.

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY TO MY DAD, WILLIAM MAYONAISE VAUGHAN!

In come The Phillies. I hope they present more of a challenge than the hapless D-backs. Grave Duggar continues to rake, he’s hitting .324, OPS near 1.000, easily one of our best players when you factor in defense, too.

Cueto feels a little bit on the clock in this start. He needs to step up his game. Even if he’s the #5 he’s got to be better than he’s been…..

Arizona. These poor bastards. We get to take them to the woodshed one more time. A day time woodshed trip. Nothing more embarrassing.

And then the Phillies come to town. I’d love to know what Philly fans think of what Kap is doing with the Giants. Are they mad? Jealous? Their team is going nowhere while Kap’s has flown to the top of MLB. They have Bryce Harper. Big deal. That guy left the Nats and they won the World Series. Kap left Philly and he’s got the best record in baseball. Have Philly fans started to figure out that Harper is just a guy with nice hair who hits home runs? Lots of guys do that for signficantly less money.

Anyway, Philly coming Friday and you gotta think Kap’s had this one circled on the calendar for a while now……

San Diggity Dawg sent this to me this am from the course he was playing in SD. (NOT the Us Open!) He and I have a US open bet, I took XS and Morikawa he took Phil and Rory, for $10–highest placed finish wins. If one of them happens to win, that’s another $10.

If you are going to lose 21 games in a row, that 21st has got to be lost in comedic, historic style. And if you want to give the D-backs credit for anything they accomplished that goal last night in spades.

My favorite part of that grand salami was the moment leading up to it. The camera panned to the crowd, everyone was on their feet, excitement was building, After all the shit we went through this last year and a half it was dramatic and emotional to watch them prepare for a possible celebration and then….the release of pure joy when that damn ball hit the water. So fucking great.

This is no joke, I went to change the POTD to Kat’s call of the grand slam and I can’t even figure out how to do it. The back end of wordpress has changed (again) and it’s not letting me change it. LOL. I’ll fiddle around with it at work later today.

Binking wins. Dats what we do. Arizona has lost 20 road games in a row. That’s really almost impossible to wrap your brain around. Anyway, nice that we have teams like this to beat up on. If we can someone get to the all star break still held together and with a shot at the post season Z will work his magic and we’ll get the bullpen relief we need.

What we all knew but were afraid to say has finally come to pass: The Grave Duggar stopped hitting and the entire offense went south along with him. Not sure what we can do about this but scoring 0 and/or 1 run over and over ain’t gonna get it done.

Either way, between WilcoJoe, MacDog and GH, the Flap representation was strong on the roadie. Stronger than those bats that’s for sure.

Macdog:

GH’s kids:

Giants have scored 3 runs against the Nats and they’ve won 2 of 3. That’s pretty astounding. And it’s also pretty irritating. Washington is throwing slop pitchers at us and we can’t touch them.

Joe Ross is terrible. We should light him up.

Will we?

And it couldn’t have come at a better time. Our momentum had begun to spin sideways and now it’s back up again.

After deGrom left the game I popped off to my A’s fan buddy that Gausman is now the favorite to start the all star game. He replied back “no chance.” I said “none?” He said NONE.

So, I had to make a bet. It was tough to quantify odds seeing as how he was giving this 0% chance of happening. I risked $50 and took 10-1 though that in itself is bullshit after his “no chance” claim.

Obviously I’ll need deGrom to sit out the all star game but I could see that happening even if he’s not critically injured right now. What would be the point in risking him for a meaningless game?

For now I just need GasMan to keep dominating and that starts with the game today….

Luckily WilcoJoe fired up another pic of his dad and this one makes more sense to me.

This is extreme disrespectful bullshit from ESPN’s headline writers

Yesterday’s game was terrible. This picture is the opposite of that:

I’m gonna need some clarification from WilcoJoe about the 3 gen comment. Dude on the right doesn’t look that old.

Game today in Washington looks like a washout which is probably good for us. Get a day of rest in.

Brandon Crawford is 34 and it’s June 9th and he is already tied for the second most bombs he’s had in a season. Not bad for someone we all thought was a Bore Core Donzo.

Wet Sock Man sure packs a punch at the right time for a .190 hitter, eh?

And I know it’s time to get start excited about the Giants when we begin to get road rep from Flap vets:

WilcoJoe, once you’ve successfully stormed Globe Life Park and completed the insurrection please snap a pic and email in to me, thanks. bigflavor77@gmail.com

As major league baseball prepares to crack down on pitchers who use foreign substances to increase their spin rate it makes one wonder how this will affect Giants pitchers. Guys like Gausman and Wood and even Disco came out of nowhere this year to dominate.

This week an ominous spin rate drop for both Cole and Bauer:

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-foreign-substance-crack-down-trevor-bauer-gerrit-cole-show-reduced-spin-ex-mvp-calls-out-coincidence/

Keep an eye on our guys, too……

Normally a game like yesterday would irk and irritate me. Questionable plays in the field by Doobie. Underwhelming start from Cueto. Wet Sock Man continues to swing the weakest of bats….

But then I remembered we are in first place with the best record in baseball and there has to be other things out there to irk and irritate me.

This morning I have to walk into the DMV without an appointment for something. That should irk and irritate me far greater than anything that happened yesterday….

Another banked win and today we get Cueto. As wrong as I was about the starting pitching, and I was as wrong as anyone could be, how awesome is it that every single game we send out a guy who is, at a minimum, going to give us a chance to win—more likely, he’s going out there to dominate.

I feel a little bad for Gausman. If it weren’t for deGrom he’d be headed toward starting the all star game. In fact, his numbers match up nicely with the Mets star pitcher. But, come on, nobody starting in front of the dude with a 0.61 ERA….

GraveDuggar, Wade, Vosler…..who, exactly, is going to get sent down when we start getting some of our infirmed back? I guess it will be Vos but man I like that kid’s stroke.

Belmont Stakes day today! I know we’ve all been looking forward to this thread 🙂

I could obviously see Essential Quality win but there’s better value out there. I’m not running Rombauer back mostly because he’s facing a better field, the odds won’t be there and, I know this isn’t the most important thing but he’s so small and this race is SOOOOO long.

Anyway I couldn’t split hairs between Known Agenda and Hot Rod Charlie so I’m just going to use them both in my p4 and p3. Gun to my head and I only got to pick 1? Known Agenda. Good luck to you if you’re playing!

One reason I am excited about this year: The starting pitching, which I was comically wrong about, should be able to propel us through the Summer. And as long as we keep banking wins like we did last night we’re going to be in the race easily up until the trade deadline. And THAT is where Farhan will weave his web. Unencumbered by the contraints of future salaries he can just decide what we need and go get it. He’ll put whatever Russ and Curry are cooking to shame. It’s going to be like watching a modern day Rembrandt with his paints….

In addition to the legitimacy of the starting pitching it has now become impossible to ignore this *approach* the hitters take to every at bat. I don’t pretend to understand it but it has to do with either jumping on the first pitch they see in their zone OR grinding the bejezus out of the at bat. Whatever it is, Brandon Crawford likes doing it. Kap and his staff deserve huge props for this mindset they brought to our aged, bedraggled hitters.

I’d say I’m surprised about the Cubs being in first place but that wouldn’t even come close to capturing my surprise at the Giants being in first place. Still. Chicago is beatable we should knock these chum…nevermind, let’s just play hard and hope for the best.

Thought this was a cool pic. Has kind of a “Riverfront/3 Rivers” feel to it. Anyone got a tighter guess than that?

Well that didn’t exactly work out as planned. Wood didn’t have it last night and we couldn’t hit one of the worst pitchers in the American League. Bad combo. Silver lining: the bullpen has only given up 1 run in the last 2 games. That is after giving up an average of a billion per game. So, progress.

Speaking of chumps, could it be time for all those who opposed the Grave Duggar to finally admit his worth? Or are you all too deeply buried under 6 feet of his wrath to comment?

I remember watching a twilight zone show when I was a kid that scared the shit out of me. To this day it still does. It was about this dude in prison who worked out a scam to escape by hiding in a coffin. He had a plan worked out with the grave digger to come dig him up after he got buried and he’d be free. Simple right? So the night of the plan, the prisoner climbs into a coffin that already has a dead guy in it. He was pretty grossed out but figured he could lie next to a corpse for a couple hours till his grave digger buddy came to his rescue…..you can see where this is going right? Prisoner can tell the coffin has been loaded on to the truck and then shortly after he can sense it’s being lowered into the ground and dirt poured on top. He is now literally buried alive……An hour goes by and he starts getting worried as the deal he had with the grave digger was that he would get dug up as soon as it was safe to do so. He decides to light a match inside the coffin just to see what the dead guy he’s laying next to looks like. The match shines a light on his face. To his horror, the body he was lying next to all along was…….his grave digger accomplice.

The episode ends with his blood curtling scream as the camera pans away from the the empty grave yard……

That headline is for my old man, my elder statesman, Bobby Bowden’s doppelganger.

Cueto joins the party of stud starting pitching. And if you want an idea of how terrible the Angels are look no further than the 0 runs they scored v our bullpen. Granted, it was just bullpen arm (Trop). Hey, anyone coming out of that pen who doesn’t give up a run is immediately my new most trusted BP arm. Until they prove they are just like all the rest…..

Wood should make short work of these chumps tonight.

Taking 3 in a row from the Art Dealers was something I didn’t expect to see. But it is eagerly welcomed. Bullpen gave up 4 runs again but ONLY 3 were earned! More progress? This can’t go on like this……

I am bullish on Cueto today. Let’s keep the streak going!

Today is the most important day to honor and observe. “The ultimate sacrifice.” As the old saying goes, “if you can read this thank a teacher. If it’s in English thank a veteran.”

Solano and Yaz continue to peck away at the doubting, aged POTD……

And the bullpen only gave up 4 runs!

Progress……

If you want to smile today watch this till the end.

The Grave Duggar and Posey continue to lead the team in hitting but that W doesn’t happen without The Sock Man. I’m really not sure what I would have done had we blown that game and it came within inches of The Sock Man failing. But he didn’t and we go on to win.

Baseball is a funny game.

For the collective psyche of the team last night’s win was critical. Team win.

According to facebook it’s the 11 year anni of this bad boy:

I don’t care if some say (stupidly) that batting average doesn’t matter anymore. Hitting .111 is not acceptable. And when you lose by 1 run starting your Z-league catcher could easily be pointed to as the reason you lost. Shit I’d rather have 41 year old El Presidente out there at this point. In fact Kap left BOTH the team leaders in batting average out of the starting line up last night (Buster and The Grave Duggar).

As we patiently await the ominous foreshadowing of the aged POTD to coalesce, we seem to have staved off the worst of it with a bomb from one and a run scored from the other.

Still, Flap Nation turns its tired eyes to Buster Posey and wonder “will tonight be the night he plays again?”

Grave Duggar, Slater, Vosler…Just how Zaidi drew it up.

LA taught us a hard lesson last weekend. It would be nice to show up for this series and compete…..

This Vosler thing could be a thing. Now that he’s gotten the bomb out of the way in a low pressure game let’s see what he can do against the Dodgers. Dude does have power. LA going with a bullpen game to start Game 1…..

Saw this today. Pretty incredible.

Ah, the comfort of playing a crappy team. Feels good doesn’t it? And I’m waiting for some apologies from many of you to the Grave Duggar. Take your pick, 2nd highest batting average on the team or the .850 OPS. I know jizz flies freely around here when it comes to OPS. He has the best glove in the outfield and he is proving to be a contributing member of the team. Also, best nickname in baseball.

What do you want? Egg in your beer? (my dad used to say that, I never knew what it meant and still don’t but it seems to be the appropriate question to ask when it comes to The Grave Duggar.

Well, my list of SF Giants pitchers who are eligible to start the all star game has shrunk from 3 to 2. GasMan going today and I expect another dominant performance. The question is, what will happen to our bats? Was Farhan right in stiffing Solano out of $500K? Is his roster spot at risk if he doesn’t start hitting? He’s certainly not out there for his glove.

The aged POTD is speaking volumes today……

I know their record is still nice to look at but that series felt like we got catapulted back to Square 1. The vast difference between their talent level and production and ours was impossible to ignore. But it was also a weirdly set up series. A bullpen game for Game 2? No Posey or Longo yesterday? It didn’t feel like Kap was putting his best players out there.

Now we get to go back to the safely of playing crapping teams. And that’s fine, W’s are always welcome.

But the Dodgers put us in our place. That was ugly.

Well what have we learned through 2 games? Not much. Anyone that thought we were better than LA was probably high. And there’s no shame in being worse than one of the best teams in the league. Zaidi and Kap have us much farther along that I thought we were. At least, they have shown they can get production out of a team I didn’t think had that production in them.

It’s only been 2 games but it feels like this would just keep happening no matter how many times we play them in 2021.

I turn my weary eyes to the aged POTD and ask, “Could it be true?”

Look, Trevor Bauer is one of the best pitchers in baseball. No shame in losing to him. It’s too bad we wasted such a great pitching performance by our staff.

I think Bauer is great for the rivalry. I don’t hate him at all, he’s extremely smart and he loves baseball. That sword thing he did after striking out (?) on the check swing was awesome as was walking off the mound acknowledging the boos. He’s clearly quite the Showman. But I get why he’s not some people’s cup of tea, especially being a Dodger now.

Giants are swimming in the deep end now. It gets no easier facing Buehler today and with a 4:15pm start I’m thinking the ball could be hard too see the first few innings (though I honestly can’t remember what that time of day looks like in the Spring at Oracle Park).

We were never going to get to just keep facing shitty teams. If they want to stay at the top or near it they have to compete with LA and SD and win games.

I don’t care what anyone says, this goes a long long way….

Can you win without chemistry? Documented, yes.

But it stands to reason that your team is also better with it.

We have the best record in baseball, a candidate to start the All Star game going for us tonight and a team that strokes itself collectively to itself.

So, fuck the Dodgers, fuck ’em straight to hell.

I mocked the signings of Gausman, Wood and Disco. Any of the 3 could legimately start the all star game. And all 3 should be on the team.

The Padres and Dodgers are coming that is a known fact but at least we are keeping this season interesting. Imagine what we could look forward to if Farhan fixes this bullpen?

Exciting game tonight in LA. We don’t match up too well vs a healthy Laker team but hey it’s all entertainment, right? There’s no way Steph gets an open look tonight but he doesn’t really need one and that will just open it up for other guys anyway. LA by 5 points? Yikes I wouldn’t bet a dollar against Curry and Draymond.

There’s really nothing left to say about the bullpen except:

1. If this is there worst problem to have that’s a good thing considering how many holes I thought this team had to start the season
2. if you think about it the law of averages suggests they should get better. These are major league pitchers, however bad they are, no major leaguer comes out failing and sucking every single appearance.

Kevin Pillar is ok. He is the ultimate gamer who got lucky, too. Easy 1.0 for him dealing with that near tragic event last night.

Interesting pitching match up today of 2 guys who probably have revenge on their mind.

Haven’t checked the weather yet….

Congratulations to the Warriors who have exceeded ALL expecatations this year. They’ve even given themselves a little breathing room should they lose to LA they still have a chance to get in. Disappointed we couldn’t get Portland who we regularly treat rudely.

And I also think Steph should be MVP. This is what it’s like every game:

And yet he still managed to win the scoring title AND pull his bedraggled club along with him to a chance at the post season.

And we got Minnesota’s pick in the draft.

And Klay is coming back.

Things looking up for The Dubs.

Theoretically the bullpen should be the easiest thing to fix. Lots of guys can’t be starters but most of those guys can still throw gas for an inning. Zaidi has been an absolute magician composing this team. I can’t believe he would let something like this confound him. He’s an easy guy to have faith in, let’s let him work his magic.

Yesterday was irritating but I put that more on the stupid extra inning rule than anything else.

Today is a new day.

Today is also Preakness Day.

Oh my!