A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

I don’t care if this is a sham season. I don’t care if there are no fans in the park. That was one of the best, most exciting games the Giants have played in years. Belt is swinging the bat and actually making contact. Solano is walking it off. What world is this?

Ok, I have to share one quick Trump grifter email with you. A couple of days ago we discussed me sending in $5 just to try to make it on the chyron as “Fuck from California” and you guys properly talked me out of it because it is just another one of his petty grifting scams. But they sent me an email with a pic of what the glorious moment could look like, here it is:

Now, the pic is funny in its own right. But look at the tv. That has to be a tv from the early 80s right? Who would own a tv like that today? Maybe someone in the midwest. Someone poor and probably uneducated. It is just so obvious who they are trying to target with these pathetic money grab ads. It’s 2020 what type of person still has a tv like that?

The type of person who would send The Grifter in Chief his last $5……

Big series starting tonight, one in which I have no feeling whatsoever—my gut is traditionally inclined to expect a trip to the woodshed but this has been a weird year so I’m cool to watch it unfold….

Trade deadline is next week. I am on record as saying nothing significant will happen for obvious reasons already stated. But it’s still fun to kick around trade ideas so where do you guys stand on this one:

Cueto and Flores for Clint Frazier. I really don’t think the Yanks would do this but they have been decimated by injuries and both Cueto and Flores could be a huge boost to their post season run. For our part we get rid of Cueto’s salary in 2021 and the buyout. If they didn’t offer Frazier would you take Andujar? I probably would just to get another future piece although I’m not a biug Andujar fan. Still, getting rid of that Cueto contract would be nice.

I’d also be just as happy to watch him pitch the rest of the season. He’s been very good and entertaining and I put a high price tag on that this season. (same feelings about Wilmet, btw).

Ouch. This now hurts more than I realized. Fucking kick this guy OUT of fan base immediately.

I have not been paying attention to the MLB 2020 post season structure. But with the exciting news that the Giants are currently IN I decided to look it up.

Eight teams from each league get in. Three division winners, 3 runners up, and……two *best teams remaining* baby. That’s where we slide in.

Currently 7th, we are looking back and down on the Mets who are in 8th.

Make no mistake this is a sham season. The Cardinals are in right now and they’ve played about half as many games as everyone else.

But as long as they’re gonna keep bulldozing through the pandemic why not enjoy the run? What else you got to do?

Anderson stepped up huge and Kap let him be huge– a very important game for both of them.

It’s hard to enjoy baseball right now but I’m trying. Know lots of people displaced by the fires. Air quality is shit. Buddy of mine went back to his house in Felton to look for his cat.

Got him.

this is an incredible pic.

55 years ago today.

I’m still struggling with this new, STUPID, wordpress editor, let’s see if this pic shows up.

How about Wilmet? This guy just keeps on raking. The top of our line up looks great with Slater, Yaz and Wilmet. It falls off dramatically after that but maybe Bart can spark up the second half.

Crawford hit his 100th career bomb. I went back and forth on whether that sounds like a lot. On one hand, he’s had such a wet noodle bat for as long as I can remember, it sounds like a HUGE number. On the other hand, he’s been on the team for hundred and hundreds of years, he’s bound to run into 100 balls over that amount of time…..

I didn’t expect to wake up this morning to Stix quoting Tupac lines:

Untouchable…like in Elliot Ness? 

WordPress has completely changed their format for writing and uploading threads. As it is with anything new these days, it’s unnecessary and worse than the old way. 

So this thread will be short and sweet and hopefully this loads properly. 

Belt, Fatso, Crawford………yesterday was a throwback game for the ages. Too bad they can’t do it more than once every few weeks. Fires are terrible here today, ash was falling on my car on the way to work. I didn’t check the air quality index but it has to be terrible. Wouldn’t be surprised if both baseball games in the Bay got canceled today…..

This guy…..

I don’t like this guy.

Any manager with a brain wouldn’t be putting him in a meaningful spot. Let him work out his problems in the bullpen with his coach or in blowout games.

But Kap is brainless…..

I’ll give Kap credit. He tried the *take a big lead* approach and that didn’t work the first two games. So yesterday he tried the *get your ass kicked right out the gate and mount a furious comeback* approach. Sadly, that too failed. I hope he was taking copious notes on how to hold a lead as the A’s did with no problem on Sunday….

That was, WITHOUT QUESTION, the most embarrassing series we’ve ever played against Oakland.

Maybe there is a way to look this up: Has there ever been 2 games back to back with a worse pitching line than this?

You’re like, “Come on Flavor, you’re being dramatic, of course there has been.”

Well then, show it to me. Because until I see it with my own eyes I declare this to be the worst back to back pitching performance in history—certainly SF Giant history.

I hate Kapler for many of the same reasons you all do. But the MAIN reason I hate him is for ruining the victory laps I was planning on taking for making one of the most direct and accurate calls of all time:

and then come on THIS ONE was the one. I could have looked like a complete dipshit had he not hit one after this bombast, aye?

That was just…..fucking awful. The manager’s job is to push the right buttons. Kap is not pushing the right buttons. I don’t understand why Belt can pinch hit but not play late inning defense. Jesus Christ, defense is the ONE thing he CAN do. You send him out to CATCH the ball not to try to HIT the ball. This is managing 101, man.

Had this exchange with Krueger last night. I think he wants there to be action at the trade deadline because it’ll spice up his job. I just can’t see it happening. But I guess we’ll find out.

“Many people are saying” that this is the best Oakland A’s team in the Billy Beane era. High praise. I’m not too worried about them tonight because we have our rock going for us. Win day. Johnny C Time. Let’s go!!!!!

As the bottom of the 6th ended, Krukow confidently stated, “a four run deficit is nothing to these guys.”

So I decided to screenshot the batting average of “these guys” the moment he said that…..

And, shockingly, that four run deficit didn’t budge and they lost by….four runs.

It’s weird, I do like our hitters better this year. But the Bore Core still haunts every inning. And while we all love the youngsters like Dubon, well, he’s hitting .205. Although that’s nearly double Pence so Doobie probably struts a second longer when he passes Pence’s locker……

3-7 on that roadie. That’s actually about the ceiling of my expectations….

What a game and an example of resiliency. I would love to know how much of that is influenced from the top and how much of that is just the players being pros. Pence getting to blast off vs the team who brought him up must have been such an awesome feeling for him.

And! Bonus stats! Zero catcher interferences AND zero errors.

An incredible turn around compared to the embarrassment of Monday night……

Not much to say about that game. It was not as close as the score indicated. Another catcher interference call. More errors. No hit through 6 or whatever it was. The Giants embarrassed themselves on many levels last night. You can be boring and irrelevant, that doesn’t mean you have to be embarrassing, too.

I am not ok with Kap having a learning curve. He got hired to do this job, it is a prestigious and coveted position. He needs to be able to handle all aspects of it. I don’t care if this is a throwaway season, Z didn’t know that when he hired Kap and Kap didn’t know that when he accepted the position.

You get a job like this, sure you can get better at it over time. But you gotta have the team ready to play. You have to be better than this. The team you lead has to be better than this.

We have our secret weapon *undecided* going for us today in Houston. Who knows, the Asterisks have been pretty beatable now that they don’t know what’s coming every pitch.

On paper this one looks like it will get ugly but maybe Kap stays out of the way enough during the game and we steal a W.

Man, ONE OUT AWAY from a coveted QS. So close. Feel bad for Pence, nobody would feel worse about blowing it in that situation. But, it happens.

Jon Heyman called Kershaw the best pitcher in history (or something like that i was too busy laughing to read it closely).

Well, we got our one reliable pitching performance for the week. It is back to the rosary beads today….

I’ll tell you, I must be like some kind of savant or something, I don’t know how I keep earning these prestigious Trump awards…..

Look the Dodgers just have much better players than we do. There’s no shame in admitting that, they have better players than most teams. While I think our hitting has improved some it is going to have a hard time making up for the pitching which is not good. I’m hoping Z and Kap understand you can’t piggy back and patch work your way through a game. At least you can’t do that over time, with average pitchers. If we had better hitters we would be more competitive in games like last night but you know what? We do have better hitters than we did a couple of years ago so I’ll take what we have and like it.

Hope you all watch The Travers today! The Flap’s OFFICIAL horse mascot this year, Uncle Chuck, is running and trying to defeat the great Tiz the Law. Let’s hope he gets it done and brings home a much anticipated and richly deserved horse racing crown to the Flap.

3:15 PST. TV: Fox (sorry about that)

Thirteen years ago. Man where are the days going? Feels like 13 years was right about when the pandemic started, eh?

I will always love Barry Bonds but the 3 beauties we got after he left make what Barry did almost appear small. To me anyway.

LA tonight. The great thing about a series with these losers is that you just never really know how it’s going to play out. Always a surprise…….

That was a win from years gone by. Belt leading the way with a bomb, a well pitched game. Solid.

Honestly, that’s about as good as we’re going to get from out pitching staff, all things considered. Obviously you need good pitching to win but we don’t really have that. We have “just ok” pitching. We are going to have to swing the bats to win. End of story.

I kinda had it this morning with all the Trump emails telling me they’re going to match 600% of my never-to-arrive donation so I sent them back this:

They responded asking me if there was a problem with my order or if I want a refund. LOL. I know it’s just automated and nobody read my email but it still gave me a good chuckle…..

I honestly don’t have enough wall space for all the certificates and pageantry they want to bestow upon me:

I actually missed the Dickerson drop. I came back in the room, it was slow motion of him at the fence and the ball bouncing away. I never actually saw a replay. Was it an easy ball to catch? Either way, that dude isn’t in the line up for his defense.

Wonderful to see Tromp and Yaz go yard. Even in Colorado, it’s great to see at least a couple of guys hit the ball over the fence.

The defense has been terrible, probably chalk that up to the Covid break and not enough time to get their timing back on everything.

This little 5-5 start to the season has been fun but reality is about to hit, hard. I expect Colorado to blast us tonight. Rockies laying in the weeds, Giants needing a game to get their barrings in Nepal.

Regardless we are now on a ten game roadie vs the Rox, The Dodgers and The Cheaters. If we somehow win 2 I’ll be impressed. I don’t see how our pitching staff competes even on equal footing against those 3 teams and having to start off with the staff getting decimated in Denver, man, this is going to get ugly, early.

Also, yesterday was a big STRIKE TWO for Kapler. That Triggs nonsense had me doing a slow burn till….well I’m still doing it. Made no sense. MAYBE you give a vet a little rope but when it’s obvious to everyone watching that this kid had no business being on a major league mound yesterday it makes you really question if Kap has any idea at all what he’s doing. Imagine the players on the field watching that in real time. They had to be questioning Kap’s managerial skills at that point.

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email inbox today. The subject lines are always the start of the best comedy

When your OPS is Ronnie Lott’s number, you are not having a good year.

Today Mr. .042 likely gets another start and his job is to hit the baseball with his bat and have it be recorded as a hit.

Hunter Pence will go down in history as one of the greatest Giants of all time.

And it is time for him to get a hit…..

Last night was a great sign in terms of how the players view Kap. It wouldn’t have been surprising to see them come out with a flat performance the day after Kap’s two-step blunder. But they came out focused and strong and handed it to the Rangers.

One thing I don’t get about the scheduling: with all this juggling do they have to keep to any form or rules? If it were a regular season and a game got canceled they’d make it up. But with 30 games canceled already do they just try to make those up whenever and against whoever they can make it work with? Because if that’s the case I could see MLB pulling this off still.

Signs are pointing to it not working and if they just straight give up that’s what we’ll have to accept I guess.

my emails today. Stix I promise I’ll get to that article after dinner….

I don’t have a problem with a manager being forward thinking, I like the commitment to how pitchers are managed in today’s new game, but one thing I absolutely expect is that you have to know the rules. The manager has to know the rules.

He owned it after the game but talking before and after games is his wheelhouse. It is WAY to early in his time here to be making embarrassing blunders as he did last night.

I’m certainly not holding this against him.

But it is an ominous red flag…..

Solano and Yaz. And how bout that boater risking it all and diving in for the splash hit? At .500 even with Pence at .000 and Pablo at 300 (pounds).

I shot this very lame video on the way back into town yesterday but if you are a Giants fan who hasn’t ever been out to the park it’ll give you a good idea of where Oracle is located in relation to The City.

I was driving all day and missed the game last night. To be honest I’ve missed almost all of the games being on vacation. Perusing the stats I see we have a grand total of 2 home runs through 5 games. That’s not going to get er done.

Pence and Crawford, um, wow.

Shout out to Ervin who Pa Salon assures me is in the Lurker HOF at the Flap….

14 Marlins caught this shit. FOURTEEN! Wow. Two games cancelled so far today. This feels like MLB’s Rudy Gobert moment. Let’s see what happens.

Well, yesterday was fun. The Giants got their first win and I received many the kudos for being a good son and surprising my mom. I have several friends who have recently lost one of their parents and that video was good for them to see.

Glaze Meadow today, 1:57.

Instead of breaking down that Giants game you’d probably have more fun watching this.

I had just driven into Bend yesterday when the game came on so I really only saw a few snippets of it at my sister’s house. Even with Kershaw sitting and that absurdly haired dope toeing the rubber we looked well beaten….

Today it’s golf at Widgi Creek with my sister and her kids and then it’s over to Black Butte where I shall be surprising my mom who doesn’t know I’m in town. I might videotape that if it’s funny I’ll post it here at the blog.

Make it a great day Flappers. Baseball is back and I’m golfing for the foreseeable future, and things are starting to feel normal again even though I know they aren’t…..

I got another Trump HOF Donor email and it, in itself, should be put in the HOF for its epic outrageous stupidity, but I’m not going to post it (as pathetic as he and it is).

Because today is Opening Day. We’ve crawled through 4 months and 4 miles of shit to get here –a day that will very likely result in a complete and utter shellacking.

But fuck it, who cares….

Fun game last night. Can we please vote to never re-open the gates in right field again? If the ball gets that much more carry when they’re shuttered then let them stay shuttered. McCarthy’s ball went way higher than the other balls and that’s why his got “Oracled”. I’m tired of K/K joking about that. It’s not a joke it’s pathetic. When you hit a ball that far it should be a home run, period.

It’s July 22rd and we are finally getting some real ball.

Make it so.

Here’s what’s awesome about Gabe Kapler—he has conviction and beliefs. And with literally zero credibility here in the Bay Area (or anywhere really) he is choosing to stand by those beliefs instead of being timid and waiting for a different time.

This guy has a *boardroom* attitude, there’s no doubt. But guys like that read the room and just tell you what you want to hear. Kneeling for the national anthem, on your first public day on the job, that is not what a *boardroom guy* would do.

Now, how would this go down if and when he pilots this crew straight into the cellar? I guess we’ll see but what he showed me last night is something that would fire me as a player.

I wanna be in Gabe Kapler’s foxhole…..

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This is a good one. Accepted no where…..

Ok, I think last night was my Domingo German moment.

Sorry.

WordPress still hasn’t gotten back to me about how to save the blog in some type of Smithsonian archive which is where it belongs when I finally decide it’s time to shut her down.

I spent the morning tweeting angry shit at the Portland PD.

I’m leaving for vacation soon and I think everyone would agree I need one badly.

PIA with a pretty hot Asian student. 7/10. Sorry Room Rater can’t have me look at anything any other way.

Oh goodie because what would we do if these dudes weren’t out there for opening day???

We’re going to be force fed these old men till we’re all dead, aren’t we?

I rarely see anything on Facebook that I like except new pics of old friends. Anyway, I saw this yesterday and told San Dawg he’s gotta see it but he doesn’t have a FB account anymore. So, here ya go.

Watched Bart rake a double yesterday and then throw out a guy stealing. One thing about these practice games: everyone seems to be going half speed. I wonder how much that will bleed into regular games without fans.

Well, now that Puig has found a home and Bass Baldy has been properly remembered, what do you guys want to kick around today?

I do wonder how hard Z went after Puig. The internet is full of the usual bluster about the Giants going *hard* after him. But the Giants get used a lot in those situations. I used to think that secretly Sabean was cool with not getting a hitter as long as he got to say how hard he went after him when it was all said and done.

Name a long lost Flapper you miss who doesn’t post here anymore. I’ll start:

TedSpe

Agree with Larry here:

Also, never subscribed to worrying about the *clock* getting starting. If I guy is legit you’re going to pay him no matter what, these days guys get their arb years bought out. It would be a travesty to waste this opportunity to develop this guy at the ML level.

Hearing a lot of “I’m not missing baseball as much as I thought.” Maybe. I bet you’d change your tune with a few games under your belt. We’re just on Carona auto pilot right now. Days have turned into months. Everything is the same. You THINK you don’t miss baseball. But that’s because we’re all stuck in this Groundhog’s Day cycle.

Let’s see what a game or two does to you….

It seems everyone is on board with Buster sitting out there season because come on how are you going to question THAT decision. It would be interesting to see all of our reactions had a full season been on the table and were he still been in his prime….

Have we heard from Kap on his thoughts re: Bart?

You’d think he’d want to play him, right?

The Del Mar Summer meet opens today. Beautiful, glorious wondrous Del Mar. Top 3 places in the world for me.

No fans in the stands, but that’s ok. Man, me and The Boney One have had ourselves some opening days down at the old Del Mar though, let me tell you…..

Back to baseball! What baseball…..

Take it away Bing

I’m hoping Buster is away from the team because he’s deciding whether or not to opt out of the season—something I completely support him doing by the way. If it’s a actual family emergency that would be terrible.

Belt is now in a walking boot due to a bum heel so he’s right on target with expectations this season….

Hey, if all these aged played can’t/don’t play we might get our wish of seeing a genuine youth movement this  “season”.

With the Giants shut down for 2 days because they can’t get the results of their testing back, I was wondering if anyone knew why MLB only has ONE site designated to run all these tests. That’s either incompetence or lack of effort. Or maybe MLB doesn’t want this season to go off at all? Sabotage. Think about it.

Not gonna get too worked up about the schedule. Still don’t think we’re going to actually play. But if we do, who cares? Play whoever wherever.

Daniel wanted to know if I wanted to do a “playing Pepper” Q/A for this upcoming sprint. I told him I’m just not really feelin’ it.

If we get baseball, I’ll be so excited though. The mental break it will give us from the nonsense of the last 5 months will be so therapeutic.

This one was too good not to share. They have discounted membership fees to the Trump Executive Club. I wasn’t going to join at $45 but now that they’ve dropped the price to $35 I don’t think I can pass this up. I mean, come on, can you imagine all the perks that come with belonging to such an exclusive club?

Another thought on the Baggs thing: he’s engaged in all out damage control so that the team doesn’t blackball him again as they did a few years back–I honestly forget what set that off but Pagan and others refused to talk to him anymore.

I missed the entirety of the Mount Rushmore nonsense choosing to watch Hamilton instead. It started off a little slow but got very good and I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like that before…..

July 4th is here. I’m going to stay positive and re-read Dirt’s POTD a few times.

Better days ahead….

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ok, inspired by Loo, Dirt and others, this is what my afternoon looks like. You’ll notice a new addition to the group!!!!

The greatest American holiday is upon on and…..there’s nothing to do. No baseball. No chili cookoff. The beaches are closed. No fireworks. And they’re churning out some lame variation of the hot dog eating contest that I can’t support.

So we sit alone in our houses with our family, something we’ve done for months and months.

Oh well, pass me a Bud Light. What’s that? All out of those. Ok, just gimmie a White Claw.

Pfffttttttt……