A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

Our ace let us down last night. He brought home the bacon, he just couldn’t fry it up in the pan. And if the reliable Holland has left us, we are in a pretty dark place, my flappin’ friends…..

Not being able to hit continues to be a problem. We can’t just be a better hitting team than we were last year. We have to be SIGNIFICANTLY better. And we aren’t.

Jon Gray is a stud who should shut us down. The Royal Wedding has ended with their first glorious kiss as husband and wife. And Pimlico is under water.

Lame weekend….

Colorado has done a very nice job of building an A+ bullpen. It will be interesting to see if these guys can keep it going this year with all the wear and tear on the body and the arm they have to deal with way up there…..

I’m trying not to be down on Pierce Johnson. He’s given up no hits in 11 of his 18 outings this year. He’s really only had 1 horrible game. Bottom line is that we didn’t get enough hits, bombs or singles, last night…..

Lame weekend coming up. Pimlico track likely to be screwed up with water. I still like Good Magic but won’t be surprised if this is an easy win for Justify. And then we have to deal with the idiotic Royal Wedding on Sat, too. All those people just need to go away.

On Sunday, Dubs rolling at Oracle. Three more at AT&T and I don’t feel good about any of these games.

At least we have our ace going tonight…..

Man, that turned quick. We went from a “Perfect Night” with the Dubs rolling and the Giants winning to…I don’t know what that was. Just like I’m still processing that video I posted of the “little incident down at the Starbucks.”

Colorado isn’t hitting. They are leading the NL in bombs (always expected) but they’re 10th in team OPS. That’s wild for a team that gets to play half its games in Nepal.

So as long as Smarge can keep his pitches from leaking right down Broadway we should be ok tonight.

Right?

Question posed on Tolbert’s KNBR show yesterday: Would you rather have a player hit a homerun every single game (and strike out in his other 3 at bats) or would you rather have a player go 4 for 4 with 4 singles every single game? Explain your answer. And don’t ask me any questions about the question, that’s the only info you have to make your choice.

Looking forward to your responses on this one…..

Finally, this…..

Great job connecting a couple of wins off this bad team. There’s a little extra in today’s game with Matt Harvey making his second start for the Reds. As you know, I have a bet with the great San Dawg on how many quality starts this chump will stagger through this season. We settled on 4.5 as the number. That could also be the number of beers he has before first pitch. But I digress.

I will be catching this one on the radio today. Pound this drunken has-been into the ground….

did Belt go crazy about the called 3rd strike? He should have, look where it was (#7).

Great day for Bay Area sports last night. Dubs rolled. Giants won. Stratton was pretty average. Man though, he was one clean inning away from a quality start. If Harvey shakes his way through 6 innings/4 runs (in 5 starts) I gotta pay up to San Diggity? Eh, I’m still not worried. Harvey (who sucks) will come through for me in the end….

Unseasonably cold, lame weather day today. Check out the ticket prices according to espn. We are the one at the bottom. ATT is no longer the place to be.

Go out and beat the Reds (who suck). I have no idea how this team swept the Dodgers. LA has flat out given up and it’s a glorious, wonderful thing….

The other take is that LA has just been ravaged by injuries and just WAIT! till they get their guys back. You know what? Screw that. We lost our top 3 starters this year, we’ve been sending out pole smoker after pole smoker to the mound and yet we have stayed competitive on the year sitting only 3.5 games out.

Resilient….

We have a 7 games at home and it would be a good idea to win as many of them as possible. After that we go on the road for 8 against Houston, The Cubs and Sherpaville. I’m not one to sweat the schedule but that is a killer 8. If we burn up the bullpen early in that stretch I don’t know if I’ll be able to bring myself to watch the Colorado massacre.

Our plucky, average starting pitchers should appreciate being back at home. If they can’t do it here, they can’t do it anywhere….

Harvey goes against Suarez on Wednesday….Extra excited for that one.

Dubs tonight….

Finally we get some relief as we get our best fucking starting pitcher back today. Derek Holland had the best line of all these chumps. Way back in the 4-2 L he went 5 and only gave up 3. All 5 other SP’s did worse than that. Can’t win with starting pitching like this.

I was going through an old box and found some journals I used to write in. Here’s a snippet from one related to our Giants. The first part is about a gun shot exchange I witnessed, not something you typically saw in Palo Alto, then or now.

Another *fun* day of baseball where we get Smarge throwing his 96 mph heater at the Pirates and them sending it right back up his ass at 115 mph. He pitched a game in Pitt a couple of years ago, it’s stuck in my mind for some reason. Gave up a lot of bombs. That was the game where I was like “man, this guy can really serve up the homers.” And he’s been serving ’em up like flapjacks at IHOP ever since.

I don’t know what to say about this road trip except that it can probably get worse. I mean, why couldn’t it?

So what’s gonna happen in Pittsburgh? Are we going to compete as we did in Atl or get taken to the woodshed as we did in Philly?

Somebody is stoked to be in Pitt:

I wonder how guys like ‘Cutch, Longo and Jackson feel about their first couple of months in SF. All 3 certainly had better results in their last stop. Is it a total grind to be a San Francisco Giant now? Do they hate it?

I’ll tell ya one thing, with all these damn K’s the team is piling up I’m definitely gonna have a few “Taillons” at draftkings today….

Don’t watch the game today. Besides not having to watch another shellacking, it’s unacceptable that online is the only way to watch this game. Listen to it on the radio if you have to keep up. The game is better enjoyed that way anyway.

Facebook is stupid. Watching this game just feeds into their stupidity.

Also, we suck right now. I’m still not sure why this is happening. If we were this bad we’d be getting crushed every game. Think about it. If me and 8 other Flappers took the field, we’d get mercy-ruled every game.

The “mercy rule”. I always lqtm when I hear that term, it’s a great term……

Holland was who we thought he was. He got through 5, he gave up home runs. But he kept the team in the game about as well as any #5 can do.

As usual, you can look to the power production to see how the Phillies are doing this. They’ve hit 7 bombs we’ve hit 1 (a pinch hit bomb). You cannot compete in a bandbox by striking out a billion times and not hitting at least a few bombs.

Philly pitching has been good, that obviously has something to do with it. But even good pitching understands they’re going to surrender home runs in dumb ass venues like Citizen Banks Park.

Two young pitchers going at it today. Let’s see who sacks up and leaves the yard….

Not a good night for Bay Area run differential. -25 for the both of them. I wonder if that’s some sort of modern day record or something. Gonna have to check with Elias Sports. How do you do that? When I was a kid I used to think it was some dude named Elias who had all the stats on everyone. He was a freaking genius. Anyway, shout out to that company for staying relevant despite the internet taking over…..

Today could be another rough one. I hold out more hope that Smarge can recapture the magic than I do that Derek Holland is useful.

I don’t sweat big losses like last night’s. It looks bad, it’s just one loss. They had a let down, they’re traveling on the other side of the country, not a huge deal…..

I’m not going to look ahead at the pitching match ups anymore. It just kinda bums me out. The mindset has to be, keep wielding the bats like men and hope the pitching stays out of the way.

We’re 13-5 over our last 18. Don’t fear any team, any park, any pitcher. The only danger we face comes from within…

I love the Joe/Brady arguments. There’s no way to prove any of these generational comparisons and yet they seem to inspire some of the most spirited debates. I may be able to finally admit that Brady has had a better career than Joe but if I needed to win one game there’s no QB I’d even consider starting. Joe forever.

Also….Happy Birthday Ferrethead.

This Hanson guy is bringing a nice, *no-Honky* look to the team right now. Ron Hansen is my favorite all time jockey, may he rest in peace.

Atlanta doesn’t know what’s fucking hit them this weekend. It’s refreshing to see that we can beat a young, athletic team. And we are beating them to a pulp. I’m not really sure how we’re doing this actually.

Next guy up? Suarez? Sure, why not. Hides the ball well, he competes. Another guy who fits into the resilient mold that you’re required to have if you want to play with these guys.

Sweep ’em, why not?

I’d like to point out that when I made my prediction for 88 wins it was before Bum and Smarge went down and there was still hope that Melatonin might still be able to pitch. I didn’t change my win # after all those guys went down because as a great Flapper once told me, “there are no rebuys at the Flap.” So I won’t be changing it now that we’ve likely lost Cueto for the year. And really, predictions are stupid anyway. The team you start with is never the team you end the long season with, so who really knows anything with a baseball seasonal prediction?

Having said all of that, we are on pace to win 86 wins. That isn’t going to get it done for a wild card spot but they have been entertaining and competitive. Actually I think my boldest pick was that the bullpen would surprise everyone and I think they’ve even surprised me. The entire pitching staff has been nails and maybe this is all happening with smoke and mirrors but I don’t think so. You can’t go 17-15 by sending nothing but magicians and their tricks to the mound every single game.

I woke up this morning thinking of one word to describe this team so far and I landed on the word “resilient.” They haven’t made a single excuse about all these lost arms they just go out there and get the job done. Sometimes that job has required the bats to sack up and they’ve done that many times already this year often coming back from a large deficit–something last year’s limp bats couldn’t do.

Realistically, I now question whether they can make a run this year with the team they have. The season is just too long, they’ve already lost their best arms and you have to think more of these guys will be going down as the year progresses. But a resilient team can surprise you. Already, they have surprised everyone. Including me.

Derby Talk:

This is, without question, my favorite day of the year. The Breeders Cup comes close, the Super Bowl maybe, obviously certain holidays with fam, but Derby Day is at the top. I have had mixed results at best in betting the Derby. With 20 horses running the longest distance any of them have ever run before, it’s a tough race to handicap. A lot can happen, even a one split second bad decision by a jockey can ruin the trip and the chances of winning. This year an interesting thing has happened. I am dead set AGAINST both of the favorites. Neither will be on top of any of my tickets. Justify and Mendelsshon are regally bred steeds who will likely have HOF careers by the time they retire. But that doesn’t mean either wins the Derby today. Justify didn’t run at 2 and until that qualification gets met (it hasn’t happened since Apollo won in 1882) I won’t be betting on a horse who didn’t run at two. Plus, those fractions in the SA Derby were a joke, he’s faced an average of 4.7 horses in his career thus far (19 today) and Baffert being his trainer is going to overvalue him in the eye of the public. In fact if this were Mick Ruis training him they’d say he was crazy for trying to rush a horse to the Derby like this. Therefore, for me, he’s a toss out for the top spot.

Mendelsshon is getting too much credit for his UAB Derby win. Yes he won by 18 lengths, yes it was stylish. But it was on a wicked speed favoring track. 16 of the previous 17 dirt races in Dubai were won by the horse who got the lead on the rail. By the way, the horse who came in 2nd that day (Rayya) ran up the track yesterday in the Oaks. So while Mendelsshon has every right to one day be a superstar I don’t think it will be today.

And if you can throw the top two betting favorites out of the top spot on your tickets you are now looking at an awful lot of prices to get the job done. I will have several horses on top in my pick 3, pick 4 and tri and super. I won’t list them all off because that would be overkill. If you put a gun to my head I’d still pick Good Magic to win it but I’ve gone back and forth between him and Bolt d’Oro. Doesn’t matter, I’ll have both (and others).

Today is the only day you get. Go do something *resilient* with it.

This will be a very interesting road trip. ATL/Philly/Pitt. On one hand, if we keep playing the way we’ve been playing, I could see us going over .500 easily. But when you look at that SP staff, man, it’s tough to remain positive. I would like to think that Stratton is back on his regular schedule, his weeping is over, and he’s ready to focus on his trade again.

Derby weekend. I shall release my picks tomorrow. My last 2 publicly released picks (Cloud Computing who won the Preakness at 13-1) and Ascend who won a G1 at 35-1 should have your interest peaked.

If you are playing the Oaks today, I like 3 longshots: Coach Rocks, Wonder Gadot and Eskimo Kisses. Let’s see if one or more crack the exacta…..

Winning games, staying at or above .500, this is exactly the blueprint we had hoped for when the season started. Unfortunately, things are looking grim. Injuries are a part of the game, next man up, yadda tadda, but this team isn’t built to withstand these types of blows.

The only sliver of hope is that we can hit this year (unlike last year). Maybe we stay competitive on the strength of our bats but I’m really just saying that rather than believing it….

I guess we’ll see what happens. Pffftttt…..

It was all Dubs at my house last night so I didn’t catch a ton of the game or any new info on Cueto’s elbow. That is obviously of much greater concern than a May loss to the Padres.

I think we all know where this is going. Either he needs TJ surgery or he’s going to try to gingerly pitch through something and neither of those scenarios are gonna work.

It’s really amazing how all the guys who keep getting hurt are the guys critical to our success. Gorkey’s, Jackson, Hundley, etc…those guys walk around without a scratch on them….

Let’s just put that W in the bank and marvel at 15-14 for a moment…..has it ever looked this good?

But there is a huge looming problem, my friends. Iris’ pimp Sport lurks in the shadows. Smarge has lost his heater and that could be a disaster. He’s down to 91.7 mph, 3 mph off his career average. And being the dope that he is, his plan seems to be to throw more fastballs. He’s running that huffer and puffer up there 60% of the time, easily his highest FB usage since 2010.

Smarge is way too dumb and stubborn to ever turn himself into a craft pitcher. So, either the Giants need to DL him and he needs to get healthy (which isn’t going to happen) or he’s going to turn into “Derek Holland Light” and we already have our hands full with the high caloric Derek Holland.

So I’m stoked, the vibes are all May flowers and shit. But this Smarge thing is a real problem because he is not healthy right now….

With but a final game to go in Big Bad April, I trust we can expect all of the hand wringing to be over when it comes to the schedule. I was never a *schedule hand wringer* because I worry more about the Giants playing the bad teams than the good ones. But by any measure, coming out of April at .500 (technically we’ll be +1 or -1) has to be considered a huge success considering the burden of angst many Flappers carried around to start the season.

We are winning because of our pitching and our power. The Giants are 4th in the NL in home runs. That is astounding coming off last year. I guess it has something to do with having some different hitters, too. And Belt has decided to start swinging the bat. Go back to his 4 strikeout game on April 9th and look at what he’s done since. He’s been crushing.

I’m not expecting smooth sailing ahead. But we didn’t bury ourselves in April and there is a lot to be positive about going forward. Stay healthy, get Bum back, we’ll be fine…..

Cueto is incredible. He throws 40 pitches in the first two innings but still niggles out the win. And his ERA is still well below 1.

Fun fact I read from Baggs this morning: Panda is one of two major leaguers to ever hit 3 world series home runs AND throw a pitch in a game. The other: Babe Ruth.

This DJ Snelton fella has got a lot going on. Looks like he’s injuring himself multiple times per pitch.

Panik gone for 6 weeks. We can survive that. It’s a nice opportunity for Specs or even this Hanson kid.

For everyone panicking about the *brutal* schedule to start the year: We are guaranteed of at least splitting vs LA. Win tonight and we go 6-4. Hovering around .500, we are in great shape as we await Bum’s return.

Here’s a pic of San Dawg continuing his attempt to circle the globe and meet every living Flapper. He met up with Mr SportsDude last night. I think Rooster said he wanted to go to but he’s disappeared lately. Could be that 4-5 April record that’s discouraging him. Either that or another long ass dinner keeping him away…..

“Walker Buehler” may be one of the dumbest, most awkward-to-say white guy names of all time. Especially for a pitcher.

But there’s no doubt he’s got the stuff. A k-machine who will mow through many of our over anxious free swingers. I’d like to think we are going to take some walks but we don’t take walks anymore.

Not really worried about the bullpen getting burned up (what a job by them, eh?) last night. That’s really more of a concern for tomorrow if they get used heavily today in either of these games. But for today? Nah. Run ’em out there.

If Stratton shows up with a new-baby hangover, I’m guessing Cueto is planning on throwing a complete game tonight and it’s going to be fun to watch him try to do it.

Man, if you like pitching MLB has the slate for you. Kluber, deGrom, Strasburg, Severino, Keuchel…and Manaea coming off his no hitter.

We get Ryu vs Holland and that’s fine with me.

Haven’t heard anything about Mac’s neck but I’m assuming this is something that is going to linger and screw with him….

Just try to get 2 and be done with LA for a while…..

Loo, did you ever discover what was under the tape?

Got a day to stew on yesterday’s beat down. It could be worse. We could be Dodger fans. There’s something not right with Kershaw. When was the last time that dude walked 6 guys?

We have 4 big home games coming up, 2 on Saturday. Till then I might go check out the “Ohtani tracker” at espn. Gotta know what’s going on over there….

If I didn’t have to work I’d pay the $2 to go sit in section 330 and watch Scherzer pitch. Two bucks. Back in the day, didn’t it cost a buck to sit in the bleachers at Candlestick? Something like that? So many good times out there….

Not too sure what else there is to say about Mac. Last year we would have lost a game like that spending the evening complaining about how nobody could move Belt over from first base or some shit.

Today is a loss. Sorry, I don’t see any clear path to victory. It would be fun to watch the master work today. But who knows? Now that Mac has done away with The Ground Attack, maybe he blasts one and we get a sneaky win.

The most impressive thing about Mac is his power to the opposite field. It’s prodigious. This is how you win games in baseball today. It’s not about pining your hopes on guys niggling walks and stringing a couple of singles together. Bochy keeps sitting there with that dumb grin on his face after Mac crosses home plate like he doesn’t understand how runs can be scored this way….

Thankfully the Giants went out and got 3 men who can hit home runs (Longo, ‘Cutch and Mac) and they have a 4th, Belt, who hits them when he swings the bat. Posey, he’s good for 12-15 this year. That’s enough power to win in today’s game.

Stratton is the co-MVP of the season (along with Cueto). What he’s doing this year is remarkable and it makes me wonder this: Did he just take his time figuring it out in the minors or did the Giants fall ass backwards into this hitting on him just because they had no other options (like Blach I might add).

I’m not worrying about their record it should be significantly better than it is. It’s April, if we keep getting this type of pitching, get Bum back, AND keep yackin’ and jackin’ the ball out of the yard this is going to end up being a very entertaining year for Giants fans who haven’t jumped ship already….

A couple of weeks ago I raged about Belt not fouling off a close pitch and instead passively leaving it up to the umpire to ring his ass up. Yesterday I gave him a knowing dude head nod for finally swinging the bat.

And even though that at bat didn’t result in a hit or a run or even moving a runner along, it was critical to the general wounding of the pitcher and their bullpen. Later in the game he continued to swing the bat and blasted one to right field outer space.

All I’ve ever wanted for Belt is for him to swing the lumber. Use the talent God gave him. His eye has talent too. He uses it to spy balls and strikes and he used it to spot that large lady he locked up low those many years ago. But those days are over. Swing the bat. Like a man.

I never got around to watching Taxi Driver. Maybe this afternoon. I’m 45 years late on seeing it, I feel good about waiting till my schedule opens up.

I was going through scenarios that would draw a direct line to how the Giants could have won last night’s game but when you strike out 17 times you don’t deserve to win so fuck them.

I’m nearly out of toothpaste. I’m gearing up now, preparing  myself, so that I’ll be able to harness the energy and focus needed to spot and purchase this:

Don’t even get me started on potato chips. I’ve completely given up going down that aisle. And I haven’t had a bowl of cereal since the early 80’s so I won’t be able to participate on that debate but feel free to kick that one around….

Shocker, we hit 3 home runs and won easily. Like it or not, this is how you win games in today’s baseball world. Hitting singles, taking walks, having dudes loiter around on the bases….that’s not how it’s done anymore. Of course you need pitching too. We got that and an 8-1 drubbing was the outcome.

Willy hit a ball 434 feet. I wonder how many balls Hunter Pence would have to hit and string together before they equaled 434 feet?

It’s still only April but the team is beginning to evolve. And Bum could be back by early June?

It would be unwise to give up on this team….

See anything stupid with the tag links at ESPN?

I will never click on the *Ohtani Tracker* so I don’t know what they are tracking. He’s going to be in Anaheim tonight, is that what they are tracking?

If you have to click on the *Ohtani Tracker* to get even more info on this dude who only plays like 4 days a week anyway then you are seeking too much information about him.

I don’t feel like an away inter league series is going to be the thing that fixes our limp bats….

One thing we can all agree on: this team isn’t going to be having too many laughers. We aren’t going to coast to wins by blowing out the opponent.

We’re facing another tough foe today and I can already hear Krukow crying about the match up. Kruk’s always going cry. We’re either facing a tough, established vet, a stud lefty or a pitcher we’ve never seen before–to Kruk, that’s the most difficult of all tasks.

Anyway…..

Total stud effort by Cueto last night. Apparently you need a little hitting to go along with stud pitching, eh?

Our hitters, who are not this bad, need to be accountable for this nonsense. Pence should voluntarily retire. But this isn’t all on him.

Again, I am really not worried about our hitting. We know it’s better than this. It’s just disappointing that we continue to lose games with pitching performances that are worthy of wins….

But this isn’t as dire as everyone is making it. If they Giants had won 2-1 last night we’d be singing their praises today. If you truly don’t think this team can score 2 runs, this revamped offense, then I can see why you’re giving up.

The offense is not this bad. It should be fine. The pitching has actually been better than expected and Smarge and Bum will return.

Hey, the good news is that Pence absolutely crushes Ray, he’s hitting .538 off him and I can’t stop laughing right now….

Ah, so THIS is why we should have won more games in San Diego. I can’t see a clear path to a winning Arizona trip. Three stud pitchers are waiting for us and then…..Los Angeles?Yeah, this is going to test everyone. One thing we can be sure of: Bochy will huddle and cling tightly to any and all vets on the roster–with a healthy dose of Gork’s and Blanco mixed in….

With the great Hunter Pence Sock Day looming, time is running out for action…..

They’ve played 15 games. In 8 of those games they’ve scored 0 or 1 run. They have exactly 2 regulars who are performing at/above expectations: Buster and Panik. So right there, you get your answer on why the offense has scuffled so badly this year. Their OPS is stuck in the mid 600’s because they’ve forgotten how to take walks and hitting doubles, a stat they’ve always been near the top because of where they play, has become troublesome too. There is not enough urgency, as usual everyone is stilling around waiting for someone to do something. It’s annoyingly professional of them.

San Diego ran circles around the Giants. Almost literally. There is not enough *happening* happening. This team needs a spark…

Any loss is disappointing but there were encouraging signs. Both Longo and McCutchen homered. I am not worried about Longo being unproductive this year. It takes time to adjust to a new league. His contract sucks and the Giants will be eating a lot of the back end of that deal but he will be productive this year.

A win would be nice today although not expected. Beede (who sucks) will have his hands full facing off against one of the Padres better pitching prospects. Will Belt continue to sit vs these lefties? The Giants are near last in the league in walks this year, they aren’t going to improve on that number with Belt sitting out…..

___________________________

William Nack died on Friday. A brilliant writer, he captured the essence and beauty of horse racing and what it meant to be a fan of the sport. RIP.

“The gift of reverie is a blessing divine, and it is conferred most abundantly on those who lie in hammocks or drive alone in cars. Or lean on hillside fences in Kentucky. The mind swims, binding itself to whatever flotsam comes along, to old driftwood faces and voices of the past, to places and scenes once visited, to things not seen or done but only dreamed.”

Tyson Ross is lame. He always seems to handcuff us and he hasn’t been good in like 3 years….

Hard to score runs when Cutch, Posey and Longo(ut) go 0-12…

Up and down is what we are going to be until our pitching staff gets restored to mlb levels. I’m calling a win today, that base hit had to have taken a lot out of Richard the other night. lqtm….

It was nice to get an easy one, right? That unfolded exactly as I thought….

Here was my “wake up in the middle of the night” thought for the day: Who wouldn’t want robot umpires? It should and would be uniformly accepted by everyone in the game….

Why the umps would want it: They have to be sick to shit of these catchers framing every single ball into the strike zone. It’s a near impossible job anyway. Pitches coming in from all possible crazy angles, you have to make a split second decision on every one….seems to me a big fatty like Cowboy Joe would rather collect his paycheck for 1/10th the headache. He could still sit back there and call plays at the plate, fair/foul, close pop fly catches, etc….

Why the pitchers would want it: No more worrying about Kruk’s precious personal ump strike zones. Just one uniformed, unbiased zone.

Why the hitters would want it: Brandon Belt has the best eye the world has ever seen. You don’t think he wants to share it with an equally brilliant robot eye? Shit, he’d probably fall in love and leave his large wife for one. “Sorry baby, I’m leaving you for a strike zone that will always be the same size as the day I married her….” lqtm.

Anyway, who am I missing? The fans? The game will go faster and that’s apparently what fans want according to mlb.

Counter argument?

Yesterday was a perfect example of the preseason fears that some pudits had for this team–the other team hit a little better than we did and pitched a little better than we did. Dyson is losing Bochy’s trust fast but we may have found something in Suarez—I love his windup, he hides the ball well, and he didn’t seem overwhelmed by the excitement of his first big league start.

I am optimistic about Stratton tonight, he will pitch well enough to win. San Diego is coming off a heated series in Colorado and teams, in general, don’t hit well in their first game away from Coors. The question is, will we hit enough to win?

Not as dramatic as his walk off bomb the other day but still just as effective. Also, it was nice to see Longo celebrating in the pile at home plate, it was actually the first time I’ve seen the dude show any emotion at all.

Beede was underwhelming, as we suspected he would be. Today another debut, I don’t know much at all about Andrew Suarez but I’m guessing he’s going to be a little better than Beede.

As usual, our issue will be stringing together some hits vs the D-Backs starting pitcher. I swear, every game seems to zip immediate to the 4th or 5th inning and we’re getting shut out on 1 hit with a bunch of K’s.

Start fast for once?

If you had told me that Derek Holland was not going to be the problem this year…..

Four games we have scored one run. Two games we have scored zero. I’m renaming the team “The San Francisco Binary’s” until further notice.

I’m tired of hearing about all of the good pitching the Giants have been facing. This is the big leagues. There are stud pitchers everywhere. Remember that guy who shut us down on opening day? Gonzales? He got blasted by the Royals yesterday. Two innings, 8 hits, 4 runs, showers.

I don’t mind strikeouts if they come with home runs. Belt, Longo and McCutchen have 33k’s between them and 3 home runs. That isn’t going to cut it.

The good news is that I’m still a lot more concerned about Holland being a problem a problem this year. The hitting should come….

With Brandon Belt still passively waiting around for that perfect pitch to drive, we impatiently wait for tonight’s game to begin. Strangely, Hunter Pence has the best numbers against Zach Godley (4 for 5 with 2 bombs). Belt has a walk against him (4 at bats), of course.

The Giants are doing what you would hope they would do without their ace and #3, they are surviving. That could be changing quickly. Arizona is all business. Solid starting pitching, good hitters. Not sure what to expect from Holland tonight. Maybe he’ll be an “AT&T” guy but that’s really just hoping he will be more than anything else….

Now I’m off to begin the day, a day where Patrick Reed is a major winner. That sucks and makes today a little less than what it could have been….

My main man in Reno, Dave Anderson, opined in a text to me: “McCutchen? McClutchen.” Indeed, PaSalon, indeed….

That bomb isn’t going to carry the significance of the ’97 Brian Johnson bomb because of the time of year but I can guarantee I will remember that one for the rest of my life. Where was I the day the Giants beat the Dodgers in the 14th with a walk off 3 run bomb/McCutchen’s 6th hit of the game?” Easy one.

His reaction out of the box was legendary. Those are the types of games that don’t just bring a team together–they bring a player to a team. To a city. Andrew McCutchen is a San Francisco Giant now and I bet he woke up so happy this morning. I know I did….

I got this reminder at Facebook this morning. Man, happy birthday Twinner. From wherever you are, I bet you enjoyed that one last night….

Ok, THIS ONE they should be able to get in. Not with this moment as any indication, it’s pouring like a motherfucker right now. My daughter’s flight back to Costa Rica already got canceled. Props to @virginamerica for quickly getting her on another flight tomorrow….

Anyway, I’m cautiously optimistic about the game today. Stratton is proving to have a reliable major league arm and I think the Giants are going to do better against Hill this time around. Shedding the mental weight of the season’s opening series, they should be able to track and mash that curve ball a little better tonight…..

Anyone jazzed about The Masters? It’s shaping up to be an epic weekend. Several of golfs biggest names are poised near the top to battle and it’s going to be fun to watch them target that pussy snake-in-the-grass Patrick Reed (somehow currently winning)….

Pouring rain right now. Should last all day. Expect this one to get postponed rather quickly….

Fun little win easy win vs a boring Mariners team. I got a kick out of seeing who’s clogging up the top spots of our team batting average so far this year:

A day off today before LA comes to town. The schedule to start this season is stupid…….

The optimist in me points to outscoring the Mariners 4-2 after the first inning. And Longo(ut) finally got a hit and it was a beaut.

Unfortunately, too many guys were still just waving and chopping at the offerings from a below average pitcher.

Today is an intriguing match up. Cueto looked great in his first start and King Felix has been declining for a couple of years (though his first start was a pip, too).

Opening Day. A day of excitement and new beginnings. A day laced with history and dripping with tradition. Except in 2018. We are playing the Mariners a team of scant history or tradition. I had to look up how many times we’ve even played them. I guessed 9 and was wrong.

But whatever, we’ve got our *arch rivals* 16-13 and it’s opening day so really, what is there to complain about? Now that A-Jizz, Longo(ut) and McLuvin’ are at home in a *hitters* park they should rake, right?

At least we have an opening day pitchers duel for the ages. Marco Gonzales vs Ty Blach. I have heard of one of those guys….

Anyone going?

Here is a pic of Xoot and Chi at the game today. Nice boys! Flapper Representation

Another one from Chi: his buddy, his daughter and him

If you had told me before the series that we were going to get a split I would have taken that and been happy. But man, not like that. That didn’t feel like no split. And I don’t want to hear Bochy or anyone else in the org lecturing us on what great pitching the Dodgers have. They aren’t a 0.50 staff, are they? Who’s that good?

The 3 new guys were bound to have an adjustment period but that was ridiculous. The two main acquisitions hit 48 bombs last year. The way they hit this series I’d be happy if they hit 48 moderately deep fly balls this year.

Bright side: We scored 2 runs in 4 games and split the series. That’s hilarious.

One more thing: I am putting the call out for Dugger. The Giants look predictably tired already. A level-headed veteran team will tend to look like that when they aren’t hitting. With no sense of urgency I’ll take a spark like Dugger and A-Jax can head back to the bench and continue with his stoic gaze…..

Last night’s game was a cringy reminder of the team that lost 98 games last year. They couldn’t hit, they couldn’t field, their starting pitcher labored….

The offense is going to be better but what if Longo and McCutchen are done like Melancon? They look like they can still hit and field but their execution says otherwise. Melancon came to us as damaged goods. I don’t think Longo and McCutchen are damaged goods. But could they suffer as dramatic a drop off in one season? Let’s decided after May happens……

The Art Dealer’s grand ring ceremony was yesterday and look at this: Dodger players so embarrassed by their pathetic fake ring party they were caught HIDING their rings behind their backs in the hopes that the Giants wouldn’t see them. Sad I tell ya, just sad…..

There have been 511 pitches thrown in these two games, most of them by the team that supposedly has a terribly pitching staff. Exactly two of them have been hit out of the park, both by one of the least likely hitters to do so. I can’t remember a more remarkable two game exacta between these two teams.

Today and tomorrow is the definition of playing with house money. I can’t believe Holland can keep this going but in my wildest imagination I didn’t think the first two games would have gone the way they did so I am going to be positive and hope Holland can go 5 innings of 1-2 run ball.

Now, it is time for the rest of these jokers to start hitting. Or even one of them other than Little Joe.

WillieD and San Dawg met up for clams and deviled eggs last night at The Goose. Sorry I couldn’t make it boys.