A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

The Giants are really wielding some big wood right now, eh? One run in 2 games? Pav at the Merc had a great line: “the hardest hit the Giants have had (in this series) was off Lincecum’s knee.”

Luckily, we have a high tolerance for putrid, impotent hitting (having put up with it all last season).

One of the new not-so-subtleties that we will be treated to at ATT this season is the “Yahooooo!” noise every time a Giants hitter blasts a home run. Who decided that this was a good idea?

I just wanna get this season started already……

This is one of my favorite people in the world. She grew up in LA. Tommy Lasorda went to her wedding. She married a Giants fan. She is battling Leukemia. And she is at AT&T tonight. Two Flaps up for “Smackers”. I love you, Krista.

Yesterday was quite the day for Giants fans and Stanford Cardinal fans. Kershaw gets an MRI on his back and is scheduled to miss his next start. Then Donnie Two Trips has to hold a “clear the air” closed door team meeting about Puig. How rad is that? They are already holding “clear the air” meetings and the season hasn’t even started yet.

Then I get home to watch Cal get bounced out of the joke NIT on a buzzer beater.

And tonight I get to watch my Cardinal with the possibility of beating Dayton and making it to the Elite 8. Stanford isn’t very good this year, this run they’re on is fueled by good luck and sketchy opponents. I will say they would have destroyed the NIT and marched to an easy victory in that bullshit—if they would have even accepted the invitation.

My mind is blowing sideways at the possibility of 3 Pac 12 teams making it into the Elite 8.

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They open in 10 minutes….

If you ever believed that Marco Scutaro would be playing on opening day, you probably also believe some of the bs coming out of Malaysia about Flight #370. Scoots playing was just never going to happen. And I think he’s done everything he could do to get ready to play. Sometimes, the body just won’t respond. So we turn our collective Giant eye towards J-Arias who will likely be the starting 2nd baseman on Opening Day. I don’t have a big problem with this, I like Arias, I can still see him with my mind’s eye set his body like a rock and heave a mighty strike across the diamond to save Cain’s perfecto.

But this does weaken our bench substantially.

Brandon Hicks is a name we haven’t talked about too much but he’s likely going to make the team as a utility player. Who is Brandon Hicks? Drink a cup of coffee or two while you read the rest of this paragraph. He’s a 28 year old who crafted his trade at Texas A&M. He was drafted by the Braves in the 3rd round of the 2007 Amateur Draft. He was waived and picked up by the A’s in 2012. The Mets bought him from Oakland 6 months later and he was released by them a year later. We signed him last November. He is not on the 40 man roster.

His most recent mlb experience was with the A’s in 2012 where he got 70 plate appearances, hit 3 bombs with a .172 batting average. His minor league career has been far more decorated, at least in comparison. In 7 minor league seasons, he hit 91 bombs, swiped 69 bags and hit an underwhelming .247. Pfffftttt…..

Personally, for me, I’d rather see Kevin Frandsen take his spot.

What if the Giants ‘zitoed Voggy? Remember that slick move? You suck so badly in spring training that you have to stay behind while all your teammates break camp and head for SF. It worked in 2012. Remember when Zit’s came into camp crouching his way through his starts? That lasted about 2 weeks. They kept him in Arizona to continue to work on mechanical flaws. I was certain he was done.

And then he showed up in Colorado for his first start of the year and, naturally, through a complete game shut out.

The Giants could do the same thing with the underperforming Vogelsong. I don’t think it would help him the same way Zito benefited, but I’d rather see a guy like Petit go out there and take his lumps against the Dodgers than Voggy. If Vogelsong goes out there and gets lit up again, that could be the final straw. No more blow jobs from Nicole. Gnashed teeth scattered randomly around the mound. It could literally be the end of him.

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Scott Baker just got released by the Mariners. He didn’t have a great spring but it was better than Voggy’s. And he’s got the built in excuse of shaking off some rust having not pitched for a year. He could be a nice stop gap while we figure out what to do with our Numero Cinco.

Driving home this evening, they coulda sworn they had it all worked out…

That’s what Dan Runzler, George Kontos and Heath Hembree were thinking to themselves the night before they got sent back down to Fresno.

Boch had those boys believing, beyond a shadow of a doubt….

Then they heard it on the street…..

Sometimes being a major league baseball player just cuts like a knife.

Maybe Runzler just needs to change his name to *Strikezler” or something like that?

It sounds like there are some “organizational reasons” that are keeping those three players off the roster to start the season. I like all three, I hope they get called up quickly.

Rough day for fan favorites. Mark Minicozzi and Brett Bochy got the ax today. Five other guys got the boot too, but after those two I didn’t feel like seeing who the rest were. It’s been long enough of a day, as is.

Minicozzi’s story is epic and he hit a bomb in his first at bat of the Spring. But he dialed it way back down after that hitting .194 for the Spring. The scribes like to follow how Bruce Bochy cuts his son every year. Last year, he lowered the boom over dinner. This year he kicked him to the curb over breakfast. So naturally there was this GOLD comment from Baggarly:

And that’s about it for today. Hope your brackets are still breathing. I did 2 of them, failing pretty bad in the Billion, holding a very solid 3rd (out of 48) in my work pool. And outside of slapping another BBOTD up there, it’s just one more day we can X off the calendar till we hit March 31st.

Bring it.

An hour past midnight, anyway, tonight (Pacific Time.) Thus starts the 2014 season. In Sydney, Australia. In a cricket stadium. And speaking of cricket, has there ever been a sport more impenetrable to those unfamiliar with it? What are those people DOING?!! Just trying to read a wikipedia article about the sport made me weep for mercy.

A baseball diamond has now been carved into the grass, and there looks to be about 9 miles of foul territory for Kershaw to work with. Although, the word is that the ball carries very well in the….ballpark. Yeah, let’s call it a ballpark. Cricket uses a ball, too. That part I understood from the wikipedia article.

No less an authority than Dee Gordon was quoted by ESPN as saying there’s going to be a lot of homeruns hit in the two games. Who knows more about hitting homeruns than DEE GORDON?!! Here’s the dimensions of the outfield according to ESPN: “328 feet down the line, with the power alleys at 370 feet and straight center field at 400.” Game time temperature is expected to be 84 degrees, with a slight breeze blowing toward the outfield. How about Goldschmidt hits 6 homeruns in the 2-game series, and the D-Backs put the Dodgers in an early 0-2 hole to start the season; thus putting the Dodgers in a “sticky wicket,” like I know what that means. I’m assuming that means something bad.

Well, maybe not *of all time*.

A few days ago, I told you guys about the Cardinal blogger (Daniel Shoptow) who was putting together a Q/A thread for other Giants blog writers. Here is the link to it with 3 other Giant blog writers giving their *esteemed* opinions.

http://www.cardsconclave.com/2014/03/20/playing-pepper-2014-san-francisco-giants/

Surprisingly, three of us agreed about Zito.

I don’t read very many blogs that aren’t my own. It was nice to read a snippet of what other Giants fans are writing about, or at least experience a slice of the non-Flap world (like one even exists, right?) 🙂 All things considered, it sounded a lot like what we say around here.

But for me, it’s all about Flavor Nation.

Let’s fire this be-atch up and get the season started already.

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I’m not sure when this pic was taken, he only looks about 14 or so,  but I thought it was time we gave ourselves an updated vision of what Darren Baker looks like now—last time I saw him, JT was scooping him up at home plate. Anyone got a better one?

Listened to a very interesting Kruk segment on KNBR this morning about his take on what is causing all of these elbow injuries to pitchers. I had always attributed it to young pitchers playing year round and never giving their arm a break. Slowly, attrition on the elbow is inevitable.

But Krukow offered a different explanation that seemed quite plausible. He said that when he was a kid, pitchers threw like 2 pitches— fastball and curveball. Bruce Sutter (Kruk’s name, I’m sure it was someone else)  introduced the split finger fastball and that pitch became quite popular. And Greg Maddux, among others, popularized the change up and cutter.

Kruk said that all of these new pitches, over the years, are responsible for too much stress on the elbow region because the pitcher has to speed up their arm speed to properly throw them.

Anyway, it made sense to me. And if that’s truly the cause, I’m not sure there’s a way to fix this unless they stop throwing the pitches. Right?

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On another note, if you are supportive of Bryan Stow, check out how this tragedy has affected Tim Flannery. Powerful 5 minute video. “Live Riveted”. It’s great advice.

In a shocking development, Marco Scutaro is going to play in a game today. This, despite having not faced live pitching yet. I’m assuming Scoots is gonna take his at bats with his bat firmly attached to his right shoulder.

I think it’s clear that this is a back that cannot be fixed enough for him to be an everyday major league baseball player. I doubt he’ll even be able to tolerate the pain enough to play even as a utility guy. When you can’t get out of bed or you can’t walk in the morning, that’s a pretty good sign that you’re done. And Scoots and his medicos had all off season to figure this out and they are no closer to fixing his back than they were when he started.

But I admire the hell out of his effort to try to play through this thing.

just a great pic:

I did this last year, and I’m doing it again this year. Daniel Shoptaw writes a blog for the Cardinals  (www.cardsconclave.com)  and I have put my feelings aside about the Cardinals to write a thread answering 6 questions. I don’t know Daniel personally but he’s featured in Pawlie’s book “Baseball’s Starry Night”. I met Daniel through the Baseball Bloggers Alliance and we connected those dots from there. His upcoming segment is called  “Playing Pepper” and he asks different blog owners from different teams to answer specific questions about the off season and the season ahead. Here goes:

1) How would you grade the off season?

answer: I grade it a B. I love the Huddy signing and Morse is a low cost answer to the black hole we call left field. Locking up Pence early was brilliant as it turned out he would have gotten significantly more had he tested the market. People scoffed at the dough thrown at Timmy but it was only 2 years and I expect him to have a very good year. I would have liked to have seen them sign a “Kelly Johnson” because he’s affordable and the one thing the Giants can’t afford to do is suffer injuries and have to turn to the farm system for long term help. It is not there.

2) How strange (and perhaps liberating) will it be to not see Barry Zito on the roster this year?

answer: I won’t miss Barry pitching for us, it was often disastrous. But I will always hold Barry Zito  in the highest esteem for what he did in Game 5 vs the Cardinals in the 2012 playoffs. They do not win the 2012 World Series without Zito pitching in Game 5 of the NLCS. And his final game as a Giant will go down in history, for me, as one of the most emotional single “walk off the mound” moments in Giants history.

this is far from the best video of that moment, but considering how much he was hated for so many years, this send off is most awesome. These fans “get it”. Somebody else might be able to find a better video of the moment. It’s barely addressed anywhere but this is Mark Kotsay’s final at bat as a big leaguer too, and I can’t say enough about Kotsay’s character to take this strike out for his old buddy.

3) What roster battle will be the most intriguing during spring training? (he sent me this a while ago, I apologize for just getting to it now)

answer: Marco Scutaro’s battle vs his own back. I said back in Feb 2011 that Freddy Sanchez would never play again and people laughed at me. I do think Marco will play this year but he’s utility material at best. I’d take The Wonger from the Cardinals in a nano-second. Or even Mark Ellis.

4) What rookie, if any, will have the most impact on the team in 2014?

answer: Probably Adrianza just because he’s out of options and might fall into the 2nd base gig as Scoot continues to battle his back.

5) What will be the final record of the team and where will they finish?

answer: total homer call here, we have to stay healthy across the board, but I am predicting the Giants win 92 and the division. I’ve nailed too many other final win totals cold over the years, I’m allowed to take a flier like this now and again. 🙂

6) Which player from your team do you most enjoy watching?

answer: The Pagan Salute. If he’s saluting at second base, we’re winning and that’s all this Giants fan cares about…….

We fans can feel protective of certain sports records. The record I have the most concern about is Joe Montana’s 4-0 record in Super Bowls, in which he also threw a total of ZERO interceptions. Terry Bradshaw shares the 4-0 record, and I really dig how exclusive that club is. As a 49er fan, I get nervous about barbarians approaching the gate on that one, though. Tom Brady is 3-2 in Super Bowl wins. I do NOT want Brady becoming part of the same conversation with Joe Montana. But Brady has a few good years left in him, so…..every season is a kind of gauntlet to be traveled. Especially considering the patty-cake division that Brady plays in. He’s guaranteed a pretty easy playoff spot every year. Fortunately Peyton Manning is a long way from the conversation. The only positive thing about that last Super Bowl was the door slamming shut on Peyton’s chance to enter the conversation. Whenever talk starts about greatest quarterbacks of all time. Montana and Bradshaw’s 4-0 stands alone, pure and dynamic, a beacon of greatness, a kind of north-star of coolness.

But what about baseball? What record do I care about THAT much in baseball? It’ hard for me to think of one, and I’ve given it some thought. None of Barry Bonds’ records mean that much to me anymore. They’re nice memories, but those memories are now tainted, for me. I literally don’t care if any of Barry’s records are broken. Maybe I would feel differently if the 2002 team had won a championship. That would have given me more emotional attachment to Barry’s records.

A baseball record I would not like to see broken is Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. It’s a really cool record,  and the monument of his legend. He won the World Series 9 times, but it’s the 56-game hitting streak that takes his legend to the stratosphere. But it’s a record that no one needs to feel nervous about. It’s a record that will never be broken. So….I would say the record I care most about isn’t really a “record” in that sense. It’s simply: World Series Championships, Giants 7, Dodgers 6. As a Giants fan, that gives me enormous satisfaction. The Dodgers have made moves to get back to the World Series, and it will happen at some point again in human history. But for now, Giants 7 Dodgers 6. Beautiful.

And here’s to that amazing hitting streak again. Here’s a great book about it:

In 1987, Don McMahon was pitching batting practice to the L.A. Dodgers, and collapsed with a heart attack and passed away. And we lost Bobby Bonds in 2003 and Dick Dietz in 2005. That’s the sad part of the story.

I was curious about the current whereabouts of the ’71 team; the team that created a Giants fan out of me. My relatively quick and unimpressive research also shows that Tito Fuentes is a Spanish language broadcaster for the Giants, as he has been for years; Chris Speier is some kind of special assistant for the Reds; Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Juan Marichal rule the world as baseball royalty; Gaylord Perry rules his own particular world of retirement somewhere in North Carolina; Alan Gallagher and Hal Lanier may or may not still be managing obscure independent minor league teams in towns only slightly bigger than Bodie, Calif.; Ken Henderson is retired in Pennsylvania, or not.

Obviously there were other players on the team, but these are the guys from the ’71 team that stick in my mind. It was only last season, as I was walking along that really cool walk-of-history on the McCovey statue side of the Cove, which has plaques with the starting lineups from the first game of each SF Giants season, that I was reminded that Hal Lanier started at shortstop that first day of the season, and Speier took over later at some point.

But as much as anything, it was Lon Simmon’s play-by-play that drew me in. Who knows- if the awful Monte Moore hadn’t been the A’s broadcaster, there’s a chance I could have ended up an A’s fan. Certainly the A’s were winning more in those days. But Lon had it just right. He was obviously awesome, and the world of Giants baseball enveloped me that summer. Lon’s call for a Giants’ homerun, on paper, doesn’t sound like much: “You can TELL it goodbye!” But it was the hoarse crackle in his voice or something. He made it dramatic and memorable.

Of course, that season ultimately ended in disappointment, and we had no way of knowing that the Giants wouldn’t make the playoffs again until SIXTEEN years later. But I now had a shared history with the Giants. I had been through a lot with them in that ’71 season. So, here’s to the ’71 team. Not a World Series winner, unfortunately; but still a pretty cool team in my mind. And now that the SF Giants won rings in 2010 and 2012, I can thank the ’71 team for helping to set the stage.

I cogitated about BF’s thread the other day about how many draftees make it to the Bigs; then got an idea about my “at bats” blather.  We all know Will Clark played in only a small number of minor league games and then came up and hit that dinger off Nolan Ryan in Houston, and the rest is history.  Obviously, the Thrill was an outlier talent.  But, is there any magic to minor league stints; a basic, empirical rule about the number of minor league ABs a kid needs before he has a shot to stick in the Big Leagues?

To wrap my arms around this a little, I reviewed some data on plate appearances (PAs) to make things easy for comparative purposes. (PAs = ABs + BBs, sac bunts & flies, etc.)  First, surprise — I looked at some Giants.  Willie Mays had 470 PAs in the minors (only 164 at AAA Minneapolis) with an OPS of 1.017.  Add that to PAs with the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues (not sure really how many, it’s likely at least a few hundred since he played with them over several seasons), and Willie had a pretty fast track to the Bigs, getting there at 20.  Stretch started out in D ball (rookie league) as a 17 year old, and surprisingly had a total of nearly 6 seasons and 2457 PAs in the minors, with 1073 at AAA Phoenix over 3 seasons there.  If you remember, he actually got sent back down to Phoenix after coming up the first time – looks like that was a good idea, because he never went down again after he came up the second time.  As a big guy, looks like it took a while to groove that swing, but once he did, he grooved it all the way to the HOF.

Jack Clark, IMO a very good player, not a star, had what I’d call a traditional, stepped rise through the minors.  Starting at 17, he spent time in the rookie league, then one full season each (over 500 PAs) at A, AA, and AAA ball, with a total of 1902 PAs in the minors.  Bobby Bonds, beginning at age 19, had just under 1900 PAs in the minors, with 714 PAs at AA and less than a full season at AAA Phoenix before he got called up at age 23.  Jimmy Davenport had 1641 minor league PAs, with 581 at AAA Minneapolis, coming up to the Big Club at age 23.  The Thrill played in all of 71 games in the minors before getting called up at age 22 – with 289 PAs in 65 games at A ball Fresno, and just 6 games at AAA Phoenix for a total of a meager 313 minor league PAs.  Let’s just say his outsized talent met fate in a horrible SF Giants team badly in need of that talent.  He had at least two full seasons at Mississippi State (one as the Golden Spikes winner), so I’d throw in at least another 600+ college PAs to that pro total (couldn’t find actual MSU stats). And, Matt Williams had 1178 minor league PAs before sticking with the Big Club at 23.  You’ll remember they brought him up and down several times to SF from AAA until Matt finally figured out how to hit AND lay off the curve ball.

Derek Jeter started in the minors at 18, had 2009 minor league PAs, with 558 or so at the AAA level, coming up to the Bigs at age 21.  Freddy Sanchez stuck in the Bigs at age 26 with the Bucs in 2005, after around 1700 minor league PAs and some prior cups of coffee with the Big Bucs.  Freddy spent 4 years in JC and NAIA ball, so he probably had around 1000 college PAs before he hit the minors – making Freddy kind of an outlier guy who made it late to the Bigs, but turned into a batting champ and had a nice, though fairly short career, with a Giants ring.  Freddie Freeman, he of the new, big fat contract with the Braves, came up to the Bigs at age 21 after 4 seasons in the minors and 1771 minor league PAs. 

Our buddy Brandon Belt when first called up in 2011 had just under 600 total minor league PAs, with only 61 at the AAA level and a half season at AA.  IMO (and JT Snow’s) he was up way too early, but with Huff unpuffing, SF rolled the dice.  Sent back down to Fresno, Belt had 212 more PAs there, for an overall total of 825 minor league PAs before he came up to stay.  Now he’s got 1252 MLB PAs heading into this ST, so when he started to go nuts hitting the ball last mid-season, he was around 1800 total pro PAs.  He had about 475 ABs at Univ of Texas before he got drafted by SF.  Panda had 1899 PAs in the minors before sticking in SF, with just 184 at AA, nothing at AAA Fresno.  Mike Trout of the Angels, maybe the best all around player now, had just 1312 PAs in the minors after starting at 17, and up to the BigA just before hitting 20. 

All the above guys don’t seem to show too much in common in terms of PAs history, other than it looks like having a good stint at AAA is critical to batting success in the Bigs for most players.  Good ol’ boy Charlie Manuel said something I think is to the point, when he talked about a struggling player in the Bigs that was brought up without much time at AAA:  “That played a big part in him struggling the past couple of years,” Manuel said. “You miss Triple A, you miss seeing good breaking stuff from 28-, 29-year-old pitchers. Breaking stuff with control.”  http://articles.philly.com/2013-05-31/sports/39631521_1_cesar-hernandez-charlie-manuel-chase-utley. 

So, my take here is that NO, there is no hard and fast rule about how much time you need to spend in the minors to stick in the Bigs.  Depends on talent, and stardust.  But, unless you’ve got a natural Nuschler or you’re Willie Mays or Trout or another phenom, you probably should get AT LEAST 1500 overall PAs in the minors for a chance of success in the Bigs.  Of that, you better get at least 600 to 700 PAs at the AA and / or AAA level.  That gives you facetime with enough tough pitching to have a shot at not getting smoked by big league arms.  So, a full season each in AA and AAA each is going to serve you real well.  How college or JC PAs translate into minor league PAs, I don’t know.  Maybe one college PA is worth .50 of a pro PA.  Depends a lot on the quality of the league you’re in at college, and the quality of your college instruction, which can vary a ton.

BTW, Gary Brown (age 25) has 1910 total minor league PAs coming into this ST.  That’s after an All-American stint at Cal State Fullerton.  Likewise, Kieschnick (age 27) has 1995 minor league PAs, including over 700 PAs at each of AAA and AA, with a career minor league OPS at .816 (after a stint playing at Texas Tech).  At the similar minor league PA point in Bobby Bonds’ and Jack Clark’s careers, they were already up to stay with the Big Club, and they came straight outta high school.  Kieschick’s minor league career shows that there’s nothing like MLB pitching to humble you, even if you’ve done pretty well in the minors. And, if the Brown hitting light bulb doesn’t go off soon at Fresno, the PA prediction machine says unless he channels Freddy Sanchez, he’s got a snowball’s chance of making it in the Bigs…

The point of spring training, or spring break, for that matter, is: hope springs eternal. (With spring break, the hope is that one’s sprong sproings eternal.) Hope springs eternal. That means whether you are a Cubs fan, Astros fan, Yankees, Red Sox, or — wait for it — Giants fan, you indulge in hope. You go for the lie. You fall for the bait, the lure. You believe in the shiny bauble that says, “We can win it all.” You’re angling for bask. The ironic thing is, to be honest, I sort of gave up that sort of childish hope years, decades, ago. Sure, sure, we could win it all. But did I really believe that in the spring, in March? Unlikely. And then, when IT happened, TWICE, it was still an infinitely sweet surprise. The double bask made me a believer in this sense: the God (or Goddess) of Surprise still has some tricks up his (her) toga. It could happen again. Despite all odds. It could. Hope springs temporal.

I admit it, I am one of the weirdos. I like the clock switching twice a year. I live in California, we really don’t have seasonal change. An hour forward or an hour back? That’s as good as it gets out here when it comes to change. Plus, I’m awfully good at remembering “spring forward, fall back” so I’m never in danger of being 2 hours off the pace of society. That shit counts when you’re walking the earth with other people.

I read something today that said there is an uptick in heart attacks on the two days a year we have a time switch. To that I say, “So long, old friend.” If the time change sends you into cardiac arrest, you are either a hampster or someone that was gonna get picked off sooner or later anyway. Might as well be the clock changing that takes you out…..

What I don’t like is spring training. I enjoy hearing Jon Miller’s voice the first time I happen to catch a game in early March, but that novelty wears off in about 5 minutes. There is NO REASON for 7 weeks of spring training. Sure, back when ballplayers had to work second jobs it was a necessary thing, you needed 7 weeks to get back in shape. But today’s ballplayer comes to camp with ass cheeks tighter than a giant rubber ball band. They’re good to go on day 1. The pitchers need a few weeks to get their arms going but they don’t need seven weeks.

There is one, single reason that spring training continues to be 7 weeks: money. Everyone makes a shitload of money. If they could pull it off, owners would make spring training 30 weeks. Seven weeks is nearly a third of the regular season. Think about that…..

I could care less about spring training. I’ve got twitter to update me on injuries and that’s the only thing I care about when it comes to spring training. Wake me up when the games start to count……

And they did that without Robinson Cano. I think this one was on tv, I’m glad I missed it. Between Romo, Petit and Voggy I’m not sure who’s sucking worse. I know it’s spring training but I’d prefer that my closer not get lit up like a Christmas Tree every time he takes the mound. I know he’s not throwing sliders but has anyone asked WHY he isn’t throwing sliders? I hope the answer isn’t ominous….

Chi picked a hell of a game to catch today, eh? I’m sure all the beers, dogs and rays got him through this forgettable game…….

No Morse and Pence tomorrow. Morse has a tight calf and Hunter hurt his elbow swinging. Both are expected to be fine in a couple of days…….

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Quick Scutaro thought: you know, the dude wasn’t a starter for the first 5 or so years he was in the majors, he was a utility guy. Just cause he’s making some dough doesn’t mean he HAS to be a starter. Heck, Andris Biedrens is making 9 million dollars this year, he’s been healthy since middle of December and he still hasn’t played a minute for the Jazz–and the Jazz stink.

Obviously, you have to have something better than what Scoots could give you but maybe playing a couple of days a week against lefties and pinch hitting is how he could best serve the team this year.

Among others, Joe Panik, Gary Brown and Angel Villalona just got sent down. I was a little surprised that they didn’t give Panik more of a look but when you think about the Giants and their near utter failure to develop mlb position players, it’s not that surprising. Brown is a complete lost pick and Villalona is never, EVER going to do anything other than be famous for beating a murder rap back home. His bat is slow, so is he, it’s anybody’s guess why they still have this dude on the 40 man roster…..

The Giants pathetic position player development got me to wondering about the league averages with all teams and how often a player drafted, who signs, makes it to the big leagues at some point in their career.

According to  a Bleacher Report article I read (huge, huge disclaimer being thrown out there since this is the extent of my research for this thread), 66% of first round draft picks make the major leagues at some point. That number isn’t a surprise one way or the other. Maybe sounded a little high to me.

Second round draftees reach mlb 49% of the time.

There’s a significant dropping point for rounds 3-5 with only 32% of those players ever making The Show.

Rounds 6-10 see 20%.

Rounds 11-20 is 11%.

The chances of a player reaching the majors from round 21 onward is a dismal 7%.

Just taking a look at the Giants drafts since 2006 when they started actually giving a shit about the draft, I’m not sure if our numbers line up with the major league averages. I don’t feel like sorting out the non-signings from the 50 picks drafted to figure out the % of players who have made it to the big leagues. But here is some preliminary research. If you want to dig deeper, go for it. Keep in mind, the draft was always 50 rounds until the new collective bargaining agreement and now the draft is 40 rounds.

In 2005 they didn’t have a draft pick till round 3 when they took the (low)esteemed Benjamin Copeland. That was the same draft they took Minicozzi in the 17th round. Sergio Romo got drafted 28. Thomas Neal was 36 but I don’t think he has ever appeared in the major leagues. That’s it for 50 rounds.

In 2006 they started off with a bang nabbing Timmy. Burriss was 2, Rohlinger and Pill  went 6/7.  Bigcock 9. Nobody else out of their 50 picks, at least in my quick scan of the list, has made it to The Show (yet).

In 2007, we again started off with a winner (MadBum). Tim Alderson was next but while we did flip him for Freddy Sanchez he’s never thrown a pitch in the major leagues. Noonan and Culberson went next and while they are worthless, they still count as “mlb hits” of players who have made it to the big leagues. Runzler was 9, Edelfsen was 16, Otero was 21. Jonny Monell went 30. Nuthin’ else.

In 2008, we drafted G-Dizzle (Posey), followed by Gillespe, Kieshnick and Crawford. That’s a pretty solid first 4 if you’re just talking about guys to make the major leagues. And Surkamp was 6. Juan Perez was 13. Nobody else though.

I’ll look at 2009 last since drafts after that are filled with lots of guys who are still developing now. Zach Wheeler went #1. Tommy Joseph 2 (he hasn’t made it I don’t think but we did trade him for Pence). Belt 5. So far, nobody else.

I know I said I was done, but 2010 was Gary Brown in the first round. I suspect he’s going to be minor league roster filler forever and that sucks since he was a first round pick. Hembree was 5.

2011 was Panik who sucks but they followed that up with Crick who is the best prospect in our system.

2012 was Chris Stratton and I haven’t checked recently but is he even pitching?

2013 was Christian Arroyo and Ryder Jones, two dudes we won’t know about for 3+ years…….

Hey, the mlb draft is kinda a crapshoot, we all know that. Still, when given 50 picks, we have proven nearly incompetent (especiually at hitting on position players). From 2006 through 2009 we had 200 draft picks (not sure how many didn’t sign). And the *hits* listed above are few and far between……

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and now for something fun. Here’s what Timmy looked like today. Must have a gay porn set to hit after the game. I kid, I kid….

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A side note— I’ve been preoccupied with some other stuff this Winter, life shit, normally the BBOTD and the BBOTD-POTD is one of my primary focused points in the winter solstice. Secretly, for me, it’s my favorite part of the blog—off season. I dropped the ball this year a little bit but I promise to double up next year. I re-set the last chick to the new chick tonight. And to make up for my slackardness, I might just keep this widget going all year. We’ll see, it’ll depend mostly on all of your rad captions. But Snarkk, Unca, Pawlie, DJ Loo, Dirt, Bozo, MacDog, WillieD, E-wisco, Chi, Zummie, and whoever else I’ve missed….you guys produce more gold in a BBOTD caption than is produced in an entire year at any place that, you know, *produces gold*.

Keep that golden shit coming…….

I haven’t checked the spring stats yet. That’s by design, I don’t want to get too jazzed up one way or the other about anyone. I did hear on the radio that Minicozzi’s batting average dropped to .556 after he *only* had 2 hits yesterday.

Freddy Sanch….I mean, “Marco Scutaro” has had his timeline pushed back again. He won’t be playing this weekend. The Giants say this is all part of their plan for him. Yeah, right.

Our good friend ChiPower is representing the Flap in Arizona this weekend and I’m hoping he sends us lots of pics of all our favorites!

By now, most Giants fans (not in Vietnam) have heard about Mark Minicozzi and his improbable return back to, well, baseball in the United States. I wanted to see how he fared in the Nicaraguan Professional League and I’m not sure if I found the right league though I can’t imagine there are too many professional leagues in Nicaragua. The original NPL shut down in ’67 but was re-opened in 2004.

Finding their stats are on the internet isn’t an easy thing to do. Minicozzi didn’t dominant any of the obvious offensive stats. Someone named Yurendel de Caster hit .416 in 2012/2013 stamping himself as the “Ted Williams” of the NPL. He also won the triple crown that year blasting 13 bombs and 56 ribbies….

But enough about Yurendel de Caster…..

I’m sure the Minicozzi story is more of a big deal to Minicozzi and his friends and family than to anyone else. It’s a fun story to follow. He makes Voggy’s path back to the majors look like Will Clark’s fast track to the bigs back in 1986. But he will provide some nice, necessary minor league depth and he’s probably fine with that. Wait till he gets to meet Bonds. Imagine how blown his mind will be during that encounter……

Barry’s coming back next week. Does that do anything for ya? Who knows, maybe he can say something in a way Muelens can’t. It’s always hot or miss with the mortals trying to glean something from the gods. Since it’s almost inconceivable that Bonds would come back and start being a dick to everyone, I see this as nothing but a good thing. He wants to get back into the game in some capacity, he will HAVE to turn on “good Barry” and keep him turned on 24/7.

He might really be able to help a hitter like Brandon Crawford….

I’m not sure what he can do for Scutaro who not only hasn’t played in a game yet, he hasn’t even swung a bat yet this Spring. I hope the private discussions about 2nd base are long and focused at the highest levels of Giants management…..

Still struggling to go baseball right now. Just saw an unreal stat:

Since 1968, five players have dropped 50 and recorded a 3/Dub at MSG: Stephen Curry, Lebron, ‘Melo, Patrick Ewing and one of my all time favorites, Bernard King. That is insane….

Throw me a bone. Anyone going to spring training? Besides Chi and his daughter? As rad as it is that they’re going it’s pathetic that so few Flappers are following him.

I am embarrassed to say that my mom has a 5 bedroom house in The Boulders and I have never been to spring training or cobbled together a group to go to spring training. And she wants me to come. She begs me to come and friends are always invited.  I always have something else to do. “Cats in the cradle shit”—-I guess.

It’s raining outside my window right now. I hate the rain but I love listening to it pitter patter on my roof.

I wonder how E-Adrianza did today?

I’ve heard two Ehire Adrianza at bats on the radio. Two. Total. The first one, he hit a bomb off Andy Pettitte to break up a no hitter at Yankee Stadium last year. Yesterday, when I turned the game on in the 9th inning, he roped another one. So clearly, if Adrianza wants to make the team, he needs to pay me to listen to his at bats on the radio. 🙂

When I got home, with the excitement of yet another HR from Adrianza brimming within, I decided to check out how many he’d hit in his lengthy minor league career. I knew he wasn’t a power hitter but still…..

Let down: Since 2006, yes he’s been toiling in the minors for nearly a decade, he’s hit 17 home runs. He’s hit an underwhelming .248 in that same career. Players who bat .248 in the minors typically don’t make a smooth transition to a major league batters box.

Yes, he was signed when he was 16 so he’s had a lot of growth room to fill, and yes he’s out of options, but watching him battle in out with Abreu for the back up infielder job is not really doing it for me. Especially considering the very real possibility that Scutaro will be missing an awful lot of time in 2014. Whoever backs him up is going to be playing a lot.

I suppose one option would be to just use Adrianza’s plus glove as a later inning replacement but a bench of Arias, Abreu, Adrianza, Colvin and Blanco is just about the lamest combo that we could cobble together.

Big props to Dirt for picking up what I wasn’t throwing down yesterday….

Longer ride into work than usual with all the rain today. Got to listen to two interviews on KNBR this morning. The first one was with Ron Wotus. Listening to Wotus is like listening to elevator music. He’s a nice guy, been around baseball forever, but it’s no surprise to me why this guy gets passed over for a managerial job. He’s more than a  standard deviation away from being an electric personality.

Same with Heath Hembree. Still, I had never heard him talk before and that was interesting. He’s a country boy from South Carolina. He bailed on University of South Carolina after his freshman year citing wanting more innings as the reason. I wanted the KNBR guys to ask him who was in front of him on the depth chart that led him to leave his dream school after one year but of course they never did.

Who would you be most interested in hearing get interviewed? From the Giants, for me, it’s hands down Voggy–he’s the best interview on the team.

An experimental rule, 7.13, intended to increase player safety by eliminating “egregious” collisions at home plate was jointly announced by Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association on Monday.

The timing allows for managers, coaches, players and umpires to use the entire Grapefruit and Cactus League schedules to acclimate themselves to the rule. The intention to enact regulations was adopted at the Winter Meetings last December; now the exact wording has been agreed upon. The highlights:

• A runner may not run out of a direct line to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catcher, or any player, covering the plate. If he does, the umpire can call him out even if the player taking the throw loses possession of the ball.

• The catcher may not block the pathway of a runner attempting to score unless he has possession of the ball. If the catcher blocks the runner before he has the ball, the umpire may call the runner safe.

• All calls will be based on the umpire’s judgment. The umpire will consider such factors as whether the runner made an effort to touch the plate and whether he lowered his shoulder or used his hands, elbows or arms when approaching the catcher.

• Runners are not required to slide, and catchers in possession of the ball are allowed to block the plate. However, runners who do slide and catchers who provide the runner with a lane will never be found in violation of the rule.

• The expanded instant replay rules, which also go into effect this season, will be available to review potential violations of Rule 7.13.

Maybe I am missing it but I don’t see anything here addressing launching oneself as a human missile so I read this as a lot of words that don’t really address the issue.

I know this is a Giants blog but baseball hasn’t really started yet.

Is Brian Cashman for real? Or is this just a big joke he’s playing Hal? If he doesn’t like Hal, then this HAS to be a joke. Four years/54 million for Brett Gardner? Are you KIDDING me? Cashman must have a thing for speedy guys heading into their 30’s. Cause he’s given Jacoby and Gardner 200+ million this off season. Think about that. 200+ million for 2 guys who can’t really hit, who have no power and who are getting slower every step they take in this life.

Cashman must be making a play for his job–like, “look, I signed everyone I could possibly sign. It’s not my fault they all sucked.” Nothing else explains this.

The Jacoby/Gardner signings make the Tanaka signing look like a slam dunk success…..

Now THIS is a quality tweet:

And another Orioles physical flunky bites the dust and this time ends up in San Francisco. I’ve always kinda liked Tyler Colvin although admittedly that was a couple of years ago. In 2012 I predicted he’d hit 20 bombs and I missed by 2. :

He’s had some injury problems and the shine has dulled a bit off his promise. But I am all for more players in camp who haven’t shown that they suck yet (at least, in OUR OWN minor league system). And it’s not like he’s been helpless at the major league level. He’s had 2 seasons  where he hit 20/18 bombs in limited at bats.  He’s still only 28. More power, Scotty!

The Marco Scuturo situation is starting to irritate me. The last thing I want are any of our old guys burning up on the Spring Training circuit. I don’t care if he plays more than 5 or 6 games this Spring.

But his back seems as screwed up as it was last year. And as usual with the Giants, they aren’t saying much about what’s wrong with it. It’s time for a back up plan and Arias or Abreu shouldn’t be it. I like Arias coming off the bench and I don’t like Abreu at all.

If I’m Sabean, I call up Seattle and see what they want for either Nick Franklin or Brad Miller. One of them is probably going to end up at SS with Cano sitting on his 240 at 2nd base. I’m not sure if the Mariners would do a deal but it couldn’t hurt to float one out there.

All I know is that this Scut-back thing isn’t going to fix itself. And this team isn’t built to absorb any blows to it’s starting line up….

The Giants and Brandon belt agreed on a 2.9 million dollar salary for 2014 just eight hours before his arbitration hearing. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why they waited so long to get that done. Belt was forced to fly out to Florida for his non-hearing and you would think the Giants would have tried to avoid that inconvenience. Considering what Freeman is making, the Giants are now getting yet another bargain player (Mad Bum, how’s that deal feelin’ to you?) so making Belt fly all the way across the country to give him what you could have given him without making him do this seems like the more reasonable approach to contract negotiations.

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Thoughts on the lawsuit against MLB wanting more $ for minor league players? Less than minimum wage is a little over the top. I mean, when the hot dog vendors are taking YOU out to lunch, it’s time to take another look at the single A ball pay structure for the ball players. Can you imagine if a San Jose class A player married a Raiders cheerleader? There wouldn’t be a broker couple anywhere in the Bay Area!

I’m still pretty blown away by the story about Masahiro Tanaka nearly collapsing after running a mile yesterday. His admission afterwards confirms he wasn’t simply having a bad day. “I didn’t know I was going to run this much.” Giving 155 million to an *athlete* who can’t run a mile is a lot of cheddar to leave at the end of your string. They didn’t hire him to play professional golf.

If I’m the Yankees (or a Yankee fan) this is either going to be an awesome thing or the next disaster drama-rama side show for a franchise that seems to feed off such things.

Think about it. This guy went 24-0 last year and he can’t run a mile! If he gets himself into shape you would have to feel confident about the prospects of him succeeding and maybe even dominating at the mlb level.

If he doesn’t get into shape and he gets hooked on American food the same way many foreign players do, he’s going to be a failure. And remember, in New York, the bar that separates you being a hero and you being a rejected outcast is high and thin.

Speaking of guys who got in shape, The Panda said all the right things yesterday giving credit to his teammates for waking him up enough to finally get in shape for good. We’ll see if he sticks to it, unlike after the 2011 season, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt until he proves otherwise. He’s talking about growing up and while that’s an easy way to deflect away from those who think he just got in shape for money, it still is, on the surface, the right way to go about living your life. We all made mistakes when we were younger. Pablo never seemed like a guy who gave a sh!t about growing up. Maybe Pence, Cain, Posey etc talked some sense into him. We’ll see….

Well, I made it through the Wells Report. It was appalling, all of it, as expected. I refuse to believe that all NFL locker rooms are like that. And the fact that Miami always sucks supports my belief. If sub human ogres like Incogidiot and his minions spend all of their time tormenting specific targets on THEIR team, they must not spend too much time, you know, practicing football.

Incogidiot went out in a blaze of glory last night on Twitter. He re-tweeted every tweet anyone sent him yesterday (90% of them were calling him a piece of sh!t or whatever the equivalent to that is). This was a way to be a dick as all those re-tweets clogged up the timelines of anyone who follows him. And then he deleted his account. At least he’s consistent in terms of being an asshole.

Can you imagine if Michael Sam gets drafted by a team with even half an Incogidiot on it?

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here’s the first picture of the Panda in camp– taken about 10 minutes ago.

Here’s one of him in the dugout this am:

Pitchers and catchers officially starting filing in today. Does that do anything for ya?

Several position players are all ready there. Any word on when the Panda is set to show up?

A big Flap high five to whoever finds the first pic of him in camp this year.

Feels like a good day to play a little pepper, maybe have a catch, too……

I watched the Cubs sign 2 below average starting pitchers today: James McDonald and Jason Hammel. The Cubs have one decent starting pitcher: Jeff Samardgjjadjgiigjaca. They need tons of help, and J-Mac and J-Ham don’t fry it hard enough to make that happen. They sizzle, but they ain’t the steak…..

Theo isn’t a dope. And the Cubs have money. Why would he sign those 2 stiffs with Ervin Santana and Ubaldo Jimenez still available? I don’t care about either of these players enough to look this up. I do know that signing Ubaldo would also cost you a 1st round draft pick. I don’t think the same is true for Santana (but correct me if I’m wrong).

Still, it makes zero sense to me why a team like the Cubs would  pad their already shitty starting 5 with guys like McDonald and Hammel when they have the resources to sign either Santana or Ubaldo. Or both.

And the draft pick? Why is the draft pick an issue? Baseball is the worst when it comes to predictability with draft picks—1st rounders or 40th rounders. It’s a total crap shoot. You don’t pull the trigger on Ubaldo because you’re worried about a draft pick? Huh?

What is the likelihood that a team would draft BETTER than an Ubaldo Jimenez with a late first round pick? Ubaldo was positively Koufaxian in the 2nd half of last year. He finally learned how to pitch with lost velocity (Tim Lincecum: call Ubaldo, STAT). And Ubaldo’s pedigree at the mlb level is layered and deep. There MIGHT be one or two Ubaldo’s coming out of the first round of next year’s draft. Maybe none. You like those odds?

Anyway, P’s and C’s report tomorrow. The sun tilted a little different today to me. I noticed it on the drive home and smiled. Spring is coming. Can you dig it?

For you Dubs fans out there, how’s your morning going? Still shaking your head sideways? Man, what a game last night. Steph Curry is almost single handedly getting me back into the NBA after years of not caring about it. That dude hits the crispest, cleanest 3’s I’ve seen since my main man Purvis Short spent his career casting off super high from behind the stripe. Saw World B Free on tv the other day. Still my favorite basketball player of all time……..

Anyway, Labron did what he did. Unreal. Before he shoots you can hear Barnett in the background going, “you can’t let him beat you!” And then he beat them. I’m not in the “camp of second guessing” the decision not to double team him. A step back, 25 foot fade with a hand in his face?” Yes, I will take that all day long over an easy 2 or a wide open Ray Allen 3. No second guessing from me and Marc Jackson said it best: “We witnessed greatness” last night…….

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Speaking of greatness, Derek Jeter announced that this will be his last season. Ah, The Captain. I read his facebook post that brought tears to the likes of Heyman and his east coast cronies. Sorry, it did nothing for me. I appreciate Jeter as a great baseball player, first ballot HOFer etc but from an emotional standpoint, he wasn’t part of my sphere. And I can honestly say I never owned him on a single fantasy team. How many times did I even see him play the Giants? Maybe 5? Never in the playoffs and I don’t think he was always healthy enough to play in all the inter league games the two teams have played since ’96. How many series vs the Yankees have the Giants played since ’96? Our New York Flap contingent might be able to answer that one……..

Anyway, so long Jeter. Next…..

I just read a post from our friend MacDog on the last thread. He just watched 42. I offered a quick follow up post. It got me to thinking about Michael Sam Jr. While not quite the same thing, it’s the same ballpark as the color barrier being broken in major league baseball in 1947.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this. It’s just a thought and we needed a new thread. I share a lot of the same feelings as other people, I admire his courage to do this. I don’t see why it should have ever been an issue in the first place though I am not in a locker room with players who, apparently, might have a problem with sharing a locker room with Sam. If you subtract any religious reason you might have to be against Sam, and I think that reason is also stupid, then there is simply no reason you shouldn’t want a gay player on your team. None.  Zero. Unless he sucks at football, then I’m on board. Get rid of him.

One thing Sam doesn’t have going for him that Jackie Robinson had in the bag: He’s not the best of the best. Robinson showed up dominant. Sam is probably a 5/6 round guy. GM’s can pass on a 5/6 round guy all day long if they don’t want to deal with the drama that’s going to come along with him being on the team. Robinson was impossible NOT to have on your team. Ultimately, his talents beat down all the racist bullshit that tried to keep him out. Sam could certainly turn out to be dominant but he doesn’t have what Robinson had going into this new chapter of his life.

But it’ll be interesting to watch unfold. I’m rooting for him. In the end, if he wins, we all win a little bit…….

The Giants gave Tim Lincecum 35 million this off season and were derided by many. I wasn’t one of the *deriders*. I happen to think Timmy is going to be very good in ’14/’15. His lost velocity is well documented but you don’t need velocity to pitch well. And he’s on record as saying he’s taking a new approach to pitching now and how  he had been stubborn about trying to re-capture his lost mph’s. Plus, everyone thinks Tim Hudson will be a great mentor for him now that they’re on the same team.

The thing Lincecum needs to figure out is how to stay out of the big inning. His W/L splits are ridiculous.

Last year:

wins: 1.64 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, .155BAA, .505OPS

Losses: 6.53 ERA, 1.68 WHIP, .306 BAA, .844 OPS

If you remembered Lincecum having rough starts to his outings, you aren’t imagining that. In terms of OPS, he improved as the game wore on.

pitch 1-15: .732

pitch 16-30: .755

pitch 31-45: .571

pitch 46-60: .582

pitch 61-75: .568

pitch 76-90: .724

pitch 91-105: .534

pitch 106-120: .542

He has to figure out that first inning and that random inning that usually pops up around the 5th or so. The bleeding starts and he can’t figure out how to stop it. And it’s not that he’s tired, if he makes it out of that one bad inning and gets a chance to come back in the next inning, he’s usually lights out (as the OPS chart above shows).

His K rate remained outstanding and his xFIP was once again far below his actual ERA suggesting that he didn’t have as bad of a year as it looked on the surface. We’ve got him for another 2 years. Would you rather have Timmy for 2 or Bronson Arroyo for 2? I don’t think there’s a reason to even slap up a poll to find out that answer.

I didn’t ask Kokonuts if I could write a thread highlighting his latest book but since the haiku’s aren’t even trickling in anymore from you guys, I decided to write a short review about “Rounding Third. Zen. Baseball. Poems.” and provide a link for you if you’re interested in reading it on a quiet, lazy day like today.

First of all, it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. I knew it was going to be a collection of poems but when you throw “Zen” into the title of the book you’ve pretty much “glazed” me. After reading it, I don’t know whether it had anything to do with “Zen” or not. If “quietly enjoying a few moments in time” is Zen then it was Zen. The book is a collection of poems written about individual players. What is brilliant about the book is how he perfectly describes each player while simultaneously allowing you to go back in time and feel what it was like to be a fan of that player. I don’t think I explained that correctly but if you read the poems you’ll know what I mean. For instance, here is “Clemente” :

He writes one for many of baseball icons though I was hoping he would have written one for Tom Seaver (but didn’t) 😦 . He also writes about the 2012 Giants and of course I won’t spoil it for those of you who are planning on buying it later but here’s Zito’s that I especially enjoyed:

The end is titled “Post Game Wrap” with “The Fan’s Lament” and “Coming Home” being two perfect poems to complete this enjoyable, short read.

If you like Pawlie’s writing you should click on this link:

http://tinyurl.com/lory57n

If you’re like me and don’t have a kindle, I did that “kindle cloud thingy”. If you have a kindle I’m assuming you’ll know how to download it. It’s .99 cents so unless you’ve got “99 problems” (Jay Z pop culture ref) the price should be right for you….

There has been some crazy money getting thrown around this off season. Sabean ended up looking crazy like a fox when he quickly locked up Under Pants for *only* 90/5.

Before any of these guys even play a pitch to their new deals, which of these four do you think is the worst of all?

Shin Soo Choo— 30 years old, he’s a nice little 20/20 high OBA guy. He got 130 mil/7.

Jacoby Ellsbury: 29 years old, he’s fast, very fast. He had one outlier power season, otherwise he’s got very little power and he’s known to be an injury risk when he sneezes. He got 153 mil/7.

Masahiro Tanaka— only 25 years old, he was 24-0 in Japan last season. Having never thrown a pitch in the major leagues, the Yankees gave him a 155mil/7

Freddie Freeman– the baby of the group at 24, he signed an 8 year, 135 million dollar deal last week.

My take: At least with Freeman, you have some upside. The Braves will at least get the best years of his career. Same general thing with Tanaka although he’s certainly not going better than 24-0 for the Yankees. But if his arm stays healthy and he is a dominant pitcher, he’ll be worth that dough.

Once Ellsbury and Choo start to slow down, as everyone does sans steroids as they go through their 30’s, I’m guessing both of those teams will regret those 2 mega deals. I think Choo is a more complete player than Ellsbury who isn’t nearly as brittle. I’ll say J-Ell will turn out to be the most regrettable deal.

However you evaluate mega deals, what do you think?

Andre Baggerly is listing off his offense rankings for the NL West and the Giants checked in at a surprising 3rd. At least, at first I was surprised. The part of his article that had me double taking was the “Who’s New”/”Who’s Gone” list.

Who’s New: Michael Morse

Who’s Gone: Torres, Pill, Peguero, Monell, Francoeur and Tanaka.

That “Who’s Gone” list is spectacular insofar as its underwhelming nature. Talk about 6 guys who were either done or were never going to do anything at the mlb level. And say what you will about Morse and his wrist and his fragility, but he is still not far removed from 2 or 3 productive seasons.

Paper can always be a deceptively manufactured material, but on PAPER the offense going into 2014 doesn’t look half bad–as long as you are a *line up half full* kinda guy. And as long as not a single one of our starting position players gets injured, we look great on paper.

The Dodgers are a different story. They could have 5 guys go down and freaking bring back Matt Kemp or Andre Ethier off the DL to plug into the starting line up. They’re like the Miami Hurricanes of Jimmy Johnson/Dennis Erickson years. The second string guy is better than the first string guy. Or at least, just as good.

And I think I just nailed why I’ve posted so many negative posts this off season. I’m jealous of the Dodgers depth. I’m going to try to stop worrying about what they’ve done or what they’re doing and just hope we don’t suffer any major injuries in 2014. What would be the point of taking any other stance?

In ice cold Giants news, in case you missed it, the Giants sent someone way down on the totem pole to watch Suk-Min Yoon pitch at UC Irving. Suk-Min is a South Korean pitcher who I am begging the Giants to sign just so we can have fun with his name. But the Giants will not be signing Yoon– there are 5 other teams interested in him and his agent is Scott Boras. Sabean don’t play those 2 games separately much less together.

And that’s fine because after screwing around with his name I’m not that interested in him as a pitcher….

I don’t think we need another pitcher with Yusmeiro Petit waiting in the wings. Assuming Voggy continues on his long, deep slide I do think Petit will be an effective 4/5 next year. People like to naysay him because he came out of nowhere last season but Petit added not one but two new effective pitches to his arsenal: a curve and a change up. Both were devastating. And he’s always been a strike thrower, something that Lincecum could learn from. Maybe he’s taking steroids too, that would just increase my interest in him as our 4/5. Who knows, maybe Voggy’s spending his off season doing the same thing. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Here’s a fun graph to look at as your morning unfolds. James, try not to shoot that load on your keyboard as you type your post. lqtm:

And today, we sink into the true dead zone. The bottom of the bottom. The Super Bowl is over and all there is between today and opening day is hockey and the NBA. If you told me hockey was still on strike, I would believe you. I’m mildly following the NBA but honestly, without a fanduel.com team or two going it’s hard for me to give much of a crap about basketball and the way it’s played today at that level.

Yesterday we had our first day of rain in 2 months and I already miss the sun. Rain is lame. While I recognize the necessity of it, I still find it quite lame. I want to smell Spring and see the sun shine at a different angle. I truly loath the day after the Super Bowl.

A buddy of mine who I’ve been friends with for close to 20 years is a die hard Seahawk fan. He grew up there but lives down in the Bay Area. His allegiance to all Pacific Northwest teams is unquestioned as he routinely makes the trip up to Seattle for games. Yesterday, he finally got to the top of the mountain. In football, I got there when I was 10. It took him much longer. Congrats, Jeff.

The Broncos, and especially Peyton Manning, can kiss my ass. The ONE THING they did right yesterday was convert a two point conversion easily. I had them at 100-1 scoring 6 points total in yesterday’s game. One more reason for Manning to suck it.

February. Ugh. There’s nothing good about this month. Thank God it’s only 28 days long…….

I can say, without the slightest hint of hesitation, that I am tired of posting pics of The Panda. Especially shirtless pics. And yet….

Ok, that’s it. I am not posting any more pics of Pablo Sandoval. Besides, today is actually a sports day. Super Bowl Sunday. I have no idea how this game will go and I’ve spent a fair amount of time considering it’s direction. The spread is Denver -3 and the o/u is 47. If I was betting on the game, which I’m not, I’d probably take Seattle on the ML and the under. I feel better about the under. Since I hate both of these teams I’m sure to be happy with the outcome as long as I just focus on the loser………

I did my usual prop bets. I’ve got 3 guys for “first player to score a touchdown”– Ball (15-1), Decker (8-1) and Caldwell (30-1). My angle is that Denver is almost certain to get the ball first since Seattle always defers and Denver always accepts. And I’ll take Peyton on a first drive of the game all day long. So I took one of the favorites (Decker) and 2 longshots (Ball and Caldwell).

After that, I just have *exact points scored*. I always pick the same point total for each team and hope for the best. My exact final point totals are 6-16-19-24-26-29. They’re all between 15-1 and 100-1 so if either team scores exactly one of those 6 point totals I’m good to go. If the game ends 29-26 I’m picking up the next tab at Flapalooza. And of course, I’ve engaged in the requisite office pool square game……..

And other than that, it’ll be a relaxing afternoon on the couch. Still haven’t come up with a meal yet but that’ll fall into place as the day ages. Right now, I’m feelin’ like spicy wings but I reserve the right to do whatever the hell I like.

What’s your Super Bowl Sunday look like?

And here’s the latest skinny Panda pic. Not sure what the alien light is.

Tons of players missing fanfest tomorrow: Huddy, Bum, Panda, Scoots, Pagan….maybe others. I’m not going, I think I’m headed to Tahoe tomorrow for the weekend after a basketball game. Any of you guys going?

Sabean was asked by Amy G who he predicts will have a breakout season this year and he went with Crawford. There aren’t too many choices so that answer didn’t surprise. B-Craw had some problems in 2013 against left handers. He slashed .199/.288/.546 against them. That’s unacceptable.

He did drop his K rate from 20% to 17.5%. His bb-rate was a decent 7.6% but that should be higher considering he hits 8th….

Forgetting all of his numbers, when I see B-Craw connect for a bomb I always say “why can’t he do this more often?” He’s got a smooth, sweet swing that back spins the shit out of the ball. So he’s gotta hit more than 9 bombs this year, right? Poll time…..

Andrew Baggerly, who I really enjoy reading, is in the midst of ranking the NL West pitching staffs. He’s releasing one team a day. Haiku Season hits everyone hard.

Anyway, he ranked the Padres 5th, The Rockies 4th and the D-Backs 3rd. You should all be able to see where this is going. He’ll be ranking the Giants 2nd and The Art Dealers 1st. His rankings look reasonable to me.

But how close are we to them in terms of our staffs?

Art Dealer’s Starting 5

Kershaw

Grienke

Ryu

Haren

Beckett/Billingsley

Art Dealer’s Relievers:

Rodriguez, Withrow, Howell, League, Bee-Asshole, and Jansen.

Our Starting 5:

Cain, Bum, Timmy, Voggy, Huddy

Our Relievers:

Casilla, Affeldt, Lopez, Petit, Machi, Huff (he might be competing for a rotation spot), and Romo

Qualifying this thread by saying I’m not doing any research at all. I’m late for work, just gonna churn and burn this bad boy out there.

Thoughts?

I’ll share mine later today.

Chalk me up as disappointed that Sandoval won’t be attending FanFest. The Giants excused him to *continue his workout regimen in Venezuela.*

What *workout regimen* can’t The Panda do here? He obviously wants to finish the Venezuelan World Series or whatever that is. I don’t care about that thing. Are they paying him to play in that or are we? After pulling up lame running to first base the other day (he’s apparently fine now) I would think that he’d be spooked into resetting his priorities. He did what he had to do to get in shape for his big, big deal coming up. Why risk a freak injury at this point?

The Giants are way too coddling of their players, especially Sandoval, in my opinion. I’m not certain of this, but I think mlb players get paid every two weeks like the rest of us, even during the off season. If they say come back for FanFest, you freaking do it. I would think the multiple risks of spending this much time in Venezuela (I’ll leave “multiple risks” up to your imagination) would kick-start Sabean  into telling him to get his ass back to SF NOW for FanFest and whatever else he needs to do to get ready for the season.

If you’re unemployed with no responsibilities, no hobbies and literally nothing else to do with your life from Wednesday thru Friday, you should consider being an extra in one  of the commercials the Giants are filming this week. The gig doesn’t pay but neither does sitting on your couch waiting for something to happen. 🙂

Here’ s the link with the details of what you need to do to make this happen:

http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/sf/fan_forum/castingcall_landing.jsp

Breaking up the news about Ryan Doumit happenings, it seems the Giants have bought a pitcher from the Yankees. He’s left handed and his name is David Huff. Not sure why New York would sell a left handed pitcher to us. He’s 29, he’s had success at the major league level. Last year he pitched to a 0.98 WHIP in 34 innings.

Who sells off left handed pitchers? Especially a team that doesn’t need the cash?

Scott Cousins is still slithering around the periphery of major league baseball. The Red Sox signed him to a minor league deal, probably for depth in the minors. He just turned 29 and has no skills or tools unless you consider being a “hitman” a tool. If so, he’s a 1-tool guy. If you considering “being a tool” a tool, then he’s a two-tool guy. Speed, power, defense? Those tools elude him….

Cousins can’t hit, he’s batting .179 in 193 major league plate appearances. Well, he can *hit*, he just has to turn himself into a human missile first and then he’s good to go. What’s the O/U on higher batting averages, Cousins or Rikkert Faneyte? He’s the worst Giants hitter I can recall from memory. I’m gonna say Faneyte nips him by a couple percentage points but that’s just because I want Cousins to lose at everything. Lemme go check….

Fuckin’ Faneyte can’t do anything right. He’s at .174 for his career. Cousins is also much faster than Faneyte, he’s leading him 2 > 1 in career stolen bases. Oh well, so much for the Amsterdam vs Reno.

As far as I can tell, Scott Cousins has done one thing in his life that can be considered meaningful: His attempted death-launch on Buster Posey impacted, in some way, the decision by major league baseball to outlaw home plate collisions between runners and catchers. This is rule change that should have always been in place, in my opinion….

Forgetting the obvious reason related to preventing injury and concussion, it was always just a puss move by the runner to begin with. In what sport can you run up to full speed, launch yourself towards another human who is standing still, defenseless and trying to do something else like catch a ball, and crash into them?

That isn’t sport.

My daughter’s grandpa found his first glove today. He was cleaning out boxes, got stuck on a picture that turned into a thousand other pictures. In between all of that he found everything else from his past. One of those things was his first glove:

I’m wearing it for the picture. We’re both left handed but it feels awkward on my hand. He used it in high school in the late 40’s. He thinks it says “Rawlings” but it doesn’t look like that to me. I’m positive it doesn’t say “Mizuno”. Either way, tough to say. He told me he remembers restringing it a couple of times. I asked him if it would be cool if we re-strung it one more time and went out and had a catch. He said yes. Beats writing Winter haiku’s.

Where’s your first glove? What ever happened to your first glove??????