A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

I mean, uh… “Hey you kids!!! Get out of my pool!!!” Apparently the Dodgers decided to take a team-wide dip in the D-backs pool after they won the NL West in Arizona yesterday. Journeyman infielder Willie Bloomquist had this to say: “I thought it was tired and disrespectful. It’s surprising because they have a lot of veterans on that team. I thought they had more class than that.” Other D-backs, including some in management, felt the same way.

Look, get over yourself, Bloomy et al. It’s not like the Dodgers planted a keg by the pool and brought in all the hookers lined up for that evening’s festivities. What’s “tired”, at least in my opinion, are baseball players constantly feeling disrespected by opposing players for the slightest celebration reactions. Celebrating is part of sports and no group of professional athletes gets more worked up for no reason than baseball players. Now, I was one of those who thought Prince Fielder’s bowling ball celebration was pretty funny so maybe I’m the wrong person to ask about this stuff. And I’m certainly not trying to defend a freaking disgusting Dodger. I sure hope Eye Goggle Boy was wearing his goggles when he jumped into the deep end. But I AM defending players who want to let loose and celebrate as long as no one gets hurt. And Bloomy’s feelings getting hurt don’t count…

If the Dodgers clinched in our park and, after all the home town fans had left (as was the case in AZ yesterday), the team decided to take a few trips down the Coke bottle slide to celebrate it wouldn’t bother me in the slightest. The absurdity of it would make me smile.

I’ll say this though: After engaging in one of the biggest baseball brawls in recent years a few months ago, and after the Dodgers hit 5 D-backs in the last 2 games (with AZ not retaliating even once) and THEN having LA throw their impromptu pool party, I’m guessing things could get a little *bean-bally* next year between these two rivals……

I discovered something completely awesome about being 17 games out of first place with 10 to play: I can watch the Giants blow a 3 run lead in the 9th, lose in galling fashion and not really sweat it too much. I guess being 56-2 after 8 innings isn’t worth as much as it once was….

I’ve only been half-way paying attention to this Finnerty’s phenomenon but the morning KNBR crew just interviewed a co-owner of the bar (Brian Stapleton) and it’s kinda blowing my mind how many Giants fans are going to these NY games via Finnerty’s. Five bus loads for EACH GAME? And even at 10am (EST) you could hear Finnerty’s rockin’ in the background of the KNBR feed. That bar is flowing freely with booze and good spirits before today’s game. Good times.

Of course, MacDog and Pawlie already made Finnerty’s *famous* here at the Flap and many of their pics were dumped into the Flap Photo Bucket long ago. Nice to see KNBR catching up with acknowledging that fantastic oasis for Bay Area sports fans….

Are any of you east coasters hitting any of these  6 NY games? Five bus loads of Giants fans for all 6 NY games. That is still blowing my mind……

Romo has had kind of a weird year. Mostly because we’ve been out of it most of the year, he’s been largely an afterthought. He’s managed to log 35 saves in 2013 and that ranks tied for 11th in MLB. When I evaluate a closer I look almost exclusively at his K/BB ratio. Closers who throw pitches that get him, whether they’re ground balls or fly balls, are more likely to fail than closers who miss bats with their pitches. Once again, Romo has checked in with a stellar K/BB ratio of around 5.5:1. His WHIP is outstanding at 1.05.

An interesting stat I’ve started to look at more closely has been what a pitcher’s OPS is (as in, the OPS of the opposing batters). Curiously, for pitchers who have pitched 40+ innings this year, he’s 42nd at .597 surrounded by fellow closer’s Farquhar, Blafour, Grilli and Ziegler. I thought he’d be ranked higher than that.

Something that’s surprised me this year about the closer’s: there hasn’t been a huge turnover as in year’s past. Without looking it up, I can only remember the Seattle closer (Wilhelmsen?) and League losing their jobs due to ineffectiveness this year. A few others got hurt and were replaced. But it always seems like there is a much more volatile turnover for the closer role each year (due to repeated gas can implosions). Maybe I’m imagining that……

We get to face our ol’ buddy Zack Wheeler today. Reading his name doesn’t make me cringe, in fact I feel absolutely nothing about him. He never did anything for the Giants other than act as currency which is how I view all minor leaguers until they actually make it to San Francisco. Of course, I wish Sabean had traded the underwhelming, underdeveloped, under-everything Gary Brown for Carlos Beltran back in the day. But it didn’t happen and at the time of the trade Sabean would have caught a huge amount of shizzle for parting with Brown > Wheeler. It is what it is, Wheeler is at the show and Brown is hitting .231 in Fresno and will likely never pan out as a major league hitter. I’ve accepted that.

Wheel’s is gonna go over the 100 inning pitch limit in today’s game (unless we ‘HunterPence’ his ass early on) and I would say that his numbers to date are close to what you might expect from him so early in his promising career. Of course, he already beat us earlier in SF back on July 10th so today’s game won’t have that little something ‘extra’ that it had back then. His SO/BB split is 81/40 across 95 innings. Not bad. Not dominant. He’ll likely cut down on those walks as he gets more experience. He’s given up 10 bombs. He’s gonna have to cut that number down, too.

Anyway, I don’t give a whit about Wheeler except that I hope the Giants pound him into the ground today…..

Though I am still disgusted and embarrassed from last night’s pathetic Niner game, I can still find reasons to swell with some pride thanks to the Giants:

1) We are now in 3rd place. Questfor4th was inaccurately named.

2) We took 3 of 4 from The LA Art Dealers and it should have been a sweep. As I said during their 48-8 streak (or whatever it was), this team is going down in the first round of the playoffs. Although part of me wants to see the A’s beat them in World Series.

3) Hunter Pence is a man-child. Pay him whatever he desires. I think I felt the same way about Randy Winn after he went insane for a month back in ’05 or whatever it was.

19 runs scored. The most ever at Dodger Stadium. Think about how many thousands of games the Dodgers have played at Dodger Stadium and they have never scored more in a game than the Giants did last night.

Epic win. Finish off the LA Art Dealers today and I could give a shit less what happens in New York this week…..

It’s embarrassing how easily Clayton Kershaw dominants the Giants year in and year out so it was very cool to beat him last night AND reward Bumgarner with a win after so many limp, pathetic offensive failings in his starts this year. And with the magic number at 4, the Giants control their own destiny if they want to avoid having to watch The LA Art Dealers celebrate in front of them this weekend. With last night’s inspired play I’m thinking they just might pull it off.

Pretty insane weekend for sports and gambling. Mayweather/Alvarez (I see Mayweather pummeling him), Alabama vs A&M (Alabama covers) and then we have to wait all day Sunday for the premiere NFL game so far this season with the Niners playing the Shehawks (Niners cover and maybe win).

Oh, and there’s still 2 Giants/Dodgers games to be played.

Let’s get ready to rumble!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Irritating. Entertaining. Irritating again. That’s how that game went for me. My dream of a sweep is over. Bee Sleezy does nothing for me. Anymore.  Maybe we misunderstood Sabean back in July. He didn’t say it was a “Bad Penny year.” He said it was a “Brad Penny year.” That’s even worse…..

Easily and without question, we now embark on the most anticipated 13 games of the season. Sadly, that anticipation is tempered by our entrenchment in last place. But LA/NY/NY/LA looks good on paper, doesn’t it? Anyone back east going to any of these games?

I’d like to think we will call on pride, gamesmanship, professionalism—whatever we got left—to put forth competitive efforts for each of these games. I’d trade sweeping the  LA Art Dealers this weekend in exchange for getting rolled the rest of the road trip. Not interested even a little bit in seeing Eye Google Boy and his band of idiots celebrating the division crown in front of us.

As long as Bochy has Pagan at the top of the LU for the next 4 in LA, I’ll feel confident that the team will take this serious and put forth a professional, motivated effort.  If we go down there with our attention half-assed and everyone staring at each other waiting for the*other guy* to do something, this could be a long, ugly weekend…….

Vogelsong fell apart last night in the 5th inning and we are still in last place. Ugh. I didn’t pay attention to his velocity but 0 strike outs in 5 innings is not a good sign. At this point, I would pull the rip cord on Voggy’s season.  He’s pitched a couple of good games since he came back on August 9th that’s all I need to see to exercise his option next year. Again, if you’re paying Barry Zito 7 million to surf off into the sunset then you find the scratch to pay Vogelsong 6.5 million to pitch for us in 2014. You know he’ll work his ass off this Winter, that is a total guarantee.

Voggy got hurt this year and I think he probably tried to come back too soon at least in terms of coordinating his timing/velocity/game ready conditioning etc. And he’s such a serious dude he’s probably not handling these failures too well and that frustration is likely contributing to what we’re seeing now. No reason to keep running him out there with very little to gain except more mashed up nails in his mouth.

The one thing I’m not on board with: the theory that the WBC did this guy in. What is he, an 84 year old man? So what if he had to get his program going a little early? People are talking about all the WBC players who have gotten hurt but a lot of those injuries were freak injuries including Voggy’s broken finger.

Bottom line is that we’re shooting for 900 innings or so out of our starters next year. No one’s giving those innings away. Timmy, Voggy, Gaudin, Petit? Who are your ideas for filling out the back end of our rotation? Cain and MadBum barely make a line. We’ve got 3 massive holes to fill.

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Here’s a guy I wouldn’t mind seeing surf with Zito next year: Jose Mijares. He sucks. Massively and badly. Turn him into kindling. Not me. But someone should…….

Brandon  Belt past 500 plate appearances last night and all signs are pointing to him being a critical piece in the line up for the 2014 season. Aside from Buster’s bomb, Belt was the man last night doing what we will always need him to do: drive in runs. His two hits were brilliant swings, the first one beating a breaking ball like he knew it was coming and the second one driving the ball impressively in the opposite direction for the walk off win in the 10th inning.

On a team that has had no identity since Pagan went down in May, Belt has stepped up and gone beyond just putting up a nice OPS. But I was surprised to see where he ranked vs NL first basemen on bb%.

Votto is walking at an unnecessary rate but it works on that team with so many other hitters in their line up. Plus, as the identified team superstar in the line up, there are times he just has to take his walks and eat them. We need Belt to do more than take walks and he’s doing those things this year, especially since he sat down for a few games and had brett Pill take over the reigns at 1st base. Doesn’t that seem like it was a dream?

Side note on NL 1st base power: Outside of Goldy, this group is hitting home runs at an underwhelming rate. I’m not sure if I can ever remember a limper collection of first basemen in the NL, at least when it comes to home runs. Regardless, Belt is having a very productive year. He’s taken the next step and while I don’t think he has another step in him I also didn’t think he had the step he just took in him. But where he is right now is a good place to be. We are lucky to have him.

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Angel Pagan:

Did anyone catch Pagan’s post game dive attempt on top of a group of STANDING TALL, JUMPING players? That’s quite a leap to try to make (he failed, only getting about 2/3 the way up the *mountain of men* before giving up and coming down). If he was looking to re-injure himself he gave it a pretty nice go with that stupid move. I’m guessing the surgeon who preformed the work on his hammy a few months ago would probably frown on him trying to leap to the top of a group of standing, moving men.

Flapalooza is the type of party that just keeps on giving. I wasn’t ready to handle or manage the explosion of pics that came out of this event. I’ve dumped some into the photo bucket and a bunch on to Facebook. ChiPower has created some type of shared album on The Book that we can contribute to though I admit to not knowing how to do that at first glance. If you want to access my FB page just email me and I’ll give you the link to my page.

Final Note on 3.0: There were several noticeably absent faces due to probably a bunch of real life 3-D reasons. But seeing as how we were all wandering around the park with “We Score We WIn” shirts on one of the biggest absentees was FerretHead who designed the “WSWW” sign and proudly donned it at one of the playoff games last year. It unintentionally became a physical mascot for The Flap and now, the Flap jersey’s that will be worn at all future Flap Stormings. Luckily, she managed to see some of the pics on Facebook and here was her response:

I promised the blog a story that would blow minds and I will make good on that promise. First, let’s have some fun with numbers. It will help us later when we try to set odds on the chances of this unprecedented turn of events happening in real life….

There are 29,541 students who go to SF State in The City.

There were a few less than that at Flapalooza 3.0. Ten Flap vets made it out to the yard last night with a couple of significant others in tow……

Two of those 10 were these guys:

On the left is San Dawg from San Diego. On the right is UncaChuck from the Bay Area. Neither of these guys have ever met each other or spoken to each other before yesterday.

And now, to the story:

Chuck was the last of the Flappers to walk into the Public House around 4 o’clock or so. He walked up and said “Flav!” and I recognized him from Facebook and other places I’d seen his picture. We go around the table and introduce each other. When he gets to San Dawg, Chuck said: “Hey, don’t I recall you saying at the Flap that your son goes to SF State?”

“Indubitably. Nice memory. In fact, he just graduated this year.”

“No kidding?” Chuck said. “Hey, MY DAUGHTER just graduated from SF State this year, too!”

We all had a hearty chuckle about this unlikely coincidence and most of the table fired off the requisite “small world!” comment….

Great story, right?

Um, except that’s not what happened. That was an alternate ending I wrote to keep myself steady as I picked up the pieces of my brain that were blown and scattered all over Marty Lurie’s laptop after I watched the actual story unfold in front of me. Sit down, take a few deep breaths, and read on……

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Chuck shows up last and we go around the table introducing ourselves. When he gets to Diggity he goes, “Hey, is your last name K__________?” San Dawg has a fairly unusual last name and I’m protecting it from the masses. But he goes, “yeah, that’s my last name.”

“Oh, I saw it on an email chain last night that had all the details of Flapalooza 3.0.,” says Chuck.  “I’ve got another question for you.”

“Uh, ok,” San Dawg cautiously replies.

“Do you have a son named Matt?”

“Yep, Matt is my son,” says San Dawg.

“Oh yeah? Well that means that YOUR son has been dating MY daughter for the last couple of months!”

Now as I’m watching this surreal scene develop I start thinking “there’s no way this is for real” and I interjected with “Ok, you guys are just fucking with me right? You set this up just to blow my mind, right?”

Nope. It was all true. Two Flap vets who have only casually interacted on my blog over the last few years, who have never met in person and who live 600 miles away from each other have kids who are dating each other. And they discovered this during the first minute of meeting each other for the first time.

Insane…….

There were many other rad things about last night that I’ll recount later today, but I wanted this story to stand alone.

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some of you guys have indicated you’d like a custom Flap shirt. Snarkk has generously offered to coordinate that for you, all you have to do is email me with your contact info and he’ll be in touch. Trust me, they are very good quality shirts and 1 of a kind. I hope FerretHead reads this! Obviously, your handle would go on the back, not mine.

my email is bigflavor77@gmail.com

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I really like this pic:

Pawlie working his magic. Blade heckling from the peanut gallery . . .

The Fllappers in all their unabashed glory . . .

As last night’s game unfolded, I was dumbfounded by 2 questions, impossible to answer:

1) How was a journeyman no-name nobody pitcher, designated twice by the Giants this season, pulling this off?

2) How did a journeyman no-name nobody pitcher, designated twice by the Giants this season, score a wife with such a spectacular rack?

Well done on both counts, Mr Petit. And by the way, she definitely did not marry for that last name. Hey Now!!!!!!!!!

I didn’t see the post game show and maybe this was discussed, but Hunter Pence was playing too deep on the Chavez at bat. The AZ announcers said that Pence was “respecting Chavez’ power”. Huh? With Petit dealing all night and a pinch hitter at bat (with marginal to not that much power) you don’t play that deep. Chavez was trying to do nothing more than break up the perfecto, he’s not a guy who swings from his shoes. And I’m not putting that on Pence, I’m putting it on whoever aligns the defense from the Giants dugout. I think it’s R-Kelly…..

Before the game I posted this:

Flavor said, on September 6, 2013 at 4:46 pm (Edit)

Dammit, I missed the the millionth hit. Saw Blade at the gym this afternoon, he’s excited, as I am, about Flapalooza 3.0 tomorrow! I hope tonight isn’t a high scoring game, those are always followed by duds the next day. And I can enjoy a pitchers duel easily but tomorrow I want to see a bunch of Giants running around the bases, balls bouncing up against the wall, the crowd going crazy. And I want to see Brandon Belt hit a home run tomorrow. In fact, I’m feeling it and I am predicting a bomb from both Belt and Sandoval. Pagan will hit a triple (if he plays). Hunter Pence will do something 3 times, either strike out 3 times or get 3 hits. That vision isn’t coming to me as clearly as the other ones……

So hopefully, this now means we see some runs scored tonight.

I saw this building on the way to work yesterday. It’s weird, I drive by it all the time, never noticed the name on it:

MacDog snapped the best pic of the year, though:

Speaking of pictures, we will take a bunch of them tonight. I’ll dump the ones I take into my twitter account as the day/night unfolds. I’m not a tweeter, I re-tweet more than I tweet.  I’m mostly on twitter to  follow the sports news breakers that I care about as well as a few people that I know. If you want to *follow* our slow, meandering path to the SF county jail you can do it here (I don’t even know what my handle is, have to go look it up now):

@1flapdown77

That was rather obvious, can’t believe I had to look that up.

If you listen to KNBR 680, Pawlie Kokonuts will be on Marty Lurie’s Show today around 2pm.  Flappers will be be displaying keen attendance…….

Another day, another day in last place. Last night was a good example of how last place teams play. I was pretty impressed with the sheer collection of stupidity between Flannery and Belt when it came to Gerardo Parra. Flan should know you don’t run on that guy and Belt had the play RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM, he saw the ball kick right back to Parra and he ran anyway. Idiotic.

For the record, Matt Cain is scheduled to pitch at Flapalooza on Saturday. That’s cool. We can pull Snarkk off suicide watch now that we know Zito isn’t pitching. Another reason to be excited about the Cain start:  it’ll be the first time I’ve ever seen a guy in a horse head wearing an orange sombrero slam a beer. And while I grasp at reasons to pay any attention at all to that game, that’s a pretty good angle right there…..

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Also, a fun day for the blog stats widget. We’ll be passing 1 million hits today. The day before Flapalooza 3.0, that’s kinda rad.

Runs scored per game  since the all star break (reverse order):

13, 2, 1, 8, 3, 1, 4, 5, 1, 4, 6, 1, 5, 1, 3, 0, 5, 6, 14, 4, 5, 2, 2, 3, 2, 4, 1, 1, 4, 3, 1, 4, 2, 9, 3, 1, 0, 2, 3, 5, 3, 0, 1, 4, 2

I’ll take ESPN’s word for it, so that all adds up to 154 runs scored since the all star break. 45 games. 3.42 runs per game.

0 runs: 3 times

1 run:  10 times

2 runs; 6 times

3 runs: 7 times

that makes 26 games (out of only 45) that  they didn’t score enough runs in a game to win since most people would expect 4 runs should be given to the pitchers per game. Unless you expect them to have a team ERA under 3.00.

And I’m late so I can’t finish this thread, will try to get to it later today. Feel free to chime in on what I started…..

Some of my friends on Facebook were not feelin’ Kieschnick’s boddy language last night, Some examples:

“Who is this Kieschnick dude? He has as much enthusiasm as a corpse.”

“He stands there like a knot on a log.”

Admittedly, this wasn’t the hardest core Giants fan in the world. But she was still watching the game, she gets credit for that.

How much does body language matter to you? Belt’s slumpy shoulders are well documented.

Personally, I think it DOES matter, A lot. Especially when it comes to the other team perceiving your mind set. If an opposing pitchers sees a hitter slumpin’ it up or hang doggin’ their head I think it gives an edge to that pitcher. Same thing if a batter slams his helmet down or breaks his bat over his knee—

If you’re competing you like it when your competitor gets frustrated or *appears* frustrated. That’s a win right there.

And if I was a young player I would give an outward appearance that had a little more energy to it than what Kieschnick is showing these days.

Dear Barry–

It was noted here in the comment section last week (I think) but I wanted to shout out to Christian Arroyo who won the MVP of the Arizona Fall League. Sabean took a lot of heat for his first 2 draft picks and while this certainly isn’t an indicator of success at the MLB level, it’s certainly not a BAD thing that your 18 year old first round pick just won the MVP of the Fall league.

He hit .326 in 45 games with 39 RBI’s, an impressive 25 extra base hits and 47 runs scored. Sure, he probably saw nothing but fastballs but it’s still a nice outcome so early in this young man’s career.

Ryder Jones, who blew off my Cardinal to turn pro, hit nearly as well– .3176 in 37 games. Jones is going to take a shot at playing third base but he’s actually considered a good pitching prospect if it turns out he can’t hit at these levels. So far, so good though.

And Sabean and his staff, at least today, deserves huge props for drafting these 2 players much earlier than anyone else had them getting drafted……

After watching The White Shark’s impressive blast to right field, I was reminded that he doesn’t do that too often. It was his second bomb of the year. He’s got a legit shot at passing the now shutdown Torres. With 27 games to go, he just might win that HR battle (it’s *races* like this that you have to embrace if you’re truly behind #questfor4th). The other *race* I’m eagerly watching: Will we hit 100 team home runs this year? We’ve got 79. Can we hit 21 in 27 games? Um, no. Mathematically, I guess it’s possible. But one hundo is probably not going to happen this year.

I was going to write a thread about the pathetic HR production from our OF this year but it’s already well known and I didn’t really have it in me this morning to look up all the other NL collective outfield HR stats. And really, it doesn’t matter where your power comes from. Cano has 25 bombs for the Yankees and that’s obviously a lot coming out of 2nd base. They’re near the bottom of the AL in team bombs, though.

The home run is NOT an overrated scoring tool but it’s not the ONLY way to score. If you’re stealing a ton of bags that’ll put enough runners in scoring position to produce an effective offense. We have stolen 55 bases this year, that’s 11th in the NL. So being 2nd to last in bombs and 11th in SB’s and an ugly picture starts to paint itself….

Walks are another important tool for an offense (especially if you can’t hit home runs). Walks are critical for many reasons. Obviously, they put men on base. They can move a runner into scoring position. They put a pitcher in the stretch. And, most importantly to a fantasy player, they protect the player’s batting average. The only way to sustain the hit of a low batting average is if the hitter is a big bomber. Alas we don’t have anyone like that and it’s one of the reasons I get irritated when people jack off to Belt’s OPS. It’s nice that he gets on base but he’s the wrong guy getting on base. He’s supposed to be the guy driving guys in. Thankfully, since he made the necessary adjustments at the plate courtesy of Dominic Freaking Brown, he’s been doing that in the 2nd half. Anyway, I digress. What was this paragraph about? Walks? That’s right. Well, we don’t take those very well either. We’re 11th in the NL with 375.  Belt piled up most of those in just a couple of games in June…..

The ONLY thing our offense does well is not strike out. We lead the NL with only 871 whiffs. Our problem is that we make contact with the ball but it stays in the yard. We also hit into a lot of double plays (110) and that’s 5th most in the NL….

If you do get a bunch of guys to 2nd base either by a double, a stolen bag, a bunt, a walk etc….. you still have to drive them in. St Louis is still hitting an out-of-this-world .326 with runners in scoring position. We’re ok, 7th, at .251. Same thing with RISP/2outs: .235 is good enough for 6th in the NL.

Throw in the dreaded *park factors* and it’s completely obvious why we have the worst offense in the NL (if you exclude Miami who kicked the shit out of us this year). We don’t hit home runs, we don’t steal bases and we are in Average-ville when it comes to hitting with RISP.

In short, this team has zero offensive identity. And when you don’t know who you are, you get a lot of guys standing around staring at each other waiting for someone to do something. Standing on 2nd base and firing off an inspiring salute to the dugout can only carry you so far……

How great was it to see Angel Pagan out there last night? He’s such a huge part of the heart and soul of this team. Imagine “what if” he had played all season? We’ll never know but I choose to believe that we wouldn’t be in the cellar had he not gotten hurt….

Speaking of that, our “Quest for 4th” is humming along quite nicely. With last night’s win coupled with a Padre loss, we have locked horns with our LowCal rivals. The pressure may be on but I have faith in our Live 25 that they will bring this home for us. #questfor4th!

Looking at the division standings I couldn’t help but notice that the Giants STILL have the best divisional record at 31-23. I pondered what this all could mean and came up with this: The NL West sucks balls.

Tim Lincecum: talk about a dude pitching without a net. On July 13th he pitched a no hitter. The Giants have scored 18 runs in his 8 starts since. It’s no wonder he’s 8-13.  Come to think of it, that’s probably about what all the starters get from our pathetic offense, at least the last THREE STRAIGHT MONTHS……

The other day I threw out a topic about what the Giants will need to do going forward to keep up with the LA Art Dealers who have no fiscal plan or budget. The response was tepid, most of you said “stay the course, this was a one-off year” etc…

Baggs interviewed Bobby Evans who tried to sound like the team is shifting course a bit and will put more of an effort into scouting international talent. Baggs said: “The club’s scouting department is being mobilized like never before, according to sources. Even Pat Burrell has a plane ticket to Tokyo…”

Excuse me if I don’t jump for joy that Pat Burrell is headed to Japan to fire down as much sushi and bag as many babes as he can in a 48 hour period…..

Evans goes on to say (paraphrasing from what Baggs wrote): “The Giants did their homework on Cespedes and Puig along with EVERY OTHER INTERNATIONAL FREE AGENT.”

Um, that doesn’t quite fly with me. They scouted EVERY OTHER INTERNATIONAL FREE AGENT? Doesn’t that sound a little weird to you? I doubt any team had scouts take a look at every, single one.

And Bobby, if you *did your homework* why did Brian Sabean say this after the A’s signed Cespedes to a paltry 4 year/36 million dollar deal back in February of 2012: “We think the price tag is probably beyond what his talent level is.”

So what we can conclude from this is that the Giants do their homework, their problem is they take the “Jeff Spicoli” approach to studying…..

Spouting off words to the press means nothing to me. And the days of scoring guys like Puig, Ryu and Cespedes for 30-40 million dollar deals are gone-zo. Expect those deals to double or triple for Tanaka and Abreu (and I’m not talking about the guys standing next to President Obama in the team pic taken at the White House last month)….

All we can do is pray that Pat the Bat doesn’t have a thing for Asian chicks……

This has gotten brought up periodically in the second half of this season, but this series in Colorado is bringing to the forefront a sad possible reality: last place. Only one other team in the history of baseball has won a World Series and then fallen to last place the following year. That team was the ’97/’98 Marlins and they don’t count since their pathetic owner intentionally dismantled them after they won it all in 1997. Sabean certainly was trying to build a competitive team this year, attempting to become the first team ever (in the NL) to win 3 out of 4 World Series titles…..

Sadly, for most knowing dudes I know, that head nod has gone from vertical to horizontal. I’ve even seen some knowing dudes doing the horizontal nod with their head buried in their hands. Saw a couple of fellas doing it with tears streaming into their hands…..

So we won’t be making history by winning a 3rd WS this season out of the last 4 years. We are staring at the stark reality of making a different type of history: last place. And that’s why games against Colorado and San Diego are so critical. Maybe we can get some help from the Dodgers and the D-backs. Bochy abhors the role of spoiler but he’s missing what’s actually going on. We should be taking on the role of reverse-spoiler. Spoil the dreams of dipshit Dodger fans who are rooting for us to come in last place. Spoil the pathetic outcome of us finishing last.

Come on. We GOT this. The rest of this season is all about the “Quest for 4th”. It’ll feel just like winning it all except without the joy of winning anything. This is all about what we’re trying to avoid, like a ghostly demon trying to drag you down to Hades…..

Hunter Pence hit the longest home run of the season last night: 476 feet. That’s a foot further than Mark Trumbo hit one back on April 29th. I’ve always wondered how they calculate a *true distance* bomb. It shouldn’t be that difficult, especially with today’s technology. ESPN has now partnered with someone named Greg Rybarczyk–anyone with a last name so difficult to spell is probably very good at math and other calculations, right?

Anyway, I’ve never been to this website  but it’s very cool. They calculate the distance of every home run hit in the major leagues. There’s more info than you could possibly ever want to process. And if you want to process none of it, they just give you the link to the video.

Here’s the link:

http://www.hittrackeronline.com/

Instead of talking about the Giants sleep walking through their opening game vs the hapless Rockies, I decided to write a mini-rant about a late season ritual that’s always bothered me….

Claiming a player to *block* another team from acquiring him via trade: One of the dumber, more antiquated tactics allowed in baseball today. With almost every player placed on waivers in August, and teams getting a shot at each of them in reverse standing order, there is zero reason for a team below a team with a better record to NOT put in a claim on a player. Heck, put in a claim on EVERY player. There’s no skill in that, just keep clicking the claim button like a trained pigeon. And worse, there is no consequence.

And there should be. I think that if a team puts in a claim on a player in August, even if they aren’t able to work out a trade, they have to surrender SOMETHING. A 10th round draft pick. 25K. A hallmark card apologizing to the rest of the league for wasting everyone’s time with a bogus claim ticket. S-O-M-E-T-H-I-N-G.

Take Javier Lopez for example. I actually support Sabean for waiting till the end of August to try to work out a deal. Unlike at the July 31st deadline, true contending teams have now thinned themselves out. And of those teams, their playoff needs have coalesced. Lopez has proven his playoff value and it is high. Having a sure fire bullet like Lopez to fire at a tough left handed hitter late in a playoff game is like gold (baby).

Of course, because 5 other teams put in a claim on him, 4 of which have no intention of actually trading for him, the idea of trading him now is almost a pipe dream. And that’s too bad. He’s of little value to us for the rest of the year, he could pull in a decent prospect from a team who actually wants to work out a deal.

With the Giants winning a rare weekend series and the Dodgers losing one, it got me to thinking, what will Sabean have to do going forward to build a team that can compete year in and year out with the LA Art Dealers. After all, if you are competing against a team that cares not about a budget, it presents challenges to the builders of the teams trying to beat them.

Sabean built 2 World Series championship teams by putting together a rock solid pitching staff and making deft deadline (and pre-deadline) pickups along the way. Of course, both teams had to get hot in September and the playoffs and luckily, they did just that.

But does Sabes need a new plan? The payroll is already high, does it need to go higher? If the team gets younger, is Bochy the right man for the job? Or does Sabean just keep firing away on vet pick ups and hope for the best?

I don’t have the answer to any of these questions, maybe you guys do. And I’m praying Sabean does…..

I found this while I was cleaning up my desktop this morning. Forgot about it.

And here’s how the race is currently unfolding. At least Loo nailed the superfecta, albeit if he had boxed it. But hey, we were both so far off, I consider this a lost bet for everyone, including the team. A better pre-season question should have been, “what are the chances THE TEAM will hit 100 home runs?” They have 76 and have almost no chance of getting there but I think we all would have taken the over and gotten soaked on that one…..

The way things are going, it’s possible he’s going to legally change his nickname to “IrateBum”. Maybe “InfuriatedBum”. Anyway, he got his allotment of 1 run and that dope just couldn’t do anything with it. What’s up with that?

Since the all star break, the Giants are 1-6 in Bumgarner starts despite the face that he’s given up only 13 runs in those starts. I stole that stat from Carl Steward.

In Timmy’s 6 starts since his no hitter, he’s gotten a grand total of 11 runs of support from his offense. Pathetic, for sure. But I bet MadBum looks at that like the mother load of all bounties.

I didn’t watch much of last night’s game, I admit it. Had other things to do. It happens.

So what would you guys like to see the team try in September? I stole that one from Steward, too. Posey at third base? Brown in the outfield? Barry Zito on a surfboard in Santa Cruz?

At the downward rate of speed they are spiraling it’s quite possible that tickets to the Sept 7th game will be free. Up note on that event: there’s a 50/50 shot that my dad (“Bobby Bowden” as San Dawg has dubbed him) will be in town that weekend and if so he’s coming with me…….

Eric Byrnes spent a lot of time on his KNBR show yesterday trying to drum up support for his #Retire22 campaign. As anyone knows, there is no greater Will Clark fan than me. Growing up, he was the ONLY poster I had in my bedroom and I had like 6 of them. He was the main reason I became a switch hitter, I taught myself how to hit left handed because I had a man-crush on that swing.

The Thrill has no business ever being elected into the hall of fame and he probably won’t ever get the chance anyway having fallen short of the 5% vote needed to be included on future voting lists. The HOF is all about numbers and reputation. People visiting the HOF would get to Will’s shrine, look at his numbers and just go, “WTF is he doing here?”

But to a Giants fan base, he was everything. At least anyone age 8-21 or so who grew up in the mid/late eighties–and that grown up fan base makes up a large percentage of the season ticket holders today. And his number, 22, will be forever attached to his greatness in a Giants uniform. He was the sole source of pride for Giants fans at the time he burst into the major leagues by blasting a Nolan Ryan fastball for a bomb in his first at bat and he led the way as the team emerged from the darkness of their long time losing culture. That’s why I get irritated when I see guys like Roger Kieschnick wear it. And he’s not nearly the worst looking player to ever try to wear that number. Ryan Rohlinger? Keiichi Yabu? Dustan Mohr? Damon Minor? There are others but it hurts me to type their names.

NO ONE should wear 22 for the Giants ever again. No one should have worn it for the last several years. And yet Murphy continues to brainlessly dole it out to, well, pretty much anyone…….

And I’m not listening to the static about teams only retiring numbers if the player gets into the HOF. The Braves did it with Murphy. And they retired Chipper Jones # like a minute after he retired. There are probably many other examples across MLB of teams retiring numbers because of what the number means to their specific fan base.

And THAT is the core reason why the Giants should retire #22. Because of what he meant to the fan base. There is ZERO reason that teams should be held hostage by the stupid HOF and their elitist approach to those they accept or those they keep out.

You can read Byrnes’ blog post about this at byrnes22.com or you can find this worthy grass roots movement on twitter at #Retire22

Ichiro got his 4000th hit yesterday and we’re all left wondering what his hit total would be had he played his entire career in MLB. He has 2,722 hits here, 1,278 hits *there*. I’ve heard the rabble about his hits from Japan *not counting* but that’s short sighted and misses the point of “what if?”

Not only do I think Ichiro would have gotten 4,000 but I think he would have become The Hit King with more than a few hits to spare. True, he hit .353 in Japan and *only* .320 in his mlb career. But remember, in his Japanese career, he would only play in 135 games a year (at most)  vs 162 in MLB (I think they have increased their season to 144 since he left). He routinely shorted himself 130 or so at bats a year playing in Japan. But some fans say, “well, you don’t know what he would have done had he played here all those years. Uh, ya kinda do. This isn’t like trying to translate Sadahara Oh’s 868 bombs into mlb bombs. He never played MLB we have no idea what he would have done here.

But Ichiro has played here 12 full seasons (this is his 13th). Going into this season he had 2,606 hits in his major league career. That’s an AVERAGE of 217 hits in a season. Anyone think Will Clark was a decent hitter? Maybe better than decent? Maybe one of the best you’ve ever seen in a Giants uniform? Ok, that last one is a little subjective but he is to me.

200 hit seasons that Will Clark had in his brilliant 15 year career: 0

If Ichiro averaged 217 hits a season (heading  into 2013) I think we have a pretty solid idea of what he would have done over the course of a 21 year career.

And I love how people are throwing Ty Cobb in with Rose. Please, just stop. Ty Cobb banged out 4,189 hits? Before African American or Latino players were allowed to play? Excuse me, but where is that asterisk?

I salute the Great Ichiro with one of the highest honors the Flap can bestow upon another person: 2 flaps up. While we can unfortunately not count his hits from Japan to get him into The 4,000 Hit Club it’s easy to see that he likely would have easily gotten to 4,000 hits had he played in the States his entire career, and would have very probably passed Cobb and Rose. With the greatest of ease, he is a first ballot hall of famer…….

An Open Letter to Anyone Who Claims To Be A “Flapper”:

And I’ll preface this by saying you (Flappers) are the cornerstone of the blog and the main reason why random lurkers come here every day (that’s only creepy-sounding if we’re talking 3-D life). Stuff I write is part of it, but I’m a global guy, very little micro shit gettin’ written up in “heeee-ahhh” . I think that last part sounded hip hop.

But *WE* should get the same criticism as the players when things are going bad for the team. Not watching games to the end is expected. Turning your interests to something more tolerable is understandable (I like re-runs of iCarly (as long as my daughter is present). I also enjoy playing Othello, but I suck at it. I’m fantastic at chess and bejeweled blitz and they’re basically the same game so this vexes me. But nevertheless….. I don’t quit anything because I’m not winning. That’s pussy-shit. I try hard, till the *end* (whatever that is–and if you were at my house right now you’d be kicking my ass in Othello)….

We had a mantra in high school baseball: “you play hard, I play hard. You quit, I quit.” And we told that, quite directly, to opposing players who we were killing who gave us shit for not respecting the *baseball bible* of peeling off once our win was theoretically secure—stealing a bag, scoring from 1st, swinging on 3-0….hey, YOU play hard, WE play hard. YOU quit, WE quit. And “you try hard, I try hard” or “you quit I quit” is still how I live my life today. If you interact with people, it’s how all of us SHOULD live our life everyday…….

The Flip side, or how it relates to the blog, is that I’m challenging you to not quit–and the gravitational pull to quit is strong, non-Flappers wouldn’t sweat you for bailing on the team in 2013. they are impossible and horrible to watch…….

But the comments here at the blog are down yet the unique visitors are about the same. That tells me it’s been *quitting time* for Flappers who don’t like the fact that we smoke copious amounts of pole this year. Fact: we’ve gargled mayonnaise this season…..And while Twin’s current challenges are part of the negative comment numbers, the google map I’m looking at doesn’t say that’s the whole story. There’s a lot of people reading, looking, staring, and bailing. That’s not what real Giants fans are all about, by a long shot.

The strength of the fan base is in the definition of the base. And if you make up any singular cell of *the base*, and you give a shit about your spot in the unit, then don’t fucking quit now like the pussies who whined about my teammate back in HS  (I stole no bases in HS)  who stole a bag late in a 7-0 game with a few innings to go…..

My request is, as the blog owner who everyone *jacks off to* (using a recent *James* ref there and he was radly bouncing off an epic Flavoristic comment from before that) is that you keep firing away your thoughts, opinions, etc….

We are Giants fans. We Score, We Win. In or Out?

Last night, we were reminded of who we actually are when we don’t get to play the Marlins. A tired Boston team that should have been suffering at least a bit of a mental letdown after their gagged, emotional loss the night before, came cross-country into AT&T and embarrassed the former World Series champions. I couldn’t bring myself to write “reigning” or “current” after that pathetic, uninspired, weak, impotent excuse for a “performance”.

In the pre-game notes at the Merc (does anyone even read the Chronicle anymore?) the headline is “Bochy Finds No Inspiration in Spoiler Role”. That’s fine, I don’t have a problem with that. And his reasoning: “your job is to come out here and win every game whether you’re in first place or last place.” Again, no problem with that approach to playing the game. But the kicker is that your players have to adopt that sentiment, too. Or at least come up with their own genuine reason to put forth a professional approach to the game. And last night it was clear, this team is missing something massive in it’s approach to the game—whether it’s mental or cognitive or whatever you want to call it. There is NO EXCUSE to catch a Red Sox team in the state they were in last night and get completely run over in every aspect of the game.

Now, if you want to argue that the ‘Sox simply have better players than we do, that’s an argument that has some merit. But I have a hard time believing that the former World Series champions, only a year removed from their title, are so totally and completely worse across the board, from a talent standpoint, than the 2013 Boston Red Sox.

Motivation. Pride. Focus. Effort. Or lack thereof.

That’s the sad reality of what this season has become. And everyone, from Bochy to the coaches to the players deserve the blame for getting bitch-slapped by a Red Sox team that was primed to lose last night……

You have to find a reason, other than a paycheck, to play the game at this level.

I found the Merc headline rather amusing: “Giants Fail to Pick Up A Game on the Dodgers”. Indeed. Letting such a critical opportunity slip away like that will probably haunt the players throughout the off season……

If you were ever gonna catch the Red Sox in a downer mode it would be today. After a super emotional game in which they gagged up the lead they then have to fly cross country to play the next day. Timmy couldn’t have circumstances any more in his favor than he does tonight. I’m betting that Boston sleep walks through this game. That is, unless Lincecum does this: throw his first pitch behind Pedroia then threw 2 inside pitches before finally plunking him with the 4th one. I know, that would be absurd, right?

Here’s what dinner looked like last night at Merna’s birthday bash:

Sadly, there is talk that Puig will get serious consideration for NL MVP. To that I say, “hogwash.” I’m not sure if Puig is even MVP on his own team. As much as I hate to admit it, Eye Goggle Boy has had a spectacular year. But he’s been injured and has played in even less games than Puig (58 < 65).

To even have this debate you have to acknowledge that MVP isn’t just about identifying the best offensive player. It also has to be about picking the player who is most valuable to a team in contention. WAR does a decent enough job of breaking that down and HanLoser has Puig beat 3.8 > 3.0. If you say, “yeah, but the Dodgers didn’t start winning until Puig got here!” you would have to be ignoring the fact that HanPussy returned from injury at the same time Puig got called up (June 3rd). So giving Puig credit for igniting this unfortunate run for the Dodgers is not accurate.

Personally, I think the NL MVP, if we were crowning that guy today, should be either Andrew McCutchen or Paul Goldschmidt. Both are the anchors for their teams, both teams are in contention (although AZ is fading) and both players actually, you know, played all season (unlike Puig or Eye Goggle Head who have half the at bats of McCutch or Goldshit). I would throw Carlos Gomez into the discussion but he refuses to stop crashing into outfield walls. Also, Milwaukee sucks and if you’re going to win MVP and play on a bad team your stats have to be absurdly better than stand-out players on good teams (at least, in my opinion).

Admittedly, the NL MVP race is a little light this year. It’s probably the reason that we are hearing this “Puig for MVP” nonsense. I’m hoping he comes in second place and then strikes out in all his playoff at bats (a distinct possibility).

Even with last night’s run explosion, the Giants are averaging only 3.07 runs per game since the all star break. Take that game out and the 9 run game from earlier this month and they’re averaging 2.19 RPG. This is why I’ve recently come to distrust looking at RPG or team ERA’s unless it’s over the course of an entire season. There are just too many one-off games that can skew the stats over a short period of games.

In 2010 they scored 4.30 RPG

In 2011 they scored 3.51 RPG (dead last in NL)

In 2012 they scored 4.43 RPG

and so far in 2013 they are scoring 3.82 RPG.

On the pitching side, our team ERA in 2010 was 3.36 (leading the NL).

2011: 3.20

2012: 3.68

2013: 4.09

____________________________________________

So clearly, this year, it has been the pitching AND the hitting that have us where we are today. You could argue that the hitting affects the pitching more than the pitching affects the hitting, but the reality is, both have sucked this year. It would be interesting to discuss what the worst RPG a team could tolerate and still make it to the playoffs. I’m not going to look it up, don’t really know where I’d start. But our ERA in 2011 was a very nice 3.20. Could we have made the playoffs if we’d averaged 3.80 RPG? We finished 8 games behind AZ that season but, thanks to the Sun Dressed Goddess, we were in it until the last week or two.

__________________________________________

total side note random thought:

Here is a pic of Ryan Sanberg from 1984:

and here is a pic of him at age 53 yesterday:

Do they test managers for steroids too? 🙂 🙂 🙂

“There’s a fine line between clever and stupid…”

And there’s a fine line between a hero and a failure….

With the count 2/2, Hector Sanchez let a ball pass by that was very likely a strike. He must have been fooled on the pitch—I don’t know how you let a pitch like that go by when you’re down to your last strike; the last out of the game, in fact.

But the ump called it a ball and Hector blasts the next pitch out of the park for a 4-3 win. The Nats lose, their clubhouse is a morgue, the Giants win and the flight home is happy and fun.

It’s a trip to me how fortunes could change so quickly, affecting so many people, with something as slight as an umpire calling a strike a ball……..

And the ironic thing is that the pitch he hit out was probably a ball, not a strike…….

Someone mentioned it last night and I agree–there wasn’t any pain felt (by me) after Span made that catch. It was more like a joke that was funny that I didn’t laugh at. Anyway, here are the 3 *hilarious* catches this year that ended with the Giants as the punchline each time:

The first one was Venable’s on 6/17:

http://wapc.mlb.com/play?content_id=28124669

Next, we have Matt Kemp’s grab on 6/25:

http://wapc.mlb.com/play?content_id=28350815

Finally, last night, Span takes a circuitous route to finish off the humor:

http://wapc.mlb.com/play?content_id=29716503

I’m not sure which was the best catch or which one hurt more. Or which one was funnier.

________________________________________

Also, here’s a tweet that I found interesting. I have said the same thing many times:

Additionally, Brandon Crawford has negative defensive ratings in 4 of 5 categories at fangraphs. THAT is a joke.

Not much to say about last night other than it was the same ol’ stuff. Others have noted it, but the pop up by Arias really did sum up the season—he gets 4 hits with no one on base and then pops up the first pitch with men on 2nd and 3rd.

Barry Zito has cleared waivers. Shocker. “There’s a fine line between clever and stupid.” That epic line from ‘Tap can be altered and adjusted to just about anything. For Barry, “there’s a fine line between good and awful.” Last year, especially the second half and the playoffs, he fed off the energy that ran through the entire team—Pagan and his salutes, Panda and his unbridled approach to the game, Pence and his speeches….When it all fell apart this year I think some players were affected more than others with the lack of purpose that befell this season. Zito seems to have been affected more than anyone else. 7 weeks left on his 7 year deal. Just ride it out, no one is trading for Zito…….

You look for reasons to watch these meaningless games: tonight, Tim Lincecum. Chad Gaudin’s watchful eye will be looming…….

Who’s up for meeting Tedspe before Flapalooza 3.0/his play? I’m in.

As all of you probably know, Brandon Belt won the National League Player of the Week. I’ve been gone and I missed the news about the changes he’s made in the batters box. This morning, I read an article at the Merc that detailed the changes he’s made, mostly in his grip as well as a move back in the box. Apparently, our esteemed batting coach Sir Hen had to beg Belt to talk with Dominic Brown, of all people, who finally convinced him to make these changes. If you haven’t read the story, here’s the link:

http://www.mercurynews.com/giants/ci_23844229/giants-brandon-belt-gets-grip-new-swing

My question: Why does our batting coach have to seek out a player from another team to convince this guy to change his batting approach? He’s nearly completed his 2nd full year in the bigs and he won’t do what he’s told until Dominic Freaking Brown says to do it?

Well thank God for Dominic Brown. I mean, what a guy. If this big league outfielder thing doesn’t work out for him there’s always a warm spot as SF Giants batting coach waiting for him…….

The Dodgers are 38-7 over their last 45 games? Maybe because we’ve sucked since May I haven’t noticed that spectacular stretch. Regardless, that is a team that’s going down in the first round of the playoffs. Book it. They aren’t that good. Although admittedly, no team is. Still. with HanRam nursing yet another injury, Puig striking out all the time (he’s got 1 RBI in his last 9 games) and a bunch of untested players in playoff pressure type games, I see them going down hard in the first round, no matter who they play……..

Angel Pagan is nearing a healthy return. Some of the scribes are wondering what the point would be of bringing him back this year. To that I reply, “don’t be stupid.” Of COURSE you bring him back this year if he’s healthy enough to play. I will never understand the philosophy of shutting down a season just because you’re out of it. If the Giants shut it down, which they have basically done and WILL have done if they don’t bring back Pagan, then why should the fans bother going to the games? Why should they have to pay for tickets if the team has given up?

Just checking to see who’s *in* for Flapalooza 3.0. The momentous event is scheduled for September 7th (Saturday) 6:05pm vs the D-BACKS. It’s Orange Drunken Sombrero Night and a large percentage of Flavor Nation is descending upon the Club Level section of the ballpark. This will allow us the option of shielding our eyes away from the game and focusing instead on meeting and mingling in the lounge area of the park with fellow Flappers. Thousands (give or take a few thousand) have already confirmed their attendance including at least 3 that are flying in for the grand event.

I’m driving all day so I won’t be able to answer any questions in the comment section till probably 5 or 6pm tonight. But several of the vets can answer any questions, should you have them.

I’ll re-post a Flapalooza 3.0 thread more than once as we approach the date. I just wanted to get a ballpark on who’s coming and invite those who haven’t heard about it yet. My advice, should you value it, is to buy tickets on game day (I know some have already bought them and that’s fine too). With the team woefully out of it and nearly impossible to watch at home, season ticket holders are abandoning their seats in droves. There will be cheap club level seats available on the internet– just buy and print, you’ll be good to go.

*Scutaro is 3 for 19 at the lead off spot with zero walks. Next…..

*Buster Posey has hit 1 home run since July 1st. As the reigning NL MVP, that’s a joke.

*Pablo Sandoval, who hit 3 freaking home runs in Game 1 of the world series, has hit one home run since May 22nd. He has no RBI’s in August.

*Hunter Pence has 1 home run since July 1st. Also, a joke.

Those 4 guys were supposed to be the backbone of the offense. Playing at AT&T doesn’t account for this spectacular power outage unless we’re playing all of them at AT&T. I’m so glad I don’t have to watch this sh!t right now. Sadly, that is a respite which will end in a couple of days.

The Orange and Black vs. the Orange and Black!! Go Giants!!

By the way, I’m really enjoying this book:

These men will lead us to victory. I guarantee it!

1. Marco Scutaro (R) 2B

2. Brandon Crawford (L) SS

3. Brandon Belt (L) 1B

4. Buster Posey (R) C

5. Hunter Pence (R) RF

6. Pablo Sandoval (S) 3B

7. Roger Kieschnick (L) LF

8. Gregor Blanco (L) CF

9. Ryan Vogelsong (R) P

Lincecum turned in another brilliant start yesterday. I only got the mlb highlights but of his 8 strikeouts, 7 of them came on specialty pitches–the final K was a fastball. It seems Timmy has finally stopped trying to blow everyone away and for that, we’re all happy he’s caught up and decided to start pitching instead of throwing.

Since his July 8th start he’s rediscovered his strikeouts and, aside from the post-no hitter game which is an easy one to dismiss, he’s been nothing short of Cy Young-esque. In those 5 starts he’s pitched 38 innings and given up a measly 6 ER. He has 37 K’s vs only 9 walks. Not surprisingly, considering who’s hitting on his team, he only has 2 wins over this great stretch of pitching. To get those 2 wins he had to pitch a no-hitter and a 1 hitter (over 8 innings), that’s hilarious to me, maybe not to everyone else…..

Unless he totally falls apart the rest of the way, this almost guarantees that he gets a 2-4 year deal from someone–probably at least 15-17 million a year. SO, enjoy Timmy for his few remaining starts with us. there is little to chance (as I handicap it)  that he re-signs with us or takes that qualifying offer. He’s already re-established his value, at least enough for another couple of teams to bid against themselves to give him a deal like the ones I suggested above……

Perusing the POTD, maybe I’m not missing so much after all? As Bochy said in his post game conference: “To get this type of pitching and not get some wins, shame on us…” The only thing to look forward to now is when the volcano is gonna erupt. A player going off to the media, or maybe on the media. Someone getting fired. Disputes between teammates becoming public. Either way, the *()hit* is headed directly towards that fan. That is, if there were any *hits* out there. I guess the fan is safe for now…….

You know, it’s not like the opposition is getting to play in a different park than us. When we’re at home, both teams are playing at AT&T. And yet, we only hear Kruk and Kuip chit-chatter about getting AT&T’d when we’re losing. The Giants have been out-homered at AT&T 45-30 this year so it’s not like the opposition is going 92 straight innings without a home run at home (as we are currently doing as a team at AT&T). But last year, they were out-homered 53-31 and they managed to cobble together a world series season.

Obviously, everyone knows the pitching has been worse this year. But last year they outscored the opposition at AT&T 308-272. This year THEY are getting outscored at AT&T 226-204.

I am a huge believer that a feeble, impotent offense can negatively effect the pitching, especially the starting pitching. The players say this, too. The pitchers feel like it’s all over if they give up a run and pitching tight is not the best path to a successful pitching performance. Still, since the all-star break the team ERA is 3.49–certainly adequate enough to win well above half of your 18 games played. And yet, they’ve won 7.

I’m all-in on Twitter man, and I hate it. But there are just too many details in the news that you miss if you aren’t following the news breakers. But there’s one thing I really dislike about it and it’s tweets like this one from Dan Meyer:

First of all, Dan Meyer sucks and I think if the situation were reversed and he was taking steroids and Bastardo wasn’t, he still wouldn’t have won that job. But my main beef with this tweet is that if you are gonna call another man an “ahole” have the decency to do it to his face. Or don’t say it at all.

Back in the day, if you had a problem with someone you dealt with that person directly. If that didn’t go well, you rolled up or threw down, whatever you called it back in YOUR day, that’s what you did. And then usually, whatever the problem was, it was over.

But with twitter and facebook, you’ve got all these people talking sh!t about other people with absolutely zero repercussion for doing so. And it never ends, it just keeps going. Kids are bullied via social media to the point of suicide.

And I know that this thread has now morphed into a weird social commentary that doesn’t have anything to do with baseball anymore. I’m just tired of watching people do a virtual high-five when they “retweet” the words of another person who’s actually too afraid to say the same words directly to the person their dissing in their tweet.

While Dan Meyer is busy celebrating all those retweets and getting interviewed on ESPN last night, he might want to also consider that he could have expressed his feelings to Bastardo in a more direct, private way. Or tweet it out minus that pussy hashtag at the end.

See if any of you can guess what these numbers are:

2, 4, 1, 0, 3, 3, 2, 0, 1, 3, 9, 2, 4, 1, 3

I’m assuming the 9 gave it away. That was that glorious, bountiful windfall that our pathetic offense gifts us once a month or so. I should go back and look up how many times our O has scored 9 or more this year but I’m on a patchwork system up here in the mountains and it would take too long and either underwhelm me or piss me off so…..skip it.

In July we scored the fewest runs in the major leagues (78). Detroit, the team we swept in the WS last year, scored 153. I wonder who would sweep who now. Anyway, that’s how July went. In June we scored the 2nd fewest runs in the major leagues (90). So when Bochy says the offense is in a rut he needs to re-frame that to something more encompassing. When you’re going on your 3rd month of sucking and failing at the plate it effects everything and can easily be pointed to as the reason this season went into the dumpster so early and so spectacularly…….

And now we get to look forward to a change at lead off. Hmmmm, that only took going on 3 months…. “We are not getting any production from our lead off hitters,” Bochy declared.

Just the lead off hitters, Skip?

The Giants are blah, blah, blah and they will make their move on blah blah, 2013.