A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

I’m not going to be able to speak from an educated place on this till I look at both their velocities once the regular season starts, but that’s not going to stop me from writing this thread…..

Timmy looked fine in his first spring start (93-94mph) from a couple of weeks ago. And I’ve seen none of Dirrrrrrty’s numbers this spring other than what they show at mlb.com.

But let’s throw this out there right now: 93-94 mph  just isn’t a speed that dominates anymore. In 1988 it did. But the number of guys throwing 94+ and WAY+ is off the charts in 2013. It’s actually fantastic support for evidence of steroid use today. Timmy threw his fastball, on average, 94.2 mph when he first came into the league in 2007. It’s dropped every year since then, ultimately settling at 90.4 in 2012. And I know he threw it harder than his average in ’07 at certain points in the game or the season, as well as ’12, but losing 4mph’s has left the rest of his pitching repertoire sadly lacking. And this is a theory from the end of last season, not from anything he’s done in spring training this year, a known time that he uses for tune ups and whatnot (I almost said *stuff* and now I’m regretting it since *whatnot* is even dumber than *stuff*).
Timmy and Dirrrrrrty have some things in common. Dirrrrty still has his sick sh!t but he’s said many times that he’ll never give in to a hitter. Top Secret Message to The Dirrrrrtiest: hitters read the sh!t you say. And they see the sh!t you throw, it passes right by them. And they’ve realized that they can’t hit your filthiest sh!t but they have no problem letting it pass harmlessly by as the ump calls it a ball. Very quickly, batter after batter, the hitter works the count in his favor. Dirrrrty is 2-0, 3-1 on every hitter. He’s either stupid or stubborn that he doesn’t understand this……..
Timmy is only similar to Dirrrrty from the standpoint of where his pitches ultimately land. I think Dirrrrty has better control than Timmy but he just refuses to ever give in and will NEVER throw the ball into the zone. It’s stupid, because his sh!t is so wicked, but he’s got his plan and he’ll never change it. He will never adapt. We talked about that earlier today with Sabean. And that’s why he’s fucked now.
I don’t think Timmy could locate his pitches if he was trying. And I think he was trying A LOT last year to locate them. His mechanics are so complicated and he got by with his dominant fastball for so long, that he just never had to do it at the big league level. And now he’s struggling because of it. Dirrrrty has better natural sh!t than Timmy but Timmy would know how to use Dirrrrty’s sh!t a lot better than Dirrrrrrrty if he had it. But he doesn’t have it.

Dig?

This sh!t really is that simple…….

There was an article/video at mlb.com yesterday titled “Giants Blueprint Hasn’t Gone Unnoticed–2 SF Titles in 3 years has other clubs looking at formula”. For those of you who don’t like Eric Byrnes, hit the stop button on the video ASAP.

You can read that article here: http://tinyurl.com/cqxdb63

Now, it’s not a very interesting article. Besides a couple of references to longterm stability up and down the organization, it discusses drafting well and developing a championship core. It DID cite a stat I didn’t know: the Giants led the NL in OPS+ (a measure of offense adjusted for home field) suggesting that they didn’t just do it with an all-pitching/no hit approach that national writers usually (wrongly) default to when assessing the team’s strengths and weaknesses.

Then the writer interviews Kevin Youklis who lamely states, “They only had 3 players who hit double digits in HR’s. I know it’s a big ball park and stuff but you don’t see too many teams with only 3 double digit HR players”.  Whenever anyone says the word *stuff* I usually start to tune out and *stuff*….

If the writer wanted to interview a player who had less of a clue about the Giants *formula* he struck gold with Kevin Youklis, a guy who has never played in the NL or on the west coast and who never played a game against them last year. His response (you can’t call it an answer since it wasn’t one) was a classic “New York-Centric” brushoff that is common among players and writers who think baseball doesn’t matter if you aren’t talking about the Yankees and Red Sox……..

The writer missed the point with his *organizational stability* reference. He’s suggesting that keeping an organizational hierarchy together is a big part of the *formula* but he barely scratches the surface with that answer. If he ever talked to Sabean or Bochy they would say it’s their friendship and the common ground they find that keeps this formula producing such fantastic results. These 2 guys like each other and respect each other and that apparently goes a long way towards building a world series winner year after every other year. 🙂

What do you guys think it is? Luck? Timely mid season pick ups? Did the team just catch fire at the right time in 2010 and 2012? Buster Posey? Barry Zito?

Kruk was pretty hard on Theriot this morning on his show saying, “I am 100% certain that he’ll regret retiring.” He also said he was disappointed in him like 3 times.

Scoots has a sore back and I was *disappointed* in the KNBR morning show that they didn’t get around to asking Kruk about it (after they said they were going to at the start of the show.

It made me wonder about Freddy Sanchez and what’s going on with him. Last February (’12)  I predicted he would never play again and it looks like that’s coming to pass. A month ago his agent said that *about 20 teams* had requested his medical records. Those must not look too good. But still I’m wondering, what’s he doing? Is he staying in shape? Can he throw a ball better than Kensuke Tenaka (and by that I mean, can he throw a ball remotely in the direction of the intended target). Has Sabean even considered contacting Glass for one more go as a utility guy?

And what about Juan Uribe? The Dodgers have confirmed that Jazz Hands is NOT being considered as a replacement for Hanny Eye Goggles. Jeez, he’s hitting .350 this Spring, how far down on the depth chart has he fallen? Would Sabean ever do a deal with his old buddy Ned and bring Uribe back for a final year? Personally, I think the Dodgers wouldn’t want to risk a Uribe revival in a Giants uniform–even if the Giants paid his salary (which they shouldn’t do and probably wouldn’t do).

Still, it would be great to see either of these back in the clubhouse instead of players I don’t know or care about like Abreu or Cedeno or whoever…….

I read a blog post by Schulman at the Chron, something I rarely do. But this was a very interesting piece on Theriot about his decision to possibly retire if he doesn’t get a starting gig. He’s prepared to transition into a traditional life of living at home and raising his 3 kids with his wife.

Sounds fine on the surface, why wouldn’t a father want to do that? But then I checked on what Theriot has made in his career. I was prepared to see 20 million, something in that range. I was WAY off, I’d obviously misjudged how long he’s been able to take advantage of the free agent years. He’s made $8,468,000 in his career. That sounds like a nice chuck of change. Of COURSE he should be able to make ends meet on that, right? But if he’s paying his agent 20% and then he’s getting taxed on half of what’s left, we aren’t talking about money that can set up generations of a family. Especially considering he probably didn’t save or invest wisely in his early years since few young people do so. He’s got 3 kids and a wife, he’s 33 years old. It’s very likely that he’ll need another job to support his family’s lifestyle in both the short and long term.

I’m no longer wondering why he didn’t re-sign with us as a back up. He’s turned down what was likely a 1 million dollar+ contract to be a utility player to stay at home and raise his kids with his wife. How many people do you know, who aren’t set financially, that would do that?

Buster isn’t a free agent until 2017 but there’s obvious speculation that The Giants want to lock him up for a long, LONG time so he never hits the open market. They could buy out a couple of years with something “Lincecumey* but I think it’s more likely that they go big. *Joe Mauer* big. Probably not *Joey Votto* big.

I loath big deals for all the reasons that we’ve already kicked around. But facts are facts. The Giants are 2-2 in world series wins with Buster playing all year. They’re 0-53 when he doesn’t do that. And you have to think Baer and cohorts believe they have a once in a baseball generation player on their team. They are going to sign him to big, big dollars.

He’ll probably only catch for a few more year, especially if he gets something big. He’s one more hit away from getting *cousin’d* into retirement as a catcher. He’ll move to first base and, ultimately, to DH (which the NL will adopt in the next few years). So I’m not worried about him having to catch into his mid 30’s. Do you give him a 10 year deal? Cause that’s what he’s gonna want. In 2011, a 27 year old Joe Mauer signed an 8 year/184 million dollar contract. Votto big time’d that by signing a 13 year deal for 263 million. I think there’s a team option on that one but whatever, the Reds are all-in with Votto. He was also 27 when he signed his deal, by the way.

But Buster’s 25 (turning 26 on March 27th). The Giants could give him 10 years/225 million and probably not look like idiots for doing it. I’d like to go no more than 5 years but I can’t believe Buster would ever go for it. Eight years would be preferable to 10. How about 8 years/200 million? At what point into a 10 year deal with Buster will we start gazing longingly at the Barry Zito deal?

He’s not going to hit .336 again. I’d root and hope for .300 from him on a yearly basis. And his HR total might never hit above 30-33, and that would be a career year. How many years would you want Buster playing first base hitting .285/20 bombs?

I read about Hanley Ramirez’ thumb injury, then watched it at mlb.com. And I loved the letter’s *M/R/I* as part of the story. I couldn’t be happier to see HanRam and the Dodgers in this situation. Throw Grienke’s balky elbow in there and you’ve got the makings for some tough times down in LaLa.

And no, I’m never happy someone gets hurt-ok, I wouldn’t mind it if someone broke some body parts on Jerry Sandusky. And I do remember a smile tracing across my face when I heard that Jeff Dahmer had been killed in jail. So I guess there are times when someone else’s pain makes me happy.

But not in baseball. If HanRam miss any games I’ll be happy because he isn’t playing, not because he got hurt. It would make the Dodgers a little worse and any lesser Dodger team is all good  by me. That 1/4 century of World Series win free baseball is also something I enjoy.

Don’t believe in karma or any of that jazz. Just happy to see HanRam dust himself off the ground shaking that hand nervously. Loved it, actually…..

Seeing Todd Linden’s story in the Chron made me think about unhappier times in our history. After the Giants won 91 games in 2004 the team nosedived for the next 4 seasons. Not surprisingly, 2004 was also the last great year for Barry Bonds. He would retire after the 2007 season. Every team goes through lulls in their franchise history (except the St Louis Cardinals, for some reason) but the Giants slide into 4 years of less than average was easy to see after it happened. Sabean had spent the better part of his GM career placing secondary vet pieces around Barry, largely ignoring developing talent at the minor league level. When Barry stopped slathering flaxseed oil all over his body, the Giants had no answers………

Obviously, he fixed the flaws in his GM game and he  is now one of the underrated yet brilliant GM’s in the game.

Let’s look at some of the prospects and non-prospects from the Dark Years who somehow made it into a regular season SF Giants jersey:

1) Lance Niekro. The Giants took him in the 2nd round of the 2002 amateur draft and he made his first appearance with the club in 2003. In 2005 he played in 113 games for SF and banged out 12 bombs. After JT retired he was the opening day first baseman in 2006. That day was probably the last highlight of his career. He last played in the big leagues in 2007 and reportedly had tried to turn himself into a knuckle ball pitcher in 2009. It did not go well.

2) Dan Ortmeier: at baseball almanac it says he doesn’t have a nickname but we know that to be untrue. He is the great “Ort-Rod” who played in SF over the course of 4 seasons. He hit all six of his career home runs in 2007. He signed iwth Colorado and played for their PCL team in 2009. No info on him since then.

3) Brian Bocock: he was drafted in the 6th round of the 2006 amateur draft. Average glove/no hit, he was actually in the opening day starting line up that was quite possibly the worst opening day starting line up in the history of the SF Giants. I challenge any of you to find a worse opening day starting line up than this: Molina, Aurilia, Durham, Castillo, Bigcock, Roberts, Rowand, Winn and Zito. Not surprisingly, we lost to the Dodgers 5-0. Bigcock’s big moment in baseball was that day, he scored 93 underwhelming at bats that season hitting .143. He hooked up with Philly somehow and had 5 at bats in 2010 for them. No hits. 2 runs. Bye Bye Bigcock. I think he’s in Japan now.

4) Todd Linden: a 2001 1st round pick, he played in parts of 5 seasons for the Giants, ;ast appearing in the majors with Florida in 2007. he’s been to Japan and elsewhere and now he’s back in the Giants org providing adequate minor league depth for Fresno.

5) Brian Dallimore. He wasn’t drafted by SF, he signed as a free agent in 2002. Somehow, he was called up in 2004 and hit his one career home run that year. I forget the circumstances, but I recall it being a very big hit that won the game for us that day. I’m sure others will remember it in more detail. He had 7 plate appearances for the Giants in 2005 and never played at the mlb level again. I’m assuming he found a way to feed his family with the Stanford degree he had to fall back on.

There were others, Brian Horwitz, Kevin Frandsen, John Bowker, Coner Gillespe, Ryan Rohlinger……it’s a long, sad list. And this thread is starting to make me sad so I’ll stop now………

All of these guys wish they could have had half the career that Travis Ishikawa had (and is still having) and that says about all you need to know about The Dark Years…….

Sandoval has pain in his elbow and while everyone is down playing it I thought I’d take a different path and *up-play* the fuck out of it. Players/Managers/GM’s all lie about how serious an injury is until an MRI comes out and they can’t keep the lie going any longer.  This has *bad news* written all over it. The Merc blog says we should “say a prayer” for Sandoval. I’m not religious so I don’t really know what that means. I found this prayer on the internet and while it has nothing to do with this particular situation, I decided to post it here. However you chose to do it today, keep Pablo’s ominous elbow in your thoughts. Pablo, may your MRI show up as clean as one of your post-meal dinner plates. We can’t afford to lose you.

A Baseball Player’s Prayer

by: unknown

I’ve got my first big fantasy draft of the season this morning (10am PST). It’s in the online championship at nfbc.stats.com. Info for that particular contest can be found here:

http://nfbc.stats.com/baseball/contest/generic.asp?id=1180

I’ve played there since 2007 and it is by far the best online fantasy gaming site you can find. Drafts with many different types of formats are occurring daily up until opening day.

In this particular contest, there are 12 teams, 30 rounds and you get up to 70 seconds to make a pick so this will last a good 3 hours. I have several nuggets to mine in this draft but I won’t bore you with those picks. One of my favorite things to do is go back after a draft is complete and see where certain Giants went in relation to where they were drafted in previous drafts. Below, I’ll list off the most coveted SF Giant players in fantasy baseball (and there are a few) and the rounds they have been going in and later I’ll update this thread to include the round they actually went in my draft:

Buster Posey: he’s the first catcher taken in every draft. This year, he’s going (on average) at pick 16 (so, 4 picks into the 2nd round). The next catcher usually isn’t taken till pick 56 and that’s Joe Mauer. Posey is going way too high for my tastes so  he’ll be on someone else’s team unless he drops into the 4th round (unlikely).

Update: Posey went 16th pick, 2nd round.

Matt Cain: He’s averaging as the 7th SP taken in a draft going at pick 46 (mid way through the 4th round).  The 6 getting drafted ahead of him are Strasburg, Verlander, Kershaw, Price, King Felix and Cole Hamels. It will be unlikely that I draft Cain, though I’ve owned him before and have been happy with him.

Update: Cain went 9th pick, 3rd round. Absurd.

MadBum: the 13th SP taken, he’s sandwiched between Yu Darvish and Adam Wainwright at pick 61 (beginning of the 6th round). Depending on how the draft unfolds for me I might take him and could see myself drafting him in the 5th.

Update: MadBum was falling to me, I could almost touch him. He went 3rd pick, 6th round. I was pissed, I wanted him but took Cliif Lee 5 and he just didn’t fall to me.

Timmy: Last year he was the third SP taken, usually in the 3rd round. This year he’s the 30 SP taken going at pick 131 (end of round 11). I could definitely see myself drafting Timmy around 11, he could be a huge overlay and it’s picks like this that you have to have to win anything in fantasy baseball. Either that or they ruin you and you curse their name all the way up till the joyful moment you get to hit the button that bounces their ass to the waiver wire……

Update: Timmy went 11th pick, 10th round. I would have taken him in 11th round. I wasn’t too bummed.

Voggy: He’s the 50th SP taken going around round 19. I don’t see myself drafting him.

Update: He went middle 17th round.

Zito: If he gets drafted (so far he’s been drafted in only 48% of NFBC drafts) he’s going in the 30th (last) round.

Update: undrafted.

The Panda: He’s the ninth 3rd baseman taken, usually going in the 7th round.

Update: I got him! I took him in the 7th round. I was thin on 3rd basemen that I liked, glad I took him when I did or I would have been stuck with Lonnie Chisenhall…who I drafted in the 26th round just in case Pablo finds another hamate bone to fracture.

Crawford: he’s almost always undrafted

Update: undrafted

Scoots: he’s the 14th second baseman taken (again, on average) usually going around round 17.

Update: he went in round 21. He had been going round 17. And yes, I was the one who drafted him. I needed a MI back up and he qualifies as both SS and 2nd so I grabbed him (plus, he was an overlay).

Belt: He’s been getting drafted all over the place. He’s the 21st first baseman getting drafted at an average spot of round 20 but he’s been drafted as high as round 10. I could see myself reaching a little early for him if I need another first baseman around round 17. He could pay off big in 2013.

Update: This was a hard one to watch. I drafted Votto #1 (6th pick in first round) and then I drafted Hosmer in the 9th round (love him) so I wasn’t going to draft another 1-bagger. I watched that fucker drift to the 23rd round. I was going to take him 24, just on principal. Huge, HUGE overlay. Had I not taken Hosmer I might have drafted Belt 16/17ish…..

Pence and Pagan: Pence is the 29th OF taken usually in round 10, Pagan is the 45th OF picked, usually around round 14/15. I’m not interested in either.

Update: Pence went 11 and Pagan went 17–again, I had to take him. 17th round for Pagan is a gift, plus I needed SB’s.

Romo: he’s getting taken in round 13 and I think that’s too high. I have 6 other closers that  are in my closer pool that I like better (and I’ll be picking 2 or 3 of them for my team).

Update: Romo went 14.

No other Giants are getting drafted.

Update: no other Giant got drafted.

Anyway, that’s what I’m doing this morning. I’ll check in later with the results.

Happy Sunday.

Did any of you catch the last out of the US/PR game? Lazy fly ball out to center field, Angel Pagan caught it and celebrated like he had just won the world series. The closer (Romero?) pointed to the sky and started crying as he was getting dog piled on the mound. Think this tourney doesn’t mean anything to the other countries still alive? Think again.

And it really is tough for the US to compete in something like this. Despite not sending our best, we still sent a collection of players that could have gotten the job done. But 3 other factors made the task nearly impossible.

1) All our guys were still in spring training mode. Most of the Latin players just finished winter ball and hit the ground full speed when the WBC started. The US players are used to stretching and working on fundy drills this time of year.

2) Players from other countries simply care more than the US players about winning this thing. Brandon Phillips must have said “Losing stinks” at least three times in his interview. Dude, watch it, I thought for a second there you might let out a muffled *sigh*. Had it been a player from Puerto Rico being interviewed after the same loss the dude would probably be crying and lamenting the fact that they just let an entire country down. When you care more, you usually try harder.

3) Joe Torre is a numb skull. I think I’ve written that about 15 times over the years. But it’s true. I know he probably had a lot of people to make happy in terms of playing time or limiting their playing time or whatever, but he managed these games like Bobby Valentine. Come to think of it, B-Val would probably have been a better choice. If the manager isn’t managing to win how invested are the players in winning?

This tournament has unfolded as a very entertaining diversion from spring training. I don’t really care that the US has been eliminated. And actually, that’s probably #4 as a factor that influenced the US loss. If the US fans don’t care, how much could the players possibly care?

Well, if you read the headline at the Merc, maybe a little. It reads “It’s Starting to Look Grim for Hector”. Apparently he’s got pain all over his body and can’t throw or swing now. They’re going to shut him down for a couple of days. If this is as ominous as it looks it’s time to look at alternatives. I can’t imagine that Bochy would go with a guy like Monell or Quiroz, they just don’t have enough experience to handle this staff. Same goes with Jackson Williams.

And we can’t even to turn to El Presidente who is with, I think, the Rangers right now though he may have just switched teams again while I was typing that. Eli has spent the off season getting passed around like the neighborhood bicycle. The Merc writer suggests bringing back Chris Stewart but he must not be paying attention because Stewart is going to be in a platoon with Cervelli for the Yankees. They aren’t going to leave that job to Cervelli full time.

I don’t know about the free agent catchers but it’s probable that someone will get dumped as Opening Day nears

Do you guys have a preference?

The other night during Timmy’s game, a Giants left handed hitter BLASTED a ball about 450 feet down the right field line and it went just foul. They panned back to the hitter, I couldn’t tell who it was from his face so I knew he was some random rook, and he kind lowered his head and and shook it back and fourth a couple of times. You could see how bummed he was coming so close to making an impression with a monster bomb. But now, he was in danger of making another impression, this one bad, if he started sulking about the bomb that was not to be. He composed himself, got back in the box and ended up blasting a home run to right center field in that same at bat. As he was rounding the bases I thought, “Goddamn, that dude’s gotta feel like he’s floating around the bases.” And I was happy for him because it was a gamer-move to hit a bomb in the same at bat that could have gotten ruined by self pity. His name was Johnny Monell, a non-prospect left handed catcher in the org, and I read in the Merc yesterday that he’s 9-15 this spring (.600). Of course that brought up the inevitable “Randy Elliott” reference in the article. But this particular article by Carl Steward also linked to a “Where are the Now” story written about Randy Elliott about 10 years ago.

I couldn’t click on that link fast enough…

I talk about Randy Elliott like I know who he is but the only recollection I have of him is his name from the yearly stories I hear about him when someone gets hot in spring training. Some of you old timers will remember a lot more about him beyond his *Spring Fling*. But in ’77 I was just in my infancy of starting to care about baseball. 1976/1977 was when I started to collect baseball cards. My first three were given to me by a neighbor kid: Jim Barr, Bobby Murcer and Gary Thomasson. Didn’t have a Randy Elliott card. Didn’t want a Randy Elliott card. Didn’t know who the feck Randy Elliott was.

But over the years, I heard about him all the time. It was only last night, after I read the piece by Steve Kroner, that I found out more about him. Here is his baseball card:

Now, I don’t know about you guys, but the first thing I thought when i saw this card was that Randy Elliott looks an awful lot like this dude:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>And I don’t like this dude<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Even with this bias I read the article and discovered many interesting things. On March 16th, Elliott’s batting average stood at .692. His average *plummeted* to .547 by the end of Spring Training and he told Kroner, “If I hit .400 in spring I knew I wouldn’t make the team.” That’s a fantastic line. He hit .215 for his mlb career and when asked how he was able to cobble together such a mythic spring he said, “My left shoulder stayed in the whole time. When my shoulder was healthy, I could play.”

(He was drafted by the Padres in ’69 and hurt the shoulder playing winter ball in ’72. It would be an injury he would struggle with his entire career)

But coming out of his epic spring, he earned a spot on the team in a left field platoon with Darrell Evans. Sadly, in the 2nd game of the season he was hit in the shoulder by Doug Rau and in his next at bat he felt his shoulder pop loose. He did nothing the rest of the year and was released after the season. His high point was a pinch hit grand slam off the Reds’ Fred Norman. Dang, how great would it be to see video of Elliott rounding those bases?

Here are his career stats:

I enjoyed reading about him and can at least now understand a little bit of the reference when someone brings him up next year. And the year after that. And the year after that. And the…..

Baseball scholars are still trying to figure out how Bill Bergen managed to stick around for over 2500 at bats while hitting .170 with 2 HRs.

Billy Beane 1984-1989 .246 career OBP- “Moneyball” was not subtitled “The Career of Billy Beane”

Tony Suck, 1883-1884 career on base percentage of .205, a career slugging percentage of .161, and zero home runs.

Eli Whiteside 2005, 2009-2012 just because. he’s so bad that Vera rented his boyhood bedroom to J.R. Phillips. ” I wanted a decent player in Eli’s bed”, Vera explained.

J.R. Phillips 1993-1999 The worst 23 HR hitter ever. And it took him 7 years to hit the 20 mark- hit .188 and K’d 180 times in 501 AB.

Tommy Lasorda, 1954-1956 6.48 ERA in 26 games over three seasons.

Marv Throneberry, 1955-1963 He once hit a triple, but was called out after missing both first and second base while on his way to third. Jimmy Breslin said: ” Having Marv Throneberry play for your team is like having Willie Sutton work for your bank.”

Mario Mendoza, 1974-1982 A guy whose name is the benchmark for hitting futility has to be on the list. Actually, Mario has been unfailrly maligned, he was .215 hitter. I think he deserves Eli’s bed.

Herb Washington, 1974-1975 Baseball’s only designated runner, he was 31 for 48. He was picked off in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the 1974 World Series, killing an Oakland rally and handing the Dodgers a victory. He never batted, never played in the field.

The Reverend Aloysius Stanislaus Travers, 1912 In his one major league appearance, Travers pitched a complete game, allowing 26 hits and 24 runs

Bill Bergen, 1901-1911 Bergen has the lowest career batting average of any player with 2,500 at bats. He hit .170 with two career home runs.

No post with Lasodra in it is complete without his major contribution to the game:

I only caught a little of his start and what I did see was on a tv with no sound. And I did see the last couple of batters in the third and Bochy come out to yank him. But I am giving him MORE than a passing grade for last night’s start.

His appearance: He looked fantastic. He’s added weight and yet still looks lean– that’s because he’s clearly added muscle. We heard about all of this but last night was the first time we’ve seen him on the mound in his uni. And while I have no problem with dudes who want to wear their hair long, I always thought that Timmy looked ridiculous at best and like a non-practicing transsexual (at worst) with his long, sleek black hair. He was Black Beauty. Now, he’s a clean cut assassin.

My grade for his appearance last night: A

His stuff: Again, I only saw him throw probably 10-12 pitches but the pitches I saw looked pretty good. His motion looked balanced. I saw him hit 94 on the gun in the 1st inning and he rarely did that last season. His change up was all over the place–almost *too* unhittable and when the hitter didn’t swing it almost always was an easy ball-call.

My grade for his stuff: B+

His location: this was off. I know the change up isn’t designed to end up in the strike zone, but many of his were WAY out of the zone, easy takes. Same thing with the fastball. It was live, but it was all over the place.

My grade for his location: C-

It was his first start of the spring. He was clearly gassed after 2+, when Bochy came to get him he was drenched in sweat. He’s got 3 more starts this spring and I’m hopeful he builds off last night’s positive appearance. Last year, in 12 team fantasy leagues, Timmy was going in the 3rd round (out of 30). He was an obvious bust as a 3rd round pick. This year, he’s going in the 15th/16th round. I’m not sure if I can ignore an overlay like that and will be drafting him in at least 2 leagues. Besides, mid round draft picks are pretty easy cuts if they don’t pan out. 🙂

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House keeping note:

I was away from the internet for most of the night yesterday and I missed all of the rabble on the board. I support Twin’s deletion of 3 posts (and he sent me all three so I did read them after they were deleted). To my knowledge, it’s the only time he’s ever zapped a post here without permission and I reminded him that I am the only one who is allowed to do that.

I think that I’ve clearly outlined what’s accepted at The Flap and what’s *over-the-top* in The Blogger Code of Conduct Rules located on the right hand side of this page. Please review it if you’re wondering what is allowed to be posted at this site. We all say things in the heat of the moment that we would like to take back, I know this more than anyone. In life, that’s very hard to do. At a blog, it gets zapped and it doesn’t seem as bad. But you can’t un-ring a bell. Please remember that *respect* is not just a 7 letter word–it’s something we all should practice in our 3-D lives as well as here at the blog. Thanks in advance for *respecting* the rules here. I think they’re better than rules enforced at other SF Giants blogs but if you disagree with me you’re certainly welcome to go blog there.

I’ll be really interested to check the end of year standings in baseball this season. It seems like every division has a great impending battle that should last all season. The AL East looks to be the most interesting. I know, I sounded so *ESPN* there, right? But this year, I think it’s true. You have the Yankees literally just trying to put breathing bodies on the field right now. Chipper Jones? Ha, he’ll chuckle quietly to himself before he says “No thank you.” The Yankees and the re-building B-Sox, once a given to be the favorite’s to battle all season long in the AL East suddenly find that spot a little crowded. Tampa Bay, Baltimore and now Toronto (who made a brilliant decision to *go for it* in anticipation of a Yankee collapse) all have a better chance of winning the division than either New York or Boston. And the media meltdown in both of those cities will be a joy to watch develop as the year unfolds……

The AL East should also be fantastic theater. I didn’t like the Angels last year and I don’t like them this year. Don’t get me wrong, they’ll be in it all season, I’m not a lunatic. But I think Oakland is for real and while I dislike the A’s I loved what they did last year. Who couldn’t have? Seattle has moved their fences in (puss move) but they have made some sneaky moves and have some left over players who might just coalesce this year. I don’t think Seattle can win the division but I think they’ll finish with a better record than Texas who might finish last in this division…..

I’ll be quite interested to see how the Royals do in the AL Central this year and The Nationals and Braves will trade blows through game 162.

I don’t care much for the NL Central race, but it’ll be interesting to see how the Pirates do this year. I could see them having a nice follow up to last year’s surprise first half run. Jason Grilli came out of a serviceable but undistinguished career to put up dominating numbers last season. Think he’s ready to be a top flight closer? I don’t, but it’ll be fun to see if he can do it.

And of course, you have the NL West set up for one of the great season’s in the history of the division. I will never be sold on the Dodgers until they actually WIN SOMETHING. This is the quarter century anniversary of their last World Series win. Let’s give a 2-flap salute toast to the next 25 years turning out exactly the same way for them………

The WBC train gained some momentum this morning as the Netherlands just ousted Cuba. I raced to the box score to see if Rikkert Faneyte had anything to do with the winning hit. Alas, his time has passed, he’s not even a coach on the team.

But Bam Bam Meulens in the manager and a big congrats to him for this upset win.

How’d ya like to have to call a WBC with the Netherlands. Bas Nooij? Tom Stuifbergen? Kevin Heijstek? I think I’d nail most of the first names and just leave it at that.

In spring training news, the Giants beat Milwaukee 6-1.

Most of you saw that brawl yesterday between Canada and Mexico. If not, it’s front and center at mlb.com. Now THAT was good baseball fight. And I define *good* as something better intended than the usual stuff of a bunch of guys posturing and talking smack. In mlb, if the batter takes a step towards the pitcher he usually doesn’t start going after him with intention until AFTER the catcher and others get in his way. It’s usually all a bunch of nonsense.

I think it’s safe to say that Arnold Leon is above participating in nonsense. After he throws inside to the Canadian hitter the ump comes out and boldly warns both benches. If this was an mlb game that would have been the end of it. But not for Arnold who was like, “Fuck that” and proceeds to drill the hitter in the back on the next pitch! I found it to be quite hilarious. And instead of players rushing the field to dance around each other these 2 teams hit the field throwing haymakers.

The entire scene looked like a bunch of players who had no fear of getting suspended and fined for their actions. Which makes me wonder, how are fights like yesterday’s governed by the WBC? If Sandoval cracks a bat over the head of Hanley Ramirez (please, if there is a God…) does he get hit with any type of mlb suspension? Or is the WBC an *anything goes* type of thing?

I stopped watching the USA/Italy game after Wright hit that grand slam to power us to victory. I’m not gonna lie, I was applauding David Freaking Wright in my living room last night. But, looked like we wrapped that bad boy up so I clicked it off.

In spring training news, The Royals destroyed the Giants 13-2. Belt hit his 4th bomb of the spring and Noonan blasted a triple….

And today we get to play a win-or-go-home game vs the Fightin’ Canadians. Here’s my dream for the game: Derek Holland takes the mound and his first pitch sails squarely into the back of the Canadian lead hitter. He then tears off his USA jersey and runs around the infield flailing his arms above his head screaming jibberish and wearing this shirt:

Now THAT would be funny.

________________________________-

We were at Sports Authority today, she disappears and comes back wearing this saying, “Daddy, don’t you love how it sparkles?”

I say, “Um, no. I don’t like how it sparkles at all”. Not only am I not a *sparkle guy* (and she knows this) but it’s sparkled in one of my least preferred patterns. I said, “let’s go get an SF sparkle hat.” I searched, long and hard and even asked store clerks to check the back. Nada. So yeah, I spent $$$$ on A’s gear today. How in the hell did the A’s out-market the Giants!?!?!?!?!?!

I’m having trouble deciding how I feel about all of these bumps and bruises that the Giants players seem to be dealing with this Spring. If you’re the Yankees, the injury news in much clearer. Granderson, A-Rod, Jeter, and Teixiera all have clearly defined time lines of days they are expected to be out attached to their injuries.

The Giants? Their injuries are much harder to define in days needed to recover. Timmy has a blister–by the way, for those of you who don’t catch the KNBR morning show, Kruk went off on Timmy for how poorly he takes care of his hands and said that this is a direct result, basically, of negligence on Timmy’s part. Torres has an oblique strain (I swear to God, I NEVER heard about an oblique strain until the 1990’s or so. Is that a new muscle that players started growing?). Lopez got hit by a throw on, I think, his non-throwing hand (but I could be wrong about that) and still isn’t throwing. Hector has a tight hammy. Cain got hit in the leg with a ball and missed some time. And now the Giants are panicking because Romo threw 26 pitches in a game.

All of these injuries seem so minor it makes me think there’s nothing to worry about at all and that if this were the regular season these guys would either be playing or close to playing through all of these nicks, bumps and bruises. And maybe because our spring has been so quiet in terms of action or controversy this is the only thing I could think of to worry about this morning and since it’s common knowledge that I need AT LEAST one thing to worry about at all times that’s the reason you’re reading today’s thread.

Twenty Six pitches. Jeez, I hope he’s gonna be all right……

With so many regulars missing from Spring to play in the WBC there are going to be a lot more at bats for the *fringe crew* to impress (or *depress*) Bruce Bochy.

Who’s Hot:

Francisco Peguero: He’s hitting .550 with a 1.321 OPS. Torres better get that oblique straight, fast.

Brock Bond: the guy the Giants drafted by mistake is turning out to be a nice little story. His career almost ended by way of concussion a couple of years ago, he’s shown up raking. He’s hitting .500 with a god-like OPS of 1.583. The scouting report is that he doesn’t do any one thing great but he does everything well. Sounds like Marco Scutaro to me.

Who’s luke-Warm:

Brett Pill: He’s been a little better than luke-warm. He’s hit 2 bombs. He needs to keep the bombs coming.

Cole Gillespe: Hitting .261. I’m not really following him but he’s in danger of becoming lost in the crowd if he doesn’t step it up.

Who’s Not:

Gary Brown: He’s k’d 6 times this spring. That’s second highest on the team. The leader?…….

Roger Kieschnick: ….who’s k’d 7 times and who’s hitting .238 (same as Brown).

Kensuke Tanaka: leads the team with 4 errors (the rest of the team combined has 6 errors). If he can’t field or hit why would we want him on the team?

Angel Villalona: He’s hit a bomb and probably a few In and Out’s but that’s about it. He’s hitting .167.

Nick Noonan: He’s 1 for 19. Next…..

I’m just creating a thread for this since you guys started kicking it around on the last one and I’ve got nothing to post unless you all want to talk about Tim Lincecum’s blister. Next.

My two cents: I’m not even going to look up what the current punishment is. I seem to remember it starts with a 50 game ban and a second violation gets you 100 games. Not sure what happens if you’re caught a third time. I don’t like the idea of a 100 game suspension for a first violation and a lifetime ban for a second one. I’m not against the death penalty for criminals but I don’t think it’s appropriate for a baseball infraction. PED’s will always be part of the game and I don’t like the idea of one guy getting a lifetime ban and a bunch of other guys using them freely–just cause they’re smarter than the dude who got caught (or they have more $ to buy the best masking drugs) is not a reason to bounce those who are caught for life.

Anyway, what do you guys think?

Mark Purdy wrote an article at the Merc yesterday questioning why we should care about the WBC. It was quite USA-centric. I suppose he’s asking why Americans should care, since we aren’t sending *our best*. Every other team in this competition is sending their best and for the baseball fans of those countries I am guessing they care very much about the outcome of their team’s games. So if Purdy is asking the *world* if they care about the outcome of this competition he would probably get a very different answer than he would from a typical American.

I’m going to try to watch some of it and to answer Purdy’s question, I do care about how the USA does. We might not be sending all of our best players but those  we are sending, I’m assuming, are proud to represent our country. And, if we can beat Cuba, a team that looks loaded with hitters, with less than our best team, in some ways, that’s almost BETTER than if we sent a team of all stars.

This is the same as the Olympics. Do we care about that? Well, for 2 weeks every 2 years I seem to care a little about skiing and ice skating and track and the 40 yard dash and floor routines and *even* certain swimming events. So I think I’ll muster the enthusiasm to root for the USA the same way I rooted for Michael Phelps. I don’t know why I was rooting for Phelps, I find swimming to be incredibly uninteresting, but there I am, every 4th year rooting for guys like Michael Phelps to bring a gold medal in swimming back home.

And if we get bounced out of this tourney the way we have twice before then maybe we decide to send better players next time to give us a better chance at winning. We did it in ’92 with the Dream Team. But who knows, maybe we won’t have to. I’m looking forward to Cuba trying to hit RA Dickey’s knuckleball.

I place almost no value on spring training performances. The ball doesn’t break in the dry Arizona climate and most of the vet pitchers are just trying to find a routine, build a little arm strength, bang a few broads, belt a few beers and try not get injured. If they don’t care about the results on the field, how valuable are the stats accumulated in the Spring?

Brandon Belt’s hitting .500 this spring. I bet he hit .500 at some point last season over the course of 22 at bats,too. I’m not suggesting it’s a bad thing to be hitting .500, just that the sample size is so small it’s tough to get too jazzed up about it. Was it a bad thing when he hit .378 last Spring? Of course not. But he’s left his bat in Arizona two straight years when the team breaks for SF, I hope he doesn’t do it a third time……

The Giants had a 23-12 ST record in 2011 and missed the playoffs. KC went 20-10 but went on to go 71-91 in the regular season. Last year, Toronto went 24-7 in the Spring and then went 73-89 in the regular season.

Timmy’s LOWEST ERA in the spring has been 4.03 (back in 2009). Only last year was his crappy spring an indication that his regular season would be crap as well.

In 2012, the spring HR leaders were Freddie Freeman, Matt Hague, and Albert Pujols, who all had 7. Pujols then went the entire month of April without even hitting a single home run making 240 million look worth a lot less than it looked the year before. And I’m sorry, but who is “Matt Hague”?

In fact, because I don’t want it to color my view of the players when it comes time for fantasy drafts I now intentionally ignore spring training stats. I learned that lesson in 2010 after Carlos Gomez rocketed up my draft board by leading the Cactus League in stolen bases with 11. That pick did not turn out well for me. Gregor Blanco led the league last year with 13 steals.

The health of the team should always be celebrated louder than any stats the players accumulate……

Catfish, Mudcat, Ducky, Coot.

The Babe, The Barber, The Blade, The Brat.

Windy, Dummy, Gabby, Hoot.

Big Train, Big Six, Big Ed, Fat.

Greasy, Sandy, Muddy, Rocky.

Bunions, Twinkletoes, Footsie, The Hat.

Fuzzy, Dizzy, Buddy, Cocky.

The Bull, The Stork, The Weasle, The Cat.

Schoolboy, Sheriff,

Rajah, Duke,

General, Major,

Spaceman, Spook.

The Georgia Peach, The Fordham Flash,

The Flying Dutchman. Cot.

The People’s Cherce, The Blazer. Crash.

The Staten Island Scot.

Skeeter, Scooter,

Pepper, Duster,

Ebba, Bama, Boomer, Buster.

The Little Professor, The Iron Horse. Cap.

Iron Man, Iron Mike, Iron Hands. Hutch.

Jap, The Mad Russian, Irish, Swede. Nap.

Germany, Frenchy, Big Serb, Dutch,

Turk. Tuck, Tug, Twig.

Spider, Birdy, Rabbit, Pig.

Fat Jack, Black Jack, Zeke, Zack. Bloop.

Peanuts, Candy, Chewing Gum, Pop.

Chicken, Cracker, Hot Potato, Soup.

Ding, Bingo.

Hippity-Hopp.

Three-Finger, No-Neck, The Knuck, The Lip.

Casey, Gavvy, Pumpsie, Zim.

Flit, Bad Henry. Fat Freddie, Flip.

Jolly Cholly, Sunny Jim.

Shag, Schnozz,

King Kong, Klu.

Boog, Buzz,

Boots, Bump, Boo.

King Carl, The Count. The Rope, The Whip.

Wee Willie, Wild Bill, Gloomy Gus. Cy.

Bobo, Bombo, Bozo. Skip.

Coco, Kiki, Yo-yo. Pie.

Dinty, Dooley,

Tuffy, Snuffy,

Stubby, Dazzy,

Daffy, Duffy.

Baby Doll, Angel Sleeves, Pep, Sliding Billy,

Buttercup, Bollicky, Boileryard, Juice.

Colby Jack, Dauntless Dave, Cheese,

Gentle Willie,

Trolley Line, Wagon Tongue, Rough,

What’s the Use.

Ee-yah,

Poosh ‘Em Up,

Skoonj, Slats, Ski.

Ding Dong,

Ding-a-Ling,

Dim Dom, Dee.

Famous Amos. Rosy, Rusty.

Handsome Ransom. Home Run, Huck.

Rapid Robert. Cactus, Dusty.

Rowdy Richard. Hot Rod, Truck.

Jo-Jo, Jumping Joe,

Little Looie,

Muggsy, Moe.

Old Folks, Old Pard, Oom Paul. Yaz.

Cowboy, Indian Bob, Chief, Ozark Ike.

Rawhide, Reindeer Bill. Motormouth. Maz.

Pistol Pete, Jungle Jim, Wahoo Sam. Spike.

The Mad Hungarian.

Mickey, Minnie.

Kitten, Bunny.

Big Dan, Moose.

Jumbo, Pee Wee; Chubby, Skinny.

Little Poison.

Crow, Hawk, Goose.

Marvelous Marv.

Oisk, Oats, Tookie.

Vinegar Bend.

Suds, Hooks, Hug.

Hammerin’ Hank.

Cooch, Cod, Cookie.

Harry the Horse.

Speed, Stretch, Slug.

The Splendid Splinter. Pruschka. Sparky.

Chico, Choo Choo, Cha-Cha, Chub.

Dr. Strangeglove. Deacon. Arky.

Abba Dabba. Supersub.

Bubbles, Dimples, Cuddles, Pinky.

Poison Ivy, Vulture, Stinky.

Jigger, Jabbo

Jolting Joe

Blue Moon

Boom Boom

Bubba

Bo

This may have been brought up in the last few days, I’m not sure, I’ve been down with a pretty bad flu. Pawlie sent me a short video from the Giant’s website detailing the trip the trophy took through New York–the party was at Finnerty’s, a place that both Pawlie and MacDog have told us about. Here’s a screen shot of Kokonuts in line:

LOVE IT. Click on the picture of the trophy below to see the entire video at mlb.com, it’s fantastic (and it’s only 2:24). I got a two-flap salute for the first guy to send me a screen shot of Loo:

While no longer considered a top prospect, you all know who Dan Runzler is. Over the last 4 years, he’s pitched in 89 games at the big league level. Injuries have derailed his ascent to being a fixture in our bullpen. A 9th round section in 2007, he blew through the system, dominating at every stop. He throws a mid 90’s heater and a sick curve ball. I once got so excited about him that I touted him as the a future replacement for Bee Wheezy. That was probably a wee bit optimistic on my part.

Listed (see: lying) at 6’3 233 pounds, he’s always been one of the larger humans to roam the earth and while he’s a K-machine he’s also been quite the walk distributor, too. But word is, he’s gotten himself in shape and he’s finally healthy. He might actually now be able to fit into that listed weight on the back of his baseball card.

With Mirajes down with an ominous spring elbow injury this opens the door wide open for Runzler to lock down one of the coveted lefty spots in the bullpen. If he can cut down on his walks, he could be a dominant force coming out of the pen. He also might want to change his name, too. Having the sound *runs* in your last name can’t be a good thing for a reliever unless his middle name happens to be “No”.

He’s pitched 3.1 innings so far this spring, allowed 1 hit, walked 3 and struck out 5. Send all the knowing dude head nod karma his way and he should be good to go…….

I saw this on facebook a little while ago, didn’t ask him if I could upload it here, I hope he’s cool with that. He’s on the left and I’m pretty sure that’s his daughter in the middle. Not sure who the other 2 people are. Excellent photo Chipower!

The candidates..
Hembree- big season has him closing or setting up in the bigs- but not now- maybe August
Otero- long shot
Petit, Gaudin, or Loux- if Lincecum and/or Zito scare Bochy and they go to a long guy/spot starter
Proctor- a long way back, 83 games in ’07 might have fried him. Still a legit chance
Runzler- might look to replace Lopez or Mijares next year. Still a great arm.
Rosario- Bochy likes strike throwers- has a shot depending on Ramirez and whether they go long with a Petit/Gaudin type
Edlefsen- don’t see it
Ramirez-the front runner, but hardly a lock

Position Players:
Pequero- he’s been seen by many scouts as better than Brown. I think he’s the favorite if they carry 5 true OFers
Kieschnick- like Chi, I love him. I can see a 2014 OF of Peguero/or Brown, Pagan, Roger. “Keecky” needs to kick major ass in AAA this year.
Brown- is he Butler or just another bunny? The jury’s out. He’ll open in Fresno, IMO.
Gillespie- nothing left to prove in the minors, I see it as Cole/Peguero/Pill as the duel
Pill- last shot to move up from AAAA- Japan? I’m rooting for him here…
Perez- sleeper, could sneak in
Noonan- former second baseman of the future, competion is Tanaka, Abreu, Valdez, Bond
Bond- no respect guy just hits.

That’s quite a scrum for three spots.I left some out that I don’t think have a shot.

I, like most of you, could give less than 1 percent about spring training performances. I do think, though, that if you have a bunch of shitty pitching lines in the spring it’s a reason to worry about you going into the season. Of course, Barry Zito blew that theory out of the water last year after he pitched like Todd Van Poppel on a bad day for an entire spring only to stroll into Coors Field and throw a shutout.

Still, anything that becomes a pattern worries me. Timmy’s inability to get through 2 innings today (1.2, 4 hits, 0 bb’s, 1 K) is not the way to kick off his bounce back season. I couldn’t find his pitch selection/speeds at mlb.com. But whatever, it’s his first start of the spring. He said all the right things afterwards about *hitting all his spots* and how good he felt *mechanically* and the ball is coming out differently this year (in a + way) as opposed to last year.

And then he said something weird: “Last year, I didn’t have the will to sustain my pitching. I wasn’t strong enough. Now I feel like I am.”

I get it, he’s been working out and adding muscle. It’s better than his In and Out diet from 2011 and HAS to be better than his swimmer-training thing that led to the weight loss and a pitching line that included the worst ERA, by a mile, of any NL qualified starting pitcher last season.

But he used the word *will* which, as I’m translating what he probably meant, has a definition of, in part, a “desire to see something happen.” So either Timmy doesn’t understand the definition or he just wasn’t that motivated to *sustain* his pitching last year. But I’ll let our resident wordsmith Pawlie Kokonuts break the meaning of that sentence down (if he wants to).

And Timmy might want to look up the definition of the word *sustain* because it doesn’t really fit in that sentence, especially as it’s connected to the word *will*…….

I’m optimistic about Timmy’s 2013 season as of today. Mostly because I think that his increased strength will help him pitch longer in games. And maybe that’s partially what he meant with his quote……

But the rope I’m extending him is “Zito-like”, at least when compared to the length of Zito’s rope coming out of Spring Training last year. He better get his sh!t together because Bochy isn’t going to keep trotting him out there every fifth day like last year. This year, he’s gonna have to bring something more than a couple of shiny Cy Young trophies out the mound with him. He’s going to have to produce……..

Maybe *opportunity* is too generous of a word. But with the Giants sending 8 players from the 40 man to play for the USA, there are a bunch of non-roster invitees who are looking at more playing time than they would have gotten if the WBC wasn’t happening in 2013….

I’d like to say that I’m looking forward to seeing these *unknowns* play but I watch almost zero spring training games. I’ll catch an inning here and there. But for Gary Brown, Francisco Peguero, Roger Kieschnick, Joe Panik, Jackson Williams, Nick Noonan, Kensuke Tanaka (pfttttt, that’s enough) this is their time to raise eyebrows. Some of them will get another spring or two. But all they really need to do in March is open some eyes. With one utility infield spot and a bullpen spot open, it’ going to be tough to snag an opening day spot.

But Blanco showed last year it can be done. Belt, too. Arias had a great spring but still got sent down to Fresno. He hit .400, got called up in May and became an integral part of the team. With a guaranteed contract this year and being only 28, he could have several years left in the major leagues.

So while these games mean very little to the average fan, you never know when someone is going to take off with an opportunity and turn his dream into a reality. Right now, it’s one of the only angles I can come up with to generate any interest for me in spring training. But for a few of these guys, it’s their last stand, their world series, their….well, Eminem says this better than I can:

I’m completely ripping off Marty Lurie, this was his topic today and I caught the tail end of it on KNBR. It sounded like he was also discussing *how* the Giants should get the flag out to its rightful post where it shall fly forever…..

But the image of Wilson running the flag through the outfield, up the ladder and to it’s ultimate landing spot was so perfect, I couldn’t imagine the Giants getting away from that angle. Obviously, Bee Wheezy won’t be *running with the flag* on Opening Day vs the Cardinals when our long awaited celebration solidifies into eternal reality…..

So who’s gonna do it? Pablo has got to be a leading contender. I could see them having Zito do it, but he’s pitching that day so that might not be something they want him doing during the pre-game. A KNBR caller suggested Brian Stow or his family (and I would think it would be his son and not Brian, unless they wanted to have his son run the flag along the same route that Wilson took and then hand over the flag *raising* duties to his dad. I dunno, that could get awkward.

I heard another caller suggest it be a relay of Mays/McCovey and Cepeda. Negative, at least for me. The Giants honor their past enough, and I can’t believe that any of those 3 guys would want to have a hand in something they didn’t actually have a hand in winning.

Other players who I would nominate: Hunter Pence, mostly for the maniacal path he would run. Angel Pagan, because I’d look forward to the salute at the end. Buster Posey, but I don’t think he’d ever agree to do it (though he would certainly be deserving). How about a *coaches link* of Gardner/Flannery/Meulens/Kelly/Raggs/Wotus/Bochy? That might look lame, each of them running about 20 feet. They could soft toss the flag along, I guess. 🙂  Matt Cain? He falls into the *Posey* category of being totally deserving but not the kind of guy who would want to do it.

Now ROMO would be a guy who would want to do it. And he’d be perfect. That’s who I’d pick.

How about you?

and you can’t say “the final out of Game 4 of the World Series….” 🙂

This is basically an impossible assignment but I’m interested to see how uniformed the responses are. I was going to go with the grand slam that Posey hit off Fuck Latos. When Miller says, “A long high fly ball to deep left field….” his voice is almost quivering in anticipation of what was about to happen. The Pagan catch in that game showed you his worth in those playoffs with that single play. The Romo/Bruce 9 minute at bat. There were almost too many moments from that game to pick one for my favorite of *the year.*

Here’s a mini-compilation from that game (included Dusty’s god awful call of  a hit and run that ended with Buster gunning down Bruce at third for a double play):

Here’s another compilation, this one is all 27 of Matt Cain’s perfect game outs. I forgot just how many tough plays were made in that game to preserve his perfection.

In fact, if I just base this off the play I re-watched the most times in 2012, I would have to go with the Blanco catch from the perfect game as my favorite moment in 2012. I bet I’ve seen that catch 50 times…

But there are so many others that I might have forgotten that you thought of as your favorite. Let’s hear ’em……

I went back to February 2011 to see what we were talking about in regards to the Giants upcoming season. It seems we were inventing things to worry about. After you win a World Series, there isn’t much to do besides B-A-S-K. In hindsight, we should have been worrying about all of our aging players who had career years in 2010 turn into flops in 2011. Here’s a thread I wrote on what I thought were the biggest upcoming concerns for the 2011 season:

If I had to list off 5 things that CANNOT happen to the Giants in 2013, I probably couldn’t think of 5 to list. I think I can think of 2:

1) They can’t have more than one of their starting pitchers go down or be ineffective.

2) Buster Posey can’t get injured again. In 2011, I tried to avoid jinxing it by not writing the word injury and look how that turned out. I’m also not as frightened of this outcome as I was in 2/2011 because at least Hector is a little warmer than the un-dead stuff we as a back up backstop going into that season.

Can you guys think of anything else that would torpedo our 2013 season?

Last December I wrote a thread about what a dipshit Joe Torre was. You can read it here if you never saw it or, horrors, forgot about it.

Joe Torre is a Freaking Numbskull

His brain still isn’t working correctly. The article at the ‘Gate says “Torre Willing to Discuss Player Safety* and then Torre is quoted as saying, “My stance has never really changed.”

Well, your *stance* on catcher safety and rule changes related to it is THE PROBLEM, ya dipshit. And when he goes on to say “If something is going to make the game safer, and not affect the way the game is played, I’m certainly up for it.”

What is that even supposed to mean? So if it was a rule change that made the game safer but it would alter how the game was played he’d be against that? He cares more about the way the game has always been played than he does about player safety? Freaking sports change rules all the time. Baseball ADDS new rules to their rule book every single year……

I would think the player’s union would support a rule change for catcher safety—less catchers getting hurt is a good thing. The union should put pressure on Torre and not rely on Bochy and Matheny making their plea to him once a year.

Joe Torre is a dinosaur stuck in a 1970’s time warp. There isn’t a single sound argument against changing the rules to support better catcher safety on plays at home plate.

Athletes today are built much differently than they were 30 years ago. They’re stronger and faster. Go watch the play of Pete Rose blowing up Fosse. Rose stumbled a little before he made contact. He never even left his feet (but still separated Fosse’s shoulder). Cousins was a human missile and probably hit Posey with twice the force that the Rose collision created. And if Torre can’t see the difference between today’s players and the cats in his era, I just can’t say it enough times, he’s a FREAKING BRAIN DEAD NUMB SKULL.

No one should ever have to sit defenseless and absorb the force of a human missile. Jesus, football has made a ton of changes to support player safety. And Torre’s worried about how a rule change might affect the way the game is played? Does he really think it will change the game THAT dramatically? Fuck him.

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Steve and Paul. Enjoy the Flap *hook up* tonight (or whatever that’s called). 🙂 Flappers meeting up in Bangkok. Where next? The moon?

I think they’re somewhere around this place. Hopefully they aren’t hanging out at the 7/11. Aim higher. 🙂

With Matt Cain declared the Opening Day starter, it got me to wonder about the rest of the rotation. Despite Bochy’s brilliant use of Lincecum out of the bullpen in the playoffs, it’s almost a 100% certainty that he’ll return to the rotation. But what spot? If Bochy decides to go R/L/R/L/R then it can be assumed that MadBum would get the two slot although it’s also possible that Zito would get it with MB switching to the 4. But let’s say MadBum is #2. Do you then go Timmy #3? Because in this pattern that’s now going to shift Voggy to the #5. Is Voggy a number 5? Not to me.

If Bochy doesn’t go with the L/R order all the way through the rotation, I still think it’s likely that MadBum gets the #2 slot and Timmy goes #3 with Voggy #4 and Zito #5. And I think he’d do that mostly because Zito’s already pitched as the #5 and knows he could handle the *label* of being a #5. But Timmy already handled the *demotion* to the bullpen in last year’s playoffs so he probably wouldn’t freak out if he was given the #5 spot.

If we had 6 starters I think the best thing would be to leave Timmy in his *Super Reliever* role that he dominated in last October. Maybe there is something about less time to prepare or less pitches to throw that allows Tim to come out with his filthiest stuff. But we don’t have a 6th starter who could slide into the rotation if Bochy kept Lincecum in *super relief*.

This is a *problem* that’s fairly specific to San Francisco. Most teams don’t have more than 2 or 3 stud starting pitchers. They’re  just worried about finding something un-dead to trot out to the mound in the #4  and #5 spots.

Once the season gets underway, their spot in the order will get defined by how well they pitch. I doubt Timmy has a lot of rope with Bochy going into the season. If he’s mailing in the sub par performances we got from him last year he will not last long in the rotation. Last year, he made it all the way to the end of the season before his role changed. This year? I would say middle of May is about the length of Bochy’s tolerance if the *2012* Timmy shows up in 2013…….

That’s right, it’s February 18th (the day after Blade’s birthday. Happy (late) Birthday, bro) and I want to know what everyone thinks about our back up catcher. I know it’s not the sexiest topic but it’s what I chose to write about this morning on this fine President’s Day. He recently made the news by claiming he wanted more playing time. Well, that’s not exactly what he said. The headline read “Hector Sanchez Hopes to Earn More Playing Time with World Series Champion Giants”. But when you read his quotes all he’s saying is “Nothing’s guaranteed in baseball, I have to work hard every day, I’d be honored to catch Barry Zito again” etc.

And then Bochy had this to say about him: “To be honest, he’s got some work to do on the conditioning side.”

So our back up catcher has come into camp fat and that’s probably not the way to go about earning more playing time; even if that’s not exactly what he said he wanted….

Everyone talks about what a hitter Hector is and he might turn out to be one…..down the road. His OPS was a pedestrian .685 for the Giants last year. He was rollin’ with an unbelievably low walk rate of 2%. He swung at everything making contact with 77% of his swings. Unfortunately, not too many of those swings resulted in fly balls (34%) and that’s one reason why he only hit 3 home runs in 218 at bats. But, he’s young so the power may come later.

His BABIP was high (.349) so if you were hoping for him to improve on his .280 batting average from last year there are other things more likely to happen. So go hope for those things.

And he struck out a whopping 22% of the time.

All of this is bad, in my opinion, except we’re talking about the back up catcher and El Presidente set that bar quite low. He has age on his side and he could improve. But he’s fat and not worthy of more playing time. Not that he was asking for that anyway…….

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And for Paul and Steve, I hope you have fun tonight. While I know many Flappers who have met up in person I don’t think I can recall a better Flap *hook up* than the one you guys have put together. As far as I can tell, they’ll meet somewhere around here:

I was asked by a fellow member of the BBA (Daniel Shoptaw who is, coincidentally, a Cardinal fan featured prominently in Pawlie’s book “Baseball’s Starry Night”) to write a preview of the upcoming Giants season. Apparently, he does this for all the mlb teams before the season starts in the words of the bloggers for each team. It’s a very creative idea and I look forward to following his blog series titled “Playing Pepper” at his blog: http://www.cardinal70.com . His SF Giants preview doesn’t come out till March 21st but I thought we could just bang this out today.

Now, I think it’s important to note that the Cardinals are one of my all time disliked baseball teams. I’d say *most hated* but I just don’t have too much hate left in me. Winning 2 World Series in 3 years will have a softening effect on any fan. I’d like to say I hate Jose Oquendo, and I did tear up his baseball card and post it at the Flap before the 2012 post season vs the Cardinals. But that was just a silly ceremonial act by a juvenile fan designed to somehow influence the baseball Gods in our favor. Matt Holliday? Ok, I think I hate him a little bit. But truly, all of my past negative feelings related to the Cardinals were *washed away* by the storm in Game 7. As Scutaro said (courtesy of Bozo): “I spent four years in Oakland and I’d never seen rain like that in the Bay Area,” he said. “I’m playing deep at second base, two strikes away, one strike away from the World Series, and all of the sudden you feel this rain coming down. You think, `Is that a message?’ That’s the reason I did that. It came without notice, like, pow! It’s cool that people took a lot of pictures.”.

For me, seeing Matheny stand motionless on the steps of the dugout in the pouring rain completely soaked to the core of his soul was enough to get me to move from *hate* to *sympathy* for the team from St. Louis. And what Giants fan doesn’t love Mike Matheny? So, the past is the past and bygones be bygones, all that jazz, and I’m looking forward to writing this preview for Mr. Shoptaw. I am hoping all of you could take the time to offer a similar preview in the comment section. Hopefully it will paint a broader picture of how we see our team (winner of two of the last three World Series. And since this is for a Cardinal blog I’m gonna try to get that in as many times as possible)

Here are the preview questions:

1) How would you grade the off season?

2) Will Brandon Belt have a full time job this year?

3) What are the chances that Marco Scutaro regresses? (no bitterness from a Cardinal’s fan, why do you ask?)

4) what rookie will make the biggest impact in 2013?

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

6) What one thing from your team are you most looking forward to watching?

I’ll just answer these and correlate them to the number above.

1) I would grade it a B+. We brought back every critical player from last season. And, unlike our post-2010 World Series win (the first of 2 out of 3 years :)) Sabean brought back a team that isn’t old and declining (and no, I don’t consider Scutaro *old and declining*, more on him later). Sabean also gets a B+ for NOT bringing back Bee Wheezy (who I didn’t want back anyway) and focusing instead on keeping together one of the best bullpen’s in either league. I also liked the Torres signing. His numbers weren’t as bad as they looked last year. His LD%, contact rate and bb % were all up last year. It looks like he’s finally abandoning his love of the long ball and if he can keep his legs healthy I think he will be a nice compliment to Gregor Blanco in a platoon role. Of course, we all wanted the right handed power bat to go out in LF but realistically that wasn’t ever going to happen.

2) Of course Belt will have a full time job this season. I think Posey gets a lot more games behind the dish in this second season removed from his surgery year. When Posey does play first base I think Belt is going to get a fair number of starts in LF. He’ll get his share of time off vs tough lefties but he’ll be a starter all year and I expect a solid year from him with more power.

3) Scutaro got hot at the right time last year and the Giants were the huge beneficiaries. He’s probably the main reason we were able to win our 2nd World Series in the last 3 years. Now, do I think he regresses? We live in an age where any player who has a spike in production is automatically thought to also be spiking something else into their body. I wouldn’t be shocked to find out that Scoots was on the juice last year but I don’t think he was. And while he is 37 I am going to consider him a *young* 37 since he spent the first half of his career as a utility guy. He doesn’t have a lot of miles on that body. And he’s obviously in great shape. So while I don’t expect him to hit .362 in 2013 (as he did for the Giants last year) I do expect him to continue to be a line drive hitting machine and one of the great leaders of the clubhouse. I’ll say he hits .285 in 2013 and I’d be fine with that……

4) This is a long shot, but I’m going to go with Kensuke Tanaka. Now, Tanaka might not even make the team. But I like his story and he’s easy to root for. He left a 3 million dollar guaranteed contract on the table in Japan to come try and latch on with the Giants. He became a fan of the team in 2010 after attending Game 1 of the World Series (a game I also attended). After watching them win their 2nd World Series in the last 3 years in 2012, he decided it was his dream to play for the Giants and he’s now in camp on a minor league deal. He’s 32 and he’s had some severe injuries in his career. He’s also, at best, going to snag the final utility spot on the team and the fact that he only plays 2nd base is not going to give him an advantage. But who couldn’t root for a guy like Tanaka? Plus, we don’t really have too many spots for a rookie to shine. At least, at this point.

5) I think we win 95 games this year and the NL West. And against all odds, since it’s really, really hard to do, I’m going to say we win our 3rd World Series over the course of 4 years.

6) I’m most looking forward to seeing Andres Torres in a Giants uniform again. He was the spirit behind the 2010 World Series win and he’s returning to a team that just won their 2nd World Series in 3 years with almost an entirely different cast of position players. That’s hard to do.  Just seeing him in the dugout will be awesome and I’m rooting for him to cobble together one final decent season for the team he loves so much.

Oh, and did I mention that we’ve won two of the last three World Series? 🙂 🙂 🙂

I did some light googling on this topic earlier today and was surprised at the prevalence of the age-cheaters. As of right now, more than 300 mlb players have signed with a team after presenting the team with a false birth certificate. I was also surprised to read that between 1987 and 2005, the number of Dominican players alone jumped from 50 to 1,443. So clearly, this is has become a big problem facing MLB.

DNA tests and bone scans have reduced the risk and become the preferred method of age verification. I wasn’t able to find how successful these methods have been to the process or how many international players participate  in these tests.

It’s not surprising to me, at all, that this goes on. Young players from the DR are never gonna *walk* their way out of their impoverished homeland. That’s why they all seem to have walk rates of like 5-6% when they make it to the major leagues. And if an edge is to be gained by lowering their age, that’s something that’s understandable, too. If it helps them *get out* and other players are doing it too, it’s easily seen why a player might try to fudge his age by 2 or 3 years. In addition to appearing younger, it allows them to face younger, and theoretically “inferior”,  competition as they rise through the ranks of their developmental leagues. That’s another possible landmine for an MLB scout to side step…….

I’m not too worried about signing a guy who’s 18 when he’s actually 16. I almost prefer it since he’s more likely to get to the big leagues sooner if he’s a little older. I think it’d be a bigger issue for a team that finds out that a player they sign to a 5 year/75 million dollar contract is actually 32, not 30.

And I would guess there’s about an 80% chance that Albert Pujols is 35 or 36 and not his currently reported 33. Good luck to the Angels who still owe him 9 years/224 million. Think about that, they still owe him a 1/4 of a billion dollars and his production is already in a pretty serious decline. “A-Rod of the West”–likely.

This is old news, the Giants signed him as a 16 year old last year. But the wild *buzz* about him at the Flap recently dictated that I write a thread about him (translation: there isn’t much going on in spring training yet).

Supposedly, he’s got a cannon from the outfield and in this video you’ll see that cannon fire off. He’s fast but can’t really hit yet. But he’s young (and wirey) and already being compared to Justin Upton. Here’s a promo vid of him from the Dominican Prospect League

I know the Giants haven’t had any of their international signings pan out yet but when you’re signing 16 year old’s, this is a process that’s going to take some time. And time is something that all Giants fans have these days. Time carries on slowly and fantastically when you are B-A-S-K-I-N-G in the glorious glow of two world series wins in 3 years.

But since I don’t subscribe to The Insider anymore, I don’t really know what they are. 🙂 It’s not the newest news, they came out on Feb 4th.  Maybe some of you have seen the list. I expected us to be ranked near the bottom and, sure enough, we’re ranked 26th.

Here are the top 5 teams:

1. St Louis

2. Minnesota

3. Rays

4. Houston

5.Chicago

Rank #2-5 isn’t surprising, those teams always suck and always have the best draft spots. I was a little surprised to see our great rival The Cardinals ranked #1.

The D-backs were ranked 15th, the Dodgers 18th, and the Padres 6th (he ranked the Padres #1 last year).

I don’t pay too much attention to other team’s farm systems since they’re always so fluid (trades, injuries or just players who never pan out). And even though we’re ranked 26th, we don’t have too many holes to fill so there are enough players in our system to fill the few spots that will come up in the next year or two. One thing that’s a little frustrating is that the Giants have pumped an awful lot of money into their search internationally for players and not seen a very good return on that investment. Yet.

Tim Kawakami wrote an article on the Buster/Timmy relationship at the Merc. You can read it here: http://tinyurl.com/azhpggl

He notes Timmy only pitching to Buster in two of his final 19 starts in 2012 and then goes on to theorize why Bochy kept them *apart* for so many of Tim’s starts. I’ll summarize them and then note the biggest one that Kawakami ignores:

1) they’re just really different dudes. No duh. I can’t imagine they’d be so different that Tim is the only pitcher Buster can’t catch because of a personality difference.

2) Tim liked to pitch to Hector or Eli more than he liked pitching to Buster. If Lincecum is this sensitive I can’t imagine how he ever got to the big league level, much less won 2 Cy Young’s.

3) Posey’s a no-nonsense catcher who “tells his pitcher’s what time it is” and this approach rubs Timmy the wrong way on the mound. Again, if he’s this sensitive, so sensitive as to prefer a catcher who doesn’t say *meanie* words to him, I can’t imagine he’d have gotten as far as he has in his profession.

4) And this is the one Kawakami fails to discuss and I think it’s the most important reason why Posey basically stopped catching Tim in his last 19 starts: Tim is very difficult to catch. And Bochy had the brilliant plan of resting Posey’s ankle throughout the season, ultimately getting him around 100 at bats at first base last year. Pitcher’s are creatures of habit. It was the perfect match to give Buster day’s off from catching an unpredictable pitcher like Lincecum in a predictable rotation that fell on Tim’s starts (allowing regular rest for the ankle and allowing Tim to pitch to a predictable catcher). Resting Posey turned out to be a brilliant move since it was clear he played the playoff’s on his last gallon of gas and adrenaline. Without the regular rest he would probably have been worthless in the 2013 playoffs and then where would we have been?

I suppose there’s a 5th possibility (another one that Kawakami fails to address) having to do with pitch selection. But I haven’t ever noticed Tim shaking off Buster all game. I also haven’t ever heard about a pitch selection rift or seen Lincecum give up a bomb and then glare at Posey. So I don’t think pitch selection is it. But if it is, why not just have Raggs call the game from the dugout. Roger Craig did it for every pitcher on his staff, the Giants could certainly do the same if this was actually the issue…….

My guess is that Posey will get about half as many starts at 1st base this year. The ankle is stronger and he can catch more games behind the dish. And I’m fully expecting to see the Tim/Buster battery working regularly together in this upcoming 2013 season…..

We checked one important date off today, pitcher’s and catcher’s are all in camp today.

The first ST game to be played is February 23rd vs the Angels.

The Bay Bridge (yawn) Series is being played on March 28th, 29th and 30th.

And then the off season is put out of it’s misery with the glorious opening day game on April 1st. We play the Dodgers down at their hizzle for 3 and then come back to SF for 3 against St Louis. That’s a series that should be riveting from start to finish. I’d like to see one or two pitches end up in MH’s ribs…….

May is highlighted by a 2 game diddy up in Toronto. I can’t recall playing them but maybe I’ve just forgotten it. Near the end of the month we play 4 vs the A’s (two at their place, 2 at ours).

A bunch of games are scheduled for June.

And July….

In August we go to Tampa Bay to play 3 at their place– I’m positive we’ve never played a game vs the Rays. Right? Or am i just totally losing it? And then the Orioles come to AT&T for three games. I’m really looking forward to that series and hope I’m around to go to at least 1 or 2 of those games. Growing up I always liked the Orioles (for no real reason, I just liked their name and their manager).

September is going to be wild with four games down in LA then we travel to New York for three vs the Mets followed by 3 vs the Yankees. I know many people who have already planned a work trip out there for that series.

When looking at this year’s schedule, what jumps out for you guys?

Do you care if Timmy has a crappy spring training? Cause odds are, he will. His LOWEST spring ERA in 6 seasons is 4.03 (2009).

Do you care if Zito pitches well this spring? Everyone remembers last year’s spring implosion but in 2011 he actually had a very good spring (2.30 ERA). There is talk now of the team not just picking up his 2014 option but offering him an EXTENSION. Thoughts?

Do you care how fat Pablo is gonna look to you? Cause you know he’s gonna look enormous. Are we to the point of looking past his vastness and just concentrating on his hitting?

Do you care about Angel Villalona the ballplayer or is he just straight circus-freak entertainment to you?  Do you have any expectations for him this spring other than that he loosely resemble the physical dimensions of a professional athlete? If so, what are your expectations?

Do you care if Gary Brown hits .472 this spring? If he does, do you give him the “Randy Elliott” fast track ticket to SF or do you ignore a .472 batting average and send him back to Fresno for more seasoning?

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This is kinda for the last thread, but whatever. One of my all time favorite shirts from my favorite sports bar in Palo Alto (The Old Pro). I’ve had people in sportsbooks literally try to buy this shirt off my back:

When I was at Fan Fest, one of the things that sucked was the sound system. The players were getting interviewed at a KNBR stage set up around the pitchers mound and there was a lot of feedback that made it hard to hear everything that was being said. So when I got back to my car and turned on the radio, the first player interview I really got to hear was Ryan Vogelsong. It’s really a treat to listen to Voggy talk. He’s not one of those pro athletes that goes on auto-pilot when he’s interviewed. He speaks from the heart and gives his honest feelings about the question he’s asked or the point he’s trying to make. It’s refreshing.

He said something about coaches that wasn’t a new idea but it got my attention. He was talking about how much he loves having Mark Gardner and Dave Righetti as coaches. He said that, between the two of them, there’s literally no situation on the mound they haven’t been through or that they couldn’t help him with. And then he goes, “How the hell am I supposed to sit there on the mound listening to some pitching coach who never pitched above a-ball tell me how to get Albert Pujols out?”

And then he let out a big laugh.

And while it’s not a new concept of working best with a coach who’s “been there, done that,” it made me wonder just how important it really is. I’m not going to go through and check how many mlb pitching coaches ever pitched at the major league level and/or compare the success rate of those who did vs those who didn’t. That takes up a lot of time and I still need to scour the internet for an acceptable BBOTD.

But it’s a good conversation to kick around as we sit here but two short days away from spring training starting……

OK. that’s “The Onion” headline…

Here’s some fellas who showed up for delousing last year and have moved on, didn’t get another invite, or just proved to be, uh-lousy..
Hector Corrrea,Steve Edlefsen,Clay Hensley,Danny Otero,Travis Blackley,Brian Burres,Justin Fitzgerald, Austin Fleet, Stephen Harrold, Mitch Lively, Andrew Kown, Ramon Ortiz, David Quinowski,Wilmin Rodriguez,Shawn Sanford, Matt Yourkin,Chris Stewart ,Eli Whiteside, Tommy Joseph, Andrew Susac,Jackson Williams

No, it’s not an error- someone’s gonna say Danny Otero was here last year, too. Not so fast- this year he’s showing up as “Dan” Otero. The guy has figgered out that Bruce likes mature relievers- ain’t no “Danny” grabbing that 7th pen spot.

Correa- the kid we got for the pleasantly plump catcher, you know who-Ronny Paulino. We sent Taschner to the Phillies for Ronny Paulino, and promptly flipped him to the Florida Marlins for Hector Correa.. who is: somewhere.

Ramon Ortiz- moved on to steal innings elsewhere- had a nice AAA season for the Yanks, think he’s in Blue Jay organization now.

Travis Blackley- bounced around after we got him from Seattle for Jason Ellison- he worked his way back here only to be DFAed last year. Had purty fair campaign with the A’s…

David Quinowski- Huh:? Who? Ended up with the Lincoln Saltdogs, with Derek Coverstone, Asif Shah, and other luminaries.

Whitey- had a whirlwind offseason- I think the Saltdogs just became the 14th team to sign him and release him 4 hours later..

Joseph- Mr. Light Tower Power went to the Phils for the Preacher. No complaints…….yet.

And so it goes- Pitchers and Catchers Day is a beginning for many, life goes on for others, and the end of the road for a few. This wiil be an especially tough time for the hopefuls this year- there might be just *ONE* spot spot in the battery up for grabs…
And the chance for this…

I had decided not to go but I didn’t close the door on it completely. Around 10:30am I got a call from one of Katie’s friends and she was invited to go to a Chinese New’s Year’s parade. Not asking questions other than “Can I drop her off in like 5 minutes?” I hung up the phone and whisked her down the hill. It takes about 45 minutes to get to AT&T from my house so time was of the essence. In the rush I forgot my jersey and I felt the lameness of that move as I was driving up 4th Street when I suddenly rammed my car straight into night time; felt like around midnight. Either that or it was Halloween, I couldn’t tell. Black everywhere, orange and black everywhere, it was a world of *my people* all making their way up 4th to the stadium. Pawlie would have fallen down on his knees and starting crying…..

Having not prepared even a little bit for this trip, I quickly discovered I was not doing this in a skillful way. Besides forgetting my jersey and hat I passed all 4 parking lots with *full* signs on them. I flipped a be-atch and started slow riding up and down interior streets away from the park. It was mostly all construction though I did keep passing a sign to a hospital or something. Every time I saw the sunrise of a possible parking space on the street my hopes would get dashed as it turns out there are an inordinate number of fire hydrants in San Francisco. Just as I was literally about to give up since I had driven so far away from the stadium I could almost justify being *on my way home* I drove by a city park and found a rogue, empty space at the end of a dead end. I was in the sticks. Literally. I got out of my car and there was a group of dudes swinging long sticks in the air at each other:

As much as I wanted to ask these cats if I could join in on all the *fun* I started my long walk off toward the ballpark. After walking for a while I came upon this glorious spectacle and knew I was almost there:

I patted myself on the back a few times for choosing this activity over whatever the fuck the stickmen were doing a long way away and I headed into the ballpark:

That looks like a big group of fans casually commingling but it’s actually LOOOOOONG separate lines of fans lined up to meet the players. I never got nearly close enough to see an actual player. Not one. A little perspective on that later in this post when I upload some of my dad’s fanfest picks from 2008 (or so).

I waited in a long line to go down on the field. I’d never been on the field, it was cool to walk on it:

I finally walked back up into the right field lower box seats and took this shot. I’m assuming this resembles a crowd at a regular season Oakland A’s game:

Finally I decided to have some mustard for lunch with a little bit of hot dog thrown in as a side dish:

Of course that made me think of the hot dog I bought when me and San Diggity Dawg went to a game:

Yeah, I ate both of them……..

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And then I left. My dad’s wife Diane sent me these pics from the fanfest they went to circa 2007/2008. Times have changed, eh? I didn’t ask him but I don’t even think he stood in line to get these shots.

Anyway, I’m glad I went even though I didn’t see a single player (other than on the big screen being interviewed by the KNBR crew). Being around the energy and the aura of fellow Giants fans was enough to make it all worth the trip.

I’ve never been and I don’t think I’m going this year. I don’t have anything special going on instead, I’m just not looking forward to the heat I’d catch from ‘Dirt for the atrocious string of BB’s I’ve been churning out lately. 🙂 I might go, but it’s clear that the only reason my kid wants to go is to ride the train and that might not be enough to keep her goin’ all the way through all this:
(Craig made it! Blew 5 bucks already)

The lines to see/talk to the players promise to be interminable and Flavor doesn’t like to wait in lines unless it’s at a Wingstop. The Giants have listed off the *Top 10 Reasons to go to Fanfest* and it looks something like this:

10/9/8/7: buy tickets and gear

6: walk the field

5: get your face painted and visit the slide (And even if Katie stays home, this might turn the trip into a go* for me) 🙂

4/3/2: buy more shit.

1: talk to the players

I dunno, the face painting is enticing but I’m guessing that I’ll be a little too far away to do much “talking” to the players. My dad went a couple of years back in the “Rowand Era”– a desolate time, he said like 6 fans showed up. And as you can imagine, he got some great close up pics. I’ll see if he can send some to me today and I’ll upload them as/if they come in……

Have fun to any of you who are making the trek out to the yard today…….

Spring training for the Giants is probably not going to see too many surprises with pretty much every player role already set. That’s why it will be fun to follow the progress of still-young Angel Villalona who apparently has slimmed down enough to vaguely resemble a professional athlete and get his visa. Remember that last year? I can’t recall the exact wording but the reason giving by the people who issue visas in the DR, was that there was no way they were gonna issue him a work visa to be a pro baseball player as they had scientifically determined that he could not possibly be a professional athlete due to all of his fatness. Like I said, the official wording was a bit different but that’s how I recall it……

He played in the Dominican Summer league and hit to a line of .303/.430/.497 with 7 big flies in 44 games. Not sure what he’s been doing since then, he must not have been able to get down to Venezuela to play in their winter league.

But he’s put his settled murder case behind him as well as a country mile of cleaned dinner plates and he’s headed back to the USA to play ball for the Giants. Likely, this will be an underwhelming story, maybe his inclusion on the spring team had something to do with the 5 million dollar lawsuit he was going to sue the Giants for (breach of contract) before the two sides reportedly settled.

I’m anxious to get a good look at this fella and will start praying now that he and Pablo aren’t bad influences on each other in line at the lunch spread……..

Pardon me for interrupting with an Non SF Giants/American League post, but the Mariners are straight stupid. This one might actually be dumber than the 8 year/184 million $ deal that Mauer scored. At least you could reasonably be able to count on Mauer playing first base or DH in the last 4 or 5 years of that deal…..

King Felix is a stud, there’s no denying it. He won a Cy Young in 2010 after winning only 13 games but had underlying CY numbers that killed it. It was the first time ever that voters literally tossed wins out of the equation. His CY was almost seen as an equal victory for the field of sabermetrics…..

He was fantastic last year too, tossing 232 innings and striking out 223. He threw a perfect game. He’s the definition of a *horse*.

But Seattle isn’t in a position of making a bunch of financial mistakes. They aren’t the Angels or the Dodgers, two teams who could care less about a contract performing as they can just re-load and fire away on another expensive FA player if the first one gets hurt or sucks.

Seattle is all-in with this mega deal. And they’re all in on a freaking pitcher. A 27 year old guy who just finished his 8th season with the team—1,620.1 innings are logged on to that right arm. And while his underlying numbers are still mostly holding themselves together at an elite level there is this little diddy to consider:

His average fastball for the last five years:

2007: 95.6 mph

2008: 94.6 mph

2009: 94.0 mph

2010: 94.1 mph

2011: 93.3 mph

2012: 92.1 mph….

Giants fans cringe at numbers like these as they’ve had to painfully watching Timmy’s descend into a similar black hole. Dodger fans get to watch Josh Beckett’s slowing fastball next year, too…….

King Felix is a stud, he may be big and strong enough to never get hurt. He may ultimately re-invent himself and become a knuckleballer or a pin-point soft tosser once the fastball hits Zito levels. But I’m being honest here, I don’t think I can name another pitcher on the Mariners roster right now except *Charlie Furbush* and that’s only because I think he has a funny name.

The Mariners just shot their entire (money) wad all over a guy who is literally their only current relevant pitcher. And we all know how teams do who sport nothing after their single good starting pitcher. As the years tick off and Hernandez’ fastball continues to dip along with his success, how stoked are they gonna be to be paying him 25 million dollars a year to pitch for their last place team?

I admit to being a sick ambulance chaser when it comes to these gynormous deals. Almost all of them fail (CC’s has held up) and I have total confidence in Brian Sabean that he will never sign another free agent pitcher to a dumb Zito/Rowand deal ever again. Sit back and watch the carnage unfold, Giants fans. Another team just bit the dust today……..

I’m thinking the M’s might want to consider moving those fences back next year, maybe even adding 70-80 feet. They’re gonna need ’em to keep their opposition under 10 runs each game in the coming years………

That’s quite a deal Sergio just scored. The 3.5 million was the deal he was going to get anyway via arbitration. Dropping another 5.5 million in there is a suspect decision for two reasons:

1) The only way he has a lights out 40+ save year is if he stays healthy all season and avoids injuring one of his many achy body parts. He pitches with two braces and while I don’t have medical documents at the ready to back me, I would suspect that throwing that insane frisbee slider is not easy on the elbow on a game to game basis. He can’t pitch all season as a front line closer. Book it.

2) And if he doesn’t have a lights out 40+ save season, what is the point of guaranteeing him 5.5 million next year? That’s just giving money away that you don’t have to risk. Romo’s not going anywhere, they control him in 2014……

Sabes did the same thing with Bee Wheezy before the 2011 season and that didn’t work out too well. And before anyone wants to try NOT connecting the two deals, recognize that Romo is a HUGE injury risk if he’s used as a top flight closer.

And if they do go CBC then why the f**k give him a deal that pays him 5.5 next year?

They saved nothing out of this deal, they were going to have to pay him 3.5 million anyway if they went to arbitration.

Dumb, on many, many levels…….