A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

In the widget list to the right, you should see a tab that says “Ex Giant Watch List”. Click on the actual stat pic to enlarge it.  It will update daily so you can track how our former players are doing. I need to figger out how to get Rowand to email me updates on how many hours a day he’s spending in his batting cage at home and include that in the list 🙂 If you would like me to add a name to the list, throw it out there and it will get done. THe list is from espn and the “% own” indicates what % that player is owned in espn fantasy leagues. *Type* indicates who owns him in our fantasy league. If it says *FA* then he is a free agent in The Flap league…….

Vungo: He *appears* to be good to go for Opening Day. He’s been battling a calf injury but played in a game yesterday going 1-1 with 2 runs scored. All signs point to him leading off in center field for the Mets this year.

Cody Ross: He’s had a fantastic spring with 6 big flies, a .370 batting average and a 1.257 OPS

Dirrrrrrrty: Man, I’m gonna miss writing his name. He’s had a bad spring. Two terrible starts, 2 ok starts. His ERA is 8.74. He’s given up an alarming number of hits (17 in 11.1 innings) and for a guy who misses so many bats I think that is the most surprising part of his spring. Anyway, he doesn’t seem too worried about it. Here’s an interesting article on how he got started playing ball:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120327&content_id=27662004&vkey=news_kc&fext=.jsp&c_id=kc

I’m not going to include Beltran (in the poll)  because he wasn’t here long enough for me to care about him. Rowand’s back at home. Ishikawa is on the bubble for a back up job in Milwaukee………

I think that’s about it in terms of ex-Giants. So we’ll just go with those 3……..

My mind has been re-conditioned to see “5 years/112 million” and not even blink twice. As haunting as the Zito deal is, the Cain deal almost seems like a bargain in today’s world of insane contracts. Of course, I wish it was a 3 year deal but there was no chance of that ever happening. We’ve already discussed the benefits of extending Cain—I feel like our pitching staff is in very good condition going forward. I will be disappointed if we somehow lock up Timmy because that means that we’d be paying 3 pitchers 20+ million a year by 2015 or so (Bum could easily get there in arbitration) and that is not the right payroll model to work from.

But the money is there to pretty much do whatever they want. Everyone talks about the cable money that is flowing through baseball but the internet business is *right there* in terms of being a cash cow for the owners. All the mlb sites are managed by a company called MLB Advanced Media and it’s another multi-billion dollar business that is subject to the same revenue sharing rules as everything else in baseball.

Selig gets a fair amount of crap from the fans, much of it deserved, but the owners must be using pictures of him as beat-material. The revenue generated under Selig’s watch is staggering……..

By the way, imagine my surprise when I received my copy of Baseball’s Starry Night in the mail and found a Flap reference on the back of the book! –Probably the only time Jayson Stark and I will cross paths, at least on a back cover. I have only gotten through the first 20 pages but on Page 17 there is ANOTHER Flap reference along with a quick blurb about Blade’s role in Pawlie’s experience on the night of September 28th, 2011. Though Pawlie is too modest to post the link here, I will continue to do so regularly. You can also get a kindle version at Amazon, too.

http://www.amazon.com/Baseballs-Starry-Night-Reliving-League/dp/0615622305/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333461551&sr=8-1

As we know, the opening day line ups in 2010 and 2011 didn’t resemble the end of the season line ups in 2010 and 2011. It’s just one game, and as Baggs said on his blog: “If you predicted on opening day 2010 that the Giants would win the world series you get to take no credit. That team didn’t win it, another one did. ”

I know this line up has a small percentage chance of happening but this is the line up I would start this Friday against the D-backs:

Batting 1st: Blanco (Center Field): I know, insane and contradictory to the low expectations I’ve held for him all spring. But I’m coming around slowly, and I recognize that is driven by *hope* more than anything else. But, he’s been quoted as saying that his game didn’t start clicking until he started to do what everyone was telling him to do and that is be more aggressive. And it wasn’t just this Spring that he started doing it, he was the MVP of the Venezuelan League this Winter. And I’m tossing last year’s .202 minor league batting average out the window because, well, I have to if I’m starting this cat on Opening Day in the big leagues. Who knows what that was all about. Maybe a hidden injury, maybe a personal issue, maybe it was just an outlier year. Whatever. I’m going to trust my eyes on this one. He starts for me and leads off this Friday…….

Batting 2nd: Melky (right field): He’s a switch hitter who can go to all fields. He’s a fine #2 hitter (and a significant upgrade from Glass who spends way too much time trying to send the ball to right field in all his at bats)…..

Batting 3rd: Buster Posey (catcher): I just think your best hitter should bat 4th…..

Batting 4th: and that’s Pablo (3rd base)

Batting 5th: Brandon Belt (1st base). It’ll probably be Huff starting at 1st base on Friday but this is my line up and there are no salary considerations in The Nation That Flavor Built…….

Batting 6th: Pagan (left field). I don’t think 6th is his ideal spot but of my 3 remaining players he’s the best option for 6th. Plus if Belt is on base in front of him he will stand a lesser chance of the bases getting clogged up when he blasts one into triples ally. Belt has more speed than people realize. I’m also still considering batting Pagan 2nd and Melky 6th because I just think Melky would be a much better 6 hitter than Pagan. Of course, I think he’s a much better 2 hitter than Pagan, too. Tough call……

Batting 7th: Theriot (2nd base). I just can’t put Burriss AND Blanco in the same line up. Plus, I trust Theriot’s at bats more than I do Burriss’.

Batting 8th: Crawford (SS) because he’s got to bat somewhere. Word is he has finally stopped trying to pull everything and it’s shown up in his spring training stats this year. If that’s true I’ll be excited since that’s exactly what I’ve said he needs to start doing. We’ll see if he can do it when the games start to count……

Batting 9th: Timmy

That LU goes L-S-R-S-L-S-R-L and I think that’s absolute *perfection*………

Feel free to post *your* opening day LU………

As I said several times at the beginning of last season and throughout it, we were in big trouble as an offense without any speed and without any power. We scored 570 runs as a team. St Louis scored 192 more than we did (762).  Why the gap? Well, we were slow (14th in NL in stolen bases) and weak (11th in NL in HR’s), a pretty bad combo no matter what game you’re playing. Yes, we had injuries last year but every team deals with them and you can’t use them as an excuse. Bottom line: our team had no identity last year. This year, that’s all changed. And our *name* is *Speed*……..

It’s exciting to think of how fast this team *could* be this year. Part of that is a huge leap of faith because I’m considering The White Shark and Burriss in the mix. But if lightning strikes and those two can somehow take their spring performances and transfer them to the major leagues then we have a team that is going to have opposing pitchers and catchers nervous, twitchy and distracted—and the added benefit of that is that when you get the battery distracted you get them to make mistakes and major league hitters pound mistakes. So it’s not just stolen bases to look forward to but better pitches to hit as well…….

We stole 85 bases last year. If Pagan, Cabrera, The White Shark and Burriss all played a full season they collectively could steal 130+ bases. If that happens, we will *run* past 700 runs scored on the year the same way this horse blasted past Bertrando in the ’91 Juvenile:

“and Arazi runs right by him!!!!” is still one of the great Breeders Cup calls of all time…….

But I digress…….

Look, I know it’s spring training and we could look back on this thread in August and laugh out loud at it. Burriss and Blanco could be selling used cars by then. For that matter, Pagan could be, too.

But, at least to start the season, we look to have the fastest team we’ve had in years. Maybe ever (in San Francisco). San Diego stole 170 bases last year and even with *The Dream* of those four fast cats running wild all year I doubt we could eclipse that number. But we’d come close……

**** It turns out that having Zito *watch* Moyer didn’t have the desired effects……..

**** How weird must it be for Theriot and Fontenot? You get reunited with your best bud to work together at the same job. Then, a couple of months later, he’s the reason you get fired. Tough business……

**** We have NONE back up at 3rd base. Theriot played a few games there in 2007. That’s it. Apparently Pill is taking grounders there and might have even played in a game there this spring. If Pill is the back up 3rd baseman than this, along with the fact that he hits right handed and is probably better suited to come off the bench, will be the reasons that he stays and Belt goes down to Fresno.

**** Apparently Jaime Moyer just locked up the #2 spot in the Rockies rotation. The good news is that this should allow Barry to do even more *watching*. Shit, forget Zito, how do the #3,#4,#5 Rox starters feel about this? I’m not too worried about the Rockies this year if their #2 is Moyer…….

I read a *funny* article to today in The Merc–“San Francisco Giants Want Barry Zito to Pay Close Attention to Moyer”. Ha, everyone has an idea about how to fix Zito. This is the group who come with this basic message: “Pitch like Tom Glavine or Jaime Moyer”. Easier said than done. Pav’s article was all about Righetti encouraging Zito to watch Moyer and see how he changes speeds while not changing the look of his delivery. Again, easier said than done or there would be 49 year old geezers littered across the mlb landscape. But there aren’t, there’s exactly one of those dudes probably anywhere in the world……

Zito can start changing up speeds with the best of them. His problem is and always will be *location*. He knows it too. You can see it in how he pitches. He pitches scared. He’s afraid of contact. And developing pinpoint location isn’t something you can learn by watching a video of Glavine or Moyer. You either have that gift, or you don’t……..

And he doesn’t………

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Man, I’ve had my opinions about Ray Lewis over the years but after watching his pre-game speech to the Stanford men before their game against Minnesota I have to say, he is a remarkable speaker. It’s no wonder to me at all that players revere him the way they do. When he’s done playing football he’s likely going to become an extremely well paid motivational speaker…….

And if you missed it, he’s pretty good at post-game speeches, too….

With the team sending out signals that Belt could start the season in Fresno, I’m wondering if there’s a chance that Blanco could actually crack into the starting line up on opening day. Two of our supposed starting outfielders (Nate and Pagan) are having abysmal springs. I would be shocked if the Giants took Pagan’s spring at face value and sent him to the bench before the real season even starts. Just from a PR standpoint it would be surprising to see them waive the white flag on that trade so early. So whether he bats leadoff or not, it’s probably safe to assume that Pagan is starting opening day……..

Nate shouldn’t feel as comfortable with the same expectation. I think it’s clear from Bochy’s comments this spring that he loves Gregor Blanco. And on at least one occasion he’s spoken publicly with words that would suggest Nate isn’t a lock for the starting right field spot.

Could Blanco’s spring training performance actually propel him into a starting opening day gig? I think the Giants know what Nate’s value is off the bench. Maybe they think Blanco could offer the same thing, I don’t know. But it’s clear that Bochy is not happy with his hitters as a group right now. Maybe he sends a message to the team that hard work and results count for something. Just like with Burriss, if Blanco turns into a pumpkin once the real games start then you can move him out of there no problem.

Personally, I have very low expectations for The White Shark. He’s still nothing more than an amusing spring side note to me. But he HAS produced and at the very least he’s got a significantly better nickname that, um, *Nate*. And we all know how much the Giants like to sell stuff……..

So what would YOUR starting outfield look like?

It was interesting to see how much our line up has changed since last year. Here was the starting line up the last time Lincecum threw to Posey (March 21st, 2011):

Torres CF
Sanchez 2B
Posey C
Burrell LF
Ross RF
Huff 1B
Tejada 3B
Fontenot SS

There’s the possibility that Buster is the only guy from that LU starting in the same position on Opening Day (Huff might start in LF)….

As I type this, the A’s just went down 3-1 in the 11th against the Mariners in the *season opener*. Spud Selig has made a lot of dumb decisions over the years, but playing the first game of the year in Japan at 3am might be one of his dumbest. What percentage of Mariner and A’s fans got up to catch this game? Was it even on tv?

The Dodgers sold for 2 billion dollars? Hey, Forbes was only about a half a billion off, right? lol.

I just read Kawakami’s article at the Merc and I was surprised that he left out the biggest reason the Giants have to sign Matt Cain. I agreed with his 5, but the most important reason to sign Cain now is so that they don’t get bent over by Lincecum when it’s his *turn*.

I’m on record as saying I hope the Giants don’t sign both Cain and Lincecum. Together, it would probably cost in the ballpark of 250 million to ink them. That’s just too much. Especially for pitchers who are much greater injury risks than position players….

But they really do need to sign at least one of them. And if Cain walks there will be absurd pressure on ownership and Sabean to *do something*. We all know how they react when they feel like they have to do *something*. Panic-mode sets in and they do something stupid. (see: Rowand, Aaron and Zito, Barry). If Cain walks, the Lincecum would likely get the 8 years he’s looking for and we would regret that deal forever……

With Cain OR Lincecum anchoring the staff, the Giants should be able to keep the pitching near the top of the league for the next half decade or so. Remember, Bumgarner isn’t a free agent till 2017 and he is going to be RIGHT THERE with Cain and Timmy in terms of production over the course of the next 5 years. That’s the other reason, by the way, that you can’t pay BOTH Timmy and Matt to stay here. Once Bum rolls into his arbitration years he could be making 20 million a year just like Timmy is now. There’s no way the Giants can pay three starting pitchers 65-70 million dollars a year. That is not happening……..

We’ve gotten spoiled here in San Francisco with rock solid pitching. We’re used to having 4 studs to trot out there every week. But that isn’t reality. We’ve had a window of unreal luck with our pitching but the window is closing. And the answer isn’t to pay 250 million to keep it open. If Sabean continues to misfire on his pitching draft picks (and all signs point to lots of misfires over the last few drafts) then he’s going to have to pick up some *Room B* free agent pitchers. It’s not all bad, lots of the Room B guys will want to come here. Pitchers love it at AT&T. And they get better, too. Our staff will be fine as long as we sign Cain and Bum does what we expect him to do. Let the Yankees or the Red Sox pay Timmy his 8 year deal and watch how that turns out……..

I suppose the headline is at least arguable. Man, he’s had some doozies! In 2008, he had a 10.31 and a WHIP of 1.96. He walked 13 and struck out 4 batters that year.

But I still think this one is worse. His ERA is better (6.61) and he’s definitely crouching his ass off.  But he’s given up 25 hits in 16.1 innings. Opponents are hitting .379 off him and his WHIP is an incomprehensible 2.08!

If I wasn’t a Giants fan I would be totally intrigued with what he’s going to do once the season starts—like a *just how bad can this get* kind of moment.

People forget, he only started 9 games last year. And it wasn’t just because of his *injuries*. He didn’t start a game after July 31st and was reduced to 4 relief appearances in September. So when you hear fans say “he’s just as good as everyone else’ #5” that isn’t actually true. I’m not going to bother to look it up, but most teams have a #5 who makes more than 9 starts in a season…….

And most #5’s have WHIP’s that fall somewhere  in the 1’s….

So we’re going into our 6th season with Zito. Six long years. What to expect in 2012? Well, we know there’s going to be lots of crouching. Maybe he’s crouching so much so we can’t see him on the mound–can’t boo what you can’t see, right? I’ll let Clubber Lang handle this prediction:

* If BOTH Burriss AND Blanco are in the starting line up on Opening Day then I’d put the D-backs at about -200 to win that game….

* Can someone explain to me what the problem would be with Posey playing first base vs lefty pitchers and taking a day off a week to rest? That gives Sanchez 3 days a week behind the dish plus an outstanding switch hitting bat off the bench when Posey starts…..

* when the news broke that BOTH Fontenot AND Theriot were hitting the trade block, what was there more of, crickets chirping or hyena’s howling? Could be time for a little more *showcasing*…….

* Pablo is hitting .200 this spring……..

* Huff’s done enough to win the 1 bag job. Have Pagan (.191 ba) and Nate (consistently underwhelming) done enough to lose their outfield jobs? Who’s up for a Belt/Melk/Blanc starting outfield on opening day, lol.

* over/under on number of games Voggy wins this year: 7.5

* Kevin drafted 8 closers. Just sayin’…..

* Dirt drafted Pablo in the first round. When he wins the NL MVP, he will be the one laughing at us…….

I just read that Posey has totaled exactly 27 innings behind the plate this spring. Flavor Nation, listen up: this is not good. I worried about this in my March 7th thread:

https://oneflapdown77.com/2012/03/07/posey-needs-to-start-catching-soon/

It still blows my mind that no one is worried about Posey’s current lack of *catcher conditioning*. And I mean NOBODY. I haven’t heard a coach wonder about, Posey wonder about it, talk show chumps wonder about it….nobody.

Except me……

From that, you might draw the conclusion that Big Flavor is a gynormous-worry-wart-pussy. And you might be right about that. I’m not saying you ARE right about that, just that, you know, the possibility exists that I’m overreacting to Buster’s lack of conditioning behind the dish this spring……

But all signs, at least to me, are pointing to us starting a catcher on opening day who doesn’t have *catcher legs* under him. And if that’s the case, at BEST he will be underwhelming with his bat and his defense for at least a month or so to start the 2012 season. At worst? See: Mauer, Joe>>>>Bi-lateral leg weakness>>>>>DL>>>>>lost season.

Here are Mauer’s career spring training numbers (just look at the innings):

And I’m going to re-post what the Twins trainer said AFTER Mauer went down last year 2 weeks into the season with bi-lateral leg weakness:

“He, I don’t think. has had the repetitions for catching or anything else,” McWane said. “Once the season started, he started to wear down. He wasn’t strong enough to handle the everyday catching…..”

Buster Posey 2012 spring training catching innings: 27, as of today.

And Mauer, who went down 2 weeks into the season, at least played the entire 2011 at catcher. Posey hasn’t played catcher in a major league baseball game since May, 2011.

The good word coming out of Bochy is that we will see Buster playing a decent amount of first base. Keep *easing* him back into the job. That might save him and allow him to get his *catcher legs* under him as the season starts and progresses. We’ll see. But I think the prospect of 3 automatic outs at the end of the line up (Crawford, Whiteside, Pitcher) will deter Bochy from playing Posey at first base a often as he is planning on doing so. Again, we will see…….

Buster Posey has caught 27 innings in the last 10 months. Starting catchers need to be able to get in the squat and catch around 250-260 innings A MONTH during the season. Does anyone seriously think that he’s ready to carry that type of load?

I was disappointed, along with probably most of you, to see that Joe Torre has taken back his job working as Executive VP of Baseball Operations for major league baseball. That job lay dormant and unfilled while Torre tried unsuccessfully to buy the Dodgers. It’s a super critical job that as far as I can tell has no duties and no expectations and a fat salary. The only time I’ve EVER heard the job referenced before was when we got to listen to Torre’s idiotic response for why he wouldn’t even pass the possibility of a home plate collision rule change on to the rules committee. That smug-fuck could barely contain his derision of Bochy who had been logically pushing for at least a discussion of a rule change. My #1 Pacific Northwest Flapper “Bird Dog” sent me this photo. I’ve posted it before but it is much more dramatic when you add in the lines. Posey was blocking the plate? My ass:

I’m sure Torre would get a kick out of this picture, probably calling Posey a pussy at least 3 or 4 times…..

Yesterday, Buster had his first play at the plate since the accident. I didn’t see it, but it sounds like he is doing as instructed, going with some absurd swipe tag. My gut tells me that at some point in the season his competitive fire takes over and he stands his ground on a home plate collision. Whatever the outcome is, I’m sure Torre will ignore it…….

Yes, spring training batting averages are mostly meaningless. I don’t hold *bad ones* against a player if that player has proven that he can hit major league pitching. And if he’s too young or inexperienced, that’s another reason to give a hitter a free pass on their Arizona batting averages.

A lingering injury can also be a decent enough excuse (see: Schierholtz, Nate).

But at some point in a spring, you have to say to yourself, “if this guy can’t hit those guys I don’t want to see what they would do at the mlb level….”

We’ve got 5 guys in camp right now who are teetering on the brink of *spring batting average incompetence*……..

1) Brett Pill. Everyone seems to love themselves some Pill because of this *right handed power stick off the bench* that we need so badly. Well, he’s hitting .267 this spring. That’s right around his career minor league average (.279). At some point it might start becoming painfully obvious why this guy vanished on the prospect chart. But we’re desperate for his perceived bat off the bench so……

2) Coner Gillaspe. He’s hitting .207 this spring and while no one considers him a short or long term option at third base he is still a good reminder of what’s behind Pablo Sandoval should he get hurt. Yikes…….

3) Number 3 is sort of a hybrid of futility. Stew/Whitey have a combined OPS this spring of .1186. That’s still short of the .1266 OPS that Hector’s put up all by his lonesome……

4) Justin Christian. He’s hitting .214. I know he had a decent year in the minors last year and got a quick look in SF last September, but if this dude is anything more than AAA outfield depth, we are in trouble….

What’s scary about this list of 5 guys is that 2 of them will almost certainly be on the roster on Opening Day. Since NONE of them can hit, even 40% of this futility is something to worry about……….

I’ve been waiting for the latest Forbes issue to come out. With the Dodger’s rumored to have a dozen legitimate buyers all willing to go north of 1.5 BILLION dollars to purchase them, I was curious to see what Forbes would say they were worth. Last year they said the Dodgers were worth a pedestrian 800 million—And yet there’s a bunch of cats out there that are saying with their offers that the team is worth much more than that.

Here’s Forbes latest *attempt* at valuing mlb clubs. This is just the top 11:

well, whattya know, LA just increased their value by 75% in a single year! Wow! Hey, Forbes says that’s what they’re worth so that has to be what they’re worth, right?

Obviously, Forbes has no idea what any of these teams are actually *worth*. If the Giants were put on the market today, I bet they couldn’t predict within 100 million dollars of the final purchase price. In fact, I bet they aren’t within 100 million of the Dodgers final purchase price, and that’s with their lame attempt to reassess their value on this year’s list (I say “lame attempt” because they’re obviously just going off of the current publicized rumors of what the Dodgers will ultimately sell for).

If every single team was suddenly put up for sale I would bet that a Flapper Prediction Contest could come as close or closer than Forbes would to the final sale price for each team……

What’s more surprising? Joe Lacob finding out that Warrior fans don’t really, really like him or Glass Sanchez finding out he isn’t going to be ready to play second base on opening day? There are often surprises in the sports world, but neither of these should be a surprise to anyone.

What will the Giants do about the 2-bag come opening day? Glass will hit the DL the same way he has so many times before and Theriot will start at 2nd base. If RT looks like Tejada 2011 then I guess I could envision Bochy giving Burriss a try but that seems unlikely.

I would like to know if this is just Sanchez’ should not quite being ready, maybe missing by a few weeks or if this is something that is going to signal the end of his career at second base. I think that HAS to start being considered. And if that’s the case then maybe it’s time to consider a move to first base. That couldn’t be THAT difficult of a move for him, could it? Of course, I’m sure he hasn’t taken even a single grounder over there this winter. And it’s not like we have a spot for him over there, we’ve got got guys 3 deep already at first. But in terms of extending his career, I think that’s something he should consider……

The Giants will start him on the DL but I think that’s a mistake. he’s got no problems at all swinging the bat. Brett Pill seems to be about to snag a roster spot because of his coveted “right handed bat off the bench.” I’m fine with Pill and all, but wouldn’t Sanchez be a better option off the bench? He’s an infinitely more accomplished major league hitter. And if the chances of him hurting himself swinging are low (though with *Glass* there’s never anything *low* about a potential injury) I don’t see why he can’t keep re-habbing his shoulder while sitting on the bench waiting to help out in an actual game……

But maybe that’s just too obvious of an option to consider………

Felled with a vomitous flu yesterday, I wasn’t able to get a main thread or a BBOTD up. But I’m back, mostly, walking upright with the rest of the humans. We’ve spent all Spring talking about the hitting, who plays where, how the rehab for Buster and Glass-chez are going, etc. Discussions related to the pitchers has been almost non-existent. And I’m not just talking about the blog, I listen to a fair amount of KNBR talk radio and neither the hosts or the callers seem to have to much interest in talking about the pitching. Part of that is because we don’t have too many jobs up for grabs. There might be one, if Bochy decides to go with 12 pitchers which he’s likely to do. Here are the pitching stats so far this spring. I reorganized it by *innings pitched* so we could see who is getting the most work and, therefore, who is getting the longest look…..

The first thing that jumps out at me, and I’m really astounded by this, is the fact that we don’t have a single *blow up* ERA until you get all the way down to someone named “Fitzgerald. J” who checks in with a 9.82 and a ticket to Fresno. Usually in spring if you have one bad appearance that pretty much does it for your spring ERA. So while we all know how awesome our pitching is, I don’t think anyone envisioned EVERY single pitcher of consequence having a solid spring. I haven’t seen more than a few innings a week and maybe an inning on the radio now and again so I don’t have a personal opinion about who should get that 12th spot, should there be one available. I know that no one has stood out this spring the way Voggy did last year. But here are the stats and you guys can kick them around today if you like. It’s good to be back, I definitely noticed the disruption to my daily routine by NOT getting a thread up yesterday……

Manny Burriss sure is going out with a bang, isn’t he? Or maybe he’s not going out at all. Through yesterday, here are the hitting stats for our 2nd basemen this spring:

He’s out of options and I’m sure it would irritate the Giants to no end if they had to waive him after all these years. He likely would get claimed by another team. You would think that Theriot would be on the bubble but with Glass Sanchez still not able to throw a baseball overhand it’s unlikely that Bochy would feel comfortable with THAT much Burriss in the mix.

Since we don’t need a 5th starter until the middle of April, I fully expect the Giants to start Voggy on the DL and that would allow the Giants an extra roster spot of flexibility which could easily go to Burriss. So maybe it’s not time to wave goodbye just yet….

And now for a random pic of Brandon Belt and his wife. He’s hoping she goes the *low-carb* route as she gets older……

Last year, we were force fed a heaping dose of pain. Down the hatch went El Presidente and his untrusted VP. All season we waited for Sabean to find a competent, major league replacement for Posey but none were to be found. Picking up someone like that, mid-season, is just not an easy thing to do……

At the end of the season we saw Whiteside STILL playing, even in meaningless games. Hector Sanchez watched quietly from the bench probably wondering to himself “How could THAT guy be playing in front of me?” The season ended and we had all learned a good lesson about the back up catcher role. When your starting catcher is a  star, you simply have to have a back up for him that is competent. It was ugly and obvious: there was just too great of a drop off from Posey to the deep depths below of Whitey and Stewart………

Sadly, the off season brought us nothing except the same guys. A lesson that I thought was so obvious to learn clearly wasn’t and from the start of spring training all signs have pointed to the same 2 numb skulls fighting it out for the back up catcher spot……

And with Posey getting almost no game conditioning behind the plate this Spring it would seem obvious to me that having a competent back up would be critical going into the 2012 season. And I think we all know that he’s going to be seeing a lot of time at first base this year. Again, unless the Giants are planning on having an orange back stop as their replacement player, the writing on the wall seems to be the back up spot going to Whitey or Stewart…..

Here’s what the catchers have done this spring:

Toss Susac, Williams and Joseph out since they were just in Arizona to smell the air and be seen by the coaches. The obvious player who is tearing up the Cactus league is Mr. Hector Sanchez. The current belief is that he’s getting better at calling a game but that he’s not ready yet. Apparently, he won’t know what to throw Braun in a 2-2 count. I don’t think this should be the reason he isn’t our #2 catcher on opening day. For starters, he’s not going to learn what to throw mlb hitters if he’s catching down in Fresno. Like anything else, at some point he’s going to have to do it in a game and there will be some bumps along the learning curve. A possible response to this would just be to have our veteran stud pitching staff shake him off if he calls the wrong pitch. I know this sounds like a WILD plan but come on, is it really that hard to have the pitcher over rule the guy a few times over the course of a game?

With Posey playing a lot of first base, the back up catcher WILL get some regular playing time. And when Posey is catching, Hector can sit in the dugout, watch and learn. Hell, have Decker come sit next to him for a month or 2 and teach the kid everything he needs to know. Daily catching lessons from watching and talking to Posey (as well as Mr Former Catcher Bochy) will accelerate the learning curve. And while he’s learning and playing a couple of days a week he’s doing something completely foreign to Whitey and Stewart—he’s *hitting*.

Maybe Bochy and Sabean are cool with 3 automatic outs at the bottom of the line up (Crawford/Whitey or Stewart/Pitcher but they shouldn’t be. How can you win consistently if you are literally giving away 1/3 of your outs every game?

Hector Sanchez should be the back up catcher when the team breaks for San Francisco. But we all know he won’t be………

Since one of my great skills in life is coming up with awesome baseball polls that cause zero controversy and are completely fair and devoid of bias,  I thought I’d look back and see how past polls shook out. How did the consensus do on actual *outcomes*. The last one doesn’t have an outcome yet. And a few don’t have outcomes, they just show how everyone felt *at the time* the poll was taken. Anyway, let’s take a look:

July 7th, 2010 What should the Giants do with Renteria?

10/30/2010 Who will be *your guy* from the 2010 team?

11/30/2010 Who will be our 2011 shortstop?

2/24/2011 What will the Giants do with Rowand?

6/26/2011 Would you trade Dirrrrrrty for Jose Reyes?

7/22/2011 Who do you think is going to rebound this year?

11/8/2011 As a Giants fan, do you support the trade of Dirrrrty for Melky?

12/7/2011 Do you support the trade of Vungo for Pagan?

This next one is long, sorry, but I wanted to fit the entire roster in and I had to snip it twice because it was too big.

11/23/2011 From the 2011 Giants roster, who will never play in the major leagues again?

Anyway, just a reminder that you might forget about the poll you vote on but the results never go away. Muhuhahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey, I’m down with Gregor Blanco. If the baseball thing doesn’t work out he’s ready to roll as a bull fighter with that great name. Maybe he teams up with *Fab Melo* on some pay-per-view project. And I can say with near certainty that the official fan club, and I’m talking about in the world, started here at this blog by our own Bozo the Clown. So we here at The Flap have been in Blanco’s corner before pretty much anyone else…..

But Bruce Bochy’s comments about him yesterday were bordering on the absurd…….

“He can be a great starter, too,” Bochy said. “With those tools — I’m not going to pencil him in, but the player that you see is young and I’m sure at some point in his career he’s going to be starting.”

OK, first of all, this is a career minor leaguer.

I’n not sure if Bochy was paying attention to the question or even the answer that he delivered, but this guy is not considered *young* he’s older than Brett Pill. He’s got not power and he doesn’t hit for average. Bad combo. His best minor league OPS year was his FIRST minor league season: .776. That was in 2002. And he batted .201 in 252 minor league at bats in 2011. I suggested a few weeks ago that this mind blowingly bad batting average could have been due to a hidden injury. But even still, .201 in the minor leagues is….just….not….good…….

I’ll be both mildly amused and moderately supportive if Blanco makes the team as our utility outfielder. I like speed and he’s got speed.

But if Gregor Blanco is ever starting for us for an extended period of time, we have some enormous problems on our hands………

Quick post this morning. I thought I’d round up the stats of some of our former players and see how they’re doing this spring:

Vungo: he’s dealt with a minor hammy thing but has gone 5 for 13 so far (.385) with a .967 OPS.

Ross: Cody’s crushing the ball. He’s 7 for 14 (you do the math) and that’s not including the 2 homer game he had to start the season against a college team.

Dirrrrrty: I’m gonna miss typing his name this season. 2 appearances, it’s not starting well. 3 innings, 21.00 ERA. 2 walks, 2 k’s. He’s also shaved the beard. There is an interview he gave recently (don’t have time to find it) where he must have said at least 3 times that he doesn’t care how many walks he gives up in a game. He was basically just defending his wicked stuff and how confident he is in it. It was just weird to hear his opinion about walks. If anyone finds that interview, feel free to post it………

Rowand: he’s 1 for 17. ‘Nuff said……..

Beltran: 3 for 11, hitting .273.

I enjoyed reading last night’s thread (this morning). Good points, respectfully delivered, from both sides. I’ll attribute that to the video of my daughter getting everyone in a nice, friendly mood……

But to add to last night’s discussion, and to quote Snarkk’s final post of the night…”they are here this season. Giants need to make hay THIS season.”

And I couldn’t agree more with that point. We are in the midst of an incredible run of pitching, one that few teams every get to experience over the course of their entire FRANCHISE. The window is still open in all it’s glory. Barring injury, and at least on paper, we have an offense going into the season that looks like it can at least hold the jockstrap of our pitching staff. With a deft add at the break, as well as some good luck rollin’ our way, there is reason for great optimism for the 2012 Giants…..

But the idea of keeping the staff together the way the Braves did in the 90’s is short sighted. For one, a staff like that has been kept together and performed at an extended, collective level very few times over the course of the last 20 years. In fact, I’ll say it’s happened that one single time, but maybe I’m missing another team that did it. And for all that, they won exactly the same number of world series’ that we have.

It’s also a different time. Smoltz, Glavine and those guys were each making around 6 million a year through the mid to late 90’s. You aren’t getting Timmy for less than 22 a year, I don’t think, and probably closer to 25. Cain won’t be less than 18 and will probably be 20. And both deals will be a minimum of 5 years. So you’re talking deals that would be between 200-250 million.

And I’m positive that another pitching starved, big market team looking to make a media splash would offer either of them more than the Giants would offer them.

Do the Giants have the dough to pull it off? Probably. But how much would be left to field the rest of the team? And how many examples have we seen of a pitcher throwing up huge production through his arbitration years only to fall flat backwards after he signs the giant free agent deal. As I’ve said a million times, it is idiotic to pay for the back of someone’s baseball card. Spend your money on advanced scouting throughout the world and make skillful draft picks and foreign signings that hit. That is how you do it in today’s major league baseball world.

The way the ownership has set up their “board of directors” with Baer as the requisite bobblehead, it is clear that the payroll is going to be watched very carefully going forward. You throw 200-250 million at 2 players and you’re digging yourself a potential hole that takes forever to get out of. I would sign one or none and I really would be fine signing neither. We’ve got some fantastic bats in the system for the first time maybe ever. Draft hitters who HAVE to play for us since we can’t get them to come via free agency. Free agent pitchers will want to sign here. We just haven’t had to explore that because of all this fantastic run of pitching. And I don’t mean sign the “Tim’s and Matty’s”. Second tier free agent pitchers will do fine here…….

If this goes anything like setting up my ESPN fantasy league this should take about 3 days to complete…..

I’m doing a Flap Fantasy Bracket Contest–bragging rights and a spot to the right honoring your genius over the rest of us is the prize.

Here’s the link to the cbssports group I created. Click the link and it SHOULD take you to a place where you can sign up. The password is: worldbfree

Try to use a name that I will recognize, I don’t want random lurkers in on this. Once you’re set up you can click under “options”>>>*personal* and hide your email address and change your *name* to whatever you want. But like I said, have it be something I recognize…….

Here’s the link: http://flapmad.mayhem.cbssports.com/e

A quick video of my baby doll rockin’ out and playing a video game on the computer Twin game me…..

I’ll try to avoid any sarcastic comments today and just fire straight away on 2 specific topics we’ve covered but continue to have no resolution….

1) Glass Sanchez. According to C-Stew, he’s hitting rockets in BP but still isn’t throwing and yesterday was “soft tossing the ball gingerly back to Wotus.” I have exactly zero faith in GS to pull off the impossible exacta of getting healthy/staying healthy this season. What sucks is that he could probably be useful as a pinch hitter since hitting isn’t a problem. What I think is going to happen: he comes back, plays ok for a bit and then re-injures himself diving or tumbling somewhere on the infield. Then we get Theriot and some Font for the rest of the year. Certainly not a downgrade, as I’ve suggested for a while now, but we will lose the one value that Glass still has left in him (his bat)…….

Buster is going to catch 4 innings on Tuesday. I hope everyone remembers my March 7th post. Posey is NOT going to get enough innings catching this spring and I am absolutely leery of it affecting the conditioning of his legs when the season gets underway. I haven’t read one article (except mine) that remembers the mistakes the Twins made with Mauer last season. The Giants are doing the same thing with Posey by trying to *ease him* back in and it’s going to bite them in the ass. According to C-Stew, he thinks that The VP is going to get the nod as the back up to Posey due to his defense. I don’t think C-Stew has placed adequate value on the furious love Bochy has for El Presidente. Does someone want to hazard a guess as to just how bad Hector Sanchez is at catching? Because for whatever reason his awesome hitting skills are not going to be able to make up for his deficits at catcher. He’s DHing more than he’s catching. With the great concern there should be about who our back up catcher is this season, it makes no sense to me why a major league ready bat isn’t being considered as Buster’s back up…….

About a week into Spring Training, I think it’s safe to say that the offense is hitting on all cylinders. When was the last time you saw an SF Giant team stat line that looked like this:

Melk has a 1.667 OPS. Crawford, Burriss and Blanco are all hitting in the mid-400’s. El Presidente is rollin’ with at a .364 clip……….************Note to Readers***********: I don’t actually think these Giants hitters will continue to hit at this clip. This was a sarcastic swipe at the offense. That is, unless you think me lumping Crawford, Burriss and Blanco together as *mid .400* hitters is an indication you think I think they’ll keep that going……..

Zito is crouching along with a 2-0 record, 3.60 ERA. Tom House says he can pitch for another 10 years. Tom House must have been drunk or high when he gave that interview to Schulman……

I think Surkamp is pitching today. Definitely interested to see if he can reverse that horrendous bb/so ratio we saw last September. Word was that he was fatigued and I can buy that one time. We could be turning to him when Zito’s Law kicks in…….

Hey! Curry hurt his ankle again! I’m wondering if Jackson’s plan is to turn that ankle into something that resembles uncooked hamburger meat left out in the sun for a few days— that’s where this is headed. Sit him down for the rest of the season already……..

As I’ve said before, I really only worry about the *bad* doing *good* not the other way around. If someone like Zito goes out and has a good spring it just gives Bochy, Zito the team, everyone, a false sense of what’s to come in the upcoming season. Normally, I wouldn’t care what Aubrey Huff hits in ST but Bochy is telling everyone that there is an open competition at first base. I think that the core of Giants management WANTS Huff to win that job. Besides the dough they’re paying him, Bochy and Sabean want their team to be as vet-laden as possible.

So I’m starting to wonder what Belt and Huff would have to hit the spring for the job to actually fall to Belt. Some would say, “well, Belt already won a starting job last spring, why couldn’t he win another?” Last spring he won the job because Ross was hurt, not because he tore up the spring. Belt hit .282 last spring……

As of today, Belt is hitting .389 and Huff is checking in at a ho hum .214. I thought something like .400 > .200 might do the trick and they’re just about there.

And as weak as our bench is I don’t think an unhappy Aubrey Huff would strengthen it at all. He’d be terrible coming off the bench both from a creaky physical side as well as a psychological “F-this” side. I also don’t think Belt would be too good coming off the bench, though probably better than Huff…..

So if it came down to batting average differential, what would it have to be for BOCHY to pull the trigger and go with Belt at first base?

The two statements (or emails or whatever) put out by the Giants and the A’s were of little interest to me. As far as I can tell, the A’s released theirs because they’re tired of waiting on Selig. A couple of years ago, when I found out that Wolff and Selig were actually frat bros, I figured the move to San Jose was a done deal. I guess being your frat bro just doesn’t mean as much as it used to. It’s also possible that Selig doesn’t hold that much clout in the decision. If the move has to be approved by a majority of ownership then I could see many, if not all, not wanting to set a precedent by overturning another team’s territorial rights. Why set it up to screw yourself down the road when a team wants to move into your *area*?

I’ve got no idea why the Giants released their statement. Public opinion? Trying to bully the A’s? It’s clear that they are ready to do battle in court over this and if that’s the case I don’t know why they would care about a single A’s public statement (unless they were trying to show the A’s that they are ready to throw down with them on this issue. A “you can’t handle the truth!” kind of moment……..

Personally, I could care less if the A’s move to San Jose. I actually think I’d like it a little. It would make attending an AL game much easier to do. If the Yankees or the Red Sox were in town they would actually *be in town* and I could attend the game. Actually, that would be a lot of coin. But if The Royals were in town and I wanted to go see Dirrrrty pitch again, hey, it would be about a 15 minute car ride for me. Easy. Driving to the Coliseum to see a game? Screw that. I-880 is a complete nightmare. They ought to change the speed limit on that road to *7 mph*— that’s about the average speed I seem to travel when I’m forced to use that road……..

If the A’s moved to San Jose, I don’t think the Giants would have a single thing to worry about in terms of losing a meaningful percentage of their fan base. I know a lot of Giants fans down there—they are hardcore, there’s no way in hell they’d flip over to wearing an A’s cap. NO WAY. Maybe the Giants are worried about losing their corporate luxury box guys–I could see that being a concern……..

But really, none of it is the slightest bit interesting to me anymore.

Word out of Bochy is that Posey is going to be starting Friday. Hopefully, that date doesn’t get pushed out. Catching is a unique job with different conditioning requirements than the other position players. You’ve got to be able to squat on and off for 2-3 hours and you’ve also got to be able to get into and out of the squat approximately 180-200 times a game. Stop reading this post and go put yourself in a catcher’s stance for a 6 or 7 seconds……Ok, that’s ONNNNEEEE…..Not easy, is it? Time for a trip to the mound before your back goes out……..

Let’s rewind to last season and remember what happened to the great Joe Mauer. He had a terrible year. And it started off with the team *easing* him back into his role as catcher. Mauer had surgery in December of 2010 and the team decided to give him a light work load with the hopes that it would ease him back into the grind of a season’s worth of squatting. He played in only 8 spring training games last year.

Whoops….

About 2 weeks into the season he was diagnosed with something called “bilateral leg weakness”. Owning him in a fairly high end fantasy league at the time, my diagnosis was “huge pussy”. But looking back on it, clearly he wasn’t ready for the rigors of every day catching…….

Here is what the Twins head trainer, Rick McWane,  had to say about it at the time: “He hasn’t had the repetitions for catching…Once the season started, he began to wear down….He wasn’t strong enough to handle the every day catching….He had weakness and soreness in his body just from catching….”  (Those quotes were compiled from a single ESPN article, that’s why they seem a little disjointed.)

So it’s good to hear that Posey is going to start catching on Friday. If he played in the rest of the ST games that would be 13 games. I highly doubt they play Posey in every spring training game once he’s set to go on Friday. So what’s he gonna get? 10 games? Everyone’s body is different and just because Mauer only played in 8 ST games and developed bilateral leg weakness doesn’t mean Posey will suffer the same problem. But Buster hasn’t played since last May. He is WAY further away from his last catching day than Mauer was when he went out and got diagnosed with bilateral leg weakness 2 weeks into the season. As of today, Posey’s conditioning as a catcher is simply not there.

I actually don’t have super high hopes for Buster this season. I think, at best, he starts off slowly and really gets going by June (or maybe even the 2nd half of the season). At worst, he re-injures the ankle and he has to hit the DL. Look at the going on 2 years running rehab that Kendry Morales has undergone in his ongoing attempt to come back from his leg injury. Consider the absurd number of recurring ailments that Steph Curry has dealt with this year on his foot….

I just think it’s foolish to think that a guy who suffered a horrific ankle injury will just hit the ground running both mentally and physically after 10 (or so) games in Spring Training in the most physically demanding position on the diamond. It’s a huge concern that’s exacerbated when you see that El Presidente and The VP are on the roster. I’m telling you, when push comes to shove and it’s time for Bochy to pull the 2nd catcher trigger I will be shocked if he’s able to do anything other than offer up a long, warm embrace for good ‘ol reliable *Whitey*. Texting him daily and taking him on several off season fishing trips just won’t be the same. Whitey ain’t goin’ anywhere…….

And if you think this is no big deal and I’m worrying about nothing, take a peek at Mauer’s 2010/2011 seasons:

Posey really wasn’t having that good of a year when he went down last May. It certainly was respectable for a catcher but his OPS was off more than 100 points from the year before (.862 > .756). Mauer dropped about 150 OPS points off his 2010. Could we really tolerate a Posey season if he dropped 150 OPS off what he was doing last year?

Not likely…….

Jenkins wrote an article at the Chron today that suggested the team lacked depth and that it was *shallow*. He called the team a “fragile product” and included a quote from a major league scout who said “when it gets late…..I’m not sure the Giants scare anybody.” He also said “the Giants bench would be one of the weakest in the league” and that another Freddy Sanchez set back would *be devastating at second base*. He spent a few paragraphs worrying about Zito. There were other quotes but you get the point…

I’ve already blogged recently about my feelings about Freddy Sanchez—there would be nothing *devastating* about replacing him with Theriot (and some Fontenot). It would be a mild drop off at worst. And in some cases, it would improve the position since Theriot can steal you a bag and both players are healthy enough to play every day and throw a baseball without risk of their arms falling off. You can’t say the same for Freddy, at least at this point in his career……

Regarding the bench: It does look a little light, especially late in a game. But that is an area you could easily improve by sending Nate BACK to the bench and having Belt start. He’s far more effective coming off the bench, both as a pinch hitter and a late inning defensive replacement.

Another way to improve the bench with a *never gonna happen* idea: Have Freddy Sanchez come off the bench and start Theriot at 2nd base. Freddy can hit right now, his problem is, he can’t throw. I am 98.47% convinced that even if he gets healthy enough to play 2nd every day, at some point he’s going to re-injure himself. I also think he’s going to be a general liability in the field because he can’t throw. Having him come off the bench as a pinch hitter would preserve his fragile body and give us a good bat to use late in the game…..

But I get that the likelihood of that happening is just about zero……

Now, back to Nate. If he stays the starter I’m about 83.67% sure that the Giants will send Belt down to Fresno to get regular at bats. Unless Huff really implodes this Spring I see the Giants giving him the starting 1-bag job to open the season (and I disagree that there is any REAL competition going on at first base. The Giants are saying there is, but something polarizing would have to happen for their to be a change on opening day– ie, Belt has a monster Spring and Huff has a terrible one)…So, if all that goes down the way I suspect it will, then yes, you are now probably are talking about a weak bench made up of guys like Blanco, Burriss, Pill (pure conjecture that he would be a power hitting clutch pinch hitter) etc. All I’m saying is that it doesn’t NEED to go down like that if you do the Belt start/Nate bench thing (or the shocking consideration of sending Freddy to the bench)….

Jenkins spent the last third of his article discussing Zito. He didn’t really slam him, he just described him as who he is and seemed to infer that this was another *shallow* part of the team—but that is really a misguided point since almost all 5th starters are liabilities. We more than make up for our 5th guy with our 1-4……

I think the Giants can still get by with a weak bench. Remember who are designated hitter was in the World Series vs the Angels? It was Shingo. So we had a weak bench that year and still made the World Series…..

What I don’t think we can get by with is an injury to Pablo or Posey–certainly both going down would be devastating since we have nothing behind them at their respective positions. But now I’m just worrying about bad luck and that’s not something anyone should spend much time worrying about. If it happens, THEN I’ll worry about it.

Bottom line: I just don’t think the Giants are as *shallow* as Jenkins is suggesting they are………

So we know that Pagan, Melk and Nate are going to be our starting outfield. I hope that’s a fluid thing, if Belt has a monster spring and Nate just kinda pushes the ball around I see Belt as a far more productive *starting* player. Nate is a secret weapon off the bench. I don’t see why the Giants keep trying to force him into the starting LU. Anyway……

I’m taking Huff out of the discussion for the outfield because I just don’t think that at this point in his career he should be playing anything other than first base. Bochy probably sees this differently but he’s not writing this blog post so….Huff’s not an outfielder. There. It’s been said……..

Peguero and Kieschnick are the two home grown guys. I put very little value on what players do BEFORE they get to AA. Any A-league is really made up mostly of pitchers who have one pitch, usually that’s a fastball, and the hitters down there just sit on it. AA and AAA is where you start to see the ball bend and that’s where you find out what kind of a hitter you’ve got.

Peg’s and Keesh are 23 and 25, respectively. Peg’s has been in the org since 2006 and just hasn’t been able to take the next steps necessary to make it out of *prospect zone*. They finally moved him up to AA last year and he had a very nice year.

Here’s what he did in 2011 between San Jo and Richmond (I’m assuming you can figure out what these numbers are):

Keesh is probably considered a lesser prospect. He’s older and at 25 he needs to get it going in a hurry. He did ok at SJ in 2009 but he’s been kinda spinning his wheels in Richmond the last 2 years:

I don’t believe that either of these 2 guys have a shot at the #5 OF spot this year. Possibly Peguero…….

That leaves 2 other guys, Tyler Graham (who’s actually on the 40 man roster) and Gregor Blanco, Bunter Extraordinaire. Tyler is homegrown out of the 2006 draft. He is freakin’ f-a-s-t. At least, from a stolen base standpoint. 2010 was his *monster* year and last year he stole 60. That’s an inflated number because of Decker’s directive to run seemingly every time a player got on base. But you’ve still got to be fast to steal 60.

Blanco is interesting. He’s fiddled around in the minors since 2002 but he did play for Atlanta and KC for parts of 2008 and 2010. Here are his major league stats:

Last season he hit, impossibly, .201 in the the minors. At 28. that does not exactly put you on the fast track back to the major leagues. BUt a weird year like that hints at a possible injury he was playing through. Career minor leaguers who are on the wrong side of their 20’s don’t have the luxury of relaxing in the training room and healing whatever ails them.

And who could forget his magical 2010 when he led the major leagues with a .706 batting average? Ok, that was his bunting average, but he still led the entire league in something. That counts right? Plus, he’s got Bozo the Clown in his corner and I KNOW that counts for something…..

Assuming Belt takes over the starting OF spot and Nate goes back to his rightful seat on the bench, who do you think our 5th OF is going to be?

The early returns on Alex Pavlovic are in: he’s a keeper. This guy works just as hard as Baggs and he’s coming up with some good stuff along the way. I’m assuming you’re all reading his blog posts. Yesterday’s game got  delayed by a swarm of bees. Bees are a trip. I get a swarm of bees at my house every single year in the Spring time. They show up, buzz around the backyard for about an hour and then hit the road. No idea what they’re doing…….

OK, I realize this next topic will be of interest to few but the few it will interest should find it interesting. Huh? I am going to carry 5 fantasy teams this year (one more than usual) and yesterday I had my first draft. The benefit to drafting this early is that you don’t get swayed by ST performances and you can swoop in and pick guys up before the *buzz* gets going on them. Sorry, had to get one bee-joke in, everyone else is doing it. Anyway, yesterday was a 12 team league, 30 round draft. That’s likely the same one we’re doing for The Flap League, by the way……

Below is a list of my picks in round 1-30. You have to start 2 catchers.If you don’t want to punt the saves category you need 2 closers, though 3 is preferable. Drafts are unpredictable, you can have a plan that implodes at any point based on what the other owners are doing. I am mostly happy with my team though my *closer plan* fell apart quick……

I won’t go over every round, but here are some of my comments for each player taken.

I think Upton is going to have a monster year. The draft is KDS and I chose #8 specifically to get him. I didn’t want to have to take Tex in Rd 2 but other players I liked didn’t fall to me so I snagged him there (I probably could have got him in Rd 3). People are put off by his BA but it’s going to rebound big time this year to around .275. I’m not going to get into *Fanalytics* so you’re just going to have to trust me on his batting average prediction. Plus, he’ll hit 35 bombs with 100 runs scored and 100+ rbi’s. If he hits .275 that 2 pick will be absolutely justified……

TImmy was still around at pick 31 (my round 3 spot) and I had to take him. I wasn’t planning on taking a pitcher before round 7 but Timmy in round 3 was just too much value to pass on.5 pitchers went before him.

Pablo was going in round 6 in most mock drafts but I snagged him with my next pick in round 4.

I took Mauer in 6 because I don’t like worrying about catchers in the later rounds and I’m betting on him being healthy this year. He was going in round 2/3 last year. Buster was still available when I made this pick so that should tell you my concerns about him this year. I took Doumit as my 2nd catcher because he’s going to get a lot of at bats for Minn this year (DH, C, 1st and maybe even some outfield but he’s still qualifies as a catcher for the entire year) and he won’t drag my BA down as most 2nd catchers do……

Darvish is going around round 10-11 in most mock drafts. I took him in 7 and watched the draft room message board light up with cat-calls of what an idiot I am. I think he’s going to have a huge year and this is the same deal as a Euro horse who nobody knows what to do with. They’ve heard he’s good but the handicappers don’t know how good. Spring training is the horse racing equivalent to *workouts* and I think by the end of ST Darvish will be going at least 3 or 4 rounds higher than he’s going now. We’ll see….

I took Corey Hart in round 9 as a value pick. I had been checking the updated injury lines every 10 minutes and of course, a few minutes after I picked him, the news about his knee surgery broke. Bad luck.

I had planned to take either Madson/Hanrahan or Bell in round 10 but all 3 went just before my spot so I went with Anibel and I’m fine with that, he is going to have a monster year. But that meant I had to pick up Putz in 12 and that is a huge risk to count on him as my #1 closer. (Bee Wheezy went in 11, by the way). That’s the reason I went with Reed, Marshall, Koji and Cashner in later rounds, I need at least 2 of those guys to assume the closer roles this year (I’m hoping the A’s trade for Koji thus giving him that value).

Despite his Valley Fever, I took Davis in 14 because I think he’s going to hit 30+ bombs this year. I’m betting he beats the fever. If it wasn’t for the fever I was prepared to take him in 11 or so. 14 is where he’s been going in most mock drafts….

I took Pagan in 19 because he’s been going in 14 and that was just too much value. Plus, I do think he’s going to have a good year and he’s a Giant so I snagged him in 19.

I took Marshall in 24 because I had WANTED to take Madson in 10 but couldn’t get him. Marshall’s a stud, if Madson falters (and news broke last night that he’s dealing with an elbow *thing*) he’s the guy and with an opportunity, I think he’ll be money and either way, he’s got a fantastic skill set to own.

Speaking of value and *Giants* I took Torres in 25 and Ross in 27 because either or both could have nice bounce back years and  in those rounds they were worth the risk. Plus, in theory, I could now field an outfield that includes Pagan, Torres and Ross (you have to start 5 each week) though that would be unexpected. In the rounds I picked them I just need one of those guys to work out……..

Porcello in 28 was a steal.

Cashner should take over the closer spot in San Diego after Street’s first injury of the year. Plus, dude throws 100 and that’s just frickin awesome to have chillin’ on your bench…….

So there ya go. I’m sure you’ll find something else to talk about today and that’s fine, I just did this thread for the fantasy baseball guys……..

Does anyone actually care about the answer?

Last night, Michael posted an interesting stat about bunting for a base hit and the associated batting average. I think we were all surprised at how high those batting averages were.

2011 best bunters:

Here were the 2011 best sac bunters:

Check out Livan. 15 for 15. Now THAT is gettin’ it done, baby.

Find anything interesting about this list of the 2010 Best bunters?:

We plucked a dude batting .706 off the waiver wire. What a pick up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was at CSNBayarea.com looking for Baggs’ most recent post and I stumbled upon an article written by someone named “Grant Cohn”. I’ve never heard of the dude and I’m new to this website so maybe he’s a well-respected columnist though I find that impossible to believe based on the article I read. It was titled “Who is the most vital Giants player?” and you can find it here:

http://www.csnbayarea.com/blog/giants-talk/post/Who-is-Giants-most-vital-player?blockID=662166&feedID=5879

I skimmed through it and he rattles off the usual suspects: Posey, Timmy, Wilson, Cain. But the 5th guy he listed was freakin’ Huff. And there’s a vote for the readers to share their opinion.

He didn’t mention Pablo Sandoval anywhere in the article….

Who the hell is *Grant Cohn* (I’m praying he’s not related to Lowell Cohn, a writer I’ve enjoyed for many years) and how could his editor let him get away with writing an article like this that didn’t include Sandoval in the discussion? Any half-baked Giants fan could come up with a list like this to vote on. Posey, Timmy and Bee Wheezy are probably locks to be on everyone’s list. Cain, too. But Aubrey Huff? Is that a joke? Huff is imminently replaceable by at least 3 guys at first base (Belt, Posey and maybe even Pill) and there’s no reason to even discuss him in the outfield. Huff is a 4th outfielder and probably more of an emergency outfielder at this point. If he doesn’t hit he’s a candidate to get freakin’ benched by May 1st, possibly released by June 1st. There’s zero that’s *vital* about Aubrey Huff.

Meanwhile, if The Panda goes down we have Conner Gillespe waiting in the wings to replace him. That’s a nightmare that should wake up ANY Giants fan…..

Sandoval is our best hitter. Case closed. Couple that with the fact that we have no one behind him if he goes down and it’s a simple path to follow to see that he is the “player the Giants can least afford to lose” (Grant’s quotations there). He also plays everyday, something the pitchers don’t do. Posey could easily be argued as most vital, too, for the same reasons….

So let’s have a vote and I’ll use the same players Grant Dilwad used but I’ll include Panda, too. Let’s see how he does…….

My order of most important goes Panda, Posey, Timmy, Cain, Bee Weeezy and a distant 5th so far down the line you’d need binoculars to read his name…wait a minute gimmie a sec, just tryin’ to…make……this…….out..I dunno I THINK that reads “Tawdry Bluff” but I can’t be sure. It’s something like that……..

Look, to me this is pretty simple, Panda and Posey play everyday and neither have anyone remotely replaceable behind them. Timmy and Cain are also impossible to replace (at the level they pitch) but they only play every fifth day. And while I love Bee Wheezy I think we’ve got at least 3 guys on the roster who can close adequately for an extended period of time. Huff is replaceable with a bag of baseballs and a cleaned out ash tray…….

But who knows, if Grant Cohn makes the rounds through the cubes at the csnbayarea office Huff might just pull this off……..

Does anyone REALLY care if Sanchez comes back or not? Of course, we all appreciate him for his role in helping bring the World Series to San Francisco. He hit .320 in the series vs the Phillies and who could forget Game 1 of The World Series (that I attended) where he had 4 hits, 3 of them doubles? He was a monster that game. And he’ll always be remembered by me as one of those great men who was integral to that amazing year…..

But the rest of his time in SF has been largely underwhelming. He showed up hurt in ’09. He was hurt almost all of last year. And as I type this, he’s still hurt. Of course, you all know about the injuries. At 34 years old, in a fairly demanding physical spot on the diamond it’s not like we’re going to see a new, re-built Freddy Sanchez. He is who he is at this point in his career. Held together with many surgical repairs, an unexpected, hard cough could send him to the DL again.

Amid reports that he finally has started throwing from 2nd base to 1st base (Woo hoo, get out the rally towels!) we now find out that he’s been taken out by back spasms. Hardly a terribly injury, back spasms are more unpredictable and annoying than anything else, he probably won’t be out too long dealing with this latest ailment. If he’s not starting Opening Day, barring any more set backs, he’ll be in there fairly close to it…..

I just don’t really care one way or the other if he is………

Second base is a super thin position throughout all of baseball. Outside of Cano who towers above the rest with Pedroia a distant 2nd and maybe Uggla 3rd (if you can put up with that batting average) there aren’t that many 2nd baseman that I get too excited about. My point being, after those guys, it’s a position of below average production. At this point in his career, even if he’s healthy (which is silly to assume) we’re talking about a guy who has no pop (outside of the occasional shoulder) and no speed who might hit around .290 if all goes well and who will move a runner along with a *good at bat*. He’ll play average defense, probably a little less than average when you realize he can’t throw anymore and those double plays aren’t gonna get turned as often as they would have if he had the arm he had 3 or 4 years ago……

Ryan Theriot, also uninteresting from a statistical perspective, at least gives you a healthy body. He’s not running on the bases the way he once did but he can at least give you a steal now and again, something Freddy can’t do. I’m also pretty confident that when he throws a baseball, his arm isn’t going to fly off along with it. I could even get behind a platoon of The Two Cajun Boyfriend’s. At least you get the left/right thing going in your favor every game. If those 2 hit a combined .275 with 5 or 6 home runs and 10 steals would that be THAT much less than what you envision Freddy giving us this year? Actually, you could make an argument that those 2 might be MORE productive than Sanchez, even if he’s healthy. You could also argue it the other way, too. I don’t know what Bill James’ projections are for those 3 but I would assume they’re all in the same ballpark, at least in terms of production………

Look, I don’t doubt Freddy’s commitment to the game, he sounds like a *gamer* and a great clubhouse guy and all that. I just don’t think that at this point it’s that big of a drop off from Freddy to *whoever* might be next in line. If he comes back, fine. If he doesn’t, I really don’t care………

I’d rather have Melky hitting 2nd anyway………

I’m totally fine with this. In fact, there should ALWAYS have been 2 wild card teams in the playoffs (in each league). At least there should have been the year they added the first one. Force those 2 to play each other and after the dust settles that *winner* has to play a REAL winner when they face the division winner in the next round.

I’m tired of the wild card teams sneaking into the playoffs and winning the World Series. I’m not against it, I just don’t think the regular season records reward the teams with the best records the way they should reward them. You win 100 games and your *reward* for that is a single home game in your favor. In a 5 game series, that just doesn’t seem like enough. There are too many examples in recent years of wild card teams (see: the cardinals) getting hot in the last week or two of the season and going on to win the world series. I think what you do for 162 games should count for something, certainly more than a lucky team that gets hot for a week (or even a couple of games as ANY baseball team can do)…..

Baseball is different than other sports, at least in terms of *home field advantage*. In baseball, pretty much any road team can beat any home team on a given day. That’s not the case in football and basketball. I’m not saying it can’t be done in those sports, but if the worst NFL team plays the best NFL team in their house they will almost ALWAYS lose.  But in baseball, the Royals or the Orioles can roll into Yankee Stadium on any given Saturday afternoon, beat them, and it’s not a jaw-dropping surprise. That’s why I think the division winner deserves a little more of a *reward* for winning their division……..

My idea: If a division winner in the first round is facing a wild card team in a 5 game playoff, they get 4 home games. Division winner gets the first 2, then they go to the WC, then they get the last 2. I think it’s idiotic to win 100 games, then host Game 1 of the N(A)LDS vs the WC team and lose Game 1 thus negating your earned home field advantage to  a team that has 12 (or so) less wins than you had in the  regular season (and who didn’t win their division).

Baseball is a grind. It’s 162 games. You should get something valuable for persevering through the longest season in all of sports and winning your division. It’s dumb to take that all away be losing a single game to open the playoffs. Beyond dumb, actually……..

The only negative with this move is that the first year will be a challenge from a scheduling perspective. The schedule was made before this change was agreed upon in the CBA so there are some travel considerations to sort out in 2012.

This is a great idea that’s good for baseball. A one game playoff for all the marbles? Who doesn’t love a Game 7? And it’s between the Wild Card teams so it’s another hurdle they will have to climb to win the world series—something I think they should have to do. Climb more hurdles than they have to now.

And this has nothing to do with ensuring the Yankees and the Red Sox making the playoffs every year. They usually do that anyway. If anything, this ends up hurting one of them. The team that loses the division very likely has to play in a 1 game sudden death against a new wild card team. Who wouldn’t enjoy seeing the Yankees going all out and 10 deep into the pitching staff to *maybe* live to see another game? Or how about this one: Toronto win the AL East and the 2 wild card teams are the Yankees and the Red Sox. A Game 7 with those 2 facing off to start the playoffs? Sign me up……..

Since it’s unlikely that MLB will ever get around to my playoff structure modification, this is at least in the ballpark of what I think should happen to more properly reward a divisional winner. You don’t win your division? Ok, go to a Game 7 sudden death match. You burn through all your best pitchers to win that one? Ok, now you are REALLY gonna have to earn that NLDS win. And that’s how I think it should be in baseball.

And this post isn’t a slam against small market teams. You can compete for the world series without being a big market team. And I’m not talking about the dumb *Tampa Bay* example that so many people always use. You don’t have to look any further than our San Francisco Giants to see how it’s done. True, they had a 96 million dollar payroll in 2010—in the top third of baseball, but not obscene. But 2 of their biggest contracts contributed almost nothing to that season–Zito at 19 mil and Rowand at 12 mil. Take 31 million off that number and you’re at 65 million.

The A’s ’06–’10 payroll averaged 62 million a year……..

So you can win a world series without being the highest payroll team. And I’ve got zero sympathy for the teams in the lower 1/3 of baseball (in terms of team salary). Revenue sharing is nothing more than disguised socialism benefiting some of the richest men in the world. You want to own a baseball team? Then figure your finances out and decide whether or not you want to pony up the dough to be successful. Owning a baseball team isn’t just about your ego……

End of rant……….

This was from Voggy yesterday…..

“People don’t realize (his youth) because he’s so big — he’s a monster,” rotation-mate Ryan Vogelsong said of Bumgarner, listed at 6-foot-5, 225 pounds. “He doesn’t have a baby face, and he’s so strong that it makes him not look his age.”

I went back to find my earliest impressions of YoungBum and here’s an excerpt from my 6/27/10 post:

“…I was struck by how big he’s gotten. Last year he was a super skinny kid but he’s really filling out nicely. Walking around the other players, he fits right in physically—his shoulders, as I said last year, are wide and he’s definitely growing into that frame…”

I am expecting huge things from Madison Bumgarner this year. All of his numbers, especially his 2nd half numbers from 2011, are pointing to a breakout season. Check out his WHIP dip from 1st half to 2nd half:

1st half: 1.36

2nd half: 1.09. That’s as elite as it gets for a starting pitcher……

He also minimized his struggles vs right handed hitters

1st half: .290

2nd half: .244

One of my favorite indicators of future success for pitcher is their command ratio (strike outs/walks)– a pitcher’s ability to get the ball over the plate. The better pitchers will have ratios in excess of 3.0. Pitchers with ratio’s of 1.0 or less have almost no chance for long term success. By the way, if you want to stay on The Surkamp Train don’t calculate his CR from his short stint in the majors last season…….

MadBum’s first half CR from last year was 3.1. Very nice. His 2nd half CR? A stunning 5.4.

I think he’s going to have a monster year. As it has been with all Giants starters over the last few years, wins might be tough to accumulate. But I still think he’s going to go 16-8, at least, with an ERA around 3.20 and 200+ strikeouts…..

I’m giving Wilson the benefit of the doubt when he says he’s pain free and ready to go. I hadn’t stopped to look at his 2011 list of injuries but they are imposing, especially for a pitcher.

1) Spring training: bad back

2) end of Spring training: oblique strain

3) all of 2011– bad hip

4) the 2nd half of the season: balky elbow

If you were gonna list off the 4 worst nagging injuries for a pitcher, those would be the 4 (ok, maybe *shoulder* would be in there too). But none of those injuries required surgery. And as worried as I was about his elbow I’m now willing to chalk that up to the other 3 injuries possibly contributing to it. Think about it, with all that going on in his body last year it’s entirely possible that he was compensating for 1 or all 3 in his delivery—that’s how you can indirectly injure or irritate other parts of your body and maybe that’s why the elbow started to bark at him……

I still don’t understand why the Giants coaching and medical staff don’t get in front of these players and sit them down when they KNOW they have injuries that need to heal. Look, if you’re a professional baseball player, you want to be out there no matter what. Each day you sit is another day someone else might take your job. And Wilson, by all accounts, is the ultimate competitor. Finally last August, they did sit him but that was only after he almost did serious harm to his elbow. It’s the same stupid mindset that the Warriors current management is taking with Stephen Curry. SIT HIM ALREADY!!!!!

Still, it looks like we dodged a major bullet and Bee Wheezy is going to be good to go in 2012. With all those nagging injuries behind him, I’m *two flaps up* on how he’s going to do this year. Let’s hope he’s good to go, he’s one of our 5 most critical, irreplaceable players (Timmy, Cain, Panda and Buster being the other 4)………

The Surkamp Gang is a little different than The Bowker Gang—those cats had more of an edge to them, more things that they had in common that clearly defined them–young, over-hyped Giant position player prospects who never panned out. But run into them in a dark ally? They’d beat your ass. That’s just how they rolled…..

The Surkamp Gang is different. They’re a little softer, a little more happy-go-lucky. They’ve all got a smile on their face and a song in their heart. Unlike The Bowker Gang who perform community service because they HAVE to, these dudes do it because they WANT to. They don’t care how old you are or if you’re a prospect anymore, they’re just happy to have you on board. They do have one qualification: you have to have at least pitched in the major leagues before. Why? Cause these lovable bastards say you  have to have at least ONE qualification to join their gang! Otherwise, we’d all be in…..

For the purposes of this Spring, we’ll list the gang off as follows:

Eric Surkamp (leader and founder)

Ramon Ortiz

Brian Burres

Shane Loux

Clay Hensley

Travis Blackley

Hector Correa– I’m gonna throw him in even though he hasn’t thrown a pitch in the majors–thiis is the guy we got for Ronnie Paulino.

Some will give me crap about including Surkamp in this gang–certainly naming it after him would seem odd. But most of you know that I am not an *Eric Surkamp* guy. He could prove me wrong and I’d be fine with that. Plus, as their leader and having very little in common with the rest of the guys in his gang, he’s actually the perfect person to lead them…..

I’m not going to get into the individual stats of these guys. They aren’t pretty and are overwhelmingly underwhelming. Only Surkamp, Hensley and Correa are on the 40 man roster. With Ramirez being shipped to the Mets there’s an open spot in the bullpen and there’s a good chance that one of these guys takes that spot. If Voggy’s back keeps bothering him and/or as an insurance plan for the Guaranteed to be Imploding Zito, it probably helps if one of those guys has experience starting– that would be Surkamp, Ortiz, and Hensley……

With expectations kept low and remembering what a nice group of guys they are, it shouldn’t be too painful to follow their Springs…..

And remember, Voggy himself showed up last Spring as a full-fledged member of a group like this……..

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As I said in yesterday’s thread, I am starting a list of guys who want to get in on The Flap Fantasy baseball league–see the details below…….

We are doing our 4th fantasy baseball league this year. In years past I’ve limited it just to Flappers but we’ve had some trouble with team owners staying involved for the ENTIRE year so I’m opening it up to my facebook friends, too. The guys here who have been in the league in the past and who haven’t crapped out on it will be given priority in the league. If we need a few more committed players I will dip into my facebook pool of friends. A lot of them read the blog though don’t ever post anything……

We are going to be doing a LIVE DRAFT this year. Prepare to attend that for at least 2 hours. The league is at ESPN this year. No cost. As usual, the Rich Aurilia bobblehead is up for grabs to whoever comes in first place. Obviously, that bobblehead resides at Casa de Flavor where most sane prognosticators expect it to remain. But we’ll see about THAT, won’t we? 🙂 I’ve got the league set for 12 teams but will adjust that number accordingly to get the optimum number of COMMITTED team owners…….

Last year, Bozo donated an encased  Jason Schmidt signed ball. On the outside it reads “The Flap Fantasy Who’s a Clown Now? Award”— that was intended to go to the team who came in last place last year. That team owner indicated to me that it didn’t feel right to get a cool award like that just for giving up on the season and I agreed. So I still have the ball. It will still go to the team that finishes in last place this season (again, I am counting on genuine participation for the entire season).

I’m kicking around the idea of the Barry Bonds bobblehead doll that Dirt gave me as a prize too. Stay tuned. The deal with ALL of these *awards* is that you have to agree to send them on to whoever wins it the next season. Honor system.

So email me if you want in on the league. Off the top of my head, the Flappers who participated with the most focus and interest last year were Edd, Blade, Bozo, Dennis, PAWLIE KOKONUTS, NoTalent and Dirt. There were a couple other teams who did and a couple who didn’t and I just can’t remember them without digging around in the Yahoo site (which I’m not taking the time to do right now)……

email: bigflavor77@gmail.com

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And as I said on the last thread, we’ve recently joined the Baseball Blogger’s Alliance. The links are to the right. This will allow us to stay connected to other active blogs. There’s other stuff that goes on at the BBA, I just haven’t had time to figure it all out. It’s a very cool idea though, and The Flap is proud to have accepted membership…….

There are two things I’m pretty sure that Bochy is thinking (or should be thinking) right now:

1) Aubry Huff can’t play outfield anymore

2) Brandon Belt needs to be hitting every day

I don’t think either of those are too controversial.

Bochy is saying his outfield is set with Melk, Pagan and Nate.

And you have to believe that Huff is going to at least get a month to 6 weeks to start the season and I can’t see him playing any other position than first base.

We really don’t have any 4th or 5th outfielders to speak of so I guess you would have to count Belt as one of those guys. But that just feels *kludgy* to me. I want Brandon Belt playing every day, whether it’s SF or Fresno.

Here’s what the Giants should do: Start Belt in the OF (you might have to move Melk to RF and have Belt play LF) and relegate Nate to the “super-sub* we know him to be coming off the bench.  I’m tired of trying to force Nate into a starting role. It’s not his gig. He’s pretty brittle, at least in terms of failing to handle the grind of a starting job. I’m not talking about big injuries and a lot of DL time. It just always seems the he stops hitting and then 6 weeks later he tells us he’s been dealing with a balky knee or neck or whatever. And he has proven countless times that he can come off the bench and do something to win a game for you. But, it looks like we are going to see one more run of Nate starting in right field—at least until he hits .239 or strains a knee or something……..

Send Belt down to Fresno to start the season. Call him up when Huff proves he’s done or Nate injuries himself again. That’s how I’d do it anyway…….

When you think about the guys who brought the 2010 World Series to San Francisco you probably think of an unlikely bunch of guys. Baggs called his book “The Band of Misfits”. Of course, it takes surprises and multiple career years from players to win a World Series. We definitely got that in 2010. But it’s truly mind blowing how to go back and look at their follow up years. Man, talk about falling off a cliff. Here’s the box score for Game 5 of the Series:

Torres: He had a terrible year that started off with an injured calf. He never got it going in 2011 ultimately getting traded for Angel Pagan.

Freddy Sanchez: injured, surgery, etc.

Posey: injured, surgery, devastating……

Ross: a guy known for his hot streaks never got in one in 2011. Giants didn’t even offer him a deal, now he’s a Red Sox looking to re-start his career.

Uribe: He had an abysmal year for the Dodgers. Another guy who was hurt most of the year. His OPS was .749 for us. It was .559 for the Dodgers.

Pat Burrell: career ending foot injury in 2011

Huff: Similar drop in production without the injury. HIs 2010 OPS was .891. In 2011, it was .676.

Edgar Renteria: He actually didn’t have a very good 2010 but it doesn’t matter because he hit the home run that won the World Series for us. Still, 2010 was not kind to Edgar, his .707 OPS in 2010 dipped to .654 last season. Unable to find a job in 2012, he has retired.

I’m not including Rowand or Panda who didn’t have that much to do with the success in 2010.

The pitchers largely held up in 2011 except for Brian Wilson……..

But when you look at those 8 position players, and if you had to list off 8 who were most critical to the 2010 season those would be the 8 that came to almost everyone’s minds first, it’s unreal to see how they all fell off a cliff together like a herd of brain dead lemmings.

We got our World Series. But looking back on it, what weird price did *they* pay to get it?

I would have said *Ryan Braun Fiasco* but I can’t use the word *Fiasco* over and over in all my headlines. But the more that I think about this story the more it starts sounding utterly stupid and almost unbelievable……..

Lemme get this straight:

They left the transportation of this sample to a flunky courier?

This is from the mlb link that Chico (State) posted earlier:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7608360/ryan-braun-wins-appeal-50-game-suspension

“According to one of the sources, the collector, after getting Braun’s sample, was supposed to take the sample to a FedEx Office for shipping.

But the source said the collector thought the FedEx Office was closed because it was late on a Saturday and felt the sample wouldn’t get shipped until Monday.

As has occurred in some other instances, the collector took the sample home and kept it in a cool place, in his basement at his residence in Wisconsin, according to the source.

Policy states that the sample is supposed to get to FedEx as soon as possible.”

If this source is correct and this is how it all went down, then i completely agree with Snarkk. This system is fucking broken. We’re talking about the MVP of the league. Now remember, there wasn’t any urgency at the time, this was just a regular *Braun test*. It was only after he tested positive that the vial became so *famous*…….

But still, this is RYAN BRAUN not some single-A wannabe……

We’re now forced to go with what the flunky courier said happened?  He thought it was too late to get it to FedEx on a Saturday? Maybe he wanted to go bang his girlfriend and this was the excuse he made for not dropping it off at FedEx. Maybe he decided to go fire back a few beers with his bros. Who knows what this courier was doing or thinking at the time? Who knows what happened to the vial in this dude’s fridge? Think about it, if this is actually how this went down, Braun has a pretty good case to challenge. Of course the idea that the vial was altered or contaminated from an exterior source is almost impossible to believe. But if you’re telling me that the vial sat in  *Basement Guy’s* basement for a night, in frickin’ Wisconsin, then anything and everything COULD have happened to it. Maybe he dropped it off in the basement and had a keg party that night. During some beer bongs some of the drunker party patrons decided to mess with Ryan Braun’s urine. Of course it sounds ridiculous, but if this is the way they keep track of the samples then I would think any half-smart lawyer could beat this case in arbitration. How could you lose with all the unknowns that are created by some dumbass courier flipping the vile into his basement for the night before he goes and rails away on his chick upstairs and the roommates decide to go play *fuck with Ryan Braun’s Pee*. Exactly. Anything could have happened to that vile……

Let’s say the flunky courier is telling the truth. Now I’m thinking….huh?…..this happens all the time?????

WHAT??!?!?!?!! How could this happen *on other occasions*? Urine sits in courier flunky refrigerator’s across the country because they look at their watches and realize FedEx is closed? And there is actually an mlb policy (according to the link) that says if FedEx is closed you’re supposed to “get the sample to the lab as soon as possible?” I don’t care is this is mlb’s policy or this esteemed, revered and trusted drug testing company’s policy— THAT is the freaking back up plan? Did I just pass out in a time machine and wake up in 1974? Because this simplistic, casual approach to getting these samples tested sounds like something you’d see done 30-40 years ago…..

Except it’s not 30-40 years ago. It’s 2012 and if this is how mlb is handling the samples and the testing process then It blows my mind that anyone EVER gets busted for steroids…………

The Giants are behind a rock and in front of the 8-ball (or whatever) when it comes to the back end of their rotation. Zito’s got a new motion that apparently has him “crouching down” more. That sounds promising. After all his tweeks and changes his set position could ultimately look like this:

Tomorrow’s BBOTD?

But I digress………

So Zito is crouching down and Voggy is right there with him only he’s doing it because his back has locked up on him. I was a big Voggy supporter last year but I’m getting away from him this year at least in terms of confidence. A balky back for a day or so is no big deal, but when you hurt it lifting weights I get extremely nervous of the recovery time. Let’s just say for the sake of *worrying* that Voggy doesn’t repeat last year and instead spends the first month or two of the season crouching down in the bullpen next to Zito. There goes 40% of our starting rotation with no one waiting in the wings. And while you could argue that other teams have crap in the 4 and 5 spots you could also argue that our offense isn’t good enough to make up the difference when you’ve got a #4 and #5 giving up 4 and 5 runs in the 4th and 5th inning of the games they’re pitching in……..

Oswalt probably signs with someone today (Speaking of a bad back). He would be perfect insurance for us but there is no way it would ever come to pass……..

There’s just no solution to this potential problem if it does happen (Zito imploding and Voggy breaking down). Unless you think Ramon Ortiz and his band of renegades can cobble together some type of a rescue.

It’s just something to worry about without a pending resolution. It’s what I do best……..

DirtRocksandReno is packing up his bag of rocks, leaving the dirt pile behind and moving to the Bay Area. He found this in storage and it became an unexpected yet welcomed present. Thank you dude!

#1 (sniped it)

#2 (saved it)

In the scheme of the upcoming season, this is an absolute non-issue. Villalona will have nothing to do with the outcome of  any mlb games, he’ll have no impact at all on the season. But that doesn’t make the news coming out about his failure to secure a P-1 visa  any less interesting.

After the dust started to settle on this last night and I stopped LQTM at my *hilarious* fat-jokes, the official explanation for why he’s delayed really didn’t make any sense. Bobby Evans said that this particular visa requires the player to be “an elite athlete in top physical condition”. I posted the P-1 requirements last night from the US immigration website and read through it twice. I couldn’t find a single reference to “having to be in top physical condition”. Then, according to either Evans or Schulman (it’s not clear in HS’s blog post who said this), “The US government has decided that Villalona does not meet that requirement because of a combination of excessive weight and an ongoing medical condition…”—note: I put that in quotes, it’s from Henry’s blog.  But since he didn’t reference who said this (it appears he’s attributing it to Evans but it’s not in quotes) it’s hard to analyze this statement. Was this an official US statement of some kind? Or did Evans relay this info to Schulman? If he did, why didn’t he put it in quotes? I suppose it’s possible that since it’s HS’s blog post that this is his opinion of what’s happening. Regardless, more bad reporting, in my opinion, but I’m used to that from Bay Area scribes not names “Baggarly”.

Here’s a link to Schulman’s article if you want to take a crack at figuring this out: http://tinyurl.com/7j84ks6

Evans specifically said, “We’ve been informed that, in their opinion, he doesn’t qualify as an elite athlete.” This was what I heard him say on KNBR on the way in this morning.

Here is what qualifies you as an elite athlete:

“Before you can apply, a U.S. employer, sponsor or agent must file a petition with the USCIS in the U.S. The petition will include a contract with a major U.S. sports league, team or one that is internationally recognized. It will also include evidence that you are internationally recognized in your sport. Such evidence includes:

• Your international ranking
• Significant honors or award you received in your sport
• Written statements from a recognized expert or sports media
• Written statements from a major U.S. sports league
• Significant participation in a U.S. major league season
• Significant participation in a U.S. college / university season during the intercollegiate season

After the petition is approved, you can apply for the P-1 visa through your U.S. consulate or embassy.”

I don’t see anything in there that would hold up Villalona. And there isn’t anything subjective about being an elite athlete like your height, weight, etc. You just have to qualify with *evidence* listed above. So I guess it’s entirely possible that Evans is clueless on this and never did any information gathering at all regarding what the team’s responsibilities were in all of this.

To be clear, there is nothing about being overweight and/or having a medical condition that would preclude you from qualifying for a P-1 visa–at least nothing I could find at the US Immigration website. Feel free to do your own research on this, too……

In fact, my guess is that the Giants participated in this screw up. You can’t apply for a P-1 visa as an individual, a petition has to be filed by your employer and it has to include all sorts of details. Evans also said “We’re learning as we go here.” If the Giants are learning as they go it’s entirely possible that they didn’t file the correct paperwork or even know what needed to get filed.

More Evans double-speak: “We saw him in December and his weight was pretty close to what we were targeting.” He gives himself a lot of rope with this comment since they could have been targeting a weight of 350. But we don’t know since the beat writers didn’t ask follow up questions (or didn’t get those questions answered).

Who knows why Villalona was denied that visa? Maybe someone was shaking him down for dough again. Maybe he’s 400 pounds and couldn’t physical board the plane safely. How about a conspiracy theory: The Giants paid off someone in the DR to keep Villalona from getting into the US—Villalona is a PR nightmare, not to mention a threat to sue the Giants for *something*–if they thought he was too fat or too untalented to ever play ball again, just keep him out of the States—problem solved…..But I don’t think that’s what’s going on. I suspect the Giants DID play a huge role in all of this but probably just a paper work mismanagement role……

Would it have been too great an expense for the team to just send a rep down there to help get this kid the hell out of there? Sh!t, they’ve got 2.1 million invested in him already, they couldn’t have an intern spend a day doing research on the paperwork needed and then fly down there to walk Vilallona through all this?

Hell, I woulda volunteered to do it (and pay my own expenses) just to get a first hand look at this dude……

Reading a Baggs entry this morning, El Presidente is saying he was hurt basically all of last year with a bad elbow. Based off of his comments, it seems like the team was aware of this chronic injury. As if my mind couldn’t be blown any further— we just discovered another galaxy far, far away…..

So not only did the Giants have the worst back up catcher in baseball backing up Buster Posey they knowingly had the worst back up catcher in baseball WHO ALSO HAS A BAD ELBOW. I now think that Whiteside will be our back up catcher as long as Bochy is the manager. He played with one arm last year? Fine. How about if he was suddenly paralyzed from the waist down? No problem. Just plop him in a dolly, roll him out there, and dump him at home plate. He went blind? Sure, just guide him behind the dish and holler at him when the pitch is coming.

I know the deal with back up catching— the bar is set low. But you can’t tell me that there isn’t at least a half dozen guys down at the street corner looking for day-work that couldn’t perform the job AT LEAST as good as Whiteside….

Fast forward back to last season— the Giants were playing out the final few meaningless games. Who was catching the 2nd to last game of the season?

Of course, he and his bad elbow went 0-4 that game. He seemed to go 0-4 every game. At the time we wondered why Hector wasn’t catching. We fooled ourselves into believing that it was Bochy’s way of saying goodbye to his precious Whitey. A swan song. A horse ride off into the sunset……

Well, now we know that wasn’t true. And this year he’s actually healthy. Uh oh, a two armed-Whitey. Oh the humanity!!!!

El Presidente is Bochy’s Guy. And Bochy doesn’t let his guys go easily……

Drive by……

Nothing good will come from this *directive* from Bochy. For starters, this is info the opposing team now has that they can use to their advantage. Why tell them this?

And it’s not going to protect Posey at all. Posey wasn’t blocking the plate when Cousins came at him. Take a look:

From the moment Cousins took off from 3rd, his plan was to run Posey over, where ever he was. He went out of his path to the plate and took off in mid air in a altered direction to aim at Buster. There is indisputable video evidence that supports this…..

No one seems to ever talk about this, but that flyball was hit to short right center field. Nate caught it. Everyone in the league knew then about how good his arm was. Only an idiot would think he would beat that throw home. His plan never wavered from the moment he took off: level Posey and hope to knock the ball free.

So Bochy telling the world that he’s going to have Buster catch like a pussy and just swipe tag all the plays at the plate doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. It’s giving the other teams info they shouldn’t have and it won’t protect him. If the team is THAT afraid of him getting hurt again then find him a new position………

Well, you’re not electing anyone. And there are probably more interesting polls to vote on, these were just off the top of my head before the coffee fully kicks in. But what else do you have to do this morning? I mean, besides enter the “Write that Caption” contest at the BBOTD Page…….

If both start the season slowly, who is more likely to get released? I don’t think this question is as easy to answer as you think. The Giants are already paying Rowand 12 million this year to stay away from the team. They only owe Huff 11 million and they’ve got a lot of options at first base. Conversely, they don’t have that many options at the 5th spot and Zito is still owed $46 million (included the $7 million buy out).

Who’s more likely to hit the DL first, Posey or Freddy? Again, I don’t think this is that easy of a call. Your gut response is *Glass* Sanchez but I don’t think Posey is as good to go as everyone thinks. Plus, he plays the most physically demanding position on the field….

What’s more likely to happen, Crawford holds the SS position till at least June 15th or Belt scores a starting 1-bag job out of ST? I think Belt has more of a shot than many think to win the first base job out of ST. And if Nate doesn’t hit and Huff and Belt do, Nate could find himself super-subbing to start the season. For the sake of the poll, I’ll just say Belt starting ANYWHERE Opening Day since he could score and OF starting job, I guess…..

Who is most likely to have a big Spring with the bat? Pagan and Cabrera are new and wanting to impress, Belt and Burriss are fighting different fights to save/score a job…..

Who will have the lowest Spring Training ERA? Timmy and Cain could care less about ST numbers. Voggy has security and probably doesn’t care, either. MadBum? Likely more worried about breaking his snot-rocket record (distance only. He has “most snot rockets in a 9 inning game record wrapped up with 276. He put that one totally out of reach). Zito needs a big Spring but Zito is a terrible baseball pitcher. Or maybe you fancy someone from The Ramon Ortiz Gang?

Will Angel Villalona have more than 20 spring training at bats?

Today is the day. Actually, TOMORROW is the day but I’m so excited about this long awaited date that I’m slappin’ this bad boy up here tonight. Plus, I’m going to be at Golden Gate Fields all day tomorrow (going old school and actually ATTENDING the races instead of betting on them in my living room). Anyway, early day tomorrow. They’re all early days, I’m “king of the 4am crowd”…..

One Weirdo-Random Prediction for each team in our division:

Arizona: Cahill is going to have a very good year. I’ll say 17-8, 3.21 ERA

Dodgers: Jansen saves 31 games after taking over the closing duties from Guerra (maybe before ST ends but definitely by May 1st).

Colorado: Tyler Colvin finds a way into that outfield at some point and has a big year. 20+ hrs will happen………

San Diego: Yonder Alonso hits 30 b0mbs.

The Giants: Pagan’s hits+steals out number Melky’s hits+steals. 191-172

And now for a pic of my kid. Look at this freaking purple starfish we found at the beach today. It was sucking the hell out of her hand when I took this photo….

I posted a thread about this earlier in the Winter but it’s worth taking a look again and comparing the team to the rest of the league. I’m getting my numbers from an article I read yesterday at mlbtraderumors but I can’t find the link right now. Sabean gets an awful lot of crap for his long term contract signing success but the reality is, we are in fantastic shape to sign free agents in the next couple of years. Just looking at financial commitments from 2015 on……..

The Giants: $0

The Angels: $274 million

Colorado: $167 million

Detroit: $166 million

Boston: $159.5 million

Yankees: $154 million

The Dodgers: $107 million (this number will probably double, at least, over the next year or so. The new ownership group, whoever that ultimate is, will be making it rain in LA for years to come)……

Brewers: $103 million

Minnesota: $92 million

Washington: $89 million

I’m not going to do all of them…..

Toronto: $21 million

Atlanta: $13 million

Oakland: $10.5 million

Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay: $8 million

Along with the Giants, the Orioles, Cubs, Astros, Indians, Royals, Mets, Padres and Mariners are at $0.

Sabean, whether he’s been instructed to or not, has exercised great restraint on doling out any long term, bloated deals. I’ve come to understand that most owners don’t give a crap about the back end of the deals they’re giving out. They’re living for the *now*. The Zito contract gets so much attention because there was never any *now* with him. He sucked from the start. Rowand pretty much sucked from the start, too, though not as badly as Zito.

We’re in good shape going forward. Now all we have to hope is that Sabean picks the right free agent to shower with cash. He’s gonna have a lot of it to spend starting in the next few years……..