A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

I don’t know why I am trying to talk myself into believing that signing Grady Sizemore would be a good idea. But our outfield is so bad that it seems like a risk worth taking. And you’d probably have to go 2 years with him. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think his most recent surgery was related to the micro surgery he had 2 years ago. It always tough to predict how someone bounces back from micro surgery, it’s not like Tommy John or repairing and ACL. But it can easily take longer than a full year and if that ‘s the case then maybe Sizemore is ready for that bounce back year everyone thought he might have had last year. He’s only 29, this guy was a legit 40/40 threat just a couple of years ago. Run him through a complete physical, if he passes that I would be fine with signing him to play LF for us……

I’m assuming Bruce Jenkins was kidding when he said the Niners shouldn’t sign T.O. I mean, he hasn’t actual heard this is being discussed, has he? T.O needs money, that is the only reason he’s looking for a job right now and he knows he can’t afford to wait till next season as he turns 39 in December of next season. This would be “Chris Webber” all over again at least in terms of failed expectations. You can’t tell me that we don’t have a healthy receiver on the practice squad who isn’t better than TO at this point in his career. Not even Harbaugh has the hubris to pull this off with a straight face……..

After reading and re-reading LaRussa’s bizarre, unbelievable explanations for how the names “Rzepczynski”, “Lynn” and “Motte” get mixed up, I have to believe he is covering for someone. Either Duncan or Lilliquest. Hell, maybe Motte was in the bathroom or something. Who knows. But nothing about what he’s saying happened could have actually happened. And if he is covering for someone, what is the point? If someone else is responsible, why can’t they man up and field the tough questions? I understand WHY Tony is choosing to cover I just don’t understand why the guy responsible isn’t wanting to own any of this. Maybe he doesn’t want to be “Bartman-ized”. Actually, that makes some sense.

But that makes this just about one man. What about the team? The city and fans that want this so badly? If a plausible answer came to light, this would all blow over (except for the one guy who would eat it). As it stands today, there are still more questions than answers. LaRussa just made all this worse than it needed to be (assuming he’s covering up the real story). The Cardinals need to regain their focus and it’s pretty hard to do with this hanging over their collective head…..

A win tonight would fix everything. A loss? LaRussa will go from “baseball genius” to “baseball joke” over night. He’s just not a smart person if he thinks anyone believes the bullshit answers that he’s feeding the media right now……

Last January, I mocked the Angels for TRADING FOR V-Wells.

Here was the post I put up after that trade:

“the Angels are fucking retarded morons. Trading for Vernon Wells? I don’t give a flying fuck what he did last year, he is probably the most overpaid player in all of baseball based on production (besides Zito). And they TRADED for him. Shit, Napoli, if given a starting spot, might hit more HR’s than him. They coulda paid him 6 mil to do that. Instead they trade for “Mr Nagging Injury” and get to pay him 86 more million. Shit, why didn’t they just overpay for Carl Crawford?”

I couldn’t believe that a GM would WILLINGLY trade for one of those bad, bulging contracts. It was bad enough that a GM would GIVE a guy 100-200 million. But a guy TRADING for one of those contracts? It made no sense at all. Only an idiot would take what Wells did in 2010 and say “Hey, I think he’s back on track. Gimmie Wells and the 85 million he’s still owed.”

Anyway, I also made a quick comment  in passing about the guy the Angels gave up for the great honor of taking on Wells and his bulbis contract. Mike Napoli has been a revelation this year. Besides probably being the WS MVP, this dude banged out 30 bombs this year, he hit .320 with a 1.046 OPS. He was a monster. What did Wells do? He hit .218 with 25 bombs. Predictable.

But that’s not even the thing that blows my mind the most. Who did the Angels have to replace Napoli at catcher? Jeff Freaking Mathis–he’s So-Cal’s version of *Whitey*. Mathis, the last 3 years, has hit .211, .195, and .174. He’s had over 1200 at bats in those 3 years. I understand he’s a stud defensive guy who the manager loves. But he’s batting .194 over the course of the last 3 years. Whiteside just blew a load in his pants. If he doesn’t keep the back up job with SF he can always head down to Anaheim and be embraced with open arms by Mike Scioscia…..

I took a long look at Napoli when I was getting ready for my drafts last Winter but mostly because he qualified as a catcher and you just don’t get anything from that position besides a handful of guys. But, in 30 round leagues he was going 10-11 round and that was just too early for my tastes. Clearly, I made a mistake…..

Toronto is almost as bad as the Angels, they trade FOR this dude and then turn him over to Texas 4 days later for Frank *gas can* Francisco. The Toronto GM was probably so excited to have pawned off Wells he didn’t take much time appreciating the found gold he had, instead pining his hopes on Arencibia who hit about what I thought he’d hit for the year (.219)…..

One GM’s good decision is another GM’s bad decision and those are usually the differences between being on vacation now while the *other guys* are still winning baseball games…….

As this series unfolds and we watch the pendulum swing back and forth, I think we are seeing two teams that aren’t evenly matched as much as they are genuinely flawed. They both have good offenses and below average pitching staffs, so in that respect I guess they are evenly matched. But when you have average pitching there’s just no way to predict how a game might turn out. These are all major league pitchers, they all have talent. A lot of the time they’ll get lit up or have no idea where the strike zone is. Other times they turn in their serviceable 5.2 innings. Occasionally, like last night, you get a gem out of Holland. And hey, every blue moon you get a no hitter out of a guy like Edwin Jackson……

If you’ve got great pitching v a poor offense it’s usually a lot more easy to predict. The Giants, for instance, could be counted on for months of bad hitting and months of great pitching. Occasionally, you’d get the *7 run outburst* but more often it would be the usual *scratch and sniff*.

If I was betting (which I don’t do anymore because the stupid government shut down all the online gambling) I would have bet the over on last night’s game (I find both of those pitchers to be hittable except in the case of Jackson who is unhittable when he’s walking everybody). And of course, I would have lost. If I had offered you the Chiefs minus 27 yesterday, how many of you WOULDN’T have taken that? Betting on sports is fun. I’m glad I don’t have to try to make a livin’ doing it……..

No Niner game today. I can kinda get up for a quarter or two of the Raider game, especially if Palmer plays. But otherwise, today is a *get shit done* day. I find it much easier to get shit done when there aren’t any sports on tv to tickle my fancy with. I’m gonna start out at Katie’s school for some sort of *Work Day* to fix stuff at her school. I’ll be the one pretending to do something. I’m not known as a handy-man. After that, we have some Halloween shopping to do and will probably hit a pumpkin patch later. But that’s about it. You guys got anything special planned today? What does a typical Flapper do on a typical  Sunday when there isn’t any baseball (Giants) or football (Niners) to watch?

I had great interest in reading Baggs’ quick interview with Sabean published in the Merc this morning—greater interest than I’ve had in the playoffs up to this point. I was going to take a shot at watching an entire actual game today but Game 3 is starting at the same time the Cardinal game starts so that isn’t happening…..

Anyway, pretty typical comments from Sabean but this line from Baggs disturbed me a little: “Sabean said he probably cannot acquire another full time catcher as insurance because resources will be needed elsewhere.” I get it that we will be dumping a lot of money into the pitching staff, and I’m fine with that. But this admission suggests that the brass didn’t quite get how devastating the Stew-Whitey tandem was to the line up last year. With Crawford hitting in front of the catching position we were basically giving away a third of our outs each time through the order. That isn’t going to ever work or be ok. If Sabean thinks we can go into a season with one of those 2 catchers as our back up to Posey he just isn’t understanding how bad they were last year.

I would sign a legit back up major league catcher who wouldn’t just back up Posey—Let him play a couple of days a week vs lefty pitching and slide Buster over to first base. We have precious little right handed power hitters and if the choice is Pill or Posey at first during those games I go with Buster all day long— it would also give his body a break and if the unthinkable happens again, and he either can’t recover from the ankle injury or he gets badly hurt again, then we have a legitimate player to put behind the dish for the rest of the season…..

To not take this approach is short sighted, risky and borderline ignorant. I hope the brass does the right thing here……….

I loved reading the comments from everyone….Here is a partial post from Stix from the thread below. It is the perfect way to end this…..

Saving the best for last……

….Baseball is sacred, in its way. It is the hallmark of dedication and devotion and sometimes even deification. But it is not idolatry. We do not so much idolize these gifted athletes and their feats as we adore the spirits that move them to perform the way they do. Ultimately, the spiritual triumphs over the material. All the experts picked the other guys in this most blessed Post-Season. But it was the team with the most character, the largest number of characters and the greatest spirit who became World Champions……”

SF Giants: 2010 World Series Champions

1. More. Win.

I searched youtube for the Tony La Russa *dancing in tights” videos and only came up with “Tony La Russa–DUI videos”– some of those were a hoot, as was David Cassidy’s road side test. I feel a twinge of sympathy for celebrities who get pulled over. Once the cop finds out who they are they probably do anything they can to be able to bring them in. But that sympathy goes away when I remember that they are millionaires who should be able to afford a driver or, at worst, a cab ride home. Anyway….

I am rooting for Texas to win this series and I think they win it rather easily. Everyone talks about how poor, dumb Ron Washington can’t manage within the NL rules. Well, he’s made the World Series 2 straight years so he’s gotta be doing something right. And I suspect he, and his players, gleaned a lot from last year’s experience. I’ll say Rangers in 6 (and I almost said 5)….

The Raider Trade: It’s a trade they had to make. There wasn’t anyone on their roster or languishing on the WW who could step in and keep this thing going. Everyone is looking at Palmer’s last couple of years (saying his best years are behind him) but he had no deep threats on those teams and that’s the Raider’s specialty. I can’t wait to see how that  golden arm connects to the bullet trains that Oakland sends on all their “go” routes. I don’t follow Oakland enough to know how good their O-Line is so that could be a problem if they aren’t any good. But if he’s got any time at all this offense could turn into a high-flying machine. And they’ve got McFadden that the defense always has to stop. The *go* routes and the *post* routes are there for the taking if they want it…..

Plus, they DID technically draft a #1 QB in the supplemental draft this year (Pryor). That could have been the *type* of guy they would have drafted anyway in next year’s draft….

Of course they paid too much. But if it works and they go deep in the playoffs or to another Super Bowl and Palmer is re-born in Oakland, the price won’t matter a bit. Only the results. And although it’s a huge gamble, I can’t think of a better way to say “Just win, Baby”….

Moments In Time

I guess some people called Texas in the World Series, but St Louis? This is a repeat of 2006 for them when they won 83 games and, of course, the World Series. This year they won more (90) but they are the last team I would have picked to get here.

And what will the over/under’s be for these two gas can pitching staffs? The total runs for both of these “clincher” games? 38. Thirty-eight freaking runs in 2 games. That’s not baseball that’s beer league softball.

Maybe I’m just being bitter about the Giants not being there but I’ve got no interest in watching a parade of shitty pitchers get blasted away on and somehow trick myself into believing that these are the best 2 teams that baseball has to offer…

So how about those Niners, eh? Of course, I was wrong about how the game would unfold. I get to chucklin’ every time I think about Harbaugh and his “humble hearts” comment from last week. Is there a bigger dick anywhere in football when it comes to the coach’s handshake than Jimbo? The “What’s YOUR deal” guy looks like he could stand a lesson in sportsmanship. I think the Detroit coach over reacted but Harbaugh needs to look at his end-of-game win reactions. Simple lesson not just in sports but in life: act like you’ve been there before…..

I’m re-posting my contribution to Chuck’s blog this morning. Nailing football scores are tough but take a stab at it even if you don’t care about the game. It beats whatever baseball game is on today. For what it’s worth, I see Milwaukee winning today. Marcum is such the better pitcher than Edwina.

Glory today, But Destiny Awaits…..

Back to Philly

Great Cody Ross Story

Black Beards VS Phuckin Fillies…….

I was driving around yesterday re-living some of the moments from last post season in my brain. It wasn’t really doing it for me. When I got home I decided to check out the archives at The Flap and that DEFINITELY did it for me. I appreciate that many of you aren’t Niner fans and there just isn’t a lick of Giants news to kick around right now. So at least for the next week or so, maybe longer, I’m gonna re-post a thread from last year and try to have it be exactly a year ago today. Today’s was actually written the morning of October 10th, I believe that was the “Brook’s Conrad” game. We were 1-1 in the series before that game. I picked this thread to start because, like many of you, I enjoyed Stix’ posts from last night. And last October 10th I appreciated one of his posts so much that I re-posted it in the main thread. You can go read the comments too, but I would encourage you not to *read ahead* since I will be posting some of the best threads that followed last year in the coming days. So, without further adieu, I give you YOUR 2010 San Francisco Giants, on the way to becoming World Series Champions, 2010….

Guest Author For Game 3….

It’s amazing how quickly baseball has switched out in my brain with football taking over. I tried to watch some of the Brewers game yesterday–even had it on right next to the Niner game at the Sports bar I was at. I just couldn’t do it. It could be that the pace of the two games are so different. I love the pace of a baseball game when I’m watching it, especially live. But putting it next to the helter-skelter violence and speed of a football game? Baseball is a cerebral game, football is an ADHD game. I like both but trying to watch them at the same time? I dunno, it just didn’t work for me. It could also have to do with me not really giving a rip about any of the teams left in the playoffs. Say what you will about the Yankees but the drama, the anticipation of the game, just isn’t really there without them. I just had to go to Yahoo sports to see who won the Tigers/Rangers Game and saw it was postponed due to weather. I had no idea……

The other possible reason I didn’t get into the Brewers game is that I am swimming neck deep in a re-birth in NinerLand. Football is fun again. Alex Smith is now the 3rd highest rated passer in all of football. After five games, let that fact sink in if you even can. And where the Hell did Carlos Rogers come from? I mean, I know he played for the ‘Skins but this guy is a revelation. He’s like the 2nd coming of Eric Wright. And what I’m most impressed with is not his picks (those are great, though) it’s how well he reads routes. The dude is certain of what play is coming and he cuts off everything. Unreal.

My favorite quote from Alex Smith yesterday? Easy: “I don’t think it’s some big, magic thing. WE JUST CONTINUE TO LEARN and improve.” It’s sad that Smith was coached by two fools for so many years. I mean, I know Nolan and Sing didn’t *coach* him. But they did nothing but get in the way of his development and success. He’s now got a coach who believes in him and who COACHES him and who is installing an offense that utilizes these skills. I’ve always thought that Harbaugh sees himself in Smith–a guy who had skills, maybe not to be *Joe Montana*, but a guy who would develop later in his career……

Anyway, I’ll keep the baseball game on in the background and will check the box scores every day. Maybe catch a few highlights at mlb.com. But the rest of my sports-watching time will be 100% focused on The Motor City. Bring on the Lions, baby. That will be a tough one to win……

I think anyone who knows me knows that I wouldn’t ever celebrate a person being injured. One exception: I  have no problem with a football player going after a known injured area of an opposing football player. It’s a violent game, if you take the field willingly you are fair game. And exploiting weaknesses is what football is all about. I’m still pissed that the Niners didn’t go after Romo when they knew he was hurt……

But I don’t celebrate other people being hurt or injured. I don’t have a bad feeling in the world about Ryan Howard, I hope he’s ok. And I do have genuine sympathy for him and for how his last 2 seasons have ended….

Hell, I’ve been hurt several times playing sports. I’ve torn ligaments in both wrists diving for balls on separate plays 2 years apart. Competing is something to honor and if you get hurt doing so you get honored that much more.

I just don’t like the Philly fan base and I never will. They’re all a bunch of whiny, hubris-inebriated,  out of touch with reality, blaming booing fucks. And I will not be changing this opinion any time soon…..

Except for Tom Petty. I fucking love Tom Petty and he gets a pass with me for as long as we are both alive for being a Philly fan. No Flappers, it’s not THAT  Tom Petty. But the one I’m talking about reads the blog regularly, lurking but never posting. I hope you’re good my man, you need to check in soon. 🙂

Here’s a pic of one of the great men I have been lucky enough to know in my lifetime. This dude is a compilation of brilliance, genius, glory and destiny. He is, quite simply, THE MAN!

This has been a good week phor me. I revel in watching east coast teams phail. New York and Philadelphia both got knocked out. I’ve got nothing against the players who phail. It’s their phans who I don’t like. I don’t like the east coast media, either. When east coast teams phail, they blame it on bad luck. The other team “caught lightening in a bottle.” Phailure doesn’t happen to their team. At least in the pre-season. Or the regular season. Phailure only happens to  other teams. At least until it happens to them…..

So watching the Eagles phail last week to my phavorite phootball team, during the same week I was celebrating the one year anniversary of my phavorite baseball team phorcing a phail right down the Phillies throats made phor a really good week phor me. And watching Ryan Howand lie on the phield, injured, as yet another season went up in smoke phor a phan base that I don’t like or respect, well, that just capped a really good seven days phor me. I’ve got nothing against Howard so don’t think I’m celebrating his injury. At least he got his bat off his shoulder this time. It’s the epic collective phail of a phan base that I am celebrating. Phuck you, Philly phans. Don’t phorget the phacts. This season, phailure phinally phound you. Phrankly speaking, your *dream teams* phooled you. Enjoy your off season of phreaking out and phantasizing about phinishing 2012 with a championship. You’re phucking delusional……..

I was shaking my head at some of the blogger comments I read this morning that were celebrating the Yankees losing to the Tigers. Many commenters called them “cheaters!”. Huh? How are the Yankees cheating? They have a high payroll. That’s cheating? They operate completely within the boundaries of the rules of signing players. And the other owners don’t complain, in fact they secretly love it, because of how much direct revenue the Yankees bring each time they come to play them in their yard. Not to mention the luxury tax and revenue sharing that they dole out through mlb back to the other 29 teams. They have constructed one of the most successful, BEST cable companies in the world. If you don’t subscribe to the YES network you should know this: they put on the best baseball production (pre and post game included) of any team in the country. It’s not even close.

And another little FACT that everyone seems to miss: most of the time, they aren’t *buying* anything but misery for their fan base. Since their WS win in 2000 they’ve won exactly ONE WS in the last 11 seasons. That’s a percentage of failure that hardly suggests *buying* championships. Forgetting their salaries, that rate of success is right around the same as every other team that’s won a world series over the last 11 seasons. They are “one of the gang” of the more successful franchise’s over the last decade…….

So they aren’t *cheating* and they certainly aren’t *buying* championships, that’s been proven. What they consistently do is put a professional, winning, cash producing product on the field every single year. They also consistently produce a hilarious dysfunctional drama through the press that is better than any soap opera or reality show. Listen, these players are held to a different standard than almost any other player not playing in Boston. They put up with a lot of sh!t and for the most part do it with dignity and honor. Say what you will about A-ROD but he knows what it means to be a Yankee and how to conduct yourself in public. He screws it up all the time, but he knows what he’s supposed to do. In fact, watching him screw it up is another reason that following the Yankees is one of my hobbies. 🙂

They play the villain. Every great story needs one. They know their role. But they aren’t villain’s the way you would look at T.O or Romanowski or guys like that. They play the game the way it is meant to be played and I, for one, have always honored them for that. Watching them lose, and knowing what that does to their pompous fan base, is a sick pleasure to enjoy.

But calling them *cheaters* and the *Evil Empire* just doesn’t make any sense to me…..

By the way, Detroit’s payroll is in the top 10 in all of baseball. This is hardly a case of the poor factory worker taking down his well-off factory owner boss. The Twins, Cubs, Mets and Giants are in the top 10, too. Did they *buy* a World Series this year? Ha, they couldn’t even get into the playoffs. And the Twins, Mets and Cubs were awful this year. Those 3 teams spent about 350 million dollars this year. As Ricky would say, “For who, for what?”

You don’t buy World Series championships. You earn them with a little luck along the way…..

This has been kicked around a bit already. I find it interesting that there isn’t a single headline about his dropped lawsuit at the Giants official website (though Yahoo reports the team is “welcoming him back with open arms”). What a weird situation the team is now in with him. He’s 21 freaking years old. They have precious few hitting prospects in their organization. But their BEST hitting prospect plays the position Villalona had taken over prior to killing that (er, I mean, being *accused* of killing that guy) in the DR (Belt/1B).

From a PR standpoint, the Giants should probably cut ties with the guy. Despite what may or may not have happened, the *perception* is that Villalona paid off the family of the dude who was murdered. It’s impossible to know what happened down there, he’s as likely totally innocent as he is guilty. Maybe he paid off the family, maybe he didn’t. But again, the *perception* is that he was guilty of killing a man. What chapter of The Giants Way does this conundrum cover? I guess with Bow Tie gone….um, nevermind.

What do you do with him? It appears they don’t know yet. I suppose they could shy away from answering anything about him and just let him start playing in their minor league system again. Being a legit hitter goes a long way–though it’s still unclear if that’s what Villalona will ever be……..

Trade bait?

Career minor leaguer?

Our next great hitting prospect?

If I’m Villalona, I never go back to the DR again. He’s got a 2nd chance or maybe he dodged a bad luck bullet frame job. Either way, he’s got an opportunity here. Where and with whom that opportunity lies is unclear.  It’ll be interesting to watch it play itself out…..

I’m catching a little bit here and there. I’ve watched the Yankee/Detroit games. Most of them anyway. It’s been hard for me to think about baseball with the season over and the buzzkill of the Giants not being in it this year. Are you guys watching it?

I have Detroit beating Philly in Twin’s contest. I did it quickly and if I had to do it over again I think I would have Milwaukee in the WS vs the Tigers. The Brewers have 3 stud pitchers who I think will shut down Philly’s offense (assuming they get by the Cardinals). And there is just something about that line up that is impossible not to admire–speed and power. It’s a beautiful thing……

Go through their starting 8. I’d take every single one of them over who the Giants had starting this year except McGehee  over Panda, obviously. Morgan was a nice find for them this year. He modified his game, upped his batting average and didn’t try to get thrown out stealing every time he got on first base. He’s still crazy since you can’t extract that out of your body. But he’s kept his insanity pretty well in check this year. He could have been the next Milton Bradley (and still might end up that way).

Anyway, the Brewers are legit, I wouldn’t want to face them in the playoffs……..

***************************************************

Huge HUGE opportunity for you today (insert gay-ass…oh whatever you know). If you are interested in guest-posting an upcoming thread, email me your post and I’ll slap it up here. You can sign your name or not, it doesn’t matter to me. Don’t send me thread IDEAS send me something you write that could be an actual thread. I’m all about cutting and pasting these days. Twin’s already got Room B covered so it can’t be him.  It would help me out since thread ideas are few and far between in *the Winter* so don’t be shy. Hell, it could be a Haiku for all I care.  E mail me if you want to take a shot at this gig: bigflavor77@gmail.com

We did it to them again. Less than a year ago, our team from San Francisco gave Philly fans a lesson in what happens when you have too much hubris. Some of them are still waiting for Ryan Howard to swing that bat. Yesterday, the Alex Smith Led Niners doled out another painful lesson to learn. There are few things I enjoy more in sports than knocking an east coast fan base or media base down a few pegs. And boy did we do that yesterday. The “Dream Team” is turning into a nightmare. How many Super Bowl teams started the year 1-3? There’s probably precedent for it but it can’t be too many.

Chuck is doing a fabulous job with his new blog ninersforever.com. You can check it out in the blogroll to the right. I shouldn’t have a thread about football but I’m still flying high off one of the great Niner comebacks in their history. As a longtime Harbaugh disciple from our street growing up as kids through his short but dominant time at The Farm, nothing about what he’s doing with this team is surprising me. I thought it might take a little longer to take hold since they had virtually no training camp. But what he’s done with the Niners in this short time is amazing and Alex Smith, as I suspected, is reaping the benefits of a coach who believes in him as well as actually coaches him. His QB rating for the year is 97.7 and that’s outstanding no matter how you look at it. He’s ahead of Romo, Vick, Rivers, Newton…..even the vaunted Dalton. Who’d a thunk that?

Yes, this is a Giants blog and “no” I will not be tolerating anything but high praise for Smith and the Niners here today. If you’re a fan, enjoy this re-birth in San Francisco. But this bus isn’t taking on any new fares so if you weren’t on before the season started just wait patiently for the next one. The Cowboy bus should be coming along any time now…….

If you want to check out a historic baseball milestone, clink on this link

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/blog_article/60th-anniversary-bobby-thomsons-famous-homer/

Big college football weekend so this will be quick. I still don’t understand what the hell Bochy and Sabean were talking about regarding Huff at their press conference. They both attributed his down year to not doing enough in his off season conditioning program. They threw in all the requisite press conference bs like “we’re here to win” and “Aubry was humbled by this year” and “he’s gotta pull more weight”. But then on the Giants website they have Huff saying “Huff took full accountability for his year, saying he began the season with mechanical problems before his problems became more mental than anything….”

Huh?

Everyone was praising Sabes/Bochy for that forthcoming press conference but they left more questions unanswered than answered. What EXACTLY did Huff NOT do in his off season workout program? He looked exactly the same in 2010 as he did in 2011 so it wasn’t a weight issue. And I still don’t see how *being out of shape* results in you hitting 464 billion bouncing balls to 2nd base. Plus, Huff himself is on the Giants website saying it was a mechanical/mental thing.

Huff got married in the off season and his wife gave birth to their first child. Was he up all night helping feed the baby and too tired to do anything the next day? Who knows.

He did rake the ball in Spring Training so I don’t understand why his suggested poor conditioning didn’t show itself then. Something that was NEVER brought up was his 1 on/1 off pattern from year to year. Sabean even brought up “the back of his baseball card” without mentioning that. It was actually mentioned at this blog several times last off season and it’s a pretty obvious pattern. I am assuming that Huff knows this too and that’s what he meant when he said “and then it became a mental thing.” If so, we are in for a nice year in 2012. Plus that baby’s sleep pattern might be a little more regular and the dude is finally getting some sleep 🙂

I’d like to see Belt at first base next season with Pill getting some playing time against lefties. Pill might also learn how to play the outfield. Something that never seems to get brought up is that we have very little right handed hitting power in this team. Outside of Posey and Panda (when he can swing right handed) it would be nice to have another right handed hitting bat in the LU or coming off the bench in the later innings. I could absolutely see Pill with that role next season and if the Giants don’t go get a *Willingham* or someone comparable to play left field, it could be *Huffy* out there with Belt at first base…..

Kind of a weirdo news conference from Bochy and Sabean yesterday. Things that stuck out:

On a day where Yahoo Sports had a red light blinking breaking news flash that said “Tom Brady Cuts his Hair” I gotta say, last night was pretty entertaining in the baseball world. The only team that ho-hummed it was St Louis. With the Cardinals and Rays both getting in on the final day of the season it’s difficult to guess how they’ll do in the playoffs since they were basically all-out to get in. Carpenter and Price both had to pitch yesterday so I’m not sure when they will come up in their respective playoff games.

The Rays have 3 legit stud pitchers they can throw out there to start a game (Price, Shields and Hellickson). St Louis isn’t built like that, they’ve got 4 guys who all have that “Storm Davis” feel to them. Carpenter has been very good the last month but the other 3 are just *guys*. Plus their closer situation is a joke. La Russa might hesitantly tell you that his closer is Salas but the truth is that there isn’t a guy down in that bullpen who La Russa trusts to close out a game. The Rays have Farnsworth closing this year and he’s been reliable but I just don’t like that guy based off what I saw from him earlier in his career. Dead straight fastball is what I remember. Maybe he’s changed his game, I don’t know.

That Rays game was just a wild ride, baby. I didn’t start watching it till someone texted me in the 8th inning. Did Girardi do anything wrong in that game at least in terms of *baseball book* stuff? I don’t think so. He obviously had a game plan of who the first 4 or 5 pitchers would be. They did take a 7-0 lead. His goal was obviously to prepare for Game 1 of the playoffs. Why should he be required to go all-out to win a game he didn’t need to win? I don’t have a problem with him pulling his starters as the game went on. Again, they were up 7-0. Once the Rays came back there was no reason for Girardi to change the game plan he had going into the game. If the team was good enough to build a 7-0 lead it’s obvious he wasn’t trying to lose the game last night. And why should the Yankees be required to keep all their aging players in a game that went extras and could have easily gone longer than 12? They did the minimum amount to compete in the game. That’s all you should be able to expect them to do in a game that was all about staying healthy and resting up for Game 1 vs the Tigers………

The FINAL Flap Fantasy League Standings

(a little gratuitous here, I am only posting the standings to highlight the 4 pt beat down I dropped on the league yesterday. Emphatic win for Team Flavor 🙂  I put the entire standings up so you can see how hard everyone played. “Moves” is the total number of waiver wire adds as well as any trade transactions that they participated in. Blade and G-Head played hard till the end. Fun playing with all you guys this year!)

I’m marginally behind Jenkin’s Chron article this morning. I agree we won’t be going after any of the big FA guys. Not because we don’t need them but because we’re going to start seeing that *rainy day fund* start to grow. I suspect it’s a fund that will actually be 10 mini-funds that are kept in the back pocket of each executive board member.

I’d be fine with Jimmy Rollins at SS I just don’t know if the contract years can get worked out. He’ll be 33 this November, I would think HE sees this as his last big deal. Could he get 4 or 5 years from someone? Maybe. We should only offer him 2. We have a few guys (Crawford, Panik, and Twin’s guy) who are in the plans big time and will be here in 2013 at the latest.

Cuddyer would be fine. He’s a little like Ty Wiggington only better. Bring him aboard if the money works….

All those words written by Jenkins and not a single mention of the obvious need for a back up catcher…..

And we need a center fielder. Badly. I’m not even thinking of Gary Brown until 2013……

The Flap Fantasy Baseball League Standings

(With a game to go, it looks like most of the spots are wrapped up. It would take an epic collapse on the final day for me not to take home the coveted broken-headed Rich Aurilia Bobble Head (first place). After I win him back from Blade who won him last year (though kept him with me) I will attempt to glue that goddamn head back on and hope that this time it sticks. This Winter, he can give me a furious knowing dude head nod whenever I order him to.)

Eli Whiteside is the luckiest man in the world. A man with no talent for his trade (at this level) has somehow managed to stay employed for 2 and 1/2 seasons and log over 500 at bats. He’s made over a million dollars. He’s got a World Series ring. A guy like Justin Christian who is still trying to get a whiff of his 100th at bat in the BIGS must just look at Whitey and shake his head. With 2 games to go it’s stat-watch time. Will Whiteside keep his head above the Mendoza line? Probably. He’s at .201 right now and I don’t think going 0-8 the rest of the way would drop him below. It might, I don’t feel like doing the math. Bochy probably wouldn’t let it happen and Stew should get at least one more start.

Some of his stats the last 2 months are just mind blowing. How did Bochy continue to start him?

He’s hitting .103 in September.

In 58 at bats in Aug and Sept he has scored 3 runs. He’s got 2 extra base hits. He’s walked twice. His OPS for September is .271. Huh? .271? Just like they gave me 400 for writing my name on the SAT’s I thought they gave you an OPS of at least .300 for knowing where the batters box is. Apparently not.

I get that he’s the great clubhouse guy and everything. I would have been a good clubhouse guy, too. But for a team so bad at hitting a ball it was really just….unnecessary to have this guy continue to miss baseballs with such great frequency. Stewart or Hector the Collector would have been better. And I DO know that. Either would have checked in with an OPS over .271. Right?

Congratulations to Voggy on a fantastic season. He was better at home than on the road but in many ways he saved our season (at least in terms of keeping us in it for so long). He was a deserving winning of the Willie Mac Award, though if I had a say, I would have had Pablo and him split it…….

Baggs Blog noted the short list of players who had at least 200 K’s, a sub 2.75 ERA and a losing record.

Man, after taking a look at those 6 guys with the worst luck in the world I decided that Timmy didn’t have it nearly as bad as I thought. Check out good ol’ Ed Walsh who lost 20 games in 1910 while posting a 1.27 ERA. That’s insane. He went 40-15 in 1908. Oh well, different time, different game……….

It looks like Franchez finally bothered to show up to watch a game in Arizona (he lives there and is rehabbing, not sure why a guy under contract for NEXT year didn’t make all three games of that series). Once again, he might not be ready for Opening Day. It seems like every time that dude goes under the knife he waits about a month too long to get the surgery done. Who will the back up be? The obvious answer looks to be Keppinger. There will be something weird about basically offering him arbitration just to back up Sanchez. He’s a starter, or should be, on this club. He’s slumped lately but I am certain that has had something to do with a hand injury he suffered in Houston running into the first baseman. He’s a .300 hitter and this team needs all of those they can find. Anyway, he’s not a shortstop, so really he’s not versatile enough to play anything other than 2nd base. Actually, he’ll probably see a lot of time there in 2012 (assuming we offer him a deal). Franchez will be breaking down right around a week after Sabean trips over himself to offer him another extension……

Have a great day. I’m B-lining back to B…….

Well if you’re gonna get eliminated, get eliminated in style. 15-2. Didn’t leave much doubt with that stinker. I’ve been pretty pessimistic about Surkamp and yesterday’s start didn’t do anything to change my mind. He’s got a SO/BB ratio of 10/15 and that is just atrocious. You can’t hang at this level with that backwards-ass ratio. It’ll be interesting to see what they do for the 5 next year. It can’t be Zito. And I don’t think it’s Surkamp. Sabes might have to find himself another Voggy….

Surprisingly, being eliminated didn’t really bother me a bit. The writing has been on the wall for the last week or so. And the team kept this season *alive* as long as they possibly could. Making it to the 2nd to last series of the year with a shot at making the playoffs was about all we could ask of this broken-down, injured, no-hit team. It’s a shame we wasted a full season of a lights out pitching staff. You can’t count on years like this one being repeated too often….

Everyone is boo-hooing for Cain and I’m with that group, too. But the guy I feel really bad for is The Panda. He’s had to sit on the bench a couple of times over the last week because he can’t swing right handed. It’s been like that for 6 weeks. His season of playing through pain hasn’t gotten nearly the acknowledgment that it deserves….

Last night, I went outside and swung Twin’s bat for a few minutes. It’s broken but I have re-taped in and it’s pretty swingable as long as it doesn’t make contact with anything.  I was a switch hitter when I played (through high school). I probably had a little more power batting left handed, a better batting average right handed. Last night I kept going back and forth, right handed swing, left handed swing, etc. I imagined how Pablo felt at each point of his right handed swing. I wondered where the pain was. At what point does it get so bad that he has to shake his head sideways and say “I can’t go.”

Have any of you ever had shoulder pain? About 10 years ago I had awful right shoulder pain. It didn’t hurt at all unless I pointed my index finger at about a 60 degree angle. So I did what a smart man would be inclined to do and I didn’t point in that direction for a while. The pain went away. I wonder if Panda’s shoulder pain is pervasive. Does he feel it every time he jolts his body to get in front of a grounder? Does he feel it when he reaches for the salt shaker? Or is it just on right handed swings? Imagine how bad it must be for him to say “I can’t go.”

I didn’t have any interest in writing about last night or about the D-backs winning the NL West. But I did go to bed last night feeling bad for The Panda having to hang on the rail instead of start at 3rd base. His season of playing through pain and dealing with injury is something we should honor for longer than a moment…..

Ha. Oh well, I can dream. Honestly, the Giants have done just about as good as I could have hoped for after that pathetic month of August. Through all the injuries, the DFA’s, the silent bats and a surprise September boost from a ticketless sun dressed beauty, somehow this team is still alive with the most important series of the year about to start. Who didn’t circle this series as *critical* about 6 weeks ago? And sure enough, it still is. If we sweep the D-backs then it really will come down to the final series of the year for both teams. Granted, it’s an incomprehensible long shot that we force a tie in the division, but it is at least mathematically possible. And as I said, for a team that on Wednesday started a line up that didn’t have a single player on it from Opening Day, I find that astounding and will take this moment to appreciate how they didn’t quit when they could have easily done so. They kept the games meaningful until the 2nd to last series of the year. Not bad and certainly nothing to cry and complain about….

Lots of good things happened last night. To wit:

1) they beat up on Eveland allowing me to sleep last night

2) they ensured that the Dodgers couldn’t put a fork in us

3) the D-Backs “Viewing Party” was canceled

4) I got to use Pill as POTG again. I will never tire of searching for POTG pics for that dude…..

5) It kept the series this weekend relevant, at least for Friday’s game.

6) Oh, and they kept my 90 win total hope alive. It would have been technically *alive* even if they’d lost but I still like to have a game to play with since it looks like Surkamp is going to be getting a start in Arizona….

The Flap Fantasy League Standings

(things are sorting themselves out in the top 3 and Ed has pretty much locked up 11th place. That should feel like 1st place, my man, after the way your year started)

That game sucked. The Giants weren’t facing the dominant 13K, 2 hit masterpiece that we often see from Kershaw. We had our chances. And each time they were scattered away. Three guys getting picked off 1st base in the first 2 innings  (I’m lumping Torres in there since he was out by a mile at 2nd) is comically bad. We get a guy to scoring position in the 8th and Pablo swings through a totally hittable ball and Beltran doesn’t get a swing off, letting all balls go by peacefully, unmolested by his disinterested bat. He looked like Ryan Howard for a second. Then we get Burriss on 1st base and he doesn’t come close to producing the thing he’s there to do which is to steal 2nd and put himself in scoring position.

Meanwhile, AZ loses and last night would have been the PERFECT time to heap a boatload of pressure on them. Honestly, right now I just really want to make that series relevant and we can’t do that if we miss opportunities like we had last night. Execute or be executed……..

The only good thing that came out of last night’s loss was that tonight is a must-win (as are pretty much all the remaining games except maybe 1 if you think 90 wins gets it done). I’m glad The Dana Eveland Game is now a must-win. He is terrible, I don’t care what he did to us last time. This guy is a WALK MACHINE if you let him be one. The game he pitched against us on September 10th was the low point of the season, in my opinion. The next day the SDG took the reigns at The Flap and she’s been everything you could ask for from a dingy, huge-racked California girl. She doesn’t lose to “The Dana Eveland’s” of the world…….

On September 12th, when I wrote “let’s go 14-2 the rest of the way and see what happens” I didn’t realize that I was being the voice of a doomer. Still with 2 losses to play with, now we only need to go 7-2 to get to 90 wins. And since we will probably be required to sweep Arizona to get there, I’m looking at both the WC and the division title as possibilities. Look, Atlanta is not playing very good ball right now. Watching Kimbrel wander off the mound in a daze after giving up that Infante bomb made me think they are in more trouble than losing a single game. They are still on the road and then have to finish with 3 against Philly. The Braves are a wide open target right now. I’m trying to get worked up to worry about the Cardinals but their pitching just isn’t doing it for me. True, they have an awfully easy schedule the rest of the way, but if Houston plays them like they played us we have nothing to worry about in terms of passing the Cards…..

Really, it’s a simple plan. Make up a game a day against at least one of those 3 teams and we might be playing the final game of the season with either the WC or the division on the line………

But first things first. We get Kershaw right out of the game. Then Eveland. Then Kuroda. Two of three is mandatory and I swear to God if the one loss is against that chump Eveland my infuriation (my made up word for losing to bad pitchers) will explode from here to the moon…….

Final thought: Does Bochy sit Huff for Pill tonight? My gut says he does and it’s the right call……

Quite a game delivered by our ticketless beauty yesterday. During the 4th inning, most of the patrons at First and Main were slapping themselves on the forehead and their buddies on the back as the Giants smacked bomb after bomb out of Coors Field. I must have heard “Where has this been all year?” about 15 times. I just smiled and quietly toasted each bomb to her royal highness…….

I’m not thinking for a second about how many games back we are or how many are left. The goal should just be to make up a game on at least one the teams in from of us (Braves, St Louis and D-backs) every single day. We’ve been doing that for over a week now. If we keep winning and make up a game a day on one or more of them, this will all take care of itself……..

Perfect time for a day off. After 4 games in Colorado the bullpen could use the rest. Actually, we didn’t get too chewed up but a day to re-charge is welcomed. And what a fantastic surprise to see Bee-Wheezy out there. Now he doesn’t have to wait out all Winter and into ST to see how that arm feels. I’m not certain about this, but I don’t think the bullpen blew even a single save in his absence. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong……..

She’ll spend the day dancing barefoot in a meadow dreaming up new ways to make us smile…….

Flap Fantasy League Standings

(extending my lead, Blade wills his way into 3rd place and then there is….the rest)

I’ve written a quick story (to the right under The Room B link) that tells the tale of the glorious Sun Dressed Goddess and all that she’s meant to this winning streak. It would be far too easy to give credit to the players or the coaches. In fact, most of the scribes are clueless as to the REAL reason the Giants are playing winning baseball.  Yesterday, Ann Killion was on KNBR (right after Jenkins) and she noticed how the Giants didn’t start winning until all the pressure was off them and they felt as if their season was over. Jenkins said the exact same thing. Fools. All it really took was for me to anoint The Sun Dressed Goddess as the spiritual leader of Flavor Nation. From there, glory and destiny have collided into a perfect harmony and wins flow as freely as twigs on the shoulders of a gentle stream…..

Cainer going today against a guy (Rogers) who just isn’t a very good baseball pitcher. Normally, guys like that shut us down. Not today. She’s already hard at work scattering the particles into the universe and by game time will have the destiny of the day in perfect order. I’m hoping she spends a little time on this Niner game, too. 🙂

The Sun Dressed Goddess delivered us another victory last night. Six in a row since she became our leader. I bow to the greatness of her stupendous rack and would buy her a thousand train tickets if given the chance……

Weird to see Zito join the party last night. I appreciated Raggs comments about him. Next year he’ll be 34 and it’s just not realistic to expect that, even were he to re-capture a shadow of his former self, he would be able to make 33-34 starts a year. Who knows? If he came in as a reliever for 1 hitter or an inning he might be able to find some extra velocity. I don’t think it’s fair or even smart to NOT give him as chance to show us whether or not he can be a marginally effective reliever…..

Cody Ross goes down and that sucks. He was really hitting the ball well the last week or so. I’m assuming this is another chance for Torres to rise from the dead again. It just hasn’t happened for him this year but you never know, anyone can get hot for a week or two. We are going to need him to be productive at the top of the LU if we want to keep our Sun Dressed Goddess happy……

I’ve got no faith in Surkamp today. He could be one of our 2 remaining losses…….

On the morning of September 12th I made a casual reference to winning the Wild Card by going 14-2 the rest of the way. It wasn’t really a prediction, just a foggy thought as my morning coffee kicked in. Well, the Giants are making this a lot easier than I thought. They’ve won 4 in a row since that blog post (5 in a row total) and now we only have to go 10-2 the rest of the way to get to 90 wins. Will that be enough for the WC? Maybe. After they lay waste to the Mets they have 6 on the road and then finish against the Fillies. Will Bumpkin Manuel be resting his guys that series? We can only pray he doesn’t. But finishing the season strong with 90 wins would be a great accomplishment considering all of the adversity the team went through this season. May our Baseball-God sent Mascot, The Sun Dressed Chick, shepherd us through the valley of darkness and the tyranny of evil losses and gift us the 14-2 record that I asked for. She is 5-0 since being installed as The Flap Mascot…….

When Panda put his head down and turned 2nd towards 3rd base, I relinquished all thoughts of the Bow Tie Force Out for about 2 seconds. There are few things more exhilarating in baseball (for me) than watching Panda put his head down and look for another gear as he rounds 2nd and heads for 3rd. Great call by Kuip on that play. Miller’s call was a little underwhelming…….

I did some light googling on who the Giants 32 main investors are as well as who is on this 10 person Executive Committee and I came up empty. I’m sure it’s out there and if any of you can find the list I’d appreciate it. It’s obvious now that the organization will be run and directed by a Board of Directors and that is the 10 person committee. My assumption is that Baer wasn’t even one of the 32 main investors. Assuming that, Baer’s role will be to simply bring requests to the board and have them vote on it. What qualifies these 10 mysterious people to be voting on baseball decisions? And what qualifies Baer to present these decisions to this group? Baer is a salesman so that probably will work in his favor. And maybe he will just take what Sabean wants to do and present that to them. But this all feels very disconnected to me. It was probably hard enough to get one guy (Neukom) to sign off on major financial decisions, what will it be like to get 10 people to sign off on it? Do they have weighted votes based on their ownership stake? Do the “lower 32” have any say in this? Or is it just the “lower 22” since I am assuming the 10 executive committee people are part of the Main 32. Lots of assumptions going on right now and that’s tough to do with so many hazy generalities to deal with……..

“…I was really enamored by him (Neukom) sitting there by himself for the entire 11 innings…You know they always show shots of Larry Baer at AT&T and he’s always gabbing with someone.. It’s a wonder he’s never been hit in the head by a Cody Ross bat…The Astros soon to be former owner McLane sits in the first row behind homeplate, so as to always be in the camera’s angle..Plus he leaves everygame around the 6th inning…But seeing Neukom there, cupping hands to mouth, quietly cheering on his team was a revelation to me…The guy is probably as big a fan as all of us here…That’s the kind of leader you hope to have, but rarely will ever see…Especially in today’s big business of professional sports.”

As a fan of the team and  as someone who loves the game of baseball, I’m disgusted by the news that came out last night……….

Earlier in the year it seemed we’d win games like last night at least once or twice a week. Maybe that’s a sign of something to come. We’ve won 3 in a row and are playing loose, crisp, winning baseball right now. I understand the odds against us but has anyone checked Atlanta’s schedule? Yes, they now get 3 against the Mets at home. But after that they go on the road for 6 and then finish at home against Philly. Imagine if the Giants keep winning and they are only a couple game out with the last home stand to play. How infuriating will it be to watch Country Bumkin Manuel rest half his guys on that last series. But you know what? In that situation, I don’t think he would. Philly is desperate to get a piece of us and show the East Coast that last year was a fluke. I think they would try to eliminate the Braves to get another shot at us in the playoffs. So if we keep winning and the Braves keep stumbling and my theory plays out in the final home stand of the season……

“so, you’re tellin’ me there’s a chance?”

Absolutely.

Today is fairly critical, they all are from here on out. Look, Colorado is completely *sweepable*. They’re already looking at Rosario at catcher for the rest of the year, their pitching sucks and Car-Go and Tu-Lo couldn’t be more focused on individual stats right now. If we head in there with a purpose and a plan we could easily sweep them…..

I’m just sayin’……

And finally, I’d like to point out that since I made the “Sun Dressed Chick” the official Flap Mascot, we have won three games in a row…..

I’ve spent the last month drowning in the misery of my own bad predictions. I was certain the D-backs would fold as the Summer wore on, we would steamroll past them in early September and head to our *now* rightful place in the playoffs. Whoops…..

So I’ve concocted a new dream and it seems infinitely more likely to unfold than the last one. It’s *The Wild Card Dream*. Atlanta’s lost 4 straight and if the D-Backs aren’t going to ever lose 2 games in a row again then why can’t it be the Braves who pull-a-Padres from 2010 and hiccup their way to an earlier than planned off season? In the dream, I have conveniently left out St. Louis since I really don’t have time to be dreaming of leapfrogging 2 teams at this point in the season. But right now, with 15 to go and 6.5 out, I’d rather take my chances against a team that’s lost 4 in a row than a team that has laid waste to everything in it’s path since the all star break….

If it’s going to happen, it’s going to have to happen like it did last night. Ross needs retain his one-game Bossness from last night, Pablo needs to keep crushing the ball and Beltran just has to pretend that he’s even slightly interested–despite last night’s game, he’s just gone through a week of paying less attention to the games than an entire class of unmedicated ADD kids. The good news is that he hates ATT Park so he will like the road trip they are about to embark on…..

In short, this is totally doable. It’s at least totally *dream-able*. Why not? Look, I’ve tried on the “Play the kids-Wait till next year thing” and it’s about two Falls too small. Uninteresting. And if you don’t like dream try some common sense. We are about to go on a 10-game roadie. Getting away from ATT could be just what we need. I know Carlos Beltran needs it. Playing on the road in half empty parks far away from the mind games that ATT has been playing on our hitters all year could just do the trick….

So I’ll get back to you guys a little later– gotta go dream out the rest of this and find out how it ends……

Now that we are closer to winning the WC than we are to winning the division, let’s all turn our attention to some Braves score board watching.  Come on! Who’s with me! Hey, let’s go 14-2 the rest of the way and see what happens. 🙂

Do any of you really care if we finish ahead of the Dodgers? I mean, REALLY CARE. Are you scoreboard watching their games? Personally, I would like to see us stay ahead of them but I really don’t care much one way or the other…..

Alex Smith: I replied to Dennis’ post last night but only because he chose to take our discussion from Chuck’s New and Improved Blog to The Flap. But that will be THE END of the Alex Smith discussions here at my blog. I don’t mind some Niner talk and referencing Smith in that context, especially if the reference isn’t made the way a third grader or a serial killer would reference him. But if you have something ongoing to say about the Niners or the QB, say it over at Chuck’s blog. There’s a link to the right…..

I don’t think I’ve ever stopped to acknowledge how brilliant Lincecum’s year has been. We’ve all heard about the “10 starts without receiving any run support” stat. I just looked up his last 7 wins. In those wins he’s given up 1,0,1,0,1,1,0 runs. That’s just what you have to do if you want to get a W as a starting pitcher on this staff. Ask Cain what it takes to get a win. He’s been here since 2005, has a career ERA of 3.35 and his record is 68-72. Voggy made a single mistake in his last start and took the L. Bumgarner has won 3 starts in a row–and he’s given up 3 total runs in those starts. That’s just what you have to do when you’ve got the worst hitting team flailing and failing behind you……

This is why I think Cain and Timmy, and eventually BUmgarner, will be leaving for the Yankees or Red Sox when they break free of the arbitration shackles. They’ve got their World Series ring, they have their place in history. If they ever want their place in the Hall of Fame, they need to start piling up the win total. Big time. Cain is in a much bigger hole than Timmy but it is an utter joke that Lincecum is 12-12 with a freaking 2.68 ERA…….

Extremely excited to see Voggy pitch in person tonight. He’s probably going to be over-amped as he’ll be feeling the weight of the Willie Mac Award as he takes the hill. But I am in the minority (and have been all year) since I think this is not a one-year wonder thing for him. He has decent stuff but what has always impressed me about him is how well he locates his pitches throughout a game. When he gets into trouble it’s because he’s trying to shave too much of the plate early in the count. He’s got the stuff to go after them early and finish them off late with the location. I wouldn’t hesitate to give him a 2 year deal for 6 million (total)………

The Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings

(I continue to lead, though my lead is dwindling, Blade gear up for one last assault on the top spots and Denny picks up 5 in one day? Very nice. Unlike the NL West, the Flap League Title could go down to the final day)

Someone sent me this pic earlier in the season and I kept it for some reason. Anyway, here it is:

I’m going to the game tomorrow. Totally bummed to be missing Kershaw by a day, I’ve always wanted to see him pitch live. But hey, it’s the Dodgers and we hate them. I hope they somehow scratch a run off this dude tonight. He’s so freaking tough on us and this year I think it’s very possible he wins the CY this year. Pill plays tonight, right? How about two miracle bombs for him. OK, I’ll settle for one…….

There are lots of ways to lose baseball games: bad hitting. bad pitching. bad defense. Because of the historic *badness* of the offense, that gets most of the publicity for why we lose. But ther fact is, this team has been bad defensively this year, especially in the 2nd half of the season. Last year they had 73 errors for the entire season. This year, we’re already at 98 and near the bottom of the NL. Cabrera made his 5th error in his 32nd game as a Giant. That’s bad. Really bad. By now, everyone has read Bochy’s comments about Cabrera and why he will continue to play him. Sorry, but he’s just being stubborn. Last year he played the vets through rough patches because that’s what they would hit: rough patches. Cabrera has been horrible all season. He was bad in Cleveland and has gotten worse in San Francisco. It is an obvious mistake to keep playing him………

Another big mistake: not pinch running for Pill yesterday. It was the 7th inning and you’ve got a bench full of speed, Huff ready to come in and play first base (or Belt) and maybe your last chance to score in the game. If Burrell didn’t hit a no-brainer fly ball you simply HAVE to have your fastest runner barreling down the line. Pill has marginal speed, at best…….

Neither of these decisions seem complicated to me (sit Cabrera and PR for Pill). And yet BOTH didn’t happen and the failure to make either or both changes led to yesterday’s loss. And I don’t want to hear any drivel about me not being a major league manager and Bochy being freaking God because he is one and he won the World Series last year. I’m not questioning for a second his genius run through the playoffs last year. He was brilliant. But he’s not perfect, no one is and he’s made several questionable decisions down the stretch this year. With a team so barely on the margin of winning and losing right now, the tipping point sometimes is going to be the manager’s late inning decisions. Bochy, along with several of his players, needs to tighten up his game right now………

And now, it’s time to recognize a Flap Milestone: Today is the 500th Thread I’ve posted at wordpress. It’s actually more than that, but I’ve had to delete several whole threads due to, well, I’ll just say “sub-standard content”. But today there are exactly 500 out there to read. There are over 69,000 comments by all of you guys, I can’t imagine the number of total words written here. There have been some high points and low points for the blog but I really am proud of the overall 500 and I honor the contributions from all of you. Collectively we make this, in my opinion, the best Giants baseball blog out there especially in terms of fan interaction. If you haven’t been able to tell, my goal for the Flap has always been this: Create a place on the internet where Giants fans can come together and watch a game, share their informed baseball insight in an honest, sometimes raw way, without fear of mindless moderation but at the same time feeling protected from unnecessary troll abuse. For the most part, I think we’ve nailed that goal. Let’s make the next 500 better than the first………

Remember Phil Nastu? Well, most of you Flappers do. And I’m sure Nasty’s family does. Apparently Baggs does, too, as he gave The Nasty One a shout out in his blog column today. I find that fairly gynormously ironic that Phil Nastu was the poster boy for our random retro-Giant of the Week 2 Winters ago. He was THE guy who stood for the big leaguer who almost no one remembered. I cranked called his house. His brother came to the blog and invited us to meet them at a game and buy their cheap asses a beer. Remember?

And what struck me was how it all intertwined with last night’s LU. I’ve said many times that I can’t remember another position player story like Andres Torres— a guy who doesn’t have a break out year till he’s 31 and would likely have never gotten a 2nd opportunity if it weren’t for Sabean taking a flier on him. Do you ever wonder how many guys like that are toiling in the minors who, if just given a chance, could do what Torres did last year? And he got paid, too, with a salary (2.2 mil) that will help him take care of his family. For a guy who has said publicly that he didn’t have shoes for a few years as a kid, he’ll probably be able to make that dough go a long way…..

Next connected twist: Justin Christian starts in CF last night. At the same age as Torres was last year, playing the same position with a similar skill set, and carrying a similar story as Torres– the forgotten minor leaguer who stuck with his trade, finally getting a shot at the Big Leagues. Actually, there a probably a lot of “Christian’s” who get 40-50 at bats at this level. But how many of them go “Torres” on the league? Christian would be the second to do so……..

And who’s hitting a few spots away from him? Brett Pill. Mr. 27 Year Old career minor leaguer who has been passed over more times than Chuck in a Whore House. And what’s he do? Bangs a bomb, A BOMB, in his first at bat. The smile on his face as he rounded third was priceless. And his family looked like they had just won the lottery…..

Who knows, that could be Pill’s last HR he ever hits and Christian might end up telling his kids one day about a couple of random September starts he got with the Giants in the final year he ever got a shot up here. Or maybe they go “Torres” on the league and find a way to will their way onto the team next year. Who knows?

I just found it amazing that you’ve got as Baggs blog reference to Nastu (a Flap cult character), on the same day you have Christian starting in Torres’ OF spot with Pill hitting his first HR in his first at bat after 2796 at bats in the minor leagues. There is some weird karmic connection to all of that….

And it’s a good kind of karma. Christian and Pill have ridden a thousand bus rides down there. They get called up for the last 22 games (maybe 24 or so for Pill). The mlb minimum is $414,000 a year in 2011. That will score them in the $58,000 range for the rest of the season. Hey, it’s not *Torres Money* but it’s a start. And you KNOW those guys need that kind of a payday. I couldn’t be happier for them, and I hope they are the type of guys who stopped long enough to appreciate this opportunity and that they honor every single second that they’re up here. The high fiving, bear-hugging Pill family looks like they aren’t missing a moment of this September ride……..

I think we are right around the 1 year anniversary of that 4-bomb miracle game vs LA. What a game that was. What a time that was. I didn’t get around to doing a new thread yesterday because I was busy but I think it also had a little to do with not wanting to think about the *reality* of where we are this year.  Even though it’s only been a year, I forgot how underwhelming it can be to watch my team turn to “playing the kids”, especially when the kids we have up here are, in my opinion, not part of the core future of this club. I know we didn’t do that yesterday. It’s more of a mind set for teams that are out of it. And right now we are on the outskirts of the periphery of being *in* it……

Last September (and October), every day was filled with so much  excitement and anticipation. I’m not just talking about the team, I’m talking about how it affected my daily life. Every morning I was getting out of bed, actually it was more like bouncing out of bed, driven by a fire I can’t remember ever feeling before. And for roughly 2 months, it permeated my life. If there were 6 people in line at the grocery store there’s a good bet that at least 3 of them would be sporting newly grown beards. Everywhere I went people wanted to talk about the Giants and every conversation was filled with energy and positivity. It was a trip, I was living in a world that was all-Giants all the time. The only world I’d ever known like that was at The Flap. And it had now become  a part of my 3-D life. It was awesome.

Obviously, this September is a different September. It just feels kind of dead to me. Last year as the season passed into Fall I swear to God the trees at my house turned orange AND black. This year, it’ll just be the regular Fall colors. And I’m not *giving up on my team* or any of that nonsense. I will continue to carry with me a low grade level of hope until we are mathematically eliminated…..

But yesterday I was trying to figure out why I wasn’t that motivated to watch the game and why I didn’t go out of my way to put up a new thread. And then I figured out why. It might have had a little to do with a mild hangover of losing Sunday’s game but it didn’t have anything to do with effectively being out of the race. It had to do with missing that unreal feeling from last year. And my way of dealing with not getting to feel it was to put the game and the team out of my mind….

Nothing about this realization changes much for me. I still miss that feeling. I’ve gone through countless September’s that didn’t matter. Unfortunately, when you go through one like 2010 you never want to go through anything other than that ever again. I guess that’s the one main fall out from too much  b-a-s-k-i-n-g….

But that 4-Bomb Miracle game, man, that was some game wasn’t it?