A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

DeRosa and Sandoval have both gotten off to hot starts. If either or both had a great Spring would that surprise you? What about the pitchers? Zito and Suppan suck. If either or both excelled it would at least be a mild surprise. In fact, none of those four guys succeeding would be SHOCKING; merely, nice surprises.

Marty Lurie doesn’t see how DeRosa finds any regular playing time. I disagree. He’s really more of a 2nd/3rd baseman but he can play LF, 1st base and even shortstop. I know he doesn’t want to play the OF, so if he has a rockstar Spring I could see them putting Huff in LF and moving DeRosa to 1st base. He would have a lot to learn in a short amount of time, but that’s what Spring Training is for–it’s what Aubrey Huff used ST for last year (learning the nuances of playing first base).

I have little to no interest in what Zito and Suppan do this Spring. They could easily channel the ghost of Wellemeyer and fool us into believing they’re back. I could see Suppan bailing at the end of camp and rejoining the Cardinals (if he had a good Spring)……..

And what are we to expect from Dan Runzler this Spring? Maybe I’m missing it, but I haven’t seen any discussions about converting him to a starter (rumors we heard over the Winter).

I love watching worry-warts freak out about Spring Training results. These are clueless fans who don’t understand the game. The veterans could give less than 2 figs about scoring or statistical results right now. All they care about is crafting their routine and not getting injured. Spring training phenom’s are fun to talk about but they almost NEVER keep it going into the regular season. Luckily, we don’t have to worry about Bochy and Sabean getting “bowkered” into believing that a +.400 batting average youngster should make the roster. Even if Belt tears it up, I fully expect him to start the season in AAA, despite what management is saying. And that’s fine, let him sharpen his tools in AAA for a few months, we don’t need him AND if we can tease out another year of control over him, all the better…….

My apologies in advance to those who will likely be outraged at today’s BB–just tryin’ to toss a few bones to the outskirts of the blog……

I hope the Giants keep to their word and the rotation goes Tim, Dirrrty, Cain, Zito, Bumgarner. The theory is that the bullpen gets some regular relief by separating the reliability of Timmy and Cain. But tactically, I think this is an outstanding approach. Timmy is a no-brainer as the 1. Dirrrrty at the 2 is intriguing. At his best, he can beat a 1 or a 2 with ease. At his worst, and it’s usually either or with him, he has trouble hanging with a 5. By putting him as a 2 he either pitches his ass off and beats his opponent or he throws a game that would probably get him a loss regardless of who he pitches against. If I had to wager, I’d say that Dirrrrty steps up this year and pitches like a #2 much more often than a #5. And Cain at the 3 vs the other team’s 3? Say hello to 20 wins for Matt Cain in 2011. Zito at the 4 is simply a way to protect the inning total of Bumgarner. Theoretically,  pitching as the 5 and getting his start skipped now and again, Bum might come in around  200 innings this year, which would be good for his arm. I say *theoretically* because I have less confidence in Barry Zito than I’ve ever had at any point in his career here in SF. And that is an astounding lack of confidence considering the last 4 years. Bum will bump to the 4 probably by mid-May when Zito comes down with some phantom injury. At this point they will shuttle Suppan or Mr Somebody into the #5 and just hope for the best……..

The Warriors gave me some hope that Rowand might actually get released. After that absurd trade they pulled off yesterday for Troy Murphy’s expiring contract, I was surprised to read that on January 7th the Nets informed Murphy to stay home and wait to get traded or released. I don’t know the circumstances, as far I as I know he’s not injured. And Murphy has never been a clubhouse problem. And he’s making 12 million dollars this year. Why wouldn’t the Giants just do the same thing? Or a better question would be, would they even consider doing it? I’ll be disappointed if they trade Schierholtz, a player with redeemable value, and keep Rowand.

The Giants are making a TON of money off their World Series win, as they should for such a stellar accomplishment. They can afford to eat the rest of Rowand’s contract and just send him home to his batting cage……

They’re saying he’s healthy and that he’s going to be “Super Utility Man!” I just don’t think it’s going to shake out that way. I think he’s going to get significant playing time at one of the infield spots. Tejada is really more of a third baseman at this point.  If Pablo is raking I could see them moving him back to first base, slide Tejada over to third and flip Huff to the OF…..

And he could easily end up at 2nd base since Franchez is always a mere mole’s whisker away from another knee injury….

And if Pablo still can’t hit………

There’s always an outfield spot to consider……..

I had Wendy video tape me watching the final out of the World Series but I wasn’t really paying attention to what she did after that. Apparently, she decided to snap a few photos. I never saw any of them until last night. I don’t think the picture of this really does it justice but it really is an incredible shirt that captured the exact feeling I was having in the moments after we won the World Series. She even pulled a quote off the blog from the morning of that game. If you can’t make it out it says, “I have no idea how I’m going to react or what I’ll do when the final out is secured….”

Well, you nailed it cold, Wendy-baby. Thanks, I don’t think I’ll ever wear it for fear of staining it by accident and I don’t even know where to put it. But it was probably the best birthday present I can ever remember getting.

Chris Haft wrote an mlb.com article essentially saying that, according to Bochy,  it’s a four-way competition for the left field spot. It really should be 5, there’s no reason in the world for Bochy to limit Rowand to CF, in fact as he’s aged, a corner spot is likely better for him anyway. But Boch says Rowand is CF-or-bench so……

The four official contenders for LF are…..drum roll please…….Huff, DeRosa, Burrell and Schierholtz. I’m taking Huff off the list since I think there’s a 93.693% chance that Belt starts the season in AAA. I’m also taking DeRosa off the list because he’s simply going to be too valuable as a super-utility guy. He’s going to spend plenty of time filling in at 3rd/SS/and 2nd base. Book it……

So now we are down to two candidates and that really should be the end of the competition. The BEST option for us in LF is for Burrell to start and get 3 or 4 at bats with Schierholtz coming in as a defensive replacement in the 8th inning. I have 100% confidence in Pat Burrell. The World Series debacle was nothing more than a random 15 at bat rut that anyone could fall into. Who knows, maybe he just can’t hit American League pitching—the stats support that, too.

And, it’s my birthday today, so let the b-day wishes flow as freely as a twig on the shoulders of a mighty stream……

We could see he had gained a lot of weight as last season rolled on but I was shocked to read just how out of shape Sandoval actually was.  According to the Mercury story, he couldn’t take a half dozen ground balls without panting, hands on knees. What were the coaches saying to him after this type of sad display?  He could only squat 135 lbs. I know 125 lb women who can squat that 10 times. And this one blew me away: He could only do 2 inverted row reps. I don’t understand how someone could be that out of shape and still be a professional athlete. You would think that he would at least be getting at least SOME benefits from running out a double or even just from the stretching and light running that all the ballplayers do before each game. Apparently not.

While it was good to see Sabean “scare him straight” at the end of the season I don’t understand how Sandoval was allowed to take 6 ground balls in practice, during the season, and fall apart into the panting-hands-on-knees position. What did the infield coach say to him?  Sorry, but that’s just poor, shoddy coaching. My LITTLE LEAGUE coach would have been up my ass if I lagged that hard in a drill…….

Obviously, we are all happy to see him accomplish what he accomplished this Winter. I just have trouble comprehending how a professional baseball player could be THAT out of shape at any point in his career…….

I just loved the articles about Eli Whiteside’s injured arm. And the bloggers that are wringing their hands with worry! I guess it took a minor injury for this guy to finally get some press. Look, replacing the worst back up catcher in the league is a piece of cake: just plug ANYONE ELSE in there. The only worse back up catchers in the world are all currently holding down jobs with  the Giants minor league teams. How’d you like to be one of those guys? “Dude, we can’t even get ahead of Eli Whiteside.” Talk about time for a career change…..

I know it’s not being considered, but now that Pablo is back in shape why couldn’t he take some practice time behind the dish and be our emergency catcher? If his catching skills haven’t eroded completely he could be a fine back up to Posey and a great contingency plan if Posey ever missed a significant amount of time. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s see how Pablo handles a bat at the whispy 240 he checked in with yesterday. I hope he uses an Andres Torres bat, otherwise he might just get swept away by a strong breeze……

Quite the buzz created when Pujols shut down negotiations with the Cardinals. In a Yahoo article, the Giants were listed as a possible destination. I don’t see it (and wouldn’t want to see it), Sabean doesn’t do deals like that anymore. And who really wants Pujols on the back end of that deal? 30 million a year and he can’t play defense the last couple of years that we have him? No thanks….

I’ve got a theory on why Pujols didn’t sign with the Cards and it’s not because he wanted an “A-Rod deal” (275 million or so). After the Cardinals signed Holliday to that 120 million dollar deal I immediately thought, well how are they going to afford Pujols, too? This is a team that is pretty consistently around 90 million dollars a year with their payroll. Now it’s coming out that they did come in with a 200 million dollar offer, though the number of years is unknown. I think Pujols looked at the numbers and just decided “We can’t win a world series with that much money tied up into two players.” He’s 31, he’s only won one, at this point in his career that goal (WS) has to be the prevailing motivation for him. Of course, he’ll get a deal offered to him north of 200 million no matter what numbers he puts up this year. But I bet he ends up going to a team that can either handle the salary pressure of 2 guys making over 100 million or a team that doesn’t have all their chips committed to two players……….

Nice to read that Rowand spent the Winter in a batting cage (insert huge sarcastic smiley face). I have no idea why this dude thinks that more practice is the answer. He’s got the swing down, he’s perfected that. Problem is, it doesn’t work. Now he’s saying he’s perfected a *new* swing, one in which he’s more upright. This is all bullshit, he was more upright starting last year (when compared to 2009) and look where that got him. And God help us if he hammers the crappy-ass pitching he’s going to see in Spring Training. Bochy’s head will explode with excitement and he’ll give him the LF job. Then, presto, the season starts and he’ll be rolling ground balls to 3rd base/SS with impeccable regularity…….



At the beginning of the day I didn’t think I was going to make it down there till 5ish. But I hauled ass and cut corners to get down to Lytton Plaza by 4pm. When I got there, I was in a pretty shitty mood but as soon as I turned the corner and saw a sea of orange and black balloons flapping in the strong wind, it all just sort of melted away. There were maybe 300 or so Giants fans lined up and fired up for their moment with the trophy. It was a winding line so at least twice I was led directly by the trophy, maybe 10 feet away or so, but really still 30 minutes away from taking the picture. While in line I decided that I’d seen enough and didn’t really need a picture with it. But, I ran into a few people that I knew so I stuck around to talk to them. Even when I was next up I wasn’t that jazzed, I felt like I’d seen it, done it, the picture was kind of a gay idea anyway. The usher directed me to the trophy and  I handed my phone to a police officer and asked him to take a picture of me (since the pic they were taking of me wasn’t going to be available till it was uploaded online). I got to it and stood behind it, the photographer told me to lean in. At this point I was about 8 inches away from it and I looked down. Then I looked up at the long line of people, every one of them so happy to be there. I swear to God, I couldn’t have been happier in that moment. I had kicked around different ideas of what my pose was going to be. One buddy wanted me to take my two foam fingers and do a Brian Wilson impersonation but that idea got nixed for obvious reasons. I had planned to do a “bask” pose but that didn’t really feel like the right thing either. All I could muster was a dumb-ass grin and a #1 sign with my index finger almost touching one of the flags. The photographer said “Ok, that’s it, hey that one was perfect”. I just nodded and walked away, dumb-grin in check, knowing that I’m never going to have that feeling again, no matter how many times we win it……

Actually, I find that prediction quite pedestrian. EVERYONE is picking the Phillies. But honestly, who gives one whit about a pre-season baseball prediction? 162 games can sometimes feel like a lifetime, or more. So much changes,  surprising players (or did all of you take the “over” on Bautista hitting 50+ home runs last year?), so many injuries, mid season trades, mid season call ups….

I think it’s fairly obvious that the Phillies are the favorites to win their division. I’d be bummed if my team played in the NL East, they are definitely built for the long haul. But I am 100% totally confident of playing them in 7 in the playoffs. Again, for obvious reasons. We just finished beating everyone on their staff except, I think, Blanton. The Phillies don’t scare me in the playoffs. I bet Ryan Howard’s bat is still sitting on his shoulder…….

Trophy tour blazes through Palo Alto today. I’m bummed, the EARLIEST I can get down there is about 5 o’clock and supposedly they’re only showing it from 4-6pm. I’m worried about the lines but the weather is sucking so that might work to my favor. If there’s no chance of me getting my picture taken with it I’ll just have to settle for taking pictures of it; and basking in its radiant glow……..

I’m assuming that many of you have dutifully bookmarked The Flap. We are never more than a mouse click away from you. But other less committed bloggers probably don’t bookmark us and might be actually typing the blog address into the address bar. The same people are probably still listening to cd’s and mailing actual letters via the mail. But I digress….

Then there is the group of bloggers who find their way to The Flap by mistake or who find us randomly during a search for something else. We all do it, we want an answer to a question and we go straight to google and type in some of the key words that we think will get us the answer we are looking for. There are a lot of things I don’t like about wordpress.com but one of their super cool features is listing off all of the key words that people use in search engines that ultimately lead them to The Flap. There are literally THOUSANDS of different search words people have used. Most of them, as you would expect, are “oneflapdown77” or “The Flap”, things that have something to do with the blog. But the list is long, I mean REALLY long, and there are some pretty funny search engine terms used that have brought bloggers here, even if it was only for a quick visit before they find this isn’t what they’re looking for. Here’s a partial list of the funniest search terms used. Enjoy:

I was sorry to hear about the passing of Chuck Tanner. Growing up, the non-Giant managers that I always noticed were Lasorda, Weaver and Tanner. The 1979 Pirates team was just a revelation. Madlock, Stargell, Parker, big ‘ol John Candelaria, Tekulve’s wild- ass delivery….

That team had the characters on it for sure. Actually, the personality of that team reminds me a lot of our 2010 Giants. But the big difference was how involved the country got with the Pirates. “We are Family” took over the airwaves and became one of the few positive things to latch on to during an uncertain, very negative time in the world’s history. Baseball has always been that way for me—something to latch on to and focus on no matter what negative things are happening to or around me…….

And Chuck Tanner was their leader. More than once, as a kid, I remember wishing we had a manager like him…..

He wrote an entire article breaking down the Giants best farm system kids and failed to hail *The ‘Buke”. The street value of 3bagger’s jersey just took a huge nosedive…..

That was a scary column to read, at least when you consider the almost total lack of pitching prospects that we have anywhere in the system. Zach Wheeler and then……nothing.

For those of you interested in a Twinfan Update: I posted the update in the comment section of this thread….

There’s a funny headline at the Giants website: “Belt and Bucardo Help Keep the Giants Pipeline Flowing”…I was feelin’ the *Belt* part of that headline but I literally had no idea who Bucardo is. Had to look him up. If that’s their idea of a “flowing pipeline” then our farm system is in a boat load of trouble. Belt and Bucardo have nothing in common, they should be written about in completely separate articles, not grouped together in the same headline…….

For your “Underwhelming Moment of the Day”, the Giants have signed…….wait for it…….Elmer Dessens! I have no freaking clue what that is all about, even as a minor league deal.  He’s 40 years old. Maybe he played for us once and wants to retire a Giant. “Elmer Dessens Day? ” –Doesn’t really have a ring to it……

You can pretty much pencil in 600 at bats for this guy and 22ish HR’s. Would you trade for that if you knew it was basically a lock to happen? Well, he’s 34 and still owed 46 million over the next 3 years. And, 15 of his 21 hr’s last year were hit at home. The question would be, do you give up value and have the Rangers eat most of the contract or do you give up a “Bowker Gang” member and take on that salary.

Personally, I’d do neither. If you gamble on Sandoval and win you are going to get a better line than anything Young will give you; and you give up and pay nothing. The Giants don’t have any LOCKS for third base this year. Tejada could slide over there (and probably should). DeRosa can play there and if he’s healthy you might get 15 bombs out of him. I just don’t think that paying 46 million to a 34 year old for 22 bombs at a position where that’s a rather pedestrian number is that sound of an idea.

But the Giants aren’t in the running anyway. Just jibber-jabber to kill some more time off the number to the right…….

7…….d…..a………y……….s

Ugh, seems like forever…..

I like that Sandoval is hiring a chef to cook all his meals this year. Dropping 30 lbs is great but it won’t mean a thing if he just packs it back on. I’m trying to figure out what took Sandoval so long to figure this out. Did it REALLY take Sabean’s threat of an AAA demotion to get him serious about his trade? Maybe he had planned it all along but didn’t think he could get serious about weight loss until the off season. Either way, we should all be optimistic about where this is going…..

Ostler’s suggestion that Buster take over 3rd base as a secondary option is a joke. At least I hope that was supposed to be a joke, you can never tell with that dude……

All right guys, long week coming up (in more ways than one). Stay outta trouble……..

It was so great to see the pictures of all the fans and players rockin’ it at ATT. My dad went a couple of years ago and said that when he arrived he wasn’t sure that it was the right day there were so few people there…..Now THAT was Brian Wilson at his best. Referring to his beard,  “it’s dark, it’s tan, it’s ready”— classic Wilson. And I’ve got no idea if he actually did run 700 miles this off season but I can totally picture him saying it with ultimate conviction in his voice. That’s the Wilson I like, not the dude dressing up like a fool and making veiled references to having sex with prostitutes in Thailand……

Ok, to the Super Bowl. I said 2 weeks ago that I was in alliance with Kawakami in believing that Green Bay would win today. Since I can’t stand him, I spent the last 2 weeks trying to find a reason to not go along with that. And I think I’ve finally gotten there. Pittsburgh will win today by 6 points or so. Their defensive coordinator is just too good to give 2 weeks of prep time to. He will design something that exposes Green Bay’s one dimensional offense and keep Rodgers contained. Meanwhile, Rothlisberger will do just enough to earn him his already given nickname of “Big Game Ben”…..

ps, I also like the under a lot…….

….at least, they’re back getting interviewed by the media. I tell ya, I could read the transcript from yesterday’s interview 10 times. Tim Lincecum just can’t help but be cool. I guess half the Bay Area will be walking around with mustaches this season….. Sabean and Bochy’s option picked up? Why not. Extend them to 2030 for all I care. ……And I have very little faith that Cody Ross is anything more than a flash in last year’s pan, but he sure does talk a great game. Who knows, maybe he believes all that “this is what I play for” shit and just keeps it rolling….

I’m out of town, so I’ll be missing FanFest. If any of you make it there and snap some pics please forward them to me…….

Schulman is hilarious. He feels the need to spend valuable pixel space on noting that Belt had a 1.075 OPS in the minors last year and then compares that to Votto’s 1.024 OPS in 2010. Yeah, awesome comparison. A plus 1.000 OPS in the minors is nice but comparing it to an MLB OPS is just idiotic………

I’m still all for the docu-drama. West-coast representation. And that’s a hellava crew to handle the show. Huff and Wilson could do the entire goddamn thing by themselves……….

Fanfest— Anyone going?

Our World Series trophy is making the rounds and it looks like it will be in Palo Alto on the 15th of this month at Lytton Plaza. That’s an odd place to tour it, the actual plaza probably holds around 200 people and it bordered by nothing but sidewalk. Plus, that’s where all of Palo Alto’s *boujy* homeless guys hang out–

I’m not sure if I’ll go to the PA tour but I am definitely going to hit one of the surrounding cities and get my picture taken with that bad boy……

Here’s a link to the schedule.

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

He’s joined the Giants front office as a *Special assistant* and I think that’s just weird. Pinella? He can’t possibly NEED a job so he’s not doing this for the money. And he’s staying in Florida while he performs these “special” duties so I don’t know what he’s going to give us from there. Maybe scout out the Marlins real good? Who knows….

I understand why we hire a guy like Will Clark to tackle the special duties list of things to do. He’s transitioning back into baseball from a career playing it and we have a lifelong connection with the guy. But Pinella? I guess he could teach the players how to kick their baseball caps long distances…….

Another thing to remember when you hear guys like John Shea talk about how much energy he brings to a team: He quit on the Cubs last year. And after he left Mike Quade (or whatever the hell his name is) completely turned those guys around and had them play hard to the end (in the process helping the Giants ultimately be in position to win their division on the final day)………

Just checked the *dynamic* pricing list for the Spring Training  games– kinda surprised at how much those tickets are: $35 lower box? $31 for Reserved Grandstand? If I went I would head straight to the lawn seats but that’s some expensive grass $9–$21 depending on the plot you stake out.

I’ve never been to Spring Training though I’ve always wanted to go— Every year I’ve got at least one friend who tries to set it up but I never can get myself together to go for it. Anyone here have any good Spring Training stories? It’s probably something I should do at least once. Couple that with the fact that my mom owns a house within 20 minutes of Scottsdale Stadium and I really have no excuses…….

The A’s are *all in* on this move to San Jose and there is something that I just don’t get about it. What self-respecting Giants fan would ever switch their lifetime allegiance from the Giants to the A’s just because the A’s suddenly play closer to where they live? When I take the train to a game I get off at the Palo Alto exit. That’s a little more than half way between San Jose and The City, I think. There are three main exoduses on that route. One of them is San Carlos— there are a huge number of Giants fans that live in San Carlos. The next one is Palo Alto. Everyone else seems to be going to San Jose (the last stop)—-it’s a HUGE hotbed for hardcore Giants fans…..If I lived in San Jose, if I lived even one block from the proposed stadium site, there is no way in Hell I would ever start going to A’s games. I find American League ball to be infinitely boring and going to a game is expensive, I wouldn’t even go for random entertainment.  Give me a free ticket and I’d probably give it away since I wouldn’t want to miss the Giants game on TV. Maybe if the Yankees were playing I’d go…But that’s the same reason the A’s get an attendance bump where they are now………So what are the A’s expecting from this move? Do they think even one single hardcore Giants fan from the South Bay is going to all of a sudden become an A’s fan because of their new location? SF Giants fans are possibly the most loyal fan base in all of sports. The A’s could build the “Taj Mahal” of baseball stadiums and those fans are still gonna take the 1.5 hour train ride to 4th and King…….

And for the most part, true baseball fans only support one team. ….

So what am I missing here?

Yes, I know I’m ripping off John Shea’s topic at the Chron today, but when the baseball headlines are “Russ Springer Retiring” and “Padres Sign Sam Deduno”, the blog threads are gonna be slim pickins….

Cody Ross: We all love him and that’s going to color our predictions for 2011. The facts are, this is a player who is declining. His slugging % vs right handers has dropped 3 consecutive years (.451, .424., .371).  His OPS has been in a freefall, too: ..1057 in 2007, then .798, .751 and .730.  His walk rate and contact % is almost exactly the same as Aaron Rowand’s…..

And don’t forget, the only reason he even got a chance to play was because Guillen sucked and ultimately got forced off the post season roster by MLB for his connection to steroid shipment. Otherwise, we wouldn’t even be talking about Cody Ross……

The thing Ross has going for him is: very little competition. He’ll start for us this year, maybe the entire year. But I think we’ve seen the best Cody Ross will ever give us. It’s all downhill from here……

I want to start by saying, I think Brian Wilson is hilarious. He’s got a super dry sense of humor, you almost hang on ever word he says. When I first saw those videos he did for his “My Life” thing I watched them over and over laughing at different nuances each time….

But if you saw his appearance on Lopez Tonight the other day you might agree that it’s time for Bee-wheezy to reel it in a bit. For starters, that wasn’t his best stuff. On a scale of 1-10 I’d rank that gig about a “5”. And baby, when you dress up as a goddamn Captain of a ship you have to nail it. It’s got to be a 9 or a 10. Otherwise, you’re just some chump dressing up on Halloween; when it’s not Halloween. And that’s a bad look, man……

Look, he’s won a World Series, he got tons of fans (including me), but when your humor is that unique you are opening yourself up to easily over-exposing yourself and going from “funny as hell” to “cheesy prop comic” in literally one appearance….

There are only so many bearded characters he can be. Here’s a tip: stick to the home videos with an occasional appearance from The Machine. And don’t forget to log your 40+ saves a year or that bit will get old, too……

John Shea’s “Answer of the Day” at The Gate starts off missing the mark and by the end kinda contradicts itself but gets it relatively right. He says “the roster isn’t all that different from 2010”. That’s utter horseshit. The 2010 roster wasn’t even the same as the 2010 roster—-at least when you compare the start of the season to the end of it. Our Opening Day outfield last year was DeRosa/Rowand/Bowker; didn’t quite end up that way. We had to endure the failures of Wellemeyer, ultimately replacing him with Bumgarner. Posey was absent for nearly the first 2 months of the season. We had to play about a third of the season with a significantly WORSE roster than we played with the last 2/3. What would our record have been like with a full year of a seasoned Posey and Bumgarner? We find out this year……..

2011 has a completely different look than the totality of 2010. We get Bum and Buster for a full year. We get DeRosa back (this will be huge, he can play every infield position plus the outfield). We get an in-shape Panda back. There’s the full-season of Cody Ross to consider (that could be huge or just a huge disappointment, we will see). And then there is always the Marc Kroon Factor  (insert gay-ass smiley face).

I think gong into 2011 we are the clear cut favorite to win the NL West–the only thing  we need to fear are injuries, something we haven’t really had to deal with too much over the last couple of years. But the Rockies and Dodgers didn’t add anything that scares me. AZ is busy shedding their strike out machines and cobbling together a starting 5 that is nothing to fear. And the Padres…who knows what the hell is going on over there.

I love our chances in 2011…….

(btw, if you can’t see how dominant my “18” is today over the Gate’s than you didn’t listen to too many Monster Ballads from the ’80’s)

Unlike the Suppan minor league signing, this one is at least interesting. This dude did nothing before he went to Japan but apparently figured something out as he turned into one of the league’s better closers. And whatever you say about the competition, the fact is, closing is a hard job at pretty much any level. Lots of guys throw in the high 90’s (as “The Phoenix”—his agent’s nickname for him—does) and he’s probably a guy who has just been blowing the lesser Japanese competition away with his heat. But he would have had to solve his control problems either way or he would never have been successful. There’s very little innings on this guy’s arm…..I’m just sayin’,  not a bad flyer at all…….

Stumbled onto the Splash today. Wow. It’s so disappointing to see that blog turn into what it’s turned into. It’s just a wasteland of nonsensical idiocy, almost nothing to do with the team or the game of baseball. It’s a bunch of “look at me!” chumps….

I found The Splash in 2007, about 5 games into the season. It was the first blog I’d ever visited but  I got into it with Twin and I was hooked on blogging immediately, at least at that one particular site. The next couple of years were the best years of The Splash by a mile. We had about 12 regular posters but we would hit 300 comments in a day easily. And it was a wild, wild blog back then. Definitely over the top. But there was too much anonymity. The blog needed some accountability but it didn’t have it, The Chron could have given a shit about what was going on at their blog. We ultimately policed it ourselves.  I remember when Twin and I, in some blogger  dispute to the death, decided to end it with a joust that had  us firing off our personal  emails  to each other to fucking SETTLE THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!!!!!!!!!. After that, some walls started falling. The regulars began sharing personal information, we started to get to know each other . I think the non-crazy, non homeless, non-weirdo’s decided to share things about themselves…stories…personal things…..avatars….gravatars….all of a sudden the blog world started to take a new shape. Something you could see and connect with……..Anyway, that’s why I started this place, to keep that going. We all care about one common thing, Giants baseball. And that’s what this place has been about from the first day I started it…..

Man, I am struggling to find something, anything, to discuss related to the Giants. I don’t remember having that problem the last few years. It seems it’s dead across baseball. At mlbtraderumors they are discussing the relation of a player’s height to performance. Zzzzzzzz……..

As I said on Sat night, anyone who gets their pic taken with the trophy can send it to me. I’ll put together an album if I get enough pics. Send pic to bigflavor77@gmail.com

The Pack v The Steelers. I can’t remember a more popular match up (at least recently). Unfortunately, I tend to agree with Kawakami’s assessment of the game. I try not to align myself with self-serving shit disturbers so I’ll see if I can find another angle over the next 13 days………

Congratulations to Andres Torres. He agreed on a 2.2 million dollar deal the other day. What a totally non-descript, underwhelming number. In baseball today, 2.2 million buys you almost nothing. But this is a guy who was so poor growing up he literally didn’t have the money to buy shoes for “a few years” when he was growing up in Puerto Rico.  Seemingly finished and out of chances after the 2005 season he stuck to his trade and cobbled together a roster-flyer with the Giants in 2009. Then he has a completely improbable, wildly successful 2010 as one of our World Series hero’s (anyone who helped get us there was a WS Hero).

I’ve got no clue if he repeats 2010 ever again. My gut says no but I’ve been wrong about him several times. But if that’s all we get and he drifts off into baseball irrelevance and is never heard from again he’s finally got some security for himself and his family. 2.2 million buys an awful lot of shoes………

Did you guys catch the *article* devoted to Giants baseball at the Chron today?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/21/SP6P1HCL3R.DTL

I can’t remember them ever running a “Days to go” countdown. It’s not even an article, just a single Q/A by Schulman. I’m not sure who generated the “Q” but it was a uninspiring way to start the countdown………

If the CHron wants to go toe-2-toe with with a “days to go” countdown, I’m ready, baby. I think mine today already beats their so I declare myself winning, 1-0…….

He’s going to make 1.3 million next year, a nice bump from his minimum salary from last year. He stranded 41 of 47 base runners last year, that was 2nd best ratio in all of MLB.  That astounds me. I remember situations he would get into and just smack my forehead going “How the hell did he get out of that?!?!?!?!”. He did have an unbelievable 2nd half so either Raggs taught him something or….who knows. Luck? His first half WHIP was 1.62, his 2nd half WHIP was 1.00. We all know he’s got amazing stuff but that only carries you so far. Ask Denny Bautista about great stuff…….

But whatever, it’s impossible not to honor Casilla for the amazing role he played in our 2010 season. Welcome back…..

Ross and Dirrrrty both signed yesterday—they are good examples of the good and bad of being arb-eli. Cody Ross? I love the guy but I don’t want to risk more than a year deal on him– frankly, I don’t think he’s going to come close to repeating his production in 2011. He’ll be ok, he’s a 4th outfielder guy who got hot at the perfect time for us…..

Dirrrrty, on the other hand, could be a little risky to only go a year with. Sabean has bought out other guys years (Timmy, Cain, Bee-Weezy, etc). He could have a monster year. I’d like this guy locked up for multiple years, not just one. Torres, I’m fine going year to year with. Same with Casilla. Lopez I might go 2 years with…..

But whatever, we are getting everyone back except Rent and Uribe and I really don’t think that’s going to ruin us. We need another middle infielder to plug in when Tejada or Franchez go down but Pablo bouncing back would allow us to use DeRosa for that sub-job.

It’s all looking good except for the calendar which continues to click at a snails pace…….

Shulman finally got around to writing a baseball story but it really left more questions than it did answers. For instance, the Giants “have talked to Dan Runzler about converting to starting”. Well, what the hell does that mean? Is he doing the necessary things now to stretch his arm out? Is he for the idea? Against it? When your options are pretty much nothing in the minors (how would you like to be a starting pitching in Fresno this year when you know that you literally have no shot of getting called up) I would think the game plan would have come together already……

There is NO WAY IN HELL that our starting 5 make it through the season in tact. Our rotation hasn’t suffered an injury in years, that streak could easily end. And it’s entirely conceivable that Zito is done and in need of being replaced by May 1st. Does Casey Daigle strike your fancy? We can’t be in the business of giving away 20% of our games……….

Not much more to say on this, I just couldn’t stand looking at an A’s post for 2 straight days. That photo looked good, didn’t it? I wonder if he’s taking anything to promote the weight loss. Of course, adderall works as an appetite suppressant but I doubt anyone wants to go there…….

His traps are almost TOO big. He doesn’t need to bulk up anymore or it will likely effect his swing in a negative way……..

Well, at least we are inside a month……

I was thinking about the A’s yesterday. I know, I know, who DOES that? But the A’s have really had a good off season. Matsui didn’t impress me but DeJesus was a decent enough pick up (though I think they gave up too much for him) and Willingham is going to hit 25 bombs for them. The Balfour pick up was outstanding (I love that guy’s name. He’s a pitcher who’s named “Ball four”, that’s classic) and word is they might land Fuentes, too. That would be probably the best pitching staff in either league from top to bottom……

So I checked on them to win the AL Pennant and they are 20-1. They’re freaking 50-1 to win the World Series (we are 18-1). I can’t believe I’m saying this but I am taking some action on the A’s winning the WS at that price. They will likely win their division and once you do that, well, we saw what can happen……..

50-1? Jeez, Baltimore is 60-1. You gotta like the A’s at those odds to win the World Series……….

I’m sure most of you have heard hat there is going to be a “reality show” done on the Giants next year. I think it’s a great idea—great publicity for the individuals and the team and with that cast of characters it’s sure to be entertaining. I don’t think it will be a distraction at all. It’s not like the players are directing the show. It’s about time the West coast got a little attention…….

Hopefully the show doesn’t start off with a list of the 22 non-roster invitees–it’s an underwhelming list to say the least:

Casey Daigle, Waldis Joaquin, Shane Loux, Guillermo Mota, Felix Romero, Jason Stoffel and Ryan Vogelsong; left-handed pitchers Wilmin Rodriguez, Ryan Verdugo and Matt Yourkin; catchers Tommy Joseph, Hector Sanchez, Chris Stewart and Jackson Williams; infielders Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Charles Culberson, Brad Eldred and Nick Noonan; and outfielders Gary Brown, Terry Evans and Juan Perez.

I’m interested to see Gary Brown and Belt, that’s about it……..

SanDiggity Dawg and his buddy:

To me, the most amazing thing about this deal is that Soriano can opt out after Year one OR year 2. For that shaky fellowship the Yankees get to fork over a 1st round draft pick, too. I see the angle, 2 shut down, closer guys at the end of the game. But they still have a pretty thin starting rotation. After CC, they really don’t have anyone who can make it through the 6th consistently, much less the 7th.

I guess we are fortunate to only have to worry about “wrists and scales” this off season. And how much are any of us really worry about that?

1) How is Mark DeRosa’s recovery coming along? If he’s healthy that’s huge for our flexibility next year. The dude can play almost any field position

2) Pablo Sandoval on a scale. I’m not interested in Aurilia “bumping into him” at a mall. Stand on a scale once a week and have the results posted on a website or facebook or whatever.

I don’t see why the Giants beat writers can’t provide us info on those two topics…..

Brandon Belt: Everyone says he could win the job. I think he’s at least a half a season in AAA away, maybe a full season……

But if those 3 guys, or some combination of them, work out for us we are absolutely good to go in 2011……

When the main baseball news of the day is “Kris Benson Retires” you know you’re looking at a slow off season. At least for the Giants. Aurilia made a little news  yesterday when he said he “bumped into Panda at a Shopping Mall and that he’s lost 17 lbs– I can’t imagine that even looked noticeable. Sandoval needed to lose 40 lbs, at least….

Good college football game last night. I was largely unimpressed with both quarterbacks. Stanford would have beaten both of those teams last night…….

It would be tough for me to be more excited about a college football game that doesn’t have Stanford playing in it. The line has moved to Auburn -2 (it was -3 for most of the last month) and the over/under has dipped to 73 (after hovering around 74.5). I have NO IDEA what’s gonna go down tonight. My SEC bias tells me that Auburn is going to beat Oregon fairly easily and I just don’t think it’s going to be a hugely offensive game (at least not over 100 pts as I heard the Yahoo guy predict yesterday). I’m looking forward to watching the whole thing unfold. I’ll say Auburn 41 Oregon 31 (with Ore scoring a last min meaningless td to make the score look closer than it really was)……

FP has scored a broadcasting job with the Nationals. For some reason, everyone here hated FP. I wasn’t in that group, I enjoyed his energy and some of his takes on the game. He was far from perfect but I’d rather listen to him 1000 times before Bip Roberts.

Anyway, slow baseball news day so that’s all ya get…..

I didn’t see the details of the contract, just that his one year deal COULD be worth 3 million with incentives. He never would’ve gotten that here since it’s tough to reach incentives when you are a back up. I think Cinn is a great fit for Rent– he’ll look good in that uni, will love Bake and that ballpark has been known to pump up stats into a batters line.

That whole “disrespect” thing is dead and buried. When he comes up for his first at bat at ATT in 2011 he will receive a standing ovation. And it should be a long one………