A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

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………

Everyone is running around all giddy about Blyleven making the HOF. I don’t really get it. He was an all-star two freaking times (out of 22 seasons)  in his career. That shows how he stacked up against his peers. His numbers just don’t say “Hall of Fame” to me. And what do we think about the HOF if he gets in and Clemens doesn’t? No Rose, no Bonds, no McGwire. Just throw out numbers all together and I’m down with Blyleven getting in but otherwise, I don’t think he should have been voted in……..

6 years, 96 million? What the hell does Boras say/do/threaten these teams with that gets them to completely overbid for his players? The GM’s can’t be so stupid as to NOT know they are overbidding by dozens of millions of dollars, can they? Whatever it is, Scott Boras is the greatest negotiator the world has ever known. One time….ONE TIME…..I would like to see him lose but I guess that isn’t ever going to happen. I’m just glad Sabean stays largely away from this money-eating machine–well, I guess he already got “Bor-assed” with Zito…….

I would love to hear your opinions on this game. Despite Stanford’s dominant victory last night, I really don’t think the Pac 10 is as strong as people are calling it. And I don’t think Oregon’s defense can deal with SEC speed. Anyway, without getting into details, I have some very nice parlays closing on Auburn and want to hear from you guys if you think Oregon has a chance of ruining me. Come on, baseball is on life support right now, let’s talk a little college ball. Personally, I think the pic to the right is the best one I’ve found all Winter…….

As I said last week, I think lists are dumb but when I thought back over 2010 and what it meant to me (from a sports moment stand point), this year was just unreal for me and one I’ll never forget for more than just winning the World Series.  I don’t know if this is all that correct but they are the first 10 that came to mind when I started thinking about it…..

1) OUR, San Francisco Giants

2) Paly winning the State Championships

3) attending Game 1 of the World Series

4) Chris Cohan selling the Warriors

5) Stanford kicking the be-jezzus out of Cal in the Big Game

6) Watching Ryan Howard sitting there helplessly as B-wheezy bent in the most perfect pitch I’ve ever seen into Posey’s mit to send us to the World Series

7) attending the 7/31 “Burrell Bomb” game –I have never been in a louder stadium than in the 8th when he hit that go ahead 2 run bomb.

8) Mike Singletary getting fired

9) attending Posey’s first game of the year with SAN DIGGITY DAWG who had the foresight to buy the tix 2 months in advance to that game and invite ME to go along with him. Thanks dude.

10) Stanford girls taking down UCONN

That goes without saying, doesn’t it? Well, I said it anyway. Blade sent me the extended  KNBR audio a while back and wordpress is just making it too difficult to replay here so I have taken the liberty of transcribing the final 5 minutes or so of the call from K/K. As we close out 2010 there’s nothing I’d rather do than relive this one last time:

Kuip: And that’s it! For the first time in 52 years the giants are world champions! And they come pouring out of the dugout circling brian wilson, the bullpen flying in from left field. Dancing. Hugging. And you can’t help but think that this group is celebrating for the Sey Hey Kid, for will the thrill, Celebrating for #25. And celebrating for all you giants fans where ever you are. Giants fans, this party is just getting started. Aubry Huff hugging anyone that is around him. What a season. Start off in March and end on November 1st and we win a world series for the first time in SF. And WIlson with that cutter that got nelson cruz to swing and miss and that’s when the celebration begins.

Kruk: If ever there was a city or a fanbase that deserves this team it’s northern california.

Kuip: that’s right. the giants will be coming home world champions and they’ll be getting home at some point in the wee hours of the morning because the party is gonna take a while here in Arlington for the players, the coaches all still in between the mound and 2nd base and still hugging. they’re hugging strangers. I’ve settled on Mike Murphy and instead of just being in the crowd he’s handing out tee shirts and that’s just the way he wants it.

Kruk: being a good clubby, Mike Murphy has been here since 1958 and there has been a lot of redness in his eyes as he’s been down this march from Oct through Nov 1st clincher and I agree, he is giants baseball.

Kuip: well it was a script we saw all year. the solid start and then you bring in the bullpen. And in a lot of ways I’m sure Bochy wanted to see Wilson on the mound to end this game.

Kruk: well he earned it, best closer in the NL this year. And how about this: the giants retired the last 8 batters and there was no torture! a 3 up three down 8th a 3 up three down 9th. 12 rangers struck out tonight, 10 by lincecum, 2 by wilson.And wilson ended the game, ended the year with a strike out of nelson cruz. And the giants, the san francisco giants…..

Kuip: they got one. Between the mound and 2nd base and for some of these players you don’t know where they’ll be next year. Edgar Renteria, maybe the series MVP….

Kruk: I know where they’ll be. they’re gonna be etched in the memory of every single giants fan forever.

Kuip: well that indeed is true. All the great teams and players that have passed through here, all the hall of famers, that never got a shot to experience what the group is experiencing right now….

Krup: I ran into Juan Marichal in the clubhouse this morning, he looked dapper as ever in his blue suit and tie, and he looked right at me and goes “it ends tonight.” And I said “there’s a lot of people that feel the same way”.

and he goes, “it’ll be a celebration like we’ve never seen in san francisco.” And I think that every giants player that ever played in that city knew that if they ever could win one, ever could be a world champion, that the reception, the parade, is gonna be like nobody’s ever seen.

Kuip: well, now in the middle is gm brian sabean and he is absolutely ecstatic, this is gonna be a tearful night for Brian Sabean……….

Deader than dead. My blog highlight of the day is searching for interesting numbers for the “Days till Pitchers and Catchers Report”. Kill me now. Gimmie a Pablo Workout Update. Anything!

I guess we should be happy that the Giants simply don’t have too many needs to fill. We don’t stop to appreciate how fortunate we are to have the pitching staff that we have. While we have “5 Strong”, other teams are scurrying around trying to find 3, 4 and 5 guys for their staff. Brandon Webb? He hasn’t freaking pitched since April 2009 and he’s got teams lining up to sign him. Same with Jeff Francis who had like a 5 something ERA last year.

We’re all good. But goddamn I miss baseball right now……

Let the “Tomsula Era” begin……

Checked out the Chron’s Top 10 Bay Area Sports Stories of the year– Paly High doesn’t make the list. I know they did another “list” for the high schools but that’s just idiotic. When a small high school that’s never won the State Championship before rises up and WINS IT ALL you don’t stick that story with the rest of “the other high schools”–you stick it right up there next to the Giants winning the World Series…..

At this time of year everyone wants to do lists about things. I think it’s dumb, they’re never interesting in the slightest. The other day the Chron did a list for Most Memorable Bay Area Sports Figures (or something like that). Who couldn’t have guessed that list? I would rather see a list of all the “B-Room” guys. Those are the guys I remember. That’s basically what I was doing with last year’s “Retro Giant of the Day” section.

Growing up my favorite Warriors were World B Free and Purvis Short. One of my favorite Niners was Wendell Tyler. Not sure why, he fumbled a lot. Anyway, those are the lists that I would pay attention to. Not “Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Barry Bonds, Rick Barry, etc……”

It was fun driving around yesterday as I finished off some late shopping with Game 4 re-broadcast on KNBR. Baseball on Christmas Eve–love it. It made me seriously consider just listening to the radio the next time we are in a World Series. K/K put the Fox guys to shame, for obvious reasons. The radio is about 12 seconds ahead of TV right? I guess you listen to it in one room and if something crazy happpens you run into the tv room that is exactly 12 seconds away from the “radio room”. Hmmmmm. Gonna noodle this plan out a little more…..

Merry Christmas to you guys. I hope you are where you want to be and who you want to be with. If you aren’t just go with the obvious fallback and bask in this never ending supernova of a World Championship. I think the WS Trophy is coming through Palo Alto in the middle of February but I will definitely tighten that date up and put it on the schedule. I hope they let us take a picture with it. Pay for the picture? What the Hell, I’d pay for that, though it should be free….

Well, Katie just entered the room and our Christmas morning has begun. Have a good one, you guys…….

Here’s the link from mlbtraderumors.com

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/12/offseason-spending-details-by-team.html

1.2 BILLION in salary commitments this off season. And then you read the list and say to yourself “for THAT?”

The Dodgers have spent 90 million this Winter. Whoa. 90 Mil. THey must have REALLY improved themselves. And their list goes: Lilly, Uribe, Kuroda, Guerrier, Garland, Barajas and Padilla. Uhhhhnderwhelming.

I know that some teams have improved themselves (Boston, Philly) but I will say it again: I am SO happy that Sabean stayed out of the buying this Winter if that is all you get for 1.2 billion……

This bizarre stagger towards the playoffs is far more interesting than anything I can come up with baseball-related. Singletary hasn’t announced who his QB is this week. I sincerely hope it’s Alex Smith since I think he gives the team the best chance to win. I know he’s horrendous on the road, but he has an infinitely better chemistry with VD than T-Smith does. And with Crabtree doing absolutely nothing and a backfield made up of 2 back ups we simply HAVE to have at least one go-to guy this game. Plus, A-Smith actually, you know, knows all the plays in the playbook……….

If we do make the playoffs we get hosed in the draft– After New Orleans executes us we would pick #21 with the 20 non-playoff teams ahead of us. That means if Green Bay wins out to go 10-6 (but misses the playoffs) they draft in front of us. Hilarious……

These fluctuate throughout the Winter but most of the big deals are done. The Phillies are -180 to win the NL Pennant (ie, bet $180 to win $100). We are 7-1 to win the pennant (same as Cardinals). We’re 15-1 to win the World Series again.

Here are the NL West Odds to win the Pennant:

D-backs: 50-1

Padres: 50-1

Dodgers: 15-1

Rockies: 15-1

Giants: 7-1

Favorites to win the WS:

the only teams under 10-1 are the Red Sox (5-1), Phillies (+180) and the Yankees at 6-1 (that number is a joke).

Michael is generously putting up another kick-ass computer contest for the Winter. Our site hits are definitely down but he should still be able to get 20.

THE CONTEST:

Where do these players land?

La Roache

Renteria

Orlando Cabrera (I think he’s off the table since he signed with Pads yesterday)

Beltre

Vlad

Contest closes on December 26th. Email your picks to twinfan1@hotmail.com

Stop fiddling around, you and I both know that this contest will be the most exciting thing you do all Winter. Speaking of….. “Hello Winter Solstice. Here’s to you making  a quick transition to Opening Day”….

I know this happened days ago so I’m a little late to the good bye party, but I am super bummed that we let Velez get away. I can’t remember if it was 2008 or 2009 (maybe it was both) but that dude probably led the team in my “Player of the Game” picks. For a guy who only played in 98 and 84 games in those seasons that’s pretty incredible.

Then last year we sign De Rosa, Velez loses his shot. Then he gets hit in the head and is basically done for the year. And now, not only is he gone but he’s playing for the freaking Dodgers. Have any of you checked out who their left fielder is next year?

There is a very real possibility that it will be Eugenio Velez (unless you believe Jay Gibbons is going to beat him in Spring Training…..

I dunno, I think Sabean dropped the ball on this one. Maybe we won’t miss him, maybe he’ll just get stuck at the level of production he’s at and spend most of his time engaged in maddening fits of idiocy. But I’m telling you, all those POTG awards were legit.

Good bye Count Chocula. I have a terrible feeling that you are going to spend the next 5 years or so tormenting us…….

NEW CONTEST UPDATED QUESTION**********

Instead of Pablo’s weight, here’s the new contest question:
Where do these guys land?
LaRoche
Renteria
Orlando Cabrera
Beltre
Vlad
Get your picks in NOW. I wil not give this monster away for just a few entrants
twinfan1@hotmail.com
I will give one player leeway. In other words, if a player signs before the deadline ( 12-25 1 P.M), that’s a freebie. If you have questions get your picks in FIRST.