A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

Maybe it was a day to think about it or maybe it was reading the STUPID shit posted at The Splash and listening to Idiot Tolbert on KNBR, but I’m totally over Renteria being “disrespected” or whatever that was. The guy can play/say/do whatever and wherever he wants to next year. He won us a World Series. Pay him 20 million to sit at home with his kids in 2011. What do I care? It’s not my money and I’m still B-A-S-K-I-N-G.

Speaking of basking….

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/17/SP1E1GSDAA.DTL

I still live in the town I grew up in. Not sure if that makes this more or less special. But….Congratulations to the STATE CHAMPIONS: Paly High.

Edgar Renteria feels disrespected by the Giants offer to him? Read about it here:

http://tinyurl.com/28nfog3

Unless he can refute this with a “misquote” or something, I have 2 words for Edgar Renteria: Stay home….

Ok, that didn’t happen. But not being at the exact center of the Giants media world, I have to pump up the headlines now and again….Slow Giants news day. Rowand is still with the team. Please make a note of it…..

I will now take time to give a major shout out to my high school team, Paly High, who is playing in tomorrow night’s CIF D-1 Bowl Championship against Centennial-Corona. I expect us to get our asses handed to ourselves but it won’t diminish what has been a magical year for the Vikings….

Now, back to waiting on Renteria……

And I would love an update on Mark De Rosa at some point…..

……as well as a Panda lbs #…

With all the dough getting tossed around this off season I thought I’d check to see where the Giants stand. We are actually in great shape–at least in terms of controlling our own destiny. Here’s a look at what we owe now through 2014:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=t4r9nky1EouVJsFXQlv3FKQ&output=html

There’s nothing on here to sink us (the way Zito has over the last several years). If the Giants want to dump on Timmy AND Cain, they can do that. And with nothing in the system (starting pitching wise) they will have to keep at least one of them at an absurd long term risk. But they’re home grown, I can dig that……

5 years, 12o million? That’s still more than I thought he’d get a month ago:

They hardly inspire a peep around these parts. But it’s very interesting to watch this unfold for them. NO ONE wants to come play for them. That’s hardly a surprise but with the pitching staff they’ve assembled, it’s a little awkward to watch go down. Hideki Matsui? Maybe 5 years ago….

And they don’t seem any closer to resolving their stadium issues. This surprises me. Bud Selig and Lew Wolf were freaking college frat bro’s. I wasn’t in a fraternity, they only had two at Lewis & Clark when I went there and they were both lame. Anyway, maybe I don’t understand the bond and the fellowship that 2 good frat bro’s share with one another. But I have to assume that before Wolf bought the team he sat down with frat bro Selig and said “We will get the stadium deal done, right?” and that Selig gave him a reassuring “brother handshake” or whatever and Wolf went ahead and bought the team…..

But what the hell do I know about fraternities?

How do I know this? I got a hilarious text from a buddy of mine who is there and who rode an elevator with him last night at 2am at the Mandarin Oriental. He said he was completely wasted with a semi-good looking blond chick who looked about 24. Zito was eating a can of mint malted milk balls that he got from the hotel mini-bar and he informed my friend that he highly recommended them….

Yeah, I know it’s gossip and all, but it’s December 12th and I got nothin’ else worth posting…..

That’s what they call a day of no horse racing. Dark Day. Today feels like a dark day. No college football. No Giants news. The only thing to look forward to is how many yards Alex Freaking Smith throws for tomorrow. Buzzkill. I snapped this photo of the Cardinal practice field when I was on a run this morning. It’s kinda hard to read: “You are getting better or you are getting worse; you never stay the same”— I thought of Sabean….

Sure, why not? To me, this off season is all about creating options if Sandoval is too fat to play everyday. Sign Renteria as a back up to Tejada. If Pablo doesn’t cut it, slide MT over to third and let Renteria play SS. Assuming DeRosa’s wrist is good, he could be an option at third, too, and leave Renteria as a fill in.

Did Renteria’s World Series performance punch his ticket to Cooperstown? It’s a legitimate question. He’d have a better chance of going there if he went out in the blaze that was last season’s glory (and destiny). But if he wants to come back and play a utility role and help out as a leader on the team, I’m all for it…..

This will probably work out pretty well for Boston and if it doesn’t they don’t care, they can absord 146 million dollar losses (unlike the Nats).

But I just don’t get the buzz about Carl Crawford. He’s a nice player, he’s definitely fast–but so is Rajai Davis. He’s never hit 20 HR’s in a season and his career OPS is .781. Is THIS what a 146 Million Dollar Man looks like these days?

I’m sure he’ll have a huge year for Boston and I can’t wait for the NY/Bos games this year. But giving a 7 year deal to a guy who’s entire game is based on speed, and who will be 30 during the first year of his deal….eh, like I said, it’s just not for me….

Winter Meetings continue to roll on at a “zzzzzzzzzz” pace for Giants fans……

Jeff Passan wrote another worthless piece today and all the reasons you give CLiff Lee 7 years. With Passan being an idiot, I won’t bother posting his article. If you must see it, you can find it at Yahoo Sports….

There is no rational argument for giving a pitcher about to turn 32 a 7 year deal. None. I don’t care about the soundness of his arm, his arm action, his medical history, etc. It’s just dumb. Of course, giving him 6 years is equally dumb so if you’re going to go 6 you might as well go 7, I guess.

The best part about this *players market* that has surprisingly sprung this season, is that we are going to come out of it completely unscathed. There’s no “Sabean Special” out there waiting to doom us. It’s the thing I have admired most about Brian over the last few years. He has learned that handing out 5+ year deals to aging vets isn’t exactly the way to go when you’re trying to build a contender. In fact, it’s the “Lazy Man’s” way to GM a baseball team. Anyone can look at the back of a baseball card and hand over 100 million dollars for it, especially if it’s not your own money. Brian Cashman has the easiest job in all of sports.

I’m happy as a pig 69ing his lady to sit back and watch all this financial foolishness unfold this year. Zito and Rowand are starting to look like bargains……

I think most of us understand that Sabes won’t be pulling the trigger on any trades this week. That’s actually fine with me, he’s not very good at them—unless you want to go back 14 years or whatever. There might have been 2 or three since then, too…….

Trade proposals, generated by fans,  are one of the easiest ways to get me to go ballistic. The common fan has half the trade proposal down pat: he is goddamn crystal clear on who he wants to ACQUIRE. He wants Hanley. He wants Reyes. He wants Mauer—guys he’s seen featured on ESPN sound bites. Now comes  the hard part–who does he give up? Hmmmmm. Er…..Ummmmm. A sticking point. “I don’t want to give up anyone good,” Common Fan #1 thinks to himself. See, this is when the trade proposal fantasies usually start to break down. Quickly, Common Fan #1 defaults to listing off about 5 AAAA guys on the roster as the chum used to secure this *blockbuster deal*.  For our purposes, that would be listing off as many Bowker Gang guys as possible—whether they’re still in the organization or not…….

Tip #1: Just because you think the player is valuable doesn’t mean anyone else does. You may remember John Bowker hitting 2 home runs in his first week at the Bigs but no one else does. And even if they do, they don’t give a shit about this. They care about his body of work since. Not pretty.

Tip #2: you’ve got to give up something to get something. There has to be REAL value in your part of the offer. The trick to a good trade is to finding MORE value in what you acquire than what your trading partner thought they had. But NO ONE is interested in securing any of our *Bowker Gang* guys for anything that we or the rest of the world would perceive as valuable—no matter how many of them you try to throw in—-4. 5. 6. Lots of Bowker Gang guys doesn’t sweeten the deal at all. If the Reno Aces team plane goes down killing everyone inside, you might get Kevin Towers to look at a package for all our Bowker Gang players—just don’t expect Justin Upton to be the guy we get in return……

Tip #3: Look at something other than the back of a player’s baseball card. Anyone can see what a player has done. Projecting what they might do in the future, based off underlying Sabermetric figures, is how to go about securing a sound trade haul. There’s obvious risk involved with this but this is the best way to go about hitting the big score on a trade—whether you just get lucky or whether you saw something in a player that no one else did, that’s the way to go about tipping a trade in your favor……

7 years/126 million for…. Jayson…… Werth—that is just…..there are no words…….This is why The Nats are always going to suck. There isn’t enough black *paint* in the world that Bryce Harper could smear all over his face to make this contract make any sense at all (much like that last sentence). I don’t even know where to start with this….

1) I like Werth, he’s a nice player, he’s got some pop and speed, his beard and hair are to die for, he’s got all that. But this guy might be my 12th-14th favorite outfielder in MLB. At best. Forgetting their contracts, I would prefer Shin-Soo Choo. I am dead serious. I also think Choo will have a better career when all is said and done.

2) Werth is going to be 32 near the beginning of next season, his first year of this ridiculous contract, and he’s never had 100 RBI’s in a season…..

3) He has put together 3 decent seasons in a bandbox—the same band box that Rowand parlayed into his 60 million dollar deal………

4) the BEST part about Werth is his speed and power which, basically, isn’t overwhelming either way–he’s like a 30/20 guy, at best. And he’s declining.  Next year he’s like a 25/10 guy— Where does he go from year 1? Year 4? I can’t even type “Year 7″….

5) If Bryce H is for real, he’s not going year-to-year with the Nats. What do they plan on paying Harper in 2015 or 2016 when Old Man Werth is busy collecting 20 mil for a team playing to a half empty stadium every game?

6) The Nats are now dead broke, they have no money to pay anyone and their team has 1 stud SP (who is recovering from TJ surgery) and 2 current stud position players—-Zimmerman and Werth (once Harper gets there he’d be #3, but by that time Werth will be assuming his best “Rowand Pose”). How in the Hell does this signing build a winning team? Who is going to pitch for this team? Who is going to play positions for this team? I hope my man Storen is going to turn into a dominant closer cause all good teams need one. Right?

7) Does Werth LOOK like a guy who is going to lead a team to a World Series? No. He looks like a guy who’s about to lead 5 buddies into a sweet strip joint. And now all the lap dances are on  him. Score……for his buddies.

Carl Crawford is jizzin’ all over himself right now…….

I haven’t spent too much time checking out this rumor. It’s probably nothing. But with the Winter Meetings coming up it’s at least worth considering. If it’s real, I pull this trigger in a nano-second (and we would need to pay all of Rowand’s 2012 salary. Ibanez makes 11.5 mil in the last year of his deal in 2010). Ibanez also has a no-trade clause so he’d have to be cool with it but I can’t imagine he wouldn’t want a change of scenery. And what a perfect change of scenery it would be for Aaron. Head back to the town who loved you, where you had your best years. Plus, with Werth leaving they could actually use Rowand, or at least see what he’s got left. Ibanez would give us the left handed pop we don’t have now off the bench.  It would be a great, no risk trade that would give everyone a fresh start……

So now Pat the Bat is saying he came back for the hometown discount.  Actually, this now makes perfect sense—1 mil, no incentives? Who needs an agent for that. If it’s true that he didn’t contact any other teams to gauge interest my hat is off to him for this unusual good-vibe move.

Speaking of Pat, does anyone really think he’s “The Machine” as the media continues to report? Look at the arms on this guy, they look half the size of the guns The Bat carries around. Also, ballplayers in August have pretty good “farmer tans” going on, the Machine has nothing, in fact he’s dead pale across his body. I can’t imagine a ladies man like The Bat is rollin’ like that in August……

Nice to see San Diego building off their near division win last year. They promptly jettison their best player away. If I’m a San Diego season ticket holder, I quit…….

I hate to bring even the slightest flavor of negativity into this *Vast Winter of Bask*, but if you believe that we caught “lightning in a bottle” last year, and you also subscribe to the theory that lightning is hard to catch (at least in a bottle) then shouldn’t we all be a wee bit concerned that Sabean is basically putting the exact same team together from 2010? Huff, Burrell, now Fontenot…I mean come on, we are all sitting here in unison nodding our heads up and down in gleeful approval with World Series drool dripping down our chins and we’re really not stopping to think about “what if”. What if last year was just a random year the way it was for the White Sox in ’05 or the Cardinals in ’06. Does anyone remember the ‘Sox even PLAYING in ’05? How about their opponent, the Houston Astros?

I guess my point is, I hope Sabean has an open ear at the Winter Meetings coming up this week. The point is to always try to get better, not stay the same. And if he tries that bottle/lightning trick again, it might not work out so swimmingly……..

If you had told me last Winter that Sabean had signed Tejada, Huff and Burrell to nearly 30 million dollars worth of salary I would climb the highest peak and scream for the villagers to drag Sabean’s bobblehead through the streets of San Francisco. And yet this Winter, I’m totally cool with it. A World Series will mellow a guy……

That clip Zumie posted last night was great. According to Kuip, Flemming had this wicked cold the day of Game 5. He had been saving his voice all day to give himself the best chance of nailing a call like that; announcers live for calls like that. Alas, the break in his voice at the end ruined it ever so slightly. Still a great call…….

With my post preceding the Uribe announcement by about 6 hours yesterday, I am feeling pretty good about my predictions these days. I’m taking Jeter and Reyes off the table because that’s just stupid-talk. We are now left with a lot of underwhelming question marks. Whether we sign them, trade for them or just insert them into the LU, who do you think our SS in 2011 is going to be?

They start next week on December 6th. Anyone expect Sabean to do anything there? I don’t. In fact, he’s often pulled the trigger the week BEFORE the meetings on his major Winter deals. Therefore, this could be an interesting week. Although outside of signing Miguel Tejada or trading for Jason Bartlett, I don’t see him doing much of anything in the near future. It’s kinda a nice problem to have actually. We just don’t NEED that much. And as nice as it would be to have Uribe come back to play SS, I really think he’s going to the Dodgers on a 2 or 3 year deal…….

First of all, I like the arbitration offer. I think we are going to end up seeing Uribe go somewhere else for 2 year/14 millionish so we might as well get a pick for him. I know  Sabean would want to do a 1 year deal with Uribe, not so sure he’s got it in him to go multiple years. I would love to have Uribe back and I’d be on board the 2 year offer. I just don’t see it happening…..

Slowly getting back into the swing of things here in the Bay Area; just got back from a few days in Arizona. Hope you all had a thankful Thanksgiving…..

This is why I follow the Yankees. I love this stuff. Last week we saw Jeter ignore a 3 year/45 million dollar offer and today we see that they are nearly 80 (eighty!) million dollars apart! The STARTING POINT from the Jeter Camp was 6 years 150 million. That’s hilarious. Obviously there’s a lot of agent-bluster-bullshit in there, but this is just classic Yankee drama. Everything the Yankees do is bigger and louder than anyone else…….Now quickly harken back to a week or so ago when I gave my opinion of what I’d offer Jeter if I was Sabean: 1 year, 3 million. Baha. And I stand by that offer, I really do think that’s about what Jeter is worth at this point in his career. Jeter has always said he’s all about winning, nothing more. Well, he’s made 205 million in his career (only considering his salaries). Sorry Jeet, but I can’t support you trying to “take care of your family” with this last big contract. 150 million? Yeah, right. As I said, take my 1 year/3mil and thank God someone still wants to pay you money to play a game you used to play for free……..

Bruce Jenkins is floating Jose Reyes’ name out there as someone the Giants should look into acquiring. That will never, ever happen. This isn’t some “Alderson for Franchez” deal. There is no way in Hell that Sabean ponies up the necessary bounty needed to secure his services. And that’s fine with me, I wouldn’t want to have to spend the time worrying about that dude’s health. He’s just not worth the risk, there is ALWAYS something wrong with that dude…..

Go get Bartlett, he’d be a fine addition to the team……..

I’m trying to imagine what it would look like if every Giant woke up at the exact same time this morning. Which one of them would be most thankful for what has happened to them in the last year? It’s probably Huff–the guy with no job last Winter takes what amounted to a standard veteran one year deal— just a flier really, see if he’s got anything left in the tank, see if he’s marginally better than whoever-the-Hell else Bochy had to plug in there. And then BOOM! Dude has a monster year, gets his best bud from college to join him in a WORLD SERIES WIN—-has a kid. Gets 22 million. For a guy like Huff, I have to believe that at this point in his career he is quite aware of what that money means to the rest of his life. Contrast that with Jeter who is ignoring the 3 year/45 million dollar offer the Yankees put on the table….

Anyway, it’s probably Huff but how about Andres Torres? This dude HAD NOTHING. No leverage. No playing time. He barely had a job. After he started the season 1 for 16 or whatever it was he was probably another strikeout or two away from being banished to AAA to party it up with The Bowker Gang. And yet he starts hitting, becomes the catalyst of the team, wins a World Series ring; at age 32 having done literally nothing at all in his MLB career before last year.

How about Cody Ross? That guy HAS to be waking up thankful this morning. Toiling away in Florida, no one outside that fan base barely knew his name and then BAM! He’s getting interview by national media, fans are screaming his name, he’s dumping champagne on Tim Lincecum and he, too, finds a World Series ring in the most unlikely of seasons……

Edgar Renteria? In August I wonder how many dreams Edgar had about being the World Series MVP in 2010. If he did, he probably just half-chuckled to himself as he drifted back to sleep…….

There are others, obviously. But those are the 4 that came to me first. I know one thing, I’m thankful. I’ll never spend one second doing anything other than honoring this ring that I spent literally my entire life wanting. Our fan base is so proud right now, so happy, and so deservingly thankful. I bask, we bask, in the eternity of  The 2010 Baseball Season. It’s a supernova that never fades.  Happy Thanksgiving, Flappers……

I’m sure many of you have read Beane’s now-dumb book called “Money Ball”. Well, after we won the series I took all the pics and clippings I could find and I covered one of my office walls with them. “Money Ball” is nice. “Money WALL” is better. Too see it better, double click on it. My favorite headline was the one near the bottom that says “So Close Now”. My ticket to Game 1 is at the center of the clippings. The picture doesn’t capture it all, I’ve got some schwag to the right that’s cut off…….

Not much to talk about Giants-Wise so I thought we could just check out who Bagg’s and Schulman gave their MVP votes to. I don’d have a problem with HS’s except the ridiculous Ruiz vote at #5. And his argument about not giving you an MVP vote unless you play the entire year is lame. He knows what the Giant’s record was pre/post Posey. If that isn’t the definition of “MVP” I don’t know what is…..

And Baggs learned something this year: Don’t put so much pressure on middle relievers with MVP votes. I think we now now what was wrong with Affeldt in 2011. 🙂

HS:

1. Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds

2. Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals

3. Brian Wilson, San Francisco Giants

4. Adrian Gonzalez, San Diego Padres

5. Carlos Ruiz, Philadelphia Phillies

6. Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado Rockies

7. Martin Prado, Atlanta Braves

8. Aubrey Huff, San Francisco Giants

9. Jason Heyward, Atlanta Braves

10. Ryan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals

AB:

1. Votto (see above)
2. Albert Pujols (and this was considered a down year for him??)
3. Adrian Gonzalez (Pads might not be a .500 team without him)
4. Aubrey Huff (most consistent run producer all season for a playoff team)
5. Carlos Gonzalez (didn’t hit on the road, and Rockies didn’t win on the road –otherwise he’d be higher)
6. Brian Wilson (torture never felt so good)
7. Jayson Werth (a consistently tough out, he came up huge for Phils while other horses were hurt)
8. Ryan Zimmerman (perhaps most underrated two-way player in baseball)
9. Matt Holliday (quietly amassed some great numbers behind Pujols)
10. Troy Tulowitzki (huge difference maker would’ve finished higher if not for wrist injury)

The Raiders get destroyed in Pittsburgh. The Warriors get dismantled and embarrassed in LA. The Cal Bears get utterly humiliated in Berkeley (ah, sooooo sweet to be a Cardinal fan)……And then there was the 49er shutout—First time since ’77 they’ve been shutout at home? Wow, that’s a lot of consecutive games where they scored at least 2 points. Singletary kept blathering away about “gotta go watch the film”. It made me wonder: Did he watch any film during the week? How does this man and his staff prepare for games? Do they just sit around reading the team famous Tony Robbins quotes and uplifting Chinese proverbs?

Here’s what you should do Singletary: Go watch the film. But not of the game on Sun. Go watch the film of how you and your staff  ‘prepared’ for that game (it’s too bad a film like this doesn’t exist, but it should). Go take a look at the film of the Tampa Bay coach and his staff and what they did to get that team ready to beat your ass yesterday. Take a pad of paper and go follow around Jeff Fisher or Bill Belichick for a week. Take some notes on what they’re doing.  Anyway, THOSE are the films he should be watching. It’s a complete waste of his time to watch game film……

Anyone got an opinion about this? Selig says his “panel” has no objections. We all know Selig does whatever the Hell he wants anyway.  I’ll cut the guy a little slack when it comes to the playoffs. When he created the Wild Card he caught a ton of crap for it and that turned out to be one of his best contributions. If they added one more team and just had a one-game Wild Card playoff I think that would be completely interesting. Sudden death games are great. But if they are going to have it be a 3 or 5 game series, while the other teams sit and wait for a week, I don’t like the idea.

I do like the idea of shaving 8 games off the regular season but I know that will never happen………

Sorry, most of you won’t care about this thread. I don’t hate too many teams. I hate USC. They’re easily in the top spot. After that it’s Cal. And I really don’t have a third most-hated team. I guess it’s the Dodgers. My hate for them started kicking up pretty good last season after a fairly long hiatus…..

I don’t hate the Cal TEAM as much as I hate their fans. And I obviously don’t hate individuals, some of my closest friends are Cal fans (although there is one specific individual I wouldn’t mind running into again). The last time I was at Memorial Stadium was the 1982 Big Game. I won’t waste words describing the unlikely and completely bullshit details of the end of that game. All I remember is leaving the stadium with my dad, pretty much in shock, and as we got to our car this huge Cal fan (he was probably a normal sized man but he seemed huge to me, I was just a kid)  jumps in front of me (not my dad), sticks both his ‘fingers’ in front of my face and yells “Fuck you Stanford fan!!!!”. My dad ran his drunk ass off but when I think about that game it was that asshole pussy who I remember, not that bullshit play at the end of the game. Over the years, I’ve always noticed the difference between Stanford fans (in general) and Cal fans (in general). Stanford fans are the fans who aren’t wearing the “Fuck Stanford” tee shirts to games for all the little kids to see……

Anyway, got a buddy driving all night from Portland to get here in time for the game. Looking forward to a good ol’ fashioned beat down, Cardinal style………

So who is our MOFO’Sf? I left a few random guys off the poll list. Can you imagine if we did this poll last July? SO get your vote on, and you can only pick one so make it count….

that’s  a pretty sweet list of a bunch of guys who make up the history of this glorious franchise. And yet, there can only be one MANAGER OF THE FRANCHISE!

Someone is gonna have to explain this too me. Granted, he kept his team in first place for more days than Bochy did. And he did improve his team by 15 games from 2009. But there is no way in Hell that Bud Black was a better manager than Bochy in 2010. Even if you give him the credit of winning with a team no one expected to compete, he basically just went on auto pilot once the 7th inning started. And while he had no answers for his team’s 10 game losing streak meltdown, Bochy was calmly and skillfully pushing all the right buttons, sketching out weird LU after weird LU to ultimately overtake Black’s team on the final day of the season— and isn’t that what counts the most????And Dusty Baker took 2nd place? Actually, I could see Baker deserving more points than Black since his team actually made the playoffs, did NOT melt down the way the Padres did, and he did it with a pretty bad pitching staff…….

Whatever, I’m sure Bochy could care less but in my opinion he was the NL MOY with votes to spare……..

So ‘Doctober ‘ won the NL CY unanimously? Wow. Sorry, I’m underwhelmed. We beat him two out of three times last year. If every team had done that he’d be Barry Zito……

I know that wins aren’t the best way to assess the value of a pitcher, but Brian Wilson saved 48 games and Roy Oswalt was a .500 pitcher in 2010 and yet Oswalt finishes 6th in the CY vote, Wilson 7th. Whatever…….

Room B has made an inglorious return to The Flap. If you’ve never been to Room B it’s a lot like this (or so it’s been told to me by those who have managed to escape):

I had to put up a few new roadblocks in our filter system last night. If you go to spam and you aren’t supposed to be there, it’ll get sorted out as the new filter system goes into place………

Ashkon called it, didn’t he? Winning 20 of the possible 32 first place votes is dominating. This ROY award isn’t important now but it will be in the context of his career and his place in baseball history. For the rest of baseball history, when a rookie phenom catcher gets mentioned, they will recall Posey’s name and the great feats he accomplished in 2010…..

Maybe someone can explain this to me: There are 32 guys who get to vote on this award. That seems like a pretty exclusive group. And yet there is a guy named Yasushi Kickuchi (honestly, that name sounds completely made up) who not only had one of the 32 votes but he decided Gaby Sanchez was the #1 rookie in the NL and that Posey didn’t belong anywhere on the ticket. And then there’s the guy from Pittsburgh who voted for 2 Pirates who many people have never even heard of……

If they are going to give a vote to a vote to a dude who writes for Japan’s Kyoto News Service they might want to consider handing out more than 32 votes for the award. Open it up a little. Maybe the guy who writes for the Palo Alto Daily News should have a say or the high school editor of the Paly Campanile……

I seriously have no idea what criteria mlb uses to assign voting power for these awards………

What’s that line in Ashkon’s song? “Hands down rookie of the year!”…And he is. Will he win it? Honestly, who cares. Because if he doesn’t, the award is worthless anyway. If he does, he absolutely deserves it. I still don’t know how Jaime Garcia’s name keeps creeping up into the ROY discussion. This is a pitcher (he plays every fifth day as opposed to Heyward and Posey who play everyday) who was basically just a 5-6 inning guy. He had that one dominant game against us but that was it. AND they shut him down in the middle of September when Posey and Heyward were still fighting their asses off to make the playoffs. I’d almost rather see Garcia win than Heyward just to further ruin an award that should otherwise be based on merit rather than bias and/or ignorance of the voters……..

So forgot the official award that will go out later today. Who do YOU GUYS think is the NL ROY?!?!?!?!?

Dan Quisenberry, Mark Portugal, Kevin Bass, Phil Garner……

I know who all four are but have no recollection of them playing for us. But they did. Of the four, who do you remember the least? These guys all played for us. I swear. You could look it up…..

Mychael Urban (seriously, what dude would willfully spell his first name that way?) was on the radio talking up the Giants pursuing Carlos Pena and now he’s writing about it at csnbayarea.com: http://tinyurl.com/2c44gbs

Urban assumes a lot as he expects Pena to get a deal in the neighborhood of 3 mil/1 year. I think he’ll get something much better than that. But, assuming we’re talking about another “Huff deal”, I like it. Pena plays fantastic defense. True, his offensive numbers have fallen over the last few years with a BA bottoming out at .198 in 2010. But this is a guy who does take walks and DOES have big power. Plus, if you look at his HR track sheet, he hits his bombs in all directions and he hits them DEEP, so I’m not worried about him losing anything at ATT (besides the few that everyone loses to triples alley). And as we’ve seen with many, many players, I think his BA and OPS would go up playing at ATT. I’m not saying replace Huff with him, but I do like the idea of signing both of them and sending Huff back to the outfield. Again, it has to be for a “Huff-like 2010 deal” which I’m suspicious we’d get him for. I also don’t know if he would want to take on the NL and a deeper park on a one-year deal since he’s probably looking for a park to rebound in and go for a big multi-year deal in 2012. But for the middle of November, it’s not a bad topic to throw out there……..

San Dog, just hanging out at the ballpark apparently, snapped this photo of Sabean this morning. He looks so pleased to have his picture taken, doesn’t he?

Here’s a list of only three of them. Who was your *most memorable*? I realize that the word “memorable” is open to interpretation but that’s the way I like it and it ensures that we will learn absolutely nothing from the results of these polls. 🙂

As a side note, I really appreciated the posts last night. Fun read. And Ted, to answer your comment about those who post vs those who lurk: it’s a little tougher to analyze wordpress.com’s stats- google analytics was MUCH better. During the season, on average, we get about 2000 hits a day here at the Flap (though we have hit much higher on certain days)–those are just IP address counts each time someone *hits* a page here. Obviously, we have some repeat customers who come here several times a day. At the old blog, they would just count *unique visitors*– meaning they  ONLY counted the individual IP address a day—no repeats. We were at about 500 unique visitors a day at blogger.com. WordPress won’t give me the unique visitor stat but they said at the end of the season  it was  “in the neighborhood” of 500 a day here (although we are at about half the traffic now as opposed to the end of the season—instead of 2k hits a day we are at about 800-1000 now). About 20% of the people that come to my blog actually post something. For the math whizzes out there, that leaves….um…carry the 2…..hmmmm…80% of the traffic are lurkers. So careful what you post…..they are watching 🙂

These guys played on some pretty bad teams, some pretty non-descript teams, during most of their time as Giants and yet they are 4 of my favorites of all time. If you had to pick just one, who was your most memorable?????

there really aren’t too many too choose from. I could have included Linzy, I suppose, but I never saw him pitch so he’s OUT! I thought of throwing Walker in there but he just wasn’t in the same category as Minton and Lavelle. And guys like Beck, Nen, etc….would obviously get the vote. So it’s one or the other, start voting (and don’t just vote for his nickname….)

1987, 1989, 1993 and 2002—- those are four of our most favorite years from Giants history (until this year). Of the guys listed, who was your favorite role player from each year?

Who’s it going to be? I could see it being Renteria but I hope not, I think he put everything he had left in the game into that final swing. Brandon Crawford? The only way our line up can absorb that type of offensive downgrade is if we also sign Carl Crawford.  Plus, that type of move just feels too….I dunno….”Bo-cocky” to me. There’s no free agent SS that interests me (including Derek Jeter). I keep coming back to Juan Uribe but what does that cost? Two years/10 million at least, I would think. And his defense is going to be getting worse, not better…….

Oh well, not the biggest concern in the world but still something to keep an eye on this Winter. The one thing I’m a little worried about is that Sabean will feel so much vindication for winning the WS with “track record” guys that he just tries to re-sign all his FA players. Bad idea. We caught lightening in the bottle with the 2010 group. Trotting them all out there again, with another year of age on those legs, doesn’t seem like a recipe for repeat……

Without the allure of the post season, at least one of you was watching re-runs of last Summer’s baseball games. Another of you was re-reading a newspaper that a virtual friend sent you months ago. I was watching horses run around counter-clockwise over and over. And how about that Zenyatta race? Epic. I had hoped she would win, I supported her through all that Rachel Alexander nonsense, but it wasn’t to be. I hope some of you took solace in my longshot pick of the day  (Fly Down) hitting 3rd at 29-1, the tri and super helped ease some of my pain. But I digress…..

Regretfully, I am starting to let go of the 2010 season. It’ll always be with me but the daily routine—waking up early to put together a thread,  pouring over stats, preparing for the games, watching the games, manically blogging……that’s all coming to an end for the long, monotonous Winter. I’ll keep the threads fresh though they might not be changed everyday. I know that even without them actually playing, this is a great spot to talk baseball or anything else that someone is interested in discussing. The hot stove talk probably won’t involve us that much. Maybe someone can get a live feed to the Camp Panda Project; and by “live feed” I don’t mean a video of him eating a midnight snack…..

All right guys, off to the day. A baseball-less day. A rainy day. Ugh. I think I’ll bedazzle myself with the new Countdown Page to the right……

BC Day. Maybe it’s just me but I preferred just one day of Breeders Cup racing. I tried to explain to my buddy why it took 4 men to hold back Cal Borrel but he didn’t get it. Anyway, here are today’s LONGSHOT SPECIALS. Only listing the longshots who have a shot to hit the super (as I handicap it), link ’em up with the favorites and at some point today you will fall to your knees and scream out loud to no one in particular, “thank God for Big Flavor!!!!!”:

Juvenile Turf

Banned (all spots)

Soldat(all spots)

Wilcox Inn (all spots)

Rough Sailing (2-4)

Sprint

Supreme Summit (2-4)

Atta Boy Roy (all spots)

Cash Refund (all Spots)

Juvenile

J.B.’s Thunder (all spots)

Jaycito (all spots)

Murjan (all spots)

Mile

Proviso (all spots)

Court Vision (all spots)

Dirt Mile

Thiskyhasnolimit (all spots)

Cool Coal Man (2-4)

Turf

Dangerous Midge (all spots)

Al Khali ALL SPOTS and one of my top longshots of the day)

Classic

Fly Down (all spots— I love this HORSE)

My top 5;

1.Fly Down

2.Thiskyhasnolimit

3. Cool Coal Man

4.  Al Khali

4(A). J.B’s Thunder

5. More than Real

Pablo is obviously a complicated situation. What to do with the Panda in 2011? The Giants will take another swing at “Project Panda” this Winter, although I don’t think that’s going to work. What exactly IS “Project Panda”? Are they trying to get him to drop 50 pounds? Work with a sports psychologist?  Whatever the goal was LAST Winter, it failed.

I’ve gone back and forth on Pablo. I have tried to avoid labeling his weight as his main problem because I didn’t think he was THAT much bigger than he was when he first came up. But in the post season, he really did seem to be just freaking huge. Maybe he just can’t swing around his body? I have always thought that his weight is something he’ll have to worry about as he gets older but maybe it’s something that is influencing him more immediately. Who knows. I don’t think anyone does or they would’ve helped him by now.

If you don’t focus on the weight issue, there was his personal issue of the divorce. Again, who knows how that influenced him one way or the other. His girlfriend looked pretty hot at the parade. I guess she’s down with the round fellows…..

There’s the theory that he just has too many voices in his head and that he’s trying to do EVERYTHING at the plate. Again, if the Giants have a competent sports psychologist or batting coach working with him this Winter, that could help. But I suspect they are just going to be focusing on the weight….

Here’s the deal: Pablo probably will be penciled in as the starting 3rd baseman for 2011 and I can dig that. New year. Post Winter Panda Camp. Let’s see what happens. But Pablo is NOT a utility guy. If he starts off the season hitting .250 with a billion double play balls one of two things will happen: He’ll either get traded for a bag of balls or they’ll just bounce him down to AAA. If he can’t hit in AAA, it’s probably over for him here and he’ll get a “Fred Lewis” ticket to Nowhereland.

Plan B for 3rd base next year is probably Mark De Rosa and I think that’s a sound idea……

Dems was some good vibes floatin’ around SF yesterday, right? I watched it three times (the speeches). At first, I thought Wilson’s was a little underwhelming but any reference that dude makes to “The Machine” has me doin’ some good ol’ fashioned “LQTM”. The stuff Wilson says seems so rehearsed but maybe that’s just his personality. Either way, he’s got a rockstar voice. Speaking of “rockstars”, Timmy has become one……

Posey’s speech and emphatic smack of the podium at the end had me thinking he’s going to be named team captain coming out of Spring Training next year…..

Krukow had the best *moment*…….

And Aubrey Huff is just freaking hilarious…….

My only wish is that Burrell had replaced Franchez and preceded Huff at the podium. Those dudes have been linked together since college, no reason to break up their fellowship now………

Yesterday was so much fun. The “small town” feel of this ride has sustained itself. I had people I didn’t know yelling “Go Giants!” and “World Series Champs, baby!” out of their car windows as they drove by me on the street. It seemed like 80% of the Bay Area, at least on the west side, had their Giants gear proudly on display….

I couldn’t help thinking a lot about Rod Beck yesterday. It’s just too bad he never got to experience this, even just as a former Giant alum. He had 199 saves for us but only got to pitch in one playoff game for the Giants. And if there was ever a guy who would have fit into this team, identified with the personality of the 2010 guys, it was Shooter…….

Everyone who *made it* to November 2nd, 2o1o and got to wake up to the brilliance of this accomplishment should take the time to appreciate it. So many great Giants and great Giants fans weren’t as fortunate…..

All right, so let’s start talkin’ some baseball. Who do we keep? Who gets let go? I imagine Huff and Ross get resigned, The Bat and Uribe don’t, Renteria retires and Aaron Rowand….uh…..just disappears. But we’ll see. Mark DeRosa’s flexibility WILL factor into what they do with the decisions related to the guys above…….

I know the Giants would love to have Uribe return but I think the cat is out of the bag on him and he’ll get a multi-year deal for more than Sabean is willing to pay…..

We did it. It’s been done. The magnitude of this accomplishment can’t be understated. And I’m not talking about the team winning the World Series, I’m talking about the perseverance of SF Giants fans. This is a group that has supported utter failure for 56 freaking years with unwavering support. That kind of commitment is hard to find….

I stopped being a Giants fan, simply because of the sport, a long time ago. Maybe it started out that way. But it evolved into something that became a part of me, something that wasn’t an option or a job, it was just……my consciousness. I suspect it is that way for all of you. Did we NEED this World Series win? Of course not, we would never demand anything in return for our commitment as fans to this team. But now that we have been given this gift by this unreal collection of men, it felt right for me to appreciate all of us who have  supported the team for all this time. This is something that we EARNED—try to count up all the hours that you’ve devoted to this team. Who works for free for THAT many hours???? And yet this morning, for the first time ever, you get to wake up a champion. So today, take a moment to salute yourselves. I have complete confidence that our love for this team, our utter devotion to the history and future of the Giants, played a role in this magical year and how it ultimately unfolded…..

“I am a San Francisco Giants fan”…….you have no idea how much pride I exude when I say those 7 words……….

I woke up this morning, rolled out of bed and noticed something unusual:

I was at the top of Mount Everest. I took off my goggles, looked around….It’s the biggest world I’ve ever seen. I would worry about sun blindness except for the fact that all the light is radiating from me, not towards me. So I’m just sitting here, quietly, writing the words that you’re reading now, atop this goddamn mountain. As a  Giants fan, I’ve been Sisyphus. And yet this morning, here I sit next to my boulder at the top of Mount Everest, unsure of what to do next…….

If any of you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them……..

I thought we played a pretty good game last night. After the 2nd inning they got ONE run off us. Our bullpen was amazing. We hit the same number of bombs that they did, the difference in the game is that they had 2 guys on for one of them. We kept coming at them all night, with a run in the 7th and the 8th. It just wasn’t quite enough. Big deal.

Pat Burrell has 8 strikeouts in 9 World Series at bats. That has to be a record, right? He’s fairly balanced in most of those swing throughs so it’s not like he’s being fooled. He’s re-incarnated the ghost of Rajai Davis sans the speed. But the fact is, and we know this, Burrell is going to keep playing because that’s what Bochy does and it’s not like he has a sure-fire alternative to replace him. Hopefully though, we’ve seen the last of Panda. I think we might see Ishikawa at first with Huff DH’ing (although even that seems like a stretch since Bochy sees Ishi as invaluable as our most important PH).  So I don’t know what today looks like, maybe the same LU……..

Texas CANNOT win 2 straight in our park. Win one of the next two, we are all good………

Sorry about all those videos, I think when the main thread is too far down it’s hard for people to find. 3:57 start time. I’ve got some free Halloween candy for whoever posts the LU first….

I’m gonna go out and pretend to run errands or something. Me and Katie are getting our hair cut. Maybe a trip to IKEA (not to buy anything, she likes to play in the “Kid Land” thing they have there). Lunch. Buy some accessories for the hamster cage. Then hope we’re almost at game time………