A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

Compared to Friday night’s game, yesterday nearly had me nodding off. And yet AGAIN we come from behind and fuck our way to yet another W. I’m not sure what taking more ground balls is gonna do for Luciano. This appears to now be mental. And this is a bad time for that.

I think I remember reading Mac is going to today’s game. Manaea got a little payback on his mind but probably less now that Kap is gone. Manaea no likey Kappy.

I didn’t want to overstate it but I texted my buddy dafingaZ last night wondering if that was…the best….baseball….game…..I’ve ever……seen? Considering just regular season games and not considering implications of the win (like it didn’t send them to the post season or win them a World Series).

Think about it carefully and weigh in. I know recency bias is in play here but have you ever seen a better SF Giants baseball game in your life?

Everyone is talking about these last 2 comeback wins and for good reason. We have become conditioned to not believing they can do that. But enjoy the good times while they are here and now we get the Mets who, frankly, seem even worse than their actual record. Tell me we’ve got some east coast Flap representation at these games?

Well, another game I clicked off early only to find out we some how ended up winning. Lose a game late, win a game late, maybe I should just wait and flip these games on in the 8th inning.

Paul Skenes tonight. This is gonna be must watch…..

Yuck. I left that game in the 8th inning and then the texts started rolling in. “What the fuck was that?” “Worst loss of the year!” “Unreal”. I went to the boxscore and couldn’t believe it.

Now Pitt tosses Jones today, Skenes tomorrow. Exciting but this could get ugly, fast.

How the hell is Ranger Suarez 9-0 and dominating the league?

What a treat we have in store for us in Pittsburgh. We get to see both Jared Jones AND Paul Skenes pitch. Also, the return of Snell. All in all a pretty exciting mid week series.

I saw almost none of these 3 games with the Rockies, caught some of Sunday’s game on the radio. The box scores look real real nice. Tempered, as this was Colorado who is bad, but this weekend seemed to be a positive indictment of the youngsters. It will be very interesting to see what Farhan does with all the old-heads when they return from all of their injuries……

I’m out of town still….

Carstie Clausen	Sat, May 18, 8:20 PM (9 hours ago)
to me

Flav:  Team got what it desperately needed…new sparkplugs.  Rib-Eyes and doubles, baby.  THAT is offensive to the opposing team, but it works for the winners.  Eleven Rib-Eyes in two games ties Matos tied with a certain fellow name of Clark, when it comes to that stat.  NINE doubles for the team today.  I love me some doubles.  They are best called pitcher-wreckers.  Nine of em.  Think about that.  Giants must have somehow survived something like five games where they didn’t come up with that many two-baggers the whole while. Then there was today.  Okay, so it was against the Rockies…a squad never known for kick-ass pitching.

 When not only do you sparkplug the offense by a three-run dinger in the bottom of the first, but also haul in an otherwise home-run ball, second of this short season; we gotta think Champion sparkplugs.  Cue Springsteen:  “Center Field”.  Could this 22 Y.O. be the second coming of the MAN who celebrated his 93rd birthday just a few days ago?  Jumping the gun a whole bunch, but what’s not to like?  Here the ownership springs for a ton of money to acquire a new C.F.er and then tragedy…of a baseball sort …strikes and he’s down for the season after a leaping stab and a conjunction with the fence.

 Then this Venezuelan kid, who was the team’s outstanding stand-out in Spring Training gets the call.  Seems like he was moping after the disrespect as he was relegated to Sac-town. Enters The Show for his second round…and promptly STEALS the show.  Even with Ohtani present, Hollywood couldn’t top that drama.  So piss on the MLB site with their constant featuring of that Japanese superstar…and his Yank-Me Cohorts.  Maybe,  just maybe, there is a new Big Dog in town…perhaps even more than one, as the patience of Zaidi & Co. worked its magic with Heliot…who appears to finally have got his act together.  Those two outfield assists in one game may not be an M.L. record, but are damned well impressive.  Luciano’s first ever Rib-Eye on Friday night was a smile to remember.

 Oh ye of little faith.  Read the comments on the Flap a couple, two, three days back.  Lots of kvetching.  Tired old team and all that.  Hardly a positive attitude in the lot.  Sure and I went through some WTF moments throughout April and into the first part of may…and then all those injuries.  Were the Flap a ship, some of the guys would have maybe jumped overboard.  But by day by day attention to the River Cats, the possibility of help on hand just happened to be the best I’ve seen in years.  Sac-town was loaded for bear. Heliot Ramos was leading the pack, with a solid spring.  Luciano had made the switch from a potential power hitter with loads of strike-outs to a more selective and patient hitter, upping his B.A. and OBP as he was figuring out how to be a consistent hitter.  Way I perceived Matos was that he was miffed by what he may have considered as mistreatment by being sent down to AAA at the ripe old age of 22.  But once he got the call…all was forgiven and motivation was peaking.

 Tune in some more popular music:  “The kids are all-right”.  Not that the on the field array that Zaidi and ownership  had assembled was such a shit, sad sorry bunch of misfits that early action tended to indicate.  Chapman, for example, took a lot of flak by Flappers to the tune of “the dude’s washed up”…bad choice and on the downslope.  He wasn’t the only one, but the pattern which I noticed as really killing the offense was the BBIP factor.  They would hit the ball…sometimes with hard contact…but somehow those holes were not there and a lot of loud outs ensued.  The team, as concocted simply did not seem to have the jell factor…no cohesion, no spark.  We were witnessing a bunch of ball-players who simply could not get it together as a TEAM.

 Then something incredible happened…waaay beyond what a Hollywood screen-writer could concoct…big downer with all those injuries to key performers.  And what the fuck happened?  Call it a “Coogan’s Bluff” style miracle if you will, but those call-ups, products of the farm system, provided the spark and in today’s game at least…all those veterans who had been struggling suddenly caught the vibe.

 Baseball is a funny kinda game. Amidst all the stats and the geometry and fine tolerances of the contest…there is an often overlooked factor:  Magic.  Recall those three even years from 2010 to 2014.  Those three World Championships did not come by chance. There was a certain magic in the air.  The improbability of Timmeh and the Panda were almost something you would read in novels.  Take the gambling-infested NFL and NBA and you get a lot of talented athletes…but just how often does an under-rated and overlooked team win it all?

 Go back a hundred years.  In 1924 the words “Major League” meant one thing and one thing only…baseball.  Recalll the term “The National Pastime”?  Baseball has slipped it’s status.  Why?  Mainly because most Americans live such humdrum lives that they think that magic is a guy who pulls a rabbit outta a hat.  So the media types hype those Sooper-Stars…even while the dumkopf writers refuse to give Barry Bonds his due and elect him to the Hall of Fame.  That business has become a laugh, albeit a tragic one

 Maybe the May 18, 2024 victory was a one-off.  But I choose to think that there’s still some magic in the game.  What would have been the Vegas odds that a group of youngsters would have emerged to energize a beaten-down and battered team to the tune of no fewer than NINE devastating doubles in one game, while perking up veterans such as Soler, Estrada and Chapman to performances which we all had hoped would make for a newly resuscitated presentation.

 Last team in MLB to win three games in a row had a new look today. Been pretty pissed at the MLB “power rankings”, where those so-called sports writers have consistently rated Los Gigantes as #23.  If Hicks does his 5-6 innings of superb moundsmanship tomorrow, my thought is that he will get enough run support to stretch the streak to four wins in a row.  When Snell strolls to the mound in that East Coast swing, maybe, just maybe, those prognosticators might give the Giants just a little bit of respect…particularly if those Pipeliners keep putting the timber to the orbs.

And with that win, we stave off a double digit number out of first place in the NL West. But honestly, going 3-3 against Cinn and LA is about the best we could have hoped for. Especially after losing JHL for the season.

What is a realistic goal at this point? .500? Sounds about right.

Ever since the Monday night loss, last night seem inevitable. I even told the butcher I thought we would lose 10-2. Of course there’s no way to prove that short of me bringing the butcher to the Flap to confirm. But I did say that.

The real bad news here is that our shittiest players are also our healthiest players. Why does it always happen that way?

LA rolling out an opener tonight. They don’t care. They know they can beat us any number of ways with very little effort.

The Kids (Rammy and Matty) accounted for half our hits and all of our runs. Maybe that’s something to take away from last night’s loss. We have too many injuries right now but when guys get healthy I hope we somehow keep these youngsters in the line up every day.

Fun Mothers Day walk off win. They kept trying to give that game away but Schmitt took care of business to give himself a batting average this year.

Lots of men down. Medic! Let’s see how they cobble this together with the Dodgers coming in to eat.

I know Chap has been in a slump but his power is there, man. He’s just been in a funk. Soler I don’t know about. He is worrying me whether he’s injured or not. It’s wild to me that the brass considered both Black and Jefferies, twice, and still picked Jefferies both times. I get it, he’s got a short leash but Black is on a different planet than Jefferies. It really makes you wonder if they have any fucking idea what they are doing or how to do it.

The Giants have scored 148 runs this year. That seems like more than they’ve scored, aye? Anyway it’s good for 23rd in MLB. How in the fucking hell have they scored more runs this year than 7 other teams?

Larry Baer is such a shill. He was on KNBR yesterday celebrating “winning a series on the road”. I had to turn him off he’s such a joke.

Now we start a legit home stand. A critical home stand. The Reds are playing like shit but unlike us they have good young players. And then we get LA, lol.

Oh well, can’t hide all season in Colorado. Time to man up.

I got a couple of emails from our good friend Stix:

Carstie Clausen	Wed, May 8, 9:16 AM (20 hours ago)
to me

Craig:  Hope you are doing well and greetings to all Flappers with whom you may still be in touch.  Miss the camaraderie a bunch…even if this early spring has been a frustrating start to the season.  Team needs desperately a spark plug.  Thought that Yaz would have made his usual jump into carrying the team after his dinger in Baahstin, but didn’t happen.  Slater seems to have lost his mojo…ditto, Wilmer.  Over in SacTown, Schmitty has turned into an RBI machine with plenty of doubles.  If he can carry that energy into the show, a #6 or seven batter might be his prime spot.  Luciano has focused on batting rather than slugging and has a B.A. in the 280’s.  He is pressing Ahmed to produce in the #9 hole.  Ramos is also maintaining a high BA, along with some dingers.  He too may be in the cards to essentially replace Slater.  Soler is an enigma…low BA and single-shots on long-balls.  Chapman:  WTF.  Tuned into gameday yesterday evening and the Korean “martial artist” was absolutely tormenting the Rockies starter by fouling off pitch after pitch.Ideal leadoff man.  Best of last year’s team was this ability to wear down opposing starters.  Late-Night Wade is having him a growth-spurt and is well positioned in the three-hole

 Turning to the mound, there will be a massive logjam of quality starters (barring major injuries) by the second half.  Eight of them.  Expect interesting Tradewinds by the Deadline.  One or more of the starters may join (surprise, surprise) Hjelle as longmen. Current outlook is that the team is gradually jelling…just needs one or two sparkplugs to energize the lineup.  Obviously, the team was not yet ready for Bahhstin and definitely Harper powering the Philthies.  Perhaps the return engagements in SF will balance things out a bit.  At this point, maintenance of something around a .500 record is the best outlook.  Can you imagine a team with FIVE aces?…it could be in the cards.  Patience, my friend.

___________________________________________

Carstie Clausen	Wed, May 8, 6:53 PM (10 hours ago)
to me

Craig:  Thanks for the response.  Still living in an apartment 6 miles from the homestead.  Was out there today for hours, getting the potato patch prepped and other fun stuff, like water from the little hand-pump along with fresh mint just coming up and a bunch of perpetual onions, dating back to ancient Egypt…well not those particular ones.  70 degrees this afternoon after a very nice winter and a schizo spring.  Considering transforming the place into a spiritual sanctuary and a school of country living, most likely for younger folks looking for survival skills and a peaceful lifestyle.

 So how you been?  Still in touch with some of the original Flappers.? You did quite the service keeping it up and even when not getting on the Flap I sure liked rubbernecking to get the feel of where the Giants are at.  Hoping you’re in good health and successfully coping with life in the faster lane.  Any time you have any insights into Los Gigantes, drop me an e.m.

 Enjoy the coming summer.  -stix

Nice time for Colorado who some how have the 25th team OPS in the league. How is that even possible playing half your games in Colorado?

We scored 5 runs so that translates to like 2.8 runs at a normal park. Don’t be fooled. We can’t hit.

Wheeler shuts a lot of teams down so I’m not going to use yesterday’s game to rail away on our offense. Again. It’s one of the worst constructed teams in the league (old, slow and weak). But we didn’t need to see Wheeler spin that gem to know that.

Like what Black showed. He should have been showing this for both Jefferies implosions. Just gotta stretch him out a little more and he’ll be yet another arm in the starting rotation that we can trust…..

Well, on the plus side we broke a 9 game streak of scoring less than four runs. Think about how pathetic that is for a moment.

Still 4 games left on this terrible road trip. Say, I wonder if we’ll be able to score 4 runs a game in Colorado?

Thorpedo Anna was very very good to me in the Oaks yesterday. The Derby is wide open. Not even tossing out a pick. There are 7 horses I think who can win.

I saw the box score that we lost again. Pfffttttt……

Watching Red Sox fans cheer Yaz’ bomb yesterday made me think, is there any possible way Zaidi could send him there and maybe even get a little value? Probably not as they’d be his only suitor but you can’t tell me their ownership team hasn’t at least thought about it.

Philly tonight. I’m out of town for a few days but will keep the blog chugging along as that is my sworn duty and solemn oath.

Look, I’m not an idiot. I don’t believe in fairy tales or angels or any of that stuff. Although I have seen some recent videos over the years that have me on board with UFO’s. So I know our offense is one of the worst in the league and when you score 2 runs you probably aren’t going to win. But it enrages me that the Giants would have a payroll of 197 million dollars AND legitimate pitching prospects in triple A and yet they still insist on trotting out this abject loser Daulton Jefferies to the mound for a game that counts.

AND THEY HAVE DONE IT FUCKING TWICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Zaidi sucks and if Melvin supported this idiotic plan then he sucks too.

Just an awful showing last night. For a month our stud starting pitchers have masked the pathetic offerings of the offense. On a rare night when Webb didn’t have it and he turned to the O for answers they came up emptier than Wimpy sadly displaying his pockets.

And tonight it will not get better as that joker Jefferies some how is getting another start. Why don’t we let one of our exciting young starters from the minor leagues start this game?

I’ve never been to Fenway. But many times over the course in my life I’ll be standing next to or near a wall, look up and think to myself “that looks about 37 feet high. Goddamn that’s high.”

What is Flap Nation’s experience with Fenway and The Green MONSTER?

Feels like we are gonna smoke these Boston fools.

It’s Winn. As in “all he does is…..”. I’m telling you, this dude is gonna be a solid #3 for us and possibly even a #2. And we are going to need him and any other available quality pitcher if we are going to keep running out this shit hitting offense. 3 runs? Yep, that’s all you get Winn, go make it happen.

20th in the league in bombs, 24th in SB’s. Once again, when faced with the question of “Would you rather be strong or fast?” we meekly answer “we shall be neither….”

Thursday: we scored 0 runs thru 6.

Friday: We scored 0 runs thru 8.

Saturday: we scored 1 run thru 9.

I mean, what the fuck? We are at home. We are facing shitty pitchers. And the offense literally is chortling balls.

Our pitchers deserve better.

Look, the Pirates aren’t very good. They are probably even worse than their 13-14 record. And we got shut down by a complete scrap heap nobody. But a win is a win. And man, that crowd was ROCKIN’ after Bailey hit that bomb.

Day 3 of the draft. Finally. Now is when Lynch and Shanny cook.

Love the Niners first round pick–Slick Rick. That dude is electric. People are going to compare him to Gray and that’s not fair. Gray was a reach at 3, he doesn’t have the skills of this dude. Personally, I wanted them to trade Deebo but I guess no one wanted him or maybe they saw what we all see– a dude who is going to keep getting injured as he gets older. Pearsall and Aiyuk are boys maybe there is still a plan to somehow move Samuel. Either way, even if they keep them both they are for sure losing 1 of them at the end of 2025 so why not add a stud like Rickey? We have nothing after Samuel and Aiyuk…..

If you liked Candlestick you’ll love tonight’s game. Cold and windy. If you’ve never been to a game at Oracle it can get just as cold as Candlestick at night when those winds get going. The ballpark structure minimizes it a bit compared to Candlestick but make no mistake it can get cold as fuck in that park on certain nights.

The Snell situation continues to get worse. At least it’s not his arm. And actually we lose all the games he pitches in so maybe this is a blessing in disguise. Either way, yuck.

Speaking of *yuck*, man, Soler looks like shit. I’m not totally against him swinging for the fences since that’s why we got him. But in order to hit a home run you are required to swing the bat. In the 7th inning with a chance to blast one with two mates on base he chose to become a spectator and watch the final 2 strikes whiz right past him, striking out on 3 pitches. That is not gonna fly, big boy.

Still, minus Snell our starting pitching staff actually looks a little bit better today so….yeah.

And now the pitching staff is feeding off itself. Hicks. Winn. The 2024 CY winner. Harrison and Snell will soon follow. With all 5 of those studs clicking in unison the pressure will come off the offense and it will begin to slowly coalesce. It’s not even May yet. The Giants have a chance to be great this year.

I have always liked this guy and had confidence in him. He looks like he’s turning a corner and that would be huge for us this season. I hope his arm can handle all those splitters he’s throwing. If it can, look out, we got a legit MLB starter in this rotation.

Hey guys– sorry we had a service interruption. I was responsible enough to keep the yearly payments on auto pay but not responsible enough to recognize when my card expired. Anyway, I was a big fan of seeing Melvin and Williams show a little fire yesterday. I don’t think we saw that in 4 years combined from Kapler.

And while I wish we had won the game we still split the series vs a team that was in the World Series last year. So despite our record i like where we are right now. Team is still coming together. Plenty of time left.

We bounced back from another Snell loss with a really nice win. They competed and kept playing hard till the end. What more can you ask for? Bailey was amazing. Do they technically not count that as a Splash hit since it landed dry in a boat?

Hicks and His Hot Licks get after it again today…..

I had something come up last night and I left the game 2-1 with Dbacks leading. Never made it back to the game. Fired up the box score today and I literally thought it was a mistake.

What happened?

Now that’s how you start a home stand. No torture. Leading the league in innings pitched again, Webb is well on his way to winning the CY this year.

That W probably made the trip back across the country a little easier to deal with. And with no days off we face Arizona tonight. At least they played a day game. But this has been some weird scheduling to start the season (to say the least).

10 game home stand starts now. We are facing 3 good teams but we’re at home, we’re only 3 games out of first place. Time to fuck.

Man, yesterday was tough. And I’m not talking about that boring Giants game. Why do all of their SP’s punch us out 10 times a game?

I’m talking about the Warriors. That was ugly. Straight up embarrassing. It was shocking how slow and clunky they looked. The Kings were playing at a different speed. Klay looked like a bewildered high school player out there. Steph got his pocket picked like an old lady in the park. And to make matters worse, I lost a round of golf to my main men in Sacramento, Eric and Hal. The dreaded beam has been lit.

Time is undefeated. There will be a transition that will be tough for many Warrior fans. Personally, I am excited about it. They have some useful, fun young guys. Time to embrace them and build around them.

Forgetting that the Marlins are terrible, that was an incredible win last night. Early on we watched the Marlins get way too much wood on Kyle’s fast yet predictable fastball. The other guy was striking us out like we were a parade of high school dropouts. And yet somehow, on the road, we dinked and dunked and singled and sacrificed our way to a win.

Look, we didn’t look like a very good baseball team. We were all-out to come back and barely beat one of the worst teams in the league.

But a satisfying win nonetheless…..

I guess we’ll just have to see about Snell. He’s got year’s like this in him. When he’s not winning a Cy Young he’s frankly very average. Still, he had no spring training and it’s not like we have any other options. Marlins tonight. I hate this Florida swing.

Watching the game with my dad, there was a moment he said “watching baseball is like watching grass grow.” I’ve personally never felt that way about the game. It’s possible the 2024 Giants offense might inspire that thought to pop into your head more frequently than if you were of a fan of a team that could hit.

Agree with everyone on the last thread about the old and tired players we have that need to go.

Headed back to Ca today. Looks like a lot of rain in front of me.

Weird start to the season. Why do we have to go all the way east this early in the season? At least we had a day off. Our synergy of shitiness continues as we drop ever so slightly to 26th and 26th in bombs/SBs.

The Masters got off to a fantastic start yesterday (excluding my boy Clark who stumbled to a +1). It’s so fun to see Tiger have a decent round (he still has to finish it and that means 23 holes for him today). I can’t imagine he can cobble those old and fused bones together enough to play 4 straight quality rounds in a row. But it’s fun to dream. It’s truly amazing what he’s doing off the tee. He’s driving the ball further than many of the other young bucks out there and he’s doing it with a fused ankle. He get no lower body push that’s all upper core that’s driving the ball. It’s astounding, really.

Would love to see the douchy Bryson stumble to like a 78 today. Or maybe save that for Sunday. Hate the guy.

Easily our best off season pick up. So far. With yesterday’s 3 stolen bags we have achieved balanced synergy. 25th in the league in bombs, 25th in the league in stolen bases. Konnichiwa.

Today I drive to Medford so will be out of pocket a little.

FYI Clark is winning the Masters.

Last year we were slow and weak. That bothered me greatly. You can’t be both and have a great year. For certain, if you are slow and weak you’ll be the most boring team in the league. That is not even debatable.

I haven’t checked the stats on this but it just feels like HR’s are down across baseball up to this point in the season. Would love it if someone could research that for me. We have 10 bombs this season which puts us at 14th place in MLB along with some other very good team (the Rangers, the Cubs, for instance). But we are DEAD LAST in the SB department. In fact, SF is tied with Flap Nation in that category. We both have 0 stolen bases this season.

I don’t mind being slow. But if SF is gonna be tied with us Flappers for last in the league it would be nice if we were blasting the ball out of the park with a little more frequency.

I’m not worried about Snell, it’s not like he got bombed.

What an ending! We got another close one that ended up the right way. Tonight we get the unveiling of Snell. Again, I am not super hot on this guy because he always seems he’s about a hair out of place of reverted back to #4 material. But if he’s remotely close to what he was last year he helps us a TON.

Eclipse day! I don’t really care about this I gotta be honest.

Oh baby, that one got ugly early. It started with Lee not seeing the first fly ball of the game and ended with me turning the game off some time in the 6th inning.

Low batting average alert: some of these guys are starting to go really really low. Yaz: .071. Chappy: .189. Soler: .212. Estrada: .171. Lee: .200.

And they could go even lower with Webby pitching. He’s not known for run support.

Really got to hand it to Jordan Hicks. Making this transition to starting pitcher so seamlessly has been fun to watch. Of course there is the constant and looming concern about whether a guy who throws that hard can pile on this many innings so quickly and not eventually blow out his arm. But that hasn’t happened yet so I’ll stop worrying about it.

I really like Keaton Winn. If he can somehow turn the corner and be a reliable #4 we are really gonna be cooking with gasoline at that point…..

Only quibble is that we are playing the Padres again. Also, playing at a .286 clip kinda sucks. But whatever! It’s Opening Day!

I think I’ve only been to one of these. 1999? Stick was packed that day.

Relax. I couldn’t be any more chill. We have a bunch of new players, who I like, who just got here. The team will jell, especially with the steady Melvin at the helm. Lots of teams are going to get swept by LA in their Latrine.

I agree with Snarkk and Bozo on the last thread. I am genuinely excited to go to some games this year. As long as we maintain our health we are going to be tough to deal with as the season wears on.

Yeah, if our ace is going to pitch like that the outcome is pretty much guaranteed. At least my boy Soler joined the par-tay. The game to take from them was the bullpen game. This dude Bobby Miller is a beast. Harrison gonna need his A+ game tonight for us to have a chance of not getting swept back to San Francisco.

That one just kinda felt like we were out of it from the first inning on. Disappointing but just one game. My boy Lee as well as Chapman and Conforto continue to rake. Would like to see Soler join the party at some point. Webb facing what appears to be a bullpen game from LA tonight.