Everyone gets a letter!

Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2016 Washington Generals.

Remember those guys? The Washington Generals were the so-called team that traveled with, and laid down for, the classic Harlem Globetrotters night after night; the guys who fell for the hidden ball trick and couldn’t defend the hoop against a basic weave despite seeing it night after night for years ad infinitum.

“Dude, there’s the same weave we saw in Wichita, but maybe it’ll work differently in Kansas City. Don’t defend Meadowlark.”

Cannon-fodder is what they were; just part of the show, brought in to make the headliners look good. and getting de-pantsed in the process. 

That pretty well sums up the Giants’ 2016 spring training non-roster invitees.

This week the team announced a slate of 21 prospects, minor league mainstays, and trying-to-hook-on-somewhere guys who will be given the temporary honor of wearing orange and black somewhere between Valentine’s and St. Patrick’s Day. Cool, faux holidays for faux Giants.

To be fair, these invitations aren’t just symbolic. The Giants hope that someone in the mix catches their attention and becomes worthy of further consideration. There’s always a Justin Maxwell who stands out – you just hope it’s the Maxwell who played last May and not the one who got cut by August.  It’s also a chance to see how guys who hopefully have a future stack up against Major League talent.

But really, they’re the “Hey kid, wanna play?” guy you see at the park who gets to patrol right field so you can have nine on a side.

If you’ve made the trek down to Scottsdale you know the drill. Buster Posey catches three frames and grabs a PowerAde (which we’d shamelessly shill for a sponsorship), the closer is throwing 12 pitches every other day, and by inning number six the playing surface is populated by guys with numbers in the 70s and 80s on their backs. The regulars have long since departed, and some have already reached the 10^th tee.

The problem with all of this is: it’s awesome. 

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. No wait, that’s the Mos Eisley cantina. Spring Training is actually pretty cool, with the views up close and the players, even announcers, more accessible (Thanks for signing the book, Jon.).

But this year’s edition of the Scottsdale Sweepstakes holds no drama. For most, the odds of making the team are only slightly better than hitting the Powerball. That’s not because the invitees aren’t good, just that this year’s opening-day roster seems to be pretty much locked.

There may be a debate over who takes the last outfield spot or home many pitchers they’ll carry, but the following are obvious:

Catchers: Buster Posey, Andrew Susac. Infield: Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Matt Duffy, Joe Panik, Kelby Tomlinson. Outfield: Gregor Blanco, Angel Pagan, Hunter Pence, Denard Span. Pitchers: Madison Bumgarner, Matt Cain, Johnny Cueto, Jake Peavy, Jeff Samardzija, Santiago Casilla, George Kontos, Javier Lopez, Josh Osich, Sergio Romo, Hunter Strickland.

That goes beyond our ability to count on fingers and toes, but just barely. Barring something insane – and we’re talking Donald Trump or Ammon Bundy level lunacy, 23 roster spots are spoken for.  This list has 11 pitchers and four outfielders, so expect one of each to complete the 25.

Did we mention how much we want Tim Lincecum to be that last hurler? If MySpace is willing to write the check (there’s still a MySpace?), do it now!!!

So you’ve like got 21 guys plus late additions shooting for two narrowly-defined spots. The rest? It’s a chance to be seen, either by the Giants or someone else. By the end of March someone’s dream will be realized, someone’s career extended, the table will be set for the future, or the final curtain will fall.

It’s great drama, with or without the background music of Sweet Georgia Brown.

Predictions that are way too early

Isn’t it hysterical how the talking heads, and even the mumbling heads (that’s you, Kevin Millar), are making predictions about the 2016 season even though rosters haven’t been finalized?

Yeah, we thought so. In fact, so much hilarity is generated that we thought we’d play a bit ourselves. 

Preseason predictions are fun. You can make an argument for any decent team, and if it falls apart in September there’s gonna be something over the course of 162 games you can point to as reason for the misfire. You lacked information, the team was snakebit, a trade killed chemistry (hello, Billy Beane), the planets weren’t aligned properly and the league office conspired to fix the outcome; but you weren’t wrong.

We like this game!

Quite honestly, it’s not that hard. A team like the Giants has few open roster spots heading toward spring training.  You can ask who the fifth outfielder might be, posit on the possibilities of carrying a third catcher, or get creative in finding a way to shoe horn Tim Lincecum into the lineup and payroll. But overall, we can be relatively sure about the make-up of the team.

Most  teams are in the same boat. We know Yovanni Gallardo, Dexter Fowler and Austin Jackson are gonna drop somewhere and shake-up a clubhouse, maybe a prospect comes from nowhere and makes an impact, but the picture in mid-January is pretty much what we’ll see come April.

So we can say this: the Giants can print playoff tickets. Yes, the even-year magic strikes again.

Now that’s not exactly news to anyone following the National League. Let’s be real. Top to bottom, the NL sucks. It sucks hard. It sucks like a fleet of Rug Doctors.

We view the National League like Southeastern Conference NCAA football. The teams at the top are great but the undercard looks like a group of college kids suited up for a game with friends, smoked a few too many blunts, then got lost on the way to the intramural field.

“I think I took a wrong turn at Albuquerque.”

When you look at the worst teams in baseball, you can make the argument that six of them live in the National League. Even better, they’re evenly dispersed.

In the East, the Braves are shedding players like an English sheep dog in a sauna as they continue a massive rebuild. The Phillies got old and way too late getting into the same mode as Atlanta. The Central is home to Cincinnati and Milwaukee, yet two more teams pointed to the future at the expense of today. All are the baseball version of Amazon.com, willing to operate at a loss today in hope of greater reward somewhere down the road.

The Giants and (choke, gag) Dodgers are well aware they’ll have Colorado and San Diego to prop up the West as both organizations are in disarray. The group is complicated by Arizona, which spent like a Kardashian and put a bevy of learned people in control positions but seems to be emulating the process that failed the Padres so miserably a year ago.

Very quickly the field of top dogs narrows: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and New York. It’s highly likely that the five postseason combatants come from that group of six.

Arizona is trying to join the party and Washington aims to put the ‘fun’ back in ‘dysfunctional’, but there aren’t a lot of clubs whose hopes go past the typical protestations of “Why not us?” heard every spring. By June they’ll all know why not.

Three 2015 postseason teams came from the NL Central and some would say that trio will repeat the feat. We’re not buying it.

The Giants weren’t invited to the party but the 2016 version looks like a 90-plus win team to us. We’re heavily counting on improved pitching and the top players spending less time dealing with freak injuries, bone-seeking fastballs and recurring concussion-itis, but this is an above-average team. They had a good core, then added to it. There’s a question with bench depth, but a healthy Giants team is this division’s best.

While the G-Men had a good off-season, the Dodgers had arguably the worst.  Zack Greinke signed within the division, Aroldis Chapman couldn’t be had because of his domestic abuse case, Hisashi Iwakuma was a Dodger for 15 minutes then bolted back to Seattle  after a failed physical. Attempts to land David Price and Jordan Zimmerman died like an Adam Sandler movie. 

Hope at Chavez Latrine centers around Scott Kazmir and Kenta Maeda finding a way to replace Grienke, and  Yasiel Puig staying healthy and finding ways not to have his teammates plot his kidnap and torture -- if MadBum doesn't get him first. If all goes well, they’ll still win 85 games and maybe contend for the Wild Card.

Pencil in the Mets from the woeful East, give the Central to the boys from the Southside and let the Pirates and Cardinals (it’s always the Cardinals) fight for the Wildcard with the Giants’ divisional victims.

And here’s where that even-year magic is really felt. It’s not about metaphysics, analytics, arthritics or antiparasitics (reached so hard for that one a medic is needed; but who really needs a spleen?). 

There’s a blueprint, and it works.

Look at the off years. The 2011, 2013 and 2015 campaigns had a common thread: injuries. Regardless of record, these weren’t bad teams. Only 2015 presents another factor, bad pitching depth, but even then the bruised and battered team stayed in the race. Each time they’ve faltered, management did something about it. Enter Jeff Samardzija, Johnny Cueto and Dennard Span. Keep Hunter Pence and Joe Panik upright, pass another rule to protect Buster Posey, and this is the class of the division.

And if it doesn’t come to pass, we’ve got a full season to come up with an excuse.

Remembrances of Giants Past

Remember Darren Ford?

That’s a name many of us had forgotten. At best he’s a distant, but pleasant, memory. Half a decade ago he added some speed to a station-to-station team and in the process earned a share of the postseason pie and a World Series ring. 

And like Heather O’Roarke in the original Poltergeist, he’s baaaack. Well, sort of.

The Giants have made a habit of returning old friends to the fold. Most recently, former Giants like Ryan Vogelsong and Travis Ishikawa were invited in for a second cup of coffee, and they produced enough to make the experiment worthwhile. We’ve also seen the team give Jesse Foppert, Adam Pettyjohn and others another bite and the apple, only to come up with the worm. Agave it wasn’t.

With the 2016 season about to dawn, San Francisco seems to be doubling down on the nostalgia tour.  Both OF Ford and LHP Mike Kickham have inked minor league deals with their old clubs. It makes one wonder what the heck the Giants are up to.

It’s not really a homecoming for Ford. Nicknamed ‘The Bullet’ (or so says his Wikipedia page), he was a breath of fresh air on a team that featured the Wild Kingdom outfield of Pat Burrell, Aubrey Huff and Andres Torres (two water buffalo and a gazelle). But that was 2010.

Ford is now 30 and, despite his Mercury-esque gift, hasn’t taken and Major League at-bat since 2011. He spent a year each with the Mariners and Pirates but never escaped minor league purgatory. He’s spent the last two seasons patrolling AAA outfields for the Giants, putting up a .261/.333/.403 line while swiping 33 bags last season at Sacramento.

Kickham, who fans affectionately dubbed “Kick Me” during his sporadic appearances in 2013-14, had farm stops with the Rangers and Mariners a year ago. Quite frankly, he was the same pitcher the Giants saw the first time around. He sucked. Kickham totaled just 27 innings but walked 35 guys, not a far cry from his Giants days: a 2.14 WHIP and 3.3 walks per 9 while putting up an 0-3 record in just 14 appearances.

You gotta figure the Giants have some affinity for these two: there’s no other reason to keep them around or bring them back.

Ford can be considered an insurance policy but any at-bats he gets take away from the development of younger talent, particularly when guys like Jarrett Parker and Mac Williamson are likely to start the season in AAA.

Kickham is a bigger head-scratcher. The Giants added eight pitchers to the 40-man roster just prior to the Rule 5 Draft, ostensibly to protect their rights, then sent Cody Hall packing. Now the return of Kickham, plus the inking of career minor league righty Vin Mazzaro (eight teams in 10 seasons), puts a further squeeze on the roster.

It’s not as tough to get innings for developing pitchers so the likes of Ty Blach, Clayton Blackburn, Tyler Beede and Kyle Crick are going to see action, but you can have too many arms. Every frame thrown by some guy on the wrong side of 30 is one less for a guy from whom the Giants might get long-term benefit. One extra arm is insurance, and that might be Chris Heston’s role.

Dear God, please let that be Heston’s role. If he starts the season in San Francisco, his ‘A’ pitch isn’t the only thing that’s sinking … or not sinking. Better to stash Tim Lincecum in the swing role if he’s healthy, giving him a chance to become The Freak again before Jake Peavy is shown the door.

If the Giants have swiped Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine, they could do better. It seems they’ve already held onto guys like Ehire Adrianza a bit too long, especially with prospects like Christian Arroyo and Lucious Fox knocking at the door.

San Francisco earned a reputation of stockpiling pitchers, often at the expense of other positions. They went from Matt Williams to Buster Posey without developing a single impact position player. Pablo Sandoval was next, but both is performance and waistline fluctuated greatly before he ultimately went Bennedict Arnold. The team now has some homegrown stalwarts but Brandon Crawford, Joe Panik, Matt Duffy and potential utility man Kelby Tomlinson have one thing in common -- none got a chance until the front office was forced into using them. There were plenty of Dan Ugglas and Casey McGehees in line ahead of them. The latest signees can't be allowed to throw up similar roadblocks.

This is a cutthroat game. The 49ers, back when the front office was run by adults, always assumed it was better to lose a guy a year too soon as opposed to a year too late. Hence a Jerry Rice or Joe Montana were moved to make room for a Terrell Owens or Steve Young. The Giants have sometimes failed to learn that lesson – Vogelsong overstayed his welcome and even Kirk Rueter was on the dance floor after the music stopped.  

Here’s hoping the Giants are amassing chips for something else. An installment of Work Porker Tour is fun to watch. An episode of Hoarders is just sad.

How Freak-ish Should 2016 Be?

Beat writer John Shea pegs the Giants as a “dark horse” among potential suitors for Tim Lincecum. Really? Black Caviar, Ruffian, Seattle Slew; those are dark horses. Tim Lincecum is an enigma, and the chances he remains with the Giants are equally unclear.

Shea's fine article from the San Francisco Chronicle reports the two-time Cy Young Award winnerlans a February showcase in an attempt to prove he’s not about to throw a shoe. Offseason hip surgery promises to return him to his former glory, or so his handlers would have teams believe. He vows to pitch somewhere in 2016. Should it be with the Giants?

The Giants made him the 10^th pick overall in 2006, and by May 2007 he was in the big leagues to stay. He was a combination of Steve Nebraska and a beat poet, adding a funky one-of-a kind delivery and hair stolen from a Shih Tzu. He liked to get a little buzz on, and was willing to play mobile DJ for his video game self (“and we don’t listen to that!’). 

He was made for San Francisco.

Lincecum won the Cy Young in 2008 and 2009, and was part of three World Series wins – although his contribution in 2014 was a token postseason appearance. He graced magazine covers, spreading the gospel of Giants baseball to a wider audience that often discounts, or outright ignores, anything east of Chicago or St. Louis.

Such is the making of a cult hero.

The Giants were knee deep in the hoopla (and we just ticked off Grace Slick) yet the Giants had one World Series appearance and no rings during the Barry Bonds era. The groundwork for a dynasty was laid with the arrival of The Freak. In return he was handsomely compensated: his total salary for nine seasons is just short of $100 million, and the 2010 and 2012 titles don’t happen without him.

   

 Downside, he hasn’t had more than 20 quality starts in a season since 2011 and last year injuries and ineffectiveness limited him to just five. He tossed a pair of no-hitters (blanking San Diego does count) and his career WHIP is a still-respectable 1.27. He's also had four straight years above that level.  The returns aren’t what they used to be. So the question everyone is asking: should the Giants make an effort to re-sign him?

That’s complicated. Madison Bumgarner is now the unquestioned ace of the staff. Giants brass shelled out big bucks to bring in Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija, while Matt Cain and Jake Peavy are under contract. The rotation would appear to be locked, and Lincecum’s reps have made it clear he wants to start.

The Giants also find themselves pushing the luxury tax threshold, and there’s been no indication from ownership a will to exceed that number exists. Based on his last four seasons he’s not going to command top dollar, but he’s still not going to come cheap. Those fan fantasies about a low number with incentives? Not going to happen. Too many teams need starting pitching and they’ll gladly take a flyer on a name brand – particularly if it comes at a discount.

So, what price does each side place on loyalty? And just as important: will he sell tickets?

Well, at SSFGF we’re more than a little biased. Here’s the story:

Following his selection in 2006, he was assigned to Single-A San Jose because, well, that’s what you do with newbies. He wasn’t there long enough to spell “San Jose”, but his brief stint included a start in Bakersfield; this writer's current home.

As gates opened, you could hear a sound that was just … different. The visiting bullpen isn’t fan accessible, but the pop of ball in glove was pronounced, and there was also a certain zip that was visceral. You couldn’t see it, but it was there. There was something, or someone, special behind the grandstand. The popping stopped, and this skinny little runt comes walking out toward the playing surface. 

'This is him? The guy everyone is raving about? Come on!'

He was very relaxed, leaning up against the low chain-link fence and eyeballing the dump of a ballpark, built into the setting sun and coming apart like the last days of the George Bush Administration. There were maybe 15 people in the park, so it was easy to walk up and start a conversation.

No pretense. No “I’m the next big thing”. He was gracious, he was personable, he was everything you want your own kids to be. He chatted for about 10 minutes, signed a ball, politely excused himself, and then proceeded to dominate for five innings before leaving due to a team-mandated 60-pitch count.

He was equally as gracious two years later. By this point he was a bona fide star, gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated. He signed two copies of that magazine, smiled politely, and thanked me for coming to the park.

How can you not love this guy?

That’s the quandary facing the Giants’ front office. He would sell tickets. He’s still beloved. As much as Cepeda and Mays belonged to our elders, Prime Time Timmy Jim belongs to us. We’d argue that, with the Giants winning three titles in the past six years (and that window remains open), this is the Golden Age of Giants Baseball. It's the era of Buster, MadBum, and The Freak. They are the constants. And from a fans’ point of view, moving on without Lincecum just doesn’t feel right.

The Giants don’t have a poker player’s tell in these situations. They profess loyalty and, as such held on to Aubrey Huff, Pat Burrell and Ryan Vogelsong longer than practical. You could even argue the two-year/ $35 million deal Lincecum just finished falls into that category based on the numbers he put up. 

San Francisco has also played hardball, letting Edgar Renteria go literally days after he was named the World Series MVP. Russ Ortiz pitched them to a World Series and was shown the door. They ate money to let Aaron Rowand depart when he was no longer useful (was he ever?). There's no typical modus operandi here. 

So many variables figure in, and we don’t envy Bobby Evans and Brian Sabean in trying to figure this one out.  It’s about money, the role, comfort zone, etc. But we do have a take, and it only took about 1,100 words to get there.

If Timmy will accept a reasonable offer and looks good during the February workout, sign him. 

A starting pitcher in the Major Leagues would take the hill, at most 33 times in a 162-game season. Bumgarner, Cueto and Samardzija eat innings but that can’t last forever. Case in point: Matt Cain. He was a horse, until he wasn’t. Peavy is, well, Peavy -- six innings per start in between injuries. The Giants are, at some point, going to need another arm; one that can pitch from the pen or in a starting role. Timmy can: remember 2012?

Yusmeiro Pettit filled the swingman role ably, but he’s in Toronto. The closest thing the Giants have is George Kontos, and he’s really a two-to-three frame guy. The insurance policy would be Lincecum – because another season of Chris Heston and his one pitch (a sinker that often doesn't) just isn’t acceptable.

The Giants should make an offer. A healthy Lincecum, even given the last four years, is at least the equivalent of a Colby Lewis or Wade Miley; each making over $6 million. But Lincecum will also have to accept a different role, get that he’s not going to get the money even the underpaid Bumgarner does ($7 million), and realize the deal won’t be a long one. That's a hard ask for a former superstar, even if that role is with a team that has a legitimate shot at getting him a fourth ring.

The wildcard: someone comes in and offers the soon-to-be 32-year-old a multi-year deal for eight figures per. Then, as much as we might wish otherwise, he’s probably gone. But if he places significant value on being in front of a fan base that has had is back through good and bad, and he’s willing to wait for the chance to start that we all know is gonna come, Tim Lincecum should stay in orange and black.

Our suggested offer: two years, $12 million with a lucrative team option for year three. It's good money but team friendly, and it would certainly appeal to the fans who ultimately foot the bill.

C'mon guys. Make it happen.

Just How Deep are the Pockets?

The offseason is never about strikes and balls, safe or out. It’s all about hopes for the upcoming campaign, and a big part of that comes down to ….

Prices for players continue to rocket upward. Nolan Ryan was the first to $1 million in 1980. Bobby Bonilla crashed through the $5 million level two years later. Since then? Utility infielders are getting paid like Babe Ruth.

Just kidding. Babe Ruth only made $50K.

Does anyone remember how crazy we thought Barry Bonds’ 5 year/$90 million deal was? That was just in 2002, and it’s exactly what they’ll pay Jeff Samardzija to be a number-three starter. 

Owners lament the costs but they keep paying, with fans and TV mostly footing the bill. After all, they can spend whatever they want in this non-salary cap league. Or can they?

The Giants have often settled on perceived second-tier guys when bigger names were out there to be had. You can argue that maybe the money hasn’t been spent wisely at times, but the Giants have certainly not been afraid to spend, so claims they’re cheap are ridiculous. Not always flashy, but certainly not cheap.

In case you missed it, only four teams (Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, and Tigers) spent more last year. San Francisco shelled out $158.5 million and that number is going substantially higher. But how high can, or should, it go?

There’s no salary cap, except  there is. That’s the kind of circular thinking that got “The Brink” a second season on HBO. Baseball’s version of a cap is a luxury tax, basically telling teams that have more they can spend more, as long as they agree to spend even more than that.

It’s like someone handed your significant other a no-limit Visa and suggested they could spend as much as they wanted as long as they were willing to pay extra for the privilege.

MLB has a cap at $189 million and the Giants have been unwilling to exceed it, which would mean a $17 ½-percent tax on the excess. And they have good reason. Only the Dodgers and Yankees crossed the threshold last year and it guaranteed nothing but scorn and derision when they flamed out. The Dodgers haven’t won a title since Billy Ocean topped the charts, and the Pinstripes have scored once in the age of smartphones.  The Giants have had, shall we say, better return on investment.

That was then, this is now. Although AT&T has been sold out every night since 2010, it hasn’t been filled. Fans last year stayed away in favor of anything interesting: Warriors games, light shows on the Bay Bridge, dodgeball on ESPN 8, whatever. Empty chairs don’t buy garlic fries, Anchor Steam or bobble heads; and they don’t need $30 parking. Winning matters, the Giants know it, and they’ve put more skin in the game for 2016.

But how deep is the well?

Check this: the Giants today have 15 players inked for a glorious $158.6 million. Figuring worst-case scenarios on the arb numbers for Brandon Belt and George Knots and that number jumps to north of $167 million. Farmhand Daniel Carbon Elli gets another cool half mil and Nori Aoki’s buyout was $700K. There’s nearly $170 million and the Giants haven’t accounted for Matt Duffy, Joe Panic, Josh Osich, Hunter Strickland or Andrew Susac. All are under team control and should come at a reasonable cost but the last three are going to have to be bargains. If someone like Kyle Blanks or George Kottras, who have MLB experience, makes the squad, that $189 cliff is coming up fast.

The fan position is usually “Spend whatever, it’s not my money.” It’s entertainment. But it’s also a business, and bad deals can impact the entertainment value. We’ve seen dead money for Dave Roberts and Aaron Rowand, and ‘walking dead’ money for Barry Zito and Randy Winn. The same season Bonds cashed in, the Giants balked at paying Russ Ortiz, their best starter, $4 million per and he walked.

We were amazed by Bonds scored his ’02 deal. The 2016 Giants will have three guys (Matt Cain, Buster Posey, Hunter Pence) making base salaries higher than that.

Can the Giants spend more? Sure. Should they? That’s open to debate. This is hard. Gotta trust the guys who brought us three rings in five years.

Money doesn’t make the team: isn't that right Dodger fans?

Let's Get This Thing Started

Welcome to "Serious San Francisco Giants Fans". If you followed us here from elsewhere, thanks for making the trip. We have pie.

Yeah, we're thinking the same thing you are. Yet another fan-blog where some know-it-all thinks he/she, well, knows it all. Of course!

It's baseball! Everybody is the best player, manager or GM on the planet. Every team would go 162-0, blast through the postseason and proceed directly to the parade if those idiots in charge would just listen to those of us who really watch the games!

Sound familiar? If you're here, that's you. And YOU are what makes baseball, quite simply, the greatest game on Earth.

Baseball lends itself to opinion and second-guessing. Over the course of six months (seven if you're lucky), we have countless opportunities to lament why Pitch X was thrown to Batter Y in Z Situation. Why was the Big Bat sitting out this must-win game (in May)? They pinch hit with that guy? So and so last threw a 1-2-3 frame in A Ball and he pitched the ninth?

All make great subjects for debate, and none have a definitive answer. Fans can debate until the next Ice Age, safe in the knowledge that (a) nobody can ever be proven right or wrong; (b) there will be another move, call, play, etc., cued up for tomorrow and it all starts again.

The game also allows for, and encourages, fierce partisanship, and that's where this page comes in. We're here to talk about the San Francisco Giants. If you know our history we may go off-topic once in awhile but ostensibly this page is for matters tickling the frontal lobes of fans of the Orange and Black. If you're for them, or against them, you're home.

This page, originally launched on Facebook over a year ago, was born out of frustration. A number of Giants-related sites populated social media but most had one thing in common; clutter. For every class act like The McCovey Chronicles, there were dozens of pages and sites that had descended into the abyss of name-calling and insults any time two people disagreed. We were totally unaware there was that much interest in other people's parentage, or that you could detect the IQ, body odor or living space (i.e. Mom's basement) through a flat screen.

Other sites were populated by memes (some funny, most not) or served as platforms for selling what was little more than junk. In extreme cases you'd find all of the above to be true.

Most troubling was the argument that anyone who dared to be critical wasn't a "real fan". What? The fan who dares to criticize isn't there just to hate hate hate (apologies to Taylor Swift). That fan is passionate. The critical fans are often the ones with the deepest connection to the team. They're critical because they care, because they want to see things done as well as they can be done. So this page was created to provide a place for thoughtful debate in the issues of the day.

In short, any fan is a "real fan". The trolls generally out themselves, and they go away if you refuse to feed them. But if you have a clear thought, for or against, you ARE a real fan.

That doesn't mean we can't have fun. I hope the comments section is soon filled with the wackiest observations and worst jokes this side of Intentional Talk. Hey, we can't all be Stephen Colbert but Jimmy Fallon is within reach.

The Facebook and Twitter feeds for SSFGF will remain hot, and SSFGF on Facebook is a great archive if you want to get a feel for what this page can be -- with your help. Please use those forums to keep up with us, and use the comments section here freely. We can't wait to hear what you have to say.

We only have one rule here: keep it civil. You can disagree. You can disagree vehemently. You can wage war on a biblical scale (dogs and cats, living together) and still be family, as some of us find out every night around bedtime (TMI, right?). We want the same thing, to share our opinions about something that's very special to all of us: Giants Baseball.

So let's get started.

Bookmark, follow, subscribe, send up a flare: however you like to set a reminder, do it. Have a thought, be ready to back it up, and keep a sense of humor about it all. If this turns into the Mensa of Giants fandom, just remember: we made it happen together.