October 2003 Archives

A few days back I posted my own top-10 offseason free-agent questions, which I would link to if I could figure out these #@^%& permalinks. Just like that, White Sox GM Kenny Williams has gone and answered my very first...
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It's always boring to look back at the pundits' preseason predictions. The last five years, it's basically been Blah blah blah Yankees blah blah blah Yankees blah blah Braves blah blah Red Sox blah blah Braves, with a few Astros,...
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The Red Sox are determined to keep the off-season interesting, eh? They just put Manny Ramirez on waivers, according to reports, which means any team has 48 hours to claim him and the $100 million and 5 years left on...
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The day after game 7 of the ALCS, as Red Sox fans were headed toward Grady Little's house, pitchforks and torches in hand, I staunchly defended Little's decision to leave Pedro in. (It did no good. Little's body was found...
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Scanning the list of free agents, there's an obvious A+ list: C: Pudge-Rod SS: Migs Tejada 3B: Mike Lowell OF: Vlad Guerrero (aka V-Grr), Gary Sheffield P: Bartolo Colon (aka Bart Columbus), Andy "Jesus Loves the Marlins More" Pettitte Just...
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Josh Beckett, 23 years old, on three days' rest, in a chilly, howling Yankee Stadium, against a team that had its back against the wall and its pride to restore? A five-hitter? A shutout? A complete game? Throwing mid-90s in...
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Everyone's hot stove is bubbling with speculation about potential trade material like Derrek Lee and Javier Vazquez and marquee free agents like Vlad Guerrero and Kaz Matsui. (Here's a comprehensive list of potential free agents.) But what about the lower-level...
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'Round about the 6th inning of last night's game, I was going to headline this post Old and In the Way, as the Yankees seem to be retiring, fumbling and disintegrating right before our very eyes. Silly me. The Yanks...
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You know who else needs to get kidnapped? Bud Selig....
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I don't want the Yankees to win this Series, like most people across the nation, but please, no more whining about payroll. Carl Pavano just outpitched Roger Clemens. Alex Gonzalez just homered off Jeff Weaver. Braden Looper just matched K's...
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I just got an e-mail from Brian Sabean, or perhaps I should say, "Brian Sabean," since it was sent from tixoffice@sfgiants.com. Here it is. Note the pre-emptive slap at critics. *** ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brian Sabean" To: [[El...
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The Laz, ever vigilant in his pursual of relevant posting material, forwards a link to an NY Times article that examines the statistical probability of a seven-game World Series. While the probability says a series should go seven 31 percent...
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It doesn't look good for the Marlins, does it? Their ace pitches a great game and loses and won't pitch again til game 7; Aaron Boone proves a better 8th place hitter than Alex Gonzalez. Pudge is contained once again....
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In today's SJ Merc, Skip Bayless, who has emerged as the media leader of the anti-Dusty, pro-Felipe brigade, is now agitating the waters -- y'know, stirrin' em up som'n fierce -- for the Giants to hire Joe Torre when his...
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The off-season moves have begun. To no one's surprise, the Giants declined options for J.T. Snow and Eric Young, while to my mild surprise, Felix Rodriguez exercised his player option for $3 million, a couple mil less than the Giants'...
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We all hate Tim McCarver, but some of us channel our hatred into well-written baseball satire....
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Right-o. Monday morning, a full bowl of coffee on my desk and fresh paint on my home office walls. (That's right, Laz, no more "psycho-ward green." It's now more like "Van-Gogh's-missing-ear yellow.") I'm torn between rooting for a tense, well-played...
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This morning I jotted a few notes in defense of Grady Little's decision to leave Pedro in in the 8th last night. I hadn't even read columns like this one or this one, but now that I have, boy, am...
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I have never subscribed to the "Evil Empire" blather. I chalked it, and many other complaints about the Yankees, up to Boston whinging and wearing their inferiority complex about their team and city on their sleeves. But I really really...
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According to a wire report today, the "nutritional supplement" company that Barry Bonds endorses is linked to a much wider conspiracy involving amateur and professional athletes and a previously undetectable steroid known as THG. The investigation of BALCO, the company...
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"The good Lord has been looking after us this whole month," McKeon said. "I thank God for the great bunch of players I have." And He was really combing the waiver wires in August....
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I understand completely. Perhaps not completely, because the misery of a Chicago Cubs fan is magnified and reflected back to him by a media frenzy; a Cubs' sufferer is egged on by a cottage industry of Lovable Loserness that, like...
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Yes, the Cubs have found a new way to lose. But it's not really like last year's Giants meltdown. That was just baseball -- Dusty's questionable move to yank Ortiz, the bullpen cracking, Livan falling behind. It wasn't because of...
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Oh, Elbo. Don't be cruel, to a heart that's true. Poor Dusty. He takes Ortiz out early, and it backfires. He leaves Prior in, and it backfires. But unlike last year's game s...s...si...si....six -- don't make me type it again,...
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I wonder if Dusty let Prior keep the ball....
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I've already sent my angry e-mail to my Giants customer service rep, Bob, about the name change. I'm sure it went straight to the Pee-Mag himself. We can simultaneously kid ourselves and satisfy our insatiable appetite for cheap puns by...
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It's really not that much worse, is it? I didn't have any great love for Pacific Bell Corp., and I don't have any special negative feelings for the former Southwestern Bell Corp. Sure, there was a vaguely marine feel to...
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Get used to it: SBC Park. Just grit your teeth and repeat after me: "paying off the debt service," "paying off the debt service," "paying off the debt service".......
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From Lefty O'Doul's interview in Lawrence Ritter's essential The Glory of Their Times: "Of course, a lot of things are different today. When I was playing, it was an unwritten law that if a batter ever hit a pitch when...
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Thanks to the Laz for the headline and the link to today's Dan Shaughnessy column in the Boston Globe, which excoriates Pedro Martinez for being a big baby and, far more interesting, nods to a rumor that the Hell's Angels...
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During the tenth inning of Game One of the BoSox-A's series, a barely coherent Hockey Haven regular was overheard fighting with his neighbor at the bar over whether Johnny Damon looks more like "a Mexican Indian" or "a half-Asian guy."...
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News reports today tag Frank McCourt as the new owner of the Dodgers, pending MLB approval of his $400 million offer. I know he's a best-selling author, but that's still a lot of money. I'll bet you this is just...
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I just read in the Contra Costa Times that Brian Sabean thinks the pool of available free-agent right fielders is "probably as good as it's been in terms of the profile of guys and the impact they could have on...
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Last night, me, Elbo and the Laz settled in for some Yanks-Sox on the public airwaves accompanied by some fine Hollandisch brewskis, rum, a bag of limes and a hip flask of Jim Beam -- hey, not only was it...
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Having taken a sharp Elbo to the ribs, I'll concede that a Pedro Feliz without additional plate discipline is not a viable candidate for the Giants' starting first base job in 2005. (Consider me slapped upside the head with a...
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I'm going to have to voice my dissent with El Lefty regarding Pedro Feliz. I don't think he will develop better strike zone judgment next year, or any year. Pedro Feliz will turn 29 in April and will once again...
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Sabean held his first post-disaster press conference yesterday, and the early bombshell is that 2004 payroll will drop from the mid-$80 million range to the mid-$70s. According to Henry Schulman's calculations, the Giants have 9 guys under contract for 2004...
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For the record, Ken Macha is now a bad communicator and disrespecter, too, according to the undertalented Terrence Long. Seems that the frustration of losing in the first round of the playoffs is best relieved by telling the media that...
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Looks like Trot Nixon thinks the Sox have Jesus on their side. But unless Jesus is going to bat leadoff and play center field until Johnny Damon returns, I'm afraid the Sox are going down. I pick the Yanks in...
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In case anyone's wondering, Jermaine Dye is 3 for 18 career vs. Derek Lowe, with no walks and 4 K's....
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You like numbers and stats? Check out Top Jimmy's early-morning number crunching on today's recall vote, a dispatch from deep in the belly of the capital beast....
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The outcome was obvious at the end of the 7th inning, after Johnny Damon and Damian Jackson knocked skulls in the outfield and Damon was taken off in an ambulance, and after Fox shamelessly replayed the sickening collision until I...
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El Lefty Malo usually does not shy away from the bare and bitter truth. El Lefty Malo tries hard to hold onto the handrail and look defeat in the eye. But the last couple days, I felt like a partner...
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So long, Sir Sidney. Just like in Baltimore, you never really learned how to pitch out of trouble. Jose Cruz Jr: Thanks for all those diving catches, but I'm afraid the option is not mutual. J.T. Snow: There were times...
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Alou says he's going with Jerome today. I'm okay with this. Not sure if the Original Lefty Malo is. Also, Jeffrey Hammonds will replace Cruz in right field, rather than the Mighty Pedro. And Yorvit Torrealba will do the catching...
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Consider this an experiment in writing when under the influence of suicidal tendencies. I have never, ever seen a team work so hard to lose a playoff game. The Giants actually had to go out of their way to lose...
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Is it just me, or does ALDS sound like a horrible neurological disorder? "The symptoms are acute, but the patient seems stable, doc. We'll have to monitor the situation closely to make sure this doesn't become full-blown ALCS." Barry Zito...
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I was in the shower this morning thinking about how fine the line is between getting an out and giving up a hit. To wit: In Jeff Conine's first at-bat yesterday, he hits a wicked one-hop shot that Alfonzo drops...
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In his post-game interview Bonds said, ""They played better. They won. That's the end of it. Go away." That's about the best summary possible. The Giants deserved to lose; Bonds was the only one who played with any playoff intensity....
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