May 2006 Archives

Anyone who cites clubhouse chemistry as a factor on a winning team should be slapped upside the head with a game program from the era of the early-1970s Oakland A's or the late-1970s New York Yankees. Both won a lot...
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* The best moment of the weekend came in the ninth inning of the Giants victory Saturday. Armando Benitez did something I've never seen him do in a Giants uniform: throw splitters and sliders that actually splitted and slud. He...
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The news is out: the Giants are calling up their latest phenom, El Lefty Malito Jonathan Sanchez, who has never pitched higher than Double-A ball. For those who aren't familiar, he's 23 years old, from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, and this...
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Dreadful loss yesterday. Perhaps the worst of the year, only two games after the Giants notched their most satisfying win of the year. I was hoping for two of three from the mighty Cards, but alas. Yesterday's carnage has at...
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Watching last night's video highlights, I'm struck once again by the capriciousness of a pitcher's mistakes. Take last night's starters as examples: Matt Morris has to throw a 2-0 fastball to Albert Pujols in the first inning. Gulp. Matheny sets...
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First of all, I'd like to say Zip-a-dee-do-dah! My oh my, what a wonderful game. In the bottom of the eighth I was jumping up and down in the kitchen with my three Giants hats stacked upon my head, sort...
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After a week of waiting, Lance Niekro and his bum shoulder have gone on the disabled list, leaving the Giants with Mark Sweeney as the starting 1B and Kevin Frandsen up from Fresnoville to fill the roster spot. Given the...
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Sleeping six hours with a sick bedmate beside is no recipe for sound slumber. Even worse, the monkeys in my baseball mind played tricks with my dreams; yesterday's game with its hullabaloo and near-heartbreak insinuated itself deep into my synapses....
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Before we get to today's main item, here's something worth about 30 seconds of amusement. With Bonds slated to DH all three games this weekend, and lefty Brad Halsey pitching Saturday for the A's, could Jason Ellison's first start of...
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From Will Carroll's BP column today: "There are whispers from some around baseball that the Barry Bonds plunking on Tuesday was premeditated and that there痴 a group of pitchers and coaches determined to 'make Bonds pay' on his way towards...
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And fuck you, Russ Springer. What was that all about? Did your jock strap shrink a couple sizes in the wash? Go home, kick the cat, play a few violent video games, but do not throw fastballs at Barry Bonds's...
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I like to think the Giants' amazing success at the former Enron (i.e., Ten-Run) Field in Houston -- they're now 18-5 there since it opened -- is some sort of karmic payback for Enron's wholesale reaming of thousands of Houstonians,...
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As "Has Anybody Here Seen" Hank Schulman of the Chronicle notes this morning, seven Giants relievers pitched Saturday and Sunday, and four of them started innings by walking the leadoff man. Three of them scored. The Dodgers' winning rally yesterday...
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After a dreadful offensive start, the Giants as a team are starting to creep up in the league rankings. Thanks in large part to the eternal Barry Bonds Walk-a-thon and Steve Finley's blazing hot May, and strong top-of-order work from...
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I haven't heard back from Tim Dahlberg, for some reason. We had such a beautiful thing going. But into the breach has stepped Gwen Knapp of the Chronicle, who has written nearly the same column in today's paper. It's not...
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To: tdahlberg@ap.org (Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press.) Tim, I just read your column today about Giants fans tiring of Bonds's act. I'm a lifelong Giants fan. I'll say that upfront. But unlike many fans,...
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I M like SO in love w/Noah Lowry. Like I hella wuzn't b4 -- yah rite! -- but now he'z evn hotr. [cue sounds of digital struggle, represented by frenetic beeps and clicks] Sorry about that. A suburban teenage hack-chick...
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Late Sunday night, and the Giants are in a tailspin. Their best hitter is out indefinitely, their starting rotation other than Jason Schmidt is getting cuffed around, they have no sure path from middle relief to set-up to closer, and...
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Ha -- you thought this would be about the Giants offense. But it's actually about their pitching. Giant pitchers have a current K/9 rate of 5.23. Over a full year, it would be the lowest strikeout rate in the majors...
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Let's listen as Doug Davis explains how he shut out the Giants for six innings today: "They're a free-swinging team and I just put the ball around the plate and they put the ball in play." Not much more to...
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Far too often I refer to the Billy Beane homily that April and May are for evaluating what you have, June and July are for upgrades, and boom, you're in the home stretch. For a team making one last grasp...
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The macho unwritten laws of baseball kicked the Giants in the cojones tonight. As an honored guest of the A-B in prime foul-ball territory up from the Giant dugout, I groaned when Jamie Wright plunked Brian Giles in the back...
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