February 2007 Archives

The Giants are expected to announce later today a four-year contract with a fifth-year option for Matt Cain. I wrote about this three weeks ago and even predicted a contract of 5 years, $26 million. While we're waiting for the...
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Here's part two of my e-mail conversation with a minor-league Brewer pitcher about mechanics. We started e-mailing when Zito seemed to be drastically changing his delivery to bring his body farther down the mound and his release point closer to...
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Huh? Read this and you'll get it. SMALL PRINT UPDATE: Just added to the non-baseball blog roll is the food-related site The Bistro Hugo, a small piece of my expanding empire of online mischief. Please re-direct all Colossal Squid enquiries...
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As I mentioned last week, I recently had an email conversation about Barry Zito's new delivery with a minor league pitcher in the Brewers organization. Sorry, I can't say who. He asked that I not identify him any further at...
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Item! The SF Chronicle has launched the "Sports Columnist" blog, which covers all sports. The first baseball-related entry gets off to a thoroughly confusing start. Bruce Jenkins (Jenkins? Confusing? Who knew?) describes Russ Ortiz "in his prime" this way: There...
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Quick hits only today, like this quote from a BP interview with Shea Hillenbrand (subscription req'd): Q: What was it like playing with Barry Bonds? SH: Unbelievable. Barry Bonds is one of the nicest guys I致e ever met; one of...
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Omar Vizquel wants a two-year contract extension. This is the final year of a three-year, $12.25 million deal. The Giants will pay him $1 million in 2008 and $750,000 in 2009, thanks to a deferred signing bonus. The team des...
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After last week's brush fire, Barry Zito said over the weekend he's not really overhauling his pitching motion. It was all overblown. It was all taken out of context. He blames the media. "It's all a work in progress," Zito...
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Notice these? The Giants have ugly spring training hats with wavy swoosh lines on the sides. (That's Tim Lincecum modeling the atrocious lid.) It's not just the Giants. All teams seem to be wearing them this year (scroll through...
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Busy today, but I'm fiercely pondering Zito's new motion. More to come this weekend, I hope. Meanwhile, check out this picture of The New Barry explaining to Steve Kline why a beard tends to decelerate one's aerodynamic tantric aura. And...
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Barry Zito today threw off a mound for the first time as a Giant...and had a completely different pitching motion. For those of you who don't see the big deal, this is like President Bush changing course in Iraq when...
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So we finally know who leaked Barry Bonds's grand jury testimony to the San Francisco Chronicle. Yesterday it was revealed to be Troy Ellerman, the defense attorney for BALCO chief Victor Conte. After the Chronicle articles hit the streets with...
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As I wrote last month, I've been tracking Kevin Goldstein's team-by-team top-10 prospect lists as he's rolled them out on Baseball Prospectus this winter. About half way through, I decided to rank his top-10 rankings; I gave "Excellent" prospects 6...
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And now you don't. An eagle-eyed member of the McCovey Chronicles community noticed that Barry Bonds is no longer listed on the Giants' 40-man roster. When the Giants announced Bonds's contract and made some official happy-time with Barry in late...
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Nothing tells us more about Boston's mania for all things Red Sock than Truck Day. For those of you unschooled, it's the day a semi leaves Fenway Pahk loaded with the team's geah for the warmer climes of Fort Myers,...
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One million Elvis Costello fans can't be wrong: it's time to turn our slightly-less-than-middle-aged fancy to young Matt Cain. The past couple weeks have brought a plethora of contract-related news items about arbitration-age players. For example: instead of signing a...
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Even with real games nearly two months away, I can usually take solace in February because our own amateur league gets back into gear. Nothing like getting out for the first time in months with one's mates to throw the...
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Yesterday's post brought one particular comment that deserves more attention: Lyle wrote that Bonds should break Hank Aaron's record for Willie Mays's sake, to help dispel any notion that because of the home-run tally Aaron was better than Mays. Lyle...
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It's the birthday of Hammerin' Henry Louis Aaron, born in 1934 in Mobile, Alabama. Happy birthday, Hank. Let's review: 12,364 ABs (2nd) 755 HRs (1st) 2,297 RBI (1st) 1,402 BBs (23rd) 1,383 Ks (67th) .305 BA .374 OBP .555 SLG...
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Whatever you may think of his managerial skills, Dusty Baker is still the coolest dude in baseball. Quotes Ludacris and John Lee Hooker in the same interview? Likes to cook at home with his wife? Goes fishing with Elvin Bishop...
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Two weeks until pitchers and catchers report, or, as a recent New York Times headline puts it, until pitchers and Molinas report. (It's a piece on the Molina brothers and their hometown of Vega Alta, Puerto Rico; turns out Bengie...
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