June 2007 Archives

When Carlos Lee and Alfonso Soriano wake up in the middle of the night soaked in clammy sweat and with the gnarled hand of fear around their palpitating corazones, they shake themselves and check their surroundings. "¡Puñeta!" they sigh, “For a moment...
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When days grow dark and ground balls go through legs, we still have Kruk and Kuip.   *** P.M. UPDATE A few random thoughts: * If the White Sox sign Mark Buerhle to a contract extension instead of trade him,...
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Padres 4, Giants 2. OK, deep breath, deep breath, let’s stay calm. How ridiculous can Matt Cain’s luck get? He’s having one of the worst great years since Nolan Ryan went 8–16 in 1987 with a 2.76 ERA. Like most...
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Pads 3, Giants 2 in 10 innings. Randy Messenger looked untouchable, and Kevin Kouzmanoff hit a fastball down and away over the center field fence. Tip your cap and move on… to complaints about the Giants offense. Yet again. I take...
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        * I don’t weigh in on steroids often, but when I do, I try to remind everyone that any investigation that doesn’t examine the responsibility of team owners — including the Giants — and the MLB...
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Giants 4, Pod-Rays 3 in 11 innings. Other than one bad pitch to Mike Cameron, who deserves some credit for fouling off four or five good pitches before hitting his 3–run HR in the 8th off Correia, the Giant bullpen...
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I’m celebrating freedom of speech today by appropirating* a wee line from Tha Gippah himself: “Mr. Sabean, tear down this team!” (*Hey, look at that. A typo becomes one of those newfangled semiotic wordplays, kind of like “Muse-Sick N Hour...
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Any miniscule blip of pleasure I got from the Giants series win against the Yankees was wiped out when I heard that Rod Beck was found dead in his apartment this weekend. He was 38 years old and had a history...
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You all know the refrain: Wake me up when September ends. Feh. I’m going away for a week. Perhaps something Gigantically magic will spring from the greensward while I’m away, like a huge beanstalk that transports half this team to...
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The effort of sucking huevos, that is. If tonight’s Giants were the Red Sox of the ‘70s, their catch phrase would be “25 men, 25 ways to gag.” Let’s start with Mr. Rockstar: This the Barry Zito we fear, nibbling, unwilling...
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I’m going to reprint a paragraph from a recent Internet article about a major-league team, but I’ll remove all references to the team. You guess which team it’s about. “At the same time, it’s important that [THE GENERAL MANAGER] not treat 2008...
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Toronto 7, Giants 4. The fizz of Lincecum’s early call-up has gone flat. Today, Tim got cuffed around for the third straight start. He didn’t give up any home runs, he still struck out six, but the Jays made lots...
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In honor of Inspector Clouseau, it’s time to break from these shores to see what surprises lie in wait on other sites. Kato….? * It’s a sad day for El Lefty Malo. One of his favorite bloggers has laid down...
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Giants 4, Toronto 3. That’s how Mike Krukow described Matt Morris’s work tonight. “I’m telling ya, that was a big-time man-start right there.” I saw it live. Matty Mo didn’t deserve to give up the three-spot in the first inning....
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Folks — I notice a lot of double and triple-posting in comments. It’s probably because our comments system is slower than Bengie Molina with a bellyful of arroz con pollo. When you click “Post” let the system do its thing....
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What’s to say after this weekend? Let’s start a different way: eight games back. That’s not so distant, is it? The pitching staff could reel off a string of brilliant performances and the team could win 12 of 14, or...
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The baseball draft continues today, and the Giants continue to take pitchers and middle infielders. Of 13 picks so far, seven are pitchers, three are shortstops, two are catchers, and one is an outfielder. Before you bemoan the lack of...
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First of all, did anyone else catch the national anthem before the game? That was the worst rendition I’ve ever heard. I didn’t catch the name of the group, but it sounded like the Diamondbacks just before the game rounded...
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3 PM UPDATE Picks are fast and furious now that we’re out of the first round and into the supplemental. NEXT S.F. PICKS at #51: Charles Culberson, high school shortstop from Georgia. Don’t know much about him, except he can...
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Shut out by Brandon Webb. Sigh. Protesting too much would sound whiny; he’s the Cy Young, fercrissakes. Yes, Randy Winn could have driven home a run in the seventh with something other than a ground ball right at the infield....
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Quick hit for now: if you haven’t seen yesterday’s discussion thread, follow the links David Arnott provides in his comment at the bottom. Very interesting stuff to add to this debate on how to develop young pitchers. Unfortunately radio host...
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SI’s Tom Verducci weighs in this morning with a story on Tim Lincecum’s workload. It reads like a solution in search of a problem, or perhaps a hasty catch-up to an excellent piece in this weekend’s New York Times on the tragedy of...
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A third of the season officially passed us with Saturday’s loss. I have general thoughts, but first, a few specific comments on the Phils series so far: Jack Taschner was bad yesterday, walking Chase Utley and throwing a fastball down...
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No, not the suspense of tonight’s game, which was over by the third inning. It’s the suspense of meeting the Giants’ new closer, or next closer, or closer-of-the-day. Whoever it is, he better have closer face, as explained here by...
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“Is this thing on?” — Brian Sabean monitors the lunatic fringe from a secured undisclosed location. Brian Sabean has come out swinging before. Every year or so he cuts through his own typical pablum with scathing remarks, usually directed...
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Has been thrown. Thrown down. Down to the ground. Not only did Brian Sabean trade Armando Benitez tonight for Randy Messenger –– basically a forgotten arm in a Florida system chock-full of young guns — and not only did he...
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