Did you see Accardo pull a Benitez tonight against the Yanks?

I think it helps when he throws the deuce harder. That big sweeper looks nice and pretty but I think his curve works a lot better when he throws it big harder so hitters confuse it with his change and then confuse the change with the fastball. But thats just my opinion. It also helps when he THROWS STRIKES finally! Its a nice win and all but the number one thing for me was being able to look at the box score and see no BB's. I want more pitching like that and I can even do without the hitting if our pitchers don't all turn into Shawn Estes every other inning.

As the season goes by, the significance of Zito's first day in spring training grows in my mind. I don't think Zito was just messing around. I think he was aware that his stuff wasn't working as consistently, and that he needed to make adjustments to continue succeeding. Did the Giants shoot themselves in the foot by shutting down Zito's experiment?

Nice point, Jefferson. When I turned on the TV last night and saw Zito, my first thought was that his motion looked slightly different. Again, perhaps just camera angle or a fan's wishful psychology. But maybe he used the AS break to make mechanical changes.

He sure did seem like a different(read: better) pitcher. I wont hold my breath waiting for his next quality start though.

>I wont hold my breath waiting for his next quality start

That's good, because you'd be holding your breath at least four more days. I don't recommend it.

Yeah, Brian (Sabean?), so far the only real drawback to the Hillenbrand trade is... we had to watch Hillenbrand play for two months.

Accardo as a Blue Jay
--
ERA: 4.70
WHIP: 1.43
K/BB: 1.96
HR/9: 0.9

Accardo in 2007
--
ERA: 2.79 (6.11 since May 26)
WHIP: 1.27
K/BB: 2.17
HR/9: 0.5

Chulk as a Giant
--
ERA: 4.20
WHIP: 1.28
K/BB: 1.96
HR/9: 0.6

Chulk in 2007
--
ERA: 3.58 (2.84 since May 26)
WHIP: 1.19
K/BB: 2.44
HR/9: 0.5

Even after Chulk's five-run blowup on Friday, it would be hard to argue that we've lost anything on this swap of relievers... yet. Accardo is three years younger and has another pre-arbitration year left. It's not like I wouldn't trade Chulk for Accardo in a heartbeat today. But, so far, this trade has yet to earn its place among Sabean's true disasters.

I agree with Pantalones. Getting Chulk was a clever move, basically Sabes' way of saying "Yo, Ricciardi, Accardo may turn into something special, so you have to give us someone with decent bullpen potential, too." I think I even wrote at the time that Chulk has as much ability to become a top reliever as Accardo. I still think so: mid-90s fastball, nasty slider...all he needs is better command within the strike zone.

Yeah, that was the key to the trade, that we got Chulk, who the manager didn't think much of anyhow, in the deal with Hillenbrand, otherwise it probably doesn't get done.

Thanks for the stats Pantalone, I was thinking the same thing about that, but didn't know the specifics. Great stuff.

It is just that the emotions of some of the Sabean haters get in their way of looking objectively at anything to do with Sabean.

For example, someone used the Braves of an example to follow, but given similar circumstances to Sabean, he would have fired Bobby Cox half way into his rebuild because the Braves were nowhere as close as the Giants are today in developing players for the team. Then the Braves used free agency, signing all these old vets the year they returned to 500+ ball, another no-no with the Sabean haters, can't sign no aged free agents, goes against the grain of rebuilding.

That's just a load of BS, ogc. You can paraphrase things out of context all you want, but the bottom line is compare the Braves organization to the Giants organization over the the last 10 years and tell me who is the more successful organization in the past and who has the brighter future as of this time?

You keep saying that the Giants are rebuilding and no one can see that except you and your lapdog, Allfrank. We have 3 young starting pitchers and a few young pitchers in the bullpen that the jusry is still out on. We have 8 starting position players that need to be replaced either now or by next year with no ready replacements in our minor league system. WHERE IS THE REBUILD??? It's a fantasy that you've concocted. It doesn't exist.

And, YES, Sabean is the one responsible for getting the Giants in this situation. Why shouldn't he be held responsible? It's not about hating Sabean, it's about recognizing the fact that the Giants need a new direction.

Lapdog, here. Actually, it is true that Atlanta is pretty healthy as an organization. Just as they have won the most games in the past 10 years, they are probably the healthiest NL orgainization. I think the Giants are second, both in # of wins over the past 10 years and in terms of health of the organization. I posted elsewhere my analysis based on + or - 30 years of age, here I add the Dodgers and do my breakdown based on 33 or older and 31 or younger:

Team -31 32+ FA drafted.
SF 12 12 14 11
LA 16 13 20 9
SD 13 9 17 4
Atl 17 6 10 13

And when you look at these teams, their pitching is getting precarious. We have two pitchers older than 30 (Morris, Kline). LA has 7 (D Lowe, Hendrickson, Tomko, Saenz, Saito, Hernandez, Schmidt); SD has 4 (including Hoffman, Maddux, Wells); even Atl has 4 (including Smoltz, Hudson, Wickman). It looks to me like we have more home grown talent than any team but Atlanta; we have nearly half the roster that is home grown (and could easily replace both Kline and Morris, although Ortiz would likely be brought up, so we'd only go to 12 home grown). When you look at the Dodgers pitching, they don't look so healthy. Their young guys are Penny (29), Wolfe (31), Billingsly (23), Broxton (23), Biemel (30), Houlton (28), Stults (27) vs their old guys Lowe (34), Hendrickson (33), Tomko (34), Saenz (39), Saito (37), Hernandez (43), Schmidt (34). Add to that the ages of Garciap, Kent, and Gonzo (34, 40, 39) and I don't feel so bad about our prospects. It looks like all three NLWest teams will have to replace 3 to 5 guys. I'm not sure our task is any more difficult than SDs dealing with Hoffman (41), Maddux (42), Wells (45), Giles (37, and Cameron (35)