When the Giants Come to Town, It's Bye-Bye Baby

05.21.2008
5/20/08: Mile High Anxiety

Giants 6, Rockies 5: Call it the Education of Brian Wilson. When you get all geeked up trying to close a game in the ninth, throwing harder harder harder doesn't necessarily work. He nearly blew the save because he overthrew and missed location on two pitches, both with two strikes. One went for a two-run homer, the other just missed going out. An easy save became a nail-biter. We'll take it.

But the interesting news tonight, just reported in the post-game show: Eugenio Velez has been sent to Fresno, and Travis Denker is now a big-leaguer. It could be this year's theme song: Do you know the way from San Jose? The Giants got him last summer for Mark Sweeney and he spent the rest of the year raking for the Little Giants. He started this year at Connecticut, didn't do much but got promoted to Fresno anyway. Denker hit well there, and now he's a Big Giant.

Anyone watching or listening to Monday's game figured Velez's baserunning gaffe was the last straw. Denker could be even more raw, and the usual complaints will be raised about starting his service clock unnecessarily, but hey, it's kind of fun to see all these guys. It's like hanging out at Kraft and tasting all the weird new food concepts as they come out of the lab.

PLODAG: Jello Roll Molina.

The Upside: Brian Wilson. Coors Field is where three-run leads in the ninth go to die. Ask Robb Nen. Wilson made bad pitches but finally struck out Atkins with disaster looming. When you can snatch the pebble from my hand, grasshopper...
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[May 21, 2008 11:48 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Johnny Disaster said

While I'll miss his oddly spidery and scarily unpredictable presence, I'm glad Eugenio is going to go where he might get a chance to play every day. He certainly has a lot of learning to do...

[May 21, 2008 12:00 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Zo said

From today's Chomic: The Giants have been in a quandary over Velez. They believe he has tremendous tools and have kept him in the majors despite his struggles because they hoped he could benefit from the instruction and experience.

Don't the Giants have instruction in the minor leagues? Isn't the minor leagues where you want instructors so that they are ready to play when they get to the big club? Clearly he needs to better learn the game, and needs to do it while playing. If they insist on playing Durham and other savvy veterans (although how this is "rebuilding" still mystifies me), then the minor leagues is where he needs to be. It just makes the major leagues that much less interesting.

[May 21, 2008 12:40 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Elbo said

You could ask Matt Herges about Coors Field and three-run leads too.

When I envision his tenure as Giants closer in my mind's eye, I see him pointing his index finger in the air at that "pop-up" that left the yard 400+ feet away.

[May 21, 2008 12:59 PM]  |  link  |  reply
MrLomez said

Did anyone else think it was weird to IBB Todd Helton? Does Helton really deserve that kind of respect still? I say no.

[May 21, 2008 2:17 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM replied to MrLomez

>>IBB Todd Helton?

He might not be the Helton of yore, but against a RH pitcher and needing only a single to tie to the game, he's still scary.