I'm on the road for a rare bidness trip, doing some bidness, but I caught last night's game on ESPN in my luxurious Days Inn master suite. A few takeaways:
- Joe Morgan and Steve Phillips are about as useful to a baseball broadcast as Ren and Stimpy. This was not surprising, but their level of blather, often while Jon Miller sat by silently (and perhaps dumbstruck, I'd like to think), was shocking. A full inning on David Wright and leadership: Is he a leader? Is he not a leader? Will he be a leader? Can he be a leader? No wonder the guys at Fire Joe Morgan called it quits. The blog actually required them to listen to Joe Morgan. Next time I'm faced with a choice between a Sunday night ESPN game not featuring the Giants and, say, a rerun of "America's Craziest Wife Swapping," it's going to be a tough call.
- Jeremy Affeldt has allowed more baserunners than we'd like, but the dude makes big pitches at the right times, no? Bullpen MVP so far, no doubt.
- I was going to comment on Aaron Rowand's continued slide into washed-upness, but I think Grant sums it up quite well here.
- Despite the high scores in the Mets' series, something needs to happen. We're nearly to the end of May, which means evaluation time is over.
Step 1: When Uribe returns from bereavement leave, keep Frandsen up, send Velez down.
Step 2: Bring up Jesus Guzman for the Mariners' series and let him DH all three games. I'd prefer this to happen without releasing Rich Aurilia for now, but someone must be bumped from the 40-man roster. If not Aurilia, the only other guy I can countenance getting the boot is Brian Bocock. If the Giants keep Aurilia for now, they can put Renteria on the DL; he'll be eligible to return May 29 or 30. With Uribe and Frandsen and Burriss, they should be OK in the middle infield for 10 more days.
Step 3: If Guzman stays because he hits and his D seems adequate, Renteria's return would force a decision, and Aurilia would likely be the victim. Sorry, Richie.
Step 4: Bench Rowand against most right-handers. Unless Nate Schierholtz's rib is still hurting, he needs to start at least half the Giants' games.
- Joe Morgan and Steve Phillips are about as useful to a baseball broadcast as Ren and Stimpy. This was not surprising, but their level of blather, often while Jon Miller sat by silently (and perhaps dumbstruck, I'd like to think), was shocking. A full inning on David Wright and leadership: Is he a leader? Is he not a leader? Will he be a leader? Can he be a leader? No wonder the guys at Fire Joe Morgan called it quits. The blog actually required them to listen to Joe Morgan. Next time I'm faced with a choice between a Sunday night ESPN game not featuring the Giants and, say, a rerun of "America's Craziest Wife Swapping," it's going to be a tough call.
- Jeremy Affeldt has allowed more baserunners than we'd like, but the dude makes big pitches at the right times, no? Bullpen MVP so far, no doubt.
- I was going to comment on Aaron Rowand's continued slide into washed-upness, but I think Grant sums it up quite well here.
- Despite the high scores in the Mets' series, something needs to happen. We're nearly to the end of May, which means evaluation time is over.
Step 1: When Uribe returns from bereavement leave, keep Frandsen up, send Velez down.
Step 2: Bring up Jesus Guzman for the Mariners' series and let him DH all three games. I'd prefer this to happen without releasing Rich Aurilia for now, but someone must be bumped from the 40-man roster. If not Aurilia, the only other guy I can countenance getting the boot is Brian Bocock. If the Giants keep Aurilia for now, they can put Renteria on the DL; he'll be eligible to return May 29 or 30. With Uribe and Frandsen and Burriss, they should be OK in the middle infield for 10 more days.
Step 3: If Guzman stays because he hits and his D seems adequate, Renteria's return would force a decision, and Aurilia would likely be the victim. Sorry, Richie.
Step 4: Bench Rowand against most right-handers. Unless Nate Schierholtz's rib is still hurting, he needs to start at least half the Giants' games.
