April 2010 Archives

Have you recently seenHurler Waldis Joaquin? I haven't either.This so-called reliever Has not touched a moundOr a resin bag foundFor two weeks on nigh.Where is the poor guy? A young talented turkShould have regular work; Though his team has been...
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This wasn't Barry Zito's best game ever, not even his best this year. But tonight, beating Colorado and throwing eight innings, was the best sign that he's back as a top-flight pitcher.Let me explain. He looked bad at the start....
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Yesterday afternoon I weighed in on the Bochy-Pulling-Timmy-in-the-Ninth-Inning-Gate-Thing, and I haven't seen or heard any reason to change my mind. And you all know how I feel about Eugenio Velez. So let's move on to a much happier topic: The Wonderful Resurgence...
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Sigh. /hands poised above keyboard...just about to type...can't quite form words. Hphhhh. /closes eyes for a moment. All right. Here's what I have to say. Bruce Bochy shouldn't feel bad about taking out Lincecum in the 9th inning. He had...
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Like excitable electrons, people on the Lunatic Fringe spend a lot of time bouncing between these two states: * The $%^&@*! Giants don't give their young players a chance! * The $%&*$%^ Giants should trade Young Player X, and perhaps...
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After tonight's game, I'm thinking of a word. It's five letters long. It is a noun and a verb. It starts with S, it ends with P. Can you guess it? A few things are coming clear to me after...
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For those of you not tweeting and such, Hank Schulman of the Chron relayed the Giant starting lineup about three hours before game time and said it would score five runs off Roy Halladay.  Dude. Stop. You're killin' me. This one...
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MLB Trade Rumors ran this sentence earlier today: Mychael Urban of CSNBayArea.com (via Twitter) says it's time for the Giants to call up a certain young right-handed slugger who can fill in at catcher and first base.  If you click through to...
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Welcome one and all. I hope you like the redesign. A few things to note: * You can now contribute your own posts. On the right, just under the search tool, is the "Contributions" box. Your post titles will show...
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Courtesy of Hank Schulman's game report: Calling the Giants "really aggressive," the 2009 Giant-for-a-month said, "I didn't feel like I had to do too much extra to get the outs. I feel like I was throwing basic strikes. They're such...
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With all the off-days this month, and all the quality in my front four, I'm skipping the fifth starter. Do you hear me, Bruce Bochy? Allen Toussaint /The Bright Mississippi Sometimes you can't improve upon an original, sometimes new interpretations...
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Ladies and gentlemen, señoras y señores, this weekend the Blogs by Fans global Web design and technical systems unit and yours truly will launch the overhauled Lefty Malo. It'll have fancy doodads, community thingies, and of course a swell...
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Apparently the Giants aren't hitting very well at the moment. Huh. Weird. They've lost four straight, lost their early division lead, and the next nine games bring the Cardinals, Phillies and Rockies. But my dauber is not down. Here's...
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The All-Star ballot is out, and the Giants' 2B representative is Freddy Sanchez, not Juan Uribe. It's clear Uribe has been a much better Giant than Sanchez, whom we barely saw after the trade last summer. But is he a legitimate...
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Tonight the Giants partied like it was 2008 and Matt Cain was rapping along to "Hard Knock Life." (My goodness, would I love to see that on YouTube. If you mash it up, I'll post it.) But before you offer Jonathan...
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I'll take the blame for this one, folks. Not two minutes after I tweeted that despite being tied in the 10th, it felt like the Giants' luck had turned at Petco, Eckstein cranked a home run to win the...
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In simplified terms, the Giants' season has gone like this so far: Week 1, the Giants played a few exhibition games in Houston against the Astros' extended-spring-training squad, then opened the season against a good but Chipper-less Braves team....
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First of all, fingers crossed for Aaron Rowand, who took a wicked Vincent Padilla fastball off his earflap and went to the hospital for evaluation. He walked off the field under his own power. As of 11pm Friday, no word...
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The moment of truth looms! No, not the first Giant-Dodger series of the year, but the pending resolution of the Fred Lewis Saga, a piece of literature that dates back to 12th century lceland. Instead of volcanoes, it has bunions....
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* St. Louis pitching coach Dave Duncan gets plenty of deserved credit as a turnaround artist, reviving struggling veteran pitchers' careers with a tweak here and a high calonic there, but for dramatic fixes, can anything top Dave Righetti's overhaul...
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In any other yard, Aubrey Huff would've had three or four home runs this series. He kept hitting balls 400-plus feet to center and right-center, and he got one triple, one double, and a crazy-bounce inside the park home run....
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Even with subpar work from Barry Zito Monday night, the Giants made short work of the Pirates to boost their record to 6 and 1. How are they doing it? * Diminished competition // Four games against the Astros and...
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Rich Aurilia made it official and announced his retirement yesterday. For newbie Giant fans who only saw the Aurilia of the mid- to late-aughts, all the misty feelings might be a bit puzzling. He wasn't very good in his second go-round with...
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Extra Malo points to anyone who knows the movie from which I quote. But of course the real reference is to Tim Lincecum's change-up. Timmy struck out 10 this evening, and all 10 were swinging as Tim pulled the string...
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Dammit, they lost. Silver lining time: Todd Wellemeyer, Scrap Heaper, Fifth Starter, threw six innings of fine baseball. The seventh inning, not so much. But at least he spared the bullpen somewhat after Friday's 13-inning smell-the-magic funnapalooza.  The big news...
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You know what's funny? Besides the letter K? Before today's game, and even during, I was gathering words in my head to write a post about Edgar Renteria hitting the softest .727 or whatever in the history of opening weeks....
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The Braves are coming to town. Time to get your "Whatsa matta with Laaa-rrry" on. It's also time to get an eyeful of Braves' 20-year-old phenom Jason Heyward, who with his first major-league swing Monday cranked a three-run homer off...
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You can read this glorious woo-hoo of a season-opening sweep in Houston a few ways. One way is: Woo-hoo! Edgar Renteria's going to hit .759 this year! Another is: Bah, Houston is heading toward 100 losses, and that's with Lance...
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With six shutout innings, only three hits, one walk, and five Ks, Barry Zito Tuesday night nearly matched Tim Lincecum's Monday line. It was the first time he's won his season debut as a Giant, and it was the first...
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The Giants' main farm teams have released their rosters. McCovey Chronicles regular Brute Sentiment posted a nice summary here, and if you've been following the last few drafts, there shouldn't be many assignment surprises. As I wrote here, the team to watch...
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Hank, I loved that at-bat, too. I loved everything the Giants did in the second inning in Monday's game, from Mark DeRosa's 3-2 take to draw a walk and build the Giants' three-run rally; to Bengie Molina's two-strike RBI single;...
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Remember when the Giants made their crazy, giddy, gut-wrenching run to the N.L. West pennant, beating the Dodgers by a game on the last day when a Giants fan behind home plate at Chase Field screamed "Suck It Russell Martin!"...
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Spring training ended today with a flood and then (for Yankees fans) a thud. I was going to take Miss Monkeypants to her first-ever Giants game but the possibility of a soaking-wet two year old attacked by seagulls was not...
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