The Great Hesto Presto saves the day

I still find myself thinking Chris Heston's name is Hansen or Hester. I almost have to write it on my arm so I remember who this guy actually is. That's how little I knew of him before his callup and subsequent victory over Arizona Wednesday.

Of course you could point to my lack of obsession with our unexciting farm system as the culprit, but I don't care. What I do care about is that this dude could turn out to be something.

Based on his interesting mix of breaking/sinking stuff and composure during a rough 1st inning, I'd say we could have possibly found a back of the rotation guy for the future.

NOW, this is based on one start following an unexceptional minor league career and 2014 callup. So let's do our best to reserve judgement for awhile. With Heston scheduled to toss the Giants' home opener next week, his level of gusto should be on pretty good display sooner than later. What's nice about his '15 debut is that he got to get his feet wet in front of 20,000 quiet people against a beatable Diamondbacks team. Kinda different than a home opener with 42,000+ nuts and a flag raising ceremony. He'll be nervous alright, but let's see how he buckles down. It's a good litmus test.

Notes & Stuff

-- Nice to see Casey McGehee get off the schneid so soon and dong that HR on Wednesday. People ripped the Aoki/McGehee moves as unexciting and weak, but they are the type of players that win ballgames. Think back to some of the hackers we've had on this team over the years. Pablo/Pedro Feliz/Brandon Hicks types that swing at the first pitch and take more poor ABs than good ones. Not a problem with these two. They don't care if they reach on errors every game, take a HBP, or single a Texas leaguer up the middle. They just love playing and contributing. They are perfect Giants. I don't care if it's only 3 games in. They're my kind of players. WAR be damned.

-- Matt Duffy rules. 

-- I like that the Duffman is getting into the lineup and contributing, but I hate to see it at the expense of Joe Panik's ABs. Something will have to give at some point. Maybe Duffy will replace Joaquin Arias as our go-to utility guy and he'll end up playing more. I just like his energy.

-- Last year, I painstakingly made this Duffyman picture by hand-coloring his cape and hat orange and his boots black. I also added little 'y's to all the things that say "Duff", including the beers on his boozebelt, his chest, and hat. My S-Pen got a good workout that night. Please tell me you love it and it was worth my time.

-- For those of you that listen to KNBR in the morning, how nice has it been that Gary Radnich has been on vacation? Hate to say it, but Pauly Mac on vacation has been nice too. Anything that gives us less filler and more susbstance-- aka more Kate Scott, is good. Same goes for Ray Ratto on Mr. T. They really need to shake up some of these pairings.

Brian Murphy, Kate Scott, Larry Krueger, and Tolbert should be kept. Fitz and Brooks is awful (mostly due to Rod Brooks, Fitz is okay) and needs to be re-done or cancelled. The guy that needs more daytime exposure is Ray Woodson. He gets banished to Sportsphone 680 or fill-in duties, and he's just so much better than some of th
e guys I mentioned.

The other guy who no one talks about is Ted Ramey, who took over for Damon Bruce over on 1050. Since Fitz and Brooks is so painful to the ears, I listen to Ted Ramey a lot on my lunch break. I'm glad he got a shot. He deserves to be on 680 doing something.

If they only make one move over at The Leader though, it has to be canning Radnich. He is the worst kind of entrenched curmudgeon. Completely un-listenable, out of touch, uniformed, obnoxious... I could go on forever. Do people actually listen to him? If so, why?

-- At least we don't have that issue with our announcers. I can't tell you how nice it's been to get regular doses of Kruk/Kuip/Miller/Flem again. Best in the business.

-- Anyone excited for this Padres series? I know they went out and got themselves a team all the sudden and we want to dismiss them as hype, but you can't.

I personally love it when the West is competitive. It's so much more fun when these games matter. September in Denver, San Diego in April, they all matter, baby.

-- When Madison Bumgarner retires at age 46, he clearly needs to be our Head Groundskeeper/Seagull hunter/Security/Criminal beater-upper.