Tim Hudson a good move for Giants, Javy Lopez close to deal

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We're picking up speed here.

Seemingly out of left field, Tim Hudson is a Giant, and I for one am pleased.

How can you go wrong with A) a proven competitor and good pitcher and B) a two year deal?

Yes, he's getting long in the tooth at 38, but he's still in great shape, should be fully recovered from his season-ending ankle injury last season, and he flat out knows how to pitch. With the starting pitching market in its currently absurd state, two years, $23MM for a 38 year old like Huddy seems like a not-so-bad proposition when compared to the 4 year hamstringing albatrosses in the $60MM range stiffs like Edwin Jackson and Ryan Dempster got and Ricky Nolasco will likely get.


Yep, that's where we are in baseball. We're to the point when $11.5MM a year for a 3rd/4th starter is a bargain. I don't know how we ended up here, but it just is what it is.

It's also a bargain when compared to Tim Lincecum, who will make a whole lot more for, as of now, worse statistics.

With Hudson, the Giants get a guy who knows how to pitch. Throughout his career, he's done a great job mixing speeds, and throwing a variety of pitches to keep hitters guessing. He's only lost a mile and a half on his fastball since 1999, and hasn't had a BB/9 average higher than 3 since 2006.

Most recently, Hudson had a 1.19 WHIP and opponents only hit .246 against him. Also, he has allowed a total of 56 HRs since 2006. In comparison, Lincecum has given up 110 round trippers... and he didn't make it to the majors until 2007.

So yeah, Tim Hudson is pretty damn good for an old guy I'd say.

How much of that plays into the fact that the Oakland Coliseum and Turner Field are cavernous pitcher's parks? Well, that's a valid argument to a certain extent.

Career stats have Hudson with a 3.04 ERA at home and a 3.82 ERA away. In 2013, the splits were sharply different with Hudson posting a 2.83 ERA at Turner and a 4.86 ERA elsewhere. 2012 seems to be a bit of an anomaly, with a lower ERA on the road, but 2011 sticks to the script, with 2.31/4.57 home/away splits.

The good news here is that he's pitching to another massive outfield like Atlanta and Oakland. There are trips to San Diego and LA to look forward to. But there's also Phoenix and Denver too... so let's hope these splits don't get too crazy. He's had only 2 seasons since 2002 where he's pitched better on the road.

Let's not make too, too much of this though. Many players pitch better at home. Just something to keep an eye on during those hot weather trips to the bandboxes of America's Heartland in the middle of the season.

Then there's the intangibles. Hudson is a hard-working guy who has refined his craft over the years and really hasn't dropped off at all, like many do at his age and with the amount of miles on his arm. He's yet another Southerner that will immediately fit in with leaders Cain, Posey, and Bumgarner, and here's the kicker: he wants to be here.

This isn't a high-bidder take all thing like Albert Pujols. Hudson expressed interest in being here, and he may have taken a lower offer to make that happen. It's a rarity these days, but I just love hearing that. Especially because the Giants have had a seriously difficult time wooing free agents in the past.

Buy hey, what pitcher wouldn't want to pitch for us? It's damn near impossible to give up a home run and you get to throw to Buster Posey. When his contract expires after 2015, hopefully some of our young arms will be ready to go. Sounds like a pretty sweet plan to me.

Welcome aboard sir!

Lopez near deal?

Bobby Evans told Jim Bowden that the Giants are about to re-sign Javier Lopez. Check out the MLBTR article here.

This is a great deal at nearly any cost. Lopez is as reliable as they get, and the Giants' bullpen would've been severely weakened if he had left. Unlike Jeremy Affeldt, Lopez can be counted on.

Now about that left fielder...

Vogelsong is scaring people

Welp. Ryan Vogelsong still isn't right.

It was another one of those starts on Thursday against Atlanta. You know, the one where he seems kinda okay through a few innings and then Bochy leaves him in 3 hitters too long and by that time he's given up 5 or 6 runs, and then he gets chainsaw angry, but it's too late, and we can't come back that one night?

*Big inhale after run-on sentence*

Yeah, it was another one of those starts for Vogey, who is beginning to scare people.

Forget Cain scaring people, and Lincecum doesn't surprise anyone anymore with whatever he does that day. Vogey is a huge part of this rotation, and it's hard to say whether he'll be able to recover.

I don't know whether to blame this on arm fatigue, pitching too many innings in the World Baseball Classic instead of easing into Spring Training, or whether he's just 35 years old and is having trouble locating his pitches. What I know, is that he's floating meatballs up there, and the carnivores in the batter's box are having their way with him.

He's now given up 9 dingers, has the worst ERA of all starting pitchers, and Hank Schulman offered another ugly stat as well:

"For the season, opponents are hitting .500 against him without a single strikeout in the fifth. He has allowed 16 of his 36 runs in that inning."

Sometimes players just get off to slow starts, and it happens to the best of them sometimes. However, Vogey's troubles at the end of last season were forgotten after he managed to get himself together for a nearly perfect postseason. Sad to say, but it's been a downward trend.

We can discount this as a slow start, or we can say, "Hey, something's not right here."

Something is certainly not right, and if I were to guess, it would be some sort of arm trouble-- perhaps arm fatigue due to age and miles, or perhaps something more sinister and latent like an injury of some sort. But that's just speculation by an idiot blogger.

Vogey is the type of competitor that would rather die than admit that something is wrong, and we all know he'll fight to the end, like the dogged gladiator he is. His story of perseverance is part of the reason he's so endeared himself to the Giants faithful.

Don't look at this table if you don't want to puke/cry. (Click to enlarge)

But alas, we're in this to win games and win championships, and despite the fact Lincecum and Cain have been inconsistent thus far, Vogelsong remains the number one concern of the rotation. His 70 baserunners in 39.1 innings and only 1 quality start out of 7 outings stick out like two sore thumbs. It's also scary that opponents are hitting nearly .370 on balls hit in play.

That .370 number is so high, that it suggests some degree of bad luck at play, but when you actually watch the hits being allowed, most are no doubters. It's very disheartening.

Should he have a start skipped? Probably.

But if we know Bruce Bochy (and we do), he's going to give his veterans enough rope to hang themselves (Lincecum anyone?), with enough left over to take the remaining rope and wrap it around their entire bodies so they can keep warm.

We'll see how it all shakes out, but with few (if any) rotational options in Fresno or in the bullpen, Vogelsong will need to dig himself out of this hole as soon as possible and begin to locate his pitches. If he can't, more drastic moves may need to be taken, and none of us want it to come to that.

Get well soon, Vogelstrong.

They aren't misfits, they fit perfectly

Andy Baggarly was right when he said, "Isn't this whole torture thing a little played out?"

I for one, am a little sick of it myself. I cannot deny that these Giants have given me more mini heart attacks than any other team I've rooted for, but I'm fed up with the whole mantra. They play close games, that's their style. Do we really need to keep saying "torture" ad nauseum?

I feel the same way about the rest of these terms the Giants are being branded with.

"Misfits", "Bad News Bears", "Dirty Dozen", "Scrap Heap", "Lost & Found", "Motley Crew", bla, bla, frickin, bla.

Enough already.

As the National sports media discovers the World Series-bound 2010 San Francisco Giants for the first time this week, do not expect the tidal wave of ridiculous and unfair monikers to subside.

Yes, as Mat Latos pointed out, this team has gone through a lot of changes. And yes, Brian Sabean has acquired a ton of new players that were unwanted by their previous teams.

Players are always unwanted by their previous teams! This is the age of free agency, waiver wires, and "What have you done for me lately?"

I cannot deny that guys like Pat Burrell and Cody Ross were picked up for nothing, and have been huge this season. But isn't that what being a good GM and a good team is all about?

Why, when a player is bought at an all time low does that then make him a "misfit" or "castoff" or "salvaged"?

In addition, with those noted exceptions above, there is blue chip talent on this team. Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, Buster Posey, and Madison Bumgarner are all high 1st round draft picks.

Brian Wilson and Serge Romo are also products of our farm system. Are they misfits because of their beards?

Freddy Sanchez is a former all-star and batting champion. Is he a castoff?

Because Andres Torres was a late bloomer and an undrafted free agent, does that somehow make his story infinitely less intriguing than Josh Hamilton's?

Juan Uribe has hit 20+ home runs in a season four times and has a World Series ring from his days with the White Sox. Because he's funny and pudgy, does that make him somehow less of a player than Texas SS Elvis Andrus, whom I expect to be drooled over by the media?

Because 29 other general managers were too stupid to give Aubrey Huff a chance and a contract, does that make him any less worthy than Michael Young to win a World Series?

The answer to all these unasked questions is a resounding "no" from where I'm sitting.

These Giants have exceeded all possible expectations, broken through all barriers, and doggedly persevered all season to get to this moment-- in the face of certain adversity. Padres, Braves, and Phillies fans alike have yet to concede that they could have possibly been beaten by a better team... calling the Giants "lucky".


Well I'll tell you something. You don't get to the World Series on luck. No one does.

This team has played the same style of baseball all season: great pitching, a door-slamming bullpen, scratched out runs, and timely big flies. It's not luck. It's a formula; and it works.

This is a classic example of a team's individual parts coming together to create something too special and valuable to deny.

This may not be the best team to ever put on a Giants uniform, it is definitely not the smoothest, or the prettiest, but each and every one of these guys deserves to be there, and when they hoist that trophy, no one will call them castoffs or misfits ever again.

They will simply be known as World Series Champions.

Clutch plays and Conrad overcome impotence and Bochy

Speechless.

That's the only way I could describe my feelings after game 2. You know me well enough to know that I am rarely, RARELY speechless.

I second-guessed Bochy's move to bring in Romo over Casilla or Ramirez and expect Wilson to get another 2 inning save. I second guessed his borderline OCD tic of removing Pat Burrell in the 6th inning. I questioned the move of pinch hitting for Fontenot with Renteria. All of it. But let's not talk about that. Rick Ankiel and Alex Gonzalez and Big Head Bochy are sealed up into a nice forgettable little Game 2 package.

On Sunday, Game 3 happened.

It was an incredible performance by Jonathan Sanchez on the mound, another impotent day at the plate against an other-worldly Tim Hudson and nasty Atlanta bullpen, another head-shaking, profanity-inducing string of decisions by Bruce Bochy, and an improbable comeback by our boys in Orange & Black. Observations are as such:

-- Jonathan Sanchez may have finally turned the corner as a big league pitcher... and a big game pitcher. His 11 K performance was the most prolific strikeout total by a Giants left hander in postseason history, and only one other Giants lefty has ever had 10. The Giants organization has been around almost 140 years, and Sanchez was the guy to set the record.

Not only that, but he had a no-hitter going into the 6th inning that had to be broken up by Timmy Hudson himself!

Even more so than Dirrrty Sanchez's no-hitter last season, this performance perhaps announced the arrival of "good Sanchez" for, well, good. He appears to be a confident son of a bitch out there, delivering a stankeye to Rick Ankiel after striking him out in the 3rd, and then throwing one over his head in the 6th.

Consistency has never been Sanchez's middle name, but my Lord, when he is good, he is GOOD.

-- Mike Fontenot and his Jon Miller-described "Hugh Jackman Wolverine Beard" proved to be a good start, and thank God BHH (Big Head Bochy) figured that out. Pablo Sandoval is a liability. He is an idiot in the field (running into Posey in game 2 and throwing the ball all over creation), and an idiot at the plate (double play specialist, strike out artist). Sandoval is not "back", I never declared him "back", and he will never be "back". He had one flukey season as a rookie, the league adjusted to him, and he's too stupid to adjust back. For Giants fans that aren't 14 year old girls with Panda hats, he's testing our patience to the last rope. If he got traded for Alex Gordon or Chris Davis or Johnny Venters, I'd say. Okay. Sounds good. You can sell Panda hats in KC, Texas, and Atlanta. He's your problem now.

Back to Fontenot.

His triple led to our first run (barely), and I'm shocked by how close it came to a dinger. In addition, it also may have injured Jason Heyward, which is a blessing in a not-so-good disguise.

Fontenot also played a good 3B.

-- Bochy is a hard-headed fool. He's been doing these things all year. He's an old-school guy who makes old-man decisions. Nearly all the Giants fans I talk to on Twitter basically groaned in unison as Romo was carted out to face Eric Hinske.

In fact, here is a string of my Twitterings (left column down, then right column)



And right after "Come on Serge", Hinske crushed a terrible pitch up into RF.

Romo is no longer a viable 8th inning option, and let's be honest, that basically lost us the game. If it weren't for Bobby Cox and poor Brooks Conrad, the second loss in a row would've been on Romo and Bochy. Amazing how baseball works.

-- Burrell needs to play 8 innings. Again, we came up in the 9th inning, needing to score and Pat Burrell was no longer in the game with Nate Schierholtz in his place. No. Bochy. NO!

-- Cody Ross should not hit 8th, Uribe should, until further notice

-- Both Brian McCann and Jason Heyward got banged up on Sunday and may not play at 100% tomorrow. No Billy Wagner worked to our advantage today, and with these two guys banged up, I like our chances.

-- It is a amazing how Sanchez and Huff were struggling so badly, and yet, those two, plus the cold Ishikawa walking off the bench, again, along with Brooks Conrad managed to somehow, ridiculously pull off two runs in the 9th inning.

-- There were two outs, two strikes, and we were almost done. We were literally down to our last strike. Freddy Sanchez came through.

-- Brooks Conrad will be forced into therapy soon. Atlanta is a bad sports town with a lot of fairweather bandwagoners, but they get fired up about stuff that matters, like Braves playoff games and Georgia football. You can bet they won't forget Conrad's 4 NLDS errors (3 in Game 3).

Like Duane Kuiper said on KNBR right after Conrad committed the lead-taking error on Buster Posey's routine grounder,

"I'm gonna take the kid off the hook. He should not have been out there playing second base."

And he's right. It's rare to feel bad for an opposing player. Nick Anderson missing all those free throws back in '95 against Houston comes to mind, and to a lesser extent, Bill Buckner, but this one shouldn't be on Brooks Conrad. Here's why.

--He's not a second baseman by trade, he's a 3rd baseman. It is true that he has not been good at 3B this year, committing 7 errors in 2010, but why, oh why, would a bad performance at 3B translate into a better performance at 2B?

My question to Old Man Cox is, "Why, after the 2nd error or 3rd error in the series do you leave the guy out there?"

Not only that, but the guy was asked to sacrifice bunt, and popped it up foul to Mike Fontenot in foul territory before he committed the final two errors. His confidence was shot, and yet, Cox carted him out there.

The alternative is putting Troy Glaus, a career 3B at third with sub-par range, and Omar Infante, a career middle infielder at 2B. Boom. Problem solved.

Braves fans are putting this loss on Cox like we put Romo and Sandoval's mistakes on Bochy.

-- Wilson was nails out there in the 9th. And thank God, because we needed that from him, not only because of the obvious, but because he needed a good outing to get his "Awesomness" back in to full swing.

Romo should shave his beard though. He can start growing it back, but you need to shave it now.

-- Andres Torres and Juan Uribe are a concern. Their at bats do not look great. They are swinging and missing too much and reaching for pitches. The same can be said for Huff and Freddy Sanchez, but perhaps their 9th inning success got them some mojo back.

And like Jerry Springer, my final thought.

On Saturday morning, after one of the most deflating losses of my Giants fan career, I flipped on my DirecTV box and looked through my DVR for something to watch before the Georgia-Tennessee game. Sure enough, there was 30 for 30 from last week: "4 Days in October".

If you haven't seen it, ask around, and see how you can watch it. Either online, or on your friend's DVR. It's worth it.

I actually wouldn't mind having it on DVD for my own purposes, but that is irrelevant.

This particular 30 for 30 was about the 2004 Boston Red Sox who improbably came back from a 3-0 ALCS deficit to beat the Yankees, in New York, to go on to the World Series where they swept the Cardinals.

I'm not a Red Sox fan. I guess I like them more than the Yankees, but who doesn't? Regardless, it was the most incredible comebacks in all of sports history, and was done by a cast of characters and outcasts with beards who called themselves "The Idiots."

Those Red Sox had Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling. They also had Kevin Millar, who is strikingly similar to Aubrey Huff in many ways. Martinez, Schilling, and Lowe in their primes are pretty damn similar to Lincecum, Cain, and Sanchez, who are all entering their primes. The Sox had Johnny Damon, whose beard made him look like a caveman. We have Brian Wilson whose beard makes him look like a cross between Charlie Sheen in Major League and Billy Mays back from grave.

They are not the same team, and I know that the comparison is a reach. What I will say, is that those 2004 Red Sox were the underdogs who were loose and goofy in the clubhouse. They had weird hair and strange characters, and tortured their fans all year. And yeah. They still beat the Yankees after being down 0-3.

After watching that, I felt better about our 1-1 series. I felt better about the possibility that we could win 1 or 2 at Turner Field, no matter what the circumstances.

Although I was crushed by the Game 2 loss and Hinske's home run, part of me said, "It's not over. These guys have been coming back all year, and if the Red Sox could come back from an 0-3 ALCS deficit, we can beat these damn Braves."

And that, my friends, is why we watch; it's why we're fans.

Game 3 is Monday at 5:37 Pacific on TBS. And Madison Bumgarner is pitching against Derek Lowe.

PS: I couldn't take Dick Stockton, Bob Brenly and TBS any more. After saying they did an okay job in game 1, they, like many of you, made me sick. It's everything from Stockton's pronunciation of error as "errah", to the fact that he introduced the Giants lineup as the "New York Giants", to his spray-on hair.

Brenly, although a former Giant, is sounding more and more like Tim McCarver. In the 4th inning, I put KNBR on, and literally looked at the TV only for visual replays while Twittering. Unfortunately KNBR's feed was about 7 seconds ahead of my DirecTV TBS feed, which makes it impossible to listen and watch in sync. It would be nice for KNBR to give a damn about its listeners and sync up their feed to the TBS feed, but I guess it's not a perfect world.

These guys don't give up...

This is a quick late night post-- something I never do.

But this is not a recap, this is just an exuberant exaltation of a Giants fan that had to consume a couple rally cocktails to push his team over the top for the victory.


In typical Giants style, this opening match against the dysfunctional Cubs was neither enjoyable or smooth for most of the game. It began with all kinds of weirdness and ended with weirdness.

Firstly there was the unknown factor of "Jerry Garcia Night", obviously a first in the history of mankind-- let alone professional baseball. Perhaps all the burned out communists in the stands got just high enough on dope to convey just enough good vibes onto the field for the win.

To add even more weirdness to the start of the game, there was Carlos Zambrano, the human powder keg. A guy who doesn't need drugs to act like a raving psycho. It was his first start since his historically bizarre and verbally violent dugout eruption in June.

And surprisingly, he pitched fairly well. To be fair, the Gyros haven't swung the bats well since their 10-0 dismantling of Colorado last week. That's neither here nor there though. We expected the same old mantra to ring true: Giants Baseball... TORTURE!

And speaking of torture, Duane Kuiper was mysteriously absent for the entire top of the 1st inning, and part of the bottom of the inning as well (if my memory serves me right at this late hour). So instead of an emergency deployment of Dave Flemming over to the Comcast side, Mike Krukow, who we all love as a color guy, was left by himself to cover the play by play while Kuip was either puking hardcore or hitting the dumper down the hall. Crude but true, and later on, Krook so tactfully put it:

"Kuip is suffering from a little bit of the 'Southern Crud'."

The awkwardness of Krukow alone in the booth was just the beginning of a night that transitioned into a familiarly frustrating game of groundouts and Twitter outbursts by yours truly about Pablo Sandoval being a retard.

We all know how the game ended, and what happened in order for us to win... that's not what I'm here for. I'm here to accentuate the the manner in which we won.

This is a team that has fought back all year, overcoming late inning deficits in a way we're simply not used to. This team is prone to slumps and groundouts, as we all know. Interestingly enough though, they are also prone to magical comebacks complete with a seemingly new hero each time.

As they say: It's magic inside.

As I wrote in my last article, "Adversity breeds character, and character wins games in September and October."

Now I'm no Vince Lombardi or Al Michaels or anything, and I'm not much for cheesy motivational quotes, but I have to hand it to myself on that one. It's pretty damn good.

Look at what these guys did. They got their asses handed to them in Atlanta in 3 out of 4 games, then got on a 5.5 hour plane ride from Hartsfield-Jackson airport on Sunday night, only to show up huge in the 11th inning. If you don't think those guys were dog tired and came out flat because of that brutal scheduling, you're kidding yourselves.

The character that these Giants continue to show me is impressive. It was impressive when they beat Billy Wagner and the Braves the other day, and it was impressive last night when they overcame the bizarre dysfunction of the Northside Baby Bears, in addition to a foolish wave-in of Travis Ishikawa by 3rd base coach Tim Flannery.

It's as if this team is training like Rocky Balboa for a bout with Ivan Drago. They may not have a cool gym or a bunch of high tech equipment or shiny names on their roster, but they've got the will. This part of the season is like the part of the training montage in Rocky IV when they're working out in the barn and running up the snow hill in Russia.



Yes. I love Rocky IV, and will refer to it any chance I get.

Also. Do you see how much these guys like each other? Do you see the chemistry? Guys like Andy Torres, Aubrey Huff, and Pat Burrell are flat out gamers, and each has their own interesting storyline.

I swore last article that I wouldn't gush like a schoolgirl... but ah, screw it, I'm doing it anyway. What a cool win for a great group of guys. It's exciting boys and girls. Get used to it.

Curbing Our Enthusiasm Sucks

"...adversity breeds character, and character wins ballgames in September and October."



I waited to write something this week. Mainly because it's been uncomfortable until now to sit at a desk. Sad I know. The other reason is simple... it's a lot easier to write stuff about a team on an absolute roll; a team that looked World Series-bound and like a team of destiny. I see people Twittering about "This reminds me of '93" or "This feels a little like 2000" or "Man, we have better pitching now than we did in '02".

It sure easy to gush like a schoolgirl when the team wins 20 of 25 games, and Buster Posey looks like the next coming of an blessed love child between Joe Mauer and Derek Jeter. It's easy to gush like a schoolgirl when Andy Torres is hitting 410 foot home runs every 3 days.

This is why you hold off. I learned my lesson about that. You can be excited all you want about what you see. You can text and Twitter all you want about how much ass we're kicking, but the season is too long, and this team is too imperfect to declare too many things before the 140 game mark.

Take this for example. I said this back on April 9th:

"Renteria really looks like a beast among boys out there right now and appears to be the same player who had a .330 season for the Braves in '07."

I also praised Aaron Rowand at the time, and said he looked like a .270 hitter... a compliment when it comes to him.

Why did I bring up these things that make me look stupid? Because things were going swimmingly back on April 9th, just like they were before we faced Yabalda Jimenez on our way to Atlanta.

And you know what? I'm glad we got our asses kicked in ATL. I'm also glad that it happened in 95 degree heat and 60% humidity. I'm glad we faced Atlanta's best pitchers, on the road, in as hostile and uncomfortable an environment as Atlanta's notoriously, horrendously lame fans could provide.

The simple reason is that adversity breeds character, and character wins ballgames in September and October.

No one can say that this team has lacked scrapiness or resolve-- especially compared to the disaster last season. Remember that? Remember when a 2-0 deficit in the 7th inning meant game over? We don't have that problem anymore.

Every team loses 2-0 to Timmy Hudson from time to time. Hell, the Yankees got shut out by James Shields on August 1st 3-0. The same James Shields that allowed 6 dongs to Toronto on Saturday. It happens. That's baseball.

What you need to be concerned about are patterns that seem to revolve like an a bad Cyndi Lauper cassette playing on an auto-reverse tape deck.

What really concerns me? Not the offense as a whole. It will slump from time to time. There are individual pieces that have to be worrisome:

1) Pablo Sandoval

Every time we think "The big bat we've been looking for" gets a hit, we think he may finally be snapping out of it. He isn't. He won't. I'm not being negative, I'm being realistic. Pablo Sandoval is a little kid that gets too excited at the plate to do anything productive. I've said it before and I will say it again... and I'm dead serious. He needs medication, and it's nothing to be ashamed of. There are a lot of things out there that will allow him to slow his mind down and become more cerebral, without taking away his goofy personality. I'm not as concerned about his weight as others are. "It's 80% mental and 40% physical." (Little Giants quote...)

2) Bruce Bochy

I've been on the "Fire Bochy" train for a couple months now, and I'm not getting off. The man is a bumbling fool and continues to both bewilder and enrage all fans that know their ass from a hole in the ground.

The newest twist to the Bochy saga is an unconscionable 13 man pitching staff, complete with Denny Bautista... who has been dispatched correctly...

Only...

...it was for TODD WELLEMEYER! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?

Who is calling the shots here? Anyone with a brain knows two things: 1) Wellemeyer sucks and 2) a 13 man pitching staff with a 4 man bench is asinine.

Even worse than having the likes of Bautista and Wellemeyer on our team is Bochy inexplicably giving up on games before they're over, conceding them, and bringing in Denny or Welley.

Case and point, Wednesday August 4th in Colorado, the Ubaldo gem.

After Madison Bumgarner gave up the 2-run HR to Carlos Gonzalez, Bochy brought in Bautista. The game was still within striking distance at 4-0. Bautista promptly hit Melvin Mora, threw a wild pitch, then hit Chris Iannetta before intentionally walking Barmes. He got lucky, and got out the inning.

Instead of removing the shaky/retarded Bautista for the 6th, Big Head left him in the game... a game that was now only a 4-1 deficit. And we all know how that ended... back to back dongs to CarGo and Tulo. Game over.

Example #2

Sunday in Atlanta with Derek Lowe on the mound. It was hot, Lowe's sinker was sinking, and with Sanchez on the mound, we were going to have to score runs to win.

As we had Bad Sanchez on the mound instead of Good Sanchez, a reliever was needed from our 8 man bullpen. And who trots out to the mound? Todd Freakin Wellemeyer.

We know how it went. 4 straight singles. Then Santiago Casilla and Aubrey Huff managed to combine for 3 solid outs to keep the game within striking distance.

Now that we've established the two recent bonehead moves by Bochy in regard to the bullpen, it doesn't hurt to mention that we basically have 3 guys on the bench on any given day. Oh, Renteria's banged up? Oh Uribe's hamstring is tender? Oh, so we really have 3 guys on the bench? Our two right-handed options off the bench are Whiteside and Rowand or Rowand and Renteria, and our only left hander is Schierholtz when Ishikawa plays?

I'm exasperated just talking about this. DFA Wellemyer immediately and eat the $400k he's due. You signed him to a low-risk high reward $1MM deal. It didn't work out. Dump his ass and bring up someone else. Rohlinger, Pill, Belt, Ford, I don't care. Bring up another body, and do it now. Morons.

3) Freddy Sanchez

Sanchy has struggled mightily for nearly 6 weeks now. He hasn't been Rowand bad, but he's been fairly worthless at the plate for awhile. Despite this fact, the Gyros were still able to score more runs than anyone in the Majors for July, an incredible feat for a team with a scuffling 2nd place hitter.

He's only had 3 doubles since June 18th, scored only 13 runs in July, and has seen his average drop from .279 to .258 since the all-star break. Freddy's .315 OBP% and .638 OPS are disturbing as well.

We know the guy can hit. He won a batting title, and we saw Sanchy have a stellar June. It's a deep slump, and I think he needs to sacrifice a chicken or an Aaron Rowand or something to bust out of it. The lineup is simply less effective when Freddy is not up at the top setting the table for Aubrey and Buster.

Other than those things, I would say that this team is pretty solid. And it's a fact that they own the Major's best record since July 5th (22-9). And hey, I make it sound a lot worse than it really is for a reason. These issues need to be resolved and addressed in order for this team to compete on all cylinders for a playoff spot.

Not only that, but it was great to see a potential playoff foe like Atlanta on top of their respective game. Now you know what you're up against in October boys. Go and get it.


And hey, Jonathan Sanchez is down. He is not only down, but he's throwing down guarantees.

"We're going to play San Diego, and we're going to beat them three times," Sanchez said. "If we get to first place, we're not going to look back. We are definitely going to make the playoffs."

I dig brother. I dig.

A special win... for a special team?

Woooohoooo!

Wow. That. Was. A. Doozy!

I can't remember a cooler, more extreme home opener than this one here. The Giants' 4-0 record notwithstanding, there seems to be something pretty special about this team in these early days of the 2010 season.

I know, I know. It's 4 games, and 9 times out of 10 Renteria doesn't hit that walkoff dong in the ninth inning. There are also a number of concerns that I still have about certain guys. But I can't help but feel that there's something different about this team.

They just seem more confident; more ballsy I guess.

If you look at the difference between this year's team and the guys we had last year, there really are only a few differences. Yes we brought in DeRosa and Huff, and they seem to be solid additions, but the real differences are the two guys that were already here; two guys earning like $20MM between them.

Edgar Renteria and Aaron Rowand are officially the X-Factors for this 2010 team. In the Astros series, as well as the first game of the Braves series, these two nutsacs have been the difference-- there's simply no denying it. And how ironic is it that two guys we've absolutely loathed the most were the two guys to win the game today? Little by little, they are chipping away at the hatred.

As I mentioned two posts ago, Renteria really looks like a beast among boys out there right now and appears to be the same player who had a .330 season for the Braves in '07. Lefty Malo mentioned it on twitter during the game, and I think he said it best. Something along the lines of, "Even without the HR Renteria hit, he looks like the best hitter out there. Good approach, on balance, and not pushing."

Even though Edgar's dong was his first extra base hit of the season, I'd be content if he hit .300 this season with nothing but singles. Seriously.

As for Aaron Rowand, he's still the same guy he was. Yes, he's 15 pounds lighter, but he's still reaching for balls out of the strike zone and swinging at first and second pitches far too often. The only difference seems to be that some of his balls are finding holes. Maybe the lost weight is helping him, who knows. All I know is that he is still frustrating me in half to two thirds of his at bats, and pleasantly surprises me with hits in the rest. Hey, I guess that's what a .270 hitter looks like.

I have to say, although some of you may call me nuts, that the guy who concerns me most right now is Pablo Sandoval. Part of me thinks that maybe he's starting to believe his own press clippings and is basking in the adoration and success he's had thus far.

The garbage he's swinging at and extreme lack of discipline at the plate appears to me to be worse than what he was doing last year. I don't know. Maybe I'm nuts, and I believe he'll find a groove sometime soon, but he's scaring me a little bit. He seems off balance, and has yet to really barrel up a couple line drives. He's finding holes and dropping in some bloops, but his RBI groundout today was not a good at bat.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on the Panda, I'm just pointing out that pitchers are starting to figure out that he really will swing at everything, and he'll do so at the expense of his power and balance. He'll settle down a little, but right now, he's a little all over the place.

Back to the team as a whole though.

Does anyone else feel like we're well into the season? Like as if we're already heading into the home stretch? Maybe it's because this is most excited we've been about this team in years, but there's already a different feel about this team and even amongst fans.

Anyway, we've got two more against Los Bravos, and we must try to remember that we're only 4 games into a long ass season. It was a sweet win that really helps boost the swagger of the team and fires up Giants Nation. In addition, the Braves, who played a night game in the ATL on Thursday and arrived at SFO around 2:30am, are flat worn out. They were already behind on sleep, then they had to dog out a 13 inning loss. You can't tell me that doesn't already put us at a significant advantage on Saturday.

If I was a betting man, I take Wellemeyer and the Giants on Saturday to make us 5-0.

PS: Let's see if we can get Jason Heyward to upgrade his Golden Sombrero on Friday into a Platinum one on Saturday. I'm taking bets on how fast the notoriously horrendous bandwagoning Braves fans hop off his train when he inevitably struggles. I'm setting the over/under at May 20th. Any takers?+

PSS: Obviously Steve Young, Jerry Rice as well as Kirk Reuter in the stands were the extra mojo we needed to win. Obviously...

Please! Make it stop!

Wow... are we really getting into these old ways again? Unable to hit the broad side of a barn if they were swinging a guitar at a beach ball from 5 feet away, the Giants have brought back memories of May and a disturbing lack of offensive production.

Not only this, but we've now been blown out twice by Atlanta consecutively and been quieted in two out of three in Pittsburgh.

It is especially scary what happened on Monday in Fulton County, Georgia. Sanchez gave up three runs-- and he should be able to do that. If every starter gave up three runs, that team should be able to win. It was the bullpen-- namely Sergio Romo and Bobby Howry, that scared the daylights out of me.

This was our rock. Our bullpen turned a leak in the hull into a gaping wound.

Romo is the most concerning to me. Romo has allowed 6 earned runs in his past 2 outings-- AND WAS UNABLE TO RECORD A SINGLE OUT IN EITHER OF THEM.

In his last 4 appearances, he's given up 7 ER in 2 innings, and seen his impeccable ERA rise from 2.77 to 6.59. I like his stuff when it's moving, but this is a "what-have-you-done-for-me-lately" type of world, and he's singlehandedly helped put two games in Atlanta out of reach.

As for out hitting...

WE'VE SCORED 9 RUNS IN OUR LAST 5 GAMES!

Yikes.

And we're not playing in the AL East here. Paul Maholm, Zach Duke, Tommy Hanson, and Derek Lowe are not CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, Josh Beckett, and Jon Lester.

With Aaron Rowand out with a contusion and slumping badly (to the tune of 4-42 stretch), we've got some serious water pouring into the boat.

The offensive renaissance the Gyros have enjoyed in late May and June has been due to Rowand's production, and the lack of Manny Burriss and Fred Lewis stinking it up on a regular basis.

Now we've got Lewis back, and John "Eurubiel Durazo T-Rex Arms" Bowker manning right field.

It's scary... especially with Pablo and Bengie hitting a combined .241 with 1 RBI so far on this roadie.

Deep breath everyone.


HAPPY LINCECUM DAY!

If we ever needed it to be Lincecum's turn to pitch, this is it. After The Big Sadowski's 8 ER disaster last night, we need someone to stop the bleeding and get some solid mojo action going.

We'll see how it goes.


DODGER DOUCHEBAG OF THE WEEK:

Jason "Benedict Arnold" Schmidt

Schmidt should be a warning to anyone who willingly signs with the Dodgers after achieving "adored Giant" status. Inevitably karma will kick your ass. On Monday, the artist formerly known as Schmitty, notched only his 2nd win since signing a 3 year, $47 million dollar deal with the jerks in blue. If his shoulder were to re-give out tomorrow, each of his two wins would have cost Frank McCourt $23.5 million dollars apiece.

That makes me smile.

And this picture of Manny getting beaned against Cincinnati also makes me smile.