Giants

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MVN - Most Valuable Network

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In the middle of their September 2009 battle for the National League Wild Card title, the San Francisco Giants have little time to ponder next season. But that unsolicited opportunity could come quickly in the next several weeks as the Giants arm wrestle Colorado and the Dodgers three more times with 21/2 games to make up in the Wild Card race. Oddly, San Francisco has a last gasp opportunity the final nine games of the season, when they meet the Arizona Diamondbacks five times, and the Chicago Cubs four times-- two teams expected to be in contention in their respective divisions throughout 2009, but who instead royally soiled themselves.

No matter how the 2009 season ends, the San Francisco Giants' front office can look toward 2010 as a major salary savings year. Nine players currently collecting 2009 salaries totaling $38.5 million will be off the books at the close of this season, and that means serious payroll flexibility and positioning for 2010. While there are any number of young Giant players making somewhere around the $400,000 MLB minimum salary who may not be with the big team next year, these nine players made much more than that in their 2009 final salary year:

-- Dave Roberts - $6.5 million (retired early this season)
-- Randy Winn - $8.25 million
-- Randy Johnson - $8 million
-- Bengie Molina - $6.0 million
-- Noah Lowry - $4.5 million ($6.25 million 2010 club option)
-- Bobby Howry - $2.75 million
-- Rich Aurilia - $1 million
-- Juan Uribe - $1 million
-- Dallas McPherson - $.5 million

Even though Molina, Uribe and Howry may be players the team is interested in resigning, that $38.5 million savings cuts a lot of family ties and makes the corner-office-with-a-view ballclub executives as happy as a right wing nutcase at a town hall meeting. But the Giants ownership might stop their collective giggling for a moment when they picture their average fan (plumber's crack showing, bending over to wipe up some spilled Chardonnay on their polished teak living room floor), actually expecting that new found money to be used to sign a legitimate Major League power hitter. Or two.

Imagine the nerve of that sports-talk-show-calling riff-raff, I mean it's not like they shell out a lot of money to... well, ah, never mind.

For the record, the riff-raff in the lower Field Box sections of AT&T Park were recently given a deadline by the Giants to pony up $2,925.00 per seat for 9 potential playoff tickets (which is reimbursed if the Giants don't make the playoffs, or are eliminated early). That would be on top of the $6,000+ cost for one 2009 Field Box season ticket.

Anyway, where were we? Oh yeah, the $38 million in player salaries disappearing in 2010. Keep in mind, during the three years from 2005 to 2007, the San Francisco Giants' payroll averaged over $90 million per year. The 2009 payroll is $82.6 million. Now this is where I say, "So, you do the math", but heck, I'll do the damn math: that's $46 million less spent on player salaries between 2005 and 2010. And that's counting Barry Zito's flesh-eating contract!

More importantly, the Giants have a number of very talented young pitchers and hitters in the minor leagues, several of whom may be ready to join the big club full time in 2010. So the bottom line is: the Giants organization has a great opportunity to construct a serious offensive powerhouse around some extremely talented pitching for many years to come.

As I bend over to wipe up the rest of my expensive Chardonnay, the very prospect of the San Francisco Giants making the playoffs each of the next five years (just like during the late 1990s and early 2000s), transports me to my favorite happy place--AT&T Park in October.

Wily baseball veterans call August and September "the dog days" for a variety of nasty and grungy reasons. One reason is that, come September of each Major League season, two types of teams seem to be playing "the most important game" or "the most important series" of the year--over and over again: those teams at the top of the standings who are just holding on, and those teams within six or so games of the division leaders who have ever diminishing opportunities to claw their way up to the top.

So the San Francisco Giants and their fans are confronted with a problem they haven't had to deal with for the past five years: meaningful ballgames late in the season that will decide whether or not their team makes the National League playoffs. As a result, the Giant's last road trip was christened by the local media the most important of the 2009 season. No, check that. Actually the four game series with the Rockies at Colorado (inside that road trip) were really the most critical contests. But wait a minute. Within the Colorado series, games three and four were, in turn, each described as the most important games of the 2009 season.

Now, as the Giants recover from that less than successful eleven game road trip, and take the time to gain some ground via the Arizona Diamondbacks in a three game home series, the upcoming weekend series with the Rockies is now being described as the most important series of the year. No doubt, one way or the other, game three with Colorado on Sunday August 30th will shortly be graced with the title, "the most important game of the year".

And you know what? All of those series, and all of those games, are the most important of the year. But as these seemingly unending "most important" games pile up, you would think the stress and tension could start to become overwhelming, especially for younger players. And for some it might, but not for the San Francisco Giants.

Although contending teams traditionally rely on veteran payers to keep the ship steady during late-season playoff race rollercoaster rides, it's the younger Giant players who are not only unfazed by all the tumult, they appear to absolutely thrive off it, thank you very much. Devastating losses, like the fourteen inning 6-4 debacle with Colorado on Monday August 24th (cited by many fans and media as the worst Giants loss in over five years), seem to roll off these twenty-four and twenty-five year old players like water off the Aflac duck. It is amazing to see this young team go about its business day-to-day in the eye of the NL Wild Card race hurricane.

So let's see how this Giants team holds up in the pressure cooker of the next four weeks, and what further miracles the best starting pitching in baseball can yet pull off. It is a beautiful thing to watch.

Few rational baseball-loving fans will disagree with me that the Fox Television network's vacuous announcing team of Tim McCarver and Joe Buck, have done more to dissuade people from watching American Major League Baseball than all the revelations about player steroid use put together.

Thanks to a new $2.5 billion dollar contract that runs through 2013, the Fox Network has a serial killer stranglehold on Major League Baseball broadcasts that not only forces us to watch the Buck/McCarver nightmare during the playoffs and World Series for the next five years, it blacks out all major league games on Saturday afternoons. Except, of course, the Fox Saturday Game of the Week. So if you're looking to watch a ballgame game on Saturday afternoons, pretty much give up any hope of watching your favorite team unless you live in New York, Boston or LA. Instead, you can prepare for the Fox broadcast by drugging yourself with premium Walmart beer in cans, and hiring a large burly man to tie you down to your favorite chair. Now you're ready to truly enjoy the entire Fox broadcast offering as delivered by appropriately faux announcers.

That five year Saturday contractual death-grip has compelled almost every other team in baseball to play their scheduled Saturday games at night so as not to lose the local TV revenue they would otherwise receive for those games. Other than a couple of additional Fox back-up games, the net effect is to have all the rest of baseball tossed into the dumpster known as the Saturday dinner and prime time hour--the worst ratings period of the week.

Even in a business that has done virtually everything it possibly can to alienate every last American child who might still have some interest in watching Major League Baseball (like televising playoff and World Series games at night, with 11:30PM EST or later end times), the idea of not being able to watch your team on television Saturday afternoons is pretty special. A nod to Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig in the immortal words of former President George W. Bush, "Heckofa job, Brownie..."

But that's not the worst aspect of Fox's National Pastime colonoscopy: the worst is the fingernails-scratching-a-blackboard announcing team of Tim McCarver and Joe Buck. Throughout their broadcasts, the Buck-McCarver monster is sure to have at hand a series of quirky and tedious baseball and, worse, non-baseball "personality" stories about every game day ballplayer; to be dutifully trotted out whenever a player gets a big hit or makes a good fielding play. These soul-killing, I'm-going-to-turn-to-the-QVC Channel moments are presented by Buck in his nasal, droning monotone delivery, or by McCarver, who often sounds like he recently wandered from an assisted care facility.

"You know, Tim, Chicago White Sox bopper Jim Thome, who just hit that homerun, not only hits balls out of the park, he spends his off season helping communities clean their local parks so kids can use them safely." Well sure, the poor little rug-muffins can't stay at home and watch their favorite baseball team on television Saturday afternoons, so they're running around urban parks littered with discarded condoms, unleashed pit bulls, and used needles. The little scamps pretty much need Jim Thome out there with a baseball bat just to protect them.

Oddly, there are occasions when I miss Joe Buck's insincere prattle--that would be anytime co-announcer Tim McCarver's mouth is moving. McCarver's favorite, and most embarrassing, gambit is to create an outlandishly different take on a common baseball situation. Apparently, McCarver's wants to make the typical Fox demographic viewer exclaim, "whoa.... dude, like I never thought of it that way.... I mean that is so rude it's, like, you know, way filthy rude".

An example of McCarver's inane "analysis in reverse" style would be something like, "Now, in this situation, it's actually better for B.J. Upton to get a walk rather than hit a three run homer..." Or Tim might pontificate, "Wow, that was a nice catch Dodger Matt Kemp made against the wall, but L.A. would be a lot better off if that ball had just left the park..."

To understand where this fluff falls on the silliness meter, simply apply McCarver's reverse-is-right philosophy to real life: "Florida resident Jack Simpson just picked the correct seven lottery numbers for a $47 million jackpot, but really folks, it would have actually been better for the Simpson family if Jack had only picked five correct numbers." Not surprisingly, there are hundreds of websites around the world solely dedicated to collecting McCarver's inane baseball quotes, one of my favorites being "Shut-up Tim McCarver.com".

So get used to Fox's forced enema approach to presenting Major League Baseball; until at least 2014, that's going to have to pass as a good time.

San Francisco Giants General Manager Brian Sabean just faced one of the most difficult series of decisions in his tenure as Giants GM: should he alter the make-up of a team already rolling toward a post-season wildcard slot? How aggressively should he address several identified team needs to ensure they even make the playoffs? And, how much should he give up to get those missing pieces?

Tough choices, and all to be achieved within a limited time period, from within a limited resource pool, while at the same time competing with other playoff hungry teams. And, by the way, this is a contract renewal year for Sabean, so also add in serious job performance pressure.

But Brian Sabean pulled it off. Despite Ryan Garko's slow start, and Freddy Sanchez's immediate offensive impact, Brian Sabean gave the Giants the three things they needed most right now: 1) a line drive doubles bat to move runners on the bases and score runs; 2) fielding stability at second base, and by extension, the entire infield; 3) a bat at first base capable of driving in runs. In retrospect, the price paid was not a problem.

Lefty Scott Barnes, traded to Cleveland for 1B Ryan Garko, had a nice 12-3 record at single A San Jose, but was rated the 9th best prospect in the Giants organization. And the Giants desperately had to make some move to upgrade the lack of offense at first base. Travis Ishikawa has shown no improvement after the Giants gave him many opportunities-- he has essentially remained a very good triple A player. Ishikawa is striking out once every 3.6 at bats (550 bats = 153 strikeouts). Add to that only 30 RBIs and 7 home runs, and the first base picture looked bleak. Garko brings at least a chance to create runs from first base.

After having righty Tim Alderson's name enshrined in the minds of Giants fans the past two years as one of the organization's top three or four minor league prospects, it was difficult to see him traded. But Alderson's promise is no match for what Freddy Sanchez has already achieved during the past five years he has been a full time starter: a National League batting title, three All Star Game appearances, and an amazing glove at second base. If an additional rationale is needed here, apparently Alderson has slipped somewhat in the eyes of the Giants front office, so this move should have been a relatively easy one for Sabean.

Whichever way the 2009 race for the National League West and the NL wild card turns out, Brian Sabean can feel he did what had to be done to put the Giants in position to make the playoffs. The competition is very tough: the Colorado Rockies will not stop winning games, and there's no way Atlanta, Florida, Milwaukee, and the Cubs go quietly. So the odds are high, but the Giants are at the table and finally have the chips to play to win.

On a recent visit to Pittsburgh I looked up an old friend, who asked if I wanted to go with him to a monthly meeting of recovering Pittsburgh Pirates fans, held in a drafty old warehouse in the industrial section of the Steel City. It seemed harmless, so the next night we drove through city streets along the river, parked amid broken bottles and trash, walked up to an old building, and entered a large lifeless room. Inside there was a variety of people sitting in several dozen folding chairs facing a worn podium. As we took our seats, I noticed a scruffy table along the side with boxes of doughnuts and an old metal coffee urn surrounded by stacks of white styro cups.

A man walked up to the podium and spoke. "I want to welcome everyone and I applaud your courage for coming here tonight. I know it's not easy, but I have faith we can beat this thing together. Now let's hear from the floor." A man raised his hand and stood up. "Hi... my name is William and as of yesterday, I haven't have been a Pirates fan for three straight months." As the room erupted in applause, William smiled and lowered his head.

"You all know I lost control and became a Pirates fan a couple of times on and off the past several years, despite all the bad trades of the really good players and the inability of the front office to properly assess and draft minor league talent, but I want everyone to know I'm back." More applause and cheering filled the room. William smiled sheepishly and sat down.

"Thank you, William," said the moderator. "Can we please hear from Pastor Bob?" A black-robed man stood up and spoke. "After seventeen straight losing seasons, we know we cannot beat the demons that haunt us without facing them, so I want everyone to bow their heads and repeat the names on this partial list as I speak them... to those Pittsburgh players we foolishly lost in jerkwad trades: Jason Bay, Nate McLouth, Aramis Ramirez, Jack Wilson, Freddy Sanchez, Xavier Nady, Jason Schmidt." At this, many in the room began to rumble in anger.

Pastor Bob continued. "To those players we could have picked in the annual First Year Player drafts if our GMs didn't have their heads so far up their butts: Lance Berkman  (1997), C.C. Sabathia (1998), Ben Sheets and Alex Rios (1999), David Wright (2001), Prince Fielder, Scott Kasmir, B.J. Upton (2002)." At this point, a number of fans began openly sobbing and wailing, and many pulled out hidden bottles from their coats and began drinking directly from them. My friend and I hurriedly left the room as fans started throwing the bottles at the podium and it appeared a riot was starting. As we quickly drove away in the night, I vowed to never become a Pittsburgh Pirates fan no matter how desperate I was or how low my self-esteem.

I also now plan to devote the rest of my life working with those who are fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates, in the hope that medical science may some day find a cure for this insidious and destructive addiction. It's the least I can do.

San Francisco Giant pitcher Jonathan Sanchez's brilliant no hit performance against the San Diego Padres on July 10th caused two Major League Baseball teams to hit a brick wall-- much like Wiley Coyote does when chasing the Roadrunner on one of those winding mountain roads.

The Giants apparently spent the better part of the past two months exploring possible trades involving the twenty-six-year old lefthander, including serious talks with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The proposed trade would have sent Sanchez and unnamed minor leaguers to Pittsburgh for All Star second baseman Freddy Sanchez. The Pirates apparently balked (sorry about that), asking for a better grade of minor leaguers rather than just some throw-ins. So the Giants balked right back.

As the rosy afterglow of Jonathan Sanchez's dazzling no-hitter settles in on both franchises, the Pittsburgh Pirates wake up with the kind of wired hangover you get when mixing inexpensive hard liquor from Safeway and Walmart brand beer the night before. Sanchez now looks like the winning lottery ticket they decided not to purchase.

For the Giants and Brian Sabean, who loves good pitching in a way that prompts family and friends to think about staging an intervention, Sanchez now presents an even greater problem. How do you trade him? How many starts does he get to prove or disprove the promise of the no hitter? And how can you fit Jonathan Sanchez into the Giants rotation when (or if) Randy Johnson returns, and with Madison Bumgarner, Tim Alderson and several other quality pitchers pounding on the front door? And, whew, that's a lot of damn fool questions.

The bold stroke would be to move Sanchez out now--it is quite possible his value will never be higher. The obvious downside would be for Giants owner Bill Neukom to sit down in front of his 80" hi def Vistavision TV on a lazy Saturday afternoon in mid-September and watch Jonathan Sanchez throw his second no-hitter of the year for the [fill in any other team name here except San Francisco Giants]. Mr. Neukom would no doubt do that thing where you spray out a stream of your current beverage in wide-eye shock and surprise.

There's a parallel here (isn't there always?). In September 2007, Boston rookie pitcher Clay Buchholz tossed a no-hitter in the second major league start of his career. Since that time, the promising Buchholz has had performance and injury issues, but this year posted a great first half in the minors. During the off season, Boston desperately wanted one of the Texas Rangers' outstanding rookie catchers, Jarrod Saltalamacchia or Taylor Teagarden. The price would have been Clay Buchholz, and Boston just couldn't pull that trigger, settling for the older and slower free agent Jason Varitek.

And that's the problem. Without their no-hitters, the twenty-four year old Buchholz would likely be a Texas Ranger today, and Jonathan Sanchez might very well be packing in the next several weeks, the only issue for Giants management being which big hitting left fielder or second baseman takes his locker.

                                               ----------------------------------------

A comparison between Buchholz and Sanchez shows two pitchers pretty close in numbers ratios:

San Francisco Giants General Manager Brian Sabean has a difficult series of decisions to make by the July 31, 2009 MLB non-waiver trading deadline. The Giants are in a fascinating situation that demands serious player decisions be made now, decisions that will have high visibility outcomes this season and for several seasons to come.

The 2009 Giants are a team in the final stages of moving past the Barry Bonds era-- from a team built around a single extraordinary athlete for fifteen years, to a team reconstructed with a series of smart draft picks dating from 2002 (Matt Cain) and 2003 (Brian Wilson, Nate Schierholtz, and the late-blooming Ryan Sadowski). More importantly, starting in 2008, the Giants wisely refocused on drafting quality position players to rebalance an organization overstocked with pitching prospects.

2008 first four draft picks

1. Buster Posey, C

2. Conor Gillaspie 3B

3. Roger Kieschnick OF

4. Brandon Crawford SS

I have previously discussed why the San Francisco Giants will be an emerging force in the National League this year, and a dominant force in the Majors for a number of years to come. Thanks to the team belatedly getting its act together as far as prospect evaluations and player drafting, and its ability to carry a payroll zooming past the $80 million+ per year mark, there is an excellent chance that, starting in 2010, the San Francisco Giants will be a preeminent team in the Majors for a half dozen years.

Keep in mind, this team is at a tipping point despite an unimaginable number of catastrophically bad player signings the past six years. Here's a partial list of the worst of the worst (*currently being paid):

>Armando Benitez (2003, 4 years) $26 million

>Edgardo Alfonzo (2005, 3 years) $21 million

>Ray Durham (2 years) $14.5 million

>Dave Roberts (3 years) $18 million*

>Barry Bonds (final year) $16 million*

>Aaron Rowand (5 years) $60 million*

>Barry Zito (7 years) $126 million*

>Edgar Renteria (2 years) $19 million*

That's $300.5 million wasted on below average players over a very short period of time. Throw in what many consider to be one of the worst trades in MLB history, the 2003 Giants dealing Joe Nathan/Francisco Liriano/Boof Bonser to Minnesota to rent A.J. Pierzynski for one year, and you would think this franchise would be toast. And very burnt toast at that. But, despite dramatically poor decision making by the front office the past six years, the San Francisco Giants are still about to emerge as a serious force in the game. And that is testimony to their money and their relatively new ball park.

On a purely financial front, the Giants debt payment for the quasi-privately funded AT&T Park is approximately $20 million a year according to Forbes (I have also read that the debt payment is $15 million a year, and $18 million a year, etc.). That debt will be paid off somewhere around 2019, coinciding nicely with the Giants' huge investment in a mega residential/office space/concert venue/retail development project in Mission Bay, just across McCovey Cove. This is the same "retail/housing/multi-use" development mantra that seems to accompany every new MLB or NFL stadium proposal around the country.

What that means is the San Francisco Giants Baseball Club will become a mega conglomerate with multi revenue streams and an expanding real estate and business portfolio. As a result, in the years following the upcoming 2010-2015 "Giants era", the team could continue a high level of regular season and post season play, due to the unparalleled financial bounty required to support superior player drafting and development, and high end free agency signings. The Giants, in essence, would join the Yankees, Red Sox, and Angels in the top echelon of big money Major League teams.

And, starting today, please disregard the previous definitions of "small market" and "large market" teams. Someone (probably an owner) promoted the idea that the size of the metropolitan area in which a team resides determines the team's revenue stream. In reality, nothing could be farther from the truth.

Thanks to the era of "baseball-only" stadiums, an attendance base of 40,000 (with at least 25,000 season ticket holders), can turn a major league baseball team into a money printing machine. It's not the location, it's the stadium and the deal, it's the national and local TV and radio revenue, and it's the marketing potential. The Giants and the Oakland As are two teams on the far side of this economy: the Giants got what they needed and are prospering and about to prosper even more; the As are making money, but not nearly as much as they would with a new stadium and the attendant enhanced revenue.

But enough of the business of baseball. I promise to get back to the game--like what a pure joy it is to watch Pablo Sandoval play baseball every day-- because it is poetic, because it is raucous, and (most importantly) because it is pure fun.

Chris at the always enlightening Bay City Ball pointed out in his most recent post just how well our much beloved and equally rotund 3rd baseman Pablo Sandoval has hit over the course of this season and during his current hot streak.  Over the month of June alone he has managed an exceptionally productive .480 wOBA.  So how has Panda achieved his success?

As Chris (with whom I fear I may actually share a brain, as I actually planned to write this article before reading his piece) also alluded to, Sandoval has never met a pitch he does not like.  In the zone, outside the zone, up, down, he doesn't really care.  His apparent indifference to the strikezone has made him one of the swingiest swingers who ever swung.   Indeed his swing percentage on pitches outside the strikezone (46.2%) is 2nd in baseball behind Bengie Molina) and his swing % in the zone (79.5%) is 3rd in baseball.  

Whereas these swing percentages (particularly his O swing %) would portend career suicide for mere mortals, Pablo not only survives but thrives.   He does so by having an equally remarkable ability to make contact.  Have you ever met a guy who has the ability to pick up any woman in any situation?  Pablo is like that, but with hitting baseballs.   He ranks 13 in baseball in making contact  on pitches swung at outside the zone.   While this position may not initially seem all that impressive,  only 2 players above him have a swing percentage above 30 (36 and 37% respectively for Bentencourt and the catcher who shall not be named).  Sandoval simply can make contact with anything.

Next up, a look at how Sandoval has fared with individual pitch types.
   

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As per Henry Shulman  Manny Burriss was optioned to AAA today and 25 year old Matt Downs was called up.    I take full credit for this move as my prior post was the first in a multi-pronged blogosphere attack on our blighted 2nd baseman. 


I know nothing about Matt Downs other than he has slightly better projections than Kevin Frandsen and cannot possibly be worse than Burriss
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I have not exactly kept my disdain for Manny Burriss a secret.  Burriss has performed awfully this season, contributing -.8 wins BELOW replacement so far (which projects to about -2 wins over 150 games). To underscore just how terrible a performance this represents, engage in the following thought exercise:  Replacing Burriss'  projected 2009 season (-2.0 wins)  with Ray Durham's 2008 effort (+2.6 wins) would produce an improvement equal to replacing 2008 Randy Winn (+4.5 wins) with the best player in baseball (Albert Pujols, + 8.9 wins).   

Thus, I find Burriss' very presence on this roster irksome.  Consider me quite irked.    Perhaps my hatred, which burns with the undying fury of 1000 suns, seems somewhat hypocritical.  After all, I and many other Giants fans have clamored for internal player development since the dawn of Sabean and his obsession with the Pursuit of Gritty Veteran Veteraness.  One can argue that most young players experience an adjustment period coming into the bigs.  Struggling is a part of the maturation process which we must accept if we want to develop young players.   This argument (which admittedly is something of a strawman) is fatally flawed in the case of Burriss for  a number of reasons.

1. No indicators existed at the time of Burriss' callup in 2008 that suggested he would succeed at the major league level.  His 2009 season may not be an period of adjustment but rather a reflection on his true talent level.

2. Sabean decided that Burriss' performance in 2008 was predictable and repeatable.  He therefore handed him the 2009 starting job without competition.

3. It always makes sense to have a backup plan, especially with players whose predicted performance carries a high degree of uncertainty.  The fact that Sabean essentially decided to stick with Burriss at 2nd come hell or high water is unbelievably bad roster construction.

The Giants currently sit precariously perched atop the NL wild card leader board.  If the Giants fall, the blame can squarely be laid at Burris' and by extension Sabean's feet. 

It came out in today’s Chronicle, Bruce Bochy has said that Tim Linceum will likely start the season in AAA. Good call. Based on a couple appearances, he still has some work to do. I think it was Craig Biggio (don’t quote me on this, I’m not sure) who said that Lincecum’s fastball [...] - [Read more]

Armando Benitez had a great spring opener, as he's already coming with the strikeouts and 90MPH+ fastball. He came to camp with the body of a Greek god¹, a passion to make more money, and a mirror to put in the dugout so he can remind himself that, doggone it, people like him. In the five stages of Armando grief, Giants fans are still at "bargaining." So what if the past two seasons have been financial and performance disasters from our lead dog in the bullpen. We'll now take just one good season from the ornery fellow. Just one good season out of the life of the contract, that isn't too much to ask, right? I remember the same plea toward the end of Edgardo Alfonzo's decomposition. Just because you wish it hard enough doesn't mean it will come true.

Last year's prediction was a mess. It was like a ray of sunshine rubbing up against you in a subway car. What an awful mess of a season. People who don't follow the Giants will never understand, either. "What's the big deal, you whiny dorks? Benitez wasn't perfect, but he still had an ERA under 4.00." Oh, how ERA doesn't tell the entire story in this case. Here are some other stats that tell the rest of the story:

Appearances: 44
Blown saves: 45

I'm on a train right now, so I don't have an internet connection, but I'm pretty sure those stats are 100% accurate. It wasn't just the pile of blown saves, it was also the timing. Dodger games, games that would have prevented a sweep, games that would have clinched a sweep, games when the Giants were still above .500, games when the Giants' hopes were long gone. And yet the blown save for which Benitez is most famous is a game against the Giants in a game the Giants didn't even win. How is that fair?

But I'm an obvious idiot, because I'm again going to project something better than a complete meltdown.

Armando Benitez

ERA: 3.31
S: 35
BS: 6
IP: 62
K: 57
BB: 27
HR: 8
Food or weight jokes in this thread alone: 38

I'll take the contract year as the motivating factor, even though I usually find that theory to be completely bogus and simplistic. Note that if the Giants somehow make the playoffs, Benitez will ruin the entire season. It might make sense to pick the Giants to win the division just so Benitez can ruin the entire season. You have to know it would feel oh-so-right.

¹ Criscokis, god of partially hydrogenated oils.

What do the names Aurilia, Tucker and Alou all have in common? They are your Giants opening day third place hitters since Barry Bonds last batted third to open the 2002 season. Now, there aren’t many pitchers that wouldn’t mind pitching to those three in the first instead of having pitching to Bonds. This year [...] - [Read more]

I don’t exactly remember when I attended my San Francisco Giants Baseball game, but I’m sure it was somewhere between 1982 – 1985.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved baseball, but it was hard to get excited about the giants during these years.  Watching Dan Driesen, Greg Minton, and Tom O’Malley didn’t exactly get the [...] - [Read more]

Paul Rice beat me to linking to the Giant-flavored installment of BP’s “Hope and Faith” series. If you were going to sum up that article in a sentence, it would be “the giants are going to have to get pretty damn lucky to win it all this year, not act of God or winning season [...] - [Read more]