Giants

As we head into spring training 2010 all of Giants' nation has the same thing on their mind, offense. After some last minute acquisitions, the Giants look to be headed in the right direction. First, grabbing Mark DeRosa and Aubrey Huff this off-season will hopefully produce that offensive spark that the

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After their disastrous start of 2-7, the San Francisco Giants have not only ended the month with a 10-10 .500 record, but have taken every series that they have played: Two series (4 games) against Arizona, 2 games against San Diego and two of three from the hated Dodgers, including a 9-4 win Wednesday evening at ATT Park...Couple of things you might never ever see at a ballpark again as long as you live: The pitcher batting 8th and Juan Pierre bringing up the rear, AND, AND Bengie Molina knocking a triple of the centerfield wall!  Molina is becoming the heart and soul of the

Continue reading "San Francisco ends month at .500"

Southern California has not been nice to the Giants as we go into the second week of the season, dropping all five games that they have played against the Padres and the Dodgers.  They were swept by the Padres and have lost the first two of three to the Dodgers. 

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The Giants, who were not supposed to-have any offense, is proving some experts wrong, at least for the first three games: They have scored 19 runs.  Any team who averages 6 runs per game will win a lot of games, as long as they don't give up seven.  Such was the case as the

Continue reading "Giants down Brewers, freak accident ..."

A pitcher and hitter named Yovani Gallardo spoiled the Giants attempt to become the first team to ever go 162-0, as his Milwaukee Brewers downed the Giants 4-2 in Wednesday's contest.  Gallardo smacked a 3 run homer in the fifth, which turned out to be the difference in the game...Randy Johnson's debut as a Giant didn't go as planned, as he left after 5 innings trailing 4-1.  He did however strike out 7 in his debut, with most of his pitches registering in the low 90's, not bad for a 45 year old man...Mike Cameron, the man who replaced Ken Griffey in Seattle a number of years ago, had a solo shot for the Brew Crew's other run...The

Continue reading "NO 162-0 RECORD FOR GIANTS THIS YEAR"

In a 10-7 win over the Cleveland Indians, the Giants had a lot to show for in the first game of spring training.  Let me emphasis that this is only spring training.  I am not getting over excite BUT it is entertaining to watch these young kids play.  Travis Ishikawa went 3-for-3 with 2 home runs, a single, and 4 RBIs.  I was listening to the game on XM radio and it was being broadcasted by the Indian's commentators.  The sound of their voices when Travis hit both of his homeruns was like it was a regular season game.  They sounded amazed and impressed by how much power came out of his bat.  I remember seeing this kid come up briefly in 2007 and though he looked like he had potential, I thought he would just be another waste of time.  I saw a kid who chased everything and rarely hit the ball.  Now we are seeing this bright kid who has an old school batting stance, waiting on pitches and clobbering the one he likes.  Let me say on behalf of the

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at the beginning of this past baseball season, the giants were offered a trade of alexis rios for tim lincecum, good thing that trade didn't happened, rios had a disappointing season and lincecum is i

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r Readers (All 10 of you...)Yes it has been a while since I posted.  As a looooooooooooongtime Giants fan, it is becoming more difficult to find something good to say about the team this year.  There have been some moments of glory, but most of the season is a stinker, to put it into polite terms.  The brightest spot all year has been Tim 'The Franchise' Lincecum , who at 12-3 is the only pitcher with double digit wins.  And the way it is going, only Matt Cain will even have a  chance to come close.  Timmy still leads he league in K's and he should top 200 this year.  Cy Young?  Not for a losing team on the west coast, though Steve Carlton did win one yar when he won over 20 of the team's entire total...Matt Cain; We are starting to see why the

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A funny thing happened to the Giants and their fans at At&T Park on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday:  Not only did they sweep the series against the Nationals, Matt Cain pitched a four hit shutout on Thursday, striking out four and NOT ISSUING ANY WALKS, which has always been one of his biggest problems: Too many pitches cause too many walks...Cain now stands at 130 K's for 4th in the National League, but...Cain used a little more off speed stuff, striking out one batter with a 69 mile per hour pitch.  I might be able to hit that!...Go Matt...The

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and a honeymoon in beautiful San Diego.  Both were great!!!!!...Now, to the business at hand...Giants win 2 of 3 from the A's, taking back some of the boasting rights that they lost by being swept two weeks ago.  Pitching* was way better and so was the offense for the most part...Would it surprise you that TIM LINCECUM threw another great game on Saturday evening at the Colosseum, going 7 strong innings, and striking out 11.  Those K's gives him114 K's in 109.2** inn ngs.  His 9 wins ties him for fourth in the league and his ERA of 2.38 puts him near the top for the year... BENGIE MOLINA and AARON ROWAND continue to be among the tops in the league, with .307 for 9th and

Continue reading "I'M BACK!!!!!"

Scuttlebutt around the league has the Giants signing Rick Peterson as a special consultant to work with BARRY ZITO on his woeful season.  Peterson was fired as pitching coach with the New York Mets at the same time they fired Manager Willie Randolph and almost the entire coaching staff.  Peterson was a private pitching coach for Zito prior to his big league career, as well as pc in Oakland during most of Zito's stay there...Barry fell to 2-11, as he gave up 5 runs in two innings versus Detroit on Wednesday.  It was the second shortest outing of his career.  Now what I really think: It burns me up when fans are yelling all these insults at Zito when he under-performs.  I am in a habit at yelling back At them: "So you could do better?"  Quiets them for a few seconds...Some have even suggested that his woes, mainly his arm speed, have come from not using the juice.  I saw Barry Zito in Sacramento about 5 weeks before he was called up to Oakland.  I could tell then he had it.  He ovepowered 'em...I cannot believe that he was juicing.  Of course that is the response in the mind of man to all player's problems, at least the ones that have played in the past 7 years...One step ahead, two steps back...The story of the

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The brooms were out at AT&T Park over the weekend, it's just that they were carried by fans of the cross-bay Oakland Athletics.  The A's swept the first three of the six games the two teams will play this year.  (The other three are in two weeks at the Mcafee Coliseum...The A's pitching were blue chip, showing that Billy Beane knows how to pick them...The rotation was somewhat off blue chip, but very competitive.  Matt Cain Struck out 11 on Saturday evening, one off his career best...Kevin Corriea came back from an oblique strain and pitched remarkably well for his first major league appearance in nearly two months...And Barry was Barry.  He was in command of most of his pitches, but ended up issuing those dreader walks...The Boo Birds were out!...Now what I really think:  All of these Boo Birds, many who were probably cut from their 8th grade team, I always won dered if they could do better?  There are always references to the big contract--$126 million over seven years.  With the All-Star game coming up in one month, maybe Manager Bruce Bochy needs to step back and look at the staff ace and say maybe that isn't the spot for him.  Perhaps he would be better suited as #3, as in Oakland.  The pressure would certainly be off him...Tim Lincecum, wh  the staff ace, may be suited for that role...The scores of the three games were:

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inevitable the old adage that says 'What goes around, comes around.  Certainly seems that the Giants were listening to that one, as they blasted the Mets 10-2 one nite and the Mets turned around and almost blasted them the next night 9-6.  On the surface that doesn't seem like a blasting, but before Travis Denker blasted a three run homer in the bottom of the 9th, his first of his career, it was 9-3, which would qualify as a blasting.  Who knows...60 percent of the players who responded to a recent Sports Illustrated poll named AARON ROWAND as the toughest player in the majors.  He has taken some mighty strong knocks lately, but is out there everyday.  He may be one Giant that goes to New York for the All-Star game in July.  He is hitting a more than respectable .329 and has been at or near the top in all categories since the beginning of the year.  And he plays a pretty good centerfield too...Go Aaron...

Continue reading "Bad 2 days at AT&T"

ANCHEZ about it, as that is what took place on a cool, breezy evening at AT &T Park as the Giants downed the struggling NEW YORK METS 10-2.  It was the most runs that Giants

Continue reading "Half Dozen Runs in First as Gianrs sink Mets"

handed batter.  The first tied the game at 1-1 and the second was the game winning hit in the Giants 4-3 win...Barry Zito went six innings, giving up the three Arizona runs, but pitched impressively for his third straight appearance...He ended the evening with a no decision...Tyler Walker-The Bull-plagued recently by a string of poor performances, pitched the 8th inning and went home with the win...Brian Wilson had another 1-2-3 9th inning for his fourth save on this road trip.  The save boosted his save total to a league leading 16... 

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Monkey off the back?...The Giants may have gotten the monkey off their backs with an 11-3 blowout of the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday evening...Ask anyone, that is what I have been saying that they needed for weeks now...Jonathan Sanchez went 6 innings, gave up just 6 hits and walked 3...His record now stands at 3-3...Should it surprise you that BENGIE MOLINA had another good night on the road.  With three more hits tonight, he is batting around .667 in his last 7 games.  His BA is up into the .320's...He is going to miss the road...Let's not forget the contributions of Ray-Ray Durham with a solo homer and a three run triple.  He is now hitting in the solid .280's.  Since Velez was sent down last week, Ray-Ray has become the fulltime second sacker again.  He provides a lot of leadership too...Emmanuel Burris at short, giving Omar Vizquel the night off.  Since his hot start when he returned two weeks ago, his bat has turned against him...The

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Doubleheader Loss-Giants now 20-32...Giants dropped two to the Florida Marlins, 8-7 & 5-4.  The good news was:  Omar Vizquel, the seemingly ageless shortstop, tied and broke the record for games at shortstop, playing his 2,584th game at the position.  He took over the top spot from his hero Luis Aparicio, who played in the 1950's's and 60's in the American League.  (C'mon, you must have a baseball card of him somewhere, if your mother didn't throw them out when you went to college.)...

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tches...  He was clearly way tired in the Florida heat...This was the Barry Zito that the Giants ponied up $126 million over 7 years for, not that other guy that went nearly eight weeks into the season before garnering his first win...It didn't hurt that the offense got him eight runs, there highest total of the season...Bengie Molina and Aaron Rowand provided much of the muscle, clubbing back to back homeras in the 4th inning...Bengie had two other hits...When will pitchers learn not to pitch him outside, belt level...Rich Aurila had two doubles, one each to the gaps...

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Giants took a three game series against the Colorado Rockies 2-1...  All three games were one-run affairs, games which the Giants had not excelled at this year...Tim Lincecum stopped the the Rockies on Tuesday evening.  He left the game after the 6th inning leading 6-3.  Brian Wilson coming off a stretch of poor performances, gave up a two run homer, making it 6-5 and then struck out the Rockies' final batter...The save tied him for most in the league, at 13, but he sure is scary...He seems to thrive on the nail biting, pressure situation...As I said last week, Rod Beck was exactly the same before he established himself as the league's premiere reliever in the late 90's and early 2000's...A rare day game on Wednesday had the

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Another game, another loss-This time to Colorado, which is just slightly better than the Giants, now 17-29 Another 1-run loss, 4-3...Only San Diego trails at 16-29...Bullpen let the game slip away again...They began the season being pretty reliable...Try it again tomorrow night...Silver linings:Lewis and Velez tied for league lead with 5 triples each (they are both barn burners)...Aaron Rowand is 10th with a .322 batting average...Velez is 9th with 8 stolen bases (was thrown out tonite)...

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Dear Readers;   It is getting very difficult to be positive in my writing about the Giants when they are finding different ways to lose everyday.  Granted they were up against a very hot Chicago White Sox today, but despite two comebacks they still lose, 13-8.  In baseball, generally no one person can be blamed for losses day in and day out, except perhaps the manager, who pulls the strings, but, even Billy Martin, who had a great deal of success managing numerous teams, said the manager only effects the outcome of about 15 games a year...The sheer talent is there, the know-how is there, the wins are not.  They have lost almost twice as many as they have won.  The only reason they are in third place is that the Rockies and Padres are playing very poorly to this point in the season, the quarter mark of 162 games.  Is there any answer?  Like, I would know!  Grown men are paid millions of dollars per year to play a little boy's game, one that I could have only hoped to do when I was sliding around those bases when I was 13 years old. There is no immediate help in Fresno, though bringing up a new player is not always the answer.  There is no saviour there, there may not even be a there, there...Brian Sabean, the General Manager, has been roundly criticized for not developing home grown talent during his decade plus tenure.  The

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Angels, Mets vs. Yankees; Arizona and Detroit.  So much for that theory...Giants opened against the Chicago White Sox Friday evening.  Temperature was 75 at 7:15 game time.  Fans were wearing shorts...JONATHAN SANCHEZ threw 6 2/3 really good innings, but getting that last batter in the 7th proved fatal: Alexi Rameriz, who physically reminds me of Gino Velez, smacked his first major league home run with Nick Swisher aboard.  They were the only two runs scored all nite...In pre-series interview, the much maligned A.J. Persinski said he didn't kick trainer Stan Conte in the groin, nor did he refuse to stop his card game to review teh hitters for that evening's game.  He did however hit into a major league leading 47 double plays.  OUCH!!!...In case you haven't heard, Peter Macgowan is stepping down at the end of this season.  His 16 years are enough and he wants to spend more time with his grandkids.  He did bring Barry Bonds to the

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3-2 and 3-2...Giants ended splitting two games that both ended with the identical scores of 3-2.  The Tuesday night game was the weird one, as the Colorado Rockies scored the winning run on a balk called by home plate umpire Gary Darling.  The video and audio showed that he had called 'timeout' as requested by catcher Bengie Molina.  Manager Bruce Bochy argued and was tossed out of the game.  (Rule: A balk call cannot be argued.) Curiously, Colorado Mamager Clint Hurdle had been tossed the previous evening by Darling for arguing a balk call at first base.  (Darling was a third base in Wednesday's game and when Bochyargued a call, many thought it would be an early exit again.)...Lincecum is mortal.  Yes, 23 year old Tim Lincecum is mortal.  He was not his usual sharp self, and left the game while striking out just 4.  Before the evening, he was near the top of the league in strikeouts.  So he is now 4-1, with he ERA 'soaring' into the 1.70s.  Not bad for a guy who just two years ago this time was thinking about a string of college finals in his near future...Freddie Lewisstifled the Rockies attempts to win the game with an inning ending off the turf grab in short right field.  With two outs and runners on second and third, they were off with the smack.  From my standpoint, it didn't look like he was going to grab it, but he fooled me.  He ends the month with a solid .330 batting average for the month with a couple of homers.  Seems like he is on base at least twice per game...After a horrendous 1-6 start, the

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It was not pretty!!!!! Two games and 20 runs!  It was not pretty.  The Giants and their pitchers spent the last two games, Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon watching a multitude of Cincinnati Reds circle the bases.  Reds piled up the runs on Saturday evening, before the Orange and Black scored four runs in the bottom of the 9th to make it close and respectable.  And no, Bengie Molina was not involved, as he sat out the game with 'general soreness' in his legs.  Could have used him!! Final score, 10-9!...Sunday and another 10 runs, this time courtesy of not only Barry Zito'sstring of bad luck, but of sloppy play all around.  A couple of pop ups that fell untouched, the most experienced player not taking charge when he should have and some overaggressive play by one of the youngsters let in 6 runs before the third out was recorded.  Ouch.  Two Brandon Phillips shots did not help either.  He had three over the weekend!  Final score: 9-2. 

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the dreams and hopes for the upcoming season still alive.  Well this is true for every one but Giants fans. 

Giants Owner peter McGowan promised bay area  reporters a  “younger, faster, more energetic ballclub”  He obviously wasn’t referring to the staffs “ACE”  Barry Zito’s fastball witch since he signed a ridiculous 126 million dollar contract last offseason to move across the bay from Oakland has been neither faster nor more energetic and has looked  little more than pedestrian. Zito never topped the gun over 84 M.P.H. opening day against the dodgers which is a huge concern for a pitcher who relies on his changeup and curveball to be effective. The dodgers never respected he subpar fastball which led to few batters being fooled by   Zito’s curveball or changeup which means a lot of balls in play for an aging defense.

Continue reading "Only 159 games until next year!!"

On one side we have a Giants team that is best suited to try and play ball control and keep Tom Brady and the vaunted Patriots' offense off the field. But football is unique in that days of gameplanning can be shot to hell almost instantly. The Patriots can win the coin toss, receive the opening kickoff and, if they execute as they have for the majority of this season, put the

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