Giants literally throw the game away

Is it possible to hate the team that you love?

I guess it is because I hate the Giants right now.  After doing all that they could to give the game away to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday, the Giants found a way to give a game to the Colorado Rockies.

Not every Giant was trying to give the game away.  Jonathan Sanchez threw 8 innings of shutout ball, I'm not counting the run in the 9th as earned even though the official scorer did, walked Dexter Fowler to lead off the 9th and was replaced by Brian Wilson.

Let's analyze this right here.  Johnny No-No had thrown 108 pitches and, after getting ahead 0-2 to Fowler, he suddenly lost his command throwing 4 wide ones.  Bochy was absolutely right in pulling Sanchez at this point and bringing in Wilson.  Sure Wilson threw 30 pitches yesterday but Wilson was good for an inning tonight.

Wilson got Carlos Gonzalez to line out to Cody Ross....At least, that's what everyone thought.  Ross played Gonzalez's liner into a triple and to make matters worse, Freddy Sanchez sent the relay throw into the Giants' dugout allowing Gonzalez to score.

Game over.

I have 2 complaints about this game.

First:

Why wasn't Nate Schierholtz manning rightfield?  The only reason, that I can see, that he is even on the roster is as a late inning defensive replacement.  Isn't that what you want in a late inning game?  Boch, in his infinite wisdom, put Travis Ishikawa in at first base as a defensive replacement, which was absolutely the right move. Why not put in Nate?  He would have thrown the ball all the way to third on the fly and we probably would be watching extra innings right now.

Second:

The Giants bats.  It doesn't matter who they throw out there, how many runs they scored against the Reds, or how many runs they scored against the D-backs yesterday.  This team has a tendency to just go in a top to bottom funk when it comes to hitting and it happens a LOT.  Especially when Sanchez is on the mound and pitching well, look at the two 1-0 losses to the Padres that he took earlier this year.  I'm not saying that they need to score 10 runs every night, I am just saying they need to score more than 1 or 2 runs a lot more.

The game recap on SFGiants.com is titled:  Chance to gain ground slips by Giants.  This is actually incorrect because the Giants have had 5 chances in a row to gain ground on the Padres and they are just 1-4 in those games.

Do these Giants really want to play in the postseason?

Following up on yesterday's post about the 2009 Giants and the 2010 team.   It looks as if the 2010 Giants are trying to keep their record identical to last year's squad.  Both teams own 72-60 records after 132 games.  good thing is the 2009 Giants won game 133!

Down on the farm:

Brandon Belt 4-6, 2B, HR, 4 RBI

See you on Wednesday Mr. Belt.  you can take that seat right next to Nate Schierholtz on the bench.

Are the Giants really any better than they were last season?

Here we are 131 games into the season.  They have a record of  72-59. There are another 31 games left and to the casual observer the Giants this season would be a better team than the team we had last season right?

That's extremely debatable.

But Aaron Rowand and Edgar Renteria are on the bench!  We have Aubrey Huff and Pat Burrell!  Buster Posey instead of Bengie Molina!  Hell, even Jose Guillen is hitting .372 since coming over from the Royals!

Sure those names sound better than Fred Lewis, Randy Winn, and Rich Aurillia.  But does the result on the field look any different?

Exhibit A:

Through 131 games last season the Giants had a record of ............. 72-59.  they were 6 games back in the standings to the LA Dodgers.  Well I guess since they are only 5 back of the Padres they must be doing something right!

Exhibit B:

Last season the Giants team Batting Average was .257.  This season it's .263.  or about the difference that Jose Guillen's .372 has been making over the last week or 2

Exhibit C:

The pitching has been much more dominant!  Last season's ERA 3.55 to this season's 3.70!  Yes the pitching this season, this includes the starting pitching and the bullpen, has a HIGHER ERA  than the Giants pitchers put up last season.

The Giants need to go 16-15 the rest of the season to match last season's 88-74 record.  After losing 2 out of 3 to the Diamondbacks that looks like a tall order.  The hitting is prone to go into deep sleep and the pitchers just look worn out.  From Tim Lincecum's struggles to Jonathan Sanhez's inconsistency.  The only thing that is saving this season right now is the fact that the padres may finally be fading having lost 4 in a row and the Giants still have 7 games left with them.

At this point, the Giants are what they are.

They are a mediocre team in a mediocre division.  The fact that the entire National League seems to be mediocre helps their situation tremendously in the wild-card hunt.  There is no team that looks capable of running off 10 wins in a row right now.  So the Giants should remain in the postseason picture until the very end of the season.

I want to say it will be a fun ride.  But based on the season so far, I think it is going to be more like a torturous one.

Is Tim Lincecum tipping his pitches?

DIAMONDBACKS 6 - GIANTS 0 

In the few game recaps I read about last night's game I only saw it mentioned once.  I'm sure it's not something that the Giants really want to have get around the league, but judging from Lincecum's horrible August it already has., but in Chris Haft's game recap on SFgiants.com the 11th paragraph reads:

"Giants manager Bruce Bochy downplayed any edge the D-backs might have received by saying, "All teams do that." But Bochy acknowledged that Lincecum made an adjustment. And Lincecum himself admitted that he started setting his hands closer to his body so nobody could detect the wiggling of his fingers as he prepared to grip the ball."


Apparently, Boch's remarks were in response to the fact that some  were saying that Stephen Drew was signalling pitch location to Adam LaRoche when he hit his 3 run homerun in the first inning.  I didn't see the game and the replay they had on MLB.com didn't show Drew and it was really hard to see Lincecum's glove but tipping pitches is a huge problem for a guy like Lincecum who relies more on his deception than anything to get hitters out.


It also explains Lincecum's constant fiddling with his mechanics.  One thing that has really seemed odd to me is that after just about every start Timmy is changing the positioning of his hands, swinging his glove over his head, or holding them "closer to his body son nobody could detect the wiggling of his fingers as he prepared to grip the ball"  


All this has gotten into Lincecum's head.  It helps explain his lack of control and velocity as well.  If you know the other team knows what's coming do you really want to throw that pitch in the strike zone?


The good news is: it's fixable.  It will take someone a whole lot smarter than me to tell Licecum what he is doing and how to fix it but it can be done.


All that said, the Giants still could have won this game.  4 runs in 6 innings is not a disastrous start by any stretch of the imagination.  But it is when your team scores 0 runs!


Now I could go on and on about how the Giants wasted all of those runs in the Reds series on the Reds but I think it has more to do with the guy on the mound for the Dbacks tonight than anything like that.


Barry Enright is a rookie this season.  He has pitched pretty well considering he was 4-2 with a 2.75 ERA for this horrible Arizona team coming into tonight's game.  In addition to stranding a whopping 86% of the runners he allows to reach base.  He has gone 10 consecutive starts in which he has allowed 3 earned runs or less.


Make that 11.


None of this excuses the Giants lack of support for Lincecum however, the Snakes did throw out two mediocre relievers that the Giants couldn't manage to get anything going against either.  I would just chalk it up to a letdown from Wednesday's epic game but the off-day yesterday should have erased any of those letdown tendencies.


The Giants also received a scare when Buster Posey came out of the game in the 8th inning with a mild forearm strain, but it doesn't sound serious.  However with news of Stephen Strasburg having season ending and career threatening Tommy John surgery dropping earlier in the day the Giants I am sure were just a little jumpy.

Giants score 11 runs again! It's still not enough,,

REDS 12 - GIANTS 11

At least the game was exciting.

The score was 10-1 going into the bottom of the 5th.  I was at work at the time and was pretty glad I wasn't watching the game.  I got home and decided to check out what the carnage was only to see that the Giants had pulled to 10-8 in the 8th inning.  Andres Torres tied the game and I couldn't believe my eyes!  Next thing you know Aubrey Huff is hitting a sacrifice fly to put the Giants ahead 11-10 in the 9th inning!

Then Pablo Sandoval showed some of that lackluster defense that he has been showing a little too much this season.

Pablo threw away the second out of the 9th inning allowing the tying run to get to second.  That run scored on the double by the next batter and tied the game.  Some guy named Nick Massett came in and struck out 4 G-men in 2 innings and Francisco Cordero shut them down for 2 more innings and then the Reds scored off of Barry Zito in the 12th and the game was over.  Reds win.

There are a lot of positives to take from this game.

The 1933 New York Giants 

The Giants scored 11 runs in their third consecutive game(the first time they have done that since 1953 and the first time ever in San Francisco), they pounded out at least 17 hits for the 3rd straight game (first time since 1933!), they came back from 9 runs down!  Pablo Sandoval, Jose Guillen, Juan Uribe, Mike Fontenot, Jose Guillen, and Andres Torres each had multi-hit games.

There were some alarming stats too.

The 8 runs, 7 earned,  that Madison Bumgarner gave up.  It could just be a result of the rookie facing the highest scoring team in the league or a result of a guy who has passed his career number of innings pitched and is running on fumes.

The Giants also committed 5 errors.  Yes 5 errors! sure 3 of those were committed by pitchers and 2 of them were committed by Ramon Ramirez in his 2 innings of work and of course the most costly error of all was Pablo Sandoval's error in the 9th.

So you take some good and you take some bad.  Ultimately this game will be filed in the "L" column and that's what will count at the end of the season.  Hopefully the Giants can keep scoring runs with the D-backs coming to town tonight.

I almost forgot to mention that Brandon Belt made his AAA debut last night.  What does the kid do?  He hits his 20th homer of the season and steals his 12th base.  Look out for this guy in September.  Head on over to 22Gigantes to see some pictures and a video from the game.  It's worth it to hear Gigantes' son screaming "DADDY I JUST GOT HIS AUTOGRAPH!" After Belt "Belted" his homerun.

Giants score two touchdowns and add a safety for good measure

GIANTS 16 - REDS 5

The Giants have been putting up video game numbers 

Yes, I'm talking about the San Francisco Giants.

The Giants continued their hot-hitting ways last night.  One night after scoring an impressive 11 runs on 17 hits, the boys in Orange and Black scored a ridiculous 16 runs on 18 hits.  

Just because it's fun to do I will tell you that they scored 27 runs over the last 2 nights, on 35 hits, and they hit 6 home runs over those games.  The 16 runs were only 1 run less than the Giants scored in all 6 games against Philadelphia and St. Louis!

Look, I'll be the first guy to admit that you can't take a whole lot from a 16 run game.  It's a fluke thing that doesn't happen very often.  As far as I could tell the last time that the Giants scored at least 16 runs in a game was on Sept. 3, 2004 when the Giants put up 18 on the D-Backs Barry Bonds and everybody's favorite Giant Edgardo Alfonso went deep in what had to be the game of his career since he pounded out 5 hits that night!

So what can we take from these two games?

Well the Giants have embarrassed a legitimate post season contender in the Cincinnati Reds.  Who, by the way, were the highest scoring team in the league coming in to the series.  They also have picked themselves up off the ground, yet again this season.  

Am I convinced they are back yet?

No, but there is still a lot of baseball to be played and they are still tied for the wildcard.  Also, with tomorrows game, they will be able to get their record to an even .500 over their last 12 games against contenders.  Which is what you need to do over the course of a long season if you want to have a shot at making it to the postseason.  

This could be the start of a nice little winning streak since the hapless Diamondbacks are coming into town tomorrow.

By the Way, Pablo Sandoval's homerun last night was an absolute BOMB.  If you think the Panda isn't back then consider that he is Hitting .306 with 5 homeruns for the month of August.

Giants demolish Reds I'm still not sure I'm back on the Bandwagon

GIANTS 11 - REDS 2

Oh you Giants.  You are like the sexy girlfriend who I just can't leave no matter how bad she makes me feel.  Just when you do something to me to make me think that I am done with you for the season, you lay the smack down on a team, a first place team no less, and you lay it down good.

But I have been hurt too many times to come running back.  Sure you started the season with a 5 game winning streak, but then the Dodgers and the Padres came to town.  They whipped the crap out of you so bad that you could only muster one win against the two teams in the span of 6 games.  Then you battled admirably and were right back in the thick of things.

But then there was that 7 game losing streak.

It looked like it was the beginning of the end.  The Giants weren't hitting, they weren't pitching, and they were 7 games out of first place.  With the lack of offense this team was displaying who in their right mind would think that this team had a chance in hell of making some noise come August?

Then came the trade to send Molina packing and make Buster Posey the full time catcher.  This led to an amazing July.  The Giants scored more runs and won more games than any team in all of baseball.  Hell they even swept the Dodgers.

Then August started.  A tough road trip through Colorado and Atlanta got the month off to a bad start, a home series with the Cubs was a little harder than it needed to be and then the Padres came to town again.

The emotions ran the gamut in the series with the Padres.  From a frustrating 3-2 loss in game one, to an amazing, come-from-behind extra inning win in the second game that had us thinking the corner had been turned, and finally an embarrassing 8-2 ass whipping at the hands of the same Padres.

Things got worse in Philly but you were able to ride a great performance from Jonathan Sanchez to an impressive win.  This was followed by another great effort from the youngest player on the team, Madison Bumgarner, and hope started to blossom.  But that hoped was quickly squashed by Chris Carpenter and Jaime Garcia.  Hell, even the Buster Posey Rookie of the Year odds took a huge blow from the complete game 3 hitter that Garcia twirled.

So, I refuse to get excited over one game.  I refuse to be excited that Aubrey Huff, Buster Posey, Freddy Sanchez, and Pablo Sandoval all had multi-hit games.  I refuse to be elated over the fact that Matt Cain showed us why he is the best pitcher on the Giants staff this season not named Brian Wilson.  I refuse to take heart in the way the Giants showed a team who had won 8 of the last 10 who the real contender is .

But come Friday I could be excited again.

While you are waiting for tomorrow's showdown between Jonathan Sanchez and Travis Wood , take a minute to go and read Aubrey Huff's blog.

I'll bet you a dollar it brings a tear to your eye.

Can the Giants make the postseason?

Boy July sure was fun wasn't it?

But now we are in the dog days of August and the Giants are fading like the Will Clark poster I had in my room that was too close to the window.  Along with them their playoff hopes are going down the tubes as well.

The Giants pitching staff is beginning to look like a staff of pitchers who have been pitching for too many years on a team that insists on only scoring 1 or 2 runs a game for them.

The hitters are beginning to show us why no other teams wanted them.

The bullpen, well the bullpen wasn't ever that good except for Brian Wilson and he doesn't really have any reason to get into a 9-0 defeat.

Things were looking so bright coming into August, the Giants won more games and scored more runs than anybody in all of baseball!  They were 1 1/2 games behind the Padres and were the leaders in the wildcard race.  They were winning at home and on the road.  Pablo Sandoval was coming out of his slump and Pat Burrell was carrying the team.

Since August 1st the Giants are 9-10.  That's not horrible but then you realize that they have lost 2 out of 3 games to the Padres, Phillies, Cardinals and 3 out of 4 to the Braves.  Thank god for the Cubs because this record could have easily been 6-13.

I'm hoping for a miracle but this team just seems out of gas.  I can't even get excited for Buster Posey winning the Rookie of the year award after seeing Jaimie Garcia dominate the Giants the way he did on Sunday.

Tonight, the Giants play the red hot Reds.  The same Reds who have won 8 of their last 10 games.  Although it doesn't matter how the other team is doing coming in to the Giants series since the Cardinals had lost 4 in a row.

Hopefully the Giants can get something going against these Reds.  I don't have a lot of confidence in them anymore.  But I'm not totally ready to write off the season either.

Hey at least the Niners are looking good!

Oh I almost forgot!  The Giants did get Cody Ross from the Marlins in exchange for nothing!  Well they did DFA Matt Downs but nobody really thought he was good anyway.  So now the Giants have another over the hill, .250 hitting, right handed out fielder with average at best defensive skills.  Check out the graphic over on Bay City Ball to see the lineup that I can realistically see the Giants trotting out one of these days!

Did I mention the Niners are looking good?

IT's Madbum's world and we are all just living in it

GIANTS 6 - CARDINALS 3

Madison Bumgarner has delivered on his promise.

Sure, his 5-4 record does not blow you away, but how many kids come up in the middle of a pennant race and throw quality starts back to back the way that he has?  At 21 years old no less?

Not many that's for sure.  Aubrey Huff summed him up pretty good tonight: “He’s country redneck, man, He’s got great stuff, he pounds the zone. You’re looking at a kid on the mound … He’s a veteran guy in a 21-year-old body.”


Nothing seems to rattle Bumgarner.  He gives up a few hits, and then he settles down, gets out of the jam, and comes out the next inning or so and gets an RBI hit himself.  He has already exceeded his career high for innings pitched but if he is getting weary then he sure isn't showing it.  He only walked one batter last night and that was the Great Albert Pujols.  Which is understandable since you are trying to walk him and hoping that he gets himself out.


I'm also going to declare right now that Pablo Sandoval is back.  First he hits a homerun right handed in Philadelphia, then he hits another homerun last night and a booming double for good measure.  Did you know that this marks the first time since August of LAST YEAR that Pablo has homered in back to back games?  It is yet another encouraging sign that the Giants third baseman is returning to form.  At this point in the season it is going to be pretty much impossible to get his average to .325 no matter how he hits, but I would be excited to see him finish the season somewhere in the high .280s.


Oh and some guy named Buster Posey had 2 doubles last night for the second night in a row.  It gets easy to forget that Buster is still out there doing his thing because now he is doing it so often it is old news.  Really, did you know that he is working on another 7 game hitting streak?  Coming in to last night's game he had hit in 6 straight and was batting a robust .440 in those 6 games.  All I can say to that is Rookie of The Year.   

Lastly:

The Giants put in a waiver wire claim on the Marlins' Cody Ross.  It sounds more like a blocking claim from what is being reported everywhere but the Giants could conceiveably wind up with him since the Marlins are really hot to move him.  Although with Juan Uribe's latest injury the Giants seem to be in need of infield help more than anything.  But still it's better for the Giatns to be stuck with this guy rather than the Padres get him!

Jonathan Sanchez dominates the Phillies!

GIANTS 5 - PHILLIES 2

This team is so Jekyll & Hyde.  One day they can't score runs, get good pitching, and look nothing like pennant contenders (actually it was for the better part of 2 weeks).  But then they have a great all-around performance against the National League's world series representative for the past 2 seasons.

Jonathan Sanchez turned in what was easily his most dominating performance of the season.  Even though he did have one start against the Padres earlier this season where he only gave up one hit and one run and still lost the game.  This one was better.

On the face of it, that game back in April was more dominating since he struck out more and he allowed two hits last night as opposed to one.  But you need to consider that the Giants starters have been reeling.  They haven't been credited with a win in their last 14 starts.  The Giants as a whole have just looked incredibly flat since their amazing 11 inning victory over the Padres on Saturday.

But Jonathan Sanchez came out last night, Put the Giants on his shoulders, and made us all wonder why we were so hot to trade him in the first place.  There is no #4 starter in all of baseball who pitches as well as Sanchez and is capable of the performances that he puts in.  We all get frustrated with Sanchez because he has Ace quality stuff, and he tantalizes us every so often with a gem like last night, but he never is consistent enough to attain that Ace status.

However as the guys over at Raising Matt Cain point out, Sanchez is getting better every season.  Think back to the first half of last season and remember that the guy was giving up six or seven runs every other start, he was demoted to the bullpen, and he only made the start when he threw the no-hitter because of an injury to Randy Johnson.

One thing to keep in mind is that Sanchez improved tremendously after throwing his no hitter last season and that, hopefully, he uses this start as a springboard to better success over the last month and a half of the season.

Another huge development on the offensive side of the ball.  Pablo Sandoval hit his first homerun of the season right handed!  the fact that it came off of Cole Hamels who is one of the better pitchers in the league makes it all that much more impressive.  Pablo has had his ups and downs this season but he is showing signs of taking off on an extended streak of good hitting this month and we all know the Giants could use that boost.

Tonight, the Giants travel to St; Louis to face Jake Westbrook and the Cardinals.  Madison Bumgarner faces one of the biggest tests of his young career as he faces the dangerous Albert Pujols and Co.

Oh and by the way, the guys who say the Giants can't consistently beat good teams should realize that the Giants split the season series with the Phillies 3-3.

Lastly, for those of you who saw yesterday's post on Yardbarker, I have no idea why they posted a picture of a fat Dodger pitcher with my story.  Rest assured you will never see one of those on this site.  Unless it's funny!

Cain gets roughed up in the city of brotherly love

PHILLIES 8 - GIANTS 2

It was almost a carbon copy of the game the night before.  The Giants jumped out to an early lead, the starter was shutting the Phillies down, the Phillies tied the game, in the next inning they put the game away, and Pat Burrell homered.

All the Sabean and Bochy detractors are getting ready to start dancing in the streets especially after two of Sabean's trade pickups contributed to the losses the last couple of nights, with Mike Fontenot's errors and Chris Ray's Ray's inability to get batters out.  At least Ray won't be able to give up any more runs now that he is on the DL.  But at least we got Affeldt back so he can give up a couple of runs for him!

The Giants this season are 67-54 which is a huge improvement over last season right?

Well it is an improvement but considering the Giants were 66-55 at this point last season, you realize that maybe things aren't that much better.  Last season around this time, the Giants went into a slide that cost them the playoffs and this season's version of the Giants look poised to do the same.

Nothing looks right for the Giants.  The offense couldn't take advantage of the Phillis weakest link in Joe Blanton.  To show what a difference an offense makes, Blanton's ERA coming into last nights game was actually higher than Todd Wellemeyer's 5.69 to 5.68.  Wellemeyer was DFA and Blanton looks to be a factor on the Phillies all the way to the playoffs.

However, if you want to pin the recent losses on the offense then one would have to assume the Giants pitching staff has been doing it's job.  Well, when you consider that in the last 3 games that the Giants have lost after they won that 11 inning affair vs the Padres on Saturday, the Giants pitchers have given up 8, 9, and 8 runs, you realize that the rotation isn't doing it's job.

But cheer up Giants faithful, the Phillie favorite Aaron Rowand will be making an appearance in the starting lineup today so Huff can get a day off and Posey can rest his legs at first base!

Burrell and Guillen homer. Giants still lose.

PHILLIES 9 - GIANTS 3

Things sure started out good for the Giants.  They scored two runs in the first off of Phillies starter Roy Oswalt in an innings which was highlighted by former Phillie Pat Burrell hitting a homerun.

Barry Zito battled through the first four innings and held a 2-0 lead into the 5th and then it all unraveled for him when he gave up 2 runs in the 5th and 2 in the 6th.

The only other highlight came in the 7th when the newest Giant, Jose Guillen, hit his first homerun as a Giant.  At this point it was still a game because Guillen's homerun made the score 4-3 Phillies.  But then Chris Ray, who had been pretty reliable since coming over in the Bengie Molina trade, came in and gave up 4 ERs without recording a single out to make a manageable deficit become unmanageable.

Much is being made about the Giants' alleged lack of success against teams with winning records.  But this is where the Giants season goes back to their atrocious record against the Padres.  the Giants are 31-41 against teams with winning records.  If the Giants had been able to win say 3 more games against the Padres so far this season and have a  record of 5-6 against them, their record against winning teams becomes slightly better at 34-37. They are still not world beaters but they are at least closer to .500 which is what you want to be against the good clubs.

Hopefully tonight's matchup of Matt Cain and Joe Blanton starts the Giants on the right path.  It's a winable game considering Blanton's 5.69 ERA.  The Giants need a win tonight to reclaim a tie in the wild-card standings.

The Giants will not win the NL west if they can not figure out the Padres

PADRES 8 - GIANTS 2

There is no way around it.  if the Giants can't figure out the San Diego Padres they will NOT win the NL west.  End of story.  They may not even win the wild card when you consider that the current lead that the Giants enjoy is a measly .5 game.  Then you consider that the Giants have 7 more games against these Padres and things start to get scary.

There is really nothing that explains the Padres Dominance.

Do the Padres have better pitching?

Well sort of, coming into today the Padres held the edge in team ERA at 3.24 to the Giants 3.46.

What about hitting?

The Giants are sporting a team BA of .261 which is good for 5th in the NL while the Padres are sporting a .251 average which is good for 13th among the 16 NL teams.

Well the Padres must be scoring more runs than the Giants!

Giants 516 runs Padres 500

Power, that's it the Padres must be hitting more homeruns than the Giants!

Giants again, 106 HRs to 93 for the Pads

There is nothing to explain the Padres dominance over the Giants this season.  The Giants have played every other team well this season.  The lowest win % they have against any other team in which they have played more than 3 games against is .417 which is against Colorado and they are 5-7 against them.

You think the Padres are dominating the NL west?  Nope. They are dominating the Giants and Diamondbacks.  Against the Giants and D-backs the Pads are a combined 17-6.  Against the Dodgers and Rockies they are 9-17.

The Giants bats just fall asleep against the Padres.  they have allowed 40 runs to the Padres in 11 games and have a 2-9 record against them.  They have allowed 43 to the Dodgers and are 6-6 against them.  They have allowed 45 runs to the Rockies and are 5-7 against them.  37 runs to the D-backs and are 7-2 against them.

There is really nothing in the numbers that can explain why the Giants should be getting dominated by the Padres other than just dumb luck.  The Padres and Giants aren't that different that the W-L record should be that different.  Neither team holds a decided edge in any statistical category other than record against each other.

The head to head record is something that is in the Giants heads by now.  Which is funny because snatching a victory from the jaws of defeat like they did yesterday would seem to be the kind of thing that would set them rolling against the Padres but it wasn't maybe this was just karma biting the Giants for beating up on the Padres in all those years the Pads were the laughingstock of the league.

The only good thing about the fact that the Giants and Padres are so statistically evenly matched against one another means that, according to the law of averages, things need to even out.  If that is correct, then the Giants have a lot of winning ahead of them over the next 7 games Vs. the Pads.

Tim Lincecum

Tim Lincecum is another headscratcher.  You would think that a guy who had 6 strikeouts in 3.2 IP would be dominating.  But then you realize that those 6 Ks were sandwiched in between 11 baserunners(8 hits and 3 walks) and you realize that Tim pitched horrible.

Now those 8 hits were all singles so it's not like the Padres were knocking the ball all over the yard, they were dinking and doinking him to death.

I would chalk today's struggles up to just more Padres mojo if Timmy weren't struggling against other teams just as bad.  It's not like he is struggling terribly as the guys at McCovey chronicles show isn't the case.  It's just that he is struggling at inopportune times like today against the Padres.

Like I said, it's another headscratcher for sure, but it's a headscratcher that the Giants need to solve or it's going to be a long August and September.

Giants win one of the best games of the season!

Wow, what a game!


The Giants finished off the Padres in 11 innings.  This was easily one of the best games of the season given the history between these two teams this season and the fact that the race to the NL west crown is going to basically come down to these two teams.

This game ran the full emotional spectrum for me.  From anger over the Giants inability to score runs, to excitement over Pablo's homerun, to stress over the Padres loading the bases against Romo, back to excitement when Pat "The Bat" tied the score with a heads up RBI groundout, back to anger when Mike Adams mowed the Giants down, to pure excitement when Posey stretched his single into two bags, and to jumping for joy when Juan Uribe hurt somebody's feelings (thanks Kevin Millar) by driving in Buster Posey in the bottom of the 11th to end the Torture!

Hopefully this is the turning point in the Padres - Giants saga for this season.  This is the kind of scratching, clawing, who wants to win it more kind of game that can break a team and propel the other team.  The Padres had to think they had this game won when Luke Greggerson took the mound with a one run lead since  the Giants had never scored a run off him in 14 games.  But the Giants got a sacrifice fly from Pat The Bat to tie the game in the 8th inning.




Then it was Posey time.

After scoreless 9th and 10th innings, including a 10th inning in which Santiago Casilla tried to hand the game to the Padres by throwing 2 wild pitches to put the winning run on 3rd base with only one out, Buster Posey led off the 11th inning with a base hit up the middle that bounced off of second baseman Jerry Hairston's glove and rolled into short centerfield.  When an alert Posey saw the deflection he utilized those catchers legs, which had just caught 11 innings BTW, and stretched that single into a double.  The Giants gave Pablo Sandoval the Barry Bonds treatment by giving him his second intentional walk of the game to bring up Juan Uribe.

Uribe floated a soft single to shallow right field and the suddenly fleet footed Buster Posey scored from second base.

Ballgame.

There are so many performances in this game that are remarkable.  Obviously Buster's baserunning heroics were huge, Pablo's continued power surge was the spark that erased the Goose Egg the Giants had put on the board up until that point, and Pat Burrell realizing the defense was conceding the tying run when he had two strikes on him and shooting a ball to the right side to score Mike Fontenot.

However, I think the biggest clutch performance of the night belonged to Madison Bumgarner.  He wasn't lights out.  He gave up 8 hits in his seven innings of work.  But this game could have easily gotten out of hand and he battled and battled to keep the Padres at two runs.  Unfortunately, he became an official member of the Giants rotation tonight when he got a no-decision thanks to a lack of run support, but without him this game could have been very different.

This puts the Giants in a position to win their first series of the season against the Padres tomorrow.  Lincecum is on the mound and despite his "struggles" this season he is still the team leader in wins.  The 6-10 Wade LeBlanc is throwing tomorrow so this game is ripe for the Giants to make a statement!

Giants lose to Padres again. It's getting ridiculous

PADRES 3 - GIANTS 2

The Giants lost to the Padres for the 8th time in 9 games.  If the Giants had managed to win 3 of the 8 games they lost, which is less than half by the way, the Giants would be sitting in first place right now.   But no, the Giants can't even win a game against the Padres pitcher, Clayton Richard, who has been struggling in his last few starts.

Jonathan "Mr Guarantee" Sanchez pretty much lost the game by way of his horrible bunting in the second inning.  With runners on 1st and 2nd and nobody out, Sanchez bunted right back to the pitcher which enabled the Padres to throw out Juan Uribe at third base.  This is like the 8th time that Sanchez has been unable to execute a bunt properly this season.  I think 7 of those came against the Padres.

The Giants must win these next two games against the Padres.  If they don't they will be 5.5 games back.  They still play the Pads 7 more times after but if they can't win these next two games then I have no reason to believe that they can win any of the other 7 games they will play against them.

Oh and don't think that Bruce Bochy didn't have his hand in this debacle.  For some unexplained reason, Aaron Rowand was in the starting lineup again.  Not only did Rowand get picked off of second base in the 2nd inning, he struck out to end the game with the tying run on first base.  Rowand should be nowhere near the starting lineup at ever again this season.  If the Giants want to win this thing they can't keep trotting out the closest thing to an automatic out that the Giants have.  I am actually glad that the Giants got Guillen now if it means that Rowand will get even less playing time.

The other bonehead Bochy decision?  Batting the slumping Freddy Sanchez second.  In the 40 games since Sanchez was last at a .300 average, Sanchez is batting .223 with a horrendous OBP of .289.

Pablo Sandoval has been having his own struggles this season but he has been coming on in August.  Even if you go back 40 games with Pablo he is batting over 40 points better than Sanchez .265 to .223.  During the month of August, even with the 0 for 3 last night, Pablo is batting .326.  this would make him the perfect guy to bat in the 2 hole.

Bochy is a fan of saying that he likes to "Play the hot hand" yet for some reason the "hot hand" was hitting 6th and the stone cold hand was hitting 2nd.  A lineup that makes more sense, now that Guillen is in SF, looks more like this:

Torres, Sandoval, Posey, Burrell, Huff, Guillen, Uribe, Sanchez

Oh and the Padres even broke the Giants' Orange Friday mojo by handing them their first loss in the Orange unis.

Giants finally pull the trigger on Jose Guillen

The San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals surprised nobody and were finally able to pull off the deal that had been in the rumor mill for about a month now.  The only thing surprising about this deal is the fact that the Royals threw in so much money and that we didn't give up Brandon belt to get him.  At least I'm hoping we didn't!  (The Royals will be getting a Player To Be Named Later and usually this means that the Giants gave them a list of names they could pick from and I would be SHOCKED if Belt's name was on there.  It probably wasn't because he would probably already be on his way to Kansas City right now if he was.

This is another solid, if unspectacular deal for Brian Sabean this season.  Guillen is in a contract year, has good power, and has just gained 15.5 games in the standings.  He is in a position where he can succeed. I know everybody is worried about his defense and about his low average over the last month or so but the defense hasn't hurt the Giants so far when it comes to Pat Burrell and Aubrey Huff and the average can be thrown out the window because Guillen suddenly has some motivation.

Think about it.  Guillen is a guy who is labeled as a complainer and a malcontent.  He throws tantrums, criticizes his teammates, and is just a negative presence altogether.  These kinds of guys need a reason to get motivated.  he has been sitting in K.C. waiting for the day that they traded him away.  Now, he is on a contender and he will be close to the lead on Sportscenter almost every night.  He will be able to put up numbers to pad his next contract, which hopefully will not be coming from the Giants.

I am a little concerned that Bochy has already anointed him the everyday Right Fielder, but Boch also said that Burrel would be coming off the bench and he is in the lineup every day.  Maybe Bochy means the opposite of what he says!  ( really if you look back at a lot of Bochy's quotes it's true!)

Anyway, Guillen is not Adam Dunn But he is the best that the Giants are going to be able to do without giving up Jonathan Sanchez, Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey, and Brandon Belt.

Oh and the way I envision the lineup with Guillen and the resurgent Panda:

Torres, Sandoval, Posey, Burrell, Huff, Uribe, Guillen, Sanchez

"The Bat" the Giants needed

GIANTS 8 - CUBS 7 

Pat Burrell is having an amazing season.

At the beginning of this season he was the Tampa Bay Rays DH, he was hitting .202, and just came off a season in which he hit .221 which was, even for a guy who doesn't hit for that high of an average anyway, a pretty low average.

A lot of people are think that he is rejuvenated because he has returned to the bay area and is playing for the team he rooted for growing up, but I think it's something more tangible than that.

He is playing the field.

In Tampa Bay he was a DH.  Which is the equivalent of pinch-hitting 4 times a night.  In his career Pat is 10 for 50 (.200) as a PH.  As a DH, he has a career average of .209.  He obviously wasn't comfortable in that role as a number of players aren't.  Especially ones who have gone through their careers as an everyday player.

It is widely accepted that the Giants were in search of a bat at the trading deadline.  What everybody was overlooking, was the fact that they already had "THE BAT" on the team.  He came over and did well in his first few weeks with the Giants but as soon as he went a little cold, Burrell was banished to the bench by the great field general who goes by the name of Bochy.

It's no coincidence that Pat's hot streak has coincided with his playing every day.  Here's to hoping that Boch doesn't try to give him a "rest" any time soon.

Burrell's 5 RBI's were definitely the big storyline of the game, well except for maybe Andres Torres' pinch hit single to win the game in the 9th, but there is another encouraging storyline that emerged from today's game.

Pablo!

Pablo had a triple and a booming homerun into McCovey Cove.  The hits extended his hitting streak to 6 games the last three of which were all multi-hit games.  It also brought his Average for the month of August to .349.  Pablo is capable of having an extended hot streak and carrying this team.

One of the biggest differences in Pablo from last season to this season has been his BABIP.  Last season it was .350, This season, .299.  I believe the explanation for the difference is the fact that he has not been hitting the ball hard at all this season.  That has changed over the last week or two.  His  career BABIP, including this season, is .332 so he has a way to go for his numbers to improve to his average and while he is doing it watch out National League!

Hopefully Pablo can make some of the more "sky is falling!" Giants fans realize that the All-Star game voting campaign was not a waste of time.

Giants win with the help of the Ex-Phillie show

GIANTS 5 - CUBS 4

You see the Giants offense put up 3 runs in the first inning against the Chicago Cubs and you start to think good things are going to happen.

But, keeping in line with the torture theme of the 2010 Giants, they had to make it interesting.

The Cubs actually managed to tie the game twice before 2 ex-Philadelphia Phillies decided to step up and show San Francisco that they can hit HRs somewhere other than the bandbox that the Phillies play in.

Aaron Rowand, the man who makes Giants fans blood boil every time his name is inserted in the starting lineup, hit a solo homer in the 6th to put the Giants up 4-3.  After Zito gave up a game tying homerun to Tyler Colvin in the 7th inning, Pat "The Bat" Burrell came up in the 8th inning and put the Giants ahead for good with a solo homer.

Pat Burrell is the latest in the long line of players who have taken their turn carrying this club.  From Pablo Sandoval, you probably forgot just how hot he was in April, to Juan Uribe, Aubrey Huff, Freddy Sanchez, Buster Posey, and now Pat The Bat.  This is the biggest difference between last year's Giants and this year's Giants.  Last season it was all pretty much Pablo Sandoval and this year it has been pretty much a different guy every night.  Hell, even Aaron Rowand and Edgar Renteria have come through in the clutch a few times this season.

Oh and don't look now but Pablo Sandoval has hit in 5 consecutive games and has a .421 average during those contests.  That's all I'm saying about him.

Lastly, the Giants made a trade.

No, not an exciting trade but a trade that was necessary all the same thanks to the frailness of Juan Uribe and Edgar Renteria.

In keeping with their tradition of saving on airfare costs by trading for a guy on the current visiting team, ala Freddy Sanchez last season, the Giants made a deal for Cubs utilityman Mike Fontenot. All they gave up for him was an unspectacular A baller named Evan Crawford.  Bay City Ball has a pretty good breakdown of the deal but the Giants basically got a utilityman for a prospect who is, at best, a veeery long way away from the majors if he ever gets there.

One last note:

John Bowker is 12 for 24 since joining the Pirates AAA club.  I can't remember where I read it, probably on Twitter, but this lead another Giants Blogger to dub him a "AAA Hall of Famer".  lol.

Link of the day:
I gotta give credit to the Dodgerhater as the source for this link, but it seems that Mike Fontenot has sort of a claim to fame.  As the guy who was rumored to be romantically involved with Transformers hottie Megan Fox.  Who knows maybe those were Megan's panties.  Follow the link to get a chuckle.

Tim Lincecum can't find his groove

CUBS 8 - GIANTS 6

The San Francisco Giants are trying to get things figured out.  One day it's their offense.  The next day it's Tim Lincecum.

I would say 10 runs in two games would constitute a solid offensive output.  The Giants at this point in the season are what they are.  A subpar offensive group that when a few guys get hot, Posey and Sandoval last night, are a club capable of putting a few runs on the board.  Usually that is enough to win the game given the outstanding pitching they get from the starters.

Except last night.

I can't tell you how shocking it was to see Lincecum give up 4 runs in the first inning last night. Especially when you consider that he gave up four runs in the first inning for the ENTIRE SEASON last year!  Now to get some perspective on Lincecum's struggles I encourage you to read this post from McCovey chronicles which basically tells us that we are spoiled by the greatness that is Tim Lincecum.

Tim's problems are more in his head than anything physical.  In just about every game recap that I read on last night's game they mention that Tim has been trying to wean himself from the help of past coaches and his father who helped him develop his unusual delivery.  The SF Chronicle even quotes him as saying "I'm 26. I don't need a babysitter anymore."

Well Tim I hate to tell you:

Talk to the people who got you there!  You sound like a little whiny kid when you say you don't want to talk to the people who can help you most.  Sure you are 26 years old and are making $9 million this season but if you want another big contract after next season then you need to shut up and call your dad.  Never before this season have I heard of Lincecum messing with his motion so much.  I have also never heard of him giving up 2 homeruns in a game and then 4 runs in the first inning in back-to-back starts either.  He even admits to himself that the problem is in his head and I think the fact that he is inexplicably avoiding talking to his dad has something to do with his struggles this season.  I wonder how much the pot incident in the off-season has strained their relationship?

All of this talk of Lincecum's struggles has overshadowed the performance of the teams other phenom Buster Posey.  Buster was 3 for 5 and drove in four runs last night.  After a little mini slump in Atlanta he is back and producing.  Buster has become the Giants leader on offense.  As Buster goes so goes the Giants offense.  It's a lot to put on the shoulder pads of a 23 year old rookie, but I think he can handle it.

Giants overcome the cubs in 11

GIANTS 4 - CUBS 3

The Giants managed to put the Cubs away when they finally managed to score 4 runs in a game for the first time since August 3rd.  They weren't able to win the game in regulation despite a decent start by Madison Bumgarner and 5+ excellent innings by the Giants bullpen.

After the offense was held down by some pretty good pitching in Atlanta, you could make a case that it was the excellent pitching and not the necessarily the Giants offense that was responsible for not scoring.

Last night, against the horrible Carlos Zambrano, the Giants had no reason for not putting up runs on the board. Cubs pitchers walked 11 Giants last night, gave up 11 hits, and the Giants had the bases loaded in every inning. (well at least it felt that way)  hell, Travis Ishikawa was even thrown out at the plate in the bottom of the 10th inning.

The bottom line is the game should never have got to the 11th inning, or the 10th for that matter.  I'm going to wait until the end of the Cubs series before I get too worried.  But the offense is officially in a slump.  The best available option is Jose Guillen and he doesn't sound like he is all that great of an option anyway.  At least not if we have to give up anything for him.  So this is it as far as the Giants offense is concerned.  I think it will be enough to get us in to th post season but after that it's a crapshoot.

Tonight is another winnable game against Ryan Dempster who is OK but not great.  The Giants will be throwing Timmy out there tonight and he should be racking up the Ks.  Hopefully the Giants can muster a few runs against Dempster who is better than Zambrano at this point so it's likely that the Giants won't be receiving 11 free passes tonight.

Link of the Day:

If you haven't seen it already, this is classic.  This guy at a Houston Astros game flinches when it comes time to catch a foul ball and it winds up hitting his girlfriend.  The Astros version of Amy Gutierrez interviewed the couple in the stands and promptly gave the guy the nickname Bo "the bailer". It doesn't stop there.  She calls him a little chicken and tells the girlfriend that his actions tonight may make her want to reconsider their future together.  Funny stuff.

A disappointing trip

BRAVES 6 - GIANTS 3

The Giants finished the roadtrip 2-4.  They scored 10 runs in one game and didn't score any more than 3 runs in any other game scoring a total of 9 runs during those 5 contests.  No matter how you look dissect the numbers, it was a bad trip.

Looking on the bright side as I try to do in this blog, the Giants are still just 2 games out of first place, they are starting a homestand in which they face the not very good Cubs and have a first place showdown with the Padres.  The NL west could have a very different look after this weekend.

In keeping with the positives the Giants are 33-20 at home and 30-29 on the road.  Even after their bad road trip.  This is a huge improvement over last season when they were 36 and 45 on the road.  Their inability to win on the road likely cost them the division.


The reality of this season is that the NL west is going to come down to September.  The Giants play every game, except for a 6 games against the Brewers and Cubs on Sept. 17-23, against NL west teams.They play 5 games against the Dodgers, 4 against the Padres, 4 against the Rockies and 6 against the D-Backs including the final 3 game series of the season.  This is where the NL west will be decided.  As much as we want to look at games here in early August and predict what will happen to the Giants, the fact of the matter is they won't determine the outcome of the division.

Also, with 7 games against the Padres, the Giants will need to figure out how to beat them a few times.  it doesn't matter how they do against the other teams, they have to beat the Padres or they will not win the division.  That's all it boils down to.

Links of the day:

Image via Wikipedia

Giants prospect Sharlon Schoop had 6 RBIs yesterday for the Giants AA affiliate Richmond Flying Squirrels. Schoop is a little farther down the prospect hierarchy, but he is 23 and a guy that the Giants have some confidence in.  He's hitting .294 for Richmond after hitting .281 at A ball Augusta.  Keep an eye on him while you are looking at how guys like Brandon Belt, Thomas Neal, and Conor Gillaspie are doing.


It also looks like the Giants have called up Emmanuel Burriss to deepen their bench.  No word on who they are moving to make room for him on the roster but I will go out on a limb and predict it's a pitcher.

Speaking of going out on a limb.  After taking the loss against the Braves yesterday Jonathan Sanchez came out and predicted that the Giants would sweep the Padres this weekend.  Hopefully it gives the guy something to focus on when he throws against the Padres this weekend.  But I like it.  It shows a little bit of confidence from the lefty.  Something that is called into question about him every once in a while.

The season is not slipping away

BRAVES  3 - GIANTS  0

There are a lot of people out there who are very unhappy that the Giants did not get a bat at the trade deadline. They will point to the last 3 games in Atlanta as proof that the Giants offense can't get the job done and the fact that they are no longer dominating now that they are playing better teams will be another reason that the Giants can't get it done.

They would be wrong.

Now look, you can never go wrong with more offense but the cost to the Giants would have just been too great.  There is no way that you can justify giving up a pitcher in the starting rotation even for a guy like Adam Dunn.

But the Giants were shut out last night!

The way Hudson was pitching last night, the Giants could have had Albert Pujols in the lineup and still get shut out.  He looked more like the Tim Hudson on the right than the Tim Hudson of the last few years.

I'm not saying that we have the best offense in the world.  It would have been nice to improve the offense, nobody is disputing that, but it did not happen.

The last few games are what are supposed to happen.  You have a tough time against good teams.  Teams don't just steamroll through the regular season too often.  You beat up on the bad teams as the Giants have done and then hold your own against the good teams.

The Giants are doing that.  This loss evened the series series against the Braves at 3 games each.  They have a 2-1 season series lead over the Phillies and Cardinals, they are tied with the Reds at 2 games apiece, and they are tied with the Dodgers at 6 games each.  The only teams they have had problems beating this season are Colorado (5-7) and  San Diego (1-7). 

The Giants will be in position to tie the series today.  Which would be a huge accomplishment when you consider that the Braves have the best home record in baseball, are tied for the most wins, with the Giants and Padres I might add, in the National League, and have three pitchers who have over 8 wins already.

Then it's back to San Francisco to face the Cubs!

Link of the Day:

Jerry Rice officially went into the Hall of Fame yesterday.  Rice was the best player ever to put on football pads.  He thrilled us for so long here in the Bay Area and he showed us how to win and dominate at the wide receiver position.

Congratulations Jerry!  You deserve it!

Giants dodge a bullet and Bochy is the whipping boy

GIANTS 3 - BRAVES 2

The Giants looked destined for a 2-1 loss last night.  Then a couple of errors, a couple of walks, and a sacrifice fly later, the Giants were 3-2 winners in extra innings.  They had 4 hits all night and all of the scoring was done on an RBI groundout, a throwing error, and a sacrifice fly.

You might say the Giants were lucky.  Brian Wilson said:  "I don't feel fortunate, we won the game because we played the fundamentals of baseball and we lasted a little longer than they did. We're going to play like the stud ballclub we are."


I agree with Brian.


The Braves struck out 10 times last night against Barry Zito, who continued his excellent season on the mound, and 15 times total against the Giants pitchers.  The Giants were outhit 4 to 6, but six hits isn't all that much better than 4 until you realize that the extra two hits from the Braves were homeruns.  (By the way, all of the Braves runs in this series have scored via the longball)  The Giants drew 8 walks to the Braves 2.

The reason all of this is important is because, after a 90 minute rain delayed start to the game, the Braves spent a lot more time in the field when they got to the crucial 9th inning.  Because they had been putting the ball in play all night long rather than striking out, they had been putting pressure on the defense all night to make plays.  That pressure finally got to the Braves when it mattered most and the Giants, like the good stud ballclub they are, took advantage of it.

It seems like Bruce Bochy has come under more fire than ever before this week.  Lefty Malo was all over him, so was the Bleacher report, hell there even is a fire Bruce Bochy facebook page!  I have my problems with the guy like why is Juan Uribe still batting 5th instead of Pat Burrell?  But really, would the Giants be any better than 63-47 with any other manager at the helm?

We will never know.

Link of the day:

Saturday August 14th is Bruce Bochy Bobblehead day at AT&T park.  It makes me wonder how in touch with reality the Giants marketing department is.  I mean seriously, do they really think that kids will be begging their parents to take them to the ballpark so they can get a bobblehead of THE MANAGER?  Also, do they think that the fans actually like Bochy?

I don't know the answer to either of those questions but I have provided you with photographic proof that there is indeed a Bruce Bochy Bobblehead out there.

Oh and last but not least:

The game recap from the San Jose Mercury News  reports that the Giants did indeed put in a waiver claim on Adam Dunn.  They were blocked by a team with a worse record.  Who do you think that team was?  Well if you said the Dodgers then you would be correct.

I hate those guys.

Round one goes to the Braves

BRAVES 3 - GIANTS 2

The game started off good.  The Giants had Jair Jurrjens on the ropes in the first inning and were unable to deliver the knockout blow.  The same in the second.  As a matter of fact he was on the ropes in almost every one of the first 5 innings.  But one of the things that has plagued the Giants all season long came back to bite them.

Hitting with runners in scoring position.

The Giants were 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position,  They hit 5 doubles and were only to get Andres Torres home in the 1st.

Tim Lincecum did not pitch too poorly either.  He went 6 1/3 innings gave up 6 hits, walked 3, and struck out 7.  He hung a curve to Alex Gonzales which landed in the left field bleachers and Eric Hinske took a high fastball over the centerfield fence on a flyball that just seemed to keep carrying and carrying and landed maybe 2 feet over the wall.  In fact, both homeruns Timmy gave up just barely made it out.  That's how close this game was.

This has led some people to theorize that their great July was against subpar competition and not against any first place teams.  They say that August will be much tougher and the Giants will be exposed against teams like Atlanta, San Diego, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Cincinnati.

What they fail to realize is that, other than San Diego, the Giants have winning records against all of the teams mentioned.  The Braves did tie the season series at 2-2 last night, but the Braves have the best record in the NL and the best record in baseball at home.  A split in this series would be a huge success and is still very possible.

Link of the day:

We should know the fate of Adam Dunn sometime today.  Apparently the Giants put in a claim on him but a team lower in the standings blocked them.  It could really be any team other than the Padres and Braves since they are the only 2 teams with better records than the Giants.  I wouldn't be surprised if it was St. Louis.

The Royals DFA'd Jose Guillen yesterday as well.  The Royals have 10 days to trade, waive, or release him.  I guess that the Giants are internally weighing their options with him but nothing is concrete.  I, for one, would not be too disappointed if we didn't get him because the more I think about it, the more I think he duplicates Pat Burrell and he could possibly not be a good fit in the clubhouse.