Brian Sabean: The Best San Francisco Giants GM in history

It's not the World Champion ring. 

After the last few tumultuous years the San Francisco Giants had been through,  I don't think any body would have ever expected that headline.

But there it is.

Just the fact that he brought a World Championship to San Francisco qualifies him for this title, but if you look a little closer at his overall run and see how successful he has been, you can see he was deserving of the title already.

His first trade as the Giants GM was the infamous Matt Williams and Trent Hubbatrd to the Indians for Jeff Kent, Julian Tavarez, Joe Roa, and Jose Vizcaino.  This trade probably made a lot of people view Sabean as a terrible GM from day one, but Jeff Kent had a Hall of Fame career with the Giants and most of the players in the trade not only contributed to the Giants 1997 playoff run but also to the 2002 World Series appearance.

Speaking of World Series and playoff appearances, Sabean's five playoff and 2 World Series appearances are tops in San Francisco Giants history as well. The last time the Giants had appeared in the playoffs more than once in a five year stretch was when they made it to the NLDS Vs. the Cardinals in 1987 and in 1989 when they played the A's in the Bay Bridge series.  I think we all know how that one turned out.

Sabean's detractors grew in numbers with the disastrous Joe Nathan trade.  I refuse to type the name of the guy the Giants got in return( partly because it's a pain in the ass to spell) that's how bad this trade was.  This trade looked a little worse for the Giants when Francisco Liriano, a guy who was considered a throw-in at the time of the deal, turned in to one of the top pitching prospects in the game.

Sabean's credibility took another hit when the Giants struggled to four consecutive losing seasons.  He was crucified when Big-money signings for Barry Zito, Aaron Rowand, and Edger Renteria turned out to be busts.  (although Renteria would redeem Sabean somewhat with his 2010 World Series MVP award.)

But for every poor move Sabean has made, Marvin Benard's big contract, Edgardo Alfonso, and Dave Roberts there are a bunch of guys he has pulled off the scrap heap and got what he needed out of them such as Benito Santiago, Bengie Molina, Reggie Sanders, Pat Burrell, and Andres Torres.

These deals don't even compare to the steal he made in the deal for Jason Schmidt.  The Giants got Jason Schmidt and Jon Vander Wal from the Pirates for Armando Rios and Ryan Vogelsong.  Rios and Vogelsong never amounted to much for the Pirates.  Schmidt, on the other hand, went 78-37, struck out 1065, and had an ERA of 3.36 in six seasons for the Giants.  He finished 2nd in the CY Young award voting in 2003 and 4th in 2004.  He also made 3 All-Star game appearances for the Giants along the way.

The Giants W-L record since Sabean took over as GM is 1212-1054.  Not too many teams can claim a +.500 record for 15 seasons.

All in all, the Brian Sabean ERA in San Francisco has been the most successful and exiting in San Francisco Giants history.

I didn't even mention the white flag trade in 1997 that led to the Giants improbable NL West crown in 1997!

Giants have an odd one in Brian Wilson

DODGERS 4- GIANTS 2 

The Giants were only able to manage two hits last night and Zito gave up 4 runs in 4 innnings.  I t didn't really hurt them that much in the standings since the Padres lost their 8th game in a row, but it is frustrating on a number of levels.  Barry Zito continued his slide, the Giants offense struggled once again, and they failed to capitalize on the Padres misfortune.  The fact that they could only manage two hits and wouldn't have scored at all if they didn't have Buster Posey on their team just made matters more unbearable.

So instead of wasting any more post time to the subpar effort of our favorite team I am just going to link some clips from the Giants weird closer Brian Wilson.  I don't know really what is up with this guy but he is really weird.  The guy who is most famous for wearing orange spikes to the mound in the All-Star game and then getting fined $1000.00 by MLB for wearing them in an actual game, sporting a mohawk on the mound, edge of your seat saves, and the overuse of the word delicious turns out to even weirder than I ever suspected.




In this video Brian Wilson lets us in on the location of the Gimp.  You gotta wait until about 6:30 into the clip to see it but it is worth it to watch the rest.



This clip we learn the reason Wilson was fined $1000.00 by MLB was because he had too much awesomeness on his feet, what kind of smartphone Wilson uses, and what he carries in his back pocket.

Since I couldn't find the embed code on foxsportsnet I will just link this video with  Wilson playing the Didgeridoo and high fiving Matt Downs.

Lastly, here is a link to a collection of clips from Wilson's short lived Comcast sports net reality show the Life of Brian.

I really can't explain the guy.  Hopefully it takes your mind off the Giant embarrassment from last night.

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

Huff Muscles the Giants past the Snakes!

GIANTS 7 - DIAMONDBACKS 4

Last year any time the Giants would fall behind you could pretty much write them off.

This season they are proving that coming from behind is something that they are capable of doing.

Now, one run down may not seem like an insurmountable lead but the way that the lead was given up, having blown a 3-1 lead, usually seemed to deflate last years team.  Last night they actually answered Arizona's 3 spot in the 6th with a 3 spot of their own in the 7th.  Granted it was fueled by some Arizona errors, but with the luck the Giants have been having with double plays and calls at home plate this season, it was time for a few things to go our way.

I can't help but think of Marvin Benard every time I hear someone proclaim Andres Torres as the "real deal" but I'm starting to become a believer.  He has been so key to the Giants' success in the second half that I would have to rank him as the 3rd most important offensive player behind Buster and Huff.  He hits homeruns, triples, and tracks down balls in the outfield that Rowand would just play off the wall, and say what you want about his offense but Rowand is a pretty good defender.  Torres is really starting to become the feel good story of the season and  I hope the Giants can make the playoffs in order to get this guy some national recognition.

What to say about Aubrey Huff?

I have always, for some reason, liked Aubrey Huff as a player.  I remember thinking that the Giants should pick him up from the Devil Rays way back when Bonds was still with the team somewhere around 2003-04.  I think there were even some rumors to that effect back then.

For whatever reason, Huff wound up with the Orioles and had the opportunity to play on a bunch of bad teams.  Last season, after a late season trade to Detroit, Huff seemed like he might not have too much left in the tank.

Boy were we wrong.

The Giants were able to get Huff for what now looks like a steal of a deal at $3 million dollars for this season.  He has 19 Homeruns and 3 multi homerun games counting last night. He is a scrapper and he is the heart of this Giants team.  I believe the difference that this team does not fall on it's face when they are down is because they have assimilated Huff's attitude.  I mean the guy went to a contender last season for the first time in his life and fell on his face by hitting .189 in 106 ABs for the Tigers.  He wasn't offered a contract by the team at the end of the season and I don't think that many other teams were lining up to throw money at him.

Enter Sabean and the Giants.

Sabean made what has to have been the best free agent signing of his Giants career when he picked Huff up off the scrap heap.  Huff has rewarded the team with his attitude, his bat and his quotes.  he's another candidate for feel good story of the year.

Link of the day:

I was looking for an Aubrey Huff quote to use above but instead I found this story on him from 2007.  This radio interview seems to be perfectly in line with his personality that he has shown in SF.  He seems to be a guy who is just having fun but, like most of us clowns, can get management upset when the team is losing.

The article also points out that Huff sang on an MLB produced CD "OH SAY CAN YOU SING" that was produced way back in 2005 which I will now leave you with:

Bengie Molina traded!

WOW!

The Giants traded Bengie Molina to the Texas Rangers for a pack of chewing gum, reliever Chris Ray and a player to be named later.

Well OK, I'm not sure about the pack of chewing gum cut most Giants fans would have been happy if that was all that they got for him.  Instead B.S. filled a need (reliever), cleared the way for Posey to start, and was even able to get a Player to be named later out of the deal.  Maybe since he was named one of the toughest GMs to trade with the day before, Sabean needed to prove that he could get a deal done!

The Giants didn't rob the Rangers as I'm sure many Giants fans will believe he did.  Expect Molina's offensive numbers to improve slightly once he plays every day in the Bandbox that the Rangers play in.Plus, for them, he is an upgrade at catcher since all of the Rangers catchers combined have hit .212 so far this season.  Plus with guys like Nelson Cruz and Vladimir Guerrrero in their lineup the Rangers are better equipped to take on player with Bengie's limited offensive skills.

Molina was a good Giant, offensive struggles this season aside.  But the time had come for him to go.  Buster Posey has shown that he can hit at the major league level and as Bruce Bochy said the other day: "You can't get em all in there."  Hopefully this opens the door for Nate Schierholtz to play more every day.  i doubt it though since Bochy will almost assuredly jump at the chance to get Aaron Rowand back in the lineup and I have to admit that he did earn himself at least one more start after yesterday's 3 for 4 performance.

I'm not even going to comment on yesterday's 8-2 loss to the Dodgers since I have nothing positive to say.  I will say that I am a man of my word and my order for a Fire-Sabean.com t-shirt has been placed.

Slump isn't cause for Sabean, Giants to panic | SFGiants.com: News

Slump isn't cause for Sabean, Giants to panic | SFGiants.com: News

I didn't see this until after I posted my "It's starting to get ugly" post so I am adding a new entry.

It would seem that Sabean and Bochy have had a little talk after tonight's debacle. Here are some quotes from the article. I took the liberty of translating the quotes myself:

"I think the juggling act now [for Bochy] will be to have more days with Pablo and Posey in the lineup," Sabean said. "Which means Posey's going to have to start picking up some games behind home plate. Which he will."

Translation: I told Boch that we didn't bring this kid up so he could have 4 days off (5 with their scheduled off day) in two weeks. Now stop running Molina out there every day and let the kid catch.

"It's obvious we don't have the team speed you need to stay out of being susceptible to double plays, because you can't beat out the back end of the double play," Sabean said. "We're probably too right-handed for the right-handed pitching,"

Translation: "We need to play some of our younger, faster, left handed  guys" particularly guys like Nate Schierholtz and even Travis Ishikawa.

"roll of the dice of finding somebody who may or may not make as big a difference as we might need. The downside is, you end up with a free agent-to-be and either no chance to re-sign him or not wanting to re-sign him and then you've lost prospects in the deal."

Translation:"Don't expect a big bat at the deadline"

It's not easy being B.S.

Brian Sabean that is.

The Giants general manager has his share of haters in the Bay Area.  Just peruse the comments section on SFGiants.com and you will see a number of comments at any given time that do anything but support him.  There is even a website dedicated to getting him fired.

Sabean (B.S. from here on in), along with Giants manager Bruce Bochy, is a polarizing figure among Giants fans.  He made a huge splash in his first weeks as GM of the Giants in 1996 by trading one of the Giants most popular players at the time, Matt Williams, to the Cleveland Indians for a bunch of nobodies headlined by a journeyman second baseman named Jeff Kent.  The move was extremely unpopular at the time with many of the Giants fans at the time wanting Sabean to turn in his resignation papers back then.  One guy went so far as to say "They have traded a rock for three bushels of stubble. In two years, I would be surprised if the Giants still have one of the three" Well I wonder how surprised Mr. Gaetjens from Berkeley was when that Journeyman second baseman became a future hall of famer.

Since that trade Sabean has brought some memorable players to the Giants via trade or free agency: J.T. Snow, Benito Santiago, Ellis Burks, Robb Nen, Moises Alou, Jason Schmidt, Brian Johnson (even if it was for only one Homerun), Andres Galarraga, David Bell, Kenny Lofton, Benito Santiago, Bill Mueller, Randy Winn, Bengie Molina, and Freddy Sanchez.  He has made his share of blunders as well: Marvin Benard, Matt Morris, Shea Hillenbrand, Dave Roberts, Edgar Renteria, Armando Benietez, Aaron Rowand, and the biggest mistake of all Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano, and Boof Bonser for A.J Pierzynski.

After that trade, Joe Nathan's subsequent transformation into an all-star closer, Francisco Liriano's 10-1 start to his career, and the complete disaster that Pierzynski was in San Francisco.  B.S.'s status as one of the best GMs in all of baseball took a massive hit. (at least among the San Francisco fanbase).  It no longer mattered that he was right.  It didn't matter that he got Jason Schmidt for Armando Rios and Ryan Vogelsong, that he pulled Benito Santiago, Andres Galarraga, Ellis Burks, and Reggie Sanders off the scrap heap to become major contributors to this team.  Now, Sabean was known for that trade and that trade only.

The Nathan - Pierzynski trade, since those are the only two that after the passing of 7 years even matter, was the beginning of the end of the love affair with Sabean.  Follow that up with BALCO, Bonds retirement, and the implementation of a rebuilding period and Giants fans have become impatient.  Throw 50 years of no World championships on top of all that and the fans want blood.

B.S. has slowly started to win the fans back, though many of them will stick knives in their eyes before they admit it, through great drafting, a farm system ranked 3rd in all of baseball by Baseball America, and a couple of free agents that were pulled off the scrap pile yet again. 

Yes B.S. is the guy who oversaw the drafting of Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey, and all of the other guys who are making the Giants fans look towards the future.  He is also the guy who OKd the free agent signings of a young Pablo Sandoval, Jonathan Sanchez, Juan Uribe, and Aubrey Huff.  He is the architect of a team had a winning record last season and is on track for another one this season.

B.S. does have a chance for redemption.  He could go for the jugular and get a guy like Paul Konerko.  A move like that makes so much sense it's disgusting.  Not many Giants fans can really argue against a trade like that, though they will. 

But this is where it turns out that it is not easy being B.S.

Two weeks ago the White Sox GM, Kenny Williams said that the White Sox were open for business.  At the time it looked as if that meant they would be sellers at the trade deadline since they were 9.5 games out of first place.  But then a funny thing happened.  They caught fire.  They went on to win 10 of their next 12 games and are currently only 5.5 games games out of first place.  This would seem to indicate that they would be buyers at the deadline.  They could fall back in the standings again but certainly none of their big names are going anywhere right now.

The rest of the guys out there are either hitting with ridiculously low averages, have seen a huge dip in their power numbers over the last few years, or are hurt.  So there is no gaurantee that there is even a big bat out there that they could get.  Any move that B.S. could make right now, apart from a Konerko deal, would be a huge risk.  Gambling with the prospects that the Giants have been meticulously accruing is not something many would advocate and B.S., rightfully so I might add, seems to be loathe to do.

It doesn't get any easier for B.S. after this season either.  Next year will likely be that last that the fab 4 of Lincecum, Cain, Zito, and Sanchez will stay together.  Lincecum doesn't have a contract after next season and could easily carry an asking price of $20 million per year at that point, they will still be paying Zito $19 million, and Cain's contract jumps from $7 million to $15 million.  If you add to that whatever Dirty Sanchez gets in arbitration after this season and what Madbum could possibly command as a super two if he's half as good as we think he will be and the Giants could realistically be paying close to $100 million to the starting rotation in 2012.  Their ENTIRE PAYROLL for this season is $96 million.  Oh, did I mention that Aaron Rowand will still be earning $12 million tin 2012?  (At least it will be the final year of his contract)

It doesn't get any easier to be B.S.

The Giants have to win this year or next year in order to have a realistic shot with their rotation because there is no way that they can take on that kind of payroll.  You can't even say that, other than the contract of Zito, the money being paid to the starters is a B.S. mistake since they would all have earned their money as Giants.  it's a tough job being GM of the Giants. 

After looking at what he has to deal with I think that B.S. is really dealing with the reality of baseball the best way that he can.

A last note on Zito.


I didn't include Zito as one of B.S.'s bonehead deals and I didn't put him in there as a good deal on purpose.  After a disastrous start to his Giants career, Zito seems to have found the form that got him the monster contract he has.  If he continues the way he is going right now through the remaining years of his contract it will turn out to be a good deal for the Giants performance wise.  Since he had a pretty good track record before his struggles it is not unrealistic to think he could keep it up.

It has already been a good deal for them financially because of all the Barry Zito T-shirts, bobbleheads, and posters etc. they have sold since his arrival and will continue to sell especially after his resurgence.  So the jury is basically still out on whether or not this was a good deal.

The Giants do have the parts to make a deal

The Giants are 37-28 and .5 a game back of the Dodgers and Padres for the NL West and Wild Card leads.  They are playing pretty god ball right now, in fact they are playing better ball than anybody in the National League right now except for the Mets.

The Giants have the pitching to get them into the playoffs and possibly pretty deep.  Their offense is OK as it is currently constructed but they have one glaring hole.  A big time power hitter in the middle of their lineup. 

I don't mean a Pat Burrell who through his career has been lucky to post an average above .260 and has struggled in recent seasons.  I don't mean Aubrey Huff who, while hitting a couple balls into McCovey cove, has only hit 34 homers in his best season and that was 7 years ago.  Nor Juan Uribe who had a career high of 23 way back in 2004.

No the Giants need a guy who can hit a lot of homers and drive in a bunch of runs.  There is a guy who should be available out there since his GM has already said his team is open for business and should be the only guy, besides maybe a bullpen arm, that the Giants should be targeting.

That guy is Paul Konerko.

Konerko is that prototypical power hitter.  He averages 32 homeruns a season,  He hits for a decent average .278 over his career, and he is consistently healthy averaging 581 PA a season over his career.  These are all things that make him easily the best option out there.

There are some obstacles to getting Konerko to SF however. 

1. He has a not trade clause.
2. He is owed approximately $7 million the rest of this season.
3. The White Sox are going to want some pretty good prospects in return.

The Giants are probably going to negotiate some kind of contract extension with Konerko to waive his no trade clause.  Which would be good for the Giants because in order for them to give up some of the prospects they will probably have to give up to get him they would want to get more than 2 months out of him.   $7 million over the rest of this season probably isn't too much money for a team willing to throw millions of dollars at guys like Aaron Rowand, Edgar Renteria, and Mark DeRosa to not even get on the field.

After that is the toughest part.  Do the Giants have the prospects to pull the deal off?  Can they pull the deal off and keep Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey, Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, and Jonathan Sanchez?

I think they do.

The Giants farm system is loaded with prospects.  One of the top organizations in all of baseball.  It is particularly full of young arms which the White Sox will be looking for in any kind of trade.  Let's take a look.

Starting in San Jose with the Giants single A affiliate which has won a record 6 straight California league first half championships:

The top prospect here has to be Brandon Belt.  Brandon was taken in the 5th round last season and has done nothing but hit since joining San Jose.  He is hitting .393 with 8 homeruns and 57 RBIs.  He is only 22 so his power numbers should increase as he gets older. Next would be 2B Jose Flores .353 average.  and OF Juan Perez .324, 7HR, 36 RBI
Pitching Wise San Jose has: Craig Wescott 5-0, 1.55, and Justin Fitzgerald 5-0, 3.00

AA Richmond has: OF Thomas Neal .280, 4 HR, 31 RBI, RHP Daryl Maday 8-2, 2.02RHP David Mixon 7-3 3.08

AA Augusta has: 1B Luke Anders .293 8HRs, Christopher Dominguez .264, 10 HRs, 43 RBIs, LF Nick Liles .298 13 SBs, and RHP Jorge Bucardo 6-2 1.57

AAA Fresno has: OF Tyler Graham .407 14SBs, OF John Bowker .400 5hrs in just 12 games, 2B Eugenio Velez .345 17 SBs, 1B Brett Pill .303 9 HRs 43 RBIs, Joe Borchard .287 7 HRs, RHP Eric Hacker 8-3 3.91, RHP Joe Martinez, who is now up with the Giants, 5-2 5.07, Steve Edlefsen 5-0 1.54

So as you can see, the Giants have a bunch of prospects and they can land a guy like Konerko while keeping their best prospects.  Actually, if they can sign Konerko to a 3 year extension before a trade can be worked out, it may actually be worth it to trade a guy like Bumgarner for Konerko.  I know it wouldn't be a very popular move, but given the availability of proven Power hitters these days it just may take a super prospect like Bumgarner to land Konerko.

Sweeeeeeeep!

GIANTS 6 - A'S 2

With their 6-2 victory over the A's today, the Giants completed a 3 game sweep of the A's.

Isn't revenge sweet?

The A's swept the Giants in Oakland last month in what had to be the lowest point of the Giants season so far.  Well besides maybe losing 7 in a row to the Padres.  But during the 3 game series against the A's the Giants only managed one single run.  Matt Cain lost a complete game 1-0 in which the only run given up was unearned.  It looked like the beginning of a long, slow, painful, downward slide for the Giants.

They came home, Freddy Sanchez got comfortable, Buster Posey came up, and since that sweep the Giants are 13-6,  They have scored 3 runs or more in 11 straight games, and they finished their last road trip with a winning record!

Matt Cain pitched his usual good game going 7 strong and allowing 1 earned run.  His ERA for the season is 2.05 which is good for 5th in the NL.  His 6-4 record is a crime.
Yesterday's game may have been the arrival of Aubrey Huff.  Huff's 2 homers in the same game at AT&T are noteworthy enough but even more so because he is a left hander according to Andrew Baggerly of the San Jose Mercury News.  They are even more noteworthy because he hit both homers to left center field which is was the spot where only Barry Bonds used to hit homers with consistency.  Earlier in the season, after Huff hit his inside-the-park homerun, Huff noted that it was going to be tough to hit homers at AT&T park.  He admitted the park got into his head: "First month of the season, I tried to beat it," he said. "I got in some bad habits. but then he decided to play the park: "I just gave up (on trying to pull the ball), said I'm going to try to hit .300 this year." Well he's hitting .303 to lead the Giants in the average department and he's tied for the team homerun lead with Juan Uribe.

Speaking of Uribe, he hit another homer yesterday to keep pace with Huff and he is leading the team in RBI.  Huff and Uribe are making Brian Sabean look like a genius again.

Next up for the Giants is the Baltimore Orioles who just snapped their 10 game losing streak.  They are also chasing history.  As in the 1969 New York Mets who had the worst record of all-time.  Also, In case you didn't know, the Orioles are the only other team in baseball to wear orange and black.  This has led the Giants marketing wizards to come up with the lame marketing campaign: "Halloween in July" Although they will be wearing the cool orange uni's!

The matchups look to favor the Giants.  But when a club is 17-46 they almost never match up well do they?

Tonight:

Chris Tilman 0-2  Vs. Jonathan Sanchez 4-5 2.82

The only Giant to face Tilman is Pat Burrell who is 2 for 6 with a homerun so expect a Burrell, Torres, Huff OF today since Whiteside should be catching Sanchez.  Sanchez should rack up a lot of K's so as long as the Giants score a few runs he should even up his record at 5-5.

Tuesday:

Jake Arrieta 1-0, 4.50 Vs. Joe Martinez  0-0, 0.00

This will be Arrietta's second start in the Majors.  He did pretty good in his first start.  He held the Yankees to 3 runs over 6 innings and got the W.  Joe Martinez will be making his first start in the bigs his season.  He was both pretty good and terrible in his short stint in the majors last season.  In the minors this season he was pretty good going 5-2 with a 3.07 ERA.  His last start for Fresno was a complete game in which he only allowed 1 run and struck out 7.

Jeremy Guthrie 3-7, 3.83 Vs. Tim Lincecum 6-2, 3.13

Guthrie has been the Orioles most consistent pitcher this season having quality starts in all but 4 of his starts.  Lincecum should be Lincecum.  If that happens then expect double digit strikeouts from the freak.

On the farm:

The Grizzlies beat Tacoma 7 -3 and the offense just kept rolling.  Brett Pill and Brock Bond each had 3 hits.  Pill hit a HR and had 3 RBIs.  John Bowker had 2 hits and a HR.  Pill and Bowker also each stole a base.  Tyler Graham only went 1 for 4 and his average plummeted all the way down to .404.

Paul Konerko:

It's been a week since MLBTraderumors and ESPN's Buster Olney reported that the White Sox are ready to deal.  No word from the Giants camp but I really think that the Giants need to do everything in their power to get Paul Konerko. 

Konerko is a lifetime .278 hitter with the potential to drive in 100 runs and hit 40 HRs a season.  He has a championship ring so he brings that postseason experience to the club.  He would be one of the few players on the Giants to have rings.  The others are Burrell, Rowand, and Uribe.  Rowand and Uribe's came with the same White Sox team that Konerko got his with.

He does have a no-trade clause in his contract so any deal would probably come with an extension but with Lincecum only signed through next year and Matt Cain due a raise from $7 million to $12 million in 2012 add that to Barry Zito's $19 million for 2012 and the window of opportunity for these guys to win a championship together is reeeeallly small. 

We have the prospects to get a deal done.  It's just a matter of if the Giants brass have the guts to get a deal done.  If they pulled the trigger they would instantly become the favorites in the NL.

I started a facebook group named: IF the Giants get Paul Konerko they will win the World Series.  Come over and join and hopefully we can get enough people to pressure Sabean into making the deal.

Nate Watch:
Nate was 0 for 1.  Although I have to admit that while the Giants are scoring 6 runs a game, it's getting harder and harder for me to keep complaining for Nate to play more.