This one's kind of a head scratcher. I don't mind Pagan for Torres since they're both very similar (maybe Pagan is slightly better?). However, throwing in Ramon Ramirez seems like too much. One of the anchors in the great Giants bullpen, Ramirez even filled in for Brian Wilson as the closer on occasion. I just hope Sabean knows something we don't know because it looks like Pagan is your 4th or 5th outfielder, at best.
The Royals traded outfielder Melky Cabrera to the San Francisco Giants for left-hander Jonathan Sanchez on Monday...
Would have rather seen Zito go but that's plain crazy. Still, Sanchez was slowly losing favor among the Giants fan base with injuries and erratic performances. Not sure how much Cabrera has left in the tank but the Giants can use any bats to improve their last place offense. Assuming, the Giants lose Beltran, this would at least allow their line-up to remain somewhat level. Not sure what it means for Cody Ross but he has been up and down this year as well.
He had a reputation for strangeness as well as for a curveball that defied description. It was this perfect, beautiful, singular thing, and people who saw it sometimes fell in love with it and the man who threw it. I was one of those people.
This is a great and very eloquent article re: Barry Zito. Over the years I've moved from being angry at Zito (for his huge contract with little to show for it) to just feeling sorry for the guy. Of course, the Giants winning the World Series despite Barry helps but he is truly a tragic figure. If he was a guy who was just in it for the money, I would have less sympathy for him but I genuinely feel that his lack of performance weighs heavily each and every time he pitches a bad game. Maybe he can be moved to another team where the expectations won't be as high and he can restart his career. However, I think he'll play out his contract and just slip into the sunset.
Excellent move. Beltran will provide a much needed boost to the offense and give some protection to Sandoval. Without guys like Buster and Freddy in the line up, the Giants were iffy to make the playoffs. Now they look like solid contenders for the NL Pennent. Let's hope we get 2004-2008 Beltran and not the 2009-2010 version.
We're experiencing some pretty amazing times in Bay Area sports (Raiders and 49ers aside). Giants are up 2-0 in the World Series and looking stronger than ever and the Warriors just opened the season with two good wins. Going into the offseason, I had my ideas about what they needed to do and of course, I had my opinions about the moves they made. Obviously, the biggest news was the sale of the team which trumps pretty much all other news. On the personnel side, they picked up David Lee but lost some players in Anthony Morrow and CJ Watson to free agency and Maggette to a trade to the Bucks. They also drafted Ekpe Udoh with the 6th pick.
Overall, I thought the moves were good. Getting Lee was great - a solid workman like 20-10 guy. Maggette was always going to be a defensive liability and never really made any team he played on better (a hollow 18-20pts a game). Udoh was a head scratcher but there wasn't anyone drafted after him that stood out. Plus with him being hurt, his grade is an incomplete for now. The one that I disagreed with the most was letting Morrow go and replacing him with Dorell Wright for virtually the same money. Why would you let one of the best young 3 point specialist go and pick up a scrub that never scored more than 8pts a game? Well after watching Dorell play in 2 games, I can begin to see the reasoning. He's not a flashy player but he's smart. Though he's a career 36.3% 3pt shooter, I saw him pass up a bunch of threes and instead pump fake and step in on his defender for easier mid-range shots. Morrow may be more accurate from outside but I doubt he has the maturity to take what a defense will give him. He'd rather force up a three as oppose to getting that closer shot. Though it's a long season, Morrow's currently averaging 8.5pts a game versus Wright's 19.5pts. But the reason I have more faith in Wright is that he doesn't seem like he's forcing anything. Plus he plays much better defense - something the Warriors need to focus on to make it to the next level. We'll see how he and the W's fare against their biggest test to date - at Staples against the Lakers on Sunday...
Great home opener today. Giants rally in the 9th and then win in the 13th. Bullpen pitched 8 superb innings, including a shutout in the last 5 innings. What gives me optimism is that two guys who stunk it up last year - Zito and Renteria - are off the great starts. It's still early but you can't ask for much more than this.
It's apparent that Tim Lincecum is the best pitcher in baseball today. A complete game 4-hitter with 0 ERs lowers his ERA to 2.30, just 0.16 behind Dan Haren, the NL leader. He also racked up 15 K's to extend his major league lead of 183. He's tied for 3rd with 11 wins, just 1 behind Matt Cain and Jason Marquis. Aside from the stats though, he's just dominating and confusing hitters. Granted, it's just the Pirates but any time you can rack up 15 K's against any major league team is an impressive feat. Let's hope he can duplicate today's magic against the Phillies on Saturday.
Just came home from dinner and watched the Giants-Padres game I recorded earlier. I couldn't believe it! Sanchez throws a no hitter! Go Giants!
I'm watching the Giants play the Diamondbacks - 3-1 Giants, Top of the 3rd. Last night Matt Cain won his NL lead tying 8th game to go 8-1. Last year's NL Cy Young winner, Tim Lincecum is at 5-1 and newly minted 300 game winner Randy Johnson is at 5-5. That's 3 out of the top 20 starting pitchers (Jonathan Broxton and Tony Pena are closers). I don't expect much out of The Big Unit but I think Lincecum could easily have 2 or 3 more wins and Matt Cain looks amazing. Now if only we had a decent bat in the lineup...
After a promising 2-1 start, my Giants just lost their 6th straight (and a sweep by the Dodgers, no less). I still hold out hope for them but they really need a lot of help. Middle of the lineup is weak and the starting rotation is not living up to expectations. It's still early but unless the new kids show some improvement, it's going to be a long season.
