Looking on the MLBTraderumors site, I noticed that Omar Vizquel has officially cleared waivers.

Does anyone believe he will be dealt?  And if so, where and for who?

The Giants' official site makes it sound like another trade might be made soon:

"The Giants didn't announce the move until shortly before gametime, generating speculation that Sabean was trying to engineer a trade involving a veteran such as Ray Durham or Ryan Klesko.

"There were a couple of scenarios," Sabean admitted. But he noted that he ran out of time to complete a deal -- "We had to get it in before the game" -- besides the simple fact that the Giants re-evaluated Aurilia's condition during pregame drills."

The rest of the article can be found here.

I wonder what Sabean has got going on . . .

The Padres signed Shea Hillenbrand and it looks like he'll be assigned to AAA Portland.

Suck for the Pads, Shea!  We know you can do it.  Give them hope that you can be adequate in the field and at the plate, then rip out their hearts with your suckiness.

I don't understand that move by Towers, honestly . . .

Ken Rosenthal's Article mentions that we could trade Matt Morris to the Mariners for Richie Sexson, and it would be beneficial for both sides.

Does this make much sense to you, and if you had the opportunity, would you make the deal?

Doing that trade just seems to sort of go against what Sabes and management has been talking about.  I say no to the deal, unless they're part of a package.  Perhaps I'm just too intent on prying Wlademir Balentien from them . . .

For now, I'm thinking this rumor is just another one of those "Armando Benitez for Pat Burrell" trades that was being thrown about.

So on the BART ride back home from the Futures Game today, I started a conversation with a woman when she asked me about the Futures Game and the article I was reading about it.  The topic was makeup, how some players have it and some just don't.  She mentioned her son pitches in Arizona, and how he's being scouted by many universities.  She told me a teammate of his has a strong mindset and is unflappable on the mound, then when she saw I was wearing the good ol' orange and black, she said her son's teammate is named Timothy Alderson.  So, I asked her about the guy, and here's a little summary of it:

-He does intend to sign with us.  I remember someone mentioned in an earlier diary that his parents were more keen about him signing than he was, but it sounds like he's stoked to sign.

-His agent will most likely be Alan Nero.

-He is 6'7", but not the 210 lbs. he's listed at.  He's between 230 and 240.

-His fastball sits between 91-95, consistently.

-His delivery is incredibly deceptive, and his curveball is very difficult to pick up, so he gets a lot of swing throughs.

-Very athletic; has hit balls over 400 ft. and plays a good 1B, so his hand-eye coordination is good.

-His brother is 6'10", and Tim is still growing.  It wouldn't surprise her if he hits the 6'10" mark.

-Very low-key, well-grounded and a good kid.  Responds well to pressure.

She had nothing but good things to say about him, it sounds like he's a great kid and he is a solid pitcher.  Given his unorthidox delivery, deception and poise, it wouldn't surprise me if we converted him to closer (seeing as how he throws exclusively out of the stretch to begin with).

I hope that excites some of you, it definitely got me going!

According to MLBTraderumors, the guys over at the U.S.S. Mariner noticed a pattern with Felix Hernandez's pitching strategy: establishing the fastball until he can K a guy with his sharp curve.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's a trend . . .anyways, they sent a letter to Rafael Chaves, the M's pitching coach, and King Felix read it.  Well, he read the letter, and credits it to his 8 scoreless innings.

The link is just www.MLBTraderumors.com.

So, I'm wondering if anyone's picked up any tendencies our pitchers have that our staff might not have noticed.  I don't know if telling them that they walk too many batters would make a difference, but hell, it's worth a shot.  Maybe it'll help us out . . .

Does anybody have a scouting report or anything on the guy?  We picked him in the 19th round this last draft and he had 23 HR.  He's a 1B, too.  The only real downside are his injuries, from what I can tell.

Do we have a legitimate 1B power prospect in D'Alessio, or is he just another guy that won't really pan out to be much?  He strikes me as sort of a sleeper prospect from what I've read.

Henry Schulman of the Chronicle wrote an article that was in today's paper, here:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2007/06/29/SPGC8QO0L31.DTL

Sounds like he's trying to tell us fans to not expect anything great from Sabean, or that we'll actually be buyers at the deadline.  Is he just trying to keep us from getting our hearts crushed?

I'm sure I'm not the only one out here who isn't very confident in Sabean's direction, even as our team stumbles.  The moves he could make at the deadline could very well help resurrect our franchise with good, young talent, it'll stay the same, or he'll just mess it up even more.  Perhaps I'm wrong in thinking he'll be replaced after the season's end.

According to Baseball America, the Giants, as well as the Blue Jays, Mets and Rangers, are interested in 16-year old Jose Ricardo Garcia.

I feel guilty for copy and pasting directly from the page, as it's members only, but I'll summarize it:

Garcia is a 6'2", 190 lb OF.  He's rigid in his approach, but has real raw power, and there are apparently no questions about his ability to drive the ball.  He's strong enough to hit in the Bigs right now.  He's a below average runner, but when he gets going his momentum helps him.  He doesn't have that strong of an arm, so he is a Left Fielder in the making.

There are some questions on his approach, and how he handles pitches in on the hands and solid offspeed pitches are going to be key for him when he moves on to the States.

There wasn't any information on his handedness, but I assume he's a righty in both the field and at the plate.  He sounds pretty impressive . . .speculate and discuss away, McCovenites!

Steve Kline is a career 38/38 in save opportunities.  Does that strike anyone else as just one of those "wtf?" kind of facts that make NO sense whatsoever?

It made me wonder: how weird would it be if we had Kline closing out games for us?  A guy that's not too bad or not exceptional as a middle reliever/setup man is lights out as a closer.  Wow.