So back in high school, I used to play FFXI and loved it.  But once I got to college, an MMORPG both hit my wallet and my social life too hard so I quit.  But now that I graduated, have an income, and everyone is gone during the summer, the only thing to fill my time is the 3 hours of Giants game 6 nights a week.  I just bought a new computer off of newegg, and it should be legit, so now I want to get back into online video games.  You guys have any suggestions for what I should play?

I don't make fanposts often, and I know there are going to be a zillion of em about Sanchez' performance tonight, but I just wanted to say I've never been more proud to be a Giants fan (probably because I'm still only 21) because

tonight I talked to people I haven't talked to in years.. Because of Sanchez. 

Tonight, I talked to my dad on the phone for the longest time in my life.. Because of Sanchez.

Tonight, I actually had Dodger fans jealous of my team.. Because of Sanchez.  

Tonight, I watched (and will continue to watch) hours of ESPN because I know they for once they will talk positively of my team.. Because of Sanchez.

And tonight, I finally feel like I was apart of history.. Because of Sanchez.

and plus the fact I donno how to post a fanshot.  Webb had another terrible outting with his 3.1 innings, 11 base runners and 6 earned runs.  That's 2 bad outtings in a row (and thus killing my fantasy team, like he cares).  He now has an ERA over 3 with a 3.19 ERA, and I know personal records don't mean as much as team records but if Timmy can get this Cy Young, I feel his chances of resigning with the Giants are much higher.  So... Can he do it?

If you're like me and you watch all the Giants games from a Slingbox, then you need to know about the new SlingPlayer Beta:

http://downloads.slingmedia.com/get/sp-win-us-beta.html#

It acts like a mini-DVR and you can pause, rewind, fast-forward up to 60 minutes of TV.  I'm completely stoked.  I've been jealous of all those people who are watching the games and get to rewatch great plays over and over again while I am stuck waiting for a replay.

over at theprospectcorner.blogspot.com:

"So if Bumgarner compares well to guys like Ankiel and Liriano, what can we expect from him in the future? Each of the 3 pitchers in the comparison chart went on to maintain their A ball stats through AAA, and made their first MLB appearance by the age of 21. Ankiel posted an ERA of 3.50 at the age of 20, Liriano had an ERA of 2.16 at 22, and Sabathia had an ERA of 3.60 at 22. If we apply the same trends to Bumgarner, we can expect him to debut with the Giants by 2011, and post an ERA in the 3.00-3.50 range by 2012."

"

MIAMI -- One of Cuba's top baseball prospects has defected and settled in South Florida in hopes of playing in the major leagues.

Dayan Viciedo arrived in the United States at the end of May and is now living with friends and family, his agent, Jaime Torres, said Sunday.

The 18-year-old Viciedo is from the central province of Villa Clara. He was a third baseman with the Villa Clara team, one of Cuba's major league teams.

He started playing baseball in the Cuban majors when he was 15 and was included on the roster for the 2006 World Baseball Classic.

"There's a lot of hard work ahead of him to accomplish what he needs to accomplish," Torres said.

Word of his defection spread quickly in Cuban baseball circles Sunday as the island's national team played an offseason exhibition with Puerto Rico. El Nuevo Herald was the first to report the defection.

"This was a very personal decision he made," Villa Clara coach Victor Mesa, who attended Sunday's game at Havana's Latin American Stadium, told The Associated Press. "It appears he had a change of heart and wanted to try his luck there."

Viciedo is the latest high-profile athlete to leave Cuba for the United States. In March, seven Cuban soccer players defected at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Tampa. Cuba called the act "dishonorable" and a "low blow." In May, 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Yurisel Laborde left Cuba's women's national judo team during a competition in Miami.

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press"

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3432314

How does this work?  Does highest bidder get him?  Does he go into a draft or waivers?

So, I believe the next 4 games we play are going to be against left handed pitchers.. does that mean that freddie will not play for a week or is bochy going to give him a shot to see if he can play every day?  boch seems really into the lefty lefty match ups so im scared he will cool off in the next week by not playing every day.  i like ort and all but freddie is way better

We are currently number 9 in the league according to ESPN's RPI Rating.  Basically it's just blend of winning percentage, opponents win percentage and opponents' opponents win percentage.  Since our schedule so far is the hardest, we are currently #9 overall.  If we can get a split in Arizona I bet we could rise to 7th or 8th overall.  Also note that our beloved Dodgers are 26th.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/rpi

They seem to talk up the youngens a little in this piece thinking Velez and Schierholtz should get a chance this year and Frandsen should win 2nd base.

http://sports.espn.go.com/fantasy/baseball/flb/story?page=mlbdk2k8sfpreview

K, so randomly talking with an A's fan who's bitching about how bad his team is gonna be.  I still think they'll be better than the Giants.  Anyways, I was looking at some of their young pitchers such as Dana Eveland who in his career in the minors has a 8.86 K/9, 2.77 BB/9 and a .37 HR/9, but a 7.76 ERA in 413 innings.  His K/BB/HR rates look awesome, but he yields a terrible ERA in a huge sample size no less.  So what I was wondering, do these sabermetric stats not translate in the minors?      Is he going to have a 7+ ERA in the pros with those K/BB/HR rates?

Is it a good idea to target players with good rate stats but bad ERA's?

Maybe Sab's isn't so bad.  ESPN says we had the 3rd best draft in '02.  Insider only: http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/draft2007/insider/columns/story?columnist=law_keith&id=2892330

3. Giants: The Brian Sabean era is not commonly associated with solid drafting, but the Giants might have nabbed more big leaguers in this draft than any other club. First-rounder Matt Cain is very good, with star potential; second-rounder Fred Lewis should be an everyday player; and they picked up Dan Ortmeier (third), Kevin Correia (fourth) and Clay Hensley (eighth) along the way.

There was a diary recently about whos gonna be the next Nathan.  Well today, Aardsma came in with bases loaded and no outs against the Offense heavy Indians, and of course strikes out the next 3 hitters in 11 pitches.  We should have waited with him and givin him a chance.

This was taken from Peter Gammon's article on like the greatness of Roger Clemens:

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=2779217&name=gammons_peter

"As he refined his program and in 1997 went to his own trainer and program, he learned how to do the power leg lifting on certain days and other running and lifting programs on others so he wouldn't have the problem of recovery. "That [recovery] is the toughest thing about any program," Clemens says. "So I learned how to work around it.""

Translation: In 1997 he went on his own to shoot up so he could recover faster; he learned how to work around "it" (the rules), and cheat.

I'm one of the people that won't deny Bonds was on roids, but say that everyone was on 'em, but he is just the one that is getting picked on 'cus he's breakin records.  Well, Clemens' career almosts mirrors Bonds', he's just a pitcher and is more well liked.  And another thing, didn't Grimsley say that Clemens was on roids?  How come the media never bring that up (there are a rare few sports writers that would say Clemens is on roids, but never do they write more than a sentance about it).

taken from Cockcroft (yeah is a funny name).  he does every teams preview, from a fantasy baseball stand point; today he did the giants:

http://insider.espn.go.com/fantasy/baseball/flb/story?id=2776322&univLogin02=stateChanged
(must be an insider to see)

With age comes experience.

Doesn't that sound like a perfect slogan for the Giants? Consider that all but 971 of their 5,472 at-bats as a team in 2006 were accrued by players who had already celebrated their 30th birthdays, while all but 698.2 of their 1429.2 innings as a team fell into that same category. And on opening day 2007, not one of the Giants' eight projected position-player starters will be under 31 years old, and three will be at least 35. Sure, the team shed two of their oldest starters from 2006, Moises Alou (39 this coming opening day) and Steve Finley (42), but then the team's most prominent offensive additions, Rich Aurilia (35), Bengie Molina (32) and Dave Roberts (34), really aren't that much younger.

And as we all know, in fantasy, with age comes a lack of upside. The one skill that has been proven to improve with age is pitch selection, but it's not like an Aurilia, Roberts or Ray Durham is likely to amass better numbers than he did in 2006. Most Giants hitters, being on the wrong side of 30, have a far greater chance at regressing in performance, which means a lot of risk in that lineup. Really, for the Giants, 2007 will be all about Barry Bonds' chase at Hank Aaron's all-time home run record. Beyond that, this team isn't much more exciting than the one that ranked 22nd in runs per game (4.63).

Fortunately, the pitching staff is at least a bit younger than the offense, led by free-agent signee Barry Zito, a 28-year-old 102-game winner for his career. Zito crosses the bay from Oakland, and he couldn't have picked a more suitable ballpark for a pitcher making a league switch. Behind him, and perhaps even more exciting for fantasy, is Matt Cain, the youngest player guaranteed to make the opening-day roster, at 22. He had a 3.12 ERA, 1.205 WHIP and 82 strikeouts in 78 innings in his final 12 starts as a rookie, and as a pitcher who finished no lower than 13th on Baseball America's top 100 prospects in both 2005 and 2006, Cain clearly has ace-caliber upside, according to the scouts. Zito's experience should help ease the pressure on the young Cain, helping him in his quest for a breakout year.

On the mound, though, most of the questions surround the bullpen. Closer Armando Benitez is coming off a disappointing, injury-plagued season, and he spent the offseason surrounded by trade rumors. There are some intriguing high-upside relievers in the hunt for roster spots, including Jonathan Sanchez, who also is in the hunt for the fifth starter job, Brian Wilson, who had 28 saves and a 1.92 ERA in the minors the past two years, and perhaps even Tim Lincecum, the team's No. 1 pick in last June's draft. But can any of them close if pressed into duty? Sadly, none has age, and therefore experience, working for him.

*remainder removed* please respect intellectual (and in this case commercial) copyright. All hail our ESPN masters! - kenshin

I was lookin at ESPN.com's fantasy leagues.. and they have free stat tracker.  I think thatd be bad ass.  What do yall think about that?

Well with our recent history of owning the Rookie Challenge (Jrich and Gilbert winning MVP), how do you guys think Monta Ellis will do in it?  I'm just hoping he doesn't get hurt personally.

Keith Law of ESPN posted his top 25 prospects:
http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=law_keith#20070129
(need insider)

Only Giant of course is Lincecum at 16

So I know we are getting first round picks for Schmidt and Alou, and then 3 sandwich, the last being from Stanton.  But do we have to give anything away for the Roberts/Aurillia/Molina signings?  I can't figure out if they are A/B/C FA's.