I gotta get up early for Model UN tomorrow (omg nerd) so here's the notes from tonight's game in San Jose. Quick game summary: starter Craig Westcott pitched five shutout innings for the Giants but it was up to Francisco Peguero to save the day in the bottom of the ninth. The Giants won 5-4 in the first game of a four game set with the Bakersfield Blaze.

Westcott has a fastball, change, and a slider. The FB and change have good downward movement, though Westscott is more effective when he takes a bit off the FB. I saw 90-91 at times but it worked better 88-89 for strikes. The pitch can flatten out a bit, so he'll need to watch that. The slider came in around 79 and has a sweeping motion in on left-handers. His change looks like the FB most of the time, though the change can look a bit floaty. I saw some nasty low movement in the low 90s from him for some swinging strikes.

I saw less of the slider as his pitch count increased. He only went five innings and I don't recall him laboring as much. Maybe they don't want to extend guys so early.

Adrianza continued to chase high pitches in his first at-bat, but he settled down later. He drew two walks and had a base hit. He bunted his way aboard in the third inning, though he pushed the bunt towards the right side too hard and allowed the Blaze to get the lead runner at second. He stole second base but was picked off. Looked bad swinging on a change but worked a walk on four straight pitches in the ninth inning rally. 

He's impressive on defense. He stumbled on fielding a grounder, and made a throw from his knees. He almost got the runner despite his miscue.

Lormand looks great on D still, despite his mishap that led to two runs for the Blaze. The ball just went right under his glove. He still gets to the ball quickly and has a strong arm. He also had a hit and a walk.

Culberson's defense has looked a lot better than what I expected so far. He narrowly missed a liner up the middle, but made some other quick defensive plays. His range is good to both directions.

Peguero extended his hitting streak to seven games as the hero in the game. He knocked in the winning run with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. The Giants loaded the bases on back-to-back walks. He already had a hit before his ninth inning heroics, and he scored a run and walked. Peguero stole two bases after he walked in the eighth inning. He made an excellent throw from center to nail the Blaze runner trying to score in the fourth inning. He really puts the pressure on with his speed on the basepaths. He's a very aggressive runner.

Juan Carlos Perez had a good game with two hits. He had a particularly strong at-bat in the first inning, fighting off pitches before singling. He was in right field tonight.

Belt picked up another hit and was hit by a pitch. Looking good at first base defensively as well. He stole a base, showing off good speed. He hit a long flyout to center in the fourth. He's seeing the ball well right now, so I expect more of those to become hits.

Ben Wilshire allowed two runs in relief for the Giants. When he was hit, he was hit hard. Wilshire has a nice little slidepiece at 74-76 and has a 91 FB with low movement.

Johnny Monell is confusing. Monday night he looked bad on defense behind the plate. Tonight he went opposite field on a base hit and was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double.

Jason Stoffel did not pitch the ninth despite the Giants entering the top of the frame with the lead. I don't know his status, but as far as I've heard he's active.

Blaze 3B Tommy Mendonca still strikes out a lot. He's a legit hitter with a compact swing and quick hands. He laced a long double in the fourth inning. I can see where he easily breaks down and strikes out. He unsuccessfully goes after low pitches a lot, and he looks really bad when he's out in front. He was off balance in his last two at-bats and it showed. The gap between his excellent hitting ability and where a good pitch can eat him alive is still pretty wide.

The Giants faced Fabio Castillo in the later innings. The scouts sitting ahead of me spoke of a 98 MPH FB from this guy, but all I saw was a few 94s. His changeup however was devastating, coming in at 88. The Giants hitters had no chance against him. That slider looks to be his out pitch.

Rockies scouts were in the house. Couldn’t see what teams the other scouts were repping.

(Filling in for Steve S tonight.)
Highlights from Tuesday:

Fresno - Brock Bond went 3-for-5 in a loss to Las Vegas.
Richmond - The bullpen buckled down for 7 2/3 innings in a marathon extra-innings game but the Squirrels eventually lost 1-0.
San Jose - Juan Carlos Perez has a big day with his first home run of the year.
Augusta - Ryan Cavan smacks two doubles in a win over Savannah.

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In case you forgot, I play bassoon in the San Jose State symphonic band. We got our new concert set this week, and it's all baseball music!

We are doing Casey at the Bat with a narrator. I thought it was the old old old vaudeville version--I have a recording of Jackie Gleason doing the narration. The music is actually pretty contemporary, just written recently.

We also have the Sousa march The National Game on the slate. Sousa wrote it for Kenesaw Mountain Landis and MLB's 50th anniversary.

Jack Stamp's Pastime, another contemporary piece, is a really cool one. He came up with the idea while attending a Giants game in 1998 and has all kinds of musical cues and tributes to Giants legends like Mays, McCovey, Cepeda, and Marichal. All those subtle tributes come at the measure numbers 24, 44, 30, 27, etc. There is one very dissonant chord in measure 25 that symbolizes Stamp's feelings about Bonds leaving Pittsburgh; turns out Stamp was a Pirates fan. It goes from a beautiful E-flat major chord signifying the greatness of Mays to a cacophonous, icky noise. He also throws in tributes to Don Larsen, and McGuire and Sosa.

We close the program with a wind band standard arrangement of America the Beautiful.

I'm really excited about the program. The concert is May 13. If you would like to attend I will post another reminder closer to the date of the concert.

(Posted with express written consent from Grant.)

I'm in dire need of funds to get my car back. The alternator died in January and I haven't had money to fix it. I did not want to spend money that I don't have on a parking permit to store it at school when the car does not work. I asked a friend if I could park it in front of her house in Sunnyvale until I could get the money together for repairs.

The City of Sunnyvale towed my car last week. It's in a tow yard now. I need emergency money quickly to get my car back. Every day the car sits in the yard is more money I need. I have almost no money to my name. I have a job, but it doesn't pay much.

Car needs repair-estimate of about $300 for parts and labor

Need parking permit-another $300-ish. Unfortunately San Jose State parking costs are not cheap. I have no place to put the car otherwise, and I need it to be with me starting in April when my MiLB job kicks in. If I don't reclaim the car in 40 days or so, I'll lose it to a police auction.

Need to get the car out of tow yard in Sunnyvale-no idea how much has accrued by now. It was $255 when the car was towed, plus $55 per day, and a $85 gate fee to open the gate after hours and on weekends if I go during off-hours, which I might because of my work/school schedule.

Here's what I want to do. Rather than just beg for money, I'm asking for donations in exchange for an original short story.

James Madison Washington aka Moon, a black kid, and Batsu Nijiyama aka Boss, a nissei (second-generation Japanese-American), are two friends and ballplayers in California in the last years before Jackie Robinson. Both have a chance at baseball stardom when they learn they're being scouted way out in Stockton--then interment happens. It will contain strong language. No slash (sorry). I have to write something for everyone. Everyone loves baseball, right?

Donations: $0.25/word, max $1500.

Word count: no more than 6000 words. This is not set in stone. If it goes over a bit, so be it.

What you get: a PDF with the story. Last page(s) of the PDF will contain the names of all donors.

Thank you card from me, personally addressed. Please leave your name and mailing address in a message on your PayPal payment if you wish to receive a thank you card.

Goal: $1500 by Mon 3/8. Please donate what you can. I'm not asking for much from any one person. If I have to extend it a few days to get the cash I need, I’ll do it. But I’d like to wrap it up by next Monday.

Click on the button below to donate. I really need help here and I hate even asking like this, but it's an emergency.

THANK YOU EVERYONE. Each person who donates will have a hand in saving my life.

Okay so I don't know why the PayPal HMTL isn't working. To donate via PayPal please send to seasond_salt@yahoo.com. Thanks!

In my readings on European-owned and controlled media companies for school, a theme emerged. That of media companies owning stakes in sports teams. I suppose it's nothing new to those of us who follow Euro football teams, but to me it's kind of a new concept. MediaSet's majority owner is also the president of AC Milan.

Stateside we've had Disney owning the Angels and the Ducks. Of course, sponsorship is nothing new in the world of auto racing, but the sponsors are not media companies.

It all makes me think of the role of the media in these sponsorship deals. Is the media required to stay neutral in everything, even for a distribution group like Disney or MediaSet, and not reach out to sponsor a sports team? Since they are not publications, just the parent companies, is it then okay for Disney or MediaSet to own a team? Is ownership/sponsorship too close to an endorsement of the team?

How would we all feel if the Giants were suddenly sold to an ownership group based in media? Like if Comcast bought the team?

I ask because I'm genuinely curious, on one hand because I don't see this happening in the States as much as in Europe, and on another hand because I'm doing a report on Netherlands media for my comm class. I'm trying to get a perspective on the topic, and see if it's just an issue of cultural divide or if it's the way business, media, and sports will evolve.

I thought about it and my first reaction was a strong negative one; I feel that media has a duty to stay neutral and that a media company owning a sports team is too close to an endorsement of the team, and thus reporting can skew too easily towards whatever the team might want the media to do, and vice-versa. But it's also about business and money, and the financial gains from such a deal can provide many more resources for said team, and said media company.

thoughts?

I didn't see a fanpost or fanshot on this, and since it falls on the MCC Meetup Night, I figured it wouldn't hurt to post about this.

I got an email from the SFGiants.com website about the tribute for Sue Burns:

On Monday, July 27 prior to the 7:15 game versus the Pirates, the Giants will pay tribute to Giants Senior General Partner Sue Burns, who passed away earlier this week.

Sue and her late husband, Harmon, were instrumental in preventing the Giants from moving to Florida in 1992 by joining a group of local investors to purchase and keep the team in San Francisco. She also played a key role in the building of AT&T Park, ensuring that the Giants would remain in San Francisco for generations to come. Sue could always be found in her front row seat next to the Giants Dugout dressed in her signature orange and cheering for her beloved orange and black.

In the past decade, she attended at least 1,000 Giants games. Fans attending Monday night's game are encouraged to wear orange in honor of Sue.

I'll be there in orange.