i have enjoyed your spirit and electric stuff for awhile. i have only wished good things from you. i have tried to keep a positive spin on poor performances in relation to recovery from the disabled list and youthful inexperience. but, there has been a nasty little grain of doubt in my oyster mind and the pearl that is forming needs to be released. i finally looked up the stats for the last few games you have pitched and this is what I saw...

this from sfgiants.com about renteria

"Moreover, according to his agents, he has shed more than 10 pounds this offseason to get himself fit."

i swear that every time i have heard this, or the opposite "adding ten pounds of muscle",  the player stinks instead of improving.

somewhere in the back of my head i remember a story that wilson is going to help zito add muscle this offseason...so does that mean he goes from terrible pitcher to some sort of  square root of negative one meets a bose-einstein condensate sort of pitcher?

i didnt mean to sound that douchebaggy with a random reference, but i said it and ill stick by it.

so i pose the question(s),  how much of a role does shedding or gaing weight in an offseason really have? anyone have any specific examples of players succeeding or failing after such changes?

if you guys hadnt heard this yet, dave winfield was inspired by the death of legend buck o'neill to have current mlb teams draft and adopt living negro leaguers. im not sure if it was just one round or not, but the giants officially have a new member to the team

he is carlos manuel santiago, 2b/ss for the new york cubans.

im having a devil of a time finding any biographical or statistical info on him, so if anyone has some knowledge in this area, id welcome some help

this from junior in a response to a woody paige article that ruminates on the "impending" trade of matt holliday and how the giants might fit in

The Giants? Holliday would be The New Left Fielder, and perhaps the Rockies could pry Tim Lincecum, and others, away from them.

And just like that, Woodhouse changes his bargaining strategy from "I'll give you Holliday for half a Southern Chicken Sandwich" to "I demand a foursome with the owner's wife and twin daughters." Timmy Lincecum strikes out 68 batters per inning and is controlled for five and a half more years.

In Wood-dar's universe, this translates to: "We'll give you 200-odd games of Holliday for him, but you'll have to throw in 'and others.'"

I guess maybe this would work if Holliday were 38 and you could sell Sabean on his veteran experience.

"Colletti previously worked as an assistant general manager in San Francisco, where the Giants were the extremists when it came to devaluing the draft. From 1993 through 2000 the Giants took six pitchers with their No. 1 picks. Those pitchers threw a total of 22 games for San Francisco. The Giants regarded top picks as something of nuisance, using them as trading chips to acquire veteran players or even gladly forfeiting some picks themselves for the chance to sign some mid-level veteran free agent."

i know ive brought up the same thing before, but it feels like a kick in the gut when someone else reminds you.

heres to better scouting, better decisions, better coaching, and an angstrom of luck