My coworker and I are having a discussion about Rich Aurilia and just how good he was in 2002 and 2003.  Looking simply at BA and homers, he's arguing that Aurilia was below average because he hit .257 and .277 with 15 and 13 homers respectively.  His OPS+ those two years was 92 and 91, so he seems to be correct.  My assertion before looking at these numbers is that he's been above average for a shortstop these years, but it looks like that might not be correct after all.

So what say you?  Was Aurilia, in 2002 and 2003 at all above average for a shortstop?  Or was he just a below average shortstop?  Most of you have better statistics to create a case than I do, so I thought I'd engage y'all in this.

Chuck is back!  For all you fans out there, some of our favorite network television shows like Chuck, Better off Ted, Dollhouse, and Scrubs will be returning next season.  No telling how long they'll actually last, but they are at least returning, and that's good news.

One thing that's always bothered me with television shows is it's often difficult to find a consolidated list of returning and cancelled shows.  Then I came across this "Fall TV Cheat Sheet" from Ausiello Files and it made my day.

Some of the stranger news for Chuck, for those of you who hadn't heard...  It's a 13 episode pickup, and budget cuts had to be made on the show.  It sounds like one cast member will be gone, and two staff writers.  So that sucks.  But hey...  Chuck's back!

As for Scrubs, Zach Braff will be in 6 episodes next season.  I don't know, I'm pretty disappointed by this news.  It seemed like the season finale was a perfect stopping point last season.  I'm kind of worried they're going to end up following the X-Files path of trying to go past their stars and ruining the show.  We'll see.

Anyway, what do you think?  Are your shows being cancelled?  Are you happy with the returns?  What do you think?  And shouldn't 'Til Death have already died the death that not-funny comedies die?

The above is the title of the article on the Chronicle today about the Chicago writer, Chris De Luca, who didn't vote for Lincecum.  His reasons:

"I thought Webb's victories (22) stood out to me more than anything, and Lincecum didn't have the victories."

"Santana (undefeated after June 28) stood out because there was so much pressure not just being in New York, but to be who he is."

"With Lidge being a perfect closer (41-for-41 in save chances), that was a tough pick for me, not to pick him No. 1."

It seems that every other BBWAA writer found Lincecum a very worthwhile candidate for the Cy, even the homers in New York ("What swayed me, and I know the extra attention you get when voting for someone in your own market, is how he had so many expectations coming in here with his $137.5 million contract. He was expected to reverse the fortunes of the team, and he had only one bad start,") and Arizona ("I valued his durability and ability to keep the Diamondbacks in games and in the pennant race.  He made nine starts of at least eight innings, the highest in the league.").  But De Luca couldn't get past saves, wins, and playing in New York.

I doubt this is a worthwhile fanpost, but I found these quotes amusing all the same.

This morning, I was listening to KNBR, when they started talking about an interview with Matt Maiocco and Isaac Bruce.  The transcript can be read here:

http://49ers.pressdemocrat.com/default.asp?item=2263510&mode=

The best part of the show, I thought, was listening to Paul McCaffrey, who I've now decided is a ravingly awful talkshow host,  and how he was outraged -  OUTRAGED!!! - that Isaac Bruce didn't say more.  Personally, I thought it was a fairly funny interview.  He didn't say much of anything.  Pauly Mac was so angry, he decided he MUST remove his mention of Isaac Bruce from the JTO theme he did.  After his burst of rage, they went to commercial and came back to talk to Scot McCloughan.  When asked about the interview, McCloughan talked about what a great team leader Isaac is, and how he'll pull aside younger guys if he sees something they need to fix, and he's just a team player.

So what this all leads to is this...  Does anyone really care if Bruce didn't give a good interview?  What's more important, 153 yards in a game, or the ability to talk to the press.  As a Giants fan, I've become very desensitized to athletes who don't care to talk to the press.  I just don't care anymore, especially since most reporters tend to ask stupid questions.  I don't think Maiocco asked bad questions, and I'm surprised Bruce wouldn't talk more about his charitable organization, but even that doesn't really bother me.

What about you all?  Are you upset that Bruce is tight-lipped so far?  Does it make you not like the guy more?  Or are you more interested in how the guy plays every Sunday?

I'm on sfgate.com, and see this beautifully worded fanpost.  It reads:

"If the Giants don't trade Lincecum and Cain at the deadline for 3 or 4 TOP prospects each I am switching allegiances."—voiceofrzn

I read this.   Then read it again.  And laughed.  Trade Cain AND Lincecum for prospects?  Now, I'm no baseball genius, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and think that if the Giants were to trade both of them, more fans would switch allegiances than would stick around.  So good day, Voice of Raisin, we hardly knew ye.

Obviously, that's just my opinion, I'm sure many of you might view it differently.  So, what say you all?  Would you be happier to trade our two best commodities in order to satiate Voiceofrzn, or just one, or neither?

I recently changed jobs, and now commute from the Concord area down to San Jose.  With my hybrid, I get to use the commuter lane, which helps, but it still takes between an hour to an hour and a half to get home.

Last night, I was driving to my in-laws in the great SF.  I left at 6, and arrived around 7.  When I got into the car, I was giddy as can be that I should get to listen to an hour at least of pre-game Giants baseball.  Share my misery, revel in the glory that is Cain, whatever.  I don't follow basketball, so as proud as I can be of the Warriors, I don't  really care.  I get to look forward to an hour of Giants pregame, where we're only talking baseball!  Yay!

No joke, in that one hour, I listened to approximately 10-15 minutes of sports talk.  The rest was taken up by commercials.  When Jon Miller talked to Bruce Bochy, they talked for MAYBE five minutes, followed by five minutes of commercial, then they came back and talked - again, no fucking joke - for less than ONE MINUTE!!!  What the hell???  I have an hour commute last night, and I got 10-15 minutes of actual broadcast?  Whose sick joke is this?  KNBR, listen up and listen good:  You tell Tap Plastic they can wrap themselves in plastic.  Tell the guy who talks about not getting his penis up that he can go fornicate with himself.  Tell Mr. T he can only pimp 30 crap-tastic products in one hour, instead of the usual 60.  Tell McDonalds their burgers suck, and Krukow isn't going to even pretend their crappy breakfasts are "tasty."  Tell them you're going to have some actual substance to your pregame show, instead of nothing but commercials!  It's a travesty that I can't listen to more pregame show during Rush Hour than that!  It really pissed me off.  As you can probably tell.

Anyway, I'm sure I didn't need to start a diary for this, but I did anyway.  I wanted to get that off my chest, and I figured about the only place I could get some commiseration was here.

Bonus fun:  When I was leaving the in-laws and going back home, the score was 0-0 in the 6th inning.  Cain loaded the bases right after I turned on the game.  I quickly turned it off, and knew I jinxed the whole f**king thing.  Tasch got them out of the jam, but I knew we were losing after that.  THEN, after watching a little tv with the wife that night, I turned on the game as she went to bed.  I f**king kid you not, five minutes later, the game was over.  If this isn't an omen I shouldn't be watching baseball this year, I don't know what is.