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.

I don't know if a diary is necessary for this, but I thought I'd start one anyway.

I'm tired of ESPN.  Honestly, the whole network, the whole website...  What purpose does it serve anymore?  It's not interesting, it's not informative...  And even Page 2, the "funny" part of ESPN?  CRAP!  I'd like to submit for evidence, the following page:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=neumann/080125

If you read it, did you laugh?  I sure didn't.  Why?  Because it isn't funny.  They even missed the obvious joke that could have been funny and racy with the Daniel Larusso "Wax On, Wax Off" thing.  Dirty movie theaters?  Sex clubs?  Can't we go there on ESPN?

Now it's become so much about the story, so we're force fed things like the steroid scandal.  And the best part is getting to read the Bill Simmons - Now in Corporate Sellout flavor! -article about Roger Clemens may have cheated and it's tainted Bill's favorite memories.

I'm sorry, but I just can't figure out why I'd care?  As a Bonds fan, maybe I'm too desensitized to the whole steroid scandal.  Maybe it's gone on too long, and I just don't care anymore.  But ESPN has to sensationalize the story so badly in order to get Joe Schmoe I-don't-care-about-sports-I-like-stories to pay attention.

They used to do interesting articles, where they would recap a team's season and dissect what went right and what went wrong.  They'd give scouting reports on players, discuss trades for what they were worth...  Now I can't go to ESPN.com anymore.

I can't go because there's never information about the Giants, only media darling teams.  The Giants are only mentioned in relation to Bonds.  If Matt Cain pitched a brilliant shutout, it would be a side note to Bonds having gone 0-3 with a walk.  Baseball is off the menu, stories are on.

Sure, I'm mostly rambling.  But I'm curious what any of the rest of you think.  Is ESPN as useless as I believe them to now be, or am I just being irritable?  What say y'all?

I don't know how to post links, so I'll do it the old fashioned way:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3109894

The gist of it is, ARod is talking to the Yankees about a contract, leaving Boras out of the negotiations.  It seems to me like the perfect way to actually gain leverage, but also it acknowledges the fact that very few teams have the financial resources of the Yankees (or claim to; let's not nitpick, please).  So if he negotiates with them, he'll likely get more than he can elsewhere, OR it might encourage other suitors to pay out the nose for him.  No matter what, it's a savvy move for a bigger payday.

Personally, I hope he goes back to the Yankees.  I used to hate them so much, but they've kind of become a bit irrelevant since 2000.  Now my non-Dodgers hatred is directed towards the Red Sox and their most obnoxious fans.  If ARod breaks the homer record, I'd rather he do it as a Yankee, for these reasons:

1. They have such a deep history (unlike, say, the Marlins)
b. He wouldn't be in a Dodger or Red Sox uni
- He wouldn't be consumming over 50% of the Giants payroll along with one (1) Barry Zito

I'm too lazy to look up the kind of information the majority of you seem to have access to, so I thought I'd post this question and see what happens.

Does anyone know what Frandsen projects to look like over the course of his career?  Does he have the possibility of being a .300 hitter?  It sounds like it, from his minor league numbers (I think, I've not looked that up either).  What about power numbers?  Are they projected to go up?  Since he's only 25, can we assume he'd become a pretty valuable part of this franchise?

I've been waiting for someone to post this, and I haven't seen it happen yet...

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2007/09/dodgers-willing.html#comments

God bless you, Ned Colletti!  Thank you for doing your part to ensure the Dodgers can compete for years to come with the Giants!  God bless you!

Noah Lowry led the league in walks (now third overall).  Matt Cain is fifth in walks given up and Barry Zito is currently 7th.  Lincecum is tied for 19th.  It seems there are very few pitchers on this team capable of not not issuing walks on a frustrating pace.

Is this a function of the team, or of the individual?  It seems oddly coincidental that everyone on the Giants has such high walk totals, so I'd think we might want to look for a common denominator.  Any thoughts?