Last night I decided to drive 250 miles round trip to see Tim Alderson pitch, so I thought I might give you all some first hand observations about the game.

For starters the Stadium is beautiful and economically priced. $10 bucks gets you front row seats.

Tim Alderson had an interesting evening. His fastball topped out at 88 (which was disappointing to me) but his off speed pitches were spot on. Now, I don't know if his poor velocity was due to a slow radar gun at the park or because he was pitching on 3 days rest, but his fastball looked very hittable to me...He was behind most of the hitters but did not issue any walks because simply put, when the going gets rough, Tim knows how to throw strikes!!

There were 2 hits in the 1st inning that were not Tim's fault. One was an infield hit and the other went by Brett Pill (who is an awful fielder from what I saw last night). After pitching 6 scoreless, Tim  ran out of gas in the 7th and 2 out of the 3 runs scored came on 2 groundouts...so all in all not  a bad night!!!

Brandon Crawford is the real deal guys!! He hit a booming opposite field HR in the 1st inning and seemed to have great balance at the plate the rest of the game. Kid was very smooth in the field too...The cathcer LaTorre called a great game and also hit along HR...Felmy has a sweet swing and looks like a real gamer...(move over Rowand!!) EME looked great, making great contact and showing very nice plate discipline. If his fielding were better, I am sure he would be in the Majors..Jesse English had wicked stuff last night...Gotta keep an eye on him...

Bottom line is, if any of you West Coasters make out to the East coast, I would really recommend you go to Dodd for a game. You will have a blast!!

After watching the Mets run wild on us  over the last 3 games, one has to wonder ,what our braindead manager plans on doing about it....The first thing that comes to mind is an occasional pitchout, right?  You would think, as a former manager, Bochyass, would call them from the dugout every now and then!!!

Sometimes a team lacks hitting or pitching talent (in our case the former) and there really isn't much you can do about it. (short of waiting till minor league prospects mature or banging the FA mkt...Rowand aside!!) ...However playing poor fundamental Baseball is inexcusable!! Holding runners on is as basic as it gets!!Someone has to be held accountable!! Whether it's Righetti, Bochy, or Steve Holm( have to throw him in there!!) , I wat to see heads roll!!

Now that Travis is struggling mightily , the question is what to do next. Bochyass is thinking about moving Pablo to 1st and having Uribe get most of the playing time at 3rd...This is just insane if you ask me...For starters, why move Pablo around after he is showing gold glove capabilities at 3rd? Secondly, why give a journeyman (Uribe),a  non roster invitee the majority of the playing time as if he will suddenly find the fountain of youth and rejuvinate his career? His best days are behind him and the Giants would be smart to just show him the door....Furthermore why is Aurilia getting the start today (as per Bochyass) against a lefty when he too has shown nothing at the plate this season? Whats he batting .175? Why does he get the free pass and Travis not?

My suggestion would be to Bring up Jesus Guzman/ and or Bowker  who is tearing up AAA and  let Richie go...I would then give Uribe the pink slip and bring up Rohlinger who is also playing well at Fresno.... This way you give the the rooks 200-300 atbats to see what they can do and if you aren't happy, then you can make a trade before the deadline...

I would also demote Velez and bring up Frandsen. There is simply too much dead weight on this team. For the most part, we can't get the ball out of the infield!!! With our pitching all we need to do is add some offensive punch and I think my suggestions would come a long way in helping this team get over our offensive season long slump...

Dear Sabean:

You have fecked us Giant fans over these last few years with nothing exciting to watch or talk about (Perhaps you thought aging ball dudes and Amy G would put us to sleep!! )  Now we finally have a  core of exciting players who make the game interesting to watch again. Pablo,Nate,Ishi,Burris  all add a dimension that this team has lacked in years and that is the ability to comeback from deficits!!

The Problem , Mr Sabean,is that we have a dumbass of a manager that will probably play the veterans  over the coming series arguing that we have to put out a veteran lineup when we are playing teams in contention. The fact that Bochass feels that the vets give his team a better chance to win  over the kids should be immediate grounds for dismissal!! I beg you, as a suffering Giants fan to call Bochass into your office and warn him that you want to see the above mentioned players in the lineup for every remaining game or else his sorry ass is outa here!!!

But how much longer can we watch this POS waiver pickup Castillo kill this team? On a team with minimal HR power, how on earth are we supposed to field a crappy hitting 3rd baseman( Oh, I'm sorry-He is a utility infielder..)  who sports an OBP less than 300?  You can't have a team slg avg of .373 with a team OBP of .315. That just doesn't work. The front office has to do a better job in either on of those 2 areas...Our pitching is sure fun to watch, but is it asking so much to expect our players to hit a ball out of the IF in a clutch situation...Castillo is my scapegoat...DFA him NOW!!!!!

After watching John Bowker at the plate these last few months, I am getting the feeling that Bowker is just not ready for MLB pitching just yet and he could use some more seasoning at AAA, a level that he never experienced...Travis Ishikawa on the other hand seems to be ripping the cover off the ball and has had some Major League experience already. Travis is a superior fielder (some compare him to JT Snow...)  whereas Bowker'd defense at 1st leaves much to be desired ( No fault of Bowker considering its a new position for him)  So my question is  why not send Bowker down and bring Travis up to the big team? We should use the last 2 months to see who can fit into our plans and right now Bowker just doesnt seem ready...

Why in heavens name does Bochy bat Velez 2nd in the lineup when the impotent Roberts is playing? I mean shouldnt logic dictate that the fastest guy in our lineup bat leadoff? Ok...We all know Bochy is braindead, but c'mon man...Velez is the most exciting position player on our team right now(Durhammy and Aurilia aside of course...). Maximize his use!!! There is no reason why Velez should only have 1 SB to date....

Now that GRod has been sent down and Eliezer Alfonso resides in Suckville (AT LEAST WHEN HE ISN'T PLAYING WINTERBALL) Can we please see Holm as our backup catcher? He seems to block balls pretty well and he has shown occasional power in the minors. Does anyone know if he is effective in throwing out runners? Holm for backup!! Cmon Bochy!!!

Now that we are apparently going with more of a youth movement it appears to me that Bochy will have very little tolerance with veteran deadwood esp with regard to bullpen mediocrity. With Messenger gone, how many of you think Kline will be next? Taschner to be replaced by Threets who is out of options? Im tired of watching hours of a relatively good game( few and far between when it comes to Giants baseball) only to be destroyed by some prick who blows a game with minimal talent. Give me a Valdez,Romo,Threets who at least can be dominant with their talent over Kline,Taschner and Messenger any day of the week

After watching Kevin Frandsen butcher a number of easy plays at short, I think Bochy has to go with his best fielding option until Omar returns, and thats Bocock. With a young pitching staff you can't afford to give up extra outs on a position that is a very important defensively. Opinions?

Keiichi Yabu has reportedly agreed to a minor league deal with the Giants.

Yabu had a 4.50 ERA in 58 innings for the A's in 2005. The 39-year-old will be a long shot to win a spot in middle relief. >>>>>

Good to see Sabean getting off his arse and finally dong something. For a second there, I thought the lack of any action indicated that we were going in another direction, but alas, we sign some obscure 39 yr old...Same old Sabes....