I may have posted one of these in previous years, but since it's an off day, it seems like good discussion.

Let's hear your top five baseball movies.  Mine are the following:

1.  Bull Durham
2.  Major League
   
3.  A League of Their Own
   
4.  The Rookie
   
5.  Eight Men Out

Presented without comment, the Sabean record since the end of the 2002 World Series.  These transactions aren't in perfect order.  Please comment on any omissions.

2003 Season

Signs Felipe Alou
Signs Ray Durham
Signs Edgardo Alfonzo
Signs Jose Cruz Jr.
Signs Marquis Grissom
Signs Neifi Perez
Signs Kirk Rueter to a contract extension
Trades Russ Ortiz for Damian Moss and Merkin Valdez
Trades Livan Hernandez and Edwards Guzman for Jim Brower and Matt Blank
Trades Damian Moss, Kurt Ainsworth and Ryan Hannaman for Sidney Ponson
Trades Clay Hensley for Matt Herges
Claims Dustin Hermanson off waivers
Claims Jeffrey Hammonds off waivers
Trades Greg Bruso for Eric Young

2004 Season

Trades Joe Nathan, Boof Bonser and Francisco Liriano for A.J. Pierzynski
Re-signs J.T. Snow
Claims Deivi Cruz off waivers
Signs Michael Tucker
Trades J.T. Thomas for Dustan Mohr
Signs Brett Tomko
Re-signs Jeffrey Hammonds
Signs Tyler Walker
Trades Carlos Villanueva and Glenn Woolard for Wayne Franklin and Leo Estrella
Trades Felix Rodriguez for Ricky Ledee
Trades Josh Habel for Dave Burba

2005 Season

Releases A.J. Pierzynski
Signs Mike Matheny
Signs Omar Vizquel
Signs Moises Alou
Signs Armando Benitez
Signs Jeff Fassero
Signs Pedro Feliz to a contract extension
Re-signs Jason Christensen
Trades Jerome Williams and David Aardsma for LaTroy Hawkins
Trades Jesse Foppert and Yorvit Torrealba for Randy Winn
Trades Deivi Cruz for Benjamin Cox
Trades Michael Tucker for Kelvin Pichardo

2006 Season

Trades LaTroy Hawkins for Steve Kline
Signs Matt Morris
Signs Tim Worrell
Signs Jose Vizcaino
Signs Randy Winn to a contract extension
Signs Jamey Wright
Trades Edgardo Alfonzo for Steve Finley
Signs Mark Sweeney
Signs Todd Greene
Trades Tyler Walker for Carlos Hines

It was hilarious!  Miller picked Armando for his player of the game, talked about how in the last week or so, him and Armando had become quite close.

The whole time, Kruk is pissing his pants laughing.

Man that was nice last night.  Am I the only one that thinks that Noah is going to have a Cy Young caliber season?

Last night, he came out and didn't have his best stuff.  But he battled and made pitches when it counted and only gave up 2 runs through 5 innings.  Then he found his good stuff and finished the 6th and 7th with 19 pitches.

He's got a killer changeup, a plus curveball and a deceptively quick fastball.  He works just as well out of the stretch as the windup, and he gets plenty of swing throughs.

I'm starting to feel optimistic!

The more I think about this, the more pissed off I get.  Mesa should have been tossed immediately, and he should be facing a suspension.  MLB should have stepped in long ago and told him that the next time he nails Vizquel, he's facing a 30 game suspension.

I can't believe that you can vow to hit a guy every time you face him, proceed to do so every time, and not face any repercussions.

In my day job, I work for the American Cancer Society in Reno, NV.  We have an event coming up on April 1st that includes a silent auction and  I was wondering (hoping) that some of you might have some connections for potential silent auction items.  Primarily, I am looking for connections in the Bay Area or other parts of California in lodging and entertainment.  For example, I would be looking for a package like, "One night stay and opera tickets in San Francisco," or something similar.

If you have any ideas or connections and would be willing to help me out, let me know here or e-mail me.  Of course, it goes without saying that if someone had a priceless piece of sports memorablilia that they would like to donate, such as a signed Johnny LeMaster baseball, we would be happy to auction that off as well.  All of the donations would go to the American Cancer Society, which you can learn more about at www.cancer.org.

Thanks for your help!

http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/news/2006/060110b.htm

I know there is considerable debate over whether Clark is a Hall of Famer, but 4.4 percent?

That's bullshit.

This offseason has been playing out much different than anyone expected.  There is an active trade market and unexpected names are being moved to unexpected teams.  Yet our mullethead General Manager is operating as if nothing has changed.  He's still pursuing low risk-low reward strategies and not taking any chances.

1.  Apparently, all it took to get Sean Casey at 5 mill next year is a mediocre arm.  Sabes wants nothing to do with it.
2.  Apparently, all it took to get Mark Redman is another mediocre arm.  Sabes wants nothing to do with it.
3.  Apparently, middle relievers are worth 4-5 million per year now.  Of course, Sabes has a reliever signed to a one year, 5 mill contract and he trades him for a lefty specialist that no one wants.

Here are some proposals that I thought up.  Feel free to add your own and comment on these.

Ok, I'm sure no one wants to talk about it.  But we're in a pennant race!  As I figure it, if the Giants win all of their remaining series (2 out of 3 against the Nats, Rox and Snakes and 3 out of 4 against the Pads), and the Padres lose all of their remaining series (1 out of 3 against the Dodgers and Snakes, 1 out of 4 against the Rox and Giants), then the two teams will finish with identical 78-84 records.  Sure it's embarrassing, but who cares!  We now have the team we expected to have at the beginning of the year.  Let's see if they could have been good.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-giants-bondsscuffle&prov=ap&type=lgns

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Barry Bonds tussled with pitcher Jason Christiansen in the clubhouse lunchroom at SBC Park earlier this season in a dispute about one of the slugger's trainers, another player told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The player, who witnessed the June altercation but spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to talk publicly about an incident between other players, said Christiansen was frustrated with Harvey Shields, Bonds' personal stretch man now employed by the team.

``I don't think punches were thrown,'' the player said. ``It was more grabbing. It was regarding one of Bonds' trainers, Harvey.''

Here is my proposal.  Feel free to make comments/suggestions.  I've got three open spaces right now.

Jeremy Accardo
Armando Benitez
Brian Burres
Matt Cain
Kevin Correia
Scott Eyre
Pat Misch
LaTroy Hawkins
Brad Hennessey
Noah Lowry
Scott Munter
Jason Schmidt
Jack Taschner
Erick Threets
Merkin Valdez
Tyler Walker
FA Pitcher

Yamid Haad
Justin Knoedler
Mike Matheny

Niekro's Caddy
Kevin Frandsen
Brian Dallimore
Ray Durham
Pedro Feliz
Lance Niekro
Omar Vizquel
Travis Ishikawa

Moises Alou
Barry Bonds
Jason Ellison
Fred Lewis
Todd Linden
Daniel Ortmeier
Eddy Martinez Esteve
Nate Schierholz
Randy Winn

I know it's the popular topic around here, but I'd like to talk about Sabean's trading record some more.  At the beginning of the 2003 season, we had three, THREE of the top 10 pitching prospects in the majors in Jerome Williams, Jesse Foppert and Kurt Ainsworth.  A little over two years later, all three are gone.

Now, the point of this is not to talk about whether any of the three will ever amount to anything.  The point is that for three pitchers that were universally regarded as "can't miss prospects" two years ago, we have ended up with 2 months and a crappy postseason start from Sir Sidney Ponson, Latroy Hawkins and Randy Winn.  No impact players, or even any impact prospects.  Even if these three pitchers never amount to anything, the fact of the matter is that Sabes sold low on all three, and it's hard to believe that he could have gotten less than he did.

David Schoenfield over at ESPN has an article today about the most hated person for each team in baseball.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=schoenfield/050705

Number one for the Giants:  Tommy Lasorda.  Which I completely agree with.

Who else is in the running?  My candidates:

Giants:

Matt Herges
Neifi Perez
Cody Ransom
Jose Cruz Jr.
AJ Pierzynski
Livan Hernandez
Felix Rodriguez
Ricky Ledee

Non-Giants:

Mike Scoscia
Scott Spezio
Steve Garvey
Gary Sheffield

Who else?

So Tomko's going to the bullpen to "work things out."  Couldn't they have found a mysterious injury to stick him on the 15 day DL?  That seemed to work pretty well last year.

What the hell is wrong with Tomko?  I haven't seen his last two starts, but it there anything visible?  Does he still look like he has great stuff (as always) and he's getting tatooed?

I saw Major League on ESPN Classic last night, and that along with Kenshin's music thread has inspired a baseball movie thread.  Everybody must give their top 5 baseball movies.  Here's mine:

1.  Bull Durham - The undisputed champion
   
2.  Major League - Lou Brown is classic!
   
3.  Brewster's Millions - Not truly about baseball, but a great movie.
   
4.  Bad News Bears - That was me in Little League
   
5.  The Rookie - Underrated movie.

San Diego seems to be the trendy pick again this year to win the NL West.  Supporters like to point to young talent getting better.  But when I look over their roster, I don't really see it.  Looking at position players first, I only see 3 that can be classified as "young."

C  Hernandez - Still relatively young, but not likely to get any better
SS  Greene - Probably the best hope on this team...he could become one of the best SS in the league this year
3B  Burroughs - Not impressed.  He has done nothing of note since coming to the bigs, and I don't really see it.

The rest of the lineup is old and declining.  Giles, Loretta, Nevin can probably be counted on for what they put up last year (i.e. - disappointing) and who knows what to expect out of Klesko and Roberts.

Youth is a little better served in the rotation, but still not all that young.

Peavy - Yeah, he's good and young.  I expect a season not quite as good as last year, but he'll be a top of the rotation starter for many years.

Williams - Not young or overpowering.  Who knows when his tank hits E.

Eaton - Not so young anymore, but I guess he could break out.

Lawrence - He's 29.  Sure he's younger than anyone in the Giants lineup, but I wouldn't expect anything over and above what he's established so far.

Who knows who the 5th starter is?  None of their young pitching is that impressive.

They will still have a lights out bullpen, but I don't see how they can expect any more than they got last year out of this roster.  Also, they made a huge improvement in their record last year, and they'll probably give a little of that back.

I predict somewhere in the 2nd/3rd range, and they won't seriously challenge for a division title.

Thoughts?

I have to be in Phoenix for a conference at the end of March, so I'm going to the March 29th game against Arizona.

Anybody going to this or any other spring training games?  Scottsdale Stadium, Scottsdale, AZ?  Word, character, word, (must have at least 300 characters to post a diary) character, word?

I just saw a rumor about the D'backs trying to trade for a CF.  In the hope that maybe this will make it back to the Giants front office, I will post this rumor.

"Giants set to trade Grissom to Arizona.  Giants plan to then trade Pedro Feliz and Michael Tucker to New York for Mike Cameron."

C'mon, it could happen.  Joe G loves old guys just as much as Sabes does.