Sorry if this was already posted somewhere or it's a crap report, but ESPN, the mother of all sources, just said the New York Times told them there's collected urine samples from BLB that tested positive for anabolic steroids.  If this is true, then uh ohhhh.  Anabolic steroids were always illegal, unlike the clear.  His trial is set for March 2nd and, if this is true, this could be pretty bad for Barry, no?  I guess he aint playin next year.  ESPN also mentioned Anderson's mother-in-law's house being raided, but there was already a fanshot about that.  Why are we even spending this much time and money on this anyways?  Obama spare us from this madness...

Sooooo... We're still on pace to finish with the 4th worst record in baseball (behind the Nationals, Mariners, and Padres respectively.) Hooray for that.  But as we from experience know, with shitty records come some small amount of consolation in the form of a good draft pick.  The draft has been especially kind to us the past 2 years.  With our top picks, we got Buster Posey and our beloved Timmy. This year we have a higher pick than we did in either of those drafts.  Our team has a bit of a problem.  Our major league team and farm system lacks truly good hitting prospects, besides AnVil.  Posey and Sandoval could be good hitters, but not 30-40 homer guys.  But besides AnVil, we have nobody that has a strong chance of becoming a huge impact hitter.  We lack somebody on the Evan Longoria, Ryan Braun, or Matt LaPorta level.  We kind of need one of those to anchor our shitty offense.  And those types of prospects are pretty hard to find, but they're much easier to find when we have a really high draft pick.  But next year's draft class doesn't have too many big hitting 1st/3rd basemen.  BruteSentiment posted this a while back with a list of prospects likely to go high in the draft: http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2008/8/4/586586/looking-ahead-to-the-2009#comments  On that list I see only one first baseman, a good SS, and a bunch of pitchers.  The first baseman's power potential is limited, the SS will probably get picked before we can get him, and more pitching is always nice but I don't think more pitching will make us successful again.  I think we'll be great on the pitching front if we just wait for one of Tim Alderson or MadBum.  I don't think we can make the playoffs with our joke of an offense, so I think that needs the most attention.

Now to the point of this post.  Could we get our draft pick from one of the 1st rounders this year that don't sign?  There are several 1st rounders this year that could potentially not sign; Pedro Alvarez if he doesn't get the money and major league contract he wants, Eric Hosmer who seems pretty interested in staying in college, and Justin Smoak if he also doesn't get the money and contract he wants.  Should we use our pick on one of them if they don't sign?  They'd all be pretty expensive, as I'm pretty sure they're all Boras clients.  I'd guess the Nats would take Strasburg if they had the 1st pick.  I'm not sure who the M's or Pads would draft, but I'm reasonably sure the Pads are set with Adrian Gonzalez at 1st and Kouzmanoff at 3rd.  They also have Chase Headley for 3B if that doesn't work.  So if Hosmer or Smoak, or perhaps Alvarez are available in the next draft, should we shell out major money and pick one of them?

The Marlins are currently 2nd in the NL East and are 2.5 games behind the Phillies.  They have a killer lineup that leads the NL in homeruns and is 3rd in the league in runs scored.  Their team ERA, however, sucks.  They have a team ERA of 4.76, which ranks 14th in the NL.  They're a lot like the Tigers in the sense that their lineup rakes but their pitching is holding them down.  Their rotation consists of a reliable but dickish Scott Olsen, a decent Ricky Nolasco, a young and talented but underperforming Andrew Miller, and Burke Badenhop and Mark Hendrickson, who both suck.  Their bullpen isn't great either, although they have Reynel Pinto setting up for Kevin Gregg to close, which is working out nicely for them.  Their long and middle relief aint so great, though.  Also, their only non-reliable starting position player is their catcher, Matt Treanor.  And they also have a bit of a logjam in the outfield with Cody Ross, Josh Willingham, Luis Gonzalez, and Jeremy Hermida, although that's not really a problem.

So the Marlins seem to be the exact opposite of us; crappy pitching, good hitting (even though our pitching is kind of underperforming aside from Timmy and Sanchez).  But the Marlins are different in that they find themselves close to a playoff spot.  The Phillies are having trouble with their pitching too, and the Marlins could easily catch up to them.  But they're going to need some pitching if they want that to happen.  What if we were to trade with the Marlins for a bit of their good hitting, and we give them a decent hitting, good fielding catcher and some pitching? Would a deal of Molina/Taschner/Correia for one of their young outfielders (Willingham, Hermida, Ross)  and a minor league prospect like Matt Dominguez work?  (And I know Sabes said that he wasn't thinking of trading Molina, but that's not really a definite 'no' and also this is pure speculation anyways)  I also realize that Correia's stats don't make him look like much of an upgrade, but I'm sure he'll start doing better.  He's shown a lot of promise in his starts since his return from his injury, but he always seems to give up a bunch of runs right before he comes out of the game.  But this trade would balance out their rotation a little and also help their bullpen some.  And they would also have an upgrade at catcher.  And I'm sure their lineup wouldn't hurt too much from losing one of their outfielders.  Do you think the Marlins would be willing to sacrifice a little bit of their hitting to improve their pitching?

I was thinking back to this last offseason where we were all excited about what talent we would bring back when we traded our huge surplus of pitching.  We now know that that huge surplus of pitching would turn into somewhat of a deficit of pitching when Noah Lowry went down with an injury that could very well end his career and when Correia when down with that oblique strain and we had nobody to replace him with.  I was thinking that maybe we might be able to actually fully rebuild our team by trading the new huge surplus of pitching we are about to have sometime soon. 

Our current rotation is Lincecum/Cain/Sanchez/Correia/Zito.  On the way up to the majors we have MadBum, Tim Alderson, and Henry Sosa, all of whom will most likely reach the majors at some point.  We also have a bunch of not-as-good prospects like Clayton Tanner, Ben Snyder, Kevin Pucetas, Jesse English, etc.  I think it's safe to assume one of those guys will mature into a servicable starter at some point.  Maybe more than one of them will.  Also, there is a slim chance Lowry might come back from his injury.  But once that happens, how do we get them into the rotation?  If we have 7 or 8 pitchers ready to take a spot in the rotation, we can afford to get ride of a couple to get the younger ones in.  This is a great problem to have because good starters are very valuable and can draw a lot of return in a trade.  That's just the thing a team like the Giants need to help the rebuilding process.  We can use some of our starters to get us some quality hitters, which would round out our team enough to be able to compete again.  But who would we trade?

Lincecum is our ace, and we couldn't afford to lose him, so I would think he's off limits.  Zito and his fatass contract are here to stay whether we like it or not.  Cain is extremely good and could draw a good amount of return, but I'd really hate to see him go.  Sanchez could draw more return than Cain right now because he's been stellar this year, and he still has more potential that he can still fulfill.  Correia has been pretty good as a starter, and he also has more value because he can be used as a reliever.  He wouldn't draw the same amount as any of our big three, but he is definitely the most expendable of our starters (excluding Zito because we can't get rid of him)  Who should we trade later on when our pitching prospects become major league-ready?

So as long as we're 10 games or so under .500 at the all-star break, we will probably/hopefully be sellers at the trading deadline.  If we do become sellers, we have several people we could trade to competitive teams for prospects.  If we did trade all, or at least some of them, would it really help us that much?  These are some of the people we can trade and how much I think they're worth:

Bengie:  I think he's the best hitting catcher in baseball at the moment.  Soto is cooling off somewhat, so I think that gives it to Bengie.  Bengie's under contract through next year, so he wouldn't just be a cheap half-season rental to make a playoff push.  He could help the next year, too.  He's pretty damn good defensively, and he is among the best catchers when it comes to calling games.  That also has to be worth something.  I'd think he has to be worth at least 1 A level prospect, maybe another B level to go with if we sent somebody else with him.

Randy Winn:  Not quite as valuable as Bengie, but he's still pretty good.  He's batting around .300 right now and his OPS is over .800, so he has some value as a hitter.  He would make a good #2 hitter.  He's a decent fielder, so that helps too.  He, like Bengie, is under contract through next year.  However, he makes a shitload more money than he should, so if we were to trade him, we would have to pick up some of the salary to get a good value out of him.  And he also has a no-trade clause that blocks trades to 10 teams, which I read in another thread include mostly the AL/NL Central teams.  But if we traded him to an East Coast team and picked up some of his salary, I think he'd be worth a B level prospect, maybe a couple C level.  And it would also open up RF for Schierholtz, who is tearing it up at Fresno right now.

Ray Durham:  He was competing with Richie Sexson for the title of worst player of the year last year, but he seems to have figured it out again this year.  He's batting a little over .300 after today's game, and his OPS is pretty close to .800, but his slugging percentage is a little low.  If he keeps up at his current pace and stays at .300, he could also make a good #2 hitter.  His contract also expires this year, so he'd be a cheap half-year rental.  I'd think he'd be worth one C level prospect, which isn't anything signifigant, but it would open up 2nd for Denker, Burriss, and co.

Jack Taschner/Vinnie Chulk:  Both are having good seasons out of the pen.  Tasch has an ERA  in the low 3's at the moment and Chulk has one close to 3.50.  Chulk's contract was only one year, so he's a FA after this year.  I have no idea how long we control Tasch for.  But with Chulk as a cheap half season rental for an okay reliever, I'd guess he's worth about 1 C level prospect, and Tasch, if he agrees to not shave his awesome mustache, could be worth maaaaybe 2. 

Keiichi Yabu:  Yabu's having a stellar season so far.  He has a 2.10 ERA.  He is a good reliever and he can go for several innings if needed, so he could be used for long relief.  He would help any bullpen.  He would be a half-year rental, though, as his contract was only one year.  But he also gets paid league minimum, so money wouldn't be a concern.  If he keeps doing as good as he is now, I think he could be worth a B level prospect.

And that's pretty much all we have to offer.  We could trade Sanchez or Correia, but I don't think they would wanna trade Sanchez and I don't think anyone would want Correia because he hasn't really played much this year because of his injury.  We can't really match a Mark Teixeira trade, but with Molina could we at least come kinda close?  And would it be worth it to trade Molina, or should we keep him to help our pitchers develop?  And are our other players as valuable as I think they are?

So thinking back on the draft yesterday, I feel kinda bad cause I was swearing out Posey because I didn't think he was a worthwhile pick.  Now that I think about it, it actually made a lot of sense to take him.  And I also think it shows that the management was thinking ahead.  Buster Posey is supposed to be an unusually good prospect in that he can both hit for average and some power and he can also actually play his position.  And that position happens to be a very important defensive position.  Apparently it's very unusual that there is a catcher in the draft that can both play catcher decently and hit.  So if he works out like he should, he will be a premium hitter at a position where you usually don't give a shit how well they can hit.

So why not take him if there might not be another one next year?  There will almost certainly be another Justin Smoak in next years draft.  Talented 1st basemen aren't that unusual.  There might even be a Pedro Alvarez and another Tim Beckham next year.  And depending how bad we do the rest of this year, we could/should have first dibs at one of them, maybe 2nd or 3rd because the Padres are godawful right now and the Rockies and Royals are, too.  But we can almost guarantee at least another 5th pick.  And you can guess/hope that they would spend that next pick on another hitter to round out a potential future infield.  I would hope they pick a 3rd baseman or a shortstop.  I would prefer a 3rd baseman because that's a better hitting position, so we could get someone that makes a signifigant difference in the lineup. 

So in the last three years we will have drafted 2 damn good pitching prospects in Alderson and Bumgarner, a good 2nd base prospect in Noonan, a catcher, and either a shortstop, thirdbaseman, or 1st baseman, although I doubt we'll be picking a 1st baseman if Villalona keeps up his work in Augusta.  That means we will have almost built a new, extremely talented infield completely from scratch in just a few years.  And if they all live up to their potential, along with our assload of worthwhile pitching, we will finally be competing with the Dodgers and Dbacks for the NL West again.  Hooray for not sucking!

So to this point in the season, our pitching has been pretty much as impressive as we'd been hoping for it to be.  Lincecum's showing Cy Young form, Cain has been good minus one bad start, Correia is doing decently, Valdez has been shining in his relief role, and Wilson has for the most part been a shut-down closer. And Sanchez is doing excellent.  He is technically  in a tie with Timmy for 1st in the majors in strikeouts (Aaron Harang is actually first, but he has an extra start because he's the Reds #1 starter.)  He's set his career high for strikeouts twice so far this season with two outings where he racked up 10 K's a piece.  And both of those outings he's held the other team to one run or less. 

So what should we do with him?  We can trade him for a decent haul of prospects to a team that really needs a starter, like maybe the Yankees or the Angels or somebody.  Or we can hold on to him and keep him in our rotation, which aside from Barry Zito has the potential to be pretty badass.  What would be better for us, trading him or keeping him?  Would it be worth getting some position prospects to add to our lineup eventually, or would it be smarter for us to keep him and wait for some of the prospects we already have to develop an make our offense good enough to contend?

As the title says, Dan Johnson was designated today by the A's.  We're probably in on him especially since we were scouting him during ST (I think so, anyway) and since the Almighty Sabean declared he was looking for a 1B that wasn't a joke (yes, I know Ortmeier just hit a walkoff double).  He'd be a great fit for us especially since he's kinda crappy at the moment so we can get him for nothing.  He would also have a good oppurtunity to get a lot of time in with us given our current situation at 1st.  A platoon with Ort and Johnson offers us some hope, as they're both youngish.  That's a step for us.  It'd make me very happy if we took him.  I just want to see something other than Aurilia constantly  trying to muscle up and hit something out of the infield.  It's pathetic.  Anywhoooo...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=21&entry_id=25562

So...does anyone else think it would be dicksneeze move if the management decided they would just go and take down everything that could possibly remind us of Barry now that he's gone?  I hope so, because that's what they did.  Everything; the 756 banners, the Road to History left field padding, the rubber-chicken wire, the homerun counter.  And of course, to top it off, they put in a fruity little plaque where Bonds hit his last homer with us.  This is Peter Magowan being "respectful."  Seriously.  Come on.

We're talking about the man that has been the base of our team for the last 15 years.  He did a number of amazing things for SF.  He helped to keep the team here when management was considering moving us to freakin Florida, of all places.  Attendance was so bad they thought they'd do better in Florida.  He helped build what I like to think is the nicest stadium in all of baseball.  Fuck Wrigley.  He won 5 MVP awards.  He took us to several post season trips.  He got us to the World Series one of those times.  He broke the all-time homerun record with us, and kept himself out of the lineup several times so he could do it infront of us.  He put tens of millions of asses in seats for the past decade and a half.  He put millions of asses in seats last year alone, even in cities other than SF.  He was, and if he gets signed by another team will still be, one of the greatest players to ever play the game.  He ranks with, and even above, some of the all-time legends of this organization; Mays, McCovey, Marichal, Hubbel, Ott, Mathewson, etc.

Thank you, Barry.  You've accomplished so much and helped us in too many ways to count.  We can never hope to repay you for the things you've done for this city.  Now go fuck yourself.  You're not playing for us now.  Apparently this is what Magowan thinks us fans would like to hear from the management.  Now that Barry's gone, the organization is trying to jump back on the "clean baseball" side.  They want to side with all the other teams that hate him because he's the posterchild of the Steroid Era.  Even if they were standing up for him all these years. 

I think it's bullshit that they're doing this.  All those fans, me included, didn't stand up through every Bonds at-bat just because he was on the Giants.  They did it because they loved him as a player and appreciated what he did for the team.  We already do remember him as one of the Giants' greats and include him with the likes of Mays and McCovey.  It makes no sense that they'd just take everything down and pretend he was never here.  It's even more snide that you'd pretend to not be an asshole by tossing in a retarted little plaque that nobody can see that kind of mentions in passing that he was here at one point.  If anything they should already be unveiling a bronze statue of him outside the stadium, maybe on the other side of the park from the Mays statue.  I think Mister Magowan needs a lesson in learning to be thankful. So, anyone else pissed about this?

note: I know there was a diary already posted about this from Only Baseball Matters, but I wrote this like 9 hours ago when it wasn't up yet.  But I turned off my popup blocker and pressed preview and it erased what I wrote.  And then I rewrote it again a couple hours ago, and my computer saw it fit to turn itself off.