I know most of you live in the area and are used to this, but I moved away and only make it back once a year or so. We're coming into town in a few weeks and I wanted to take my son to a game and I was searching stubhub for tickets and the standing room only is 50 bucks. Sweet Jesus, that's expensive. I feel like an old fart remembering going to the Stick and sitting in the $5 no beer right field seats in the early 90s. I can't imagine that it's easy for high school age kids to get into the games with these kinds of ticket prices. I can't imagine that the concessions are cheap, either.

Ah well, I am just getting old I suppose.

some thoughts--

1) that stadium is still a dump

2) that mascot is just as annoying as that damn dinosaur. What an awful organization.

3) Brett Pill uhhhhh.....is not a second baseman

4) Belt should have had a home run in the first; wind knocked the ball down and the rf made a great play. Ended up doubling the runner off of first, though a run scored.

5) Fresno is bad. They don't even look like a team out there. First baseman playing second base, right field, left field. Pitching is awful.

6) Gillaspie looked pretty good; one of his doubles was wind aided (wind was swirling around the stadium--coming in from right and then a jet stream to left). He hit it to the 385 sign in left center and I doubt he has that kind of power. Also, he should probably ditch the mullet as baseball is a family game and kids don't need to see that.

7) Jackson Williams is not a very good hitter.

8) Always fun to see a lot of Giants fans at the stadium.

1) that stadium is really a dump. I know I said that last time I was here but it really is bad. On back to back pitches in the second inning, they had Waldis at 102 mph and then 48 mph. that's some changeup.

2) Man, Velez really does look like Zorak. Holy hell, it is funny. You can kind of see what they like in him as he seems to square up the ball pretty well and make contact but he is just clueless on the basepaths. He had an awful jump and was thrown out at second on a steal attempt where the ball was halfway to the plate before he took off. Another time, he was picked off as he broke early but the pitcher threw the ball into the bullpen and he made it to third. Decker was visibly pissed the second time. Also, his fielding is awful; he didn't break in on a ball in the 7th inning and then threw the ball into the dirt, which led to two runs scoring. On the last play of the game he almost booted the ball for an error and was really lucky the ball stayed in front of him and barely got the guy at first.

3) Willis has a long way to go. He started off well by getting two quick strikes and then hit the guy. Walked the next guy on 4 pitches, had a wild pitch that allowed a run to score. Stadium radar gun (see above as to accuracy) had him in the high 80s. Man, he had a nice hit however and he is a big dude. I wonder if he's given a position switch any thought.

4) I don't get it; all Brock Bond does is work the count, foul off a tough pitch, get a hit, steal a base, and then come out of the game (he was pinch hitting). Then Burriss comes up and hits a ball as hard as he can (sounds good off the bat even) and it just settles in about 290 feet later in a waiting outfielders glove. I want to believe, too. I do think he got screwed out of a hit in the 9th where they gave the third baseman the error. That would have been a pretty tough play, but I guess I defer to the scorer as it was right in front of me and I couldn't get around to it right away.

5) They were getting around pretty well on Bautista. A bunch of other guys pitched for the Giants whose names I didn't recognize. The kid who got the win looks like a potential LOOGY and the Edelfson kid pitched pretty well (at least one seeing eye base hit).

6) I think Jesus can hit. Someone would have to give him a shot and his defense is pretty bad.

7) Rohlinger is a really nice guy, I hope he makes it.

8) Brett Pill is a big dude.

9) Is it just me of have the Grizzlies been doing a lot of starting a guy for one or two innings and then going to the pen? By the way, Waldis throws hard (102 mph!) but doesn't seem to have a great idea for where the ball is going.

the guy gets on base a lot and works a ton of walks, and you would imagine that he has some speed. Granted, his power numbers are poor and he is more Duane Kiper than Dwight Evans (you see what I did there? Both names start with "D") but I have to believe there is some value in a guy that can get on base, work some walks, and in general be a pain for opposing teams to pitch to. As a leadoff hitter, you would imagine that he will be able to take enough pitches in the first ab so that the 2 and 3 hitters can see every pitch the opposing pitcher has.

What sort of OBP does a guy like Bond have to post in MLB to be worth keeping in the lineup, given the lack of power? Will big league pitchers knock the bat out of his hands?

if it had been Molina running at second instead of the guy from the Rockies, do you think Torres would have had a chance for the force at third? Better hypothetical--could Torres have run all the way in from right field to tag Molina at the plate if he had wanted to? In order to make the game fair, should we insist that teams have to tag Molina out without a throw?

By the way, let me apologize in advance to Bengie Molina, his mother, his entire family, and anyone else that might read this and be offended (I'm looking at you, Schulman). No need to get upset, I am just kidding around.

a few questions:

1) What level of minor league baseball is comparable to playing NCAA D-1 (at a high level school)? Would we say low A, high A, etc?

2) I know about the Cape Cod League, etc, but is there a high school summer league where they play with wood bats?

3) Are the Giants doing a better job (in your opinion) of scouting and developing hitters? Of course we all know about Posey, but aside from him are there guys that you think might be able to make an impact within 3 years or so? The guys at AA seem to be cold as ice right now and the only other guys the past few years that I can recall doing really well in upper minors in hitting are Bowker, Pablo, and Isikawa? Is that a decent "hit" rate on hitters (1 for 3)? I ask because I don't know, not because I am trying to say one way or the other. It's frustrating to me that certain teams seem to develop homegrown hitters where the Giants have done a poor job over the past 20 years.

some thoughts:

1) The Sky Sox' mascot is just as freaking annoying as that stupid purple dinosaur. I actually walked up to the guy (girl?) and told him/her that the antics of constantly trying to distract the other team is disrespectful to the game and he/she should cut it out. No response. Typical of this b.s. organization.

2) The fans are just as bad; for some reason, they were getting on Rohlinger. I had my seven year old son with me and he was just perplexed that anyone would act that way.

3) Jesus Guzman might as well have a shovel instead of a glove out there in left field. He did hit a home run, which is always nice, but it did seem to be wind aided.

4) Whoever the guy is that the Giants had close out the game throws really, really hard.

5) Martinez had good stuff; if you go by the stadium radar gun readings he had low 90s fastball and his offspeed stuff was mid 70s, which had the sky sox hitters off balance all night.

6) Paul Loduca plays for the sky sox, which is funny. He got tossed as well. I told my son he (Loduca) was likely having more roid rages. He (my son) asked me what a roid rage was. I told him that Loduca, like many players that came up in the Dodger organization, likes to cheat and bend the rules and one of the ways he does this is to take performance enhancing drugs. My son asked me if any of the Grizzlies take performance enhancing drugs and I remarked that they are too busy helping old ladies across the street to do things like that.

7) Colorado Springs stadium is really crappy compared to the other AAA stadiums I have been in (all over the place in AZ and also at Albuquerque). two dollar tuesday is a nice touch however. 7 dollar beers and dogs suck, however.

8) Ryan Rohlinger played well. He's also a nice guy; he managed to ignore those guys chirping at him and went 3-4 and played pretty well in the field. After the game, the players have to walk up beside the stands to get to their locker room and he was one of the last guys. When I saw that it was him, both me and my son mentioned to him that he had a nice game and that it was b.s that those idiots were chirping at him all game long. I think he appreciated that a bit and he handed my 7 year old one of his bats as a keepsake. I thought that was really nice, and my 7 year old thinks it's the best thing ever. He was clutching it the whole ride home and he couldn't wait to show his mom.

I was flying back from Omaha yesterday (boy, are my arms tired!) and I thought I would pick up a magazine to read (as opposed to, you know, actually getting some work done). Of course, given that baseball season is coming up I chose the TSN preview magazine as opposed to the 10,000 NFL draft/fantasy football quides (man, has baseball fallen behind football or what? Good Lord).

Long story short, they mentioned in an article that Molina was actually signed as a short stop. I find this hard to believe, for a myriad of reasons. Number one, the idea of Molina actually trying to show athleticism gives me the giggles, number 2, aren't all of his brothers catchers as well? and last but not least, he is fat and I just always assumed that he has been fat forever.

Can this possibly be true?

When trying to decide whom to root for this weekend between the Rockies and Dodgers and furthermore into the playoffs, I find myself rooting for some kind of natural disaster that doesn't hurt any spectators or any players/coaches (save perhaps Tommy Lasorda). Perhaps I can root for swarms of bees. Are there any bees in St Louis? Can I root for the cockroaches in Philly to overtake the field?

God, I pretty much hate all of these NL teams and watching more Boston-NY AL crap bores me as well. Can I root for bees and cockroaches to attack Bud Selig?

I cannot think of one thing that the guy does that he is really all that above average at. Hitting? Nope. Fielding? Not really, he can't even hit the cutoff man or throw to the right base. Does he do the little things, like moving guys over? No, not at all (witness numerous three pitch strikeouts in key situations). Does he hit for power? Not really. Average? No, not really. Does he make the pitcher work? Not at all.

He is pretty much completely useless. And Sabean signed him for 5 years and 60 million dollars. Great. How often will we have to hear about that when it comes time to make a move? At least Failgar is off the books next year and Zito has been at least somewhat effective this year.

The weather here in Denver is overcast, which will (hopefully) have the effect of deadening the ball a little bit tonight. Obviously, with Zito going this would be a big help for the Giants. It goes without saying that it won't help Marquis much as he is a ground ball pitcher but also (more importantly) he is facing the Giants. I know, I know, I'm really searching for something here and the weather can change at any moment, but I have to think this is at least somewhat positive.

but would it be a bad idea to just call up Bowker and tell him "look, you're our guy in left field for the rest of the year. Do what you need to do, but try and keep that approach you had at Fresno"? I mean, it's not like he can't do what Rowand can do out there. I think Bowker in left, Winn in center, and Schierholtz in right give us our best outfield. And then we can have our 12 million dollar defensive replacement/double play machine available for late inning hijinks.

I would say that the wise move would be to get Lewis and/or Bowker enough at bats over the remainder of the year so the Giants can see what they have going into next year. Who knows? You might catch lightening in a bottle. You know what you have with Rowand (not much) and Winn (again, not much, but at least better than Rowand).

and the possibility of the wild card; my apologies, I forgot who it was and what thread it was in. Anyway, long story short--it looks like the Grizzlies are out of luck (from MILB.com site):

Qualification

The club with the best overall record in each of the four divisions shall be declared Divisional Champion. In the event of a tie for first in any Division, the Division Champion will be determined by:

1. the record between the two clubs; if still tied,
2. the record against clubs in the same Division; if still tied,
3. the record against clubs in the same Conference; if still tied, then
4. a one-game playoff between the two clubs with the home team determined by the President of this League's flip of a coin.

In the event of a three-way or four-way tie for first in any Division, the Divisional Champion shall be determined by:

1. the record between the tied clubs; if still tied,
2. the record against clubs in the same Division; if still tied,
3. the record against clubs in the same Conference; if still tied, then
4. the differential of runs scored versus runs allowed throughout the season.

Conference Playoff Format

1. First Round Format. Best three out of five. Two games in first city followed by three games in the other Divisional Champion's city.
2. Starting Date. Second day after the end of the regular schedule.
3. Starting Times. The host team shall notify the League President by noon of the closing day of the regular championship season via fax or e-mail of the starting times for its playoff home games. The original scheduling, along with any rescheduling of postponed games during this series, shall be approved in advance by the League President.
4. Location of games.

On one hand, we have hey yo Richie and he is at a point in his career where he could screw up a wet dream but on the other hand we have the giant heed that keeps putting him out there on a day to day basis either pinch hitting or (worse yet) playing a normal position. Quien es mas macho?

In all honesty, what does Frandsen have to do to get a spot over Aurillia? How about this Downs kid? I had never heard of him until recently. Does he have a shot? Will we have to get rid of the heed in order for these kids to get a good shot?

Embarrassing. The defense this guy puts together constantly gets embarrassed on long plays, can't get off the field on third down, and can't stop a qb that didn't even start in college. Nice job coach, great effort out there. What is infuriating is that he waited so long to try and get pressure and he stays in that damn big nickel all day long.

He's done after this year anyway; that which must be done eventually should be done immediately.

I don't know if there is another way to fail more than by posting that stuff over and over. I wonder if Brian Sabean or Bruce Bochy could fail more than this; as much as I think they fail, even they do not reach the depth of failness that these posts reach.

We should all pray to 6 pound, 8 ounce baby Jesus (or Mohammed, Buddha, Aslan, Tash, whomever it is that one prays to) that we don't trade any of our young pitchers. We should all assume that nobody wants Zito, and we should further assume that Brian Sabean desires to have Randy Winn's children. We should also snap into the great likliehood that we are going to suck really bad next year and there is no point in trying for quick fix trades of young pitchers. Making stupid moves is what got the Giants into this huge mess; the way out of it is to let the worthless contracts play themselves out (perhaps trade some towards the end of their deal for something of value) and focus on player development.

Let us all please try harder to not fail.

from Schulman's notes on sfgate:

"Briefly: Talk about fast-tracking a guy. First-round draft pick Buster Posey will be promoted to Class A San Jose for the California League playoffs this weekend. It will be his third team in a week. He hit .385 in 26 at-bats in the Arizona Rookie League, then went 3-for-11 with two RBIs after his promotion to Salem-Keizer, Ore., in the rookie-level Northwest League. Fans can see Posey and San Jose play at 6 p.m. Saturday at Municipal Stadium."

This should be interesting.

where all of the pictures are saved?

I'm looking for the "beating a dead horse" and Timmy "he'll strike you out and then walk back to the dugout to get some orange slices, staring you down the whole time" pictures.

Since I'm sure I have some extra room here, what are everyone's thoughts on Bengie Copeland? He seems to get as hot as a house on fire post June but he starts off every year slooooooooooowly. Now that he's in Fresno, should we start holding out some hope for him?

Let's look at today's game for some examples of horrid decision making:

1) Leaving Cain in too long against the only guys in the whole lineup that gave him trouble.

2) not walking Manny Ramirez leading to the two run double.

3) Not bringing Taschner in to face Ethier despite having him warmed up and ready to go (builds on #1 above).

4) Continuing to send castillo out there despite the fact that the man is simply an awful baseball player and has not even walked since prior to the all star break. Fucking Jose should just cut to the chase and allow the other team to start every at bat against him 0-2. Who is he blocking? I don't care if he's not blocking anyone; he is one Giant suck-FAIL.

5) Pinch hitting for Holm with Velez; I know Holm isn't going to remind anyone of Johnny Bench, but Velez. This comes into play later when....

6) Molina pinch hits and singles but we're unable to pinch run for his slow ass because Holm is already out of the game.

That's 6--I challange you to come up with more and I bet you can do it. In fairness, the game isn't over yet so he still has time. He should take off his giant hat and shit in it.

just taking a look at some of the minor lines, I am wondering about the potential of some guys; given that A ball is quite a distance from the majors, I wanted to look at AA and AAA. I am interested in what others have to think, as I don't really follow minor league ball all that closely.

Fresno: do the following have much of a chance to make an impact at the major league level

Ishikawa

Harper

Nate

Ochoa

Velez (provided he ever learns how to run the bases)

Timpner

anyone else?

Conneticut:

Copeland

EME

Haines (sp?)

anyone else?

I left pitchers off just because A) I think all of our better prospects are at the lower levels and/or relievers and B) position players are where we are weak.

Hasn't he started every game since that declaration (might have sat out 1)? This is ridiculous; if a young player was scuffling like this, they would have sent him down by now and at a bare minimum he wouldn't be getting any playing time.

If this was the Niners and the coach was fucking up as bad as The Gigantic Head (oh, that's offsides, isn't it? He's probably going to cry himself to sleep tonight on his big giant pillow) the fan base would be in an uproar, the coach would be constantly booed, letters to the editor would be coming in full rant, etc. Instead, with the Giants it seems like it's "oh, we have such a beautiful ballpark! Look--there's a boat going under the bay bridge! How dreamy."

I long for the days of Candlestick and the jaded fan. rant over.

speculation centers around Romo (you know Sergio?) and Espinelli I guess. Who should we hope gets the boot? Any chance that they would send a position player down to make room for an extra arm? Is there any chance that this would make much of a difference?

Wow, this team really does suck. It sucks in so many ways that it's difficult to measure out 75 words of expressing the suck. Should the new team slogan be "you're going to like these suck?" Or perhaps, "Humm baby, these guys suck?"

I have noticed people the last few days mention trading Molina/Durham/Winn for "B or C level" prospects. I guess I just don't see the point in that; we already have plenty of B and C level prospects and I don't see the good that will come to pass by getting rid of those guys (especially Durham if he decides to play somewhere else next season and we can get some kind of draft pick). Molina isn't blocking anyone and is one of the better hitters in the sorry ass lineup, Durham isn't really blocking anyone and is a decent hitter, Winn is kind of blocking Nate, so I could see potentially moving him but not for a C level prospect while still having to take on his a lot of his salary. If we could get someone to take him and his salary for a B level guy, then perhaps it makes sense (depending on the position the B level guy plays).

Prospects we already have, by position:

1b) Bowker, Ishikawa

2b) Frandsen, Velez, Denker

ss) Burriss

3b) perhaps Frandsen (does Harper count at 1b or 3b?)

OF: Nate Dog (sans the G child) and a whole bunch of question marks like EME.

C: Sandoval, Posey

OF and SS appear to be the weakest links for our B level prospects and I'm not sure anyone that we could net in a trade would be any better. If we could get a top prospect, well then by all means do so. As of now, my guess is that the best bet is to hold onto the guys and then let them leave via free agency and in the meantime focus on developing the guys on the farm and actually replenishing the system.