When was the last time the Giants made a blockbuster-type trade in which they traded away a star to get prospects? Please tell me it wasn't the Matt Williams trade 15ish years ago! Looking at the Rockies this season, it's clear that a key to their success this season was by trading away Matt Holliday and getting Huston Street and Carlos Gonzalez in return. The Giants need to fill multiple holes in their lineup, and after trading away Barnes and Alderson, their stock of pitching prospects ready to contribute is suddenly thin. Given the rumors that the Brewers are dangling Mat Gamel, I'd like to see the Giants trade Matt Cain for Gamel, Jeremy Jeffress (top pitching prospect) and maybe even JJ Hardy or another major league throw-in player in order to retool in multiple areas.

Sabean probably doesn't have the balls to do such a thing, but a "rebuilding" trade is just what the Giants need to win the division next year.

Tickets to the SJ Giants game on June 2 ...  FREE -  from Orchard Supply Hardware on Merchant Night

Hot, crispy, and freshly mixed Garlic Fries (1 handful of garlic per tray of fries) ... $6.00

2-for-1 Budweisers after the Beer Batter struck out in the 6th Inning ... $5.00

Catching a foul ball and watching Angel Villalona hit a 420-foot 3-run homer to left field ... Priceless

Who cares if they lost!? I took my fiance to the game with free tickets, fed her a juicy cheeseburger from Turkey Mike's BBQ, scored extra points because Shane Keough (son of one of the moms from the Real Housewives of Orange County show on Bravo) was playing Left Field for Stockton, in addition to my highlights mentioned above.  Every item on my checklist to see/experience at the game got satisfied. SJ Giants games are awesome!!!

* - meant to make this a Fanshot, but hit the wrong button. Mods can move this to Fanshot section if they so desire...Sorry

With all this talk regarding our pitchers and the rumors of potential trades, it seems like the D-Rays seem to be the most coveted trading partners. They just traded Delmon Young, but in addition they have other young hitters like Crawford, Baldelli, Upton, Longoria, Iwamura and even Carlos Pena who all seem available for the right price. Yet with all this promise, they still can't manage to lose fewer than 90 games a season.

My question is this, whose situation would you rather be in? Is it better to have a stockpile of young stud hitting position players like the D-Rays, or to have an anemic offense and a surplus of stud arms like the Giants have?

What is the rule these days about how you are ruled down, and the "ground cannot cause a fumble" myth. I cant remember them all, but I can think of many instances in the past few seasons where a guy catches the ball, maintains possession, hits the ground and the ball pops out. The refs rule it a fumble and the other team runs it the other way.

I've heard also that "an elbow equals a knee". Is this also still true? In regards to the Davis play, the ref said he "barely got two feet down before he got hit" then the ball was dislodged when he hit the ground. If he barely got two feet down, then he got two feet down right? The ball popped out when his elbow hit the ground, not when the ball hit the ground, so he's down right? He was not able to make a "football move", but if that play happened on the sideline and the ball goes out of bounds, do they still call it incomplete?

I'd just like to know from someone more knowledgeable of the rules than me, are the statements "the ground cannot cause a fumble" and "an elbow equals a knee" still accurate in the NFL? Thanks

I have been saying this since the All-Star Break that Ray Durham has been the worst player for the Giants this year and yet he keeps coming up in crucial situations with the game on the line. Here is a sampling of the huge pile of suck that is Ray-Ray's batting splits coming into today's game:

Overall:       401 AB .224/.303/.359 60 RBI    
Post All-Star: 119 AB .160/.261/.252 14 RBI
Runners on:    211 AB .246/.320/.403 57 RBI
RISP:          127 AB .213/.297/.346 48 RBI

There are 76 players with 400 plate appearances in the league and Ray ranks 74th with a total of 42.7 runs created (only Omar and Marcus Giles are worse). A team full of Ray Durhams would score 3.41 runs per game. Randy Winn ranks 38th in that category with 68.4 runs created and a team of Winns would score 5.29 RPG.

The Giants currently average just over 4 runs per game. If we had a lineup full of Randy Winns and could score an extra run per game, those 17 extra inning games we have played would all be victories, and the 12 9-inning 1-run losses we have would all go to extra innings, so you figure we'd get at least 5 wins out of that as well. That makes 16 additional victories this season, which coincidently would give us the exact same record as the D'Backs in first place.

I vote to DFA Ray immediately. I'd rather see Frandsen play every day and bat 7th or 8th, so his suckitude wouldn't hurt the team in key situations as much. I want to see Ortmeier at 1B every time we face a lefty and for Rajai to play every day in CF and have Roberts spell Bonds on his days off.

Let the hate flow!

It seems like every time he comes into a game late with the score tied or protecting a slim lead, Mr. Correia gives up the go ahead homer, or the critical walk or hit to help lose the game. He is now 1-6 and I would not be surprised if he gets to 10 losses this year. What is the record for most losses in a season by a late inning reliever? He has good stuff but ZERO command and is definitely a headcase. Can we PLEEEAAASE get rid of him get some draft picks or low level prospects? I cringe every time he comes in the game trying to hold the lead and usually bad things happen. He needs to go away along with all the oldies

Sabes should follow Kevin Towers to trade for a talented player while their stock is low.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2913605

D-Rays seem willing to let go of Dukes, and we could probably get him for pretty cheap. Maybe watching a classy veteran like Bonds will inspire him to keep his act in line. Travis Blackley (Jason Ellison) for Elijah Dukes!

Kevin Towers of the Padres is looking like the new Billy Beane of the NL. First he trades Adam Eaton to Texas for Adrian Gonzalez and Chris Young, then he trades Josh Barfield to Cleveland for another hitting prospect in Kevin Kouzmanoff, then signs Greg Maddux, David Wells and Marcus Giles, and now he trades for disgruntled catcher Michael Barrett!

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2910079

Now Barrett may be a better fantasy catcher than real life catcher, but he still has hit 48 homers and batted .290 over the past 3 seasons, including .307 last year. He is also the hero who punched out Pierzynski. The Padres gave up their backup catcher and a minor league outfielder who was a first round compensation pick last year. That's not that expensive! The Fathers will now boast the best hitting catching duo in the league with Josh Bard and Barrett. If we could have traded Yorvit Torrealba (backup catcher at the time) and Brad Hennessey (late first round pick in 2001) to get Pierzynski we might have had a World Series title by now.

Padres win the West

Remember when the Giants were 12-8 and riding an 8-game winning streak? We were in first place and loving life, and winning the close games as well. Here are some statistics:

On April 26,

Overall record: 12-8
1-run game record: 5-2
2-run game record: 4-2
9-4 in games decided by 2 runs or less

Post April 26,

Overall record: 16-24
1-run game record: 2-9
2-run game record: 2-9
4-18 record in games decided by 2 runs or less
12-6 RECORD IN GAMES DECIDED BY 2 RUNS OR MORE!!!!

I don't really know what to make of this, but it is clear that the Giants have a problem winning close games. From tonight and this past week it is obvious that we keep making mistakes in the clutch when there is an opportunity to put the game out of reach. Making outs on the basepaths, striking out or popping up with runners on 3rd and less than 2 outs, going 0-1000 with the bases loaded...And all it does is put more pressure on the pitching staff and especially the bullpen. Everyone knows the Giants can't score runs late in ballgames when it matters, so its just a matter of time for when the bullpen will give up the run to win the game. Is there any solution to this?!!?

I am not a major stat genius, merely a novice amateur with a significant interest in them. Someone more experienced than me should do some analysis on the ineptitude of the bullpen as well as the offense to support Matt Cain in his starts this year. He currently owns a 3.23 ERA, but the Giants are 2-8 in his starts! How can this be possible!?

So here is my amateur analysis of his starts so far, highlighting his performance, bullpen ERA and team run support (although I am not sure exactly how this one is calculated).

Cain
IP 64 ER 23 Hits 45 ERA 3.23

Bullpen (in his starts)
IP 23 ER 18 Hits 28 ERA 7.04

Run Support (I calculated as runs scored through the last inning that he was in the game)
2.9 runs per game

In those 3 categories there are also obvious outliers. Cain's start vs the Phillies where he lasted only 3 innings yielding 7 runs and 8 hits also is an outlier for the bullpen as it pitched 6 innings and only allowed 2 runs. The obvious outlier for the offense is the 15-3 drubbing of the Rockies where they scored 9 runs during his 6 innings of work. Taking those into account the numbers turn into this:

Cain
61 IP 16 ER 37 Hits ERA 2.36 (Team record still only 2-7 with these numbers!)

Bullpen
17 IP 16 ER 23 Hits ERA 8.47

Run Support: 20 runs in 9 starts or 2.22 runs per game

Someone more experienced could probably clean up these stats and make them more accurate and detailed, but I assume you all get the message. Even though sample size is fairly limited, we are almost 1/3 of the way through the season. Gallup polls and preliminary election projections are based on a smaller sample size than that. Either Cain is going to get victimized my incredible bad luck the whole entire season, or the entire team expects him to throw a complete game shutout every time out there so they are unprepared to score more than 1 run on offense and to enter the game from the bullpen if he cant last all 9 innings.

I would be very upset right now if I were Matt, especially with all the hubbub about Lincecum the newest phenom. Wasnt it just a month ago we were touting Cain as a Cy Young candidate for years to come and debating whether he or King Felix was better? Now he's almost forgotten. Poor Matty!

I got the privilege to play golf with Trent Dilfer today and he told me the Niners will be hiring Quarterbacks coach Jim Hostler as the new offensive coordinator. It's sweet to scoop all the fancy reporters! I dont know when the announcement will be, but that's the information that I have.

Dilfer is an awesome guy and a pretty good golfer too though not as good as I am ;-)  Alex Smith is in good hands as long as Trent is still backing him up.

I have never been to Spring Training yet and am considering making the trek out to the desert this year. What do I need to know about making the trip? When is the best time to go? Where do I get tickets? Where is the best place to stay? What is a typical day like out there? Any and all advice is welcome so I can think about planning my trip. Thanks

I think I can safely say that I am not the only one here that has severe warning alarms going off in my head when hearing about the Giants' interest in Gary Matthews, Jr. I really hope Sabes does not sign this guy, because we already have his exact type of player on our team already: Randy Winn. Both are switch-hitting CFs at age 32. If you compare Randy Winn in 2005 with Matthews this year the results are eerily similar:

Matthews (06)  .313/.371/.495  19HR  79RBI  10SB
Winn (05)      .306/.360/.499  20HR  63RBI  19SB

Matthews has more range and ability as a defensive player, but he will command around $8 million a year while Winn only made $5 million this year and that seems even too much for him given his dropoff in 2006. Furthermore, Winn's previous 3 years were much more consistent and productive than Matthews, so his breakout performance with the Giants in the second half of last year seems like less of an anomaly. Winn had nearly identical stats from 2002-2004, hitting around .290 with 14 HR 75 RBI and 25 SB playing every day. Matthews before this year had never appeared in more than 130 games and never established himself as an every day starter. He has shown an improving power trend over the last couple years, but before this year a typical year would be .260 10 50 with 10 steals. He has a nice pedigree and great physical talent, but he seems too much like an Adrian Beltre type of free agent bust.

What it seems to come down to in my eyes is that if we sign Matthews, then Bonds is not coming back. Spending $24 million on an outfield of Bonds, Winn and Matthews that will produce only average defense and .270AVG 20HR 75RBI stats from every position at best is a total waste of money, especially if it precludes us from signing a real star to put in the middle of the lineup. Say NO to Gary Matthews this offseason and the Giants might have a chance to be competitive.

Jeff Pearlman must be struggling to sell his book - http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=pearlman/060823&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos2

"In promoting "Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Antihero," I've done my best to paint the portrait of a conflicted, misunderstood character; of a man who isn't always what he seems and who -- beneath the layers of hostility -- possesses a decent dose of humility. Was I lying in such efforts? Not at all. I honestly believed that, despite the hundreds of former teammates and friends who relayed stories of Bonds' monstrous disposition, there was some good.
Again, no more.
Barry Bonds is an evil man. A truly evil man."

"I am not writing this column to sell books. I'm writing it to tell Barry Bonds -- to beg Barry Bonds -- to finally do something selfless and righteous: Come clean"

The public is coming around to the fact that this Bonds case is probably gonna turn into another Kobe Bryant rape case. It's a "he said-she said" situation until he tests positive, and now the guys who thought they blew the whistle are getting frustrated and are resorting to childish insults. I saw Pearlman's book in the store the other day and thought about buying it, until I remembered I wasnt going to support someone trying to profit off of smearing one of my favorite players of all time. He also whines about how the writers of "Game of Shadows" will go to prison of they dont testify about their sources. What do you all think about these reporters?

Today's game was unbelievably pathetic, however I am sure I am not alone in this that when it was 0-0 in the 6th and Schmidt had given up only 1 hit, I knew we were going to lose. We are now 1-7 versus the last place teams from the other divisions, and the one win was a 5-4 comeback with Blownitez getting the win.
We can now add Kip Wells to the list of pathetic pitchers to shut down the Giants this year, along with Josh Fogg, Odalis Perez, and Jeff Weaver off the top of my head.

Kip Wells 2006
vs rest of league: 0-5 8.28 ERA 15 BB 13 K 1.91 WHIP
vs Giants: 7 IP 0 runs 5 hits 3 K 3 BB

Odalis Perez 2006
vs rest of league: 2-4 7.56 ERA 1.72 WHIP
vs Giants: 2-0 1.93 ERA 0.89 WHIP
since 2004 vs Giants: 6-0 2.56 ERA 1.03 WHIP
since 2004 rest of league: 12-18 4.53 ERA 1.31 WHIP

Jeff Weaver 2006
4-11 6.32 ERA 1.57 WHIP
vs Giants: 6 IP 2 ER 6 hits 7 Ks

Josh Fogg (career)
vs Giants: 3-1 3.42 ERA
vs rest of league: 43-46 4.78 ERA

Feel free to add to this list. Today was a frustrating day. At least Odalis is in the AL now and cant terrorize us anymore.

In the wake of this Grimsley revelation, as well as Roger Clemens' 4th or 5th return from retirement, I thought it might be interesting to float this idea. Clemens is like the Bonds of pitchers, in terms of his on-field performance. He has 7 Cy Youngs, is 2nd all-time in strikeouts, and his 341 wins rank 9th all-time and of the guys ahead of him, Warren Spahn is the most recent to retire in 1965. He is by far the best pitcher of our generation.

Bonds allegedly began using performance enhancing drugs after the 1998 season at the age of 34. Prior to that age he averaged .290/32/94 per season, and afterwards his numbers have been .324/43/94 and a bajillion walks. Here are some numbers on Clemens to ponder: From his rookie year in 1984 until 1992, Clemens was one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball, going 152-72 with a 2.79 ERA and nearly 1900 Ks. However, from 1992-1996, he went a mediocre 40-39 with a 3.75 ERA. Boston GM Dan Duquette thought he was done and let him go to the Blue Jays. Clemens was also 34 in the 1997 season, when he had perhaps his finest season of his career, magically resurrecting himself by going 21-7 with a 2.05 ERA and 292 Ks. He has continued to have remarkable seasons after that in his old age, compiling nearly identical numbers from age 34-42 as he did from age 22-30. My question is this: What caused this amazing turnaround? Was it really new found motivation when everyone thought he was on the downside of his career? Or did he get a magical pick-me-up that everyone is accusing Bonds of getting that has carried him to his new heights?

Clemens is currently listed at 6-4 and 235, but looking back to his early years, he is much more slender and his babyface is not nearly as square-looking as it is now. People accuse Bonds by pointing to his physique, but what about Clemens? I dont have the statistics on his measurements as a rookie, but he has certainly gained at least 30 pounds and most of it seems to be in his upper body, and his face is defintely fatter than it used to be. Also, what about that bat-throwing incident in the 2000 World Series? Maybe a bout of 'Roid Rage perhaps? This is all hypothetical of course, but I find it interesting. Bonds and Clemens both have tremendous numbers in their late age, and are both intense personalities on the field and off. But Bonds, a black man, has become the ultimate villain, while the white man Clemens is everyone's hero and family man. Bonds is assumed guilty already, while nobody even questions Clemens. I find that a little strange.

I want to see as many young arms as possible inserted into the bullpen. Right now all we have are aging righties who throw batting practice fastballs, lefties who cant throw strikes, and the only guy who can throw in the mid-90's doesnt know where any of his pitches are going. I thought you were supposed to have specialists in the bullpen, with the late inning guys featuring nasty stuff or at least one unhittable pitch. Benitez is done, Walker has lost 4 mph from last year and all his control and confidence, Worrell uses smoke and mirrors and 6-7 Munter only throws 89. I want to see Accardo, Valdez and whoever else in the minors can throw at least 94 brought up and put into the fire. When your bullpen has given up as many runs as your mediocre starting pitching 20 games into the season, to the tune of a 9.00 ERA, something has to change. At the moment no lead is safe, and the Giants are in trouble