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In the what could have happened here department:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2993335&campaign=rss&source=MLBHeadlines

Dumping the GM makes some sense (a head had to roll for the Carlos Lee signing), but is it really either of their faults that Brad Lidge became Mitch Williams? Or that Morgan Ensberg became Pedro Feliz without the power, or that Pettite decided he'd rather pitch with his friend Roger than in his hometown?

I do like that Cecil Cooper is getting a chance to manage (he's one of those players I always liked for no good reason). It makes me wonder if George Foster is coaching somewhere.

This is long and the arguments have holes, but this one is for all the non-Pedro haters out there.

When a baseball player loses the respect of many vocal hometown fans you know there's been a long period of disgust (or one dropped easy pop-up during a playoff series we were going to lose anyway). Pedro is certainly no exception to this rule; his numbers to start the season are fu-ugly. Pedro was touted as the organization's savior for a long time, but he's never developed into the hitter people thought he was supposed to be. Is that Pedro's fault? Management's? Or are the scouts to blame?

At this point in the season I'd much rather have Jamey Wright and probably even Jeff Fassaro hitting with a runner on first than Pedro, but with time, his luck and skills should improve and he will become the Pedro of the last couple of years. And that Pedro is good. What stands out in our are the rally killing strikeouts and double plays. But how about this stat that is most likely completely skewed and has the sample size g-ds trembling before us? Pedro hit .284 in 67 at-bats during the "late innings of close games" from 2004-2005. He was third in the National League with a .597 Slugging Percentage and led the league in RBIs, Runs Scored, Doubles, Homeruns and Extra Base Hits. He did this all with 20-30 fewer at-bats than most of the other players. This may be an obscure category, but his performance in the late innings of those games at least gave the Giants a chance to win 49 times during the last two years. And in the end that's what should matter. If Pedro bats with runners on base at any other time, however, he does seem to either ground into a double play or strike out, but what's more important? Ending a potential rally in the third inning or starting a potential game winning rally in the 8th?

Of course I also hold out hope that we'd be able to trade Pedro and Fassero for David Wright and cash consideration, but it's just not going to happen. Let's look back to the post-Matty third-basemen for the Giants - it's not pretty: Steve Scarsone, Mike Benjamin, Mark Lewis, Charlie Hayes, Bill Mueller, Russ Davis, Ramon Martinez, David Bell, Edgardo Alfonzo and Pedro Feliz.

The only player who came close to Pedro numbers during his tenure with the Giants was Mueller, yet the biggest criticism of Pedro is that he's a weak hitter playing a power hitter's position. Mueller may have a better eye than Pedro and won't GIDP as much, but Mueller has no power at all. At least with Pedro the 15-20 homeruns will come. If asked to choose I'd probably go with Bill, but it's not my choice and the organization wanted to give Pedro a chance.

Pedro is who Pedro is. He's not going to stop swinging at pitches two feet outside and he's not going to suddenly lose his ability to hit balls out of the park. His defense has improved dramatically and maybe as he matures it's possible he'll learn to be more patient (although I doubt it). It is the Giants organization that has decided for the past 10 years that we do not need power coming from third-base. I am sorry that Pedro did not become the type of player people presumed he'd be, but Pedro has been good for us and he's probably even won a few games for us.

Do I cringe whenever Pedro comes to the plate? Certainly, but no more than I used to cringe when Marvin Bernard would lead-off a game or last season when Todd Linden would pop up to deep short, or when Jose Uribe would hit a soft come-backer to the pitcher.

Pedro Feliz is that one watery eye during the flu. The flu is management's decision not to replace Jeff Kent's bat. I may be annoyed with my watery eye, but my anger isn't directed at the symptoms, my anger (or more accurately, my disappointment) is directed at the flu. Pedro's numbers will come around at some point and by season's end he'll be an average 6th place hitter or an above average 7th place hitter with a great glove. I'm happy to live with that as long as Russ Davis stays far, far away from our clubhouse.

I just got off the phone with the good people at MLB Gameday Audio and it appears that they will not be using the Real Audio format this season.

I dream of a time when our society and corporate conglomerates will no longer discriminate against Mac users.

When I asked why they hadn't made an announcement about this, the woman told me, the season hadn't started yet. Apparently it is also Spring Training for www.mlb.com