We all know the drill:  Giants vet gets hurt but not hurt enough to put on the DL, but ends up missing 7-14 days/games anyway, then repeats again later in the season, missing more games, or just performs poorly.

The names we know:  Durham, Alou, Winn, Roberts, Rowand, Uribe, Renteria, Aurilia.   Why does it seem like Giants players always sit around on the bench with these semi-injuries?  Or come back from these performing poorly?  Why don't the Giants just DL them for 15 days and make do?  Why don't the Giants just let them rest and get well instead of running them out there, taking up a spot on the bench, useless? 

Especially hamstrings.  Except for Barry Bonds, I would have prefered the Giants just DLed anybody who tweaked their hamstring in the last 5 years, because it seems like they spend at least a week doing the "will he/won't he" dance before finally playing again.  Just get it well.

And isn't there a way to detect bone spurs or something?  Both Roberts and Renteria have been busts offensively because they had bone spurs that needed operations.  Roberts was fine once he had the operation, but if this could have been detected beforehand, then we don't sign him or Renteria. 

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Not that there's nothing wrong with that. Joan Ryan has a nice personal interest story on the Giants internal sabermetrician, Jeremy Shelley: http://sfgiants.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/02/the_numbers_game.html I found this part interesting:

"I'm a little uncomfortable saying anything more than that,'' Shelley tells me. "What I can say is that analysis in baseball has gotten so sophisticated and it's changing all the time. I read, read, read - every baseball web site, every publication, everything.

So Grant, Xanthan/Chris, everyone, keep up the good work, and know that someone within the Giants is reading what you write here.

I have a crazy idea but don't the time to deal with it, so I thought I would post this here in case anyone is as crazy (or more so) than I am.

I don't know who are the two NL beat writers who get to vote from each NL city for the Cy Young award, but what if someone puts together a nice Tim LIncecum stats package, find and post the beat writers e-mail addresses, and a number of interested Giants fans reading this would e-mail this stats package to each voter, perhaps we can influence the vote.

The genesis of this scheme is the common refrain I've heard over and over again about Lincecum's chances:  he should win BUT the voters might not even be familiar with Lincecum's achievements, particularly the East Coast writers, other than that stats that show up in newspapers, wins, strikeouts.  By a number of us sending such information, hopefully one gets through to the writer and he's informed.

Don't know if this would work, but it would sure be a heck of a story for the Internet age.

I would nominate Sharkrog to write up the standard boiler plate letter except that he might be too busy too.

When I saw the ad for this product here, I just had to post about it.

This is absolutely amazing technology.  Check out the demo videos at www.livescribe.com.  This is the adult version of the Fly Pen that is targeted at kids.  The pen's sweet spot is aimed mainly, I think, at college students, but they are also marketing it at business people because it would work fine in business settings, like at a conference or business meeting. 

Basically anywhere you need to write down notes from a speaker, but sometimes (often on my part) miss something interesting or perhaps even can't hear that well.

 

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With the Ecko website stirring up debate on Bonds and the 756 ball, apparently the owner of 755 is copying Ecko with a website of their own, called End The Debate, which offers a vote to, what else, "end the debate" and voters can vote just Hall of Fame or destroy it.

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OK, I've been in a debate with Boof about the Giants and he brought up something I had to see if others agreed with him or not, which was when the Giants should have rebuilt.

His statement, quote, was "Most everyone seems to recognize that the rebuilding of this team is going to take a long time. It's a process that should've started in earnest after the 2002 season."

Poll

Would you have rebuilt after 2002?

14%

Yes

16 votes

85%

No

94 votes

110 votes | Poll has closed

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Read it and celebrate/weep (depends on your inclination):  http://mlb.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20070713&content_id=2084034&vke y=pr_sf&fext=.jsp&c_id=sf

Oddly enough, the bottom part looks like what I wrote in some of the comment threads.  :^)

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And this time, nobody claimed him.

Poll

Who will stick in the majors first?

8%

Todd Linden

5 votes

6%

Lance Niekro

4 votes

85%

Wendell Fairley

53 votes

62 votes | Poll has closed

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I've been staying away but I couldn't hold my tongue on this one.  I like Frandsen, I'm rooting for him with all my heart, but he hasn't shown enough in the minors yet.

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Notes from the show, available off sfgiants.com if you want a listen.

Biggest news:  Giants seriously pursuing Zito

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