Let's Go Dirty!

Sanchez on the hill as the good guys try to take the rubber match in the day game.

In other news, Eliezer Alfonzo - the other, less disappointing but still underwhelming "E. Alfonzo" - has tested positive for a banned substance and will be suspended for 50 games, leaving the Grizz thin at backstop.

I think someone forgot to tell him that you actually need to work out for the 'roids to really be effective.

Tim Lincecan't Control Blue, Stupid Baserunning

Good guys fall to the Rox 3-2 on a blown balk call and baserunning miscues. For now, it looks like balks, and only those mired in controversy, at that, are Lincecum's only known kryptonite.

On the Lince-o-Meter, it was a horrific start. What was that line again?


Note that the above line would make Barry Zito write an epic power rock-ballad dripping with envy. My guess is he'd even devote the killer bridge (with requisite key change) to how much he digs phantom balks.

The Rox had a "holy crap, Pedro Feliz is catching and Randy Winn is on third" moment last night when slumping soph Troy Tulowitzki hurt himself (potentially for a while) in the first. With their backup already scratched, second baseman Clint Barmes shifts to short, third baseman Garret Atkins slides to second, and catcher Chris Iannetta goes to third (the latter two being the first ever appearances by those players at those positions). Iannetta responds by hitting a homer off the kid. If only it was that easy to procure a hitting third baseman in GiantsLand.

Meanwhile, Ray Durham continues to look like someone slightly better and John Bowker continues to look like Ray Durham, putting up another 0fer and a GIDP to boot.

I still like him better than Durham.

Kreepy Korner Kurse Klifted

Ruminations on the paranormal aside, it appears that at least one of the inhabitants of Barry Lamar Bonds's former locker room estate has got it going, as Matt Cain finally picked up a win last night over the Rockies.

Cain was wildly effective (not in a good way, but not in a bad way, either) as he allowed five walks and four hits in 5.1 innings of shutout ball.

In other news, the offense (with this "hell, it's something different" lineup) managed a couple of timely bloops and bases loaded walks to make the goose egg stand.

But the real props, once again, have to go to the bullpen. Starting with The Incredible Chulk, who stranded both runners he inherited from Cainer with one out, through to the again impressive Tyler Walker and tentatively consistent Brian "Smile" Wilson, the Giants recorded their fourth shutout, all of them preserved by the bullpen.

And here's a telling, if not slightly dated, stat as to the bullpen's effectiveness so far this young season from Henry Schulman at the Chronicle:

The Giants lead the league with 90.2 percent of inherited runners stranded. In seven games through Wednesday, the bullpen allowed six runs in 252/3 innings, a 2.10 ERA.

Other quick hits:

- It's official, Barry Zito is the most expensive long reliever in history. For this year at the least, however, he is the second most expensive reliever overall - that title belongs to Mariano Rivera, who makes $15M to Zito's $14.5M. Yes, Zito's deal is backloaded.

- I hate to admit it, but Ray Durham is heating up, hitting .333 (10 for 30) in his last 10 games. However, he hasn't exactly been a run producer, knocking in just 2 runs in that time.

- On the flip side, John Bowker is officially in his first major league slump; his average is down to .224 after going 1 for his last 18.

- In ex-Giant news, Matt Morris may be done after his release from the Pirates. Always seemed like a good guy - as I've said before, I'm not going to fault someone for signing a ridiculous contract offer that they're not really worth. Sabean gave the guy a three year deal in 2005 when the Cardinals already thought he was done. Good work there. The silver lining for Morris is this may give him a head start on a new career.

Good luck, Matt - and keep us in mind if you need a coaching gig, our guy isn't cutting it (but that's a post for later).

- And finally, I'm sure you've seen it, but still, ewww.

What to do with Barry Zit0-6

Amid Bruce Bochy's strong insinuation after yesterday's abomination of a start that Barry Zito may be out of the rotation and off to the bullpen, DL, or somewhere else, the local press hits come rolling in.

(Photo courtesy The Snitch)

Rick Hurd of the Contra Costa Times believes it's all about confidence, pointing to Zito's shockingly recent excellence in the 2006 ALDS:

Trouble is when it goes missing, because it takes more than devouring videotape for mechanical flaws to get it back. Zito's lack of velocity and inability to command the zone may be killing him -- his eight-pitch leadoff walk to Jerry Hairston Jr. set the tone for a six-run, 39-pitch first inning -- but when Zito speaks of "not being aggressive, not attacking the strike zone, and not pitching to contact," it's worth wondering if his troubles may be originating elsewhere.

It would make sense, because self-confidence and success go together like the chicken and the egg, and right now, the wolf has invaded and eaten both.

"Obviously, it's not great," Zito said of his confidence. "But it's not bad, either. I know what I've done, and what I can do."

Lowell Cohen of the Press-Democrat has a good "Behind the Music" report of the clubhouse following yesterday's game:

It happened in the clubhouse after Zito had failed again - eight runs in three innings, an unacceptable start. Zito was getting ready to speak with the media. He didn't have to speak. He had been yanked from the game hours before and he could have gone home and no one would have blamed him. But he waited to answer all the tough questions because he sees that as part of his job. A public-relations man stopped him, said the manager wanted him.

Zito apologized to the writers and walked down the long hallway to the manager's office and walked in and shut the heavy door. Bochy told him the Giants are thinking of making a change with him, the pitcher with the third-largest total contract in baseball. Options include skipping a start, putting him in the bullpen or letting him take his next turn as usual.

Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News points to concerns, voiced by the ominous "Giants officials" about his mechanics and a possible too many chefs problem:

There was little new in Zito's analysis. He faulted himself for not being aggressive enough, but said he hasn't "delved into the intricacies" of why he has failed to do so.

Zito has consulted many pitching gurus throughout his life and Giants officials have felt at times that the left-hander had too many people whispering in his ear - especially when he arrived in spring camp last year with a totally new delivery that was soon scrapped.

But Zito said he is working only with Bochy, pitching coach Dave Righetti and bullpen coach Mark Gardner.

"I'm not going out there knocking down anyone's door looking for solutions," Zito said. "The solution is inside me and it's up to me to turn it around. Nobody can tell me a magic key that's going to turn it. It's me and my own will and my strength."

And crazy Uncle Scott Ostler believes it's something, ahem, supernatural?

It's hard to pinpoint what's wrong with Zito, but the answer could be as simple as: location, location, location.

Not the location of Zito's pitches, although that's a huge worry. The bigger problem might be the location of Zito's locker.

The row of four locker stalls along the north wall of the clubhouse, once the kingdom of Bonds, has become Kreepy Korner.

The other resident of the Korner is Matt Cain, who is 0-2.

Zito and Cain, the Giants' Nos. 1 and 2 pitchers, have started 11 games and have a combined 0-8 record.

Actually, got to give Ostler some props there - he's got a point.

Dare we utter the unfathomable, though? That perhaps, belying his sweet demeanor and leadership role, that there's something else going on with Zito? There haven't been too many cases where a pitcher suddenly loses MPHs off his fastball at the age of 29.

Personally, I don't believe that Zito messed with PEDs, but it's only a matter of time before someone does voice that concern, media personality or otherwise. This contract is gathering steam in the national media as one of the worst ever, and speculation about the whereabouts of Zito's fastball will only escalate.

Unfortunately, it seems that the trials and tribulations of one Barry that seemed to drag down this team have been replaced by the trials and tribulations of another. Will this have a similar effect the team? And what do you think is up with Zit0-6?

Dirty Sanchez: Not What You Thought You Were Googling...Sicko

If only the Giants could continue this wonderful run of kindergarten arithmetic victories. Alas, the streak will most likely come to an end Sunday when Barry Zit0-5 takes the mound against the Cincinnati Reds.

But let's focus first on last night's masterpiece of a game by Jonathan Sanchez. The guy has always had filthy stuff, but, early in his career, he has been too easily rattled by a defensive miscue (of which there have been many) or a mistake pitch. I think this lends credence to why he was initially so effective as a reliever - he pitched well and didn't have too many things go wrong in his cup of coffee in 2006, thus, little chance of mental breakdown in limited innings.

So what's changed this year? In my purely non-expert opinion, the obvious improvement has been mechanical: he has been locating all his pitches much better, leading to more efficient outings. When he loses the release point, he gets wild, and he can still lose it completely, as he did against a very potent Brewers lineup earlier this month, although he still struck out eight.

Last night, he maintained the release point (10 strikeouts to one walk) and his poise and it resulted in the longest outing of his career. The wild card with Sanchez is that he simply doesn't strike me as a guy who maintains his composure - his success feeds success and, conversely, his failure feeds failure. He is improving as a pitcher before our eyes, but his mental makeup is still suspect.

So the Giants have a young lefty starter with incredible stuff, sometimes erratic control, and a questionable mound presence with boom/bust potential. Hmmm. Don't say it - please don't say that ghastly overrunning second base in the NLDS word that rhymes with testes (ironically).

So what do you say? Jonathan "Dirty" Sanchez - the next Shawn ***** or the second Johan Santana?

Who says we don't know nuance?

Five Things

Being a recent East Coast transplant, my love of the Giants is treated by quizzical looks. Looks that scream "why would you follow THAT team? They don't win, they're poorly managed, and they don't even have their own network!"

Of course, these people don't quite understand the nuanced approach associated with rooting for your home team blindly, regardless of their highs and lows, and prefer to follow the closest team with a recent World Series title, if not the cleverest marketing strategy.

That being said, an associate has requested a primer on Los Gigantes in advance of possibly advancing them as his primary NL team. So, I present to him, in an open letter on OBnB:

"Five Things You Need to Know About the San Francisco Giants"

1. Remember entitlement? Fuhgeddaboutit.

Many teams win World Series. One every year, in fact. Contrary to popular opinion among Giants fans, many fans of other teams remember their last World Series victory. The oft-repeated sentiment of fans of teams that aren't very good is "well, one of these days they'll recreate that magic they had that glorious season." They may be an Angels fan, or a Royals fan, perhaps an Orioles fan.

As a San Francisco Giants fan, that glimmer of hope doesn't exist. We don't feel entitled because, well, you need to feel like things go well for you, sometimes, to be entitled. When things are going well, you need to replace your feelings of cocksureness with those of impending nausea and possible diarrhea. Things don't go well for the San Francisco Giants - it's an objective historical fact.

This run of failure is not an anomaly since the last great achievement. This is the norm.

(Note to Cubs fans: Losing is kinda your thing - it actually makes you who you are. I mean, at least your team gets the "loveable loser" tag. We're kind of the loser that no one really likes, the one who hangs out under the bleachers, biding his time before the next crop of girls come by playing his own derivation of solitaire with Magic cards.)

2. Peter Magowan DID NOT save the San Francisco Giants

Peter Magowan is portrayed by national media types (national including the Bay Area sports media, which is largely unimpressive) as the grocer mogul/Brooks Brothers "senior gentleman" model who stopped the team from moving to Tampa Bay by making a last minute push to acquire the team and keep them in San Francisco.

That's not what happened. Owners blocked the move, led by those from the Dodgers and the Padres as to not threaten regional rivalries and overtax players with multiple cross-country odysseys for interdivision play every year. When the owners vetoed the deal, Magowan and Co. got the team at a discounted rate like a fat guy at an after Thanksgiving turkey sale.

3. Brian Sabean is wrong

He just is.

See: Zito, Barry; Pierzynski, A.J.; Perez, Neifi; Tucker, Michael/1st Round Pick

4. Barry Bonds is not evil, he's just the bestest steroid user ever

Villify him as long as you recognize that, fundamentally, he's no different than Rick Ankiel, Mark McGwire, Andy Pettite, and any host of busted users.

And shut up with your asterisk - you don't think just as many pitchers were juicing?

We're not proud of it just like the rest of fans are not proud of the era. Guess we'll live with it just the way we did with segregated baseball, rampant amphetamine use, and players gambling on their own games.

5. Embrace the anger

This team will make you angry. It's an organizational philosophy, from top to bottom, to mismanage, mangle, and in all other ways snatch failure from the jaws of success at all possible points. We're talking ownership, personnel decisions, gameday management, players, minors, the whole goddamned ship.

If you care, this will make you angry. Learn to channel that as it can be a powerful force. Last year, I got so angry after a terrible loss, I crocheted a replica of the roof of the Sistine Chapel - in one night, WITHOUT the aid of crack.

*******************

If I think of more, I'll post them. In the meantime, what does the average OBnB reader think? What advice would you give to an aspiring Giants fan? Leave a comment.

Bochy's Veteran Loyalty

DISCLAIMER: This is not an endorsement of Bruce Bochy, but I did want to dig a little deeper on the seemingly widespread consensus that Bochy is blindly loyal to veteran players

I don't know what's going to need to happen to get Ray Durham and Rich Aurilia to permanently be out of the lineup. I actually don't mind the thought of carrying Rich as a backup - he can play three of four infield spots adequately and short in a pinch and is a good clubhouse guy - but Ray's got to go.

This leads me to the thought as to whether or not Boch has fairly received criticism regarding a blind loyalty to vets. When the Giants hired him, there were myriad articles by local beat writers referencing the Padres' displeasure with him as he continued to rely on an aging Vinny Castilla, prompting his release against Bochy's wishes. I believe it was a reference to this retrospective piece by Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

One thing I noted was that, in addition to a real sense of leadership that Castilla brought to the clubhouse, there were absolutely no alternatives at third for the Pads at the time, unless you count Geoff Blum and Mark Bellhorn, themselves no spring chickens. So the Castilla situation isn't particularly reminiscent of what's happening at second and first base here.

Eric Young was another oft-bandied example of a vet playing over a deserving youngster, but Boch played youngster Josh Barfield almost exclusively at second base in 2006 on his way to amassing 530 ABs, with Young playing the role of utility infielder. Now that may have been an edict by higher management, but it doesn't necessarily support the theory that Boch is blindly loyal to vets.

Other overly-coddled veterans in the article included Phil Nevin and Brian Giles. Again, in both cases, there didn't seem to be a particularly competent kid pushing them, unless you include Xavier Nady and Ben Johnson. Condemning Nady and Johnson may be a fallacy as they were not given a chance in the first place, a charge that has been made against Giants management in the past in the way we handled our youngsters. However, not watching those Nady and Johnson closely, it's very tough to say. And the Padres did win back-to-back division titles in 2005 and 2006.

So, I guess my point here is that, while, at this point in time, it looks like Boch is completely clueless in playing Durham and Rich over Velez and Ort, respectively, that this may not be a reinforcing of a previous "known" notion that was perpetuated by the media - that, in fact, other factors may be in play, including a decree for him to showcase those vets from Sabes.

The thought at least gives me (false, perhaps) hope that our regular lineup will fundamentally change from what we're seeing very early on in the season.

An Ode to Ray

I think that at the outset of spring training, I was particularly pessimistic about anyone young showing anything this year, that our position player prospects close to the big leagues were completely of no value. Durham was going to play because, well, who the else would we throw out there.

I think that, at least for now, I'm drinking the Kool-Aid with Eugenio, Freddy and Bowker. Bowker may be a flash in the pan, but, hell, I'm going to enjoy finding out, and I hope he's up the rest of the year.

So now that we have some guys that can hit, and the pitching (save for Zito) is looking to live up to the hype, maybe this team can win a few games here and there.

As an aside, I don't have the same vitriol towards Zito because he actually seems like a good guy that works hard and is a good influence on the team. Once again, echoing Doc's sentiment, I can't fault him for signing on the dotted line of that ridiculous deal.

But Ray is everything that was wrong with yesterday's Giants, with many athletes and, even more broadly, the overpaid employed in general. He has a smug sense of self-entitlement, of taking care of his own, and does little to back it up. And management at all levels reinforces these notions, at the expense of players who are young and hungry and actually have some talent.

[RANT WARNING]

The "Durham is in for a power bat" excuse is wearing very thin.

He has had a two years of 20+ HRs and has shown NOTHING since - GASP - signing a contract. He .218 with 11HRs last year! No injuries, just shitty play.

He has 1 HR this year in a bandbox in a game in which the Giants had no chance to come back when a pitcher was mopping up. Eugenio's been tagging balls and wreaking havoc on the basepaths. Oh - and he's a better defender.

This Durham charade has gotten patently ridiculous. He's a total freaking disgrace that needs to go the way of Old Yeller. His spring training antics were really the nail in the coffin for this no-heart mercenary.

I understand starting veterans that may be a bit long in the tooth as they can show youngsters how professionals conduct their business, etc. a la Aurilia. Aurilia is terrible but he's a good guy and Ort is not exactly pushing him (although that may be changing).

Durham doesn't take care of himself, puts himself before the team and plays neither offense nor defense well. The fact that he's on this team (does anyone think ANYONE will trade for him? For what? His amazing glove? His veteran influence? His cheap contract? Oh - his POP?) is shameful.

NOTE TO SABES - WE KNOW YOU'VE MADE MISTAKES - WE WOULDN'T BE IN THIS POSITION OTHERWISE. CUTTING RAY IS NOT AN ADMISSION OF A MISTAKE. IT'S AN ADMISSION OF YOUR UNDESERVED HUBRIS. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, STOP THE BLEEDING.

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Orange Black and Blue (OBnB) is a San Francisco Giants blog that is less a blog than it is a collection of masturbatory ramblings of a select few fans of the once palatable Giants tradition.

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