Fivish Stinkle

Sound familiar?

"Tough loss as Giants take early lead on [team from PA] only to lose it on bad breaks in the late innings to lose [<4] to 4."

7-4 loss this time, as the Keystone State continues its brutal assault of the victims otherwise known as the Giants of San Francisco. In a painfully predictable course of events, Jimmy Rollins took out the frustration of sitting a month on the Giants staff, and the men in blue showed no deference to the likes of Tyler Walker, who took the tough L.

Stat for optimists? The Giants have started their second straight month at 1-6 - if one month of history is any indicator, which it surely is not, the Giants will bounce back admirably the remainder of May.

Lincecum aims to be the stopper (once again) today as he faces Rip Van Moyer, who stands 22 years Timmy's senior.

On an actual bright note, Manny Burriss is beginning to play like he belongs up here: in addition to some nice displays on D, in May, he's hitting .364 with an .846 OPS in 23 at bats. Good because at the outset of this year, it looked like the Giants had no one in their system capable of taking over in the next year, which would inevitably lead to the offseason signing of Rafael Furcal to a 6 year deal. Of course, this is also bad for the collective ego of myself and the Lunatic Fringe because it serves as a potential counterexample to the theory that Brian Sabean et al is incapable of effectively scouting and developing a position player, thus undermining our case to send him to podiatry school.

Now someone might say that it that is a moot point now that Omar Viquel's return is imminent. My response would be that someone is a stupid doo doo face, because he (or she, we're PC here at OBnB) is expecting a 41 year old shortstop with a bum knee to play at all consistently over the course of the remaining 124 games.

Over/under on the games he plays this season? 54.5. I love the guy, but this also guarantees his option for '09 doesn't vest, once again bailing out Sabean from his stupidity - that lucky SOB.

Also within the Vizquel piece is a strong hint that Strained DurHam is most likely hitting the DL upon Omar's activation. Best of luck on that GTA4 level attack, Ray - try not to sprain your retina.