Bloggers, fantasy baseball enthusiasts, and terrible athletes compensating for their lack of motor skills with an encyclopedic knowledge of their favorite teams were vindicated this weekend as it turned out that the San Francisco Giants are indeed a less bad team when younger players who have yet to forge a track record of ineptitude start over veterans who have proved it over many decades.
And a special shoutout to Barry Zito, who turned in his best start in nearly half a decade on Saturday.
In a tribute to management's keen sense of causation, Zito will now throw batting practice to both teams every day for the rest of the season.
When it comes to yesterday's loss, I'll say only this: Father Time's ownership of the Giants transcends personnel, situation, and possibly the time-space continuum. Just mark his starts against the Giants as an 'L' and move on. Every time.
Snippets from the weekend:
Our Manny Ain't So Bad Amid the anointing of Team Voldemort as the NL West Champs following their trade for Lazy Predator, another, hugely more likeable, Manny has others salivating. From Extra Baggs:
But [Emmanuel] Burriss made a positive impact with the glove. A day after Giants officials said that Burriss could become one of the best defensive second basemen in the game, the rookie made them look smart by snagging Tadahito Iguchi’s line drive in the first inning.So Now That You Feel Optimistic...Check out this (horrific) nugget Bleacher Report throws out:
It was a breathtaking play. A longtime San Diego baseball observer turned to me and said, “The Padres haven’t had an infielder who could make that play in many, many years. Maybe Khalil Greene, but I’m not sure of that.”
In other words, athleticism is good. Padres bad.
Burriss was at it again in the third. Tad Iguchi hit a double-play grounder that shortstop Ivan Ochoa bobbled. Burriss made a barehand catch of Ochoa’s late feed, and with the linebacker-sized Hairston bearing down on him, he sidearmed a strong throw in time to turn two.
Oh, Burriss also had a big hit in the ninth inning to pad the Giants’ lead.
While there may be hopes amongst the hierarchy that they could still contend for the division crown, mainly because of some of the best young pitching in the league, those thoughts should be thrown out immediately.Well played, Bleacher Report. Well played.
An interesting stat recently said that, including AA and AAA, the Giants have the fourth-fewest amount of home runs in the majors.
So a team that has no power and has scored the third fewest runs in the majors thinks they can contend? Bud Selig should immediately administer a piss test.
Comment! Which one of the young 'uns are you most excited to see play for the remainder of this season?
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2 comments:
CALL UP NATE "THE GREAT" SCHIERHOLTZ!!!
Last I heard, he was headed to Beijing to represent the Good Guys in the People's Republic, but I don't give a crap about Olympic baseball and neither does the rest of the world (as evidenced by its removal from the lineup of event following this year's games.)
I want to see Nate get a shot to hit some big league pitching at SOME point this year. If I have to wait til September for 40-man rosters, then so be it, but the sooner the better as far as I'm concerned.
In other news, whoever is writing for the Bleacher Report is a goddamned moron. The Angels, who have, ohhh, I dunno, THE BEST RECORD IN BASEBALL, are ranked 21st overall in HRs.
The Twinkies, who own a small margin in the very competitive AL Central are tied for the 2nd lowest HR total in the bigs.
Meanwhile, Cincinnati and Baltimore, 6th and 9th in HRs respectively, are a combined 14 games under .500 and are sitting in the cellar of their respective divisions.
Now I am not saying that the Giants will contend in a putrid NL West this year, but I am also saying that these guys should check their stats and use their friggin heads when making an analysis like that.
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