Howry Reaches Age of Giants Consent

In 1994, the Giants selected Bobby Howry in the fifth round of the amateur draft. The big lug was a hard-thrower, and he ascended through the system at a nice pace, projecting as a solid late-game reliever.

Of course, at the age of 25, Howry's precociousness shook Brian Sabean to the core. Howry's advanced learning curve threatened to undermine Sabean's entire personnel management philosophy (in short: baseball players as fine wines). Offended by Howry's inexcusable prodigious talent, Sabean came up with a solution: stash the kid somewhere else until he actually possessed the veteran savvy so necessary to achieve success in the big leagues, somewhere no Giants fan would ever see him.

Hence, The White Flag Trade.

But a short decade later, it seems Sabean has deemed Howry adequately ripened, at least according to team propagandist Chris Haft. Coming off a 2008 season that it evokes such Giant names as Walker, Bautista or perhaps, dare I say it, Poole, it's easy to see why Sabean likes this guy.

All kidding aside, for a one to two year moderately priced contract, this is the kind of low-risk, medium-reward deal I'd like to see the team make. Howry's a year removed from a solid season at Wrigley, and, in the topsy-turvy world of relievers, there's a good shot he returns to that form going from a hitter's park to a pitcher's park. Plus, due to the Cubs decision to not offer arbitration to Howry, he comes sans compensatory pick.

Most importantly, keeping with a theme that I like, the guy exhibits a rarity in the Giants bullpen of recent history: control.

Between Howry and Jeremy Affeldt, you'll have a couple proven vets to step into a bullpen mentorship vacuum to help out the kids with potential in Sergio Romo, Billy Sadler and Alex Hinshaw. Granted, if Sabean gives Howry a deal that comes close to his last contract, and my reaction may rival this.

One Out of Three Is Pretty Bad

File that one under "Way More Interesting Than It Needed To Be." Within that file, note that Fred Lewis is an absolute rock star.

A win's a win's a win's though, but not for poor Timmy, who gets the no-decision after an absolutely superb outing.

Put a big chunk of blame on chunky Ty, who has done nothing to evoke memories of Scott Linebrink after a good start. The intrepid Andy Baggarly believes that he, along with Special Agent Jack Taschner and Vinnie Chulk, may be on the block to make room for the likes of Hinshaw and Sadler.

And speaking of Hinshaw, a tough break for the kid today, but you knew he wouldn't be perfect forever. It's not like he gave up a dinger to Terrmel Sledge.

As for today's dumb luck hero Jose Castillo, well, you knew if he ever knocked in a run in a pressure situation, it would be something in the ilk of RBI fielder's choice (a generous home scorer ruled it a single). Can we stop kidding ourselves with the Castillo in the 2 hole experiment? Or even, perhaps, the experiment where he plays, like, ever?

The only guy I've ever liked seeing hacking less was my chain-smoking freshman year roommate. And, man, you should have seen him once he started smoking cigarettes...

Holy Sweep!

"Ace" Barry Zito leads the Giants to a sweep of Randy Johnson and the first-place D'Bags to cap a 6-3 road trip.

Let the record show that Orange Black and Blue takes absolute full entire credit for that. You can be sure that Warm Fuzzy Zito Feeling Email Writing Campaign (don't you like the ring of that?) will be back.

That being said, I suppose these guys helped:

Macho Man Randy Winn: Two homers, including one off a previously perfectly dominant (and record-tying) Big Unit in the fourth, and then off Chad "You're Breaking My" Qualls for the go ahead run in the ninth. His first homer from the left side this year. Off a guy who doesn't really give up homers. To the opposite field. To double his HR total for the year.

If you called that, I'm laying my Belmont bet down soon, so I'd love to get your input.

Aaron Rowand: Did you see that full extension catch? Absolutely disgustingly sick. The #4 hitter in the National League (with Big Money nipping at his heels at #5) was, dare I say, a great Sabean signing?

Brian Wilson: First pitch strikes, ridiculously unfair sliders and no BS in an 8 pitch save. I'll take that every time, Robb.

And finally...

Barry Zito: Warm fuzzy feelings = quality starts. You need any more proof?

For the record, he (or one of his minions) wrote back:

Thanks man.
Appreciate your support. Great win for our team!
Z

What were you expecting, Shakespeare? Classy, though.

- The good guys face their second legend in a row tonight. Unlike the Big Wet Rat, the Farting Professor has completely pwn3d the G's throughout his long career.

- A fluff piece with some interesting tidbits has given rise to a new OBnB stupid nickname: HinShawn Carter.

Comment THIS: Did Zito write you back? Will you ever doubt OBnB's powers again? And also, can the Giants keep up this run against the hapless Friars?

C U, A U

Timmy and the maligned O get it done, although Brian Wilson's performance made me feel inclined to retract my previous statement about the overall performance of the bullpen.

Wilson's very shaky save yesterday (3 hits, 1 intentional pass, one long 2 run Barmes HR and mere inches from a game-tying homer from Holliday) does nothing to allay fears of his long-term viability as a closer. Two issues continue to rear their ugly head - his inability to put people away (he had Barmes 0-2 and Holliday 1-2) and his control with anything beyond the fastball.

As we saw with the Pat Burrell game-winner a couple of weeks back and Clint Barmes last night, major league hitters will tee off on a fastball, no matter how fast it is, once they can time it.

Is this inability to put people away and ongoing control issues a function of bad coaching?

The answer: an absolute and categorical "duh". In fact, this site was almost firedaverighetti.com. But I digress.

- Relatively big roster news as AUGenio Velez is sent down. Although I always liked the kid, he's definitely still raw and playing every day in Fresno only serves to help him. First task? Discerning the art of pickoff moves. All the best to him - I hope to see him back up before too long.

In his place, welcome Travis Denker. You may remember the 22 year old infielder as the PTBNL in the Mark Sweeney to Dodgers deal last year. The guy has shown a little something with the bat but I sincerely hope they intend to give the guy a shot in terms of regular playing time. Not starting for almost two weeks (like Velez) won't cut it.

Although primarily a second baseman, the Giants did try him out at third in spring training, for what it's worth.

Huh - the Giants just sent down a young (albeit maddening) position player with promise and called up an even younger one. What's going on here?

- From within the Velez piece by Schulman, a good blurb on new arrival Alex Hinshaw - hadn't put this together yet myself:

Hinshaw's start: Alex Hinshaw, the 25-year-old left-hander called up to replace the injured Merkin Valdez, has had quite a start to his major-league career. He has struck out four of his first six batters. They include Jim Thome and Todd Helton, two of the best left-handed hitters in the game who deserve to be at least in the conversation about the Hall of Fame.

Hinshaw said the experience "is kind of surreal, because you're facing (possible) Hall of Famers, but you've still got to get ahead and throw strike one. Initially, when you first toe the rubber, it's always a jittery feeling because I only have a limited amount of major-league experience. When it comes down to it, you've still got to make your pitches."

Hinshaw caught Thome looking at a curveball and Helton at a tailing fastball.

By the way, where the heck are all these young players coming from? Do we have a scouting department somewhere I haven't been aware of?

- And lastly, something to file in "Too Far Away to Worry About - Yet": Fred Lewis hit a monstrous homer that proved vital in the top of the ninth. He also hit for the cycle there on Mother's Day 2007. In fact, if I'm Fred Lewis, I wouldn't mind setting up camp there once I hit free agency. Check out his numbers at the Silver Bullet.

Amazingly, he actually hits better (in a much smaller sample size, granted) at the other bandbox in Cincy, where he has a 1.625 OPS with a .625 average.

Comment-starter: On a scale of Rickey Henderson to Bill Walsh, how good of a coach is Dave Righetti? Is it fair to blame him for the staff's struggles or is it more of a matter of what he has in terms of talent? Leave your thoughts!

Merkin Me Crazy

Valdez goes on DL with elbow injury

MRI exam set for today. Not a good sign for a guy who's had reconstructive surgery. A shame because he was really starting to display the talent the Giants saw in him when they acquired him in the Russ Ortiz deal way back in 2002.

All the best to the kid.

Alex Hinshaw has been called up to replace him. He's an interesting kid in his own right. He's been absolutely dominant in AAA after a fantastic 2007 season in Connecticut.

UPDATE (2:46PM) - For what it's worth, from the official site:

Although Valdez underwent Tommy John elbow surgery in September 2006, manager Bruce Bochy reiterated that the 26-year-old's current injury is located in a "slightly different area" of his elbow.

"We think it's fine, but we don't want to put him out there and risk any major setbacks," Bochy said. "We want to err on the side of caution."