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.

Dirty Dismissal

For Jonathan Sanchez, a season that started with so much promise ended with a whimper.

And if I were a betting man, which I am, I'd wager that Kevin Correia may have thrown his last pitch as a Giant. With all the young pitchers in the system, it makes little economic sense to keep the six year vet.

Plus, he kinda sucks.

Kudos to Andy Baggarly for this awesome find from last night's otherwise nausea-inducing proceedings:

They fielded nine rookies in the seventh inning: Catcher Steve Holm, pitcher Billy Sadler, first baseman Pablo Sandoval, second baseman Ryan Rohlinger, shortstop Ivan Ochoa, third baseman Conor Gillaspie, left fielder John Bowker, center fielder Eugenio Velez and right fielder Nate Schierholtz.

How long has it been since a major league team simultaneously fielded nine rookies in a major league game? [Snip]

Almost 25 years to the date, according to the hard-working folks at the Elias Sports Bureau. The Los Angeles Dodgers fielded nine rookies on Sept. 20, 1983, in a home game against the Houston Astros.

To counter this uncharacteristically youthphilic behavior, the Giants signed J.T. Snow to keep the average roster age at a Brian Sabean mandated minimum.

But seriously, folks, in case you didn't hear, he'll take the field this weekend with the starting lineup and get a nice sendoff from the fans. Class move.

Baggs also reports that Travis Ishikawa took the night off to be with his brand new baby. Congrats to Travis, and huge props to Baggs for using the occasion to recall tales of Harry Caray lore.

HEY! This provides me the perfect opportunity to link one of the best impersonations of all time!

Romo DFA'd (Yeah, I Know - That DOESN'T Make Any Sense!)

And this time, it wasn't even a knee-jerk response by the notoriously vindictive Brian Sabean.

He DFA'd a controllable young arm with nice upside because of that other thing he's known for: gross incompetence!

From Baggs:

The Giants probably put him on revocable waivers because a potential trade partner was interested in him. Or they wanted t ogauge the general the level of interest. No matter the reason, you cannot option someone when they are on revocable waivers. (I’m up on most roster rules, but that’s a new one for me.)

Anyway, and this is the important part, the Giants insist the oversight will not result in losing Romo to another club. When you designate a player, you take them off your 40-man roster and have 10 days to waive, release or outright him. Before those 10 days are up, the Giants will revoke Romo off waivers be able to option him at that point. He’ll remain on the 40-man roster. Romo said he expects to join Fresno in Salt Lake on Friday.

You know, the front office's insistence that nothing is wrong reminds me of a teenager insisting his dad's bottle of Black Label was always almost gone: I just don't buy it.

Oh, in case you were upset, the impetus for the botched Romo move (as well as swapping out Osiris Matos for Billy Sadler)?

Activating 39 year old never-will-be Keiichi Yabu.

Okay, now you can go punch yourself in the neck.

Do the Roster Shuffle!

Billy Sadler down, Osiris Matos up as the roster juggling continues.  Sadler had pitched better in June before his debacle in the Monday game.

The 24 year old Matos was a candidate to replace Vinnie Chulk before Sergio Romo got the call.  After a superb 2007 season at Connecticut, Matos showed he had nothing left to prove this year to the tune of a 1.23 ERA in 36.2 innings of work, allowing only 25 hits and posting a 37 to 11 K:BB ratio.

Speaking of Chulk, despite indications that he wouldn't accept a demotion, he cleared waivers and has been it appears he will accept his assignment to Fresno.

Don't Mess With The Zito

Billy Sadler is a cross between Billy Madison and Adam Sandler - although you can't help but root for the goofy protagonist, his later performances have left you wanting for the simpler days when a fight between shampoo and conditioner actually seemed funny.

Though he's hardly the only one to blame for last night's shellacking, his nightmare 8th inning (3 walks and a Mark DeRosa grand slam) was the one that put me over the edge.  The offense (predictably) sucked in the home nightcap.  And I have to say, even if the gun was hot, Barry Zito consistently chucking the ball in the high 80s, touching 90 a couple of times, was a good sign, wildness be damned.

This piece concurs with that assessment, and although I can't be too enthusiastic about 4 earned in 5, I say let Zito be happy that his stuff, once thought to be lost forever, is back.

The Week That Belonged To Dirty:  Congrats to Jon Sanchez, your NL Player of the Week.  All he did was go 2-0 with a 1.23 ERA in 14.2 innings.  The guy's quickly becoming something special, folks.

Movin' On Up: A couple of days late, but Pablo Sandoval and Ben Snyder make like George and Wheezy up to AA Connecticut.  (Look out for a Travis Ishikawa update in there.)

In more minor league news, from this article in the Visalia Times-Delta (who says we only stroke major outlets here):

As far as San Jose's roster being replenished by some of San Francisco's top prospects, local Giant fans will have to wait.

For some reason or another, San Francisco decided not to move left-hander Madison Bumgarner (8-2, 1.77) from the South Atlantic League, and it still hasn't come to terms with first-round pick Buster Posey or first-round supplemental selection Conor Gillaspie. Posey and Gillaspie were considered to be two of the top pure college hitters in the Major League Baseball draft.

I am interested to know why Bumgarner continues to languish in the Sally League, but, at this point, I'm not too worried about Posey and Gillaspie, particularly because both were considered tough signability guys, which probably led to the Giants being able to select both.  Wake me up in August and we'll reassess.

Cainer (aka Sanchez pre-2008) faces Jason Marquis tonight.

Commentary Tributary: What's going on with Matt Cain?
 

Nickname Contest Winner

"Brian Wilson's gone servin', servin' U a K."
A 5-2 road trip after the boys salvage a win in a wild one at Coors.

Our favorite Beach Boy closer converts his 10th consecutive save in a 1-2-3 fashion, two outs being of the K variety. He's hasn't allowed a hit to his last 22 hitters and in the entire month of June.

It puts an exclamation mark on the terrific handiwork on the Giants bullpen, which goes 4 innings, allowing no runs and collecting 8 Ks. Extra kudos to Billy Sadler, who gets 4 of his 6 outs on swinging strikeouts and is settling in nicely at the big league level, as well as Keiichi Yabu, who bails Sadler and Taschner out of a basesloaded jam in the 7th. Yabusan secures redemption for last night in short order.

Fred Lewis's monster homer further proves the notion that he has no problems with high altitude.

The offense was very comfortable overall, as Bowker collects three hits, and a vintage Richie and Ray Durham collect two hits apiece.

As a hitter, Dirty liked Coors Field plenty. Unfortunately, the hitters he faced liked it just as much today. Tough outing for him, but in spite of allowing 7 runs in 5 innings, he gets the win. Somewhere, Matt Cain is stabbing himself with a fork.

And a (begrudging) congrats to Ray Durham, who gets his 2,000th career hit.

ThursdRay Discussion: If Ray keeps it up, what do you look for the Giants to fetch on the open market? Do you think they should trade him at all?

And how's that for a Wilson nickname?

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...

Misch-cast

Good news for the pitching staff as Kevin Correia and Merkin look to be progressing. Correia could even be back by the second week of June, if I'm reading correctly - which, between the glass eye and the early morning cocktail, I'm probably not.

KC and The Sunshine Band's return might spell the end of one of my favorite pun-jockeys in Pat Misch. Love the guy, but I'll be happy to see him either slide to long relief or (more likely) go back to Fresno.

Hope that Merkin can stay healthy once he's back. If he came back today, I'd guess Sadler would go down - but there's still plenty of time to think of a fake injury!

(I'm looking at you, Ray.)

Clutch Holmer

Steve Holm gets it done in relief of Big Money as his 2-run homer (the first of his ML career) in the bottom of the seventh helps the Giants nab the rubber match and return the favor to the Phillies.

Awesome story for the local boy. The former backup to Justin Knoedler in Single-A San Jose has looked the part in the majors coming off an improbable upset in an open battle for the backup job in spring training.

On the other hand, Jose Castillo celebrated the return of Pedro Feliz by doing his best impression, hitting into 3 double plays (two on the first pitch and two with the bases loaded) before lining a triple in a completely no-pressure situation leading off the eighth. (Unsurprisingly, he was subsequently stranded by Vizquel, Aurilia and Lewis). His struggles epitomize the Giants biggest downfall so far this season: not cashing in on baserunners. Team batting with RISP? .237.

Dirty continues to struggle as he allows three in a very wild 4.1 IPs. Also troubling: Sanchez's inability to control his emotions - a good example being his failure to cover first on a helluva diving play by John Bowker.

However, the bullpen does the job - a scoreless 4.2IPs as Sadler looks like he belongs, and Taschner, Walker, and Wilson throw a scoreless inning apiece, all without much drama. Special shoutouts to Walker, who bounces back from a recent hard-luck patch, and Wilson, who gets Burrell back with a Nen-esque series of sliders to get the 9th inning K.

All in all, a lot of positives. In addition to his ever-improving D, Bowker may have made his first adjustment (and the one many prospects never make) - in limited duty this month, he's hitting .556. Both of his hits today were opposite field against a steady diet of breaking balls. Maybe we have a keeper.

Also, Aaron Rowand is good. One hit in one official AB along with three walks boosts his average to .348 and his OBP over .400. Gamer or not, guy certainly backs his scowl up.

Great Mother's Day at the park.

- Great to see Vizquel back. Didn't get a chance to mention his solid debut in yesterday's win. Had a great turn in today's game, barehanding a wayward Velez toss and almost turning an improbable 4-6-3 early on.

Contrary to previous speculation, Durham stays active but Burriss's buddy Bo gets the axe. Best of luck to the kid who never really had a chance against big league pitching. Hopefully, it's not his last taste of the big leagues.

The X-Man Cometh

I think Giants fans are paying retribution for my previous backhanded insult of Xavier Nady. His current hot streak also exposes a fundamental flaw in that post's reasoning. But enough about me.

Barry Zito went 5 innings and gave up 2 earned on a Nady homer. A better start than expected, but the guy certainly didn't look to be a significantly different pitcher than the one we saw in April. His fastball didn't top 84, his curve still looked a bit all over the place, and he was bailed out by good defense on a couple of occasions.

The Pirates did Zito plenty of favors by doing their best imitation of a drunk fat guy in beer league softball - you know, the guy who, if he ever connected, would hit the ball a mile but between the sun and the countless Dixie Cups of High Life, he finally swings and misses hard enough that he hurts himself, and even though it's not funny you can't really help but snicker. You could tell these guys were licking their chops pre-game, hoping that Zito would serve up extended batting practice a la Brad Hennessey last night. He did a notch better, and, as they say in politics, it's all about exceeding expectations.

All moot though, as the Giants made Phil Dumatrait look like Phil Niekro. Now the Giants have to win tomorrow to avoid a 1-5 trip.

- Speaking of Hennessey, the Giants mercifully sent him down today and called up the lefty Billy Sadler, who has been dominating in Fresno:

Sadler, 26, had excelled in 11 appearances with Fresno, posting a 1.13 ERA as opponents hit only .138 (8-for-58) off him. He also had 24 strikeouts in 16 innings, reflecting the command of his fastball, curveball and changeup that Bochy cited.

This is Sadler's second stint with the Giants. He relieved in five games at the end of the 2006 season, finishing with no record and a 6.75 ERA.

"I always [wondered] what the feeling would be like the next time I got called up, and it was the exact same feeling. Just phenomenal. Exciting," Sadler said. "Everything runs through your head about growing up as a kid and all the people who came along to help me get where I am."

Before you get too excited, bear in mind Sadler has issued 12 walks in those 16 innings.

CORRECTION: Billy Sadler is a righty - so much for writing without checking facts.