Unit and Giants May Be Ugly Enough For One Another

Randy Johnson is zeroing in on the Giants as his preferred landing spot, according to John Shea.

Randy Johnson is being wooed by both Bay Area teams. He seems to prefer the Giants.

"Randy's really interested," one of his agents, Barry Meister, said Thursday, the final day of the winter meetings. "We made a check list of everything that's important, and San Francisco checks off on every box. They're in the National League. They'll be competitive. They train in Arizona.

"San Francisco has a lot of appeal."

Brian Sabean seems to be biting, saying he'd consider a one year deal.

With Noah Lowry a massive question mark and the back-end of the rotation being in less than stellar shape, a one-year deal may not be a bad idea.

Plus, it gives the marketing department, long since upset with the lack of milestones to celebrate with the departure of Barry Bonds, something to look forward to. Best of luck on the "It's 300 Wins, Who Cares If Most Of Them Came With Teams You Hate?" mini-season ticket package.

Cain Too!

Matt Cain delivering a gem against the Nats is like finding gas under $4 a gallon: sure it's kind of exciting, but then you realize how low your barometer is.

Either way, the Giants sweep the entire season series from the Natsogoods, evening the record on the homestand at 3-3.

Diamondbacks next. Call me crazy, but I think the Giants will sweep and stand pat at the deadline under the auspices of being contenders.

I remember when that was a good thing.

Lowry Progresses: He threw pain-free, but no timetable exists as of yet. Which is probably good for a number of reasons, number one being getting him healthy for the long-term.

There's a Giant I'll be happy to see back.

Comment! Name the Giants starting rotation Opening Day 2009.

Moment of Zen

The shot of Matt Cain up top is absolutely classic.

Clockwise from bottom: Tim Lincecum (in glasses), Dave Roberts, Noah Lowry, Matt "Disco" Cain, Rich Aurilia, Omar Vizquel, Kevin Frandsen (with beard), and lost Kiss member Jack Taschner.

Props to Logan's Freedom Ride.

Links Cure All

We never really had a chance given tonight's matchup. Luckily, the Pat Misch experiment looks to be nearing its merciful end, as Kevin Correia looks fired up and ready to go.

Credit Aaron Cook, who is turning into a legitimate ace for the Rockies, and improves to a nice 9-3.

Too bad the Giants couldn't get into the shaky Rockies bullpen early - they absolutely hammered the Rox relievers and were only a few feet away from a ninth inning Fred Lewis homer that would have cut the lead to three with none out.

We won't have to grasp at straws looking for positives for too much longer: Lincecum goes tomorrow.

In the meantime, LINK DUMP!

- Oft-injured Merkin Valdez has suffered a setback and will get a dreaded MRI.

Unfortunate, as it looked like Valdez was back on track after striking out the side for San Jose in a rehab assignment on Saturday.

From within that piece, Bochy is impressed by Dirty Sanchez's focus.

- Not so fast, says Noah Lowry. Lowry's chutzpah aside, his return is looking more and more like a longshot, but here's hoping.

- Baggarly has a nice piece on Burriss, who reflects on his return to D.C.

- More encouraging news from the farm as the single-A Giants have five players named to the All-Star team, including 19 year old Tim Alderson, the second of our 2007 first-rounders, as well as mashing 21 year old catcher Pablo Sandoval.

- In other San Jose Giants news, the little Giants are getting in on the 50th anniversary festivities of the big league club. They seem to have assembled an impressive roster of attendees.

- Last Thursday's top two draft picks are named to the All-American squad - Posey is first-team and Gillaspie second.

- 47th round pick Abe Ruiz has committed to ASU, but leaves the door open if the Giants show him the money.

Meanwhile, an undrafted UOP second baseman waits for a call.

- And finally, a few Giants react to Griffey's 600th homer.

OBnB Programming Note: Please note that I have updated the social bookmarklets that appear below every post next to "SHARE!" If you're at all a regular reader and use the sites listed, such as Digg, Facebook, Ballhype or Yardbarker (you can hover over the icons to see what they mean), please click on any and all and spread the word.

The act of sharing will be rewarded karmically (I stole that from a fortune cookie, but it applies).

Lowry Done For Year?

And now a midday piece of Not Quite Breaking News: the Giants finally admit that Noah Lowry could be shut down for the remainder of the season.

I'm not a doctor, and I stopped playing one on TV years ago, so can someone please explain this (supposedly positive) excerpt?

But Groeschner added that the Giants don't want Lowry to try throwing until the pins-and-needles sensation in his forearm has subsided. Lately, Groeschner said, the feeling has migrated from Lowry's upper forearm toward his wrist, indicating that it might soon disappear.

Just as well, I suppose; this way, Dave Righetti can't get to him.

Jose Castillo Reads This Blog

Giants take the rubber match against the defending NL Champs, end up rebounding from a 1-6 start to go 12-10 the rest of the way in April. I have to say, I have been enjoying this team a lot, warts and all.

One of the great emblematic moments for this team was watching Fred Lewis, whose glove has been much maligned, make the defensive adjustment that allowed him to snag Willy Tavares's would-be game-tying RBI hit. With him playing every day and work with major league coaching, you can see him making huge strides with the glove. As for hitting, the team-leading .952 OPS (followed by Aaron Rowand at .866) speaks for itself.

I'm going to go ahead and take credit for Jose Castillo jacking an unexpected game-winner last night - I called our third base power production out yesterday morning. Yesterday afternoon, guy goes yard for the first time in 20 months. Let's put that in perspective: the last time Castillo hit one out (as a member of the Pirates), America mourned as it came to light that Mel "I Know What Women Want" Gibson was actually a belligerent racist. I can only imagine Danny Glover, his longtime Lethal Weapon cohort, was shocked and dismayed. Glover, of course, is a Giants fan.

See how I did that?

Also, requisite daily Barry Zito story from John Shea. Actually a fairly good read. The scouts are all over the map on what's up with bro hymn. From the article:

Two National League scouts provided The Chronicle with different reasons for Zito's decline, speaking on the condition of anonymity because teams don't want their scouts sharing information. One said it's because of the fastball. The other blamed the curve.

The first scout: "It's velocity, period. If he can throw 89, 90 like he used to, he could escalate the ball in the strike zone. That sets up the curve. Now, with that slower stuff, they can take it for a ball or go wild with it."

The second scout: "It's his curveball, bottom line. Losing 4 to 5 (mph) doesn't concern me as much as his inability to break the curveball as much as he used to. It was his bread-and-butter pitch. It used to break from your head to your ankle. Now it breaks from your chin to your belt. Only a few guys in the league have the ability to snap off a good curveball. Now, for some reason, he can't."

Don't know if that makes me more or less hopeful. I still see a tough road back for him if he can't pick up at least some of the MPHs. The only people who survive in the low 80s have unbelievable control, and I'm not sure Zito has it in him.

Speaking of soft-tossing lefties, Noah Lowry's return has been delayed at least another three weeks as he continues to feel numbness in his arm in fingers. Don't know much about nerves and such, but this whole thing starting to get a season-ending vibe to it. Everyone keep their fingers crossed - no offense, Noah.

In non-Giants news, I get the feeling that this guy is going to give us fits this year both on the mound and in the box; but man, is that a cool baseball story or what?

Check out this ESPN all-time chart of OPS leaders on the left. I mean, sure, it's a small sample size, but still! Pretty impressive.