From today's Baggarly piece on last year's embarrassment of then-rook Timmy after missing a team charter:
The next day, Bonds couldn't turn down the opportunity to undress a rookie in front of his teammates.
"Bonds showed us something," Zito said. "He calls a meeting and he's like, 'Are you kidding me, Timmy? This is ridiculous.' He gave him the itinerary and said, 'Dude I don't want this thing to leave your sight the entire trip.'
Back by popular demand...
Despite the large amount of revenue OBnB generates, a few other (theoretically) necessary responsibilities reared their ugly heads at once, putting me out of commission.
Luckily, the break absolves me of the false sense of jubilation that may have come with a five game winning streak for this plucky but ultimately doomed young team. With their second straight loss to the defending NL champion (remember that?) Rockies, the boys in black and orange showed this bunch is still a work in progress.
Happy trails, Matt Palmer. And welcome back, Osiris.
And now, with apologies to The Rock, I give you my Wednesday Rundown:
- Pablo Sandoval is good. I read this article about how Class A San Jose was completely galvanized by his arrival, only to fall back to the pack when he was promoted to Double A Connecticut, at which point the Defenders surged. It would have been good to link and relate to the recent improvement of the Giants.
But I couldn't find it, so take my word for it. To make up for my eroding search engine eagle eye, check out this interview Sandoval did with Defenders beat reporter Joe Perez upon his promotion to Connecticut in June.
For now, the focus with Sandoval is short-term. But Molina knows that teams seldom let their best offensive prospects stay behind the plate. Their production inevitably suffers because of the grueling nature of the position.As you may have noticed, the Giants have no shortage of good guys behind the plate.
"You should see Bengie when he takes his shirt off," a teammate said. "He has bruises all over."
Molina acknowledged that because of numerous foul tips, there have been times this season when he could barely grip a bat.
"Yeah, but I don't have any excuses," Molina said. "I want to be out there every day and I do the best with what I have."
Molina is committed to guiding Sandoval behind the plate. He'll do the same for Buster Posey when the No. 1 draft pick (fifth overall) arrives in major league camp next spring.
But Molina wouldn't be surprised if Posey eventually moves, too.
Cold (or even mild, temperate) summer nights at Pac Bell are no fun unless the Giants are scoring, and these days, the faithful along with the Lunatic Fringe know: that scoring is not going to come from home runs. So when these scrappy, fast, aggresive young kids go out and get hits - EIGHT of them - we hope that some of those baserunners come around on consecutive hits, sacrifices, and seeing-eye ground balls. For one inning last night it seemed that would be the case, but then the bats - and the luck - fizzled. Despite yet another 3-for-4 performance from "Win, Win, Win, with" Randy Winn and another 2 hits from Fred Lewis in the 2 hole, the offense never came alive in a manner worthy of the word RALLY.
Matt Cain is back to his losing ways, giving up an astronomical 3 ER in 6 IP, succumbing to the ever-Giant-killing Yorvit Torrealba (2-run HR) and failing to score from third (or even cause a collision) on a fielder's choice by Aaron Rowand.
Venite Adoremus tonight, though, as The Kid looks to stop the losing. Matt Palmer, that is, looks to stop the losing, at 1 loss. Why, who did you think this blogger was referring to?
Another walkoff win for the Little Giants, who have taken to playing at home in a way their much older predecessors did not.
In typical San Francisc (the omission of O is intentional) Giants fashion, the fateful ninth inning run was scored without a hit - praise be to Manny Burriss's batting eye and feet as well as Kevin Gregg's wayward accuracy.
And give credit to big Matt Palmer, who bounced back from a horrific debut to go 6 and 2.
Also, I've noticed I've been remiss in lauding Dandy Randy Winn for hitting in a manner so hot, Paris Hilton's thinking of suing.
Future Ruminations: While watching Pablo "Runaway Beer Truck" Sandoval motor around in one of his frequent trips to the basepaths, I thought to myself, this 22 year old could be really the future at catcher.
Then I realized we just signed him.
But, with apologies to Ivan Ochoa, our situation at shortstop is a little less rosy. However, do we already have a solution?
Many of you heard about Buster Posey playing all nine positions in a game this past season at FSU. His prowess at all nine positions was due in part to the fact that he was recruited as a shortstop, playing there his freshman year before transitioning to catching.
Now although the Giants just made a huge investment in Posey, it's not as if shortstop is a position of far less scarcity, particularly given the fact that Posey's bat would play just as well there. In addition, Posey, who's game has been compared to Craig Biggio's, might have a longer career by playing a less physically demanding position.
With his mid-90s fastball and leadership skills, heck, we may even get our own Derek Jeter out of it.
Bear in mind, my sole impetus for the idea is due to the absurdly small sample size of Sandoval's major league career, notwithstanding his sublime year in the minors. But Sandoval is producing at the major league level and looks to have a lot of potential at the position, having thrown out 44% (30 for 68) of basestealers in the minors - and he can do it with both hands, too! Sandoval, already looking like he belongs in The Show, is only seven months older than Posey.
The case that Sandoval could shift to first to make room for Posey is a little bit of a tougher pill to swallow, mostly because of the continued ease at which you can either find or develop power hitting first basemen, Brian Sabean's struggles aside. It would be a waste of Sandoval's skills behind the dish to have him at first, anyhow.
So I leave it to you: is this a terrible idea? How do you envision the 2011 infield?
Turns out that even when Brian Wilson blows a save, the luck of the Irish bails him out.
Give the guy credit for the third longest save streak in Giants history, as well as the manner in which he handled blowing the save drew a happy contrast with one of his celebrated predecessors.
A bummer ND for Cainer, who continues his strong second half.
But how about that Pablo Sandoval? Since the kid looks to have some moxie, the Giants are once again having him take grounders at third. Let's hope a late career position switch - Fred Stanley et al tried working him in at third in the minors but it didn't stick - doesn't Bowker his hitting.
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