Friday, March 28, 2008

 

Please click HERE for 2008 posts about the San Francisco Giants. Thanks!

Jefferson 9:08 PM

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Wednesday, April 11, 2007

 

Feel-Bad Wins

Beggars can't be choosers. Beggars rely on the charity of others. The Padres have been very charitable to the Giants, giving them two runs in each of the Giants' two wins. I hope the Giants send thank-you cards to Mike Cameron, Clay Hensley, Khalil Green and Kevin Kouzmanoff. Without their contributions, the Giants would be winless for the season.

That's a chilling thought, isn't it?

From the perspective of this fan, neither win has been particularly enjoyable. Armando Benitez is proving how worthless the save statistic is. He's a perfect 2-for-2 in save situations, and yet sports a sickening 7.71 ERA and a 2.57 WHIP. That ERA doesn't include inherited runners. I don't have that box score handy, but I believe he allowed two of those to score in his first "save." At the end of each of his "saves," I didn't feel that the Giants had won the game. I felt they had barely escaped certain doom. Feel-bad wins, I call them.

It won't be this bad the whole season. It's metaphysically impossible. Isn't it?

Jefferson 9:42 AM

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Saturday, April 07, 2007

 

Report From The Cheap Seats

Dawn and I watched last night's game from Section 302, up in the misty reaches of the upper deck. It was one of the coldest, dampest nights I've ever experienced at the new park, but we stuck it out through all nine innings. Here's a few scrambled thoughts on what we saw:

* In general, I approve of Bochy's tactic of stealing more bases. The Giants have enough guys with enough speed to make this happen. However, Durham and Vizquel didn't get good jumps last night, and Martin's throws were strong and accurate.

* I didn't mind Flannery sending Feliz on that double. Gonzalez has a weak arm, and it took an excellent relay throw to get Feliz. Feliz didn't do anything with his slide to help his chances, though. He slid straight into Martin, instead of diving around him or running him over.

* Feliz committed a bad mental error in the field, triple-clutching on an easy throw to home. I have no idea what he was thinking, if anything. Unfortunately, Feliz has proved over his whole career that you can't count on him to play smart baseball. If he continues to field poorly, and doesn't improve at the plate, he needs to be benched, and quick.

* It's so nice to have Rich Aurilia back. He brings a spark to the ballpark when he's playing.

* Noah Lowry pitched so well that it took a whole inning of wildness to downgrade his start from "amazing" to "very good." Sadly, his throwing error and wild pitch, followed by Feliz's brain fart, combined with the bad baserunning, cost the Giants the game.

* We were very disappointed by the seats we had. The location was fine; I'd rather be on the first-base side than the third-base side. The ushers, though, completely failed to perform any sort of traffic control in the aisles. All night, people walked up and down the aisles, blocking our view for easily 25% of the pitches. We saw two different ushers carrying the "please wait until after the at-bat to walk up the aisles" signs. We saw no one actually using them. If this had been my first time at AT&T Park, I wouldn't be too interested in buying more tickets. The Giants can do much better than this.

Jefferson 11:20 AM

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Wednesday, March 28, 2007

 

Do Chicks Still Dig...?

This is the time of year when season preview articles start coming out. I'm bracing myself for a number of oracles putting the Giants into the projected NL West cellar. I've seen at least one article talking about who might hit what career milestones this season. Everyone is thinking about Barry Bonds and 755, of course.

But why, I wonder, does no one seem to be talking about the number 73 in relation to Albert Pujols and Ryan Howard. Both players will be 27 this season, which means they should be peaking right about now. Pujols hit 49 homers in an injury-marred 143 games. Howard mashed 58 homers, despite tailing off in September. Either or both could make a run at the single season home run record in 2007.

Is everyone just too freaked out by the Barry Bonds Saga to talk about it? Or am I just not looking in the right places? Finally, if someone does break Bonds' record this season, how will you feel? Will it overshadow 756, for you or for the sport as a whole?

Jefferson 11:49 AM

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Saturday, February 24, 2007

 

Spring Training News

The first week of spring training is behind us. All of the fans, myself included, have been scouring the Internet for news like squirrels after an explosion at a nut factory. (Actually, that phrase could be used to describe the whole 'Net, couldn't it?) In days of old, we had to read the newspapers to get any news from the desert. The only way to get first-hand, unfiltered information was to fly to Arizona yourself and watch spring training personally. Now, in the days of the World Wide Web, we have choices. We can still go to newspaper websites for that professionally filtered outlook, or we can go to blogs by fans who are actually there, without agendas. (I suppose catching some rays and drinking some beer is a kind of agenda, but don't distract me. I have a point to make, eventually.)

If I were the editor-in-chief of the San Francisco Chronicle, I would have to ask some hard questions of my sports department. I don't know how many full-time paid journalists the Chronicle has assigned to cover the Giants in Arizona. At least one, right? How can these pros get outdone on a daily basis by the unnamed "amateur" who at Giants Jottings? Look at the coverage at Jottings. He has photos of nearly every player he can see. The Chronicle, despite having a professional website with extras like blogs, doesn't give us very many photos. If we want to see for ourselves how Russ Ortiz is looking, we can either take the Chron's word for it, or we can look at the photos on Jottings.

Jottings also has the Chron beat when it comes to actual prose coverage. Jottings tells you who pitched batting practice, and who hit. He tells you how they did, how they looked, and any interesting or relevant comments the players make. He gives you a really good glimpse at the jokes, the fun, the camaraderie, and he leaves the jaded snark at home. The Chronicle might give you a third of that information, if you're lucky. The rest is jaded snark, sanctimonous proselytizing, or worse.

There is a place in the newspapers for opinion pieces, of course. In the main news section, however, there is at least an attempt to herd the opinion pieces into the opinion section, and the journalism into the forefront. Not so with sports. The lines there are much blurrier, and to the detriment of the fans who don't have another choice.

Those of us who do have that choice should take advantage of it, and wrest our fandom from the hands of the jaded and the sour. All we ask for is information. It shouldn't be too much to ask from a newspaper.

Jefferson 9:17 AM

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Thursday, February 15, 2007

 

Bonds Is In

Finally, our winterlong nightmare is over. Bonds has signed his revised contract, and assuming that the commissioner doesn't find another loophole to exploit, nothing can stop him from joining the Giants this season.

Let's make no mistake. Barry Bonds will once again be the centerpiece of the San Francisco Giants. Peter Magowan's assurances aside, that's the only possible result of him being on the club. Bonds will be pursuing the single most important statistical record in professional sports. He'll be the focus once again of continued legal, medical, chemical and ethical speculation. How can he not be the centerpiece, or at the very least, the center of attention?

No doubt, the Giants are a better team with Bonds on the squad. No one should think, though, that the finalization of the Bonds contract marks the end of anything. It just marks another beginning. It's one more lap around the swamp, but this time, the stakes for Bonds are the highest they've ever been.

Expect alligators.

Jefferson 2:26 PM

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Wednesday, February 14, 2007

 

Spring At Last!!

The most welcome words. The long-awaited words. The beautiful words. Let us all say them together, as a prayer, a shout of celebration, or with a laugh, as you will:

Pitchers and catchers report today.

This has been one of the longest, most annoying offseasons ever. Hardcore baseball fans enjoy digging into the business end of the game during the offseason. The Hot Stove League has always been popular, and this year's edition was hotter than usual. Along with all the dollars and transactions, though, this offseason included a heaping pile of venom with a hint of vendetta. If the usual offseason is like watching the baking of bread, then this one was like watching the manufacture of sausage. It was interesting, compelling, and more than a little disgusting. As of this morning, it's still not over. The end, at least, is in sight.

For my part, I was glad to have a distraction. The Krogh family is set for a major roster expansion during spring training. The details of the adoption, like the Bonds contract, still have some red tape to clear, but I have every reason to believe that both situations will be finalized to everyone's satisfaction before Opening Day. If all goes well, our two-week-old child will attend his (or her) first Giants game on Friday, April 6. Against the Dodgers, of course.

It will be the best season ever, by my standards.

Jefferson 8:00 AM

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