Saturday, May 10, 2003

 

Baseball's daily schedule and long season provide innumerable wonderful moments to fans of any team, no matter how good or how bad. Heck, even the lowly Detroit Tigers had a nice little 4-game winning streak this week. A week ago, no one ever would have believed that. For the Oakland Athletics, how about overcoming a Jason Giambi home run to beat the hated New York Yankees...twice in one week!

I mention the A's only in relation to the wonderful thing their win gave Giants fans last night. With the Yankees' loss, and the Giants' fonging of Greg Maddux and the Atlanta Braves, your San Francisco Giants now have the best record in major league baseball. The Giants are 25-9; the Yankees are 25-10. That's right, the Yankees might have spent one beeeelyun dollars on players, and the Necronomicon itself may prophesy that the Yankees will rise up from dread R'lyeh when the stars are right, but today, May 10, 2003, they are not the best team in baseball. That honor goes to your San Francisco Giants.

Jesse Foppert got the win last night, evening his record to 2-2. Oh, and by the way, he beat certain Hall of Famer Greg Maddux. Rookie went up against legend, and rook came out smelling like victory. You think Foppert's going to remember this the rest of his life? He walked three and gave up five hits in six innings, lowering his ERA to 5.18. It looks like he's settling into his new job with each start. If he continues to do a decent job as the #5 starter, then the Giants rotation is in pretty good shape. The Giants are tied for 6th in team ERA (3.66) out of the 30 teams. Before the season, it looked like the pitching staff would be the weak part of the team, filled with unproven rookies and second-year guys. Instead, it's been the Giants strength.

It should be even stronger now. Yesterday the Giants sent left-handed reliever Chad Zerbe down to Fresno, and recalled Ryan Jensen from the disabled list. Jensen will pitch out of the bullpen as he gets his stuff back together. Jensen isn't nearly as bad as he looked early this year, and should be better than Zerbe in a relief role.

In another roster move, the Giants put outfielder Marvin Benard on the disabled list, and recalled outfielder Jason Ellison from Fresno. Aside from one terrific inning on April 13 against the Dodgers, Benard has played terribly all year long. If his knee really is bothering him, that might explain it. If his skills are fading as many believe, then we may have seen the last of Benard in a Giants uniform.

Jefferson 11:35 AM

|