Tuesday, April 18, 2006

 

In Appreciation of TIMMAH!!

I have a confession to make.

I really didn't appreciate Tim Worrell the first time around.

Yeah, pretty stupid, huh?

Let me offer a few feeble words of explanation. In 2003, we all expected the almighty Robb Nen to return Real Soon from his shoulder injury. I didn't understand--or maybe I couldn't accept--that "Smoke On The Water" was gone for good, having given his all to get the Giants into the 2002 World Series. Tim Worrell was just supposed to hold down the fort until Nen, the gold standard of Giants closers, returned.

Worrell was not Nen, and he never could be. A classic Nen save was three up, three down, with batters flailing away at filthy sliders in the dirt. No muss, no fuss, log the save and the win and let's all go home. In his honor, we called the final inning of the game "the Nenth Inning."

Worrell took a different route to his saves. He'd put on a guy or two almost every time he took the mound. He wouldn't let me relax; he made me grit my teeth and pull on my hair until he finally got the last out. He got the job done more often than not, but I hated how he did it. He wasn't dominant like Nen. He wasn't dominant like a real closer. He was just that jerk who wasn't Robb Nen. He went through a bad stretch late in the year, including one horrible day in Montreal where he gave up a grand slam to lose the game. That was the last straw. "Anyone but Worrell!" was my rallying cry.

As the saying goes, "be careful what you wish for." Worrell went to Philly for 2004. Matt Herges took over and did a swan dive into the concrete. I had thought Worrell was bad? I had no idea what "bad closer" meant until Herges showed me. Then we got Dustin Hermanson and Tyler Walker as stopgaps. The Nenth Inning became a horrow show for two straight years. Just look at the ERA+ of the guys we've had closing since Nen's last year. (Remember, an ERA+ of 100 means you're average compared to the rest of the league; higher numbers are better.)

2002 Robb Nen 172
2003 Tim Worrell 149
2004 Matt Herges 85
2004 Dustin Hermanson 98
2005 Tyler Walker 98

Clearly, I was full of crap. You don't get many second chances in life--at least, that's what they say. Thanks to the brilliance of Brian Sabean and the fragility of Armando Benitez, I have a second chance to appreciate Tim Worrell, to embrace Tim Worrell, to love Tim Worrell.

Welcome home, Tim Worrell. Mea culpa. May you reign over the Nenth Inning for many years to come.

Jefferson 9:23 AM

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Monday, April 17, 2006

 

A Personal Note

I have added a new link to this blog which is pretty important to Dawn and I. We've spent the last several months preparing, and now we're cleared and ready to go. We're hoping to adopt a child this year. I've put up a website dedicated to that pursuit which you'll find here. Or follow the adoption link in the upper right corner.

Wish us luck!

Jefferson 9:18 AM

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Monday, April 10, 2006

 

Randy "For The" Winn!

Dawn and I hit the ballpark yesterday for the first time this year. Lunch at the Chophouse was good, as usual. We took a lap around the yard, seeing the new sights. The sky was all growly and threatening, but never did worse than spit at us. The sun even poked out once or twice, as if to remind everyone what it looked like.

Oh, and we saw a hell of a baseball game.

We were up in the 327 section, so we couldn't see what Schmidt was throwing, only the results. Ten strikeouts--impressive. Four walks, five earned runs in seven innings--not so hot. The bomb he gave up to Andruw Jones was impressive, and I mean that in a bad way. Not sure why the old man left him in for those last two innings, but it all worked out.

Chipper Jones' injury was pretty frightening, even from up high. You could see the skid mark he left very clearly. Sadly, the field is in bad shape, thanks to the incessant rain we've had. The infield grass has been under a tarp too long, and shows it. The center field area is still patchy as hell from the last concert. The grounds crew needs a long dry spell during a road trip to get everything back to prime condition. I sure hope that the field didn't contribute to Jones' injury, but it sure looked like it did.

Bonds is struggling with the bat. The most impressive swing he had all year was his first one, the long double in San Diego. Since then, it's a lot of grounders, swingthroughs, and walks. No reason to panic; Barry has shown himself quite capable of fixing his swing when it gets out of whack. He seems okay in the field. He made an impressive running catch of a Chipper Jones bloop, and only limped a little bit afterwards.

The ninth inning comeback was awesome and unlikely. Lance Niekro looks like a different hitter. That plate discipline thing is working for him, even when it's not resulting in a hit. He had only one at-bat where he got out of his head. If he keeps it up, he'll have more clutch moments like yesterday's homer, and he'll stick around for a long time. Pedro, on the other hand...well, he got that single in the ninth, and motored around the bags to score the winning run. I won't say anything bad about him today.

And of course...Randy Winn, with the game-winning bloop. You gotta love this guy.

Giants are in first place, baby! They're scoring a good amount of runs, too. Gotta love it. Life is good after the first week.

Jefferson 1:13 PM

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Friday, April 07, 2006

 

The Injury Race Is On!

Like watching traffic accidents? How about "America's Funniest Home Accidents Videos?" Do you live for Will Carroll's articles on BP? Then you are going to love the National League West this year. Forget the regular standings--the Injury Pennant race is in full swing already.

The Giants and the Dodgers are duking it out. The Dodgers started things off before Opening Day, putting Kenny Lofton on the shelf with a strained calf muscle. The Giants immediately counterpunched with an Armando Benitez ouchy knee. (They're calling it bursitis, but I'm calling it obesity.)The Bums, determined to keep their early lead, played the expected Nomar card. Early in game #1, Nomar tweaked his abdomen and headed to the DL. Since that was kind of a weak play, compared to Nomar's spectacular work with the Cubs last year, they added in a couple of bruises to Jeff Kent.

Sensing an opportunity to leap ahead, the Giants made a bold move in yesterday's home opener. They had youngster Noah Lowry, heretofore unknown in the injury circuit, tweak his lower back in the second inning. While the extent of his injury is unknown, it could be serious. This gave Giants a firm lead--a starter and a closer tops a center fielder and first baseman.

This forced the Dodgers to retaliate, and in a major way. They pulled out the Eric Gagne card. Their Cy Young closer is having another major elbow surgery, this time to remove a nerve. His season could be done. Hell, his career could be done.

This is pretty serious if you're a Giants fan, but not to worry. While the Dodgers now have an impressive lead in the injury race (and can still use the J.D. Drew 60-day move), the Giants have far more bullets left in their gun. The Giants could easily win the injury pennant by playing the "Bonds slips and falls and blows out his knee" trump card. That would clinch things for our boys, and everyone knows it. By adding in an Alou calf, a Durham leg and a Schmidt groin, they could run away with the division.

Nonetheless, the Dodgers are not going down without a fight. Good to see that they haven't given up yet.

Jefferson 9:04 AM

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Tuesday, April 04, 2006

 

Opening Day: Random Smartass Comments

The Giants start off the season in the cellar, unfortunately. You can't really draw many deep conclusions from a single game, so here are some things that crossed my mind while watching the game.

1) Jason Schmidt looked sharper than he did a year ago, but he didn't blow enough guys away. When he made a mistake, the Padres crushed it.

2) Mike Piazza with that much facial hair? I didn't recognize him. For a minute, I thought that was Kevin Smith taking some hacks at the plate. Kevin Smith couldn't hit one out of Petco, though.

3) It's embarrassing that Spicoli nearly took us deep twice in one game.

4) Randy Winn stealing that homer from Spicoli? Play of the year.

5) Omar Vizquel is one heck of a fielder. Still.

6) If you are teasing us with the whole "plate discipline" thing, Lance Niekro, so help me I will sic Jack Bauer on you.

7) Pedro Feliz, it's okay to tease us with a little of that "plate discipline" thing. But only for you.

8) Only five hits by the Giants? That sucks, but that's Jake Peavy. No reason to panic.

9) Armando Benitez should not be counted on this year. Maybe Sabean carries with him a curse that affects all Giants closers?

10) Totally off the subject -- thumbs down to the new digital Levi's Splash Hits sign at the Phone Booth. Thumbs up to the new murals showing all the Hall of Famers and such.

I'll take my chances tonight with Matt Morris versus Sean "I Ruined Bonds' Big Night" Estes.

Jefferson 12:07 PM

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