So, um

If i told you that the giants would have the second best record in the NL on June 29th back in march what would you have said?

wow

If I am Jonathon Sanchez, I am sweating Bullets right now! Sadowski is clutch! Anyone else as shocked as I am right now?

*update* or you know, Sanchez could come out and make a statement by striking out the side in the ninth.... the plot thickens!

Get your brooms out.

Wow, this is the second Sunday in a row We get to celebrate Broom Day. Even with the 3 game sweep at the hands of the Angel's we took this homestand 6-3. Even with the sweep we are 12-7 in our last 19. Im starting to think that the way this team is playing is no fluke. Some random notes from this homestand:

Pablo Sandoval is getting patient, and oh dear lord it shows. Pablo is batting .338 That is good for SECOND in the NL. This kid is TWENTY-TWO. If he doesent make the All-star roster I will die of an anuerism.

I was personally impressed with the Way Downs played after being called up. He is only batting .250, but he's drawing a lot of walks. He has a .400 OBP. He has a vbery solid approach at the plate and He's patient. I am really intruged by him.

Zito, wow Who knew? I mean he walked the first two guys and then just shut it down. I am thrilled the boys picked him up today and earned the Win.

Brian Wilson is in serious lock-down mode all of a sudden. I am digging it. He has struggled all year coming into a game in a non save situation but man last night he owned the Rangers.. Could he be yet another Giant's all-star candidate?

If Matt Cain does not start The All-star game I call foul. He looked amazing last night. Well let's be honest he has looked amazing all year. You think sabes is talking trade now? I think not.

Speaking of all-stars, I cannot remember any other time in my life where the Giant's had so many Legitmate All-star Candidates. In my honest opinion I count six possibilities: Rowand, Molina, Panda, Lincecum, Cain, and Wilson. Agree? Disagree? comment.

Colorado has won 16 of 17, they are right behind us. What in the world is going on in Denver

Next up, we hit the road. We are in Oakland tomorrow. Sanchez (groan) get's the ball. I gotta believe he's down to his last chance. But that is just my opinion.

Off Day Open Thread 6/18

We're not discussing yesterday's game.

We're not discussing Tuesday's game, either.

What we are discussing today are walk-on songs -- the songs that play when a pitcher takes the mound, when a batter comes up to the plate, etc. We know that Timmy's walk-on song is the rocking "Electric Feel" by MGMT, and Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" belongs to Robb Nen.

So of course the topic is -- what would you pick for your walk-on? Let's hear it in the comments.

Big Moves today!!

The Giants optioned Emmanuel Burriss, who was in an 0-for-27 slide, Matt Downs Was brought Up from Fresno. In order to do all this, Holm was designated for assignment. Looks like The Giants didn't want to wait around for Burriss that 0-4 night stranding 6 runners last night sure didn't help. Bummer For Frandsen as he was not eligible to be recalled as there is a 10 day waiting period to be recalled after being sent down.

Santana (forearm) is out for the Angel's Meaning Sean OSullivan will be making his MLB debut!

Tonight's Lineup:

SS Renteria
LF Winn
C Molina
1B Sandoval
3B Aurilia
2B Downs
P Sanchez

Question of the day:

Is Pablo Sandoval deserving of an All-star spot? I say with his batting average being in the top 5 and solid power numbers, rbis, hell yes! Your thoughts?

A little perspective!

Okay, it did not look good for a long, long time there. It was the return of The Bad Baron, when we've been seeing a lot of The Good Baron.

But: once we gave the ball over to the bullpen, we only allowed two more runs (dingers off of Miller and Medders) for the rest of the game.

During that time, we scored seven runs. And the guys who were coming off the bench -- Lewis, Whiteside, Ishikawa, flipping Torres! -- were the ones getting on base and scoring. Plus Pablo bringing the heat twice? Awesome.

So there's a bright side to all of this, believe it or not. Starting in the fifth inning, our bullpen allowed one run. Starting in the sixth inning, we scored *seven* runs.

It wasn't enough to win today, but it was enough to show that we aren't going to roll over and take it -- we're going to claw back.

Also, don't hug the panda; he will bite you.

How to Win a series

How to win a series:

a) Have two of three of your starters pitch complete games

b) Only have to rely on your bullpen for 2 out of 27 innings

c) Make some Amazing Defensive plays... including two impressive throws to nail greedy runners

d) Bench Fred Lewis in lieu of Nate Schierholtz

e) Hot an inside the park home run as Nate Schierholtz

f) Execute an awesome drag bunt (to piss of the a's fans) and hit a monster shot to left field

g) Dominate the Opposing line-up with light's out pitching!

I am fired up after this series. We did everything right... We put the league on notice. Were not gonna hit a ton but dammit, were going to dominate with our pitching, beat you with our defense, and do everything we can to beat you.

Were now 6 games over .500

Were now in the lead for the wild card spot.

Our top two pitchers are DOMINATING and are early cy young favorites... The young guys are producing and grinding... It is a great time to be a fan! Next up is the angels! Bring em on!

Aw, Bengie!

I have a soft spot for Bengie Molina, especially because his blog, Behind the Mask is so well-done. I love getting his insights and hearing his stories. When my Bloglines exploded, like, last week, it pulled up some old posts from April '08, including this post about his past and his family, and how Bengie nearly gave up on baseball until his mother harangued an Angels scout to take a look at Bengie, who had no baseball shoes (had to borrow Jose's, as he'd thrown his own up on a telephone wire in frustration) and a Wal-Mart mitt.

Anyway, from Baggs' post-game notes from yesterday's game:

"“A lot of times I feel bad about (my speed),” he said. “I want to help these guys get the RBIs they deserve. But this is what God gave me. I’ve got to do the best I can with it. If it were up to me, I’d score every time they get a hit.

“That’s why I want to catch, that’s why I want to block every ball in the dirt, that’s why I want to throw guys out. That’s why. There’s one part of my game I feel bad about. That’s why I want to do so many other things to overcome that.”"

And last night, Bengie also proved the point I've been saying: if you hit it out of the park, you don't have to run as fast!

A quick thought from Baggs on the draft

From today's post:

"As a postscript to the baseball draft and the beginning of the Stephen Strasburg era, SI.com offers this cautionary reminder. In 1997, the Tigers took reliever Matt Anderson with the No. 1 pick. He was in the majors by 1998, with a fastball above 100 mph. In 2002, he injured his arm — throwing an octopus in hopes of winning Red Wings playoff tickets. He was never the same."

I would say something about Red Wings fans, but, you know, maybe I will leave it to the two of you who actually do care about hockey.

Random thoughts:

Randy Johnson will be pitching tonight's game on 3 days rest: I know having a 45 year old pitcher going on 3 days rest seems pretty frightening but don't fret: Johnson has made nine career regular-season starts on three days of rest, posting a 6-1 record and 2.84 ERA with a strikeout/walk ratio of 80/16. Out of those 9 games, he has pitched 3 complete games!

How about Aaron Rowand! The man is on fire! Longest active hitting streak in the majors. He just seems to be seeing everything coming his way, it was fun to see Florida avoiding him towards the end of last nights game... Perhaps Rowand is can make a case for the all-star game?

Good to see the giants having a successful road-trip for once.. seems like everyone is contributing (well except for Renteria, whats up with that guy?) 4-2 with 4 to play... finish strong guys!

Todays stuff

Pat Misch has been picked up on waivers By the Met's. He was out of options with the Giant's and had to clear waivers to get back to Fresno. The Met's, dealing with the injury to J.J. Putz, apparently felt he would be a help to there organization. So long Misch. I never cared for you, but heres hoping you get that elusive win that has haunted you for so long.

As of this moment, the Giant's are in another *gasp* Rain delay! That makes four games in fours days! The boys are going to be pro's at this by the time they get home! Game ahould get in... Heres hoping for win number 4 in a row!

Check Out These Bad Boys

sweeeeeeeet

rumors

there is a rumor that matt cain will pitch monday on three days rest in place of randy johnson (johnson bruised his pitching shoulder on that awesome webgem last night during win number 300) Cain had 82 pitches in last nights rain shortened win. it is also rumored that cain volunteered for this...stay tuned...

Best Picture Ever!

Taken From Espn.com Page 2 (Kurt Snibbe)

I couldn't resist! Here is hoping tonight is the night for 300! Go Randy!

On the same wavelength...

Looks like Baggarly agrees with Garrett and me on the likelihood that Matt Cain will be (one of?) the Giant(s) at the All-Star Game.

From Baggarly:

"Cain is 6-1 and his 2.31 ERA ranks third in the National League. Improved run support helps to explain the jump in victories. But Cain also has been close to unhittable with runners in scoring position.

He has held opponents to a .109 average (5 for 46) with runners in scoring position. With two out, hitters are 1 for 24 against him in those situations."

Yes, he doesn't have the glamour stat of strikeouts, as Jack's pointed out, but the others are a pretty strong argument.

(Basically I do not want to talk about tonight's game. Can you blame me?)

I had no Idea!

A great Article on Espn.com (Jim Caple)Today about Randy Johnson. One fact in here I had no idea about:

"Johnson has been on the mound for 4,091 innings in his career and in left field for one inning. In the final game of the 1993 season, he played left next to center fielder Ken Griffey Jr. Unfortunately, no one hit a ball to him.
"He asked Lou Piniella and Lou said, 'Yeah, go get out there,' and I was like 'Huh?'" Griffey recalls. "I was definitely going to let him have everything. He's out there, I definitely have to see how much ground he can cover. Because they might put him out there again, you never know. He did tell me that he would take all the fly balls up high and I could take the ones down low because he was taller."

This reminds me of the time Noah Lowry took the outfield and Pedro Feliz ended up Catching due to a depleted bench. But Randy Johnson in the outfield? That is a sight to see!

Also Of interesting note. Randy Johnson has thrown over 68,000 pitches in his career! Yikes! Cruise on over to Espn.com and check out the article. It is quite neat!

Question of the day

So it's an off-day (boo) And with all the talk about All-star balloting I wanted to pose a question and see what you guys think...

Which Giant(s) at this point in the season do you think deserve to be in the All-star game? I for one think that Molina is making a strong case for his first ever all-star appearance. Not to mention Cain (6-1) and Timmy (4-1) are putting up the numbers to make a case as well. That's my list. Who do you got people?

Off Day Open Thread: 6/1/09

Happy June! We just finished our May over .500, we're heading out to play the Natinals, the Marlins, and the D-backs, then we head on home to host the A's and the Angels.

Found some good posts on the MLB Blackout policy, which tripped up me and Garrett back in the Oregon days. Turns out the majority of Oregon is claimed by both Seattle and the Bay Area teams, if you look at the blackout map, but as anyone in Oregon can tell you, you can't watch the Giants or A's unless they're playing the Mariners, since they're CSN Northwest (and thus, Mariners-only). Technically you're "in the Giants market" and so you can't watch Giants games on MLB TV, even though San Francisco is ten hours away. Bogus. The Dugout covers the stupidity of these blackouts as well.

For all of my groaning about AtBat killing my iPhone's battery, I'm relieved that they allow me to listen to my local team on the radio without blacking me out. (Not wanting to bring in an actual AM radio to the office, I have to listen to KNBR's non-game programming online and the game broadcasts on the iPhone, since KNBR can't rebroadcast MLB games on the internet.)

Anyway, I'd like to hear from out-of-market or in-market or wherever Giants fans today, and how you make it work for you.