This & That

[Bear]

Just trying to make people see reality and the light of the day. There is much to be happy about with the Giants but the work has just begun. Like any transition from old to young people get hurt. I want the vets to go where they can win now. So do not think the Bear has gone mad he just want a winner by the bay!

[love_that_reefer]

Reality is we are ten times better than last year and we still had a shot!

[love_that_reefer]

Giants pitchers are leading the Major Leagues in innings pitched and ERA since May 9.

Giants optioned first baseman Travis Ishikawa to Double-A Connecticut.
Ishikawa went 5-for-10 with four extra-base hits and three RBI while filling in for Lance Niekro, but he isn't ready to be the Giants' first baseman. Maybe he'll get mroe of an opportunity in August or September.

[love_that_reefer]

MLB suspended Triple-A Fresno catcher Yamid Haad 50 games for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance.
That's two Fresno players in a week getting suspended for steroids. Former major leaguer Abraham Nunez began serving a 50-game penalty last Thursday. Haad played in 17 games for the Giants last season, going 2-for-28.

[Giants666]

JUST ONE MORE GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and 300 HR'S

[Giants666]

Ishikawa went 5-for-10 with four extra-base hits and three RBI while filling in for Lance Niekro

He's really impressed me...........this kid looks like he'll be something, and it's great that he's a lefty.

[Giants666]

Sabean's legacy tied up in Bonds

IT'S SHAPING UP as a pretty nice weekend for the Brian Sabean Has Lost His Marbles crowd. Which, in fairness, hasn't had a lot to feel good about since, well, ever.

Since Sabean succeeded Bob Quinn as general manager after the 1996 season, the Giants are 170 games over .500 -- tied with St. Louis for the second-best record in the National League during that time. They have appeared in the postseason four times (missing out on a wild-card berth in a special playoff in 1998). They have had just one losing season -- last year when, you may recall, the absence of a certain seven-time Most Valuable Player wreaked havoc with the grand plan.

In short, they have enjoyed their best extended run since opening their West Coast incarnation with 14 consecutive winning seasons. Much of the credit for this happy recent history goes to Sabean -- from the infamous trade of Matt Williams before he even had hung his diploma on the wall of his new office, to the White Flag fleecing of the White Sox the next summer, to the masterstroke deal for Jason Schmidt, to the seemingly dozens of Ellis Burks-, David Bell- and Marquis Grissom-caliber acquisitions.

Through it all he has projected a calm, confident bearing. Through his weekly radio show on house organ KNBR he has demonstrated candor, a quick wit and the kind of persuasive powers that could have convinced Boog Powell that beltless double-knits were a fabulous idea.

The first third of this season, however, has been a little dicey. The team has hovered around .500 (along with the rest of the National League West). Prize offseason addition Matt Morris has struggled. The team has seemed, at turns, aged and infirm. And on bad days, both.

It's hardly a definitive sample. Yet it has emboldened those who believe Sabean has been slowly losing his touch since the 2002 World Series went up in flames. Now here are the Minnesota Twins in Oakland for four games, bearing the fruit of one of Sabean's few regrettable pieces of work.

We speak of the deal for catcher and all-purpose pain in the hindquarters A.J. Pierzynski, for whom the Giants gave up pitchers Boof Bonser (won his first major league game last Saturday; started Thursday night's game against the A's), Francisco Liriano (4-0 with a 2.11 ERA; he won't pitch in this series), and closer Joe Nathan (second in the American League with 93 saves since the beginning of the 2004 season).

This was a bad deal even before the Giants divested themselves of Pierzynski after one contentious season. Considering the quantity and quality of the filthy young arms the Twins took back, it could wind up counting as Sabean's darkest hour in San Francisco.

There have been others. Waiving Bill Mueller and signing Edgardo Alfonzo after the 2002 season. Trading for Sidney Ponson. The team's drafts have been nothing to blog about; under Sabean the Giants have continued their long-standing inability to produce home-grown position players.

All of which provides more than enough damp dynamite to blow a hole in Sabean's San Francisco resume, if that's your inclination. And yet, we keep coming back to: 170 games over .500, meaningful games every April through every September.

Not only that, we keep coming back to the tightly focused mission statement Sabean has been expected to fulfill. If it can rightly be said that Sabean hasn't exactly stocked the farm the past 10 years, it can also rightly be said that it hasn't exactly been an organizational mandate. Bonds, and the window of success he has represented, has been the top priority.

Thus, Sabean's task has differed from that of say, Oakland's Billy Beane, who for years was asked to groom replacements for the fabulous players the A's were going to have to let slip away when their contracts expired.

Sabean could not serve the Bonds window with players who would be on top of their game three years from now. He has needed known quantities, veteran players who already were as good as they were going to get. He needed players who would complement Bonds' skills, and who would work for wages that would complement his hefty salary. The older Bonds has gotten, and the higher his salary has soared, the more exacting Sabean's task has become.

The law of averages can be any GM's worst enemy when it comes to making trades. Sabean has enjoyed something less than the standard-issue margin of error. So sure, there will be times when the likes of Bonser (life ain't easy for a boy named Boof; sorry, had to do it), Liriano and Nathan will swing through town as a reminder of the deals that didn't work out. If that feeds your inner muse, then have a swell weekend.

On the other hand, there will be that body of work thing suggesting Sabean has hit far more than he has missed, and that Giants fans have been the happy beneficiaries of his work.

Happier some years, it bears noting, than others.

[love_that_reefer]

He's really impressed me...........this kid looks like he'll be something, and it's great that he's a lefty.

Too quick to judge. Remember Bo Hart for the Cards a few years ago? He looked great and was never heard from again. His numbers in AA aren't even that great. I hope he turns out to be the next Todd Helton but we will have to wait and see.

[Giants666]

Too quick to judge. Remember Bo Hart for the Cards a few years ago? He looked great and was never heard from again. His numbers in AA aren't even that great. I hope he turns out to be the next Todd Helton but we will have to wait and see.

Yeah I know it's early, but what I've seen has been good in his cups of coffea, he's been able to handle the pitching, stats aren't everything Reef.............remember Todd Linden last year he was smoking the PCL............WTF did he do. But I see your point though Reef..........But you know what if Niekro starts struggling with hitting RHP's, then make the call for Travis...............But i'm sure Niekro will go on the DL again...............So he'll have his chances to keep impressing.

[love_that_reefer]

Hey if the guy out perfroms Niekro, he's gone! Linden was a huge disappointment and he still has hope but not very much left with the Giants. Sanchez has looked sharp!

[love_that_reefer]

Alou could be back in the lineup as early as tomorrow!!! Talk about a boost. Taking a series from the Mets in NY and now this? I smell good things!

[Giants666]

Alou could be back in the lineup as early as tomorrow!!! Talk about a boost. Taking a series from the Mets in NY and now this? I smell good things!

That would be ****ing great.

Notes: Alou on verge of returning

[love_that_reefer]

This from http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5666594

Giants are buyers, not sellers

Eliminate Giants right-hander Jason Schmidt, a potential free agent, from the list of pitchers who might be available at the July 31 non-waiver deadline.

The Giants, who have never dumped veterans for prospects during Peter Magowan's 13-year tenure as owner, expect to compete all season in the N.L. West.

"We're strictly buyers," Giants general manager Brian Sabean says. "I can't see us falling off the map and wanting to be sellers."

Sabean, however, also says that he doesn't expect to offer Schmidt, who ranks eighth in the N.L. with a 2.70 ERA, a contract extension before the end of the season.

The Angels signed right-hander Kelvim Escobar to a three-year, $28.5 million extension last week, but Sabean says it would be unfair to make Schmidt an offer when the Giants' roster includes several other potential free agents.

The list includes not only left fielder Barry Bonds, but also right fielder Moises Alou, second baseman Ray Durham, third baseman Pedro Feliz and left-handed reliever Steve Kline.

"With or without (Bonds), we're going to go through a transformation," Sabean says. "We're going to rebuild and retool at the same time."

The Giants have yet to win more than three in a row or lose more than four in a row this season, but soon could get on a roll: They will face sub-.500 opponents in five of their next six series, and Alou is expected to come off the disabled list Monday night.

This should put an end to any talks of rebuilding in June.

[love_that_reefer]

Tim Worrell (neck) is eligible to come off the disabled list on Monday.
``We have to get Timmy back on the wagon to see how he's doing,'' manager Felipe Alou said. The Giants bullpen has pitched well lately so it is tough to figure out who will be demoted when Worrell is activated. Jonathan Sanchez has the least experience in the pen and thus is the likely candidate.

[Bear]

I have no clue who will be demoted. I hate to see any of these young pitchers sent down to keep around a arm that may never be up to it again. It will be sad to see one of the kids sent down to make room for Worrell. JMO