Zito to the Bullpen

Last week I posted the Barry Zito Salary Calculator, and now the Giants are sending Zito and his 7.53 earned run average to the bullpen. I hope he loses his 0-6 record somewhere along the way.

The Giants didn't really have much of a choice. Not only are they paying Zito fourteen and a half million dollars this year, but a demotion to the minors would probably wreak havoc on the kid's (that's right, he's only 29) psyche. It was either send him to the 'pen or announce that he was "injured" and let him miss a few starts while he got his mind/arm/chakras right.

I can't sit here and pretend SF doesn't need their 156 million dollar man. Even if he was only 3-3 instead of 0-6, the Giants would be sitting at 14-12, in second place in the NL West. Maybe the change of scenery will do him some good.

Then again, if Francisco Liriano comes back from the minors throwing asprin tablets for Minnesota, we'll know the Giants made the wrong decision.

NL West = Not Good

Here are the current standings in the NL West:

Arizona: 15-6
(Pretty good, right? That's a .714 win percentage!)
Colorado: 9-12
Los Angeles: 9-12
San Diego: 9-13
San Francisco: 9-13

Jesus. What a suck-fest. I don't even have a joke for how...mediocre this all is. So cheer yourself up by playing with the Barry Zito salary calculator. 4,815 orders of garlic fries? Yes, please!

Gameday

Matt Cain takes the hill against the Cardinals today. No analysis right now, I just hope the Giants don't blow it for him again.

Giants Waste Cain's Effort

I didn't get to watch it because Fox decided that Red Sox v. Yankees Part 3,412 was more interesting, but Matt Cain pitched a doozy at AT&T Park today. Dude threw six-plus no-hit innings, and even hit a home run to help his own cause out, but still the Giants lost 7-8.

I believe that's two straight defeats for the West Coast G-Men. At least it was a nice day. Frisbee in Prospect Park heals a lot of wounds...as does rum.

The Giants in the News

The Onion sort of nails it. An unlikely series of events, indeed.

On the plus side, the A's have won four in a row. Now if the Dodgers will just keep losing, I might survive another NYC summer...

Timmy Lincecum, Hero

Absolutely awesome post over at Bay City Ball quantifying Tim Lincecum's bad-assedness. Print it out and read it again later bad-ass.

Full disclosure: I have the sweet smelling munchkin (seriously, dude is smaller than me) on both my fantasy teams, and he is putting in work. However, I was hanging out on Raising (Matt) Cain last night, and posted a comment about how well my boy was pitching. Needless to say, the baseball gods were not impressed.

Lincecum actually pitched really well in the game, but was denied the win. The Giants ended up winning thanks to the heroics of Benjie Molina, who hit not one, but two home runs in the game, including a walk-off in the 11th. That's right, the very same Benjie Molina I trashed in yesterday's post. So, for what it's worth Benjie, I'm sorry I suggested replacing you with a soccer playing Brazilian midget. Keep up the good work, and I promise to find good things to say about you soon.

Oh, the agony

Anyone who's been reading this site (is anyone?) knows that the San Francisco Giants are terrible this year. Even Matt Cain got lit up yesterday. Four runs is a pretty decent offensive day for this crew, but it doesn't do any good when they give up thirteen.

One of my coworkers, a Yankee fan, accurately pointed out that no team with Benjie Molina batting cleanup can even pretend to be decent. Grant over at McCovey Chronicles went so far as to list all the players (believe me, there's a lot of them) on the other National League teams more qualified to fill the four spot at AT&T Park (that is what they're calling it these days, right?). Every other team has at least four players who could bat cleanup on this team.

Honestly, we might be better off with someone from this Giants team, in Brazil.

Update: The Giants have gone up 1-0 on the Padres while I've been hammering out this whine-fest. Prepare yourself for more live Giants-bashing in future games in a sort of elaborate reverse-jinx effort. God I hope they win more than 60 games this year.

Just a Little Off the Top 04/03/2008

Don't have much to say today, so a few links for your entertainment:

The inimitable Big Daddy Drew made me laugh today, with his metaphorical take on Davidson's recent March Madness adventures.

Slate has an entertaining story about the all-consuming nature of fantasy baseball. I still haven't told the girlfriend I'm actually in two leagues this year instead of one. Shh!

Speaking of, Sam Walker's Fantasyland is a fun fantasy baseball read (talk about phrases you never thought you'd hear). I mean, it's no Moneyball, but Amazon is selling the hardcover for seven bucks for some reason, so you can't go wrong.

I think that just about catches us up. I'm trying to arrange another guest post, and might have lined up a full time contributor to the site, so there's a pretty decent chance y'all will get a break from my frequent complaining about the Giants misadventures in the N.L. West.

Until I have something interesting to say...

A Litte Off the Top 04/02/2008

McCovey Chronicles nearly made me put my head through a wall. Then I noticed the date of the post.

Heartache begins anew

Even though it's still March, today is Opening Day (3.0). We had a couple of games in Japan, and the made-for-TV opening of the Nationals new stadium last night, but today, the season began in earnest.

And the Giants are already getting killed. They're currently down 0-4 in the bottom of the third inning, and have stranded multiple runners on base. At least they're getting on base, I suppose.

Expect more posts like this throughout the year.