The Yannigan

With the fifth pick in the upcoming rule 4 draft, the Giants should draft masher first baseman Justin Smoak, should he be available. He will hit boatloads of home runs into McCovey Cove. The Giants need that sort of thing. Villalona is still years away. It'll be good.

No more pitchers. Please.

Yawn.

I'm ready for the Giants to move on and be terrible without him. I enjoyed what he did on the baseball field for my favorite team. When do pitchers and catchers report?

This was posted several months ago, but it is a fantastic piece on one of my favorite Giants ever, Robb Nen.

I know we all hate word verification, but I hate comment spam even more. It's like seeing graffiti on your house.

It's hard to maintain a sports blog- you have to be both good and prolific to keep people coming back. That's a tall order for most of us who live busy lives and it is why this site lies dormant for months on end.

It's always fun to get excited or gripe about baseball, and as usual, I hope to be doing it more now that I am graduating from college in a week. No promises though, and there is certainly enough good Giants content out there to satisfy blog readers.

It's time to look at what the Giants are doing. I don't like very much of it.

Lance Niekro: Full time First Baseman

From Rotoworld:

"Giants GM Brian Sabean indicated that he'd give Lance Niekro a chance to be his team's regular first baseman."

"Niekro hit .206/.251/.335 in 170 at-bats against right-handers last season"

He hasn't been an acceptable hitter in the minors either. This is not a good idea at all. I am surprised Niekro did as well as he did last year, and he was nothing special. WHY, Brian? Is it the major league name on the jersey?


LaTroy Hawkins traded to Baltimore for Steve Kline:

Another thumbs down. As you might have read elsewhere, Hawkins shut down lefties last year, and Kline got lit up by them. Say what you want about Hawkins, he's been consistently solid for the past few years when it's all said and done. He will pitch more innings more effectively than Steve Kline will next season.

Kline has done well to prevent runs, but with a subpar strikeout rate, and coming off a poor year, he is a big question mark.

I was pretty tickled with the way Jack Taschner performed following a full time switch to the bullpen. The walks aren't great, but he has certainly pitched well enough to get a shot next season.

Pursuing Matt Morris

I've been a fan of the guy for a long time (what a rookie season he had) but the home runs have gone up, the K's have gone down, and he just doesn't seem like a good investment for more than a 2 year deal. He gave up about a hit an inning even when he won 22 games, and has done about that since. He's just not an ace pitcher anymore. Still, I'd be happy to see him in San Francisco. I saw him shut out a pathetic Bonds-free lineup out at Mays Field a couple years ago (Tom Goodwin led off, got on base either four or five times, and stole three bases).

So many IFs. Not very reassuring to Giants fans. A lot of things have to fall into place to win a World Championship, and the Giants are just banking on too many longshots for that to happen. Barry Bonds and his knees in the field for 120 games? I doubt.

Prove me wrong, Giants.

heh

never mind

I thought too highly of Jake Peavy

I think the Padres will beat St. Louis. Just a hunch. Go NL West!