San Francisco Giants

Pablo Sandoval had a feeling back in spring training that the San Francisco Giants could have high-output offensive nights like this. It certainly helped ease any nerves rookie Ryan Sadowski may have had in his home debut. Sandoval hit a two-run homer and an RBI triple to boost his bid for an...

By Andrew Baggarly Manager Bruce Bochy said there will probably be a roster move made after the game. Rich Aurilia is ready to come off the bereavement list and a position player (Fred Lewis? Matt Downs? Maybe even Aurilia?) figures to be the odd-man out. Stay tuned.

By Dan Pieroni LA Dodgers fans will rejoice as their suspended slugger Manny Ramirez returns from his 50-game suspension tonight after testing positive for a female growth hormone banned by MLB. His return makes the Dodgers stronger, and you'd be hard pressed to find a team in the National League that c...

By Ranier Reglos The Giants number one prospect Madison Bumgarner just won again, but you know what? What else is new with this kid? Just think in a couple seasons a rotation starring Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, Tim Alderson, and that guy named Barry Zito will soon come into fruition is sca...

By Administrator In 1912, Giants’ southpaw Rube Marquard won his 19th consecutive game from the start of the season, beating the Dodgers, 2-1. In 1993, Dodgers great Don Drysdale passed away. Born Today: Cesar Tovar (1940), Frank Tanana (1953), Moises Alou (1966)

By Brian McDowell Tonight's 5-2 win against the San Francisco Giants featured plenty of weirdness that would validate such a theory. Todd Wellemeyer, who is generally terrible,  pitched seven solid innings of quality shut out baseball. Things got a little messy for him in the 8th, giving up a two run home ru...

By E.L.M. I'm giving Zito the benefit of the doubt tonight, but since June began he has snuck back more frequently to the Bad Barry Barrio, which raises a caution flag: What if The Big Unit continues his pattern -- seven innings max, more likely 5+ with two or three runs allowed -- and the Zito revival w...

By Simon Balin The Giants may not be able to sign Willie Mays or Willie McCovey in the off-season, but they’ll need to scope out some corner outfielders with the expiring contract of Randy Winn.  Could they add nine or ten guys? Probably not, but they could use a left fielder, a shortstop, a first baseman, a...

By Administrator In 1962, Dodgers pitcher Johnny Podres tied a National League record with eight consecutive strikeouts in a 5-1 victory over the Phillies. In 1995, Dodgers righthander Hideo Nomo became the first player from Japan to be selected for the major league All-Star game.

By Andy Bensch San Francisco ranks second in team ERA with a 3.61 mark, just .01 behind the division-leading Dodgers. Just look at the last few World Series winners: Just be patient, because Buster Posey and Angel Villalona will soon be in San Francisco. That is, if Brian Sabean doesn't trade them away.

By E.L.M. One pitcher with numbers that are impossible to argue with is Giants righty Tim Alderson. After leading the California League in ERA during his full-season debut last year, the 20-year-old has a 2.36 ERA in his first nine Eastern League starts for Double-A Connecticut. Scouts still find it...

By Kevin O'Brien While there are rumors that the Giants will also be looking at Victor Martinez, the main focus it seems for the Giants will be on Jermaine Dye, the longtime right fielder and former World Series MVP for the Chicago White Sox. Getting Dye isn't a home run of course.

By Bare Knucks National League Cy Young: Tim Lincecum/ SP/ San Francisco Giants National League Rookie of the Year: Pablo Sandoval/ 3B/ San Francisco Giants 340 BA, 11 HR, 38 RBI, .391 OBP NL West 1. Los Angeles Dodgers 2. San Francisco Giants 3. Colorado Rockies 4. San Diego Padres 5. Arizona Diamondbacks

By Andrew Baggarly Rowand was hit by Clayton Mortensen, a pitcher making his major league debut, and the center fielder joked that the Giants had two scouting reports on the kid. One report said his fastball was straight. The other said it was a sinker. “Yeah, sinker,” Rowand said.

By Andrew Nuschler Here's the thing though—the 2009 San Francisco Giants weren't expected to make the playoffs by most keen observers of Major League Baseball.  Had you told me the Los Angeles Dodgers would have the best record in baseball as the season lopes into July, I'd've said San Francisco would be pla...

By Grant If the Giants consider themselves "buyers" at the trade deadline, they should make three trades: one for a second baseman, one for a first baseman, and one for a corner outfielder with power (and on-base skillz, of course) whose defense doesn’t make him a liability. Stipulation #1: Matt C...

By Grant David Eckstein's career numbers against the Giants: .231/.279/.298. I...words fail. Scrappy, OBP-dependent gritmasters hit worse against the Giants than they do against the rest of baseball. At least, the two most annoying examples from recent history do.

By Andy Bensch The two men in question are Giants manager Bruce Bochy and General Manager Brian Sabean. I'll start with the latter. Even with the Giants' most exciting offensive player Pablo Sandoval tied for third in the National League with a .336 average, the Giants are just as offensively inept as they...

By Andy Bensch A week ago, Cy Young Award winners Tim Lincecum and Randy Johnson were joined by future Cy Young Award winner Matt Cain as the starting pitchers in the battle of the bay series. Clearly Pucetas and Sadowski are no Tim Lincecum or Matt Cain, but either one of them could easily turn around the Gi...

By james smith The guy can hit. He has hit over .300 every stop along the way in the Giants minor league system.  The Giants are in desperate need of some O. From where-ever. Frandsen sticks with it. While he's beginning to show signs of being mildly ticked at not getting, in his view, his fair crack at the job, Fra...

By Grant There could probably be a series on potential roster moves. Jonathan Sanchez or Other? Kevin Frandsen or Matt Downs? Rich Aurilia's gold watch: 14k or 18k? The one that fascinates me, though, is the glut of mid-20s, kinda interesting outfielders who may or may not be a part of the Giants' fu...

By Grant Frandsen isn’t likely to ever be an All-Star. His ceiling might be as a decent utility option for a good team. It might make sense to trade for a second baseman instead of making a Burriss/Frandsen swap, which in the grand scheme of things, might only be worth an extra win over the remainder of...

By John Fennelly Giants 101 is under the Screaming Sports umbrella of sites. Written by four dedicated Giants fans, they offer excellent analysis and do a good job culling the Giants blogosphere for interesting tidbits. Giants Gab, run by Jeremy Fuchs, is a great site for Giants fans. The writers are inform...

By Andrew Nuschler That's because Scoma had tossed his name into the 2009 Major League Baseball Draft, where he was grabbed by the San Francisco Giants in the 36th round.  Franchises spent Tuesday through Thursday analyzing amateur ballplayers and selecting their next generation of stars.

By Grant lt;p>If you really want to save some time, you can just bookmark the following passage:</p> <div class="blockquote">Drafty Draftnovich has a lot of talent, and I'm especially impressed with _baseball-related skill_. A lot of people are worried about _possibly over...

By Danny Penza As Barry Zito said on his Twitter page, “it’s time for the Giants to capitalize.” And he dominated his personal bogeyman, the Arizona Diamondbacks. 4.  Pablo Sandoval—100 at-bats, .300 average, .340 OBP, .810 OPS, nine runs, seven doubles, two triples, two home runs, nine RBI, two stolen base...

By John Fennelly David Carr - Carr was reunited with his old coach, Chris Palmer, last season when the Giants rescued him from a torridly brutal existence in which he was sacked 262 times in his first six seasons. Carr was the first overall selection in the 2002 draft, taken by the expansion Houston Texans, a...

By Ranier Reglos After a sub-par start to the season, the San Francisco Giants are heading into May with a 10-10 record, going 7-3 in their last 10 games. Meanwhile, Aaron Rowand, Edgar Renteria, and Pablo Sandoval continue to lift their own respected batting averages. 

By Andrew Baggarly Plus, the principals involved – Rich Aurilia, Bengie Molina – had some great pearls to share. And really, it wasn’t a bad way to win, Aurilia said. Deadpanned Bruce Bochy: “We went to the ground attack there.” Aurilia didn’t think anything of it. Until Bonds walked in the door.

By Andrew Baggarly Could be some interesting rosterifications today. The Giants don’t want to start an important series against the Dodgers short-handed, but their six-man bullpen is well worn after their 12-inning loss in Arizona. That might turn out to be more significant than actually losing the game. B...

By obsessivegiantscompulsive(noreply@blogger.com) In any case, I think Sabean has already earned the chance to get an extension to guide the Giants over the next two years. The pitching staff is nearly rebuilt, almost to perfection, and the starting lineup is starting to shape up pretty nicely, and should be ready within 1-2 seasons. The team...

By Grant With Bengie Molina around for another year, the Giants are shoehorning Sandoval in at third just to improve the lineup. While I’m fine with the Sandoval-at-third experiment, I’m a little upset that the Giants feel the experiment requires that Sandoval throw away his catcher’s gear. If th...

By obsessivegiantscompulsive(noreply@blogger.com) Madison BumgarnerBuster PoseyTim AldersonAngel VillalonaConor GillaspieThey also profiled Nick Noonan as an honorable mention, probably because they think he is a breakout candidate for 2009. They also mentioned Travis Ishikawa, Wendell Fairley, and Rafael Rodriguez as honorab...

By Grant Once it was clear that Roberts wasn’t a good defensive center fielder, the Giants decided that they absolutely could not be without a good defensive center fielder. So they committed $60M to Aaron Rowand, who was a good defensive center fielder. Emphasis on the past tense, "was." Rowand dra...

By Trevor(noreply@blogger.com) C: Bengie Molina, Pablo Sandoval 1B: Pablo Sandoval, Travis Ishikawa LF: Fred Lewis, Dave Roberts CF: Aaron Rowand, Dave Roberts P: Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jon Sanchez, Noah Lowry, Barry Zito, Brian Wilson, Alex Hinshaw, Sergio Romo, Merkin Valdez, Billy Sadler

By Grant I was tired enough to write it, but not tired enough to let the mangled syntax slip through without comment. That’s one ugly, ugly sentence. But danged if there isn’t a "sprinkle of giddy" regarding a sub-.500 team. The Giants are throwing money around in the Dominican Republic again, Keith La...

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) Q: Many Giants fans wanted the team to draft a big time power hitter like Justin Smoak or Yonder Alonso. Gordon Beckham was another guy who was on Giants radar as well. Do you think Posey will end up being a better major league hitter than those guys? Q: How do you grade the Giants 2008 draft?

By Grant Barr also went out of his way on KNBR (the .mp3 is here) to bring up Matusz. This leads me to think the Giants’ draft board looks something like this: 1. Tim Beckham or Pedro Alvarez 2. Tim Beckham or Pedro Alvarez 3. Buster Posey 4. Just one of Justin Smoak, Yonder Alonso, or Gordon Beckham

Only Baseball Matters author John Perricone thinks so. In an unexpected chat with The Pitch’s go-to Giants aficionado, Perricone puts the spotlight on the gaping holes in the team’s ‘08 lineup and track record for managing payroll ineffectively. Even with the freedom from the Barry Bond...

By Jeff Kallman Relief pitcher Steve Kline’s ERA is 12.14. Ray Durham has seven hits in his last 64 at-bats. Rich Aurilia can’t keep from getting injured. Omar Vizquel didn’t clear waivers, apparently, leaving the Giants stuck with him for the time being.

By Dave Powers When They Might Be Giants released their first children’s album No! in 2002, it wasn’t such a surprising career move. After all, their brand of oddball indie pop had always been pretty playful, silly and sometimes even educational. The band released a more traditional album in 2004, but re...

By John Ryder This weekend the Giants set a record by having the oldest starting outfield ever. As good as Bonds/Finley/Alou might be, do we really want to be associated with this kind of thing? Think of the jokes. When the Giants go into opposing ballparks, they'll be fodder for fans yelling out On Golden...

By info@mysportsradio.com (MSR - MySportsRadio.com) Regardless of the Giants sitting at 13 games below .500 going into play Tuesday, they still have a shot at in the beleaguered NL West. Join Lance Williams in the latest edition of 1954 and Counting as he discusses the last few series against the Dodgers and the Cubs. Things haven’t gone the Gian...

By info@mysportsradio.com (MSR - MySportsRadio.com) Also, Lance talks about the huge upcoming series’ with the Dodgers and Padres. the Giants are going to need the young starters (Kevin Corriea, Brad Hennessey, Matt Cain) to step it up like Noah Lowry has. These next 2 weeks will decide the season.

By info@mysportsradio.com (MSR - MySportsRadio.com) He’s gone and done it now– Larry Kreuger, a voice on KNBR, the flagship station of the Giants, was quoted as saying on the air that the Giants are a bunch of “brain dead Caribbean hitters hacking at slop nightly.” He also directed a personal comment at manager Felipe Alou, comparing his mind t...

By info@mysportsradio.com (MSR - MySportsRadio.com) Although Lance refuses to dance naked ballets for his wife (though he does love her very much!!!), he has no problem in evaluating the myriad of stories concerning Barry’s return to baseball. Barry says he won’t play for the rest of the season, but Lance gives his take on when/ if Barry will p...

By info@mysportsradio.com (MSR - MySportsRadio.com) Settle in, baseball fans, for a marathon edition of 1954 & Counting! The Rafeal Palmeiro steroids bust garners much attention; hear Lance and David Pinto of baseballmusings.com break it down Raffi and the MLB trade deadline. Is Raffi’s legacy tainted forever? Thoughts of Randy Winn...

By info@mysportsradio.com (MSR - MySportsRadio.com) Whether you’re at a bar mitzvah, eating a piece of cake, or listening to 50 Cent, any time is the right time to listen to 1954 & Counting, My Sports Radio’s PODCAST OF THE WEEK. Join Lance as he discusses the Giants series Vs. the Marlins, and unloads this week’s Power Rankings. Find out what...

By info@mysportsradio.com (MSR - MySportsRadio.com) After commenting on the “red hot & cooking” New York Yankee lineup (VOTE PULSE!), Lance launches into a segment on Moises Alou and reveals Moises’ secret to keeping his hands rough for play. (Hint: You might want to wear a glove if you plan on shaking hands with him.)

By info@mysportsradio.com (MSR - MySportsRadio.com) A Top 5 Finalist for best sports podcast at the People’s Choice Podcast Awards, 1954 & Counting brings you the latest information and commentary on the San Francisco Giants and Major League Baseball. Right now, everyone’s talking about Barry Bonds: will he be back this season? Will h...