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I’m Back, Baby!

Jul 25, 2008 Me 1 Comment

To anyone out there who has been paying me the compliment of visiting this blog, I’m sorry. I was on hiatus for a long time but I promise it won’t happen again. And it was for a good reason - I got married.

The few weeks before the wedding were incredibly hectic and we are now wrapping up a two week honeymoon. It’s been awesome, and I’m going to share a bit of it here. We’re currently in San Francisco, and today I saw my first Giants’ game — Matt Cain threw a complete game shutout.

We wrap up the honeymoon by spending the rest of this weekend in San Francisco, then it’s back home. From that point I’ll really be revving things up around here — focusing heavily on the Eagles and even paying a couple of visits to Bills’ training camp (right down the road from me).

So, again, apologies for the long break — now let’s get psyched for football season.

Despair

Mar 27, 2008 MLB Leave a comment

One popular Giants’ blogger has had enough.

Five years on the Giants, and during that time, I’ve been mostly critical of them, but at least there seemed to be some sense of competence and respect in the way they went about their business. I haven’t agreed with everything, but at least they appeared to be giving an honest effort. The way these last couple of year has gone, and the way they (Magowan and Sabean, in particular) have been acting, is, frankly, abhorrent to me. Most of you have noticed that all I ever write anymore is complaints and criticisms. Well, I’ve noticed, too.

This team makes me mad, disappointed, and most importantly, uninterested. I am not interested in being lied to. I am not interested in a team that has so little respect for its fans that they would think it’s OK to shit all over the greatest player in team history. I am not interested in an owner and general manager who think it’s OK to field a team of has-beens, misfits, and never-was, washed-up players; and then lie about it right to my face.

Yikes. Ladies and Gentlemen, you’re 2008 San Francisco Giants!

By the way, this team is now 8-20 in spring training. They played their own AAA Club, Fresno, yesterday… and lost. San Francisco is a baseball town, there is no doubt. But this team is going to start and finish terribly, and there is little in the way of young hitting talent to make anyone hopeful. That is enough to badly damage attendance anywhere. And 2009 isn’t going to be any better.

Brian Sabean is not going to last into next season as GM. He better not, anyway. Under his control, this team has not drafted and developed a single significant hitter through its own system. Not one! It’s embarrassing.

Barry Bonds covered up the many mistakes of the Sabean era for a long time. Now that he’s gone, it’s apparent to even the casual fan that this guy is a fraud.

Free Agency Midnight Madness

Feb 28, 2008 Eagles Rumors Leave a comment

Since thinking about the San Francisco Giants gives me a migraine, I’m going to continue to focus on the Eagles even though they don’t play a meaningful game for another seven months. OK? OK.

We’ll finally get some action to supplant all the speculation of the last month as free agency begins tonight. Don’t be surprised if one or two players sign in the first couple of hours — somehow hashing out a deal with their new team in such a brief period (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

As to the Eagles, I doubt you’ll see much from them in the first couple of days. They like to let the landscape unfold before they start writing checks.

(P.S. — This morning Buster Olney declared the Giants as his candidate for worst team in the majors — despite having a “top 10 pitching staff”. That’s how awful this lineup is.)

Devil Rays Had Lincecum

Feb 12, 2008 MLB Leave a comment

In what is just an interesting footnote of recent baseball history, the Devil Rays had a deal worked out with Tim Lincecum in the 2006 draft.

We had Evan Longoria first on our board. We had one other pitcher…We thought Longoria was going to go two to Colorado, and we had cut a deal with Tim Lincecum, to take three. Colorado didn’t take Longoria two. We found out at like 2:30 in the morning, the night before and we ended up taking Longoria, and we are ecstatic with how that turned out.

Not as ecstatic as the Giants are, my friend. The Rays got Longoria, who should get a call-up this season at some point, and Lincecum fell all the way to San Francisco at the #10 spot.  The rest of the first round is littered with players who are still deep in developmental stages, of course.

The Rockies ended up taking Greg Reynolds at #2, who is attending their spring training as a non-roster invitee.

Bittersweet

Feb 11, 2008 MLB Leave a comment

I love the start of baseball season — the promise of a fresh start, the roster decisions, the young guys who light up spring training, fantasy drafts — it’s all part of what makes baseball so great.

But my happiness is tempered a bit this season because of one inescapable truth — the San Francisco Giants are going to suck. And they are going to suck bad.

The lineup is pathetic, the bullpen is questionable, and there isn’t a lot in the way of young talent outside of the pitching staff. Still, there are some things worth paying attention to over the next month and a half:

• Is Kevin Frandsen the answer at third? Exactly how much did he “bulk up”? Is Sabean really interested in Joe Crede?
• Can Ortmeier provide any power at first base?
• Will Sabean find someone to take Dave Roberts?
• Who performs the best out of Schierholtz, Davis, and Lewis? Who gets sent down when the season begins?
• What, if any, changes have Cain and Lincecum made in the off-season?
• Will Zito rebound?

All of these questions will be answered in the context of the Giants being a terrible team, but at least there’s something interesting to focus on. I’ll also be making my first trip to San Francisco this summer and I couldn’t be any more excited about that.