Marty,

After writing the latest article on the state of the Giants’ pitching I searched for an appropriate title and gave consideration to describing it as a “shambles”. I decided that such a description might be too disheartening and,instead, settled on describing it as being in disrepair and asking whether it could be salvaged. On picking up this morning’s paper, I discovered that Glenn Dickey had no such cumpunctions and reasonably described the present pitching plight as a “shambles”. There could have been no greater justification for the use of such appelation than reading in the same paper that the Giants had just called up a heretofore remarkably unsuccessful pitcher, when pitching in the majors, from the Fresno farm. Giants fans, who have consistently been supporting the club with record breaking attendance deserve better. The earlier announced justification for for disposing of Ortiz was to save the money it would have cost to retain him, thereby forcing Sabean to look around for the best deal. That coming up with Moss was the best solution is open to question but the primary culprit is management. The Giants, if they are to have a successful year, are probably going to have to spend as much money as they saved by getting rid of Ortiz. It is exceedingly unlikely that any new face they come up with is going to be as good a pitcher as Ortiz. Further, to compound the lack of foresight on management’s part, their actions may end up costing them a pennant and the resultant income benefits that would produce. Ed [Read more →]

During this time of year don’t be surprised when your favorite pitcher gets knocked around. Most pitchers who have been working in the regular rotation have now logged over 100 innings. The weather is warming up in the midwest and east, so get used to seeing your guy getting knocked out of the box.

The real test of the 2003 season will begin after the all star break. Most teams will have played over 90 games by next week’s all star game, this means there will be around 70 games to go until the end of the season. With ten weeks to play seventy games, there won’t be many off days, meaning the standings can change dramatically as teams wilt during the dog days of summer.

Arizona is playing real well right now. Everytime they go to the minors for a player, they come up with what looks like a gem. Last night was no exception as sidewheeling lefty Chris Capuano threw seven major league innings at the Padres for his first major league win.

What’s up with the Padres Jake Peavy? He gave up four homers last night. I pointed out last week that the veterans are doing the job for Arizona and that one shouldn’t look at the Diamondbacks as some rookie heavy team. Homers last night from Craig Counsell, Luis Gonzalez, Steve Finley, and Shea Hillenbrand, all established major leaguers should open the Giants eyes, if they aren’t open already.

Click below for more!

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Marty; At the start of yesterday’s game against St. Louis the Giants had two outstanding starters, Schmidt and, surprisingly, Williams. Each of the remaining members of the rotation presented problems. Rueter had been lit up in his two previous starts, Foppert was a promising youngster who had not developed in a manner consistent with his spring training numbers,and Moss had for two months been a disaster. By the second inning the problems were magnified. Reuter had come down with a sore left shoulder and removed himself from the game.He now is on the DL. When he returns is anyone’s guess.

Click below and I’ll give you my thoughts.
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Barry Zito gave up 15 hits and seven runs to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays Tuesday night in another mystifying performance for the reigning Cy Young award winner.

In Zito’s last three starts he has surrendered thirty five hits.

How come?

Zito has given up a number of cheap hits, but that doesn’t account for his problem. His fastball location does. Zito hits about 88 MPH on his heater, not a lot by major league standards. Consequently, when he puts it over the plate he gets hit. Zito has not been able to throw the fastball without getting creamed.

Zito lacks command of his pitches right now, his curve ball is still superb, but major league hitters can eventually sit on a pitch if they know that is the only one you can throw when the going gets tough.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with Zito other than his being human. With all the hits he has given up, he still has pitched 126 innings and been tagged for only 111 hits, pretty good.

More importantly, he has to figure out a way not to let big league hitters foul off so many of his pitches, so he can still be in the game in the eighth inning, he needs to keep his pitch total down.

The Yankees lost Alfonso Soriano and Derek Jeter for a couple of games at least, when both were hit by Pedro Martinez fastballs on the hand in Monday’s game.

Martinez pitches up and in, these hitters dive over the plate, the collisions are inevitable. That’s baseball, when Martinez is on the hill, you don’t dive across the plate, Don Drysdale did the same thing to batters, so did Bob Gibson and they are in the Hall of Fame.

Click below for more. [Read more →]

Many of my friends have no

idea how the Giants keep

winning. Some tell me

“…they are playing weak

teams…” or …”they’re a lucky

team…”

Well, recently they beat the

Cardinals 3 of 4 in St Louis.

The Cards are the only team

in baseball that have 4 guys

that could drive in 100 or more

runs this season.

By Amaury Pi-González

Click below and I’ll explain why. [Read more →]

The triple crown run of Luis Pujols is one of the quietest in baseball history. Carl Yastrezmski did it last in 1967 for the Red Sox. Leading the league in batting average, runs batted in, and homers is simply amazing in today’s game of big time sluggers. Pujols is doing Mickey Mantle stuff with his .378 average, 26 homers, and 80 RBI’s heading into the game at Wrigley today.

The guy might hit .400 too, which is another complete story.

Until the Cradinals do something about closing a game with Jeff Fassero, Esteban Yan, and Cal Eldred I can’t take them all that seriously.

I’m just curious is Erubiel Durazo trying to hit all those balls the other way, is he only seeing pitches on the outside part of the plate, or is his bat speed slower than I think?

I know his average doesn’t reflect it, but Jermaine Dye has hit some balls very hard lately. His knee injury has sapped him of his ability to lift the ball regularly, but he can hit some shots for doubles and contribute to the team if this trend continues.

Miguel Tejada is a tough out, but he still looks like he is very uncomfortable once he has to make up his mind as to whether or not to swing at the pitch. It seems to me his head is up in the air instead of buried in his shoulder immediately after his swing.

Eric Chavez will hit 35 homers, drive in over 100 runs, but will still not be a 3 or 4 hitter. Amazing that he hasn’t stepped up his game in this his fifth year in the majors.

Folks therein lies the story of the A’s 3,4,5,and 6 hitters. Don’t blame the lack of little ball or any other supporting member of the offense, the big guys need to get it done just like they do it in NY, Boston, Toronto, Anaheim, and Seattle.

The A’s have 76 games to get it together, so all is not lost, but they sure don’t look like champions right now.

Click below for more. [Read more →]

Here’s how the A’s can get one of the Dodgers stud setup men, Paul Quantrill or Paul Shuey (I prefer Quantrill.)

They need to send a good prospect and a so-so prospect to the Rockies for Preston Wilson, who is having a great year but makes a ton of money (9 mil next year and 12 mil in 04). The A’s get the Rockies to also throw in the remaining $2 mil on Wilson for this year. The Rockies will do this to get the prospects and to be rid of his 04 and 05 salary. The A’s might have to give up two good prospects (Duchscherer and Joe Blanton?)

The A’s then send Wilson and the cash for 03 to the Dodgers for Quantrill. The Dodgers can afford Wilson’s 04 and 05 salaries more than the Rockies or the A’s.

This also takes the Dodgers out of the running for guys the A’s might want, like Rondell White. [Read more →]

Today, July 5th, is the anniversary of the day Larry Doby broke the color line in the American league in 1947. Just 11 weeks after Jackie Robinson integrated the National League, Bill Veeck brought Doby, a tremendous athlete into Cleveland.

Doby’s teammates looked the other way when introduced to him. Doby had not been part of the team in spring training like Robinson had for the prior two springs.

Doby played nine innings at first base for the Indians and then only pinch hit for the rest of the season.

In 1948, with the friendship of second baseman Joe Gordon helping him, Doby played a major roll getting the Indians to the world series against the Braves.

It was not easy for any man of color in those days to do anything significant in America’s white society, but Larry Doby stood tall and paved the way, just as Jackie Robinson did, in waking up America to the inequites of racial prejudice.

He did it on a baseball field in Cleveland July 5th, 1947.

Now, folks question why the Giants are doing so well in the NL West. Two words. Barry Bonds. As Ed Stern pointed out wisely in his commentary the other day, the opponent’s must always be aware of Bonds at every turn of the batting order. He makes everyone a better player, and when he is hot, which he is right now, he is the “Man”.

Jesse Foppert and Damian Moss are the two weak links on the team right now and will cost the Giants if not replaced.

Click below for a look at baseball today. [Read more →]

I always wondered as I grew up why the veteran baseball writers made such a big deal of who was leading the race on July the 4th.

They had all sorts of statistics demonstarting that the leaders on the holiday would be meeting in the world series that fall.

More often than not, they were wrong and some Cinderella team arose from the doldrums and charged to the pennant, erasing an 8 or 9 game deficit along the way.

There is some validity to looking at the teams that are in the hunt on July 4th because we have just passed the literal half way point of the season and you can get a pretty fair idea of why a team is either struggling or playing well.

Of, course all this can change quickly. My good friend Leonard Koppett always told me that as long as a team’s record was .500 on August first, they were in the race. He amended that date to September first because of the wild card, which allowed teams at the break even point heading into the last month to be within striking distance of the newly created way into the playoffs.

With that in mind let’s look at the leaders on the 4th and see who may catch them.

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Marty: There is a story in today’s morning paper by one of the paper’s major sports writers concerning the Giants. It analyzes the club’s personnel and makes all the talent, or lack of talent, assessments that could have been made before the season started. It’s conclusion is that the team could “still make the post season as a wild card but the run won’t go as smoothly as in that giddy first month”. Nothing of great consequence respecting personnel has changed since the first day of the season except the injury to Ainsworth and emergence of Williams. A more interesting story would have revolved around the question, why do the Giants win, particularly if one had a reasonable answer to give.

Let me try to answer, what Glenn Dickey in the SF Chronicle couldn’t, in my analysis of the Giants.

Click below for more! [Read more →]