Amaury– I haven’t given up on the Giants yet. It is far too early to throw in the towel. Somehow, this team, over the past three years, has managed to make believers out of non-believers too often to allow the luxury of surrendering early. Having said that, where are they going to find three more starting pitchers? How long are they going to continue starting Rueter for the simple pleasure of seeing him give up a five run lead which he enjoyed by the bottom of the second inning? If some club needs a left-handed batting practice pitcher maybe the Giants can find a place for him.

Click below for more of Ed’s well thought out response!

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Believe it or not, the Texas Rangers are sitting comfortably atop the AL West this morning.

There are many reasons why a team suddenly jells and the Ranger story begins with Michael Young. Not only is he hitting .362, but he is playing nice shortstop replacing you know who.

Alfonso Soriano hammered the weak pitchers last year and he is starting to heat up as the Rangers walloped the Red Sox this weekend.

Make no mistake, the Red Sox are good, but their offense is a shell of what it was last year. When you have no alternative to Cesar Crespo with the game on the line in the ninth inning, you know there is trouble in paradise. The Sox miss Nomar and Trot Nixon. Just too much Pokey Reese, Mark “the walking man” Bellhorn and David McCarty in this lineup for me.

Bill Mueller and Brian Daubach haven’t hit much to date either.

So, the Rangers have a bullpen and last night Francisco Cordero saved his 10th game of the year. RA Dickey shut the Angels down earlier in the season, last night he mesmerized the Sox with his knuckle curve. Is he for real? Could be, and we’ll see this month.

Chan Ho Park, Kenny Rogers, Ryan Drese, and Jaoquin Benoit lead the starters, need I say more. Enjoy the resurgence while it lasts.

Texas can hit, they are playing nice and loose and I hope they hang in because it makes the West a terrific place to play.

With Tampa Bay and its band of underachievers due in this week, things look rosy in Texas.

click below for more. [Read more →]

In 2002 the Anaheim Angels
finished the month of April
6-14. I remember in some
Press Boxes some reporters
talking about:
When is Angel manager
Mike Sciosia is going to
be fired ?
That same season the
Angels won the World
Series over the Giants
in seven games.

By Amaury Pi-González
San Francisco [Read more →]

Batter Up May 1st

The A’s were swept in Yankee Stadium this week and all of baseball marveled how the sputtering New Yorkers saved their season. The same may be said of the A’s if they learn from the debacle in the Bronx.

Here’s why.

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After winning three of four games on Tuesday night, the AL West was swept on Wednesday.

Detroit can hit and did so against Bartolo Colon who continues his disturbing pattern set last season when he would inexplicably lose games that you would think he had in the bag. It ended up costing the White Sox a shot at the division crown.

Anaheim can withstand injuries because of its depth, but with David Eckstein out, Garret Anderson on the DL, and Vladimir Guerrero hurting, they are not as scary with the bat.

Today Jarrod Washburn faces Nate Robertson in a battle of lefties. Washburn hasn’t gone past five innings yet in any start, so the bullpen better be ready. Scott Shields and Frankie Rodriguez will see some action today for sure. Robertson has a live arm, so this is a good test for the rookie.

The A’s are reliving playoff nightmares this week in NY. It will take sometime for this new group of Athletics to get their feet on the ground in Yankee Stadium.

Barry Zito was rocked in his last start and unless he has his good curveball, the Yankees will tee off on him as the Angels did. Zito likes to pitch in NY, but his stuff has been less than stellar so far.

Kevin Brown keeps the ball down and will be tough on the A’s who are hurting for middle infielders these days. Someone needs to surprise the Yanks today such as Mark Kotsay or Erubiel Durazo because you can’t put the onus on Eric Chavez and Jermaine Dye to lift this offense on a daily basis.

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The AL West gets to take a look at the intriguing AL Central this week when the Angels meet the revamped Tigers in Detroit. The Rangers get to match bats with the Royals in Kansas City.

The A’s meet the Yanks in the Bronx and Seattle sees the Orioles in Camden Yards.

Kansas City throws lefty Jeremy Affeldt against the Rangers. Affeldt, the only legit power arm on the staff, had an excellent seven innings against the Indians his last time out. The Indians don’t hit very well, Texas does.

Kenny Rogers who missed his last start with the flu will have his hands full with this team. Mike MacDougall is back in the KC bullpen and will be in action right away.

Anyway, it will be instructive to see if the Rangers can hit with Kansas City or vice versa.

Detroit has scored more runs this month than they did in two months last year or so it seems. They will need to hit to keep up with Anaheim. Nate Cornejo is righthanded, so maybe he’ll slow the Angel bats to a measley four runs in six innings.

John Lackey pitched well his last game and with a day off the Anaheim bullpen is ready and loaded, so if Detroit is to get lucky tonight they better do it before the sixth inning.

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Marty- Glenn Dickey beat me to the punch. His Saturday article outlined the systemic problems the franchise has, problems which go beyond their present difficulties on the field. He discussed “three mistakes in judgment” the team made. He probably stopped there because he ran out of room.

Click below for Ed’s look at his Giants! [Read more →]

The 2004 season is three weeks old and the surprises are outweighing the predicted performances by far.

How about the NL Central where the Reds are tied with the Cubs for the lead. The Brewers knocked off the Cardinals again and they did it with pitching and timely hitting. The Pirates aren’t exactly pushovers either sweeping the Mets last weekend.

Texas may be the biggest surprise in the AL. Given up for dead after the A Rod trade, the Rangers are tied with the A’s and the Angels for the lead in the West. Texas is doing it with a young lineup and hold onto your hats: good starting pitching.

Detroit, the pathetic team that lost 119 games last year, is 1/2 game out of the lead in the AL Central. How about that? The revamped lineup scores runs, Ugueth Urbina leads a semi reliable bullpen, and Pudge Rodriguez gets my vote for most enthusiastic player in the league.

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The key to winning the AL West may lie with the team that matches up best with the Central Division this season. See, the Central is loaded with left handed starting pitching. Kansas City has five lefty starters, Cleveland three, add in Chicago, Detroit, and Minnesota with two each and you get the idea.

The Western team with the strongest righthanded hitting lineup may be the Angels. Will Anaheim pound the Central enough to overcome the A’s for the division title?

Depends upon whether or not the Angels figure out what to do with starters John Lackey, Ramon Ortiz, and Jarrod Washburn. Right now I can’t see any of those three ending the season with ERA’s under 5.00.

And fans, if that continues, that’s spells trouble for Mike Scoscia’s team, no matter how well they hit the ball.

Click below for the conclusion to “Batter Up” [Read more →]

The local media writes about the San Francisco
Giants and the Oakland Athletics “rivalry”,
but it is more for the fans and for these
teams front offices than for the players.

By Amaury Pi-González
San Francisco [Read more →]