Schpilkas!

Sorry, Ron, but your e-mail was impossibly upbeat, and I had to share it. After all, it is mostly doom & gloom around here. Now, where were you during Irrational Giants Exuberance Week?

So, here's the relevant piece:

Thinking big, of course, I thought of the 1969 Mets & looked up some numbers. I know ... it was another era, with league-wide offensive problems, but it was comforting to think that a team with:

An HR Leader with 26 HR’s (Tommie Agee = Rowand?)
An RBI Leader with 76 RBI’s (Agee = Molina?)
A SB Leader wtih 16 SB’s (Cleon Jones = several of our current stars)
A BA Leader with .340 (Jones = ???), but no other regular higher than .279 (Ken Boswell)

& no major contribution from a left-handed hitting position player managed to win the World Series, based upon great young pitching, defense, & making the most of every opportunity. In making this comparison, I am not necessarily predicting 100 regular season wins & a World Series title. But, you never know ...

The I-Ron speaks. Heckle on, O My Brothers.

Tim in his Element

I always figured that a rainy, cold night at the PhoneBook would be the perfect conditions for The Enchanter. After all, he's a Seattle boy. I suppose I should be critical of the walk...but you really can't complain about
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(Photo credit to Giants Jottings. Thanks for a great spring!)

Great comments from BayCityBall:
"The Giants won their first game in almost a week but the story of the night was Lincecum’s performance. Watching Barry Zito walk 4 guys per game while pumping out mid-80’s heat will most likely get old by June. But Lincecum, at the minimum, is exciting to watch. That type of excitement will make one of the worst teams in the MLB slightly more fun to watch. When Lincecum takes the mound, anything can happen. His style couldn’t be any more different than Zito’s. Zito nibbles and pitches up in the zone with a BP fastball. Lincecum rears back and fires mid-90’s fastballs paired with a devastating curveball. He attacks hitters. He’s small. He’s a freak. He’s just fun to watch."

I was a litle surprised at the low pitch count (67), seems like he could have gone another inning. Another example of special treatment?

Special Agent Jack Taschner has been excellent all spring, including 2 strong innings last night. He still has an option, right? I've always liked Taschner, but I love Threets' velocity. Tough call. I sure hope we don't keep any pitchers over 35, sorry Kline and Yabu.

Last chance for roster predictions!!! How will Sabean "rebuild"????

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U-G-L-Y you ain't got no alibi, you're just u-ug-lee

You hate to see final "tune-ups" that look like that (19 TBF in 4 IP, 81 pitches, yikes!). At least MC had some live stuff and got some K's. In the end, I'm not worried about the Hurra-Cain. He will be OK. But boy-o-boy, we are bad. The Linkster tonight, let's hope he does well even if his team implodes behind him.

Threets and Valdez have to make the team. Period.

¡you-HAY-nee-oh!

Yes, it is Velez Time here at RMC. There isn't much to get excited about offensively, as we well know, but our boy Eugenio is, to borrow a phrase from JCP, a "human highlight film." What do we make of this? Does he have the chops to be an impact big-leaguer? Take a quick look at FanGraphs, they have a nice display that includes his stats from the minors and the "projections" of the various systems out there. They aren't particularly kind, they have him striking out too much and walking too little, with a high SB potential and no power. But I see a ray of light: he was a consistent .350 OBP guy in A and AA, then made the leap to the majors with little AAA service. He'll be 26 in May. Perhaps he is just at the cusp--finally putting it all together. If so, he could be a serviceable lead-off man, especially if he continues to improve, and the fact that he's a switch-hitter is a nice bonus. It seems painfully obvious that we have to ship Roberts and Durham. Velez can do both: lead off and play 2B. We have too many OFs, and Frandsen will be back next year to compete at 2B. Learn to say "you-HAY-nee-oh." And if you need some data overload, check out the "community projection" about Sr. Velez on McChronic.

In-depth bummer

Five Questions: The San Francisco Giants, by Steve Treder, March 25, 2008 is posted on THE HARDBALL TIMES. This is an excellent piece, worth your time. In fact, it is your homework assignment!

(And a hearty "thankee" to me bhoyos for keeping RMC's pulse a-pumpin' during my lovely Bend mini-vacation.)

Bummer

From Chris Haft at sfgiants.com:
Giants infielder Kevin Frandsen ruptured his left Achilles tendon in a Minor League game Monday, according to an Associated Press report. Frandsen, who was testing the injury after being sidelined since March 16, injured his leg while running the bases after singling, the report said. General manager Brian Sabean confirmed the injury through a Giants spokesman but declined further comment until a magnetic resonance imaging examination is performed on Frandsen. It's possible that Frandsen could be sidelined for the entire season. Frandsen, 25, entered Spring Training as a candidate for the second-base job and was moved to shortstop after Omar Vizquel injured his knee early in camp. Frandsen was removed from shortstop in early March but still had a role as a top utilityman.

It jsut keeps getting better, doesn't it? Very possibly out for the season, one of our "top prospects", if Kevin could have been considered that, is out, very possibly for the season. It does make the Castillo acquisition a bit more helpful, but still leaves the Giants with old, hurt, crappy players to compliment their young, hurt, questionable players. Unfortunately, it also ups the potential for another trade for an infielder. As the blogosphere, and undoubtedly the Giant's brain trust, has been over the possibilities in detail, and found few that were exciting, it suggests.............I can't even finish this painful thought. Hurry back, Omar! You, too, Ray!

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(This is JCP standing in for the vacationing MOC. He might still get off his lazy butt and post a gem about our "bhoy" but I figured I better cover it, just in case. We here at RMC (at least the one's NOT on vacation) feel a deep responsibility to serve our readers. (I sure hope it is plural!)

Are you ready for it? The first one of the spring.....

WooHoo!

A dominant (is there any other kind?) Matt Cain dispatched the Rangers with 6 scoreless innings that featured 8 K's. Only two runners reached scoring position as the Hurra-Cain extended his scoreless streak to 11 innings.

"He had some long innings," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of Cain. "I thought he did a good job keeping his concentration."

Of course, a different perspective comes from GiantsFan 9 (of the spectacular Giants Jottings):
" I don't know what game Bochy was watching, because I thought Cain was about as economical with his pitches as I have ever seen him be. The notoriously slow starter needed only 15 pitches to get out of the first, after allowing a 1 out single, but having the runner gunned down on a caught stealing by a beautiful throw from Benjie Molina. In the 3rd and 4th innings, Cain was even more economical as he took only 9 pitches to complete each inning. The only inning where he had a high pitch count was in his last inning (the 6th) when he threw 25 pitches and had the only inning where he allowed 2 men to reach base (including the only walk he gave up all day). Even with the long 6th inning, Matt threw a total of only 88 pitches (60 for strikes) and finished the inning with back-to-back strikeouts. Those of us who have seen Matt regularly reach the 100 pitch count through 5 innings or so are perfectly happy with Matt throwing this many "long innings" all year long. He also only allowed 2 batters to reach as far as 2B (1 to third) and faced more than 4 batters in an inning only once (the 6th)......so I am not sure where the test was that required him "keeping his concentration". Sometimes the things the Giants coaching and management staff have to say just leaves me scratching my head and saying "HUH?"

Is anyone else always amazed at how dim the staff and regular reporters are when compared to the legion of dedicated bloggers?