The Giants Baseball Blog

It had been almost 2 weeks since Barry Bonds ' last home run, but Barry has finally gotten to 715. I was not too surprised at the fact that only San Francisco Giants ' fan's where happy to see it, but I was surprised on how relatively small of a celebration there was for him. Of course the packed house at AT&T Park forced him to do a few curtain calls, there wasn't any congratulations from anybody else. The Giants player's all stayed in the dugout which was pretty surprising to me. Only Todd Greene exited the dugout to congratulate Bonds'. It was kinda like "oh, just another Bonds' home run," rather than "Wow, we just witnessed history." I know Barry has been under heavy scrutiny this season and a whole lot of people want his records erased or marked with an astrisk, but he still has hit 715 home runs and still had to do something right other than rub illegal creams or shoot up steroids. In my mind he has still been the best player o...

Thanks to another bad outing by Matt Morris and another explosion by the bullpen, the Giants lost the series to the Cardinals after dominating them in game one. Both Noah Lowry and Matt Morris got hit pretty good, but I'm especially worried about Morris. He's getting paid 8 million dollars a year and outside of his first 2 starts and a game in Houston, he has looked downright horrible. I know I'm not paying the 8 million, but that money could have been spent better elsewhere. Like in the bullpen. The Giants counted so heavily on Tim Worrell and Steve Kline to return to their pre-2005 forms. Kline has been ok, but Worrell has been the worst pitcher in the pen and no matter how much Mike Krukow wants to sugar coat it, a 6.91 era is not "throwing the ball well." I am also curious to see how long they let Scott Munter and his flattened out sinker stick around before it's back to Fresno. The only pitchers I have somewhat confidence in out of the bully right now are...

Barry Bonds finally did it after going 2 weeks without a jack, he hit a bomb to right-center field of left Brad Halsley for his 714th home run. Unfortunetly, I was watching my little league team get the crap beat out of them during the game. I did watch a lot of replays though, and what amazed me was the reaction by the fans in Oakland. I know 30-40% of the fans at this game where Giants' fans, but the cheers still heavily outweighed the boos. I knew there where going to be some mixed emotions, but I honestly thought 70% of the stadium was cheering. Again I wasn't there, and didn't even see it live, but it sounded loud. What was more important in the game however, was that the Giants won and Ray Durham is starting to hit the ball. Pedro Feliz has gotten going and if Durham can join him and get his average up around .290, then the Giants should be able to shoulder the loss of Alou a little better. Jason Schmidt threw another gem as well and he is really starting to look good...

With Bonds not quite Bonds at the moment and Moises Alou out for at least another 6 weeks, the Giants need now more than ever to start seeing some offense out of the corner infield positions. Pedro Feliz is really starting to heat up. He hit a huge grand slam in Houston yesterday and he has 7 RBI's over the last 2 games. Moises went out at the worst time because he was really hitting the ball well and looked like he could have been on his way to the all-star game. Speaking of the All-Star game, I have no idea why they start the voting at the end of April. I think they should wait until at least June before they start releasing the ballots at the ballparks and online. It's tough to tell if a player is worthy of an all-star appearance if he's only had 100 at bats or only made 4 starts. It looks like with Alou out, Randy Winn would be the next most likely candidate and he's only hitting .290 with 4 hr's, 15 RBI and a whopping 2 stolen bases. It's obvious the Giants...

Brian Sabean is starting to make some moves to shore up the worst bullpen in the league. Jeff Fassero has been released, and it looks like it's only a matter of time before Munter and Accardo are sent down. Brian Wilson, who had an impressive performance in Colorodo in his major league debut, is scheduled to come of the DL any day now, and it looks like it will be Accardo who is the odd man out. The Giants dropped Fassero to make room for Noah Lowry who came off the DL and pitched a beauty on Monday night vs. the Astros. Lowry essentially made his '06 debut and was very impressive. The Giants really need Lowry to be that consistant, number 2 type pitcher. They haven't gotten what they've expected out of Matt Cain yet and Matt Morris started out on fire, but has cooled over his last few starts. The same can be said about Jamie Wright, although he has been the Giants most consistant starter so far. As I said last post, Lowry will give this team a shot in the arm and it wo...

One of the brightest spots of this young season came Wednesday when Jason Schmidt looked like an ace for the first time in over a year. Schmidt shut out the Brewers and he did it without walking anybody. Part of the reason why the Giants have been inconsistant over the past season, is that Schmidt has been counted on being an ace and has pitched like a number 4. If Jason Schmidt can return to that 2002-2004 phase, the Giants should start seperating themselves from the rest of the pack in the West. His last two starts are really making me think that he has finally made the adjustment. He doesn't have the 97 mph fastball anymore, but he can still hit 94 pretty consistantly and that changeup is still as nasty as it was 2 years ago. Schmidt's strikeouts are also reflecting in his improved control. He has 16 k's over his last 2 starts, while he had just 17 in his previous 4 starts combined. Noah Lowry is reportedly on his way back and may start a game as early as May 11th and sh...