4.14.2006
Cautious Optimism
Did anyone just notice that the Giants opened the season with series against two division winners and the NL champions, suffered multiple disruptions because of weather, had neither their closer, a key starting pitcher nor an effective Barry Bonds, and still went 5 and 3?
And with all those gimpy-kneed, sore-hammied oldsters on the squad, who figured the only player to get injured on the soggy turf would be Chipper Jones?
If you're looking for more good signs among the tiny sample sizes: two of their three losses came against two of the best starting pitchers in the National League, Peavy and Oswalt.
On the too-good-to-be-true side, Omar Vizquel isn't going to hit .400 all year, but I'll see that and raise it with a "Ray Durham isn't going to hit .150, either." If Jamie Wright gives up 4 earned runs every 7 innings, I'll take it.
As for the ugly bullpentronics, the main culprits are Tyler Walker and Special Agent Jack Taschner, who's in imminent danger of a demotion to the animal control unit. The good news is both are expendable -- Taschner back to AAA to get whatever's ailing him worked out, and Walker to Tampa Bay.
What worries me most is all those walks. Thanks to Matt Cain (13 K, 5 BB), the staff has more strikeouts than walks, but barely. The 48-38 ratio is better only than the Atlanta Braves' staff, who have hired South African mercenaries to rappel into Camden Yards and kidnap Leo Mazzone.
Keep this up, boys, and the center will not hold. Things will fall apart, and we'll spend the summer slouching toward a perjury conviction.
***
small print update:
From Will Carroll's The Juice to Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation: I'm not sure what's worse, a cocktail of Winstrol, Clomid, HGH and THG, or a E. Coli o157:H7 burger. I'll take an order of free-range, grass-fed Barry to go.
|
And with all those gimpy-kneed, sore-hammied oldsters on the squad, who figured the only player to get injured on the soggy turf would be Chipper Jones?
If you're looking for more good signs among the tiny sample sizes: two of their three losses came against two of the best starting pitchers in the National League, Peavy and Oswalt.
On the too-good-to-be-true side, Omar Vizquel isn't going to hit .400 all year, but I'll see that and raise it with a "Ray Durham isn't going to hit .150, either." If Jamie Wright gives up 4 earned runs every 7 innings, I'll take it.
As for the ugly bullpentronics, the main culprits are Tyler Walker and Special Agent Jack Taschner, who's in imminent danger of a demotion to the animal control unit. The good news is both are expendable -- Taschner back to AAA to get whatever's ailing him worked out, and Walker to Tampa Bay.
What worries me most is all those walks. Thanks to Matt Cain (13 K, 5 BB), the staff has more strikeouts than walks, but barely. The 48-38 ratio is better only than the Atlanta Braves' staff, who have hired South African mercenaries to rappel into Camden Yards and kidnap Leo Mazzone.
Keep this up, boys, and the center will not hold. Things will fall apart, and we'll spend the summer slouching toward a perjury conviction.
***
small print update:
From Will Carroll's The Juice to Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation: I'm not sure what's worse, a cocktail of Winstrol, Clomid, HGH and THG, or a E. Coli o157:H7 burger. I'll take an order of free-range, grass-fed Barry to go.
|
