Juan Uribe - Frederic Larson - SF Chronicle

Did you hear the big news last week? The Giants signed Mark DeRosa and Juan Uribe!!!! Thrilling, right?

Yeah – well it’s not like the Dodgers signed any one during that time, so at least the Giants have something to talk about.

I talked to a Giants fan and the verdict is out among fans regarding Mark DeRosa. He’s a solid player, no doubt. The issue is that he definitely isn’t the bat that they need. It doesn’t seem like he would hurt them…how much he will help isn’t clear.

Then yesterday the Giants announced that they “re-hired” Juan Uribe. This is a pickup Dodger fans should note. He’s not an everyday player, but a great player off the bench who can definitely hit home runs.  He hit .340 against the Dodgers last year and generally won the hearts of fans up here because of his clutch hitting.

Early in the year the talk shows wondered if they could really chant “URRRRIIIBBBBEEE” because of his second cousin, Jose Uribe back in the late 80’s. He truly changed that by being clutch and now people love him. It was a good pickup for the Giants and he’ll be a big help to them.

Now as one fan put it…the Giants have all their positions filled…they just still need a bat and a catcher. Here’s hoping they have another Pablo Sandoval in the minors who can hit. Apparently Angel Villalona can hit…he just has to get out of jail and the Dominican Republic first. I guess he is out of jail now…but he doesn’t have a Visa yet. Yeah – issues.

A moment of silence as Randy Johnson retired this week.  He was fun to watch going after the record this last year, even though all the talk shows often talk of his prickly personality.  I’ll still never forget him getting lit up at Dodger Stadium on opening day last year.  Same day Orlando Hudson hit for the cycle.

Good article here on all the Giants moves this off-season.  Apparently they’ve spent most of their money, and now hope for a bat.  Here’s hoping they can’t really find one.

What do you think?  Good moves to pick up DeRosa and Uribe? 

Matt Cain - AP - Ben Margot

With the All-Star Game this week, there isn’t a lot to report specific to the Giants.  Tim Lincecum started the All-Star game and was roughed up.  Having said that, there was a little buzz at the end of the week as the Giants played the Pirates.  “Played” is the key word.  I should better say “lost” to the Pirates.  They lost in extra innings, and then got beat again yesterday.  The “concern” has been the sudden loss of the Giants offense against a last place team.  Before the All-Star game their offense seemed to be in high gear.  Aaron Rowand was leading off, Pablo Sandoval was hitting third and hitting jacks, and Edgar Renteria was hitting 5 or 6 and starting to get back to form.  They were doing so well that they were in the top wild card spot and their was rumors of extending the deals of Brian Sabean the GM and Bruce Bochy the manager.

Now after the All-Star game and the loss of the offense, there’s the silence of hoping it is just an anomoly, rather than a real trend.  The truth is everyone’s guess, so we’ll see.  Matt Cain goes today, to try and take one win in the series.

Most Giants fans I talk to don’t think they will make any major moves before the trade deadline.  Apparently the new owner wants to build for the future and everyone knows this team has already exceeded expectations.  Even more, they will have more money at the end of this year, so they can wait.  I still don’t think the Giants have enough to get deep into the playoffs, but maybe that isn’t the goal.  Even just to make the playoffs excites the fans.  Until next week…

Jonathan Sanchez - Ben Margot - AP

So the big news this week was the no-hitter by Jonathan Sanchez. Honestly I think Giants fans were as surprised about this one as the rest of baseball. He had a lot of promise last year, but this year, he just hasn’t had it. There was a lot of talk about trading him for a bat, but his record was so bad that no one thought there would be a taker.

He threw a no-hitter when he wasn’t even supposed to start. He had a 2-8 record with a 5.30 ERA, and had recently been demoted to the bullpen because he was throwing so bad. He only got to pitch because Randy Johnson got injured so they needed someone to jump in there.

Honestly, I’m glad for the guy. It truly has been a rough season for him, so to join the no hitter club is truly something special. Who knows how his next game will be, but he at least got this one. I thought it was interesting that his last pitch to win the game and strike out the batter, was really questionable. It looked pretty outside, but it was close enough. I wonder if as an umpire you start to pull for the pitcher too. You know it’s probably a little off, but it’s close, and you think, “This guy has pitched well enough to get the no-hitter, I’m going to give it to him.” We’ll never know, but it’s all good if that’s what happened. Baseball has always been a game of inches.

The other thing notable this week was that the Giants had the second best record in the National League, second only to the Dodgers. The Giants are exceeding all expectations and are proving that they are a real possibility for the wild card. The Dodgers better hold strong because if they slip for a few games, while the Giants win, this could be a very different race near the end. Popular opinion still thinks that the Giants need a bat (which I agree with), but their pitching has kept them in the race and they are a solid team. They’re new kid Pablo Sandoval is a real reason why they are still going strong.

This week – the All-Star game and the Homerun Derby. After seeing the Homerun Derby two years ago in San Francisco, the game will always be special to me.  I’m pulling for Albert Pujols.

Bay Bridge - Lance Iversen - SF Chronicle

The Giants chatter up here slowed down a little this week. I think with Randy Johnson getting his 300 wins that people kind of settled back into reality of where the team is really at. ..way behind the Dodgers.

Actually the talk this last week was that the A’s won 7 in a row with just about all rookie pitchers. They seem to have recharged their bats, so maybe the A’s are off to something. The rumors still persist that the A’s are still too far back, and will try to trade off Matt Holliday before the trade deadline.

The buzz yesterday morning though for the Giants was that they are only 1/2 game out of the wild card race. They are playing pretty good ball, are above .500, and are in the race. The radio announcers were attributing it to a more lose clubhouse. They team is getting along, and apparently Pable Sandoval really keeps things loose.  More and more I think we are going to keep hearing his name.  He can really play.

They made a comment that the Giants haven’t been this loose in the clubhouse in years. Ironically, I recently wrote a post on how the Dodgers are now the same way. Can you already see where I’m going with this? There was only one common denominator between the teams in the last 10 years…Jeff Kent. He was a great competitor, but it sure seems like he made every clubhouse he was in – tense. He did with the Giants and Barry Bonds, and he did it with the Dodgers in the last few years.

It’s a harsh generalization, but I wonder if there is some truth to it. I do wonder how Jeff Kent feels this year with the Dodgers playing so well. He did want to win with the blue.

The Giants play the A’s at AT&T park this weekend. Rumor on the street is that this series will be attended by more A’s fans than Giants fans. Pretty sad for Giants fans in their own parks.  It does make sense though.  The bridge shown in the picture is how the fans in Oakland get to San Francisco, and it is definitely closer than Anaheim to L.A.

Until next week. What do you think – will the Giants snag the wild card?  I think that only happens if they trade for a bat in the next month.  We’ll see.

Manny Whiteboard

I had to include this picture as one of the posts.  This is the whiteboard of the cube across from mine at work.  He put this up yesterday, and has every intention of counting down the days and rubbing it in.  Yes, he’s a Giants fan.  He’s really more of a Sharks fan, but he’s from around here, so he’ll jump on anything anti-Dodgers he can.  It’s actually a pretty funny picture, but yes, life as a Dodgers fan living in Giants territory.

Great stories in the SF Chronicle about the Manny debacle.  One of the comments from my last post brought this up, but apparently what Manny took is a common drug used to recover from steroid use.  The story keeps getting worse and worse.  Here was my favorite comment from the SF Chronicle writer Scott Ostler (See article here):

“Manny Ramirez flunked a drug test because of meds he got from a Florida doctor. Ramirez isn’t providing any more info, so we’re all free to speculate on the nature of his “personal health issue.”

I’m going to go ahead and rule out dandruff.

From what drug experts say about HCG, the banned drug Ramirez used, there’s a good chance Manny used the stuff to boost his flagging testosterone production and head off embarrassing side effects.

So it wasn’t Manny being Manny, it was Manny not wanting to be Franny.

Let’s take a wild swing and speculate that Ramirez took the HCG to deal with the negative side effects of steroids. If so, Manny will no longer be known as simply a great hitter and fun-loving clubhouse guy who, by the way, quit on his team and roughed up an elderly team employee.

He will be asterisked forever.”

I’m sure every paper in the nation had stories on him today.  I guess I am just too trusting because I believed his original statement.  I’m convinced now that I was the only one in the country who did this.  He got ripped to shreds in the internet articles.  Testing is more strict now, and he still used the drugs.  We obviously have no idea of the pressure to be worth the money, but the drugs are obviously rampant.

The people thrilled right now are the Giants and their fans.  They did want Manny, but already dealt with steroids with Barry Bonds.  If they had signed him, and then this came out, it would be even more embarrassment for the organization and fans.  This also means the Giants fans will boast all the more that they made the right decision, when they really didn’t have a chance at Manny…but such it is.

I’m watching the Giants play the Dodgers tonight at Dodger Stadium.  Good pitchers duel.  I’m telling you, Barry Zito has figured something out with Pablo Sandoval, and he looks good again.  Billingsley looked good, and so did Pierre, but Martin should have never gone to second on his hit.  That really killed the rally with Casey Blake’s double.  Hopefully the Dodgers will turn it around, but we’ll see.  The bullpen blew it last night,  so hopefully they can get another chance tonight.

Until next time from anti-Manny land…