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? 

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.

Randy Johnson - Haraz N. Ghanbari - AP

Congrats to the Big Unit for winning game 300 this week against the Nationals.  They had a number of rain delays, and his game was even pushed back a day, but he got the 2-1 win.  He even had a diving throw to first which was pretty cool to watch.  He now joins a select 24 pitchers in history who have 300 wins. 

His win was definitely all the talk up here the last few days.  I heard a great radio show this morning that the fans up here really started to get into it.  At the beginning of the season they weren’t sure if they would connect with him because 295 of his wins came for different teams.  Yet, as he was on the verge of history, it became all the more intriguing.  I personally found this to be the same way.  I don’t know that I would have followed it as much had he gone to say New York, or Florida.  But since he was in the Bay Area, I checked up on him a lot and was hopeful that he could get the record. 

I liked one of his quotes yesterday too that he wasn’t as interested in the record, just as much as he could prove that he could do it.  At 45, he still wanted to prove he could play the game and win.  I think that’s what starts to happen in life.  We get older.  We think we can do all that we did when we were young.  We finally realize we really can’t do it as well, and then we spend the rest of the time trying to prove we really can still do it.  High points to you Randy for reaching your own goal and taking us along for the ride.

I did hear a funny thing though this morning on the Giants talk radio.  They felt that the umpire was extremely generous to Brian Wilson (The Giants closer) when he got the 3rd strike call at the end of the game with the bases loaded.  I saw the pitch too, and it did look low.  As they said, it was close enough that the batter should have tried to swing, but it was definitely a low strike.  Had that been a ball, a run would have walked home, and Randy would have lost the chance at 300.  The umpire called it a strike, and the rest is history.

The only other real thing for my Spy Game this week is Aaron Rowand.  He was picked up last year by the Giants at a premium, and he hasn’t been the power hitter they expected.  Actually, he hasn’t even been a very good 7 or 8 hitter.  They switched him to the leadoff spot, and he seems to have found his niche.  I’m not sure what happened, but he has now hit in 15 straight games and raised his average to over .294.  The Giants are playing over .500 ball, and even though they are well behind the Dodgers, they are a lot more respectable than people thought.

Do you like the Spy Game segment?  Let me know if there are certain other things you want me to focus on.  Until next week – Go Blue.

Randy Johnson - Ben Margot - SJ Mercury

SF Dodgerfan is in the process of moving. Not web addresses, but addresses where I write these posts. Moving and blogging doesn’t really mix, so the posts have definitely been delayed.

One of the good things about living up here is that I get first hand information about the Giants. Not that I care more about them than the Dodgers, but I do like to know what the opposition is up to and if it will affect the Dodgers.

Here’s my report this week, and I hope to keep this as a weekly column.

First, the Giants are at a fork in the road regarding their season. They either trade for a bat, or truly just get through the season and go for a big off-season pickup. Here’s a good article (Click Here) on the people they are considering, but they definitely like the idea of a power hitting first baseman since Travis Ishikawa hasn’t panned out. It’s funny that Matt Holiday’s name keeps coming up. He would be a short rental and it would be funny to see him go from one Bay Area team (The A’s) to another.  The other name that Dodger fans will catch is Adrian Beltre.  He has never been the MVP with the Mariners as he was with the Dodgers, but he’s still solid at third base with some pop.  I bet Dodger fans would have no problem booing him if he went to the Giants.  The Giants need a bigger name though for the fans, so I doubt he would really turn their season around.

There was also a great article today (Click Here) on the lack of interest in Randy Johnson’s 300th win.  Dodger fan or not, the fact that he is going for win 299 again this week is something to keep track of.  Yet, because he’s been with 7 teams and now with the Giants who aren’t doing as well, there isn’t a lot of interest in it.  If he can’t do it on the road trip, and has a chance to do in San Francisco, I may try and go see it.  There’s a lot of wonder if there will ever be another 300 game winner in baseball, so it would be worth the trip.

Well that’s it from here.  Bottom line, the Dodgers are way out in front, and the Giants are way back.  Fine with me.