ramblings of a bitter sports fan

I’m pretty amazed that at this moment: 6:15 on April 26th, the San Francisco Giants aren’t in last place in the National League West.  I mean, obviously I’m a fan and am always pulling for my team, but there’s a fine line between believing in your team and just being plain delusional.  Coming into this season, I never thought I’d be able to say that the Rockies are worse than the Giants are.  

Look at the offseason between this year and last year.  After the abysmal season the Giants had last year any realistic Giants fan would tell you they weren’t expecting magic.  The team finally got rid of the cancer, Barry Bonds, and managed to overpay for Aaron Rowand, a solid outfielder but not much of a power hitter.  Other than that, the team made no big trades.  The window for getting Alex Rios came and passed, thankfully, and somewhere around 10 of the 25 people on the starting day roster for the Giants made a starting roster for the first time.

A couple notes about the current condition of the team:

The starting pitching, overall, has been looking incredibly solid.  If there’s a strength to this team, it’s definitely the pitching.  Tim Lincecum is still undefeated (4-0) and Sanchez looked tight the other night when he pitched.  Cain’s last start didn’t go very well, I honestly don’t think he’s been as consistent as he was last year for the Giants, but I’m hoping that he’ll come around soon.  Correia pitches tonight, and he’s been producing so we’ll see how that turns out.  The only real weakness for the staff is with the golden boy, Barry Zito, who is 0-5.  This could, quite possibly, be one of the worst trades of all time, I’ll give you that.  However, Zito has always been a poor pitcher in April and is always more solid in the 2nd half, so I’m not ready to give up on him quite yet.  

Other than pitching, I’ve been pretty surprised by John Bowker, the homerun hitter in his first major league game.  Who knew?  I’m pretty convinced there’s a new guy out on the field every time I turn on a Giants game, I can’t keep up with the rooks anymore.  Freddy Lewis, as I said in spring training, is adding a great bat to the lineup.  Hitting over .300.  Always good.

On another note, I really think it’s about time that Joe Morgan got fired from covering baseball for ESPN.  Obviously I love Jon Miller (but then again I’m insanely biased) but Joe Morgan just kills Wednesday Night Baseball for me.  ”Well you know, hitting the ball brings up your batting average” and “You know, if he gets a strike here he’ll get another strikeout” aren’t exactly the kinds of baseball insight that I’m looking forward to listening to.  The difference between Joe Morgan and John Madden is that while obviously both are stupid, at least Madden is entertaining.  Joe Morgan = Captain Obvious.

I’m always glad to see the big man, Dusty Baker, back in the Bay.  I still keep his bobble head on my desk when I’m working, reliving the glory days of the Giants.  Let’s hope we’ll keep up our good fortune against the Reds tonight will keep the Giants winning streak up.  Go SF.