Former Chisox Numbers and Hoping the Rockies Lose More Games

Just looked at some numbers posted by Aaron Rowand and Juan Uribe when they wore Chicago White Sox uniforms during that franchise's 2005 World Series championship season.

Aaron Rowand, a first-round pick by the ChiSox in 1998 (35th overall pick) had 13-HR, 69-RBI with a .270 batting average.

Juan Uribe, originally signed by the Colorado Rockies in 1997, had 16-HR, 71-RBI while batting .252.

Looking at these two players' statistics before Tuesday's game vs the Padres look like this...

Rowand: 13-HR, 56-RBI, .271-BA. He would need 13 more RBI to be identical with his 2005 season stats, the year the White Sox won it.

Uribe (pronounced Oooh-Ree-Bay): 12-HR, 40-RBI, .282-BA. Beginning the season as a part-time player who only recently got some ABs, Juan only needs 4 more HRs to match his 2005 totals. He's 31 runs batted in short of 2005, and due to their being only 3 weeks left that doesn't appear to be a possibility. The good thing is, he's hitting 30 points higher.

So IF (life's middle name) Uribe can maintain the hot bat and Rowand can stay out of hitting into triple plays, these two players are hitting damn near identical to that ring bearing season of theirs in 2005.

That and a healthy Freddy Sanchez, a steady: Brad Penny, Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, Barry Zito and Jonathan Sanchez and it is not too far from the realm of possibility to believe the Giants can do the unthinkable, which is reach the post-season.

Still things have to go right, like Colorado losing a few more games. This may be the most unlikely of all to happen.

Because after the Padres, the Giants face the archrival Los Angeles Dodgers for 3. You take 2 out of 3 in this series and you did well. But that's one more loss, putting the Rockies a possible 3 games ahead of the Giants in the wildcard. (This is hoping the Giants sweep the Pads and with 2 left that's not a given!) Even if the Giants take the series in their remaining matchup with Colorado, they still play 4 games at home vs. the Cubs, a team needing to win. Then they finish out the regular schedule in San Diego, where they are currently 0-6. How the Giants do in their final 7 games and how the Rockies do in their final 7 will determine the winner of the wildcard.
Unless, of course, the Los Angeles Dodgers fall flat on their face like a drunkard and just lose out. And that just ain't happening.

If any team falls on its face you'd have to say, with their inconsistent hitting, that burdensome task would belong to our beloved Giants.


Kevin Marquez

Hank's Kid (Dougie) Not So Good

I love this world. The good ole United States of America.
A person gets his opportunity strictly based on the fact that his DAD was a one-time announcer for the organization.

I am out looking for work and all the time I see the letters EOE. Someone told me that means Equal Opportunity Employment...I knew it, but based on what I have gone through to get a job, it was good to hear somebody else say it.

Doug Greenwald needs to get his facts straight. He needs not to talk so much. He needs to learn how to judge a home run. But hey, he can call a TRIPLE PLAY!

I apologize if I come off so harsh, but I am currently looking for work and have been dealt the "over-qualified" hand and then never heard back from those who told me they were interested.

I kept waiting and nary a sound. Meanwhile, my bank account has dwindled to a mere bag of shells. And all of those people who phonily told me they were interested never got back to me. Why? Because my dad hadn't done that before or laid the tracks for me to follow in his footsteps?
How many people working jive the interviewer into believing they can speak English when in fact the whole time they are at that place of business people have to clean-up their mistakes due to not really understanding what was said. Yes, it IS because much gets lost in the translation.

Favortism is sickening. Almost as sickening as the 2009 San Francisco Giants' offense. (Hopefully with Freddie Sanchez due to return, perhaps the ailment of orange and black's batting order will not be as gut-wrenching as the dry heaves- with few exceptions- that fill the line-up card when Freddie isn't penciled in.)


Kevin Marquez

Notes on Baseball

According to Willie McCovey, the Hall of Famer who finished with 521 homers, same as "The Splendid Splinter" Ted Williams...Ted Williams used to always ask if you could smell the burning wood. Willie would respond, "No, I was too busy trying to hit." After a laugh Big Mac continued, "It's like Hank Aaron. Yogi Berra told him he had his trademark upside down and Hank's response was, "I didn't come here to read."


But think about it. A batter doesn't read WORDS but he reads body language, the spin of the ball and the positioning of the defending squad. So Hammerin' Hank wasn't entirely accurate, the way I see it. Reading isn't always about the words.


"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." John Wooden


And a slice from Robert Schimmel...
When a movie goes bad you always say 'It went straight to 8-track!'

While in Vegas I called for some room service. I had orange juice, pancakes, eggs, toast and coffee for $25 bucks. For twenty-five bucks I want Mrs. Butterworth to blow me, while I'm eating!

The Giants called up a left-hander, Dan Runzler, who has made his way from Single A, to Double A, to Triple A and now is on the big league roster with the San Francisco Giants all in one year.

He started the year in Augusta. And I can't help but think of the Bill Murray character-who was a groundskeeper in the movie Caddyshack- when he became the make-believe announcer.

What an incredible Cinderella story.
This unknown, comes out of nowhere
to lead the pack at Augusta. He's on his final hole. About 454 yards away (he's gonna hit about a 2-iron I think).

Oh, he got all of that.
The crowd is standing on its feet here at Augusta.
The normally reserved Augusta crowd is going wild, for this young cinderella boy, who is coming out of nowhere. A hush fills the air. He's got about 350 yards. (I suspect he's gonna hit about a 5-iron, don't ya think?)

He's got a beautiful backswing, oh, he got all of that one. He's got to be pleased with that... the crowd is on its feet here (at Augusta). He's the Cinderella Boy , tears in his eyes as he lines up this last shot. He's got about 195 yards left. Looks like he's got about an 8-iron. This crowd has gone deadly silent. Cinderella Story, out of nowhere, former groundskeeper, now about to become the Master's champion.

It looks like a miraculous shot...uh, IT'S IN THE HOLE! IT'S IN THE HOLE!!!!!!!!!!

(when I heard Dan Runzler began the season in Augusta, GA, this seemed like the flashback to refer to...)

Kevin Marquez

One Move Too Many

Going into the bottom of the 5th inning, Hamel of the Rockies was staked to a 4-1 lead. But the first couple of batters got on and Jim Tracy didn't think pitcher-Hamel was the guy to get some outs. So he called on Franklin Morales.

Franklin Morales is a lefty with some nasty stuff and Tracy panicked into thinking the time was now to bring in Morales, even though there was plenty of game left. Up until the fifth inning the Rocks worked the ball/strike count enough to get Giants' pitcher, Matt Cain, to a point you knew he wasn't going to last more than an inning. (Cain did leave after only 6 innings.) While the Rockie starter (Hamel) had thrown a modicum number of pitches in comparison. So I had to question why the Rockies' starter was removed when he was, as I walked the streets of San Francisco.

At first, the move looked to be a fortuitous one. Something about the lefty's deliver gave the home plate umpire (Fairchild, no kidding) the look that everything the lefty threw was a strike. Franklin Morales had the home plate umpire's eye(s). And Jim Tracy should have recognized this as one of those intracacies that you keep in play. Knowing a thing like this is serendipitous and comes along as often as Halley's comet, it was more surprising that Jim Tracy removed Franklin Morales for Rafael Betencourt than Hamel for Morales.

(Just then, as the commercial for Speedee Auto (when you think of a change, think Speedee Auto) was playing into my headset I pass a sign that read: Jesus Hates Fun. Man, was I bamboozled. Right away my first thought was, 'What, the Giants can't take advantage of this situation? The crowd can't go nuts? I mean my head was spinning.)

With Edgar Renteria standing in the batter's box and the bags FOG'd (full of Giants) it would only be a short time before the game swung mightily in the Gigantes/Giants' favor.

Jim Tracy, whose career as a manager against the Giants is pretty remarkable, took away his team's advantage by paying attention to something other than the importance of a strike zone.
He ignored the home plate umpire's tendencies and didn't see them as advantageous for his crew. He got caught up in the matchup between his pitcher and the Giants due to bat. He forgot about the game within the game aspect of baseball. And it allowed the Giants to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Kevin Marquez

Why?

Why do we live and die when the Giants lose a lead and flail away at the ball as it wiffles past their bats?

Why does it cloud the day from the sun when the Giants lose or make for sunny skies when they win?

Do we not have lives? I'm beginning to wonder.

The little things always matter. The inconsistent strike zone of home plate umpires is always HUGE when the Giants are playing because they have such a difficult, struggle of a time scoring runs. I mean, phew, listening to the broadcast of Giants games is excruciating.

Oh well, I was just wondering about the Giants players Bruce Bochy thinks will give them the best chance to win and how they continue to come up short. Eugenio "Brain Spasm Pharoah" Velez is a guy who hits with some pop and has blazing speed but he's not a thinker. And to play ball you have got to know every situation as it arises and what is the best way to get the most out of it and in these instances this guy is clueless.

Maybe I need a life because listening to Dave Fleming's negative-ridden play-by-play is killing my thirst for the game of baseball. It may have something to do with the teams' inability to manufacture runs. Making supposed "no-name" pitchers look like all-stars. (On that note, I saw a trivia question asking Who played Adam on Bonanza? And I immediately thought Bobby Parnell, the NY Met pitcher who has spoon fed the toothless, bib-adorned Giants on two separate occasions. But in actuality the correct answer was Pernell Roberts. Not Bobby Parnell.) I just think most people don't like hearing someone state the obvious over and over and over again, the way Dave F-f-f-f-leming is wont to do.

Kevin Marquez

Not Nate the Great, Yet

Those of us who have lived in San Francisco for over a quarter of a century know that Nate the Great was what all-time great announcer Bill King called the center of the San Francisco/Golden State Warriors', Nate Thurmond. His relentless defense and slick play with the number 42 on his cable car adorned jersey is neither lost nor forgotten.

Now as we slip into 2009, the Giants have a Nate, on their team, who is raising some eyebrows with his play between the foul lines.

You can listen to sports talk radio until the cows come home and somebody somewhere will ask why Nate Schierholtz isn't in the every day starting lineup and it's hard not to agree. He has the best arm, has excellent mobility and is a hitter who shows occasional pop.

Now, in defense of Randy Winn, I can see where Manager Bruce Bochy has this feeling Winn will come out of his funk. And he does play a good outfield. But the need to play Aaron Rowand may be losing it's purpose, since Nate needs to be in the lineup every day. So if it's a toss up between Nate and Aaron, c'mon man! Give it to the guy who brings something to the table not the guy struggling.

George Carlin once said: Swimming isn't a sport, it's a way to keep from drowning, well if the Giants continue to play Aaron Rowand their season most certainly will sink into the drink.

Kevin Marquez

Amazing Barry Zito Statistic

After coming from behind to beat the 2008 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies, Barry Zito had this to say about newest teammate Freddy Sanchez: "The guy just knows how to find barrel."

Not done passing out the compliments, Zito then turned to Eugenio Velez, dubbed the Pharaoh by beat writer Henry Schulman, and offered: "I don't know what adjustments he made in Triple A, but he has...been a huge part of this team for the last week. I think he's on a mission."

Speaking of on a mission, did you know that when Barry Zito gets 4 or more runs his won/loss record is 104-6. (15-2 as a Giant.)

Seems to me a statistic so glaringly incandescent as the aforementioned had to be known by those wanting to sign Mr. Zito. Not to take away from Barry Zito but the fact that Zito had to learn the basics of hitting had to be a concern as well (because in the National League pitchers who have the most success often help themselves with the glove and bat aside from how they throw on a given day).

You can definitely see Zito get into a zone when given the support of some runs scored. Zito is a starter for the San Francisco Giants who on 7 occasions got ZERO runs scored for him and he's still hanging in there with a 7-10 record. He's proven to be durable over his career and I can sense a coming out for the San Francisco hurler.

He's been the butt of jokes and on the short end of any compliments but it looks as if he'll be a bigtime contributor down the stretch. With the injury to Randy Johnson and the overall consistency of Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain, a third and fourth starter who can rise to the occasion will be a much needed tonic for the Giants to reach the post season and then succeed once the playoffs begin.

Jonathan Sanchez is the other hurler, also a left-hander, who will get the good look by Manager Bruce Bochy and his staff. He's shown what he can do when he puts it all together but he still has a matter of consistency to address. I have faith in 26-year old Sanchez and 33-year old Zito. There's no reason why they can't pitch well enough for the Giants to continue on this glorious ride to post-season play.

All aboard the bandwagon. Next stop, at a non-believer's house near you!

Kevin Marquez