Commentary on the Ages

As a kid growing up there were always the comparisons of the home run hitters. Willie Mays versus Hammerin' Hank Aaron. Things like Aaron never losing any time to the military service or the fact that he played in stadiums known to aid and abet fly balls. I mean Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta, George was known as the Launching Pad. It was where the players may not have been on steroids but the winds were on steroids. It must have seemed like the intense breezes were squalls or a tornado to those who pitched there. (And, oh by the way, the place where Willie Mays played when the Giants moved to San Francisco, Candlestick Park, had the exact opposite problems with mighty winds.)

So years later, the son of a pretty good ballplayer (in Bobby Bonds) sees a big Irish man swat homer after homer and thinks, 'I can do that if I use whatever he's using to increase his strength' and puts up numbers Babe Ruth would be envious of, had he not been surrounded in the lineup with a group of players referred to as Murderer's Row.

I will always be a Barry Bonds fan. Nothing he did has an asterisk beside it. It's the way the game was played when he was playing. In Babe Ruth's day they had ghost writer's whose only job was to build up the hype of each feat as if it was something that would never happen again. Everything that was Ruthian was not matched until #25 stepped into the batter's box.

Players in Ruth's day rarely got any bad press. The writers new to back off when a player was playing around outside the foul lines. Nowadays the writers want to get any news they can regardless of how they invade a person's privacy. I heard a term on KNBR, the Sports Leader, last week that describes today pretty accurately: TMZ Sports.

Look how quick the tabloids pounced on Tiger Woods. The jokes came out one after the other and the mercy rule was overridden for the sake of selling papers/magazines.

So whether the prevailing winds are howling in steroidal fashion or someone has figured out a way to have his body absorb a performance enhancer without it being detected the advantage is something someone will always exploit.

Kevin Marquez

2010 San Francisco Giants' Fifth Starter

(taken from Dan Brown, who is filling-in for Andrew Baggarly)

The fifth starter is between Madison Bumgarner, Todd Wellemeyer and Kevin Pucetas.
"So far in camp, he's the best guy I've caught," says catcher Eli Whiteside.

Pucetas throws a fastball in the low 90's complimented by a slider, curveball and changeup.

Pucetas, 25, has yet to make the majors but has made steady progress since being taken in the 17th round in 2006.

Over the course of four (4) professional seasons, the right-hander is 42W 13L with a 3.20ERA. In 500 1/3 innings he has 362 strikeouts and 117 bases on balls.

With just about two weeks left in Spring Training, I'd say he is in the lead for the fifth spot. A conversation on one of the games that was broadcasted by Dave Fleming and Doug Greenwald had the two broadcasters looking into the growth of Pucetas. How it's hard to overlook his progress while others in similar spots appear to be "treading water." (Not the announcers words, I just didn't want to be as verbose as the two play-by-play guys were so I chose to tie a neat little bow around what Fleming and Greenwald were discussing.)

(Thanks to Dan Brown for the facts on Kevin Pucetas.)

Kevin Marquez

Let's Visit Minnesota

In 1951, Willie Howard Mays, Jr., played centerfield for the Minneapolis Millers. Hoyt Wilhelm and Tookie Gilbert were a couple of his teammates. In 35-games Mays put up the kind of numbers that caught the attention of the big club. It was time to be in the big leagues!

G-35 AB-149 R-38 H-71 HR-8 RBI-30 SB-5 AVE-.477.

Fifty-nine years later, the major league franchise Minnesota Twins open a new park. The Sporting News had a survey of former Twins about the new park.

Building a field without a dome in frigid Minnesota: good idea or bad? "I caught many games with pouring rain hitting the roof. The dome had a leak that dropped right behind the plate." Brian Harper

Should Joe Mauer stay at catcher or eventually move?
"Stay-and break every record in baseball at that position." Sandy Valdespino

Will the Twins win another World Series in the next 10 years, or are they doomed as a small-market team?

"The starting pitching needs to go deeper into games. The 100-pitch count sucks." - Bert Blyleven

The greatest Twin of any era is...

"Killebrew first, Puckett second, Carew third, (Jim) Kaat fourth. The greatest Twin of all, though, would have been Tony Oliva. Before the knee problems, he was the most feared hitter in the A.L." Eddie Bane

"Tony Oliva was my idol." Kent Hrbek

(thanks to the Sporting News the 2/1/2010 edition)

Kevin Marquez

(Henry) Schulman's-Valley of the Sun-Scoop

Short and sweet.
The closest to the bone, the sweeter is the meat. According to one Louis Prima.
And Henry Schulman's response to Aubrey Huff's debut.

First baseman, Aubrey Huff, summed up his entire reputation by hitting a monster home run to rightcenter on his first pitch as a Giant (batter). Then, in the bottom of the first, he dropped his first throw from an infielder, allowing Ichiro Suzuki to reach on an error.

Good topic for conversation, on March 3, 2010, will you sacrifice the dropped throw for the homer? Is it possible the dropped ball bothered Lincecum enough for him to stray a bit and "BOOM" just like that the bags were loaded for Ken Griffey? Who subsequently hit a fly ball for a sacrifice fly and an RBI. (Although he wasn't really sacrificing himself.)

(thanks to Henry Schulman for the precise piece written about Aubrey Huff on opening day, spring training.)

Kevin Marquez

Life of (Rick) Reilly and other Major League Stuff

In the 2/8/2010 issue of ESPN magazine, Rick Reilly was on a roll (with the lettuce and tomatoes). His article entitled Some See Jocks Behaving Badly. I See a Cup Half-Full.


Here are some of the morsels of delight...


You can't knock the smile off my face with a snowball. I am Optimist Prime. You see a recession? I see a pawnshop boom. You see global warning? I see terrific new surf spots.


It's been bad news if you're a Mark McGwire fan. He copped to using steroids throughout the '90's, which surprised exactly three (3) people, all of them at the Beijing Dominos Association.


It's been bad news if you're a Tiger Woods fan. Unless you think launching a Scud missile into the middle of your family, losing tens of millions a year in endorsements and having to live like Howard Hughes is a sweet move.


...Lane Kiffin, an unproven, scatter-mouthed, rule-breaking 34-year old whose combined head coaching record is 12-21. Kiffin's leaving the Vols was especially bad news for Kiffin's 1-year old. Monte Knox Kiffin, whose middle name is an homage to Knoxville. Honey, do you have the Wite-Out? Maybe we can pencil in "Troy" on the birth certificate?


...Trading Pete Carroll for Kiffin as your crosstown rival (UCLA) is like trading a hangman for a hangnail.

Some Major League Baseball Prospects according to ESPN mag (same issue as Rick Reilly article)... Max Kepler, 16, OF, Twins. Home Country: Germany Germany's top export: Charlie Getzien (145 wins, 1884-1892).

Many German immigrants played pro ball around the turn of the 20th century but that pipeline dried up. (Yeh, something called World War I.) Last July the Twins gave Kepler an $800,000 bonus-the most ever for a European position player. Kepler, son of ballet dancers, is understandably raw, but his blend of power, speed and athletic grace reminds scouts of J.D. Drew.

Hak-Julee, 19, Cubs. Home Country: South Korea. South Korea's top export: Chan Ho Park (120 career wins). Lee, who signed in 2008 for $725,000 was money in his stateside debut: He hit .330 and stole 25 bases for Boise of the short-season Northwest League. Those numbers look even better when you consider his competition was mostly players drafted out of college. The 6'2" 170-pound Lee has the makings of a classic leadoff man. His blazing speed led one scout to dub him the Korean Jose Reyes.

Alex Liddi, 21, third-baseman, Mariners, Home Country: Italy. Italy's Top Export: Reno Bertoia (batted .244 from 1953-1962).

After three ho-hum years in the minors, the 6'4" 176-pound Liddi, broke out last season, batting .345 with 23 homers Class A-High Desert. Playing in one of the best hitter's parks in the minors didn't hurt but scouts also love Liddi's lean frame and athleticism.

Jurickson Profar 16, SS, Rangers. Home Country: Curacao. Curacoa's Top Export: Andruw Jones (388 career home runs). The 6'1", 185-pound prefers to play every day, passing up the chance to pitch. The Rangers gave him a 1.55 million bonus last July. Profar, who homered in Curacao's 2004 Little League World Series title game victory, was the talk of the instructional leagues this past fall.

Julio Teheran 19, RHP; Braves. Home Country: Colombia. Colombia's Top Export: Edgar Renteria (2,185 career hits).

Only one Colombian pitcher-2006 Mariner Emiliano Fruto- has ever won a big league game. Braves signed him in 2007 for $850,000. The 6'2" 160-pound righty dominated the rookie-level Appalachian League in 2009, posting a 2.68 ERA for Danville.

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K Korner by Tim Kurkjian

Why did the Kansas City Royals give 35-year-old Jason Kendall a 2-year, $6 million contract? KC pitchers led the majors with 89 wild pitches last year, and catcher Miguel Olivo led all backstops with 10 passed balls. Kendall had just 4, and the team thinks the pitching staff will be more confident with the veteran behind the plate.

By re-signing catcher Benjie Molina, the Giants have shown they clearly believe their top prospect, Buster Posey, needs more time in the minors. "He can hit in the big leagues right now," says one scout. "But I saw him in the Arizona Fall League, and I don't think he can catch Tim Lincecum's stuff yet."

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Who could have guessed nature's call could lead to a call to a lawyer? In 2008, a fan who said he merely took a potty break during the seventh-inning singing of "God Bless America" was promptly booted from Yankee Stadium. "If a club conditions something like that," says Matt Mitten, director of Marquette's National Sports Law Institute, "it has to provide notice up front, put it on the back of the ticket, make announcements and spell out the consequences." Because the Yanks didn't, the desperate fan took home $10,000 and the seventh-inning stretch now extends all the way to the can. (One of those Blue Collar comedians, Bill Engvall, has that bit of needing to have a sign for everything. Un-be-lieve-able. Only in America, eh Don King?)

(thanks to ESPN mag for the information)

Kevin Marquez

Spring Training Fever and More

The Thursday Examiner (2/18) had an interesting take on the upcoming major league season and our San Francisco Giants.

First point, Who will be the fifth starter? All indications are that top prospect Madison Bumgarner is the lead horse to become the Giants' No. 5 starter this season.

Then in an article neatly tucked in the corner it mentions Todd Wellemeyer, who was invited to camp. Wellemeyer is the lead man, the way I see it. In 2008, the 31-year old righty won 13 games and posted a 3.71 ERA with the St. Louis Cardinals. I had him on my fantasy team. You guys/gals who play fantasy know how it is playing. You get to know just how solid a ballplayer is or is not. Wellemeyer may have been dropped a time or two, but I always found reason to pick him back up.

2nd point: Can Schierholtz stay in the lineup? Nate Schierholtz has been one of the Giants' top outfield prospects for years, but has yet to crack the starting lineup. This appears to finally be the year Schierholtz will get that chance.

3rd point: Will Aubrey Huff regain his form? Which Huff will the Giants get? The player who is a career .282 hitter with three 100-RBI seasons or the guy who hit .241, including a miserable .189 in 40 games with the Detroit Tigers last season? Spring training will be everybody's chance to see if Huff is the real deal.

About Mark DeRosa, a career .275 hitter who has clubbed over 20 homers each of the past two seasons.

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I saw this interesting tidbit in the 2/8/2010 ESPN magazine.
The piece was called "Journeymen"

Don Newcombe. The Newk won 27 games in 1956, earning the Cy Young Award and MVP. The Brooklyn Dodger hurler faltered soon afterwards and in 1961 was out of the majors. He resurfaced in 1962 as a first-baseman for the Nagoya Dragons of the Japan league.

He belted 12 homers and batted .262 in 81 games.

In looking up Newcombe's career I spotted that in 1955, as a Dodger, he belted 7-HRs, drove in 23 runs and batted .359. In 1959, his last hurrah in the big leagues, he pitched for the Cincinnati Redlegs. He had a 13-8 win/loss record and an ERA of 3.16. He batted .305, had 21-RBI, with 3-HR.

Let the records show, Don Newcombe could hit. And he proved it in his Japan journey. To come back as a position player and succeed I thought was pretty neat.

"Golly gee, Beave, cut it out!"

Kevin Marquez

A Little Henry Schulman

In yesterday's Chronicle, Henry Schulman had this to say, in reference to Tim Lincecum's remark, "I think last year was a good springboard for this season to jump off of."

Schulman's response: Those who stand on that springboard understand the jump is healthier if the pool is full.

Good stuff Harry.


Kevin Marquez