Tag: San Francisco Giants (Page 8 of 38)

      Should the Phillies consider trading for Aaron Rowand?

      January 27, 2011 /
      San Francisco Giants Aaron Rowland (33) gets high fives at the dugout after scoring in the fifth inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at the NLCS at AT&T Park in San Francisco on October 19, 2010. Rowland doubled and was batted in by Freddy Sanchez as the Giants defeated the Phillies 3-0. UPI/Terry Schmitt

      Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News has an idea on how the Phillies can fill the hole left by outfielder Jayson Werth, who signed with the Nationals this offseason. I’m just not sure it’s a good one.

      There are several outfielders who could be available before Opening Day, but it says here that the best option just might be a blast from the past: Aaron Rowand.

      The Phillies would want the Giants to pick up most of the $24 million he is owed the next 2 years, and that could be a sticking point. The Giants could reason that if they’re paying the money anyway, they might as well keep him around. They might not be impressed by what the Phillies could offer in return. Or they might be reluctant to help a team they had to beat in the National League Championship Series to get to the World Series in the first place.

      But if there’s a will and a way, Rowand might be a perfect low-risk, high-reward move. He’s coming off a terrible year but is a righthanded batter who hit .309 with 27 home runs, 45 doubles, 105 runs and 89 RBI the last time he played his home games at Citizens Bank Park. He’s still just 33. He’s a good clubhouse guy who would be an antidote to the complacency that manager Charlie Manuel sometimes worries about.

      The thing Hagen is overlooking is that Rowand isn’t just coming off a terrible year – he’s coming off of three terrible years. And when he was in Philadelphia, his .309-27-89-105 season came in a contract year. Once he got paid, AT&T Park swallowed him whole and nobody has heard from him since.

      Hagen’s right: Rowand is an excellent presence in the clubhouse. He’s also one of the few major leaguers that plays hard every day and his defense is still above average. But his offensive numbers have been declining since his magical ’07 campaign and there are no signs that he’ll regain form. A trade back to Philadelphia may rejuvenate him, but I highly doubt he’ll suddenly transform into a .300 hitter. He’ll hit more home runs at Citizens Bank Park than at AT&T, but that’ll be about it.

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      External Sports, MLB

      Edgar Renteria feels disrespected by the Giants? Please.

      December 17, 2010 /

      Edgar Renteria apparently needs a reality check.

      With his contract set to expire at the end of the year, Renteria turned in an outstanding postseason both offensively and defensively. He won the 2010 World Series MVP trophy and helped the Giants win their first-ever championship in the city of San Francisco.

      Now he feels disrespected.

      The Giants offered him a one-year contract worth $1 million, which he believes is a slap in the face.

      “That offer from the Giants was a lack of respect. A total disrespect,” Renteria told ESPNdeportes.com Thursday from Colombia.

      “To play for a million dollars, I’d rather stay with my private business and share more time with my family,” he said. “Thank God I’m well off financially and my money is well invested.”

      Although his comments above are incredibly smug (One million dollars? Ha! I wouldn’t get out of bed for a million dollars!), Renteria is a class act. He’s a consummate pro, he gives to charity and he’s great teammate according to those who have played with him.

      But is he serious? He has one good postseason and now he wants the Giants to pony up? One million may look like a slap in the face after he helped them win a World Series but let’s keep in mind that the Giants already gave him a two-year, $18.5 million contract in 2008 and he did absolutely nothing until the 2010 postseason. He couldn’t hit, the team was constantly forced to move guys around because he was never healthy and his range at shortstop was a joke. (Hit one to Edgar’s left and consider it a base hit.)

      In 460 at bats in 2009, Renteria hit .250 with five home runs and 48 RBI. In 2010, he played in only 72 games because he was hurt all the time and finished with just three home runs, 22 RBI and 26 runs scored.

      Now he feels disrespected? Come on. Look at those numbers above and keep in mind that he was the third-highest paid player on the Giants’ roster over the past two years behind Barry Zito and Aaron Rowand. He stole money from them for two years before finally putting on a show in the postseason and while the Giants should be grateful for that, they shouldn’t bend over and take it up the rear end from a 35-year-old shortstop who’s on his last legs.

      He’s fortunate he got hot when he did or else he wouldn’t have the right to feel disrespected (not that he does now).

      External Sports, MLB

      Brian Wilson, “The Machine” go on Jay Leno

      November 8, 2010 /

      If you missed Giants’ closer Brian Wilson’s recent interview with Jay Leno, then you’re welcome.

      There’s an online movement trying to get “Saturday Night Live” to have Wilson on as a guest, which is a great idea. He gained a lot of national attention when the Giants made the World Series this year and as San Francisco fans know, he’s a freaking character. I would love to see what he could do in a skit with Andy Samberg.

      External Sports, MLB

      Lee should have listened to Molina on Renteria’s home run

      November 2, 2010 /
      San Francisco Giants Edgar Renteria (2nd R) hits a three-run home run off Texas Rangers pitcher Cliff Lee (R) as Rangers catcher Bengie Molina (L) and home plate umpire Jeff Kellogg (2nd L) look on in the seventh inning during Game 5 of Major League Baseball's World Series in Arlington, Texas, November 1, 2010. REUTERS/Tim Sharp (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT BASEBALL)

      Hindsight always rears its perfect head when a deciding moment in a sporting event takes place. A player always should have done something differently when his team loses.

      In the case of Cliff Lee, he should have listened to his catcher Bengie Molina in the seventh inning on Monday night with Edgar Renteria at the plate.

      Molina played nearly as many games with the Giants this season as he did with the Rangers. He knows the Giants’ hitters and their tendencies. He knows Renteria is a smart hitter and he knew his former teammate was hot. He also knew that Aaron Rowand had been picking splinters out of his ass for most of the season and was starting in only his third game since early September.

      That’s why Molina wanted to pitch around Renteria in the top of the seventh with runners on second and third and go after Rowand. But it’s not in Lee’s nature to walk anybody and he certainly wasn’t going to walk Renteria when all he needed was one more out to end the inning.

      So Lee fell behind Renteria 2-0 while missing with his cutter and changeup. Molina, knowing that pitching around Renteria was the only solution at that point, called for a cutter outside. Lee threw the cutter, but he drifted into the zone and Renteria crushed the mistake to put the Giants up 3-0.

      With the way Tim Lincecum was pitching, three runs may have well been 30. Everyone in the ballpark got the sense that the game was over and even after Nelson Cruz cut the Giants’ lead to 3-1 in the Rangers’ half of the seventh, the game was still San Francisco’s to win.

      Part of what makes Lee so good is that he throws strikes. He attacks hitters – all hitters. He knows that with his control, he’s going to get the best of most batters. But in that situation, he was better off listening to Molina.

      Granted, who’s to say that Rowand wouldn’t have hit a grand slam in his at bat? Depending on the situation, a single to the outfield could have scored two runs so maybe Lee and the Rangers were just destined for failure.

      But Lee never put himself in position to get Rowand out in that key situation. He stayed true to himself and it would up costing him and the Rangers in the end.

      External Sports, MLB

      Team of destiny or just the better team? Giants finish off Rangers, win 2010 World Series

      November 2, 2010 /

      Following their 3-1 win in Game 5 of the World Series on Monday night, somewhere in this country someone started writing about how the 2010 San Francisco Giants were a team of destiny this postseason.

      But their status as 2010 World Series Champions has nothing to do with destiny. They were just the better team.

      In the NLCS, people expected the Giants to lose to the Phillies, who had the better offense, the better pitching, more experience, etc. But when the Giants knocked off the defending NL champs to reach the World Series, people expected them to succumb to the mighty Rangers, who had the better offense, a pitcher in Cliff Lee who never loses in the postseason, etc.

      But it was the Giants who came up with the clutch hits. It was the Giants’ Bruce Bochy who outmanaged the Rangers’ Ron Washington. It was the Giants’ pitching staff that turned in one of the most dazzling performances that we’ll ever seen in a Fall Classic.

      A team of destiny? The Giants were just flat out better. The Rangers, with all their power and with all their Cliff Lee, were absolutely dominated in four of five games. And that’s a good Rangers team, mind you. They didn’t get to the World Series by accident and something tells me that this won’t be this group’s last crack at a championship. They’re also a classy bunch from their manager (who heaped tons of praise on the Giants in his post-game presser), down to the grounds crew that let San Francisco fans celebrate on the field hours after the game.

      But back to the Giants. It was rather humorous to listen to people use the term “lucky” when it came to this club in the postseason. Do you know what they had to do in order to get to this point? First off, they had to beat Mat Latos and the Padres on the final day of the regular season to clinch a playoff berth. There’s nothing lucky about winning 92 games, I don’t care if San Diego choked over the final two months or not.

      There’s also nothing lucky about beating Derek Lowe (twice), Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels, C.J. Wilson and Cliff Lee not once, but twice, including once with the series on the line.

      Think about that for a second. The Giants, with their cast of misfits, went through some of the best pitchers from this decade in order to win a World Series. Luck had nothing to do with that. Luck also had nothing to do with this team being able to clinch every series on the road (Game 4 at Atlanta, Game 6 at Philadelphia, Game 5 at Texas).

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      External Sports, MLB

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