Lifting My Back Leg

Lots of things to address today.

I had a tennis match last night, but while we were celebrating our victory, I got to see the ugly end of the Giants – Dbacks game. The Giants’ bullpen (Herges and Eyre last night) did it again, blowing a fine outing by Woody. I say it again, I haven’t seen the answer on the Giants’ roster yet to the closer situation. I’m curious to see if the overuse of Brower last season affects his pitching (which has stunk) this season.

Meanwhile, I got my first look at a real closer last night: Brandon Lyon. That boy was firing in the 9th last night, consistently at 95, and at some nasty places in the strike zone. Great purchase by the Cappers (I’m too lazy to look it up, but I think it’s the Cappers). How did we miss this guy? He never showed this kind of ability before, though he has been hurt. I wonder if it would have been obvious had I been at spring training and seen him pitch. I only needed to see 5 pitches to know he’s exactly what the Giants (and the Pickled Pecklers) need.

Let’s give it up for the D-Backs, who were a minor league team last season after Sexson and Gonzalez went down. They have some real hitters, some real pitchers (some young ones), a closer…in the NL West, they can contend, particularly with the news about…

Barry Lamar Bonds, 3rd surgery on his right knee this year. Ouch. Maybe not such a good pick here by the Cappers at $31 (again, too lazy to look it up, but I think that’s right). Maybe August now? I think we can assume he’s not going to get another MVP award this year. It’s not a bad team without Barry, but without a closer too, they just can’t afford to lose games like last night.

BTW, here’s a link to Barry’s latest journal update: http://barrybonds.mlb.com/players/bonds_barry/journal/latest.html

Closer to home, it appears we’ve got a little problem with one of our new rules which allows claims and reserving of players during the week. Jeff Busch has demonstrated the problem another great man tried to identify a couple of months ago: no time stamp on moves. I won’t say I told you so, but…

My God, I’m turning into Herb Caen…

Here is a classic fantasy baseball moment: I’m watching something on ESPN last night, and I see a flash about the Braves losing 11-6. Then “L – M. Hampton goes across the crawler. Ouch, that’s going to be ugly. When I finally got brave enough to look at the box score, it wasn’t quite so bad, 6 IP, 5 ER, 9 H+BB. Not a great outing by any means, but not a Jim Bullinger type line: 1 IP, 8 ER, 8 H, 4 BB. It still cost us an ERA point to George, though.

Meanwhile, Lou is now in 4th Place. I’ve got to tell you, that is unbelievable. The man threw back virtually his entire team. If he can keep this up, it will be the greatest managing job in the history of this league.

Meanwhile the Leaguers continue to flounder with 41 points, although their ERA has improved to now be under 5. Starting pitching can kill.

And the Falkuhns still have exactly 4 hitting points. Impressive. I do want to say again, the Wagner for Guillen trade was very reasonable.

Is anyone else noticing this amazing season so far by Cliff Floyd? Top 5 in the triple- crown categories, plus 3 steals. We’re waiting for his traditional sword of Damocles to drop at any instant, but it reminds us of what an incredible talent and prospect this guy was.