Friday, June 03, 2005

Hey, look at that wall...there's writing on it

And for all of us here who aren't illiterate, I'm assuming we can read it.

First off, let's all give a hearty "Thank you" to the Chicago Cubs, who must've had about 25 fortune cookies that had the fortune of, "You will experience great spiritual release in form of pounding on NL West teams". They not only smacked around the Dodgers like the Cubs was da pimp and da Dodgers was da beeyotches, but they've also treated San Diego like the real nickname of Chicago should be the Step-Padres...

Hm. Okay, reaching a bit for good material will often lead to over-reaching, leading me to look corny in front of about 80 people per day.

But you all get my point, right? The Giants haven't gotten any worse than 9 behind the Padres because while they got Swiffer-ed by the Phillies, the Cubs are doing a Mr. Clean on San Diego...

Again. Reaching. Corny. 80 people per day. Sigh.

So while the Giants could very well be 10 or 11 games back, they aren't. Normally that might provide a bit of inspiration, but the orange and black are a bit to busy just trying to win a damn game to even consider what the Dodgers, Diamondbacks, or Padres are doing/not doing.

Brian Sabean can't give it more than a week before: 1) giving up on making any moves to help the team this season, and look to make moves to improve the team for next season, or 2) making a huge, likely ill-advised trade for a big name player to try and turn things around this season. That week could take care of everything easily -- going into Shea to play the Mets could land the Giants another 2 or 3 losses, and all of a sudden the Royals series next week can't be looked at as a cake-walk, as the Royals are 3-0 under new manager Buddy Bell after having swept the Yankees.

Realistically, for the Giants to have even a modicum of hope left, they have to do 4-2 or better in the next six games or they're done. I can't see our intrepid GM having any faith if the Giants go 3-3 or, God forbid, worse than that.

Oh yeah, there was a game last night, huh? All of the Giants playing were pretty scrappy, with the notable exception of Brad Hennessey, who was scrappy without the "s". Our fave club has holes everywhere -- the rotation is shaky, the offense is hit-or-miss, and the bullpen can't be depended upon.

Do you now see why I was so down on the trade for LaTroy Hawkins? How can a middle reliever fix all of those relevant and pressing problems? He can't, so unless Sabean has a bevy of other moves in the works that'll be finished in the next few days, it's a completely useless move.

Argh. Anguish, agony, frustration.

In addition to all of that, it looks as though there will only be one game of the Royals series that I can even attend, and that'll be Tuesday's game -- and I'll have to drive from work like a maniac just to get there in time for the first pitch. I still don't know how I'm going to feel in that series -- I've been lucky/unlucky enough to miss all of the games the Giants and Royals have played against each other thus far. I've been a Royals fan for basically my whole life, while I picked up my Giants fetish somewhere around '87 or so. I'm longer tenured in Royals agony, but living in the Bay Area obviously lets me connect more to the Giants.

It's an enigma, wrapped inside a conundrum.

Perhaps I'll say the heck with it and just clash -- wear both jerseys and both hats. Screw it.

Oh, yeah, I forgot. Scott Eyre is the Man, and so is Jason Ellison. You want some outfield assists? He's given you some of those. You want some great diving catches? Elly's a bit stingy -- he only gave us two of those in last night's game. Of course, he air-mailed a throw last night, too, but I'll take a 4:1 gp/bp ratio (great play to bad play ratio).

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