Hi everyone! Just wanted to write a quick post to wish you all a Happy Halloween. This is what I wore to work today. You can see that it’s all official gear. I even have the warm up jacket that you can barely see sitting on my desk, and the X-Bat that I’m holding is the same one Bonds uses. Everyone at work got a kick out of my obsessiveness. I hope you do too!

It’s going to be an interesting San Francisco Giants Off-Season. With question marks about Omar Vizquel, Pedro Feliz, Ryan Klesko, Barry Bonds, etc. it will hopefully be a big off-season for the Giants. Can we land a player like Alex Rodriguez? Can we pick up Mike Lowell from the Sox, or is our wish list just too high. Brian Sabean is going to have to make a splash somewhere. I can’t wait to find out who’s coming to the Giants next season!

Stay tuned as I feed you the latest news about the free agent market, potential trade rumors, and possible pick-ups for our very own San Francisco Giants! Thanks everyone for reading, and have a Happy Halloween!

Alex Rodriguez, the highest paid player in Major League Baseball, has decided during the middle of the fourth game of the world series, that he will opt out of his $252 Million, 10 year contract with the Yankees. His agent, Scott Boras spread the news that A-Rod is now eligible as a free agent.

Brian Cashman, the GM of the Yankees, has repeatedly said that if Rodriguez decides to opt out of his contract that the Yankees will not deal with him or try to sign him as a free agent. Rodriguez sited the unquestionables in the Yankees organization right now as part of the reason for deciding to terminate his current contract. The Yankees are going through a management change, ownership transfer from father to sons, and there are many players who may be leaving this off season.

What does this mean for the rest of the league? It means that the best player in baseball could be on your team next year! Likely bidders are the Boston Red Sox, Anaheim Angels, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, and our own San Francisco Giants.

Let’s hope that the Giants decide to make a run at this superstar!

The San Francisco Giants ended their season with a terrible 71-91 record. Their pitching efforts were pretty solid however as several of their starters posted below 5.00 ERA’s. Some of the noteworthy performances go out to Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum and Noah Lowry, who all had solid years. Barry Zito, as everyone knows, struggled this season with some of the added pressure of a HUGE contract. Hopefully he’ll get it together this off-season and get himself mentally prepared for next year.

Brian Sabean has repeatedly said that the Giants will be looking to get younger next year. The NL West seems to be shaping up as a younger division built around solid young pitching, great defense and a lot of speed. Our youngsters such as Rajai Davis, Fred Lewis, Dan Ortmeier and Kevin Frandsen are definitely looking like potential starters for us next season. Lets hope they can get the reps in they need in winter ball to make a significant impact come spring.

The two areas the Giants will try and strengthen this off-season are bullpen help and defense. We desperately need better power-hitters at our corner infield spots. It would be nice to land someone like Alex Rodriguez or Mike Lowell. But a third baseman like that might be asking too much from the Giants brass. What we will go after for sure is a quality closer, although it doesn’t look like there is much available besides Mariano Rivera, who may become a free agent with Torre out of a job in New York.

Keep yourself coming back for more off-season updates, trade rumors and real transactions…

On a night where the San Francisco Giants won handily in Atlanta, scoring almost every inning, we find out that Messenger lied to us. Randy Messenger, the reliever who the Giants received in exchange for Benitez, had an injury before yesterday’s contest…so he said. Yesterday, Messenger claimed that a line drive in batting practice hit his left hand and broke his finger. Today he came clean and fessed up that he really punched a plastic equipment cart after giving up the winning hit in the 9th.

“I wanted to clear the table and let everyone know what really happened.” – Messenger

Well, thanks Randy for clearing the air…now you’re useless to us for the next 4-6 weeks. Up to this point I have felt that he’s been one of the most consistent relievers out of the pen for us. It’s disappointing to see him go down like this.

In other news, Lance Niekro decides that he’s not going to make it in the big leagues as a position player. Not shocking or much of a surprise. What intrigues me however, is that he’s trying to make a comeback as a pitcher at the triple A level. Now, typically, a kid in Niekro’s shoes becomes an all-time minor leaguer. But a kid with the geneology of Niekro gets a second chance. I know it’s not fair, but the kid does have the genes to make it happen. It’s probably a long shot and I’m even laughing at myself that I am even considering giving this some hope…but with the year we’re having…give his knuckle ball a chance!

Barry Zito took the mound today, delivered another quality start by a Giants pitcher, and yet the Giants still took the loss. The San Francisco Giants got blanked 5-0 today, ending their homestand at AT&T park, completing the sweep by the Bucs. They now head off to Pittsburgh where they have a double-header tomorrow. They begin a nine game road trip back east to face the Pirates, Braves and Marlins before returning home again.

The Giants record has now dropped to 49-67, a whole 18 games under .500. With little to look forward to the remainder of the season, the Giants should begin to give more of their youngsters playing time. “It’s definitely time to evaluate some of the young guys and begin the movement to making this team more youthful.” – Bruce Bochy

Tomorrow’s doubleheader features Matt Cain and Noah Lowry. They’ll need to put in some quality innings in order to help save the arms of the bullpen, which got taxed hard this weekend. Go Giants!

The San Francisco Giants have had a less than stellar year this year, that’s for sure. But when the one bright spot on the season, rookie starter Tim Lincecum, gets hammered, you’ve gotta hurt as a Giants fan.

Lincecum got off to a great start on the game striking out the first three batters he faced on just ten pitches. He then retired the next 9 of 10 batters he faced before the fourth inning which lead to his downfall. He gave up back to back HR’s and a triple as the Bucs scored 5 runs on their way to another Giants loss.

On Saturday night, Barry Bonds on a 2-1 count, hit an outside pitch 386 feet off the upper deck and into the stands for career home run number 755. He moved into a tie with Hank Aaron for the most home runs ever hit by a single player. What an amazing career this man has had. In my mind he is a first ballot hall of famer, steroid era and all. When looking at Bonds’ career, he holds so many MLB records it’s hard not to imagine him being inducted into Cooperstown. In my opinion, he’s the greatest baseball player to ever put on a uniform…period!

Here’s a list of some of the all-time records Bonds holds:

To me, the last one is the most telling of all…

Here’s a list of some of the single season records Bonds holds:

As you can see, Bonds has had an amazing career. It seems like every time I watch a Giants game I hear about some other record he’s obtained. Obviously, I didn’t list them all, but just some of the more important ones. He is for sure, the greatest player ever.

In a game on paper that should have gone to the Giants just looking at the starting pitchers, the Giants lose again. Noah Lowry started off the game struggling with his location, but did a great job hanging in there. I was actually really proud of the job he did today even though he didn’t have his best stuff. He struggled most of the day, but still managed to get outs.

Bonds continued to hit poorly and looked noticeably uncomfortable in the box with his swing. His timing is off and he’s been late on balls. He got a few pitches today that I’ve seen him crush in the past that he just turned over or popped up. Pedro Gomez after the game made several comments that time may be catching up to Barry, blah, blah, blah. I’m not buying it! I’m getting quite sick of all the baseball analysts using his age as an excuse every time Barry looks like he’s struggling a bit. He’s just going through a slump guys, get over it. Bonds is 0-20 in his last 20 at-bats.

It was such a sad day however when a friend of mine who is a HUGE Dodgers fan called to remind me of the win streak they hold over us at home. The sweep over the weekend moves the streak to 11 consecutive losses to the Dodgers at AT&T park. It’s pretty pathetic. The next time the Giants have a chance to redeem themselves will be on September 7th when the Dodgers come back to town for their last series in San Francisco this season.

Tomorrow the San Francisco Giants travel to Chicago to face the Cubs in a four game series. Their night game matchup features rookie Tim Lincecum (4-2) vs. Rich Hill (5-6).

Fast forward to the 8th inning…the Giants are down 7-2, bases loaded, two outs, and Randy Winn at the plate. He fouls one hard off his right foot, and is noticeably hurt. I thought he was going to have to come out of the game he was limping around so bad. He slowly stepped back into the box, and sent the next pitch of the game into the first row of the stands in right field for a grand slam, bringing the team within one run! He triumphantly limped around the bases and took himself out of the game. The only thing missing was the fist pump around first base. It was truly a great moment, one of the best all season.

The very next inning the Giants looked like they were done for with Bonds at second, two outs and Pedro Feliz at the plate. I was sure we were packing it up and going home, as I’ve seen him let us down time after time for the past several seasons. But no, he pulled through with a base hit up the middle sending the game into extra innings. The excitement in the ballpark was nuts as fans began to chant louder and louder, “Beat L.A., Beat L.A.”

The excitement was a little preemptive however, as the Giants went on to lose the game in the 12th inning as Patrick Misch gave up the winning run. It looks like he could get sent back down with Ortiz and Sanchez just about ready to get back from rehab stints in the minors.

It’s a disappointing loss to the Dodgers, one I won’t forget for a while now. It secures the series win for them with one game left. I hate the Dodgers! Tomorrow’s matchup features lefty Noah Lowry (9-6) vs. ex Giant Bret Tomko (1-7). This should be an automatic victory for the San Francisco Giants as it’s a disgrace to the game that Tomko is even pitching at this level still.

The San Francisco Giants had a lot of things to say over All-Star weekend about how they were going to turn it around the second half and come out with a fury. After the first night against their hated rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, they looked like they were ready to pack it up for the season. The Giants lost 9-1 on a night that seemed like they had all been enjoying the festivities a little too much!

Matt Cain got the start, took the mound, and gave the Giants another quality start on his way to another tough luck loss. I feel bad for the kid as his team has given him very little run support this season. In fact, they have only scored more than two runs in six of his eighteen starts this season. But as usual, Cain blamed the loss on himself, stating that he should have been putting batters away. He did a pretty good job of that only giving up seven singles in the whole game, many of which were little bloopers that fell in front of the outfielders.

There were very few chants of “Beat L.A.” as the Giants fell to 38 – 49 on the season. It was their ninth straight loss to the Dodgers at AT&T Park, extending their winless streak at home stretching back to August of last year. A couple of bright spots came defensively however, when Dave Roberts threw out Rafael Furcal at third on a play where he got caught between bags trying to squeeze in another base as Andre Ethier scored from second. Also, Omar Vizquel made a great catch on a ball that should have been a bloop base hit behind short that he somehow snagged looking straight up over his head. He’s definitely the greatest shortstop of all time! No offense Ozzie Smith…

Tomorrow’s game highlights Matt Morris (7-5) vs. Derek Lowe (8-8).