We don't need that Dodger POS Manny. We have Sandoval, Ishakawa (who is playing a lot better than people anticipated), and not much else... but we do have the best rotation in MLB.

Looooooooooooooooool

I dont think most people have any clue who you are talking about, so not sure what they anticipated from him. Rotation is good on paper, but we shall see how they react to 1.7 runs a game in support. Poor Matt Cain, the Giants should just trade him to the Red Sox or the Yankees so he can win a Cy Young or two and have a good career.

That being said, the Giants should be somewhat competitive and no team will like going in there to face that rotation.

poor matt cain. i believe he has a career ERA under 3.5 and has 20 more losses than wins. yay giants run support.

we do have a stellar rotation, but zero offense. The Dodgers have the opposite with Manny. I can't even name more than one starter for the Dodgers this year besides Kershaw.

Chad Billingsley > Giants pitchers other then Lincecum

Cain 3.74 ERA, 30-43 record.

Does he really only have 30 career wins? Wow, I shouldn't be surprised but that number seems so low for someone with his stuff who hasn't had any major injuries or anything.

It's called pitching for the Giants. :/

Also, I bet 3 Giants pitchers will finish with better stats than Billingsley

Define stats and you have yourself a bet. I'll even give you odds on that one because I'd feel like I was taking advantage of you otherwise.

wins/era and K to walk ratio?

I'd prefer era+ and whip...wins is fine but not a very good stat for your side of the bet. I would require there be a min of 25 starts by Chad for the bet to go off.

alright, era+ whip sounds good. This includes Lincecum also for me.

25 starts for everyone makes sense too.

Obv Lincecum included. I guess I could make you pick 3, but not really necessary I dont think.

So, 3 Giants starting pitchers have to finish with more wins, a better era+, and a better whip over a min of 25 starts. If Bills has a better number in any category than any of the 3 Giants pitchers who qualify, I win. If the Giants somehow don't have 3 sps that make 25+ starts, or if Bills doesn't, the bet is off. Is that right?

deal. losing this bet will be the only excitement i'll get from the 2009 giants

Still have to work out terms.

sounds good. I'm cool with money, but do you also want to do something like the loser has to wear the opposing teams gear to a game and take pics or something stupid like that. We could do that for the NL west standings bet.

The Giants have more wins than any team in any professional sport, on earth. lol at least I have another reason to stay a loyal giants fan.

over 10,200 wins.

I like Lincecum (SP) but I predict his little body cant take the way he pitches. It would be wise for the Giantsto cut his innings and work on his mechanics. But this is the Giants so I suspect they will do nothing. They NEEDED Manny. Even if they wont say publicy. Outside of Rowand and maybe Renteria (who is a solid bat) who else is gonna produce. Does anyone think Molina is as good as he was most of the season last year? Winn (old)?

Outside of the Mets, the Giants were always a team I would've like to see do well. Sabean has made that impossibe so I would like to see the Giants continue to be terrible so maybe, just maybe ownership will tell him to take a hike.

What if one of their retarded fans loses it, kills one of the players, slices off his branded number on his arm and puts it in another player's freezer then kidnaps that player's son and makes him hit a homerun to save his kid. Now that would be exciting.

you're jaded

Read this.

Short excerpt:

Such velocity was possible only because Lincecum's delivery is an engineering marvel, and he has the athleticism and fine-gauge musculature to pull it off time after time after time. Most pitchers are taught a delivery in segments, such as a step back, a gathering of the limbs while balanced over the rubber, the loading of the ball in a cocked position behind the head and then a fast uncoiling of the body as the arm comes forward. Hall of Fame righthander Robin Roberts used to say, "If you're going to hurry, hurry late," a reference to accelerated arm speed at the end of the more measured movements to keep the body balanced.

Lincecum, by contrast, pitches with the intentions of a drag racer: It's go time from the start. His delivery gives the illusion of being one movement rather than the cobbling of several separate ones. Righetti calls this apparent seamlessness "flow."

"The hardest thing to do is slow down, gather yourself, then throw a ball," says the pitching coach. "Greg Maddux, Bob Gibson, Rich Gossage -- they all flowed through their delivery. They keep their momentum going. Those flow guys are the ones who can sustain the grind of pitching. I think [Tim's] a longevity guy, I really do."

NOW DO YOU CARE BOBBY!? NOW DO YOU CARE?

LOL

We have a lot more that Sandoval and Ishikawa....Rowand and Molina are above average at their respective positions. Out outfield platoon should be pretty good with Rowand, Winn, Lewis and Schierholtz (who is a really good hitter for average - .320 last year). With our pitching, this team can definitely compete with the dodgers for the top spot in the division. Also, don't be surprised if we trade for a bat at the trade deadline.....The Giants have some money saved and most teams will be selling at the deadline for financial reasons.

sigh. Schierholtz is crap. didn't he bat .320 over 15 at bats or something? Lewis and Winn are average at best and Rowand was a horrible signing.

I hope Sabes trades away Winn and Molina to get some value before the season is over.

I believe Schierholtz had over 100 at bats for sure. Also, I think Molina and Winn are in the last year year of their contracts, so even if they aren't traded at the break their salaries will be coming off the books soon. Posey will replace Molina next year, and we will sign/trade for an outfielder. Rowand's contract may not be the best, but at least he is still a decent player. I wish i could say the same about Zito!

You have a lot more confidence in Sabean to make the right move than I think is warranted. TO be honest, as a Dodgers fan there is nothing I'd like more than for the Giants to be in the race at the trade deadline so Sabes can work his magic. There are mediocre, aging veterans out there that would obviously be the final piece in the SF Giants first WS title. Miracles can happen! Any one know if Benito Santiago or Kenny Lofton are still in the league? Maybe Dave Roberts will still be available as a free agent, or Sabean can work a deal for Nomar.

sigh, die plz.

This coming from the team whose GM is paying Rafael Furcal and Jason Schmidt 30 million combined to be on the DL.

Its true, Sabean did go after aging vets when Bonds was around to try to push the Giants into the postseason, but his mindset has definitely changed lately. He was able to build a great team in the late 90's, and is doing a good job again through the youth movement.

uh please don't defend Sabean. He has possibly been apart of the worst signing (Barry Zito) and the worst trade of all time (Boof Bonser, Francisco Liriano, and Joe Nathan to the Twins for A.J. Pierzynski)

Plus, when is the last time the Giants had a decent hitting prospect. I know we just drafted Buster Posey, but he is still 2 years away probably. Other than that, I don't think we've had a hitting prospect on BA top 100 list in 10 years.

I believe we gave Rob Nen a ~20 million golden parachute, but he deserved it after his performance in the playoffs.

Mindset changing/youth movement = your two big FA signings being Renteria and Randy Johnson? Looooooooooooool

When did Sabean build a great team in the late 90s? You mean 2002? I'm not sure you can be a great team w/ out a title. Maybe a very good team...

The Dodgers bad contracts (which I wouldn't include Furcal in, but you can if you want) have nothing to do with Sabean's lack of progress in San Francisco. Luckily for Dodgers fans, Los Angeles is a big market and they have a big market's payroll. Any negative effect Schmidt's contract has on the team is pretty negligble, especially when you consider that insurance has paid a good portion of his contract since he has been hurt. Unfortunately the Giants have not been able to convince their insurance company that Zito's performance should count as an injury.

Honestly, I didn't know there were Giants fans that thought Sabean was still doing a 'good job'. I mean, I can almost understand the fans that drink the knbr kool aid and think they are somehow much improved this year (key word: almost), but I can not understand how a true fan would look at Sabean's body of work over the last 5 years and be happy with what has been done.

Biggest difference between Schmidt and Zito contracts. The Schmidt contract was for three years and sadly he's been hurt the whole time. Yeah, it hasn't worked out, but it was a very good contract when it was negotiated b/c it was a relatively short-term deal for a veteran who was expected to still have something left in the tank.

The Zito contract was for 7 years and over $100 million. This was a bad contract the day it was signed. Zito had been on the decline for a couple of years and giving him $100M was purely folly. Unfortunately for the Giants, he's been healthy the entire time so they've been forced to run him out there every fifth day since they're paying him so much. The Zito contract could possibly go down as one of the worst in MLB history. Sabean should probably be fired for this deal alone, if not for all the other things he's done to destroy the Giants over the last several years. As a Dodger fan, I hope he keeps his job forever though.

good tom, please stop posting crap about how Sebean is a good gm and then comparing coletti's singing of schmidt and furcal. if furcal can stay healthy, he will have a monster year. Schmidt just fell apart, thanks to dusty baker and filpe alou using him more than they should of.

your delusions about how the giants can contend for a title and that sebean is in a better mind set is like almost every giants fan i know. most sports fans are stupid, but giants fan are regarded as some of the dumbest because of fans like you.

I'm so sorry for having faith in my fav team and talking them up BEFORE the regular season starts. Obv i dont think they have a realistic chance to win it all, but i would like to think that if everything 'clicked' for some reason then we would have a shot. Maybe i am just delusional, but I dont care.

To clear something up, I don't think Sabean is the greatest thing since sliced bread, I just was defending some of his veteran signings while bonds was around.

P.S. eff you. since when is talking up your team being "dumb" and not just being a "fan". You sir are jaded.

Poor Giants fans, 50+ years without a WS title has turned them against one another.

This.

At least you get it General. I admit that all the Lincecum love on here is still somewhat nauseating lol (see our Lincecum vs Duscherer thread from last year...haha). But you are a smart Giants fan, far better than most of the kool aid drinkers that call in to KNBR. And fwiw as an A's fan I hope the Giants are contenders, it just makes for a better baseball/sports atmosphere in the Bay Area when both teams do well.

Thanks man.

I do admit that I can be a homer Lincecum fan. At least he won the Cy Young so I didn't look that bad. Also, it seems that there are more intelligent A's fan compared to Giants fan.

hey, I already know that we haven't won a World Series since 1954. You don't need to remind me, evil Dodgers fan.

I lol'd at this. It was the first image that came up on my google search of new york giants baseball. LOL.

I'm glad you have faith in the Giants. Don't get your hopes too high though.

And I'm still a Giants fan, always have and always will. And I'm far from jaded. This lineup is like the other Giants teams of the past six years. With the huge free agent signings Renteria and Johnson (Sebean said that, not me), we still don't stand a chance.

And the great teams of the 90s you referred to. Did you mean the 1993 Giants who won 103 games and missed the playoffs by one game because Dusty decided to keep our best pitcher for the one game playoff? Or the 1997 Giants who looked great and then got swept by the Marlins. Or how about the 1998 Giants? Losing in the one game playoffs to the Cubs. They had some great teams, but nothing special besides the 93 Giants. Sebean is horrible and needs to be gone asap.

I was referring to the 97' season i think...... it was the season with my favorite Giants moment

"Madison Bumgarner, at 19 the Giants' top pitching prospect, just struck out Manny Ramirez on three pitches. Ramirez hit the first two foul then swung ahead of some kind of offspeed pitch, maybe a changeup.

UPDATE: After coming out of the game, Ramirez praised Bumgarner, saying, "He's great. He's nasty. Nineteen? Wow. That's unbelievable. He's great. Good fastball, good curveball and sneaky. He throws hard."'

Link to article

Can't wait for this guy to make the big leagues...maybe a September callup?

AND he struck out a Dodger. EVEN BETTER!!

So did Salomon Torres. You guys should rush him to the ML level asap; what's the worst that can happen after all?

< --- lol'ing so hard right now.

Notice I said September callup....hopefully he can be our david price WHEN we make the playoffs

Bumbgarner will be super sick. I want the Giants to give him as much time as he needs.

Or call him up and he wins the Cy Young in his first full season like Timmy L.