Honorable Giants fans, after reading professor emeritus Glenn Dickey’s scathing indictment of Barry Zito in Tuesday’s San Francisco Examiner, I offer a rebuttal to my esteemed colleague who has mightily tipped the scales of justice against baseball’s highest-paid, under-achieving pitcher.
There is no denying Zito’s dramatic decline since coming to San Francisco. His National League record (43-61) and 4.50 ERA are a far cry from his glory days with the A’s where a 102-63 mark and 3.55 ERA made Zito one of the AL’s best.
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There is a simple solution to the Barry Zito problem: When he recovers from the mysterious foot ailment that landed him on the DL on Monday night, the Giants should put him on the “designated for assignment” list and send him to Triple-A Fresno. If he refuses to go, just release him.
And, yes, that means the Giants will probably have to eat the rest of Zito’s contract, about $60 million. Even if another club signed him, the Giants would almost certainly have to pay for most of the remaining contract.
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The Giants’ trade for Carlos Beltran, which is apparently done but can’t be announced until Beltran agrees to waive his no-trade clause, is a bold move that gives the team a chance to repeat as World Series champions.Beltran is exactly the kind of middle-of-the-lineup hitter the Giants sorely need, with 15 homers, 30 doubles and 66 RBIs in 98 games. The Giants don’t have anybody close to those numbers.
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Although the Giants are sitting comfortably in first place in their division, the defending World Series champs have still managed to give fans fits this season with their anemic, light-hitting lineup that is absent of a truly feared hitter.
That changed Wednesday.
The Giants agreed to a trade to acquire New York Mets slugger Carlos Beltran, a six-time All-Star enjoying a resurgent 2011 season.
Beltran is expected to join the team today in Philadelphia.
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Numerous sources are reporting that the Giants are on the verge of acquiring New York Mets slugger Carlos Beltran, giving the team some much needed offensive pop as its preps for another postseason run.Both ESPN.com and MLB.com say that the Giants will part ways with a package that includes pitching prospect Zach Wheeler in exchange for Beltran, a six-time all star. A source in the ESPN article said that the deal is “95 percent” done.
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President Obama, welcoming the world-champion San Francisco Giants to the White House Monday, noted Brian Wilson’s epic beard, and said, “I do fear it.”The remark came as the president honored the team of “misfits and castoffs” that he deemed baseball’s “characters with character.”Obama was joined by Willie Mays, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, among other Bay Area politicians, in praising the Giants for their first World Series win in 56 years.
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With more than a month before race day, organizers of the 2011 Giant Race in San Francisco have announced that the event is sold out, although several dozen spots are still available through a fundraising program.Nearly 10,000 runners have registered for the Aug. 27 race, which features a half-marathon, 10K and 5K races, all of which end on the field of AT&T Park — home of the World Champion San Francisco Giants.
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As their patched-up jalopy of an offense huffs, puffs and wheezes toward the trade deadline, I’ll wonder aloud whether the 2011 version of the Giants has what it takes to shift gears into postseason overdrive like it did a year ago.
While there are plenty of similarities to last year’s roster that rolled to The City’s first World Series title, upon closer inspection, there are some significant gaps between last October’s Giants and the bunch Bruce Bochy trots out there these days.
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The next two weeks will be critical for the Giants if they are going to have a chance to repeat as World Series champions.
For openers, they’re going to face possible playoff teams in their next nine games, a weekend series at AT&T Park against Milwaukee, then two three-game series on the road against Philadelphia and Cincinnati.
Then, they return home to face the Arizona Diamondbacks before playing another four games against the Phillies and three against Pittsburgh — the surprise team in the National League this year.
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Oh, how it’s changed. There are the Giants, wildly successful, in the standings and at the box office. And then there are the Dodgers, despised as much by their own fans as they once were by San Francisco — bankrupt, literally and emotionally. The applicable word is unbelievable.
L.A., where the stadium always was as full as Tommy Lasorda’s belly, where the team always was in the race, where they smirked at that town up north — and shivered when they were in that town.
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