The most vexing question facing the Giants at the trade deadline this year: What to expect out of Aubrey Huff down the stretch?
Just nine days ago, the Giants seemed content to let the deadline pass without a major shake-up. They’d opened the second half with a 7-1 record and were leading the Los Angeles Dodgers by 2½ games in the NL West standings.
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A Giants-Dodgers series is always special, but the one starting at AT&T Park today has extra significance because this time, it’s the Dodgers who are strengthened and the Giants who are suffering.
When the Giants swept Los Angeles with three straight shutout victories in the last week of June, the Dodgers were a punchless outfit. Matt Kemp, probably the best player in the league, was on the disabled list, as was second baseman Mark Ellis. Andre Ethier, leading the league in RBIs at one point, injured himself during the series and also went on the DL.
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Proposition 32 on November’s ballot would prohibit unions and corporations from using money deducted from employee paychecks for state and local “political purposes” broadly defined as giving money to candidates, candidate campaigns or independent expenditure committees.
According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the proposition also “prohibits government contractors (including public sector labor unions with collective bargaining contracts) from making contributions to local officials who play a role in awarding their contracts.”
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If the Randy Moss experiment is going to blow up in San Francisco this season, it will likely happen by the end of training camp, which gets underway in Santa Clara this week with veterans reporting today and the first full team practice on Friday.
Depending on who you ask, Moss is either a prima donna who plays when he wants to play or a misunderstood talent who is guilty of being defiant, impulsive and aloof, at times, but not a locker-room cancer.
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As the A’s swept the Yankees last weekend with their MLB-leading 11th walk-off win, I was convinced the best move Billy Beane can make at the trade deadline next week is staying put and rolling with the players he already has on the roster.
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Five blown saves in eight attempts? That’s not a trend. That’s just plain sucking. The Giants need to address the closer situation before the trade deadline, and they’d be wise to target Huston Street of the San Diego Padres.
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It’s usually about this time of year, the trading deadline, when opposing baseball teams come knocking on A’s general manager Billy Beane’s door looking to raid his roster and bolster their own postseason pushes.
Beane has obliged at times, while other years he has elected to wait until the offseason to overhaul his roster, such as after the 2011 campaign. But the one constant is that the A’s have been sellers in recent years, one way or another.
But this year should be different.
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Thank you, Serena Williams.
You had every reason to skip the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford this year. But you still came out and won four matches in five days, even though you were jet-lagged and tired from waking up at 1 a.m., since your body was still working off the British clock. Sandwiched between Wimbledon and the London Olympics (which will hold its tennis events at Wimbledon), no one would have faulted you for savoring your latest Grand Slam title on the other side of the pond last week.
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Ben Davidson, who died Tuesday, was a true original.
Davidson came to the Raiders in 1966, after brief stints with the Green Bay Packers and Washington Redskins. Al Davis was a good judge of talent at that point and he realized that all Ben needed was a chance. He was relentless as a defensive end, playing as hard on the last snap of the game as the first.
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The Texas Rangers are the only team in baseball sending more All-Stars to Kansas City than the Giants. So why does it feel like Bruce Bochy’s club got snubbed?
The problem isn’t the number of All Stars — it’s who’s staying home. Anyone who watched the Giants surge into the National League West penthouse last week knows that the team’s identity is wrapped up in its pitching staff, and the arms that served as crazy glue when the team was suffering through a rash of injuries and Tim Lincecum’s struggles were short-changed Sunday.
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