The National League West

The experts at ESPN - 46 of them, actually - made their picks for the winners of each baseball division, playoff round including the World Series, and just three of them picked the champion San Francisco Giants to make the World Series again, and just one (Buster Olney) picked them to repeat.

The NL West's best pitcher has his own logo.

Now, to be fair, I'm sure absolutely none of them picked either the Giants or Rangers to make the series last year so it's not like these picks actually mean anything. And if I had to make a bet on who would win the World Series before a single game had been played, I'm fairly sure I'd choose the Red Sox like almost all the experts did.

But ... so few of these folks even picked the Giants to win the NL West that I find it stunning. First, to be clear, the Giants have the best pitching staff - starters and bullpen - in the NL West. That's indisputable - in the NL, only the Phillies have a better rotation (presumably) and a far, far worse bullpen.

But even on offense, this team is poised to win. Check this out:

Pos	Arizona  D-Backs	Colorado Rockies	Los Angeles Dodgers	SD Padres	SF Giants	Comments
C	Miguel Montero	Chris Ianetta	Rod Barajas	Nick Hundley	Buster Posey	A no-brainer win for the Giants. One of the best young hitters in baseball, regardless of position.
1B	Russell Branyan	Todd Helton	James Loney	Brad Hawpe	Brandon Belt or Aubrey Huff	I'm willing to be convinced otherwise, but ... seriously, who would you want? I'll take the hotshot rookie or last year's MVP candidate.
2B	Kelly Johnson	Jose Lopez	Ivan DeJesus	Orlando Hudson	Freddy Sanchez	Let's give this one to Kelly Johnson in a contest of some overall mediocre talent.
SS	Stephen Drew	Troy Tulowitzki	Rafael Furcal	Jason Bartlett	Miguel Tejada	A solid position across the division, but an easy win for Tulo here.
3B	Melvin Mora	Ian Stewart	Juan Uribe.	Chase Headley	Pablo Sandoval	I'm calling this a push - good young hitters in Stewart, Headley and Sandoval, two decent vets in Uribe and Mora. A toss-up.
RF	Justin Upton	Seth Smith	Andre Ethier	Ryan Ludwick	Aubrey Huff / Cody Ross	Dodger fans might vote for Ethier, but I'll go with Upton, a potential five-tool player.
CF	Chris Young	Dexter Fowler	Matt Kemp	Cameron Maybin	Andres Torres	Even with an off-year in 2010, Kemp is the class of this position, with apologies to Torres and Young.
LF	Xavier Nady	Carlos Gonzalez	Tony Gwynn, Jr.	Will Venable	Pat Burrell / Aubrey Huff	Much like Posey at catcher, one of the best young hitters in baseball, regardless of position.
SP1	Ian Kennedy	Ubaldo Jiminez	Clayton Kershaw	Mat Latos	Tim Lincecum	Great aces, all. But two Cy Youngs and a World Series win? It's TIMMY TIME.
SP2	Daniel Hudson	Jorge De La Rosa	Chad Billingsley	Tim Stauffer	Matt Cain	You can talk about Billingsley, but this isn't close.
SP3	Joe Saunders	Jhoulys Chacin	Ted Lilly	Aaron Harang	Jonathan Sanchez	You want to give this to Ted Lilly or Jhoulys Chacin? Tell me why.
SP4	Barry Enright	Jason Hammel	Hiroki Kuroda	Dustin Mosely	Madison Bumgarner	A lot of questions, but I'll once again take Mad Bum.
SP5	Armando Galarraga	Esmil Rogers	Jon Garland	Clayton Richard	Barry Zito	Zito has the best record but I'd rather have Garland, Galaragga or maybe even Richard. Sorry, Zeets.
RP	Juan Guiterrez	Matt Belisle	Hong-Chih Kuo	Luke Gregerson	Sergio Romo	Gregerson could be closing for half the teams in the league. I love Romo but Gregerson is lethal.
CL	J.J. Putz	Huston Street	Jonathan Broxton	Heath Bell	Brian Wilson	A lot of talent across the board, but I - like most batters - still fear the beard.

Naturally, I'm not accounting for injuries (Latos, Wilson and perhaps a few others are already on the DL, for example) but here's the thing...if there's a team with the most talent across the board in the division, it's the Giants. If you want to argue that the Rockies or even the Dodgers have the ability to compete, I'll listen - but this is the Giants division to lose. And any "expert" shouldn't find that too difficult of a conclusion to arrive at.

In related news, tomorrow is Opening Day. Baseball ... is back.

I Sign Anonymous

I've decided to ban anonymous comments. There's no filtering of comments here (though I'll delete the auto-spam since it's annoying), nor has anyone left particularly horrible commentary. It's just that...I don't like the idea of total anonymity - the web is an easy enough place to not use your real name. My comments on blogs are usually associated with "greebs" or some variant thereof, not my actual name.

I can't really tell you why I don't like it, I just don't. As my kid would say when she's decided she doesn't like something but isn't sure why, I'll just say this:

I don't like it!

I'd rather get comments from someone called mikey3503  than "Anonymous." I'm not sure you care about this, but if you do ... say so in the comments. (See what I did there?)

Foo Fighting Friday

This ... makes me very happy. Dave Grohl was asked, apparently, if he'd let Glee use a Foo Fighters song - and, Grohl responded. For some history, several musicians have said they don't want their music being sun on that show and in most cases, producer Ryan Murphy has responded snidely, denigrating the musicians for their decision. It's pretty weak - as is the show (which actually has promise and could be good, except the people making the show don't seem to have any interest in doing that). Anyhow, here's Grohl's response:

“It’s every band’s right, you shouldn’t have to do f---ing Glee,” Grohl told THR following the premiere of Foo Fighters: Back and Forth, the new Foo Fighters documentary which just made its South By Southwest debut. “And then the guy who created Glee is so offended that we’re not, like, begging to be on his f---ing show… f--- that guy for thinking anybody and everybody should want to do Glee.”

As it turns out ... he doesn’t have as much of a problem with the series as he does with its creator. 

 Recounting anti-Glee comments made by Slash earlier this year and subsequent retorts by Murphy, reported by THR, Grohl explained to drummer Taylor Hawkins: “The Glee guy, what a f---ing jerk. Slash was the first one. He wanted to do Guns ‘n’ Roses and Slash is like, ‘I hate f---ing musicals. It’s worse than Grease.’ Then [Murphy's] like, ‘Well, of course he’d say that, he’s a washed up ol’ rock star, that’s what they f---ing do.’ And then Kings of Leon say, ‘No, we don’t want to be on your show.’ And then he’s like, ‘Snotty little assholes…’ And it’s just like, Dude, maybe not everyone loves Glee. Me included.”

Testify!

Tsunami In California

Tsunami makes its way to Emeryville, CA (SF area) a photo by Dr_Speed on Flickr.

Wow...I took the ferry this morning, worried about the tsunami (you know, being in a boat during the time they warned about it hitting the California coast and all) and there wasn't anything. I figured it was a non-event, and then started reading about it hitting some ports. Here's a GREAT photo of it in Emeryville (between Berkeley and Oakland), basically where I used to work until this January. Not a big thing, but crazy that this IS the tsunami.

Good thoughts and prayers (if you roll that way) to all the people in Japan and worldwide who were hit by the earthquake and its after effects.

The Real Question Is...

... just how insane is this going to look by August or September?

I love me some B-Weezy, but he's said he wasn't going to shave until the Giants were out of contention - that never happened last year (in case you missed it, THEY WON THE WORLD SERIES), so ... yep, he's keeping it. And, folks, we're in for yet another fun ride with The Beard. 

Only 23 days until Opening Day.

Hello?

Yes, I've had at least four friends share this with me on Facebook already, but it's so damn funny I want to preserve it on the blog here, and frankly it needs as wide an audience as possible.

It's really the little things. Whoever did this? I'm a fan.

Is Barry Zito hanging on by a thread?

When Barry Zito was benched in the post-season, it was the first public sign from the Giants that they could admit what everyone else knew - the guy simply isn't very good. He's on the team because of what seems now, after Vernon Wells became suddenly trade-able, the worst contract in all of baseball. (Don't worry, Jayson Werth, your time is coming soon.)

Dazed, confused and ... on his way out?

While I've been disgusted by Zito's performance as a San Francisco Giant - he's 40-57 with a 4.45 ERA, a horrendous 1.408 WHIP and a remarkable ability to let a game spiral out of control as fast as anybody in the league - I don't hold Zito's contract against him. It's a player and agent jobs to get the best deal they can. It's a General Manager's job to manage a budget and roster effectively.

This might sound like it's going to be an attack on Brian Sabean - but of course, it isn't. Will I take the above stats from Zito - and the knowledge that his contract prevented some free agent signings that would have helped - for a World Series that was won in spite of all that? Um, hell yes I would. And will. And do.

So, whatever. And I expect that he'll be the 5th starter on the team this year and ... well, not be good. Listen, I might not be happy about it but I can't complain. A ring is a ring.

But to hear Bruce Jenkins tell it, the Giants might not even keep him around:

A source close to the team indicated Tuesday that there is "exasperation" with Zito, that his status as the No. 5 starter is "definitely not safe," and that the team would even consider buying out his expensive contract before Opening Day if that's what it takes to say farewell.  ... Heading into spring training, it was widely believed that the Giants were more than willing to ride it out with Zito, given the overall excellence of their rotation. But there's a healthy sense of urgency in the world champions' camp. They didn't clinch a postseason berth until the final game of the 2010 season, and they realize that just a single loss - something that could be avoided - could cost them a chance to repeat this year.

There is concern that Zito hasn't been properly diligent in maintaining his physical conditioning, and that Monday's performance (five walks in 13 batters) was all too reminiscent of Oct. 2, when he walked home two runs in the first inning against San Diego and took the loss in a vital game at AT&T Park.

This isn't helping, Barry.

OK, let's take those in reverse order -- if Zito hasn't been keeping in shape, that's going to change my opinion of him. The Giants have paid him about $87,000,000 already and owe him another $39,000,000 -- all to be a professional athlete. There's simply no excuse for not being fanatical about staying in shape, especially with gym rats like Brian Wilson on the team.

But it's the supposed concern over just a single loss that strikes me. One, the Giants are pretty focused, and that's as it should be. But two, if this has a shred of truth to it, at least some folks in the organization think that Jeff Suppan, Brian Lawrence, Clayton Tanner (R) are potentially less risky to put out there in a given regular season game. You literally couldn't show less confidence in a guy while still keeping him on your roster.

OK .. that's worse. STOP.

Which, apparently, they're considering not doing. I don't buy it - again, I wouldn't be against them waiving him if he's simply that unreliable - but you have to have better options. I don't know much about Tanner, but that would be a very, very young pitching staff. I sort of like the idea of the end of the rotation being a veteran. And sure, Suppan and Lawrence are veterans, but there's a reason they were available.Suppan's career ERA is 4.69 and WHIP is 1.460, worse than Zito's wrteched stint with the Giants, and WAY higher than that in the last few years. The Giants signed Brian Lawrence when Elmer Dessens decided to back out of a deal. Enough said.

If this is all just a way to kick Zito in the ass and get him focused, then ... I guess so, but .. really? Zito is many things, but he's not an idiot. He's a good teammate - he took his playoff demotion with incredible grace, charm and enthusiasm - but he has to know the organization has soured on him. But there's no real reason to rub salt in his wounds like this, is there?

This is probably nothing more than a sportswriter thinking on the page, and that's fine. But for what it's worth, unless there's another pitcher out there who the Giants have their eye on to replace Zito in the rotation, I'm not seeing it.