Meet the New Boss, Same As The Old Boss

For a team that's supposed to win with pitching and defense, the Giants certainly don't seem to be doing a very good job of it. Neither showed up in Philly (again) and the result was another 8-2 pounding. In the process, the Giants lost contact with the wildcard leaders and dropped three in a row for the first time since I lit fireworks in the back yard.

My boys (both 16 months old) cried when the fireworks went boom, kinda like I want to do seeing the Giants' season suffer a similar fate. The last time I saw this kind of collapse there was video of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge involved.

The Giants are in freefall, the Padres are running away with the division, and San Francisco's closest competitors in the wildcard race are cleaning their collective clock. The 2010 season has sailed off into the sunset,  just as 2009 did.

I hate to say I told you so (not really), so instead I offer this portion of my rant from December 30, 2009:

"No one but the most delusional of Pollyannas can look at the Giants' off-season moves and think the team is any better off than it was in 2009...If someone can answer this one simple question for me, I might be a little less likely to scale a clock tower with a deer rifle: How can the team get better if it doesn't get better players?"

I was hopefull when Bill Neukom took over that the Giants would change direction. Instead the true culprits (Sabean and Bochy) were given new contracts. So the results, like the team in charge, haven't changed much. With apoloigies to Dennie Green, the Giants are exactly who I thought they were.

Neukom made a big deal out of two points, establishing a "Giants Way" to play, and getting better each year. You tell, me, how's that working out? Fail. Epic fail.

The Giants fattenend up on some crappy competition in July, and the illusion was put in place. "The Giants are contenders" we were told. They even built a marketing slogan around the phrase "we're in this thing." What they're in is deep excrement. Despite that one stretch where they won 21 of 26 against the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Giants are exactly ONE GAME better off than they were at the same point in 2009. Sorry, but that's no reason to crow. The bottom line is that the Giants AREN'T any better. In fact, take out that one hot streak and they're three games under .500. Ouch!

The old cliche still rings true: the more things change, the more they stay the same. The Giants were unproductive at the plate last year. Same story in 2010. They were undisciplined at the plate. Ditto. You could easily argue that the defense is worse -- especilly with Pablo's struggles and the presence of jurassic-era creatures once thought extinct roaming the outfield.

There have been a few nice surprises, notably Huff and Torres, but the rest of the team either stood pat or regressed -- and the latter means you, Timmy and Pablo. I can't see where anyone on this team got significantly better. Worse, the mid-season moves made by the front office aren't helping at all. Jose Gillien? Not only did he bring Molina's number 1 to right field, he brought Bengie's speed. You can sacrifice one side to a bat (Burrell), but now the Giants have to guys in the outfield who give daily evidence why they were DHing in the American League. No range in the outfield, and none on the left side now that Sandoval and Uribe''s bloodstreams have tested at 94 percent for Cinnabon. That's no way to make your pitching staff look good.

Look at Game Two in Philly. The Giants took an early lead but lost it, largely on a Jimmy Rollins leadoff triple that was a three- bagger only because Guillen stopped for a cheesesteak before digging it out of the corner. The inning was extended twice, by Fontenot booting a grounder and a single through the left side that would have been fielded had the Giants possessed an infielder whose range was greater than that of your average garden slug. Matt Cain did surrender the two-out bomb, but he had a lot of assistance getting to that point.

It didn't help that the bullpen melted down for the second straight night or that the offense is on hiatus. Think about it. The Giants got a run on three hits in the first inning. Until Burrell homered in the sixth, the Giants managed just one more baserunner --and that was on an infield single. The Giants homered four times in two games -- and scored five runs. Talk about chicken or feathers.

Here's an interesting stat, courtesy the San Francisco Chronicle. Remember all that talk about the Giants being more selective at the plate? They haven't drawn a walk since the third inning of the San Diego finale, and the guy who drew that freebie was Lincecum. Uribe is swinging at throws to first base, Sandoval believes anything between the dugouts is viable, and the rest of the team is swinging from its collective backside in the hope they might get lucky and connect. It's not happening.

Has 2010 been better? We'll there was some excitement for awhile, but you gotta look at the campaign as a whole. When you compare records, saying 2010 was better than 2009 is like saying Betty White was more attactive than Bea Arthur. True? Sure, but when you were hoping for Angelina Jolie you're not exactly thrilled with the outcome. Are the Giants having a better year? Yeah, just like Lindsay Lohan is having better year than Brittany Murphy.

Six weeks to go. Derek Lee is in Atlanta, Miguel Tejada and Ryan Ludwick in San Diego, but we get to enjoy Jose Guillen down the stretch. Yippee!

These guys aren't even fun to watch. It's $250 a year for the MLB package and $300 a pop to take a family of four to the ballpark. For what? Right now if the Giants were playing in my back yard, I'd close the shades and watch Jeopardy.

When does college football start?