Kuzul

San Francisco Giants left-hander Barry Zito sprained a ligament in his foot on Saturday night and had to leave a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. A strained ligament can only be so serious, right? Listening to manager Bruce Bochy describe the nature of the injury on his KNBR pregame radio show Sunday gave the impression that the Giants organization could be viewing Zito's freak injury as an opportunity to keep the struggling pitcher out of the starting rotation—for a good, long while. "He sprained a ligament in the middle of his foot," Bochy said on KNBR. "It's the type injury where Barry could be out two or three weeks...or two or three months. He needs to have some more tests done to determine the severity of the injury." Strained foot ligament and he's out three months? Zito is in the fifth season of the seven-year, $127 million free-agent contract he signed with the Giants. Zito is ...

Don't ask. It's a bad idea. The only reason the suggestion even need be entertained is because it's already been put forward. People who over-analyze everything and think they know which of the final six games of the season will be most important are calling for the Giants to pull Barry Zito from the starting rotation and get Tim Lincecum two starts this week. Some folks want manager Bruce Bochy to start the final week of the season by virtually announcing that Sunday's regular season finale against the Padres will be for all of the playoff marbles—thus, he absolutely needs Lincecum to pitch it. Thank heavens panic-driven keyboard jockeys or armchair pitching coaches aren't calling the shots for San Francisco. The Giants shouldn't alter their starting rotation in the final week of the season in order to get Lincecum two starts, including one on Sunday. Monday's off day gives the Giants the opportunity to ...

Andres Torres, the center fielder and lead-off hitter, is the most irreplaceable member of the San Francisco Giants' lineup.The Giants have to replace him, though, because he's out for the remainder of the regular season following surgery on his appendix.Naturally, manager Bruce Bochy responded to Torres being sidelined Sunday by inserting Aaron Rowand in the lead-off spot, playing center field. Rowand went hitless in five at-bats, showing how he wound up buried on the bench as the fifth, perhaps sixth outfielder (Cody Ross has played ahead of Rowand since arriving from Florida, and Nate Schierholtz is clearly more important to the Giants than Rowand, too).The Giants can't play the final 18 games of the season with Rowand playing center field, let alone batting lead-off. No way.The obvious alternative to Rowand would be Ross. He's a proven big league hitter who can play center field. Being the obvious alternative doesn't make ...

Where were we?Oh, right, nothing about yesterday's game matters once today's game starts.The Giants belted the Padres 7-3 to win the opener of the important four-game NL West series Thursday in San Diego. Giants fans were roaring that everything had fallen into place.Then on Friday night, the Giants squeaked out a gut-wrenching and fascinating 1-0 win over the Padres to move into a tie for the NL West lead.San Francisco SP Jonathan Sanchez pieced together the five most maddening shutout innings that one could imagine. Five scoreless innings despite seven walks prove that even big league hitters aren't crazy comfortable hitting against a guy with nasty stuff but no idea where the ball's going.San Diego's Clayton Richard, an All-American sort who looks like he fell off the front of a Wheaties box, was breezing through the same Giants who crushed four home runs Thursday night. If he did not make ...

The Giants' offensive outburst in the first game of the four-game series in San Diego gives them momentum in the NL West showdown. San Francisco will assuredly keep the momentum gained in a 7-3 win over the Padres if starting pitchers Matt Cain and John Garland can miraculously return to the mound tonight with exactly the same stuff they possessed on Thursday. Since Cain can't duplicate his masterful performance for San Francisco, and Garland won't be out there to help the Giants make Petco Park play like a band box, all momentum gained on Thursday ends when the first pitch is thrown on Friday. Different starting pitchers. Different lineups. If Jonathan Sanchez can pitch as well as Cain did, the Giants could keep the momentum, especially if Padres starter Clayton Richard struggles like Garland did in helping San Francisco's batting order look like the 1927 New York Yankees in the series-opener. Giants fans will ...

The San Francisco Giants did everything most fans insist that they never do and came away with an important win on Thursday night, beating the Colorado Rockies 2-1, to gain a game on the NL West-leading San Diego Padres. The Giants dipped all the way down to Double-A Richmond to recall 24-year-old outfielder Darren Ford when rosters expanded Wednesday. Ford only batted .256 with a .680 OPS for the Flying Squirrels, but he stole 37 bases and the club remembered his sparkling effort in spring training. (For an explanation of OPS visit: http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/4-18-2001-3026.asp) General manager Brian Sabean OK'd the call to a kid without a single day of big league experience, then field manager Bruce Bochy utilized Ford's wheels the minute the kid showed up in the dugout. Sabean thought outside the box. Bochy did the same, and most importantly, put a completely unproven kid in a pressure spot. (Bochy ...

The San Francisco Giants are still in the playoff chase, even after Monday’s mind-bending loss. Really, could the gem that Jonathan Sanchez pitched have been wasted any more painfully that it was against Colorado in the series opener? Could an apparently inspiring win have been lost any more quickly? The Colorado lead-off hitter reached in the ninth before a misplayed fly ball led to a freaky bounce on an accurate throw to third. The Giants 1-0 edge became a 2-1 Rockies win in an instant. Moving forward, the Giants do have reason to give great thought to the pending September call-ups. They are in position where they should ponder dropping a player from the 40-man roster to make room for a relief pitcher, or maybe a starter, who can help in the final month. Players already on the 40-man roster who, most obviously, figure to be recalled are relief pitcher ...

Fans haven't been hesitant to point to the player or the plan that keeps the San Francisco Giants from soaring to the top of the NL West and well past the field in the wild-card race. As it turns out, though, most things that fans insisted the Giants do to get things going have been done and things haven't gone very well at all in the last month. The club is on the verge of falling out of the division race and has to keep pace with the Philadelphia Phillies, a tall order, to win the Wild Card. It almost seems as though fans are...grasping at straws and calling for change for the sake of change. No! Here's a quick look at the most common complaints fans had, how the Giants addressed them and their impact on club that had gone 12-14 entering the final two games of August. "Call up Buster Posey... now!" The ...

The notion that Tim Lincecum's woeful performance in August was prompted by rookie catcher Buster Posey tipping pitches is utterly ridiculous. Of course, the desperate search to explain how poorly Lincecum has pitched lately leads fans to suggest he cut his hair and has manager Bruce Bochy saying the two-time Cy Young Award winner needs to work harder to get in better condition during the offseason. Lincecum's not been above looking for answer in odd places. Before he dropped Friday night's game to Arizona, 6-0, he opted to change the look of his uniform and wear black stockings with orange stirrups.  There's more chance that Lincecum just needs to tweak his uniform or trim his hair than there is that he hit the skids because he and Posey don't work together, as well as the right-hander worked with veteran catcher Bengie Molina. If Posey is guilty of tipping pitches to the point that ...

Major League Baseball wasn't necessarily meant to be enjoyed with one finger extended in an attempt to find a target for today's round of criticism. Oh, the 2010 San Francisco Giants have made it easy for fans who want to affix blame, find solutions to every potential problem, and moan about what will go wrong next from Opening Day through the dog days of summer. The Giants' talented staff of starting pitchers has hit the skids. Pablo Sandoval, until very recently, lost his stroke after a brilliant 2009 campaign. The big hitter fans wanted never arrived. The bullpen has struggled. The club has yet to clinch first place in the NL West or the wild-card race, so those who find joy in finding misery can always finger general manager Brian Sabean or field manager Bruce Bochy to blame for something. Not today. Not here. Not with the Giants in the thick of the ...