Kuzul

In the top of the sixth inning Monday night, the Colorado Rockies knocked out San Francisco Giants' starter Madison Bumgarner. They coaxed five walks out of him on the night and cut the Giants' 3-0 lead to 3-2 against him.The Giants bullpen would let the Rockies get no further. Santiago Casilla stranded the tying run at second base with a strikeout of Yorvit Torrealba to end the sixth before throwing a perfect seventh.Jeremy Affeldt followed with a scoreless eighth inning. Sergio Romo allowed a leadoff double in the ninth, but then struck out the next three hitters to end the game for his fourth save of the season.The Giants bullpen combined to throw 3.1 innings of scoreless baseball Monday night. They struck out six of the 11 hitters they faced while only allowing one baserunner. It was a dominant performance that helped vindicate general manger Brian Sabean's decision to invest ...

The San Francisco Giants' offseason tour down memory lane continued on Tuesday when the team reportedly re-acquired free agent reliever Ramon Ramirez on a minor league contract (h/t Andrew Baggarly).Ramirez was a key contributor on the 2010 Giants team that brought the organization its first championship since moving west to San Francisco in 1958. General manager Brian Sabean swung a deal for Ramirez at the deadline that year, and he delivered with a 0.67 ERA over the final two months of the season.In 2011, he remained an outstanding contributor as part of manager Bruce Bochy's setup corpse. He put a 2.62 ERA with 66 strikeouts over 68.2 innings that year. Sabean then dealt Ramirez and Andres Torres to the Mets for Angel Pagan last winter in a deal that helped propel the Giants to a second World Series title in three years.This offseason Sabean has brought back all three of ...

The Hot Stove is still in simmer mode, but offseason activity is beginning to pick up around the majors. About the only movement in San Francisco so far has been the Giants' commitment to offering Hunter Pence arbitration.But this should be a busy winter for the Giants, with nine free agents from this past season's 40-man roster, an arbitration-eligible closer coming off Tommy John Surgery, and a need for another power bat in the lineup.Here is a look at four players from the 2012 World Series champions who could be on the move this offseason.Begin Slideshow

The San Francisco Giants went into the trading deadline needing to fill three obvious areas of deficiency: a lack of power in the lineup, a lack of depth on the bench and in the bullpen due to the loss of closer Brian Wilson earlier this season.For Giants' general manager Brian Sabean, two out of three wasn't bad.The late-inning reliever never materialized, because it didn't exist. The relievers that the Giants were rumored to be interested in were ultimately not legitimate options to replace Santiago Casilla in the ninth inning.Jonathan Broxton and Brandon League were the two biggest names that were moved on the relief market, and while both throw hard, neither misses enough bats to be considered an upgrade on Casilla. You can't fault Sabean for failing to acquire bullpen help when the help that was out there wasn't good enough to warrant selling part of the farm for.Casilla has ...

After watching another pathetic performance by the San Francisco Giants, one that almost put me asleep, I had a thought. This team might not be doing itself much good right now, but boy it's been good to its opponents.As evidence, I give you tonight's opponents, the Arizona Diamondbacks. Before tonight, the Diamondbacks had lost five in a row and seven of their last eight.Giants to the rescue! It doesn't matter that the D'Backs rolled out a guy with a seven-plus ERA; he was still able to shut down the Giants' feeble bats.And the Giants' defense helped again with a couple of errors, along with a misplay in the outfield that opened the door for a three-run inning that undid the Giants. Down 4-1 at that point in the fifth inning, the score might as well have been 16-1 the way the Giants have been hitting. Or I should say not ...

 Aubrey Huff texted in sick, to manager Bruce Bochy before the San Francisco Giants doubleheader with the Mets on April 23.  Apparently a "family emergency" called him urgently back to Florida.Well, in baseball timing is everything and Huff's little excursion certainly raises some eyebrows. Huff is currently hitting .182/.300/.333.  During Huff's last game he was 0-4, but much worse than that was the appalling error he made in the ninth inning that cost the Giants an unearned run in what would be a rather bizarre 5-4 loss.Manager Bruce Bochy said: "He had to go back for personal reasons, personal issues."So how much empathy do we show?  It's a puzzle, isn't it?  Fans can run hot and cold on certain players like Aubrey Huff.  He was adored in 2010.  We all loved him, even when he shoved his hand down his pants in front of Willie Mays and the world.  Now ...

Yeeech.Losing three of four in Atlanta was disappointing. But getting steamrolled by the hapless 40-85 Houston Astros in the opener of a three-game weekend series? That's senseless. And pitiful.Here's senseless: Pablo Sandoval hurts his left shoulder twisting a stubborn soda bottle cap and is out of Friday's lineup (just joshing; he hurt it swinging the bat Thursday in Atlanta).Here's pitiful: the Giants infield Friday consisted of Huff at 1B, Fontenot at 2B, Tejada at SS, DeRosa at 3B. I affectionately call that group the O-Gang, as in: nO offense, Old, and Oh-my-gosh-these-guys-look-awful.Sorry for the sarcasm. How else are we going to get through this?Atlanta did defeat Arizona Friday, so the Giants NL West deficit remains two-and-a-half games. It only feels like it's seven.So what comes next? Locusts in the clubhouse? Bed bugs in the players' hotel rooms? No cold beer at the hotel bar for Aubrey Huff? Stay tuned.Meanwhile, here are ...

With the New York Mets recent financial situation and the San Francisco Giants desperate need for offense and a real short stop, Jose Reyes has been one of the hottest names floating around MLB trade rumors. This is an intriguing idea for both teams. They have exactly what each other wants and needs. However, neither team will be bite the bait for a small price.Reyes will be a free agent at the end of the season. The Mets are facing a $1 billion lawsuit due to their involvement with the Bernie Madeoff scandal. All that is for sure is that they will be reducing their payroll significantly in 2012.If New York is not a postseason contender (in the highly competitive NL East) when the July 31 trade deadline rolls around, you can bet that there will be no more "Joseeeeeè, Jose, Jose-Joseeeeeeè, Josè, Josè" chants for Los Mets fans at Citi ...

Quick Note before we begin.  Here's a rule for catchers straight out of the MLB Rulebook:"The catcher, without the ball in his possession, has no right to block the pathway of the runner attempting to score. The base line belongs to the runner and the catcher should be there only when he is fielding a ball or when he already has the ball in his hand."With that in mind, let's take a look at what went wrong, and why the only person at fault is Buster Posey. It's an easy thing to figure out if you actually watch the video. It was his own fault he got hurt on that play.  Before you Giants fans freak out and tell me about how Scott Cousins needs to be fined or anything like that, take a look at the video. The sequence of events clearly shows that the injury was a result ...

The 2011 baseball season is upon us, and that can only mean one thing for eager fans: a fresh start.  With hopes of celebratory bliss, you announce confidently, “this is our year,” as you retrieve the enormous foam finger lodged behind your bed. The once prized possession is now dusted with crumb remnants and dead ants.  While one’s prophecies for the upcoming season may be nothing more than fantasy, players must approach each year with the goal to maintain past success, improve on past failures, or return from an injury, thus proving they still are one of the elite.  No player is more eager to prove he can return to greatness than Minnesota Twins closer Joe Nathan.     Nathan made great progress this spring and has reestablished himself as Minnesota's closer to open the season. This tale, however, is not about Nathan’s return to the mound.  This is ...