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 ...

Earlier this offseason, when the San Francisco Giants re-signed reliever Jeremy Affeldt to a three-year, $18 million contract, I argued that the club overpaid to retain the 33-year-old lefty. The Giants have since given a three-year, $15 million extension to 32-year-old reliever Santiago Casilla.In retrospect, neither player seems to have been given an egregiously large contract given the way the market has shaken out. But I generally don't like paying market prices for veteran relievers because relief pitchers tend to be more fungible than starting pitchers and everyday position players—and the latter two categories are harder to find.For example, the Giants turned up Casilla on a minor league deal prior to 2010 after he had washed out by putting up a 5.96 ERA with the A's the season before. In three years with the Giants, he's put up a combined 2.22 ERA.It's also worth noting that neither Casilla nor Affeldt ...

Jeremy Affeldt is in the final year of his contract with the San Francisco Giants. As an effective left-handed reliever who will turn 33 this year, Affeldt figures to find continue his major league career, whether it's with the Giants or another team.However, the club that signs Affeldt for next year (and possibly beyond) may want to hire someone else to help him with taking care of duties at home. Because this man clearly needs to be protected from himself. And maybe his children, as well.Affeldt was placed on the 15-day DL by the Giants on Tuesday with a sprained knee injury. OK, that happens. Pitchers get hurt. Call up a replacement from Class-AAA Fresno, as the Giants did with Travis Blackley, and everybody reconvene in two weeks or so. But it's how Affeldt hurt his knee that raises an eyebrow. As the Chronicle's Henry Schulman reports, Affledt got home after Saturday's ...

As the Philadelphia Phillies' season came to an abrupt end against the Giants in the NLCS, the offseason went about itself the next day.We have already seen J.C. Romero's $4.5 million option not picked up and heard from Jayson Werth about him testing the free agent waters. All odds are pointing toward him not being in a Philadelphia uniform in 2011. With that being said, there are definitely some needs that this Phillies team has to address, and the most likely way to address that is through free agency.We don't have any major flaws and we don't have much payroll that were going to want to add, but that doesn't mean we won't be aggressive in the free agent market for the positions that we need to address.Begin Slideshow

2010 has been a year packed with surprises, from the success of unsung heroes to the struggles of previous years' stars. Let's take a look at the Giants' 10 biggest surprises. Begin Slideshow

The Dodgers go out and trade for Scott Podsednik, Tedd Lilly, Ryan Theriot, and Octavio Dotel. San Diego went out and traded for Miguel Tejada and Ryan Ludwick. What did the Giants do? They traded for Ramon Ramirez and Javier Lopez. Could they have done more? Should they have done more? The answers are yes and no. Sure, they could have traded more Adam Dunn. They could have traded for Corey Hart. If they really wanted, they could have traded more Prince Fielder. Why didn't they? The price was too high. The names Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey and/or Jonathan Sanchez were brought up, and in no way were we willing to part with them for seperate reasons. Any conversation Giants' GM Brian Sabean had involving Posey or Bumgarner probably ended with the other GM left hanging on the other end. As well, it should. Dunn and Fielder are both free agents at the end of the year, and Sabean ...

The San Francisco Giants really need another left-hander out of the bullpen now that Jeremy Affeldt's sidelined with a torn oblique muscle. The club also needs minor league talent to attract a proven big league run-producer in trade. Todd Wellemeyer's pitching well for the Fresno Grizzlies in the Pacific Coast League, but that doesn't mean that fans calling for the club to trade Jonathan Sanchez for a hitter have any idea how difficult it would be to fill the No. 4 spot in the rotation. Oh, there are starting pitchers in Triple-A—but there's a good reason that only one has ever reached the big league level and for the big club's hesitance to turn a starting spot back over to Wellemeyer. The organization does have some talent other teams might seek in trade, but the most proven player in Fresno is middle infielder Emmanuel Burriss and the Giants could use him themselves down the ...

In some recess of his or her brain, every San Francisco Giants fan is thinking the same thing now that Dontrelle Willis has signed a Minor League contract with the club. Does this mean someone in the current rotation is on his way out? It's natural. Although rookie Madison Bumgarner's name has popped up on the trade radar, it's doubtful the Gents would be interested in moving the 20-year-old lefty, given he's twirled a quartet of blinders since being called up at the end of June. Plus, he's cheap and under control for a while as a member of the 2007 draft class. Even the most cynical skeptic of Brian Sabean has to believe the San Francisco general manager has been impressed with the No. 5 starter and recognizes the cost-benefit analysis weighs heavily against moving the kid. On the other hand, more of the recent trade gossip has theorized that Jonathan Sanchez—a 27-year-old ...

The San Francisco Giants need a big bat to make a big run at a National League playoff berth. Guess what? They don't need to trade starting pitcher Jonathan Sanchez (whose still got a 75 percent chance of being a productive big league winner) to get outfielder Corey Hart (who'd come with 50-50 odds that his offensive numbers would diminish in the move from Milwaukee's cavernous Miller Park to San Francisco's cavernous AT&T Park). Odds are far better than 50-50 that Pablo Sandoval will find himself at the plate. So, even while fans foolishly suggest the 23-year-old third baseman be sent to the minor leagues—there's a 70 percent chance that Sandoval will bump his power numbers up and move his batting average well past the .260 mark he's hovering around now. There's a 50 percent chance Hart would go bust in San Francisco. There's a 70 percent chance that the real Sandoval is a ...

With the roller coaster ride that the San Francisco Giants pitching staff has taken fans on this year, it's hard to tell if they are heroes or villains. Here's a rundown as of May 27th, 2010. Note: this slide show was supposed to feature pictures of the actual comparisons, but those pictures, while widely available on the Internet, are not available for publication here on Bleacher Report. Use your imagination.Begin Slideshow