The G-Men are once again getting my hopes up. This time there is reason for hope. The Giants starting staff is slowly turning into one of the best in the league. The numbers don't reflect how well they are really doing because of the ridiculouly inept performance of the bullpen and more specifically, Mr. 3 and 2, our star closer, (GAG!!) Armando Benitez. Factor out his blown saves and we're running away in the west. Nonetheless, in a close race, good pitching always wins out. The Giants are the best equipped team in the division for a short series. The Giants starters arent Clemens, Pettite, and Oswalt of last year for the Astros, but Schmidt, Cain, Morris and Lowery are formidable right now, and they're peaking together at the penultimate time of the season. How I love baseball in September !!

Dosen't this boxscore summarize the whole season???

Cincinnati 000002112 6 10 0
San Francisco 120000000 3 11 1
Starting pitching has been very good and the bullpen is a disaster !!

I'm just so disgusted. So How's Scott Eyre doing?

Time to get excited ??? Giants Win !!! Dodgers Lose !!! WOOOHOOOO !!! Hold it a second... Look at the boxscore, ya , way down at the bottom... hmmmm ... Benitez BS 8. Eight. Eight games where all he had to do was his job, what he's paid a nauseating amount of money for. HOLD A TEAM FOR ONE INNING! That's all, just one stinking inning. Eight games in the standings means what? First place thats what !!! But thats not all. There are more areas of real concern. Randy Winn is hitting 260. Is this the real Winn, or is the Winn who went on a mad tear to end last season the real Winn? How about Bonds? Bonds is hitting 240 !!! At the 2/3 point hes on pace for a 20-70 season, his weakest season in forever. Can the Giants even afford to keep that bat for another year, or is it time to unload that contract and shore up for the future by signing a young stud (Alfonso Soriano are you listening?) to a long term contract. Picking up Carlos Lee instead of Hillenbrand might have made all the difference. Coulda shoulda woudla. It's all speculation. The face of the Giants is changing. Soon we will lose Omar, Barry, Moises, Finley, possibly Ray Ray and hopefuly Stanton. Remember the Young Giants of the early 70's? Speier, Fuentes, Maddox Matthews and Bonds? They were bad but fun to watch. We may be going through that again real real soon. Could be worse. Could be raining.

What is wrong with me? Do I have some kind of brain damage ? Even though I know the Giants have little or no chance at the division, I find myself looking ahead at the schedule to see where they can make up some ground. As long as they are less games behind than there are left to play, I keep hangin' on. I keep hoping for a lightning in a bottle streak that will propel them back into contention that will ultimately fizzle and come up oh so short. I find no solace in the recent two game win streak against the Padres because we made up no ground and pushed the only other team that can beat the Dodgers farther back in the standings. If the Giants can't win, the Dodgers can't either. I've always said, "My favorite team is the Giants, and my second favorite team is whoever is playing the Dodgers". The game will be starting soon, and I won't know wether to laugh or cry if the Giants win again, and the Dodgers do also.

Where is this team headed? The last two years have been studies of futility and mediocrity. It seems everyone raves about Sabean's July trades. I for one am not so impressed. When was the last time the Giants made a trade that pushed them from also-rans to division winners? Do you have to go back to the Rick Reushel trade or the Kevin Mitchell trade. They were set in 2002. No trades necessary. Bonds was God and the pitching was adequate. I'm still infuriated about the Pierzinski trade. Nathan and Liriano are young stud pitchers. Nathan was 12-4 for us as a starter the year prior. Can you imagine this team with those two??? OMG !!! We wouldn't NEED to hit!!!
So where is this team going? This season is nails. The Dogmeats just beat us for the second straight night putting us 7 1/2 back. Schmidt pitches a gem and we still lost. Its over. Whats the plan now Mr. Sabean? And how many years is it gonna take?