As Fletch reported yesterday, Noah Lowry's agent contends that the Giants misdiagnosed Lowry's arm issues, put him under the knife for the wrong surgery, assigned him the wrong rehab program, and jeopardized his career. The Giants are denying this. From Calvin and Hobbes, November 18, 1990:
CALVIN. Your foot hurts? What kind of stupid problem is that? SUSIE. You're the doctor! You're supposed to find out what's wrong with it. CALVIN. It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Wonderful coincidence as it would have been -- Randy Johnson winning No. 300 in Seattle -- it's not going to happen.
Johnson was pounded for seven runs in four innings on Saturday afternoon, taking the 9-6 loss against the the Mets and Johan Santana, so he'll still be on 298 victories when he makes his next start in an interleague game on Friday at Safeco Field.
Neither pitcher was sharp in this matchup of seven Cy Young Awards (five for Johnson), but Johnson definitely took the worst of it.
MLB Power Rankings:Where we care what you've done for us lately when we break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world each week.
It's been a while since a week of baseball was this sad -- we saw the tragic passings of Nick Adenhart, Harry Kalas and Mark Fidrych. And without waxing too sentimentally, it's the loss of these men that remind us exactly just how little sports matter in the grand scheme of things. RIP, gentlemen. Power rankings (that feel just a tad inconsequential, to be honest) after the jump.
LOS ANGELES -- Manny Ramirez came bouncing down the stairs, baggy uniform and dreads flapping, and Dodger Stadium erupted.
They had been waiting all winter, through months of contract negotiations that ended precisely where they began, to see this sight. The love affair between Ramirez and Los Angeles has picked up right where it left off.
When it comes to playing shortstop, there haven't been very many in the game who did a better job of catching the baseball throughout their career than Omar Vizquel. There's a reason the man has won 11 Gold Gloves in his career, after all. So how does he do it?
Well, a lot of baseball players spend their offseasons relaxing and recovering, while working out just to stay in shape. Some don't do anything and wait until the last minute before Spring Training to get ready for the long season. Then there's Omar Vizquel, who spends his offseason utilizing his ability to catch things, things like anacondas.
Omar Vizquel played for Bruce Bochy for two seasons in San Francisco before Vizquel signed a deal to play for Texas this season. His final assessment of Bochy as a manager is not so great.
"I don't think Bochy was my type of manager," Vizquel said when asked about his former field boss during a discussion of managerial styles. "I always went along with his decisions. I never said anything in the paper about him, but sometimes I wished he could be more aggressive with the moves that he made. But everybody has his style, and you can't change that."
And what better time to start talking about your manager in the paper than when he's not your manager anymore?
Okay, so I don't know if Bruce Bochy would actually kill him, but it looks as though he may be willing to possibly kill the kid's career. On Saturday night, Tim Lincecum threw his first complete game shutout of the season as the San Francisco Giants beat the Padres 7-0. He also threw 138 pitches in the process.
Now, on the surface, there doesn't seem to be any reason for a manager to leave his ace in a blowout and allow him to throw so many pitches, especially when you consider that both teams are well out of the playoff hunt. So why did Bochy do it? Well, he wanted to help the kid in the NL Cy Young race.
"It was big for him to pitch a shutout," Bochy said. "I don't want him to talk about, 'I haven't finished a game.' I don't want that on his resume when they're talking about the Cy Young voting, and I don't want him to think, 'If I finished a game or two, that would have made a difference.' "
On one hand, I can appreciate Bochy doing everything in his power to help one of his players win an award. It's the kind of thing that earns a lot of love and respect in the clubhouse. On the other hand, I think Bochy must be out of his mind.
Why risk injuring the kid just to help him get a few votes for an award that really doesn't mean anything? And does Bruce really think some voter will think to himself, "Man, I wasn't going to vote for Lincecum before, but now that he's shutout the Padres I have no choice!" Imagine what would have happened if on pitch #138 Tim had felt a pop in his elbow.
I understand that temperatures were at record highs this weekend. So, taking some time off of work or finding the shade was a good thing for everyone. But that doesn't make the Giants needing time off to rest their old bones any less humorous.
Giants manager Bruce Bochy will likely give some of his veterans a rest for Sunday's afternoon game with the Nationals since Washington's extreme heat and humidity will be a factor.
[...]Bochy said it's likely that Omar Vizquel and Ray Durham will sit while Burriss and Travis Denker should get a shot at starting while the older guys take a break.
By all means, sit them down. The last thing we need is someone collapsing on the lawn at AT&T. Still, when you consider Brian Sabean's penchant for inking veterans, it becomes pretty hysterical that his team has to sit several players because it's too hot for baseball. Which is played every year ... in the summer.
(Karmic aside: I should probably mention that the air conditioner just broke in my office. But you're still old, Giants.)
With a quarter of the season in the books, it's now clear which teams stumbled out of the gate and which teams never left the blocks. As such, jobs are officially on the line. In today's FanHouse Roundtable, we took a guess at which manager will get the ax first, and which one deserves to be on a hot seat.
The overwhelming consensus? Where there's smoke, there's fire: we think it's nigh time for Ned Yost to find a good real estate agent in Milwaukee. He shouldn't feel too bad, though; no fewer than eight other skippers were mentioned in our lengthy email conversation.
Mullet: I'll say Ned Yost will get fired first, only because I think Willie Randolph bought himself some time with the team meeting, and sweeping the Yankees which ... even though it's only two games ... counts for a little more here [in New York].
Andrew Johnson: Why do I think it's likely? Because the Brewers are floundering and entering a perilous stretch of seven games on the road against the Pirates and Nationals (perilous for Yost). There's no shame in getting swept at Fenway Park, but if Milwaukee can't go at least 4-3 or 5-2, the door will be wide open for Yost to get fired. No one's as close as Yost, especially after the Mets got the two-game sweep at Yankee Stadium this weekend.
As Fletch reported yesterday, Noah Lowry's agent contends that the Giants misdiagnosed Lowry's arm issues, put him under the knife for the wrong surgery, assigned him the wrong rehab program, and jeopardized his career. The Giants are denying this. From Calvin and Hobbes, November 18, 1990:
SAN FRANCISCO -- Wonderful coincidence as it would have been -- 
PHOENIX – Brewers manager 
When it comes to playing shortstop, there haven't been very many in the game who did a better job of catching the baseball throughout their career than 
Okay, so I don't know if 
