Posts tagged Bruce bochy at FanHouse

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.

Four years and one day after the Chargers were forced to evacuate San Diego and play a regular season home game in Arizona, the Chargers were once again forced to cancel practice and are considering moving practice to Arizona because of fires in the San Diego area. The fires in the area are not near the team's Murphy Canyon complex, but they are nearby many of the player's homes.

"There's nothing we could do today," head coach Norv Turner said. "We have a dozen guys who have evacuated their houses and have stuff they've got to deal with."

Among those who live in the Poway and Rancho Bernardo area are LaDainian Tomlinson, Shawne Merriman, Shaun Phillips and Luis Castillo.

According to the AP story, Trevor Hoffman was among a handful of Padres personnel who had to evacuate the area as well, and the home of former Padres manager, Bruce Bochy, may also be in danger. ESPN's Chris Mortensen is reporting that the Chargers will in fact move practice to Arizona, but they are currently uncertain whether or not they will move their scheduled home game on Sunday against the Texans.

UPDATE: I'm told 250,000 people have been evacuated and that 3/4 of San Diego is being evacuated. Qualcomm Stadium, which is where the Chargers player their home games, is currently serving as an evacuation center.

Early in July, Giants skipper Captain Cranium thought that the money Zito had signed for was affecting his performance on the mound. It got so bad for Zito that he was dropped to the last spot in the San Francisco rotation following the all-star break. Now that Barry has regained elite form over his last four starts, he is agreeing with everyone who speculated that the $126 million contract was affecting him:

"You want to be everything for everyone," Zito said. "You want to show everyone you're worth every dollar. I figured out, be myself. That's what they're paying me for, to be who I am."
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"Sometimes we have to go through crap to prove to ourselves we can handle it," Zito said. "I think the reality is, I never pitched with a number on my forehead such as the contract. All these things were new to me. On top of that, a new team, new park, new league. So I think it's a reason a lot of guys re-up with their teams. They don't want to go through the process. It's something you can't prepare for."

That's a pretty harsh description -- saying he was pitching with a number on his forehead. He's so right too. Much like 56, 2131, and 755, fans remember contract values like their birthdays, and constantly use them as ammo to lambast athletes. Once players sign that dotted line, it's a life-altering experience.

Barry Bonds has encountered an extreme situation in his baseball career. He is at one pole of his performance spectrum -- the bad side. After going 0-for-the Dodgers series, Barry finds himself hitless in his last 20 at-bats, three outs away from matching his worst hitless slump since his rookie year in 1986. It's not the first time this year that we talked about Barry being in a slump, but it's the first time we've seen his emotions get the best of him after a game:

"Yeah, it's an embarrassment for me to be wearing this f -- uniform because of the way I'm playing," Bonds said Sunday. "Now go away."

With that, he shooed away the quote-getters and flipped a laundry cart downside up, turning the dirty-clothes-on-wheels into a visual metaphor of the current state of affairs for Bonds and the Giants.

Barry Bonds is not used to failure. Captain Cranium tried to give reasons for Barry's recent struggles, but Bonds brushed those aside. What's probably bothering him most is the fact that pitches he used to drill in the gaps he's slightly missing and popping up. Even with the mini-slump, I still think Barry will be able to hit five more home runs this year. Maybe he just needs a wakeup call from his mom to break loose.

Previously at FanHouse:
Barry's World: A Slump, What's That?
Barry Bonds' Mother Gives Him a Kick in the Pants
Sorry, No Photos

A few days ago I told you that Captain Cranium suspected Barry Zito's struggles this year had to do with the lucrative contract he signed in the off-season. Regardless of the reason, there's no debate that the $126 million man has been the weak link in the impressive Giants rotation this year. So much so, that the Giants have decided to pitch him fifth in the rotation when they return from the All-Star break on Friday.

Considering Zito pitches today and would have his usual four days rest before the Giants play their first game of the second half of the season, there's no other way to view this other than as a demotion. I'm not buying Cranium's excuse that he's trying to give all his starters equal rest. True, that is what will wind up happening. But most teams would prefer to get their rotation lined up for the second half of the season with their no. 1 guy pitching first as long as they can help it. Now the Giants' rotation will go Matt Cain, Matt Morris, Noah Lowry, Tim Lincecum, and then Zito.

I have mixed feeling on the subject; the extra rest will be beneficial for Barry, but the demotion has to be a blow to his confidence. Considering the Giants are so far out of the race, I would've just given Zito an extra day's rest and pitched him on Saturday, second in the rotation. There's no sense in alienating a man who will be on the team for the next six and a half years. It will be interesting to see how he responds in the second half of the year.

Previously at FanHouse:
Money Is a Thang for Barry Zito

That's what his manager, Captain Cranium, seems to think. My opinion differs greatly, but let's stick with what the skipper said about his no. 1 starter:

"Barry was signed because of who he is and the quality of pitcher he is," [Bruce] Bochy said. "I sure hope he doesn't expect to go out and go 20-1 because of the contract. That's going to compound the damage a little bit when you're performing."
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"I think, if anything, Barry has got to relax a little bit," Bochy said. "I thing he's put added pressure on himself. Now that his numbers are not where they normally are, or what he's expected, he's added a little more pressure. This game is hard enough to perform. Now, I think he's overloaded himself with expectations and the pressure of being the pitcher he is.

Look, I realize that Barry signed a life-altering contract, but I don't think it has changed his ability as a pitcher. The Giants did not sign Barry Zito to a monster deal expecting to receive Johan Santana-like numbers from him (if they did, they were seriously disillusioned). They signed Zito to the gargantuan deal because the market for reliable starters was thin, and because the 29-year-old Zito hadn't missed a start in six years.

See, this late-breaking story has made it's way around the sports world -- apparently headlines are written when Bonds misses a game. They say that Barry missed Tuesday night's clash with the Diamondbacks because of his old age and shaky knees. Or at least that's what Captain Cranium had to offer:

"We're talking about a 42-year-old man who's played a lot of baseball," said Bochy, who hoped to have Bonds available to pinch-hit. "We knew there'd be days like this during the season. The fact of the matter is, he's up there in age and he needs a break."

That could very well be true and all, but it seems quite convenient to me that the two parties would have Barry sit when a certain 6'10" left-handed pitcher was on the hill. I've been told by former players that bad pitching match-ups can tend to bring on ailments. Hey, when you're a left-handed hitter set to face Randy Johnson, you certainly can come up with a multitude of reasons to miss the game -- even if your name is Barry Bonds and you have been successful against Johnson in the past.

Armando Benitez may have taken the brunt of the blame for the Giants 5-4 extra-innings loss to the Mets last week, which eventually led to his banishment to Miami. But manager Bruce Bochy acknowledged that there was more than just Armando Benitez to blame for that loss. In fact, there are several players to blame for the Giants losses according to Bochy -- not for what they did on the field, but because of their failure to make it onto the field.

"You can't afford to go into a series against a team like the Mets and be two or three guys short," Bochy said. "Sometimes you can't do anything about it. Maybe on the preventative side or the maintenance side of treatment, we've got to eventually turn up the volume on how we do that."
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"We've got a great medical staff here. (The players) have got to take responsibility for their health. You're paid on performance, and the best way to perform at your best is obviously by being healthy."

GM Brian Sabean echoed Bochy's thoughts:

Asked about a potential trade for a bat, an agitated Sabean said, "Ask the guys who can't answer the bell every day. Once we find out who is ready to play every day, then we'll have a better answer about what we have internally. ... We need guys on the field, and as usual, we're not getting it."

Dave Roberts has been on the DL since May 10th, while the likes of Ray Durham, Rich Aurilia, and Ryan Klesko have all nursed injuries recently. But honestly Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy, did you really think you would get through an entire season without many injuries when your lineup is full of players who were born before the Truman Administration?

Previously at FanHouse:
Armando Benitez Officially Traded, Giants Fans Celebrate

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Minor League Spotlight is the MLB FanHouse's look into baseball's minor leagues. But you probably figured that out already.

Tim Lincecum: learn it, know it, live it. The 22-year-old 2006 first round pick of the Giants is absolutely killing it in the minor leagues. He had what was probably his best outing of the year on Sunday for Triple-A Fresno, striking out 14 over six shutout innings, allowing only three hits, walking none.

The right-hander has a minuscule 0.29 ERA in 31 innings, thanks in large part to the fact that opposing hitters are batting just .119 against him. He has 46 strikeouts on the season. Wow. Those are like high school numbers. Crazy. Check out the praise he's received from Captain Cranium:

"I don't want to jinx him, but I think this kid has the potential to throw not just a no-hitter, but more than one," [Manager Bruce] Bochy said. "He has the kind of stuff you don't see very often."

Well, that is unless you manage current Giants pitcher Matt Cain, or you managed Padres pitcher Jake Peavy, as Bochy did last year. But Lincecum appears as if he's ready to join that group. Only problem is there isn't a current spot on the roster for him. GM Brian Sabean says it would be a stretch for him to bring Lincecum up as a reliever. That makes me think Russ Ortiz could be on the trading block -- or a candidate for demotion to the pen, because there's no denying that Lincecum would be an upgrade in the rotation.