Sounding Off 2007

On the very last night of 2007, TFRJ would like to look back and remember the past 364 days of this eventful year. Here is a list of the most defining moments of Bay Area sports of Oh-Seven:

San Francisco Giants

Opening Day: The sun was shining, the ballpark pristine and packed, the beginning of the last year for one of baseball’s greatest hitters. Barry Zito, inked to a $126-million contract over the winter, took the mound as the Giants’ ace versus the Padres’ Jake Peavy in a potential pitching duel. Alas, Zito gave up three runs in a 5 inning stint, but the bullpen choked up another 4 runs, all the while Peavy and crew shut out the Giants. If nothing else, opening day was a sign of things to come.

1-hit loss: Matt Cain gives up one hit and one run on a questionable triple through 7 solid innings and then proceeds to lose the game. One of the many disasters in an unlucky season for Cain.

200-innings loss: Matt Cain goes another 7 strong innings, striking out 8 and earning the honor of a 200-inning season under his belt. He also ingratiates himself even more in Giants fans’ hearts, barking at Scott Hairston for a cocky bat-flip. The Giants led 4-2 through 8 innings, with Brian Wilson closing it out. Wilson gives up 4 runs, stemming from a single to Brady Clark, a walk to Oscar Robles, and then a home run to Brian Giles, which travels all the way up the wall in right field. The Giants go down harmlessly in the bottom of the ninth.

KKKKKKKKKKKK: Count ‘em. Twelve K’s by Tim Lincecum in a 7 inning shutout masterpiece against the Diamondbacks. Fortunately, his gem coincided with a rare offensive explosion by the Giants, winning 13-0 on the fine day of strikeouts by fastball, curve, and change.

It be Mando-time: Walk, balk, bunt, balk, home run, loss. Goodbye Benitez!

Golden State Warriors

The Trade: On January 14, the Warriors pulled off the impossible: shipping Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy and their bloated contracts to a sucker who fell for the hook, line, and sinker. In return, the Warriors received Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington, two misfits in Indiana who instantly found a home in Nelliball, in the ROARacle, and in thousands upon thousands of Warriors fans’ hearts.

Looks like the whole gang’s here: Mired in a 6 game losing streak and facing the Pistons on the road, the Warriors’ season looked bleak and lottery-bound, when

…Dris got a reverse lay-in, to the wonderment of all,
JRich, the much beloved, shot lights-out with the 3-ball;
Monta, Al, and S-Jax got the shots they took to fly and then drop in.
And Baron, the returning Warrior, willed his team to grab the win.

And from the Bay there rose a culminating yell,
It rumbled through dear Oaktown, it rattled in San Rafael;
It knocked upon The City and recoiled in San Jose,
For finally, yes finally, things were goin’ the Warriors’ way.

The Series: 6 games. 5 starters. 4 wins. 3 nights in the loudest building on the planet. 2 stars, one former and one current, humiliated. 1 drought snapped, much to the delight of the denizens of Northern California.

The Dunk: Put that in your flat top!



The 49ers and the Sharks’ most defining moments coming up tomorrow!

From here at the Front-Row, have a very Happy New Year!

Winter Hiatus

I'm going on hiatus again. This time, it'll probably be for a week or so. Okay, maybe more because I'm going places for Christmas vacation. In the meantime, keep your eyes and ears open for any news about the Giants trade front and the Golden State Warriors for me. I heard they just downed last year's champions tonight ;P

How to Dance Shoot the Electric Slide Redux

No Soup for You! Next!

Dear Brian Sabean,

These Cain/Lincecum for Alex Rios talks are really irritating. Alex Rios is impressive, but this is simple math.

Alex Rios =/= Franchise cornerstone.

Cain+Lincecum = Franchise cornerstones

As Grant from MCC put it, get the hell away from Riccardi, Sabean.

Sincerely,

TFRJ

Nashville 2007: Winter Meetings and Tire-Kicking

12/4 8:47 PM

• Contrary to all the Rolen to San Francisco rumors, the Giants have no interest in the third baseman.

  Lincecum is also mentioned in Alex Rios talks. Um, no. There is no way that the Blue Jays get Cain or Lincecum for Rios. The encouraging signs are that Sabean is getting closer to declaring Matt and Tim off-limits (again, “our expendable player for Caincecum”) and Toronto GM JP Riccardi stated that none of the names thrown out in the media have come up in actual discussions.

  The Giants are linked to Tigers 3B Brandon Inge, who is now redundant with the fresh trade for Miguel Cabrera. Let’s see: a 30-year old who batted .236/.312/.376 and had a major power dropoff last season? I think we know what the answer is.

  [SF Giants]

• The Dodgers are discussing a trade for Orioles’ pitcher Erik Bedard. He was a beast in the AL East, so imagine the damage he could do in the NL, especially plugged into a rotation with Lowe, Penny, and Billingsley. However, the Orioles are asking for a package similar to ones put together for Johan Santana and Bedard is two years away from free agency.

  [Nashville Confidential]

Nashville 2007: Winter Meetings and Tire Kicking

And so we say hello to day 1 of the baseball winter meetings in Nashville. Several transactions have already occurred among some teams, but nothing blockbuster as of yet. Nothing from the Giants yet either.

Lefty, from El Lefty Malo, has already started a running list of transactions and commentary earlier in the day. MLB.com also dedicated an entire blog to the winter meetings. I’ll tack on my own thoughts in italics on any deals that come up.

Earlier:

• Nationals send Elijah Dukes to the Rays
• Diamondbacks send Carlos Quentin to ChiSox
• Jake Peavy near extension with Padres
• Andy Pettite remains with the Yankees

As of later:

• Lincecum and Cain are "getting close" to off the market, according to Brian Sabean. He hasn't been blown away by the offers, save for an "interesting" one, which was NOT for Miguel Cabrera... The Lincecum for Reds minor-league stud prospect Jay Bruce idea was “pure fiction.”… 3B Scott Rolen’s name is even more heavily linked to the Giants today. The Cardinals might be looking to move Rolen before signing FA Pedro Feliz:

  Seems like Sabean can’t talk to other GMs without a silly offer for Cain and/or Lincecum. Supposed bad news: Other GMs are not interested in the Giants’ marginal prospects or semi-serviceable veterans like Dave Roberts or Bengie Molina. Supposed good news: The Lincecum and Cain tandem will strike fear into the hearts of the NL for at least another year. That means the Giants won’t be getting any young, outstanding talent in exchange for the two. But I suppose the latter part is bad news.

  [SF Giants]

12/4 6:00 PM

• Boy, did I ever have the hell scared out of me earlier today. I was going home with the car radio tuned onto KNBR 680 while they were having the winter meeting updates. The volume was pretty low so I couldn’t catch much, but this is what I hear: “Giants pitcher Matt Cain [too low to hear] in return for Alex Rios.” Erp!

  Thanks to the updates on McCovey Chronicles, my fears were put to rest. Sabean may have been forced/stupid in the Zito signing and other assorted mishaps, but I’m getting sick of these “we’ll give you our crap to good young player in exchange for Cain and/or Lincecum” propositions.

• Marlins send Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to the Tigers in exchange for Cameron Maybin, Andrew Miller, Mike Rabelo and pitchers Burke Badenhop (MiL), Eulogio De La Cruz (MiL) and Dallas Trahern (MiL): The premier third-base trade market just shrunk drastically. This doesn’t affect the Giants too much, except that they won’t face Miggy 6-7 times a year anymore. The Tigers gave up a lot for Cabrera and D-Train, but a lineup of Cabrera, Sheffield, Granderson, Ordoñez, and Polanco is a WS contender.

  [SF Gate]

Warriors @ Sonics: Playing with Fire

… literally.

The Warriors continued their hot streak in Seattle, controlling the pace and never trailing once against the Sonics. With a 109-96 win over the Sonics, the Warriors upped their win streak to 6 in a row and 9-1 in the last 10 games.

The Warriors raced out to a 17-8 start in the first quarter when the scoreboard caught fire during a mandatory timeout. I’d like to believe it flared up because of the Warriors hot shooting (at least 50% from the field), but that’s just as unlikely as a conspiracy to move the Sonics to Oklahoma. The Warriors maintained a double-digit lead for the rest of the game and cruised to an easy victory.




The Defense: Pre-Jackson’s return, the Warriors allowed opponents 51% shooting from the field. Once Jack came back, they drastically reduced that amount to 44%. Tonight, they held the Sonics to 41.4% from the field, and 20.0% from beyond the arc. Jackson, who is making a solid case for Defensive Player of the Year or for a spot on the All-Defensive Team, victimized Kevin Durant, holding him to a quiet 6 points on 2-12 shooting. As a team, the Warriors continually harassed and changed the Sonics’ shots and did not allow many easy open shots. Including tonight, the Warriors kept 4 out of their last 5 opponents under 100 points.

Andris Biedrins: Andris approached Garnett-like numbers again, with 18 points on 9-12 shooting and 16 rebounds. He notched a double-double by the end of the first quarter with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Though most of his points were off feeds from Baron, Jack, or Monta, Jim Barnett pointed an important aspect of Andris’ game: Andris knows when to cut to the basket and how to handle a pass. Example: Monta drove into the lane from the baseline, forcing the defense to collapse and drawing in three defenders. Andris moved into the lane and anticipated and caught a beautiful around-the-back pass from Monta as he went up to the rim. Easy layup.



Monta Ellis: Speaking of Monta, how good was he tonight? Monta continued his streak of solid games, scoring 18 points on 8-15 shooting and dished out 5 assists. On his radio show with Ralph and Tom on KNBR, Nellie admitted to allowing Monta to play more as a scorer in recent weeks. Not so coincidentally, as Monta relaxed and played his natural game, he also cut down on his turnovers and opened up his court vision. Though he might not ever be a pass-first PG like Nash or Kidd, he’s gradually expanding his speed and scoring ability to become a more well-rounded guard. It’s fun to watch him grow up every game.

Garbage Time: Nothing of much importance to note here, except for the fact that all the starters got around 6 minutes of extra rest. Baron played a total of only 30 minutes, Al 31, Monta 30, and Andris 27. Jackson was the only one of the starters with significant minutes, 36. Hopefully this extra rest will help keep up the intensity tomorrow night, when the Warriors face off with the Orlando Magic and Adonal Foyle, who just came off a 104-97 win over the Lakers tonight.

The All-Seeing Eye Just Got a Set of All-Hearing Ears

According to Sports Media War:

The NBA will begin miking players and coaches during nationally televised games, starting this week… Cameras will also record "pregame, halftime and postgame meetings" from team locker rooms… Future plans have players getting microphones "sewn into their uniforms."

Unless the league officials are paranoid, I think they're trying too hard to appeal to fan interest in a creative way. It's a cool concept, but it places an extra burden on coaches and players to watch their mouths during a game. They might say things they probably won't in a normal situation, but trash talk flows free and easy in a competitive atmosphere. I guess I might be stretching this too much, but what if the league starts fining coaches and players for bashing other coaches, players, or refs in a game? It would be a no-win situation, considering the league already fined coaches in 2000 for refusing to wear mikes.