This just in: I'm good, and Felipe is bad

Sometimes, I hate being right.

But, I know my Giants. Check out my comments over here, at Jim McLennan's most excellent and highly recommended Diamondbacks site. I was bored and off of work today, so I did some live comments over on Jim's site for kicks. If you look at my predictions concerning Kirk Rueter, Troy Glaus, Jason Christiansen, and the Giants offense's chances against Arizona starter Brandon Webb, you'll see why I'm changing my name to:

DANIELDAMUS

Thaaaaaaaaaat's right. Danieldamus. Ahem.

Anyhow, onto the game, which, by the way, the Giants lost 7-2:

• Memo to Todd Linden: stop getting down in the count so early. I think he can be a very good hitter, but at the moment he's so busy...I don't know, guessing/getting fooled on the first few pitches that he always seems to be in a two-strike count, which can't be good (and isn't...11 k's in 36 ab's). I do hope they keep feeding him at-bats, though, because I like his switch-hittedness in the lineup.
• Son Alou continues to hit, and even swiped a bag yesterday. He still has some go in his get-along.
• Can anybody tell me why Jason Christiansen gets to face ANY right handers? Felipe's reliever substitution patterns make little sense at times. Two nights ago, he lifted Scott Eyre in the 9th for Tyler Walker after Eyre got a strikeout on a left-handed batter. There were a couple of righties coming up, so Felipe treated Eyre as a LOOGY -- a lefty specialist brought in for only one batter. Although Eyre is better than this (righties hit .207 off of Eyre), I'm not mystified by the move, just a bit puzzled why F. Alou chose not to trust Eyre when he struck out the only batter he faced. However, last night he brings in Scott Munter to relieve Woody and get a right-handed batter out, which he did, but then brings in Christiansen the next inning. That was fine as well -- Tony Clark isn't as potent when batting right-handed and facing lefties, and Shawn Green is left-handed. However, Felipe then leaves Christiansen in against Quinton McCracken, who switch-hits and actually hits well vs. lefties, and Chris Snyder, who hits lefties well, and -- here's the clincher -- left him in vs. the pitcher's spot, which Felipe should've known would see a pinch-hitter in the form of the switch-hitting-and-better-vs.-lefties Alex Cintron. So while Christiansen is good vs. left-handed batters, he's not very good vs. righties, and Felipe should've known and seen that three consecutive hitters were coming up that hit lefties well, and pulled him just like he does with other pitchers. Instead, he opts to trust Christiansen, not even having righty Brandon Puffer get up to warm up until it was too late and Christiansen had given up three runs. Why is Christiansen trusted vs. righties, but Eyre isn't? Eyre's OPS against righties is .587, Christiansen's is .801. Christiansen has faced as many right-handed batters as left-handed batters this year (49 ab's vs. righties and 47 vs. lefties), and faced almost as many righties as Eyre, who actually does well against them (49 vs. 58). This make so little sense I want to scream.
• This bullet point is to say sorry for rambling like that. But Felipe doesn't make any damned sense sometimes, and last night is a situation where I believe the manager could well have cost the Giants a game all by himself by making incorrect moves -- moves that are obvious to me, without the benefit of having managed 1600+ games.
• The Giants, if they are to make a feint at contention (all but impossible now), need to find a power stroke or find some power hitters. The offense is absolutely punchless at times. With the current lineup, I really don't think anything can be done about it except to make sure Linden stays in the lineup.
• Puffer may not stick with the Giants for too long -- his career isn't outstanding -- but one thing is for certain: sidearmers are cool, and having one on the roster should always be a consideration for GM's for entertainment value. I'm not an A's fan, but when they had all those side-armers in their bullpen a couple of years ago, it was fun as heck to watch the latter innings of A's games.

In yesterday's game I missed why Ray Durham was pulled from the game -- if anyone heard or knows why, please leave it in the comments section, LOCATED AT THE END OF EACH ARTICLE. Ahem. Durham's nagging injuries are a nagging concern, and sometimes, although I really like Durham as a player, I wonder why he just doesn't go to the DL after he gets his 55th groin or hamstring pull, instead of limping/struggling his way in and out of the lineup playing at 80%.

Oh, and something I forgot in yesterday's entry -- with all of the BALCO scandal surrounding the team, is it really the wisest thing to pick up a guy in Alex Sanchez who was suspended for testing positive in a drug test? I mean, we all know the worth of that test, but perhaps this is just the kind of move that shouldn't be made, given that the Giants are far out of contention and Sanchez simply does not make enough difference to help this club do anything they weren't already going to do. Did I mention that Sanchez' fielding percentage in CF is just about as bad as Jason Ellison's? So why pick the guy up?

Sorry, but that move still mystifies my -- it's just unnecessary and silly. I mean, yeah, now that Sanchez is here to...do whatever, the Giants stand a shot at making a run at the Padres, right? It does seem fairly obvious that Marquis Grissom's days are now numbered in the single digits, but I'd have been in favor of keeping Adam Shabala as opposed to acquiring Sanchez. Tucker can play centerfield when Elly isn't playing, and be plenty more productive than Sanchez could.

Alright, I'm done!