When is Wright wrong?

Well, right now.

However, I must congratulate Jamey Wright for having such a strong Spring and making the Giants team as the 5th starter. I mean, if the job was up for grabs (and apparently, it was), then he earned it.

But should it have been up for grabs? Yes. No. Maybe.

I believe the job should have been Brad Hennessey's to lose, which he may have done with a Spring ERA of 7.02. However, when I mean the job should have been his to lose, I mean the during the regular season, not Spring Training.

This seems like another one of those cases where Brian Sabean was just looking for an excuse to take an older veteran over the younger player. Nevermind that Wright has never pitched exceptionally well wherever he's been, and nevermind that although his time spent in Coors Field for the Rockies could have skewed Wright's numbers some, his road numbers weren't much good, either.

And what about Kevin Correia, who's Spring has been just as strong as Wright's?

C'mon now, he was never really in the running. Nevermind that the main two issues he needed to fix to become a much better pitcher (giving up gopher balls and cutting down on the walks) have both been addressed in his Spring outings -- he would have needed both Wright and Hennessey to pitch horribly to have a shot.

So, once again, Sabean pisses on the Giants future by going with a present that isn't any better, just older. I'm going to begin the Wright Watch, which will wonder weekly whether Wright will pitch well.

WORLD CLASSIC, ANYONE?

Daniel runs a tight Giants ship over here, even though we get to occasionally see photos of him drunk on wine. So, to keep on topic, I'll mention that I watched with pleasure as Moises Alou played for the DR in today's kinda sorta interesting match between the Dominican Republic and Cuba.

What I really want to talk about is how much fun the World Classic has been. No, I haven't been to any games, but I've filled the lonely hours late at night streaming Classic games. As I write this, the final showdown between Japan and Korea is stalled by rain in the 8th, with Japan, well, shaming Korea 6-0, 5 of those from the top of the 7th. During this stall, I learned that Japan's manager, Sadaharu Oh, the world home-run leader, happily admits that if he had played in the major leagues, he wouldn't have hit nearly as many homers. Someone suggested that he'd have been in the 600+ club, with an outside chance in a 20-year career of nearly touching 700. Thank you World Classic for making information like that available to ignorant shmos like me. Makes me love baseball even more.

Daniel, have you followed the games much?

I loved Stephen Colbert's rant last week about team USA's wince-inducing defeat at the hands of Canada. Funny stuff. Is anyone else as irritated as I am by MLB's promotion of this as some sort of patriotic expression? Before you love your team, you love your country. Sure, yeah, whatever, dude. Does this mean that if I don't love "my" team, I can't vote in the next election?

Is spring training over yet? [tapping foot impatiently]

A #4, Super-Sized with a 2003 Cabernet, please

I never showed you all any pics from the wine bus I partooketh of a couple of weeks ago, so...

Here are the highlights. I absolve myself of any responsibility for any drunkeness that is displayed in the following pictures.


Yes, you too can be a Mac Daddy, if you get them drunk enough.


And God shall call the Grapes of Wrath upon thee!


Yes ma'am, I'll need to look very closely to make sure there aren't any lumps...


Cooler smoke has never been blown.


Trust me, I was a lot drunker than I looked here.


Hotties. No coldies.


Lucky Luis, puttin' down game to all the fly cuties, as usual.


Yes, more hotties. Wine bus trips tend to attract them by the twos, apparently.


Felix and Jay being cool and easy, and Ed...wait, what the heck IS Ed doing, anyway?


What, did you think we WOULDN'T play poker afterwards?

So there you have it. Some pictures have been left out to protect the innocent (or was that the intoxicated?).

Musings...

Well, that's out of the way, finally.

Now that Barry Bonds has hit his first home run of 2006, we here at O&B (all three of us: me, myself, and I) were wondering if people think that Bonds is currently on steroids.

Past juicing we'll gloss over, and assume that he was doing it for some length of time.

How 'bout now?

It'd be tantamount to an award for All-Time Stupidity if he was, I'm sure we'll all admit. And being that "stupid" has never been an adjective applied to Bonds in any print media I can remember, I'd like to put forward the assumption that he isn't currently juicing.

So, what happens if he hits another, say, 45 home runs this year?

Would we all assume, then, that he continued to use steroids in the face of drug testing? If he is tested and passes, would we assume that whatever steroid he was using is undetectable?

Lemme know what you think.

A little Dub-B-C

Well, that was an exciting game.

I will have to admit, the World Baseball Classic is making a valiant attempt to be just that -- a classic tournament of world baseball.

Before today, I've only been able to catch most of the game between Korea and China (which was a laugher), and there is an obvious divide between the haves and have-nots (winless in their first three games were South Africa, Australia, Panama, and China -- and Chinese Taipei's only win was vs. the most hapless China team).

But, all that aside, when you get down to the baseball being played between Canada, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Cuba, the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Domincan Republic (and Venezuela isn't bad, either), there really isn't a way around it -- it's good baseball.

The first game I watched in full was today's controversial victory by the United States over Japan, 4-3.

Firstly, the U.S. obviously should have been down at least one run. The botched tag-up call will loom large in the discussion around this game, and the fact that the game was played here in the U.S. will obviously spark some bad feelings in Japan (and probably other places with anti-U.S. sentiments).

However, I will say this -- the U.S. showed some moxie in this game after going down 3-0 early, with Chipper Jones and Derrick Lee connecting on big flies to bring them back even. The gap between talent levels has obviously been bridged, for the most part, between here and Japan.

I'm going to go ahead and watch the Puerto Rico/Dominican matchup tonight, and I'm expecting some good baseball there, too, as there's a bevy of major leaguers in that game. Interesting sidenote: the stadium capacity for this game was 20,000 -- that sold out the very 1st day. The attendance for the U.S./Japan game was 35,000 -- my estimate was that the crowd there was 30% Japanese.

Shocking...or, absolutely expected

There's been a book written that goes into detail about alleged steroid use by Barry Bonds from 1998, and for at least five years afterward.

Those who are paid to say things about these types of events are saying that it is now harder than ever for Bonds to deny steroid use (see Ken Rosenthal's response to the book).

Those who are not paid to say things about these types of events, like me, say...that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

Why is it harder? Nothing has changed. It's simply another accusation, and it's not even really a new one -- the two gentleman who wrote the book are San Francisco Chronicle reporters. Yes, reporters of the same newspaper that leaked Bonds' grand jury testimony, and the same newspaper that has been finding bits of circumstantial evidence for years now.

So, again, why is it harder?

I suppose it could get even harder to deny if some guy from Idaho comes out and testifies that on April 28th, 2002, he saw Bonds using the cream and the clear while sucking on a lollipop and playing Super Mario Bros. on the Gameboy in downtown Sausalito. I mean, that's about as much new proof as this book provides, coming from the source that it does -- which, essentially, is the San Francicsco Chronicle.

The story will sweep the nation, just as it shouldn't. There isn't anything new here -- most of the nation believes he took steroids, so is this book supposed to make those people believe even more than they already do?

No, I bet that many think this book might sway people like myself, who suspect Bonds of steroid use, but simply refuse to raise allegations on something that I cannot verify for myself. And, furthermore, people who would rather see concrete proof (like say, a failed drug test or some DNA samples) before grabbing my torch and noose.

And now, Bonds will have 10 times the steroids questions and probes to deal with, though all those asking the questions and doing the probing should know that he'll keep denying it. He hasn't a choice, now, whether he's lying or not, so why ask? Why not wait for concrete proof, which I guarantee that gobs of people are working to get?

But no, instead we'll have this farce continue -- Bonds being tried in a court of public opinion that has already deemed him guilty, yet doesn't seem to get tired of "new" allegations and "proof" that Bonds has done something that most folks are sure he's done anyway.

The merry-go-round goes 'round, and we just keep hopping on thinking it'll take us somewhere new and interesting.

Mr. Rosenthal says he "can't wait" to hear what Bonds will say. Personally, I can't wait to hear people like Rosenthal say exactly what I know they'll say after they hear exactly what they should know Bonds will say. Nothing more entertaining than getting exactly what you think you'll get. It's the spice of life, I tell ya.

Sigh.