Facing the music...

Jeff Fassero has been DFA'd in favor of Brad Hennessey. It's wonderful and terrible at the same time.

I've spent most of the time I've talked about Fassero talking bad about him, but I've never doubted that he had heart. Last season he squared off against Retirement and went the full 12 rounds, winning a majority decision. In the rematch, it looks like Retirement wins by TKO in the 3rd round.

He had a decent year in 2005, showing he still had some life on his fastball and being the epitome of the "crafty left-hander". This year he was fooling no one and was getting tagged more than the fat kids in grade school. Still, it's sad seeing a career come to a close -- and while it's still very possible (and perhaps even likely) that some team will pick Fassero up to see if just a skoche of gas is left in the tank, it's unlikely I'm going to be following any of his future expoits as his body tries to tell his mind that it's had enough.

Good luck to you, Jeff. I do agree with Kruk -- he was a good Giant.

In the meantime, I'm watching the Giants ride the strength of one breakout inning and some strong pitching from OH-MY-GOD-I'M-SO-GLAD-HE'S-BACK Noah Lowry to defeat the Houston Astros in the Cover Girl Make-up Game. Not only is it great to see Lowry back, but it's just as good to see more and more of Jeremy Accardo. Apparently he wants to become a closer, and I say more power to him. He's got the full pedigree -- the velocity, the stuff, and the ability to use those two things to miss bats and strike some guys out (more strikeouts than innings pitched is just lovely to see from any Giants bullpen pitcher). The only thing he seems to lack is experience, but it's to be hoped that the Giants don't take experience over ability all the time...

...as I'm watching the game...not...quite...end, I feel like I have to add Tim Worrell to my list of very "done" looking pitchers. He relieves Accardo, and promptly throws a BP fastball to Mike Lamb which ended up deposited over the centerfield fence.

Credit to Father Alou in one sense -- he showed absoutely no patience with Worrell and took him right out. I can only hope it wasn't necessarily because he felt he needed to call on Armando Benitez to get the last out, but because he was sending a bit of a message to Worrell that he's not going to tolerate many more of these sad excuses for pitching performances.

You've got to think that Worrell and Scott Munter are on short leashes.

Oh, and today starts the Kevin Frandsen Watch. While the rookie has certainly shown he can put together a variety of singles and get hit by a few inside pitches, he hasn't shown much interest in drawing a walk thus far in 42 plate appearances. While Jeff Francouer had quite a run last year before drawing a walk, he was hitting quite a few extra-base hits along the way -- Frandsen has only one double in 11 total hits, for a SLG % only 27 points higher than his batting average.

I've like seeing Frandsen, and with backup infielders like Jose Vizcaino, it's not as if Frandsen has no value...but c'mon, man, let's hit a couple more doubles and throw in a couple of walks, alright?