This is going to be...rough

This game will be, in the next hour or so, my first full Giants game watched so far in this young season.

I'm seeing about what I expected -- the Giants are a team which has to have a few things go right to win. They can't afford poor pitching performances, they can't afford missed opportunities to score, and they can't afford...well, any mistakes, period.

I truly believe this is the swan song not only for Barry Bonds, but for Brian Sabean. If you look at his acquisitions, trades, etc. over the years, he continuously fails to address team needs on any consistent basis. His moves this offseason were, to me, a collection of head scratchers -- from the acquisition of Ryan Klesko, three years removed from doing anything significant and, were he actually still a power bat, a superfluous left-handed one at that, to the re-acquisition of Russ Ortiz, who is the exact kind of pitcher the Giants don't need -- one that walks a lot of batters. Oh, and he's three years removed from being worth anything, too.

I'll go on record to say that the re-acquisition of Rich Aurilia is a big hit with me -- it's not really going to do much to help the team, but if I've got to see a stinker of a season, I'd rather see it with players I like.

So, it's now 9-1 Dodgers, and I get to watch the Dodgers washed-up players mop the floor with the Giants' washed-up players (Luis Gonzalez just went deep for the 2nd time...urk...just threw up in my mouth a little...but I'm okay).

Sometimes you just start out cold, but let's stop time for a sec a look at the NL West standings. They're here for your edification (and as I'm typing this, Pedro Feliz goes deep with a man on just to spite me), and it'll show you not only will the Giants have the worst record and be 3 1/2 games back after only 6 games, but look at the runs scored/runs allowed columns...every other team in the division is starting with a good run differential except for the Dodgers and Giants...and of course the Dodgers are wiping their tookus using the Giants as their Charmin right now.

In short, everything is going wrong at the moment...heck, even Aurilia's return is tainted to me, because he's back but C.C. Sabathia is still the spokesman for Toyota of Vallejo -- something that was one of Richie's long standing gigs during his first tour of duty (he even did the spots for them for a season after he was gone).

...and boy, while he's from my hometown and we even know a lot of the same people, C.C. can't act his way out of a wet, thin paper sack. Even if the sack already had a hole in it, and was kinda half-open at the top, and was kinda torn on one side, too...even then, no. He couldn't do it.

A sad beginning to things, all in all. A running theme for this team in the last few years is that they've won just enough games to avoid being put into the Reconstruction category, but losing a ton of games early might be the only thing that can wake the front office out of its stupor. Blowing this thing up might not be the worst thing in the long run.