The Sporting Life

• Armando Benitez – Gone. Eight blown saves in only 25 save situations? Nope, not good enough.
• Matt Cain – Stays. He can be dominating. I’m not sure what makes him inconsistent but maybe some tough love (see above) might help.
• Noah Lowry – I’d give him a couple more seasons to develop. He could be good, but something is keeping him remarkably mediocre. Still, he’s young so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
• Matt Morris – Aside from Alou (the manager) and Bonds, this is the hottest topic of discussion on the radio. 10-15 record and a 4.98 ERA from a guy sporting career numbers like 111-71 and 3.79 ERA? What a bust. Axe him.
• Jason Schmidt – He drives me kind of nuts because as good as he is, he seems to be the most delicate of instruments, thrown off my the slightest breeze or sidelined from a hangnail. Of course Giants announcers are so quick to make excuses for him, but I don’t want excuses: I want wins. He stays, but I’d build some clause into his contract that says he needs to suck it up or else he doesn’t get a raise.
• Eliezer Alfonzo – I love the way this guy plays. He looks happy to be there, and he works hard all the time. I love professional athletes that try. Definitely a keeper.
• Ray Durham – Meh, I don’t know. He’s decent but aging and I don’t like the geezer factor on the team over the last few years. If he’s not much drain on the wallet, I’d keep him another year.
• Pedro Feliz – He’s good for about one month and a week of solid play per season. Not enough. Outro.
• Shea Hillenbrand – What a joke. This guy was lame to begin with and the Giants picked him up for mysterious reasons that became even more mysterious once he started playing and was worse here than he was in Toronto. See ya.
• Lance Niekro – I dunno, he’s alright but he doesn’t really hit for power, he isn’t fast and he’s only a .250 hitter. Maybe he’ll improve some over time so I don’t know that he’d be my first pick to send packing, but I’d see if I could find a better day-to-day guy to take his place.
• Omar Vizquel – As long as he can still play SS like he does, I’d keep him around. He’s not exactly a terror at the plate but he’s passable in a thin position hitting-wise so his defense does a lot to make him a keeper.
• Moises Alou – I suppose I don’t mind him in right field but I doubt he’d want to stick around if his pops got the boot and he’s old and on the DL a lot as it is. Again with the geezer factor so if there was a way to trade him off for someone younger, I’d do it. Otherwise I can tolerate him one more year.
• Barry Bonds – Too expensive for his output. Let him go to the AL to chase his record as a DH and stop making left field a liability on defense. I mean really, unless it’s hit right at him the guy never makes a catch out there. It’s embarassing.
• Steve Finley – Geezer alert. Buh-bye.
• Randy Winn – They had high hopes based on one strong month last year. Guess how it worked out? Yeah, I’d cut him.

That’s like most of the starting lineup. No wonder they can’t even play .500 ball. Sheesh.

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