question of the day

as posed by d.r.w.: why is tim lincecum's contract figure so low?

the associated press reported that the cy young winner signed a one-year, $650,000 contract with the giants thursday. that's not even double the league minimum.

huh, you might wonder.

it seems that lincecum is probably more concerned about what happens post-2009. as the AP further reports, he is likely to be eligible for arbitration after this season.

read: BIG BUCKS.

if lincecum can post the sort of numbers he did this year, he stands to get a contract that might come close (but surely not all the way) to rivaling that of rotation-mate barry zito. so why not take the easy contract now with a team and pitching coach that he's comfortable with and go for the bigtime in a year?

still, it seems like he could have squeezed a little more out of the giants. is the kid just that nice? or is he pumped about a rotation that now features three cy young winners (lincecum, zito, and randy johnson)?

you may not be excited about lincecum or the giants, but you should sure as hell be excited that it's spring training. baseball is BACK.

best and worst sports memories

good and bad are really two sides of the same coin, and i think you will find that some of my sweetest memories are strongly related to some of my worst. that's what keeps us coming back to sports, though, right?


BEST MEMORIES:

-2002 ncaa tournament. jay williams choked, maryland rocked everyone - including kansas and indiana in the final two games - to take home its first-ever men's basketball national title. amazing. (and let's not forget the women's title in 2006.)

-2002 nlcs. after edging past the braves, the giants embarrass the cardinals in five games to clinch a spot in the world series. bonds is homer-ific, benito santiago is rocking the house, and robb nen is a closer extraordinaire. life is good.

-2005 u.s. open. gilles muller, a native of luxembourg, rocks the tennis world by upsetting andy roddick in the first round. yes, he loses in the second round, but at least it's to a half-luxembourger in robbie ginepri.

-2008 u.s. open. muller is back again, and this time he's even better, making a run all the way to the quarters before falling to eventual champion roger federer. what a beast.

-san jose sharks, any recent regular season. 2008-09 is a prime example, but the sharks have been the team to reckon with over the past few seasons. sure, they're not the red wings, but the sharks have been able to pair solid goaltending with serious offensive firepower for years now.

-dallas mavericks, most recent regular seasons. the jason-kidd-for-devin-harris-and-the-kitchen-sink-trade aside, the mavericks have been one of the better teams in the nba in the 2000s, including a run to the finals in 2006 and the best record in the league in 2006-07. no matter what your allegiances, you can't tell me you don't enjoy watching terry, nowitzki, and howard light up defenses - and, for howard, the occasional joint - night after night.


WORST MEMORIES:

-maryland, any season since 2002. gary williams has never been known for his recruiting, but especially since he got his title and waved goodbye to steve blake, juan dixon, chris wilcox, and co., he's thrown in the towel when it comes to getting good players to campus - and keeping them there. sure, maryland's likely to throw up a good upset every season, but without a big man and with serious academic issues, the terps no longer are a threat for the acc title like they were in the early part of the decade.

-2002 world series. in game 6, dusty baker hands russ ortiz the game ball in the 7th inning, and then all hell breaks loose. the rally monkey kicks ass, troy glaus gets the big hit off the injured robb nen, and those almost engraved rings are tossed out and emblazoned with halos instead. i don't eat dinner for two nights in a row.

-2003 nlds. you never want to end your season because you don't pinch-run for j.t. snow. especially when this is the last time you will make the playoffs for the rest of the decade.

-2008 tour de france. after several luxembourgers make runs at the yellow jersey, frank schleck establishes a solid lead heading into the final days of the race. but, of course, carlos sastre steals it away at the very end, denying schleck (and luxembourg) its well-deserved glory. no 'roids reported yet, but just you wait.

-san jose sharks, any recent postseason. i just can't explain it, but the sharks can't finish when it comes to the big-time. year after year, they lose to teams that have been playing worse than them. but after their four-overtime loss to dallas to exit stanley cup contention last season and todd mclellan's arrival in san jose, the sharks look like they may finally have what it takes to translate regular-season success into postseason glory. but that's what i thought last year, too.

-2006 nba finals. with a chance to go up 3-0 in the series, dirk (of all people!) misses a free throw, and the mavericks collapse. dwayne wade becomes a star, shaq gets another ring, and dallas blows its best chance to win a title.

-2007 western conference quarterfinals. you know how you ruin an amazing regular season? by losing to the eighth-seeded warriors in the first round.

you know it's time to fire brian sabean...

...when he makes two dumb moves in one week.

first, he signs bozo bobby howry, who had a 5.35 ERA with the cubs this past season and is 35 years old. yup, that's just who we want setting up brian wilson.

then, letting omar vizquel go because he's "old" - okay, maybe the quotation marks aren't necessary - sabean signs super "young" (and here i mean the quotation marks) edgar renteria, who was anything but impressive with the tigers. sure, he's a .290 career hitter, but what's the big deal? the giants have pretty good middle infield talent in burriss, frandsen, and velez, and they really didn't need to waste money on an average free agent.

okay, brian, i know you made some big splash moves like bringing bonds over back in the day and stealing guys like benito santiago and robb nen. but really, two ridiculous signings in one week? maybe that worst trade of the century wasn't just a fluke.

i think it's time to follow peter magowan out that gaping door.

consolation for sabean?

pitcher francisco liriano has had a turbulent two years to say the least. after missing the 2007 season because of tommy john surgery, he spent much more time than expected in the minors in 2008, a result of poorer than average performance and relative stability in the rotation for ron gardenhire's squad.

though the young "phenom" is back in the majors and is 2-0 with just 3 earned runs in 11.2 innings over two starts - which is especially notable given his 0-3, 11.32 ERA run in April before being demoted - he just isn't as mean as he used to be. as a scout told espn.com's jayson stark:

"He's still good, but he's not the Liriano we saw before the surgery. His stuff is probably 3 to 4 miles per hour less than what it used to be. The changeup is pretty much the same speed, but the slider and the fastball are not the same. Don't get me wrong. He's still good. But he's not that 'wow' he was before. He's not as electric. He's not as intimidating. But he's still a good, useful, No. 3-4 starter type. And that's not a bad thing."

while the twins are probably crying about their misfortune, there is one person who may be celebrating: giants general manager brian sabean. in what may justifiably be called The Worst Trade Of The Decade, sabean sent current twins closer joe nathan, former twins starter boof bonser, and liriano to minnesota for catcher a.j. pierzynski. and what came of it? the pierzynski was a clubhouse cancer who hit .272 in 2004, pissed off his pitchers, and left the team after just one year. meanwhile, joe nathan has a 2.83 career ERA, 193 saves to only 21 blown ones, and a 2008 WHIP of 0.89; bonser has been a decent role player; and liriano turned out even better than expected (at least pre-surgery).

so, the fact that liriano's production has fallen off can maybe be some consolation to sabean, who has seen his reputation tarnished forever after that trade. right? nope. that trade still sucks. and sabean only has to look at nathan's and liriano's 100% fantasy ownership to see what he gave away.

speaking of pathetic giants, bonds was back in town for san francisco's 50-years-in-california celebration, and he is more desperate than ever. do you hate this guy or pity him? or can you just not see past his size 12 head?

what the hell, bruce bochy?

if you ever want to learn how to be a bad (yet surprisingly loved) manager, watch bruce bochy.

the guy is ridiculous. he's happy with mediocre performance, he doesn't follow through on his promises, he doesn't understand how to handle his pitchers, and he no game sense.

case in point: the giants-dodgers game today. matt cain is topping 120 pitches, and bochy leaves this 23-year-old - who is one of the young pitchers SF is betting the franchise on - out there to a) blow out his arm and b) blow the game to manny ramirez. then, when the giants have the bases loaded, he leaves in scrub jose castillo and tosses in untested eugenio velez instead of pinch-hitting with emerging left-field stud fred lewis. (i apologize for knowing much more about these no-namers than a normal baseball fan should expect to know.)

lucky for bochy, a few fumbles from the dodgers let the giants come from behind in the ninth. and, smiling away in the california sun, he rests on his nonexistent laurels while the SF media grins, too, satiated and congratulatory.

bruce bochy, you make me sick.

p.s. there's a little bit more pooping on manny ramirez to be done. as i watched him come up to bat today, i checked out at his helmet, and that shit looks worse than vlad guerrero's cap. and he's been with the dodgers for less than two weeks! can this guy keep anything clean? good luck to joe on getting manny to trim those bangs...