Record: 52-51. Pace: 82-80. Change on last season: -3 Hello, above .500. We’ve not seen you for a bit - not since the calendar left June behind, almost four weeks ago. But, slowly, this team appears to be returning to… Well, if not quite the behemoth that bestrode the early season like… like… like a bestriding, behemothesque thing, then at least a team capable of playing solid baseball, and beating the opposition in a number of ways. Winners in four of our last five, and having gone 9-6 over fifteen: this is encouraging. What genius was it who said, after the first inning, “I think our best hope is to take a lot of pitches, weather the storm, then plunder the Giants bullpen”? Oh, that was me . And the plan worked to perfection. After seven innings, San Francisco had the lead, and Lincecum was hit for in the bottom of the inning. His lead lasted exactly one out into the top of the eighth and the Giants’ relief corps, as we took full advantage of an error and Chris Young’s sacrifice fly tied the game at three. An RBI single from - who else? - Mr. Reliability, Conor Jackson, gave us the lead, and a sacrifice fly from Tracy added an insurance run. Jon Rauch pitched a perfect eighth, and Lyon worked around a single to get his 21st save. Mission accomplished - and not in a President Bush, horrifically premature, way. Webb becomes the NL’s first fourteen-game winner, running his record to 14-4, thanks to the late outburst from our hitters. He allowed a run in the first, on a sacrifice fly, but after a lengthy inning there, settled down. The only other Giants’ scoring came with two outs in the sixth, on a two-RBI single that gave the lead back to San Franciso. But despite (arguably) being out-pitched by Lincecum - who struck out thirteen in seven innings, particularly brutalizing Drew three times, leading off the first, fourth and sixth innings - it was Webb who came out with the W. He allowed four hits, two walks and three earned runs in seven frames, striking out eight. That  took him past 1,000 for his career, though the Giants ran on him every chance they could, stealing three bases. Similarly, it probably doesn’t matter that we ended with a K:BB ratio for the night of 15:0, the worst ever in franchise history for a regulation game - we went 16:0 on August 31, 2004 against the Dodgers, albeit in 13 innings. Nor does it matter too much, that we lost two outs at home-plate, first as Romero tried to score from third on a grounder by Webb, and then as Snyder tried to score from second, after a Webb single. Are there stats available for this kind of thing? Because we certainly seem to be losing a lot of people there. What matters more on this evening, are the two-RBI double by Snyder, which represented the sum of our scoring off Lincecum, and the two hits he, Jackson and Hudson each posted. [ Click to enlarge, in new window ] Master of his domain: Chris Snyder, +16.0% Honorable mentions: Jackson, +15.8; Hudson, 14.1%; Ojeda, +14.0% God-emperor of suck: Chris Young, -10.3% A somewhat lightly-attended, but still brisk and thoroughly-entertaining Gameday Thread: well, I enjoyed it, anyway! Even without ‘Skins [in Ecuador] and ‘Charmer [at the game, I believe], we slipped past five hundred comments, so thanks to  kishi, hotclaws, dahlian, AF DBacks Fanatic, Wimb, mrssoco, TwinnerA, soco, unnamedDBacksfan, Scrbl, Muu, luckycc and  AZWILDCATS for their contributions. It was a wide-ranging discussion, that covered everything from tattoos to Christian Bale. Just another night at the SnakePit, even though I forgot to post the link to the chat-room. Must add it as a permanent one on the sidebar. The win means we’ve taken back-to-back series for the first time since May 18, when we beat Detroit in the rubber game of that encounter, after having swept the Rockies. More evidence of a positive trend. Now, let’s see if we can extend the winning streak to three tomorrow - having gone 0-6 in our previous attempts to do so over the past couple of months. It promises to be an engrossing battle of overpaid left-handed starters… More on that one tomorrow, though the Gameday Thread probably won’t appear until after noon. I’m still at The Sets at time of posting, and we’re just heading into the third - and most interesting! - act of our burlesque show, so we are still some way from seeing warm, pillowy fluffiness!

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Diamondbacks 5, Giants 3: Lincecum = sickness, SF ‘pen = cure

Yes. This article has probably been delayed because he retired last year, but Cliff Christl has written a great article about all the times over the years that Packer greats have retired and unretired . In all the cases mentioned by Christl, the team either convinced the player to return, or released him from his contract. By not wanting Favre back and not releasing him, the Packers franchise is doing something they’ve never done before. Christl mentions a lot of great examples, but these two are the best and involve two of the greatest Packers ever: When the late Reggie White decided to unretire in 2000, the Packers released their future Hall of Fame defensive end from his contract… In fact, Vince Lombardi’s retirement as coach of the Packers and Favre’s as a player have followed parallel tracks. Lombardi announced his retirement in an emotional press conference soon after Super Bowl II and essentially cited burnout as the reason. And, by all accounts, he regretted his decision by the time training camp arrived five months later. When the 1968 season ended, he asked out of his contract as general manager of the Packers and bolted to Washington to coach again. He also mentions why the Packers are acting this way now: the Minnesota Vikings. The hunch here is that there has been only one team for which Favre really wants to play, and that’s the Minnesota Vikings . And the reason being is that’s the only place where he’d have a legitimate shot at winning another Super Bowl. I think a lot of people share the view that the best place he can land is Minnesota, but I think Tampa is going to better next season, especially with Favre. Tampa’s offense and defense are run by two very good coaches. Plus Tampa’s young offensive line really took a step forward last season, and they signed free agent C Jeff Faine to make it even better. Second, could an upswing for the Tampa Bay offensive line be right around the corner? This was the NFL’s youngest line in 2007. Tackles Jeremy Trueblood and Donald Penn are coming into their third NFL seasons, as is guard Davin Joseph (who impressed me most of all in this game), while guard Arron Sears was a rookie in 2007. The acquisition of center Jeff Faine from New Orleans makes a strong position even stronger, as the Saints finished first in the NFL in Adjusted Line Yards up the middle despite Deuce McAllister’s season-ending injury. Minnesota has better receivers and arguably the best running back in the NFL, but Tampa’s RB Earnest Graham is a good back too, and while Minnesota’s defense got better this offseason with DE Jared Allen, Tampa had a top 5 defense last season.

Continue here: Have The Packers Ever Gone Through Anything Like The Brett Favre Retirement Saga Before?

With training camp just about to start, I’ve just begun to get stressed out that it starts in two days and the Packers’ top four draft choices remain unsigned. Plus RB Ryan Grant is currently sitting in New York waiting for a new contract. At first I thought GM Ted Thompson was too distracted by Brett Favre and unable to devote the time necessary to get his players signed, but looking around the rest of the league, it looks like that this is typical for the NFL. Top pick WR Jordy Nelson is still unsigned but two wide receivers were drafted right of him, and St. Louis signed WR Donnie Avery today while Washington signed WR Devin Thomas last week . With those two guys under contract, it should be obvious that he should receive just a little below them, and he should be signed this weekend. I was concerned that 2nd round pick QB Brian Brohm might be a tough one to sign. Although NFL draft choices are slotted, he should receive less than the guy above him but more than the guy behind him, quarterbacks usually get paid more than their slotting would require because they are quarterbacks. However, QB Chad Henne was taken right behind Brohm and he signed today with Miami , so it should be pretty obvious that he should receive a similar contract. He should be signed and in training camp very soon. The final second round pick, CB Pat Lee, just signed today . 3rd round pick TE Jermichael Finley is still unsigned, and I don’t get it. Since he came out of college as an underclassman, and might need to step in as the backup tight end immediately, he needs to be in camp. Guys right above him like RB Steve Slaton and LB Marcus Harrison have been signed for a while now. So has LB Cliff Avril who was taken right after him. I don’t know if this is the team’s fault, or Finley’s agent’s fault. Saving the best for last; RB Ryan Grant remains unsigned. There is some recent good news , but nothing is done. Although he’s more important than any other guy on this list, he’s still the least important guy to get in camp on time. He’s already gone through one season with the team, he’s worked with QB Aaron Rodgers already (probably for a while on the scout team last season too), and it seems unlikely his role in the offense has changed much this offseason. Plus, they traded for him right at the end of training camp last season, and obviously he figured out the playbook pretty quickly. Also, this is the most complicated signing, since undrafted players rarely reach a Pro Bowl level while they are still an exclusive rights free agent. The last major player like Grant was San Diego TE Antonio Gates and it took the two sides until the end of training camp that season to strike a deal.

Continue here: Get Those Guys Signed Ted!

The Post-Gazette  reports  that George Kontos and Phil Coke have been subtracted from the Nady-Marte deal, and pitchers  Daniel McCutchen and Jeff Karstens have been added. This disappoints me a little; I liked Kontos a lot better than either of these guys. They’re both better than Coke and are pretty good candidates to join the rotation later this year, but they’re both 25. These guys, like Ross Ohlendorf , are more about depth than upside. Among the three pitchers the Pirates acquired, they should be able to get a few years of decent pitching, but it’s hard to see how they’ll get much more than that. McCutchen (my heart skipped a beat when I saw the name “McCutchen” in connection to this trade) and especially Karstens have pretty pronounced flyball tendencies, which could mean they’ll allow a lot of homers.  McCutchen  throws  a fastball in the low 90s, a splitter, and a good curve. Baseball America evidently thought–before this season–that he might wind up a bullpen guy. I know I don’t like Karstens much, but McCutchen may turn out to be interesting. He’s 25, but he’s moved through the minors quickly; he didn’t start his pro career until he was 23. He’s posted good numbers, and excellent walk rates, throughout the minors so far. Maybe there’s something here. Steve Pearce will join the PBC, which is a good side effect of this deal. Hopefully he will play every day. He was  frustrated  about being stuck in Indianapolis, and maybe rejoining the big club will inspire him to regain some of the luster he’s lost this year.  UPDATE 2:16 PM: The Post-Gazette, linked above, says Nyjer Morgan has been removed from the 40-man roster. Since Ohlendorf and Karstens had already been added, that could mean that the Pirates are planning to add Daniel McCutchen to the active roster, or it could mean another trade is imminent.

Continue here: Daniel McCutchen, Jeff Karstens Added to Deal; Steve Pearce Coming Up; Something Weird is Going On

The following is a list of Bengals draft picks signed. Most of this is through unconfirmed channels with sources listed below the chart. Since the Bengals are pretty selective releasing their financial data, we’re left with using unreliable and confirmed sources. In other words, take this as very unofficial. If you see errors, please email me or quote your source in the comments. Players Length Money* Bonus Keith Rivers       Jerome Simpson Four ? ? Pat Sims Four $2.473 $768,000 Andre Caldwell       Anthony Collins Four $2.175 $470,500 Jason Shirley Four $1.705 ** $158,000 (?) Corey Lynch Four     Matt Sherry Four $1.775 $40,000 Angelo Craig Four $1.705 ** ? Mario Urrutia Four $1.740 $39,000         * In millions. ** Means they are listed with the base salary without bonuses figured in, or unconfirmed from unofficial sources, or different sources quoting different numbers. The following are the sources for the contract details, or links to my posts that link to the contract details (usually if they’re multiple links). Pat Sims signs four-year deal worth $2.473 million and $768,000 signing bonus [ Big C Rumor Mill ] Anthony Collins signs four-year deal worth $2.175 million and $470,500 signing bonus [ Big C Rumor Mill ] Jason Shirley signs four-year minimum deal with $158,000 signing bonus. [ RealTime Fantasy Sports ] The signing bonus is unconfirmed. (base salary acquired at NFL PA) Corey Lynch — terms undisclosed. Matt Sherry signs four-year deal worth $1.775 million with $40,000 signing bonus [ Cincy Jungle ] Angelo Craig — minimum contract, bonus undisclosed. (base salary acquired at NFL PA) Mario Urrutia signs four-year deal worth $1.740 million with $39,000 signing bonus. [ Cincy Jungle ]

More here: Charting Bengals Draft Pick Signings

So it has begun!!  Just waking up today felt different; it felt like football was to be played today.  Man that’s a great feeling! Real quick, though, I got one programming note.  For the rest of the day today, all day tomorrow, and half of Monday, posts from me will slow.  I have a wedding tomorrow afternoon/night, meaning that tonight is the rehearsal/dinner.  And I won’t be back from the wedding until Monday afternoon.  So it’ll be up to you guys to post any updates.  I hope to check in from my phone and promote FanPosts and FanShots to the front page often.  But there will be a lack of front-page posts from me for the next 48 hours or so. So real quick, I just wanted to highlight some of the practice reports from the South Florida media. PALM BEACH POST PRACTICE REPORT Highlights include: -Ronnie Brown looking great -Davone Bess “catches everything” -Josh McCown missing on short throws -Trey Darilek the starting guard opposite of Smiley -Crowder and Ayodele starting ILB SUN-SENTINEL PRACTICE REPORT Highlights include: -Joey Porter sitting out of practice; Reggie Torbor taking his spot -Charlie Anderson taking Jason Taylor’s old starting spot for now -Starting corners are Will Allen and Andre Goodman; Michael Lehan not participating MIAMI HERALD PRACTICE REPORT -Highlights include: -Anthony Fasano working some with 1st team offense -Former Packers’ GM Ron Wolf shadowing Bill Parcells around practice field There really hasn’t been much said about the quarterbacks yet. Also, you can head over to MiamiDolphins.com and watch a short video with some practice highlights.  A few things that jumped out at me during the video: -Ronnie Brown doesn’t have any noticeable limp anymore.  In fact, Ronnie looks downright quick -John Beck looks bigger - all that lifting paid off -A lot of focus on the RBs - perhaps a little foreshadowing? Anyways, second practice begins at 5 pm today.

Read the rest of the post here:
Morning Practice Reports

This morning, Rotoworld passes on two names that the Brewers have been linked with in this last week before the deadline: Arthur Rhodes, 38-year-old Mariners LOOGY Brian Giles, Padres outfielder Uh…what?  Let’s start with Giles.  I just…don’t…get it.  Giles would cost a few million for the rest of the season, and there’s a $3MM buyout on his ‘09 option.  Would we seriously spend that money for a platoon partner for Corey?  Giles has played some center in his career, but I strongly doubt the offensive improvement would outweigh the loss of Cameron’s glove. Someone, please explain this to me.  Maybe it’s a miscommunication, the Brewers are looking at a reliever or two, or the Padres are just blatantly trying to drive up the price and hope nobody notices. Rhodes makes more sense, but only a bit.  He’s having a good year, though he’s been far from consistent the last few seasons.  Since 2002, his ERA+’s by season have been 182, 103, 89, 202, 88, 150.  Once upon a time, he was a dominant reliever (think Damaso Marte, or even a lefty version of Salomon Torres), but now he’s limited to situational duties.  He’s averaging less than 2/3 of an inning per appearance.  Oddly, his splits against righties have been excellent the last few years, but that might just be a function of managers only letting him pitch against the weaker ones. If the club picks up Rhodes–who wouldn’t be very expensive in money or prospects–the logical roster moves would be to dump Mota or demote Villanueva.  (I suppose we could demote Bush and keep McClung in the rotation, but we couldn’t do the reverse, as Bigseth is out of options.)  I’m sure Ned would love having a second veteran lefty, but I’m not convinced any of those scenarios is an improvement.  I suspect all of this news is just a reflection of the Brewers doing due diligence on everybody out there, and the new prominence the Crew has in the national media.  I suppose Yankees and Mets fans are used to this stuff–if somebody’s out there, the rumors start flowing.

Continue here:
Bizarro Rumorville

Now that training camp, all sorts of information is popping up.  I thought I’d use this edition of Golden Nuggets to cover some of them, as well as give a little wrap up of the first day of training camp. We’re a day down in training camp and thankfully no injuries to report.  Matt Maiocco had some day 1 QB stats: Alex Smith was 19-30 with 1 interception and Shaun Hill was 20-27 with 3 interceptions. Matt Barrows said that in the afternoon practice, Delanie Walker was very solid after an early drop.  I’d say I’m excited to see what Walker does in the preseason, but last year he was 10th in the league in receiving yards in the preseason and that certainly didn’t get him anywhere.  We know Martz likes him and we know he’ll make the team, so we’re really going to have to wait for the regular season before knowing what his role really will be.  The exhibition games might give us an idea but I’d expect the team to hold back a lot of offensive options so as not to give too much away too early. Barrows had a comment at the end of the above post that stuck in my mind: One of the biggest dogfights in camp could be for the final defensive backs spot. The two contenders - early on, at least - are Keith Lewis and Marcus Hudson. Both are special teams aces (we’ll give the nod to Lewis) but the team might feel that Hudson has more potential as a DB. It’s something to keep an eye on this summer. In our 53-man projection , we slotted in Keith Lewis initially without Marcus Hudson.  There was discussion initiated by sfgfan that he has shown an ability to contribute.  It certainly has me wondering what might possibly happen with that particular roster spot.  Would they conceivably keep both Lewis and Hudson, or are they battling for a single spot? 49ers Webzone posted a couple pages of training camp photos in photobucket. In the quotations I posted earlier, Nolan discussed Patrick Willis’s expanding role.  The Contra Costa Times went a little more into that in discussing the void created by Bryant Young’s retirement. As they did last year, sf49ers.com is putting together camp spotlights on players.  They don’t give a ton of information, but rather quick-hitting stories about players.  Today’s is about Walt Harris .  One of the funnier parts: All-time Best Prank: In Chicago, guys would set this huge thing of water so that it would lean up against the door of the rookies.  The older guys would start banging on their doors and when they came to open it, a bucket full [of water] would spring into their room.  It was always amusing. The 49ers MVN site takes an in depth look at the question marks surrounding the team’s 3-4 defense. For those who hadn’t noticed, ESPN has created a sort of blogosphere within their network.  For the NFL they’ve got a blogger for each of the divisions.  Mike Sando is covering the NFC West.  He previously covered the Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune.  His latest post discusses the 49ers position battles .  His post looks at the QB and Ted positions, although we see no mention of Larry Grant.  I’d imagine most people probably consider him a long shot due to his 7th round status. A couple days ago, USA Today had the generic Nolan and the 49ers expect to move beyond last year’s turmoil. Unrelated to training camp but interesting nonetheless: Jim Tressel is apparently friends with Ohio native Eddie Debartolo.  So, after his Ohio State Buckeyes were picked to win their 4th straight Big Ten Title, Tressel had Jerry Rice and Ronnie Lott come talk to his team about not letting up.

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Golden Nuggets: 49ers news for 7/26/08

This is going to be on an extremely small sample size, but I’m a bit concerned over one aspect of Baldelli’s hitting game and people did want a Rocco watch. First his stats: Stop OBP SLG Total 0.306 0.389 VB 0.310 0.405 MON 0.392 0.542 Baldelli’s outburst in Montgomery began in his last seven at-bats when his updated minor league numbers are compared to the week old Minor League Splits numbers. With a quick eye test it appears Rocco has gotten four hits, a homerun, and walked while only striking out once. Sure, it’s AA, and you should be quite weary when a week of at-bats is the difference between a .935 OPS and a .653 OPS, but I’m not as concerned with the raw statistics as I am with the trajectory statistics of Rocco’s batted balls. So what’s the problem? Well, per Minor League Splits (and this has very well changed this past week) 59% of his batted balls were grounders and only 10.3% were line drives. To give you an idea of who that profiles in the majors I turned to Fangraphs leaderboards and quickly found a match with Gary Matthews Jr., a perennially high groundballer has trouble maintaining solid numbers due to a fluctuating, and mostly low, line drive rate resulting in a lower BABIP than league average. If Rocco were to reproduce the same LD% in the majors his BABIP would be expected around .220, that’s simpy not going to work. I’ll be interested to see the updated numbers from this week, perhaps he’s starting to hit more line drives, but as it stands I would still consider Rocco our third option for a right-handed bat behind Jonny Gomes and a trade, and my personal fourth option behind Justin Ruggiano.  The most important thing though is that Rocco is playing nearly everyday.

Continue here: Analyzing Rocco’s Rehab

The first day of the 2008 training camp has come a gone and boy was it a doozy. While by all accounts the practice itself was a bit boring there was a ton of stuff going on off the field. It will be nice to see that now that we have some kind of resolution regarding Terry Glenn and all of the draft picks are signed we can really start focusing on the play on the field. Here are some quick links to stories from the world wide web: The release of Terry Glenn hinged on doctors saying his knee could go anytime. Jim Reeves says that the Cowboys failing to draft a receiver now has them in desperate times to land a true #2 threat. I don’t think the Cowboys ever really put all their hopes and dreams in Terry Glenn, but I never saw the perfect oppurtunity to bring in another receiver. It typically takes a few years for a receiver to adjust to playing in the NFL and reaching for one in the draft would have been a mistake. The Cowboys may still make a play for a trade, but it all depends on the asking price. According to Matt Mosely the Cowboys waited too long on making a decision on Glenn and it all ended in embarrassing fashion. Here’s the DMN generic story about Felix Jones and Mike Jenkins signing. That same article also has some quotes from Greg Ellis and his playing time. “Everything is fine,” Ellis said. “You never know until you get to the season, but we’re fine. There’s no problems. “Wade has a plan, and what he told me, that’s what we’re going to do.” DC.com has an article up about the young receivers relishing their opportunity to make an impression now that Glenn is gone. Mac Engel also has 5 things to say about Isaiah Stanback. Adam Jones is happy to be back in a “real” practice. The fans are enjoying the spectacle of the Cowboys training camp. Todd Archer has his thoughts up about the first day of camp. And finally, Alex Marvez of Foxsports.com writes about how America’s Team has become Hollywood’s Team. It’s a pretty good read so check it out.  

Continue here: Dallas Cowboys news roundup