San Francisco Bay Area

If you're a true Dodger Blue fan in Los Angeles or elsewhere, Monday morning can't have been a pleasant one. At least as long as Major League Baseball was on your mind.

Sure, you've got the bristling young talents of Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Clayton Kershaw, and James Loney to go with still-coming Chad Billingsley (I'm not sold on Jonathan Broxton). Russell Martin ain't too shabby behind the dish either.

Of course, you also have an owner in Frank McCourt who seems loathe to part with a penny to better the franchise unless it's for maximum return.

The San Francisco Giants' Waldis Joaquin is on the bubble to make the 2010 Opening Day roster.

The ’10 bullpen staff already features a plethora of live arms and young talent, so the 23-year-old may have a tough time cracking the 25-man roster to start the year.

Joaquin began his career in 2005 at the age of 18 for the Giants' Rookie squad. He showed immediate potential, striking out 37 batters in 31.0 innings. 

Love him or hate him, agree or disagree with his maneuvering, you cannot accuse San Francisco Giants General Manager Brian Sabean of being timid.

Given Sabes' recent run of iffy transactions—the Barry Zito-Scott Boras debacle, prematurely inking Edgar Renteria, the pending merit of the Freddy Sanchez swap, and so on—you might think the guy would lay low for a while. Enjoy the shelter of his new two-year extension.

Guess not.

I received "Giants Past and Present" in the mail yesterday from MVP Books . In all honesty, I plowed through the book in one night. In many ways, it is not a very dense book. It runs 144 pages long and for the most part, it is very picture-heavy.

Once a proud franchise that spent much of the early part of the last decade as contenders in the American League West, once a franchise that was hailed all across the world of baseball as a club that practiced the once revolutionary method of "Moneyball" under the direction of general manager Billy Beane, once a franchise that fans could count on to challenge the New York Yankees for American League supremacy, the Oakland Athletics are now one of baseball's failing franchises—a downward spiral that has taken place over a mere three seaso

There is no doubt that a National Football League fantasy season is fun. Major League Baseball's storied infatuation with statistics and the length of its season just happen to make the diamond's make-believe game infinitely better.

I mention this because I'm of the camp that believes our resultant addiction to fantasy baseball skews some current observations of the game.

One example appears to be the growing import of Spring Training numbers.

It only seems like Buster Posey has become the center of the San Francisco Giants' universe.

No. No. Wait...

Given that Posey's the top prospect in the organization and that he's hitting the devil out of the ball in spring training, the Giants' universe is spinning around the guy.

I wish I could write something on Giants baseball today. I wish I could write about prospects, or how lousy the free agents (Huff, Derosa, etc.) will be next year, or some sabermetrics article that proves how good Fred Lewis is, but I just can't.

The NCAA Tournament is blowing me away. I have been glued to my television and computer all day. Even as we speak, I have the March Madness On Demand playing in the background (I'm watching Montana-New Mexico right now...man...I am starting to think that picking Montana wouldn't have been totally crazy).

The Madison Bumgarner that made his major league debut last September wasn't the same Madison Bumgarner we had heard so much about the past two years.

Instead of the low-to-mid-90s heat he used to blow away South Atlantic League hitters in 2008, Bumgarner was barely hitting 90 in his first career start. There was no specific reason as to why the readings on the radar gun was showing 88 or that it was showing 92 and 94.

Ah, with one mild fastball placed squarely between the ample shoulder blades of Prince Fielder, Barry Zito of our San Francisco Giants reminded the athletic world exactly why Major League Baseball will always be the top dog for many of its fans.

As for me, no affinity for another sport will ever replace my love of "The Show."

And it's because of old-school moments just like Zito's beanball right out of the spring training gates.

For those of you unfamiliar with the first salvo in this six-month-old dispute, allow me to explain.