San Francisco Giants

In the aftermath of Alex Rodriguez's 600th home run, many have downplayed his milestone because of his admitted usage of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), and have compared him to another user, the current home run king, Barry Bonds. 

This time, it was different.

At the end of play on Aug. 21, 1971, the San Francisco Giants led the Los Angeles Dodgers by eight games. This time, it would be the Dodgers who would try to come from behind.

An eight game lead in early September is not insurmountable, but if the team being chased is a solid team, eight games are usually—but not always—enough.

Baseball managerial practices are organic. They change and shift according to knowledge into the laws of physics, culture, and economics.

In times of yore, a five-man rotation was thought to be useless, Cy Young started 49 games in a single year, and the concept of a closer would have been bizarre.

Getting back to the present, Stephen Strasburg's muscles flared a few weeks ago, and it seems he may be shut down for the year.

What’s that saying? “What’s one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure?” However it goes, that saying doesn’t hold more true than with the case of Pat Burrell.

The younger brother of San Francisco Giants outfielder Nate Schierholtz was arrested today for a drunken driving rampage in their hometown of Danville, California.

23 year old Cainan Schierholtz was driving a big red pick-up truck when he first struck a bicyclist, then hit a pedestrian standing a in a bicycle lane, then hit not one, but two parked cars and finally came to a halt only when he struck a light pole and two other pick-up truck drivers boxed him in so he couldn’t get away.

A quick look at the past week's least owned and most productive. Everything from the hitting streaks of Chris Johnson & Raul Ibanez to Anibal Sanchez's one-hitter. Can these guys keep it up?

BOMBERS

Andres Torres (48% owned)
5 R / 1 HR / 4 RBI / 2 SB / .367
Torres has been torrid in the past month. He's batting .317 with 23 R, seven HR, and 20 RBI. Not to mention the five steals. From Huff to Posey to Torres, the Giants have some hot hitters as of late.

Thanks to Marty Lurie of KNBR, I got the idea to write just how good the Giants are and how well certain players are performing compared to previous seasons.
As August begins, the Giants begin a difficult two months to catch the first place Padres. Starting off the second half going 8-1 in the division and 13-4 overall, they're the hottest team in baseball. Giants' players are peaking at the right time and this team is having fun again as they fight for a post-season berth.

It's been an incredible year so far, and fans have a lot to look forward to in the coming months.

Philadelphia Phillies rookie Pat Burrell strode to the plate on June 20, 2000, to lead off the top of the ninth inning at Shea Stadium.

Hard-throwing closer Armando Benitez was on the mound for New York's most beloved team, the Mets, who were leading the hapless Phillies, 2-1.

Burrell hit a home run off Benitez to tie the game that the Phillies would win, 3-2, in 10 innings.

The next night, the teams were tied, 5-5 in the top of the ninth inning.

The are people who refuse to acknowledge reality and continue to insist that the San Francisco Giants needed to make a blockbuster deal before the trade deadline passed.

The Giants did exactly what they should've done. They gave up a minor leaguer for a veteran right-handed relief pitcher. Then, they traded two players with big league experience, but not much success, for a left-hander for the bullpen.

The Dodgers go out and trade for Scott Podsednik, Tedd Lilly, Ryan Theriot, and Octavio Dotel.

San Diego went out and traded for Miguel Tejada and Ryan Ludwick.

What did the Giants do? They traded for Ramon Ramirez and Javier Lopez.

Could they have done more? Should they have done more?

The answers are yes and no.

Sure, they could have traded more Adam Dunn. They could have traded for Corey Hart. If they really wanted, they could have traded more Prince Fielder.

Why didn't they? The price was too high.