With 2008's dismal season behing them, the San Francisco Giants are looking to bounce back in 09.

With one of MLB's best starting rotations and an unproven defense the Giants will look to make a run for the National League West's Penant.

Manny Ramirez and Dodgers loom as the obvious choice for the division leaders. The Padres, Diamondbacks and Rockies all have more recent post season appearances than the Giants.

Still, if the Giants can play to their strengths and limit their weaknesses, they might have a fighting chance.

Mark Buehrle was jovial after the sixth inning.

He was content enough with his situation in the game that when a fellow player asked how he was feeling in the dugout, he simply replied, "I've got a no-hitter."

Most pitchers treat talking about a no-hitter during a game the same as saying Macbeth before actors put on the play, but Buehrle didn't seem to have a care in the world. He was acting invincible, and he certainly looked like it, until the seventh inning.

According to Sports 620 KTAR's John Gambadoro, the Arizona Diamondbacks will fire manager Bob Melvin and will name his replacement prior to Arizona's game against the Washington Nationals on Friday night.

During a radio interview with 620 KTAR, Diamondback CEO Derrek Hall admitted that something needed to be done to fix the underachieving D-Backs.

If you had drafted Manny Ramirez in hopes that he would sign before the season started and just be Manny for the rest of the year, you looked like a genius up until today.

First, start by taking all of your magazines with MLB predictions and burn them.

Next, grab your television, yank the cord from its socket, and throw it out a second-story window.

If you feel that is too harsh, then simply leave it on the street with a sign that reads “take me.”

Performing Enhancing Drugs, steroids, HGH, hGC, geez oh man. What is baseball coming to these days? Why is it that players need these things to play better?

Well I am not here to answer those questions. Heck no. I would feign an attempt to answer those questions. I am not a "baseballologist" (baseball+some kind of -ology+ scientist), so I have the slightest of ideas as to why players take the stuff.

So, the Cubs retired number 31 yesterday, worn by Fergie Jenkins and Greg Maddux. As the flags were raised on the left field foul poul, I pondered the same question I’ve been pondering for the past few years: will I ever see Sammy Sosa’s jersey number (21) flying from one of Wrigley’s foul poles?

I thought that the Giants would have a better offense this season than last season, but I was very wrong. This 2009 lineup of the Giants is just plain awful.

I figured that the young players such as Fred Lewis, Pablo Sandoval, and Travis Ishikawa would boost the offensive production of this team and that the veterans, such as Edgar Renteria and Aaron Rowand, would also help out.

Rowand is only batting .233 and Renteria is not doing that much better with a.253 average.

Carlos Zambrano, the fiery Cubs ace, beat out a bunt single in the fifth inning on Sunday. Thanks to Derrek Lee's mammoth grand slam later that inning, he got a win. But because of his base running, he'll be on the disabled list for at least 15 days.

Zambrano pulled his hamstring running to first. He was removed for a pinch runner.

Issue Number One: Rich Harden pinch running? One pitcher gets hurt running so Lou Piniella uses another in his place on the base paths? And picks one that has a laundry list of injuries in his own past? Are you serious?

Carl Crawford went 4-for-4 with an RBI this Sunday, but did something even more incredible. He stole six bases. In one game.

We all know what a thief Crawford is, but geez. No one has done something this awesome on the base paths for 18 years.