Huff's random anxiety disorder

So it is no secret that Aubrey Huff's performance in the 2011 season as first baseman was very disappointing,. However coming into the 2012 season and after spring training we all hoped he would get it together. Recently Huff took a 15 day leave of absence for supposed anxiety disorder. Although I do believe that being a Major League player does add a lot of stress to someone what they aren't revealing is what reason he is all the sudden suffering from anxiety for. Well Mr. Huff like most pro ball players was married and there are currently rumors circulating that he was cheating on his wife of six years. Needless to say his wife was very unhappy about this and recently filed for divorce. Since these statements were published in an article I would have anxiety too knowing that my wife is going to walk away with half of my fortune. And even further his performance has suffered so badly will he be considered to resign with the Giant's. Basically I think this whole anxiety disorder is just bullshit quite frankly. He all the sudden has anxiety because he got caught plain and simple. If it was true anxiety he would have been suffering from this disorder for a lot longer and it wouldn't all the sudden be coming out just now in his forties.

Giants Progress

So quite a few things have taken place these last couple of weeks for the San Francisco Giants. First of all they renewed Madison Bumgarner's contract so he will be with the team I believe until 2017. It is not that I don't think he deserves the money or contract but I think that the SF Giants are becoming a brand rather than a baseball team. Since they won the 2011 World Series which Bumgarner had a huge role in the Giants are known for there pitching staff. One of the strongest in the league which draws a lot of attention to the team. Tim Lincecum and his long hair, as well as Brian Wilson's "Fear the Beard" all of these things have become more iconic for the Giants than their actual performance on the field. Today when you go to a game no one is involved anymore instead the are spending hundreds of dollars on merchandise and taking pictures to post on Facebook. The Giants rough start this season has reflected the point I am making. With more losses than wins I want to know will the Giants craze come to an end if their performance on the field continues to be poor. They need to get back to the basics and play ball. Brian needs to shave that ridiculous beard and they need to be giving attention to players who are good players not players who will simply fill the park with fans. Of course it is the goal to make money so the team can continue to play but I would like to see more investment in talent  and see fans who want to understand and appreciate the sport. I found this article about a young man 24 years old who plays for their minor league team, the San Jose Giants. The kids name is Snodgrass and he pitched six straight shut out inning against the Bakersfield team. In the interview at the end of the game he says his goal for the season are to "win as many games as possible". This to me should be everyones mindset. Since the Giants won the world series our whole team spirit has gone down greatly. Unlike the St. Louis Cardinals who are first in their division in the standings right now and just won the 2012 World Series. I think the key to a good baseball team is to keep things simple and as Snodgrass says win as many games as possible.
Here is a link to the article if anyone is curious about Snodgrass!

http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120421&content_id=29271790&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb

BASEBALL SEASON HAS BEGUN!!!

Well folks baseball season has officially begun! To say that I am excited is a major understatement. Considering we are only a couple of games into the season I don't want to say much and mess with the luck of the Giants this season. Beginning the season though Tim Lincecum has had a rough start. His pitching is just not up at the place it was last year. When he opened against the Diamondbacks he gave away a couple of runs in the first two innings which is just strange for a pitcher at his level. I don't want to bash on him but once again tonight another poor performance by Timmy with giving away six runs in the first two innings which  an exceptionally high number. I hope that he will be able to catch his errors early on and make adjustments so that we can have a successful season overall! I hope that the Giants can start swimming into a sea of positivity :)

Grossly Overpaid Baseball Players

So just a couple of days ago for all Giant's fan Matt Cain was offered a five yea extension on his contract worth 112.5 MILLION dollars. Matt Cain is a strong defensive pitcher for the Giants and has contributed a lot to the team. Don't get me wrong I think a strong player deserves a good salary however the numbers that we are seeing today in order to sign or keep an in-demand player are ridiculously high. Another large number that we just saw was the purchase of the LA Dodgers for 2 billion dollars. That team for sure does not deserve to be purchased for that insane amount of money. Especially considering their poor performance last season. I feel like the millions and billions of dollars that are being poured into not only the teams and players in baseball, but football and basketball are taking away from the respect of the game. In the movie Moneyball an intern for the Oakland A's uses a radical concept of finding statistical value in players that may not be obvious to the human eye to select his team. He pays these players a couple of hundred thousand dollars each, however these players appreciate the chance they are given. They are willing to work for a fraction of what their competing teams players are getting paid and they appreciate the opportunity they are given. They are willing to work hard for the little money that they are earning. I feel like the large amount of money that players are getting paid these days are distracting them from the real reason they are playing. They began playing because they were passionate about the sport! I think that money has caused a lot of corruption in professional sports teams.

SF Giants Rough decisions for their 2012 roster

So I read the most interesting article today on the potential decisions the Giants are going to be making in the next couple of weeks. To sum it up the people who are fighting for the four positions that need filling are Brett Pill, Brandon Belt, Ryan Theriot, Mike Fontenot, Emmanuel Burriss and Joaquin Arias. After watching last year Fontenot shows in my opinion a lot of room for improvement. Everyone pretty much thinks that Brandon Belt is a guarantee which I would love but unfortunately he might end up playing in the Triple A just so he gets more playing time. One player that has for sure earned himself a lot of attention is Gregor Blanco. In fact many people are saying he plays center field just as well as Torres who is a veteran player. In my opinion I think this is a good dose of healthy competition for the vet. Torres appears to be a very cocky player and it shows. Gregor has a one up on him as well because he is younger and much faster than Torres. Gregor would be a great asset to the team and I hope we see him this up coming season for sure.  The Giants have a excellent pitching crew established what we need are a couple of power players that can hit as well as bring some speed. I can't wait to hear what Bochy decides to do!

This is the article I was talking about so read it if you have some time and are interested: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/19/SPQQ1NN04M.DTL#ixzz1pjhBKqCb

Progess in Spring Training

The one thing that i love about spring training is we get to see how the possible seasons of most teams are going to be. What I am most curious about is if the St. Louis Cardinal's are going to be as strong of a team after Albert Pujols signed with the Angels. This was a huge deal because they just earned the world series title. What it seemed to have boiled down to with Albert was the money and the Angels were willing to offer him much more than the Cardinals were.
I am happy to say that at this moment the Giants are in the lead for the Spring Training standings with 11 wins and only 4 losses. However one thing that is very contradictory right now is the Giant's unwillingness to allow the A's build there new stadium in San Jose. It is a very complex issue and this article gives a lot more information about the specifics http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=bryant_howard&id=6665421. However to summarize it for those that are uninterested in the sport SF Giants are having a hard time with the A's getting a new stadium because it threatens their popularity you could say. It also has to do with fans and the Giants believe that the fans of San Jose belong to them. If the A's did build their new stadium the Giants would have some competition in the Bay Area over which is the favorite team. As of right now everyone pretty much jumped on the bandwagon once the Giants won the World Series which is ridiculous and pisses me off beyond belief. I think that a new stadium would bring a lot of good things for the A's including new fans and more money into their team.
In my personal opinion I think it would be good if there was some friendly competition between the teams.

Spring Training

Hey Everybody,
So although this week has been shitty weather one great thing going happening on the mainland is SPRING TRAINING! I am so jealous I won't be able to attend any of the spring training games but from what I have been watching on tv and what I have been keeping up with on MLB.com I have seen some pretty interesting trends. First of all in case I haven't already stated I am a psychotic Giants fan in the Spring Training ranking right now I am pleased with their performance. We have seven wins to three losses. This is looking like it is going to be a pretty amazing season. I am also really excited to see what the A's are going to do. They are tied up with us right now in the spring training standings which is awesome. They have brought in a lot of fresh and young talent to their team which I think will pay off for them this season (if you haven't seen Moneyball, which is based on the A's team, I would most definitely recommend going out to rent it baseball fan or not). The only team who lies ahead of the Giants and the A's are the god awful LA Dodgers, which I'm sure will change soon! I'm so exited for the season to begin in April.

http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120225&content_id=26857802&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

Here is a link to an article that I found about the National's third baseman who just signed a $100 million dollar deal with a no trade clause for the next six years. Today is baseball it is not often that you see contracts like these anymore. People are constantly looking for the next best thing. I like this aticle in particular because I feel like to be apart of a team is like being part of a family. You have to have exceptional talent and be completely devoted to your team to obtain a deal like this especially the no trade clause. I think more players need to start realizing that they are apart of a family when they join a team and value that as much as any other relationship in there life.

After the Giants won the World Series we lost Uribe to the Dodgers because they offered him a lump sum of money. In essence to go where more money is and to feel valued is understandable but to leave a team you won the World Series with? When he left it felt like a bad break up and I think left a sour taste in a lot of fans mouths. What Zimmerman has shown us over the years is that he is a good player who values the relationship that he has with his team. Because of his respectful experiences with the Nationals is why he has been awarded such a generous contract and why they want to keep him around!

They throw the ball, I hit it. They hit the ball, I catch it.
Willie Mays
This quote expresses the simplicity of the All-American sport of baseball. In our modern society it is important to take a step back and look at things simply. No camera crews or any amount of publicity will make any man be a good ball player. It takes talent and passion for this sport in order to be successful. Willie Mays was an example of that raw talent.