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.