Rambling Series

Is the Giants brain trust watching the World Series? Obviously, no one is calling it "crisply played." I'm hoping that the Boston defense, such as it is, makes an impression. Don't get me wrong, defense is a good thing, just not something I'd spend much money on. And to a team like the Sox, kicking the ball doesn't mean much if you can blackjack the opposition into submission.

Oh, and notice the Ramirez-Ortiz symbiosis. While it's true that no one will stop the walks to Barry (this is the club's No. 1 defense for not getting better hitters), that's not the point. A -- The walks help, not hurt, the Giants. B -- They can help more if there's someone in the lineup to bring in Barry. The offense did well this season, but it really should have been better.

To be fair, a lot of the glove clanking in the Series has to blamed on the horrible shape of the Fenway infield. I'm amazed at the shape it's in. In Game 1, Larry Walker hit a grounder down the first base line that looked like it kicked off the bag, except it didn't. It just hit the dirt and kicked left. The radio guys said the Fenway grounds crew actually apologized to Tony La Russa for the shape the field is in. Maybe they felt responsible for Womack's near-decapitation.

Ah, Reggie Sanders. Every time I start to feel a little nostalgic about his short Giants tenure, he does something to snap me out of it. There are the strikeouts, sure, but the baserunning in Game 2 was amazing. Care to hit the bag, Reggie? Or not run right into the guy who's got the ball? Joe Morgan was cracking me up on the radio, constantly saying that Sanders did the right thing by going back to the bag after he missed it. I think he called missing the bag in the first place a mistake once, but called the return the right thing a half dozen times. "Yeah, you can't make a mistake like that, running over the old lady in the crosswalk, but he did the right thing by parking in the white zone. That was smart, parking in the white zone. It's the right thing to do, parking there."

Did John Mabry eat La Russa's dog or something? So Taguchi? Marlon Anderson?

Comments

[Kyle]

LaRussa is showing how much better of a manager he is than Dusty Baker. Clearly, the mark of a good manager is the crappiness of your World Series DH. However, I'm not sure if So Taguchi is worse than Shinjo.

[Marty]

So Taguchi at least was in the field. Shinjo was the DH, with Lofton in center. Shinjo, by far the best defensive center fielder the Giants have seen in years, and one of the weakest bats, was the DH. Right. It makes absolutely no sense.