Hey Red Sox... sign Omar Vizquel

I am dead serious. Bring him on board. How much would he cost the Sox? $1 million? $2 million for one year?

The Red Sox have wisely stayed away from this year's free agent class with the exception of Nick Punto who isn't exactly a superstar. He's there to give the Red Sox some infield depth.

But why not bring in Omar Vizquel as well?

One of the last remaining players from the 1980s is still floating out there. Why not tack on a 24th year to his career?

And what would his main purpose on the team be?

To start some games at short and help break in Jose Iglesias. What better mentor could the Red Sox shortstop of the future have than possibly the best defensive shortstop of all time?

And one who literally can say "I've been in the major leagues longer than you've been alive!"

Vizquel played 143 games in 1989.

Iglesias was born in January 1990.

Having Vizquel as depth and an unofficial coach could only help the Red Sox as they build towards 2013. $2 million to help develop the shortstop of the future is a bargain.

Compare that to the $44 million spent on Edgar Renteria and Julio Lugo.

And with 2,841 hits, the Red Sox can watch him creep slowly to 3,000.

Combine that with Tim Wakefield needing 6 wins to tie and 7 to pass Roger Clemens and Cy Young for most ever wins by a Red Sox pitcher, you could have two of the slowest and most painful build ups to a baseball milestone ever happening at the same time!

And seeing that I don't think the Red Sox are winning squat in 2012, why not have THAT reason to go to the park?

Come on Sox! It's not like he's going to cost the Red Sox a draft pick or a long term deal. Bring him on board!

Besides, if he makes it to the Hall of Fame (which I think he will) then there will be another plaque with "Boston (A.L.)" on it. And that's not bad.

Something special happens around 0:59 of this video

7th inning of Game 5...

Lee and Lincecum are locking antlers in a pitchers duel...

Giant fans at the Public House watching.

For the first minute of this video, everyone is paying close attention, but know there are 2 outs, Cliff Lee is not the pinata he was in Game 1, and that a scoring opportunity may be squandered here.

I mean how many times can Edgar Renteria come through for the Giants.

Then the fly ball...

There is cautious optimism...

Then it completely clears the wall.

At around the 0:59 mark of this video, listen for that pause before the place erupts.

That pause was the very last moment that a Giant fan ever thought they were going to die without seeing their team win it all.

Then collective "YEAH!"

At that moment they knew the Giants were up 3-0 with Lincecum on the mound.

They knew that the World Series was theirs.

No more Finley grand slam.

No more J. T. Snow thrown out at the plate.

No more handing the game ball to Russ Ortiz.

No more Troy Glaus double or Scott Speizio homer.

No more Benny Agbayani walk off shot.

No more watching the Marlins get 3 walk off wins in two different series.

No more winning 103 games and missing the playoffs.

No more Earthquake series.

No more Jose Oquendo home run.

No more Maldonado losing it in the lights.

No more line drive by McCovey.

At that moment, all of that became prologue.

And the release of happiness was well earned.

I had a similar scream in 2004.

It felt good.

Enjoy it Giants fans.

Pitchers and catchers are reporting soon.

Happy New Year everyone

First post of the New Year... sitting in Palo Alto wondering who will be the Edgar Renteria, the Armando Gallaraga or the Jose Bautistas for 2011.

Right now, people seem to think that the Phillies and Red Sox are destined to meet in the World Series. I would love that of course, but how often do the consensus picks actually meet up in October.

I am saying right now on January 1, 2011 that neither the Phillies nor the Red Sox will be in the World Series. There will be some team that will sneak up on both of them and force Major League Baseball and Fox to actually use their imagination in terms of promoting the series (and they won't do it.)

Now keeping in mind that my predictions tend to be terrible, that is good news for Phillies and Red Sox fans... and for Fox for that matter.

So Happy New Year everyone. Get over that hangover. Let's get through football and have pitchers and catchers report already!!!

When winning 2 out of 3 just isn't enough

Usually Meat Loaf is right. (All blog posts should start with that sentence.)

But almost always, 2 out of 3 Ain't Bad.

And the Giants showed guts. They won the first two games against the Rockies convincingly. And they stage a gritty comeback in the 9th where a single would have tied the game and fell just short.

And it wasn't enough.

As I wrote earlier, they needed all three of these games. They needed to make it 1 game in the loss column. The chances of making up 3 in the loss column with no more head to head games will probably be too much to handle.

And poor Nate Schierholtz struck out and essentially dashed the hopes of the Giants AND the Marlins, who needed the Rockies loss to inch closer.

The real goat was Edgar Renteria who couldn't advance the runners with nobody out. But it is hard to dump on Renteria after his slam against the Rockies last month.

In essence, there is nobody to blame. The Giants have overachieved this year and have given their fans some magical moments. The sweep of Colorado at the end of August. Randy Johnson's 300th win. Lincecum's Cy Young-esque season. The rise of Pablo Sandoval. The Sanchez no hitter.

But is this really a playoff team?

Well... can we sleep on that?

This wasn't the biggest hit in Edgar Renteria's career

When someone hits a come from behind grand slam in late August that puts his team into a tie for a playoff spot... you'd think that would be the biggest hit in that guy's career.



Well Edgar Renteria got a bigger one than his blast today.



Remember he got a walk off single in the 11th inning to win Game 7 of the 1997 World Series for the Marlins.



And I bet you forgot he hit a walk off hit in Game 1 of the Division Series that year against the Giants.



But the Giants swept the Rockies and will go into September tied for a playoff spot... and they will have the best starting pitching of any of the Wild Card contenders.



That maybe be only the third biggest hit in Edgar Renteria's career... but Giants fans are more than happy with the Bronze!

Cain is not the Giants lineup's keeper

It must be nice for Matt Cain to get a run... or 4.

Edgar Renteria's grand slam tonight off of Jake Peavy was that very odd and rare occurrence in baseball:

Run support for Matt Cain.

The guy has posted sub 4.00 ERAs the last two seasons with 200 or more innings in both years.

Not saying that is Cy Young caliber, but in this day and age, that's pretty dang good.

Certainly better than his 7-16 record in 2007 and his 8-14 record last year would indicate.

He's 2-0 now. If the offense keeps hitting for him, who knows? He might turn that around.

I wouldn't hold your breath, but he should be happy today