Tyler Walker takes a lot of heat (okay, mostly from me) on these pages, even though he hasn't pitched here in almost a year.

Walker is just a tad overweight, sports a caboose that can be easily identified as far away as the Mars Exploration Rover, and enters games in a streaming flop sweat, apparently caused by the jog-in from the bullpen.

But even as he rehabs this spring from Tommy John Surgery, he has endeared himself to fans and teammates by ignoring the importance and position of his twin 800-lb. gorilla, Armando Benitez.

Here are some of Walker's thoughts about closing for the Giants again (from the Henry Schulman article in the Chronicle):

"I'll stay up at night sometimes thinking about it, just the feeling of the adrenaline rush before you go out there,'' Walker said.

"I think I've proven I can close at this level. I would love to be given the opportunity to do it. It's definitely something that gets me going all the time. I think that's the most coveted role in the bullpen, and I'd like to have it again."

NOTE the lack of concern for the so-called "incumbent" closer, Armando Benitez. Here is Walker, a wounded man, barely able to lob a beachball to his kids, and he's got his sights trained on the closer spot by July. He may never even pitch at the major league level again, but whupping Benitez is not even important enough for Walker to consider in the comeback equation.

That's called Closer Mentality, if you didn't know.

And Walker says these things because Armando, Lame And Quacking Duck, is a told story.

Benitez is over.