Matthews/Maddox/Bonds, yeah, they were pretty exciting, plus don't forget Kingman hitting homers, cycles, grandslams as a 3B his first season, that was pretty exciting.  Plus you can't forget John the Count Montefusco.  Hard to compare with all that.  But that was when the team was winning or recently winning.  Most of them were gone by 75, and the OF trio only lasted two seasons together.

Herndon was exciting for exactly half a year or so, his first half year with us, I guess that memory lasted for you but I just remember my dashed hopes in comparison to the potential that first half portended.  Clark was the only beacon of hope during those years for me, then we got that pile of crap from the Cards for him.  But I would take Cain and Lincecum over Jack The Ripper Clark, I love the big strikeout pitchers like them and Montefusco.

I never found Chili to be that exciting, I guess all that talk about the next Willie Mays spoiled him for me.  Plus he never hit for that high an average while with us nor that many homers.

Leonard, one flap down, Hac-man, was exciting.  Garrelts I loved but found as exciting as an accountant.  The only excitement I had with him was his near one-hitter, which I can still remember exactly were I was - in the middle of the parking lot of the Garlic Festival, swearing at the radio.

Krukow was always exciting, yes, then the addition of Clark and Thompson, then Williams and Mitchell soon afterward.  But those were not really losing years, were they...

And I'll note again, most of these remembrances count 2-3 players of note, well, I find Cain, Lincecum, Lowry, Lewis, and Sanchez to be pretty exciting.  Chili's first year:  100 OPS+.  Herndon's first year:  95 OPS+ and that was his high point, essentially, with the Giants.  Maddox:  103 OPS+.  Even Jack Clark's first year:  84 OPS+, 102 AB, 2 HR, 10 RBI, .225/.277/.382/.659, not so exciting a first year or second year even, it was his third year before he came into his power.  

I prefer him at 2B too, but if we can start him at 3B to get him ABs and regular starts, all the better.  Durham is still cold and I think it's time to acknowledge that it is related to that groin problem he had in early May; they should just DL him for 2 weeks and let Frandsen start.  Then with the long stretch of games, rest Durham twice a week, rest Feliz twice a week, rest Vizquel twice a week, and that's basically regular starts for Frandsen.

Call it luck, call it fate, but Sabean chose him when the 9 teams ahead of him had the same opportunity.  

If that's luck, then Houston picking Berkman with the 17th pick is lucky, the players selected above him were not nearly as good, D-backs lucked in Upton at 15th because of Boras, he should have been #1 too, heck, then there's the A's with Huston Street, he was selected with the A's THIRD pick of the draft, there were all those teams in between those picks who could have selected Street before the A's finally got him.  And what about selecting Hudson in the 7th round, he was over the 200th players selected that year, all those teams could have picked him before the A's got to him.

As well, his contact rate (balls hit into play, i.e. minus strikeouts) is approximately 90% since May began, which is extraordinary for any hitter, a miracle for Feliz.  My fantasy guide says that you want hitters with a contact rate of over 85%, Bonds contact rate last season was 86% and 82% this season.

And his BB/K ratio since May started is 19 BB/24 K, or 79%, which I would guess is probably double the best he's ever had in any month ever in his career.  The best hitters have BB/K ratio of over 100% but 79% is pretty close, indicating how good that is for any batter.

All this after a very poor April for Feliz, as apparently he was absorbing his lessons of spring training when Bochy basically humiliated him by pitching BP to him and calling out situations like a little leaguer would get.  May and June were not that great either, but he was walking more and striking out less, and now he's hitting .276/.364/.466/.829 for July.  

That's good for a 3B, plus he's great defensively, Dewan's Fielding Bible says that Feliz is one of the top fielding 3B in the majors and the defensive stats that Baseball Musing publishes has had Feliz near the top every year for the past 2-3 seasons.

Also, he typically hits worse later in the season, at least in 2005 and 2006, 2004 was the only year as a regular player where his OPS was so high after May.  Plus, his OBP is the highest for any month since Sept 2004, by a large margin, the only way he could get a high OBP was a high BA before.

Again, not saying that he is a changed hitter that's going to continue to be changed, but he's certainly been a different hitter than any time before in his career in terms of walks and strikeouts.  And this could be on the low side for him, his career BABIP is .271 but he's only hitting .243 BABIP this season, so in theory, he could hit even better as his .243 rises closer to .271.

Then again, we're probably talking about different things.

We may need a different song.