I’ll take that mulligan. Hell, they might even go .500!!

I actually saw the title and thought you’d be posting about the same thing I decided to post on. Since it’s in the same arena, I’ll post it anyway.

ESPN has their own “April Thoughts” article, and they actually had an interesting idea (shocking, yes). Granted, it was from a baseball official they interviewed, it at least presented an interesting idea. Here’s the clip from this article:

• Baked Zito—the dessert: We also asked high-ranking officials of two clubs what they would do if they had a big-buck disaster like Zito on their team. The first replied: “I’d cry.” The second had a more innovative proposal.

“Here’s what they should do,” he said. “They should go to Zito and say, ‘Look, it’s clear this is not going to work. Let’s put together an NBA-type deferral package. We’ll take the whole contract, defer it over 30 years with no interest and then we’ll release you, to let you start fresh somewhere else.’

The club could get significant cost savings that way. You take $112 million over 30 years, that’s $3.7 million a year. You’re better off paying him $3.7 million a year to not pitch than having him go out and do what he’s doing. … In the NBA, this happens a lot. The union would never let him do that in our sport. But you know what? From the player’s standpoint, he’d be better off.”

This sounds like a pretty interesting idea to me, and if Zito’s been humbled enough, let him go somewhere else to reinvent himself, or just quit baseball altogether and surf or whatever the heck he wants. Of course, you’d have to add interest to the salary amount for the time value of money change over 30 years, but still, I’d be okay with $4 million for 30 years to wipe out this mistake.

Pretty much mirror yours, but I’ll chime in on a couple.

Velez-I was there on Sunday, unfortunately. Bocock was really furious with him after the inning ending pop up and got right in his face after Velez did not back off the play. Then, Velez pointed to the ground with a rather abrupt gesture like to say, “It was on my side.” I don’t know if either of the broadcasts focused on it, but the events of that inning made me think that Bocock maybe doesn’t have much confidence in Velez’s glove. It also occurred to me that maybe Winn did not take charge of the fly ball to right because he did not trust Velez to back off the play?

Zito-Who? I am so tired of hearing his name. I am going to pretend he is just another guy trying to figure it out. Its the only way to move forward.

I am pleased with the overall entertainment value of this team, and think they can possibly flirt with .500 for at least a portion of the year. However, I personally am trying to temper my enthusiasm because I see a lot of players on this team who have the ability to frustrate and annoy (Castillo, Winn, Bocock, to name a few).

April thoughts

- Our offense is terrible
- And so is our defense
- Lincecum and Sanchez were awesome
- Zito stinks
- Cain needs to quit walking 5 million hitters

• “Skates” Lewis has been a godsend. His OB numbers are off the charts and he looks like he is learning how to steal bases.
• While a few of his throws are less than perfect Rowand leads by example and is a gamer.
• Burriss > Bocock. Bocock should be in Norwich.
• Little V is quite raw and needs to play everyday which could be happen either in SF or Fresno. If he has the attitude you suspect then his mentor Roberto Kelly should help with this.
• Baserunning blunders are not to be expected. That is what you learn in little league, pony lague, instrux and minors. By the time they hit The Show they should be well schooled.
• Randy Winn to the Indians.
• Viva El Guapo.
• .500 here we come! Pitching, pitching and more pitching.

Is going from a CF/LF of Roberts/Bonds last year to Rowand/Lewis this year an upgrade?

I think it is when you consider that Bonds would only play through the 6th or 7th inning in a lot of games.

It is also helpful that Lewis is benefiting from the consistent playing time and Rowand is so very much better than Roberts.