Tim Kawakami, still bad.

Tim Kawakami actually works as Stomper, the A’s mascot, on the side.

That’s how he gets all his “inside” information.

Just kidding.

But in all honesty, I haven’t had much respect for his Giants-related articles ever since the Lincecum-Rios swap article.

Because he’s talking about my team, my first reaction to that article is to say Tim writes with a little East Bay Bias or South Bay (the A’s are moving to Fremont, aren’t they?) considering he writes for a San Jose rag, but the thing is he is probably partially right.

We have been pretty lucky this season with our record. We were supposed to be shitty because of lack of an offense this year. What we got was a nice record for awhile until finally falling back to earth (1-6 in our last two series at home). The fact is he is right, our positional prospects are crap. Great starting pitching has kept us in games and incredibly bad offense and of recently bad bullpen has cost us these games.

I do disagree on his evaluation of Jonthan Sanchez, considering this is a guy who has been bounced between starter and relief roles for the past few years and this was the first year he has been given a permenant rotation spot. Usually you want to give these guys a little time to learn how to pitch as a starter and find ways to limit their pitch counts. Because of his high strikeout ratio (and being a Giants fan) I am going to be optomistic until Dirty Sanchez has a full season as a starter under his belt.

His schedule isn’t too tight for thinking. He actually just fails at thinking.

Kawakami’s a dope who doesn’t let facts get in the way of a controversial argument. A week or so ago, he made the argument that Fred Lewis was the best offensive player on the Giants because look at the shiny OPS… no matter that Aaron Rowand’s was about 100 points higher at the time.

Just ignore him, if we respond with vitriol he’s getting the notoriety sports columnists crave. Irrelevance, though, that’ll hit ‘em where it counts—in the wallet.

Apparently Tim Kawakami realized that his column didn’t make any sense, because he has now posted what he describes as “the director’s cut” on his blog. It actually contains something resembling analysis, and corrects the description of Suzuki (“athletic” makes more sense than “versatile”).

I still think he’s not very fair to Sanchez or Bowker. His expanded comments on Bowker:

Nice start. Not much since and you usually show what you are when you get 93 at-bats at age 24.

First of all, 93 ABs aren’t that many. Second, after his slump Bowker has actually been hot in the month of May, to the tune of .389/.425/.528. If that’s the “not much” I’ll take more of it.

I think his comment on Ortmeier (“Hasn’t won over Bruce Bochy”) is kind of a cheap shot, although I’d find it hard to argue convincingly that Ortmeier has proven himself a “keeper” (his line since abandoning switch hitting is a very respectable .297/.435/.432, but we’re only talking about 46 PAs).

Jack Cust is better than Travis Hafner?

Can we give travis more than 100+ at-bats to get back to form?

“Kawakami’s Keepers” sounds like a good name for a line of delicious cookies.

Okay, so let me try my hand at this.

Holm – Probably only a backup catcher but, hey, those have value

Bowker – He’s looked good so far. Probably will never be an all-star but I can see 280/350/450 from him in the future.

Frandsen – Most disappointing development of the season.

Velez – Yes, Velez. He’s a fringy keeper, but a keeper nonetheless. He won’t always be this bad. In fact, I’m pretty sure he really isn’t this bad. He should probably never start for any big league team but as a pinch hitter/runner he’s a keeper.

Burriss – Get him back down to the minors but his approach has been good despite being in water that’s way too deep for him at the moment.

Freddie – We like

Rowand – Gamer

Winn – if he’s the second or seventh hitter

Lincecum – Duh

Cain – Duh

Sanchez – May New Jonathan stick around!

Correia – Good fourth or fifth starter

Misch – It’s been a little rough so far, but I believe in him

Lowry – Maybe. We’ll see.

Merkin – Looking good before the injury

Hinshaw – I really like this guy

Wilson – His last outing was an abberation

Walker – He’s really rejuvinated (though, when was his career juvinated in the first place?) his career, despite his recent struggles

Chulk – NOT A BAD PITCHER!

Taschner – Wouldn’t have believed it before the start of this season.

Sadler – This year’s Brian Wilson-style control problem fix.

CONCLUSION: This was a huge, stupid waste of time that has no bearing on anything. “Keepers?” The Giants are bad. And most of their 25 man roster (plus the guys on the disabled list) are keepers. The same goes for most of the teams in baseball.