• That the Giants are not going to be tempted to sign Johnny "his age has nothing to do with his future performance because he is so spectacular! my Scott Boras binder says so!" Damon to any contract longer than 1 hour
• That Bengie Molina will not accept an offer of arbitration
• That Freddy Sanchez was not overpaid at $6M/year just to be bumped to third base
• That Pablo Sandoval did not eat Eugenio Velez
• That Eugenio Velez will get eaten before someone makes the executive decision to make him an everyday player
• That dominant pitching can get you to the playoffs in the National League
• That Brian Sabean's gut has gotten big enough that it may actually inflict pain on him to kick the tires
• That we won 88 games somehow, and I'm not really sure how
• That Charlie Weis and Mark Mangino are in the news a whole lot right now, but NOT because they are going to be re-enacting the Chris Farley-Patrick Swayze SNL Chippendales skit.  Oh wait, wrong "Giants," sorry.
  
• That Pac Bell Park was built
• That Aaron Rowand was not offered a contract extension
• That no fan was injured by any of Rowand's throws this year
• That PhotoShop exists
• That we will not trade Matt Cain for anyone
• That Keith Law received an NL Cy Young vote this year
• That St. Louis fans spend so much time being the greatest fans in baseball that they forget to spend time, you know, understanding it
• That 'buzzard's luck' is the only rational explanation for how we fell short of the playoffs
• That I was not drinking the night Ryan Spilborghs did something that I can't really remember
• That Tim Alderson and Scott Barnes are never doing to pan out
• That I was there the day the Giants unveiled the Rally Rabbi
• That Nate Schierholtz does not use batting gloves
• That I will not hear the words 'now batting, first baseman, Jermaine Dye!' in San Francisco
• That I get to read about the McCourts on a regular basis
• That I have lived through two generations of "Uuuuuu... Ree-bay!"
• That we are not in the AL East
• That the bat we're going to acquire is not a name that's being thrown around right now, because the current options kinda suck
• That we will not offer Brian Giles even a minor league contract
• That next year, McCoven will be banned from writing the acronym "LOL" into any and all words possible, thus reducing thread lengths by half
• That our top 4 starters will not regress next year and will, in fact, improve on the back end
• That our bullpen will regress but only slightly
• That Tim Lincecum's agent is not Scott Boras
• That we have Kruk, Kuip, and Jon
• That I got to watch JT "Big Bubble" Snow play first base
• That Barry is proving to be a lot more common in the eyes of the witch-hunters (which we all knew)
• That I was there for 755
• That I no longer have nightmares about dropped fly balls by Gold Glovers in Florida.
• That my employer will set me up with nice seats in the upper deck behind home plate for next year's playoffs in SF
• That 100% of my predictions in this post will/better come true
• That I get to read this blog at home and at work
• That we are 99 days away from the first spring training game of 2010
• That I am not a Dodgers fan

I thought it would be interesting to see what everyone thinks about the top 10 prospects in the system before all the other blogs, sites and services start doing theirs. Admittedly, I have very little first hand exposure to these guys so my list wont be the best informed but I'll kick it off anyway.

1. Buster Posey

2. Maddison Bumgarner

3. Thomas Neal

4. Brandon Crawford

5. Zack Wheeler

6. Rafael Rodriguez

7. Dan Runzler

8. Carlos Willoughby

9. Jorge Bucardo

10. Angel Villalona

Honorable Mention: Kieschnick, Dominguez, Joseph, Noonan

Tough to say where Wheeler fits in. I love Rodriguez line this season. Willoughby also put up a pretty silly line for a 19 y/o. Wonder if he'll be in Scottsdale this Summer. I don't know if I should have even put Angel on the list considering as it stands he wont be coming back to the states any time soon.

Willoughby's career line starting at 18.

Year          G  PA  AB   R   H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS  BB SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS  TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB
3 Seasons   173 685 531 157 162 13 14  1  78 91 19 107 86 .305 .440 .388 .828 206   2  27 12  8   1

It's a little early for this, but I decided that, since I already got a real one in the mail and since I am on Thanksgiving break and therefore have more time, that it would be appropriate. 

This post is intended to be a collection of Christmas Card style life updates.  I figured that since the community at the MCC is so friendly, personal and close-knit, as far as internet communities go, that we should have our own Christmas Cards.   I'll start.  The only problem is that my family hasn't taken Christmas photos, yet. 

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Since I assume I am the only member currently living in Venezuela I figured I would take some time to update everyone on the Giants that are down here playing winter league.  Brett Pill arrived off the plane and has just been named player of the week after only 21 plate appearances with two doubles and two homeruns and a batting average of .429 with the Bravos de Margarita.  John Bowker came with him, but apparently he wants to leave because he is worried about the insecurity in Venezuela, which as I white guy in Venezuela I can tell you is certainly an issue, although they are playing their home games in Margarita, which is a beach resort.  As for Pill, he might just be taking advantage of some weak pitching, but overall the quality of play is quite high.  He beat out Carlos Gonzalez of the Rockies for the honor.  Pill tearing up Venezuela is the link although its in Spanish, but it does have a nice picture of him at the plate.  I posted a fanshot of another shot of him.  Also, our dear Kung Fu Panda Pablo Sandoval, my halloween costume ;-) they don´t know the panda mask as well down here as in San Francisco, is set to start at the end of this week with Magallanes and Jesus Guzman is having an up and down season with the Leones of Caracas in his designated hitter role, some two homer games and some 0-5 games.  All and all it looks like the Giants down here are getting some good preparation, especially since most of them are on the 40 man roster. 

via www.lvbp.com

So in the aftermath of the Cy Young announcement, with everyone analyzing and re-analyzing every single stat, I'm left wondering why everyone seems to care about strikeouts.

That said...

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The Giants enter the offseason with one Type A free agent and three Type B free agents.

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Per Jayson Stark

"We're hearing that the Marlins' Dan Uggla trade talk with the Giants and Rangers got "pretty hot and heavy" at the GM meetings..."

What do you think it would cost us?  Too much?

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Per Baggs:

Friday was the deadline to submit reserve lists and the Giants protected four players from the Rule 5 draft, adding 1B Brett Pill, OF Francisco Peguero, OF Darren Ford and RHP Kevin Pucetas to the 40-man roster.

Pill, a leftright-handed hitter, worked with new hitting coach Roberto Kelly Hensley Meulens earlier this month at AT&T Park and his inclusion was not a surprise after a banner year at Double-A Connecticut. He wasn’t considered a top prospect out of Cal State Fullerton and he’s still got to prove himself at every level, but he’s hit gobs of doubles while thriving in two pitcher’s parks (Connecticut’s Dodd Stadium, and two years earlier, Augusta’s ballpark). He’s also rated a better defensive first baseman than Travis Ishikawa, which is a nice compliment.

For some reason, when the Expos moved to DC it made me a little sad. I understand why they moved. I know their attendance was horrendous and the city of Montreal didn't seem to care if they left, but to me it signified a step backwards in the growth of MLB. Montreal truly felt like an international city, much more than Toronto. It gave the league an intangible multicultural appeal that it no longer has. I wish the Expos had stayed put and tried to work it out in Montreal, or at the very least relocated to another city in Canada (Vancouver maybe?). If the WBC Canada-USA game earlier this year is any indication, I think baseball could thrive in our neighbor to the north. If Canada had more teams, they could actually start playing each other. Cities could develop rivalries which would stir up more interest. 

Thinking about this topic on an even broader spectrum brings more questions to mind. Could Mexico support a team (cheap land could lure Lew Wolff and Oaxaca Athleticas has a nice ring to it)? What about Puerto Rico? Would more teams in international cities be good for MLB? Would you support foreign expansion? Would some players be less willing to play in a country like Mexico? I invite you to take a break from rosterbation and try a little...hmm...mapsterbation?

I know that we're still a ways off from this whole thing, but I thought it would be entertaining to see what everybody is expecting to see happen when the Tim Lincecum show premieres before an arbitration judge near you (unless you're far away, or unless you're assuming that an agreement is reached on an extension). Since now we have what seems to be all of the pertinent information regarding Tim Lincecum... hey, why not?

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