San Francisco Giants link dump!
- Puff piece on Pablo Sandoval that includes Brian Sabean proudly proclaiming that Sandoval is "not going to try and eke out a walk" because Sandoval has "a hitter's mentality." You know, unlike noted non-hitters like Barry Bonds and Rickey Henderson. I love Sandoval, and I do hope he's a huskier, stronger, yet slower Ichiro!, but c'mon now. Let's at least acknowledge that learning to work the count is a good goal for him.
- The San Jose Giants are looking for host families. Who here hasn't wanted to stand over the bed of a minor-league prospect, muttering, "Oh, you will be a big star. A big, big star. A big, big star. And you'll come back to rescue me. A big, big star" as they slept? Well, now's your chance. They keep rejecting my application because of a facist indoor plumbing requirement, but you're welcome to take your chances.
- The Chronicle's baby blog -- "The Poop" -- has a post about favorite Bay Area baseball memories. Now there's a sentence that wouldn't have made much sense a decade ago.
- FanGraphs has a brief look at the Giants' top prospects.
- In case you missed it, here's a pretty danged funny commercial for MLB 2K9 featuring Tim Lincecum.
- I answered five fantasy-centric questions for RazzBall. I know what you're thinking. Fantasy? Like the one you have about dumping a bucket of orange and black slime over Tommy Lasorda's head after the next time he says "I don't know?" No, no. Fantasy baseball. The kind of game that isn't fun unless you have the right tools to manage it, like CBS Sportsline's fantasy baseball platform (with a free14-day trial!).
- Hmm, when I entered Lasorda's name into Google, an ad popped up for the International Speaker's Bureau, which offers Lasorda's motivational services for the low, low price of $30,001 to $50,000. Let's see, 2000 registered McCovey Chronicles members...$15 a pop...$8 for the pie...I think we can do this. Set up a dummy business function, invite Lasorda to speak, hit him with a pie, and send him back to the airport. That's just off the top of my head. If you have better suggestions, I'd like to hear them.
This is an open link thread, but I think I just ensured that it will devolve into a "what would you do if you hired Lasorda?"-thread.