Randy Messenger Hates Carts, Lance Niekro is a Knuckleballer and Rajai Davis Rules

by Jomori

Happy days are (probably briefly) here again because the Giants have won 5 in a row. It is nice to see any ray of hope from the team before the season is over. Bonds is very rested and is ready to, hopefully, feast on the Cubs pitching. Either way, I am sure Lou Pinella and Ned Yost are a little nervous. Why? Because the Giants play both of them back to back this week! Woo Hoo! We are a streaking last place team with absolutely nothing to lose and the Cubs and Brewers are battling each other to win the Central division. We could have a serious effect on this race so at least this will add a little more excitement to the games the rest of the week. Maybe it is just me.

Anyway, Thursday's game looks awesome. Carlos Zambrano vs Matt Cain. Nice! Zambrano is $91.5 million bucks richer and will make his first full start since signing the new contract since Sunday's Cubs/Cardinals game was rained out. I find it funny that the Cubs had to pay Zambrano an average of 300K more per year than Zito to placate his ego. Not to mention, the Cubs gave in to everything Zambrano wanted in the deal. Ouch! Hopefully, the Cubs at least got a "no punching your teammates" clause. Sorry, I know; Too easy. One thing is for sure, every owner in baseball is throwing darts at Giants' Brian Sabean's and Cubs' GM Jim Hendry's pictures. Hendry can at least enjoy the fact that he has a competitive team this year.

As for the Giants, I am not going to celebrate and say we have officially turned a corner. It is just nice to see us finally winning. A big reason we are winning (or at least fun to watch) is Rajai Davis. The kid is exciting and fast and has been logging important "Web Gems" in the field. I know it has only been 20 games or so, but c'mon, let me hold on to something positive this crappy season! I once again have to credit Sabean and maybe more importantly his scouts. They got us a real top of the order difference maker for essentially peanuts. Enjoy my praise now Sabaen and pals - the acclaim will last as long as it takes for the first person to comment below.

I also found it fascinating last week that Lance Niekro announced he is switching to pitching. Lance, obviously comes from the royal Niekro bloodline and like his dad Joe and his uncle Phil has decided to become a knuckleballer. Not a bad idea! A Reverse Ankiel. (Sounds like a classic Olympic dive doesn't it?) But seriously, I would imagine based on his family's tutelage that his knuckleball has got to be good. Either way, it can't be any worse that his hitting. I am optimistic.

Unfortunately, we will probably have to trade for Doug Mirabelli since he is the only guy who can properly catch a knuckleball.

Lastly, I always love stories where guys punch or kick something and land on the DL. Randy Messenger is the big winner this week because he took his anger out on a equipment cart after giving up a game winning hit in Atlanta. I admire him for coming clean - Jeff "I hurt myself washing my car but I was really riding a motorcycle at high speed" Kent, are you listening? - but it is so weird to me that an athlete would do something like this that could jeopardize his career.

Stress release equipment in the clubhouse will be a must from now on. A nice speed bag, a masseuse or maybe a nice cup of green tea after a tough loss might make a big difference. The teams can certainly afford it. I pay $6 for fries at AT&T Park, for christsakes.