KTE: Mike Krukow is in town, and not on Kiner's Korner?

[DocTee]

This weekend, the Mets host the surprisingly strong San Francisco Giants in a matchup that features bullets dodged (Barry Zito), history honored (NY Giants), and kung fu pandas (Pedro Sandoval).

The team made some solid offseason moves, providing manager Bruce Bochy with a puncher's chance in the weak NLWest. GM Brian Sabean added SS Edgar Renteria (failure), LHP Randy Johnson (ditto) and some solid bullpen arms (Jeremy Affeldt and Bobby Howry) to bridge the late innings to closer Brian Wilson (a heart attack for all Giants fans). The lack of any one superstar--only one player has more than 15 HR, none has more than 70 RBI, only one is hitting over .300 and only one has an OBP above .35-- means that the team has to rely on pitching to win, and boy do they have it.

The arms: Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain are a combined 24-7 and erratic lefty Jonathan Snachez has a no-hitter to his credit. The Freak is already over 200 K's and Barry Zito has proven to be an effective 5 inning pitcher, but rarely gets the run support given to his teamates. He's hot since the break, and could pose trouble for the Mets in the opener.

The Giants enter CitiField with a record of 62-52, 6.5 games behind the division-leading Dodgers and 1.5 games behind wild-card leading Colorado. They narrowly avoided a sweep at the hands of thier archrivals this week, and have been scuffling of late, splitting their past ten games (all home contests, where the G-men are unusually good this year, with an NL best 39-20). Just our luck, we miss the Freak, Tim Lincecum.

Leading Offenders:

Pablo Sandoval: 17/68/.329 and a pleasure to watch. This guy is one helluva talent and has no idea how good he is.

B. Molina: 14/61/.262 and a very good defensive catcher.

Probable Lineup:

1b Ryan Garko/Travis Ishikawa
2b Freddie Sanchez (professional hitter)
3b Pedro Sandoval
SS; Juan Uribe (he of the walkoff HR that avoided a Dodger sweep)
LF: Eugenio Velez (implausibly hot)
CF: Aaron Rowand (overpaid douchebag)
RF: Randy Winn (I got nothing)
C: Benji Molina

Bench: Edgar Renteria, Nate Schierholz, Fred Lewis


Probales:

Zito 8-10 4.40 (3-1 2.32 since the ASB)
Cain 12-4, 2.44 (winless inlast three starts)
Sanchez 5-10, 4.61 (the Ollie Perez of SF, only cheaper. lots cheaper)
Joe Martinez 2-1, 6.00 (rookie with live arm, holding down Big Unit's spot)


Ex-Factor: None

I know this is sparse, and though I live in the Bay Area, I've been way too busy to really focus on MLB this summer. Apologies for not meeting the standard set by my 'pool chums.

Ex-Factor: None

[Fman99]

Funny to look at that lineup -- if Maine/Ollie/Pelf had shown up in some fashion this year the Mets would've been around the same success level, supposedly.

If.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Nothing to apologize for Dr.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Not sparse, Doc-- lean and mean. I think they're my alt-rooting interest in the pennant race this year.

Also, they're staying at LWBetterHalfer's hotel this weekend. (According to her bartenders, Cain was kindly; Schierholtz, a shmuck.)

(Crap. I am TMZ.)

[Gwreck]

I kinda wanted to see Lincecum as the last time I saw him was his rookie year. It was his best outing against the Mets (he's never beaten us!).

He was the starter in the game where Benitez balked twice in the 12th and Delgado hit a walk-off HR a couple of years ago.

[MFS62]

No need to repeat a thread from years ago, but let's just say that I'm not entirely thrilled to see that Mets-molesting motherfucker's name in a thread title. Much less to see him on tv. And, as Doc says, Ralphie would show the grinning bastard in the TV booth whenever possible and call him "The Polish Prince".

Other than that, nice KTE.

Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

That looks like some good outfield defense.