The Giants snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat with Ray Durham’s first walk off home run of his career.  Batting 5^th in the lineup, “protecting” Bonds with his .240 average and 7 home runs, the Giants line up is woefully short on offensive threats to sustain themselves over the course of an all revealing 162 game schedule.  The team was counting on Niekro to be the everyday first baseman who could provide some power.  That has not happened.  He is injury prone, apparently and on the DL.  The everyday 1b, Sweeny, was supposed to be the left handed pinch hitter off the bench.  Batting 3^rd with a .252 batting average just

does not impress opposing pitchers or managers.   Pedro Feliz has an enormous amount of raw talent and potential, and is a superb fielder, but sometime he disappears and consistency is apparently not part of his game at this stage of his career.  Omar Vizquel is a bright light on the field, playing the game with a bounce in his step that is mirrored by Steve Finley’s exuberance in center field.  Unfortunately, Randy Winn has not repeated the incredible run he had for the last two months of the 2005 season, hitting only .260 with a more depressing, for a lead off hitter,.338 on base percentage.  

The pitching, which has been a traditional weakness in SF Giant franchise history, has been their strength.  The Giants have always been a hitting team, from the time of Mays, Cepeda and McCovey, through the Jack Clark years to the happier days of Will Clark, Matt Williams to the first years with Barry Bonds.  But this year, Bonds has a .250 average and mediocre power numbers with albeit, a league leading on base percentage (.455).  But he displays only flashes of what he once was as recently as

only two years ago, and this is definitely his last year in SF and one wonders what the plan is for next year.  Stealing a base and scoring the go ahead run in what was ultimately a losing effort (Benitez failing for the 4^th time in 10 save opportunities, when will the Giants jettison him and just hand the ball to Accardo?).  This year is apparently a wash out, though they will inevitably tease their fans with a run for the division, as they did last year, only to fall short as some of the other teams are definitely more solid, including the Dodger, Padres and the Rockies (!!).

First to 50..the Detroit Tigers!  True baseball fans should really enjoy this battle as the season moves along.  Not  yet July, the Tiger have the best record in baseball under Jim Leyland’s leadership (who says a manager cannot make a difference?), and the White Sox, argueably the best team in baseball, trail by a ½ game on the heels of winning nine straight games!  The Sox may yet be the best team with the best players – just look at the leaders in most stat departments in the AL and  you will see White Sox players everywhere.  But the Tigers are playing as a

team, with every day a new hero to pick up the team.  Detroit has the lowest team era in AL by more than half a run (3.57 to 4.15 for the runner up Angels), and the lowest batting average against their pitching in the AL by more than 10 points (.242 to .254 for the Angels).   The White Sox out hit everyone, but they do say good pitching beats good hitting. If that holds true for the remainder of this season, the White Sox/Tigers rivalry will have real entertainment value for baseball fans around the country.

Since the Jason Grimsley fiasco, the Diamondbacks, who led the NL West, 1-9 in the last 10 games and had lost 17 out of 19 games at one point… a disaster.  For a team that appeared to have put it together, this distraction has possibly destroyed their season.  But it is more revealing on a number of levels.  First of all, the Feds were after Grimsley only to get more information on Bonds, the focus of all this steroid furor.  Why Bonds?  Why not go after everyone at once.  Of course it is obvioius as Barry has been a belligerant jerk with the media for many years and he has now broken a hallowed record, even if Bud Selig says it is not a record (it is and always will be), Babe Ruth’s 714 home run total has been surpassed, again, by a black man.  And not even a nice guy like Aaron, but a belligerant soul, not unlike his father, as perceived by the press and public.  

The Mets roll on, one of the best teams in baseball, with the best left side of an infield, possibly in all of major league baseball.  David Wright may be the starting 3b in the All Star game, getting the nod from the fans over the consistent Scott Rolen.  Rolen really picked up the slack in the Cardinals offense when Pujols went on the DL, but he did not win games for them, single handed, as David Wright has done for Mets.  Wright’s value to his team exceeds that of Rolen to the Cards, and he is not only making a push for a starting spot in Pittsburgh but for the NL MVP award. 

The Braves are finished, and it will be interesting to see what management will do with their team as the trading deadline approaches.  Would they jettison John Smoltz, the last remaining fixture on the pitching staff from the days of Glavine, Maddux and Leo Mazzone?  The Yankees and Red Sox would both have extreme interest in such a seasoned veteran of the post season.  Or will they get rid of Tim Hudson for a bevy of prospects?  Something will happen here, but exactly what is not yet known.   But firmly entrenched in last place, 13 games under .500 is unfamiliar territory and undoubtedly some changes will occur.

The Cardinals are in desperate need of pitching.  Considered a strength, it has suddenly become a real issue.   Mulder is injured with another mystery ailment, not unlike his collapse at the end

of the 2004 season for the A’s.  Jason Marquis, with a 9-5 record seems but his 5.53 era is very revealing, as is Jeff Suppan’s 5.04 era (with a 6-4 record).  Isringhausen is giving up runs too but his 24 saves seems to contradict his ineffectiveness.  He has had control problems, walking 25 while only striking gout 33 in his 31 innings of work, and a 4.06 era for a closer is not a great stat.   Chris Carpenter, their best pitcher and Cy Young award winner, was injured earlier in the year and his last two starts have not been good.  Without a reliable stopper in the starting rotation and a shaky closer at the end of games, victories for the Cardinals become nerve wracking, nail biting affairs which have become fewer and further between lately, having lost five in a row to the White Sox and Tigers.

Who else is hot or not?  The Marlins, having won 20 out of 27 games after starting out the year as the doormat of the NL, with six rookies in the starting line up and a rookie manager, Joe Girardi.  Girardi has been recognized as managerial material for some time now, and Marlins owner, Jeff Loria, should be commended for hiring him as well as having established a fertile farm system and an astute scouting staff who advises them on the trades they have made for prospects.

As the summer has officially begun with the end of both basketball and hockey, as the calendar has turned past the June 21 summer solstice, the long season ahead for some teams poses real questions that will have to be answered soon.  With July just around the corner and the trading deadline creeping closer, it will undoubtedly be interesting to see who is buying and who is selling, and exactly how some of these teams will bolster their roster for a second half run to October.