'06 Option Exercised?

ESPN is reporting that the Giants are picking up their 2006 Team Option on Barry Bonds' contract.

Looks like he'll be retiring in a Giants uniform.

Worth Walking?

There's a decent roundtable discussion over at ESPN that's worth a read. Of note is the never-ending debate about walking Bonds.

"That's how great Bonds is -- and how stupid teams are for walking Bonds so much. Even with such lousy hitters coming up after Barry, those No. 5 hitters have 99 RBI, in large part because Bonds is always on base. San Francisco's opponents, for example, are hitting .282 with 26 home runs and an .870 OPS from the five-hole ... and have 96 RBIs."

• 600 out of their 787 total runs scored in an inning in which Bonds comes to the plate.
• 1.09 runs per inning when Barry walks.
• 0.95 runs per inning when Barry DOESN'T walk.
• 1.25 runs per inning when Barry is INTENTIONALLY walked.

Barry Blogger

If you haven't been to barrybonds.com you may not know that he has a journal that he's updating for the rest of this season (and likely beyond). His journal entries are also being posted at MLB.com, so you may know about them anyway . . . but it's worth mentioning.

In his Sept. 6 post Barry mentions the HR chase (the focus of the journal, I believe), but focuses on the Playoffs. Of note are Barry's comments about how the Cubs and Marlins will be at a slight disadvantage having to play late-season double-headers, and making the extra travel so late in September (the games were postponed due to the weather conditions in Florida). He also states that he'd like to be "tied with the Dodgers by the time we face them". I think that's a great goal, and would make the unbalanced schedule payoff something fierce.

Finally, I'll leave you with something that "Barry-haters" would never believe came from the man himself (emphasis mine)...

You have to do anything you can to win, like Sunday when we beat the Diamondbacks. I worked Randy Johnson to a full-count walk in the sixth inning. I had to. It was important for us to have the baserunners. He doesn't give up many big innings.

I feel like it's all in our own hands right now. It's up to us to make it happen.

2005 Free Agents

Peter Gammons takes a look at the players who will be Free Agents this winter.

Start getting your Christmas lists ready.

Forgotten, but not gone

Well, August was the first month in the history of The Southpaw with NO POSTS. This post is as much a test to see if there's even an August 2004 link in the archives as it is to let you know that I've posted a bunch of stuff in an OBM "Talkback" on John's September 1 post. You can view the entire thread here.

Enjoy.

OH, and to let you know what's been going on, I've been busy doing the New Father thing, as well as LOTS of home repair as we continue to LOOK for a new home. Unfortunately, this has given Mrs. Southpaw even MORE reason to watch HGTV . . . not that she ever needed a reason to do so.

So if you came here looking for Giants info, go check out John Perricone over at Only Baseball Matters. If he doesn't have something you're interested HIMSELF, he's got some fantastic links (that are actually current!) as well.

Thanks for stopping by, I know I don't deserve it.

UPDATE: There is no reference link for August. Mystery solved.