Give 'em Some Stankeye!

Wouldn't you know it, the only Giants game I actually got to watch this weekend (because of school and work, among other things) was the brutal 14-6 loss on Thursday in the pouring rain that went on until midnight. Staying up watching that game into the wee hours was the kind of sadomasochism only Giants baseball of recent vintage can bring about. I was selling designer bedding to baffled consumers and making sleazy bets with co-workers during the last two days, so I didn't catch even one second of the Giants' two exciting wins. Hey, that's what Midnight Baseball on KNBR is for.

The Giants now stand at a solid 4-2 after taking 3 of 4 from Atlanta. Here are some weekend thoughts:

-Omar Vizquel is just on fire. I was bitching about his presence at the top of the order a few days back, but if he keeps getting on base at this rate, forget I said any of it.

-Jason Schmidt's performance today was much better than his start in San Diego, even if he did give up more runs. Schmidt's velocity was back up and he was dominant until faltering in the sixth, striking out 10 guys in all. His ERA took a hit, but this was an encouraging outing nonetheless.

-Thursday's game was a classic example of why I hate Pedro Feliz. He have a long string of at bats where he looks like his usual crappy self at the plate, but then suddenly out of nowhere he'll rip this huge game-changing double that makes everybody think he's not so bad after all. Feliz has displayed his usual aloofness toward the strike zone, so expect many more weak grounders to shortstop.

-The Giants bullpen is an early abomination, and there was no better testament to that than Friday's 7th inning horror show, starring Tyler Walker in the lead role. I loved Jon Miller's desperate attempt to will Walker out of a hopeless situation by recalling Walker's miraculous 9th inning escape job in a game in Detroit last year. Unfortunately Walker just continued to implde, and Felipe kept him in there waaaaay past the point of no return. It's only a week into the season, but already I'm having 2004 flashbacks, minus the Pierzynski/Tomko feud.

Also, my enthusiasm for Jack Taschner is in danger of fading into Jason Christiansen-esque hatred, but we'll give ol' Jack some time to iron out the kinks. You have to be a really big piece of crap to draw as much stankeye from me as Christiansen did.

-Noah Lowry is on the DL, disappointing because I was really excited about Lowry's season. Hopefully his injury isn't serious and he'll miss only a couple of starts. Meanwhile, Kevin Correia gets his shot to prove that his spring wasn't a fluke, though he didn't help himself any by serving up that bomb to Ryan Langerhans.

-He's not that good or anything, but I'm officially starting the "Todd Greene for Starting Catcher" campaign. Good God, anything that keeps me from having to sit through another interminable Mike Matheny at bat.

-Steve Finley has started two games and already he's contributed more than Edgardo Alfonso did all of last year. Plus, the guy's 41 and he runs fast as hell. Gotta like that.

-And because Monday is looming, just to cheer you up, here's a still from the greatest scene in film history.