Jeff Fletcher | June 13, 2010

Today’s FanHouse story was supposed to be about Matt Cain. At least, that was my plan around the seventh inning. But when Aubrey Huff hit his second homer of the day, a moonshot over the fence in right-center, it got me thinking. Later, when we were in the clubhouse talking to Cain, Huff walked by and said: “Cainer, sorry I stole your thunder.”

Yes, he did. Good pitching is nothing new for the Giants, but a lefty hitting homers at AT&T Park is, so that’s what I wrote about for FanHouse.

Huff now has eight homers at AT&T this season (although one was an inside-the-park job). As I wrote in the story, that’s kind of a big deal.
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Jeff Fletcher | June 13, 2010

While you guys are waiting for today’s live chat from the AT&T Park Press box, take a look at today’s FanHouse story on the future of Buster Posey. I examined the question of whether the Giants might be better off just leaving him at first base.

I think it’s a no-brainer that the Giants are better off if he can become a catcher, but the question is whether he can do that and how long it will take. I can’t answer that question, other than saying he’s not ready to do it now, and as long as he’s playing first base he’s not getting any closer to being ready.

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Jeff Fletcher | June 12, 2010

Since this is a blog about the Giants and A’s, it’s probably appropriate that I make some sort of big deal about it when they are playing each other, right? Well, in addition to my normal FanHouse duties (which include a story on whether Buster Posey should become a first baseman permanently), I’m going to be doing a live chat from the finale of the Bay Bridge Series on Sunday.

I’ll start the chat at 1, just before the game begins, and I’ll go as long as there are people watching or until I end up with too much other work to do. Like if Matt Cain is pitching a no-hitter.

Click on the jump to see where you can get a reminder for the chat on Sunday.

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Jeff Fletcher | June 7, 2010

I’m back from Vegas — no, I’m not a millionaire, so back to doing my real job — just in time for the draft. John Klima, one of my former colleagues from when I worked in Southern California, runs a baseball scouting web site, and he has seen a lot of Gary Brown, the player the Giants picked in the first round.

Here is a link to all of the Gary Brown content on his site.

(I’m not discriminating against the A’s, but John’s site focuses mostly on West Coast guys, so he doesn’t have anything on Michael Choice, who the A’s picked.)

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Jeff Fletcher | June 2, 2010

Every year since 2006 I have taken a brief hiatus from my life as a baseball writer to indulge my love for poker by playing in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. That time is now.

I’m starting Event 8 at noon today, and I am planning to play as many as three WSOP events, and one at the Venetian, between now and Saturday night. Of course, I may just win Event 8, which will take three days, and then fly home Saturday morning on my new jet.

If you want to watch my progress, follow my WSOP Twitter account. I’ll be posting pictures, audio reports, videos (maybe) and, of course, updates on my chip-count. Good luck to me!

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Jeff Fletcher | June 1, 2010

The scout I talked to about Tim Lincecum’s outing yesterday just called me back, because he just learned of the whole blister issue, which arose after Lincecum’s previous sloppy outing.

The scout said it suddenly all made sense. He said that a guy who had a nasty blister on his finger would probably be lacking that last bit of oomph on his fastball and the last snap on his breaking ball, but his changeup would probably still be OK, because that is thrown without much pressure from the fingertips. And that describes exactly what he saw from Lincecum.

Those of us in the media seemed to be taking Lincecum’s word that the blister wasn’t an issue, so no one even asked about it after Monday’s game. However, given this extra bit of insight, it now seems pretty reasonable to assume that Lincecum really is bothered by the blister, and he’s been trying to pitch through it.

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