Jeff Fletcher | July 31, 2011

The Giants came up empty in their search for a catcher before today’s trading deadline, but they will certainly keep looking.

The obvious primary target is Ramon Hernandez. I doubt that he’d get through waivers. To be traded, a player doesn’t have to clear all 29 teams, just those who come higher in the wavier priority than the team that’s trying to acquire him. The order of waiver claims goes like this: all the way through his current league, in reverse order of standings, then all the way through the other league, in reverse order of standings. For the Giants to get Hernandez, no team in the NL with a worse record than the Giants could claim him.

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Jeff Fletcher | July 22, 2011

I loved my old job. Really absolutely loved it. For 50 weeks out of the year, it was awesome. The other two — these two — it wasn’t. The weeks leading up to the trade deadline seem like baseball heaven to everyone who loves to sit back and watch the rumors and speculation fly across his computer screen. For those people responsible for reporting such rumors, not so much. At least, that’s how it felt to me.

See, no baseball executive worth a damn is going to honestly tell anyone in the media anything of substance, on the record or off the record, about his trade plans. Why would he? So where does all that stuff come from? It comes from third parties. Exec from Team A thinks Teams B and C are working on something. Of course, he doesn’t know. GMs don’t tell each other their plans, either. Even worse, a scout from team A hears that B and C are working on something. Most GMs know their scouts spend too much time in press boxes gabbing with other scouts and media members for them to be trusted with any high-level organizational secrets.

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Jeff Fletcher | July 18, 2011

We made it through the doubleheader on Saturday. All 19 innings of it. Oh sure, we ate some junk food, but not too much. I have to say I’m a little bit amazed that my little 8-year-old lasted through two entire baseball games, without once saying “I’m bored” or “I’m ready to go.” I even offered a few times. “Are you having fun? Do you want to stay?” He said yes. Every time.

It was quite a day. He even got to see the A’s win a game. They had been 0-3 in his first few trips to the park this year. And they dropped to 0-4 after the first game on Saturday. Not only did he get to see them win, but it was a 10th-inning walk-off, so that was cool.

But I’m also a little worried about the kid.

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Jeff Fletcher | July 15, 2011

Tomorrow is going to be a very interesting day. The A’s are playing a doubleheader — a real, honest-to-goodness, two-games-for-one-ticket doubleheader. And I’m going. With my 8-year-old. We’re going to just sit in the seats and be regular people for at least 18 innings worth of exciting baseball between the A’s and Angels.

We’ll see how it goes.

I used to love doubleheaders when I was a kid. I probably went to six or seven of them — including one twi-night doubleheader in Pittsburgh in which the second game went 18 innings and ended around 3 am. Now? I’m not so sure. I have been to a lot of baseball games over the past 14 years as a baseball writer. Probably close to 2,000 of them. So the sheer experience of watching a game in person is not all that special for me anymore. I still enjoy it. But I also enjoy being at home with my family.

Which brings me to the only reason I’m going to this doubleheader. My son wants to go.

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Jeff Fletcher | July 14, 2011

Driving in this morning, heard the radio talking heads still debating issues of the All-Star Game, so I figure that gives me the OK to throw in my two cents, even though the game was two days ago. (Wait, I don’t need any approval — it’s my blog!)

Let’s start with Derek Jeter. If Derek Jeter doesn’t want to show up to the All-Star Game, I’m totally OK with that, mainly because he didn’t deserve to be there in the first place. We wanna rip the fans for picking him, then we wanna rip him for not showing up?

I don’t buy the whole argument that the fans voted for him because they wanted to see him for some sort of tribute. Does anyone really need to see any more of Derek Jeter? It’s not like he’s hiding out in a mountain cabin, just coming down to wave to the people once in a while. We’ve all seen lots of Derek Jeter. I don’t think seeing him play three or four innings of mediocre shortstop and watching him ground out one or two times would really entertain me that much. And I certainly don’t think I’d get anything out of seeing him merely stand on the foul line and tip his cap, as some have suggested he should have done. I’ve seen him do that approximately 57 times, and it looks the same every time.

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Jeff Fletcher | July 3, 2011

As is to be expected this time of year, a spirited debate is raging about the managers’ selections for the All-Star team. Giants manager Bruce Bochy found himself right in the middle of it after he named three Giants pitchers with his nine selections to fill out the NL All-Star roster. He took Matt Cain, Ryan Vogelsong and Tim Lincecum, leaving out guys like Tommy Hanson and Jordan Zimmerman.

There are two sides to this issue…

Bochy won the pennant last year, so he earned the right to favor his players and reward them for helping winning that pennant.

Yes, that’s true.

But the All-Star Game should go to the most deserving players this year, not as some reward for performance in past years.

Yes, that’s true.

See, what I’m getting at here?

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