Zzzzzzito and other thoughts on pseudo-opening day.

Ah Barry, Zito. Everyone's favorite kooky lefty whom the Giants honored with what will probably go down as the worst contract ever given to a pitcher not named Mike Hampton. His line on opening day:

5 IP, 8 hits, 4ER, 1 K, 1 BB, L.

Now that's what I call an ace. Though I will say that Zito took a step forward from his spring training line:

12 2/3 IP, 21hits, 10 BB, 0 K, 14.92 ERA.

And you wonder why the A's didn't want to spend the money to resign him. In all honesty part of me is a little sad to see Zito struggle, but any fan with a smidgen of baseball intelligence could have told you what a terrible idea it was to hand 126 million over 7 years to a guy who is better at banging movie stars than he is at banging fastballs by right handers with any bat speed.

Apparently the Giants are also starting a guy named Brian BoCock at shortstop while while Omar Vizquel spends April rehabbing from knee surgery. Brian Bocock being a 23 year old "prospect" who has played a total of one year in the minors and put up the following combined numbers at Low-A Augusta and High-A San Jose last year:

.243 Avg .312 OBP .656 OPS, 4 HR, 57 RBI, 51 BB, 124 K's.

It's going to be a long year Giants fan. At least Lincecum and Cain should be decent.

Other thoughts on baseball's real opening day.

Welcome to the AL East cellar, Baltimore Orioles. Might as well set up the futon, hang some posters, plug in the lava lamp, and fire up the bong: you're not leaving anytime soon.

On the flip side of the same coin, enjoy your 2-0 start, Washington Nationals. It's all downhill from here.

Buying: White Sox offense, Nate McLouth, Johan Santana, Carlos Gomez, Lastings Milledge, Nick Johnson.

Selling: The White Sox bullpen, every Giant hitter, Tom Gordon, NL Central closers, the Dallas Mavericks.

The Warriors take care of business and thoughts on the era of an era for Cal Basketball

Now that's what I'm talking about. Things were looking brutal as the Warriors sleepwalked their way to a 26-12 deficit nine minutes in, but woke up after a profanity filled tirade from Nellie, outscoring the Blazers 99-69 the rest of the way en route to a 111-95 win. The third quarter knockout punch (outscoring the Blazers 40-20 in that frame) was nice too, as it gave the starters a chance to rest: Baron only played 27 minutes last night, and Nellie felt comfortable enough give W's fans a rare Bellinelli citing, as the bench warming rookie logged 4 minutes at the end of the game.

Now the real fun begins: the Warriors' next four games are going to decide whether or not they make the playoffs. Hyperbole? Maybe, but check out the team's schedule over the next five days: at Denver Saturday night, home against Dallas on Monday, at San Antonio Tuesday, at Dallas Wednesday. A brutal stretch, especially considering the Warriors are only a half game behind the Mavs and a half game ahead of the Nuggets for the 8th and final playoff spot in the west. If the Warriors can somehow go 3-1 or 4-0 (not happening) over these next four games, they're gold. A 2-2 split is fine, especially if the two wins are against Dallas and Denver. 1-3 and they're in deep trouble, though if they can beat the Nuggets or Dallas for the one win they might still be able to salvage things. 0-4 and this team is done, and its time to start thinking about 2008.

In other news, Cal fired coach Ben Braun earlier this week, ending his 12 year run as head of the Bears' basketball program. This definitely was a needed move, Cal had at least two players with first round NBA Draft potential this year (RYan Anderson and Devon Hardin) and should have finished much higher than 9th in the Pac-10. Its been a long time since Cal was a legitimate threat to go deep in the tourney (I believe Tony Gonzalez was on the team the last time they made it to the Sweet 16), and while Braun had his moments, it was time for him to go.

As for where the program goes from here, the standard California basketball names are being thrown around: former Stanford and Warriors coach Mike Montgomery, former W's and Kings coach Eric Musselman, and former UCLA coach Steve Lavin (please god no). My personal favorite would be Nevada coach Mike Fox, whose taking a program that was an afterthought and gone 81-18 in his first three years on the job, including two NCAA berths. As far as I can tell the best program building college coaches usually rise up through the ranks from smaller schools: the guys who come back from the NBA are usually just looking to pad their wallets before heading back for another run at the big time.

Well, that was fast.

The Chris Webber era is officially over. It's so over that TNT literally just announced that "C-Webb" will be joining Ernie, Charlie, and Kenny in the studio to discuss the western conference playoff race just as I was writing that the Chris Webber era was over. An anti-climatic ending to a signing that many people (myself included) were making a huge deal out of only a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile the W's take on the Blazers at home in a match-up with huge playoff implications (which seems to describe every game involving western conference teams these days). This is a game Golden State needs to win, especially after watching the Nuggets put a hurting on Dallas earlier tonight. The Warriors' schedule down the stretch is absolutely brutal, and a game at home against a Portland team missing Brandon Roy is about as easy as its going to get from here on out. No more excuses: the Warriors need to take care of business tonight.

Hope springs eternal

Its late March, leaves are starting to bloom, the sun is actually starting to get warm, cliches about the weather are becoming as prevalent as sex jokes involving New York area politicians...and Rich Harden has once again made thousands of A's fans believe this might be the year where he finally stays healthy and becomes the ace he has always had the potential to be. The line from last night's game against the Red Sox says it all:

6IP, 3H, 3BB, 1ER, 9K's, and, most importantly, no strained muscles, elbow twinges, or shoulder tendinitis. Against one of the top offenses (if not the top offense) in baseball. Amazing.



Other (very) premature reasons to be hopeful for a better than expected 2008 in the Coliseum.

Bobby Crosby: 3-9, 2 runs, no swinging K's on sliders three feet of the plate.

Kurt Suzuki: 3-8, 2 doubles, 1 run, 1 SB. I think he's already doubled Jason Kendall's April extra base hit total from last year.

Keith Foulke: 2 IP, 2 K's, 0BB, 0H, 0ER. Kiko who?

Jack Hannahan: 3-8, 1HR, 1R, 2 RBIs...do we even need Chavy to come back healthy?

Talk to me again in two weeks when half the team is on the DL and I come to the realization that our team is starting two rejects from the Kansas City Royals (Emil Brown and Mike Sweeney), but for now its a not a bad time to be an A's fan.