Jylan on Giles, Kuroda

Dylan busts out some Nihongo:

Notes from All Under

Non-Taiwan visitor Casey Blake goes yard in yesterday's game.

• Ronald Belisario doesn't feel tardy.... Belisario missed 3 dates?, Is Tony Jackson reading my blog? (Vin Scully Is My Homeboy)
• Brian Giles retires. Joe Torre breathes a sigh of relief. 'No regrets': Giles calls it a career (Dodgers.com)
• The Upton brothers are holding a contest to choose the official logo for their website, and Mike of theLFP.com is in the running. Vote for him here! (via VSIMH)
• Bob Timmermann has joined LA Observed. Conngratulationns, Bob!

photo by Juan Ocampo/Dodgers

Good Point

Howard Cole of BaseballSavvy.com points out a small incongruity in the Dodgers' minor-league invite of Brian Giles:

Image slash character does matter. The club should've passed on Brian Giles, and it's really, really, really unfortunate that they didn't. Joe Torre's Safe at Home Foundation is all over the domestic violence issue, with a well-publicized fundraiser coming in a matter of days. And here the Dodgers are signing Brian Giles. C'mon, people.

Giles is being sued by his former girlfriend, who alleged he physically abused her, causing her to have a miscarriage. There's a video, and a counter-suit. (Oh, and it runs in the family.)

Nice get, Howard. Torre may be secretly hoping Giles has a rotten spring so there won't be any awkward questions during the season.

Brian Giles Joins the Dogpile

Dodgers Sign Brian Giles (MLBTR)

Another spare part! MLBTR says Giles is competing for "a fifth outfielder or pinch-hitter role." Click here to see his competition.

Brian Giles Loves Wall

Padres right fielder Brian Giles makes a great catch at the wall in the fifth inning of today's game.

UPDATE:

Andre Ethier misses a Jody Gerut home run by that much in the eighth inning.

Someone Who Doesn't Want to Play for the Red Sox? Inconceivable!

From "Tough to defend this decision" by Nick Cafardo at the Boston Globe:

Any major league player with a competitive bone in his body won't understand Brian Giles's decision to stay in San Diego.

There's talk of not wanting to leave two daughters behind. Understandable, for sure, but part of the job description is players coping with being away from their families as they pursue lifelong dreams and lucrative careers.

Giles is a player who talks a lot about winning, but if that's the case, and you don't want to leave San Diego to be part of a pennant race in Boston, then your words are forever hollow. [...]

Baseball players are supposed to have a pulse. They wake up every morning and hunger to win. At least most of them. They hunger to play in a city where baseball is important to the fans. They want to play for something. [...]

The Red Sox probably are better off not having such a player. If you don't have enough fire to play when the heat is on, in a city that has passion for baseball, and would rather stay where you're "comfortable," in a place where your lifestyle takes precedence over your job, then the Sox surely were making the wrong choice in Giles to be the protection they were seeking with their injury-riddled lineup.

If ever you wanted a summation of "East Coast baseball" versus "West Coast baseball"—or really, the Red Sox versus everyone else—here it is. Brian Giles, admittedly an odd bird even in the world of Major League Baseball, will have made $80 million by the end of his playing days. He's 37 years old and doesn't want to leave his family.

Ordinarily, such wholesome values would be applauded. But in Boston, according to Cafardo, "your job" (i.e., the Red Sox) must come before "your lifestyle" (i.e., family). Cafardo's indictment of Giles as a player apparently lacking the requisite "hunger" and "fire" for Boston smacks of snobbery as well as sour grapes.

"The Red Sox probably are better off not having such a player," concludes Cafardo with such resentment that it makes you wonder if Manny Ramirez's gripes have any validity...and how a guy like Ramirez, who will never be confused as the Standard Bearer for Hunger & Fire, lasted as long as he did in Boston.

The answer, according to Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports: "[It] was the Red Sox who raised Manny to be what he is: self-entitled, self-centered, and prone to random idiocy, bullying and unenthusiastic strolls to first base....They were OK with him being Manny as long as he was their Manny." Something for Dodger fans to consider.

Speaking of which, how amusing is it for Dodger fans to hear about the Red Sox wanting only gritty gutty gamers when their right fielder is J.D. Drew? While Drew is second on the Red Sox with 19 home runs, no one is pretending he's there for anything but the biggest paycheck Scott Boras could negotiate. A World Series ring hasn't made his "passion" for the Red Sox any greater than that for the other three teams he's been on.

So Cafardo tells us Boston is "a city where baseball is important to the fans...a city that has passion for baseball" (unlike "comfortable" San Diego, one supposes). Coincidentally, an inordinate amount of Red Sox fans have become influential in mass media; they run ESPN, they make movies like "Fever Pitch," they write books like "Now I Can Die in Peace."

That behavior was tolerable in 2004, after the Red Sox's 86-year "curse" had been broken. But in 2008, with a second World Series trophy and a payroll of $133 million, the Red Sox are just another large-market team. Just because their fans are louder, it doesn't mean they care more. And a player should not be condemned for failing to drop everything for the privilege of playing for them.

Padres to Dodge a Bullet

ESPN reports that Takashi Saito may (and when they say "may," they mean "is likely to") miss the San Diego series that starts tomorrow.

PITTSBURGH -- Los Angeles Dodgers closer Takashi Saito has tightness in his left hamstring and may miss a key three-game NL West series in San Diego that starts Tuesday night.

Saito, 16-for-16 in save conversions this season and 26-for-26 dating to the end of last season, could not pitch Monday night in Pittsburgh. Manager Grady Little expects him to be sidelined for two to three days "in a best-case scenario."

"Hopefully, Saito won't be out but for a few days, but we don't know yet," Little said.

The Dodgers aren't considering putting Saito on the 15-day disabled list because they expect him to be ready long before that. However, they do plan to make a move Tuesday to add another pitcher.

Broxton walked a tightrope tonight in the ninth vs. Pittsburgh, but he got the job done (barely). It will be tough to have Sammy Saito sidelined in San Diego (like that alliteration?!), but to be fair, the Padres won't have Brian Giles in the lineup, either (not quite as valuable as Saito, but still).

Why We Have to Beat the Jokers Down South

And when I say "jokers," I mean "jokers."

Caught this story on Deadspin, which credited this blog for the find. I appreciated Deadspin's headline ("Tom Jackson might refer to him as a retard"), but I don't want their color commentary to outshine what is truly, truly hilarious material from the inner clubhouse circles of the San Diego Padres:

Not to be outdone (ballplayer nor writer), Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union Tribune reported (and Buster Olney blogged about) Brian Giles unique brand of comedic hijinks:

“Hey Greg, I've got one for you,” Brian Giles said to new Padres teammate Greg Maddux last month. “Why was the mathematics book depressed?” Giles said. After the 333-game winner pondered the question for a few seconds, Giles slowly delivered the punch line. “Because it had a lot of problems inside.”

Giles laughed as if he were the second coming of Robin Williams, slapped Maddux in the left arm and walked away. Maddux, appearing perplexed, resumed answering questions from a reporter.

Giles returned a few second later, speaking slowly, like an athlete who took too many shots to the helmet. He stared into Maddux's bemused face. “Greg, here's another one. What kind of waves are the really small ones in the ocean?” Pause. “Micro waves.”

Giles giggled and walked back to his dressing stall. A trace of a grin appeared on Maddux's face. Then Maddux resumed the interview. Giles returned in about 30 seconds – naked – and said, “Greg, what kind of language does a porcupine use? “Spine language.”

Maddux belly-laughed. Giles roared and, now content, the right fielder made a triumphant return to his clubhouse stall. “I guess it's funnier when he tells the joke without wearing any clothes,” Maddux said....

“Guys do a good job of checking their egos when they walk through the doorway here,” said closer Trevor Hoffman. “A guy like Brian keeps people loose.”

Good times. No wonder Bruce Bochy couldn't wait to get the hell out of there (even to go to San Francisco, no less).