Wire Check - 5/27/09

Basketball

If this Warriors fan doesn't believe anymore, why should we?

Meanwhile, Flunkster Dude-gate, Ridder-Me-This or whatever you want to call it, just can't seem to go away. Can the Warriors get any more pathetic? Well, see if Riley trades Randoph, then we'll know.

Baseball

There were some protesters outside AT&T park trying to drum up support to get the Braves and Indians to change their nicknames. It's definitely overdue, but the MLB teams probably won't budge until the Redskins change their nickname.

Ratto wants Bay Area fans to be patient about trading.

Holliday is the type of bat the Giants might want, but the price is higher than either Sabean or Bow-Tie Billy Neukom will want to pay.

Wrong. The Giants are very skeptical of Holliday because of his numbers away from Coors v. at Coors and his agent is...Scott Boras. I really like Matt Cain and think the Giants should keep him. I would only include Cain in deals that are highly unlikely to begin with. Could they get Sizemore from Cleveland? In a word, no. Adam Jones or Nick Markakis from Baltimore, probably not. Unless you are getting a young, prominsing corner outfileder, it wouldn't be worth it.

Purdy posts a positive Posey update.

Giants moves. A's stuff.

Football

UEFA Championship today. I care as much as Europeans care about the Super Bowl.

Cam Inman's list of top 10 offeasons NFL developments.

Thoughts go out to Matt Maiocco's family, his father passed away on Memorial Day.

Michael Bush has plenty to prove.

Wire Check - 5/22/09

Basketball

Bizarre, yet somehow appropriate story out of Warriorsland.

MTII's got the transcript from the conference call with season ticket holders that started the bizarre Ridder story.

Baseball

Interleague just doesn't do it for Ratto anymore. Interleague play is like Communism, it sounds good in theory, but it doesn't deliver in reality.

Travis Ishikawa hearts Ken Griffey, Jr. Really, John Shea? Really? That's all you got? The Lincecum returns home to Seattle was too obvious? Useless. And what's up with the lead, "Ishikawa wants Griffey to get a hit?" It doesn't say that anywhere in the article. I hope that was some moron editor's fault. BTW, we need an editor here at Fat Guy Coalition.

Baggs' post game notes include a tab on Lincecum's radar readings and Kevin Frandsen's F-A-I-L since being called up. Did you hear? The Giants are 0-for-San Diego. As a Giants fan, I inherently hate the Dodgers and losing to the Dodgers. But, losing to the utterly putrid, disgusting Padres?

Dan Haren returns to Oakland this weekend (So does AJ Hinch, but nobody cares about him).

Football

Michael Vick! Who cares?

Ann Killion interviews Bear Pascoe, 49ers rookie TE. I'm not much of a cowpoke myself, but I like this Bear. It won't be hard for him to out shine Billy Bajema.

The 49ers signed Dre Bly to replace the injured Walt Harris. Bly is hungry and he may be a gambler, but the 49ers need more ball hawking in the secondary. Bly signed for the veteran's minimum, so it was an easy call.

The Raiders signed a DB of their own, safety Keith Davis.

Wire Check - 5/21/09

Baseball

The Padres have traded Jake Peavy to the White Sox. Good news for the Giants, right? Tough to say considering Chad Gaudin held them to one run last night and Chris Young has only allowed one earned run to the Giants in 20 innings.

Zito tried, but he couldn't match the streak of Kirk Reuter.

If you haven't heard, Eric Chavez is down to his last back injury before he calls it a career. And just so everybody's not confused, another injury would require a microdiscectomy and not spinal fusion. Duh. The A's also claimed pitcher Craig Breslow from the Twins, which is a typically good A's move, but ultimately won't matter in the big picture because it's the A's.

Baggs digs into the Giants' lineup struggles and what he finds is not pretty. Interesting tidbit at the end about smoking in the clubhouse.

Basketball

Orlando played tough and Rashard Lewis made some big shots to eke out a big win in Cleveland. LeBron scored 49, where were his teammates?

Now Ratto is checking in on the overblown story of the Nuggets owner booking WWE at the Pepsi Center in Denver the same night that Game 4 of the WCFs are supposed to be played. Did you think Denver would be in the Western Conference Finals? Exactly.

Should the Warriors trade their draft pick? Could be tough.

Football

Cam Inman talked to The Snake about the Raiders and when The Snake talks, you listen.

Jerry Mac's notes and quotes from Raiders' OTAs.

Walt Harris tore his ACL in OTAs the other day and the 49ers are expected to meet with Dre Bly today. I think Bly could be a good fit and the upside is Walt Harris 2006. Bly was exposed in The problem as I see it, is Bly's best seasons were in St. Louis and Detroit, on turf.

Notes from 49ers OTAs.

Wire Check - 5/20/09

* Zito is starting to earn his money while the offense lives up to expectations.

* The biggest day of the Warriors season ends in disappointment. However, we could end up with Stephen Curry. Wait, that's a bad thing.

* The guy we could only hope falls to the Warriors.

* The Silicon Valley 49ers have their financing. Now, if they only had a quarterback.

* The A's win and the following people care: ____________

* The most sobering news of the day. Good luck Mrs. Mickelson!

* I leave you with my favorite player in the NBA draft.

Wire Check - 5/19/09

* The Yankees reached a new low last night - check this out.

* Here is vote number one for the Niners to change their name to the Silivon Valley Niners. Who is with me?

* The biggest day of the Warriors season is here! I don't know about you but I am really excited about the chance of the Warriors selecting an undersized power forward that can't shoot.

* Not only is Lowry's career over in major league baseball, but it also may be done with the Giants too.

* Ann Killon goes way out on a limb and says an NFL team will take a chance on Vick. I can't wait for the article next week when she declares the Patriots are willing to name Tom Brady the starting quarterback after last year's injury.

* Eric Chavez admits his injuries might end his career. In other news, everyone knew that 3 years ago expect for A's management.

Wire Check - 5/14/09

Baseball

- All rejoice ... Washington has won the San Francisco city championship!

- One Barry Bonds hater likes the Giants chances now the Manny is nowhere to be found.

- A's win. In other news, nobody cares.

Misc.

- For the record, you are not a sports city if you only have one major sports team.

Basketball

- "Larry Riley is not a puppet" - CHALLENGE!

Football

- That's right Raiders fans ... you still have Heyward-Bey. Also, you never "feel" certain - you either you are or are not certain.

Wire Check - 5/13/09

Baseball

SF City Championships today: Whose House? Indeed.

Bruce Jenkins talks of a possible logjam at 1Bfor the Giants in the coming years. He makes one valid point, that the Giants had better trade for an outfielder. Villalona is 19 years old. You don't have to worry about him for another couple years. Things will sort themselves out.

You don't need to click on the link, the title says it all. Chavez's return delayed by back problem.

Orlando Cabrera is now captain of this ship!

That's one happy Panda.

Basketball

Want to hold a press conference and not say anything? Give the Warriors a call, they can help.

What happened to 'We Believe!'?

Football

Five questions with Thomas Howard.

Jed York introduced the Edward Debartolo, Sr. 49ers Hall of Fame.

Wire Check - 5/12/09

Baseball

* The Giants didn't call Adam Dunn because they felt like having an over the hill, light hitting shortstop instead. However, Adam Dunn is not exactly the answer anyways.

* The A's hitting coach is "staying the course" to the unemployment line.

* Randy Johnson wins 298.

Basketball

* "Mullin, take me with you!" - RT

* Add Ostler to list of media who has nothing to write about so he calls out Mark Cuban. Amazing.

Football

* At what point do the unemployed members of the Black Hole say "the front office is a bunch of idiots"

Wire Check 5/11/09

Baseball

Casey Blake hurt Brian Wilson's feelings. I don't know about this one. As a player, if you make any sort of sign after you hit a home run or strike someone out or something, the opposition is not going to like it and will probably resent it. Fastball Master should be more upset about giving up the home run than Blake's shenanigans.

Sandoval may get moved over to 1B. That's probably for the best even though Juan Uribe is nothing spectacular offensively or defensively.

Hall of Fame banter:
Bruce Jenkins says throw out the stupid "integrity" clause from the Hall of Fame voting rules.

Pedro Gomez says, cheaters are bad and tries to back up his argument with a faulty analogy.

And John Shea is writing about Bob Melvin getting fired, why?

Really, Scott Ostler? The A's miss Marco Scutaro? Sure.

Uber-prospect Stephen Strasburg pitched a 17 K no-hitter against Air Force last week in the home finale and in front of Nationals GM. (The Nationals have the #1 draft pick) Will he get $50 million?

Kawakami's Super Seven for Monday.

Football

Where in the NFL is Lorenzo Neal? With the Raiders, duh!

The softer side of Mike Singletary.

The DHB era is not off to a good start in Raiderland. It didn't get any better on Sunday.

Jerry Mac looks for Silver lining from mini-camp.

Bee-rows has some odds and ends about the "new" 49ers uniforms.

Basketball

Marcus Thompson has an interesting trade scenario with Portland, but RT and I don't know why they would want Jamal Crawford.

Miscellaneous

Even I could write this column.