Willie Mays is helping Aaron Rowand: When Aaron Rowand took a seat at Mays’ table in the Giants’ clubhouse last week, something important was happening. For all the talk of Rowand’s prolonged hitting slump during his first season with the Giants, his fielding troubles might have been more crucial. Rowand did not always get great […]

The Giants are looking to do more in Japan: If you can’t beat ’em, recruit ’em. On a day the Giants lost to Japan 6-4, they announced a hiring that they think will help make them competitors for top Japanese talent. Shun Kakazu, a Japanese native and Harvard grad who worked the past three years […]

The idea of bringing the A’s to San Jose is quickly moving from thinking out loud to formal campaign: The campaign to bring the Oakland Athletics to San Jose will be launched at the April 7 City Council meeting, city officials decided Wednesday. Speaking before a crowd of 40 plus representatives from TV and radio […]

You can only look so far into spring training statistics, but one gets the sense that Randy Johnson is about to put up a big season: Randy Johnson wasn’t as overpowering as in his previous start (seven strikeouts, three innings), but he was just as effective in 31/3 scoreless innings in a 10-1 victory over […]

Willie Mays makes Giants’ players feel at home during spring training: When Willie Mays sits down at his customary card table in the Giants’ spring clubhouse, he immediately lets out a high-pitched yell and demands to know [Fred] Lewis’ whereabouts. The “Say Hey Kid” has found himself a surrogate godson. They go back and forth […]

From the Dept. of Things I Did Not Know, comes Jared Lansford, son of Carney, pitcher for the Athletics: Jared Lansford is on the A’s list to pitch today at Scottsdale against the Giants. The Giants’ hitting coach is Carney Lansford, Jared’s father. “I’ve been hearing about it the last couple of days,” Jared Lansford […]

Lincecum gets a pay raise: The Giants and Tim Lincecum have reached agreement on a one-year, $650,000 contract, a source told The Chronicle. Lincecum then confirmed the figure. That constitutes a 62 percent raise over the $405,000 he earned last year. There is actually a split component to the deal. If Lincecum somehow wound up […]

Neyer’s off-the-cuff comment about the A’s heading to Portland has spurred an interesting conversation over at BTF this morning mostly challenging Portland as a viable market. And I’ll admit: my personal preference for the A’s moving to Portland has nothing to do with a reasoned economic analysis of the situation and everything to do with […]

Unfortunately, he won’t be playing first base: Will Clark, who remains one of the club’s most popular players since the franchise moved to San Francisco in 1958, is expected to be named to the Giants’ front-office staff on Wednesday. The Giants issued a media advisory on Tuesday stating that Clark and Bill Neukom, the Giants’ […]

We continue our slow holiday schedule (sorry, the kids ain’t lettin’ me sit at the computer all day) with a note from the hot stove league. Seems that Manny and the Giants may be up to something. Via BTF: The San Francisco Giants are pursuing free-agent slugger Manny Ramirez and have offered him a four-year […]