How the Giants bullpen destroys men's lives and makes them shells of their former selves

Don't get me wrong, I think Felipe Alou is one of the funniest men alive. Who else says about his pitcher "We're going to milk him til he's dry"? He's full of the greatest quotes after every game. And yet, I never feel comfortable with him and the Giants pitching staff. Maybe I'm being too hard on Felipe and maybe he's letting Righetti make decisions and Peter Magowan. I've watched Felipe turn early to the bullpen for the last three years, just knowing (especially the last two years) that whatever lead the Giants have will be in peril the moment that starting pitcher leaves. There was a time when the Giants bullpen was awesome. You know, back when they had Joe Nathan (who sported a 0.00 Era for the longest time in '02), Tim Worrell who was a decent set-up man and then Robb Nen as closer. That was a decent bullpen. But then Felipe destroyed them. Both Matt Herges and Jim Brower, especially Jim Brower are shells of their former selves. Brower was as awesome a setup man as you could get and then Felipe had him pitch something like 80 games in both 03 and 04 and the next thing you know the Giants are discarding him in 05 and he can't do well anywhere now. He went to the Braves and stunk up the joint and I can't remember where he landed this year (I know he was was involved with either the Orioles or the Nats and one of the teams that played them i.e. any team in baseball). Herges is closing for the AAA Marlins right now. Ugh. Oh, same thing happened to Felix Hernandez. He was awesome, got overpitched over three years and has been a bomb since the Giants dumped him. There's something about the Giants bullpen that destroys men's souls and careers. The rock of the pen last year was Scott Eyre so what did the Giants do? They let him go in free agency. Anyway, the purpose of my rant on the bullpen is that I saw that Mr. Brad Hennessey of the 2.97 ERA is stuck in the Giants bullpen pitching the last two innings of a 10-4 game. Let me go to ESPN.com really quick to tell you why this is the stupidest move in the world. It's not like this guy is pitching terrible. He has started five games with a record of 3-1, the Giants winning his ND (he gave up two runs). Like I said, he has an ERA of 2.97. Uh, that's a better ERA than Jason Schmidt, the team's ace. Of course, Hennessey just make stop starts when various Giants starters suck or get hurt. So, who's losing the Giants games...that would be Mr. Matt Cain who's 2-5. Yeah, he did pitch a one hitter last game. Which means he'll give up another 6 runs next game. And Mr. Matt Morris is not doing what he was bought to do. So, the Giants start two men with high ERA and put a pretty decent starter in the bullpen because....it must be that they spent too much money or are trying to develop Cain or...blah. They'll end up trading Hennessey for some stiff and Hennessey will pull a Joe Nathan somewhere else.
I'm sick of Bonds. Before getting stuffed by the Cards on consecutive nights, the Giants were rolling. They trounced the Astros in Houston 34-5 over three games. Just awesome. And then they took out the A's giving up only 3 runs or something in that series. And yet, every story with the Giants started off with...Barry Bonds didn't hit another home run today....*sigh* So much for the cool guys like Omar Vizquel and Randy Winn getting any love. I wish the Giants still had JT Snow. You don't think he could do better at first base than Lance Niekro or Mark Sweeney? Seriously, who judges the talent for the Giants? How come they spend years trying to develop players (Pedro Feliz please step forward) while other teams bring up players with instant impacts? Is it the managing? Is it the scouting? The G's have such a frustating mix of ancient good players that you know are going to each miss about 45 games a season and mediocre to bad young players that are constantly developing and hitting home runs at pointless times of games while grounding into double plays with runners on. Enough with the Giants. They've only been to three World Series in SF. The Marlins have already been to two and won them both. The real question is would I rather be like a Royals fan and know that my team at least one a World Series once upon a dream or a Giants fan where I know they'll spend enough to be competitive, but will never win the Series?
A guy at work told me he saw the Pogues and could not figure out what was holding Shane MacGowan together. That's funny. I only thought of this because I wrote Magowan earlier in the post. Sometimes I think I should write about things like my friend "Jack" does, you know the only violent experiences he has ever had. I'm surprised that he had so few violent encounters. I think everyone as a kid experiments with what it's like to hurt someone else because TV makes it seem funny. Especially the Stooges. But every time I've bonked someone in the head, I've laughed but then felt bad. I bet Moe laid in bed at night, hating himself for beating on his brothers. Maybe another time I'll detail hitting Christian Ricks in the head with a Trapper Keeper while running down the hall. But this is not my journal, nor my confession box. It's a blog. Why would I ever share my deep dark secrets on-line so everyone (including the FBI and NSA) can know and start profiling me. Maybe it's the psychological wiring in us that makes us confess dark secrets to strangers but not to those we know. This is going nowhere. It's too long. I think today's generation can only stand to read about one thing at a time. And that's where I'll plant my flag.