By Ted Sillanpaa Coverage of Michael Phelps’ performance in swimming at the London Olympics gives the impression he’s defying age and gravity even finishing events. Does anyone remember reading that he was done, finished, kapt … before the games began when the hype machine was in full gear? This is what the brilliant Sally Jenkins, of the Washington Post, wrote after Phelps finished fourth Saturday in surprising lackluster daylong effort in the 400-meter individual medley: “You got the feeling Michael… Read More »

By Ted Sillanpaa It’s unlikely that the Giants, typically an organization that wouldn’t rush a young pitcher, would call a 24-year-old closer up from Class AA in the August playoff race. Once they pulled the trigger on the trade to acquire rightfielder Hunter Pence from the Phillies, this ceased to be a typical Giants team and became a club clearly willing to take a risk, change their rules and do whatever might help to win now. Pence comes with a… Read More »

By Ted Sillanpaa The Giants’ acquisition of Hunter Pence in exchange for Nate Schierholtz and two minor leaguers is the move that the organization needed to make certain that paying well to keep brilliant, young starting pitchers in San Francisco pays off. Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, Tim Lincecum, Ryan Vogelsong and Barry Zito deserve a legitimate big league lineup behind them when they pitch. Pence is an All-Star level rightfielder who’ll play every single day. Much has been written here… Read More »

There’s a significant time difference between London and the West Coast of the United States, so logic indicates that any Olympic event held in prime time over there is taking place in the middle of the afternoon out here. Very little that we see on NBC (on Channel 3) is live action. NBC Sports Network and other channels in the NBC family are showing events live. (I’ve caught some outrageous badminton around 3 a.m.) There are, on Comcast Cable, special… Read More »

Update Monday night: From the Philadelphia Inquirer insight on any potential Hunter Pence trade: “Teams are interested in Pence, but wary of his potential $15 million salary through arbitration for 2013. That could diminish the possible return for him now. It does not preclude a better market for Pence developing during this winter.” 000 By Ted Sillanpaa The San Francisco Chronicle’s Henry Schulman writes that there was no Giants’ deal in place with the Phillies to get Hunter Pence …… Read More »

Giants fans are calling for the club to find a way to trade for Phillies’ outfielder Hunter Pence. A San Francisco television sports anchor actually reported such a trade had been made on Sunday night. Giants VP Bobby Evans said late Sunday that there was no truth to the story. So, there’s no Pence trade. By the time this is being read, Pence might have actually been traded by the Phillies to the Giants in a deal that included top… Read More »

By Ted Sillanpaa Giants’ general manager Brian Sabean stayed true to his word, starting the club’s trade deadline maneuvers by acquiring a versatile veteran bench player. San Francisco sent minor leaguer second baseman Charlie Culberson to the Colorado Rockies Friday night in exchange for utilityman Marco Scutaro. Scutaro has played shortstop and second base this season, but has also played third base and left field since beginning his big league career with the New York Mets in 2002. Scutaro, 36,… Read More »

By Ted Sillanpaa Giants star Melky Cabrera denied Friday that he had tested positive for using a performance enhancing drug. The report of the positive test and Cabrera’s denial came first from Comcast Bay Area’s Andrew Baggarly. He mentioned that Cabrera was tested last week, but said that neither Cabrera nor the MLB Players Association had any information regarding a positive drug test. The rumor of the positive test came first on Twitter. It included that Cabrera was on the… Read More »

By Ted Sillanpaa Fox Sports’ Jon Morosi tweeted “If #Phillies decide to make Hunter Pence available, #SFGiants expected to make a push. They want a RH-hitting OF bat.” Former Reds’ general manager Jim Bowden came up with a series of potential trades he thinks would help a contender on Thursday and suggested: “Minnesota Twins trade Francisco Liriano, Jared Burton, Justin Morneau, Josh Willingham and cash to Giants for Brandon Belt, Kyle Crick, Mike Kickham and Heath Hembree.” No way. And,… Read More »

By Ted Sillanpaa It takes supreme confidence to become a professional baseball player, so it’s no surprise that struggling Giants first baseman Brandon Belt lashed out at the media for suggesting that he’d lost his confidence in what has become a slump of painfully epic proportions. Note, he’s not saying that he’s playing well or that his play should be accepted as good enough. Belt’s taking on the media approach to describing his recent failures at bat. It’s easy to… Read More »