I asked yesterday if Joe Montana had ever struggled early in his career as the 49ers QB. No one really leapt to assist my memory so I did a bit of Google digging and came up with JoeMo’s career stats. It looks like Montana did struggle his first year (although I can’t believe I’m reading that right because it looks like he played in 16 games and attempted only 23 passes that whole time; I suppose he could have been a backup that came in every game) and his second year was only average. But he made the Pro Bowl in his third year and other than 1979 (first year in the league) he never threw for less than 1,700 yards in a season as long as he played at least half the games.

Now Alex Smith is demonstrably better this year than last; his stats tell the tale. In one third of the number of games he played in last year he’s already more than doubled his QB Rating (which I don’t think was a stat when Montana played), has almost as many yards passing as he did last year, nearly tripled his yards per game average and so far his interceptions per game ratio is much improved (he averaged about 1.3 per game last year).

I just very much want the Niners to be respectable again. I don’t need them to win the Super Bowl right away, I just don’t want to root for a team that can’t win more than two games a season anymore.

A Giant Change

So there have been a lot of discussions recently on the local sports talk radio station about what should be done with the Giants. A lot of talk has focused on what to do with Bonds and Felipe Alou. I say get rid of ’em both. Alou never really impressed me—his radio talk show segments seem to indicate that he’s perhaps too nice of a guy and never has anything negative to say about anyone, even if they’re struggling or they just flat out don’t play well. This translates into my biggest pet peeve in baseball: Pitchers that don’t get the axe early enough. Look I know all about the pitcher’s rest thing that is such common wisdom in baseball. Hey guys: Man up. If you pitch yourself into a three run hole with two runners on and no outs in the first inning on 28 pitches, three things are going to happen. One, you’re getting pulled. Bye. Two, you’re pitching either tomorrow or the next day and you’d better shape up and find your release point or whatever. Work with the pitching coach, get your head in the game, whatever, but no one should put their team down by more than four runs in any of the first two innings and expect to keep pitching. If you need time to “warm up” you’re a liability and maybe you don’t deserve to be in this league. Three, you’re on the short list for an exit from the rotation. Maybe you’ll miss a start or two, maybe more. It depends how bad you are. I know everyone has a bad day now and then but I’m so tired of seeing multi-million dollar contract pitchers who can’t keep their ERA below 6 and have a win percentage in the .400 range. If you aren’t winning, you aren’t helping. I would make exceptions for cases where the pitcher gets no run support, but in that case it’s going to be some batters sitting on the pine thinking about it for a few games.

I don’t know if there are managers out there who can do something like that and whip talented but lazy (*cough*Schmidt*cough*) players into shape or not, but that’s what I want to see.

As for the rest of the team, here’s a quick recap of what I’d do:

• Armando Benitez – Gone. Eight blown saves in only 25 save situations? Nope, not good enough.
• Matt Cain – Stays. He can be dominating. I’m not sure what makes him inconsistent but maybe some tough love (see above) might help.
• Noah Lowry – I’d give him a couple more seasons to develop. He could be good, but something is keeping him remarkably mediocre. Still, he’s young so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
• Matt Morris – Aside from Alou (the manager) and Bonds, this is the hottest topic of discussion on the radio. 10-15 record and a 4.98 ERA from a guy sporting career numbers like 111-71 and 3.79 ERA? What a bust. Axe him.
• Jason Schmidt – He drives me kind of nuts because as good as he is, he seems to be the most delicate of instruments, thrown off my the slightest breeze or sidelined from a hangnail. Of course Giants announcers are so quick to make excuses for him, but I don’t want excuses: I want wins. He stays, but I’d build some clause into his contract that says he needs to suck it up or else he doesn’t get a raise.
• Eliezer Alfonzo – I love the way this guy plays. He looks happy to be there, and he works hard all the time. I love professional athletes that try. Definitely a keeper.
• Ray Durham – Meh, I don’t know. He’s decent but aging and I don’t like the geezer factor on the team over the last few years. If he’s not much drain on the wallet, I’d keep him another year.
• Pedro Feliz – He’s good for about one month and a week of solid play per season. Not enough. Outro.
• Shea Hillenbrand – What a joke. This guy was lame to begin with and the Giants picked him up for mysterious reasons that became even more mysterious once he started playing and was worse here than he was in Toronto. See ya.
• Lance Niekro – I dunno, he’s alright but he doesn’t really hit for power, he isn’t fast and he’s only a .250 hitter. Maybe he’ll improve some over time so I don’t know that he’d be my first pick to send packing, but I’d see if I could find a better day-to-day guy to take his place.
• Omar Vizquel – As long as he can still play SS like he does, I’d keep him around. He’s not exactly a terror at the plate but he’s passable in a thin position hitting-wise so his defense does a lot to make him a keeper.
• Moises Alou – I suppose I don’t mind him in right field but I doubt he’d want to stick around if his pops got the boot and he’s old and on the DL a lot as it is. Again with the geezer factor so if there was a way to trade him off for someone younger, I’d do it. Otherwise I can tolerate him one more year.
• Barry Bonds – Too expensive for his output. Let him go to the AL to chase his record as a DH and stop making left field a liability on defense. I mean really, unless it’s hit right at him the guy never makes a catch out there. It’s embarassing.
• Steve Finley – Geezer alert. Buh-bye.
• Randy Winn – They had high hopes based on one strong month last year. Guess how it worked out? Yeah, I’d cut him.

That’s like most of the starting lineup. No wonder they can’t even play .500 ball. Sheesh.