PREGAME NOTES: Lineups, intriguing minor league arms and an update on Gary Brown | Giants Extra

GIANTS PROSPECT MIKE KICKHAM

FROM MERCURYNEWS.COM
PREGAME NOTES: Lineups, intriguing minor league arms and an update on Gary Brown | Giants Extra:

"The quality pitching wasn’t limited to Busch Stadium last night. Richmond left-hander Mike Kickham threw seven no-hit innings at Double-A before being removed because he had thrown 105 pitches. Kickham, 23, struck out eight and walked two.

He’s a name to follow down on the farm. I saw him throw a bit in the spring and a couple of his coaches told me to keep an eye on him because he was going to have a huge season. Well: 9-8 with a 2.76 ERA and only 96 hits in 120 2/3 innings coming into last night’s gem. The red flag is the walks (63 entering tonight), but he seems to have gotten that under control over his past few starts."

Kyle Crick was nearly as good for Augusta, striking out 10 in 6 2/3 innings and giving up just one run on a walk and three hits. Over his last 10 starts, Crick has a 1.18 ERA and 56 strikeouts in 53 1/3 innings. He’s given up just 23 hits over that span. His teammate, Clayton Blackburn, has a 2.63 ERA and 118 strikeouts in 109 1/3 innings. Here’s the best part: He’s 19 and he’s only walked 16 guys this season.

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GIANTS PROSPECT KYLE CRICK

Building a Better Athlete - Michael Yessis

Just a little nugget from a source I have relied on for many years, Dr. Michael Yessis. Lot's of good stuff if you are a coach looking to build better athletes -- who then go on to become better pitchers for you.

from doctoryessis.com
I Told You So:

"I Told You So"

Dr. Michael Yessis

For years I've been telling athletes who throw a ball or an implement, that they must generate the power for the throw with the body and use the arm for accuracy. This was recently brought out in a statement by San Diego Padres pitcher Kevin Correia to explain his improvement.

He stated that "I'm using my body more to throw the ball. It's easier to control." Many people were surprised by this statement but if you closely examine it, it makes perfect sense. In fact, I am surprised that more pitchers have not learned this, especially on the professional level."

Some basic knowledge of anatomy and biomechanics will tell you that the body has all the large powerful muscles. For a pitcher this means making use of the hip muscles, the abdominal oblique and flexor muscles and the very powerful shoulder muscles. The arm on the other hand, has relatively medium to small muscles.

Rather than making use of these large and strong muscles many pitchers still rely on the arm to generate maximum force in the throw. This I believe is the main reason why there are so many shoulder and elbow injuries to pitchers. They place excessive force on the muscles and joints that are not capable of handling the stresses involved.

What is especially interesting to note is that when you use the body to develop the force needed for the throw, the throw for the most part becomes effortless. I've had many players tell me that the throw has never been easier while at the same time they are throwing harder than ever before -- all because of using the body to develop the force.

It should also be noted that when you use the body to develop the force, the large muscles must go into action in sequence, beginning with the foot and ending with the hand. In this way the force generated by one joint can be transferred to the next adjacent joint and so on. In this way you build up to the maximum force possible when the ball or implement is released by the hand.

Although there are many good pitchers who use the body effectively to generate force, it appears that most still do not. This is not new knowledge as I know I have been saying and teaching this for at least 30 years. When will this knowledge permeate through the myths and misconceptions that guide throwing, down to the coaches and players?

For information on throwing and the muscles and actions involved see "Build a Better Athlete."

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100 Million Poor People In America And 39 Other Facts About Poverty That Will Blow Your Mind

from theeconomiccollapeblog.com:
100 Million Poor People In America And 39 Other Facts About Poverty That Will Blow Your Mind:

"Every single day more Americans fall into poverty.  This should deeply alarm you no matter what political party you belong to and no matter what your personal economic philosophy is.  Right now, approximately 100 million Americans are either "poor" or "near poor".  For a lot of people "poverty" can be a nebulous concept, so let's define it.  The poverty level as defined by the federal government in 2010 was $11,139 for an individual and $22,314 for a family of four.  Could you take care of a family of four on less than $2000 a month?  Millions upon millions of families are experiencing a tremendous amount of pain in this economy, and no matter what "solutions" we think are correct, the reality is that we all should have compassion on them.  Sadly, things are about to get even worse.  The next major economic downturn is rapidly approaching, and when it hits the statistics posted below are going to look even more horrendous."

When it comes to poverty, most Americans immediately want to get into debates about tax rates and wealth redistribution and things like that.

But the truth is that they are missing the main point.

The way we slice up the pie is not going to solve our problems, because the pie is constantly getting smaller.

Our economic infrastructure is being absolutely gutted, the U.S. dollar is slowly losing its status as the reserve currency of the world and we are steadily getting poorer as a nation.

Don't be fooled by the government statistics that show a very small amount of "economic growth". Those figures do not account for inflation.

After accounting for inflation, our economic growth has actually been negative all the way back into the middle of the last decade.

According to numbers compiled by John Williams of shadowstats.com, our "real GDP" has continually been negative since 2005.

So that means we are getting poorer as a nation.

Meanwhile, we have been piling up astounding amounts of debt.

40 years ago the total amount of debt in the United States (government, business and consumer) was less than 2 trillion dollars.

Today it is nearly 55 trillion dollars.

So we have a massive problem.

Our economic pie is shrinking and millions of Americans have been falling out of the middle class. Meanwhile, we have been piling up staggering amounts of debt in order to maintain our vastly inflated standard of living. As our economic problems get even worse, those trends are going to accelerate even more.

So don't look down on the poor. You might be joining them a lot sooner than you might think.

The following are 40 facts about poverty in America that will blow your mind....

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Baptist Press - FIRST-PERSON: The riches of integrity

from bpnews.net
Baptist Press - FIRST-PERSON: The riches of integrity - News with a Christian Perspective:

"Concerning legalized gambling, longtime news anchor Walter Cronkite once commented, "A nation once built on a work ethic embraces the belief that it's possible to get something for nothing." Recent studies prove Cronkite's observation to be correct. A poll conducted in 1999 by the nonprofit Consumer Federation and the financial services firm Primerica revealed that 51 percent of people in households with incomes of $35,000 or less are firmly convinced they have a better chance of becoming financially secure by investing in a lottery than by any other means.

It is clear that the long-term effect of the government sanctioning any activity is the attitude citizens eventually adopt toward the said activity. The killing of the unborn, once considered reprehensible to a majority of Americans, is now approved by approximately half of the population. Similarly, gambling once frowned upon, is now accepted and embraced."

Once upon a time churches in America took firm principled stands against what they deemed were moral wrongs. Pastors took the lead and spoke out because they believed activities like abortion and gambling were not only inherently wrong, but they also understood the implications of the state legitimizing a morally subversive activity. In the short term, individuals would be damaged, but in the long term it would be all of society that would suffer.

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Why the IOC will never memorialize the '72 Munich massacre - FOX

The reason given by the IOC to the families of the Israelis slain during the '72 Games (second story below) is all the reason I need to not want to watch any more of the current crop of games than is absolutely necessary. And quite frankly, none of it is must-see TV.

The IOC is run by a bunch of human garbage. The sports low light of the week, perhaps the decade.


from foxsports.com
11 slain Israelis remembered at Munich memorial - News | FOX Sports on MSN:

"The families reject the official reasons they've been given for why this cannot happen. At Montreal in 1976, they said they were told the reason was that the Arabs would leave. At Barcelona in 1992, it was an unwillingness to bring politics into the games. At Atlanta in 1996, the reason was protocol. At Athens in 2004, organizers said it was not the appropriate time.

Just before the memorial, sponsored by the British Jewish community, Prime Minister David Cameron expressed support for honoring the slain Israelis.

''As the world comes together in London to celebrate the games and the values it represents, it is right that we should stop and remember the 11 Israeli athletes who so tragically lost their lives when those values came under attack in Munich 40 years ago,'' Cameron told an audience prior to the main memorial service. ''It was a truly shocking act of evil. A crime against the Jewish people. A crime against humanity. A crime the world must never forget.''"

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from foxnews.com

In 1996, I, along with other Munich orphans and three of the widows, were invited for the first time to the Olympic Games in Atlanta. Before the Opening Ceremony, we met with Alex Gilady. Gilady has been a member of the IOC's Radio and Television Commission since 1984 and has been the senior vice president of NBC Sports since 1996.

I have known Mr. Gilady since I was a kid; in fact, I grew up with his daughter. He had been supportive in the past regarding our plea for a moment of silence during the Opening Ceremonies, so we arrived with high hopes. Gilady informed us that a moment of silence was not possible because if the IOC had a moment of silence for the Israeli athletes, they would also have to do the same for the Palestinians who died at the Olympics in 1972.

My mother said, "But no Palestinian athletes died."

Gilady responded, "Well, there were Palestinians who died at the 1972 Olympics."
I heard one of the widows say to Gilady, "Are you equating the murder of my husband to the terrorists that killed him?"

Silence.

Then Ilana Romano burst out with a cry that has haunted me to this day. She screamed at Gilady,

"How DARE you! You KNOW what they did to my husband! They let him lay there for hours, dying slowly, and then finished him off by castrating him and shoving it in his mouth, ALEX!"
I looked at Gilady's face as he sat there, stone cold with no emotion. This man knew these athletes personally. This man led the Israeli media delegation at the 1972 Olympics and saw this atrocity first hand. This man saw my father's dead, naked body thrown out front of the Olympic Village for all the world to see.

Without a hint of empathy, Gilady excused himself from our meeting.

Willie Roaf's father knocks one out of the park - ESPN

I find football players entering the Hall of Fame tend to do it more humble than baseball players -- who act as if they are being anointed to sainthood.

I can see why Willie Roaf is a Hall of Famer today -- he comes from Hall of Fame lineage. You probably will not see this speech anywhere except this story by Wright Thompson. The father was a dentist and the mother, a state Supreme Court justice. The background of many of the family members almost makes Willie Roaf seem like the ne'er do well. AWESOME STORY!!

From ESPN.com:

Willie Roaf's family filled with emotion for Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee - ESPN: 

"One of the things that saddens me is that his mother is not here," he says. "In person ... She's here in spirit. But she did so much for the development of the character of this child, and she put so much into all these children. Even though she was truly an academic and an intellect, she did love sports. And this would just make her heart glow."

The conversation is about to move on, but Cliff is still thinking about the names from Phoebe's prayer, remembering those people, and the ones who came before them, the long lines of invisible ghosts that trail each one of us. He thinks about all of their secret desires and struggles, and what started as a hilarious recounting of Big Willie stories is about to become something else entirely.

"I want you to get the essence of what she just said," he says. "In order for you to understand what she said, I have to go back a little bit in history.""

He apologizes before he even begins, trying to stop himself from turning this into a sermon. The rest of the family sees the passion on his face and falls quiet. The floor is his.

"It starts a long time ago off the west coast of Africa," he says.

He tells of slave ships, people crammed in so tight they couldn't sit up, how the "cargo" was thrown overboard if they got sick or if an anti-slave vessel approached. Sharks, he says, learned to follow the boat, and when he describes it, everyone can see the fins lurking in the wake.

The room is silent.

"When we got to America, we had absolutely nothing," he says. "We had no clothes, no food, no place to go. And now I'm gonna get into my preaching mode. … One of those slaves heard a name, and I don't know what your religious affiliations are, he heard a name called Jesus. Those people that had nothing had God."

His voice cracks for the first time when he says "Jesus."

"And because they called Jesus," he says, his voice cracking again, "we are sitting in this room and Will Roaf is gonna walk across that stage. Because of Jesus. I know there are people who feel so sophisticated and they are so … "

Cliff Roaf is crying.

"We didn't have anything but Jesus," he sobs, "and Jesus answered the prayers starting way back yonder, and when Will Roaf walks across that stage, for the Layton family and the Roaf family, he is a personification of God's majesty. For all of my people that grew up as sharecroppers and woodcutters, for all of those people, Will Roaf is the essence of their hopes, their aspirations, and thankfulness to this entity that we call Jesus. I'm gonna get up, because I get a little bit emotional."

Someone makes a joke about it being dusty in this hotel room.

"No," he says, his voice strong again, "it's not dusty. Ain't no dust in my eyes. It's an emotion of happiness. It's an emotion of thankfulness because this wonderful creator did not forget what he promised to generation after generation after generation. God promised people in our families that if we loved him, and served him, and honored him, he would bring blessings to our children and their children and their children. That is what is the essence of Will Roaf."

Phoebe Layton hugs him. He wipes his eyes with a tissue. He remembers his own father, who worked at a lumberyard, riding a bike or walking every day, making $12 a week. "From my father to me to Will Roaf," he says, "that went to over $4 million a year. Only in America will you have a grandfather making $12 a week to a grandson making millions. Only here in America."

His voice cracks again, and he seems one powerful memory away from being unable to continue. He can see his childhood in rural Arkansas, and the road from those hot fields to a hotel room in Canton.

"See, I'm a cotton chopper," he says, fighting the sobs. "That's what I am. I grew up in a four-room shack. I didn't even have a bed to sleep in. I ate out of pot tops and drank out of jelly jars."

Then he stood up straight and walked out, headed downstairs to a Hall of Fame luncheon with his son -- the grandson of a man who chopped wood for two dollars a day.

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Scout.com: SF Giants Prospect Profile: LHP Josh Osich

Scout.com: SF Giants Prospect Profile: LHP Josh Osich:
Position: Pitcher
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 235
Born: 9/3/1988

Background

Osich was beginning to hit an upswing in his career in 2009 with Oregon State. Used almost solely out of the bullpen, he posted a 2.05 ERA and held opponents to a .170 batting average against.

However, Tommy John Surgery kept him out for the 2010 season.

Osich rebounded in 2011, throwing a no-hitter against UCLA in which he struck out 13 batters. However, elbow soreness caused him to fall in the draft, where the Giants took him in the sixth round (207th overall).

Scouting report

Injury is perhaps the only reason Osich was not a first round pick in 2011.

Heading into the draft, he was projected to be a first round sandwich pick, and ESPN’s Keith Law had him rated as the #49 draft-eligible prospect.

However, his elbow soreness, coupled with his previous Tommy John surgery, caused teams to stay away.

While Osich started during his fifth-year senior season at Oregon State, he spent the majority of his college career as a reliever. That also might be the best route for his professional career to go to help preserve his elbow. Osich sits in the high 90s with his fastball.

Future outlook

At this point in his career, it appears that Osich will continue his path to the big leagues through the bullpen. He began the season in the bullpen for single-A San Jose, and has not yet given up a run in 7 2/3 innings, recording 10 strikeouts with two walks. However, he is currently on the disabled list with an elbow strain -- something that will likely always be a concern for him in his career.

If he can manage to stay healthy, he has the raw ability to have success at the big league level. Osich has a strong fastball-changeup combo, and has a good grasp of the strike zone.

His situation reminds us of Mike Gonzalez, a talented left-handed reliever with elbow trouble. Like Gonzalez, if Osich can stay healthy, he has the ability to have a successful major league career.

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Baseball cards found in attic sold for more than $566K at auction - ESPN

Had I known you were supposed to hide your baseball cards in the attic so your mother couldn't throw them away on you...Oh well, this is a cool story anyway.

from ESPN:
Baseball cards found in attic sold for more than $566K at auction - ESPN:

"TOLEDO, Ohio -- The discovery of century-old baseball cards in an Ohio attic isn't going to make anyone super-rich even though it's being called one of the most exciting finds in the history of sports card collecting. That's because the cards and the money are being evenly divided among 20 cousins."

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WWJD? IDK it seems so hard to figure out, right?

It seems pretty clear what he "would" do, based on what he "did" do. The whole chasing the money changers out of the temple thing. Multiple times, it seems, because like cockroaches they kept coming back.

It actually seems silly to ponder WWJD as a question anymore when we live in a world that ever increasingly seems more inclined to answer the question more along the lines of  "What would Judas do?"

Seems as if Herr Emanuel has an interesting perspective we may all want to model. You've come full circle Rahm-bo. Spinning like a freaking top. Good job, good effort!!! You should be so proud of your choices. There's no hate in that crowd of yours, right?

Here's the kind of results you get from implementing these highly vaunted "Chicago values".

from nbcchicago.com
http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/The-Deadliest-Global-City-163874546.html

Among what are considered Alpha world cities, Chicago has the highest murder rate -- higher even than the Third World metropolises of Mexico City and Sao Paolo.

Here’s how we rank in murders per 100,000 among cities we consider our peers, based on a projected murder total of 505 for this year.

Singapore 0.4
Tokyo 0.5
Hong Kong 0.6
Berlin 1.0
Sydney 1.0
London 1.4
Toronto 1.7
Amsterdam 1.8
Paris 4.4
New York 6.0
Los Angeles 7.5
Mexico City 8.0
Moscow 9.6
Sao Paulo 15.6
Chicago 19.4

We could be doing worse: Caracas, Venezuela has a murder rate of 130 per 100,000. But its undeniable that the Windy City is under seige.

WOW!!! We're comforted by the fact that we aren't Caracas, Venezuela. Yet!!! Because Emanuel and Company read from the same play-book as Hugo Chavez. Chavez must just be better at executing the plays.

Yes, WWJD indeed. It's pretty clear in many ways WWJD, we just have a consistent listening and comprehension problem to deal with. Too much "political correctness" shit in our ears and our heads.

It's not too difficult to understand folks.

Sabean on Pence move: “Right now, we needed all the help we could get.” | Giants Extra

I like the deal, I like Hunter Pence a lot. Always have from back when he was with the Astros.
However, it still smacks of 'the dog chasing his tail' of mistakes. If we don't let Cody Ross walk away, we don't have to give up two additional prospects for Pence.

The prospects were (over?) payment for the prior mistake as well as compensation to get the more premium player in the Pence vs. Schierholz tale of the tape.

Pence will add some heart, some soul, some flavor that's been lost since Ross left and Huff hit the couch. Sorely needed, as it seems as if the Giants were becoming a tad corporate lately. Time will tell.

from mercurynews.com:
Sabean on Pence move: “Right now, we needed all the help we could get.” | Giants Extra:

"The Giants had their eye on Pence a year ago but weren’t able to pull the trigger. As the Phillies fell out of the race, a deal came into place. Schierholtz was said to be “a required piece” and the Phillies were high on catcher Tommy Joseph. Sabean feels that Seth Rosin, the third player in the deal, has a chance to pitch in the big leagues at some point and the Phillies agreed.

“It was talent we had prepared ourselves to be able to move for various reasons,” he said. “And that’s what it took.”"

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