Some random baseball thoughts before this monk heads out on vacation (which will involve seeing a live Giants game at AT&T…yes!)
– Still super impressed with Brandon Crawford. The rumor mill is churning and it looks like Tejada is out when Pablo comes back. Good riddance.
– Fantasy tidbits: my boy Yovani Gallardo pitches tonight and I hope the turn around continues. My other favorite draft day gold mind right now is David Ortiz: AMAZING production for an 11th round pick!
– I think I may have to give up on my A’s prediction. They’ve gone in the tank and lost 9 in a row and might be losing their best pitcher for the rest of the season.
– The Red Sox have passed the Yankees now for first place in the East. I am still amazed at how “good” the Yanks pitching has been so far this season. Statistically they are among the top 3 in the AL. Sorry, but no way that continues.
– What about Jake Fox as a catching option? He had a ridiculous spring training (which doesn’t mean much) and was released by the Orioles yesterday (probably because of some guy named Matt Weiters). Anyway, he has some pop, but I have no idea what kind of catching skills he has (it appears not much). Could be a cheap way to upgrade the offensive production from that position.
– Still think it’s going to be the Rockies and Giants for the West. Colorado’s pitching has been well above league average (which surprised me) while their offense is as bad as the Giants (also surprising). You know they will score runs at some point, and I just can’t see Arizona hanging in there all season.
That’s all. Hope to keep the weekly rundowns coming even while I am away.
(-SB)
baseballmonk 
In fact the A’s have fired their manager: http://danny-knobler.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/8590096/29911783
I thought all the talk about 2011 A’s = 2010 Giants was hooey, so this has not been surprising to me. Hopefully we can hit them when they are down this coming weekend.
Funny enough, Tejada has been heating up lately while Crawford went through a 0-for-13 skein. Luckily enough, Giants still look like they will start Crawford most of the time, though it could become a platoon there with Tejada. I’ve been hoping maybe they put Tejada at 2B and let him and Hall fight for playing time there, but it looks like they are having Burriss and Hall fight it out.
Jake Fox is not a catcher, but could be a legit offensive option there. But then what? Drop Stewart, who appears to be the better defensive option right now? Drop Burriss? Plus, the A’s and Orioles gave up on him, after the Cubs, does that not speak to maybe how bad he might be now?
Haven’t been too surprised by Rockies offense, CarGon was above the mean last season in BABIP, so I figured he would regress (but not before getting HUGE contract, good luck with that), leaving only Tulo as the only great hitter in the lineup. I also had them as the one contending, but at this point, I think the Giants will pull away as the season continues and running away with the division. The power of Vogelsong!