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Dontrelle Willis and other reclamation projects for the Giants

News out of San Francisco this week is that the Giants have signed embattled pitcher Dontrelle Willis to a minor-league contract. I wrote a piece on the troubles of the Bay Area native for my blog about a year ago and hope this new move works out. Best case scenario, I suppose, is that Willis helps the Giants make a run at the National League West title. They’re close as is.

Willis isn’t the first reclamation project that the Giants have attempted. Here are a few salvage jobs San Francisco has accepted, with varying results, over the past 20 years:

Brad Penny: Huge success. The Giants picked Penny up for a pro-rated portion of the league minimum last August after the Red Sox dumped him and the former ace proceeded to go 4-1 with a 2.59 ERA. Penny’s reward was a one-year $7.5 million contract from the Cardinals last December.

Russ Ortiz: His career started going downhill not long after Dusty Baker inexplicably yanked him in the 2002 World Series and the Angels subsequently came back to win. Ortiz was dealt that off-season to the Braves and proceeded to win 36 games over the next two years. Since 2005, though, Ortiz hasn’t had a winning record or an ERA south of 5.00. He rejoined the Giants in a comeback bid for 2007 and went 3-6 with a 5.51 ERA in 12 appearances and eight starts. He left after the season and hasn’t been back.

Mark Gardner: He was a long reliever and occasional starter for the Marlins before the Giants signed him as a free agent at the end of spring training in 1996. Gardner went a staff-best 12-7 with four complete games and one shutout and subsequently played the remaining five seasons of his career in San Francisco.

Cory Snyder: I fondly remember Snyder who gave me my first autograph one day at Candlestick Park when I was about nine. Snyder was one of the bright spots on a dismal Giants team that year, 1992. The Giants lost 90 games and finished second-to-last, but Snyder resurrected his career, hitting .269 with 14 home runs. This followed a .175 campaign for two American League teams in 1991. After his only year with the Giants, Snyder quietly signed with the Dodgers in December 1992, three days before the next fellow hit town.

Barry Bonds: Following the 1992 season, the Giants gave a chance to this Pirates outfielder that only baseball insiders had heard of. San Francisco offered Bonds an eight-figure contract, mostly as a favor to his father Bobby Bonds who played for the club 20 years before. At least, I think this is how it went. I dunno, you could look it up.

Graham Womack has been a Giants fan since elementary school and writes the blog, Baseball: Past and Present

Possible bats for the Giants

The recent signing of Pat Burrell to a minor league deal could mean the eventual addition of an extra power bat that San Francisco has needed all season. I continue to tell people the Giants look like a 90-win club, but I don’t know if that can happen on pitching and solid veteran presence alone. I think the Giants need at least a couple of 20 home run hitters to prevail in the National League West, which seems completely within reach, the last couple of depressing weeks not withstanding.

Here are a few sluggers who could be a fit in San Francisco:

Burrell: The 33-year-old has struggled this year, with two homers, 13 runs batted in and a .202 batting average, which prompted Tampa Bay to designate him for assignment. He never hit his stride (or managed above a .221 batting average) in two years there, though prior to that, he was a perennial 30 home run threat in Philadelphia with a batting average in the .250 to .280 range. The Giants could (and have) done worse than him.

Carlos Pena: This is the bat I want for the Giants, and another person Tampa Bay could make available ahead of the July 31 trading deadline. Pena and Carl Crawford will both be free agents this fall, and it will be difficult if not impossible for the Rays to resign them both. My money says they opt to keep Crawford, who’s three years younger and offers an all-around package of skills. The left-handed, pull hitting Pena seems ideal for AT&T, perhaps the biggest threat on McCovey Cove since Barry Bonds.

Lance Berkman: My Dad suggested Berkman yesterday, and I agree. The Astros are in last place in the NL Central at 17-33 and look like they could start rebuilding at any moment, with top pitcher Roy Oswalt having requested a trade. Though Berkman has played his entire career in Houston and is a franchise cornerstone, he is also 34 and making $14.5 million this season. Though he’s only hitting .234 thus far, his five home runs would tie him for second on the Giants and his .358 on-base percentage is 31 points above what San Francisco is managing collectively.

Graham Womack is a writer in the San Francisco Bay Area and the author of Baseball: Past and Present

An interview with 1962 San Francisco Giants pitcher Billy O’Dell

I interviewed Billy O’Dell for a Where Are They Now piece for another Web site. O’Dell went 19-14 for the 1962 Giants team that made the World Series, and he pitched the top of the ninth in Game 7, when they lost a thriller 1-0 to the Yankees in the bottom of the inning.

For anyone who’d like, here’s the link. Enjoy!

Some possible reasons Barry Zito is doing better

1. The steroids kicked in

2. He sold his soul to the devil

3. He’s used some of his $126 million contract to bribe batters around the National League

4. His 3-0, 1.32 ERA season thus far has actually been Zito’s wish as part of the Make-a-Wish Foundation (he more than earned his wish through all of his suffering over the past three seasons)

5. He met a girl

6. He’s decided to get all of his wins for this season out of the way before June

7. Prior to his recent shutout of St. Louis, he had his friends in the local Chinese mafia intimidate the Cardinals

8. He’s taken a page from Lawrence Taylor and sent call girls to the hotel rooms of his opponents the night before games

9. Bill Neukom called Zito into his office before the season and told him in no uncertain terms he would be “disappeared” if he didn’t get it together, citing the example of Trevor Wilson

10. Like the 2003 film Bruce Almighty, Zito has secretly been given God-like powers for a limited time. Am I the only one who’s noticed Morgan Freeman in the stands? It still isn’t going to win Zito the love of Jennifer Aniston

Seriously, though, what gives? Zito looks awesome so far and his WHIP of 0.84 is roughly half of what it was two years ago. He’s making an early case for the Cy Young award, even if the Giants have cooled a little off of their hot start.

Graham Womack is a writer in the San Francisco Bay Area and the author of Baseball: Past and Present

Giants Galore!