Adding ($18m) Insult to Injury

With Ray "How's my Hamstring?" Durham making his fourth trip to the DL in the past two seasons, the Giants now have a tidy 30% of their payroll twiddling their proverbial thumbs. The $9m man, Rob Nenn may never pitch again. J.T.Snow, of course, should never play again—-at least not outside Fresno.

One the one hand it's comforting to see the Giant's division rivals up in smoke. Take Richie Sexson for example, out for the season, and probably Arizona too. Before the season started, Arizona were considered by many as the dark horse of the division. Los Angeles' offense has been strained once again by Shawn Green's dodgy shoulder. San Diego lost their prize free agent signing--and ace--David Wells, for a month. The plaudits however must go to the Giants, for whom it will take more than a few domestic incidents with barstools to trump their collection of limping misfits.

Since the management shelled out a princely sum of $7.2m per year for his services, Ray Durham has missed more than eight times as many games (80) as he has stolen bases (9); At present, Barry Bonds leads the team with three thefts (as well as every other feasible category). When Durham returns for another spell, Felipe Alou would do well to put him in the No. 5 slot. As well as stealing only nine bases since he became a Giant, he has also been caught precisely nine times. With 30 doubles in 410 ABs last year, it's clear he'd better placed driving runs than in getting on base.

As for the lead-off role, who knows, but it's gotta be someone other than Neifi Perez with his on base percentage of 0.260. With Perez's salary ($2.75m) Brian Sabean could buy himself a whole team of Khalil Greenes.