Bay Area's Mr. Baseball, Marty Lurie on everything; Monday pulse

Marty Lurie knows virtually everything and everyone in baseball.

He is KNBR's baseball minion on the weekend before and after every Giants game, and sometimes, if Lurie's in the mood, that duty could extend anywhere from a couple of hours to more than five. Call it "MartyBall"

You get the feeling Lurie loves talking baseball, but occasionally, he hits to the opposite field. On Sunday after the Giants ferklempta in Atlanta, a caller asked where one could find a good NY deli, (pretty tough in the Bay Area)

Lurie then went on passionately about a good place in Phoenix where he devoured a tongue sandwich, making both himself, me, and a few others extremely hungry--between pickles, I asked him a few questions about the Giants, A's, baseball in general...

So, Marty, how 'bout those Giants?
This season has been one of the best I've experienced in the Bay Area. Coming out of spring training no one had any idea Aubrey Huff, Andres Torres or Buster Posey would be leading the Giants to the top of the NL Wild Card race.

What about Tim Lincecum?
Tim Lincecum showed signs during spring training that he had lost velocity on his fastball. The surprise for me is Lincecum has turned into a crafty pitcher much sooner than I expected. He is still one of the top pitchers in the league, but not a slam dunk to win every time he takes the mound.

Those Padres.
The Padres are still the surprise team in the NL West. Bud Black is a terrific manager who uses his personnel perfectly. The Padres score just enough to win and have the best lock down 'pen in the NL.

Any surprises about the NL West?
Not a shock to me that the Rockies are struggling. Thought their 'pen would be an issue and it is. In addition I thought Brad Hawpe's and Todd Helton's fall off late last year was a sign of things to come and both have been offensive disappointments for Colorado. Didn't think Carlos Gonzalez would be an MVP candidate this quickly, but he has....
Surprise that Dodger's young guns Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, and James Loney haven't become effective leaders on the club. This team misses Manny Ramirez even in his post fertility drug condition. Any team that relies on Vicente Padilla as one of its aces will be sorry. Padilla has become the best pitcher in the LA rotation and that's not good news.

Sabean takes a lot of heat, but I think he's done ok. What about you?
If Brian Sabean will take a good look at his offense he will realize that age is catching up (injuries) with Edgar Renteria and Juan Uribe. The Giants should be the favorite to win the NL West if the GM goes out and adds a couple of players who can contribute. Andres Torres and Pablo Sandoval don't hit from the right side (in fact Sandoval has been a major disappointment at the plate all season). Opposing managers can bring in a lefty to neutralize these two in the most critical part of the game and Bochy has no legitimate right- handed pinch hitter to combat that strategy.

Talk about the A's.
If the A's made some moves to help the offense they could be in the AL West race. The A's pitch and play defense. Injuries have forced the call up of Chris Carter and most likely Jeff Larish. Wouldn't it be ironic if the A's stayed in the race and drew some fans to the Coliseum. What would Lew Wolff tell Bud Selig if fans started coming back to the Coliseum despite all the efforts of ownership to turn the A's into late Montreal Expos.

Got a few thoughts about "MoneyBall"?
If you overlook the silly "Money Ball " movie there is good baseball being played in Oakland. Imagine this-- it's 2002 a team wins 20 games in a row (setting an AL record), the players jell as a team under a manager who wins more than 100 games for the second straight year (no small feat), and over 2 million fans cheer the ball club in "small town " Oakland and they make a movie about the team and the season and they hire megastar Brad Pitt to play the .....get this.....the general manager...Huh? The GM who never has publicly given anyone connected with the 2002 season any credit for the team's success other than patting himself on the back for signing Scott Hatteberg...someone (wonder who?) has one heckuva PR rep...and it's no one who did anything on the field where anyone who knows baseball realizes 90% of the credit should go...

How do you really feel Marty?

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