If Andy LaRoche is on your fantasy team, I hope you didn't bench him today!

Seriously, I hope you actually USED his 5-5, 2 homer 6 RBI performance today.

Special kudos to the 96 loss Pirates for basically saying to the Dodgers "You will NOT clinch in OUR empty stadium!"

Since the Dodgers took a 3 run lead into the bottom of the 9th in yesterday's potential division clincher, the Pirates outscored the Dodgers 15-1.

That's about as big a statement as these Pirates could make.

The Dodgers head to San Diego to try and clinch there.

Wouldn't it be something if the Pirates victories came back to haunt the Dodgers?

That won't happen of course... but it's nice to see the Pirates show a little backbone.

My dad thinks the Giants will still win... and he might be right!

The Giants swept the Marlins in front of an intimate gathering of friends and family in Miami on Monday. A meaningless game? Well my dad doesn't think so! He thinks this is the first step in the Giants wild and amazing finish to capture the NL West crown!

OK, on first glance it looks like an overly optimistic Giants fan is refusing to accept his team has the third worst record in the NL and are 15 1/2 games out of first.

And it might seem plain batty to think of a scenario where the Giants not only win enough games to win, but also leap frog 4 other teams... ESPECIALLY when the Diamondbacks magic number to eliminate the Giants is only 22.

But let's indulge my dad.
Let's say the Giants go on a major tear and only lose a single game a week for the rest of the season. With 37 games left and 6 weeks remaining, the Giants will have to go 31-6. They'd finish 86-76... which isn't even the worst NL West Champion record in the last 3 years! (Remember the Padres only had 82 wins in 2005.)

Tough, but possible.
Then the Diamondbacks would have to go on a major slide... 14-22 in their last 36 games. A bad slide, but not impossible.

What about the Padres? They just have to play a game under .500 the last 39 games. With their lack of offense, that's not unimaginable.

How about the Dodgers and Rockies? Heck, they don't even need to post losing records. The Dodgers going 22-16 and the Rockies going 23-15 would put them a game under the Giants pace!

So maybe my dad is right!
Maybe the Giants can rampage to finish a respectable 86-76... which mind you is a better record than the 2006 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals tallied in the regular season.

Now my dad also thinks Bonds will hit 40 MORE homers this year.
We can admit, that is crazy, can't we?