His Name is Ramon.

@Zets You're right, thanks for correcting me. It looks like he had a 3.99 ERA last season for Hanshin. For those who are interested, his Japanese stats are here: http://www.japanesebaseball.com/players/player.js...

Actually, Vogelsong signed with Orix for the 2009 season. He never played with the Buffaloes last season. He spent 2008 pitching crappily for my poor Hanshin Tigers =(

Weber and Brendan Donnelly-- two guys who broke into the majors at age 30 (!), excelled for the 2002 Angels, and burned out after a few seasons. Hmmm. In the words of Johnny Rotten, "Ever get the feeling you've just been cheated?" On a previous point, the Angels still have 3 players from 2002: Figgins, Lackey, Shields. The Giants (for now) also have 3 guys who played in the 02 Series: Molina, Ortiz and Aurilia.

Yeah, he only threw 8 innings in 2000 for the Giants and then was claimed off waivers by the Angels. He then went on to post ERA+'s of 132, 174, and 163 from 2001-03. I think he was hurt in '04 and was never the same again. I keep reading your name as 'likejcb9butter'.

Nah, this username kind of amuses me, so I'll keep it. Weber's Giants career was pretty forgettable as I recall.

@Jcb9 Yup, I think you're right. I always forget that Weber was a Giant. He had a few nice seasons of relief along the way in his career. If you want, I can email you a password for the 'jcb9' account and you can login and change it.

There were also two ex-Giants on the 2002 Angels - Ben Weber and Dennis Cook. I think Weber was on the 2000 Giants, right? And Cook came up with the Giants in 1988 and was part of the Steve Bedrosian trade, along with Terry Mulholland and Charlie Hayes. (To explain the username, by the way: when I first tried to register as jcb9, the password never arrived - looks like it got caught in a spam filter somewhere. So I had to reregister with a new username and email address. So.)

@Wax Thanks, I figured it was about time that I made an actual logo for the site. I think the last I heard Merkin would be reporting to Spring Training. Sounds like he's healthy-ish. From the Giants website: Merkin Valdez: Still only 27, Valdez recorded a 1.69 ERA in 17 appearances before a strained right elbow sidelined him in mid-May. Valdez worked his way back by pitching in instructional league and briefly for Escogido in the Dominican Winter League. The Giants still like Valdez, but he faces plenty of competition for a spot in the bullpen. I wonder if he'll ever throw 45+ innings in a MLB season.

Like the new look! Was hoping you'd do a post on Ortiz. I had forgotten about his appearance in the 2002 series. Any word on Merkin Valdez? People seemed to be talking him up early last year, but then I think he got hurt. Last I remember, he spot-started that weird game in LA where Bochy ended up bringing Lincecum in in the second or third inning.