This is another in our occasional series of posts wherein we update you on the status of the nonstop schadenfreude express which is the 2008 San Francisco Giants…

Philadelphia and San Francisco were tied at 4 in the bottom of the tenth inning. The Phillies had runners on first and second. Right fielder Geoff Jenkins grounded the ball sharply to the left of second baseman Eugenio Velez, who bent down to pick it up and…oops!…the ball went under his glove.

And that’s how the Giants lost Sunday’s game, with Howard scoring from second on the play.

Some Giants fans will point to the team’s talented young pitchers as reason for hope. But this optimism takes for granted that, when those pitchers induce ground balls and shallow pop-ups, that the fielders will be able to catch the ball and throw it to the appropriate base.

After yesterday’s game, we can no longer assume.

The Giants made three errors Sunday. The first was charged to shortstop Emmanuel Burriss, who threw wide of first base in the third inning. The second was charged to third baseman Jose Castillo. And then, of course, there was Velez.

Giants starter Tim Lincecum allowed four runs in six innings – none earned. But don’t feel too bad for Lincecum. He made a few mistakes of his own. He had two wild pitches. One led to a run.

Today, the San Francisco Chronicle suggests that fielding errors are the price you pay when you stack your team with young players:

Any team that pushes youth makes a Faustian bargain. There will be moments of uninhibited enthusiasm and excitement, but the payback will be lots of mistakes.

There’s some truth to this. A majority of the Giants’ errors this season have been made by the team’s younger players. But here’s the rub: just because you’re one of San Francisco’s younger players doesn’t necessarily make you young.

Castillo, who is 27 years-old, is in his fifth major league season and leads the team with six errors. Brian Bocock, who actually is young (23 years-old) and is filling in while Omar Vizquel is out, is second on the team with three errors. After Castillo, Bocock and Fred Lewis (who is 26), the Giants have no starters under 30. Moreover, the only reason those guys are playing at all is because of injuries to older players.

So let’s not pretend that the Giants are in the middle of a youth movement. The Giants are not a young team (they’re ranked 15th in average team age). They are not a good defensive team (they are among the bottom third of teams in fielding percentage and errors).

This weekend, all three games against the Phillies were decided by one run and two of the games went to extra innings. Of course, the Giants lost two of three — further proof that in close games defense makes the difference.

That’s more bad news for the Giants.

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while now might have noticed that some of us harbor a faint disdain for the defensive abilities of a certain Derek Sanderson Jeter.

So it was with some interest that we read Lee Panas’s recent blog post evaluating the defensive contributions made by major league shortstops in 2007.

Panas looked at six well-known systems for evaluating a player’s defense and averaged the number of runs a player prevented last season according to each system, normalizing the results for 150 games.

In first place was John McDonald of the Toronto Blue Jays, who would have prevented an amazing 26 runs last season had he played in 150 games. In close second was Troy Tulowitzki, who saved 25 runs. From there the drop off was pretty huge, with the seemingly ageless Omar Vizquel taking third place with 16 runs prevented.

And in DEAD LAST PLACE out of the 30 shortstops evaluated, averaged across 6 different systems?

Yep, it was Derek Jeter of the Yankees, with an average result of 27 extra runs allowed above a shortstop of average range, over the course of 150 games.

Man, how did this guy ever win a gold glove?

Of course, we here at UmpBump believe in moderation, and we understand that any player can have an off year, so we took this news in stride, and refrained from any unnecessary, self-satisfied glee:

From: Nick
To: UmpBump Staff

Check out this list of the best and worst defensive shortstops last season… Any guesses as to who was dead last?

From: Sarah
To: UmpBump Staff

BWAHAHAHAHAHA. Someone please blog this!

You already know that Catie Francoeur is a Hot Baseball Wife. You already know that Jeff thinks his wife will make a great mom, and that she’s got a great butt. Now the Atlanta Journal Constitution brings us not one but two intimate glimpses into the lives of the Francoeurs.

First, we got the scoop on the Francoeurs’ honeymoon — they went to Cabo and ran into Chicago Cubs 1B Derrek Lee, his wife, Christina, and their daughter, Jada (what are the odds!?).

Then the Francoeurs, who watch movies together almost every night, agreed to share a list of movies they’ve seen this summer, along with snarky comments about each.

I think I speak for baseball fans everywhere when I say, is it time for spring training yet?