Spring training has officially started!

The Giants start off spring the right way..... With a win!

Sure it means absolutely nothing but it's still baseball!

Tim Lincecum came out and stunk up the place, but everybody was raving about him!?!  For those of you who don't know, the hitters are typically ahead of the pitchers at the beginning of spring.  They don't have as many moving parts to pull together I guess.  Usually, and from what I have heard is the case with Lincecum yesterday, they are getting a feel for their pitches and maybe even trying out a new thing or two.  The most encouraging news I think we got on Timmy yesterday was the fact that he appeared to be in much better shape than he was at the start of spring last season.  His conditioning was blamed for his inconsistency last season and if he has tackled that issue then watch out National League!

Buster Posey had two hits, Pablo Sandoval looked good in two ABs, and Madison Bumgarner (another guy who was accused of poor conditioning last season) looked like he was in good shape as well.

The only negatives were that Brandon Belt looked bad and Pablo Sandoval made an error.  But hey, it's only one game and it's spring training so who cares right?

This offseason was a little flat for me.  The Giants lack of activity kinda bummed me out.  The most important move they made was keeping their starting pitching in tact.  I know that a lot of noise is being made about those hired guns in Philly, but remember, the Giants staff did something last season that NO staff has done since the deadball ERA when they put together a streak of 18 consecutive games of giving up no more than 3 runs.  That tells you how good this staff is even though only two of these guys have won Cy Young awards.

Anyway back to the point I was making.  After the dull offseason, just hearing about spring training games is getting me fired up.  I really can't wait to see the Giants defend their title.  All of the "experts" are saying things like don't be surprised if the Giants finish an uncompetitive fourth in their division (Rob Neyer ESPN I'm talking about you!) and they say the Rockies and Dodgers are the team to beat in the West.  It's getting me fired up and I can't wait to see how things unfold when the games start to count!

Go Giants!