Spring Training is too long

Today, the Giants found out that Spring Training is way too long.

In addition to getting blasted by the Angels 8-0.  Cody Ross got injured, Matt Cain got lit up, and Brian Wilson had a setback in his recovery from what is being called an "oblique strain".

On second thought maybe spring training is long enough!  This way the Giants can get all of these little injury bugs over and done with.

On the Cain's outing:  He is just getting into the rhythm of things and he doesn't have the luxury of working the offseason kinks out against the minor leaguers the way the other pitchers did earlier in the spring.  The guy who hit the 3 run bomb that made Cain's line for the day look so bad?  Bobby Abreu.  You may have heard of him.  Of course we would all like to see Matty continue his scoreless inning streak from last postseason, but as far as I know nobody has ever posted a career ERA of 0.00.  Although it would be nice to see one of the Giants' starters do it!

On Brian Wilson's injury:  "People might think I'm superhuman, but ... correction. I am superhuman. But, realistically, in six days I'm not going to be 1,000 percent. I'm going to be 990. I'm just going to take it day by day."  is what Wilson told reporters after his game of catch.  I'm going to listen to him and take him at his word because as he said: "I know my body, I know what I'm capable of doing. I'm not worried about what other people are thinking. I'm going to do what the doctors tell me and control what I can control. Ideally, everyone would have liked to have me healed the night I was injured."  I hope he is powering down the Red Bulls.


On Cody Ross' injury:  I always get worried when I hear :"calf strain"  for some reason this is as troublesome as the old "oblique strain".  It sounds minor, but you get guys missing all kinds of time and their performance usually suffers after sustaining one of these injuries.  Hopefully, Ross gets shut down for the spring and is OK for opening day.  It might not help him be totally dialed in for opening day, but I would rather have him struggle for a few days rather than miss an extended period of time.


One silver lining that the Ross injury could have is that it could affect the possible trading of Nate Schierholtz.  With an injury to Ross already staring them in the face, the Giants could be reluctant to part ways with their fourth best outfielder  I don't know if it has entered their minds or not, but it's worth getting out there.


Only 7 more days!

The Belt Dilemma

Yesterday's post on the Bay Areas Sport's Guy's blog got me thinking.  

If Brandon Belt breaks camp with the big club.  Who is the most likely to be the odd man out?

As BASG points out:  It's really down to four guys.  Pat Burrell, Aaron Rowand, Nate Schierholtz, and Travis Ishikawa.

Now let's face it, my man crush on Nate aside, none of these guys is gonna be the Giants' MVP this season.  Most likely, barring injury to a starter, they would all be coming off the bench if Belt is on the team.  There is no way the Giants are going to bring him up to sit on the bench.  So first off, the Giants have to be sure he will outperform any of these guys.

Also as BASG pointed out, two of these guys would most likely be gone.

Aaron Rowand is easily the fan's favorite to be let go.  But can the Giants management admit it's mistake with him in such an expensive fashion?  The Giants already showed they are willing to put the needs of the team in front of the dollars on the contract when they sat Barry Zito during last year's World Series run.  So I don't think pride is an issue with them.  The real question is does Rowand contribute anything to this team?  (Being a gamer doesn't count because all of these guys can be considered gamers.)    I have heard talk of the Giants trying to boost his trade value this spring by having him play left field but his .207 BA this spring have caused that experiment to be a total failure.

Pat Burrell doesn't really belong on this list.  The only reason he is on here is because his $1 million salary makes more fiscal sense to eat than Rowand's millions and millions ($13.6 million according to Cot's baseball contracts).  However, it is likely that the Giants don't make the world series last season, or probably even the playoffs for that matter without some timely homers down the stretch from Pat "the Bat".  Besides, who would the Giants fall back on if Belt struggles in the show?  Aaron Rowand?

Travis Ishikawa is the most likely guy to not make the club out of this bunch whether Belt gets called up or not.  The Giants have a lot of options to play first and his .219 spring may be signalling that Ishi could benefit from a change of scenery.  I would hope the Giants could trade him rather than release him since his glove is so good and he does have some power potential (really only some like 15 or so HRs if he were to start).  But his inability to put it together up until this point and his horrid spring make a DFA his most likely option.

Last, but not least.  Nate Schierholtz.  In the past, I have made no bones about my thoughts on Nate's potential.  He is easily the best defender out of the bunch (probably second best on the team behind Torres) and he has shown flashes of competence at the plate.  This spring, he is third behind Posey and Huff with a .342 spring batting average and he had 3 hits in yesterday's win over the White Sox.  Impressive for a guy who is battling for his job.  He did have some clutch hits and plays down the stretch last season too.  plus, I think a right fielder is more valuable as a late inning defensive replacement than a first basemen.  Especially when you consider the drop in offensive production from Ross to Nate would not be as big as from Huff to Ishikawa.  

If I was a betting man, I would bet on Rowand and Ishi being gone if Belt makes the club.  But the Giants do have the option of letting Belt start the season in AAA to decide if they are going to keep Rowand around a little longer.  I don't think that will be a popular decision but if it buys time for a trade, then it may be a good option.  If it doesn't and they have to release Rowand, then it will be a mistake.  Ishi is pretty much a goner after spring training even if Belt starts the season in Fresno.

Giants knock Mat Latos around

I know, I know, I've made a point that it's only spring training before.  But you've gotta admit.  It's great to see this loser get roughed up even if it doesn't count.

It's a big deal that the Giants hit this guy well.  He absolutely owned the Giants last season until his final 2 starts.  Hell, he beat poor Jonathan Sanchez 1-0 TWICE!  The Giants, and Sanchez, did get their revenge by defeating Mat (who stole my other T) Latos on the last day of the season. 3-0 to send the Padres home for the 2010 offseason so they could trade away their biggest and possibly only offensive threat.

I'm sure you are all familiar with the story about Latos signing a baseball for charity autograph auction and writing "I hate SF on it."  Maybe you heard about his comments about how all the Giants from last year were all "Just a bunch of guys grabbed from other teams".  If the way he pitched against the Giants and his antics didn't make you dislike the guy then maybe the fact that he plays for the Padres will help you not like him.

Although you may have to just pity him though.  He is stuck on the San Diego Padres.  Who, as they showed once again this past offseason, aren't really all that concerned with winning.  Maybe if his team cared about that, then they would have made some more moves to improve his team at the deadline last offseason.

Enjoy battling it out with the D-backs for last place Mat!

Giants rolling in Scottsdale

I'm gonna start off by saying:  "It's only spring training."

But you gotta admit, the Giants sure look good.

Everything seems to be clicking for the Giants.  Lincecum is striking out tons of guys, Jonathan Sanchez looks like he's ready to be the #2 starter, Buster Posey is Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval looks lean and mean, and Brandon Belt is gonna make the opening day roster decision a tough one for Bochy, Sabean, and crew.

Even the negative stories seem to be minor.  Matt Cain's elbow inflammation seems to have subsided, the ridiculous talk about the Giants eating the rest of Barry Zito's contract has gone away, and Freddy Sanchez is already playing in games and looks to be ready for opening day.

The only real concern with the team that I have at this point is Miguel Tejada who has been pretty horrible defensively and not so great offensively.  Tejada says that he is always a terrible spring training player and I vaguely remember this to be the case during his days with the A's, you really have to be worried since our backup SS is who?  Emmanuel Burriss?  Brandon Crawford?  Ryan Rohlinger?  None of these choices instills any confidence.

But as I said before, it's only spring training and any of these positives can become negatives or the negatives can become positives.  But at least baseball is being played!

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!

Early Reports on Pablo Sandoval sound encouraging

In the early days of spring training, all of the reports regarding the Giants portly third baseman sound encouraging.  He is down to 240 lbs from 260 (this would mean a 20lb weight reduction and not the 30+ lbs that was reported before camp started).  He has been working hard all offseason and he has a confidence that seemed to be lacking last season.

I think the confidence part is the biggest key to Pablo.  Even though he showed that he could put up All-Star type numbers once, I think that as soon as his slump became extended he started to think that he was never going to be able to do it again in the big leagues.

Much has been made of all of the personal issues in his life last season, and I think that if those are the things that affected him so dramatically last season, then boy is he in trouble.  Sure a divorce is hard but so is life and if Pablo is going to be affected every time a little adversity creeps in to his life then he is going to have a hard time succeeding and not just at baseball either.

That being said, I think that he used the offseason well.  He got the weight off, learned hitting from Bonds, and reported to camp early.  I think that he got the message that the Giants' brass sent him at the end of last season and he is poised to have a rebound.  Then the Panda hats will be back in full force!

The pitchers and catchers have reported!

This offseason I have been kinda lazy in my posting about The Giants.   But now that we have some baseball related stuff actually happening, I am ready to get back in to the swing of things!

As I'm sure you already know, the pitchers and catchers reported to spring training yesterday and the first actual spring training game is in 10 days!

As for the team itself, nothing much to report.  A quick view of the front page of Sfgiants.com reveals that Buster Posey is glad to get back to work, Tim Lincecum is driven by his stumbles last season, and the Giants are excited to begin their title defense.  Pretty informative stuff!

The biggest surprise is that Pablo Sandoval is one of the few position players in camp already.  There was no word of his weight so I hope that is good news since I would expect there to be plenty of articles about how he failed to get in shape if he didn't.  We also found out that the ball from the last out of the World Series is in Brian Wilson's possession and it is safe inside of an unused candy jar.

That's pretty much it for now.  I am counting down the days until the season starts and by the time I get this posted there will only be 9 more days until the first spring training game!