Skip to main content

Full Squad Workouts underway, Barry retiring?

The Giants had their first full squad workout of the spring on Monday. The only big absentee was Barry Bonds, who won't be repoting until Wenesday or Thursday do to personal reasons. Barry also hinted a few days back in an interview with Bob Nightengale that 2006 would be his laast year playing baseball, regardless what happens. Barry talked about his knees and all the pain he's been in over the last few years. He also talks about his current custody battle over his oldest son, Nickoli. Barry sounded very sincere in his interview with Nightengale, assuring all that this would be his last go round. Less than 24 hours later howver, Barry cleared the air saying he would return in '07 if his knee would allow him too. Who knows whats going through Barry Bonds mind right now, but obviouslt there are numerous things and some may be more important than the game of baseball. I would personally like to see Barry go after he wins a ring in San Francisco and ends the Giants 50+ year drought for a championship. I really have a hard time seeing Barry leaving after the season unless his knees are really gone, and his game takes a noticable dive. The only other scenerio I see Barry retiring under is if the Giants win the World Series in '06. I'd say niether have a particularly good chance of happening. I just can't see Barry wondering off into the sunset after a 35+ home run year and a 1200 OPS. Right now If I had to guess, I'd say Barry comes back fairly healthy in '06, puts up another big season, and then signs a 1 year deal with an option to return to the Giants. The Giants have a ton of money coming off the books after this season, so Barry may want to hang around one more year to see what Sabean can assemble. As of now, the Giants will have over 60 million dollars coming off their payroll after this season (including Bonds). The '06 free agent class has the makings to be solid, and definetly packs more talent than the thin '05 class was. Derek Lee, Gary Sheffield, Carlos Lee, Jim Edmonds, Alphonso Soriano, Melvin Mora, Tori Hunter and Aubrey Huff are just a few of the possible free agent position players.

So far, outside of the Bonds story, there hasn't been too much noise around the Giants camp so far. Everyone is there who should be and nobody has yet to report any physical problems. A few of the interesting battles this spring will be for the 5th starters job, and the final roster bench spot. In the running for the 5th starters job are imcumbent Brad Hennessey, newcomer Jamie Wright, and the live but unpolished Kevin Corriea. Hennessey has a slight inside track because Felipe Alou likes the way he finished the year off last season. However, Jamie Wright has been getting a lot of talk from the skippeer, including how he thinks Wright will be a fine fit at At&t Park. This indicates that the non-roster invitee has an inside track on having a roster spot. Alou also may feel more confident with another veteran at the end of the rotation after youngsters Noah Lowrey and Matt Cain. Moises Alou apparantly looks to be in a lot better shape than what he was in when he reported last season. Alou went on record saying that "if Barry is plays 100+ games, we'll win the division." Alou, who is getting ready to join the Dominican team at the first of March to participate in the World Baseball Classic, is also considering retirement after the season. Other Giants scheduled to play in the 3 week tourny are Randy Winn, Omar Vizquel and Pedro Feliz. Feliz was contiplating staying with the Giants because he'd be behind Aramis Ramirez and Adrian Beltre at 3rd base for the Dominican squad.

Comments

Meredith Carter said…
Regardless of how frequently I read it, it never gets old. You certainly hit the nail on the head on this one. This is something individuals need to think about. Your blog is really mind blowing and the design is really first class. Really, your blog is mind boggling. It's important that they know how the structure of online journals workout. You can use this order custom essays online for any kind of academic writing work.
10:20 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Giants Still Need Infield Help

On Saturday, the Giants finalized a 2 year contract extension with Freddy Sanchez, who they acquired in July for Tim Alderson. The new deal for Sanchez will pay him 12 million over the next 2 seasons instead of 8.5 million for just 2010, which was his option for 2010. I've voiced my disappointment in Sanchez a few times here since the Giants dealt for him over the summer. He wasn't able to stay on the field full time to help this club with their run at the NL Wild Card, and even when he was in there, he didn't seem to make much of an impact in th e lineup. Now, I wasn't necessarily hoping the Giants would cut ties with Sanchez (they probably would have had to pay 4 million or so to buy him out), just didn't think he was worth upwards of 10 million dollars, and would have liked to see the Giants pursue someone like Orlando Hudson with that money. The Giants already have an infielder who's being paid about 3-4 times what his play over the last 2 seasons would indi...
201 comments
Read more

WORLD SERIES: Giants Move Up 2-0 on Texas

PreGame After taking game one in a surprising slug-fest , the Giants look to go up 2-0 on the Rangers in the World Series on Thursday night. The Giants are sending out Matt Cain, a guy who I'm sure every Giants' fan is pretty confident in. He'll be a opposed by C.J. Wilson, who's in his first year as a full-time starter, but has been brilliant in the role. He did struggle his last time out though, so hopefully the Giants can get to him early and get into his head a bit. I'm going to do something I've never done here on this unique occasion, and sort of do an in-game post. updating this post every time I feel I have something to add. So go Giants, and be sure to check back throughout the game, and after, to vent or whatever! As long as Matt Cain keeps rolling, and the Giants keep coming up with those clutch 2-out hits, we should be OK. Texas has that high-powered offense that can score in a hurry, as we saw last night, so the Giants cannot let down and have to t...
87 comments
Read more

Giants Notes: Lincecum Signs, Ross to Boston

Well, even though I touched on it a little bit in our last post, I haven't really had a chance to get my thoughts out on the new Lincecum deal since he and the Giants agreed earlier in the week. Also, on the other end of things, the Giants missed out on shoring up their outfield by letting Cody Ross sign in Boston for only $3 million in 2012. First off, obviously, wanted to talk a bit about Lincecum. I've already said here that I didn't expect him to sign a long-term deal that takes him through free agency, but it doesn't mean he wants to leave San Francisco like everyone is suspecting. I mean, if I were Lincecum, I'd probably do the same thing, even if I planned on eventually signing with the Giants long-term. Why take a chance at mitigating your value to just sign a deal? Granted, a 5 year, $100 million deal isn't anything to sneeze at, in this market, if he were a free agent, Lincecum could probably easily command a 8 year, $200 million deal. If he could get ...
119 comments
Read more