Skip to main content

Pitchers and Catchers Report

The Giants' pitchers and catchers reported to spring training wednesday and had their first workouts thursday morning in Scottsdale, Arizona. The main headlines were the weight loss of Armondo Benitez, the polite complaining of Jason Schmidt, and the Barry Bonds reality show. Apparrantly Benitez, who reported two weeks early to Scottsdale to workout with trainer Stan Conte, has lost 20 pounds off his hefty frame from last season. This is very good news, as weight and conditioning issues caused him to tear his groin and miss most of 2005. Benitez says he is "two weeks away from top game shape" and I think we will see a solid spring out of Benitez. I think with the improved conditioning, we will see an increase in velocity. I doubt he will ever be that 97-99 mph guy again, but 94-95 consistantly with the split and the slider going would work just fine.

Jason Schmidt has reported in a little different way. Schmidt was asked if he was glad the Giants excersised his option at 10,000,000 rather than bought him out at 3,000,000. He said he likes San Francisco and all, but Schmidt basically said no, in a polite way. Schmidt actually talks about the mediocre pitchers getting nice deals this winter, the thin market, and how he thought he would be a hot commoditiy despite his subpar year last season. Schmidt basically wanted to burn the Giants for 3 million and then go get a nice multi-year deal one more time incase he has another average season. Talk about greed and loyalty (or lack there of) in sports, maybe I am reading too far into it, but it sounds like Schmidt could care less if he was with the Giants or not, as long as he could get a free 3 million dollars on top of whatever deal he signed this winter. I will still root for Schmidt and I still hope he rebounds and wins 20 games, gets his fastball back and becomes a Cy Young candidtate again, as long as he is in orange and black. However, when you look at those comments, you can't help but think that Schmidt is doubting himself a little bit.
Among other arrivers at the first day of camp was Pedro Gomez and the crew that is getting ready to follow Barry Bonds around for the season and air a weekly series on his pursuit of Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron. This should be interesting. I wonder that if the show goes well, people change some oponions on Bonds, this has to be one of the reasons why he is letting them do this. Barry wasn't there yet, but they did hound manager Felipe Alou with questions, one of which being about Bonds hitting 2nd in the lineup. Jeff Fassero and Alfredo Simon were a few no-shows for the first workout. Simon should be there within the next few days, due to visa problems. Fassero had some personal issues, but he should also be there within a day or two.
Fantasy Basketball Podcast: Check it Out!!!

Comments

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