The Giants Baseball Blog

For the second consecutive spring, the Giants held a charity event called "Giants Idol," where many of the rookies in camp all perform a song of their choice and are judged by various veterans. As many remember last year, Barry Bonds dressed up as Paula Abdul and served as one of the judges. Keeping the same theme this season, Barry Zito dawned the Abdul costume . Bonds was at the event, but did not participate in the judging this year. Randy Winn and Rich Aurilia where the other judges and Omar Vizquel hosted the event. Among the youngsters that sang/performed in the event were top prospects Tim Lincecum, who performed a Frank Sinatra act, and Kevin Frandsen, who dressed up like Will Ferell and performed a song from the movie Anchorman. It looks like this "Giants' Idol" thing is becoming quite a hit, and I hope they consider televising it next spring. The Giants' will be playing in the first live action game of the spring Tuesday as they have their ...

Brian Sabean may not be as secure in his job as I thought. I always had the the idea that Sabean would never fired, or let go by the Giants, but in Saturday's Mercury news article, it was made pretty clear that Sabean isn't such a sure bet to stick around after all. Sabean's contract runs out at the end of the year, and Peter Magowan has said that he won't entertain extending a deal until the end of the season. The Giants have gone from one of baseball's consistently better teams, to a virtual bottom feeder over the last few seasons, and that's on Sabean . However, the fact that the Giants' have been competitive over the last decade also has a lot to do with what Sabean did. I personally think it's time for a change in the Giants front office. I respect Sabean and I think he has made some solid moves. I am sure the Giants would have never made the series in '02 if Sabes didn't go out and acquire Kenny Lofton . Unfortunately , ever sinc...

Throughout most of the winter and into the early spring, most of the talk about the Giants pitching has been about the signing of Barry Zito , and how he will become the new ace and mentor to the Giants younger pitchers like Matt Cain and Noah Lowry . Lost in all the talk was Matt Morris. He didn't quite have the season he or the Giants' wanted in 2006 and I think people are kind of writing him off. He signed a big deal before the '06 season and I think many fans are already marking this as another bad move by Sabean . After all, 15 losses in a season to go along with a 5 era isn't quite what you expect when you give a guy 3 years and 24 million dollars. I know he didn't perform up to expectations , but I am not ready to call the Morris singing a bust quite yet. I know he has some things to work out, but this guy has always been a winner, and I have more reason to believe he will rebound than not. Whether Morris' ribs and back where an issue, as he expressed aft...

Barry Bonds' much anticipated spring training arrival took place Tuesday and he came ready to play. In the teams first full squad workout Bonds impressed, and proved he is ready to start his 22nd summer of major league baseball. He took batting practice of the Giants' top two pitchers, Barry Zito and Matt Cain, and was roping the ball all over the yard. His most impressive swing came off Cain when he hit a mammoth shot to right field. According to all the reports and judging by what I saw on ESPN, Bonds' looks like he's in great shape, better than when he reported last year. He participated in the full team workout and was shown chatting it up and getting along with all the players. The Giants' "Two Barry's" also had a nice surprise for the media as Bonds' and Barry Zito even sported matching shirts that stated on the back "Don't ask me, ask Barry" with an arrow pointing horizontally. As always, Bonds met with the press before the fir...

Apparently all the commotion over the past couple days over Barry Zito changing his motion was all for not. Zito cleared up the mis-understanding Saturday saying that the change in his delivery was just to help work out some kinks in his old one. Back along with his old delivery was his big sweeping curve and he had a couple of teammates impressed. Bengie Molina, who faced Zito many times in the American League, is now Zito's main catcher. After catching Zito's bullpen session Saturday, Molina said he now knows why he couldn't hit him over the years. This is refreshing news to a lot of people, even Giants coaches and management, who wondered what in the world he Zito was thinking for totally making over his whole pitching motion. I really didn't question it as long as he knew what he was doing and didn't hurt himself. Zito looks like he's on well on track to cementing his spot as the opening day starter for the Giants. Bruce Bochy hasn't officially said it w...

Barry Bonds has officially been added to the 40 man roster as MLB finally approved his deal( Press Release ). Bonds originally signed the deal a couple weeks ago, but MLB rejected the deal because of some of the clauses in contract. Bonds had already said he would be at the ballpark on the first day of full-squad workouts, so I wasn't surprised the deal got done before Tuesday's first full practice. I was expecting Bonds to show up this weekend sometime and finalize the deal, but apparently he wanted it done sooner. I found it pretty interesting reading that Bonds' locker will be right next to new ace, Barry Zito's . This offseason , after Zito signed, he was asked at his press conference if he had contacted Bonds at all. Zito replied that there where"attempts" but there was never a connection. Apparently Zito has asked to be locker buddies with Bonds, not only in Scottsdale for the next 6 weeks, but also for the regular season at AT&T Park. Zit...

The Giants pitchers and catchers aren't scheduled to have their first full squad workout until Thursday, but Armondo Benitez has already been in Scottsdale a week for some much needed extra conditioning. He also is trying to prove to the Giants (and Marlins) that his knee is fully recovered from last years injury. Benitez's name has been floated in the sports sections' as being "on the move" all winter long, but nothing ever materialized. The Giants were in talks, and still may be, about sending Benitez to back Florida, but they couldn't come to an agreement with the Marlins on which player they'd receive in exchange for Benitez. I have already said in various posts that I don't think the Giants should get rid of Benitez just for the sake of getting him off the team. He is in his contract year, and if he wants to keep earning big money, he is going to have to turn in one helluva season to cover himself for the last 2. For this reason, I expect a determ...

After discussing the potential spring bullpen battle for the last 2 spots in the Giants' bullpen, it is now time to look at their bench situation heading into the spring. The Giants have plenty of options when it comes to filling out there bench, and the battle for the last couple bench spots should be as interesting as the battle for bullpen hierarchy. The only two guys who are sure to have spots on the Giants bench come opening day are back-up catcher Elizier Alfonzo, and free-agent signee Ryan Klesko. If the Giants are going to carry 12 pitchers, which is most likely the case coming out of spring training, it would leave 3 remaining bench spots to be filled with plenty of candidates in the running. As they stand now, the Giants will need to find a utility infielder, and 2 outfielders to fill out the roster by opening day. The two favorites to earn the 4th and 5th outfielders roles are Mark Sweeney and Todd Linden. Linden had a solid year at the plate in limited time last season ...

As it stands now, if Armondo Benitez is healthy and on the team, the Giants have 5 arms that look like they will be guaranteed spots in the bullpen. Benitez, Steve Kline, Kevin Corriea, Brad Hennessey and Jonathon Sanchez look like they have spots reserved for them. If Sanchez beats out Ortiz for the 5th spot in the rotation and Ortiz is released by the end of spring, it would open up another spot. Right now it looks like there are 2 spots to be had and there are going to be a handfuls of People battling it out for those final roster spots. There has been a lot of talk about Brian Wilson this winter, some are even labeling him as the next closer of the San Francisco Giants, while some say they will be surprised if he makes the team. I am right in the middle on him. I haven't seen anything to make me believe he is anywhere close to being a major league closer, but I do like his arm and I do see some upside there. It looks like he will likely be on the staff unless he blows it during...

Even though the commissioners' office is making the Giants "re-word" the deal Barry Bonds signed, and he still isn't officially on the 40 man roster, it looks like it is all but official. Bonds alread passed the teams' physical and said he will be present for the first spring training full squad workout which takes place on February 18th. This is good news for the team because now when pitchers and catchers report in 2 weeks, at least they won't be distracted by the media regarding Bonds status on the team. Now, there is no doubt that when players start showing up in Scottsdale, they will still be questioned about Bonds in some way or other, but at least he'll be around as well to shoulder some of the load. With Bonds under contract, it looks like the Giants are set to kick off the spring at full strength. The interesting thing I read this week, was the fact that Barry Bonds is 100% sure he will be playing baseball in 2008. If this is the case, there is no...