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 first workout of the spring, and of course didn't have much to say regarding anything about off-field issues. I don't think the Giants' could have asked for a better kick off to the spring. Everybody arrived healthy, on time and ready to roll.
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...
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