Offense Starting to Roll

Some of the Giants hitters who started the spring out cold are starting to swing the bats a little better. Rich Aurilia and Randy Winn each had their best day of the spring on Wednesday. They both hit their first home runs of the spring and both had 3 hit games. It's good to see those guys start up because the Giants are going to need good years out of both of them. One of these guys are likely to end up being the 5th place hitter behind Barry Bonds and Ray Durham. The three guys who haven't been able to get into any kind of grove yet are Durham, Omar Vizquel and Bengie Molina. Durham has been the Giant that has been hit hardest by the flu and just hasn't been healthy enough to string together any kind of consistent at bats. He was in the lineup Wednesday hitting cleanup for the first time, a spot which he may man all season, and drove in his first run of the spring. Molina and Vizquel have been healthy and playing but they just haven't been swinging the bat well. Molina went 0-3 on Thursday vs. the Brewers and dropped his spring batting average to .118. Some people questioned the Molina signing but not because of his offense, I expect to see him heat it up before the games start counting for real. With a catcher signing on with a new team and changing leagues, it takes some time to get familiar with the pitchers before they really can concentrate on hitting.

Bruce Bochy reiterated this week, after Barry Zito's second solid performance of the spring and

Matt Cain's second bad one, that Zito will be the opening day starter vs. the Padres, April 3rd at AT&T Park. Even if Cain had dominated this spring, it was pretty obvious that the Giants would go with their 126 million dollar man to bring them into the 2007 season. Zito has been as advertised so far this spring, effective without overpowering. In 5 innings pitched, he has only allowed 1 run on 4 hits while striking out 3 batters. Another highly compensated pitcher the Giants have on their roster, Matt Morris, looked good for the first time in while on Wednesday. Morris was the teams number 2 starter going into last season, but this year will probably be in the 4th slot. Wherever he is, he is just as key as the younger guys, he has to be good if the Giants rotation is going to be.

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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...

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...

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 ...

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