Giants Exposed in Opener

Barry Zito made his highly anticipated Giants' debut Tuesday, but the start of the '07 season looked a lot like how the '06 season ended. The Giants where shut down from start to finish by Jake Peavy and the Padres, losing 7-0. The only hits they got off Peavy where a check swing single by Barry Bonds, a swinging bunt by Dave Roberts and a line drive single for Ray Durham that probably would have been an out at any other park in the bigs. Mike Cameron was playing Durham to pull and wasn't able to get to what would have been a routine out at a straight away defense. The team as a whole looked very stale. Pedro Feliz fumbled a routine grounder that could have been a double play to end an inning. After the Feliz mishandle, Barry Bonds' lack of range in left field was exposed when he let a line drive fall in front of him, one that 90% of big league outfielders will make. The season is barely a day old, and I have already disagreed with a few of Bruce Bochy's moves. I know Rich Aurlia is a fan favorite in San Francisco, and he's a solid player, but to have him hitting 5th in the lineup vs. a guy like Jake Peavy is just asking for trouble. Ryan Klesko should have started the game today and he should get most starts at first base vs. right handed pitching. Again, I like Aurilia, but having him, Bengie Molina and Pedro Feliz hitting all in a row is a gift to right handed pitchers with any kind of breaking ball. Finally, the bullpen looked like it is indeed going to be a problem again, just like last year, and the year before, and the year before. You'd think the Brian Sabean would have figured something out by now, it's not like the Giants are a team without resources.

There aren't many positive things I can say about this game. You know an opening day doesn't go good when the only positive things the announcers can talk about was how great the opening ceremony was. Ray Durham made a few nice defensive plays at second base that probably saved a couple runs, and those where the plays of the game as far as the Giants where concerned. Zito wasn't all that bad and I didn't agree with the move to take him out after the 5th. However, he surely didn't look like a 126 million dollar pitcher. His stuff was very average today. The curve wasn't all that great, he hung a lot of them up in the zone. His best out pitch today was his change up. The thing I worried about the most watching Zito's start was the guys' velocity. He was around 80-86 mph all day with his fastball and most of them where closer to 80. I knew Zito wasn't a power pitcher, but I did expect him to be more in the 87-90 range than what he showed Tuesday. I hope his velocity increases at least by a few mph as the season moves on. If he is going to be at 83 mph with his fastball all year, he's going to have to be perfect with his command.