The Giants Baseball Blog

Bonds in from Left 1 last time If your a Giants fan, hopefully you had a chance to make it out to the ballpark on Wednesday night to give Barry Bonds one final farewell. We all knew this day would eventually come, but it sure did feel weird cheering on Bonds for the last time. Even though the Giants were once again shut down by Jake Peavy , it certainly was a special, surreal night at AT&T Park. Bonds came about 10 feet short of putting a perfect ending to his Giant career when he hit a ball out to warning track in right center in the 6 th inning, his final at-bat as a Giant in San Francisco. It wasn't until after he came running back into the dugout when he stopped and gave Jake Peavy a hug and waved goodbye to the Padre bench that it sunk in; This is the last time we get to see Barry. After that at-bat, Bonds waved goodbye to the fans and that was it. I'm not sure Giants fans are fully aware of the greatness they have been able to witness firsthand over the last 15 year...

Now that the Giants have made it official that Barry Bonds will not be with the team in 2008, the search begins for his replacement. Obviously the team isn't going to find another Bonds on the free agent market to carry them for next 15 years like they did in winter of 1992, but they are going to have to find another player outside of the organization to help build a lineup around. I don't think Brian Sabean is looking to head to spring training next season with the heart of the order consisting of Randy Winn, Ray Durham and Bengie Molina, so here are just a few options that could be available this winter: Possible Free Agents: Tori Hunter: Will likely be the most sought after free agent on the market this winter. His speed and exceptional defense would fit very well at AT&T Park and his right handed power bat would be more ideal for this ballpark than a lefty. He also expressed some interest in San Francisco when he was here for the All-Star game in July. The only proble...

The teams' final homestand of the season gets started Thursday night and it could be the final time Giants' fans get to see Barry Bonds wearing the orange and black at AT&T Park. Bonds is going to become a free agent after the world series ends and while I have a tough time picturing him in any other uniform, I don't think Bonds will be back with the Giants next year. He had his spurts at times early this season in which he carried the club with his bat, but it's clear that he no longer is the offensive catalyst he once was. Bonds currently has 28 home runs on the year and is hitting .279 which are still very good numbers for a 43 year old, but his play has dropped off significantly over the second half of the season and he just isn't worth the 18+ million dollars he's being paid this season. September has been the roughest month of the year so far for Bonds as he's gone deep just once and has battled nagging injuries. As much as I support Bonds and ap...

Two trends that have haunted the Giants all year continued this weekend in San Diego. While the Giants offense has looked downright horrible a lot this season, I don't think I have been more frustrated watching this team at the plate than I was watching Saturday's game vs. San Diego. The Giants' hitters were once again shut down, but it was the fact they where dominated by Brett Tomko that really magnified things. Tomko was 2-11 with an era in the high 5's coming into that start and had been released by the Dodgers just a few weeks earlier, but he looked like an ace vs. the Giants' pathetic bats. And not only was the offense embarrassed by a very hittable pitcher, they once again failed to support another quality start by Matt Cain. They couldn't even muster a run off Tomko or anyone else to get Cain off the hook for the game, so he suffered another loss in a game in which he gave up 1 base runner in 6 innings pitched. Matt Cain has to be wondering what in th...

There are still about 3 weeks left in the regular season, but with the season winding down and not much going on with the club, I figured it would be a good time to throw out some wild guesses as to who might fill out the San Francisco Giants roster in 2008. So here we go: Trade: (Jonathon Sanchez and Kevin Frandsen to Cincinnati for Edwin Encarnacion ) FA Signings: (*Adam Dunn, Tony Clark, Scott Linebrink ) *potential free agent FA Losses: (Barry Bonds, Pedro Feliz , Ryan Klesko ) Lineup: 1. CF Dave Roberts (still under contract for 2 more seasons, will likely platoon with Davis) 2. RF Randy Winn (like Roberts, not going anywhere) 3. 3B Edwin Encarnacion (*obtained from Cinci via Jonathon Sanchez trade) 4. LF Adam Dunn (the Giants will need a big bat to replace Bonds and Dunn could be the guy) 5.C Bengie Molina (the solid backstop will be here for 2 more years) 6. 1B Dan Ortmeier (Giants are talking like Ortmeier will be starting next year) 7. 2B Ray Durham (under contract fo...

The Giants did their part to help keep the Dodgers reeling by taking 2 of 3 over the weekend at AT&T Park. Sure, a Giants-Dodgers series' in September is a lot more interesting when both teams are fighting for something but this weekends series was entertaining nonetheless. The Giants won both Friday night's and Sunday's game with late inning heroics, 2 wins that push the fading Dodgers even further behind in the NL Wild Card race. The hero on Friday was Daniel Ortmeier as he untied the game in the bottom of the ninth with a shot to the deepest part of the ballpark of one of the better relievers in the league. Ortmeier has been getting a lot of time at first base recently and is performing better with the more consistent playing time. Sunday's game winner came off the bat of the struggling Ray Durham. Ray Durham came off the bench in the 8 th inning to hit a go-ahead 3-run home run that gave the Giants a lead they didn't surrender. Durham had to feel some re...

The Giants have to keep Noah Lowry on the shelf for the rest of the year. It makes no sense at all to let him make another start with his elbow not at 100% and the Giants playing for nothing but pride. It's too bad for Lowry because he was on pace for a 17+ win season, but it's a lot more important to have him healthy for 2008 than stretch him out in a meaningless 2007 season. I also think they should do the same thing with Tim Lincecum as his velocity has plummeted in recent starts, an indicator that he's getting tired. During his latest start in Colorado, he was being clocked around 88-89 mph which is a huge drop off from the 97-98 he was throwing just a few weeks ago. A drop like that in velocity usually means injury or tired arm and in Lincecum's case it's a tired arm. Resting Lowry and Lincecum for the last 3 weeks of the year would also give the Giants an opportunity to asses some of the other younger pitchers in their system. They are going to have to ...

The Giants have started expanding their roster with September call-ups from AAA Fresno, and will continue to do so over the next week or so as Fresno's season winds down. So far, none of the call-ups have been too surprising and it's been mostly players who were up with the team at some point earlier in the season. There are two guys who have an outside shot at being called up that I hope make it. I would like to see Eugeno Velez and Travis Blackley both up with the Giants once the Grizzlies season comes to an end. The 25 year-old Velez has put together his second solid minor league season in a row combining to hit .300 with 54 stolen bases at both AA Connecticut and in Fresno and earned a trip to the AA all-star game. He has the same sort of game as Rajai Davis, but can switch hit and has a more potent bat. The only thing about his season that sticks out is his huge drop off in the power department. After collecting 64 extra base hits (14 long balls) in Single A last year,...