The Giants Baseball Blog

The World Series starts tonight, and even if your team isn't a part of it, the fall classic is always something a baseball fan will tune in to. My March predictions for this year's fall classic were quite a bit off, thanks to injuries to the Tigers pitching staff and underachieving by the Mets . Here is a breakdown of a 2007 World Series that nobody in the World could have predicted. Colorado Rockies vs. Boston Red Sox Offense : On paper, the Rockies don't appear to measure up with the Red Sox offensively, but they have shown that they're streaky and certainly peaking right now. Recent history has shown that the team that's hot in October wins it all, and this year the Rockies are that team. Say what you want about Manny Ramirez or David Ortiz, Matt Holliday is the best player in this series. The Rockies have to get Todd Helton and Garret Atkins going. Willie Taveras also has to do a better job at the top of the order if they want to keep their streak alive....

The Arizona Fall League has gotten underway and there are a few Giants' of note participating this year. Daniel Ortmeier , Nate Schierholtz and Eugenio Velez are all getting an extension to their 2007 season. Ortmeier and Schierholtz are getting the most attention as both have a shot at starting somewhere for the Giants in 2008. The Giants' longterm plan of moving Ortmeier to first base has carried over into the fall and it's looking more and more likely that the position will be his next season. He's gotten of to a hot start in the AFL, leading the league in hitting with .406 avg. through his first 6 games while playing a flawless first base. He's also been getting a lot of mentoring from J.T. Snow during the process. I am very curious to see how this experiment works out. I never had high hopes for Ortmeier, but He kept getting better and better with the more playing time he got towards the end of the season. 6 home runs, a .287 average and .819 OPS over 157 big...

According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press (Minnesota), the Giants are one of the three most likely destinations for free agent center fielder Torii Hunter. Everything at this point is just speculation, but this seems to be right up Brian Sabean's alley as far as players he'd have interest in. I have mentioned a few times in recent posts that I would steer clear of Hunter for many reasons. His best asset is his ability to play center field and a top flight defensive center fielder is about the last thing the Giants need at this point. They already have depth at the position with Rajai Davis, who proved to very good center fielder himself, and Dave Roberts returning next season. If Hunter were an average defensive player, he'd be worth nowhere near the amount of money that he is going to get this winter. Yes, he's above average offensively, but I wouldn't say he's an offensive force by any means. A career .793 OPS isn't worth paying 17+ million dollars a year fo...

The Giants have made it known that one of their 4 impending free agents (Barry Bonds) will not be back with the team in 2008, but they still have 4 more decisions to make before they start exploring the free agent market in November. Ryan Klesko, Omar Vizquel and Pedro Feliz are set to become free agents as soon as the world series ends. The late emergence of Daniel Ortmeier as a potential first basemen probably pushes Ryan Klesko out of the mix. The two big question marks are Pedro Feliz and Omar Vizquel. The free agent market for infielders is very thin this winter so both players will have value. It's tough to find two better players that defend their positions as well as Feliz and Vizquel do, but both struggled with the bat this season and neither have much offensive upside at this point in their careers. It is very likely that the Giants will bring back one of the two, but not both. Due to the fact that the other top free agent shortstops on the market are Cesar Izturis and Da...

The negatives certainly outweighed positives for the Giants in 2007 as they finished in last place in the NL West for the first time since 1996. Here is an evaluation of the San Francisco Giants' 2007 season. Starting Pitching : Matt Morris carried the staff early, then Noah Lowry and Tim Lincecum emerged and ended up having very good years. Lincecum , Lowry and Matt Cain give Giants fans reason to be optimistic about the future. Cain pitched well enough to win 15+ games if he had gotten proper run support and relief help. The team also got a very good contribution out of Kevin Corriea as a starter and he could be in line for the 5 th spot next year. The only negative this season was Barry Zito . He pitched a lot better towards the end of the season, but the 126 million dollar man was struggling so bad at one point that Bruce Bochy used him in relief a few times to give him extra work. Regardless, the Giants starting pitching is the best thing they have going for them and wi...