The Giants Baseball Blog

It was only the first game of the spring, and you can't take anything too seriously at this point, but there weren't many positives going on for the Giants Thursday afternoon in Scottsdale. In fact, it was so ugly by the 3rd inning that Jon Miller and Duane Kuiper started discussing the Academy Awards. The offense, the area of the team that everyone is wondering about, looked stale and went down quickly and quietly through the first 4 innings. They were, however, without 3/8 of their projected opening day lineup missing Ray Durham (hamstring), Omar Vizquel (knee) and Bengie Molina (back). Randy Winn hit a bomb in the first inning and Aaron Rowand had a couple solid singles in his first un -official at bats as a Giant, but that was about it for the starters. The young hitters did a little better later on in the game. Eugenio Velez flashed some of his speed and offensive ability with an RBI triple in the sixth, something he had a knack for doing with the Giants late last year...

The Giants' full squad has been at work for almost a week now, and most the talk around the Giants camp has been of the young players that will fill out this teams' roster come opening day. There have been plenty of articles written this spring about the stud pitchers Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum , as well as the teams young outfielders and second basemen Kevin Frandsen . One guy who is starting to get some attention, and a guy who I'm sure a lot of casual Giants' fans aren't familiar with is John Bowker . It looks like the Giants may have future plans for the 24-year old power bat who led all Giants minor leaguer's with 22 home runs and 90 RBI's in AA ball last season. A 22 home run season doesn't jump out at you too much, but he hit them playing in the Eastern League which is very rich with pitching and big ballparks. He also made the Eastern League All-Star team which is no small feat for a Giants' minor league hitter. Due to the fact that there ...

Most all of the Giants' 40-man roster had arrived in camp Monday, with the first full squad workout of the spring scheduled for Tuesday morning. Not much new news to talk about yet, but that should change Tuesday when the whole calvary goes to work. Most of the talk around the camp so far has been about the Giants' impending second base battle as well as their new philosophy on running more as a team. It seems like they have been talking about running more every year for a while now, but this year they are actually going to have to do some things on the bases in order to produce runs. Outside of Aaron Rowand and Bengie Molina, I would be pleasantly surprised to see any other player on the current roster top 15 home runs or 75 RBI's this year, so they are going to have to manufacture runs and taking extra bases will be crucial. Everybody in the Giants projected starting lineup is a threat to take a base except for Molina so they have the pieces to enforce that kind of baseba...

The Giants have only been through a couple workouts this spring, and with camp full of pitchers to scour over, Bruce Bochy has been particularly impressed with Jonathon Sanchez as well as 21-year old Rule 5 draftee Jose Capellan. Bochy mentioned Capellan's size and velocity as something that stuck out as well as Sanchez's improved command and mechanics. Capellan is listed on the Giants official roster as being 6'2" 170 pounds, but appeared in camp closer to 6'3" 250 pounds. Both Sanchez and Capellan are competing for a left-handed bullpen spot with Sanchez also in the mix for the fifth starters spot. Capellan has to make the roster out of spring or else he can be taken back by the Red Sox if they want him. I think this is a good year for the Giants to take a shot on a rule 5 guy and if Capellan shows he belongs during the spring, he should be given a bullpen spot, even if it's at the expense of veterans Jack Taschner or Steve Kline. Sanchez on the other ha...

Pitchers and catchers are set for their first workout of the spring on Thursday, and this will be my final post of what has seemed like a very long and boring off-season. Come Thursday, there will be some actual baseball to talk about and even though the Giants are likely looking at their 4th consecutive losing season, spring fever is starting to swing into full effect with Giant fans. Brian Sabean made an interesting move Monday, signing reliever Scott Williamson to a minor league deal with an invite to camp. This move is a low risk, high reward type deal that could end up giving the Giants a valuable bullpen commodity for the league minimum. Williamson threw well in his brief, injury shortened 2007 campaign. When healthy, he still brings a decent fastball and isn't easy to hit (16 k's and a .235 BAA in only 14 innings pitched last year). At worst, he gets cut or starts the year in Fresno, at best, the Giants have themselves a solid middle reliever. His injury last year wasn...

With the Giants' pitchers and catchers ready to break for spring training in 9 short days and no Giant news to report on (besides the steroid debacle), I figured now would be a decent time to recap the offseason, although there wasn't much movement on the Giants' front: Who's Here: CF Aaron Rowand (Phillies) Who's Gone: Barry Bonds (FA), Pedro Feliz (Phillies), Ryan Klesko (FA) Aaron Rowand takes Bonds spot in the lineup and in the outfield which helps this team's defense significantly, but losing Bonds' bat and not adequately replacing it will have this team struggling to score runs, even more so than last year. As for Feliz and Klesko, both are very replaceable and neither were high priorities for the club at the end of the year. Feliz was in talks with the Giants for most of the winter, but the sides never seemed to get to close on anything. Losing Feliz and Klesko means a lot more ab's for Rich Aurilia, Kevin Frandsen and Dan Ortmeier which is a goo...