The Giants Baseball Blog

This is our first of many draft coverage posts that will be sprinkled in here over the next 2 weeks as we preview, cover and review the 2009 MLB Amateur Draft. In this posts, I just wanted to break down a few of the p who are expected to be available when the Giants select number 6 overall. RHP Aaron Crow : The first player I wanted to look at is the big right-hander from Missouri, Aaron Crow. It's pretty clear that San Diego State phenom Steven Strasburg will go number one. North Carolina's .400 hitting Dustin Ackely, arguably the top hitter in the draft should also be gone before the Giants select at number 6, but then things could go a number of different ways. Crow, the former Tigers' ace, is widely considered the 2nd best arm in the draft behind Strasburg. As a junior in 2008, Crow went 13-0 while striking out 127 batters in just 107 innings pitched. He was drafted number 10 overall in last years draft by the Nationals, but never came to an agreement on a contract and ...

The Giants ended a forgettable road trip over the weekend, a trip in which they went just 1-5 and struggled badly to score runs. However, in their two games since returning back to AT&T Park, their offense has come alive. The Giants have scored 12 runs in the first two games of the three game set with Atlanta and won both of the games with ease. In those two contests, the Giants received solid outings from Jonathan Sanchez (who had been struggling a bit) and Tim Lincecum, but it was the offense that really provide the spark the team needed. Travis Ishikawa was likely on the border of being demoted, as he just wasn't producing offensively. However, Ishikawa may have bought himself some more time with a breakout, 4-4 game on Monday night. The Giants 25 year-old first basemen hit his first home run of the season while both driving in and scoring 3 runs. It looks like the promotion of Jesus Guzman definitely lit a fire under Ishikawa but he's not out of the woods yet. He's ...

The Giants have been a hot topic on the MLB rumor mill lately, as they've been mentioned as having interest in a few hitters that may become available over the next 8 weeks. There was also a rumor started this weekend that had the Giants shopping Matt Cain in order to find that bat they desperately need. Giants fans can take a breath of fresh air, because Matt Cain isn't going anywhere anytime soon. A Giants executive shot down the notion of shopping Cain immediately and said the story had no merit to it. I didn't really see any logic in shopping Cain anyway. He'e arguably been the teams most consistent starter this season (sorry Tim Lincecum ) and at 24 years of age, hasn't come close to peaking. Cain isn't going anywhere and even with guys like Alderson and Bumgarner a year or 2 away, the Giants aren't quite as deep with starting pitchers as some make them out to be. They're comfortable, but to say they have an abundance of young starting pitching ...

The Giants have struggled mightily to score runs over the last 10 days, and they've gone 1-8 over their last 9 to prove it. If you want to know why they've been struggling so bad, take a look at my last couple of posts, cause not much has changed. And since they're still sputtering and there isn't much new to report on, I figured now would be a good time to take our monthly look at what's happening in the minors. The Giants made a couple of organizational moves at the beginning of the month, promoting a few 2007 draftees that had been doing more than their fair share in San Jose to AA Connecticut. Those three guys; Brandon Crawford, Tim Alderson and Madison Bumgarner have hit the ground running in the great Northeast and have done as good or better there than they were doing in San Jose. Bumgarner has been especially impressive, as he's gone 3-0 over his first 3 starts in AA. During those 3 outings, MadBum has pitched 18 innings, allowing only 10 hits and 4 walk...

The Giants just can't seem to figure out Petco Park in 2009. After getting swept their in mid-April, the Giants look like they're ready to repeat that outcome after only scoring 2 runs in the first 2 games in San Diego and dropping their record to 0-5 in San Diego this season. The Giants offense has once again hit a cold stretch, and when this happens, it can get very frustrating. Nobody expected this team to be a power-house at the plate, but they showed throughout the first half of this month (albeit vs. some lesser pitching) that their offense could score enough to support their starting pitchers, but the Southern California air has sent the team into a semi-meltdown once again. It's prompted Bruce Bochy to do some things differently though, as he put Aaron Rowand up at the top of the order in the lead-off spot for the first time in his Giants-tenure. Rowand is a guy who has been on a steep slide since the opening week of season. In that first week Rowand hit 2 home runs...

The Giants avoided getting swept by taking Sunday's game vs. the Mets. They finally got a starting pitching performance like they're used to as Matt Cain won his fourth game of year and dropped his era to 2.65. Cain didn't just get it done on the mound either. He helped his own cause by driving in the Giants second and final run of the game with a single in the fifth. In addition to throwing 6 shutout innings, while allowing only 2 hits (although he did surrender 5 walks), Matty C was on base twice with that RBI single and a walk of his own. Cain's WHIP is still a tad high at 1.38 as he's walked at least 4 batters in 4 of his last 5 starts. Once Cain can get more consistent with his command, he's going to take another stride forward, but he's still showing the ability to get outs and keep runs off the board, amazingly, regardless of the amount of free passes he's allowing. Five walks in 6 innings pitched is a high number, and you need to have pretty darn...

The Giants haven't quite figured out the Mets yet, or how to pitch David Wright for that matter. The Mets have rolled into San Francisco and taken the first three games of a four game set vs. the Giants, including laying a flat-out beating on the 45-year old Randy Johnson , and twice beating all-star closer Brian Wilson. In the last post, I touched on how The Unit's season has been pretty much hit or miss so far. He is either on it and gives opposing hitters a tough match-up, or he has gone the other route and been absolutely pounded. In Saturday's match-up vs. the Mets, he got pounded. RJ gave up 11 hits in 4+ innings of work along with 7 earned runs and wasted a winnable opportunity vs. the NL's current best pitcher. The Giants got to Johan Santana for 3 un-earned runs, but Johnson couldn't keep the Mets off the board, something that has been an issue through the first three games of the series. The Mets scored 8 runs on Friday night, in a game which their ace, T...

Despite losing to the Nationals at AT&T Park on Wednesday, the Giants ended up taking two of three games from Washington and won yet another series. The team has been playing very good baseball of late and surprisingly, haven't lost a series since their first road trip to Southern California in mid-April. The main reason why the Giants have gone 16-7 over their last 23 ballgames is because of their pitching, both starting and relief, but the offense really came alive in the first two games of the Nationals series. The offense combined to score 20 runs in the first two games, despite getting shutout in the third. Not only were the 20 runs the most the Giants have scored in back-to-back games this season, it's the most they've scored in a series this year, period. The two guys who really carried the Giants offense in the series were Randy Winn and Pablo Sandoval. The Giants young third basemen had 6 hits (3 for extra bases) along with 5 RBI and a huge walk-off home run th...

The Giants have come a long way since their first road-trip of the season , in which they were swept by these Dodgers in LA. With Tim Lincecum on the mound, the Giants completed their second straight series victory over the Dodgers, and indeed, have shown that they are a much different team than the one that started the season. It's no secret that the Giants struggle to score consistently. They're ranked last in the NL in runs scored, despite the fact that they're 2 games above .500. The reason why they are where they are is simple; they can flat out pitch, as evident by another series win, despite scoring just 6 runs in 3 games. Tim Lincecum didn't have his best stuff Sunday, but his 6 innings pitched, 8 k's and 3 earned runs on 6 hits marked his fifth straight quality start and certainly good enough to win. Lincecum left the game with the Giants down a run in the seventh, and the pressure was on the Giants' bats in order for him to avoid an L and the bats...

I can't deny that the Manny Ramirez 50-game suspension bodes well for the Giants. Ramirez was arguably the National League's most valuable player through the month of April and early May. However, it's certainly no ticket to the postseason for this team, and they shouldn't be treating it as such. Most of the Bay Area sports media beat the Ramirez story to a pulp on Thursday, but every single one of them were sending the same message; This now opens a door for the Giants in the division. I agree with this to an extent, but let's not forget, Ramirez is only going to be gone until July 3rd, so the Dodgers will have him back in plenty of time (3 months to be exact) to get back to where they are now. Also, the Dodgers were really taking off and kind of separating themselves from the rest of the National League, and they aren't sitting at 21-9 just because of the mercurial Ramirez. The team has talent up and down the roster. They still have Andre Eithier , Matt Kemp, ...

The season is officially a month old, and one unit that has been rock solid for the Giants, and hasn't gotten much pub, has been their bullpen. Brian Wilson is nailing things down in the ninth, and pretty much everyone who gets him the ball has done their job's so far. The two newest additions to the Giants bullpen, Jeremy Affeldt and Bob Howry , have both done what the Giants have asked of them early on in the season. Affeldt is carrying a 3.18 era on 11.1 innings this year and striking out a batter an inning. Howry is at 4.35, but has really only had one bad outing in his 12 appearances. Merkin Valdez also looks completely healthy and is throwing the ball the way the Giants were hoping he would after missing most of last season with elbow issues. Those three, along with Brian Wilson , are doing their job, which is kind of what was expected of them coming in. What wasn't really expected though was that Brandon Medders and Justin Miller, two minor league invites to spring...

Barry Zito has been a different pitcher over the first month of 2009 than he was in '07 and '08. The Giants' high-priced lefty is in a groove that Giants' fans haven't yet seen from him while dawning the orange and black. After his first two starts of the season, a lot of people were thinking "here we go again". In those first two outings, Zito was charged with 10 earned runs, on 11 hits and 6 walks in 9 innings. However, if you watched those starts closely, you'll know that Zito pitched better than his line showed in both instances. He was victimized by a lot of misplayed balls and it seemed like everything that could have gone wrong for Zito, did. Now, the defense is starting to catch the ball behind him and things are starting to fall into place. He's still not getting any run support, as evident by his 0-2 record, but practically every other statistical category has been improved for Zito so far in 2009. Through his first 29 innings pitched, h...

Like they did to San Diego during their last home stand, the Giants got some revenge on their other southern California foe LA Dodgers at AT&T Park this week. The Giants didn't sweep the Dodgers, but they took 2 out of 3 in the series and looked much more capable of matching up with the NL West's elite team than they did in their showing in Los Angeles in the season's opening week. Tim Lincecum made his 3rd straight dominant outing, carrying a shutout into the seventh before surrendering a few hits and couple of runs. Lincecum's line for the day didn't look quite as good as he was throwing the ball, but he still got the win while going 7+ innings and striking out 8. "The Freak" has hit his grove after starting out slowly, and looks completely back on track now. In fact, the whole Giants rotation is really throwing the ball well, kind of like everybody expected them to coming into the year. Even Barry Zito has put together back-to-back quality outings a...