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Showing posts from April, 2009

Sandoval Returns in Arizona

Through most of the fist 2+ weeks of the regular season, many Giants fans where wondering if young Pablo Sandoval may have been a bit overwhelmed. It was the first time in the 22 year- old's career that he started a season on a big league roster and he was doing at a position he hadn't played in years. However, after the ups-and-downs, mostly downs, of the first couple of weeks, Sandoval has leveled out and has hit a grove. The Giants' third basemen was hitting just .195 on April 18th, but started showing signs of heating up in the latest home stand. Sandoval raised his average 100 points in about a week as he left Arizona with his average up at .292, where the Giants expect it to be, more where the Giants expect him to be. The "Big Panda" also hit his first home run of the season on Sunday, an impressive shot down the right field line that put the Giants in front late in the ball game. While righting himself at the plate, Sandoval has also looked a little more c

Down On The Farm

I wanted to take some time today to discuss some of the things that have been going on in the Giants' minor league system in our monthly minor league report. The organizational spotlight has been on the Giants high-A affiliate, the San Jose Giants. On that roster, the Giants currently have a plethora of former high round picks, including the teams top 4 prospects; Madison Bumgarner , Buster Posey , Angel Villalona and Tim Alderson . As a matter of fact, of the Giants top-10 prospects, according to baseball America, 7 of them are playing in San Jose. Because of all the talent, it's shouldn't be a surprise to any that the San Jose Giants currently have the 2nd best record in the California League. Leading the team in hitting is the #5 overall pick from last June's amateur draft, as Buster Posey sits at .389 with 3 home runs and 12 RBI. The teams #2 rated offensive prospect, Angel Villalona, is also turning some heads with the way he's swinging the bat. The 18 year-ol

Giants Return Favor To Padres

After getting swept by the Padres on their visit just last week, the Giants got a chance to redeem themselves vs. their foes from Southern California, and they did just that. The Giants swept the Padres in their short two-game set in San Francisco and once again, got lights-out performances out of their starting pitchers, but their offense actually showed up on Tuesday night as well. Well, not the whole offense, but one guy in particular who had looked sluggish in the early going and is already drawing criticism. That guy is Edgar Renteria. The shortstop officially arrived for the Giants in Tuesday nights game, providing his first multi-hit game in a Giants uni, along with his first home run. Renteria went 3 for 4 with a grand-slam and 5 RBI, leading the Giants to a 8-3 victory over the Padres. It's no secret that the majority of the baseball scouting world didn't agree with the contract Brian Sabean gave Renteria over the winter, and early on there, it was looking like they we

Home Sweet Home

The difference between the Giants at home and the Giants on the road so far in 2009 has been night and day. After going win-less on their first 6-game trip of the season, the Giants returned home and shut down the D-Backs, taking 2 of 3 games and pitching terrifically in the process. As a matter of fact, the three pitching performances the Giants got over the weekend showed people why their rotation was so highly thought of coming into the year. Jonathon Sanchez, the newly dubbed stopper of the Giants (not really, but he did end the 6 game skid right) got it started by throwing 6 2/3 innings of shutout baseball and beat the 'snakes 2-0 Friday night. Unfortunately, the Giants offense couldn't do anything against Doug Davis on Saturday to support Tim Lincecum's masterpiece. Lincecum righted himself after a rough couple of starts, going 8 strong, matching a career-high with 13 strikeouts while not allowing a walk or a run. Lincecum was hit with the no-decision, but gave Gi

Giants Go Winless on Road-Trip

The first road trip of the 2009 season couldn't have gone much worse for the Giants. They got swept in San Diego by a surprising Padres squad that is playing way better than they were expected to. Then they traveled an hour north to LA for three and things didn't get any better. The defense and starting pitching were both horrendous throughout the trip. Barry Zito threw better than his line showed in Thursday's finale at Dodger Stadium. Once again, defensive blunders put the Giants in an early deficit, and the offense couldn't make up for it. And it was another misplay by Fred Lewis in left-field that did Zito in. Lewis had a terrible road trip defensively, misplaying various fly-balls and costing the Giants numerous runs. Those mistakes rest solely on Fred Lewis, no excuses. I'm not saying Lewis was the reason the Giants lost the games, because that's not entirely the case. In order to win ballgames, you need to score runs, and the Giants really struggled to

Slumping in SoCal

The Giants got off to a quick start at home vs. the Brewers. Taking 2 of 3 games and pitching brilliantly in the process. However, since they've travelled south after that first set, they have hit a wall, as they aren't hitting, throwing or picking up the ball the way they were for most of the spring and that opening series. I'm not too the surprised that some of the hitters have slumped over the past few days. In 3 of the teams last 4 games, they've gone up against some of the better arms in the National League (Chad Billingsley, Jake Peavy and Chris Young). The offense has mustered only 8 runs in the 4 games so far on the road trip, 6 of those runs coming in the first two. Randy Winn and Fred Lewis seem like the only batters who are seeing the ball well right now. Everybody else is scuffling. Defensively, things have been a nightmare on the trip as well. Lewis made repeated mistakes in the finale in San Diego, costing the Giants and Tim Lincecum 3 runs and ultimately

Giants Take Opening Series

The Giants certainly looked like a rejuvenated ball-club in this first series of the 2009 season vs. the Brewers. Take away that one fastball Randy Johnson threw Yovanni Gallardo in Wednesday nights game and the Giants would have been looking at a 3-0 start. Nonetheless, they sit atop the NL West with the Rockies at 2-1 heading into play Friday. Matt Cain turned in the best performance of the three starting pitchers to throw so far on Thursday, throwing 7 innings of 4 hit ball while striking out 5. As good as Cain was on Thursday and Johnson was Wednesday, the talk of the series' surrounded the bullpen and offense. Both units look much better than the versions the Giants were trotting out there in 2008, already. Jeremy Affeldt and Bob Howry look like steady additions and Brandon Medders and Joe Martinez (get well soon!) have pulled their weight so far. The same can be said for the offense. The veterans are starting the year red hot and the youngsters have been doing their par

Offense Explodes in Opener

It almost looked as if Tuesday's opener was going to get rained out and Tim Lincecum and co. would have to wait until Wednesday to open up the 2009 season. The weather prevailed and so did the Giants bats, as they opened the season with a 10-6 beating of the Milwaukee Brewers in their first opening day win since 2005. I mentioned in my game preview post that the Giants had to take advantage of the Lincecum/Suppan match-up and they did so, even without getting a great effort out of their ace. 2008 NL Cy Young Award winner, Tim Lincecum, struggled through his first opening day assignment as the 24 year-old lasted just 3 innings, allowing 3 runs on 3 walks and 4 hits while striking out 5. Lincecum threw 74 pitches through 3, and Bochy felt like it was a little too much too soon and didn't want to overwork the youngster on the very first day of a 6-month marathon. The one at bat that I look back at that really ended up hurting Lincecum was the at-bat in which he threw a 1-2 change

Opening Day Preview

The 2009 Major League Baseball season gets underway Sunday night, as the reigning world champion Philadelphia Phillies take on the Atlanta Braves in Philadelphia Sunday. Most of the rest of the baseball world starts Monday, with a handful of teams christening their season on Tuesday, including our San Francisco Giants. It's been a long winter and spring, but on Tuesday, at or around 1:30 pacific time, Tim Lincecum will throw the first pitch of the '09 season to Milwaukee's Rickie Weeks and another 6-month journey begins. I won't be in attendance on Tuesday, as I have some scholastic obligations that will run into the early afternoon, but I will be there Wednesday night when the 'Unit takes the mound for the first time as a Giant. The Giants have the clear advantage in the pitching match-up for their opening series vs. the Brewers, but they are going to have to keep their powerful lineup (Ryan Braun , Prince Fielder, J.J. Hardy, Corey Hart) in the ballpark if they

MLB Playoff and Award Predictions

AMERICAN LEAGUE AL MVP : Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays (The 2008 AL Rookie of the year should expand big time on his 27 hr, 85 RBI rookie campaign in his first full season in the bigs' and once again lead the Rays' to success in '09) AL CY YOUNG: Francisco Liriano, Minnesota Twins (Liriano returned to dominance in the second half of '08 after getting back on track in the minors and will probably sport a sub-3 era and win 18+ games if healthy for 32 starts this season.) ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Matt Wieters, Baltimore Orioles (Wieters will start off in AAA, but will be up a few weeks into the season, like Longoria did in '08. He probably will put up similar numbers to what Longoria did, but probably hit for a better average. Keep an eye on Tampa's David Price for this award as well.) MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Ron Gardenhire, Minnesota Twins (The Twins never have quite the same talent as some of the other teams in the league, but Gardy always has them winning. He sho