Giants Full-Squad Workouts Underway

Well baseball fans, spring is officially in the air, and the World Champion San Francisco Giants are back at work preparing for their tittle defense in 2011. We were going to use today's post as the follow up to our pitching projections with our hitting version, but there's a lot going on in Giants camp and I figured we'd put the hitting projections on hold for another day.

It was the first day of live batting practice, and workouts for all players have started to intensify, yet the piece of news which gathered most of the headlines was the private trip closer Brian Wilson took to Hollywood to hang out at Charlie Sheen's mansion with various celebrities and prominent former baseball players. I don't really put a lot of time into non-baseball off field issues unless it effects on field performance, but the reason I'm touching on this subject, is because of all the fans calling into the Bay Area sports stations and commenting all over Giants fan-sites on the Internet complaining of Brian Wilson not focusing on getting ready for the Cactus League, but rather taking time out from his conditioning to hang out with the likes of Kenny Lofton, Eddie Murray, Todd Zielle and Lenny Dykstra. My take on the situation is that these people are making too much a deal out of nothing. Wilson is nursing a stiff back, and his short trip west did not interfere in the slightest with his work schedule for the Giants. What people are fussing about though is the pitcher is losing focus with all the national attention that he's gained over the last 6 months, going from a solid big league closer to one of the MLB's most unique personalities.... Long story short, I say don't worry about B.Willy, he'll be ready to answer the bell on April 1st in LA, I'm sure of it!

So, even though they're not new to Giants fans by now, there are a bunch of Giants in their first Spring Training camp with the club, including post-season hero's Cody Ross and Javier Lopez, regular season savior Pat Burrell and relievers Santiago Casilla and Ramon Ramirez. Also in his first spring training camp with San Francisco is their new $6 million shortstop Miguel Tejada. The 36 year-old shortstop was out on the field at 8 A.M. taking grounders and working on fundamentals, proving just why he's been so highly praised as a lead-by-example-type. I think he's going to be a great influence on Pablo Sandoval, as Tejada is a fierce competitor and serious about his conditioning and preparation. Speaking of leadership, former Giants' MVP 2nd basemen Jeff Kent has been a special guest in Scottsdale, and word is that his main focus here will be to work with Buster Posey on his hitting approach in the cleanup spot. This tells me that Bochy is planning to use Posey in the cleanup spot again this year, which, don't get me wrong, worked out great in 2010, but I really wanted him hitting 3rd with Huff in the cleanup spot. However, Bochy traditionally splits up his right handed hitters and lefties in the lineup when possible, and with Freddy Sanchez slated in at 2nd, the left-handed Huff would fit seem to be Boch's logical choice.

TUESDAY UPDATE: Tin Lincecum declared himself ready to start Friday's Cactus League opener in Phoenix vs. Arizona as he'll likely square up against D-Back's default ace Joe Saunders (that shows you just what kind of disarray their pitching staff is in). The Giants will have a intra-squad scrimmage prior to that on Thursday in which Brandon Belt is among some of the younger prospects to appear. We'll have much more on that game as well as a preview of the Cactus League Opener in Thursday's Post!.... And don't worry, The GBB version of our Giants 2011 hitting projections is coming very soon, and be ready for some surprises!