Skip to main content

Cain Healthy, Bumgarner Dominant

Well, being a Giants' fan, your no stranger to having high expectations of your starting rotation, and things are starting to fall into place for the reigning World Series champs. Matt Cain made his first appearance in a while after nursing some minor shoulder issues, Madison Bumgarner keeps improving each day, and even Barry Zito is looking halfway decent.

Things have really started to clear up over the last week or so though. Cain looks and sounds healthy again after throwing nearly 50 pitches in a simulated game on Wednesday. Then Madison Bumgarner gave the Giants even more reason to be optimistic as he turned in his best game of the spring so far against Cincinnati. MadBum got his first win of the Cactus League season by throwing 4 shutout innings, striking out six Reds' hitters and allowing just one base runner. Barry Zito, on the other hand, hasn't thrown particularly great, but he's certainly learning how to get by with the stuff he currently throws at you. He's thrown 10 innings over his 3 starts and has allowed just 6 hits with 5 K's, but has allowed 7 walks, a number that has to be reduced come April. Still, even with allowing all those base-runners, he's minimized the damage, allowing just 3 of those runners to cross home plate. The pitching has been so contagiously good that even newcomer Jeff Suppan is getting in on the action. Coming in as a long-shot to make the team in long-relief, Suppan has looked as good as anybody who's battling for a bullpen spot, and with his ability to start, he may have a leg up. He's thrown in 3 games (1 start), going 9 innings, allowing just 4 hits, 0 walks and 2 runs.

Offensively, things have been just fine as well. Even a little better than expected after the early return of Freddy Sanchez. All the regulars seem to have found some sort of rhythm. Andres Torres is hitting .389, Cody Ross is at .313 and Pablo Sandoval is alleviating concerns each day as he's led the team in at-bats while carrying a solid .303 average. Sophomore Buster Posey is really lighting it up, making the Cactus League look like the NCAA, hitting .526 with 2 HR and 8 RBI in just 19 at-bats. The only guy who's been there all spring and really hasn't been to noticeable is Miguel Tejada. The Giants are hoping the 36 year-old is just saving it for the regular season, but he is looking every bit his age so far in Spring (his bat especially). On the other hand, while Tejada hasn't quite hit his groove yet, Mark DeRosa has, and he looks 100% healthy again. I can't stress how important it is for DeRosa to get back on track, I stressed it all offseason long and now it's coming to light. The super utility guy has made a splashy return, hitting .400 with a homer, 6 RBI and a team leading 10 hits this spring. Now, DeRosa can't play short, but he can play seemingly everywhere else. Imagine if he were healthy during the World Series run last year and the depth he would have provided? Probably would have given some stability to third base at least, that's for sure.

Note: The Giants Blog was approached recently by Razzball.com to do a Giants Season Preview interview. Click here for the interview in full!

Comments

Derric 4Real said…
DeRosa is a beast if he's healthy. I watched a lot of his games on extra inningss (closet Braves fan, sorry giants fans!).

Very solid player, and really clutch. A lot like Cody Ross. Just hope he can stay healthy all year, Giants fans will take a liking and I bet he gets' resigned.
1:43 PM
Anonymous said…
Posey is the man!
If he and Sandoval both play like they can, the Giants will have a nice lineup to go along with that pitching staff.
9:12 PM
Anonymous said…
Thanks for your great post!
I definitely enjoyed reading it, you happen to be a great author.
Keep up with the great writing, have a nice afternoon.


Also visit my homepage :: how to golf
2:54 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Giants Still Need Infield Help

On Saturday, the Giants finalized a 2 year contract extension with Freddy Sanchez, who they acquired in July for Tim Alderson. The new deal for Sanchez will pay him 12 million over the next 2 seasons instead of 8.5 million for just 2010, which was his option for 2010. I've voiced my disappointment in Sanchez a few times here since the Giants dealt for him over the summer. He wasn't able to stay on the field full time to help this club with their run at the NL Wild Card, and even when he was in there, he didn't seem to make much of an impact in th e lineup. Now, I wasn't necessarily hoping the Giants would cut ties with Sanchez (they probably would have had to pay 4 million or so to buy him out), just didn't think he was worth upwards of 10 million dollars, and would have liked to see the Giants pursue someone like Orlando Hudson with that money. The Giants already have an infielder who's being paid about 3-4 times what his play over the last 2 seasons would indi...
201 comments
Read more

WORLD SERIES: Giants Move Up 2-0 on Texas

PreGame After taking game one in a surprising slug-fest , the Giants look to go up 2-0 on the Rangers in the World Series on Thursday night. The Giants are sending out Matt Cain, a guy who I'm sure every Giants' fan is pretty confident in. He'll be a opposed by C.J. Wilson, who's in his first year as a full-time starter, but has been brilliant in the role. He did struggle his last time out though, so hopefully the Giants can get to him early and get into his head a bit. I'm going to do something I've never done here on this unique occasion, and sort of do an in-game post. updating this post every time I feel I have something to add. So go Giants, and be sure to check back throughout the game, and after, to vent or whatever! As long as Matt Cain keeps rolling, and the Giants keep coming up with those clutch 2-out hits, we should be OK. Texas has that high-powered offense that can score in a hurry, as we saw last night, so the Giants cannot let down and have to t...
87 comments
Read more

Giants Notes: Lincecum Signs, Ross to Boston

Well, even though I touched on it a little bit in our last post, I haven't really had a chance to get my thoughts out on the new Lincecum deal since he and the Giants agreed earlier in the week. Also, on the other end of things, the Giants missed out on shoring up their outfield by letting Cody Ross sign in Boston for only $3 million in 2012. First off, obviously, wanted to talk a bit about Lincecum. I've already said here that I didn't expect him to sign a long-term deal that takes him through free agency, but it doesn't mean he wants to leave San Francisco like everyone is suspecting. I mean, if I were Lincecum, I'd probably do the same thing, even if I planned on eventually signing with the Giants long-term. Why take a chance at mitigating your value to just sign a deal? Granted, a 5 year, $100 million deal isn't anything to sneeze at, in this market, if he were a free agent, Lincecum could probably easily command a 8 year, $200 million deal. If he could get ...
119 comments
Read more