The Giants Baseball Blog

Well, just like the Giants, we're doing a Double-Post today, but I'm going to keep this one really short cause the Giants did all the talking on the field today. If you were fortunate enough to watch or listen to the ballgames today, you know exactly what I mean. It felt good to be a Giants fan today, starting off with the offensive out-poor in game one, followed by Barry Zito's triumphant return in the night cap. The unsung hero of the night has to go to Mr. Brandon Crawford, who I admit, I've been particularly hard on at this site in recent weeks, but the kid showed big league ability in that game 2, and that defensive save deep in the hole off taking a hit away from Aramis Ramirez was just as important as any hit of any one's bat today. Who knows what would have happened had that ball gotten through and another run crossed the plate to give the Cubbies a 3-1 lead and keep the inning alive. Zito did what he was supposed to do, pitching brilliantly after that spott...

Well, as I type this, the Giants are in the midst of beating up on the Cubs in the first game of a doubleheader, as Pat Burrell's bat has come alive and Chris Stewart has quietly started to heat up. We'll have more on both games upon completion, but in this particular post, I wanted to take a look down on the farm and see just who may be on the horizon as far as the next in line of Giants' call-ups. The only guy in Salem playing right now worth really talking about is first rounder Joe Panik, who I'm ecstatic about after he signed so darn quickly. Panik's already gotten in 9 games at low-A Augusta and is tearing the cover off the ball to the tune of .378 Avg./3 HR/7 RBI and a 1.101 OPS. The rest of the rookie bunch won't likely start until rookie ball later this summer. Panik looks almost certain to be a San Jose Giant in due time though, and as far as his pace of advancement, really anything is possible with this youngster due to all his experience already, esp...

Well, were inching in on the All-Star break, at which time you can usually tell which teams are for real, and which aren't. A lot of people expected the Giants to fade by now, after losing their best player as well as their #2 hitter for the season (though Sanchez may return in September) but even when they look like they may start faltering, they right themselves and return to doing what won them the World Series last November. Saturday's game was a beautiful example of how the Giants season has gone, in a nutshell. Matt Cain was brilliant, once again, throwing 7 shutout innings, allowing just a handful of base runners and striking out 6. He most likely solidified his spot on the NL All-Star team with the victory, if he hadn't already. But again, the Giants offense failed to show up for the right-hander and didn't drive in a single run as a team. The only run of the game came on a bases-loaded balk by Todd Sipp, and that's all the scoring the Giants pitching staff ...

It was no secret that a big part of the Giants struggles recently have been because of their ace not pitching up to his standard, but Lincecum once again silenced all critics and helped the Giants beat the Twins, 2 out of 3. Timmy was on his game in all areas Thursday, throwing in the mid-90's with ease and accuracy, and he also had the big curve ball going for him as well. Whenever he's in command of just his fastball, he's a tough assignment, never mind when he's in command of all his pitches. He ended up going 7 strong, allowing 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 12 batters, leaving the Giants bullpen with a 2-run lead that they held on strong to. Brian Wilson did give up a run in the 9th, then got out of it, but that wasn't the problem. It was the sputtering offense that did nothing much to help out the Giants ace, only mustering up 2 runs and a handful of hits vs. Twins swing-man Brian Duensing, leaving Timmy hardly any room for error, which is a tough way t...

Well, for most of the 2011 season, Madison Bumgarner has been the bad luck pitcher in the Giants starting rotation, the Matt Cain of 2008. However, after Tuesday night's meltdown vs. the Twins, he has nobody but himself to blame. The Twinkies put up a 9-spot in the first frame and sent the Giants 21 year-old to a cold shower before he could exit the first inning. It couldn't have happened to a tougher luck pitcher either, as Bumgarner has been one of the most steady arms in that rotation, only to be rewarded with a 3-8 record coming in (3-9 after tonight's mess). Some silver lining to come out of Tuesday's game though was 8 scoreless innings of relief by the bullpen, and another 2-2 night out of Aubrey Huff to help the struggling offense (We need Hardy, We Need Hardy!!!). But anyway, in the midst of a blowout, I wanted to talk a little bit more about the draft and what kind of players the Orange and Black have brought into the organization. Giants Draft Talk As we all k...

Well, it's no secret that the A's play comfortably vs. their cross-bay rivals at home in the Coliseum, but I don't even thing hard core A's fans were ready for what the A's did this weekend vs. the reigning World Champs. They kicked the weekend off by shutting down the Giants and lighting up ace Tim Lincecum and drop his season record below .500 for the first time that I can remember, they didn't slow down after that. The A's proceeded to beat Jonathan Sanchez and Matt Cain, arguable the Giants best three starters, and although Cain and Sanchez threw better than Lincecum did, the bats were no where to be found. The Giants scored a total of just 5 runs vs. Oakland pitching this weekend, and were kept in the ballpark too, outside of a Cody Ross solo homer on Friday. Speaking of Ross, he's been the one bright spot in an otherwise decaying lineup. While everyone else in the Giants batting order's average keeps falling, Ross's keeps rising, and he kee...

Well, I'm not nearly ready to say I'm worried about the Giants young right-handed ace, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't the least bit concerned over his last handful of outings. Lincecum was already coming off of a couple forgetful outings his last 2 times out, otherwise the Giants could be 3-4 games in first right now instead of tied. After shutting down the A's over at AT&T Park 2 weeks ago, the A's got their revenge vs. Timmy. The A's were on their game Friday night and Lincecum has dropped to 5-6 on the year as he struggled through 6 innings allowing 10 base-runners to reach across the bay. He held the A's to just 6 hits and 3 runs while striking out 7, which is pretty close to his norm, but his era is climbing bit by bit to the point where he'll be approaching 4 by mid-July at this pace. Again, Lincecum has had these spurts throughout his young career, which has before caused some panic, only to have him revert right back to form after a ...

First of all, I'm very sorry for our long, week and a half hiatus. I usually never take breaks that long in season, but unfortunately I got sick last week with the flu and am just know getting back into typing shape. One thing the sickness did allow me to do, was really take a good long look at the San Francisco Giants from afar. It's been about a month now since I've been out to AT&T for an actual game, so I have been watching everything on TV, which I'm not so much used to. Normally I'll watch about %20 live in attendance, %20 on TV, and listen to the other half or so, mostly just away game s, but I got to watch them play all homestand against the Cards and Cininatti as well as this Arizona series so far, and they've really caughten some fire. Their bats were starting to heat up over the weekend, as you could start to see signs, but it wasn't until Aubrey Huff started going to left field like a natural righty, Billy Hall's signing and immediate imp...

As the weeks go by, Giants fans have been waiting for Vogelsong to come crashing back to earth, but the 33 year-old right- hander has just kept getting stronger and stronger with the more time he gets. Last year, the Giants got the great performance from Andres Torres, who's already over 30, and nobody had any big expectations for. This year, their getting that same effective play out of Vogelsong , who moved to 4-1 with a 1.68 era and a 1.04 WHIP after beating the Rockies and Jason Hammel Sunday at AT&T Park. While Barry Zito's expected to make a start for San Jose Monday night, I don't think there is anything he can do at this point that would put him back on the big league roster. It's been speculated how well Zito would work in relief, but I think that's the approach the Giants should be taking with him. He's been starting games all his life and if they need to move him back into the rotation, it shouldn't be any problem whatsoever. He can actua...

Tim Lincecum pitched through some bad luck and finally got a lead Wednesday, only to save his worst inning for last, allowing the then go-ahead homer to Allan Craig to give the Cards the 5-4 lead. You could get the feeling of, oh no, here we go again. But it was all good in the end for San Fran! It was all good for the Giants in the end thanks in large part to two very key hitters, well make that three, actually, in Nate Schierholtz, Cody Ross and Freddy Sanchez, who had 3 hits and scored the go ahead run. Lincecum was really strong for 6 innings, but used up a lot of pitches, collecting 9 k's through 6, then came the 7th inning, in which the right- hander ran simply ran out of gas, giving up 4 consecutive hits, including the Allan Craig, pinch hit, go ahead home run. It was somewhat rare for the Giants ace to get a late lead like that and cough it up, but it didn't phase the Giants. Cody Ross had a 4-hit game in which he looked absolutely locked in, and steady Freddy Sanchez h...