The Giants Baseball Blog

It's rare that a team expected to contend enters Cactus or Grapefruit League games without having a pretty set lineup. The Giants are exactly that, as they know that Pablo and Posey will be in the middle, and Pagan will be at leadoff, but everything else is up in the air. Know, the general consensus heading in was, that if healthy, Freddy Sanchez would enter the season as the Giants 2nd place hitter, the role he's filled throughout his stay here in San Francisco and much of his time in Pittsburgh. However, Bruce Bochy said this week that he may shake things up with the lineup in the Cactus League. I like the idea, considering the Giants have a player in Cabrera, who they don't quite know where he'll fit in best in the lineup. He's always been a top of the order hitter, so Bochy mentioned possibly moving Sanchez down to the 6th spot and Melky into the 2 hole. Having Cabrera hit fifth is kind of a two-sided affair, because on one end, you get that potential power (18 ...

Alright, we've finally arrived at the last projection post we'll do until around opening day when the 25-man roster is actually announced. Also, again, we'll do sort of a double-post as there's been a lot going on in Giants camp with Cactus League a week away. Bullpen Preview Brian Wilson, RHP : The Giants bearded closer entered spring with some question marks surrounding the health of his right arm, but according to him and Giants trainers, he's around 100%, and even though he may not play a whole spring, he'll be bright and ready for April! I expect a rebound from Wilson this year, as he was another Giant who fell off a bit after the Championship run the year prior. I expect things to get back to normal and without all the media and Showtime productions around, it should get things back to how they were during the year in 2010. I don't see another 1.81 ERA, but that's the type of Wilson I expect! 2012 Prediction: 62 G, 5-3, 2.67 ERA, 63 IP, 44 saves, ...

Full-squad workouts are in full-swing down in Scottsdale, and baseball fever is starting to strike throughout the Bay Area as people finally transfer over from 49 ers mania, back to the boys of summer. We'll start by finishing off our player previews and do the last 3 pitchers of the starting rotation in the post. Since full-squad's have begun, I wanted to expand on our spring notes section, so the player previews may not be as long as they've been, but here we go: 3) Madison Bumgarner , LHP : The sometimes overlooked horse in the Giants staff could wind up being the best of the three. Yeah, I said it. The reason why is based on pure age alone. Bumgarner is already established at age 22, while Timmy didn't really breakthrough until he was 24-25. Cain came into the league at a young age too, but not quite as young as Bumgarner and Maddy is growing by the day. After that horrid performance vs. the Twins in June last year, Madison has turned in ace-like numbers. He'...

Giants' pitchers and catchers reported to Scottsdale Thursday, though the first full-squad workout isn't scheduled until Friday morning, plenty of guys were out on the field working out early. As we've been doing, we'll save a small section at the end for Spring Talk, as we continue on with our spring player preview, now onto the Giants rotation: Giants Starting Rotation 1) Tim Lincecum, RHP: Timmy got that big deal he wanted this winter, now he and the Giants have two more seasons to feel each other out and see where they stand. If Lincecum keeps on pace with how he's started his career, the 27 year-old will be due for quite possibly the biggest contract ever for a pitcher when he hits free agency at 29. In order for him to attain that though, he's got to be nails over the next two seasons and hope the Giants offense can help him out a bit. Offense aside though, Lincecum had a horrid 6 week stretch in 2010, despite dominating again for the stretch run and play...

As we've done for each projected Giants starting position player, we'll go ahead and make predictions for who we believe will fill out their 5-man bench. Also, after that, we'll take a little Spring Training notes as the Giants have been linked to some players and Timmy has a minor set-back. Giants Bench Predictions (Updated 3/30/12) Hector Sanchez , C: I would have almost guaranteed Boch would have carried one of Whiteside or Stewart before spring, but low and behold, Sanchez raked, and earned his spot. He's not just a bat either, as he played well behind the plate and can throw the ball. Giants pitchers obvioulsy are comfortable with him and that's key to. If Huff struggles again, I'd like to see Sanchez catching a lot, with Posey out at first and maybe Belt out in left. That could be the best offensive team, but we'll see. 2012 Prediction: 89 G, 187 AB's, .262 Avg., 9 HR, 24 RBI, 13 2B, .327 OBP, .465 SLG% (.792 OPS) Ryan Theriot, IF : As I said i...

Full workouts are in session for pitchers and catchers, and thing have gone pretty smoothly the first two days of camp, minus the news of the Ryan Vogelsong missing 10+ days with his strained back. Other than that though, things have been as you'd expect for the first couple days of spring so we'll continue with our player previews, which rounds out our starting lineup by the way, and save a section at the end for some Day 2 talk. Brandon Belt, 1B - This has been changed as of 3/31/12 due to the fact that Belt will likely start the opener and play more than Schierholtz, forcing Huff to the outfield. Belt will likely hit higher in the order than this, as he'll probably hit behind Sandoval and Posey, but I just kept him here where I had Nate just to keep things easy. He could end up hitting 7th, but the Giants want him in the middle of the order, and I think he's finally figuring things out and it'll show this season. 2012 Prediction: 144 G, 502 AB's, .281 Avg, ...

Today we'll take a day off of our player previews and just do sort of a Spring Training notes post, as there's quite a lot to talk about after the first real workouts of Spring Training for pitchers and catchers. Of the most notable news to come out of Scottsdale Sunday though, was not so good. Ryan Vogelsong strained his back in warm-ups and will be sidelined at least 10 days. It wouldn't surprise me, with his delay in workouts, to see him miss his first few planned starts of Cactus League play as well, so this will have a trickle down effect. Vogelsong isn't as young as the other pitchers in the Giants rotation, so it's kinda weird reading about an injury to a key Giants starter, but the Giants and Vogey need to make sure they don't over due him and put him in the best possible shape he can be for opening day. This guy will have a lot to prove this season, whether or not 2011 was a fluke or the norm for the 34 year-old righty. Luckily for the Giants, despite h...

The day has finally arrived baseball fans, as Giants' pitchers and catchers lobbied through the clubhouse at Scottsdale Stadium on Sunday, getting ready for their first workouts on tomorrow morning. Now today we have sort of a double-post, as we talk a bit about the minor news coming from "reporting day", as well as continue our 2k12 player-by-player preview. Being only the pitcher's and catcher's reporting date, there really wasn't a whole lot of news to come out of Giants town. The most intriguing piece of information was that Buster Posey will be down in the squat tomorrow on day one of workouts and has supposedly already caught a few Giants pitchers from the squat this week. Bruce Bochy also noted that Posey is expected to be in the Cactus League opening lineup, March 3rd versus the D-Backs. He wasn't as sure about his closer Brian Wilson and 2nd basemen Freddy Sanchez who expect to miss at least the first week of Cactus League play. On a positive not,...

Here we are, just 48 hours from pitchers and catchers reporting to Scottsdale, and baseball fever is starting to spread throughout the Bay Area. As we began in Wednesday's post, we'll continue our player preview as we try and get through all of them before players start arriving and practicing so there's actually baseball to talk about. Anyway, onto "The Panda" and Buster! Pablo Sandoval, 3B: The Giants rewarded Pablo Sandoval pretty handsomely this offseason , committing to him for 3 years and showing him they have trust in him to keep his body in shape and game at an optimal level. I don't think they have a thing to worry about cause I believe Pablo learned his lesson by riding the pine in the 2010 playoffs, a move that he admitted woke him up and put his career on the right path. All it's done since is turn him into a mature ball player who now understands how easily you can lose your job at this level if you don't perform. It also helped that he d...

With Spring Training quickly approaching, and with actual baseball activity to talk about just days away, I figured I'd kill some time between now and full squad reporting dates by doing some player previews. Now, I haven't even looked at Zips 2012 projections for the Giants players or any other preview sites, so this is all us. I figured we'd start at the top of the lineup and work down, now we won't have time to do a full post for each and every player so we'll be multiple players per post, and just one for each the bench and bullpen. We'll start from the projected top of the lineup and work down: Angel Pagan, CF - Out goes Andres Torres and in comes Angel Pagan into center field and the Giants' leadoff spot. Pagan has been two different players the last two seasons, with his more favorable year being 2010, but he was still surprisingly effective in 2011. He stole 32 bases, hit .265 (40 points better than Torres) and drove in over 50 runs while missing som...

We're now within a week of MLB's Spring Training and it's almost like baseball is in the air already. Giants pitchers and catchers set to arrive one week from today in Scottsdale, Arizona, and with their recent additions, the Giants opening day 25-man roster may look a little different than it was starting to just a two weeks ago. Obviously, we've talked a bit about the Theriot signing and how I think he just may end up being the most impacting addition via free agency the Giants made this winter. In a corresponding move though, surprisingly, the Giants axed Justin Christian, who was set to enter camp as their fourth outfielder. Now, this tells me one of two things. Either Bruce Bochy and Brian Sabean are fully expecting Brandon Belt to be a major factor in the outfield this season, or they could have another move up their sleeve that brings in another outfielder, cause they'd be playing with fire entering the spring as thin as they there (only 3 outfielders on the ...

Here we are folks. The NFL is officially finished with until next fall, and full focus has shifted back to baseball, and in the Bay Area particularly, around the San Francisco Giants. With just 10 days until pitchers and catchers report, the Giants appear to have made all the moves they're anticipating before the opening of camp. In the last couple of weeks, they come to agreements with key arbitration figures such as Tim Lincecum, Pablo Sandoval, Ryan Vogelsong and their two newest additions, Melky Cabrera and Angel Pagan. The Giants also scoured the bargain bin and came up with a guy who's been a starting shortstop for much of his career, and a fairly decent one at that, Ryan Theriot, a player whose skill set this team definitely needed. It's helped them round out what appears to be their 25-man roster, barring any unforeseen injuries or extreme spring breakthroughs, but as I write this, this team still has just 3 outfielders who've played in over 100 major league gam...

Were on the eve of the 2012 Giants Fanfest, which in other words says to baseball fans "it's time to forget football and shift focus to the diamond". The two guys who will be monitored closely and brought along a bit slower than the other players are Buster Posey and Freddy Sanchez. Listening to both on KNBR interviews over the last few days certainly has me optimistic about each players health, but only time will tell and we won't really know what kind of shape these guys are in until they get a few games under their belt in March. Obviously, being a catcher and coming off the injury he suffered last season, most eyes will be on the Giants young backstop, as they have to determine just how often he'll be able to catch early on in the season. It's already been stated by both Posey and Bochy that both expect Posey to get a lot more time at first base than he has in his professional career so far, but he did play a lot of games there in 2010 when the team still ...