The Giants Baseball Blog

After Saturday's game, the Giants have now had all five of their projected starting pitchers throw in a Cactus League game, and Bruce Bochy, Dave Righetti and Co. have to be happy with what they've seen thus far. The Giants top young arms, Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum (fresh off his newly signed 1 year, $650,000 deal; more at bottom of post), threw well in their first starts of the spring and in the most recent outing, the Giants got 2 hit-less innings from Barry Zito on Saturday. Zito allowed no base runners and struck out a batter in those two innings and hopefully it means the 30 year-old lefty is on the right track. Over the previous two springs, Zito hasn't really had many outings to feel good about, but this was certainly one of them. Jonathan Sanchez is another guy who opened some eyes in his appearance as well. Sanchez didn't start his game, but came in after Randy Johnson's 2 inning, 1 hit start and dominated the Royals. Sanchez went 3 innings and stuck out 4...

The big question coming into the spring was whether or not the Giants were going to score enough runs to match-up with their brilliant starting pitching. They certainly displayed enough in Wednesday's Cactus League opener against the Indians. Travis Ishikawa headlined the day as he hit two impressive home runs and went 3-3 overall with 4 RBI. Ishikawa's first shot was a majestic home run that bounced on top of the roofing in right-field then out of the complex. His second jack was more of a line drive shot and left the yard in about 3.5 seconds. Oh yeah, he all also added an RBI single in there as well. With the Giants recently passing on Joe Crede, it means that Ishikawa will get a real look at first base this spring and the 25 year-old looks ready. The Indian's broadcasting crew was mentioning just how sweet Ishikawa's swing looked and I absolutely concur. The kid looked really balanced today and swung at pitches in the strike zone. If he keeps that up, not only will ...

What has been a relatively quiet spring training in Scottsdale so far is about to start picking up. The Giants have a scheduled intresquad scrimmage planned for Tuesday, followed by Wednesday's Cactus league opener against the Indians. The only Giant who is leaving the team and heading off to the World Baseball Classic is Jonathan Sanchez . The Giants' 26 year-old lefty has been penciled in to start the Puerto Rican squad's third game of the tournament. The interesting thing here is that Sanchez is also battling the recovering Noah Lowry for the fifth starters spot in the Giants' rotation. Now, Sanchez had a leg up on Lowry before pitchers and catchers reported and absolutely nothing has changed. Sanchez's delivery has apparently been toned down and smoothed out a little bit which is hopefully going to keep him in the strike zone more often and he's looked in control in his first 2 sessions throwing to hitters. Lowry on the other hand, is still trying to w...

With spring training now in full swing, and cactus league games less than a week away, I thought now would be a good time to take a closer look at the top five battles that will be going on in Giants camp over the next 6 weeks. The battle for the 5th starters job, the starting second basemen spot, the final bench and bullpen spots as well as the fight for the bulk of the at-bats at first base will all be under the microscope as the Giants try attempt to field their first winning team since 2004. The 5 th Starters Spot : The most publicized battle this spring has been and will continue to be the battle for the fifth starters spot. There are only 2 contestants in this one so it's pretty cut and dry: Either Jonathan Sanchez or Noah Lowry will be in rotation come April, but not both (unless an unforeseen injury takes place). Noah Lowry leads the Giants in wins over the last 4 years, even after missing all of '08, so he's been very important to the pitching staff, when healthy....

Wednesday marked the first day of full-squad workouts, but there was still plenty of buzz about the pitchers, and even gold ' ol Joe Crede was back in Giants news. One of the newest Giants showed up and looked good, according to our good friend over at Giants Jottings. I reported a few weeks back that Edgar Renteria showed up for the fanfest looking about 15-20 pounds lighter than he ended the season at with Detroit. Renteria looked lighter on the field as well as he supposedly put together a strong fielding session followed with a solid batting practice. The Giants, once again, have a lineup built around contact hitters, so Renteria will have to rebound and carry his share this year if the Giants are going to improve on last years league's worst offense. The 33 year-old shortstop is still being significantly overpaid in this market ($18.5 million over the next 2 seasons when he should have gotten $10 over 2 years max) but as I said when he signed, if he reverts to the wa...

Finally, instead of contemplating on Joe Crede and discussing the ongoing Manny Ramirez saga, we have some real baseball to talk about as Spring Training 2009 has officially begun. Most of the buzz from the first few days of Giants camp has surrounded young Buster Posey . The Giants number one pick (and fifth overall) from 2008's amateur draft showed up to spring training and looked like a top five pick is supposed to. Posey hit a shot over the left-field fence on his first swing in his first spring batting session and he didn't stop there. According to those in attendance for the workout, Posey was ripping the ball all over the yard and was the only Giant hitter to hit a ball out of the park on each of the first two days of workouts. Just by looking at some of the photos taken from the batting sessions, and from the limited at-bats I saw him take for Florida State in last year's College World Series, you can tell this kid has a special swing that's balanced and fini...

Spring Training 2009 has officially begun for the Giants as pitchers, catchers and various other position players reported to camp on Saturday. There wasn't much going on as today was just the reporting date and the first official workout isn't scheduled until Sunday, but there were a enough tidbits to come up with a small post on reporting day. Apparently Noah Lowry isn't 100 percent healthy after all as he has reported some shoulder stiffness upon arriving in Scottsdale. The lefty was supposed to be on schedule to take part fully i n pitchers workouts on Sunday, but his recent set-back will likely limit any throwing he may do. However, Lowry thinks he'll be fine in due time and also adressed the the questions regarding the starting rotation. He hinted that he would expect a move of some kind if everyone is healthy come April, even a possible trade. There have been whispers of Lowry possibly starting the year off in Fresno as he still has a minor league option left, bu...