San Francisco Giants vs. San Diego Padres

It would be a bad start for the Giants tonight in the first of a three game series against the San Diego Padres. Barry Zito, impart due to missing his spots (high) and due to sloppy defensive support, he had to throw 39 pitch in the first inning. This led to San Diego taking an early 0-3 lead over the G-men. This proved to be too big of a hole to overcome. The bad weather, rain delay, combined with Padres pitcher Shawn Hill was pitching well the Giants had a long night.

In the top of the third, the Giants got on the board. Emmanuel Burriss was walked. Zito bunted him over on a sacrifice bunt. Then Randy Winn got a base hit to bring Burriss home. This would be the only run scored in the inning. By this inning Zito had began to make some adjustments to his pitches. He began to show more control and was able to get his pitches down in the zone, for positive results. He would only have to throw 7 pitches to get out of the inning.

San Diego would add another run in the Fourth. This would be Zito’s last inning as his pitch count reached 93. He would be pitch hit for in the fifth. The ball would be handed to Justin Miller for the Giants.

In the sixth, the rain started to fall and wash away a Giants opportunity to tie the game. The inning began looking promising. Giant’s hitters begun finding holes. The Giants would score a run and load up the bases, with nobody out. With Travis Ishikawa at the plate, reliever, Luke Gregerson, would replace Padres pitcher Shawn Hill. Ishikawa would hit a line drive to first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and into a 3 – 2 – 3 double play. Then Aaron Rowand would struck out to end the inning.

The seventh inning would begin with a 51 minute rain delay. The wheels fell off For the Giants in the eighth. Giants had a runner at first base and had two great hits taken away. Bengie Molina and Travis Ishikawa had solid hits, but both were caught. Molina’s may have been over the wall but brought back by Scott Hairston. In the bottom of the inning Merkin Valdez would give up a three run shot to Scott Hairston.

Giants would score one run in the ninth for a final 3-7 loss. Jonathan Sanchez up tomorrow against Padres, Jake Peavy.

Winning pitcher - Shawn Hill (1-0)
Losing pitcher - Barry Zito (0-1)

Wishing A Speedy Recovery

Thoughts and prayers are with Pitcher Joe Martinez that the comebacker to his head is not serious and for a speedy recovery.

Following clipped from Chris Haft a reporter for MLB.com - http://chrishaft.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/04/a_scary_scary_moment.html

A scary, scary moment

SAN FRANCISCO -- As of this moment, Joe Martinez's condition remains unknown. We're all praying that he's OK.

Martinez needed one out to end the Giants' 7-1 victory Thursday over the Milwaukee Brewers when Mike Cameron slammed a line drive back at the right-hander. The ball struck the right side of Martinez's forehead with such force that the ball caromed all the way back to the Brewers' dugout on the first-base side.

Martinez remained conscious but wisely sat on the mound, not trying to move and allowing Giants athletic trainers to attend to him. An angry red mark could be seen on Martinez's forehead. Meanwhile, numerous players began praying -- Brian Wilson, leaning against the Giants dugout railing; shortstop Edgar Renteria and all three outfielders, squatting on the outfield grass; Cameron, hunched over at second base and visibly upset. Randy Winn and Fred Lewis came over to console Cameron.

Giants head athletic trainer Dave Groeschner held a bandage to Martinez's forehead as the pitcher walked off the field under his own power -- an encouraging sign.

Baseball Is Back

The never ending Spring Training is over and baseball is back in the Bay Area.

2009 Predictions for the National League West:
Giants win the division with 91 wins. The Diamondbackswill be in second with the Dodgers coming in third. A five game margin will separate the three teams.

Brewers at Giants Game Review:
Tim Lincecum started the season with a less than memorable outing. Most pitchers would be excited to have struck out 5, but not Tim. He was pulled out of the game at the end of the third inning, due to his high pitch count. To his credit, most of his pitches were out of the stretch.

Tim simply fell victim to the start of the season. Pitcher often do not have their best stuff as yet, and the hitters are typically seeing the ball well. This combination translates into any missed spots and the hitters will make you pay.
Being the first game of the season Tim clearly did not have his best stuff. He left the game with a one run lead (3-4).

With Tim out of the game, the Giants lead quickly evaporated and they fell behind 5-4 in the top of the fourth inning. In the bottom of the inning Aaron Rowand delivered a 2 run homer, to recapture the lead 5-6. Giants added a run in the fifth inning on a bases loaded walk (5-7). Giants got a couple of additional runs in the seventh (5-9). The continued scoring with an addition insurance run in the eighth (5-10). Brewers score on in the ninth.

6-10, Giants Win! On the way to a 91 win season.

Giants 2009 Lineup!

Pending that the SF Giants make no other infield acquisitions the following is your 2009 lineup.

1) Randy Winn
2) Edgar Renteria
3) Pablo Sandoval
4) Bengie Molina
5) Fred Lewis
6) Aaron Rowand
7) Travis Ishikawa
8) Second-Base (Emmanuel Burriss, Kevin Frandsen or Eugenio Velez)
9) Pitcher

Information obtained from Chris Haft’s article, Bochy Outlines Potential Giants Lineup.
Posted by LJ at 11:30 AM 0 comments

Giants 2008 / 2009

The Giants 2008 season is now officially in the books. We the fans, have had a few weeks to reflect on the entire season. There is no question that William Neukom, the new managing general partner, and the entire front office has much work to do as they begin to focus to improve the 2009 Giants.

In a resent report by Giants beat reporter, Chris Haft, noted that Neukom realizes the impact of free agency for the short term verses investing more in homegrown talent to make the Giants perennial contenders.

With the use 24 rookies this season, and lacking the “big bat” the Giants were 31-21 one run games. Largely impart because of the Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, and the starting rotation.

The Giants are much better off today going into this off season than we were last year at this time. Granted they have many of the same needs but little was known about the kind of talent Giants organization had in the minor leagues. Often it was said the Giants had mortgaged there future by trading minor leaguers for proven veteran with the hope of “winning now”. That philosophy did not work.

Pablo Sandoval (catcher-infielder), Emmanuel Burriss (infielder), John Bowker (first baseman-outfielder), Eugenio Velez (outfielder), Nate Schierholtz (outfielder), Alex Hinshaw (reliever) and Sergio Romo (reliever) showed there potential. The question is if they will continue to develop. Furthermore, there is still some great young talent still to appear 2009, with the likes of Buster Posey and Conor Gillaspie.

The Giants finished just one game better than that of the previous year, but they appeared to have coalesced as team. This is essential element that seemed to have been missing that past few years. Just look at the 2007 Colorado Rockies and the 2008 Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Giants have certainly turned the page. Lets just hope Neukom does not resort to the quick and often expensive fix by reading past chapters.

Being a Southern California resident, the most difficult part of this season is that the LA Dodgers are still playing.

On a personal note, I would also like to thank Chris Haft for his outstanding reporting. He has done a great job during this difficult time, the past few season.

NL Cy Young

The following are excerpts from MLB writer Jayson Stark. I think he has it correct.

Tim Lincecum has been getting way too little play in this debate for way too long, anyway. But Webb's mini-funk has helped bring Lincecum back into the conversation. And it's about time.

True, Lincecum has four fewer wins (19 to 15). But how much of that is his fault? He's 15-3, with five blown saves and six CUS (?Criminally Unsupported Starts -- games in which he pitched at least six innings and his team scored one run or none while he was in the game). Webb has one blown save and only two CUS. So that accounts for your gap in wins, gang.

Toss wins out of the discussion, and Lincecum looks as if he has clearly outpitched Webb by most standards. Lincecum leads in ERA by more than three-quarters of a run (2.43 to 3.19), leads in strikeouts by 50 (210 to 160) and tops the league in both categories. Lincecum also leads the NL in OPS allowed (.609), quality-start percentage (22 of 27, 81 percent) and strikeout ratio (10.2 per 9 IP). And unlike Sabathia, you may have noticed that he has been in the same league, on the same team, all season.

if you look seriously at the big picture -- not just win totals or the last two months -- I believe that pitcher is Tim Lincecum.

For the full Jayson Stark story and comparisons please see the following: http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=22202

Fans Voted

Thank you for those who took the time to voted. Please return each week for the results and a new question. Please fell free to submit future questions you would like to be asked.

1) How do you feel about Bill Neukom replacing Peter Magowan?
Optimistic - Change is good 30%
No Real Change - Will not make a difference 53%

2) In order to strengthen the bullpen, who would you recommend demoting and/or releasing?
Tyler Walker 93%