I posted a lot about the Giants rookie Tim Lincecum last season. This year he's proving I was right to do so. Check out these numbers:

9-1 (even more impressive because he's pitching for an awful Giants team.)
2.38 ERA (2nd in the NL)
114 SO (1st in the NL)

It looks like he's got a real shot at the Cy Young award if he can keep up at the pace he's on now. Although it will take a bit of a miracle to keep winning at a 90% clip while pitching for the Giants.

Also: Barry Zito who? Ah Barry "leads the NL in losses" Zito.

Barry Zito: 3-12, 5.99 ERA (ouch.)

Looks like they gave the wrong pitcher the $126 million contract.

Labels: Barry Zito, San Francisco Giants, Tim Lincecum

While old man Barry Bonds went 0 for 2 to keep everyone waiting for #754, young man Tim Lincecum pitched another outstanding game for the Giants. He threw 8 scoreless innings with 8 strikeouts, allowing just 4 hits and 1 walk as the Giants beat the Brewers for the second straight game in Milwaukee 8 to 0.

Lincecum improved his record to 5-2 with a 3.96 ERA. He has 103 strikeouts in 94.1 innings this season.

Most impressively he is 3-0 in his last 5 starts with only 4 runs allowed in 34.1 innings, that's a 1.05 ERA. He also has 41 strikeouts against 14 walks during those 5 starts.

After a sketchy period in June, Tim Lincecum is now living up to the huge hype placed upon him prior to his arrival in San Francisco.

Labels: San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants are in a tail spin. They lost their 7th consecutive game today vs. the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Giants weren't doing so well before the losing streak started (30-34) but now they are at 30-41, a full 12 games behind the San Diego Padres in the NL West.

The Giant's season has diminished into nothing more than the Barry Bonds career home run chase. And speaking of the case: Bonds got the day off to rest. He get 1 pinch hit at bat. He got to second base on an error. He stands at 748 home runs, 7 shy of Hank Aaron.

Big contract Giants starting pitcher Barry Zito had another disappointing performance as his record dropped to 6 wins and 8 losses with a 4.83 ERA.

In other sad Giants news rookie pitcher Tim Lincecum who is supposed to be the savior of the franchise has been absolutely horrible in June. He has an 0-2 record with a 10.61 ERA in 4 June starts.

Labels: San Francisco Giants

Barry Bonds hit career home run #748 yesterday for his first home run ever at Fenway Park in Boston. But unfortunately for the Giants their season is looking to hold little interest now other than the Barry Bonds pursuit of Hank Aaron. They were swept in Boston and have now lost 4 games in a row to drop to 30-38, a full 10 games behind the first place San Diego Padres.

Only the Reds (27) have fewer wins than the Giants in the NL.

Barry Bonds season to date:

.287 batting average
14 home runs (7th in NL)
31 RBI
.492 OBP (1st in NL)
.581 slugging percentage (4th in NL)
1.072 OPS (1st in NL)

Monthly splits for Barry Bonds' batting average:

April: .356
May: .194
June: .341

I think Bonds is now officially out of his slump. Another home run tonight would really put the stamp on it though.

Labels: Barry Bonds, San Francisco Giants

Barry Bonds finally hit his first home run of June. He hit a 2 run home run in the 4th inning to tie the game vs the Blue Jays at 3. The Giants would score another run to take a 4-3 lead which they would hold onto the rest of the game. The home run was Bonds' 13th of the season and 747th of his career, leaving him just 8 behind Hank Aaron.

Giants fans (like myself) are hopeful that this is a sign of things to come and that Bonds is ready to go on a hot streak. The Giants offense has been anemic during Bonds' slump.

The Blue Jays became believers pretty quickly. They intentionally walked Bonds the next time he came up even though he was leading off the inning.

How bad has Bonds' home run slump been? Before tonight's home run he had hit only one home run in his last 77 at bats and was on a streak of 33 at bats without a home run. Obviously one homer isn't going to erase all of that. Bonds needs to get on track soon for the Giants to have any chance of hanging around in the playoff chase.

Can he do it? Can he hit home runs consistently again or was his hot streak in April a fluke? The record for home runs for a player 42 years or older (Bonds is 42 and turning 43 in July) is 18 by Carlton Fisk in 1991. Sometimes I forget just how old Bonds is. Maybe it's unrealistic to expect him to be able to perform up to his old standards?

Matt Morris was the Giants pitcher tonight. I recently wrote about the great season he's having and he gave another strong example of that tonight. He pitched a complete game tonight allowing 7 hits and 3 runs with 4 strike outs and just 1 walk. He's now 7-3 with a 2.56 ERA. This was his 3rd complete game of the season and his second in a row.

Labels: Barry Bonds, San Francisco Giants

Last night the A's beat the Giants 5 to 3 in San Francisco. The A's won in the 10th inning when pinch hitter Shannon Stewart hit a two run single. At the time the Giants had 3rd baseman Pedro Feliz playing catcher and pitcher Noah Lowry playing right field.

Why? Because a collision at home plate forced the backup catcher Eliezer Alfonzo out of the game with a sprained left knee. This left the team with no catchers left so Feliz had to move behind the plate. It also left the team with no more position players which is why Lowry was out in right field.

Alfonzo is likely to go on the DL which is going to force the Giants to bring up a catcher from Triple A.

The Giants also lost right fielder Fred Lewis to injury.

How did the game end? With pitcher Noah Lowry (hitting .080 for the season) striking out in the bottom of the 10th. Unbelievable!

Giants rookie pitcher Tim Lincecum had another disappointing start as he also pitched poorly in his last start (6 ER on June 3 vs Philadelphia.) He started off strong by getting the first 7 batters out but ended up being removed from the game after just 4 1/3 innings having given up 4 hits, 5 walks, and 3 runs. This was Lincecum's 7th MLB start and he has still yet to record his first MLB loss as he got a no decision and his record remains at 2-0 although the Giants have lost 4 of his starts.

Barry Bonds went 1 for 3 (single) with 2 walks, a steal (his 3rd of the year), and an RBI. He's now hitting .276 for the season. He's yet to hit a home run this month, still stuck at 746 career home runs.

Labels: San Francisco Giants

Matt Morris pitched another great game for the Giants last night. Unfortunately for Morris and the Giants, the offense couldn't muster a single run against Arizona and the Giants lost 1 to 0.

Morris pitched all 8 innings (the Diamondbacks didn't need the bottom of the 9th) and allowed 2 walks and 7 hits (including a solo home run to Chris Young for the only run of the game) while striking out 6.

Morris is now at 6-3 with a 2.51 ERA which is good for 4th in the National League. These numbers are a huge improvement over last year when Morris went 10-15 with a 4.98 ERA. 2006 was Morris' first year with the Giants after spending the first 8 seasons of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals. It was also the worst season of his career with the highest ERA of his career and the first year he ever finished a season with more losses than wins.

Detractors will say that Morris' strikeout to walk ratio is still poor this year and that his low ERA is a mirage. He currently has 41 strike outs to 28 walks for a 1.46 strikeouts/walk ratio which is far below his career strikeout/walk ratio of 2.44 and even below last seasons of 1.86!

Personally I don't put as much weight into these factors as some do. I'm still an ERA man myself. If you've got a 2.51 ERA you are doing something right.

Labels: San Francisco Giants

Zito and the Giants beat the Phillies today in Philadelphia 8 to 1.

Before Zito's last 3 starts he was at 3-5 with an ERA over 5.00 and many Giants fans were crying about his huge contract but Zito has turned around at least some of those doubters with his recent performances.

Zito is 3-0 with a 0.45 ERA over his last 3 starts. The Giants have won those three games 9 to 1, 3 to 0, and today's game (vs. the Phillies) 8 to 1.

Today's game was also Zito's 4th start this season in which he hasn't given up an earned run (the only run given up today was unearned.)

Inevitable Barry Bonds mention: Bonds went 0 for 4 with 2 strike outs and a walk to lower his season average to .270, he's now only hit 1 home run in his last 61 at bats.

Labels: San Francisco Giants

Noah Lowry threw 7 scoreless innings last night in a 4 to 0 win over the Astros to drop his season ERA to a team leading 2.68, one game after Matt Morris threw a complete game 2 hitter allowing just 1 run to drop his ERA to 2.93.

Lowry & Morris are the two least hyped Giants starters after the 126 million $ man Barry Zito, 22 year old Matt Cain (career BAA of .208 & 7.7 SO/9), and rookie Tim Lincecum who is coming off a 10 strikeout 7 inning performance in just his 3rd MLB start.

Giants RF Randy Winn extended his career best hitting streak to 20 games with a double.

Meanwhile Barry Bonds continues his cold May. After an amazing April where Bonds turned back the clock with incredible production .356/.536/.814 with 8 home runs he has now gone 11 consecutive games without hitting a home run and his numbers for May are now at .222/.485/.444 with 3 homers. Of course the crazy number there is the .485 OBP, not many (any?) players can have a .485 OBP during a slump like Bonds can.

The question of course is whether this is just a slump or whether it's a sign of real decline from injury. Bonds has been playing almost every day so I'm holding out hope it's the former rather than the latter. It's definitely too early to be writing an obit. for Bonds' career as he's still leading the NL in OBP (.503) and second in SLG (.630) while leading all of MLB in OPS (1.133)

Tonight rookie pitcher Tim Lincecum tries to build on last week's weeks awesome start. If the Giants starting pitching can continue as it has recently (save Zito who needs to turn things up a notch or three) then I feel the Giants can be a real contender in the NL West this year if Bonds can produce with the way he was in April. Couple of pretty big ifs but enough to make the season exciting at this point for Giants fans.

Labels: San Francisco Giants

As the five of you who probably read this might have figured out. I am an Oakland A's fan and the friendly guy who posts erotic fan fiction of Barry Bonds is a Giants fan. The Bay series starts tonight so I thought we could leave death threats to each other in this lovely entry. Bonds gets to play his natural DH position, so no one needs to wake grandpa up to take OF practice.

Don't forget 1989 bitch. Also we lead this little dance 29-27, and are 103-73 in interleague play

Friday Barry Zito vs. Chad Gaudin 10:05PM
Saturday Matt Cain vs. Dan Haren 9:05PM
Sunday Matt Morris vs. Joe Kennedy 4:05PM

San Fran Injuries:
Dave Roberts CF
Russ Ortiz Shitty Pitcher

Oakland Injuries:
H. Street RP
C. Snelling LF/RF
M. Piazza DH/C
B. Kielty RF/LF
R. Harden SP
E. Loaiza SP
C. Denorfia CF/RF
M. Kotsay CF

Labels: IHateU, Josh, Oakland A's, San Francisco Giants

I did this earlier with the New York Yankees All Time Team. And I plan on eventually getting to every team (I'm really looking forward to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays...)

Tonight it's the San Francisco Giants turn to have their greatest player ever at every position chosen.

The Giants have one of the longest histories of any Major League franchise as they got their start in 1883 as the New York Gothams. They weren't the Gothams for long and adopted the name the Giants soon after. They stayed in New York through the end of the 1957 season. In the 1958 season they began a second life out west in San Francisco. The Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles that same season to move the oldest rivalry in baseball from the east coast to the west.

The New York Giants won 5 World Series but the Giants have not won a World Series in three appearances since moving to San Francisco. Most recently they lost to the Angels in the 2002 World Series.

This all time team selection will take into consideration the entirety of the Giants history both New York & San Francisco.

Who is the greatest Giant of all time at each position?

Just like with the Yankees team I am only considering what a player did while playing with the Giants. For example Barry Bonds stats with the Pittsburgh Pirates are not taken into consideration.

The New York/San Francisco Giants All Time Team (with career Giants stats)

First Base - Willie McCovey (469 Home Runs, 1388 RBI, .377 OBP, .524 SLG, 150 OPS+)

The Giants have had some amazing first basemen so this was a difficult choice. If I was going squarely by the numbers perhaps I should have chosen another hall of fame Giants first baseman. Bill Terry is the Giants all time leader in batting average at .341 but Terry didn't have a lot of home run power (McCovey had more than 3 times as many Giants home runs as did Terry) and when considering the respective eras they played in I had to give the edge to McCovey.

McCovey's peak year came in 1969 when he won the MVP with a .320 batting average and 45 home runs, both career highs.

Second Base - Jeff Kent (.297 AVG, 175 Home Runs, 689 RBI, .368 OBP, .535 SLG, 138 OPS+)

I'm a Giants fan and I hate Jeff Kent so I get no pleasure choosing him for this slot and perhaps there's someone more deserving I'm overlooking but what Kent did in his 6 years for the Giants was pretty awesome offensively for a second baseman. His peak year came in 2000 when he hit .334 with 33 home runs and won the MVP award.

Shortstop - Travis Jackson (.291, 135 Home Runs, 929 RBI, .337 OBP, .433 SLG)

Jackson played his entire 15 year career from 1922 to 1936 with the New York Giants. His best year came in 1927 when he hit .318 with 14 home runs. Like most decent players on a New York team during the early era of baseball, Jackson is in the Hall of Fame.

Third Base - Matt Williams (247 Home Runs, 732 RBI, .498 SLG, 122 OPS+)

Williams started off his career very slowly hitting just .188, .205, and .202 his first three years but in his fourth season in 1990 things picked up considerably as he hit .277 with 33 home runs. Unfortunately his very best seasons were cut short due to the mid 90s baseball strike. He may have got to Maris' record before McGwire if the 1994 season had not ended early due to the strike. He lead the majors that year with a career high 43 home runs. He is 5th on the Giants all time home run leader board with 247 career Giants homers.

Catcher - Harry Danning (.285 AVG, 397 RBI)

Danning played his entire 10 year career with the Giants from 1933 to 1942. He was selected to the All Star team 4 times including his best season of 1939 when he hit .313 with 16 home runs. 16 home runs was good for 9th in the NL that year.

Outfield - Barry Bonds (.314 AVG, 569 Home Runs, 1397 RBI, .478 OBP, .673 SLG, 203 OPS+)

Bonds Giants career rates stats are unreal because he's not hindered by his comparatively slow start in Pittsburgh (He was not an All Star until his 5th season.) After starting his career with 7 seasons in Pittsburgh, Bonds is now in his 15th year with the Giants. He is the all time Giants leader in many statistics including OBP, SLG, OPS, OPS+, & Walks) Choosing Bonds best season is a bit difficult but I think his numbers in 2004 are his most astoundingly awesome. That year he hit an NL leading .362 with a MLB record .609 OBP and a MLB record 232 walks. He also had an .812 slugging percentage, one of only 4 seasons over .800 in history. Only Bonds and Babe Ruth have ever finished a season with a slugging percentage over .800! I venture a guess that his .609 OBP and 232 walks will last in the record books much longer than any of his home run marks.

Outfield - Willie Mays (.304 AVG, 646 Home Runs, 1859 RBI, .385 OBP, .564 SLG, 158 OPS+)

Mays is the all time Giants leader in Home Runs, Runs, Hits, Games, Plate Appearances, and many other stats. Mays played almost his entire career with the Giants (moving with them from New York to San Francisco in 1958) before finishing up with the Mets. Mays best year came in 1965 when he hit .317 with 52 home runs winning his second MVP award.

Outfield - Mel Ott (.304 AVG, 511 HR, 1860 RBI, .414 OBP, .533 SLG, 155 OPS+)

Mell Ott played his entire 22 year career with the New York Giants from 1926 to 1947. Ott was only 17 when he first played in the majors. Amazingly he hit .383 in 60 at bats as a 17 year old in 1926. Choosing Ott's best year is tough because he had many that are very similar to each other but I'll go with 1938 when he was at .311/.442/.583 with 116 runs & 116 RBI.

Ott is the Giants all time leader in RBI with 1860 (to Willie Mays' 1859.)

How many other team's all time outfield has three players with 500+ home runs? I'm willing to go out on a limb and say zero.

Starting Pitcher - Christy Mathewson (372 Wins, 2.12 ERA, 136 ERA+)

Mathewson played almost his entire career with the New York Giants. He won 372 games with the Giants and 1 with Cincinnati in 1916 (mid season trade.)

Mathewson played from 1900 to 1916. His numbers of 372 wins and a 2.12 ERA are overpowering although when you adjust for the era his ERA isn't as astounding (check the 136 ERA+) Mathewson is a legendary early pitcher of the game and is a shoe in for this all time Giants starting rotation. His best year was 1908 when he was 37-11 with 11 shutouts and a 1.43 ERA. He pitched 390.7 innings. I'm pretty sure they weren't counting his pitches.

Starting Pitcher - Carl Hubbell (253 Wins, 2.98 ERA, 130 ERA+)

Hubbell pitched his entire career from 1928 to 1943 with the New York Giants. Hubbell won two MVP awards which is quite impressive for a pitcher. His first MVP came in 1933 and I select this as his supreme season. In '33 Hubbell went 23-12 with a 1.66 ERA and 10 shutouts.

Starting Pitcher - Juan Marichal (238 Wins, 2.84 ERA, 124 ERA+)

Marichal is the Giants all time leader in strikeouts to walk ratio at 3.31 and he had a career WHIP of 1.10 only slightly behind Mathewson's 1.06 career WHIP. His best year is tough to choose due to many great seasons that are very similar but I'll go with his career low ERA year of 1969 when he went 21-11 with 8 shutouts and a 2.10 ERA. He pitched for the San Francisco Giants from 1960 through 1973.

Starting Pitcher - Gaylord Perry (134 Wins, 2.96 ERA, 118 ERA+)

Although Perry actually had his single best season winning the Cy Young award with the Indians in 1972 he pitched his first 10 seasons with the San Francisco Giants from 1962 through 1971.

Perry had poor run support through most of his stay with the Giants as evidenced by his 16-15 record in 1968 when he had a 2.44 ERA, his lowest during his years with the Giants.

Relief Pitcher - Robb Nen (206 Saves)

Nen only pitched 5 years with the Giants (from '98 through '02) but is still the Giants all time saves leader with 206. His best year came in 2000 when he finished 4th in the Cy Young Award voting with 41 saves and a 1.50 ERA.

Have your own say on the Giants All Time Team at the San Francisco Giants Baseball Forum.

Labels: All Time Team, San Francisco Giants

The Giants came into the bottom of the 5th inning against the Mets tonight down 1 to 0 with the Mets' Oliver Perez pitching a perfect game for the first 4 innings.

Then the madness started. By the time it was over the Giants had scored 9 runs with Giants catcher Bengie Molina hitting two home runs. The first one to score 2 runs and the second one to score 3 runs. Rich Aurilia also hit a home run in the inning, his first of the year.

Molina came into the game with only 1 home run for the year in 96 at bats.

It was the first time a Giant hit 2 homers in one inning since Willie McCovey did it in 1977.

The Giants scored no other runs but they would not need them as they would go on bet the Mets 9 to 4. Barry Zito improved to 3-3 on the season.

Labels: San Francisco Giants

Since I enjoyed the first needling of peoples trades, I bring Giants fans this delightful one:

(November 2003)
Joe Mauer is coming up to MLB soon, so the Twins/Giants trade:

To the Giants:
A.J. Pierzynski C, Professional Wrestler
Cash considerations or a “Player to be named” (Twins eventually sent Cash)

To the Twins:
CL Joe Nathan
LHP Francisco Liriano (SP)
RHP Boof Bosner (SP)

What the Giants got was one year of AJ, until in the 2004 offseason they signed Mike Matheny (Who hits like Ryan White lives right now) and then waived AJ. They also paid him 3.5 million dollars, while Nathan made 300,000K and the other two Bosner probably made more being a semi-high draft pick. Liriano was probably making like 10K. AJ had a shitty first month and the rest of the Giants decided he was a cancer. After that he ended up having an OK season. What else exactally do you want from the rarity that is a left handed batting catcher again?

A.J. went on to sing Journey on the Dan Patrick show with a bunch of the other retarded and lucky 05 White Sox (Magical career year for most of the Starters?) with Stabby McShanker the crazy minority manager that just loves Madonna, stabbing things, and calling Maglio Ordonez a pussy. He also managed to run to first base once in some important setting, and get punched by Michael Barrett. The Twins guys? Well uhm, one of the best closers in the league, Boof Bosner is a decent backend of the rotation starter, and Liriano could have won the Rookie of the Year last year and no one beyond Verlander fans would have batted an eye. I suppose the jury is still out on him, but his one season at near deity level at MLB with a 200+ ERA+ vs. A.J.’s one OPS+ of 85 well, which one do you want?

~Mike

Labels: A.J. Pierzynski, San Francisco Giants, YOU GOT SERVED.

San Francisco Giants' prized pitching prospect Tim Lincecum's debut was disappointing last night as he made it through only 4 1/3 innings (throwing 100 pitches) allowing 5 hits and 5 walks for 5 runs (4 earned.) Although he would get away with a no decision the Giants would go on to lose the game 8 to 5 to the Phillies. He gave up two home runs including the 5th of the year to the struggling Ryan Howard.

On the positive side of things he did display remarkable velocity on his fastball reaching 100 mph on the stadium gun at one point. He finished with 5 strike outs including 3 in the first inning alone.

Now the Giants fans are hoping that Giants GM Brian Sabean doesn't overreact and pull Lincecum back down to the minors for more "seasoning."

Interestingly enough Lincecum's debut line was very similar to that of Yankees rookie Phil Hughes. Here's hoping Lincecum's second game goes like Hughes' did except without the injury of course.

Labels: San Francisco Giants

One important aspect of being a baseball fan is the realization that fans of other teams are stupid and misguided. While one could make a horrible joke about Cardinal’s pitchers and Denver Broncos’ life expectancies, I’ll go the nicer route. By nicer I mean talking about how stupid your GM’s are compared to mine. Also, I’m only making fun of the other writers for now so we can get a nice rivalry going and bicker, like people are supposed to do on the internet. Wait, isn’t the internet for porn? Oh well…

Cardinals:
Mulder Trade:
FROM A’s:
SP Mark Mulder (Despite the fact that his stats were dropping, and he was frequently injured in the last year on the A’s due to a fault in his mechanics, he had the most talent of any of the A’s vaunted “Big Three,” Cardinals fan’s might remember this SEE: Body explodes)
FROM Cardinals:
SP Dan Haren (Sweet, our opening day starter)
RP Kiko Calero (Awesome, set up man)
1b/c (He’s gonna be a DH) Daric Barton. (Your best prospect)

From A’s: (2002)
CL Jason Isringhausen
From Cardinals:
1st Round, 30th Pick (SP Ben Fritz) Up and down, dependant on if his arm explodes, Doing well in AA right now
1st Round, 39th Pick (Sandwich Pick) (3b Mark Teahen) Traded in Carlos Beltran deal 3 way for Octovial Dotel

Red Sox:
From A’s: (2004)
CL Keith Foulke (Uhm, yeah)
From Red Sox:
1st Round 24h Pick (Landon Powell C) Injured but has recovered, good prospect behind Suzaki who is in AAA right now. BY KENDALL *waves*
1st Round 36th Pick (Danny Putnam OF) Playing in the majors since the A’s OF is a Triage Unit.

From A’s: (2002)
CF Johnny Damon
From Red Sox:
1st Round 16th Pick (Nick Swisher RF/CF/LF/1B) How’s Coco Crisp working out? Oh, Sorry 
!st Round 37th Pick (Steve Obenchain SP) Ok he sucks, everyone gets one. Injured and possibly dead of a Crystal Meth Overdose.

Jay Payton OF, Traded for a broken Chad Bradford (Arm Explosion) when you pissed him off.

San Francisco
FROM A’s: (2003)
Ray Durham (Taken from White Sox GM Kenny Williams for shiny beads (Jon Adkins), played on the A’s for 3 months) Helped A’s get to playoffs.
FROM Giants:
1st Round, 26th pick in 2003 MLB Draft (Brian Snyder 3B) Now a second basemen, had a good first year in 04, struggled last two years and back up to AA this year.
1st Round 33rd pick (Sandwich pick) (2B/SS Omar Quintanilla) Traded with OF Eric Byrnes to Colorado in the 2005 Season for SP/RP Joe Kennedy, and RP Jay Witasick. The point of this trade being that Beane jumped the trade market by a month and took relievers off the market one month before the non-waiver trading deadline. (Both still on the A’s, Kennedy has started and been a reliever since, Witasick out of the bullpen)

I don't want to hear anything about some McGwire trade from the Cardinals, Beane wasn't incharge for that thing. Nor any Jimmy Foxx, Lefty Grove to the Sox, or the explosion of Charles Finley in the 70's. No one is allowed to mention the Tim Hudson trade either. Jerks.

Labels: Billy Beane, Boston Red Sox, Moneyball, Oakland A's, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, YOU GOT SERVED.

Opening day for the Padres and the Giants and I'm here to report on the action as it happens.

If you are a Giants or Padres fan watch this space for live updates! I'll be updating this entry at the end of each half inning.

The Giants have their new ace Barry Zito starting the game. The Padres start Jake Peavy. Both Zito and Peavy had disappointing years last year. Zito went 16-10 with a 3.83 ERA and Peavy went 11-14 with a 4.09 ERA.

Brian Giles hit a double and Adrian Gonzalez hit a single to knock in Giles and give the Padres a 1-0 lead.

Overall Zito looked pretty good in the first inning despite allowing the run.

Now the Giants are up. Bonds is batting third now so he is guaranteed to come up in the first inning. New lead off hitter Dave Roberts is up first. Not an awful at bat but he's out on 5 pitches. Ball hit on the ground towards first base. Vizquel struck out. Bonds got a full count and then hit a ground ball towards the gap at third for a single. Bonds 1 for 1 batting 1.000 my friends. Bonds steals second! Ray Durham now with an RBI opportunity hits the ball to SS for what looks like an easy out but the 1B drops the ball on the throw. Bonds sees this and runs for home unfortunately for the Giants the Padres recover and he's thrown out at home.

Top of the second goes easily for the Giants. Padres down 1 2 3. Bonds looks good in LF on the third out. Giants fans all over have to be happy with what they are seeing from Barry Bonds early. He looks healthy, much healthier than last season.

Padres up 1 to 0 going into the bottom of the second inning.

The Giants have Aurilia, Molina, and Feliz coming up. I'm happy that the Giants have moved Molina up in the lineup from the projection I listed earlier today. Feliz put up a pretty good battle but the Giants went down in order as well.

Padres up 1 to 0 after 2.

Padres down in order in the top of the 3rd. Zito is looking really good. Unfortunately for Giants fans (and you may have noticed this includes ME) Peavy has looked very good too.

The Giants have Winn, Zito, and Roberts coming up. I don't remember where I read it but I do remember reading that Zito likes to hit and that's one of the reasons he came to the NL so I'm interested to him up at the plate.

Well he didn't look too good. He's 1 for 30 life time now. Two outs.

Roberts got to first base on a short hit that Peavy dropped. He really showed his speed on this hit. Unfortunately Vizquel couldn't take advantage. He lined out to center. Bonds will lead off the 4th for the Giants.

At the end of 3 innings it's still Padres 1 and the Giants 0.

Top of the 4th is going badly for the Giants. Zito walks the lead off hitter Mike Cameron who comes around and scores on Josh Bard's single up the middle. Feliz makes an error on the next ball hit in play to put men on first and second. Another hit loads the bases and then Zito walks in a run! Luckily Zito was able to get Peavy to hit into a double play to stop the bleeding.

The Padres are up 3 to 0 after 3 and a half innings.

Bonds walked on 5 pitches to start the Giants half of the 4th inning. Durham strikes out. Aurilla pops up. Molina pops up. Ouch! Hate to see Bonds' walks wasted like that. Peavy is looking very much in control.

Zito had a good top of the 5th with 2 strike outs.

Padres 3 to 0.

In the bottom of the 5th Winn is walked and so Zito is PH for with Lance Niekro. Unfortunately Niekro is struck out anyway. Roberts flies out to end the inning. Jake Peavy is just rolling through the Giants with ease right now. Still 3 to 0.

Top of the 6th goes easily for the Giants and relief pitcher Kevin Correia. 3 up and 3 down.

Time for the Giants to make some noise!

Vizquel, Bonds, and Durham are due up.

Vizquel flies out. Bonds grounds out to first. Durham gets a hit. Actually the first real hit of the game for the Giants. Can the Giants get something started? It's up to Rich Aurilia. Aurilia gets it to a full count and hit the ball pretty solidly but alas just a fly out. Inning over and it's still 3 to 0.

The Padres have tagged another run on their lead. It's now 4 to 0 heading into the bottom half o the 7th. Things do not look good for the San Francisco Giants.

The Padres have made what I hope to be a huge mistake. They've replaced Peavy who was just mowing down the Giants. Cla Meredith has relieved him. Molina singles off him to give the Giants some hope. Unfortunately Feliz strikes out. But Winn singles. Men on first and second. Some excitement in San Fran? Ryan Klesko is pinch hitting for the pitcher. He hit .280 last year.

Ouch. Double play. I think that was the Giants big chance but the top of the lineup is up next inning.

After 7 innings it's Padres 4 & Giants 0.

After the Padres top of the 8th it's 7 to 0. I was worried about the Giants relief pitching and today's game certainly hasn't changed that. Just ouch all around my friends. Awful day for the Giants.

Sure now the top of the lineup comes up but it's probably way too late to make a difference. Giants need a miracle starting now!

No miracle but Bonds hit a fly ball to the warning track which while it doesn't count for anything was a nice display of power. 1 for 3 with a walk for the game for Barry.

Still 7 to 0 with one inning left.

Final Score

Padres 7, Giants 0.

Great game for Padres starter Jake Peavy who pitched 6 scoreless innings with 6 strike outs and only 3 hits allowed and Padres catcher Josh Bard who went 4 for 5.

Labels: San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants

The Giants start their season today against the San Diego Padres.

In my opinion the Giants are being underrated by the so called baseball experts. I am expecting a huge season out of the Giants and I think they will contend for a playoff spot.

The Giants projected line up looks like this (with 2006 Stats) :

1. Dave Roberts, CF - .293, 49 SB

2. Omar Vizguel, SS - .295, 24 SB

3. Barry Bonds, LF - .270, 26 HR

4. Ray Durham, 2B - .293, 26 HR

5. Rich Aurilla, 1B - .300, 23 HR

6. Pedro Feliz, 3B - .244, 22 HR

7. Randy Winn, RF - .262, 11 HR

8. Bengie Molina, C - .284, 19 HR

Bonds will surely DH in all AL games with Ryan Klesko or Jason Ellison taking his spot in the OF

Looking at this lineup I'm struck by a few positive things. First of all I believe that Bonds good finish to last year and his great spring training point to a possible return to something close to his 2001-2004 numbers. I'm very hopeful that he'll put up numbers far surpassing .270 and 26. Even last year when he struggled he lead MLB in OBP. Bonds is still one of the biggest impact offensive players in the major leagues. This fact is being overlooked by most sportswriters simply because they do not like him. This is a big factor in the Giants being underrated this year. Another positive point is that the top of the line up looks stronger than it has in recent years. There is now speed at the 1 and 2 slots especially Roberts as the lead off man with 49 steals. This should give Bonds some excellent opportunities. I also feel that Bonds has more protection than he has recently with Durham & Aurilia coming off great years. If Durham and Aurilia can match last year they should be good enough in the 4 and 5 slots. I also think Molina is a strong hitter to have in your 8th slot. He hit .284 last year with 19 home runs. Very good for an 8th slot hitter and for a catcher.

I'm also happy that Bonds is batting 3rd. He's not gone along with it in the past but now he seems happy to be hitting 3rd. This will allow him to get up in the first inning of every game and should get him more PA. I think this will make for more productive first innings and get the Giants off to a good start more often. I also think it's important for the Giants run production for Bonds to be surrounded by decent hitters both in front and behind him. The Giants are quite weak at #6 with Feliz only hitting .244 last season.

Certainly it's not an overpowering line up. But if Bonds can come close to his 2001-2004 production and the rest of the line up can have above average seasons I think that people will be surprised by the level of run production this line up can create.

Pitching. I'm very excited by the pitching of the Giants this year. I'm looking for a break out year for both Matt Cain and Nick Lowry. I'm also looking for Barry Zito to return to his Cy Young level. The Giants are not a very good defensive team and that will put even more pressure on the pitchers. The Giants and their fans have to hope that every pitcher in the rotation all pitches up to their potential.

The projected rotation is as follows:

1. Barry Zito: 16-10, 3.83 ERA
2. Matt Cain: 13-12, 4.15 ERA
3. Matt Morris: 10-15, 4.98 ERA
4. Noah Lowry: 7-10, 4.74 ERA
5. Russ Ortiz: 0-8, 8.14 ERA

The relief pitching may be one of the biggest problems for the Giants. Hopefully Armando Benitez can improve on last years 17 saves and 3.52 ERA

Labels: Barry Bonds, San Francisco Giants