San Francisco Giants

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) We have officially hit the dog days of the major league baseball season, which means that the September call-ups are right around the corner. Unfortunately, the Giants haven't been able to deal off any of their veterans before the August 31st waiver-deadline. And although Randy Winn, Ric...

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) Notes: Noah Lowry has been throwing off of a mound lately and he is still holding out hope that he'll be able to make a start or 2 at the end of this season. I'd give it about a 10% chance of happening, but it's good news to see Lowry throwing off of a mound for the first time since spring training, wi...

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) The Giants called up a few of their best minor league players earlier this week, in a move that shows they are indeed ready to look towards the future. Pablo Sandoval, Travis Ishikawa and Ryan Rohlinger were all brought up prior to the Houston series, and although the Giants looked bad in the...

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) It was no secret coming into the year that the 2008 San Francisco Giants were going to have to beat you with small ball, pitching and defense. However, as we approach mid-August, I don't think anyone expected the Giants to be quite as much of a soft hitting club they've been. Through Tuesday, t...

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) I also couldn't go without mentioning the FSMA fundraiser that took place in San Francisco on Wednesday night. If you were there, you know what a great event it was, and if you weren't, do everything in your power to make it there next year. Most of the Giants' were there and served as guest bart...

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) Travis Ishikawa, a guy who's had expectations after a pretty big 2005 season in San Jose, hasn't really been heard of since then, until now. Ishikawa is quietly putting together his best season as a professional and has been on fire since being called up to Fresno. In 377 at-bats split betwee...

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By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) As many expected, the Giants stayed very quiet during the final hours of the non-waiver trade deadline Thursday. In fact, most of baseball was pretty quiet outside of the Ken Griffey deal and Manny Ramirez getting shipped to LA. I am a little disappointed the Giants couldn't unload Randy Wi...

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) As far as the trade deadline rumors are concerned, it has been pretty quiet on the Giants front since they dealt Ray Durham to Milwaukee last week. There was a report out of Florida that the Marlins have Bengie Molina at the top of their wish list of possible catchers to target. Molina is the one...

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) Another trade rumor surfaced in recent days as we inch closer and closer to the July 31st trade deadline. According to CNNSI.com , the Giants have expressed interest in Texas Rangers' third basemen Hank Blalock. The 27 year-old would fit the Giants mold of trying to get younger, and would giv...

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) The other guy the Giants acquired in the trade is 26 year-old lefty, Steve Hammond. I'm not too intrigued with Hammond outside of the fact that he's left handed. He was a former 6th round pick, so he he's got ability, but he's never really done much since being drafted. He has an era in the 7's with...

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) Over the next couple weeks leading up to the trade deadline, I will most likely be mentioning something about that in each post. Lately the Giants have had a few players come up in rumors as the Milwaukee Brewers have supposedly inquired about Jack Taschner and Ray Durham. Rickie Weeks has be...

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) Back in 2005-2006, the NL West was widely regarded as one of the weaker divisions in the game. Then 2007 came around and 2 teams from the West made the playoffs and all of the sudden the NL West was starting to look like the class of the National League. However, As we sit in mid-July in the 2008 sea...

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) The all-star selections were made official on Sunday, and surprisingly to some, two San Francisco Giants were selected. Everybody across the nation has heard of Tim Lincecum and is recognizing his dominance this season, so he was a lock to make the team. At this point, he has as good a shot at...

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) SECOND HALF PREVIEW: The Giants will enter the second half of the year within striking distance of the first place Diamondbacks. I don't expect to see the Giants win the division or even be serious contenders come September, but the NL West is not very strong this year. If Barry Zito pitches m...

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) The Giants have recently shown interest in fired Mets' pitching coach, Rick Peterson, the same pitching coach that helped Barry Zito during his most successful seasons in Oakland. The team has apparently inquired about bringing Peterson aboard as someone who may be able to give Barry Zi...

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) The Giants now sit alone as the team with the worst home record in baseball as their early June surge has died out here in the middle of the month. If they were just a .500 home team, they would be within a game or two of the first place D-Backs. After their last road trip, the team looked like it was ma...

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) It hasn't been all positives in San Francisco since the calender turned to June though. While one young arm, Kevin Corriea, is headed back to San Francisco and ready to make his start June 15th, another one looks like he'll be shelved for the year. It was reported last week that Noah Lowry is li...

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) Q: Many Giants fans wanted the team to draft a big time power hitter like Justin Smoak or Yonder Alonso. Gordon Beckham was another guy who was on Giants radar as well. Do you think Posey will end up being a better major league hitter than those guys? Q: How do you grade the Giants 2008 draft?

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) The Giants didn't stop with Posey as far as drafting hitters on day 1. They also grabbed Bill Mueller-clone Connor Gillaspie with pick number 37 in the supplemental round. He's another advanced college bat that was projected to go as high is the middle first round, but apparently teams were...

By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) Up in Fresno, the Giants have a few familiar faces playing very well. Eugenio Velez was sent down from the big league squad in early May and apparently he wasn't too happy about it as he's been on an absolute tear ever since. He's hitting .388 with 2 home runs, 7 rbi and 5 stolen bases in 12 games. Ano...

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By noreply@blogger.com (Trevor) The Giants will receive a huge lift, both defensively and most likely offensively, Saturday when Omar Vizquel comes off the disabled list. The most logical move at this point would be to send Bocock to AA Connecticut when Vizquel returns. The Giants shortstop position has been a black hole...

By Trevor Pat Misch took Barry Zito's turn in the rotation Friday night in Philadelphia but didn't fair much better than Zito has over the first month of the season. Misch gave up 4 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks over 4 innings and put the Giants in a hole early. A couple clear mistakes were made by him facing for...

By Trevor Since the Giants are in a period of transition, I am going to start paying a little more attention to their minor league system this summer. The Giants Blog will now start giving monthly minor league reports, exploring what's going on in the Giants' system from AAA Fresno and below.

By Trevor The more Fred Lewis plays, the better he is starting to look. He has been playing so well lately that the Giants have cut Rajai Davis and have committed to Lewis full time in left. His defense, while still a bit shaky, has improved a bunch over the first couple weeks of the season and his base runn...

By Trevor As a matter of fact, Corriea may be the most economical of all Giants' starting pitchers with his pitch count. If Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum could learn a little from Corriea in that regard, maybe they'd start lasting longer than 5-6 ...

By Trevor There has also been a lot written lately about the Giants search for a first basemen. They have apparently contacted the Washington Nationals about Nick Johnson and the Florida Marlins about Mike Jacobs. Both of those guys would cost the Giants at least 2 solid young pitchers, so I don't kno...

By Trevor Although it's not a terrible problem to have, the surfacing of Bowker further complicates a jammed up outfield. The team now has 2 young outfielders in Bowker and Fred Lewis who are proving they need to be played, but also two veteran guys (Aaron Rowand and Randy Winn) who are getting paid bi...

By Trevor During the home stand, the Giants have not looked like the same team that started the year 1-5 on the road. Their starting pitching, as well as their bullpen, have been almost untouchable over the last 3 nights and they are finally starting to get some hits with runners in scoring position. Be...

By Trevor I know it's still way early on in the season and even though the Giants weren't expected to be very good this year, the way they have opened the season has been a little worse than I was expecting. They suffered their 4th lose in as many days in their home opener Monday. The starting pitching, out...

By Trevor While the young Giants pitching lived up to their standards vs. the Dodgers, the offense lived down to theirs. As expected, the bats looked tired for the first 3 in LA, but at least it appears Bochy is finally starting to make some changes. I was impressed with Brian Bocock, although his bat isn...

By Trevor 5th Place, San Francisco Giants Lineup: LF Dave Roberts 2B Ray Durham RF Randy Winn CF Aaron Rowand 1B Rich Aurilia SS Omar Vizquel Rotation: LHP Barry Zito RHP Matt Cain LHP Noah Lowry (out till May) RHP Tim Lincecum RHP Kevin Corriea/Jonathan Sanchez SU: Tyler Walker CL: Brian Wilson

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By Trevor The left side of the Giants infield may also have a completely different look to start the season. Coming into the spring, they had their shortstop in place in Omar Vizquel and there was plenty of talk about Joe Crede joining the Orange and Black to play 3rd. If not Crede at third, then it was goi...

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By Trevor The White Sox have had scouts at Giants games for days when Jonathon Sanchez and Noah Lowry have pitched, and it's said that they are higher on Sanchez than they are Lowry, even before Lowry's breakdown this spring. I'd hate to see the Giants part with Sanchez for a one year rental in Joe Crede...

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By Trevor While the Giants offense has been a pleasant surprise through the first games of the spring, the pitching, especially relief, and defense have been very inconsistent. The Giants have made ten errors through the first 4 games, but have also failed to make a lot of fairly routine plays that m...

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By Trevor The Giants announced Tuesday that Omar Vizquel would be out between 4-6 weeks after undergoing knee surgery on Wednesday. Kevin Frandsen is expected to assume most of the duties at short (started there Thursday) until Vizquel returns, but Frandsen is a below average defensive shortsto...

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By Trevor The Giants' will kick off their cactus league schedule Thursday vs. the Cubs with Noah Lowry getting the nod to start. Before that, they will hold an intersquad game on Wednesday. Although it's only going to be the first game of the spring, I am very curious to see how Bochy fills out his lineup e...

By Trevor Who's on the Corners? If nothing changes with this teams roster over the next 7 weeks and all things go accordingly, it appears Kevin Frandsen would start at 3rd with Rich Aurilia starting at first on opening day. The Giants have been linked to third basemen such as Joe Crede and Eric Chavez a...

By Trevor Aaron Rowand takes Bonds spot in the lineup and in the outfield which helps this team's defense significantly, but losing Bonds' bat and not adequately replacing it will have this team struggling to score runs, even more so than last year. As for Feliz and Klesko, both are very replaceable...

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By Trevor Now the question is, who replaces Feliz? I still think the Giants will go outside of the organization to fill the hole. As much as I like Kevin Frandsen and wouldn't mind getting him at-bats at 3rd base, his future is at 2nd and thats where he could be as early as the second half of 2008. The other o...

By Trevor RHP Shawn Chacon: Best available "healthy" free agent reliever left. He can take on a number of roles on a pitching staff. I'd much rather see Chacon in the pen that Chulk or Messenger, but Sabean hasn't signed a reliever from outside the organization since Armando Benitez so I doubt he even h...

By Trevor The Holiday season has come and gone, which means Spring training is just around the corner. The Giants' official reporting date hasn't been announced, but pitchers and catchers are expected to be in Scottsdale on February 15th with the first full squad workout scheduled for February 20...

By Trevor Lineup RF Randy Winn LF Nate Schierholtz/Rajai Davis 1B Chris Duncan 3B Scott Rolen CF Aaron Rowand C Bengie Molina 2B Ray Durham SS Omar Vizquel Rotation RHP Matt Cain LHP Barry Zito RHP Tim Lincecum RHP Kevin Corriea RHP Freddy Garcia/LHP Jonathon Sanchez

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By Trevor 9. John Bowker, of- 24 yr. old hit 22 home runs in AA last season and was the Giants top power hitter in the minors. Will probably start the year in Fresno and could get a shot at some point in '08 but he's got about 6-7 guys ahead of him on the depth chart right now.

By Trevor I have done my fair share of Sabean bashing this offseason, but I can't get on him for this move. He did add another center fielder to a team full of young outfield options who should get a shot to play, but it goes a little beyond that. This offseason was workings itself in a direction where the Gi...

By Trevor The Winter Meetings came and went with very little action to speak of on the Giants' front. A ton of talk and rumors, but no moves materialized. The Giants did however offer Pedro Feliz arbitration and unless he gets his coveted 3 year offer from some team, it looks like he will accept arbitrat...

By Trevor Baseball's annual winter meetings start on Monday, and according the the Giants beat writers, the team is expected to be active. We should have a much clearer picture of what the 2008 San Francisco Giants will look like after the meetings. The Giants' main goal is to come out of the meetings w...

By Trevor Miguel Cabrera: Sabean mentioned that the Giants definitely would have interest in a guy like Cabrera, as any other team in the league would, but it's hard to believe they could come up with a package to get him unless they included one of or both Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum. The Giants are buil...

By Trevor The Giants announced Wednesday that they had re-signed Omar Vizquel to a one year contract with a mutual option for a second year. I fully expected this move, but didn't expect the Giants to give Omar 5.5 million dollars in 2008. This means he's getting a pay increase after one of his worst offe...

By Trevor The Arizona Fall League has gotten underway and there are a few Giants' of note participating this year. Daniel Ortmeier, Nate Schierholtz and Eugenio Velez are all getting an extension to their 2007 season. Ortmeier and Schierholtz are getting the most attention as both have a shot at sta...

By Trevor Starting Pitching: Matt Morris carried the staff early, then Noah Lowry and Tim Lincecum emerged and ended up having very good years. Lincecum, Lowry and Matt Cain give Giants fans reason to be optimistic about the future. Cain pitched well enough to win 15+ games if he had gotten proper run...

By Trevor The Giants payed tribute to Bonds by playing his career highlights on the big screen in-between innings as well as a final tribute video after the game. I was hoping he would come out for one last farewell tour around the ballpark after the ballgame (a la Cal Ripken Jr.), but he didn't, and the B...

By Trevor Now that the Giants have made it official that Barry Bonds will not be with the team in 2008, the search begins for his replacement. Obviously the team isn't going to find another Bonds on the free agent market to carry them for next 15 years like they did in winter of 1992, but they are going to h...