January is a slow baseball month. Last January, the Giants signed Brian Burres, Todd Linden, Wilmin Rodriguez, and Gregor Blanco. Obviously the Blanco signing turned out to be pretty important in regards to how the season went, but the point is that the major signings are over. Sorry folks, the Giants aren’t trading for Justin Upton or Giancarlo Stanton and they are going to sign Michael Bourn. The time for major roster moves has come and gone.

As I laid out in a series of posts last week, the Giants have up to three roster spots still available. There’s a spot in the bullpen, a spot for a sixth infielder, and a fifth outfielder available. Let’s run down the candidates for each spot. » Continue reading “Those Last Roster Spots”

When you hear that the Giants are facing Eric Stults, he of the sub-3.00 ERA, you automatically think that there is no chance they will score a run. Pair that up with the fact that Barry Zito is starting, you could just write this off as a loss.

Except that it ended up being a win.

It wasn’t an unpredictable line for Zito, only lasting four innings. Also not surprising that he gave up four runs within those innings.

Typical Zito, though with only two walks and a strike out.

The narrative where the Giants don’t score enough runs to bail Zito out seemed to be broken today.

This Hunter Pence fellow hasn’t been too shabby lately, driving in two of the eight runs the Giants scored — and yes, that’s right, they scored eight runs for Barry Zito.

And then there’s Joaquin Arias, who is not as great as everyone thinks, but managed to have himself a game by going 3-for-5 with three RBI and a home run. It’s classic You Can’t Predict Baseball and inexplicably so, because who would’ve seen that coming? It’s like asking an aardvark to play catch and actually throws the ball back with 90% accuracy.

I don’t know where I was going with that analogy, but baseball can do that to someone after a while. I think.

The bullpen was quite solid, with a decent enough outing from Eric Hacker, who has been called up again.

Then Jeremy Affeldt happened and gave up two runs in the 9th. Man. At least Clay Hensley was able to close it out — also words that I didn’t think I would say at this point in the season.

This showed up in a search for "sad face." I'm not going to question it. So here's a photo. (Photo: hjhipster/Flickr)

Perfectly Acceptable Zito showed up again today. Except Bochy left him in a little too long and someone programming the narrative ran dingerz.exe. Then the bullpen happened because Bochy went to Clay Hensley and Jeremy Affeldt before Sergio Romo and the Reds rallied. There was a lot of clownshoes to the point where a red nose was waiting in the clubhouse for everyone. Then the Giants had nine left on base and went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position. So the Reds won. Yeah, that’s it.

(Flickr/Linsey)

Madison Bumgarner made his first start against the Mets in the second game of a doubleheader tonight. And it was a good one. The Giants completed the doubleheader sweep with a score of 6-1.

For the second time today, the Giants came out swinging in the first inning. CF Gregor Blanco led off with a single, followed by a towering Pandamode HR from Pablo Sandoval for two runs. Nate Schierholtz continued his day’s hot streak with a triple*, followed by a sac fly from Hector Sanchez for another run.

*Nate would finish the game 3 for 5, and 6 for 10 for the day.

Of note, Sandoval extended his season-starting hit streak to 16, tying Willie Mays’ team record set in 1960. The Panda also has the longest current hit streak in the majors.

The Giants scored another 2 runs in the 4th inning, when Blanco’s fly ball to LF went into Jason Bay’s glove, but then right back out as Bay fell over, scoring Brett Pill and Emmanuel Burriss. When I was an assistant coach for my girls t-ball teams, I always told the kids that when the ball goes in the glove, you close the glove. Or, as we put it: “When the fish goes in the mouth, the croc snaps its jaws shut.” AND THAT’S WHY YOU DO THAT, JASON BAY. » Continue reading “Post-Game Recap: Giants Sweep the Doubleheader”

Perfectly Acceptable Zito (TM) showed up today and that was nice. Five innings and two runs given up. Not bad. Kept the Giants in the game even though Powder was apparently missing from Citi Field. But the Giants scored three runs before Zito was out of the game — one on an Angel Pagan home run, one on a Buster Posey RBI double, and another because of a wild pitch.

And maybe — just maybe — that could’ve won the game.

Because surely, with run support and an actual lead, there was a chance. Maybe. » Continue reading “Post-game Recap: PAZsive-Aggressive Giants”

photo by Dirk Hansen/Flickr

Oh? That’s it? The game is over? Why didn’t the Giants win? They outhit the Diamondbacks, with eleven hits to the D’backs’ seven. Of course, they also won the errors category, with three. Oh wait. That’s not winning the category. NVM. In the end, the Giants lost their Opening Day* game to the Diamondbacks by a score of 5 to 4. Tim Lincecum takes the loss, giving Ian Kennedy the win.

*the One True Opening Day, despite Bud Selig’s messed up 4 opening day schedule this season

Offensively, the Giants were not terribly offensive. They scored 4 runs, which last season would have made fans far and wide squeal with delight. Unfortunately, the Giants also gave up 5 runs, which doesn’t happen that often. And it certainly doesn’t happen that often when Tim Lincecum is pitching. » Continue reading “Post-Game Recap: The One True Opening Day”

Let’s start here:

Roster at 26. Theriot, Burriss, Hensley on the club. Whiteside optioned. Sanchez made club. Edlefsen optioned

— Andrew Baggarly (@CSNBaggs) April 4, 2012

Okay, sounds good. Not bad, not great, but good. Decent. Eli Whiteside being sent down to AAA Fresno makes sense. Having Hector Sanchez up is a bit iffy, though. Mainly because it seems like he could use a little more time in AAA. » Continue reading “The Giants Announce 25 Man Roster: It Actually Makes Sense!”

The Giants had a day off today to rest up for their Cactus League opener tomorrow against the Diamondbacks, so only a few news items today.

(Thomas Hawk/flickr)

Dan Runzler is apparently undergoing tests on his shoulder after running into some discomfort during a bullpen session. Runzler strained his lat during last season’s final game and had been rehabbing from that injury and is competing this spring for the final spot in the big club’s bullpen. If Runzler’s shoulder discomfort proves to be anything significant, it would likely mean Clay Hensley is a lock for a spot in the ‘pen, but there’s always the possibility that it would open up a wider field of competition.

MLB Commissioner Bud Selig announced today that the 2012 post-season will see a ten team format with the fourth and fifth seeds playing a one-game playoff for what had been (since 1995) the wild card spot in each league’s division series. Interestingly, the Giants (and those bums in blue from down south) would have benefited the most from the additional spot since the single wild card was introduced.

Tomorrow’s game starts at 12:05 California time and will be on KNBR as well as MLB.TV, for your listening pleasure. I know where I’ll be.