Yesterday, the Giants announced the full list of non-roster invitees (NRIs) to major league training camp. NRIs are players who aren’t on the 40-man roster who nevertheless will start spring training with the major league squad.

Spring Training at Scottsdale Stadium

This may not sound like big news, and it isn’t, for the most part. However, every year one of these guys sneaks on to the roster and ends up contributing in a big way. » Continue reading “Giants Non-Roster Invitees And An Interesting Development”

Brad Penny purchased from Triple-A Fresno and added to ML roster. Shane Loux placed on DL. Surkamp to 60-man DL. — Alex Pavlovic (@AlexPavlovic) Thus begins the second era of the Brad Penny. It’s also interesting to note that Eric Surkamp is being placed on the 60 day (typo there, Pavs?) for something that was called a strain in the beginning.

Hit an XBH tonight. Cool stuff. (Photo by SD Dirk/flickr)

As I began to write this sentence, Jon Miller said “And Matt Cain gets the win on a night where he was anything but perfect!” That warmed the cockles of my black little heart, it did. Cain had nothing working for most of his five innings, alternating between hittable and wild, but he stubbornly kept throwing and mostly avoided meatballs when it counted, somehow wriggling out with only three runs. (It helped that he re-discovered his curveball later on.) And for his perseverance, he was rewarded with four perfect innings from a recently shaky bullpen, and five runs from a productive offense. It’s a Very Matt Cain Christmas.

So, you know. We were hoping for Cain to avoid the inevitable PG hangover, but a win was nice. Brandon Belt continues to impress, enough that hopefully he will soon be moved up the lineup and get on base in front of hitters more likely to drive him in. (Although, Brandon Crawford had his regularly scheduled extra base hit tonight, and that was cool.) Melky Cabrera and Ryan Theriot both had good games. Once again, this is a lineup that can score runs even when Buster and Pablo aren’t doing much of note, and that’s pretty cool. » Continue reading “Giants Recap: Giants Offense Bails Out Hapless Matt Cain Again”