Monday, March 2, 2009

How the Giants offense is better, Part 1

So, the first week of Spring games is virtually in the books and the Giants are 2-4. On the outside, it may not look great, maybe not even good...but I'm here to tell you otherwise. At the end of last season the Giants had a few major...well, through all of last season, the Giants had a few major needs to address.

This offseason, they attempted to and appear to have done a good job. The bullpen was lacking consistency as well as about 5 effective arms. They added Howry and Affedlt. They needed 1 solid innings eater for a fifth starter. They added Randy Johnson. They lacked middle infield depth, or all infield depth. They added Edgar Renteria. They needed a power hitter, or any power, or any middle of the order hitter, or any upgrade offensively...they added...well, they didn't address this one small issue...Or did they???

Last season, the Giants started the year with Aaron Rowand, Randy Winn, Dave Roberts, Jose Castillo, Omar Vizquel, Ray Durham, Rich Aurilia, & Bengie Molina as the opening day starters. By the end of the season, only Rowand, Winn, & Molina were everyday starters. Unseated by players from within the system, the Giants found multiple success stories and quite possibly some very useful players for the next 5+ seasons. The same goes for the bullpen as well.

Going into this spring, most baseball observers say the Giants didn't do anything to improve. I'm here to tell you maybe they didn't need to. For the purpose of this spring, I'm going to break the players into 3 categories: Returning Vets, Returning Kids, and New Additions. We'll take a look at how they are doing and compare them to Last years players they are replacing. Also, we'll only look at the most likely and projected lineups. If that changes as we go, we'll change as we go.

The Giants likely opening day lineup should be:
1-Randy Winn
2-Edgar Renteria
3-Fred Lewis
4-Bengie Molina
5-Pablo Sandoval
6-Travis Ishikawa
7-Aaron Rowand
8-Kevin Frandsen/Manny Burriss

the bench is likely to consist of: Juan Uribe, Eugenio Velez, Nate Schierholtz, Steve Holm, Dave Roberts/Richie Aurilia/John Bowker

My money tells me that unless Burriss is the greatest show in Scottsdale or Kevin Frandsen gets hurt, he is destined to go to Fresno as a SS. I love his game and want to see him in SF full time, but Uribe is the writing on the wall.

The Returning Vets consist of Randy Winn, Aaron Rowand, Bengi Molina, Dave Roberts, and Richie Aurilia.

The Returning Kids consist of Fred Lewis, Manny Burriss, Eugenio Velez, Steve Holm, and John Bowker

The New Additions consist of Juan Uribe, Nate Schierholtz, Kevin Frandsen, Travis Ishikawa, Edgar Renteria, & Pablo Sandoval.

New additions are based off not playing with the team for more than the late season call up last year. Pablo, only because his was over such a short span. Fred Lewis I consider a returning kid because he wasn't the given starter going into last season and has only 1 full season under his belt.

Check back in regulary as we'll keep a running total this spring based on these factors.

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