Final Roster Set...For Now...

The Giants released the official 25 man roster they will open the season with today. A surprise last minute change appears to have happened which should make the bullpen significantly better. They went with a 12 man pitching staff, 5 bench players, and no dedicated backup catcher...Sandoval shall do for now. Our 2009 San Francisco Giants looks like this:

Starters-
-Tim Lincecum
-Randy Johnson
-Matt Cain
-Barry Zito
-Jonathan Sanchez

Bullpen-
-Brian Wilson
-Jeremy Affeldt
-Bobby Howry
-Merkin Valdez
-Alex Hinshaw
-Brandon Medders
-Joe Martinez

Regulars-
-Randy Winn
-Edgar Renteria
-Fred Lewis
-Bengie Molina
-Pablo Sandoval
-Travis Ishikawa
-Aaron Rowand
-Manny Burriss

Bench-
-Andres Torres
-Nate Schierholtz
-Eugenio Velez
-Richie Aurilia
-Juan (gulp) Uribe

Overall, I like the team. As I've stated before, I'm not too fond of Juan Uribe. Otherwise, with the injuries to Noah Lowry & Sergio Romo, this is a pretty good lineup. I don't fall in line with the thought process that it's good the Giants are keeping their options open, but the fact they let Perdomo go means they are willing to make some tough decisions this year. Not that allowing a rule 5 pick to go is tough, but they certainly limited their options by cutting him loose.

The camp I do fall into is that this roster is most definitely not the roster we will see come May 1st. Sabean will keep working the phone lines. Hinshaw could get wild. Bengie may need more time off. Guzman & Frandsen may play themselves up. Romo may get healthy. Martinez may fizzle. Uribe may strike out...a lot. Valdez may still be hurt. Velez may be, well, Velez.

As for now, I think it's timeto just see how they play it out...