I know people are excited for the season to begin and yes its refreshing that we're hearing about baseball again. But there are literally no story lines that have really jumped out at me this spring.
As a Giants fan I'm sure you know how much Spring baseball affects the performance of players in the regular season (none). Injuries are of course a concern, but teams always are ultra-conservative during spring training and try not to rush anyone back from injury. The main guys on that front, Posey, Sanchez and Wilson have slowly returned to baseball activities. Wilson has been pitching in a few appearances, while Posey has been in the crouch for up to 4 innings at a time and Sanchez has appeared as a DH in a number of plate appearances. All that is left is to see each of them in a full game, and for Sanchez to start playing in the field.
The only other stories I've seen is the race for the 1st base position which by all accounts is Huff's to lose, and the emergence of Gregor Blanco as the Giants' shoe-in for the 4th outfielder.
What this all boils down to is that I just want to see them play in a regular season game.
As of now, I have no idea what the identity of this team will be. The spring has promised that in addition to our stellar pitching we are going to have a very fast team who isn't afraid to send runners in any situation. The Giants currently lead the league in spring training steals and attempts.
That's a far cry from last year's team who was in the bottom of the league for both categories.
The other thing we've learned is that Freddy Sanchez has effectively lost the #2 spot in the lineup. Angel Pagan and Melky Cabrera are looking like a great 1-2 tandem at the top of the lineup. They both have speed and Melky has power to boot. Then you throw in Panda at #3, and possibly Posey at cleanup, and you have a top of the order that looks about as good as any in the league. Freddy just cannot hold his own in that 2nd spot with his lack of speed and not being at 100%. In addition Manny Burriss has been hitting .441 so far in spring and looks like he'll be the starting 2nd baseman while Freddy starts the season on the DL.
Revised Opening Day Lineup prediction looks like this:
Angel Pagan CF
Melky Cabrera LF
Pablo Sandoval 3B
Buster Posey C
Aubrey Huff 1B
Nate Schierholtz RF
Emmanuel Burriss 2B
Brandon Crawford SS
Tim Lincecum P
How bout we just do this all season...
Laws of the Day
In 16 games of Spring Training, the Giants have 24 steals. In 162 games last season, the Giants had 85 steals, 24th in the league.
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