RealGM

PROBABLES

4/3/07: Peavy (R) vs. Zito (L)
4/4/07: Young (R) vs. Cain (R)
4/5/07: Hensley (R) vs. Morris (R)

Bruce Bochy's Giants debut comes against his former team. Bud Black makes his managerial debut. These two teams seem to square off quite a bit on Opening Day.

Zito makes his NL debut, while Peavy tries to bounce back from a subpar 2006. Can Matt Cain become a solid #2 starter and start to economize is pitches better? Is Matt Morris done or was he really injured last year?

going to the game on wednesday, can't wait.

didnt cain beat sd 4 times last year? i hope he keeps that streak up and zito better dominate!

I say Bonds starts out the season with a home run, maybe 5 or 6.

Awesome, big Giants fan here, this is exciting.

FaTaL wrote:didnt cain beat sd 4 times last year? i hope he keeps that streak up and zito better dominate!

Yeah, Zito better dominate. He's on one of my fantasy teams and im losing by like 90 points.

Bow2Yao11 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Yeah, Zito better dominate. He's on one of my fantasy teams and im losing by like 90 points.

hopefully zito can beat the pads unlike schmidt.

Barry Bonds with a stolen base in his first time on base this season!

damn getting ass raped, 7 - 0.

Outside of Bonds, this is one of the worst lineups in the history of baseball. Even with Bonds, I'd be surprised if this offense finishes in the top 25. What a pathetic lineup. No one has even an outside shot at 30 HR's or 100 RBI's except Barry.

C'mon it's not that bad. Ray Durham is a great offensive 2B, Randy Winn is about average in LF, Dave Roberts is above average in CF, Omar Vizquel is about average at SS, Bengie Molina is about average at C. 1B and 3B are going to be total blackholes, though. Pedro Felix is terrible. Ryan Klesko has an outside chance at being pretty good, so maybe he'll provide something at 1B. But I wouldn't count on it.

All told, it's an average lineup. Hardly pathetic. I bet they score more runs than the Dodgers, for instance. They'll at least be in the same ballpark.

Bleeding Green wrote:C'mon it's not that bad. Ray Durham is a great offensive 2B, Randy Winn is about average in LF, Dave Roberts is above average in CF, Omar Vizquel is about average at SS, Bengie Molina is about average at C. 1B and 3B are going to be total blackholes, though. Pedro Felix is terrible. Ryan Klesko has an outside chance at being pretty good, so maybe he'll provide something at 1B. But I wouldn't count on it.

All told, it's an average lineup. Hardly pathetic. I bet they score more runs than the Dodgers, for instance. They'll at least be in the same ballpark.

You make some good points.

I think its certainly better than last season but I do agree that the corner INF is going to be an issue. Klesko/Aurilia is questionable and we all know how awful Feliz is.

The lineup needs some minor tweaking though, I'd switch Durham to 3rd and Bonds 4th.

What is the deal with Klesko? Is Aurilia going to be getting the majority of the time at first? Are they platooning? What is Lance Niekro doing?

I don't know why they don't go with Aurilia at third and Klesko/Niekro at first. Unless I'm missing something with Klesko in that he's injured or that Aurilia can't play third anymore. Klesko is no great shakes, but he can still draw a walk and maybe he has some power left. Aurilia isn't anything special either, but he's obviously so much better than Feliz.

Hell, throw Frandsen over to third or something. No way he's worse than Feliz. Unless Feliz has some glove made out of magical fairy dust, I don't get why he's even in the majors, let alone being called upon to be the everyday 3B.

Sucks to waste what could be Bonds' last year.

Bleeding Green wrote:What is the deal with Klesko? Is Aurilia going to be getting the majority of the time at first? Are they platooning? What is Lance Niekro doing?

Klesko will be the main guy off the bench and he'll get spot starts at 1B and LF. Aurilia is getting the majority of the playing time but he'll supposedly play all over the infield. Niekro is just a filler at this point. When Sweeney gets off the DL, one of them will be gone.

I don't know why they don't go with Aurilia at third and Klesko/Niekro at first. Unless I'm missing something with Klesko in that he's injured or that Aurilia can't play third anymore. Klesko is no great shakes, but he can still draw a walk and maybe he has some power left. Aurilia isn't anything special either, but he's obviously so much better than Feliz.

I'm pushing for that. Less Feliz, More wins?

Hell, throw Frandsen over to third or something. No way he's worse than Feliz. Unless Feliz has some glove made out of magical fairy dust, I don't get why he's even in the majors, let alone being called upon to be the everyday 3B.

Supposedly the Giants like his defense but he struggled at the end of last year and had a crucial error today. I really don't get why he's still in the majors. Yeah, he has 20 HR power but he doesn't get on base more than 29% of the time and he doesn't hit for BA either. Frandsen is another UTIL guy, he's going to get time at 4 positions(2B, played SS at the end today, 3B, and played some LF in ST). Not much power there but he could play league average defense and hit for average at least.

Bleeding Green wrote:C'mon it's not that bad. Ray Durham is a great offensive 2B, Randy Winn is about average in LF, Dave Roberts is above average in CF, Omar Vizquel is about average at SS, Bengie Molina is about average at C. 1B and 3B are going to be total blackholes, though. Pedro Felix is terrible. Ryan Klesko has an outside chance at being pretty good, so maybe he'll provide something at 1B. But I wouldn't count on it.

All told, it's an average lineup. Hardly pathetic. I bet they score more runs than the Dodgers, for instance. They'll at least be in the same ballpark.

I think it is pretty bleek here for the Giants. Winn and Roberts are both around 270 avg guys, get on base about 33% of the time, with very little power. Vizquel is fine at SS, Durham is a good offensive 2b, but he had a career year last year and really, I don't expect anything close to that agin this year.
Feliz usually gets off to torrid starts to each season, so hopefully, he'll do the same and we can trade him when his value is actually somewhat positive, b/c the last two years, he's started off the season in the top 10 in RBI's, then finish the year with less then 100 rbi's and one of the worst avg's with runners in scoring position.
I don't know what the hell is happening at 1B. Klesko, Aurillia, Sweeney, Niekro... they're all garbage. Klesko's ok when he was younger and healthier, but who knows what he really has left.

If the Giants somehow actually have a successful season, it'll have to be the starting rotation that carries them. The offense has way too many old fragile pieces and even when 100% healthy, they're going to be in the bottom third in offense.

that was a sucky game, go cain!

I have to blame management for this. Like with any sport, though -maybe- moreso with baseball than anything else, you build through the DRAFT, not through free agency. Free agency is where you get that missing piece or two. It is NOT where you build your team! When you neglect the draft for so many years like the Giants have recently, you get the players you now see because there is nobody in AAA or AA to bring up. So frustrating!

Luckily for you the Giants have 5 of the first 58 picks in the upcoming draft.

hey at least barry got # 735

Bleeding Green wrote:Luckily for you the Giants have 5 of the first 58 picks in the upcoming draft.

I believe they have 6; 3 actually in the first round and 3 more "comp" picks between the first and the second round. Sounds good on paper but looking at their history, I wonder how many, if any, of those picks will reach the big club. They do not have a good track record, though to give them credit last years draft looked pretty good.

It is just hard for me to understand why so many of their top picks dating back to 2000 have yet to reach the majors.