Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Spring!

I love the Giants and I love baseball and I love that the season is almost upon us. I'm stoked about our first Spring Training game.

BUT (you knew there was a "but," didn't you?), I cannot get excited about a few things. You know how I feel about Bengie Molina in the cleanup spot. Dave Roberts should be DFA'd or traded for Rajai Davis. Randy Winn is a fine fellow and a fine ballplayer but he is in the last year of his contract IS NOT part of the club's future. Aaron Rowand is a joke. Sure, he'll likely play well this year, and he is probably our best hitter (Fred, prove me wrong!). But I can't get excited. I can't. I won't. (FOUR MORE YEARS?!?!? Egad.) Barry Zito is a cosmic joke. The Giants are the laughingstock of baseball for that deal. He'll be lucky to be the last man out of the bullpen in two years. If Sanchez is a stud, Zito's stock plunges even further. And I'm rooting big time for J.S.

OK, I'm done with the cat o'nine tails and the deceased equine.

What am I excited about? Fred. Fred has a chance to be a real stud, and I'm thrilled about him being our everyday LF. Frandsen is getting a chance, finally. He may be a bust, but how will we ever find out? Sorry, Eugenio, but KF is the man. (And why not 3B?) Pablito, of course, will have the eyes of all Giants fans on him. I'm glad he's a big fellow because he's shouldering a LOT of expectations. And who knows? I think 3B is nuts (1B! 1B! C! C!), but I'LL BE HAPPY TO BE PROVEN WRONG!!!!! When is the last time we've had a youngster come out of nowhere and generate this kind of excitement? And I remain high on Nate Schierholz, despite having very little opportunity this year to show his stuff. As a 4th OF he'll have to impress to get ABs. But I'll be rooting for him. I'm not sold on Ishikawa, but I'd rather have him out there than some diseased, overpaid FA. Really. Better to get the crap kicked out of you while building for the future than pretending to be contenders and signing Shea Hillenbrand or his MMIX equivalent.

And the pitching! Wow, we are going to bring it. We got flame-age, serious flame-age, my friends. THAT is going to be fun. (Check out BCB. Chris has gone Excel-happy again and we mere mortal bloggers get to reap the benefits.) Bottom line? Studly starters, improved bullpen. We just might play the most 1-run games in the majors! Talk about excitement!

So there. I'm excited. I'm positive. I'm enthusiastic.

GO GIANTS!!!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

M.C., Frandsen was tried out at third last year in spring. It happened right after he lost the short stop gig to a guy named Brian Bocock. Then at third he was the same unmitigated defensive disaster. He was moved back to second and the outfield before blowing the Achilles. Believe it or not I'm rooting for him.

M.C. O'Connor said...

I forgot about that! Still think he could use a look, though. But I'll be happy if he has a good spring and starts the season at second.

Ishikawa: 2 HRs today.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I'd like to see him in there simply because he could potentially hit the ball over the fence. Burriss is dynamic, but may be wasted with a line up like this one. I am quite sure his glove is a notch above Frandsen's.

Is Ishikawa channeling his inner JR Phillips or Will Clark? I'd take something in between and be quite happy.