Giantsblog

Rookie phenom Tim Lincecum needed only nine pitches yesterday to retire the side in an intrasquad game yesterday. He struck out one and threw seven strikes out of those nine pitches.  Although now the talk is about Lincecum once again starting the season in the minors.  Regardless, this is a guy to keep an eye on wherever he lands in 2007.

Baseball America recently unveiled their list of the top ten Giants’ prospects and topping the list is Tim Lincecum.  The right hander has already made some waves in spring training and he has an outside shot at making the rotation.  He also came up as the sixth best prospect in baseball and the third best pitching prospect in Kevin Goldstein’s Top 100 List.  Not too shabby for a pitcher who has all of 32 professional innings to his credit.

Jonathon Sanchez comes in at number two because he fell under the 50 innings pitched mark last year.  He fell into the Giants pen last year and even made four starts, posting some solid numbers.  Hopefully he’ll be able to do even better as part of the Giants in 2007.  Even better, he’s a lefty.

Angel Villalona comes in at number three.  He’s only sixteen and he was signed by the Giants out of the Domincan Republic last year and liked him enough to give him a $2.1 million bonus to sign.  He’ll probably start in rookie ball this year although he could play Low A.

Number for is shortstop Emmanuel Burriss, who is a couple of years away and could be the heir apparant to Omar Vizquel when he retires.  He didn’t hit for a lot of power in his short season last year and it’s expected that he’ll skip Low A and head right to High A in 2007.

Rounding out the top five is right hander Brian Wilson.  The hurler spent some time with the Giants and he very well could pitch as a setup man for the Giants in 2007.  If Armando Benitez falls out of favor as the closer, Wilson could close by year end.

So a solid crop of talent here.  And they’re all at various levels, from major league ready to just starting their minor league careers.

Beyond the Boxscore recently previewed the Giants in what’s a more sabermetric look at the team.  The initial comments talk about how the Giants really aren’t that much better then last year and anything over .500 will be a suprise out of the Giants.  There’s also some good constructive criticism for Brian Sabean that will probably go unnoticed.

Of course the X Factor is Barry Bonds.  If he can somehow find his 2004 stroke, it completely changes things.

While Barry Bonds and Barry Zito won’t neccesarily have to move over, there is some excitement surrounding Giants pitching prospect Tim Lincecum.  He was the Giants top draft pick in 2006 and while he hasn’t thrown above High A, he has an outside shot of making the Giants.  He’s definitely a power pitcher.  In 125 1/3 innings last year in college, he struck out 199 batters.

At this point, Lincecum could go either way.  It looks like the Giants are bringing him up as a starter but his best chance of making the team is as a reliever.  I guess I’m torn.  I’d love to see him prove his stuff as a reliever for the Giants but if he’s going to start, it might be better for him to go down to Double A and start.

This should be interesting.  Barry Zito signs a record breaking contract and he decides to go back to his roots by changing his delivery back to what he was doing in college. 

Interesting. I’m assuming that the delivery he used last year and in pro seasons past have been refined by pitching coaches along the way.  So for him to go back to something he was using in college is a bit, well, odd.  We’ll see how it works out though.  Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti seemed a bit concerned in the interview so we’ll see who prevails here.

The Giants and Barry Bonds have finally agreed on a contract and the league has also given it’s seal of approval.  As before, Bonds will make $15.8 million but he could make another $4.2 in incentives.  So Bonds should be in camp on Monday when all of the other players reports.

It should be a fun season even though the Giants probably don’t have a team that can compete in the NL West.  With Bonds in the lineup though, anything goes and we’ll all get to see him chase history.

There’s no doubt that Armando Benitez time in San Francisco hasn’t gone well.  He’s been injured most of the time and when he has been there, he hasn’t performed like the Giants expected.  Now Benitez says he’s almost 100% and ready to close again for the Giants.

Benitez is already working out at camp even though things don’t open up until tomorrow and he’s close to 20 pounds lighter then he was this year, which should mean less wear on his knees.  Benitez is definitely someone worth keeping on an eye on as spring training progresses.

Mike Chiapepelta at NBCsports.com recently took a look at the Giants and their upcoming 2007 season.  He touches on the age of the team and the final prognosis isn’t very good.  While he doesn’t say that the Giants won’t contend for a playoff spot, he doesn’t have much nice to say about how the Giants built this team and with good reason.  I think the Giants will be a team where they’re just good enough to keep our interest yet never good enough to seriously contend for the playoffs.  Then again, Barry Bonds will be the wild card.  If he suddenly reverts back to 2004 Barry Bonds, anything goes.

Will Clark was my favorite player growing up.  I was bummed when he signed with the Rangers but I had fond memories of those fantastic seasons he had with the Giants.  I was also pretty bummed when Clark was knocked off the Hall of Fame ballot in 2006 with only a 4.4% vote.

Craig Brown at Beyond the Boxscores recently revisited Will Clark’s career and found some good reasons why Clark should have warranted more consideration.  Man, I forget about that 1999 season sometimes and love looking at it in Clark’s stat page. 

This time it’s over at NBCsports.com.  Apparantly the fact that owner Peter McGowan publicly justified the signing of Barry Bonds means something fishy is going on.  There’s no doubt that Bonds isn’t too friendly with the media so I guess I’m not too surprised and I’m sure the final line of the story (about Bonds going away) is probably reciprocal.  I bet Bonds wishes all of these bone heads would go away as well.  It’s even more sad that this story was the headline on the website.

In a lighter story, John Beamer at the Hardball Times examines whether Bonds will break Hank Aaron’s homerun record in 2007.  Nice analysis here.