Real Sunshine, Real Grass, Real Baseball: Giants 1, Padres 0

It was great to see a giants game live today, great to see a businessman's special -- my favorite games -- and great to see Barry Zito pitch like something more than a shadow of his former self. He was far better than that -- throwing 7 shutout innings, striking out 5 and walking none. it was the second straight game in which a Giants starter with control issues had 5 K's with no walks, and the 5th straight game a Giants starter pitched very well.

Luckily for the Giants, they avoided dropping a second of those five by being shutout when they scored the game's lone run with 2 outs in the bottom on the 10th. As Jon Miller said on the postgame show, right now the best way to describe the Giants is "If they score, they win".

It seems I was wrong on my prediction of Schierholtz getting his first start, but I was close: Andres Torres got his first start instead, and scored the winning (and only) run. I would've gone with Nate, who is now the only Giants position player yet to start a game, but Bochy's hunch paid off.

Hell, he even put Pablo Sandoval in catching gear for the first time today, and gave Bengie Molina the day off (the day after Steve Holm was brought up to provide a real backup catcher -- I'm sure if that timing makes sense or not), and had both players play major roles in their victory. Sandoval caught a 10 inning shutout and made a couple of nice plays (and one bad throw as well). Molina came off the bench to win the game with a double, scoring Torres, who had singled and stolen second.

Torres showed today how much better he is than Eugenio Velez -- he made a great defensive play, helped with the bat, and looked fantastic on the bases. Meanwhile, Velez has shown to be a terrible defender and baserunner (despite his great speed). In the 10th alone, the difference between them was clear. After Torres got himself in scoring position, Velez had a chance to play the hero, and struck out. Worse, than that, he realize it. After swinging and missing at strike three, he waited around at home plate as if he thought he got four strikes. The ump had to tell him to go away, holding out three fingers as if to say, "Can't you count to three, moron?" Because Velez still has options, I wouldn't be surprised to see him return to AAA.

TOMORROW: Off-day.

Dealin': Giants 2, D-Backs 0

Now that's more like it.

Pitching, defense, and just enough O -- that's what this team looked like in the catalog when I ordered. Jonathan Sanchez was dominant against a team who's hit him well in the past (and shut down Connor Jackson, who'd owned him). Fred Lewis kept hitting, and stopped misplaying flyballs (at least for one night). The bullpen finished off the effort, Wednesday night's goat Bob Howry getting a key strikeout when it was needed to pick a Bengie Molina error, and Brian Wilson notching his first save of the year. Just like they drew it up.

That doesn't all mean a lot -- certainly not as much as the six piss poor outings which preceded it -- but it was nice all the same. It was also nice to see longtime minor leaguer and 31-year old rookie Andres Torres hit just his second career HR and then sprint around the bases as if he thought he was on the 24 second clock. It was also good to see my first KNBR post-game wrap (featuring Mike Krukow, Duane Kuiper, Jon Miller, Dave Fleming) of the year. Unfortunately, the post game show this year looks worse than ever -- some forgettable guy and a stumbling, mumbling JT Snow (Sorry, JT).

The Diamondbacks were struggling almost as bad as the Giants coming in, so hopefully they can get well against Arizona. Speaking of which...

TOMORROW: Ace Tim Lincecum tries to get well -- from a slow start, and from an ailment which has caused him to lose some weight and velocity -- against Doug Davis.

It Begins...

It may not officially be spring yet, but the Giants pitchers and catchers reported to spring training today, which is close enough for me. That means we will soon be deluged with reports out of Scottsdale about the dazzling skills and bright futures of some Giants prospects -- whether they be accurate, or cobbled together out of sunbeams, optimism, and the laughter of children -- as well as the always-popular "He's in the best shape of his life" and "Last year's bad season was actually due to an unreported injury" stories. Not to be confused with the slightly less exciting "If you squint just right it looks like the Giants might have actually chance at contending" and of course, the de rigeur "5 Questions about the Giants" stories.

Soon (11 days), there will be actual games, which means cracks of the bat, pops of the glove, and Jon Miller, Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow on the radio. It also means some prospect/reclamation project will become the dazzling phenom who hits .460 and fools you into thinking they might contribute this year (see: Ellison, Jason). It means sore hammies, and tendonitis, and various tweaks and turns which will worry me that they'll become the next catastrophic year-ending injury a la Kevin Frandsen (Note: If a season-ending injury to Kevin Frandsen can be reasonably termed "catastrophic", your team may in fact suck").

This baseball season, the first since I started this blogamajig, I plan on writing something about the Giants each and every day -- however short and superficial it may be -- as a type of Giants Diary (or Gaints Dairy, if I'm feeling dyslexic). That likely won't start until the regular season (let's be honest, it likely won't happen at all if my prior inconsistency and lack of sticktoitiveness is any clue), but since I'm going to at least attempt to do it, I thought I should try to ramp up to that during spring training. That means posting something nearly every day during the spring to get into writing shape. I may interrupt those posts with something about entertainment -- I've been wanting to write something on the Oscars, and also the fact that 'Damages' is making a serious run at being the best show on TV this season -- but I'm going to do my best at coming up with at least one Giants-related (or at least baseball-related) piece per day. For reference, Vegas has the odds of me keeping this up all season at 1,500,000 to 1.