Getting Started

Hey y'all,

First of all, thanks for reading this! I've had a few people tell me that I should start a blog to empty my head of all my thoughts on the San Francisco Giants. So, here I am. For the most part, I'll be talking about Giants baseball in this thing, but occasionally I'll throw in some other pearls of wisdom. I know you're looking forward to that.

Since baseball season hasn't started yet (and Spring Training games don't even start until Wednesday) I figured today I'd do a little preview of the season. Now, please remember that everything here is merely my opinion (although I happened to think it's right), so don't get upset if you disagree.

1. Pitching:
Let's start with the most obvious strength of this team, the pitching. Obviously, between 2-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum, all-star Matt Cain, no-hitter Jonathon Sanchez, and Barry Zito, plus whoever gets the 5th starting spot (my money's on Bumgarner, winner of many, many minor league awards), this could be the best starting rotation in Major League baseball this season. I might be biased, but even as I was typing that last sentence, this was reaffirmed in my own head. They're young (average age is 25.8) and they have alot of room to get better and grow, both together as a staff and as individuals.
The bullpen is also going to be great, though not as great as the starting rotation. Jeremy Affeldt anchored the bullpen last season with an amazing era of 1.73. Not only is Affeldt a great pitcher, he's a great leader for the younger guys in the 'pen and a good clubhouse guy. Brandon Medders, Sergio Romo, and Justin Miller all helped carry the team with era's under 4.00, and of course, closer Brian Wilson was 4th in the majors with 38 saves and a 2.74 era. Not a bad start. Add in guys like Alex Hinshaw (who struggled a bit last season, but I expect will recover nicely this year), Joe Martinez (who impressively came back mid-season after being beamed with a line drive off the head in April), and Dan Runzler (who had a ridiculous 1.04 era last season) and I'd say that Giants pitching, start to close, is going to be crazy good in 2010.

Ok, because 1) this is already longer than I thought, 2) i'm hungry and have pizza waiting for me, 3) the bachelor is on in only 2 more hours and i must get ready, and 4) i'm thankful you've gotten this far and i want to reward you by not dragging this on...i'm going to leave outfielders and infielders/catchers for another day (probably tomorrow).

Again, bless you for baring with me through my first-ever blog post.

Stay tuned for more Giants brilliance.

Jen