Week 1

We're now a full week into the 2013 Giants season. While it's difficult to be too concerned/too elated with anything this early in the season, there are some things of note to take away from the last seven games:

1. Hitting with Runners In Scoring Position.
Coming into tonight's game, the Giants were just 5-30 with RISP (.167 avg.). They scored a total of 15 runs in their first six games of the season, while grounding into a Major League-leading nine double plays. For those of you keeping score at home, that's averaging just 2.5 runs per game. Not great. The Giants overall team-average coming into tonight's game was .224, good enough for 23rd in the league. And while San Francisco hasn't been known for it's hitting abilities in the last few years, this same starting line-up (Pagan, Scutaro, Sandoval, Posey, Pence, Belt, Blanco, Crawford) was a decently hitting team in 2012. Last year they hit .269 as a team, which was good enough for 5th in baseball. If this team wants to win those close ballgames that they're known for, they've got to get back to playing the small-ball that won them a championship last year - and that includes the big hit with runners in scoring position.

(As I was writing that, Hunter Pence crushed his 3rd homerun of the season deep - and I mean deep - into the left-field bleachers. Oh, and Scutaro and Sandoval were on-base. So, what do I know?)

2. Speaking of ol' crazy eyes, something to be excited about so far this season is the Reverend himself, Hunter Pence.
After a tough 2012 with San Francisco (.219 avg, .287 OBP, 7 HRs in 59 games), Pence had a solid Spring Training (.333 avg., .392 OBP, 3 HRs in 25 games). And he looks to have carried that momentum with him into the regular season. After his 3-run homerun tonight, Pence is batting .304 on the season with three HRs (leading the team) and five RBIs (tied with Sandoval for the team lead). And despite his slump in the rest of his numbers last season, Pence still managed to have 45 RBIs in 59 games with the Giants - and 13 this spring. Hunter will be an RBI machine for the Giants this season, even if he doesn't hit 30-35 homeruns (which I'm pretty sure that he will).

3. Something else to be positive about is the defense...at least so far. In the first week of this new season, the Giants have committed only three errors (Posey, Pagan, Sandoval). In the first week of the 2012 season, they committed 108. (ok, maybe they really only had ten, including three in the first game - but still, didn't it feel like 108? at least?). Despite having one of the team's errors so far this season, Sandoval has played an incredible 3rd base. The Kung Fu Panda is definitely living up to his nickname of a large-but-agile man down the line, consistently making diving stops and strong throws. Joaquin Arias has shown that he's incredibly versatile (and therefore, valuable) as a back-up infielder while filling in for Brandon Belt at 1B. And lastly, my boy Crawford is holding it down at shortstop, (seemingly) grabbing everything that comes his way.

(Again, as I was typing that, Andres Torres made an error in left field allowing Michael Cuddyer to score for the Rockies. Seriously, what do I know?)

4. That brings us to probably the biggest concern/thing we really shouldn't worry about yet but we are anyway: Buster Posey.
The reigning National League MVP is off to a slow start this season. At this moment, he's batting .174. He's tied for the team-lead in strikeouts with six (Pence, Crawford). He's got no homeruns, no walks, and no RBIs. However, he also started out slowly in spring training, only to finish the spring hitting .294 (although, still without any HRs). And before we all freak out, in 2012 Posey also got off to a slower start, hitting .289 with ten HRs before the All-Star game and a blistering .385 post-All-Star game to go to become the National League batting champion. Plus, in case we all forgot, the Giants had kind of a short off-season this past year. Posey is a pure, natural athlete and a great hitter. He'll get there.

(Ok, SERIOUSLY, Posey just got his first RBI of the season, a solidly hit single to right field scoring Angel Pagan. Maybe I do know some stuff.)

More tomorrow.