San Francisco Giants

Never in the 126-year history of the Giants have fans endured five straight losing seasons.  But patrons passing through Willie Mays Plaza on their way to the bayside ballpark are faced with that formidable fact in 2009.

Usually, standing at the precipice of history suggests greatness is at hand. But for the Giants—with 2004 the last time a season ended in positive territory—it’s more like an abyss.

Whenever I'm feeling particularly agitated, I turn to the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Why you ask?  Because, as a die-hard San Francisco Giants' fan, I can spew venom all over the Bums and do so haphazardly with little or no repercussions.

That's the beauty of being in a blood-rivalry.

As long as I stay away from really crossing the line in a personal manner, especially with regards to Dodger fans, I feel confident that all will be forgiven if I'm wrong.

For those of you in keeper leagues, David Price was probably drafted last year. Tommy Hanson was probably the first minor league pitcher off the board this year. So if these guys are already gone this weekend, don’t worry.

Pick Madison Bumgarner.   

Seven days. You have seven days.

Don't worry, there's no unmarked videotape. There's not a girl in a well waiting to crawl out of your television. 

In fact, in seven days, you should be glued to your television/radio/computer. In seven days, you will be watching Giants baseball. It will be early in the game against the Milwaukee Brewers, and Tim Lincecum will be striking out Ryan Braun to end the inning.

In the weeks following the conclusion of the 2008 Arizona Fall League, people weren’t really sure what to expect from San Francisco Giants infielder Emmanuel Burriss.

While he hit .318 in 24 games with the Scottsdale Scorpions, his defense was absolutely abysmal. It seemed as though he was recording an error out in the field every day at shortstop, and the sight of him being the Giants’ start there to open the 2009 season looked slim to none.

In my previous piece, I said I tend to gloss over outfielders. If that's true (and it is), I flat out ignore pitching. Those of you looking for sturdy analysis of more than just the super-elite starters and closers should look elsewhere because I'm just going to hit the aces of the aces.

In other words, these are not the previews you're looking for (with a wave of my hand).

It should hopefully be a fun read though...

THE PITCHERS

Tim Lincecum is 5'11", 170 lbs. There were nine teams that passed on this 2008 Cy Young Award winner in the 2006 draft. Six selected bigger pitchers.

Lincecum has been called everything from “The Freak” to “The Franchise”. I like to call him “The Video Game” because his statistics are just so unreal (not to mention he’s the cover boy of MLB 2K9).

The San Francisco Giants ended last year with a 72-90 record, a tiny improvement from 2007. This year they'll finish third in the West because the hitting will not be there this year. Edgar Renteria will be a bright spot along with Aaron Rowand and Fred Lewis. They will be expecting to call up catcher Buster Posey who was drafted last year along with Madison Bumgarner a left handed pitcher.

For years, the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers have had the biggest rivalry in baseball that doesn’t include the term “Red Sox vs. Yankees,”  with every game just as heated as the one on the east coast.

However, as both teams have struggled and as players have gone from team to team in the National League West, the rivalry has cooled in recent years.

The thing that had the battle going when both teams moved west was that almost all the players on each roster were homegrown and were taught to hate each other.

In June 2008, the Giants' young lefty Jonathan Sanchez recorded a 5-1 record with an ERA below three. However, in the rest of his starts that came in other months, the Giants hurler went 4-11, including a 1-7 mark in his last eight decisions. For the year Sanchez finished 9-12 with a 5.01 ERA.

I admit to riding the Sanchez bandwagon back in June 2008, but I was also the first one off come July. Apparently I was one of the few that jumped off.