San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants have a need for speed, and if starting center fielder Aaron Rowand doesn't improve his performance from the last two seasons, journeyman outfielder Andres Torres should be given a shot.

While the chances Torres succeeds long term are minimal, there have been similar stories written in sports.

Current NFL free agent quarterback Jake Delhomme is an example of an athlete who bounced around for awhile before becoming a star.

Imagine you are responsible to select an all-time starting rotation for the San Francisco Giants in a fantasy league.  Your team would then have to compete against all other selected teams.  Who would make your team?  Who would you select for back up?

The rules for eligibility are simple.  Pitchers selected must have pitched 1000 innings for the Giants.  Relief pitchers considered must have logged 250 games for the team.

You may draw from any era the team was in existence.

The fact of the matter is this for Giants fans: Aaron Rowand is going to be the Giants center fielder on Opening Day, and he most likely is going to bat leadoff unless one of three things happen:

1. Mark DeRosa gets hurt again this Spring Training and is unable to play on Opening Day, which forces manager Bruce Bochy to play either Eugenio Velez or Andres Torres in left field (who would be slotted in at leadoff because of their speed).

Almost all of us who follow the game of baseball have heard the claim that “pitching and defense win championships.”

But is there any truth to that claim in this day and age?

While teams built primarily on pitching and defense may have been more suited to win World Series Championships in past eras, the current age of baseball is built on offense.

There are five tools to baseball:

Hitting for average, hitting for power, speed, arm strength, and fielding ability.

In the history of baseball there has only been one man to posses all five tools at an elite level.

His name was Willie Mays.

How many baseball players can you name with 12 gold gloves, 660 career home runs, a .303 career batting average, 338 steals, 3,283 career hits, and 24 All-Star selections?

If you can find me another man with accolades greater than that, I will sell you my soul.

The Author originally published the following slideshow at hotstove.com, and it can also be seen here:

http://www.hotstove.com/2010/03/will-the-san-francisco-giants-make-the-p...

When a team finishes 72-90 in 2008 and then jumps up to a 88-74 finish in 2009, 2010 expectations obviously skyrocket.

With spring training officially on its way, the offseason, for the most part, is officially done. Sure, there are some lingering free agents out there and perhaps some late-additions to the Giants roster could (but shouldn't) happen, but for the most part, the Giants seem pretty much set with their roster as they head into the 2010 season, which begins in less than a month.

That being said, the most widely asked question by Giants fans (other than how the Giants are going to do in 2010, of course) has to be this:

How did the Giants do this offseason?

After looking at the Top 5 Reasons to look forward to 2010, I wanted to look back at the history of the Giants since their inception in as the New York Gothams in 1883.

As one of the oldest franchises in Major League history, the Gothams/New York Giants/San Francisco Giants franchise has a lot of boast about. They have the most wins of ANY franchise in baseball history, with 10,270 wins under their belt. They've won five World Series titles and 20 National League pennants.

The newest host on the San Francisco Giants' flagship radio station took a swipe at how the club opted to exact revenge against Milwaukee Brewers slugger Prince Fielder.

F.P. Santangelo, a former big leaguer and current part-time Giants analyst, said that Barry Zito's hitting Fielder with a pitch in Thursday's spring training game was a weak, inappropriate response to the controversial home plate celebration Fielder and his Milwaukee teammates acted out following his game-winning home run late last year.

Ah, with one mild fastball placed squarely between the ample shoulder blades of Prince Fielder, Barry Zito of our San Francisco Giants reminded the athletic world exactly why Major League Baseball will always be the top dog for many of its fans.

As for me, no affinity for another sport will ever replace my love of "The Show."

And it's because of old-school moments just like Zito's beanball right out of the spring training gates.

For those of you unfamiliar with the first salvo in this six-month-old dispute, allow me to explain.