The San Francisco front office finally heard my anguished screams this offseason.  While the more vocal wing of the Giants fan base shouted for radical moves (signing Sabathia, Man-Ram, Burrell, and/or Dunn.  Cain for Fielder, Cain for Hardy, Cain for the Pittsburgh Pirates, the nation of Lithuania, and a dozen Domino’s death disks), Sabean and company at long last decided to have a little faith in the young players by making minimal changes via free-agency. 

The signing of future hall of Randy Johnson stands head and shoulders above the rest of the transactions (no pun intended….really).  The veteran replaces the underachieving 2008 back end of the rotation (Correia, Misch, and Hennessey), bringing an elder statesman who can still hurl the ball 90+ miles per hour.  That can’t hurt.

In the ‘perhaps you overspent, but we’ll give you the benefit of the doubt’ department lies the 2 year $18 million contract tossed to Edgar Renteria.  While I was against this at first, it has actually grown on me.  Barring a complete and unforseeable falling apart, it will be an immense offensive upgrade over either Bocock or Vizquel at the position.  And, though I love Emmanuel Burriss, perhaps it’s better for him to be over at second base, thrashing it out with Frandsen and Velez for playing time. 

Another place where the Giants upgraded wisely and precisely is the bullpen.  The additions of Jeremy Affeldt and Bobby Howry, coupled with minor league deals tendered to both Ramon Ortiz and Justin Miller, should serve to strengthen the bullpen over the malaise found at times in 2008.  The key is, if you can’t get the lead to Brian Wilson, he can’t drop the hammer.  That should be better now.

And that leads us to another strong point in this offseason.  Rather than breaking the bank on a high money free agent, the team snapped up a string of seasoned veterans at bargain basement rates.  ‘Kinda’ sluggers Josh Phelps and Juan Uribe will come to spring training, minor league deals in hand, and should be ready to step in should a youngster falter.  Ditto Rich Aurilia, leading the ‘re-signed’ category of this year’s free agents.  

The San Francisco Giants played the Arizona Diamondbacks tough on Monday night but in the end it was the D-backs coming out on top with a 3-1 victory over the Giants.

Starting Giants pitcher Brad Hennessey tossed all eight innings for the Giants as he took the loss. Hennessey made two bad pitches and they were both hit over the fence for home runs. Justin Upton first went deep in the fourth inning for a solo home run and then in the bottom of the eighth inning, Adam Dunn connected on the game winning shot with a runner on base. Hennessey is now 1-2 on the season.

The one run that the Giants scored came in the third inning when Rich Aurilia scored on an error by Diamondbacks centerfielder Chris Young. Not much offense for the Giants as they struggled against Doug Davis and two relief pitchers for the Diamondbacks.

Game two of the series will be played on Tuesday night. Hopefully the Giatns offense can come around and give the pitchers some run support.

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It was an up and down ballgame for the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday afternoon as they blew the lead in the top of the ninth, but then came back to score two runs in the bottom of the inning and beat the Arizona Diamondbacks by the score of 4-3.

The Giants were able to score two runs in the bottom of the inning on a two run triple by Eugenio Velez. The young guy came up huge for the Giants as he had all four rbi. Earlier in the game he had a two run double that scored Pablo Sandoval and Bengie Molina for the first two Giants runs. Great performance by Velez!

Brian Wilson was the reliever that gave up two hits and two walks in the top of the ninth as he blew the save. Just a bad outing for Wilson who didn’t have good control of the ball at all. Starting pitcher Brad Hennessey tossed the first six innings of the game and only allowed four hits and one run. It’s too bad the bullpen blew the win and he had to get a no decision. Alex Hinshaw picked up the win as he recorded the final out after Wilson was removed in the top of the ninth inning.

Great series for the Giants as they swept the Diamondbacks in the three game series. The Giants will now play the San Diego Padres in a four game series starting on Thursday night.

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The San Francisco Giants hammered out 14 hits and scored nine runs as the blasted the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday afternoon by the score of 9-2. It was a great performance by the offense as well as the pitching staff. The pitchers limited the Rockies to only four hits in the game.

Barry Zito threw a great game out in Denver at Coors Field. Zito tossed eight inning and gave up four hits and two runs while picking up the win. Zito is now 9-16 on the year after earning the victory. Brad Hennessey threw the ninth inning to finish off the Rockies.

At the plate, Scott McClain and Travis Ishikawa both led the team with three rbi in the game. Pablo Sandoval was right behind McClain and Ishikawa with two rbi. To finish up the Giants scoring, Emmanuel Burriss added on rbi. Sandoval and McClain both hit home runs in the game.

Great win for the Giants! Giants Baseball Blog

The San Francisco Giants got hammered by the Pittsburgh Pirates 12-6 on Tuesday night.  Usually when the Giants score six runs you would expect them to win the game but that was not the case against the Pirates.

Jonathan Sanchez only lasted 4 1/3 innings as he gave up six hits and seven runs.  Sanchez walked three batters, struck out four batters, and gave up two home runs.  Terrible performance by Sanchez.

Brad Hennessey wasn’t any better then Sanchez as he pitched in relief.  Hennessey gave up seven hits and five runs in only 2 1/3 innings.

Jose Castillo came up with the biggest hit for the Giants as he hit a three run home run in the eighth inning.  John Bowker, Rich Aurilia, and Dan Ortmeier all had one RBI each.

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The San Francisco Giants lost 4-2 on Monday against the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Arizona is a tuff team to beat this year and this was a hard match up for the struggling Giants lineup.  The Giants just couldn’t keep the Diamondbacks inside the ballpark as the D-backs hit three home runs in the game.

Kevin Correia was the opening pitcher for the Giants throwing for six innings and giving up eight hits, three runs, and two walks.  He was only able to strikeout two Arizona batters.  This loss put him at 1-3 for the year.  Merkin Valdez and Brad Hennessey were brought in to pitch the last two innings.  Valdez did allow one run to cross the plate while Hennessey pitched a scoreless inning.

The Giants scored in the second inning when Jose Castillo singled to center field and scored Aaron Rowand.  The scond Giants run came in the third inning when Fred Lewis hit a solo home run.

The Giants will face off against the Diamondbacks one more time tonight in Arizona before heading to San Diego to take on the Padres for a two game series.

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The San Francisco Giants got hammered by the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday afternoon by the score of 8-2.  The Giants pitchers did not have their good stuff today, as every pitcher that pitched gave up atleast one earned run.

Starting pitcher Kevin Correia took the loss after pitching six innings and giving up five hits and five earned runs.  Correia’s record is now 1-2 on the season.  Brad Hennessey pitched two innings in relief of Correia and gave up three hits and two earned runs.  Erick Threets pitched one inning and gave up one earned run.

Aaron Roward and Jose Castillo had one RBI each for the offense.  That was all the offense the Giants could get off the Diamondbacks pitchers.

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The San Francisco Giants picked up a big win Thursday night as they beat the St. Louis Cardinals by the score of 5-1.  The Cardinals came into the game with a 7-2 record and playing some really good baseball but it was their first road game of the season and it showed.

The Giants bats put a lot of pressure on Adam Wainwright and Ron Villone during the game.  The middle of the lineup did most of the damage for the Giants as Aaron Rowand, Randy Winn, Bengie Molina, Jose Castillo, and Rich Aurilia all had one RBI.

Kevin Correia picked up the win after pitching 7.2 innings and not allowing a run to cross the plate.  He did give up five hits and two walks, but he struck out four batters.  Brad Hennessey was the only Giants pitcher to allow a earned run on the night.  Brian Wilson picked up his second save of the season in the game as well.

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Bengie Molina hit two homeruns against the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night, but it is the second one that everyone is talking about.  Molina took Cla Meredeith deep in the 11th inning to give the Giants the 3-2 victory over the Giants.

Earlier in the game Molina took Randy Wolf yard in the 2nd inning to give the Giants a 1-0 lead.  Randy Winn then doubled in the 3rd inning and scored Brian Bocock.  That was all the scoring that would happen for the Giants, but it was just enough to get the victory.

Starting pitcher Tim Lincecum pitched six innings and allowed seven hits and one earned run while striking out seven Padre batters.  Good performance out of Linceum on Tuesday night as he got the no decision.  Brad Hennessey picked up his first win of the season.

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The SanFrancisco Giants continue to play bad ball in the 2008 season as they lost to the Milwaukee Brewers 13-4 on Friday.  The Giants got behind by eight runs in the fifth inning, and was not able to come back from that big of deficit.  If the Giants can’t hold an opponent to under four runs, I don’t think they will win very many games this year.  They just don’t have the offense to score five plus runs a game.

Jonathan Sanchez pitched the first four innings on Friday and gave up seven hits, seven earned runs, two walks, and struckout 8 Brewers batters.  He definaly had some troubles as you can tell by giving up seven earned runs in only four innings.

Brad Hennessey didn’t fare to much better when he came in out of the bullpen.  Hennessey allowed six hits and five earned runs in an inning of action.

Giants pitchers are going to have to do alot better job of pitching if they want to win 60 games this season.  I really think they are going to be in for a very long season.