First let me say thank you to those of you who left comments thanking me for my Spring Training Blog. As you all know.....I don't get paid for this. The only remuneration I receive is your gratitude. I do this for my love of Giants baseball........but still.....it is really great to receive the accolades. I know........it's all ego.....but I will admit it.....it feels good.
Well, I have been missing the last couple of days. Besides the move back to San Francisco, some freakin' scam artist managed to get my e-mail user name and password and hijacked my ISP service. Luckily I caught it in less than an hour......and after about 2 hours conversation with my Internet provider.......finally got things worked out. So I am back now.........and although I love mankind in general......I hope the perpetrator of this transgression suffers the same fate that I wish for all Dodgers........a long slow painful death.
Tonight's game was more of the same for the Giants. The Giants were 5-0 vs the Mariners this spring. Tonight was no different as the Giants beat the Mariners 4-0. The Giants are now 6-0 against Seattle and 9-16 against the rest of the Cactus League.
Barry Zito got his final exhibition start for the Giants. He was nothing short of exceptional. He gave up 3 hits, 3 walk and tallied 3 strikeouts while giving up no runs in 6 full innings. I thought his curveball was good in Arizona.......but tonight it was breaking 12 to 6 about 18 inches. Pretty darn impressive. I did not keep score.....but I have to admit I was surprised that Zito allowed 3 walks. I thought his control was excellent, as he threw 52 strikes in 90 total pitches. For those of you paying attention to managing differences........I have not seen a manager allow a Giants pitcher go 90 pitches in an exhibition game in San Francisco since.......well I don't know when the last time would have been. Bochy obviously believes more in working his starting staff more than did Baker or Alou.
Zito was followed by Sun-Woo Kim, who may still be in the running for a roster spot. Kim had an easy inning, retiring 3 batters on 8 pitches. Brian Wilson followed Kim and allowed a single and no runs in his inning of work. The game was closed out by Armando Benitez, who continued his fine work this spring. Mando's fastball is less than impressive. His split is usually not in the strike zone........but his slider is just exceptional. I don't know if he can get by on just 1 pitch all season. But so far.......he has managed quite nicely.
Offensively.......only Barry Bonds and Bengie Molina had multiple hit games. Somehow the Giants still managed 12 hits and 4 runs. The Giants started their starting lineup for one of the few times this spring. Rich Aurilia was back at 1B and besides going 1 for 2 with an RBI.......made a nice catch of a foul popup while running away from home down the RF line.
All in all this was a well played game. The Giants got good starting pitching.....good relief pitching and the offense scored more than enough runs to win the game. It was good to be back in the park in San Francisco. It was a beautiful night with an announced attendance of 29,627.....I would guess the butts in the seats were about 2/3rds that.
The new scoreboard is VERY impressive when it is showing HDTV quality video shots from around the park. When they put up the lineups and box score info....it was WAY too over done and hard to read. It looked like they were trying to create a visually impressive display...but it was just too much. Tone the score keeping down......keep it to black and white......and it will be OK. Great great display......but the line score doesn't need a bunch of colors. That just makes it hard to read. Reduce the volume of info and the colors and make it where you can READ it.
Great night....good game......and the Giants are now 15-16 this spring.....right about where you would want them to be. The offense and the starting pitching has been good.....now the bullpen just needs to step up. The bullpen is actually my only real concern. It will be interesting to see how this all comes out.
Well, I have been missing the last couple of days. Besides the move back to San Francisco, some freakin' scam artist managed to get my e-mail user name and password and hijacked my ISP service. Luckily I caught it in less than an hour......and after about 2 hours conversation with my Internet provider.......finally got things worked out. So I am back now.........and although I love mankind in general......I hope the perpetrator of this transgression suffers the same fate that I wish for all Dodgers........a long slow painful death.
Tonight's game was more of the same for the Giants. The Giants were 5-0 vs the Mariners this spring. Tonight was no different as the Giants beat the Mariners 4-0. The Giants are now 6-0 against Seattle and 9-16 against the rest of the Cactus League.
Barry Zito got his final exhibition start for the Giants. He was nothing short of exceptional. He gave up 3 hits, 3 walk and tallied 3 strikeouts while giving up no runs in 6 full innings. I thought his curveball was good in Arizona.......but tonight it was breaking 12 to 6 about 18 inches. Pretty darn impressive. I did not keep score.....but I have to admit I was surprised that Zito allowed 3 walks. I thought his control was excellent, as he threw 52 strikes in 90 total pitches. For those of you paying attention to managing differences........I have not seen a manager allow a Giants pitcher go 90 pitches in an exhibition game in San Francisco since.......well I don't know when the last time would have been. Bochy obviously believes more in working his starting staff more than did Baker or Alou.
Zito was followed by Sun-Woo Kim, who may still be in the running for a roster spot. Kim had an easy inning, retiring 3 batters on 8 pitches. Brian Wilson followed Kim and allowed a single and no runs in his inning of work. The game was closed out by Armando Benitez, who continued his fine work this spring. Mando's fastball is less than impressive. His split is usually not in the strike zone........but his slider is just exceptional. I don't know if he can get by on just 1 pitch all season. But so far.......he has managed quite nicely.
Offensively.......only Barry Bonds and Bengie Molina had multiple hit games. Somehow the Giants still managed 12 hits and 4 runs. The Giants started their starting lineup for one of the few times this spring. Rich Aurilia was back at 1B and besides going 1 for 2 with an RBI.......made a nice catch of a foul popup while running away from home down the RF line.
All in all this was a well played game. The Giants got good starting pitching.....good relief pitching and the offense scored more than enough runs to win the game. It was good to be back in the park in San Francisco. It was a beautiful night with an announced attendance of 29,627.....I would guess the butts in the seats were about 2/3rds that.
The new scoreboard is VERY impressive when it is showing HDTV quality video shots from around the park. When they put up the lineups and box score info....it was WAY too over done and hard to read. It looked like they were trying to create a visually impressive display...but it was just too much. Tone the score keeping down......keep it to black and white......and it will be OK. Great great display......but the line score doesn't need a bunch of colors. That just makes it hard to read. Reduce the volume of info and the colors and make it where you can READ it.
Great night....good game......and the Giants are now 15-16 this spring.....right about where you would want them to be. The offense and the starting pitching has been good.....now the bullpen just needs to step up. The bullpen is actually my only real concern. It will be interesting to see how this all comes out.
25 comments:
GF9 - thanks for a great spring of reporting. You've made the last few weeks much more interesting, fantastic job.
It sounded on the radio like Mando's out pitch was the splitter tonight, and not the slider. If that's true I'm even more encouraged.
Hey Hank,
Thanks again for the blog. You've done a great service for all Giant fans. And, of course, thanks for the great conversation at the last few games at Scottsdale Stadium--I will definitely shoot a few e-mails your way during the season.
By the way, you missed an entirely forgettable ninth inning yesterday. Sanchez was abysmal, and the offense in the bottom of the inning never showed up. Looks like they all had a 7:30 flight out of Phoenix too. ;-)
jmc...I don't think I saw a single splitter thrown for a strike. But....I am sure the radio guys were right. After all they get paid for their comentary ;-)
Hey Daniel. Great talking with you. You sure the Giants' flight wasn't even earlier than 7:30?
I wasn't real happy when I got back to SF and saw the results of the game. Yet another bullpen failure. I fear that will be a frequent occurance this year.
Thanks so much for covering spring training. I don't usually post stuff, but I check out your blog every spring and it's awesome. It's also nice to hear another perspective other than the SF beat writers. Thanks again. Take it easy.
I really enjoyed reading your blog this past month. Thanks for having it. It kept me more up to date on the Giants than the media did!! By the way, you must have had a bad angle on that pop up with Aurilia. He actually dropped that ball and was charged with an error. Thanks again!! -Mark
Hey thanks for this blog and all your hard work. It truly is a godsend for those of us who didn't make it there ourselves...maybe some day. Take care, hopefully you can do it all over next spring. Best, chris
Thank you, I look forward to seeing you and the Giants this season.
Connor
Thanks for all the Spring Training stuff. Really appreciate the stuff on Justin Knoedler. He's a local player and a great guy.
I think we met last year when my son I were out there to see Justin play. Would have been the Brewers game and then one back at Scottsdale stadium.
Again, thanks much!!!
Thanks for all your hard work. I hope you revive Giants Jottings during the regular season!
Hey Connor.....good to see you at the game last night!
Pretzlesteelersfan.....yep......that was me. First few rows of section 106 at Maryvale Stadium right?
I like Justin a lot. I still would have had him as a backup instead of Alfonzo.......but what are you going to do? SO we keep Alfonzo and have yet anoter free-swinging Pedro Feliz clone.
Dr B.....2 good nights for the pitchers so far at ATT. Hope this keeps up. It will be interesting to see what they do in the daytime at today's game.
Thank you for all the pictures and for your insight on the Giants and what's happening with them in Spring Training. I found your sight a couple of years ago and look forward to reading what you have to say and seeing the pictures from Spring Training. I wish you could do it all year long.
Thanks again and GO GIANTS!!!!!
Hank, you're still one of the good guys. Thanks for all the first hand reporting. I'm just sorry that we didn't make it down this year. We're set to go to Denver in September, but we totally struck out on Boston.
We are also keeping Chicago, St. Louis and Cincy in mind. Time will tell.
Dave
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