It's almost here!!!

[gridlore]

Spring Training starts Thursday! Pitchers and Cathcers report in Scottsdale.

YAYYYY!!!!!!

Here's how the Opening Day line up looks right now, barring injury or a breakout performance..

1. Ray Durham, 2B

2. Omar Vizquel, SS

3. J.T. Snow, 1B

4. Barry Bonds, LF

5. Moises Alou, RF

6. Edgardo Alfonzo, 3B

7. Marquis Grissom, CF

8. Mike Matheny, C

9. Jason Schmidt, P

Comments

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

The Jays should be interesting this year. Bearing in mind that I'm a baseball fan and not a Blue Jays fan, so Chinese Proverb values of interesting may apply. This is the season when Ricciardi's youth drive really kicks in, particularly because Toronto lost 94 games -- the worst since 1980 -- and there's not going to be much resistance to cleaning house:

C - Guillermo Quiroz and Gregg Zaun
1B - Shea Hillebrand or Eric Hinske
2B - Orlando Hudson
SS - Russ Adams
3B - Corey Koskie
LF - Alex Rios
CF - Vernon Wells
RF - Reed Johnson or Gabe Gross
DH - Gross or Shea Hillebrand or ??

Out of ten slots, potentially everyone will be 27 or younger. Thankfully there's some talent in there, though several of them are question marks for power when they shouldn't be (Rios, Gross, Hinske).

Pitching is problematic:

SP - Roy Halladay
SP - Ted Lilly
SP - David Bush
SP - Josh Towers? Miguel Batista?
SP - Scott Schoenweis?? Brandon League?? Seung Song?? Chad Gaudin??

As has been the Jays' problem for several years, they're utterly unresistant to injury in the pitching staff. On the other hand, they've been stockpiling young arms (League, Song, Gaudin, and a few others lower down) that'll probably better by August than they are now.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Pitching is one place where the Giants aren't vulnerable to Geritol jokes. With Noah Lowry (L) and Jerome Williams (R) in the starting rotation, we've realy improved over the last few years. Hopefully, Brett Tomko won't take two months to warm up, and Kirk "Woody" Reuter will have a better year overall.

Of course, we're all watching the dude in left field. If Moises Alou delivers in the BA area, Bonds will see more pitches to hit.. and could pass Hank Aaron this year.

[aurictech.livejournal.com]

As I noted in my long post below, Mike Matheny should help your pitching staff "be all it can be," and a bit more besides. Your Giants have picked up a real gem in Matheny; don't screw it up.