Bay City Ball

The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel is fast approaching. No, it’s not a mack truck but spring training thats driving towards us. Giants’ pitchers and catchers are set to report to camp and begin work on Thursday, February the 15th. Who will be the big surprises this spring? Will Tim Lincecum wow us all? How many fastballs will Russ Ortiz mistakenly fire into a crowd of frightened onlookers? There is only so much news you can read and absorb until you just want the game to pick up again. For the season to start. Here we go again.

We’ve all analyzed most every part of the 2007 Giants*, diced up each part, studied it, and tried to digest it the best we could. Sometimes you got a tasty morsel (Cain, Zito, Lincecum) other times a bad case of heart burn (Bonds, Return of the Veterans Part 5, the back half of Zito’s contract).

Off of the main Giants page one interesting article has popped up on Armando Benitez. I say interesting in the fact that parts of it sound more like fiction than anything based in reality. I’ll let the article do the talking.

“I love to play in San Francisco,” Benitez said. “Of all the places I’ve played in my 13 years in the big leagues, San Francisco is my favorite place. The fans, they boo me sometimes, sure, but they’re there every day in the rain and the cold. They just want to see their team win. I want to give them the championship, win the World Series. Celebrate. If they give me the opportunity, I will show them I can do it.”

Really Armando? You like us? You really like us! Reading the article is a bizarre experience that only should be attempted if your BS detector is out of whack.

This is part of the fun with a new season of baseball. Armando might not suck and actually do well. Matt Morris might channel new found powers from within his beard to help his pitching game. A healthy and healed Noah Lowry might return back to his 2005 form that had everyone excited. The possibilities are endless for the optimist and maybe even the pessimist might chip away some of his hard feelings and find that glimmer of hope. But, at the end of the day, baseball is fast approaching us and thats good enough for me.

* Continue to look for the remaining 2 parts (starting rotation, positional players) of my analysis of the 2007 Giants.

Other Updates

• Help scratch your spring training itch with the fabulous Giants Jottings. Lots of excellent updates from Scottsdale with pictures of all your favorite, old and new, Gigantes. Highly recommended.

• The ever excellent BP has released this years team health reports. The reports are only available to subscribers but they are a great source of information. It won’t surprise anyone that the Giants have more than a few health concerns within the report.