Reflections of the Giants’ spring training

Even though the season is still a day away it is great to have the Giants back in the bay area at ATT Park.  Watched the Monday night game at the ball park and, yesterday’s game on tv. I still want to make some prognostications and share some observations. Brandon Belt will start the season in Fresno... my prediction. If not, it will be because of his overall batting statistics. He is doing ok now but, his real success came earlier in the spring training season where the big league pitchers were still sharpening their skills and, when some of the pitching was from pitchers destined to the minor leagues. Many compare him to Posey but, I think that Buster is in a category of his own.  I do not think it would hurt Belt to get a little more exposure in triple A baseball. If he makes the big leagues at the start… it will be because of his RBI’s and Ross’s injury.

I was really pleased with Barry Zito’s outing last evening. if the Giants continue to provide the offense that they have shown over the last 34 games of this year’s spring training, Zito could win 13 – 15 games and that would be really good. I guess I am saying that we need to lay off Barry for a while. His curve ball and control was looking especially good last evening.

Pablo Sandoval continues to pleasantly amaze me. What a comeback and I am quite confident that he will be able to maintain his outstanding play. Also,he is really starting to make some great defensive plays like the foul ball late in Monday’s game and his great defensive stab at the third base line yesterday at Oakland. His bat continues to be hot and, I believe that it will continue also. He will make a great contribution to the team this year.

This year’s starting lineup is a lineup that you can expect hits and runs from all the positions. You never know which of the team will contribute to the scoring on any given evening. Of course, you can count on Huff and Posey every game it seems but the rest seem to take turns. The great thing is this…  some part of the batting order is usually hot each game and, that will go a long way toward the 98 wins I am predicting.

Well, the season starts tomorrow and then we can count on looking at it one game at a time one hundred and sixty two times. I will make some predictions about the divisions and outcomes tomorrow.