Tagged: Yanks
Giants Lineup Has Homegrown Talent – Today In Baseball History
After watching the Giants and A’s game last night. I’m ready for the season to start now. Just seeing them play at AT&T Park. Now it feels like some real baseball. Tim Lincecum out there blowing it by A’s hitters. Seeing Pablo Sandoval hit a RBI double off the right field wall. Everything is just starting to click to get me excited about the season. I know were not the Yankees or anything like that. We have some good young guys that will make the game exciting. Giants fans know the Giants always traded for guys or signed free agents. Now here is some proof that things are starting to change in Giants land.
2007 Opening Day Starting Lineup
1. Dave Roberts
2. Omar Vizquel
3. Barry Bonds
4. Ray Durham
5. Rich Aurilia
6. Pedro Feliz
7. Bengie Molina
8. Randy Winn
9. Barry Zito
We only had one homegrown player from the Giants minor league in the 2007 starting lineup. That player was Pedro (Feloser!) Feliz. The Giants have finally decided to grow some homegrown talent and have put a lot of money into scouting/developing players. This year our opening Day line up will have 5 homegrown players in that lineup. One of them is pitcher Tim Lincecum, but the other 4 are everyday players.
2009 Opening Day Lineup
1. Randy Winn
2. Edgar Renteria
3. Fred Lewis
4. Bengie Molina
5. Pablo Sandoval
6. Travis Ishikawa
7. Aaron Rowand
8. Emmanuel Burriss
9. Tim Lincecum
The 4 everyday players are Fred Lewis, Pablo Sandoval, Travis Ishikawa and Emmanuel Burriss. These 4 guys should be really exciting to watch. The Giants really like Lewis and want him in the 3 spot this year. Were hoping he can hit around 20 home runs. Lewis has a lot of speed and should get a lot of triples with his speed and the large gaps at AT&T Park.
Now Pablo Sandoval is my favorite of the 4 everyday players. This guy can flat out rake! He had 3 hits in the game last night against the A’s. He had a double of the right field wall and had a triple in the gap. He can run pretty good for a big guy. This guy looked foolish on two change ups outside and then rakes a ball off the wall on the next pitch. Don’t look at Sandoval to walk much. He’s a free swinger at the plate. He should be able to drive in a lot of runs in the 5th spot of the lineup. He also will set up the lower part of the lineup by being on base a lot. I’m sure he’s going to hit over .300 this year. I’m thinking he might hit about .320.
The next guy is Travis Ishikawa. The Giants gave him the 1st base job at the beginning of Spring Training without seeing what other guys would step up for the job. We never really got a chance to see what Ishikawa could do yet, but his spring stats helped Giants fans feel comfortable with him getting the job. Ishikawa led the Giants in home runs this spring by hitting 7. The Giants love him for his defense at 1st base, but they think he will also be able to give them some power. Ishikawa says he’s not a power hitter, but it seems to look like he might have more power than he wants to admit.
The 4th player is Emmanuel Burriss who beat out Kevin Frandsen for the 2nd base job. The Giants really love Burriss and think he can be a really good player. He has speed and has had a really good bat this spring. I’m sure he’s going to be a fine player this season.
These are just the players that are starting this season. The Giants have some other hot prospects that I’m sure will make their debut this season and might even make it to the starting lineup for next year’s opening day.
Today In Baseball History
1985 – The owners proposal of expanding the 1985 League Championship Series from the best-of-five games to best-of-sevin is agreed to by the Players Association.
~ King of Cali
2007 Home Run Derby Pictures…
I have never posted a blog about this, but I did go to the Home Run Derby when it was at AT&T Park. I just wish I would have took more pictures. The battery died on the camera so I knew I only had a few pictures in it. It really was a cool experience to see all the booths and stuff they had set up outside of the stadium. Right when I walked in the stadium I went straight to the field. The National League team was having batting practice and the American League team was starting to stretch out in front of me. I got a couple pictures of some of them up close. It was just really cool to see all these players from different teams up close. These players seemed so loose and were just joking around. You knew they were all having a blast.
Here is a couple of pictures from my seat view. I never sat this high before but these were the only tickets I could find for the Home Run Derby.
The winner of the 2007 Home Rub Derby was big, bad Vladimir Guerrero from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
~ King of Cali
My 2nd Fantasy Baseball Team
Last Friday I did my 2nd Fantasy Draft. I had the 6th pick in the draft. My #1 pick of the draft was Josh Hamilton. I have never played Fantasy Baseball before so I’m still not to sure how everything works. I know I have two guys on this team that are injured. I decided to get Alex Rodriguez since I figured he would be back in May. I also got Troy Glaus. I had no idea he was injured. I think I seen on MLB. com today that he won’t be back till June. Grrrrrrreat (not Tony The Tiger Grrrrrrreat) now I need to figure something out. lol Well here is my 2nd Fantasy team. Let me know what you think and any suggestions would be nice. =)
Team – King of Cali
C Brian McCann
1B Pablo Sandoval
2B Howie Kendrick
3B Alex Rodriguez
SS Rafael Furcal
OF Josh Hamilton
OF Alfonso Soriano
OF Corey Hart
Util Andre Ethier
Util Jim Thome
BN Delmon Young
BN Orlando Hudson
BN Troy Glaus
BN Fred Lewis
SP Jon Lester
SP Matt Cain
RP George Sherrill
RP Chad Qualls
P John Danks
P Ryan Dempster
P Jered Weaver
~ King of Cali
Should The Giants Snag Sheffield?
I have been thinking if the Giants should go out and get Gary Sheffield. They would only have to pay him $400,000. The Tigers will have to pay him his $14 Million for this year. He would be a good bat to put in the middle of the
lineup. He might not be able to play everyday which would be fine to get other guys playing time. I’m just not sure who I would sit down to get him in the game. Randy Winn is the most consistent player we have had. Aaron Rowand plays center and the Giants want Fred Lewis in left. I think I might just keep moving Winn around and whatever outfielder gets a day off that’s where I would put Winn. I’m still not sold on if I were the Giants if I would do it. It’s just hard to pass up on a power bat like Sheffield’s that’s available for only $400,000. I’m sure he will be signed soon. Just not sure what team will jump out there and snag him.
lineup. He might not be able to play everyday which would be fine to get other guys playing time. I’m just not sure who I would sit down to get him in the game. Randy Winn is the most consistent player we have had. Aaron Rowand plays center and the Giants want Fred Lewis in left. I think I might just keep moving Winn around and whatever outfielder gets a day off that’s where I would put Winn. I’m still not sold on if I were the Giants if I would do it. It’s just hard to pass up on a power bat like Sheffield’s that’s available for only $400,000. I’m sure he will be signed soon. Just not sure what team will jump out there and snag him.~ King of Cali
Who would you build around?
This is just something I have been thinking about and I’m curious as to what other bloggers think about this. If you could start your with one player. Who would be the guy you would build your team around? Would you start off with a young Ace like Tim Lincecum. Somebody that can start every five days and shut the other team down. Maybe you want a star shortstop like Derek Jeter. Someone that can hit and give you a 100% day in and day out. Maybe you want a centerfielder like Aaron Rowand that goes balls out on defense. You can even go with a monster swinger like Ryan Howard. He can spark your offense and get a ton of RBI’s. There is so many ways you can go with this. I’m just curious to see what bloggers would go with what guys to start a team and build around them. I look forward to your comments.
~King of Cali
I’m #9 on the leader list
This is the highest I have ever been. I just want to say thank you to everyone
for reading and commenting on my blogs. It’s nice to know that people actually read them. =) I use this as my way to talk about baseball, cause none of my friends are die hard baseball fans like myself. I dedicate my #9 ranking to “Mr. October” Reggie Jackson. I know everyone knows Reggie’s #44 was retired by the Yankees. The A’s also retired Reggie’s #9 that he was wearing when he was with the A’s.
for reading and commenting on my blogs. It’s nice to know that people actually read them. =) I use this as my way to talk about baseball, cause none of my friends are die hard baseball fans like myself. I dedicate my #9 ranking to “Mr. October” Reggie Jackson. I know everyone knows Reggie’s #44 was retired by the Yankees. The A’s also retired Reggie’s #9 that he was wearing when he was with the A’s.Reggie has made the All-Star team 14 times. He has been a world series champion 5 times, Silver Slugger Award 2 times, World Series MVP 2 times and the AL MVP 1 time. His induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame was 1993. He did receive 93.6% first ballot votes. Jackson’s career statistics were AVG .262, home runs 563 and RBI’s 1,702.
Today in Baseball History
1903 – The New York Highlander franchise (to be renamed Yankees in 1913) is approved as a member of the American League.
~King of Cali
Quick Thoughts on Dave Roberts and A-Rod update
Quick Thoughts on Dave Roberts and A-Rod update
Today the Giants made their first big roster move. The Giants have released Dave Roberts. I have mixed feelings about the move. I like Dave Roberts as a
person and how he is a good leader in the clubhouse, but he’s just been taking up a roster space. He’s always hurt and hasn’t been the player the Giants thought they had. He was released today, since it’s still early in spring training. This is so another team can still pick him up. The Giants will have to pay his $6.5 million for this season, but any team that picks him up only has to pay the league minimum, which is $400,000. I hope a team picks him up, cause I would hate to see his career end like this.
person and how he is a good leader in the clubhouse, but he’s just been taking up a roster space. He’s always hurt and hasn’t been the player the Giants thought they had. He was released today, since it’s still early in spring training. This is so another team can still pick him up. The Giants will have to pay his $6.5 million for this season, but any team that picks him up only has to pay the league minimum, which is $400,000. I hope a team picks him up, cause I would hate to see his career end like this. Update– A-Rod is not going to have surgery. He’s going to try to play this season and hope he can wait till the end of this season to have surgery.
~King of Cali
Just some quick thoughts from 2 Spring Training Games…
Yankees – Astros
Russ Ortiz pitched 3 solid innings today for the Astros. He’s trying to win the 5 spot in the rotation for the Astros. He did have one bad pitch. That turned out to be a home run for Angel Berroa. I was listening to the game online and I heard a name that sounded so familiar. It was Cody Ransom. He was a Giant a while back. He never really made it big, but I was glad to hear he’s still playing. I don’t think he will make the Yankees opening day roster but he did play 33 games for them last season hitting .302.
Mike Hampton got lit up today. He gave up 4 runs on 6 hits in 2 innings. He did manage to get 2 strike outs.
Giants – Royals
I love listening to baseball on the radio and I must say Giants fans are really lucky to have the guys we have on the radio. Today KNBR the Giants flagship station is not doing the game. I had to listen to the game with the Royals radio guys. All I can say is I feel sorry for Royals fans that have to listen to the games on the radio. These guys were just so blah. I mean I don’t want to say they were bad, but they were just so boring compared to Jon Miller, Duane Kuiper, Mike Krukow and Dave Flemming. They did make me laugh one time. One of the guys told the other one that he’s already in mid season mode (the way he was calling the game). Then the other guy says why cause of all the (Royals) errors. It just made me laugh out loud.
The Giants didn’t play that great today. Matt Cain gave up 3 runs on 5 hits in 1.2 innings. I didn’t really get much better for any other Giants pitchers except the Giants closer Brian Wilson. He 1 inning allowing 0 runs. The Giants had 8 different pitchers in this game. Dave Roberts had an 0-3 day and still hasn’t managed to get a batting average yet this spring training. Burriss went 2-3 to to help his battle for the 2nd base job. The only other Giants player with 2 hits was Torres. The final score of the game is Royals 14 and the Giants 5.
The other Bay Area team.
The Oakland A’s have signed Orlando Cabrera to a one year deal. They signed him for $5 million less than what he was asking for this off-season. Orlando signed for $4 million. This means Bobby Crosby will no longer be the starting short stop. He will play a utility role or be traded. I was actually excited to see how Crosby would do this season. I’m sure he will have a fine season in whatever role he is playing this year. I guess this signing means Nomar might be retiring. He said last week it was the A’s or retirement.
Today in Baseball History
1927 – Babe Ruth becomes the highest paid player in major league history when the Yankees announce the Bambino will earn $70,000 per season for the next three years.
~King of Cali
Thoughts on A-Rod
Sorry I haven’t been able to post a blog since the middle of last week. I went
to Vegas so I was pretty much out of the sports loop since my last blog. I did wake up Friday morning in Vegas and put on ESPN. I was shocked to hear the new information that came out about A-Rod. Man this guy is digging himself a deeper ditch every time he talks. If I was A-Rod…. I would have just came out and said I did take steroids from this time period to this time period. I wouldn’t have gave up any other information. I would have just said it in a statement and said I’m not taking any questions. Just left it at that. The more he talks about it. The more questions he’s creating for the media. Just like he said his cousin. You knew it would come out who his cousin was. Then to say how he got the steroids. We all knew that was a lie and it would only be a matter of time till we found out he was lying again. A-Rod is very emotional and I’m sure with all this media on him all season. He’s going to hit some big slumps. He’s a great player but I don’t think he can take the pressure like Barry Bonds did. When Barry was playing. You couldn’t tell by watching him play that he had so much media pressure about steroids. Sorry for rambling. Just wanted to blog with my thoughts of A-Rod.
to Vegas so I was pretty much out of the sports loop since my last blog. I did wake up Friday morning in Vegas and put on ESPN. I was shocked to hear the new information that came out about A-Rod. Man this guy is digging himself a deeper ditch every time he talks. If I was A-Rod…. I would have just came out and said I did take steroids from this time period to this time period. I wouldn’t have gave up any other information. I would have just said it in a statement and said I’m not taking any questions. Just left it at that. The more he talks about it. The more questions he’s creating for the media. Just like he said his cousin. You knew it would come out who his cousin was. Then to say how he got the steroids. We all knew that was a lie and it would only be a matter of time till we found out he was lying again. A-Rod is very emotional and I’m sure with all this media on him all season. He’s going to hit some big slumps. He’s a great player but I don’t think he can take the pressure like Barry Bonds did. When Barry was playing. You couldn’t tell by watching him play that he had so much media pressure about steroids. Sorry for rambling. Just wanted to blog with my thoughts of A-Rod.~King of Cali
Giants, Edgar Renteria status
Heyyyy fellow bloggers. Just wanted to keep you guys updated on Edgar Renteria. I got some good news for those of you out there that care. Renteria hasn’t done anything on the field for the Giants yet, but did try on
some uniform pants. Then a reporter asked him about his weight. He said he did lose at least 10 pounds. He then tugged at the waist of his pants to show off the two to three inches of excess room. Renteria then said “You can tell.” That shows that Renteria took his off-season seriously to get himself in good shape again. Giants fans would love to see Renteria get his bat back to his 2007 season with the Braves when he hit .332 with the Braves.
some uniform pants. Then a reporter asked him about his weight. He said he did lose at least 10 pounds. He then tugged at the waist of his pants to show off the two to three inches of excess room. Renteria then said “You can tell.” That shows that Renteria took his off-season seriously to get himself in good shape again. Giants fans would love to see Renteria get his bat back to his 2007 season with the Braves when he hit .332 with the Braves.Jim Leyland the Tigers manager thinks Renteria will be a good player for the Giants. Bruce Bochy has studied videotape of Renteria and doesn’t have any concerns. Renteria still thinks he can play. He said “I always say that if one day I wake up and I feel like I can’t play anymore, I’ll quit, no matter how much money I’m making.”
We all know he’s no Omar Vizquel, but we don’t need him to fill those shoes. We just need him to make the plays he should make. We signed him to be an offense upgrade at the shortstop position. I’m sure Edgar will do his job 2nd in the lineup. He can move runners over and he will get on base for Sandoval and Molina.
Today in Baseball History – February 18th
1999 – The Blue Jays trade Roger Clemens to the Yankees for David Wells, Graeme Lloyd, and Homer Bush.
~King of Cali
King of Cali 