Category Archives: Giants

Don’t Panic, Tuesday Edition

When life gives you lemons...

He also had a device that looked rather like a largish electronic calculator. This had about a hundred tiny flat press buttons and a screen about four inches square on which any one of a million “pages” could be summoned at a moment’s notice. It looked insanely complicated, and this was one of the reasons why the snug plastic cover it fitted into had DON’T PANIC printed on it in large friendly letters.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. Edited for relevancy.

It would be a bit of an understatement to say that the first five games of the 2011 have been disappointing, especially after such a ridiculous spat of bloops, bleeps, clank-mitts, overthrows, and mistakes to our rivals, the hated Dodgres (pronounced Dodge-Rays).

Starting the season 1-4 sucks, especially with the honor of having our games being shown on ESPN and all, and the associated honor of game-times that prevent local fans from watching the beginning of the games.

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The Giants’ Outfield Carousel

This guy loves the outfield almost as much as Andres Torres.

After today’s shocking announcement that Brandon Belt will be the starting first baseman on Opening Day tomorrow, the Giants brass will have some decisions to make regarding the future of the outfield.

These decisions are, of course, delayed by Cody Ross’s trip to the disabled list. I have nothing to add to the growing analysis of Brandon Belt and his major league grit – I already guessed wrong once – so instead I’m going to look a bit in the future, to Babe Ross’s return, and the tough choice the brass will face.

The first impact of Belt’s promotion was the departure of Travis Ishikawa, a solid second-string first baseman on a team with 2-3 serviceable first basemen and limited roster space. Ishikawa has always come off as a good guy, and I truly hope he lands on his feet with some other major league club.

The outfield, on the other hand, is another story. With Aubrey Huff the ostensible starting right fielder, Ross’s return will bump somebody from a starting role, and probably from the team, with the most likely targets being Aaron Rowand and Nate Schierholtz, assuming that Torres performs as expected and keeps the center field job all season.

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