Your San Francisco Giants Season Preview

SFist: Anyways, here's the first bit to get us started: My feeling is that on paper, this team isn't even as good as last year's team. And about as exciting. So will this season be bleaker than expected, just as bleak as expected, or better than bleak? And isn't that a swell marketing slogan "Your 2007 Giants: Better than Bleak!"

El Lefty: I'll start by saying that on paper, parts of the '07 team are better than last year. Take the starting rotation. Zito should ably replace Schmidt. Cain should get better. Lowry and Morris should rebound from injury. Unless they get injured, of course, but as Grant wrote in a recent post, that's the standard universal disclaimer for any preseason discussion (I can't find the reference at the moment). On offense, the Aurilesko platoon can't be any worse than Niekrobrand. Can it? Can it? Just tell me about the rabbits, George. Losing Mo Alou is the big negative on O, but remember he only played 90-some games last year. A healthier Bonds, good top-of-order OBP with Roberts and Vizquel, and a lot of ABs for Linden, who basically replaces the awful Steve Finley as fourth outfielder, should compensate. And Durham, happy for the continuity and peaceful in the five-spot, will have an even more careeralicious year. Yep. Mm-hm.

McCovey Chronicles: There are some good points there. Sometimes we focus too much on who is coming in and not who is going out. No more Vizcaino, Finley, Niekro, or Feliz means the Giants won't have three out-making machines anywhere near the lineup. I've eternal-sunshined Feliz out of my brain with scotch, in case you were wondering.

Alou will be missed, Niekro will not; the two cancel each other out, and the offense will run in place. The pitching will have to make up the difference between 70-something wins and 80-something.

The one area I'm geeked about without reservation is the bench, which should be the best since that of the Fightin' Hydrants of 2000. Note that the hydrants were filled with human-growth hormone, which were great to pop open and frolic in on a hot summer day in New York. But Eliezer Alfonzo can hit a bit, Klesko is nice off the bench when he doesn't start, Sweeney almost as nice when Klesko does start, Aurilia and Frandsen will be super-subs, and Todd Linden is the best 4th-outfielder since Armando Rios.

That's some good depth. Others might laugh that the Giants have only developed a handful of bench players over the past 20 years. That's just nitpicking.

El Lefty: Feliz? Feliz? Feliz Feliz Feliz....Feliz. Kinda sounds like someone I used to...nah. Never heard of him. How lovely.

And good call on the bench, too. I'm irrationally expecting a sneaky great season from Todd Linden, and I have a suspicion Ryan Klesko will be better than we think. If he can simply match his career OBP (.372!) and hit a handful of homers, he'll be a useful player.

Ah, but then there's the bullpen. On one hand, it could really suck. If Benitez improves drastically, he could (should) be traded. But will the Giants have the brass to trade him and hand the closer job to a non-veteran? They keep talking up Brian Wilson -- closer's mentality, closer's stuff, blah blah blah -- but I won't be convinced until they hand him the keys to the Porsche. Because, uh, closers drive Porsches. Or something.

As for the Bleak-o-Meter: I think the Giants in a vacuum would do better than most pundits expect. The problem is, baseball is not played in a vacuum. You could look it up. I did, just to double check. The rest of the division could quickly become the NL elite. Arizona has excellent young hitters and Cy Young winner Brandon Webb, who is the frickin fuzznuts. (Can we say that on SFist?) Colorado has a much improved rotation and more young hitters. Now they have to learn to hit at sea level. And the Dodgers could be really, really, well, you know. I'm not allowed to say it.

Up next... should we be okay with a .500 season? And what's up with Matt Cain and Brian Sabaen.