Article:2009 SF Giants Preview and Predictions

I wanted to break away from the spring training jargon for a bit and I wanted to go ahead and do more of an in-depth preview of what the Giants will look like come opening day. I also am going to predict some of the key stats for the players. With our annual MLB team/divisional preview just around the corner, and opening day less than a month away, now is as good a time as any to take a closer look at the San Francisco Giants. Some of the final roster moves aren't set yet (as there still is 3 weeks of Cactus league to go still) but I'm going to go with my best guess.

Lineup: 1. RF- Randy Winn ( .288 avg., 11 hr's, 57 RBI, 89 runs, 21 sb's, .776 OPS) 2. SS- Edgar Renteria (.282, 12 hr, 64 RBI, 79 runs, 9 sb's, .759 OPS) 3. LF- Fred Lewis (.301, 17 hr, 79 RBI, 84 runs, 26 sb's, .827 OPS) 4. C- Bengie Molina (.288, 18 hr, 83 RBI, 53 runs, 0 sb, .761 OPS) 5. 3B- Pablo Sandoval (.277, 15 hr, 72 RBI, 62 runs, 5 sb, .783 OPS) 6. CF- Aaron Rowand (.281, 16 hr, 70 RBI, 71 runs, 9 sb, .792 OPS) 7. 1B- Travis Ishikawa (.265, 12 hr, 55 RBI, 39 runs, 2 sb, .767 OPS) 8. 2B- Kevin Frandsen (.279, 10 hr, 48 RBI, 42 runs, 7 sb, .745 OPS)

Rotation: 1. Tim Lincecum (18-7, 2.91 era, 217 IP, 220 k's, 1.14 WHIP) 2. Randy Johnson (14-6, 3.35 era, 184 IP, 172 k's, 1.26 WHIP) 3. Matt Cain (13-9, 4.15 era, 211 IP, 181 k's, 1.37 WHIP) 4. Barry Zito (9-11, 4.74 era, 188 IP, 113 k's, 1.46 WHIP) 5. Jonathan Sanchez (11-8, 4.26 era, 190 IP, 175 k's, 1.40 WHIP)

Bullpen: CL: Brian Wilson (2-3, 67 games, 42 saves, 3.62 era) SU: Bob Howry ( 3-1, 77 games, 2 saves, 3.31 era) LH Jeremy Affeldt (5-4, 80 games, 1 save, 3.79 era) RH Merkin Valdez (0-2, 61 games, 0 saves, 3.12 era) LH Alex Hinshaw (1-1, 70 games, 0 saves, 4.36 era) RH Brandon Medders (0-2, 57 games, 4.07 era) RH Sergio Romo (4-2, 69 games, 2 saves, 3.03 era)

Bench: C Steve Holm ( .252 avg., 112 ab's, 2 hr, 11 RBI) UT Eugenio Velez (.272, 325 ab's, 6 hr, 36 RBI, 27 SB) IF Rich Aurilia (.283, 300 ab's, 8 hr, 40 RBI) IF Juan Uribe (.248, 212 ab's, 7 hr, 26 RBI) OF Nate Schierholtz (.297, 340 ab's, 11 hr, 45 RBI)

Again, this is just pure speculation. I haven't taken any other projection sites into account and this is assuming all stay healthy and on the team all season, which we know won't happen. It should be interesting to look back at this in September though, and see how close (or likely how far off) I was to predicting some of these numbers. I also am reserving the right to change them any number of times before opening day and finalize it once the roster has been finalized.

Trevor Cole The San Francisco Giants Blog