February 2010

Day One

Day One : Those were the words at the top of today’s workout schedule, posted on the bulletin board outside the Giants’ clubhouse.
Today was the first day that the full team worked out together. There was a closed-door team meeting at 10:30 this morning. It had been scheduled to start at 10, with workouts beginning at 10:30. But the field was covered with frost, so everything was pushed back to allow the sun time to warm up the grass. 
A few notes from the clubhouse:
  • Jeremy Affeldt will be starting a video blog called The Set-Up on the Giants’ website. He’s one of the funniest guys in baseball. Check out his video on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area from earlier this week. You’ll get a taste for what his vlog will be like when it starts sometime next month.
  • Affeldt is a big believer in chemistry on a team. He says chemistry was the key to Colorado reaching the World Series when he played there in 2007 “This team is as close to Colorado as I’ve been on. We have a lot of fun together. Lots of inside jokes.” He said it helps the team’s chemistry when the main star of the team, Tim Lincecum, is a good guy. “It’s like Matt Holliday in Colorado. He was a good family man. Really humble. You always see Lincecum signing autographs. He has so much fun when he plays. Timmy brings that dynamic. He reminds you that the game is supposed to be fun.” 
  • Thomas Neal, the 22-year-old minor-leaguer, is here in his first major-league camp. But he is very familiar to manager Bruce Bochy. Neal played with Bochy’s son on a traveling team in Poway, in Southern California. The two young men are still good friends, and Neal has spent many an afternoon and evening at the Bochy home.  ”(Bochy’s wife) and my mom are pretty good friends,” Neal says. 
  • Neal has another major-league connection: He went to his high school prom with Tony Gwynn’s daughter. 
  • On a day-to-day basis, no one – other than perhaps Pablo Sandoval – is happier in the clubhouse than reliever Sergio Romo. He couldn’t wait to get to camp and back on the field. “I have such an appreciation of where I’m at,” he said. “I do enjoy what I do.” He said he feels invincible when he stares in at a batter. When I’m out on the mound, it’s the only place I’m not 5 feet 10.”

Notes from Scottsdale

? Here’s a sign that Tim Lincecum is not likely to change now that he has more money than he ever imagined. On his flight back to Phoenix after hammering out his new contract in St. Petersburg last week, Lincecum sat in coach – and in a middle seat.
? Rookie Dan Runzler attributes much of his success in the majors last season to fellow left-handed reliever Jeremy Affeldt. “I’d watch film with him. We’d go over the left-handed hitters. He’d show me guys he’s faced and say, ‘See? This is what this guy does with a 2-0 count. Here’s what he’s thinking.’ I followed Affledt around last season like a puppy dog.” 
? Some might be surprised that Affeldt is helping a guy who might one day take his job as the set-up man. Affeldt shrugs. “I’m OK with that. There are 30 teams. I’ll find another job. It’s not my personality, man, to not help a kid like that. I had guys show me when I was a rookie. If they did that for me, why wouldn’t I do it for him? And he’s the kind of kid you really, really pull for.”
? Outfielder Fred Lewis spent the off-season in Mississippi working out under the direction of his now-retired father. After struggling last season, Lewis wanted to get back to basics, something he couldn’t do if he played winter ball. He bought a pitching machine like the one used by the Giants and hit a million balls. He used the pitching machine to shoot fly balls to him out on his old high school field, directing his father to change the angles and velocity to hone his skills. He ran sprints and ran the bases with the intention of stealing more this year. He arrived at camp early, too. Position players aren’t required to be in camp until Tuesday. “I’m in the best shape of my life,” Lewis said. “I couldn’t wait to get here.”
? There has been rain the past two days, though the players got some work in today. The forecast calls for more rain tomorrow.

A Glimpse of FanFest

Barry Zito and Will Clark were stepping into the elevator at AT&T Park this afternoon after sharing a stage for a Q&A at FanFest.
“I forgot to say something when they asked about Little League,” Zito told Clark. “I wore Number 22 (Clark’s number). And I had that closed stance like yours. The coach was trying to get me to open it up and I told him, ‘Hey, Will Clark does it!’ ”
Zito was 12 at the time.
Clark laughed. “Hey, thanks. Make me feel like a million years old.”
 The two men – different eras, different backgrounds and completely different personalities – seemed to have a great time together answering the fans’ questions for nearly an hour on a stage on the third floor of AT&T.
 When someone asked how Zito came up with the name for his weekly radio show – “The Unicorn Hour” — he gave his customary thoughtful, soft-spoken, esoteric answer about the magical qualities of unicorns, as Clark looked at him as if Zito were speaking Greek.
 ”See?” Clark said, taking the microphone from Zito. “That’s a guy who plays every fifth day. He has time to think about this stuff!”
 Some of the questions and answers:
? Clark said his favorite moment of the 1989 championship season was “my base hit off Mitch Williams that put us into the World Series. Candlestick was roaring that day.”
? Asked if it were true he could read lips, Clark laughed. “Back in ’89 I did. I happened to read Greg Maddux’s lips when he was talking to Don Zimmer. He said, ‘Fastball in.’ I thought, ‘Oh, Jesus.’ I went out there, dug my hole, looked for a fastball in on the first pitch and hit a grand slam. Fool that I was, I told my teammates, who told the media and now everyone’s got their glove over their mouths.”
? Zito said one of the best developments in the off-season was the re-signing of Bengie Molina. “I was playing catch when I heard he had signed and I sent him a text message telling him congratulations. It was s surprise because when I was talking to him at the end of the season, he was bummed out because it looked like he wasn’t coming back. He’s all heart and soul. He’s great with the pitching staff, and it gives Buster another year to get his feet under him.”
? Zito said he and Brian Wilson still worked out together fairly often in the off-season but that Wilson had moved into his own place. “I miss the Mohawk and tattoos around the house,” Zito said.
? Asked what he thought about Mark McGwire, Clark said, “He was a teammate of mine on the Olympic team and with the Cardinals. Looking back, I wasn’t oblivious to what was going on. It was pretty obvious what was going on. All those guys, they cheated themselves and they cheated the game. I don’t have to live with it. They have to live with it.”
? Zito said his favorite player growing up was Tony Gwynn. Giants coach Tim Flannery, knowing this, would comment during the pitchers’ batting practice that Zito looked just like a young Tony Gwynn in there. When Zito connected on a pitch, Flannery would joke, “See? That was Tony Gwynn at four years old.”
? Zito said the toughest hitter he faces is Ichiro Suzuki. Clark said the toughest pitcher for him was Rick Sutcliffe.

One final little note:
In the room where the players and other Giants folks hung out between sessions, Tim Lincecum saw managing general partner Bill Neukom walk in.
“Newk!” Lincecum shouted across the room. “No tie?”
 Neukom had on a dress shirt and slacks but he was without his signature  bowtie. (And instead of dress shoes, he wore black-and-orange sneakers.)
“It’s Saturday,” Neukom said.

The Giants – Back Together Again

Outside in the light drizzle, before they went on stage, the Giants players threw their arms around each other like brothers at a reunion. Many hadn’t seen each other since the 2009 season ended in October. Now they were together on Thursday night at the Delancey Street Theater in San Francisco for the first-ever “town hall meeting” for about 400 season-ticket holders who had won the chance to attend. 
The guys caught up on each other’s news. Alex Hinshaw and Matt Cain married their longtime sweethearts. John Bowker got a “puggle,” half pug and half beagle, named Scout. Brian Wilson went to Australia with Brad Penny. Brandon Medders had Halloween and New Year’s Eve gigs with his band in Tuscaloosa. Alabama. Manny Burriss, rehabbing from his foot injury, spent time going to hockey and basketball games with his five-year-old son, Jamari. Kevin Frandsen, after playing winter ball, served as a groomsman at Hinshaw’s December wedding in Oregon.
Inside the theater, when the players had filed in and filled the first two rows of seats, Mike Krukow got everyone standing – fans and players alike – for a rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
“Nice goin’!” he said after the final note. “It’s officially baseball season!”
Krukow and Duane Kuiper hosted the event, calling the players up to the stage in small groups by position. It was a rare opportunity to see and hear the players off the field and thus get a sense of who they are as men. General manager Brian Sabean watched from the back of the theater, among the standing-room-only crowd. He had planned to stay for just a few minutes. But, as he told his players at a team meeting the following morning at AT&T Park, the event “was so compelling I stayed for the whole thing.”
“I was very impressed with last night,” he told them. “In listening to everything you had to say, three themes emerged: You are humble. You are respectful. And you have passion. This team is in a great frame of mind going into the season.”
The two-hour event will air on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area on Feb. 16 at  6:30 p.m. Here are some snippets:
? Jeremy Affeldt emerged, as he always does in these things, as a natural entertainer. He got everyone laughing with pointed barbs at manager Bruce Bochy for making him pitch to a guy “who hit about .900” off him. When, a few minutes later, Kuiper asked the relievers to name their all-time favorite player,  Affeldt deadpanned, “Bruce Bochy.” (The next morning at the team meeting, Bochy said he was ready to name his Opening Day pitcher: Jeremy Affeldt.)
? Asked what position he would play if he got to choose, Pablo Sandoval didn’t hesitate. “Hitting!”
? Sergio Romo showed off the T-shirt he had bought earlier in the day. It was pure Sergio who, besides Pablo, is the most playful guy on the team. The design on the front of the shirt lit up whenever he talked, which meant – as his teammates will tell you – it blazed all night.
? Dan Runzler, who played at every minor-league level last year before making it to San Francisco in September, was asked what it was like to pitch to players he had only seen on TV. “I was in more shock going into the locker room (of the Giants),” he said. “I had never been to a major-league spring training, so I was completely star-struck.” 
? When the pitchers were asked when they knew they wanted to be pitchers, Runzler said,  ”I knew I wanted to be a pitcher when they took the bat out of my hands and told me to pitch.”
? New second baseman Mark DeRosa made an impression with his down-to-earth style. “To me,” he said, “it’s all about trying to win championships. When you have a starting rotation like we have, and a bullpen and closer like we have, we’ve got a great chance.”
? Tim Lincecum, the one player to prompt a standing ovation, was asked what he could do to top his accomplishment of winning two Cy Young Awards in two years: “Hit a home run for the first time in my life.”
? Barry Zito was asked what musician he’d like to jam with. Because he’s been into drums lately, he said, he would choose drummer Carter Beauford of the Dave Matthews Band.
See you tomorrow at FanFest!
Shots from the Town Hall Meeting:
Brandon Medders and Tim Lincecum
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Players calling lucky Season Ticketholders today from the front office at AT&T Park:
Jeremy Affledt:
 

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Mark DeRosa:

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Buster Posey:
 

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Sergio Romo:

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Eli Whiteside:

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Brandon Medders:

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Sabean’s Update on Lincecum, Etc.

Just got off the phone with Giants GM Brian Sabean, who has been trying to hammer out a contract with Tim Lincecum. 
“The bottom line is we worked in earnest to negotiate a two-year deal but it looks like it’s not going to happen,” he said from the Giants complex in Scottsdale, where Buster Posey, Eugenio Velez, Dan Runzler, Manny Burriss and others are attending a conditioning camp in preparation for spring training.
“It looks like we’ll be going to arbitration on a one-year deal.”
The salary this season for Lincecum, the 25-year-old, two-time Cy Young winner, will be decided later this month by a panel of three professional arbitrators. Lincecum and his agent are asking for $13 million. The Giants offered $8 million.
Players must spend six years in the major leagues before they can become free agents. So the Giants have Lincecum through the 2013 season – four more years. Thus, Sabean explained, there is no urgency in locking Lincecum in to a multi-year contract. 
As for the rest of the team, Sabean said the additions of outfielder Mark DeRosa and first baseman Aubrey Huff, plus a full season from second-baseman Freddie Sanchez (after he rehabs from off-season shoulder surgery), bolster an offense that already has proven talent. 
“With this lineup, I think we can springboard off the 88 wins from last year and get into playoff contention,” he said
The reasons?
“Number One,” Sabean said, “we’ll have more experience on the field. Number Two, guys will be able to hit in the order where they have traditionally hit.”
Meaning, among other things, that catcher Bengie Molina no longer has to fill the clean-up spot. He likely will hit sixth.
And speaking of Bengie and Sabean’s comment in December that “that ship has sailed” only to sign him a month later . . . 
“That ship had sailed,” he said. “As it turned out, he didn’t want to go to New York and we’re thankful. He is back in place to help the pitching staff and take the pressure off Buster Posey.”
Posey, he said, could spend most of the season in Triple A or be the backup in San Francisco. “We’ll know more after spring training,” Sabean said. “We’re keeping an open mind.”
In the meantime, the players are looking forward to seeing each other at FanFest this weekend at AT&T Park. 
“You get everybody together in the same room,” Sabean said, “and there’s always a great vibe as they meet and greet each other after going their separate ways in the off-season. Although there really isn’t an off-season. Everybody’s working out or playing winter ball. So it’s fun to be together again and starting a new season.”

Flying Panda

A quick post to show some photos of Pablo Sandoval in Venezuela Friday for the big Caracas v. Magallanes championship game.
As you probably know, Pablo flew from the Sharks game in San Jose on Thursday night (view video) to Miami, then to Caracas, where a helicopter was waiting. It flew him to Valencia, then Pablo was whisked to the ballpark with a police escort. 
And all of it was shown live on national television. 
“I didn’t have permission but I talked to (Brian Sabean) when I was in Miami, and they said yes, but only as DH,” Sandoval told an MLB reporter in Venezuela. He went 1-for-4.
“A Caracas-Magallanes game is something else. You feel like your heart is going to come right out of your mouth,” Sandoval had told reporters earlier.
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