San Francisco Giants 2003 Pre-Season Report

Going, Going gone! We hope to hear a lot of that from our broadcast team this season as Barry Bonds and the gang are finishing up the spring training season. Hitting will be our thing whereas the pitching will be a wait and see. With a lineup featuring BB, Cruz Jr, Alfonso we've got some great pop in the middle with some good wheels and complimentary hitters. Pitching we feature a great closer in Rob Nen and a steady trio of starters in Schmidt, Reuter and Damion Moss.

Barry and Cruz Jr. will be the regular fielders while Grissom and Benard will battle for the CF spot. The OF should provide a bulk of the offense with double 'B' doing his thing hoping that Cruz will provide some pop behind him so that he'll actually see some pitches this season. We'll be featuring an OF that should steal quite a few bases this summer.

2B Ray Duraham will be a key member of this offense. If he can get on base consistantly and steal 30-40 bases it should help keep this machine rolling. Newly aquired 3B Alfonzo should be a great #2 hitter and keep Durham in scoring position. Veteran SS Aurilia will hold down the #3 spot...should be one of our better hitters especially with Barry hitting behind him. 1B is our one concern as we will go with the hot hand of either JT Snow and the "Big Cat". We're looking to upgrade at 1B so we might see some trading action either before the season starts or close to the trading deadline...might be a wait and see. Handling the group behind the dish will be C Santiago who should put in some decent numbers both in average and power.

Here's where it could get interesting. Management believe's that we have a solid relief core with Nen closing it out and Rodriguez setting it up; a solid 3 starters and then the guessing game begins with the #4 and 5 as well as long relief. Schmidt should prove to be the staff ace while Reuter can hopefully put up the same numbers as in the test simulation. Moss, Jensen and either Powell or Williams should fill out the staff.

I see us fighting for the wildcard in my division as Arizona, LA and Colorado will be some stiff competion with lots of pitching and hitting in this race. SF will prevail though and Barry will reach #700 this season!!