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No notes today, Opening Day tomorrow!

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Live BP ended yesterday as today saw a shift towards normal pre-game drills, infield, and coach’s BP.

The day began with a baserunning meeting followed by routine infield practice. The regular infield drills are the best to watch as the ball moves around the diamond quickly and without stopping from position to position. The Giants generally take infield once a series in the regular season and I highly recommend getting to a game early to watch it. The ball goes around the horn, gets hit deep in the hole, and gets rolled to practice charging and fielding bunts. You also get a chance to take a ton of photos as long as you are able to keep up with the movement. All the infielders looked pretty decent. Freddy had a couple balls get stuck in the glove during the transfer and Tejada beefed charging a ball but besides that everybody looked up to season form.

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Coach’s BP is also preferred to watch if you like the long ball; during live BP there’s not very many home runs. The second round of hitters put on a show. This group consisted of Pablo, Torres, Fontenot, and Brandon Belt. Belt got to practice with the regulars today, but more on that later.

Torres swing is looking real nice. Hitting balls to the gaps, launching bombs, going back up the middle. Pablo also impressed me today with the power and control from both sides. They sprayed the ball across the field. Fontenot looked to be what you would expect from a small middle infielder in BP… until the final round.

The last round was 2 pitches and all the hitters swung from the left side. Pablo started out by crushing 2 balls in to Salty’s Pavilion in RF. I am pretty sure he may have destroyed a couple of the plastic tables/chairs out there. Those 2 blasts were like saying, “Yup, what now?”

Torres had the answer as he got in to the box with his 35 inch lumber. “Boom! Boom!” Lazer show. To shots to RF as well, his dinged up the railing i believe from the clank sound after they landed. I’m thinking to myself, “hah, matched.”

Mike Fontenot grabs a bat and steps in. I think everyone considered the little home run derby over once Torres walked to the back of the cage, everyone was wrong. “BOOM! BOOM!.” Fontenot absolutely destroys 2 balls near the roof of Salty’s. Everyone was cheering. It was quite a sight.

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As I mentioned earlier, Brandon Belt finally got to see the main field and practice with the regulars. I have had the blessing of watching Brandon take BP all Fall in the AFL and the mechanics/bat speed isn’t new to my eyes. Brandon has the potential to be a great MLB player at the plate and in the field. The media made it a point to watch him take some swings and he didn’t disappoint. While he may not have ben part of the home run derby, he was routine dropping balls in both gaps. He stays back on every pitch, has quick hands, and follows through the ball in such a smooth motion. Pay attention this Spring to see how they use him and what he can do.

He also got to take some ground balls at 1b after BP and was greeted there by none other than Bruce Bochy. I couldn’t hear what they were talking about but Boch was there the entire time. It was great to see him invest some personal attention to Belt, hopefully that will continue over the next month.

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Today’s practice was live streamed on sfgiants.com so there aren’t any notes today. However, there are a couple photos in a short gallery.

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The glorious sun was shining today at the corner of Drinkwater and Osborn. A welcome change from the past two days of dark grey clouds and damp conditions. Finally, the squad could have the complete workout they had been expecting.

Live BP continued on two full sized fields. Essentially, it was the same pitching group that threw on Saturday, simply switching fields. That meant we got to get a better look at Cain, Zito, Affeldt, Ramirez, and Tanner. All of them looked relatively sharp to me. As the beat writers have mentioned, the pitchers are always more advanced than the hitters at this point in the Spring due to practice. Also of note was that Affeldt required a pitching screen during his session. This is the “L” shaped netting on wheels that you see coaches use to stop come-backers. Unknown as to why this was the case, but ironically I believe it ended up stopping a liner that would have drilled him.

Lincecum moved to the practice field which is nearly impossible to photograph. Obstacles include a ten foot green metal fence, covered by green backstop mesh, and the fact that you are abut 5 feet higher than ground level. There is a little cut out by third base that you can see the action, but there are autograph hounds that stake their claim there and you still have to shoot through two fences, the usual green and now another silver chain link one. To clarify, this field is predominately staffed by the non roster invites and non-regular players. Unfortunately, this includes most of the top prospects in the system. I’ll have to wait until the annual intra-squad game on Thursday to get photographs of them.

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I didn’t see Wilson during the whole practice although there has been mention of a 20 minute bullpen session in the back range. Some have said that this area isn’t out of sight and that anyone can view work over there. This is not entirely the case. In order to view this area without a field pass, you have to watch from the top of the pavilion. In order to get up there you have to pass a guard. 90% of the time the usual guard will not allow spectators to view the bullpen range or the practice infield. The caveat is when this guard has a day off. Then there is more leniency. Here’s to hoping he is planning a vacation for the rest of the week.

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One thing that was a fresh change of routine was the addition of infield practice for the position players before live BP. It was a much toned down version from that of the norm, but still good to see DP transitions and across the diamond throws from third.

Tejada looks good with the glove so far. I know defense has been a point of debate on him, but to be honest, he kind of looked like a more agile Uribe. DeRosa took the majority of balls at third with Pablo, however, he ended up moving to first for a stint. I don’t know if this was for fun, or just to take a look, but it wasn’t pretty. Pablo looked to be in great shape when ranging for balls in both directions.

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Lastly, a quick look at the Live BP sessions. Matt, Tim, and Barry throw a couple pitches. This time a better quality camera; the hand shake remains the same though….

Check it out HERE.

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Not a ton of notes today, I only stayed for about an hour due to the weather. Not only was it raining off and on, but the clouds made it very dark. Photos may be more grainy because of that… And yes Andres, that’s two days of rain.

Quickly, Sanchez and Suppan let it fly on the main diamond while Bumgarner, Lopez, and Romo threw on the practice field. Wilson played catch for a couple minutes in the outfield and then did some long toss. Looked to be fine, obviously they are just being careful this early into Spring. He was even joking around with Will Clark for awhile before he headed back in to the clubhouse.

Thankfully, the forecast shows great weather for next 10 days, with a picture perfect weekend to open the Cactus League.

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First Full Squad practice took place on Saturday and Spring Training officially went live.

Live BP, Live Fastballs, & Live Weather.

The morning started with a 30 minute delay to the field for a kick off team meeting. The fans were waiting eagerly to see if practice was going to happen at all due to the grey skies and forecasts of rain. Some scattered droplets fell during the delay, but as nature would have it, it started to drizzle just as the players came out of the dugout. Luckily, it only lasted a couple minutes and stopped for the remainder of practice while we were there.

Bochy wasted no time by setting up 2 fields for live BP. The main field showcased Tim Lincecum, scheduled to face Pat Burrell, Aubrey Huff, DeRosa, and Stewart. Timmy’s stuff was live and looked great from our vantage point. This is a welcome sight as the last 2 years it’s taken Tim some time to get back to form. Last year I can remember him skying 3 balls in to the stands just playing catch with Bengie. Others that pitched were Guillermo Mota, & Matt Yourkin on the main field and Matt Cain, Barry Zito, and Jose Casilla on the practice field. There were probably more, but we left early due to weather and hunger.

Baggs or Hank can fill you in on the specifics of today, I wasn’t paying much attention since I was going back and forth trying to snap photos.

I also grabbed another pocket video of Lincecum. Nothing special and relatively boring since I couldn’t get the batter in the shot due to the BP cage. Check it out HERE.

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Not much to report from the complex today.

It was a bullpen day so the majority of the group was hidden from view. Similar to yesterday, the groups remained the same and rotated through stations. Bunting and fielding drills continued.

The one aspect that was different was a focus on running (In general and on the bases). It was a derby of sorts on the practice field with all the pitchers running laps around the bases. Sometimes they were required to leg out a double, then a triple, and finally pull a “Huff.” There was running on the outfield, running on the warning track, and running for shelter from autograph seekers.

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The catchers repeated yesterday’s drills as well, and obviously caught the bullpen sessions. Then they too ran.

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New additions to field work included Nate Schierholtz & Andres Torres. They seemed to begin the day before gates opened and were finishing up by the time I got there. You guessed it, they were running.

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[Brandon Belt (1B)], [Conor Gillaspie, Mark DeRosa, Ryan Rohlinger (3B)], [Mike Fontenot, and Nick Noonan (SS)] participated in some infield drills on the practice field. Just simple grounders to get back into throwing to specific bases.

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Freddy Sanchez played catch today with Torres. Just as with last year’s injury, Freddy looks to be doing all that he can to get back to being game ready as soon as possible. From the throws I saw, he looked to be making good progress, possibly ahead of schedule.

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Lastly, here’s something a little different (for this site anyway). A link to some shaky, blurry, low resolution video from today’s practice. The best part of the whole thing is probably when a kid shouts “Look at that one!” after Posey crushes a ball. I’d have to say, taking your kid to watch Buster take BP midway through a school day qualifies you as an ideal parent.

View it here

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Scottsdale stadium is broken up in to 3 fields. The main stadium, the full sized practice field, and the infield only portion behind the Charros Lodge.

During the early parts of camp (before actual games) it’s like a big game of musical chairs, except no one loses a seat. Pitchers are lumped in to 3 different groups and they rotate throughout each of the fields.

The main stadium was used for “after the pitch” drills. For example, there would be different scenarios and the pitcher would have to field the ball/throw to the correct base. They might have to practice checking a runner on 2nd, etc.

The practice field was used primarily for bunting and it was probably the most entertaining portion of the day for me. The reason is, every pitcher had to partake in bunting drills, SPs & RPs. You got to see Lopez, Romo, and Affeldt slap on a helmet and get in the box. Sure it was only bunting, but it proved to be a cool opportunity to see them in a role you may never see in a live game.

As the twitter world has stated today, Wilson and Lincecum did not partake in practice for precautionary reasons. Needless to say, I was excited at the prospect of seeing Wilson taking hacks. He was even prepared for it, but alas it didn’t happen.

I couldn’t tell what was going on over at the infield section since it’s hidden.

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The other side of camp is obviously the catchers at this point. There are currently 6 on the ST roster. GRP A - Posey, Whiteside, Stewart GRP B - Joseph, Hector Sanchez, & Williams.

They participate on the infield scenario drills with the pitchers and instead of bunting they spend time with Bill Hayes and do pop ups. They would use a pitching machine I like to call “poppa” and let ‘em fly. First couple rounds are just, “see ball, catch ball.” It progresses to starting in the squat and waiting an increasing number of second before hunting for the ball. Lastly, Bill would fire off two at a time and they had to successfully catch both.

The day ends with a little coach’s BP in the main yard.

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As I tweeted earlier, the other position players I saw working out were, DeRosa, Sanchez, Panda, and Fontenot. This was basically some conditioning drills and sprints with a couple of the guys hitting the cages.

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Welcome back to Scottsdale everyone!

Day one of Spring Training 2011 is in the books and the Giants are back on the field as they begin to defend their World Series trophy. All is right in the world of baseball.

That said, I arrived to camp late today due to a morning meeting and only caught the tail end of practice. As I have alluded to, this year’s coverage will be cut back. As with everything else, times are tight and family comes first, even before baseball. Not to worry though, hopefully I’ll have a hard schedule in the next couple of days to give you a better picture.

In the meantime, I recommend following us on twitter @AZ_GIANTS for live updates from the field and for up to date information on coverage.

Not much to report from what I got to view today. Obviously the guys, new and old, are excited to get started.

Only a couple photos today, but as always…

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Happy Off Season Everyone,

Did I mention the Giants are World Series Champions? Never gets old…

Obviously, not a whole lot of baseball going on out here before pitchers and catchers report. Camp Panda 2 is currently in effect and there are a couple conditioning camps occurring as well, but no uniforms and no field work.

So what do we have in store for the off season?

Since Arizona baseball is currently dark, it is a great time to reflect on 2010 and project 2011.

That said, I am proud to announce that AZGIANTS.com has teamed up with the great scouting and writing staff at SFDugout to provide you with the most hands on and eye witness scouting reports of your San Francisco Giants Farm System. The 2011 TOP 50 PROSPECTS. I am very excited to have a thorough ranking and analysis directly focused on players that could impact China Basin and provide that resource to you. I was able to come along side the project and supply some exclusive images of talent that you won’t see anywhere else.

The rankings will be released continually throughout the off season until the start of Spring Training. Follow the links to make you prepared for Scottsdale and to give you the inside track on the future of the franchise.

Grace and Peace,

Joe

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