March 2nd- San Francisco at Milwaukee
SF 10 MIL 5 @ Maryville, AZ

In my first spring training game of the trip, I hoped to see San Francisco’s old guard against Milwaukee’s youth, but with Barry Bonds, Moises Alou, Jason Schmidt, Matt Morris and Armando Benitez declining to make the trip south from Scottsdale to Maryville, the matchup lost some of its luster. In each squad’s 2006 debut, the fielding was predictably sloppy, and the Brewers pitchers especially struggle to keep the ball down. Manhattan’s last ball club took advantage of more mistakes, hitting two HRs and bunches of line-drives and eventually pulling away on a picturesque afternoon in the desert.

Giants Notes

*In his first plate appearance after signing a $23 mil deal, Randy Winn took Chris Capuano deep to left with a howling shot that never elevated high off the ground, but defied gravity for nearly 400 feet. Although such a large contract for Winn is probably unwarranted, his ability to play CF and this year’s inflated market make reasonable excuses. Brian Sabean’s veteran-tinted glasses make 32-year old Winn look like a teenager, and I cannot blame him based on Winn’s conditioning and work ethic, but he will be another albatross when he’s making $8 million for a 65-70 win team once Bonds retires.

*At 26, Todd Linden may not be ready for full-time duty. He projects to hit only .254, but his back-to-back butcher jobs in LF speak louder. In the third inning, he lost a deep but lazy fly in the sun despite his sunglasses. He shielded himself from getting hit while the ball bounced over the fence for a ground rule double leaving two in scoring position. On the next play, a one-hop line drive ate him up, bouncing all the way to the wall and allowing both runs to score. The opening-day generosity of the scorers gave Linden only one error, but all three runs in the inning were largely his responsibility.

To his credit, the Giants are high on Linden’s skills at the plate. He projects to hit for some power in time, but bullpen coach Mark Gardener and Tim Worrell both said he has already shown the most complete set of batting skills of anyone on the team. As if on cue, Linden took a fastball away to right field for his first of two opposite field hits of the afternoon. Take the pitchers’ hitting analysis with a grain of salt, though, as they praised Mike Matheny’s bit 2005 at the plate just moments later.

*The Giants notoriously work the free agent market at the expense of their farm system, giving up picks on purpose every year to avoid paying minor league signing bonuses. The downside is that their system does not produce top-flight talent, which was abundantly clear in this game. While Milwaukee could produce a long list of major league ready talent from their own system including Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, J.J. Hardy, Bill Hall, Corey Hart and a handful of others, the Giants trotted out a laundry list of “whodats?” Linden started with first baseman Lance Niekro and their pitching corps includes stud prospect Matt Cain alongside Brad Hennessy and Noah Lowry- who already has 19 ML wins- but their stock of cheap talent runs dry pretty quickly. That’s another ominous sign for the post-Bonds era.

Brewers Notes

*I witnessed a rare occurrence today that few before me have had the opportunity to experience. Dave Sveum, late of the Boston Red Sox, joined the Brewers as their third base coach this offseason, brining his famous wave-em-all style to the Midwest. In the third inning of today’s game, with his team trailing 1-0, Sveum had an opportunity to wave a runner home, but he put up the stop sign. And here’s the kicker: it looked like he could have scored. I felt like I had seen Hank Aaron’s #716 or Jordan sinking his jumper over Ehlo. It was a truly special moment.

*J.J. Hardy has an amazing arm at shortstop. Certain skills do not transfer as well to the television, like seeing the late movement on a pitch. I remember the first time I saw Roger Clemens in person; I was constantly impressed with the sound his fastball made in the catcher’s glove. Hardy’s arm from deep in the hole had the same effect on me. He recorded two outs that a player with an average arm would not have made, but his most impressive cannon display came on a tough backhand off of one foot where the runner actually beat the throw. Even though these little plays may not occur so frequently as to make a player great or bad, but they are the aesthetic trimmings that keep the game entertaining.

*I believe that Rickie Weeks will eventually be a star player, but he has to overcome his inconsistency. Early in the game, he had an easy out on a botched hit and run, but dropped the catcher’s throw down to second on an apparent lapse in concentration. He also had two ugly strikeouts. Setting those negatives aside, he showed really solid range at second, some patience at the plate, and good pop on a line-drive in his other plate appearance. Once he weeds out the mistakes and shows off his considerable skill more frequently, he is going to be very good.

*Dan Kolb, like most of the rest of the Milwaukee bullpen, looked terrible. Kolb’s failure was unique in that he seemed to have no control over where his pitches were going. Sitting only feet away, I saw him struggle to keep his changeup below belt-high level and his sinker out of the dirt. Once he got into the game, he had the same problem. He got behind in the count and gave up laser shots to all fields, leaving the hitters in control the whole time. He only gave up one run in his inning of work, but where others looked rusty and made mistakes, Kolb looked incompetent.