DeRosa Set for His Giants Debut

One of the Giants new additions from this winter, Mark DeRosa, hasn't gotten a chance to get into any Cactus League action yet, as the Giants are bringing him along slowly after offseason wrist surgery. However, the Giants' projected #5 hitter did take a big step towards readying himself for live action as he took live batting practice of actual pitchers for the first time this spring.

DeRosa had been getting himself in shape with the rest of his teammates throughout the last few weeks and the only area of his game that was handicapped a bit was his hitting. No that he's gone through some sessions without any set-backs, it appears plausible that he'll probably make his Cactus League debut sometime this week. DeRosa thinks he'll be ready to go by Tuesday, though Bruce Bochy thinks it could be closer to Thursday or Friday. Either way, it looks like DeRosa will be in the Giants lineup at some point this week, and we could start getting glimpses as to what the opening day lineup could look like. Remember, Freddy Sanchez is expected to start the year on the DL, so the Giants won't be counting on him to be their opening day 2nd basemen, but every other spot is filled and everybody looks healthy. I'm looking forward to seeing how DeRosa has recovered from his wrist work. That bum wrist was supposedly a large part of the reason why DeRosa hit just .228 after moving over to St. Louis in the second half of the season. I think everybody is not only hoping, but really expecting DeRosa to perform more along the lines of his first half showing in 2009, or I'm sure they'd settle for a repeat of his 2008 season with Chicago (.287, 21, 87, .857).

The Giants' offense, though, hasn't really been missing either DeRosa or Freddy Sanchez's bats though yet. The Giants have started the exhibition season 4-1, and offense hasn't been a problem whatsoever. The latest offensive outburst came Saturday in one of their split-squad games vs. the D-Backs. John Bowker continued his solid spring by launching a 3-run bomb off of Kyler Newby. The Giants top shortstop prospect, 23 year-old Brandon Crawford also hit an impressive homer, going the other way off of Blaine Boyer. Aubrey Huff continued his hot start as well by going 2-3 with an RBI and a run scored. Pablo Sandoval and Edgar Renteria each knocked in a pair of runs, and Eugenio Velez had 2 hits, 2 runs and a stolen base in the 12-6 rout of Arizona. Jonathon Sanchez got the start and threw pretty well. He didn't have his greatest command, but that's common for early spring, and did allow 6 baserunners in his 2 innings of work, but his 3 strikeouts helped him get out of it un-harmed. In relief, Dan Runzler, Sergio Romo and Jeremy Affeldt all had scoreless outings. Besides the solid offensive showing by the Giants early, they've also had their relievers all start off pretty well too.