Giants Arrive Back In San Francisco

It's not quite regular season yet, but we're just 4 days away from the opener, and the Giants, along with the rest of baseball, has migrated north to their home towns as they prepare to play the final few exhibition games of the spring at big league stadiums.

For the first time since the 2010 World Series, the Giants will take the field at AT&T Park, although we probably won't witness the same lineup that will take the field Thursday in Los Angeles. But these next 2 days are essentially the last day of the spring for the regulars, so we should see at least a few of them out there tonight. In fact, if I were Boch, I'd try out a projected opening day lineup tonight, and let then take it easy Tuesday and Wednesday. Without Cody Ross out 3 weeks, it's unclear who will start the year in right. I've been advocating for Aubrey Huff moving out there while Brandon Belt handles 1st, and if there's ever a day to try that out, it's tonight. Huff would get a taste of the AT&T right field winds and trickery, and hopefully give him confidence to handle it for a few weeks, off and on. We'll likely see Nate Schierholtz out there Monday night, but I'd try the Huff option first. No matter who's in right, I think we will see Brandon Belt at first, not just Monday night, but over the last 2 spring games after this one too. I still don't think there's a decision made right now regarding Belt, but I do think a lot should be taken into account how he plays at AT&T, and that means tonight especially. I say they use their projected opening day lineup today for 6 innings, then just give each key player an at-bat over the last 2 pre-season games.

With Ross also out, it mixes up the lineup a little bit, and again, that will rely entirely on who plays and who sits. Right now, I'm going to go ahead and say Belt makes the team out of spring in light of the Ross injury, and ends up in the opening day. Now, I'll have my opening day Giants preview coming up on Wednesday full the final version of the OD lineup, but right now, I'd say Belt needs to be there and hitting 6th right behind Pat Burrell and right before Sandoval and Tejada. I like Schierholtz, but he's never hit enough to warrant any long-term stint in the starting lineup, so you get an idea of the depth of the Giants right there. They also could decide to keep things as are with "The Bat" in LF and Huff at first and start out super utitlity guy Mark DeRosa out in RR. My first choice is Belt, but if he's in Fresno, it shouldn't mean Aaron Rowand enters the lineup. If Schierholtz did start, you could just drop him down to eighth then everybody up a spot. I was looking forward to a full year out of Da Boss, but hopefully he gets this out of the way early. Like I've said many times here, he reminds me so much of Jeff Kent, just with a more positive attitude on the field. The way he's always been pretty solid until he's hit his prime (29-30) and moved to SF then took fire, now let's just hope it keeps going like it did with Kent in 1997!

GBB Schedule: Between now and Opening Day, we'll be plenty busy, so check back everyday for updated posts here at The Giants Baseball Blog:

Tuesday- Pre-Spring Training Answers; Giants notes, Monday re-cap
Wednesday- Opening Day Preview, Lineups, News, Analysis and more
Thursday: Opening Day! Giants vs. Dodgers @ 5PM! Post Game coverage