FanPost

Thursday is Opening Day for the Giants top 4 minor league teams - news & notes here

The AAA (PCL) Fresno Grizzlies open their season on a 8 game road trip to Tucson and Las Vegas (4 games in each city). Thursday's opening day game is scheduled for 7:05 PDT. Sadly, there are no free internet broadcasts for Fresno games, but you can get close to real time box scores and batter-by-batter recaps by following them on MiLB.com

Rehabbing SF Giants starting pitcher Ryan Vogelsong will be starting tonight's first game for the Grizzlies.

The opening-day starting position players should look something like this (my educated guess):

C - Eli Whiteside
1B - Todd Linden
2B - Charlie Culberson
3B - Conor Gillaspie
SS - Joaquin Arias
LF - Justin Christian
CF - Tyler Graham
RF - Francisco Peguero
DH - Roger Kieschnick

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The AA (Eastern League) Richmond Flying Squirrels begin their 3rd season of operations with cautious optimism. The offense should be much more balanced and potent this season when compared to 2011, and the pitching should show better depth. The team opens the season today with a 6 game roadtrip against New Britain and then Bowie. After flying into Richmond on Monday, and getting in only 1 day of practice at their home stadium on Tuesday, the team was treated to a brutal 8.5 hour bus trip to New Hampshire on Wednesday. Nothing like a long bus trip to promote team bonding.

Game time tonight for Richmond is 6:05 pm EDT that's 3:05 California time.

You can listen to a radio broadcast of all the Richmond games this season for free via the internet on the following link:

http://www.iheart.com/#/live/2461/?autoplay=true

The published lineup for tonight's game is:

Gary Brown - CF
Ehire Adrianza - SS
Tommy Joseph - DH
Wes Hodges - 1B
Chris Dominguez - LF
Juan Perez - RF
Ryan Cavan - 2B
Johnny Monell - C
Danny Mayora - 3B
Justin Fitzgerald - P

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

The SJ Giants will be looking to continue their 4 year streak of winning the Northern Division Cal League title. They begin their season with a 7 game road trip (to Modesto and then High Desert). You can listen to a radio broadcast of all the SJ games for free via the internet on the following link:

http://media4.aicmail.net:8080/MiLB/GameAudio/LiveStreamFlash/cal_san_jose_giants

The Modesto game times and probable pitching matchups are given below:

• Thursday, April 5, 7:05 PM
• Friday, April 6, 7:05 PM
• Saturday, April 7, 7:05 PM
• Sunday, April 8, 1:05 PM

Probable Starting Pitching Matchups
Thursday - Shawn Sanford (0-0, ---) vs. Tyler Matzek (0-0, ---)
Friday - Taylor Rogers (0-0, ---) vs. Joshua Slaats (0-0, ---)
Saturday - Ryan Bradley (0-0, ---) vs. Josh Mueller (0-0, ---)
Sunday - Justin Schumer (0-0, ---) vs. Christian Bergman (0-0, ---)

San Jose Giants projected starting position players (2011 stats in parenthesis)...
C - Andrew Susac (making professional debut this year)
1B - Ricky Oropesa (making professional debut this year)
2B - Carter Jurica (San Jose: .250, 4 HR, 23 RBI, 5 SB)
3B - Adam Duvall (Augusta: .285, 22 HR, 87 RBI, 4 SB)
SS - Joe Panik (Salem-Keizer: .341, 6 HR, 54 RBI, 13 SB)
LF - Jarrett Parker (San Jose: .253, 13 HR, 61 RBI, 20 SB)
CF - Chris Lofton (Augusta: .237, 1 HR, 31 RBI, 22 SB)
RF - Ryan Lollis (Augusta: .314, 2 HR, 37 RBI, 10 SB)
DH - Alex Burg (San Jose: .298, 14 HR, 45 RBI, 2 SB)

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

The Augusta GreenJackets will start the season on the road against the team that knocked them out of the first round of the playoffs back in September - the Savannah Sand Gnats (NY Mets affiliate).

Clayton Blackburn (16th rd pick in 2011 out of an Oklahoma high school) who performed so well for the Giants Scottsdale rookie league team last summer gets the nod as the opening day starter for Augusta.

Game time is scheduled for 7:05 pm (EDT) - that's 4:05 California time.

You can listen to all the Augusta games via their radio broadcast that is streamed live on the internet. Go to this link then click on the All Games link to the right of the Augusta GreenJackets row:
http://www.milb.com/multimedia/audio.jsp?sid=t478

Augusta GreenJackets projected starting position players (my educated guess):
C - Eric Sim
1B - Ben Thomas
2B - Carlos Willoughby
3B - Garrett Buechele
SS - Kelby Tomlinson
LF - Chuckie Jones
CF - Shawn Payne
RF - Brett Krill
DH - Jose Cuevas / Joe Staley

This FanPost is reader-generated, and it does not necessarily reflect the views of McCovey Chronicles. If the author uses filler to achieve the minimum word requirement, a moderator may edit the FanPost for his or her own amusement.