Thoughts from the first 15 games of the year:
- It would be irresponsible to write that Pedro Feliz has turned the corner on his career, so I'll just write this: Pedro Feliz has turned the corner on his career. He's hitting everything solid, catching up with the high fastballs, and doing a better job laying off the unhittable breaking stuff. Feliz isn't going to continue to hit .367/.377/.700, but it would be a huge asset if he were to hit like a league average third baseman. I'm optimistic.
- We just might be witnessing the last gasp of Omar Vizquel's bat. He's hitting .173/.241/.269, and while he can still pick it in the field, the Giants can't afford to have such a weak bat at the top of the batting order. He still has a year left on his contract, though, so it would be hard to just release him. Besides, the Giants have absolutely no one worth trying in his place at short, unless you want to force Kevin Frandsen to learn the position in the majors.
- The fallback comparison for a player who hits with zero average or power, but draws an insane amount of walks, is always F.P. Santangelo. Usually, however, there's a modifier with the comparison. Such as, "Joe Shlabotnik hits like F.P. Santangelo with power", or something of the sort. That's not needed for Barry Bonds right now. Bonds is hitting like F.P. Santangelo toward the end of Santangelo's career. A big difference, however, is that Santangelo didn't run or field as if he were trying to make love to a table saw. I'm not sure what that means, but Bonds has been awful to start the season. A non-productive Bonds would be an incredible turn of bad luck for the Giants.
- Jamey Wright is still not a good pitcher. I told you so.
- With Kevin Correia and Jeremy Accardo pitching so well, it shouldn't be long until one of them takes over a setup spot. What are the alternatives? Each one of them alternating turns in blowouts, while relievers having awful seasons are brought in the close situations? Yeah, right. I'd like to see that happen.