Spring Training Game Wrap: Giants 4 White Sox 2

If whoever fed the negative vibes about Barry Zito to Bruce Jenkins was trying to light a fire, well, it seems to have worked! Zito had a dominant outing today with an interesting approach as the Giants downed the ChiSox 4-2. Key lines:

Andres Torres- 1 for 3, 2B. BA= .400. Torres has missed some time with an oblique strain, but has done well when he has played. Hopefully it will be completely healed by opening day.

Aubrey Huff- 2 for 3, HR(1). BA= .320. Nice game by The Huffster. Not saying he's going to equal last year's 5.7 WAR, but for those counting on a big regression, it was just his 4'th best offensive season of his career.

Buster Posey- 1 for 2, BB. BA= .526. Seems like Posey's name is in Key Lines every day he plays. Never get tired of it. I'll be thrilled if it's there every day all season!

Darren Ford and Gary Brown stole their 5'th and 3'rd bases respectively as pinch runners.

Barry Zito- 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, GO/AO= 10/4. Very unusual line for Zeets. Normally a pretty extreme flyball pitcher, Zito was a classic GB pitcher today pitching to contact and using just 55 pitches while getting 10 of the 16 batters he faced to ground out including a GIDP by AJ Pierzynski. Well, I guess it isn't that hard to get AJ to GIDP! Ha! According to Baggs, Zito didn't seem to have his curveball command until the 4'th inning and got it done with mostly fastballs at the knees and a changeup. Hmm... I wonder if maybe he went to Affeldt for advice on the sinker grip too? IMO, it's long, long overdue for Zito to reinvent himself as a sinker/GB pitcher. Maybe today was a fluke, or maybe the callout passed on by Bruce Jenkins broke through the stubborness.

Brian Wilson- 1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's. 3 baserunners, no runs. Wilson is in mid-season form. Let the torture begin! Gotta make sure I have my nitroglycerin supply by the start of the season.

Jeff Suppan- 3 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 0 K, GO/AO= 8-1. Suppan allowed solo HR's to Adam Dunn and Stefan Gartrell who went to USF. Note Suppan's GO/AO and then note the 2 dingers. HR's are hit off mistake pitches and very few pitches get hit harder than sinkers that don't sink!

The Giants ran their Cactus League record to 10-4. They travel to the Cincinnati Reds camp tomorrow as Madison Bumgarner takes the mound against Dusty's boys.

Around the League:

Not to wish any bad luck on the team most people still seem to think was the better team last year and the team most people are picking to win the NL Pennant this year, but the Phils are definitely hurting on the offensive side of things. Losing Jayson Werth was big, but then his heir apparent in RF, Dominic Brown, suffered a fractured hamate in his wrist reguiring surgery. Ostensibly Brown is out for about 6 weeks, but hamate fracures often take a full year to fully heal and sometimes cause loss of power for longer than that. Now, Chase Utley is having problems with his knee. The report I read about his MRI sounded ugly. Chondromalacia(cartilage turned to scar tissue) and inflammation of the underlying bone. The knee did not respond to a cortisone shot. I'm guessing microfracture surgery is in Utley's not-to-distant future.

The BrewCrew made a couple of bold moves to acquire pitching this winter emptying out their farm system for Shaun Marcum and Zack Grienke. Now comes word that Grienke fractured ribs in a pickup game of basketball. This may be bit unfair, but Grienke seems like a bit of a problem child for whoever has his contract. He reportedly was a bit of pain in the rear in the KC clubhouse last year which may be why the Royals weren't too unhappy when he demanded a trade. He then had the Chutzpah to say that he demanded the trade to help the Royals because the KC fans would have revolted had they traded him without the demand. Anyway, the ribs are expected to heal in 4-6 weeks so this should not have a major impact on his season.

Jon Garland came out of today's game early with an oblique strain. BTW, how come I never heard of an oblique strain until about the time Noah Lowry had one a few seasons ago? It certainly seems to be the injury du jour. Anyway, Garland may well miss the opening of the season as these things seem to take forever to heal. Vicente Padilla underwent surgery and will start the season on the DL, so all that SP pitching depth Agent Ned acquired for the Dodgers is melting away fast.