Bay Area Baseball

1. Red Sox – One game from the World Series with an injured Beckett, Ortiz, Lowell, Lowrie and Drew. A return to health plus the additions of Smoltz, Penny and Saito are enough to push this team to the top.
2. Rays – Bullpen can’t be as good as last year. Offense should improve.
3. Mets – Putz and Krod = Playoffs
4. Yankees – CC not going to replicate Mussina wins from last season.
5. Reds – Youth movement makes its way from TB to Cincy.
6. Rangers
7. Cubs
8. Phillies – Hamels injury woes plus a World Series hangover has these guys missing the playoffs.
9. Giants – Lincecum. Lincecum. Lincecum.
10. Royals – MUCH improved and a new hitting coach + weakened division = miracle run?
11. Diamondbacks – Justin Upton should be big.
12. Angels – Subtract Krod and Teix and miss the playoffs as the OF is one year older.
13. Cardinals
14. Indians
15. Dodgers
16. Tigers – No pitching here.
17. Twins – Missing Mauer can’t be overstated.
18. White Sox
19. Braves
20. Brewers – No CC, No Sheets, No playoffs.
21. Marlins
22. Mariners
23. A’s
24. Astros
25. Jays – Not going anywhere with the big three ahead of them.
26. Orioles
27. Rockies
28. Nationals – Hopefully Strasburg can reach the show.
29. Pirates
30. Padres – This is a major league team still?

Tim Flannery (Right) could cause headaches for Bruce Bochy (Left)

San Francisco lost yesterday to Oakland, 2-1 in extra innings. One of the key plays in the loss was a huge missed opportunity on the part of third base coach Tim Flannery. While generally I’ll hold off criticizing coaching moves until the regular season, this lack of aggression could be a sign of a tendency that could hurt the Giants.

The blunder took place in the bottom of the third inning. Trailing 1-0 the Giants loaded the bases with a Manny Burriss single and walks to Randy Winn and Edgar Renteria. With one out Fred Lewis hit a medium speed base hit through the right toward Travis Buck, Burriss scored easily and the speedy Winn… STOPPED AT THIRD? Buck’s throw was off-line and well short of the plate. Bengie Molina and Pablo Sandoval would pop up and ground out to end the inning and the Giants would go on to lose by one.

The reasons to send Winn were overwhelming - (1) he’s a fast runner, (2) there was just one out and if he was thrown out there would still be runners in scoring position, in fact at second and third, (3) Travis Buck is not known for his arm, (4) the Giants offense isn’t exactly a powerhouse and the run could (and did) prove to be the difference in the game.

Hopefully it was a simple spring training mistake by an experienced coach and not a sign of future decisions.

Other notes from the game.

The staff looked great starting with Randy Johnson and along with Joe Martinez and Brian Wilson - who was consistently in the 96-99 range. Luis Perdomo was terrible but he likely won’t be relied on for important innings this year.

Sean Gallagher’s velocity was down in the 89-90 range, after reaching the mid 90’s last season it looks like he isn’t necessarily ready.

Edgar Renteria’s range is still just as bad as last year.

Dana Eveland looked great.

Everybody is sending their aces to the hill tomorrow to start their seasons. While some have big mismatches (Johan vs Harang, CC vs Guthrie, Lee vs Millwood,) there are a number of compelling pitching matchups.

TB: J. Shields (14-8, 3.56)
BOS: J. Beckett (12-10, 4.03)

Tampa Bay and Boston pick up where they left off in last years ALCS, what better way to start the season?

COL: A. Cook (16-9, 3.96)
ARI: B. Webb (22-7, 3.30)

Webb finished poorly last year and looks to again start strong.

DET: J. Verlander (11-17, 4.84)
TOR: R. Halladay (20-11, 2.78)

Two of the AL’s top righthanders here, Verlander coming off a terrible season while Halladay has been terrific as always. Porcello will be taking notes from Halladay.

CHC: C. Zambrano (14-6, 3.91)
HOU: R. Oswalt (17-10, 3.54)

Two guys seemingly on the downside look to show they can still be aces.

SEA: F. Hernandez (9-11, 3.45)
MIN: F. Liriano (6-4, 3.91)

Maybe the best stuff of all the starts takes place in this matchup between Liriano and Felix.

LAD: H. Kuroda (9-10, 3.73)
SD: J. Peavy (10-11, 2.85)

A SoCal matchup here, Peavy starts his trade audition Monday.