The month of May will not be kind to the San Francisco Giants during the 2012 regular season. During those 31 days, the team will play 29 games with only one off-day. Numerous postseason contenders and division rivals are on the slate. The rest of the months in the season are hypothetically not nearly as tough for the team. In any case, the second month of the season is going to prove to be a vital one for the organization. A major slip-up is the last thing the Giants need.

To start things off, the Miami Marlins come to AT&T Park for a three-game set from May 1-3. It remains to be seen whether that team’s offseason signings will make it a contender. It will likely not be a pushover by any means though. From there, the Milwaukee Brewers will roll into town for three games. The Brewers did taste the postseason in 2011, but they could be without Prince Fielder at this point. Knocking around opponents from the other divisions is always good for obvious reasons.

Can the San Francisco Giants do that?

After opening the month with six games at AT&T Park, the Giants will hit the road for six games. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks are the opponents on that road trip. Los Angeles did manage a winning record and were only a handful of games behind San Francisco in the NL West. Of course, that could make the series go either way. All Giants’ fans know that the D-Backs are not a team to take lightly. That club did upgrade its pitching and retained the same potent offense from last season.

Returning home, the San Francisco Giants will play a two-game set against the Colorado Rockies. I would not call this an easy series, but it should be the simplest task for the team during the month. We should see two wins for the Giants here. At that point, the 2011 World Series champs come to town for a two-game series. The St. Louis Cardinals will lack Albert Pujols, but that will not make both games any easier. A three-game set against the Oakland Athletics will wrap up that homestead and should be somewhat easy.

The Giants will then take to the road again on a seven-game road trip. During that time, the team will face the Brewers again for three games and the Marlins for four games. Once again, both clubs should prove to be a challenge. May then ends with three games against the Diamondbacks back at AT&T Park. There could probably be a tougher schedule, but it is not like the Giants need that at all.

How will the team do with such a grueling schedule in May?

In reality, the San Francisco Giants are no pushovers, so cracking a winning record during the month should not be too hard. Going 15-14 would be nice, but it would not be anything too noteworthy. The club absolutely needs to reach that mark for the month at the very least. Without a doubt, anything less would be more than disappointing. This is a club that cannot afford to post any losing months.

Winning 15 games in a month is always nice, but the Giants will need to go above and beyond that against such a tough slate of opponents. The schedule will only give the team one other month with 29 games in it, which will come in August with a much weaker list of opposing teams. With that in mind, posting a record too far south from 15-14 is really going to do harm to the team. That will show that it cannot beat potential postseason teams or even the clubs within its own division.

Fortunately, the San Francisco Giants are backed by a top-notch pitching squad and an average offense. It is not like the team is likely to fail during the first couple months of the season and then just nosedive in the standings. Well, it could happen, but who expects that to be the result? April, May, June, and the rest of the months should be all right for the Giants no matter who the opponents are.

Errick D. Williams is a lifelong fan of the San Francisco Giants who has attended over 200 games at AT&T Park. He lives in San Diego but regularly travels back up to the Bay Area to catch a game with friends and family members.

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On the same day longtime San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds’ received a sentence for 30 days house arrest and other minor charges for obstructing justice during a steroids investigation, Bonds’ former team made a small-scale move to bring back a player from the team’s 25-man roster. After non-tendering him earlier this week, the Giants re-signed catcher Eli Whiteside to a minor-league contract on Friday, Dec. 16.

San Francisco Giants C Eli Whiteside
Wikimedia Commons

After the season-ending injury to Buster Posey during the 2011 season, the 32-year old was thrust into a shared starting role with Chris Stewart. With Posey expected to fully return from injury for 2012, the backup catcher position will still be an interesting battle to watch. Unless the team signs another free agent catcher, the three men who are most likely backing up Posey next season are Whiteside, Stewart, and Hector Sanchez.

Signing Whiteside to a minor-league deal just days after not offering him arbitration was a best-case scenario for the team. Even though Whiteside only hit .197 in a career-high 236 plate appearances, the team still does not know who will win the backup catcher spot next season. By having Whiteside sign the minor-league contract, he will either serve as insurance in Triple-A Fresno or win the roster spot in Spring Training, thus earning close to the league minimum of $480,000 instead of the approximately $750,000 paycheck he would earn had he received arbitration from the Giants.

Despite going through his own elbow problems during the season, Whiteside could be a reliable backup for the Giants in 2012. When healthy, Whiteside has proven to be a good game caller and a solid defender behind the plate. That being said, Whiteside, Stewart, and Sanchez will compete for the roster spot.

Stewart had a career-high 162 at bats last season, only hitting .204 with three home runs. However, Stewart’s great defense in regards to throwing base runners out at second base put him into a platoon with Whiteside. Sanchez, at only 21 years of age for his MLB debut, hit .302 with Single-A San Jose and .261 with Triple-A Fresno before being promoted at the end of the season.

While the backup catcher will hopefully not matter too much in 2012, manager Bruce Bochy did announce at the Winter Meetings that Posey would play some time at first base to help him rest his ankle. With this news, the Giants backup catcher will see some starts during the season. All that’s left is to figure out which player will hold that spot during 2012 Spring Training.

Sources:

After sentencing, Bonds free to tell the truth, Yahoo! Sports

Giants re-sign Eli Whiteside to minor-league contract, HardballTalk, NBC Sports

Report: Giants re-sign Whiteside to minor-league contract, CSN Bay Area

More from this contributor:

Giants Re-Sign Guillermo Mota for One-year, $1 Million Contract: Fan’s Take

Giants Trade Torres and Ramirez to Mets for Pagan: Fan’s Take

San Francisco Giants Avoiding Long-term Contracts This Offseason: Fan’s Take

San Francisco Giants Designate Darren Ford for Assignment: Fan’s Take

Giants Trading Jonathan Sanchez for Melky Cabrera a Great Offseason Start: Fan’s Reaction

Austin Chang is a lifelong San Francisco Bay Area native, baseball fan, and supporter of the San Francisco Giants. Follow him on Twitter @_austinchang.

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That’s all the news for today.

Last season, Eric Surkamp debuted with the San Francisco Giants late in the season. Things started out well over his first two starts but then quickly worsened. He wound up with a 2-2 record, 5.74 ERA, and more walks than strikeouts. Currently, it appears as though he will spend most of his time in the minors in 2012, but he might see some big league action. With that in mind, here are some predictions for him this coming season.

1. Surkamp will be the go-to guy when a starter suffers an injury.

The team appears to be set on letting Barry Zito take the fifth spot in the rotation instead of acquiring someone else. Of course, that leaves Surkamp as the potential guy to take over for any starter that suffers a severe injury. With Zito in the rotation, that very well may happen at some point. Surkamp probably will not earn the job out of spring training or get a call-up based on his performance in the minors though. He showed that he still needs some major improvement after his first call-up.

2. With some luck, he will see a promotion to Double-A or Triple-A.

Surkamp has spent all of his time in the lower levels of the minors. His performance has improved greatly and he now mows down opposing lineups though. Therefore, he will probably get a shot at the Double-A or Triple-A levels. I think he will wind up at AA for most of the season. Either way, he needs to be promoted through the ranks so that he can face stiffer competition. Then we will all see if he can eventually grow into a Major League-ready pitcher. I do not expect him to get stuck at Single-A or something low-level like that for too much longer.

3. Alas, he still will not be prepared for extended time in the Majors.

No matter how well he performs in 2012, Surkamp is highly unlikely to warrant a call-up to the Majors for anything other than an emergency start. He is not a power pitcher, so he has to rely on breaking pitches to get the job done. That works well in the minors, but his 5.74 ERA and 13/17 strikeout-to-walk ratio shows that it does not work in the Majors. Obviously, the San Francisco Giants know as much, so he will not be ready for nor will he receive any extended playing time during 2012.

4. Expect him to work on improving his fastball and other pitches.

With that in mind, Surkamp is going to work on developing his pitches even more. This is undoubtedly something that all pitchers do, but he should work on it extra hard. He cannot find success with the Giants or any other MLB team if he cannot throw a decent fastball and even stronger breaking pitches. Unfortunately, his fastball is below average, so he will have to really work on his curveball and other pitches. It remains to be seen whether he can drastically improve his pitching abilities.

5. This could be the make-it-or-break-it season for Surkamp.

Personally, I do not want to see Eric Surkamp stay as a minor league pitcher for the rest of his career. The guy really needs to work on his abilities during the 2012 season in the minors. He might be passed on by management if he cannot do more than just dominate hitters in the minors. Of course, he did exactly that in 2011, but management needs to see him do something really special to keep thinking of him as a future everyday starter. He is only 24 years-old, but Surkamp needs to really shine to stay relevant or someone else could become the focus.

In any case, I am fairly certain that Eric Surkamp is going to have a great season in the minors. He might make a spot start now and then with the San Francisco Giants too. Without a doubt, he needs to make the most of those opportunities to start impressing more people. To make up for his lackluster call-up from this past season, Surkamp will need to really work hard to be seen as a future starter rather than a nobody. I think he can get the job done though.

Major-League ready now? No. In a couple seasons? Quite possibly.

For more information, visit The San Francisco Giants Site .

Derrick Williams is a fan of the San Francisco Giants and lived in the Bay Area for nearly three years.

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SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants have declined to offer salary arbitration to free-agent outfielders Cody Ross and Pat Burrell.

The moves Wednesday mean the Giants will not receive compensation if Ross or Burrell sign with another team.

The Giants still could re-sign Ross, but Burrell has said he will likely retire because his troublesome right foot hasn’t healed. Burrell batted .230 with seven homers and 21 RBI in 92 games last season.

Ross batted .240 with 14 homers and 52 RBI last season. He won the NL Championship Series MVP in 2010 after being acquired off waivers from Florida late in the season.

The Giants also were unable to offer arbitration to outfielder Carlos Beltran under terms of his contract.

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SAN FRANCISCO — Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt is healing well from a season-ending hand injury sustained when he seriously cut himself trying to separate frozen hamburgers.

Affeldt said Wednesday he expects to be done wearing a protective brace on his non-throwing right hand soon, perhaps in the coming days. He will fly from his home in Spokane, Wash., to the Bay Area on Thursday to be examined by a hand specialist and physical therapist. They will gauge his progress and determine the next step.

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San Francisco Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt is healing well from a season-ending hand injury sustained when he seriously cut himself trying to separate frozen hamburgers.

Affeldt said Wednesday he expects to be done wearing a protective brace on his non-throwing right hand soon, perhaps in the coming days. He will fly from his home in Spokane, Wash., to the Bay Area on Thursday to be examined by a hand specialist and physical therapist. They will gauge his progress and determine the next step.

“Hopefully I’m done with it,” he said of the brace. “I’ll know tomorrow.”

Affeldt was at home on an off day Sept. 8 when the paring knife he was using pushed through a hamburger patty and deep into his hand. He came within a millimeter of an artery and underwent surgery about eight hours after the injury to repair nerve damage in his pinkie.

“My hand is great,” said Affeldt, who will begin his offseason throwing program in December. “The workouts are good and I started already. I figured I got September off.”

Affeldt has a $5 million contract option for 2012 and general manager Brian Sabean has said the pitcher will probably be back, even if it means declining the option and working out a new deal. Affeldt said he will let his agent handle all negotiations with the 2010 World Series champions.

“I expect him to be in uniform with us next year,” Sabean said when the season ended. “I don’t know exactly how that’s going to happen, but the option is the option. If we have to pick it up, we could end up picking it up. If we decide to re-negotiate in some form, that could happen, too.”

The lefty went 3-2 with a 2.63 ERA and three saves in 67 outings this season. He had given up only three earned runs over his last 22 1-3 innings before the injury and his 1.21 ERA since the All-Star break was seventh-lowest among NL relievers with a minimum of 20 innings.

There isn’t a rehab regimen for Affeldt’s injury and he should be at full strength for the start of spring training in February. Getting the surgery done immediately was important.

Injured catcher Buster Posey, meanwhile, is on schedule to be ready by spring training. As was the goal for this month, he is catching bullpens in Arizona as part of his rehab from a broken bone in his lower left leg and three torn ligaments in his ankle. He was hurt and lost for the season in a home-plate collision with Florida’s Scott Cousins on May 25.

“Buster is well,” athletic trainer Dave Groeschner said in a text message. “He has caught four pens so far.”

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This is the way it ends, with a lot of cheers, a few tears and, once again, if not an unused ticket in a ballpark sold out from first game to last, certainly a lot of unfulfilled hopes.

In this season of 2011, the year after the World Series, the Giants broke their all-time attendance record, luring 3,387,303 fans. Yet in their attempt to repeat as Series champions, they couldn’t even get to the playoffs, breaking a great many hearts.

“We had planned on working in October,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said ruefully.

But their final day of labor, and perhaps appropriately, of defeat, was Sept. 28, Wednesday, the final game of the regular schedule when the Colorado Rockies beat San Francisco 6-3 at AT&T Park, where the next baseball game is six months away.

“Not the way we wanted the season to end,” Bochy had sighed before the last game started. “We’re all disappointed in not going farther, especially with what happened last year.”

Still, what happened last year — the first World Series title — turned San Francisco into a baseball town and turned the ballpark on the edge of McCovey Cove into a carnival of good times, if not always of winning baseball.

Even Wednesday, the place was full, people dancing to the beat of the Rolling Stones and singing to the music of Journey.

“Don’t stop believin’ …” And they never stopped.

They gave Pat Burrell a noisy farewell as, wiping at his eyes, in the seventh inning he came out of probably his last game as a Giant.

They gave deposed owner Bill Neukom a standing ovation when first his acknowledgement appeared on the video board and then he was shown near the first base dugout. 

They gave one of last year’s heroes, Aubrey Huff, a noisy greeting when he came up as a pinch hitter in the seventh and singled.

Finally, around 3:40 p.m., the crowd of 41,273 rose and cheered as Justin Christian came out for what would be the Giants’ ultimate at-bat of the year, a rousing last hurrah, memories if not victory.

Moments later, the Giants, en masse, emerged from their dugout and walked to the pitching mound. And as the video screen saluted so many players, Ryan Vogelsong, Cody Ross, the injured Buster Posey, the courageous Pablo Sandoval, the players saluted the fans who were saluting them.

“Even though this season didn’t go [as] well as we had hoped,” said Bochy into a microphone, “I just want to thank you.”

Matt Cain gave a speech on behalf of the players.

Bochy had removed Carlos Beltran after two hitless at bats to keep Beltran at .300 for the year. Bochy had inserted Sandoval as a pinch hitter in the ninth, a reward for his competence (a .315 average) and conscientiousness.

“We wanted to win this game for Pat,” Bochy said, alluding to Burrell. But they couldn’t. It was that type of year, one of possibilities that went unrealized.

It was a perfect day for baseball, 72 degrees, virtually no wind. You’d love to see another game, but there won’t be another until April.

“The bottom line,” Bochy of the season, “is we didn’t play as well as we needed to.”

Art Spander has been covering Bay Area sports since 1965 and also writes on www.artspander.com and www.realclearsports.com. Email him at typoes@aol.com.

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If mascots were Major League Baseball players, Lou Seal would be Cal Ripken Jr.

The San Francisco Giants mascot is a staple of all the team’s home games, and his durability is now beginning to get recognized by those across baseball.

What’s truly incredible about the lovable seal mascot, though, is that Joel Zimei, the man beneath the suit, hasn’t missed a home game in nearly 13 years, according to The Associated Press.

When the Giants wrap up their season on Wednesday, Zimei will have entertained the Giants faithful for 1,054 straight home games, which dates back to the final days of Candlestick Park.

Appearing in front of thousands of fans on nearly a nightly basis has become so common place for Zimei that he’s essentially become Lou Seal.

“It’s almost automatic, no matter how I’m feeling,” Zimei told The Associated Press. “It’s like hitting an involuntary switch and I just become Lou. After 13 years, sooner or later, it just blends.”

Zimei, who noted that the streak is the longest such, said that he’s battled through any injuries he’s had over the years, which includes a broken hand he suffered after punching a brick wall at the season finale in 2004 when he realized the Giants had not made the postseason.

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This season, the Giants mascot Lou Seal went where no costumed fanatic has gone before: He attended his 1,051st straight home game, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Joel Zimei is the man behind the mask, and his achievement was widely lauded — the 49ers’ Sourdough Sam called Zimei the “Cal Ripken of mascots.” Ripken holds the MLB record for consecutive games played.

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Sept. 23, 2011 04:53 PM
The Arizona Republic | azcentral.com

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