The San Francisco Giants report card after one month

May 3, 11:32 PMBay Area Sports ExaminerRyan Leong

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San Francisco Giants' Rich Aurilia, center left, celebrates with teammates after making
the game-winning hit off Colorado Rockies' Manuel Corpas during the 10th inning of a
baseball game Sunday, May 3, 2009, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

SAN FRANCISCO-- Its early but the Giants are playing better than many expected.

They are 12-11 which sounds mediocre but if you take away their first road trip when they were 0-6, its quite impressive.   

If not for the rival Los Angeles Dodgers going a ridiculous 10-0 at home for their best ever start in franchise history, the Giants would be even closer than 4.5 games back in the National League West.

The orange and black have won every series at home which is a .667 winning percentage.  

The old axiom has always been to win at home and split your games on the road. 

If a team does that, most of the time they'll make the playoffs.  Assuming the Giants can win by that formula, they'd have a 95-67 record.   Normally if you can win 90 games, the front office can start printing playoff tickets.

That's getting ahead of ourselves.   Certainly the Giants have been impressive by winning the close games.  They've done it by their pitching.  The offense is still pretty woeful.  AT&T Park is still a pitcher's paradise.  Home runs are tough to come by for anyone and its become painfully evident since Barry Bonds played his final season in 2007.

Many players don't like the Giants ballpark for that fact but at the same time, if you have gap to gap power and have some speed, it can also work to your advantage. 

Pitching:   Grade B+

Tim Lincecum seems to have worked out the kinks in his delivery since his first two starts.   Barry Zito has yet to get a win but he's finally pitching like the Giants ownership thought he would when they signed him to that big contract in 2007.  Matt Cain had a rough outing against the Rockies but he got off to a 2-0 start before that game. 

Certainly a big surprise after a few shaky outings has been Randy Johnson.  Johnson had one of his worst outings against his former team, the Arizona Diamondbacks walking seven in 3.2 innings.  But the Big Unit responded last Friday with a seven inning gem , scattering four hits with nine strikeouts to pick up career win number 297 and is closing in on the 300 win plateau.

"I just really enjoy winning and like I said at fanfest, I"m not about just five wins," said Johnson after he beat the Rockies.  "I would love to have five wins as soon as I possibly can and then go from there.  I don't expect to go out and have a no hitter for six or seven innings either.  A happy medium where I can go out and give this team a chance to win is what I'm all about despite what people have said in the past at age 45 he's washed up."

The bullpen has been solid except for set up man Bob Howry who has struggled.  Jeremy Affeldt is doing a fine job as the only lefty in a righty dominated pen. 

The entertaining and eccentric Brian Wilson is the first "real" closer the team has had since Robb Nen.  With his goofy semi-tomahawk and 98 mph fastball, he resembles Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn from the movie Major League.  Besides his ability on the mound, Wilson is a super cool dude and he embraces his role.  He may not be as efficient as a Mariano Rivera but that's part of what makes him fun to watch!

Hitting:   Grade C

The Giants don't have Manny Ramirez and we all know that.   It seems their only real threats in the lineup are Bengie Molina and the Molina prototype, Pablo Sandoval.  The lineup is almost as punchless as last season's.  

Emmanuel Burriss is simply overmatched at the plate and is also making fundamental mistakes on the basepaths as well.  If Kevin Frandsen was hitting better at Triple A Fresno, Burriss wouldn't be playing right now at the major league level.   But thankfully the Giants have won every home series and also their last road series in Arizona.  Hopefully as the weather warms up, so will the Giants' bats.

Defense:  Grade B

Edgar Renteria is no Omar Vizquel at shortstop but then again, no one is.  Renteria hasn't made any mistakes in the field and the rest of the Giants do a decent job for the most part.  Travis Ishikawa isn't a great first baseman but he is servicable as is Burriss at second base.  Sandoval is somewhat shaky and inexperienced at third base but he has yet to make a costly mistake.  

Molina is a terrific catcher and you couldn't ask for more from him, especially in his mid 30's.  He handles the staff well and when he does get a day off, Sandoval doubles as the backup catcher.

Fred Lewis looks more like Fred Gwynne in the outfield. (for those of who remember the TV show the Munsters)   Lewis has speed but is lost in left field. 

He has dropped routine fly balls and taken poor routes to other line drives turning singles into doubles.  Manager Bruce Bochy has been forced to remove Lewis after the seventh inning because he is a defensive liability.   Thankfully, Aaron Rowand is one of the best in center field and Randy Winn is a good right fielder.

Of course, its a long, long season but the Giants have the recipe for success. 

Quotable:

Barry Zito after his outing against Colorado on Sunday:

"When you come up to the (major) league all you know is me vs. the hitter and then you realize how great it is to be in the big leagues.   And there's fame and there's money and there's accolades and people talk about you and so its the icing on the cake.  When the icing gets sweeter than the cake is when things have to get back to where you have to be and so for me now its just going out and battling hitters.  Everything else now, its icing but that's all it ever will be."

Follow me on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/RyanLeong

Read SF Baseball Examiner Claire Reclosado's report:  www.examiner.com/x-1057-SF-Baseball-Examiner~y2009m5d4-San-Francisco-Giants-win-series-against-Colorado-Rockies