Huzzah, finally real practice baseball in about 14 hours when the Giants open the Cactus League against Cleveland. Tim Lincecum will pitch with this lineup behind him, according to Chris Haft:
Winn RF
Renteria SS
Sandoval 3B
Molina C
Ishikawa 1B
Rowand CF
Schierholtz LF
Burriss 2B
Uribe DH
If you haven't found it yet, Giants Jottings has daily photos from spring camp. I can't wait to see shots of tomorrow's game.
If you really want to get all Kremlinological with the first spring lineup, you could note that Ishikawa is batting fifth with lefty Jeremy Sowers starting for Cleveland. No one expects Ishi to play much against lefties this year, so is this a vote of confidence from Bochy? A bad sign for Josh Phelps? Maybe it's just that Rich Aurilia is still down with the flu.
Starting tomorrow, every grounder to the left side will be cause for analysis of either Pablo Sandoval's readiness to play third or Edgar Renteria's skills at short, which everyone except the Giants believes to be in rapid decline.
The pressure on Sandoval will be different than last year. He's the third baseman by default, not necessarily by choice, and every error could make him skittish about the team's patience with him. It's an old saw, but I think it applies here: It's not the mistake that's important but how he deals with it. To that effect, I like this quote from Ron Wotus, the Giants' infield coach: "Really, just running him out there so he can get comfortable at the position is the most important thing. There'll be things he works on like every other infielder, but I just want him to free up his mind."
