When the trade deadline came along and everyone, including myself, clamored for that One Big Bat thinking Barry part deux was the solution. Winding up with a wounded Sanchez and a shackled Ryan Garko the situation only improved slightly after the All Start Break. Still we were anxious at the plate and getting mocked by opposing pitchers.

2010 off season – enter Mark DeRosa: the most important move we made in the offseason (besides the Timmy signing). While Aubrey Huff hits for more power (34/108/.313 at his peak), it’s DeRosa whose patience has contributed more runs to each of his teams’ efforts. A simple comparison: in 505 AB with the Cubs in 2008, DeRosa managed to score 103 runs compared to Huff’s career high of 96, also in 2008 (on 93 more AB’s). Another measure: that same year, DeRosa’s OBP of .376 was still higher than Huff’s career best to date of .367 (with 131 more AB’s – 636 in 2003).

After seeing the team in action this weekend (all 13 innings Friday!), it’s clear there has been a shift in how we approach the plate. While we have a lot of work ahead of us (the Braves’ Hudson and Kawakami each averaged 10 around 10 pitches per inning) we’re improving in this area, finally. Both Bowker and DeRosa took walks on Friday after being down 0-2. Huff’s walk ended up scoring the tying run Friday and despite our loss on Saturday, we cajoled Derek Lowe into a career high 7 BB’s. DeRosa is contributing much more than his .212 average would leave you to believe. He’s reminding his teammates that there are a lot of fish in the sea and not to get suckered by the first thing that worms its way into McCovey Cove.

The Giants are 3rd in the NL in OBP and 5th in BB’s and on to something with a 6-1 start.

In the restaurant industry, this sort of thing is called a soft opening.

It is where a venue quietly opens its doors, with a goal of working out the kinks for a set period and building toward larger foot traffic.  It allows time for a menu to take shape, appropriate levels of service to be determined and so forth.  In that same vein, with the 2010 Major League Baseball season less than a month from commencing, this site launches.

Welcome to Giants Galore, a group blog about anything and everything concerning the San Francisco Giants.  Our site may be a celebration of Tim Lincecum or an indictment of Brian Sabean or it may provide simple analysis of the many other players and personnel associated with the club– all this remains to be seen, many possibilities exist.  One thing is clear: With spring training underway and the exhibition circuit heating up, there is already much to write about.  We hope to hit some kind of stride by Opening Day.

This will be a collaboration by four writers.  We are:

• Taylor Angel: A San Francisco resident, former high school baseball player and author of the blog, Straight Shot.
• Vaughn Brown: The advertising director for TechCrunch, another San Francisco resident and author of the blog, Man Law.  Vaughn admits he’s a relatively new fan but said he’s passionate and that he “got pretty into it last year.”
• Jennifer Prentice: A content coordinator for Experts Exchange who authors the fashion/technology blog, The Style Geek and served as sports editor of her college newspaper while an undergraduate.
• Graham Womack: A Bay Area writer, SEO consultant and Giants fan since first grade, who authors the blog, Baseball: Past and Present.

Beyond all this, we look forward to writing about the Giants and seeing what we can create together.