San Francisco Giants Tickets - Milwaukee Visits S.F. on Opening Day

San Francisco Giants fans have good reason to be anxious about their team's upcoming season. Not only do the Giants have an improved pitching staff, but they might have gotten better on the offensive side of things as well. Although Milwaukee, the Giants' opening day opponent, has lost two valuable aces, they return from a year where they went to the playoffs, and they boast one of the most powerful batting orders in the majors.

The matchup looks ripe for a great game, so if you're interested in getting some San Francisco Giants tickets for opening day, April 7th, at AT&T Park, act now. Tickets for this kind of event go fast, so check out StubHub's selection.

Pitcher's Duel
The Giants have the clear edge when it comes to their opening day ace. If the Brewers had kept either Ben Sheets or C.C. Sabathia, the pitcher's duel for this game would have been one of the best opening day competitions in Major League Baseball, but as it looks on paper Tim Lincecum, the reigning National League Cy Young winner, should get the best of the Brewers' expected opening day starter, Yovani Gallardo. It's not that Yo-Do is a particularly weak starter. In fact, he's looking good in spring training, and there are a lot of fantasy baseball writers who think he'll have a year better than his rookie season in 2007, when he went 9-5 with a 3.67 ERA.

However, there are few pitchers in the world who could stack up well against Tiny Tim right now. The Brewers have the same chance as the Republican nominee in the last presidential election. It doesn't matter who they elect to pitch against Lincecum on opening day- they'd better start practicing their concession speech now.

Batter's Battle
The Giants hit the fewest home runs in the NL in 2008, and scored the second fewest total runs in the league. While the team batting average was boosted by players like Randy Winn, Ray Durham and Fred Lewis, the team's slugging percentage was among the worst in the business. So far in the offseason the Giants have not lost anyone of note from their offense, and they've bolstered it if anything by adding Edgar Renteria, a veteran shortstop who might be good for another 12 home runs and has a career batting average of .290. By no means will Renteria solve everything, but it's an instant upgrade over Omar Vizquel, another veteran SS who last year averaged .222 with zero home runs and only 23 RBI.

Travis Ishikawa (sleeper alert!) has been awesome in the minors and in spring training, and he'll probably take over for Rich Aurilia at first. As a team on offense, the Brewers were only middle-of-the-pack, although they were great from a slugging percentage standpoint. They finished with the third most home runs. Ryan Braun was an All-Star starter and hit 37 home runs. The Brewers look much better on paper from an offensive standpoint, especially in the middle part of the order, where J.J. Hardy, Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, Corey Hart and Mike Cameron are always looking to go deep. The Brewers have the edge in the batter's box.

Projected Outcome
Last season Tim Lincecum lost his start versus the Milwaukee Brewers, as they put up five earned runs including two home runs against him. Will the Brewers' power order defeat Timmy on opening day? I wouldn't bet on it. Baseball scores are much harder to predict than, say, football scores, but we'll give it a try anyway. Look for a 3-4 Giants win. Tim Lincecum will throw some heat, but give up two runs. The Brewers will threaten late, but closer Brian Wilson will give the home town fans something to cheer about at the end.

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Comments

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 at 10:34 AM, by Louise
San Francisco Giants should be always competitive enough to keep pace with the others. I really like them; they’ve always been my favourite teams in MLB. Just read about them here:
http://www.giantsportal.com

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