At the time of this article the Giants

had a 2 game lead on top of the

NL West. Last year at this time

the Giants were in second place

2.5 back of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Giants are in good shape, considering

this weekend will mark the first

one-third of the 2003 season.

By Amaury Pi-González

So the Giants begin this weekend

at Pac Bell against the Colorado

Rockies with a 32-20 .615 record,

second best record in the National League

behind Atlanta’s 36-17 .679.

Starting Friday May 29, 2003

the Giants were in first place

by 2 1/2 games over the Los

Angeles Dodgers, who after wining

ten in a row then lost the last three

to the Rockies in Denver.

Last year on this date, the

Giants were in second place

2.5 games behind the first

place Arizona Diamondbacks.

Considering that there is no

Robb Nen coming out of the

bullpen to close games and

that Barry Bonds has yet to

hit a hot streak, Alou’s team

is doing fine. The bench is

such a contributor this year

something they really never

had last season. They could

have used a good bench

last World Series.

Since manager Alou moved

Marquis Grissom to the leadoff

spot he has ben hitting around

.444 and with Ray Durham

hitting second,the top of

the order looks very decent

and is producing.

June will be the first real

test for the Giants as they

will see very good pitching.

In June the Giants will face

the Dodgers 6 times and

the Athletics 6 times plus

those pesky Minnesota

Twins will be in for 3 games

at the Bell. Yes, that same

team that recently took

care of the A’S and last

season beat the A’S in

the playoffs. A case could

be made that the Twinkies

are the best low budget team

in all of baseball.

However, there should be

some relief also in June

as the Giants will play

Detroit, Kansas City and

the Chicago White Sox.

Giants pitching have been

holding very well, specially

Damian Moss who came via

the Russ Ortiz trade with

the Braves. Watching him

pitch is a delight he doesn’t

blow anybody away but

shows good command and

is one of those pitchers that

can keep you in a game.

Let me put it this way, Moss

is like a “younger Kirk Rueter”.

The aches and pains for the

Giants will come as they see

grow the younger arms like

Ainsworth and Foppert.

It should be fun this

weekend at Pac Bell Park.

The Colorado Rockies have

been playing very good.

Teir pitching with

young arms like Shawn

Chacón, underrated Jason

Jennings plus a bullpen

anchored by José (41-games

saved-last season) Jiménez

and the best lefty one-two

punch in all of baseball

with Todd Helton and

Larry Walker in the middle

of the lineup makes this

Rockies team a dangerous

one.

The Diamondbacks need

Randy Johnson back very

quickly (not for another

month probably) and their

line-up is really old and

almost dead. Guys like:

Matt Williams,Steve Finley

and Luis González. The D-Backs

offense has been so bad that

they recently traded Byung-Hyun

Kim to the Boston Red Sox

for All Star thirdbaseman

Shea Hillenbrand. Kim was

the D-Backs star closer for the

past few seasons, including

the 2001 championship year.

Kim was starting with the

Diamondbacks until the

trade that took place on

May 29.

The Giants are in a good

situation in this division

with really the Dodgers

and maybe Colorado to

worry about for a while.

Pedro Feliz has been showing

why Dusty Baker and this year

Felipe Alou had said that

he will be a fine thirdbaseman

in the near future and is

pressuring veteran Edgardo

Alfonzo.

In the meantime, Benito

Santiago could find himself

again in the All Star game,

this year at U.S. Celullar Field

in Chicago. Met catcher Mike

Piazza is hurt so Benito

might be making his second

consecutive appearance to

an All Star game. Hitting over

.300 and still doing great

defensively, Benito Santiago

is the best cather going today

in the National League.Iván

Rodríguez is not doing that

well in Miami with the Marlins.

People would say that the

NL West is a weak division.

So what? The Giants want

to ask baseball to move them

to a tougher division ?

Last season it was basically

the same division and the

Giants advanced with a

second place finish and

95 victories as a Wild Card

into the World Series. Common

sense would tell you this

is very probable this

year again.

There is one thing the

Giants have to improve.

Playing against the American

League. In interleague play

lasy season the Giants

won 8 lost 10. Some teams

last season made their

move against the other

league. For example the

Athletics were 16-2 against

the National League. (This

season the A’S are facing

tougher teams in the N.L

like Atlanta, Montreal and

Philadelphia with very

good pitching and overall

over .500 teams).

As we get into the month

of June let;s play ball