A special win... for a special team?

Woooohoooo!

Wow. That. Was. A. Doozy!

I can't remember a cooler, more extreme home opener than this one here. The Giants' 4-0 record notwithstanding, there seems to be something pretty special about this team in these early days of the 2010 season.

I know, I know. It's 4 games, and 9 times out of 10 Renteria doesn't hit that walkoff dong in the ninth inning. There are also a number of concerns that I still have about certain guys. But I can't help but feel that there's something different about this team.

They just seem more confident; more ballsy I guess.

If you look at the difference between this year's team and the guys we had last year, there really are only a few differences. Yes we brought in DeRosa and Huff, and they seem to be solid additions, but the real differences are the two guys that were already here; two guys earning like $20MM between them.

Edgar Renteria and Aaron Rowand are officially the X-Factors for this 2010 team. In the Astros series, as well as the first game of the Braves series, these two nutsacs have been the difference-- there's simply no denying it. And how ironic is it that two guys we've absolutely loathed the most were the two guys to win the game today? Little by little, they are chipping away at the hatred.

As I mentioned two posts ago, Renteria really looks like a beast among boys out there right now and appears to be the same player who had a .330 season for the Braves in '07. Lefty Malo mentioned it on twitter during the game, and I think he said it best. Something along the lines of, "Even without the HR Renteria hit, he looks like the best hitter out there. Good approach, on balance, and not pushing."

Even though Edgar's dong was his first extra base hit of the season, I'd be content if he hit .300 this season with nothing but singles. Seriously.

As for Aaron Rowand, he's still the same guy he was. Yes, he's 15 pounds lighter, but he's still reaching for balls out of the strike zone and swinging at first and second pitches far too often. The only difference seems to be that some of his balls are finding holes. Maybe the lost weight is helping him, who knows. All I know is that he is still frustrating me in half to two thirds of his at bats, and pleasantly surprises me with hits in the rest. Hey, I guess that's what a .270 hitter looks like.

I have to say, although some of you may call me nuts, that the guy who concerns me most right now is Pablo Sandoval. Part of me thinks that maybe he's starting to believe his own press clippings and is basking in the adoration and success he's had thus far.

The garbage he's swinging at and extreme lack of discipline at the plate appears to me to be worse than what he was doing last year. I don't know. Maybe I'm nuts, and I believe he'll find a groove sometime soon, but he's scaring me a little bit. He seems off balance, and has yet to really barrel up a couple line drives. He's finding holes and dropping in some bloops, but his RBI groundout today was not a good at bat.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on the Panda, I'm just pointing out that pitchers are starting to figure out that he really will swing at everything, and he'll do so at the expense of his power and balance. He'll settle down a little, but right now, he's a little all over the place.

Back to the team as a whole though.

Does anyone else feel like we're well into the season? Like as if we're already heading into the home stretch? Maybe it's because this is most excited we've been about this team in years, but there's already a different feel about this team and even amongst fans.

Anyway, we've got two more against Los Bravos, and we must try to remember that we're only 4 games into a long ass season. It was a sweet win that really helps boost the swagger of the team and fires up Giants Nation. In addition, the Braves, who played a night game in the ATL on Thursday and arrived at SFO around 2:30am, are flat worn out. They were already behind on sleep, then they had to dog out a 13 inning loss. You can't tell me that doesn't already put us at a significant advantage on Saturday.

If I was a betting man, I take Wellemeyer and the Giants on Saturday to make us 5-0.

PS: Let's see if we can get Jason Heyward to upgrade his Golden Sombrero on Friday into a Platinum one on Saturday. I'm taking bets on how fast the notoriously horrendous bandwagoning Braves fans hop off his train when he inevitably struggles. I'm setting the over/under at May 20th. Any takers?+

PSS: Obviously Steve Young, Jerry Rice as well as Kirk Reuter in the stands were the extra mojo we needed to win. Obviously...

Hey Dodgers Fans: BILLL-BOOOARD! BILL-BOOOARD!!

This won't be a real post, but I'm sorry, this is too good, and truth be told, I haven't had a real anti-Dodgers post in a while.

I've been scanning Twitter for awhile and Dodgers fans are really yukking it up about A.U. Velez's misspelled "San Francicso" jersey. Hell, even MASN's Rob Dibble and Bob Carpenter have yukked it up for 5 minutes during the Nats-Phillies game.

Well, if you wanna laugh at A.U., how about you take a look in the mirror at what kind of team you support, Dodgers fans.

Behold. JUSTIN BIEBER BILLBOARDS! The biggest douche in all of music, a high-voiced little Canadian sissy who sounds like the kid who played Simba in the Lion King, apparently is a huge Dodgers fan...

... or at least they paid him a bunch of money to embarrass themselves.

Hey Dodgers fans: BILLLL-BOAAARRRRD! BILLLL-BOOOARRRD!

You should already be ashamed of yourselves, but this... this is just pathetic.

So far, pretty damn good

So? Whaddaya think?

Was all my (and possibly your) optimism unfounded? Things are clicking, and this team appears to have left Scottsdale ready to deal and rake.

And yes, I did predict the sweep of the Astros right here.

The Astros are not exactly a stiff test, but what they've been to the Giants is twofold. Firstly, they were a perfect team to warm up against without being a real threat. Secondly, they provided an opportunity to last year's stiffs and this year's hopefuls to get off on the right frickin foot.

Even more so than Aaron Rowand, Edgar Renteria's scorching start has to be taken seriously. While Row had a few hits and ribeye steaks in Wednesday's finale, we all know that his lack of discipline and approach at the plate leaves us all uneasy... seemingly constantly. Renteria, on the other hand, excites me.

Last season was unacceptable on so many fronts for the Colombian vet. It was just so inexcusable that he was allowed to play so terribly for so long last year when management knew he was injured.

For what it's worth though, he deserves "gamer points" for playing hurt, never once speaking to the media about it, and doing his best. Gamer points or not though, he still has a lot to prove to Giants fans who at this point still have him in their crosshairs.

In this opening series we appear to have seen the old Edgar Renteria-- as opposed to the "Old Balls" Renteria of '09. In the past three days, I've seen flashes of the guy who has four .300+ average seasons under his belt. And hell, I've even seen some solid defense from him.

We'd all love to have a guaranteed beast out there at SS and in the second spot, but we all know that Rich Aurilia circa 2001 is not walking through that door. What we potentially have here is an aged version of the 2007 Edgar Renteria, who hit .332.

Trust me, that's miles better than the antique version we got in '09.

I know it's optimistic, but hell, why can't I be? The guy went 5-5 on Wednesday, and appears to be totally healthy. Honestly, he looks nothing like the player we knew.

And let's keep in mind that we shouldn't be discriminatory in our optimism either. Many of us keep saying, "Well Aubrey Huff is only one year removed from a huge season."

I know I've said that...

Well, Edgar is two years removed from a huge season. Hey, just saying...

The other aspects of the team speak for themselves. I really don't see a need right now to comment too much on the pitching. Lincey is a monst. HurriCAIN Matt is a stud (shame he got the ND though), and Brian Wilson looks like he's trying to commit involuntary manslaughter out there with his fastball.

The one guy who really deserves plaudits thrown his way is Barry Zito. I'm allllmost the point where I'm taking his excellent starts for granted... as if it would be unusual for him to suck.

Lest we forget that he's been garbage early in the previous three seasons for us (in addition to other parts of the season too!). With this in mind, getting 6 shutout innings from Zeets is like melting cheese over the entire team, it just makes it SO. GODDAMN. GOOD.

(Even with those asinine striped socks...)

Anyway, I hope you all make it out to one of the Atlanta games this weekend, crank the John Fogerty, Kenny Rogers, and Alabama, and start to get fired up...

...because I think we are in for one epic season here boys and girls!.

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Notes & Thoughts

-- Atta boy Johnny Bowker. The guy appears to be for real. And who told you so?

-- Good to see the bench guys like A.U. Velez, Whiteside, Schierholtz, and Ishikawa contribute. Good to get 'em all off the schneid at once.

-- Looks like we're going to see a pattern of defensive replacements every 7th inning if we have a lead. Ishikawa takes over for Huff at 1B and Schierholtz takes over in RF for Bowker. The move I don't understand is A.U. Velez taking over for DeRosa in LF. Yes, he's faster, but is The Pharaoh a better outfielder? Really friggin questionable. However, I do like the "WE PLAY TO WIN THE GAME!" approach by Bochy to take zero chances of losing any games because of defense. Hey if we had won 4 or 5 more games last year, that woulda meant playoffs.

-- Sammy Gervacio sucks at life. His little "Voodoo/Santeria priest at an animal sacrifice ceremony" bit is already old, and I'm almost glad that he had to leave the game on Wednesday with an apparent shoulder injury. It's unacceptable to do that crap out there, and the act is not appreciated by the opposition let alone his own team.

Think about it. If you're the Astros, you've got some cocky punk out there doing a street performer bit before every pitch? You're not going to come sprinting to the guy's side when an opposing player finally tells him to knock it off.

That crap isn't baseball. Go back to the Dominican League if you want to dance around like a jerk. That doesn't fly up here. If you cannot see this video above, click here.

Also, check out my interview with the Astros' Bud Norris if you haven't already done so. Come on, how many fan blogs get to talk to real major leaguers? Haha.

Let's hope Hollywood Norris can stop the Astros' skid against Philly on Friday.

MLB Extra Innings is on a free preview, so you can watch ANY GAME YOU WANT! IT'S MAGICAL!

Astros Pitcher Bud Norris weighs in on the Astros, Giants, Tiger Woods, and more

Astros starter Bud Norris, a Novato, CA native joined The Dodgerhater for a quick Q&A session in preparation for the Giants opening series in Houston.

The Dodgerhater: Does it finally feel like baseball season?

Bud: Yeah. Definitely. Today watching the Yankees and Red Sox get it going was pretty cool and I'm really excited about tomorrow because it's my first full big league season with the club and I get to see Roy Oswalt against Tim Lincecum on Opening Night, which will be pretty sweet, because I'm still a fan of the game. So yeah I'm looking forward to it.

The Dodgerhater: So you must be glad to get out of Kissimmee. What did you do with your down time there? Did you go to Disney World?

Bud: Didn't go to Disney World this year, but I did go last year a couple times.

I'm a big golfer, so I was lucky enough to have quite the set up this year. I got asked by my teammate Geoff Blum to live with him during spring training, and I actually got to live at Tiger Woods's golf course called Isleworth---

The Dodgerhater: SICK!

Bud: Yeah man. I played golf like every day at Tiger Woods's golf course and I actually got introduced to Tiger and just played a ton of golf this year.

The Dodgerhater: How's Tiger doing?

Bud: He was fine and was a really nice guy and he was definitely in a good mood. There was a bunch of speculation about whether he'd play in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, which is right down the road from there. But as you know, he's getting ready for the Masters.

Dodgerhater: It's your second spring training with the club, but your first as a real pro with a guaranteed spot. How's it different than last year?

Bud: Exciting. Obviously I wanted to go in this year and really earn my spot in the rotation, but I was a little more comfortable, I'd say.

Last year I went into camp and was battling for a bullpen spot, but this year I was a front runner to win one of the spots in the rotation. So yeah, I was definitely a lot more comfortable and had a little big league service time under my belt and I knew the guys a lot better and they knew me a little. So I can honestly say I was a lot more relaxed and comfortable.

Dodgerhater: You've got a lot of new faces on your team like Brett Myers, Matt Lindstrom, and Pedro Feliz while Miggy (Tejada), Valverde, and LaTroy Hawkins are gone. How are the new guys fitting in?

Bud: It's going real good. We've got some younger guys in the clubhouse which is nice because I'm a young guy as well. Those new guys who came in have definitely brought a new feel to the team and we'll see how everything shapes up.

Everyone so far is getting along great and there's a lot more liveliness in the clubhouse-- a lot more fun and a lot more laughs and smiles. It's good to keep the air fresh and fun, so yeah I think all the new guys have adjusted well.

Dodgerhater: You mentioned in our last Q&A that last year LaTroy Hawkins was the vet who gave you the most crap. Have they hazed you at all yet, or is that more of a regular season thing?

Bud: Haha, nothing yet, but I'm definitely waiting for it. I'm sure (Brett) Myers has a few things up his sleeve.

One time this Spring though, I came out of the clubhouse looking for my car and they had moved it completely to the other end of the parking lot, so I had to walk like 300 yards to get it.

Dodgerhater: At least they didn't fill it with popcorn or anything...


Bud: Yeah, that would've sucked. So they were nice and only moved it.

Dodgerhater: So J.R. Towles won the starting catching gig. How comfortable are you guys working together and how well do you guys know each other from (AAA) Round Rock?

Bud: Yeah, I'm happy for J.R. Last year I worked mainly with Lou Santangelo in Round Rock because J.R. had gone up and down a lot last year and had a couple nagging injuries. But I have worked with J.R. this spring and also in a few starts at the end of last year. But yeah I'm definitely getting more comfortable with J.R. and he's getting to know me, and I like working with him. So I'm excited to work with him on Friday.

Dodgerhater: I've read a bunch of stuff about the Astros and journalists and bloggers alike seem to have written you guys off already and I hear the term "rebuilding" a lot. That's in addition to the trade speculation that's already beginning to swirl around Carlos Lee. What positives do you see so far and is any of that stuff bothering you?

Bud: I actually got asked this question the other day and we're not worried about it, you know? Everybody starts fresh on day one and anything can happen as you know. It's baseball. If our pieces of the puzzle come together, we can win a lot of games and I'm looking forward to it.

It's kinda nice to not have that pressure on us, but I think we're really going to surprise some people and I think we have an opportunity to sneak up on some teams this year, and we'll see what happens. Like you said, it all starts tomorrow.

Dodgerhater: I see that you're the 4th starter, which is totally sick, except that means that you're gonna miss pitching against the Giants in this opening series. Are you bummed about that at all?

Bud: Yeah it woulda been nice to lock up that #3 spot, but I knew that I wouldn't with Meyers in here, but I'm not too worried about it. It's cool enough that the team I grew up rooting for is playing my new team and I get to watch them do battle from the dugout.

Dodgerhater: But you definitely circled the series in San Francisco...

Bud: Yeah I really hope I catch one of those starts at AT&T in May because that would mean a lot to me. But no, I'm not too worried about this series, all I can do is hope that I get to start in San Francisco next month.

Dodgerhater: So what do you think of the Giants this year, especially with their upgraded offense and have you guys had any meetings about them yet?

Bud: We were supposed to have our meeting about them the other day but the video got screwed up so, we haven't discussed them as a team yet.

I definitely think they made some good moves. DeRosa is gonna be a good guy for them and obviously if Panda can do the same stuff he did last year, it'll be interesting.

The guy who I really think is under the radar for that team is Aubrey Huff. I think that guy is a real big league hitter-- a proven big league hitter, and I think that power bat in the middle of the lineup will be huge for them.

You already know what you're getting from the Giants' rotation, but I really think that if Aubrey Huff has a good year, the Giants will too.

The Dodgerhater: What's the word on Lance Berkman's injury? Is it serious or is it something he just wants to give a little more time to before he plays?

Bud: I think it's a little bit of both. At first they weren't quite sure what to do about it, but they wanted to get in there and clean it up. He was looking good the last few days of spring, but then it flared up on him a little. Right now he's a little more worried about it than the trainers are. He really wants to get it corrected so he can play the whole year effectively and be as healthy as possible.

Last year he tried to play hurt with that calf problem and saw his numbers slide and he hated the way he played. He realizes that playing at 75 percent is just not the same. He can't wait to get out there and we'll welcome he's back when he's ready.

The Dodgerhater: I'm outing Hunter Pence as a World of Warcraft nerd right now. Think he'll be pissed?

Bud: Probably not. Hunter plays it a lot. I went over to his apartment this offseason and hung out at his place. He's got a big ol' computer on his kitchen table and he loves it.

Hunter's a different cat, but he's a great guy and we get along pretty well. But yeah, he's definitely a World of Warcraft guy.

The Dodgerhater: Would you be pissed if I told you that if you pitch against the Giants that I want you to throw 8 scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts but I hope the Giants win it against your bullpen?

Bud: Haha. That's okay with me. I know it'll be a weird situation, but I gotta root for my team first and it's my job. But when we're not playing the Giants, I'll definitely be watching.


The Dodgerhater: I noticed that you no longer have a Facebook page. At what point do you become too famous for one and is that something the team suggests you do?

Bud: I went throught the Rookie program this year in D.C. and it's definitely not a good idea to be out there and putting your life on display. It's fun for awhile and I liked being able to keep in touch with friends on it, but you know, maybe something bad shows up from the past or whatever and you definitely don't need that. So, it was best to just get rid of it and focus on baseball.

The Dodgerhater: Last question. Have you seen Hot Tub Time Machine yet?

Bud: Haha. No I haven't yet, but I've heard about it. Is it good?

The Dodgerhater: Let's put it this way, maybe you should skip the game tomorrow and go see it.

Bud: You're telling me it's that good?

The Dodgerhater: Well, no, but it's still pretty damn awesome.

Bud: Alright, well I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it anyway.

The Dodgerhater: Thanks for taking a few minutes man. Good luck this season, and I'm really sorry that you guys have to start off the season by getting swept by the Giants.

Bud: No problem man. And yeah, we will certainly see about your little prediction.