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The same old Giants come to Denver for the Rockies' home opener today, and unfortunately due to an unconventional day off in the middle of the series, they'll be in town through Thursday - a day longer than you'd typically see. Among the Giants you'll see wandering around downtown Denver on Tuesday while there's no baseball being played are new additions Melky Cabrera (who was acquired from the Royals for Jonathan Sanchez during the offseason), Angel Pagan, and Gregor Blanco - all outfielders who, along with Aubrey Huff, will spend the season conspiring to take playing time away from potential young star Brandon Belt. They also feature an acquisition by way of return from injury. He is the one and only...GOLDEN CHILD.
Posey is off to a nice start in three games this season, posting those numbers you see above along with homer and a couple of walks. More importantly for the Giants, he's started all three games behind the plate and doesn't look to have any lingering issues at this point, though it's still early. Posey hit .299/.360/.472 with 22 home runs in basically a full season's worth of games across 2010 and 2011, so there's no reason to think that he won't continue to be the Giants' offensive leader.
Pitching is still the Giants' forte, with Tim Lincecum, Madison Bumgarner, and the newly-extended Matt Cain heading the rotation, of course. On top of that, they feature Barry Zito, and while he is still, in fact, Barry Zito, he also owns a career 24-0 record and 0.38 ERA against the Rockies.* At this time, they don't have a fifth starter, but Erik Surkamp and Ryan Vogelsong will probably be in the mix when they need one. Vogelsong had a successful rehab start in Fresno, and is scheduled to make another soon.
*Those stats may or may not be real, but they're awfully close.
Cabrera is likely going to be an upgrade over anything they had in the outfield last year, and although perennial Rockies killer Cody Ross is gone, they still have Nate Schierholtz and Pablo Sandoval, both of whom had numerous big games at Coors Field last season. Oh, and I think Freddy Sanchez is dead, so there's that. The Giants, like it or not, are a pretty serious candidate to win the NL West this year, despite the fact that they were swept in the opening series by the D-Backs. With their rotation, solid bullpen (which features Sergio Romo, Jeremy Affeldt, the ageless and solid duo of Guillermo Mota and Javier Lopez, plus some weird idiot closing out games), and seemingly improved lineup, they'll be in the thick of things and will likely give the Rockies a boatload of trouble once again in 2012.
Prediction: the Rockies beat Bumgarner (with Moyer on the mound, of all people), but continue to be dumbfounded by Zito and may or may not have some moderate success against Lincecum. Despite that, I could see one of those two games going to the Rockies, with my pick being today's contest behind solid pitching from Jhoulys Chacin and a wacky home crowd. Two out of three it is.