re bonds vs maddux in article c l l hfz cup hp com loos cup hp com joe loos writes i ve been following the giants closely over the off season newspapers notesgroup etc but i had my first up close and personal last night at the stick after watching giants hitters struggle last year barry s swing was very impressive he s very quick and his swing seems effortless even compared to clark particularly clark as of late it was interesting to see bonds hit maddux so well i m not sure if barry was after revenge against the braves or what but he stroked three very pretty hits b b hr for rbi s the giants always hit maddux well but it was interesting that maddux did not pitch around bonds to get to clayton last night he threw straight fastballs over the plate to bonds in the st last night got away with the first one but bonds hit the second one out of the park then in the rd when clark was at third base with one out maddux did not intentionally walk bonds and bonds dropped a single to left center the giants as a team are doing a lot of surprising things this year in addition to bonds there has been some good pitching and some hitters seem to be swinging much better clayton s defense has been superb mcgee seems to like leading off this year manwaring is driving the ball so on so forth the braves announcers pointed out that mcgee as a leadoff hitter has not scored a run yet he will always hit around but i m concerning about his on base percentage the key in the lineup is matt williams he has to stay hot so that bonds can hit with runners on base i hope it continues i think they need to continue well into june before people are really sold that they are for real particularly the pitching the pitching gets a set back as bud black is placed on the dl burba has done a superb job filling in so far he looks like a different pitcher from last year however swift is terrible in both of his starts with burba moving into the rotation mike jackson is the only right handed reliever aside from rod beck he ll get a lot of actions i also hope that dusty can manage his bullpen better than roger craig especially on beck i was concerned when beck was used for straight days earlier this week for myself i think the fresh start of magowan baker etc has really wiped out a lot of negatives from the last few years and will be a real factor in helping them significantly improve over last year so far so good edward hui
