Giants unsure of identity with Bonds gone

By Jack Etkin, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published March 11, 2008 at 12:15 a.m.

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Barry Bonds

Photo by Eric Risberg / Associated Press

The new-look Giants, led by recently acquired center fielder Aaron Rowand, right, will try to avoid a fourth consecutive last-place finish in the National League West this year.

Photo by Eric Risberg / Associated Press

Giants fan Patrick McGarvey sports a Barry Bonds jersey while attending a Giants spring-training game in Scottsdale, Ariz. The team cut ties with the home-run king after 15 seasons.

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - The difference readily is apparent, a change in the San Francisco Giants clubhouse that has altered the dynamic among players, increased the amount of open space and restored a workplace that had acquired stakeout overtones into a baseball sanctum.

Barry Bonds, the all-time leader with 762 home runs, is gone, the Giants having cut ties with the aging slugger after 15 seasons. They finally are embarking on a new direction after enduring a third straight losing season and tumbling into last place in the National League West in 2007 with 91 losses.

Second-year manager Bruce Bochy, who said he enjoyed his time with Bonds and their baseball discussions last year, said, "It's going to change the culture in the clubhouse. . . . It was Barry's clubhouse because of his stature and his dominant personality. It's been different. Guys have a little more privacy."

That's because Pedro Gomez of ESPN isn't embedded in Giants camp this spring training to provide regular Bonds updates and the horde of national reporters no longer come around on the chance Bonds might consent to speak.

"It's nice that there's less people here," infielder Rich Aurilia said. "I'll say that. It is nice that we kind of have an emptier clubhouse."

Bonds, who will be 44 in July, went into last season needing 21 homers to tie Hank Aaron at 755. Speculation that Bonds' ascent resulted from the use of performance-enhancing drugs hasn't gone away just because he isn't around.

But with Bonds absent, his teammates no longer are subjected to questions on that topic. The corner locker once occupied by Bonds and where his entourage gathered - he had a videographer in tow last spring training - no longer is a space reporters eye warily.

"Especially when he wouldn't talk, people actually lingered until he would say something - if he did," reliever Steve Kline said. "He could have killed the bird with those stones early by saying, 'I'm not talking today.' And everybody probably would have took off.

"He wasn't a problem at all. People (described) him like he was some kind of monster, but he was quiet and just came here and did his job. He wasn't the rah-rah teammate that wanted to go out and do all the stuff with guys. He went out occasionally with the guys and stuff. But he was OK - he didn't bother us at all."

'Just the Giants'

Pitcher Barry Zito has taken Bonds' locker. The spot next to Bonds that Zito occupied belongs to pitcher Noah Lowry. And pitcher Matt Cain has moved across the room to be next to Lowry.

Asked whether he's looking forward to what the Giants will be like without Bonds, Zito said, "No more than I look forward to anything else. It's a baseball team here. We're just getting ready for a season here. We can't keep focusing on last year and all those things. Obviously, we want things to meld in the clubhouse. We're not looking at this team like, 'This is the Giants without Bonds.' This is just the Giants."

The Giants had offensive problems last year and must carry on without Bonds. True, he had become a liability in left field and clogged up the bases. But Bonds hit a team-leading 28 home runs in 340 at-bats. He also drew 132 walks, helping him compile a .480 on-base percentage.

Nonetheless, the Giants were next to last in the majors with 683 runs and last with a .387 slugging percentage.

San Francisco's starting pitchers were fourth in the National League with a 4.24 ERA and led the league in innings pitched (968 2/3) for the first time since 1968.

But the starters, a group that includes Zito, 29, Cain, 23, Tim Lincecum, 23, and Lowry, 26, were backed with an average 4.52 runs per game that ranked third lowest in the league.

Bochy said the Giants are going to have to rely on pitching and defense this season, areas that already have taken a hit this spring training.

They will start the season without shortstop Omar Vizquel, an 11-time Gold Glove winner who underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Feb. 27 and is expected back in early April.

The plan was to have Kevin Frandsen fill in, but Frandsen struggled so much defensively that Thursday, Bochy informed him that he would not be the Opening Day shortstop and would return to second base, his natural position, and compete with Ray Durham.

It's likely Brian Bocock will open the season at shortstop. The Giants believe Bocock, who turned 23 on Sunday and spent most of last season at the High Single-A level, where he hit .220, will be fine defensively.

Lowry, a left-hander who led the Giants with 14 victories last year, underwent surgery Friday on his left forearm, where pressure had built up, and could be back in late April.

But the Giants really don't know because they have been unable to find another pitcher who has undergone surgery for exertional compartment syndrome.

New direction

After deciding not to bring back Bonds, San Francisco's centerpiece acquisition was free-agent center fielder Aaron Rowand, who signed a five-year, $60 million contract.

Opposing managers will respect Rowand but won't warily glance at the Giants lineup card late in the game the way they did with Bonds to see when he might come to the plate for one game-changing at-bat.

"We need to move on as a club and as an organization and concentrate on finding other ways to win rather than relying on Barry to hit a three-run homer," Aurilia said.

The Giants haven't suffered through four consecutive losing seasons since 1974 to 1977. The optimism of spring training notwithstanding, great expectations do not surround this team, which generally is seen as a laggard in an otherwise competitive National League West.

Whatever their future short and long term, the Giants know they've entered new territory. Wherever they're going, they're headed there without Bonds.

"You lose one of the greatest players of all time from your ballclub, it changes," outfielder Dave Roberts said. "But we've got to move forward and create an identity for ourselves. For so many years, this organization has revolved around Barry Bonds, and rightfully so. But it's going to be a different makeup and a different dynamic, and, hopefully, we'll make it work."

etkinj@RockyMountainNews.com

Historical artifacts

The Hall of Fame expects the ball Barry Bonds hit for his record-setting 756th home run Aug. 7 will be on display soon, possibly by Opening Day.

Fashion designer Marc Ecko purchased the ball at auction in September for $752,000, and when he donates the ball, Jeff Idelson, the Hall of Fame's vice president of communication and education, said it will be displayed in Coop erstown, N.Y., with the asterisk that was affixed to symbolize Bonds' alleged steroids use after Ecko conducted an Internet poll.

"The text that accompanies the baseball will explain how it left Barry's bat and ended up in Coop erstown, that the asterisk was placed there by the donor based on a one-week period in September 2007 through an Internet poll that spoke to how America felt at that time," Idelson said.

"The asterisk doesn't implicate Barry. It's purely a part of that story of how (the ball) ended up in Coop erstown. And you let the visitor determine how they feel, make their own value judgments. We would never suggest how they value or judge things."

Idelson said the Hall has not pressed Ecko to donate the ball before the regular season starts March 30.

"It's a poignant piece, historically, whether it comes in in March or next year," Idelson said. "It's a piece that over time maintains its historical value."

Also on display in Cooperstown:

* Batting helmets Bonds wore when he hit his 755th and 756th home runs to tie and pass Hank Aaron's all-time record.

* Plate umpire John Hirschbeck's ball and strike indicator from Aug. 7, when Bonds hit No. 756.

* Balls signed by the Giants starting lineup, the opposing Washington Nationals lineup and the four umpires.

* Cap worn by pitcher Mike Bacsik, who yielded Bonds' 756th home run, and broadcaster Duane Kuiper's scorecard from the game.

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