"It jumps naturally off his bat"

photo taken of Brandon Belt in November in the Arizona Fall League by Dulamae


That's Will The Thrill Clark talking about Brandon Belt. Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle has an encouraging story about how Brandon Belt has improved since the Giants drafted him at No. 147 just two years ago.

Why do I say "encouraging"? Simple. Giants fans have become accustomed to the farm system delivering replacement level guys in recent years (except for the pitchers, obviously). We were used to someone like John Bowker arriving instead. Hard to believe, but John was the starting rightfielder on opening day last year in Houston. He drove in the second run of the year for the Orange and Black but it was kind of downhill after that. John only logged 90 plate appearances for the Giants over the next four months as Nate Schierholtz began starting and Andres Torres was in rightfield in 43 games. The big highlight for Bowker came on July 31, when he and Joe Martinez were swapped to the Pirates for Javier Lopez.