Who Needs Home Runs?

Not Bengie Molina, apparently. Bruce Bochy announced last week that the hard-nosed catcher will be occupying the cleanup spot for the Giants at the start of the season. Molina is the one remaining bright spot in what was a dismal offensive season for the Giants in 2007. He did hit 19 homeruns, while driving in 81 runs - the majority of which seemed to come with either two strikes, two outs, or a one-run difference separating the two teams (some times all of the above).

But don't expect Molina to be swinging for the fences. He likened this Giants team to his 2002 World Champion Angels (gag!), who he claims did not win games through sheer power. "We killed people by getting a lot of base hits and stealing bases with all those speed guys. That's what we did. I'm expecting the same thing here. I think this is a major-league team, right? We all know that. These guys have to understand that we can do it by getting base hits."

Embodying the Giants new "Warrior Spirit" (more on that later), Molina also proclaimed, "We need to get to 95 wins this year. That's what's going to get us to the playoffs." Seems like a daunting task for a team projected to only score 3.99 runs a game. Yeah ... I'm still hoping the Giants add another bat.