2 San Francisco Giants

He is not Barry Bonds, he does not hit behind Barry Bonds, and he is not the new manager depending on Barry Bonds. It is therefore no surprise that closer Robb Nen has kept a relatively low profile this spring. The amount of attention any Giants player gets from the media and the public is usually proportional to how closely his role relates to Bonds, and Nen is several degrees removed.

But he is responsible for protecting many of the leads that Bonds provides with his bat. That's why San Francisco is waiting with great anticipation to see how quickly Nen can recover from the right-shoulder surgery he had in November. The medical staff's optimistic prognosis, that Nen would be at full strength by the beginning of the season, was tempered by the fact that he only began throwing his trademark slider midway through spring training and had yet to regain his old velocity.

During last year's playoffs the Giants were reminded of how important Nen's health is to their fortunes when he gamely pitched despite the pain in his shoulder. He saved five of their seven wins in the Division Series and the NLCS, but he clearly wasn't throwing as hard as usual. In Game 4 of the World Series the Giants ordered the pitch-speed display on the Pacific Bell Park scoreboard turned off so it wouldn't be so obvious that Nen had lost 5 mph on his fastball and slider, both of which normally top 90 mph. The final sign that Nen wasn't right came when he gave up a two-run double to Troy Glaus that completed the Angels' comeback from a 5-0 deficit in what would have been the Series-clinching win for the Giants. "At that point of the season nobody's completely healthy," Nen says. "I probably wasn't quite right, but that's not the reason we lost."

But if the 33-year-old Nen doesn't return to the form that has earned him 314 career saves, it could be the reason that the Giants don't make it back to the World Series. San Francisco has a steady but unspectacular starting rotation, so the bullpen, particularly Nen and setup men Felix Rodriguez and Tim Worrell, are critical to the team's success. In fact, as hard as it may be to believe about a team that features Bonds, who seems to go deep every time a pitcher is foolish enough to come near the strike zone, the Giants will be relying mostly on pitching and speed to make another trip to the postseason.

Jason Schmidt has looked like a No. 1 starter for stretches in his eight-year career, and new manager Felipe Alou is hoping that the righthander will finally sustain his mastery over a full season. Until then, lefthander Kirk Rueter, because of his consistency, ranks as the team's closest thing to an ace. In a cost-cutting move San Francisco traded Russ Ortiz, who had averaged nearly 16 wins over the past four seasons, to the Braves for promising lefty Damian Moss. "The pitching is going to be fine," says Alou. "We have some guys who are in the prime of their careers and some young pitchers who have already had some success in the big leagues. It's a very professional staff, so we know what we're going to get from them."

The offense is a bit of an uncertainty because the Giants have recast many of the supporting roles around Bonds. Second baseman Jeff Kent, rightfielder Reggie Sanders and third baseman David Bell, who combined for 80 homers and 266 RBIs last season, were all allowed to leave as free agents, and general manager Brian Sabean replaced them with free agents Ray Durham, Jos� Cruz Jr. and Edgardo Alfonzo, respectively. The new trio won't produce as many homers as the departed players, but Cruz, Durham and new centerfielder Marquis Grissom will be far more dangerous on the base paths. They should help ensure that San Francisco, which finished 13th in the National League with only 74 steals last year, moves up appreciably in that category.

San Francisco made a four-year, $26 million investment in Alfonzo, and then Alou installed him in the crucial fifth spot in the batting order behind Bonds, both of which are risky moves in light of Alfonzo's declining power numbers and history of back trouble. But even if Alfonzo or some of the other newcomers don't live up to expectations, the Giants have Sabean, one of the best G.M.'s in baseball at retooling on the fly, and most important, they have Bonds, who appears primed to force further revision of the record book. As long as that's the case, San Francisco fans should keep their Octobers free.