Saturday, March 26, 2011

Spring Training Game Wrap: Giants 9 Reds 6; Giants 8 Indians 5

The wins were a bit ugly, but hey, we'll take any win from the Giants right now, won't we? Key lines:

Andres Torres- 3 for 4, 2 2B, BB. BA= .271. Torres had been slumping but broke out of it in a big way tonight. One of his doubles came batting from the right sides against none other than Aroldis Chapman. Now THAT is encouraging!

Freddy Sanchez- 2 for 3, 2B. BA= .250.

Buster Posey- 0 for 1, 3 BB. Even if his BA and HR's were equal to Molina's, he'd be way more valuable because of the OBP.

Miguel Tejada- 2 for 4. BA= .259. Miggy is getting warmer. He started 2 DP's in the field to boot.

Tim LIncecum- 5 IP, 11 H, 6 R, 1 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 4.37. Hopefully this was just a tune-up game and Timmy will be firing on opening day. He'll need to be against Kershaw!

Mota, Affeldt and Edlefsen all pitched scoreless innings.

Fred Lewis(Reds)- 1 for 2, HR(1), BB. Freddy is battling Jeremy Hermida for the 5'th OF job in Cincy. Even though Hermida has had a better spring, FLew can lead off, something Cincy needs.

Aroldis Chapman(Reds)- 0 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 0 BB, 0 K's. ERA= 5.73. A line like that will completely blow up a fantasy pitching line for the whole week in H2H scoring. Velocity is important, but it isn't everything.

Mike Fontenot- 2 for 5, 2 2B. BA= .271. Love what Fonty brings as a reserve IF.

Nate Schierholtz- 2 for 4, BB, SB(2). BA= .276. Nate is trying to prove he belongs on the roster. With Cody Ross on the DL, can he start in RF to open the season?

Brandon Belt- 2 for 4, HR(3), BB. .306/.358/.532! He's got the BA! He's got the power! He's got the OBP! He's got the D! What more do you want? Bochy said Burrell is his starting LF which some analysts interpreted to mean Belt will get sent down to Fresno. With Ross out, though, Huff could play RF with Belt at 1B pushing Nate back to the bench. So, if Belt plays his way onto the team, it not only will certainly cost Travis a job, it may push Nate back to the bench.

Brandon Crawford- 2 for 5. BA= .222. Nice to see Crawford get a couple of hits.

Eli Whiteside- 2 for 5, 2B, 3B. BA= .286. Whiteside was injured at the start of spring Chris Stewart was looking like he wanted Whitey's job. It looks like Whiteside will be staying on as backup catcher.

Roger Kieschnick- 2 for 3, HR. A Roger Kieschnick sighting! What a shot in the arm for the Giants organization it would be if Roger came back big in 2011!

Ryan Vogelsong- 4.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 3.54.

Jeff Suppan- 4 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 1 K, GO/AO= 7/2. ERA= 5.50. Have either Suppan or Vogelsong shown enough to make the 25 man roster?

With the double wins, the Giants ran their Cactus League record to 20-11. They wrap up their 2011 stint in the Arizona desert with a trip to Surprise, AZ to take on the KC Royals with Jonathan Sanchez taking the ball.

7 comments:

  1. Just a note, but Belt did fail to get a runner in from third with 0 outs. Great performance nonetheless.

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  2. According to Tim Dierkes of mlbtraderumors.com Belt will be with the Giants for a whole extra year if he is called up after April 11. 11 days for one year? It seems insane to call him up if that's the case:

    http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2011/03/britton-belt-face-different-cutoff-dates.html

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  3. if they can dump rowand...belt starts in sf...if not, he is in fresno, cuz why would the giants want to lose both nate and ti?

    rowand sucked it up again tonite...although he did have a sac fly....hoofrigginray..

    ti with a passable outing in left....should make him attractive to other squads...giants need to make a decision on him by tomorrow

    not worried about timmy...he threw 90 pitches...he is stretched out, and was nice enough to serve one up to freddie...who needs to keep his job

    baggs thinks that both runzler and mota have made the roster...mota stating that he was told he was on the team....mota should not be talking to the press about things like that

    i think runzler is headed to fresno...so is vogelsong...both to be kept in reserve

    im hoping that kroon has made it....cuz he is only back to get his one last shot at being in the bigs...and while he would have to accept assignment, it would be unfair for the giants to do that to the guy...and if he doesnt make the 25 man, they should outright him...he will be grabbed in a sec...and if not, he has tons of caishe from japan, and can finally spend a summer with his family

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  4. "if they can dump rowand...belt starts in sf...if not, he is in fresno"

    Again, if Tim Dierkes is right, I see no scenario in which it would make any sense to keep Belt up to start the season instead of waiting out something like 10 games. I mean, we'd get him for a whole extra year.

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  5. Makes good business sense to send Belt down. It might work like the Posey experiment last year as Belt comes up and gives the team fresh shot of gusto.

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  6. The comments are in mid-season form! Thanks everybody! It's great to know people are reading and caring. Tough decisions coming up. Having Ross on the DL does create on "extra" roster spot, at least temporarily. The whole service time issue needs to be fixed in the next contract, but those are the rules and the players agreed to them. I agree, it would be stupid to not send Belt down for a couple of weeks if it means an extra year of control on his contract.

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  7. We're all excited for the season to start, no doubt. And it's great to see your success on the blog. I used to post a lot with you in Dobbsie's Prospect Thread years ago (under the name 'omyid'). Whatever happened to Dobbsie/ProspectHound anyways?

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