Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Spring Training Update: Pitching Prospects Rule Intrasquad Game

The Giants held their annual spring training intrasquad game yesterday.  Covechatter watched it on his iPad and has a full report on his site linked to the left.  It was actually more of a showcase all-star game for the Giants minor league prospects, but was so much fun they extended it from a planned 3 inning affair to 4 innings that ended in a scoreless tie.  If you know about the Giants farm system, it comes as no surprise that pitching and defense ruled the day with Kyle Crick, Edwin Escobar, Clayton Blackburn, Kendry Flores, Ty Blach, Derek Law, Jose Casilla and Brett Bochy all pitching scoreless frames.  Blackburn looked particularly sharp based on reports from multiple sources.  Covechatter was also impressed by Flores and Blach, not to take anything away from the other participating pitchers.

Defense was also on display as C Trevor Brown made a nice catch over the dugout railing of a foul pop, Brown made a nice sliding catch in CF and Blanco made a terrific catch down in the corner that has become almost his signature play.  In the last frame, Juan Perez tracked down drive in the alley by Chris Dominguez and started a relay that cut down a runner at the plate with Andrew Susac laying down the swipe tag.  Hey!  I think that's more fun to watch than a home plate collision any day!

Gary Brown made the sliding catch and had a single, but fell asleep on the basepaths and got doubled of first on a  pop-up behind SS.

MLB takes, in my opinion, two major steps forward this season with a new rule banning most home plate collisions.  That is something that is way overdue and should not detract from the game in any way.  There may be some grumbling from time to time about runners scoring who should not have, but in the long run, it should even out for all teams.  It should also cut down on injuries and keep the best players on the field more, which is also good for the game.

Instant replay has also been expanded. We'll see how it works out, but in my opinion, instant replay offers improved accuracy in calling the plays, and the emphasis should be on getting the call right.

First exhibition game of a too long spring schedule today.  There is an off day tomorrow, so Yusmeiro Petit will get the start.  Most of the pitching prospects went yesterday, so expect to see a lot of the guys in camp on minor league deals taking the mound.  While preparation for the season is important, most of the Giants roster doesn't need more than about 2 weeks of games to get ready.  The emphasis for the rest of the spring needs to be in keeping guys strong and healthy.

On the injury front, Angel Pagan was back on the field yesterday after tweaking his back.  He likely won't play until the weekend at the earliest.  Marco Scutaro continues to take it slow.  Bruce Bochy does not want to burn out Buster Posey's legs early, so we won't see him before the weekend, either.

First Spring Training Game Wrap later today.  Play ball!!

10 comments:

  1. Good morning everyone... there's baseball on the airwaves today! The "prospect game" was fun to watch, especially since it was my first time seeing many of those guys in live action. Thanks for the mention. I was thinking about your comment the other night about Scutaro DrB, and that's something that's been on my mind a lot this winter. I remember Edgar Renteria only played a handful of regular season games in 2010. Seemed like he was on the DL almost all year, but he was fresh for the playoffs, and that's what mattered. I wonder if Scutaro will get that kind of treatment this year. Like you say, that may allow the Giants to keep both Abreu and Adrianza around for a while.

    Can't wait to get these games going!

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    1. Would be great turning out like Renteria...

      Nothing like Fred Sanchez please. His career never recovered from the last injury.

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  2. Some notes on Abreu: Alex P. has mentioned that Abreu looks healthy and strong for the first time since wearing a Giants uni - he appears to be moving well, but does get his knees iced after play. Abreu's performance with the bat down the stretch last year should be noted as well. In the month of September, he slashed ..271/.295/.475. On the season with the usual SSS caveats, Abreu did most of his damage vs. southpaws: .883 OPS batting RH vs. .650 batting from the left. Just maybe a quasi platoon is in order to keep Scutaro more fresh down the stretch.

    If so, maybe Bochy is willing to experiment with Belt batting 2nd and bat Abreu 6 or 7 where he can do some damage with the bat while pushing his low OBP down in the order.

    As for Adrianza, what uniform will he bear wearing in April?

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    1. It probably means NOTHING, but Belt is batting 2nd for the opener today. Abreu and Crawford go 7-8... maybe you're onto something.

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    2. Adrianza: Mets, with Daniel Murphy coming to Los Gigantes.

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    3. You just spitballin' here or....?

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    4. I know both teams needs pretty well. The Mets have been dangling Murphy forever, and he's 5.8MM they don't want to pay. They need a SS and have been playing chicken with Boras over Stephen Drew. They'd take a chance on Ehire, and the Giants want pop off the bench/backup for Scutaro. If Bochy is serious about wanting more offense, Murphy could bring it.

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    5. Oh, and in addition, Alderson does not like Murphy because he doesn't work counts and follow the Moneyball ethos. Which team has no qualms about recruiting them there "hackers" anyways...?

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