Friday, March 4, 2016

Spring Training Game Wrap 3/4/2016: Giants 4 Reds 3

Madison Bumgarner made his spring debut and the Giants held on to beat the Reds.  Key Lines:

Ehire Adrianza 1B- 1 for 2.  BA= .143.  Adrianza's single in the 3-run 6'th drove in 2 of the Giants total of 4 runs in the game.

Jarrett Parker RF- 2 for 3.  BA= .429.  Parker gets extra credit for singling in the insurance run in the 6'th of big, hard-throwing lefty Amir Garrett.  Parker is off to a nice start in his quest to make the 25 man roster on Opening Day.

Conor Gillaspie 3B- 1 for 2, 2B.  BA= .500.  Conor got the only XBH of the game for the Giants.  You can really tell the guys who are competing for a roster spot came to camp ready to play while the regulars know spring training is too long anyway and are rounding in to shape, so to speak.

Madison Bumgarner LHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 3 K's.  ERA= 4.50.  Bumgarner gave up a dinger to Eugenio Suarez in the first inning(more on him later).  He came back in the second inning to strike out the side.

Chris Heston RHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K.  ERA= 0.00.  Heston makes his spring debut.

Kyle Crick RHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K.  ERA= 0.00.  This might be the most significant line of the day.  The 0 BB's trump the 0 K's as Cricky's big challenge is to trust his stuff and pitch to contact.

Jake Smith, Ian Gardeck and Mike Broadway pitch scoreless innings with Gardeck getting 2 K's against 0 BB's.  Steven Okert got touched up for 2 runs in the 8'th inning.

Eugenio Suarez 3B(Reds)- 1 for 1, HR(1).  BA= .667.  Here's a fantasy baseball alert.  Suarez is going to be the regular 3B for the Reds this year, but he has SS eligibility in fantasy leagues due to his play there last year filling in for the injured Zack Cozart.  Suarez hit 13 HR's in 398 PA's last year.  With approximately 700 MLB PA's under his belt, it is not unreasonable to expect some offensive progression in 2016.

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Johnny Cueto's scheduled start tomorrow in the home half of a split-squad game was pushed back to Wednesday 3/9.  The official line is he is not hurt and the Giants are being cautious due to the extra innings he pitched in last year's postseason.  Cueto apparently did not do a whole lot of throwing in the offseason.  Bochy's quote:  "We obviously think he's behind."  My take?  Spring Training is too long anyway and the Giants obviously know a thing or two about championship burnout.

Ricky Romero gets the start in place of Cueto while Chris Stratton starts the away game.

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I'll leave you with 2 quotes from Dave Cameron of Fangraphs:

From 2 weeks ago:  "The idea that this rotation(Dodgers) isn't one of the best in baseball is weird."

From yesterday:  "The 2016 Dodgers rotation was essentially Clayton Kershaw and some combination of 4 high-risk pitchers with health problems."

No comment necessary.

5 comments:

  1. I like the Cameron quotes. I've noticed he's got his favorites and lacks consistency. And if you call him on it, even with his own words, he's gets kind of pissy. He also gets pissy when they're called out for their faulty modeling. Especially with the holy handgrenade, how did they get it 25-wins-wrong Royals projection last year.

    Now, I'll agree the Royals had some good bounces last year. But even with the +5 pythagorean luck taken out, they were a 90-72 team in 2015, not 70-92 where they were projected. Which is a hell of a swing. So, to me, getting on your high horse when you were wrong by 25 wins (actual) or 20 (pythagorean) because that's what your model projected just rings a bit hollow.

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    1. Just my opinion, of course, but Cameron has a lot of very interesting ideas. His big negative is that when anyone tries to point out flaws in his models or his reasoning, instead of presenting a rational counter-argument or adjusting his own thinking, he gets very dismissive and ridiculing in his responses, which makes people like me all too eager to point out his internal inconsistencies.

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    2. ... and, if you're going to run a website, it makes just a bit more sense to be open and inviting to your readers, not a complete jerk. But what would we know about running a website?!

      Gillaspie's putting a good swing on the ball right now. He laced that ball down the RF line. Only saw a couple of Crick's pitches. I'm totally ok with him staying in the bullpen, especially since the Giants have so many SP options in the upper minors (and likely not many openings in the MLB rotation for a while).

      Cove Chatter

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    3. Well, my experience here has given me a lot more sympathy for website operators who have to put up with all manner of disruptive commenters on their sites.

      Again, just my opinion, but it seems to me that Dave Cameron, more than a lot of other sabermetrically inclined writers, tends use the statistical focus as a shield against charges of bias, while at the same time getting these mancrushes on certain GM's and certain teams. First it was Jack Z and the Mariners. Now it's Friedman and the Dodgers. He then cherry picks stats to justify his infatuation and gets extremely defensive when the pedestal He's put them on crumbles.

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    4. My main issue with Cameron is his methodology goes out the window when it comes to Los Gigantes, calling it "that park" and "Raggs Kool Aid". The fact that he ragged on the org's leaders twice with low rankings, has had to stomach 3 championships (dismissed as a crapshoot of course) and generally gets surly when he gets legit questions makes it hard to take him too seriously. He does have a good article from time to time though.

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