Madison Bumgarner benefitted from the Giants remarkable defense, but the offense sputtered while the Padres pulled ahead in the later innings as the Giants spring record went to 11-5. Key Lines:
Emmanuel Burriss- 2 for 2, 3B, BB, SB(5). BA= .441. We know Burriss is not going to hit .400 in the season, but I think he is finally capable of posting a solid OBP and using his speed on the bases. He also has developed into a superior fielding second baseman and can play multiple positions. He should definitely win a roster spot and I think he should be the starter at 2B in the increasingly likely event that Franchez isn't able to answer the bell on opening day.
Madison Bumgarner- 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 2.45. Bumgarner didn't seem that sharp. Maybe he was practicing pitching to contact a la Timmy. He greatly benefitted from a couple of DP's and a pickoff by CStew of a runner at 3B. With this Giants wonderful defense, why not pitch to contact more, as long as you can keep it in the ballpark.
The Giants have tomorrow off.
Around the league:
Eric Hosmer went 3 for 3 with a HR for KC. He's now hitting in the high .300's. Hope his fantasy stock isn't rising too much.
Alex Gordon continues to have a hot bat for KC also.
Francisco Liriano pitched 5 no-hit innings for the Twins with 6 K's and just 1 Walk.
Matt Moore got roughed up today by Boston.
Clay Bucholz is having a strong spring. He allowed just 1 run in 5 IP with 4 K's and 0 Walks against the Rays.
Mike Minor pitched 5 shutout innings today against Baltimore. His ERA is 0.00 on the spring so far.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Spring Training Update: Game Wrap Giants 3 Dodgers 3
In a rather desultory affair, the Giants and Dodgers played to a 3-3 tie on a windy night in Glendale, AZ. Key Lines:
Gregor Blanco- 2 for 4, 2B, SB(7). BA= .444. Blanco continued to state his case for a roster spot with a fine day at the plate and a nice diving catch in left-center that proved to be the play that prevented the Dodgers from winning this one.
Brandon Crawford- 0 for 3. BA= .348. Crawford handled numerous chances at SS with aplomb. He had a rough night at the plate taking 2 called third strikes. He did work the count well and took some healthy looking cuts. That's going to happen to selective hitters sometimes.
Brandon Belt- 1 for 3, HR(3), SF. BA= .371. The dinger was really a pop-up to LF that the wind blew out of the park. The SF was actually a much better AB as he did exactly what he was supposed to do to get the game tying run home. Belt also looked like he could cover some ground in LF, in one case cutting off a ball in the corner to turn a potential double into a single. He also dug anther ball out of the corner and made a nice throw to the relay man to nail Trent Oeltjen foolishly trying to stretch a double into a triple in a tie game.
Brian Burres- 3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA- 2.25. Burres kept the Dodgers off balance with a mix of cutters, curveballs and changeups. Trevor Wilson taught him the cutter way back in San Jose and it's what's enabled him to hang around the fringes of MLB. He might not have made it above A ball without it.
Andrew Kown- 2.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 4.15. Kown was impressive in his first inning of work pounding the strike zone with a heavy downhill FB that looked like it was going at least in the low 90's. His command got ;progressively shakier the longer he was out there.
Matt Yourkin- 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 2.25. Impressive outing for Yourkin. I'd have confidence in him for an emergency start or two if it came to that.
Madison Bumgarner goes against the Padres and Edinson Volquez tomorrow in Scottsdale, weather permitting.
Around the League: Jake Peavy pitched 5 scoreless innings for the White Sox and looked impressive in the process. Ubaldo Jimenez got lit up like a Christmas tree pitching for the Cleveland Indians.
Gregor Blanco- 2 for 4, 2B, SB(7). BA= .444. Blanco continued to state his case for a roster spot with a fine day at the plate and a nice diving catch in left-center that proved to be the play that prevented the Dodgers from winning this one.
Brandon Crawford- 0 for 3. BA= .348. Crawford handled numerous chances at SS with aplomb. He had a rough night at the plate taking 2 called third strikes. He did work the count well and took some healthy looking cuts. That's going to happen to selective hitters sometimes.
Brandon Belt- 1 for 3, HR(3), SF. BA= .371. The dinger was really a pop-up to LF that the wind blew out of the park. The SF was actually a much better AB as he did exactly what he was supposed to do to get the game tying run home. Belt also looked like he could cover some ground in LF, in one case cutting off a ball in the corner to turn a potential double into a single. He also dug anther ball out of the corner and made a nice throw to the relay man to nail Trent Oeltjen foolishly trying to stretch a double into a triple in a tie game.
Brian Burres- 3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA- 2.25. Burres kept the Dodgers off balance with a mix of cutters, curveballs and changeups. Trevor Wilson taught him the cutter way back in San Jose and it's what's enabled him to hang around the fringes of MLB. He might not have made it above A ball without it.
Andrew Kown- 2.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 4.15. Kown was impressive in his first inning of work pounding the strike zone with a heavy downhill FB that looked like it was going at least in the low 90's. His command got ;progressively shakier the longer he was out there.
Matt Yourkin- 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 2.25. Impressive outing for Yourkin. I'd have confidence in him for an emergency start or two if it came to that.
Madison Bumgarner goes against the Padres and Edinson Volquez tomorrow in Scottsdale, weather permitting.
Around the League: Jake Peavy pitched 5 scoreless innings for the White Sox and looked impressive in the process. Ubaldo Jimenez got lit up like a Christmas tree pitching for the Cleveland Indians.
Spring Training Update: Game Wrap Giants 7 A's 2
Tim Lincecum appeared to be ready to start the season and the Giants hitters broke out the long ball in the middle innings to make this one a romp in the desert. Key Lines:
Angel Pagan- 2 for 4, HR(1), SB(2). BA= .300. Some commenter on another site said Pagan was having a terrible spring. Well, not anymore, he isn't!
Melky Cabrera- 1 for 3, 2B(5). BA= .400. Melky was a doubles machine last year. I'm thinking some of those turn into triples in AT&T park.
Pablo Sandoval- 1 for 3, HR(2), SF. BA= .242. Pablo goes DEEEEP! The BA will be much better in season.
Nate Schierholtz- 1 for 3, 2B, Assist(Ka'aihue at home). Nate has had a quiet spring, but got to show off his arm today and added a double.
Ryan Theriot- 1 for 4, HR(1). BA= .200. I'm sure this dinger will go a long ways toward cementing a roster spot.
Tim Lincecum- 6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 4.50. Timmy looks like he's ready to start the season, although a split squad A's lineup is probably not a good test.
Brian Wilson- 0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 0.00. The first hiccup for BWillie. The 2 K's would indicate there isn't much to worry about here.
Javy Lopez and Santiago Casilla each pitched a scoreless frame.
It's raining cats and dogs here in SoCal today. Hope the weather holds out in Arizona long enough for me to see the Giants-Dodgers tilt on TV tonight. Brian Burres takes the mound for the Giants. The Brandons, Burriss and Blanco and well as Hector Sanchez and Brett Pill should be in this one. Heath Hembree is slated to pitch in this game too. I wonder what other prospects we might see?
Angel Pagan- 2 for 4, HR(1), SB(2). BA= .300. Some commenter on another site said Pagan was having a terrible spring. Well, not anymore, he isn't!
Melky Cabrera- 1 for 3, 2B(5). BA= .400. Melky was a doubles machine last year. I'm thinking some of those turn into triples in AT&T park.
Pablo Sandoval- 1 for 3, HR(2), SF. BA= .242. Pablo goes DEEEEP! The BA will be much better in season.
Nate Schierholtz- 1 for 3, 2B, Assist(Ka'aihue at home). Nate has had a quiet spring, but got to show off his arm today and added a double.
Ryan Theriot- 1 for 4, HR(1). BA= .200. I'm sure this dinger will go a long ways toward cementing a roster spot.
Tim Lincecum- 6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 4.50. Timmy looks like he's ready to start the season, although a split squad A's lineup is probably not a good test.
Brian Wilson- 0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 0.00. The first hiccup for BWillie. The 2 K's would indicate there isn't much to worry about here.
Javy Lopez and Santiago Casilla each pitched a scoreless frame.
It's raining cats and dogs here in SoCal today. Hope the weather holds out in Arizona long enough for me to see the Giants-Dodgers tilt on TV tonight. Brian Burres takes the mound for the Giants. The Brandons, Burriss and Blanco and well as Hector Sanchez and Brett Pill should be in this one. Heath Hembree is slated to pitch in this game too. I wonder what other prospects we might see?
Fantasy Focus: Savvy Vets Mock Auction Draft
The Savvy Vets fantasy baseball team participated in a mock auction draft today just to find out how it works and get a feels for the dynamics of it. It was a 10 team mock draft with 23 roster spots and a budget of $260. Here are the results with some commentary to follow:
C Brian McCann $2
1B Pablo Sandoval $25
2B Dustin Ackley $12
3B Brett Lawrie $20
SS Jimmy Rollins $5
OF Ryan Braun $50
OF Desmond Jennings $20
OF Michael Morse $12
UT Eric Hosmer $5
UT Drew Stubbs $5
SP Madison Bumgarner $5
SP Yu Darvish $5
RP Craig Kimbrel $20
RP John Axford $2
P Matt Moore $2
P Heath Bell $1
P Brandon Beachy $5
P Brian Wilson $1
BN Jordan Zimmerman $1
BN Brandon Morrow $2
BN Cory Luebke $1
BN Ubaldo Jimenez $1
BN Ervin Santana $2
Total Cost $204
Wow! These guys spent money like drunken sailors early in the draft. I never dreamed that I wouldn't be able to give money away at the end, although it was nice to be in complete control of the last third of the draft.
I initially identified 7 players I was willing to spend as much as $50+ on, Matt Kemp, Miguel Cabrera, Ryan Braun, Albert Pujols, Troy Tulowitzki, Jose Bautista, Joey Votto, but I was only willing to spend that much on one player. If I landed one, great. If not, well, there were 7 teams with $50+ less to spend later in the draft. I ended up with Braun out of that little plan.
My next tier was Sandoval and Lawrie. I was torn between which one to target for my 3B, but then decided I could go after both and one could be a utility guy. I forgot that Pablo has 1B eligibility. I had figured I might have to go as high as $30 apiece on them, so I waited, and waited, and waited some more. After landing both for a total of $45, I knew I was in good shape the rest of the draft.
In retrospect, I think I bid up Ackley from $9 to $12 too soon, but I like Ackley and $12 is not an unreasonable price for him. His name came up quite early in the draft, so I didn't know everybody else was going to run out of money so soon. I was not going to go higher than $15 for him.
I got into a mini bidding war for Jennings, but at that point I had money to burn. I wasn't going to go higher than $20 though. Turned out it was enough. I needed the steals and his upside is huge.
It looked like I had a choice between Rollins and Gordon at SS. I was tempted by Gordon but felt like I had enough steals already and wanted a more balanced hitter so took Rollins for $5 which is way less than I would have predicted he would cost. My fallback options were Aviles, Scutaro and Alcides Escobar, so I felt pretty good about Rollins.
Beyond Carlos Santana and Mike Napoli, most managers waited until the late rounds after they were out of money to draft a catcher. McCann for $2 is a ridiculous bargain, IMO. I was willing to pay that much for Ryan Doumit!
I figure I got about 15/15 with a good BA from Hosmer and 15/30 with not such a good BA from Stubbs to fill in my utility positions.
In retrospect, I probably waited too long to start drafting pitchers. I started out planning to follow my Starting Pitching on a Budget blueprint and target Brandon Beachy as my first pick. Had 3 pitchers, MadBum, Darvish and Moore penciled in off the to side to target earlier if the draft was going well and I wanted to have money to spend on closers. Well, as it turned out, the draft was going TOO well, so I jumped in by outbidding someone for Kimbrel and jumped into the SP fray at MadBum. Kimbrel was the only pitcher I spent more than $5 on and MadBum and Beachy were the only ones I spend more than $2 on. Crazy! In retrospect, I could have targeted one of several top tier SP's such as Kershaw, Halladay or CC and still had enough to get Kimbrel, MadBum etc.
Much as I love Timmy and Matt Cain. They went for $30+ and $23 respectively. I consider MadBum to be every bit as good and I got him for $5!
Some things to remember:
1. My league has 26 man rosters with the same budget of $260, so I have 3 more slots to fill.
2. The guys in my league are probably a lot smarter and craftier than the guys in this mock draft.
3. Guys are more likely to break their bank of a favorite player in a mock draft that has no consequences than a real one they have to live with for a full season.
What do you think of my mock draft? What suggestions do you have for adjustments in strategy?
C Brian McCann $2
1B Pablo Sandoval $25
2B Dustin Ackley $12
3B Brett Lawrie $20
SS Jimmy Rollins $5
OF Ryan Braun $50
OF Desmond Jennings $20
OF Michael Morse $12
UT Eric Hosmer $5
UT Drew Stubbs $5
SP Madison Bumgarner $5
SP Yu Darvish $5
RP Craig Kimbrel $20
RP John Axford $2
P Matt Moore $2
P Heath Bell $1
P Brandon Beachy $5
P Brian Wilson $1
BN Jordan Zimmerman $1
BN Brandon Morrow $2
BN Cory Luebke $1
BN Ubaldo Jimenez $1
BN Ervin Santana $2
Total Cost $204
Wow! These guys spent money like drunken sailors early in the draft. I never dreamed that I wouldn't be able to give money away at the end, although it was nice to be in complete control of the last third of the draft.
I initially identified 7 players I was willing to spend as much as $50+ on, Matt Kemp, Miguel Cabrera, Ryan Braun, Albert Pujols, Troy Tulowitzki, Jose Bautista, Joey Votto, but I was only willing to spend that much on one player. If I landed one, great. If not, well, there were 7 teams with $50+ less to spend later in the draft. I ended up with Braun out of that little plan.
My next tier was Sandoval and Lawrie. I was torn between which one to target for my 3B, but then decided I could go after both and one could be a utility guy. I forgot that Pablo has 1B eligibility. I had figured I might have to go as high as $30 apiece on them, so I waited, and waited, and waited some more. After landing both for a total of $45, I knew I was in good shape the rest of the draft.
In retrospect, I think I bid up Ackley from $9 to $12 too soon, but I like Ackley and $12 is not an unreasonable price for him. His name came up quite early in the draft, so I didn't know everybody else was going to run out of money so soon. I was not going to go higher than $15 for him.
I got into a mini bidding war for Jennings, but at that point I had money to burn. I wasn't going to go higher than $20 though. Turned out it was enough. I needed the steals and his upside is huge.
It looked like I had a choice between Rollins and Gordon at SS. I was tempted by Gordon but felt like I had enough steals already and wanted a more balanced hitter so took Rollins for $5 which is way less than I would have predicted he would cost. My fallback options were Aviles, Scutaro and Alcides Escobar, so I felt pretty good about Rollins.
Beyond Carlos Santana and Mike Napoli, most managers waited until the late rounds after they were out of money to draft a catcher. McCann for $2 is a ridiculous bargain, IMO. I was willing to pay that much for Ryan Doumit!
I figure I got about 15/15 with a good BA from Hosmer and 15/30 with not such a good BA from Stubbs to fill in my utility positions.
In retrospect, I probably waited too long to start drafting pitchers. I started out planning to follow my Starting Pitching on a Budget blueprint and target Brandon Beachy as my first pick. Had 3 pitchers, MadBum, Darvish and Moore penciled in off the to side to target earlier if the draft was going well and I wanted to have money to spend on closers. Well, as it turned out, the draft was going TOO well, so I jumped in by outbidding someone for Kimbrel and jumped into the SP fray at MadBum. Kimbrel was the only pitcher I spent more than $5 on and MadBum and Beachy were the only ones I spend more than $2 on. Crazy! In retrospect, I could have targeted one of several top tier SP's such as Kershaw, Halladay or CC and still had enough to get Kimbrel, MadBum etc.
Much as I love Timmy and Matt Cain. They went for $30+ and $23 respectively. I consider MadBum to be every bit as good and I got him for $5!
Some things to remember:
1. My league has 26 man rosters with the same budget of $260, so I have 3 more slots to fill.
2. The guys in my league are probably a lot smarter and craftier than the guys in this mock draft.
3. Guys are more likely to break their bank of a favorite player in a mock draft that has no consequences than a real one they have to live with for a full season.
What do you think of my mock draft? What suggestions do you have for adjustments in strategy?
Fantasy Focus: League Settings
I play in a Head-to-Head league(H2H) which I really like. The purist in me would prefer Roto, but I think it would get really boring by the end of the season.
The standard stat line for most fantasy league is 5X5, 5 offensive categories(BA, R, HR, RBI, Steals) and 5 pitching categories(W, K, ERA, WHIP, Saves). Those actually work quite well, IMO, but there are a couple of annoyances.
Offensive Categories:
1. Undervalue walks
2. Don't even count doubles and triples unless you figure you get the downstream benefit in R and RBI's.
3. Overvalue Steals
4. 4 counting stats with only 1 rate stat.
Pitching Categories:
1. Overvalue Wins
2. ERA and WHIP somewhat redundant. Sometimes they diverge, but most of the time if you win one, you win the other.
3. Overvalues Saves.
If you were the commissioner of a fantasy league and could install any setting you wanted, would you just got with the standard settings(which aren't as bad as I make it sound here), or would you customize it to better reflect the real values of the game.
Adding a couple of categories and going 7X7 would help to correct the overvaluing of Saves and Steals.
You could add a couple of rate stats to the offensive side, OBP and SLG% and replace HR with Total Bases. The probems with the resulting settings would be redundancy between SLG% and Total Bases as well as BA/OBP and possibly undervaluing HR's.
On the pitching side you could add Quality Starts and Holds. This would add a lot of value to setup relievers who have become a huge part of the real game, but are essentially non-entities in most fantasy leagues. It would also add value to good starting pitchers independent of how much run support they get from their team. Wins and QS might be a bit redundant though. You still have the redundancy in ERA and WHIP, but those give you a couple of rate stats to balance out all the counting stats.
In summary, my proposed 7X7 league settings would be:
Offense: BA, OBP, SLG%, R, Total Bases, RBI, Steals.
Pitching: W, QS, ERA, K, WHIP, Holds, Saves.
Q: Could you replace WHIP with Fewest Walks? I don't know if you could do this, but you have lowest ERA and WHIP being categories that seem to work, so you should be able to do it with Walks.
What do you think? What settings would you choose if you were a commissioner?
The standard stat line for most fantasy league is 5X5, 5 offensive categories(BA, R, HR, RBI, Steals) and 5 pitching categories(W, K, ERA, WHIP, Saves). Those actually work quite well, IMO, but there are a couple of annoyances.
Offensive Categories:
1. Undervalue walks
2. Don't even count doubles and triples unless you figure you get the downstream benefit in R and RBI's.
3. Overvalue Steals
4. 4 counting stats with only 1 rate stat.
Pitching Categories:
1. Overvalue Wins
2. ERA and WHIP somewhat redundant. Sometimes they diverge, but most of the time if you win one, you win the other.
3. Overvalues Saves.
If you were the commissioner of a fantasy league and could install any setting you wanted, would you just got with the standard settings(which aren't as bad as I make it sound here), or would you customize it to better reflect the real values of the game.
Adding a couple of categories and going 7X7 would help to correct the overvaluing of Saves and Steals.
You could add a couple of rate stats to the offensive side, OBP and SLG% and replace HR with Total Bases. The probems with the resulting settings would be redundancy between SLG% and Total Bases as well as BA/OBP and possibly undervaluing HR's.
On the pitching side you could add Quality Starts and Holds. This would add a lot of value to setup relievers who have become a huge part of the real game, but are essentially non-entities in most fantasy leagues. It would also add value to good starting pitchers independent of how much run support they get from their team. Wins and QS might be a bit redundant though. You still have the redundancy in ERA and WHIP, but those give you a couple of rate stats to balance out all the counting stats.
In summary, my proposed 7X7 league settings would be:
Offense: BA, OBP, SLG%, R, Total Bases, RBI, Steals.
Pitching: W, QS, ERA, K, WHIP, Holds, Saves.
Q: Could you replace WHIP with Fewest Walks? I don't know if you could do this, but you have lowest ERA and WHIP being categories that seem to work, so you should be able to do it with Walks.
What do you think? What settings would you choose if you were a commissioner?
Friday, March 16, 2012
Spring Training Update: Game Wrap Giants 3 Cubs 2
The Giants played, well, a pretty typical Giants game today edging the Cubbies 3-2. Key LInes:
Buster Posey- 1 for 2, BB. BA= .182. Hopefully Buster is starting to get his timing and swing down. He has a HR, single and BB in what, his last 5 PA's?
Emmanuel Burriss- 2 for 2, 2B, SB(4), CS. BA= .414. The GIants appear to want Burriss to win a job this spring. So far, he has done everything he could to make them happy. Cut down day is going to get mighty interesting!
Eric Surkamp- 4 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 4.78. Surkamp got roughed up a bit in his first spring start, but has been solid since with 11 K's against just 2 BB with 3 ER in 10 IP. Very encouraging that the Giants have a solid 6'th starter option in the wings.
Jeremy Affeldt- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.50. Affeldt got hit a bit in his first 2 appearances of the spring but has been solid in his last 4 outings.
Clay Hensley- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 2.25. Hensley is a lock for the last bullpen slot. I have a feeling he is going to play a big role in the Giants' success this year.
The Giants play a split squad pair tomorrow with Tim Lincecum facing the A's in Scottsdale in the afternoon and Brian Burres facing the Dodgers at their complex in the evening.
There are some nice interesting Fanposts over on McCovey Chronicles by Shankbone on draft eligible college players and another about a recent Fangraphs chat by Mike Newman in which "Nivra" asked a whole lot of questions about Giants prospects which Newman obviously did not know much about. He failed to scout Augusta last year because a buddy told him there were no prospects there.
There's a nice article in BA about international signings by NL West teams. Good to read that the Giants are still active on that front. Speedy CF Carlos Valdez($325 K) and power hitting 3B Anthony Gomez($200 K) sound interesting. Royel Astacio($150 K) also got a mention. We all know about Adalberto Mejia($350 K), but I had not heard of RHP Keury Mella($275 K) who is 6'2", 190 lbs and throws 92-93 MPH.
Around the League: Chase Utley(Phillies) has yet to play in a game this spring and continues to have severe arthritis issues of the knees.
David Wright(Mets) seems to have a torn abdominal muscle. He missed time last year with those can take forever to heal. I'd stay away from him in fantasy drafts.
Scott Baker(Twins) is reportedly having a recurrence of elbow issues that sidelined him for much of the second half last year.
Sleeper Alert: Garrett Richards struck out 6 batters in 4 innings for the Angels today. He's trying to win the 5'th starter spot in the Angels rotation. Richards was another of the high velocity-low walk pitchers in the recent Fangraphs article about projecting future success. Pitching in front of the Angels' lineup could result in a nice number in the W column as well as the other stat categories, even from a #5 starter!
Buster Posey- 1 for 2, BB. BA= .182. Hopefully Buster is starting to get his timing and swing down. He has a HR, single and BB in what, his last 5 PA's?
Emmanuel Burriss- 2 for 2, 2B, SB(4), CS. BA= .414. The GIants appear to want Burriss to win a job this spring. So far, he has done everything he could to make them happy. Cut down day is going to get mighty interesting!
Eric Surkamp- 4 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 4.78. Surkamp got roughed up a bit in his first spring start, but has been solid since with 11 K's against just 2 BB with 3 ER in 10 IP. Very encouraging that the Giants have a solid 6'th starter option in the wings.
Jeremy Affeldt- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.50. Affeldt got hit a bit in his first 2 appearances of the spring but has been solid in his last 4 outings.
Clay Hensley- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 2.25. Hensley is a lock for the last bullpen slot. I have a feeling he is going to play a big role in the Giants' success this year.
The Giants play a split squad pair tomorrow with Tim Lincecum facing the A's in Scottsdale in the afternoon and Brian Burres facing the Dodgers at their complex in the evening.
There are some nice interesting Fanposts over on McCovey Chronicles by Shankbone on draft eligible college players and another about a recent Fangraphs chat by Mike Newman in which "Nivra" asked a whole lot of questions about Giants prospects which Newman obviously did not know much about. He failed to scout Augusta last year because a buddy told him there were no prospects there.
There's a nice article in BA about international signings by NL West teams. Good to read that the Giants are still active on that front. Speedy CF Carlos Valdez($325 K) and power hitting 3B Anthony Gomez($200 K) sound interesting. Royel Astacio($150 K) also got a mention. We all know about Adalberto Mejia($350 K), but I had not heard of RHP Keury Mella($275 K) who is 6'2", 190 lbs and throws 92-93 MPH.
Around the League: Chase Utley(Phillies) has yet to play in a game this spring and continues to have severe arthritis issues of the knees.
David Wright(Mets) seems to have a torn abdominal muscle. He missed time last year with those can take forever to heal. I'd stay away from him in fantasy drafts.
Scott Baker(Twins) is reportedly having a recurrence of elbow issues that sidelined him for much of the second half last year.
Sleeper Alert: Garrett Richards struck out 6 batters in 4 innings for the Angels today. He's trying to win the 5'th starter spot in the Angels rotation. Richards was another of the high velocity-low walk pitchers in the recent Fangraphs article about projecting future success. Pitching in front of the Angels' lineup could result in a nice number in the W column as well as the other stat categories, even from a #5 starter!
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Spring Training Update: Game Wrap Giants 7 Mariners 5
The Giants got a solid start from Barry Zito and big games from The Brandons in a win over the Mariners in a night game in Peoria. Key Lines:
Freddy Sanchez- 2 for 4. BA- .286. Freddy's bat seems to be ready, but the shoulder continues to be balky.
Brandon Belt- 3 for 5, 2B. BA= .375. Belt got the start at 1B. His double was off the LHP Kuo, although Kuo seems to have completely lost it.
Brandon Crawford- 1 for 2, HR(1), BB. BA= .400. Crawford went deep on Kuo also.
Barry Zito- 4 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 4.00. Not that the Mariners are going to put a scare in many pitchers, but if Zito can just pitch like this all year and maybe rack up some QS's, it would be a huge boost to the Giants chances of making it back to the playoffs.
Heath Hembree- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save. ERA= 1.80. It doesn't count, but is this the first of many Saves for Hembree with the Giants?
George Sherrill(Seattle)- 1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 9.00. The Giants should have signed Sherrill instead of wasting their money on Afflelt! Yeah, I don't think so!
Eric Surkamp gets to show off what he has again tomorrow against the Cubs and Matt Garza. Buster Posey is expected to catch.
Freddy Sanchez- 2 for 4. BA- .286. Freddy's bat seems to be ready, but the shoulder continues to be balky.
Brandon Belt- 3 for 5, 2B. BA= .375. Belt got the start at 1B. His double was off the LHP Kuo, although Kuo seems to have completely lost it.
Brandon Crawford- 1 for 2, HR(1), BB. BA= .400. Crawford went deep on Kuo also.
Barry Zito- 4 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 4.00. Not that the Mariners are going to put a scare in many pitchers, but if Zito can just pitch like this all year and maybe rack up some QS's, it would be a huge boost to the Giants chances of making it back to the playoffs.
Heath Hembree- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save. ERA= 1.80. It doesn't count, but is this the first of many Saves for Hembree with the Giants?
George Sherrill(Seattle)- 1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 9.00. The Giants should have signed Sherrill instead of wasting their money on Afflelt! Yeah, I don't think so!
Eric Surkamp gets to show off what he has again tomorrow against the Cubs and Matt Garza. Buster Posey is expected to catch.
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