Spring training has officially begun as the pitchers and catchers completed their first day of workouts. Here's some early observations and thoughts:
I've ready multiple references recently, mostly in fantasy related sites, about Pablo Sandoval gaining 30 lbs and other references to him being overweight and thus possibly a risk to draft for your fantasy team. It seems that people are referencing something Bochy said at Fan Fest that seemed to me to be referring to the early offseason or even end of last season. It's also well known that Pablo skipped going to Venezuela to spend more time on the same workout regimen as last offseason. I'll just say that I've seen several pictures of him that appear to be very recent in which he looks darn good! He is definitely redistributing his body weight and I agree that it looks like he may have truly gained muscle mass. His mid-section has a noticeably smaller diameter while he appears to have put on a slab of muscle across the chest and into the shoulders. Yup, Pablo is looking good! He ain't the Panda anymore!
Ryan Vogelsong tweaked his back and will miss the first 10 days of workouts. Hope that's all it is. You don't like to read news like this about a players who is already a risk for regression.
Marc Kroon retired. Glad he got a chance to earn some financial security in Japan and to experience some thrills over there. I thought there might be some team that could use him in the bullpen last year. Unfortunately for him, it's crazy hard to crack the Giants bullpen, especially right now.
I've got a new link up to CSN Bay Area. I decided I better put it up now that Baggs is reporting from there. Still got Extra Baggs up. I really like Alex Pavlovic a lot. In some ways, I think he's a better reporter than Baggs although Baggs seemed to have a nose for breaking a story. They are going to change the name of the blog. Not sure if I'll need a new link or what. Hopefully they give us the new web address so we don't lose track of it.
Lot's of coverage of Buster Posey's first workout. Man, just reading about the BP dingers and the crowd reaction brought tears to my eyes. I ran into a lot of Giants fans in the days and weeks following Buster's injury. Man, it was just like a death in the family. The most common expression I heard, time after time, was "I'm in mourning." He looked terrific in pictures today. He sounded in mid-season form at his presser. Great to read about him bouncing around the field like nothing happened. There was still a bit of edge of bitterness over Cousins though. When they asked him about Bochy's edict regarding not blocking the plate, Buster reminded everybody he wasn't blocking the plate on the Cousins play. His answer to the question about whether he believes Cousins is sorry, was pretty terse as was his response to whether he has talked to Cousins. No!
There's a lot of manager-speak and double talk about the reserve catching situation as well as the 1B/LF situation. Is it just me or has Huff worn out his welcome and now the Giants don't quite know what to do with him? It sounds to me like they would really, really like both Belt and Hector Sanchez to make the team, but then what do you do with Huff and CStew/Whiteside. I'm not sure why Whiteside is even in the discussion, for that matter.
It's shaping up to be an interesting spring. It's off to a great start with Vogey's back being the only real downer so far.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Back injuries scare me. Not the best start we could hope for.
ReplyDeleteZito's new crouched delivery is interesting. Better than long tosses with Wilson I says!
Not sure about Huff. I do think they desperately want Hector Sanchez on the 25.
If you count up HRs, Belt needs to not only make the 25, he needs to displace Nate. We'll see how that one goes. You brought up Bowker a bit earlier, I'm a big fan of NTG but he's had 1100 bats, he might just be who he is, a very good 4th OF. The kind you don't pay big money too, because you have another one right behind him in your system (hint, hint).
It's about time Zito brought something new. Don't know if it will work, but he couldn't keep trotting the same stuff out there. I noticed he kind of tweaked Rags a bit by pointing out this is what he wanted to do when he first signed with the Giants and Rags threw a hissy fit. Bet Rags don't do that this time!
DeleteAs I noted in another post here, a study posited that Zito lost a lot of his advantage by adding a new pitch in his year after the Cy Young, which required him to throw from another arm slot. So this tunnel idea sounds very similar to that and hopefully works to great effect.
DeleteI noticed the Rags comment but did not make that connection, that makes a lot of sense. But he is missing the big difference, back then, he's coming in a big contract then makes huge changes? If it doesn't work, that's a huge egg on the face of everyone. As it is, it has been a huge egg on everyone anyhow, so now it's "what the hell, we only got a couple more seasons of this, let him try to improve any way he can, because he can use it."
As I noted below, I believe that they desperately want Sanchez to make the 25, as that would mean that he advanced enough to perhaps develop, with extended starts in the majors as Posey's backup in 2012, into a starter for 2013 (or 2014 at latest). Better to have two potential starting options than if they are forced to move Posey to, say, LF or 2B, and they have no great alternative (though I still think that Stewart might be good in time as a starter, he really knows how to avoid strikeouts while getting walks).
Yes, Belt needs to beat out Nate for a starting spot, that is how I see it too.
The problem with analyzing Nate is that his career numbers are not his potential. From dissecting his game by game results, I believe that there are roughly 3 different types of Nate ABs. There is the Nate at his full potential, where he's batting around 1.000 OPS. There is Nate totally cold, where he's batting very poorly. Then there is Nate playing at under 100%, returning before he's fully healed from his latest injury, where he's batting very poorly again.
If he can keep the hot Nate going for long periods of time, that's why the Giants keep on giving him so many chances. Plus, he's got a lot of power that he hasn't really tapped into yet, which if he does, he would be a great starter.
Plus, he makes a great 4th OF because there's not as big a drop in offense when he comes in and he's hitting, he's better than replacement level, due to his great fielding.
His problem, however, is 1) he gets injured a lot and thus 2) he insists on coming back even though he's not 100%.
If the Merc is smart, they will auto-direct any traffic from the old site to the new site.
ReplyDeleteI like Alex a lot too, look forward to seeing what he can do covering the Giants (I'm not that big a Carl Steward fan, based on what I saw of him last season, though I'm willing to give him a fair shake).
I respect Posey for his handling of Cousins. Why let him off? That's the PC thing to do, but if it were me, I would have been closer to Sabean than Posey, who was diplomatic, yet pointedly negative by what he wasn't saying. Made me love him even more than I did before, and given that I give him a lot of credit for 2010, that's some doing. I hope they sign him to a long term deal sometime soon. I expect that the two sides won't come to agreement this spring, too dangerous and risky from the Giants side due to the injury aspect, but they should get something done next off-season, I think.
I don't think Huff has worn out his welcome, though it certainly seems like it. It is like last year's tough love with Sandoval, I think. Plus, it is partly for the public also, to deliver the message that he won't get preferential treatment just because of his contract.
I still find it funny that a lot of people get on me for using splits in my analysis, but then they go and think that Huff is useless after 1-3 months, when his peripherals were still within career norms.
Here's why I think there is manager-speak about 1B/LF. First of all, they want to make clear to Belt that there is an opportunity for him to win a spot. That's why there is no commitment to anything right now regarding the OF, other than that Nate is the incumbent with the lead, but the message left out is that he could lose the spot with poor play.
The other clear thing is that the Giants are looking for Belt to win 1B, to keep his mind off of dealing with a new position, and more on dealing with his hitting. Why not want him to make the team, that, as the saying goes, is a problem any manager would love to have, too many too players to play. And the sooner he develops, the better, that's true of any good prospect because they don't all develop. And that's why all the talk about Huff playing LF and no talk about whether Cabrera is up for LF or RF or even CF, or Pagan for that matter, players are going to be shuffled around the OF.
Fitting in with those hopes, the Giants also hope to start Posey at 1B a lot. If Huff is there, he'll sit out a lot of LHP, and he's a good enough hitter to start full-time, when he is right, and Bochy likes to use the same guy, same place. Belt, however, is struggling with both RHP as well as LHP, so he makes a perfect player to start at 1B and sit vs. LHP, which works with Posey at 1B, because the backup catcher should hit LHP better as well since most are RHB.
Regarding backups, I think it is just like with Belt: if Sanchez develops enough to take the backup, that bodes well for him maybe taking over C in 2013 (notice all talk is about Posey catching in 2012, but nothing really about 2013?) and getting more starts in the majors would help with that. So why not hope for that?
Whiteside is in the discussion, I believe, because it was recently reported that he was playing injured last year, so to respect that and his vet status with team, they keep him around to give him a chance to at least compete for that job instead of summarily dismissing him. Also, never know, injuries can happen at C, he could come in handy sitting in AAA for us. Different circumstances, but Dave Dravecky looked like he was healthy when his career-ending injury occurred. Posey did go through a very traumatic injury. So you never know, at least from a layman view (DrB knows better what the probabilities are regarding recovery here).