Saturday, March 23, 2013

Game Wrap Spring Training 2013: A's 12 Giants 5

Tim Lincecum's struggle to find consistency continued on a day when the wind was blowing the desert air out and balls were riding on the jet stream.  Key Lines:

Brandon Belt- 1 for 3, HR(7).  BA= .433.  Belt just keeps on Beltin'  Please, please save some for the regulary season!

Brandon Crawford- 2 for 3.  BA= .333.  Crawford looks really good at the plate right now.  He made several spectacular plays look routine out on the field too.

Nick Noonan- 2 for 4.  BA= .212.  Noonan backed up yesterday's HR with a 2 hit game today.  Both his hits today came off LHP's.  In fact, Belt's HR and Crawford's hits came off LHP's too.

Cole Gillespie- 1 for 1, HR(2), BB.  BA= .271.  Gillespie is not quite ready to concede the roster spot to Pegs.  Nice day at the plate for Cole after he entered the game.

Chuckie Jones- 0 for 1.  BA= .000.  Chuckie Jones gets a cameo!  What a thrill THAT must be for the kid!  He reached for an offspeed pitch and flied weakly to LF but I thought he looked pretty good up there at the plate.

Tim Lincecum- 3 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 5 K's.  ERA= 10.97.  By now familiar scene for Timmy as hitters were able to lay off his split change in the dirt.  I saw several 0-2 counts that got away because he did not have that put-away pitch.  I will say that physically, Timmy looks better than he has in 3 years.  He looks strong out there, so hopefully he can bring it all together in time for the regular season.

Dan Runzler- 0.2 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 0 K.  ERA= 7.27.  Runzler may have sealed his fate with this one wild-pitching a couple of inherited runners home and generally looking wild out there.  Of course, as long as Mijares is healthy, it's a moot issue anyway.

Santiago Casilla- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K.  ERA= 4.50.  Casilla had an effective inning.

Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K.  ERA= 3.38.  Romo looks heavier this spring.  I saw a couple of very nice tailing changeups which should be a nice complement to his 2 seam FB against LH batters.  In his interview with Amy G after his stint, we found out he has an ice cream named after him.  It's a Mexican chocolate with chocolate and cinnamon.  Hmm....I'm going to have to try to get some of that!

Bill Gates- The multi-gazillionaire attended the game in person as a guest of the Giants ownership.  Hmmm....

Pablo Sandoval- bad news on Pablo. He tried to throw today and had pain in the elbow.

5 comments:

  1. Timmeh is starting to remind me of Scott Kazmir.

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    1. I would say it's not quite THAT bad yet. I think Timmy will have a better season than last year. That is a fairly low bar to get over though.

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  2. I think the best situation for the Giants and Lincecum is to use him as a long reliever and a spot starter.. He was lights out in the playoffs last year and am sure he could do it again. It might also help him get his confidence back to where it was a couple of yrs ago. He just seems unsecured on the mound right now and with every bad outing its gonna get worse for him, IMO.

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    1. That works in the playoffs where you only need 4 SP's but if you do it in the regular season, who becomes the #5 SP? Chad Gaudin? Hesto Presto? Timmy is going to get a whole lot more rope before the Giants resort to those options.

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  3. ....and Dan Runzler gets shipped out to Fresno. Yesterday's wild game was a killer.

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