Friday, March 14, 2014

Spring Training Game Wrap 3/14/2014: Giants 4 Rockies 0

Hunter Pence hit 2 home runs and Giants pitchers combined on a 2 hit shutout as the Giants dominated the Rockies today in Scottsdale.  Key Lines:

Hunter Pence- 2 for 3, 2 HR(3).  BA= .276.  Is it conditioning?  Experience? Better swing mechanics? Pence started hitting some very long taters last year and now he's hit 3 this spring.  Are we seeing a mid-career surge in power?

Madison Bumgarner- 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K's.  ERA= 0.00.  Bumgarner looks like he's ready to start the season right now and ready to take his place among the elite pitchers in baseball if he hasn't already done that.

Bochy(2.45), Affeldt(2.25), Hembree(3.00), Machi(3.38)- 1 scoreless IP each.  A Heath Hembree sighting!

Nick Noonan and Roger K sent down.  Noonan seemed to tick up and got some nice hits after a lesson with Barry Bonds.

Forgot to mention yesterday that Jeffrey Leonard aka Hac Man/Penitentiary Face has signed on to be a community representative for the Giants.  He has a very active Foundation advocating for Breast Cancer Awareness called One Flap Down.  Who knew?  Great to see that side of a guy with a pretty rough exterior showing through!

A couple of thoughts from perusing Giant Potential:  1.  It sounds like Jonah Arenado is barreling up the ball with some regularity in minor league camp.  2.  Ryder Jones is working out and playing with the San Jose group.  Check out the site, linked to the left for Giants minor league spring training news.

4 comments:

  1. Awesome of you to pump that really good site.

    Hembree indeed. Never mind me, I'm just stark raving speculatively mad. I can still see him starting the season in Fresno. Are the Giants still able to "game the system" and hold back his clock for arbitration purposes?

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  2. doc, i thought you knew that leonard became a huge advocate for the cause of breast cancer after his daughter was diagnosed in 09

    one flap down specifically works with single parents who are battling the disease

    did you know that he still hasnt picked up his mvp award as he says he has never gotten over losing that series....man is a great giant

    i could be wrong, but definitely seems that the pitching from top down is much stronger than last season....the guys really took advantage of the long offseason

    if the offense can do its part, the giants may end up surprising some people

    bacci

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    1. I had heard of Leonard's advocacy for Breast CA but did not know the details.

      Agree about the pitching, and help from the minors is a lot closer to being ready than it was a year ago.

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  3. I spoke to a Giants scout that I met scouting USF and Arkansas last Friday. He said that J Arenado and N Arenado share a lot of similarities and J could be just as good or even better if N was an indicator. J has a kind of maturity beyond his years

    J

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