Saturday, March 5, 2016

Spring Training Game Wrap 3/5/2016: Rangers 7 Giants 5; Giants 6 Indians 2

In the home game of a split-squad day, Mac Williamson blasted 2 home runs in a losing cause while the traveling squad topped the Indians.  Key Lines:

Home Game:

Kelby Tomlinson SS- 1 for 2, BB, SB(1).  BA= .333.  Kelby has done nothing to hurt his case for a roster spot in early spring games.

Jarrett Parker RF- 1 for 2, BB.  BA= .444.  No offensive explosions like we saw in Oakland last year, but Parker is showing there is more to his game than an occasional power outburst.  It's still early, but I think he is building a strong case for himself to be one of the reserve OF's on Opening Day.

Mac Williamson LF- 2 for 3, 2 HR(2), BB.  BA= .333.  Now THAT's what I'm talkin' about!  I'm tellin' you, Mac is going to be the starting LF by the end of the season.  Bochy's quote:  "The longshot just go shorter."

Ricky Romero LHP- 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 0.00.  Is Romero the next player the Giants help resurrect a dead career?

Tyler Beede RHP- 0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 0 K.  ERA= 13.50.  Bochy came and got him after he walked in a run.  Ouch!  Maybe Young Beedah was a bit amped up for his first MLB spring training appearance, but for a guy with a reputation for command problems this is not what we were hoping to see.

Kontos, Lopez and Strickland all pitched scoreless innings.

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Away Game:

Ehire Adrianza SS- 1 for 3, 2B.  BA= .200.  The last 2 games have been good ones for Adrianza, but if Tomlinson shows he can back up SS, the Giants may decide to dump Ehire for a bigger bat on the bench.

Hak-Ju Lee SS- 1 for 1.  BA= .400.  Lee's hit drove in 2 runs.

Junior Arias CF- 2 for 4.  BA= .250.  Arias is a switch-hitter.  Probably not chance to make the MLB team, but may land a job in Sacramento although Gorkys Hernandez may have something to say about that.

Rando Moreno 2B- 1 for 2, BB, SF.  BA= .500.  Moreno is turning into the Little Engine That Could.  He does not seem intimidated by being in the MLB camp.

Chris Stratton RHP- 2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 0.00.  Enigmatic line from an enigmatic pitcher.  Can't argue too much with 2 scoreless innings, but he's not going to have many of those while giving up 2 hits per inning.

Adalberto Mejia LHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 0.00.  Nice outing for the guy who might be  #8 on the Giants SP depth chart.

Chase Johnson, Cory Gearrin, Ray Black and Derek Law pitched 1 scoreless inning each with Gearrin striking out 2 batters in his inning.

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The Giants play the Dodgers today with the starting pitcher TBD.

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Here are 3 lines from the Dodgers game today that should cause Giants fans to sit up and take notice:

Kenta Maeda RHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's.

Jose De Leon RHP- 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K's.

Chris Anderson RHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's.

Whatever you think of the Dodgers current pitching situation, and I tend to think they are in some trouble this year, they have some serious pitching coming along in their system.  Of course, the Giants do too, but this is going to be a heckuva rivalry for years to come.

7 comments:

  1. The new bench/backups all look hungry in a way that I haven't seen in Spring since 2012....some of it almost reminiscent of Blanco.

    Meanwhile Tomilson and Brown look solid and confident without pushing.

    Interesting tidbits from K & M's broadcast....Arroyo's always had that doughy baby face from some angles but they noted that he is filling out thicker, and talked about future power potential. They also mentioned that to their surprise, Cueto doesn't converse much in English.

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  2. I was looking up exit velocities yesterday. Both Parker & Williamson -- with the caveat it is very small sample bias and other issues -- finished in the Top-20 Exit Velocity numbers picked up by Stat Cast last year. Williamson was in the Top-10. Now, there are a ton of issues around that so one can't just jump on the Power Hitting Bandwagon so nobody should try to make a case they're Goldschmidt or Stanton! But it's encouraging.

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    1. Are you talking in MLB or in the minors?

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    2. I think he is talking about majors from last September.

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    3. Majors. That's why the sample size disclaimer was there. They're very, very small samples. And while it's not definitive by itself, it doesn't to give a quantitative reinforcement of something that helps clarify something that's got a degree of subjectivity and confirmation bias associated with it.

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    4. Didn't Big Mac hit a single that was one of the hardest hit balls by anyone in MLB all season? The only reason it wasn't a tape measure HR was the trajectory off the bat was too low.

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    5. Baggarly had an interesting blog post on Mac about working over the off season with Matt Duffy to change his swing so that he no longer chops down on the ball - blogs.mercurynews.com/giants/2016/03/01/21818.

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