Jake Peavy went 3 innings and Kyle Blanks went deep for the second time this spring, but the Rangers rallied late to edge the Giants in Surprise, AZ. Key Lines:
Denard Span DH- 1 for 3, 2B. BA= .125. Span's first hit of the spring. He has yet to play in the field due to a sore shoulder. Most likely just a precaution.
Grant Green PH-DH- 2 for 2, 2B, SB(2). BA= .429. The Giants are going to have a tough, tough time deciding on who's going to sit on their bench this year.
Christian Arroyo 3B- 1 for 2, SB(1). BA= .333. Arroyo is not going to be a bench player, but he continues to impress.
Kyle Blanks 1B- 2 for 3, HR(2). BA= .571. The Giants apparently have a lot of faith in their ability to keep players healthy, a bit ironic given what went down last season. According to Baggs, they told Blanks the same thing they told Ricky Romero, "we can keep you healthy." Blanks seems to be a bit thinner this year and his foot problems are much improved on a maintenance therapy regimen. He reportedly made a couple of nifty plays at 1B and Bochy has plans to try him in the OF. OK, here's the deal. If Blanks is healthy, he HAS to make the team. Heck, if he's healthy, I could easily see Bochy starting him in LF a la Michael Morse!
Jake Peavy RHP- 3 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 13.50. Today's start went better than the first one. Buster Posey took the long bus ride to Surprise just to work with Peavy. How about that?
Kyle Crick RHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 0 K. ERA= 0.00. The BB's rear their ugly head again.
Ty Blach LHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K. ERA= 0.00. Blach's second terrific spring appearance. His composite line is 4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K's. Blach may be moving up the depth chart with these appearances.
Cory Gearrin RHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, GIDP. ERA= 3.00. Baggs was raving about the nastiness of Gearrin's stuff.
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Madison Bumgarner makes his second spring start facing the Reds in Scottsdale tomorrow.
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Around the League:
The Cardinals took a hit when Jhonny Peralta tore a ligament in his thumb and will miss about 3 months or more. They basically do not have a replacement, unless you can envision Jedd Gyorko playing SS.
Pedro Alvarez finally signed a contract with the Orioles. He needs to play in the AL as the LH half of a DH platoon.
The Padres are rumored to be very interested in Tim Lincecum. Ha! Yeah, why wouldn't they be? Meanwhile, Timmy's long awaited showcase has been pushed back to "later this month", which can't be a good sign.
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Sabes has made a lot of comments about health and one interview he discussed staying healthy like a strategy, almost the way people talked about market efficiency strategies. If they cracked the code, it still begs the question why they're not applying the approach over a season on core guys first.
ReplyDeleteGearrin really has look imposing. Actually, the pitching depth looks really, really deep this year, when watching would be starters as relievers.
You know, it's interesting - Let's think about the last year for a moment. Was even a single ONE of the injuries last year preventable?
DeleteJoe Panik - Broken Spine, collision induced. Unavoidable via conditioning.
Hunter Pence - Broken Arm via HBP. Unavoidable.
Brandon Belt - Hit in the head, concussion. Unavoidable via conditioning.
Aoki - Sprained Ankle via HBP. Unavoidable.
Aoki - Concussion via HBP. Unavoidable.
Blanco - Hit in the head (by Belt, ironically), concussion. Unavoidable via conditioning.
Jake Peavy - General suckitude. Unavoidable by medical staff....
Hudson - Ready to retire. Med staff cannot bring the aged back to youth.
Tim Lincecum - Degerative hip, genetic/physical disposition, required major surgery. Unavoidable by conditioning.
Arguably avoidable injuries:
Matt Cain, elbow.
Hunter Pence, oblique.
Hunter Pence - "Tendonitis" recurrent on broken arm.
Angel Pagan, bum knees, recurring.
I'd say that's, all things accounted for (and I may have missed a few above), a very unlucky season of heavy and long lasting injuries to key players, and very few were even in the possible realm of avoidable. The only two injuries that were truly avoidable via medical staff prescience would have been Pence's oblique & tendonitis injury, and the general inability to ever get Angel Pagan healthy.
I could argue a few of those were avoidable, like concussions caused by teammates.
DeleteThe Team doctors should have found Timmy's issues earlier, or suspected them. It's possible they did, and it just wasn't made public. Same with Peavy's need for glasses, and his own genetic hip related issues, when they played a role in his late inning break downs.
Sabes isn't chalking it up to bad luck entirely, he's talking about finding ways to keep players healthy. No idea how. More preventative/predictive care? Using medical staff reports as metrics? No idea.
Even some cosmetology schools teach posture as part of technique, with the idea that repetitive motions require body awareness to get good results. Many fields of work now incorporate that idea....and being that this is San Francisco, with a clinic in the stadium itself, it makes sense, somewhat. Players already learn techniques to avoid collisions, or avoid basic pulls. It's possible to analyze repeated motions, and alter a stance that creates tension, and note how it might create future vulnerability towards injuries in the field, or whatnot, the same way they do to figure out if a swinging late on breaking balls from Lefties. Not that it would have taken a professional to look at Aoki and predict what happened. But it might be a different philosophy then the usual rub dirt on it, sports idea. My guess is they're putting more resources towards this, but enough to say "we can keep you healthy"...uh, I don't know about that.
I think the game tonight is on TV, CSN-BA / MLB Network. 6:00pm.
ReplyDeleteAny truth to the rumors that Cain will start the season on the DL?
ReplyDeleterumor has it that Cain will win 20 games this season!
ReplyDelete