The Giants sent a split squad over to Tempe to take on the Angels and came away with a narrow loss. Key Lines:
Joe Panik 2B- 1 for 2, BB. BA= .600. Panik looks like he's ready to have a great season.
Aaron Hill 3B- 2 for 3. BA= .333. Hill hitting well in the early going but Nunez and Gillaspie seem to be locks for 3B/UT roles.
Jae-Gyun Hwang 3B- 2 for 2, 2B. BA= .444. Hwang is the most intriguing of the alternative 3B options, but how do you get him on the roster without a fairly major trade?
Chris Marrero 1B- 1 for 4, HR(2). BA= .286. A scenario where Marrero makes the team: Jarrett Parker wins the LF job while Morse and Ruggiano don't make the team.
Mac Williamson LF- 2 for 4. BA= .333. Williamson is not backing down in the battle for the LF job. It's still Parker's to lose because options.
Kelby Tomlinson SS- 2 for 4, 3B. BA= .273. The beats seem to think Rollins practically has the IF Utility role locked up, but how do you give it to him over Kelby who has more than earned it and continues to earn it?
Gorkys Hernandez CF- 2 for 4, 2 2B. BA= .167. Gotta put the best defensive CF on the roster, right?
Tyler Beede RHP- 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, GO/AO= 3/1. ERA= 0.00. Beede extends his scoreless IP to 4 after 2 appearances.
Andrew Suarez LHP- 0.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 1 K. ERA= 16.20. Suarez seems to need some more salt.
Coonrod, Gregorio, Crick, Chase Johnson- 1 scoreless IP each.
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Jeff Samardzija takes the mound to start today's game against the A's.
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Around the League:
SS Dansby Swanson hit his first HR of the spring for the Braves. Power is probably his weakest tool. He's hitting .455 on the spring.
CF Jackie Bradley hit 2 dingers and drove in 5 runs as the BoSox blasted the Rays 19-1. Bradley, who is a plus OF, hit 26 dingers last year.
Speaking of the BoSox, David Price has a sore forearm and a bad looking MRI. He's seeking second opinions, which does not sound good at all.
RHP Jose DeLeon, the pitching prospect the Dodgers were trying to peddle for Brian Dozier and ultimately landed Logan Forsythe, got shelled for 4 ER in 0.2 IP for the Rays.
LHP Amir Garrett pitched 3 scoreless innings for the Reds. This guy is going to be a horse!
RHP Sergio Romo struck out the side in 1 IP for the Dodgers against the Indians.
RHP Archie Bradley pitched 3 scoreless innings with 4 K's for the D'Backs, but has a spring ERA of 10.38.
RHP Shelby Miller struck out 6 in 3 scoreless IP agains the Cubs B team.
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Great take on Tomlinson Doc. I just don't get the love affair with Rollins when you have a kid who's done so much for this club, and many times, in clutch situations. I get the whole options thing, but why use it when you have someone who can come in and help your club in a significant way? Keep KT!
ReplyDeleteAgree totally. Tomlinson should be the backup middle infielder. Clutch pinch hitter and runner.
DeleteUnless the Giants want a million dollar position coach using up a precious slot on the active roster, Rollins will retire and enjoy reminiscing about his fine career. He has NOT been a positive defensive player in years, and even his last GG award was a gift to an amiable but fastly fading star.
ReplyDeleteIf Parker is the LFer, there's a case to be made for Morse as a RH pinch hitter, but that's only slightly more plausible than Rollins: this ain't the American League! OTOH, he's getting a chance to profile his health for AL teams that might want him -- a nice thank you from the Giants for 2014.
Nice outing for Shelby Miller but is he worth Dansby Swanson AND Ender Inciarte? Was that better or worse than 6 yrs/$206.5M for Zack Greinke?
Wouldn't we would feel a lot better for Sergio Romo if he were doing this for another LA team, the one from Anaheim?
Tomlinson: I read the same thing from the beat writers. Their take on it is that Rollins is playing well and Tomlinson has options. Still, even though they're saying that Rollins is playing well, I would rather have 'Specs.' He's earned that position. He improved, defensively, from 2015 to 2016 and has growth potential that Rollins lacks. He's done everything they've asked and done it well.
ReplyDeleteSo, maybe in the linearity of the 'stats' of the position Rollins is the 'better bet.' But in the complex calculus of the position, Specs is the answer to the 25-body problem of team chemistry.
Williamson: Glad to see he's responding positively to the pressure of the roster spot competition.
Ruggiano: I'm beginning to think he's got the 5th OF spot in his pocket if Parker takes LF. Not because he's great, but he is the other half of the platoon split.
It's early and maybe the brains have a plan, but the problem for Ruggiano and many others is not enough ABs!
ReplyDeletePlay, don't-play does not equate to rhythm.
This super-over-loaded roster is spreading plate appearances so thinly it's anorexic.
Players may sit every other day and may only get a couple ABs when they do play, so they want to swing the bat.
A walk is not as good as a hit when you're trying to make a roster.
You gotta love Rollins and Morse and Beckham and Hwang and Bernard and Federowicz and Blanks and Calixte and Hill and the aforementioned Ruggiano but there aren't enough innings to let them get into a groove and show something.
The 10 or 11 who are going to make it no matter what they do probably will get time later. Hopefully, Kelby will get some time rather than watch the excess of IFers battle for his slot.
If only one of Parker and Williamson is going to make the cut, they should be out there (nearly) everyday, back-to-back, facing the same pitchers under the same conditions, flip-flop the order each day, and don't bat them in the bottom third, no lower than 5 & 6.
I pretty much agree with all of this. I love depth as much as anyone, but Evans et al brought too many veteran players to camp, IMO. Just the sheer numbers makes it extremely difficult to fairly evaluate everyone and raises the danger of making wrong decisions based on inadequate sample size, which is already an endemic problem with spring training.
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