Brandon Belt's 3-run dinger was the centerpiece of a 5 spot in the 3'rd inning and Jeff Samardzija had his best start of the spring by a wide margin. The Giants held off a 9'th inning rally by the Rockies against Derek Law for the final margin. Key Lines:
Denard Span CF- 3 for 4. BA= .244. Span is hot. Let's hope it carries over into the season.
Brandon Belt 1B- 1 for 4, HR(3). BA= .289. 3-run dingers correlate with wins.
Chris Marrero 1B- 1 for 1, HR(6). BA= .292. Pavs thinks Marrero is competing with Kelby Tomlinson for a roster spot which is really too bad because both players are deserving based on their spring performances.
Aaron Hill 3B- 0 for 3. BA= .225. The beats seem to think Hill has made the team but his 0 for 3 today drops his BA to .225 and he just has not been impressive over the past several years. Giants should keep both Kelby and Marrero and release Hill.
Kelby Tomlinson 2B- 1 for 3, 3B, BB. BA= .282. Kelby's BA has slipped a bit but he had a strong game here. Hill may have more occasional HR pop than Kelby but nobody grinds out AB's like Kelby and Kelby is more versatile in he field, IMO.
Jeff Samardzija RHP- 1 for 2, 2B. BA= .333. Shark's hit was a double. He said afterwards he was sitting fastball and happened to run into a slider. Always fun to see Giants pitchers hit.
Jeff Samardzija RHP- 4 IP, 2 H 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 8.22. Shark has had rough spring so far, but maybe he's turned a corner at the right time?
Albert Suarez RHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 4.35. Is Suarez still in the running for long relief/swingman?
Steven Okert LHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K. ERA= 0.00. Okert maintains his perfect spring.
Reyes Maronta RHP- 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 0.00. Maronta struck out the final batter of the game to preserve the Giants win, but after he wild pitched in a runner he inherited from Derek Law. Don't be shocked if we see Maronta back in the regular season.
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Johnny Cueto will get his innings in a minor league game while Chris Stratton gets called up from minor league camp to face the Padres tomorrow.
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LHP Will Smith will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the 2017 season. He should be back sometime fairly early in 2018.
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Samardzija, during an interview after the game, said his mechanics were off (dropping his arm-slot) and that was causing his pitches to be flat. Posey corrected them and, boom, best outing of the Spring.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering about the Shark. Key question for me was why didn't Rags or Gardy see this before?
DeleteIDK, ogc. Maybe because he wasn't doing it before? Maybe because it's easier to talk about pitching mechanics than see it and do it? Maybe they did and Shark wasn't listening? Why didn't anyone notice that Cody Ross was getting his front foot down too late before Edgar Renteria noticed it and said something? At some point, no matter when a flaw is noticed and an improvement implemented, someone is going to ask why it wasn't noticed sooner.
DeleteIf I had to guess, the perspective is much different behind the plate than from the dugout. Not only are you closer, but you see head on what the pitcher and ball are doing.
DeleteI would say the Giants have a culture of quality improvement where everybody on the team is empowered to speak up when they see something that can be improved instead of waiting for direction from the top.
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