Johnny Cueto held the A's to 1 run over 5.2 IP, and the Giants cruised to an easy win. Key Lines:
Buster Posey C- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .484. Let's see, 2 hits with a double daily? Buster plays about 130 games a season? That's 260 hits and 130 doubles. Yeah, that's about right.
Pablo Sandoval 3B- 1 for 3, HR(4), SF. BA= .314. No disrespect to Evan Longoria who has also had a fine spring, but I'm not sure Pabs isn't a better hitter right now. Maybe not a better all-around player, but a better hitter? Maybe.
Steven Duggar CF- 0 for 4. BA= .245. Duggar's bat is showing it might need a bit more salt down in AAA, but maybe his D is enough to keep him on the MLB club as the starting CF? Duggar took a HR away from Kevin Joyce and made it look easy. He got to the wall in plenty of time and made a small jump using his height to get the glove up above the wall to take it down. The ball was clearly above the wall when it hit his glove.
Gorkys Hernandez LF- 1 for 4, SB(4). BA= .304. Gorkys is not giving up the fight.
Gregor Blanco RF- 1 for 3, BB, 2 SB(3). BA= .323. It may come down to Blanco's veteran savvy vs Duggar's ability to make hard plays look easy in CF. Blanco is definitely not giving in. Interesting that Gorkys, Blanco and Duggar were the 3 starting OF's today and Duggar took CF.
Nick Hundley DH- 2 for 4. BA= .389. I can see Buster moving to 1B against certain LHP's with Hundley doing the catching. Likewise, I can see Belt moving to LF against certain RHP's with Pabs taking 1B.
Johnny Cueto RHP- 5.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 4.20. Cueto was shimmyin' and shakin' and quick pitchin' in midseason form. I thought his FB was much more crisp today. On 1 K, Jon said he hit 91 MPH. He paired that up with a killer diving changeup. Hopefully Cueto will be the 2016 version again. That would go a long way toward the Giants surviving Bummy's DL stint.
Josh Osich LHP- 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 0.00. When the manager sends you in there to get 1 out, you better get it. Osich did that today with a K to boot.
Derek Law RHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 5.00. Was Law auditioning for the final bullpen slot Opening Day? He acquitted himself well.
Pierce Johnson RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K. ERA= 0.00. Johnson may have also been auditioning while Law's 2 IP were impressive, so were Johnson's 3 K's.
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Fantasy Focus: Around the League
Ian Kennedy RHP, Royals- 5 IP, 5 H 1 R, 2 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 2.50. It's been awhile since Kennedy was fantasy relevant, but if he keeps up his spring performance into the season, he could be so again.
Stephen Strasburg RHP, Nationals- 5.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 10 K's. ERA= 4.70. Strasburg is an elite pitcher when he is healthy, but health is always in issue hanging around with him.
Carlos Gomez OF, Rays- 1 for 2, HR(3). BA= .289. Gomez is no longer a 30/40 threat, but he's still fantasy relevant as a 3'rd OF or UT player.
Mookie Betts OF, Red Sox- 2 for 2, 2 HR(3). BA= .340. Betts had a very good campaign last year but fell short of very high expectations. He may be exceed those expectations this year. My league is instituting a Keeper wrinkle where we keep 2 hitters and 2 pitchers from last year. I am keeping Nolan Arenado and Bryce Harper. The guy who has Betts is a Yankees fan and is keeping Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez making Betts available in the auction draft. He'll be expensive, but I'm thinking of going after Betts no matter how high I have to go.
David Price LHP, Red Sox- 3 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 2.25. Was this a short start to tune up before the regular season, or is Price just not stretched out yet? This was just his 3'rd spring appearance after a late start. He seems healthy so far.
Aaron Altherr OF, Phillies- 2 for 3. BA= .288. You've probably figured out I am irrationally exuberant about Altherr for some reason. I just think is ceiling is huge if he can stay healthy and get AB's. Big question is whether the Phillies platoon him with Nick Williams or not.
Nick Pivetta RHP, Phillies- 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 3.93. Deep Sleeper Alert!
Miguel Cabrera 1B, Tigers- 2 for 3, HR(3), BB. BA= .352. Scouting reports from the Grapefruit League say Miggy still doesn't look like he has a strong base under him, but he's on a tear at the close of spring training.
Michael Fulmer RHP, Tigers- 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 2.12. Fulmer is poised for a big season. He's also a prime trade candidate if the haul is big enough.
Steven Matz LHP, Mets- 4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 6.30. I'm not sure when the bad outings. I have noted several good one. Matz seems to be healthy, so may be worth a late round flyer.
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Dusty Baker back with the Giants as special advisor
ReplyDeletedoesn't bode well for bochy and evans, i could see baker sliding in to the gm spot if the front office cleans house this offseason
DeleteNo.
DeleteNot a chance Baker becomes GM.
DeleteCueto: Mostly he was in fine form, though some of his sliders were a bit flat. Still, odd flat-pitch or not, I'll take an outing that produces a swinging strike-out every inning anytime.
ReplyDeleteDuggar: He saved a 2-run HR. The kid has range. I just... I really don't think they should send him down. Yeah, he may do some struggling at the MLB level, but unless he goes sub-.240 I just think he needs to be up here.
Something I noticed while streaming the game: I had the game-stats on in a separate window. At one point in time everyone but Duggar was hitting .304 (Hernandez) or better. Panik ended up dropping out of the .300 club since he went 0-for-3. But it was really pleasent to see 8 men with .300+ BAs after last year where for long stretches of time it was Posey + a horde of bad BAs...
I saw that catch; he made it look so easy!
DeleteI said it before and I will say it again!
I am happy with him making the team and playing
c-field. Let the Giants assign Will Clark to be his special batting coach.
Any idea what his defensive war rating might look like?
Richard in Winnipeg
No offense - But I think you are getting carried away with spring numbers in regards to Pablo. I hope he found his swing again, but the guy has hit like .230 over the last 3 season with less then 20 HRs in that time combined. I'm insulted for Longoria who has hit .270 with 77 HRS in that same time frame.
ReplyDeleteI think that a lot of Giants fans are a bit biased against Pablo, because of the way he left. But if you think about it, he's really only had 1 and a half bad seasons, one in 2015, and the latter half of 2017, when he was obviously rusty since he had been benched for a year and a half. If Pablo had never played for the Giants before, I think we would be a bit more objective- he's had 6+ solid seasons, and only 1.5 bad ones. I think there's a chance he's a solid bench player for the Giants this year.
DeleteAnd Longoria has put together a borderline Hall of Fame career. Pablo hasn’t had a productive season since the giants last won the World Series.
DeleteGuys, guys, guys! All I said is Pablo MIGHT be a better hitter RIGHT NOW, MAYBE. Let's not turn this into the Panda Wars!
DeletePablo's most recent seasons are the bad ones. When he wasn't hurt (he mostly was) and played regularly (2015) he was not one of the worst MLB players (WAR), he was THE worst.
DeletePablo may have a bit of a resurgence, being "home," being further recovered from his recent injuries and having expectations low. But he's almost 32. He didn't come to camp in great shape. From the where I'm sitting, far far away from Pablo, I can't see why his performance would improve much. I wouldn't expect Spring numbers to translate for Pablo. Hoping for the best.
As a Mookie Betts owner last year in my fantasy league, I would just throw a little caution on him as I was very disappointed with him. I even eventually traded him for Max Scherzer which turned out to be a huge boon for my club. I realize he may have just had a down year and I wouldn't be surprised at all that he vaults back into the MVP conversation this year, but I was so turned off by his performance for me last year (for where I drafted him at #2 overall) that I won't draft him this year. Just my two cents, and again he could totally be a fantastic player this year but I would just caution getting too exuberant over him based on last year.
ReplyDeleteI had a similar experience. I think Mooks was dealing with a nagging injury for much of last year. I ended up trading him for Bumgarner late in the season. He is a nice bounceback candidate this year, but as always, there are no guarantees.
Delete