While Johnny Cueto and Mark Melancon were off pitching in a minor league game, Derek Holland got the start in the MLB game. Key Lines:
Evan Longoria 3B- 1 for 3, 2B. BA= .296. If Longoria plays like this in the regular season, the Giants are gonna be alright....at least until the 9'th inning.
Buster Posey DH- 2 for 3. BA= .500. Buster being Buster. Hope his ankle is feeling better.
Josh Rutledge 2B- 1 for 3, 2B. BA= .409. Rutledge has definitely done everything possible to make the team. Does d'Arnaud and Kelby's ability to play SS give them a leg up on him?
Derek Holland LHP- 3.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 4 K's, GO/AO= 3.27. I would say Holland is almost a lock to be the Giants long man out of the bullpen.
Derek Law RHP- 1.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 8.44. I know a lot of fans expect Law to make the Opening Day Roster, but why?
Josh Osich LHP- 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 0.00. Has Osich finally found the key to success at the MLB level? The multiple innings are particularly impressive.
Sam Dyson RHP- 1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 13.50. Hmm, Hmm, Hmm! I don't know if I quite buy that Dyson is just working on things. Those horrendous Blown Saves at the end of last year are still pretty fresh in my mind.
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A very sad end to the Gustavo Cabrera story. He announced his retirement from baseball today. When I think of what that kid could have been, I get a sick feeling. Gave it his best, but the hand just never completely came around.
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Fantasy Focus: Around the League
Ketel Marte SS, D'Backs- 2 for 3. BA= .435. The Humidor could be a problem, but Marte is someone to at least follow and possibly draft in deeper leagues.
Scott Schebler OF, Reds- 1 for 2, HR(2). BA= .480. Did you know that Scott Schebler hit 30 HR's last year?
Zack Grienke SP, D'Backs- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 3.38. This may not be as bad as it looks. Grienke came out after 1 inning after tweaking his groin. It was termed "precautionary" and no MRI is planned. He reportedly hit 92 MPH after struggling to get above 90 in his first few starts.
Jhoulys Chacin SP, Brewers- 4.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 0.87. Chacin should be a nice late round option in your fantasy draft, although he is moving from a pitcher-friendly park to a hitter friendly one in Milwaukee.
Ryan Braun 1B- 2 for 2, 2 HR(2). BA= .400. Braun seems to be getting more comfortable at 1B which is good news for Domingo Santana lovers. Braun is still a potent offensive force as long as he can stay healthy.
Travis Shaw 3B- 2 for 4, 2B, HR(2). BA= .286. Shaw's breakout was last year, so you won't sneak up on anyone this year, but he's a second tier draft guy who could give you top tier production.
Yonny Chirinos SP, Rays- 3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 5.06. Sleeper Alert! Brent Honeywell's injury and some trades seem to have opened the door for Chirinos who put up this line in AAA last year: 12-5, 2.74, 141 IP, 22 BB, 120 K, GO/AO= 1.44.
Adam Wainwright SP, Cardinals- 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 0.84. Waino has had a rough couple of seasons. Could he be a bounceback candidate?
Julio Tehran SP, Braves- 5 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 1.24. Solid SP option.
Jonathan Schoop 2B, Orioles- 2 for 3, HR(4). BA= .406. Schoop is already a reliable power option at 2B and seems to be still improving.
Dan Straily SP, Marlins- 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 1.20. Strailly will have more value in QS leagues than ones that still use W's. He'll pick up more W's if he is traded to a contender midseason which is very likely.
Steven Matz SP, Mets- 4.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 10.80. The most important thing for Matz is he seems to be healthy. More of a follow guy than a draft target right now.
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Dyson: Really didn't want him back. It's not just the blown saves. Even when he wasn't blowing them, he was frequently struggling with control and ended up posting a sub-standard (for a closer) 4.03 ERA for the Giants. I thought, for a scrap heap reclamation project on a desperate team, he was okay. But not the kind of player you want to have long-term.
ReplyDeleteLaw: Not me, you have to earn your spot. I may like him. But if he pitches himself off the roster, that's what he does.
Too bad about Cabrera. I was really hoping he’d be able to make it back, but it seemed like just couldn’t play back to back games. He has plenty of time for college and a whole new career though.
ReplyDeleteThat's sad to hear, but knowing that he essentially had his hand cut off, and all the difficulties involved with getting his hand re-attached (he was far far away from the specialists necessary to fix him up), it was clear that it would take a fantasy ending for things to work out for his pro baseball career. But I was rooting for him!
DeleteThanks for the news DrB, I would have missed it otherwise.
Signing Dyson was an expensive insurance policy on Melancon -- his injury/treatment was a known/unknown.
ReplyDeleteIf the pitchers who have performed better than Law this Spring were to be listed it would take a couple pages!
OTOH, he has been more effectivethan Dyson!
I'm not too worried about Dyson. He's trying to change the way he pitches in order to get back to where he was in 2016. So he's going to make mistakes, as he's learning.
DeleteHis 2017 season with the Giants was up and down. He was predominantly good in his time with us. He had a bad first game (which is to be expected from a player just released by his team), he had 35 games with a 2.45 ERA before getting blasted in his last two starts. He had 30 games with no runs given up, and did not allow any of his inherited runners (only 3, though) score. It was just when he was bad, he got blown up.
I assume he's doing this with Bochy's and Young's full blessing. I assume that he has enough time to get the muscle memory going and be ready for the regular season, else they would have told him to go bak to what he was doing before. And at worse, I'll take what he did last season, assuming he'll be a little better now that he's here and more comfortable.
$4.4 mil with no future contract is not expensive for Dyson’s peak performance.
DeleteHope you are right, ogc, but I have a palpable fear that once again an otherwise pretty good Giants team is going to founder and their inability to close out games.
DeleteOpening Day Scenario: Bummy hits a 2-run dinger off Kershaw and the Giants lead the Dodgers 2-1 going to the 9'th inning. Right now, how much faith do you have that the Giants win that game?
Heard Dave Fleming say on a local sports radio talk show here that the key to the success of the Giants bullpen is the health of Mark Melancon and Will Smith. If Melancon is healthy, he could return to being a reliable closer. Smith would give them 2 pretty good veteran lefthanders out of the pen which Bochy didn't have for the past couple of seasons. He said Giants bullpen has depth and has a chance to be pretty good if those 2 pitchers are healthy. Fleming didn't mention anything about Dyson. I read an article on Sfgate that Dyson is working on his mechanics so that he can regain his power sinker that made him an all star 2 years ago. I didn't realize that he was getting by last year throwing mainly cutters, so we will see what happens. He did save 14 out of 15 games for the Giants until he blew the last 2 games you referred to.
DeleteLG
What the Giants have been missing the past few years is an Affeldt reliever in the setup spot, a guy who could close games, but instead is employed when the team most needs it, whether 6,7,8th inning. I think that is what Bochy has been missing, and hence why some are down on his abilities to manage the bullpen.
DeleteWill Smith was supposed to be that guy, but now we should be covered either way, with both Smith and Watson, and hopefully both, which would make for a great bullpen.
As long as we got Watson, Strickland, and hopefully Smith, shutting things down as set-up, I'm not too worried about Dyson. He was effective in a long stretch last season, and I assume Bochy would be able to manage him by putting him into situations he can handle.
And if we have all three, I feel pretty good about their ability to close out games. Of course, opening day, we don't have Smith, so right now, not a lot of faith, just hope.
According to an article that Baggarly shared on Twitter (from Rangers), cutters are being blamed for reducing a pitcher's fastball velocity (Moore being prominent example), as apparently the more you throw them, the more it hurts the pitcher's fastball velocity (sorry, I didn't understand exactly how that worked). So perhaps Dyson was suffering from that too.
Either way, throwing with your lower half is always a good thing, so I'm glad he's working on it.
About the question on guarantee that was commented below, I have not seen that anywhere, and given that it was an pre-arbitration agreement, which would lead to a guaranteed contract of either the team figure or the player's had it gone to arbitration, I don't see why a player would accept a contract with non-guaranteed money unless it is at least the team's figure as a base, which should still mean a lot of money, closer to $4M than so low they can cut him easily.
And to DrB's point, why would Dyson be experimenting still at this point of the season, if he's pitching for his contract, he should be putting out his best stuff.
Jeff Todd from MLBTR on the Giants options on Dyson:
ReplyDelete"There is still the possibility of cutting Dyson loose and not paying most of his salary. Not sure if that's a consideration for them though."
Is this a possibility? Anyone know. Giants would have to have REALLY lost faith in the guy if that happens. The pen looks shaky still.
I wanted Dyson around, but not at $4+ million.
Thanks for the tip on that guarantee thing. Inneresting. All the more reason why I am not buying into the "working on things" line. You don't "work on things" this late in spring training if your $4.4 M contract is not guaranteed.
DeleteTwins did this with Anibal Sanchez this Spring. He was signed to a $2.5 million MLB deal, Twins cut him, and he received “30 Days Termination Pay.” About $450,000 or so.
DeleteIf Melancon is healthy and pitching well, and Dyson proves to be ineffective, the team could release him like the Rangers did last year. Not concerned about spring stats. Sometimes players who have great springs, start off poorly in the regular season.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your fantasy advice! I had 2 teams last year and finished in 3rd place in both leagues. I just put in a waiver claim for Alex Cobb and I waived Jordan Montgomery. Cobb should sign soon and Montgomery is just a 5th starter. Tehran and Wainwright were disappointments for me last year, so you never know i guess.
LG