Alex Wood looked good while pitching into the 6'th inning and David Villar brought the toonder in his bat. Key Lines:
David Villar 2B- 1 for 4, HR(1). BA= .156. Villar dropped the hammer on A's SP Waldichuk in the second inning. Waldichuk was having command issues out of the stretch and served one up to Villar who put a short, quick swing into and crushed it halfway up the cement terraces down the LF line. Nice bat flip from Villar too. The overall BA on the spring doesn't look great but he's been looking better since an extremely slow start and short injury stint. We like those 3-run HR's!
Joc Pederson 1B- 1 for 1, HR(1), BB. BA= .304. Joc crushed his first spring homer to CF later in the game and looks ready to start the season.
Brett Auerbach RF- 4 for 5, 2B. BA= .343. Auerbach looked great last spring too but then struggled mightily in AA. That was an aggressive placement so look for a breakout this year. Utility players who can play catcher are incredibly valuable.
Brett Wisely CF- 2 for 4, SB(2). BA= .209. Nice little game for Wisely who looks like he could in a nice fill-in down the road if a need arises.
Casey Schmitt SS- 0 for 5, 3 K's, E(4). BA= .340. Young Casey shows he might need a tad more salt down on the farm but he should keep after the SS thing.
Joey Bart C- 0 for 3, BB, 3 K's. BA= .214. 4 PA's, no contact, not good. Joey may be punching his ticket to Sacramento.
Alex Wood LHP- 5.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 10 K's. ERA= 3.60. Not sure what Woody's exact role is going to be as one of 6 SP's....well actually 8 potential SP's.....on the roster, but he looks healthy and ready to start the season. Giants probably need to be judicious with his innings this season.
Jake Junis RHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K. ERA= 3.38. Junis looks perfect for the multi-inning/swingman role FZ mapped out for him in the offseason.
Giants wrap up spring training and the Bay Bridge Series tomorrow evening with Ross Stripling RHP starting against James Kaprelian RHP(he's still around?). Hopefully they get the game in before the rain sets in so Sergio Romo RHP can do his well-deserved retirement thing wearing a Giants uniform.
There seems to be a formula here - take a 3B with his offense and play him at 2B, take an outfielder with his expected outfield offense and play him at C, take a LF or RF and playing him in CF, etc.
ReplyDeleteIf it works out, you upgrade O while lost just a little D* (or maintain the same D, but if you can also improve D, that'd be fantastic).
*Because, normally (and there are exceptions as pointed in the above sentence) a RF hits better than a CF, etc.
They do like to move players around like chess pieces. That can be a big advantage but it has it's downsides too. Players never get completely comfortable at one position, confused about roles, feel like they are chess pieces.....
DeleteI'm a bit of an Auerbach fan, having watched him at OSU here in Corvallis. He's kind of the textbook "scrappy player" who always hustles and can play pretty much any position. I don't know if he'll really be able to hit at a major league level, but I enjoy watching him and hope he can do it.
ReplyDeleteAuerbach is definitely fun to watch. Have you seen video of that amazing catch while diving into the backstop screen from last season? Very fun!
DeleteHaven't seen it, but back when he was at OSU I had him almost land in my lap while making a catch. He was catching that day, and I was seated in the 3rd row behind 3rd base. He literally threw his body into the stands to make the catch. Gotta love that kind of effort.
DeleteIt's nice to see so many young prospects having a good camp. Sabol looks like he can be an interesting player, hope he continues to hit. Can Auerbach break out? Wisely is interesting too, Jim Callis called him a sleeper who could help the Giants this season. Casey Schmidt may not be in AAA for long. Maybe it's encouraging that Luis Matos is still getting abs today and stealing a base. Hope he stays healthy and has a great season.
ReplyDeleteBack a couple days in your incredible blog, Doc, there's quite a discussion about supposed bad trades by the Giants.
DeleteWell, this is for the ages: the Mets cut Ruf after not performing last year when they traded for him late, plus the Giants got J.D. Davis, Carson Seymour, Nick Zwack, and Thomas Szapuck while the Mets owe the $3M plus a $250k buyout to Ruf for 2023.
If the Mets are right about Ruf, and he wasn't very good for the Giants last year, for nothing the Giants got 4 players, at least one of them pretty good, younger and probably better than Ruf, and saved $3.25M.
If, in calculating the value of that one, if you have to divide by zero (Ruf) along the way, the Giants win by infinity!
FZ is gonna have to really screw something up to even out that trade!
I am surprised that trade has stayed so far under the radar. Yep, FZ took the Mets to the cleaners with that one. I'm thinking Carson Seymour RHP could turn out to be huge in the long run. I really love what I see on video from him. What baffles me is how much of a clone Ruff is to J. D. Davis except Davis is the better and younger player. If that's the player the Mets thought they needed, why didn't they just give those PA's to Davis? There must have been some pretty serious groupthink and confirmation bias going on there.
DeleteI'm wondering if Bart is heading for DFA at this point. A change of scenery is what may be the best for Bart at this point.
ReplyDeleteWhy would you DFA him when you can send him to Sacramento?
DeleteI'm hoping the Giants show patience with Bart and continue to let him develop his game. He's only 26 years old, getting better defensively and I like his power potential. His development has been hurt by injuries, being rushed up when Buster opted out in 2020, and the minor league season cancelled thanks to the pandemic. The Giants might regret DFA ing him.
DeleteBart still has an option so can be sent down to AAA for more seasoning.
DeleteThe name we do not hear is Ramos , which disappoints me. He should have been at least a serviceable player.
ReplyDeleteRamos is in minor league camp. Roger Munter posted a video on Twitter of him cranking an impressive HR to LF.
DeleteWhat happened to VanBrown? I did not hear about him during ST.
ReplyDeleteVaun Brown is in minor league camp. I am sure we will hear plenty from him once the season starts.
DeleteOh! And I forgot. Vaun Brown is out with patellar tendonitis.
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