The Giants took an early lead off Keaton Winn but the River Cats came back with a 3-run rally off Hayden Birdsong in the 6'th inning and held on for the win in Sutter Health Park in Sacramento. Key Lines:
Heliot Ramos LF- 2 for 2, 2B, BB. Nice game for Ramos. He got a late start due to a mild oblique strain but seems to be rounding into form in time to start the season.
Jung Hoo Lee CF- 1 for 2, 2B, BB. Hey! A Jung Hoo Lee sighting! After missing about a week with back tightness he returns to game action and picks up where he left off. Hey! It was the dog days and spring training is too long anyway! Kidding aside, a healthy Lee seems critical to any hope of a Giants postseason run this year.
Sam Huff C- 1 for 3. Bob Melvin reportedly confirmed that Huff will start the season as back up catcher and Stassi will provide depth with the River Cats. Melvin said Stassi was made aware this would be the likely scenario from the beginning.
Max Stassi C- 1 for 1, 2B. Stassi has had a good spring too. 40-man roster and option considerations worked against him. Hopefully he sticks around and waits for his opportunity. There is a high probability he will be needed at some point in the season.
Christian Koss SS- 1 for 3, 2B. Interesting he was the starting SS for the Giants squad in this game. Is it possible they find a way to put him on the roster as the utility IF? I saw a quote on BlueSky from Zach Minasian that Koss is a "favorite" of the Giants front office.
Landon Roupp RHP- 5 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 8 K's, 5/2 GO/AO. This game was billed as a showdown for the #5 SP role between Roupp and Hayden Birdsong. The tea leaves told me coming in that Roupp getting the starting assignement meant he had the inside track. He certainly did nothing to lost that.
Hayden Birdsong RHP- 0.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 0 K. As Krukow would say, "that's a rough appearance!" Saw footage of Birdsong checking out his finger in the dugout with speculation he may have a blister. That would certainly settle the #5 SP question for Roupp, at least temporarily. Roupp is the more experienced pitcher of the two although when healthy, Birdsong has more electric stuff mainly due to about 3 MPH higher FB velocity.
Keaton Winn RHP- 2.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K's. Kyle Harrison LHP was a late scratch so Winn got the start for the River Cats squad. Reportedly no injury to Harrison. His start just got pushed back to tomorrow. Melvin said it was never realistic to expect Harrison to make the Opening Day rotation after starting spring training late and losing a lot of weight and strength to an illness. He will build back up in extended spring training or AAA.
Joey Lucchesi LHP- 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. From Melvin's comments these options and reassignments seem to be final. I am still not convinced Lucchesi is out of the running for a roster spot.
Mason Black RHP- 3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K's. Nice appearance for Black in scrub time.
Hunter Bishop RF- 2 for 4, 2B, BB. Probably a make or break season for Bishop. Nice line in this game.
Logan Porter C- 2 for 3, 2B, BB, SB(1). Logan Porter says, "Hey! Don't forget me!"
The Giants play in Oracle Park for the first time this year with Robbie Ray LHP taking on the Tigers who are tuning up to start their season against the Dodgers in LA. And with that, the Bay Bridge Series is officially history.
Earlier today the Giants made the surprising announcement that Sean Hjelle RHP was optioned to AAA Sacramento. The tea leaves tell me this means Joel Peguero RHP probably makes the Opening Day roster along with Spencer Bivens RHP and Randy Rodriguez RHP. Roster moves should be interesting over the next 3 days.
Susan slusser reported a couple of interesting things: Giants expected to designate Davjd Villar for assignment - no surprise. There has been trade interest involving Casey Schmidt all winter by multiple teams according to sources, but Giants don't want to move him since he has one option left. Maybe something to keep an eye on in the next 2 days? Can Koss play multiple infield positions ? I would hate to see Schmidt get traded, but he's blocked from playing time at his best position 3rd base by Matt Chapman.
ReplyDeleteKoss can play all the IF positions and is probably the best defensive SS out of the utility infield candidates. He makes a lot of sense for that reason although Adames is expected to be in ironman.
DeleteAt 27 yo, Koss had quite a Spring and appears to be versitile in the field, but his career batting numbers including Sacramento AAA are quite mild.
ReplyDeleteIs he a better than Schmitt whose Spring numbers were as good or better than Koss?
Wisely with solid dWAR numbers at the major league level should be ahead of both of them if for no other reason, he bats left which is unique in the Giants infield unless Wade at 1B is included.
In any event, Buster will do what he thinks is right, and he's a far better judge than we contributors to Doc's blog.
I'm wondering if Fitz's strikeout rate this spring was so high, Wisely could wind up being the better everyday 2B guy? (Also, in the Athletic, they reported that Stassi could've opted out of his contract after they told him Huff was going to get the major league roster nod, but he told Melvin he wanted to remain a Giant ... I'm rooting for him!)
ReplyDeleteI'm rooting for Fitz, love what he did for us last year. Super fun run! But, yeah, this is the deal. Wisely pushing him hard. Hoping good things come out of this competitive atmosphere...
DeleteWHY am I feeling good about this team???...in the face of the Dodger superteam?
MLTBR fan poll for who will win the West puts the Giants behind the Rockies (FU vote?) and into a last place prediction for the giants for the NL West. Just gotta smile!
Melvin's Opening Day Lineup tonight with Wade @ DH and Flores 1B
ReplyDeleteIf you're the manager, you get to pick...
Is it possible to figure out how good or bad the Giants rotation will be?
ReplyDeleteIt's likely that Webb will be Webb, barring injury, he'll get his 33 starts and his record will be consistent with the run support he gets: 15-9 or 9-15 or somewhere between.
The pundits as well as many who post here have question marks about the rest of the rotation: they say prove it!
That 4 — Verlander, Ray, Hicks, Loupp to begin the season —could be very good.
Or not.
Other than Loupp, they have history: 2 have injury worries and one is still trying to convert from a stud reliever to a stud starter.
And Loupp? Who knows?
If all goes well, with enough run support, 90 wins?
Can Adames and a full season of Lee, Ramos, Fitzgerald, Wade & Flores complementing Chapman and Bailey plus the RF-pairing score more than a very average 2024 offense?
Conforto, Soler, and Estrada had 153 RBIs last year, more than 20% of the Giants total, and they are gone.
2025's pitching will win some games that were lost last year, but will they win 10 more without more offense than last year?
When will we get the answer? May? September?