Jordan Hicks quieted his doubters with a strong start against the Royal "home" lineup and a 9'th inning Giants rally broke a 1-1 tie for the spring win. Key Lines:
Tyler Fitzgerald 2B- 1 for 4, HR(1). BA= .282. Fitz adds his name to the list of Giants homering this spring. He was the total Giants offense until the 9'th inning rally.
9'th Inning- The rally consisted of a single by Wade Meckler LF(.250), Double by Logan Porter C(.125) and a single by Sabin Ceballos 3B(.636) who is starting to flirt with phenom status.
Grant McCray CF- 0 for 3, BB, SB(5). BA= .256. McCray struck out his first 3 times up. I could be wrong but I am pretty sure he did that on a total of 9 pitches. As Mike Krukow would say, "that's a rough night!" Although he did draw a walk in his last PA. I will add that Michael Wacha RHP can give you a lot of rough nights when he is dealing and he appeared to be dealing with his usual assortment of at least 5 or 6 pitches, all with great command and all with different velocities, shapes and locations. He had 8 K's in 5 IP on the night.
Jordan Hicks RHP- 5.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 3 K's, 10/2 GO/AO, 63 pitches. ERA= 5.84. The fanbase was starting to get restless with Hicks. He probably did not have to have a great start to keep his rotation slot but the fans sure wanted to see some signs of progress. He delivered that and revealed the blueprint for how to approach his role as a starter. Use his premium stuff to pitch to contact, induce groundball outs, keep the pitch count down and get deep into the game. That approach worked as it was drawn up and he was throwing 99 MPH sinkers in the 6'th inning to boot. That approach will sometimes result in some bad BABIP luck but if he sticks with it he will be a solid 4'th SP.
Antonio Jimenez LHP got the final out of the 6'th inning as Hicks apparently reached his pitch limit.
Tristan Beck RHP, Lou Trivino RHP and Kai-Wei Teng RHP pitched a scoreless frame each. Beck loaded the bases with one out but got out of it with a GIDP. Trivino had two K's and looked dominant. I think he has a roster spot all but locked up.
The Giants have the day off tomorrow. Logan Webb RHP takes the mound against the Guardians in Scottsdale on Friday afternoon in what is likely his final spring appearance before Opening Day against the Reds in Cincinnati.
Joel Peguero RHP won the Barney Nugent Award for the best performance by a player in their first spring training. I am honestly not sure what other players were in their first camp but Peguero certainly opened eyes by consistently hitting 101-102 MPH on the radar guns and appears to have a legitimate shot at making the Opening Day roster.
I still worry about 1B and OF(all of them)/DH...Just me..Watching the game last night, McCray looked totally overmatched and without a clue....OTOH, I really liked MATOS's approach at the plate and he hit the ball fairly hard twice.....He's looking ready to me but unfortunately is not really a CF.
ReplyDeleteGotta love what the SP is doing from top to bottom...Hicks added to it...excited about them big time
SteveVA
In McCray's defense, Michael Wacha was dealing and he was not the only Giants player in the lineup to look overmatched.
DeleteTrue, but he looked extremely bad to me,..but my main point was the difference between his approach and MATOS at the plate. which was significantly better...Do the Giants want mostly glove (for CF) or somebody who looks like he has "gotten it " at the plate (if many of his ST ABs might say) and is better at the corners? .I guess Lee's status impacts that a lot..
DeleteSteveVA
My guess is if Lee misses significant time, McCray will be the CF mostly for D. Any O will be considered an extra benefit.
DeleteLikely correct..but a guy hitting .100 can see other parts of his game go down..Just saying..Yaz could also play some CF short term, no?
DeleteSteveVA
I don't think McCray would hit .100 but if he did, yes, his D probably would not be enough to keep him in a starting CF role.
DeleteThanks to McCovey Chronicles BlueSky feed because I don't subscribe to Fangraphs but they are putting out there positional power rankings based on projected fWAR. We don't have all the positions in yet but so far interesting: Catcher- Giants 5.4 Dodgers 3.7. LF- Giants 1.9, Dodgers 1.8. CF- Giants 3.5, Dodgers 3.2. Shortstop- Giants 4.2, Dodgers 6.0. First Base- Giants 1.6, Dodgers 4.4. 3B- Giants 4.5, Dodgers 3.1. 2B- Giants- 2.5, Dodgers 2.5. Total(so far): Giants 23.6, Dodgers 24.7. Of course, Ohtani will blow DH out of the water, but you take away Ohtani and the matchup is a lot closer than I thought and probably closer than most readers here thought.
DeleteKrukow says that McCray is a hard working and smart player who is aware of his problems. He feels his strike zone problems are fixable and that he is probably the guy who will play CF if Lee cannot go.
DeleteMcCray's ST numbers aren't bad.
DeleteDespite his high K-rate, his OBP (.396) and speed (his 5 SBs leads the team, Jung Hoo has none) make him a good lead-off. Leading off a game can put a fast guy on base and one place that a strikeout doesn't hurt — there an out's an out.
Fangraphs Positional Power Rankings for RF(by fWAR): Giants 2.0, Dodgers 2.7.
Delete22-year old Ceballos is making the Soler signing look good!
ReplyDeleteWill he go to AA Richmond? Should the Giants think about a position other than 3B, like 1B or RF?
DeleteEither A+ or AA. Probably AA. He seems athletic enough to move to another position.
DeleteGrant Brisbee's The Athletic column posted last nigh ist his opinion that J. H. Lee's health affects "Giants’ precarious postseason hopes"!
ReplyDeleteThat's probably true about at least a half-dozen players 29-and-older who are key to the Giants success starting with 42-year old Justin Verlander.
What do you think, Doc, who are the Giants most key players and is Lee one of them?
32 yo Chapman and 29 yo Adames are irreplaceable. Is Lee? Is there no b/u CFer, and, if so, that's certainly not good. McCray does not seem ready and a combo of YtY and, say, Matos, would be shaky but more than Schmitt at 3B or Fitz going back to SS?
And the SPs: on paper there is a good rotation if Webb remains an iron man, Verlander survives, Ray and Hicks outperform their recent history, and a 5th starter from some worthy candidates emerges.
This is a good team if too many wheels don't come off, but it's certainly not deep.
I think the depth is really pretty good. Certainly much better than last season because they have a whole cadre of young post-prospects with some MLB experience. Adames and Bailey are the most irreplaceable players on the roster. There are very few teams in MLB whose postseason hopes are not precarious and subject to players staying healthy.
Delete