Matt Cain had dominant numbers but got hurt by the longball while the Giants batters got lots of runners on base, but could not bring enough of them in. Key Lines:
Andres Torres- 2 for 3, 2B BA= .308. Torres is having a fine spring, but left this game early with a sore foot. He's had trouble staying healthy the past 2 seasons.
Hunter Pence- 2 for 3, BB. BA= .354. Another nice game for the Rev.
Joaquin Arias- 3 for 4. BA= .262. Arias did not score or drive in a run despite the 3 hits. He played 1B in this one.
Francisco Peguero- 1 for 4, 2B. BA= .354. Pegs played all 3 OF positions in this one. Gillespie went 0 for 2 while Pegs drove in a run and scored one.
Ryan Cavan- 2 for 4, HR(1). BA= .500. With nobody grabbing the reserve IF role, you never know.
Matt Cain- 5 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 0 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 4.50. Love the K/BB. Cainer got hurt by a 2 run Wilin Rosario bomb. I'm planning on not getting outbid for Rosario in my fantasy draft. Cain's increased use of breaking balls has helped him get more K's, but he also occasionally hangs one and when he does it gets hit a long way. The stat line pattern he has become famous for may be changing.
Dan Runzler- 0.2 IP, 3 H, 5 R, 2 BB, 1 K. ERA= 6.75. Runzler's first hiccup of the spring and it was a doozy.
The Giants re-assigned Kensuke Tanaka, Johnny Monell and Jackson Williams to minor league camp. That leaves Wilson Valdez as the apparent last man standing in the reserve IF competition, but he is not exactly tearing up the Cactus League and the Giants are believed to be looking outside the organization. Anyone ready for a Riot?
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On that backup IF front, could it be a cat and mouse game with Agent Ned and his six middle infield guys. Juan Uribe for a month? Let Sir Hensley slap him back into shape?
ReplyDeleteI'd take a Riot in a heartbeat. I was excited last year, I'll be excited this year. Scrapper who can drag out a hit and fake a couple positions? Sign me up.
Sounds like the issue is that The Riot wants more playing time than he can get with the Giants, and he's OK if no team wants to give him that playing time. With Arias as the first go-to for MI, hard for the Giants to promise him much work. Who knows, maybe they squeezed him on salary too, nobody knows (but the Shadow!).
DeleteI wouldn't mind him returning either, he is a pretty good bat to have coming off the bench plus smarts and some speed.
Any thoughts on picking up Chone Figgins, who was released this week? While he's not all that good, he'd likely be an upgrade on Valdez.
ReplyDeleteWilson Valdez is released, too. Along with Ramirez.
ReplyDeleteGood riddance to Burriss 2.0.
DeleteNoonan is coming back to the big league camp.
ReplyDeleteI doubt they see him as the permanent solution. More like, until they find someone else...
What about Brock Bond? If I recall correctly he absolutely tore it up this Spring. Plus did it at AAA last year.
DeleteI think he is currently injured.
DeleteI think Bond needs a perfect storm to get his shot. He joined the org by mistake, so he has no real potential. Noonan was a 1st rounder, and has done at least OK at each stop. I think, legitimately, Noonan gets the shot first.
DeleteI think Bond would be in the mix, but he just suffered an oblique strain or something like that.
DeleteGood for Noonan to get a shot. I'm on board. He looked quite sharp when I saw him live. Kept the K's down, made contact, plays 2b/ss/3b and has a year of AAA under his belt so it might not be a drag on his development to not get tons of PT.
DeleteThen again... Yuniesky Betancourt looms. He has demanded to be on the 25 or released by the weekend. I can just see the Gints saber blogosphere melting down. Ho ho ho. For what its worth, he's had a good spring.
Ha! It would be worth it to me just to see the reaction to a Yuniesky signing. Hey, he ain't a lot different than Juan Uribe when Uribe was signed. You know Sabes! He keeps going to the same well until the water runs dry.
DeletePersonally, I'm rooting for Noonan to get the call. I don't think he's anybody's anything of the future anyway, so playing a backup role won't stunt his potential ceiling. Reserves can play their way into bigger roles and you never know when someone ahead of you might get hurt unexpectedly.
I think that the Giants see Noonan as a future solution, so true that he's not seen as a permanent one at the moment, but sometimes the future is NOW!
DeleteI still think that he has the potential to become a starter for us at 2B, should the need come up, he's only 24 YO, so he can apprentice for a couple of years before maybe fighting for the starting job in 2015 when he's 26.
I view this like Belt making the team in 2011, I did not think that he was ready but given the DL situation, why not let him get some playing time up here so that we could evaluate what we got? He's clearly got a strong self-confidence, he has not really hit that well in recent seasons, yet when he got promoted to AAA, he was able to finally put a lot of lessons together and put together a nice seasonal line. Why not put him up here and see what he can do? Gives our scouts and talent evaluators some data and video to watch.
Go Noonan!
I agree that Noonan is being groomed for this position, and I would be happy to see him on the 25-man. However, he is still young ( despite being in the org for a while) and potentially developing. He made huge strides last year. If he is still developing the FO may prefer to see him in Fresno. This is all pure speculation on my part.
DeleteAlso his left handed bat may be an obstacle. I believe the Giants are looking for a RH bat.
BTW, he just hit a HR :)
Wow! That dinger might just seal the deal for Nooooonan!
DeleteOh, and can we please bottle up some of Brandon Belt's production and save it for the regular season? OMG!!!
DeleteGood for Noonan. The right handed bat, I'm not totally sold. Arias bats right handed, and Scutaro does as well. I guess if you're trying to platoon with Crawford and you have Arias at third if Sandoval is hurt, a right handed bat would be preferable. But the 5th OF will be RH (Peggs/Gellespie) and Torres switch hits, so I don't think its set in stone we need a right hander in this particular case. The Brandons leftiness does skew things though, its one reason if Pence comes alive he is a no-brain re-sign, right handed power that not only plays in the park but balances the lineup.
DeleteOT: FYI, article on closers to watch
ReplyDeletehttp://www.baseballhq.com/content/relievers-gambles-0?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Baseball+HQ+Friday+-+March+22%2C+2013&utm_source=Baseball+HQ+Friday&utm_term=Read+on...+