Yusmeiro Petit and David Huff were both sharp in multiple innings as were Derek Law and Sergio Romo at the end of the game, and the Giants offense scratched out 3 runs with the help of some poor A's defense for the shutout win. Key Lines:
Gregor Blanco- 1 for 1, 3B. BA= .256. Blanco has been on fire of late. He drove in an insurance run in the 8'th with a triple down the 1B line then came home on Brandon Crawford's sac fly.
Hector Sanchez- 2 for 3. BA= .325. The Hector had a rough start to the game taking a foul tip off the left shoulder and a bouncer to the groin in the first inning, but he hung tough, caught a good game and had 2 nice base hits.
Ehire Adrianza- 0 for 3, 3 K. BA= . Adrianza made a couple of sparkling plays at 2B, but looked completely overmatched at the plate.
Yusmeiro Petit- 4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K's. ERA- 5.25. Petit was locating and mixing speeds well in this game keeping the A's hitters off balance the entire 4 innings. Kruk and Kuip interviewed Bochy during the game. This was clearly a big game for Petit. Bochy said the reason Matt Cain pitched in the AAA game was because he wanted to see Petit facing a major league lineup. He said he has some very tough decisions coming up. He made it clear he needed to see Petit pitch well tonight and the big guy came through.
David Huff- 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K. ERA= 1.29. If Huff is in direct competition with Peit, then he did not make Bochy's decision any easier. I have to say I was impressed! I did not know that Huff could get the FB up to 92. Put that with a nice breaking ball and a top notch change and you have something to work with. I wonder if Bochy might just keep both Petit and Huff? Not only would that give him 2 backup starters on the roster, it would give him 2 guys who can go more than 1 inning at a time plus a third lefty out of the pen, something Bochy has made use of in the past.
Derek Law- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.93. Law is a big dude with a funky delivery that comes right over the top after turning his back to the batter. The ball just explodes out of nowhere. I would call him nasty! Another tough decision coming up for Bochy!
Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 17.47. Romo's two seamer and change up looked much better tonight. Having a better FB and changeup allows him to be less dependent on the slider and makes it more effective. I think the sacrifice of early spring numbers to work on improving those two pitches will pay off big time once we're into the season.
7 players got sent down today with a few eyebrow raisers: Heath Hembree, Jake Dunning and Erik Cordier were assigned to Fresno. Brett Bochy, Guillermo Quiroz, Mark Minicozzi and Adam Reifer were sent to minor league camp. I had though Hembree was almost a slam dunk to make the opening day roster. Shows how much I know!
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The regular season starts early tomorrow morning with the Dodgers facing the D'Backs in Australia. No offense, Australia, but I hate that! Although, I would be down with starting the full regular season tomorrow.
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Yeah, the Joey Rapp release makes no sense from our side of the office door. He was a solid player, and coming on. But unfortunately, the business side of baseball is often a brutal one.
ReplyDeleteI truly feel for all those kids-- one day their life is filled with endless obsession over mechanics, stats, conditioning, etc, and the anticipation of fulfilling a dream shared by so many, but realized by so few. Then on one fateful morning, in an instant, none of it matters any more, as they are no longer a baseball player. Gotta be rough.
Sorry to ramble, Doc- back to our expertly hosted program.
Well, Rapp was old for his level and did not have a real strong pedigree to begin with. I guess between Brian Ragira, Blake Miller, Jonathan Jones and Craig Massoni, there wasn't going to be a place for him to play. There may be factors involved that we don't know about too. Not that I suspect anything with Rapp, but that's always a possibility.
DeleteBTW, I heard that Carter Jurica left camp on his own accord.
Hembree has some competition between Dunning, Hall and mainly Derek Law. This is a great indication of system depth, just like the 1B you listed out. Giants are drafting and developing, building a very strong system. Part of that is getting college players - the same way the Cards do and Luthnow of the Astros gets hype for - and filling in with upside yoots. The Giants might be a little slow on that draw, but they got a nice haul in the 2013 draft.
ReplyDeleteI think we're starting to see the effects of the investment in bullpen arms from the past couple of years, especially 2011-12. You get enough of these guys, they start shining through.
I wonder if there is some concern about Hembree's arm and that is the reason he's been used so sparingly this spring. Bochy seemed pretty definite that he did not see Hembree giving him a lot of innings and that is the reason he was sent down.
DeleteAhhh yes Doc, but you could see it coming with Hembree. He wasn't getting a lot of work. The writing was somewhat on the wall.
ReplyDeleteHuff had surprisingly good stuff. Looks like a pitcher. If he doesn't make the team, it' may be tough passage to get through to Fresno. I can see the Petit-Huff two headed monster eating up innings in April.
Yeah, nice depth in the pen. A bullpen is bigger than the 7 that make the opening day roster. What does it actually run, 10-12 deep?
Bochy had some interesting comments about Hembree that Baggs wrote up. The gist of it was he doesn't see Hembree as being more than a 1 inning guy and his priority is innings out of the back end of the bullpen. That would seem to give Huff a huge leg up, especially after last night's performance.
DeleteI certainly thought Hembree was a lock, but maybe that is because I thought he was competing for the open spots on the pen. In other words, 3rd righty. If you take Bochy at his word, Hembree was really competing with Romo and Casilla. While we have (out of desperation) at closer by committee, we have a nice ordering now of closers, set up guys, and bridge guys (the last three). Seems to me Hembree might be too good to sit in that last spot and maybe Bochy wants to get him more consistent innings at AAA to get him ready for a more lofty roll. Could be idle speculation, but since Hembree was the heir apparent to Wilson for so long, and then Brian blows out his arm and Romo steps in...
DeleteI still love the depth. It seems like Law gets one spot, especially since Dunning went down too. You then have two more spots, and you've got Runzler, Kontos, Petit and Huff. Seems like there are some natural pairings--if Huff gets the nod, maybe Runzler doesn't, although I think of the 4, Kontos is the weak link (unless he stays on track this year).
We got arms in the minors! Hopefully, that means the FO will stop trading bodies for relievers at mid season and trust the guys who had great springs.
PiLamBear
Kameron Loe just go released today.
DeleteKershaw back at it. When Van Slyke is winning games for the Dodgers with his bat, look out.
ReplyDeleteI'm not too worried about Van Slyke. Did you see Puig's line? Kershaw is obviously Kershaw. I can stop hoping he's hit a wall.
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