Spring Training Update: Roster Rumblings

There is some churning going in in the Giants spring roster.  Now, Farhan Zaidi came in with a reputation for roster churning in Oakland and LA, so maybe this is just the next iteration of that quirk.  On the other hand, maybe there is some method behind the madness here too?  The answer may lie in matchup analysis with the rest of the NL West.

There are a lot of left-handed pitchers in the NL West.  League wide, about 25% of all pitchers throw from the south side of the mound.  Looking over NL West Depth Charts, 4 of 5 projected SP's for the Padres are Lefties, 3 for the Dodgers, 2 for the Rockies and 1 for the D'Backs.  4 teams, 10 of 20 SP's are left-handed.  Here's the matchup issue.  Across most of MLB, it's an advantage to be a lefthanded batter because at least 3/4 of the pitchers you will face will be RH.  That's not true in the NL West where it's 50/50.

That brings us to what's going on with the Giants roster.  The Giants came into the offseason and spring training pretty much set at 5 positions, all 4 IF and C.  3 of those 5 players bat left-handed.  Add in Steven Duggar, who has clearly won the starting CF job, and it makes 4 of 6.  Now, Gerardo Parra has emerged as the apparent winner of the starting RF job and it's 5 of 7.  This leaves Mac Williamson as the only player standing between the Giants and a lineup consisting of 6 of 8 LH batters and Mac's spring can be described as mediocre at best.

OK, you say, no worries.  We'll just stack the bench with RH hitters and do a little platooning, you know, kind of like the Dodgers the last 2 years, Dodgers lite, if you will.  So let's check in on how the bench is coming along.  Hmm....Rene Rivera is the backup catcher and bats RH.  First of all, Rivera is not known for his bat. Secondly, as a back up C, he's not always available as a PH.  To top if off, the starter at C, Buster Posey, hits RH.  The 2 leading reserve IF candidates are Pablo Sandoval and Yangervis Solarte.  Both are switch-hitters, which is better than being strictly LH, but most switch-hitters hit better from the left side because that's where most of their reps come from.  That leaves 1 or 2 reserve OF positions.  Problem is all the RH batting candidates from early spring are gone.  Drew Ferguson was sent back to the Astros, Cameron Maybin was released and Anthony Garcia was reassigned to minor league camp apparently due to issues with his defense.  Which leaves....well, it leaves nobody who bats RH.

The best spring performance of the Motley Crew was from Mike Gerber.  He bats LH.  Henry Ramos is still in camp.  He's a switch-hitter.  Farhan brought in his old friend, Matt Joyce, who can hit, but he only plays corner OF and he hits LH.  Which now leaves Connor Joe between the Giants and matchup hell. Joe can play 5 positions, but has no MLB experience and an up-and-down minor league track record.  One big problem with Joe is he doesn't play CF, so the Giants would have to carry 5 bats off the bench if they keep both Sandoval and Mac which means they could only carry 12 pitchers when they have said they prefer to carry 13.  Do the Giants really want to jump off a cliff and dump Sandoval or Mac for Connor Joe?

This may all work itself out in the end, or Farhan may still have an unlikely big trade up his sleeve, but right now it looks like he may have outsmarted himself and this roster is headed for an end-of-spring train wreck.