Spring Training Game Wrap 2/28/2023: Padres 7 Giants 5

Joey Bart rose to the challenge at hand but Alex Cobb's plans for using technology to outsmart the pitch clock ran into unanticipated consequences as the Padres spring travel squad topped the Giants.  Key Lines:

Joey Bart C- 2 for 2, 2B, HR.  BA= .750.  Wow!  Gabe Kapler threw down a challenge to Joey Bart at the start of spring training and Joey Bart is meeting it head on.  3 for 4 on the spring with all 3 XBH's. Oh!  And he also picked a runner off 2B with a throw Kap called a "rocket ship."  Go Joey Bart!

Brett Wisely SS- 1 for 3, HR.  BA= .400.  Don't sleep on Brett Wisely!  The Giants really, really need a lefty-hitting MI to be a utility guy even if they have to trade, say J. D. Davis, to make room on the roster.  The Giants must have traded for him for a reason and he's making his case so far.

Will Wilson SS- 1 for 3.  Speaking of not sleeping, barring in injury, Wilson probably won't make the Opening Day roster, but a strong spring and a strong start in AAA could put him at the head of the line for midseason call up.

Alex Cobb RHP- 2 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 2 K's.   Remember the talk about Alex Cobb using the two way pager to call his own pitches?  Turns out there are a lot of moving parts to that and he had trouble keeping up with the pitch clock and spoke out about it after.  Probably best to let your catcher call the pitches and just go with it.

Ross Stripling RHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's.  I am surprised at how little we've heard about Ross Stripling since the Giants signed him.  Sean Manaea and his newfound velocity notwithstanding, I feel like Stripling could low-key be the Giants best signing of the offseason.

Taylor Rogers LHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's.  Apparently Tyler is dealing with a sore finger or cut or something so we only saw the lefty version of The Twins today.  So far, so good!

The Giants stay home in Scottsdale tomorrow afternoon for a game against the D'Backs with Jake Junis RHP drawing the start against Drey Jameson RHP.

Spring Training Game Wrap 2/27/2023: Giants 8 Angels 6

 The Giants outscored the Angels in Tempe, AZ as Logan Webb RHP made his first start of the spring against the Angels "A team".  

Logan Wyatt 1B probably had the most interesting line of the day.  He added to his reputation as the new god of walks with 3 in 3 PA's which led to him scoring 2 runs.  At some point, Wyatt is going to have to either start making more contact or showing some semblance of power.  He won't be able to walk his way to the major leagues.

Webb worked 2 innings.  After giving up singles to Mike Trout OF and Shohei Ohtani SH in the first inning, he got out of the inning on a GIDP by Gio Urshela 3B.  He then gave up a 2-run HR to Luis Rengifo 2B in the second inning.  After getting his work in, Webb said he was just trying to stay off Sportscenter.  Just a reminder that Webb does not have to win a spot on the roster or the rotation so at this point in the spring his goals are to not get hurt and get his work in, in that order.

The Giants got 10 hits from 10 different players but 6 of them went for doubles:  Lamonte Wade Jr 1B(.500), Thairo Estrada 2B(.333), Casey Schmitt 3B(.500), Tyler Fitzgerald SS(.167), Blake Sabol C(.600) and Michael Gigliotti RF(.750).  Heliot Ramos RF singled in 3 AB with an RBI and Run and stole a base.  He's hitting.333 in 6 AB.  Carter Williams LF also went 1 for 3 with an RBI and Run and is batting .500.

Keaton Winn RHP pitched a nice 3'rd inning getting Trout to ground into a force out the striking out Ohtani looking on a 3-2 pitch. That must have been a thrill.  

The Giants also got scoreless frames from Mauricio Llovera RHP, Sam Delaplane RHP and Aaron Fletcher LHP.  I vaguely remember them signing Fletcher but completely forgot he was even in the organization.

Steven Piscotty was HBP on the wrist/hand area but stayed on the game, although he left after 2 PA's instead of his schedule 3.

Speaking of injuries, I was watching the Dodgers-Padres game on TV when Gavin Lux took a bad tumble while running the bases.  It looked like he both turned his ankle and hyperextended his knee and was carted off the field.  Not to wish anything bad on any one player but it seemed like the Dodgers based a whole lot of their offseason decisions on the assumption that Lux would progress in his development and I'm pretty happy with anything that is a major setback to the Bums.  Just a reminder, the single most important thing for players to accomplish in spring training is to stay healthy.

Alex Cobb RHP makes his first spring start tomorrow vs the Padres in Scottsdale with Ross Stripling RHP and the Rogers Boys also scheduled to make their spring debuts.

Scouting the 2023 Draft: Tommy Troy

Tommy Troy SS.   DOB:  1/17/2002.  B-R, T-R.  5'10", 197 lbs.  

2022(Stanford):  .339/.371/.568, 7 HR, 5 SB, 9 BB, 38 K, 197 PA.

2022(Cape Cod League):  .310/.386/.531, 5 HR, 5 SB, 10 BB, 22 K, 127 PA.

2023(Stanford):  .333/.514/.667, 2 HR, 3 SB, 9 BB, 4 K, 37 PA.

 Whenever I see his name, the first image that comes to mind is the statue of Tommy Trojan on the USC campus, but Tommy Troy is a true 5-tool player for Stanford.  Ranked highly out of HS but not drafted on 2020 due to short draft and commitment to Stanford.  HS numbers from PG:  6.41 60-yard dash, 91 MPH IF/OF, 96 MPH exit velocity.  Most scouts see him as a 2B in MLB but from those numbers should have enough arm to play SS in the majors as well as the speed to play CF.

Elite contact skills but knock is low walk rates.  That looks improved so far this season but SSS.  Hit a HR against CS Fullerton last week that had an exit velocity of 111 MPH.  Would be a very Giantsy first round pick.

DrB's Updated 2023 Draft Board:

1.  Dylan Crews OF(College)

2.  Chase Dollander RHP(College)

3.  Wyatt Langford OF(College)

4.  Max Clark OF(HS)

5.  Jacob Gonzalez SS(College)

6.  Jacob Wilson SS(College)

7.  Paul Skenes RHP(College)

8.  Arjun Nimmala SS(HS)

9.  Aiden Miller 3B(HS)

10.  Hursten Waldrep RHP(College)

11.  Rhett Lowder RHP(College)

12.  Will Sanders RHP(College)

13.  Noble Meyer RHP(HS)

14.  Thomas White LHP(HS)

15.  Charlee Soto RHP(HS)

16.  Tommy Troy SS(College)

17.  Matt Shaw SS(College)

18.  Walker Jenkins OF(HS)

19.  Brayden Taylor 3B(College)

20.  Enrique Bradfield OF(College)

21.  Yohandy Morales 3B(College)

Spring Training Game Wrap 2/26/2023: Giants 7 Reds 6

The scrubs came through in the final two frames for a come-from-behind Giants win to even their spring record at 1-1.  Key Lines:

Joey Bart C- 1 for 2, 2B.  Bart answered Blake Sabol's challenge from yesterday with a ringing double in his first spring AB to drive in the Giants first run of the game in the third inning.  

Sean Manaea LHP- 2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 3 K's.  Alex Pavlovic reports Manaea spent the winter working out with Driveline Baseball and his FB ran 93-96 MPH compared to an average of just under 92 last season.  

Camilo Doval RHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's.  Doval looked to be in midseason form both on and off the mound.  When asked if the pitch clock might cause a drop in his velocity Doval replied, "We're going up all the time, not going down."  LOL!  Oh, and one of his 3 K's came on a pitch clock violation by the batter.

Sean Hjelle RHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K.  Strong showing by The Tall One.  Not sure why except that he seems like such a unique talent but I feel more emotionally invested in Sean Hjelle having a career with the Giants than any other player in the organization.  

Ford Proctor 2B- 2 for 3, 2B.  Proctor was briefly on the active roster last season and is still in the organization.  He's interesting because he bats lefthanded and can play some catcher.  At this point he's just deep depth, though.

Will Wilson SS- 2 for 3.  Don't sleep on Will Wilson.  He looked like he was starting to make a move last season but then suffered a hamate fracture.  A strong spring and a strong start in AAA Sacramento could move him up to the top of the SS depth chart after Brandon Crawford.

Carter Williams RF- 1 for 1, HR, BB.  I like Carter Williams but right now he's just lineup card filler for these early spring games.  Hitting a bomb in an early spring game is a good way to get noticed by the manager and coaches, though.

Thomas Szupacki LHP- 0.1 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 0 K.  Szapucki comes into camp with a great chance to make the Opening Day roster.  Hopefully he got the jitters out of his system in this appearance.

Injury Updates:

Michael Conforto started the game as DH.  He went 1 for 3.  

Luis Gonzalez OF is dealing with a back issue and will miss 4-6 weeks.

Apparently Donovan Walton IF underwent shoulder surgery in the offseason and will be starting the season late.

Spring Training Game Wrap 2/25/2023: Cubs 10 Giants 8

 I am old enough to remember when Juan Marichal always started the first game of spring training and always pitched 3 innings.  So did pretty much every other ace pitcher for every team.  I would invite anyone who still thinks spring training is currently not too long to look over the list of Giants pitchers who appeared in this game.  The only one with even a longshot chance of making the opening day roster is Sam Long.  

I am not going to even try to give a complete summary of this meaningless game, but there were some things worth noting:

The pitch clock speeds up the game.  It was 9 innings but with totals of 25 hits, 13 BB and 6 Errors and still got in at a tad over 3 hours.  At times the players appeared to be struggling to adjust to the pitch clock and several violations were called.  Perhaps players with extensive minor league experience over the past two years were better prepared than some of the veterans since they've had a pitch clock in the minors for the past two seasons.  I felt like the announcers were also getting used to it as there is much less time for chatter and storytelling between pitches and batters.

Lamonte Wade Jr 1B smacked a solo HR to L-CF and made a nice scoop on a throw to help Casey Schmitt make a sparkling play at 3B.  More on that later but Wade Jr is off to a great start in his quest to win the strong-side 1B platoon role this spring.

Casey Schmitt 3B hammered a HR way up the LF berm.  He also made the above mentioned sparkling defensive play with a diving stop on a ball hit down the line.  He got up and threw a seed on one-hop to Wade Jr and got the call.  Have to say I am not sure that play would have survived a replay, but it was still an impressive defensive display.  Schmitt also started a GIDP but muffed a slow roller that Kap thought he could have taken a better angle on.  All-in-all, Schmitt did nothing to dispel the notion that he is the Giants 3B of the future.

Blake Sabol C went 2 for 3 with a 2B and HR to straightaway CF.  He also looked mobile behind the plate and was praised by Kap for his pitch framing.  He threw a couple of dying quails trying to throw out runners so still too early to pencil him into the Opening Day roster, but the bat looks real.

Grant McCray RF scored as a pinch runner on Sabol's double and then legged out a triple later in the game.

Steven Piscotty LF drew a walk and singled in 3 PA's.  Tough to see him making the team barring an injury.  

Speaking of injury, Austin Slater was a late scratch with a sore elbow and Bryce Johnson started the game in CF.

Shane Matheny 2B had a nice game going 2 for 2 with a HR in silly time in the 9'th inning.

The Giants play their first spring training game in Scottsdale tomorrow with Sean Manaea taking the mound against the Reds and Luke Weaver if the horrible weather in California does not make its way over to the Valley of the Sun by then.

DrB's 2023 Giants Top 50 Prospects: The Forgotten One

Thomas Szapucki LHP.  DOB:  6/12/1996.  6'2", 210 lbs.  Drafted 2015 Round 5(Mets)

2022(AAA- Mets):  2-6, 3.38, 64 IP, 12.23 K/9, 4.08 BB/9.

2022(AAA- Giants):  0-0, 1.08, 8.1 IP, 16.20 K/9, 3.24 BB/9.

2022(Mets):  0-1, 60.75, 1.1 IP, 3 BB, 2 K.

2022(Giants):  0-0, 1.98, 13.2 IP, 4 BB, 16 K.  

For some reason I though Szapucki had graduated from prospect status so left him off the Top 50 list.  Not sure where I would slot him in but definitely in top 30.   Ironically, the reason he is a Giant at all might be directly related to a disaster start against them with the Mets early in the season.  That start may be what made the Mets consider him expendable and perhaps the Giants saw something in the carnage that made them think he had potential?  

The Mets developed him as a SP but the Giants immediately put him in the bullpen and he responded with excellent numbers at both AAA and MLB levels.  There seems to be one bullpen roster spot open for competition and the early money is Szapucki to fill that spot.  Fangraphs lists him as having no options left but Ben Kaspick of Locked on Giants says he has it on good authority that he still has one option left so he could start the season back in AAA and still remain in the organization.  Either way there is a high probability he'll contribute to the Giants season, most like as a reliever but could be stretched out to start if necessary.  He could also be flipped in a midseason trade.

DrB's 2023 Giants Top 50 Prospects: #1 Kyle Harrison

Kyle Harrison LHP.  DOB:  8/12/2001.  6'2", 200 lbs.  Drafted 2020 Round 3

2022(A+):  0-1, 1.55, 29 IP, 18.31 K/9, 3.10 BB/9.

2022(AA):  4-2, 3.11, 84 IP, 13.61 K/9, 4.18 BB/9.

We might have to go all the way back to Tim Lincecum to find a Giants pitching prospect as much anticipated as Kyle Harrison.  Yes, fans were excited about Madison Bumgarner too but I am not sure quite as much as with Harrison who is starting to be looked upon as The Franchise, the guy who is going to usher in the next era of greatness.  Local HS pitcher who was committed to UCLA, usually a tough sign.  The Giants deftly scraped together bonus pool money to give Harrsion an above-slot bonus.  So far he has not disappointed, dominating every minor league level he's pitched in.  

He releases a mid-90's FB from a low arm slot and gets down further with a drop and drive approach which makes the FB appear to rise more than from an overhand delivery.  He backs that up with a put-away slider.  I read an early spring training report that had Logan Webb encouraging him to master a changeup to round out his already dominating arsenal.

Harrison will almost certainly start the season in AAA Sacramento.  If he continues to dominate there, things could get mighty interesting on midseason promotion and trade fronts as the Giants will need to find a way to make room for him.  Once he comes up, he very likely won't go back down.