Spring Training 2021

[pachyderm]

Or Nick Lowery!


Barry Bonds was his personal chauffeur when they played together, dontchaknow.

 

[LHG]

Or Nick Lowery!


Barry Bonds was his personal chauffeur when they played together, dontchaknow.

That was awfully kind of Nick . . . considering he doesn't need transportation to get where he's going.

 

[calsnowskier]

That was awfully kind of Nick . . . considering he doesn't need transportation to get where he's going.

Just shows how magnanimous the man was. He went out of his way to make Barry feel useful next to Him.

 

[LHG]

Don't know if he's coming to big league camp or not. If he is, he'll make the number of pitchers in camp 40 (assuming Beede will participate in big league camp and Brebbia will not).

 

[LHG]

Silver Slugger win surprised Solano

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Donovan Solano’s improbable rise with the Giants culminated in a prize that not even he could have imagined this offseason. After batting .326 with an .828 OPS over the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, Solano captured the National League Silver Slugger Award at second base...

www.mlb.com

Some takeaways on this article:
Solano seems to be slated to start more games at 2nd than LaStella (doesn't even mention Flores)
The last arbitration hearing the Giants went to was in 2004
Solano wants to work both on his pop and his defense. Not sure if that is going to just cause him to regress in his one strong element - hitting

 

[tzill]

Or Nick Lowery!


Barry Bonds was his personal chauffeur when they played together, dontchaknow.

The legend of Nick Lowerez endures!

Ai yay yi!

 

[SFGRTB]

Maybe it's just Spring Training fever, but I'm actually looking forward to this year. Going to be interesting to see how they manage the extreme platoon strategy over the course of a full season. It worked well in a short season, but over 162 I have my doubts. Still, if they can make it work I don't see any reason why this offense can't be at least top half of the league again.

They're going to need a lot of luck on the pitching side to make this work, though.

 

[LHG]

Maybe it's just Spring Training fever, but I'm actually looking forward to this year. Going to be interesting to see how they manage the extreme platoon strategy over the course of a full season. It worked well in a short season, but over 162 I have my doubts. Still, if they can make it work I don't see any reason why this offense can't be at least top half of the league again.

They're going to need a lot of luck on the pitching side to make this work, though.

Hey, the starting rotation only has 5 injury/reclamation projects so I think it will work!

 

[LHG]

Menez to start Giants' Cactus League opener

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Left-hander Conner Menez will get the starting nod for the Giants’ Cactus League opener against the Angels on Sunday at Scottsdale Stadium, manager Gabe Kapler announced on Friday. Menez will be one of seven pitchers who are expected to appear in the first exhibition game of the

www.mlb.com

I didn't know that spring training games will be 7 inning affairs through March 13th (and as short as 5 innings). Kinda defeats the reason so many players are in camp when the games are shorter.

 

[SFGRTB]

This game will be on TV (MLB Network for out of market folks).

 

[LHG]

I was wearing my orange Giants' polo yesterday while doing some grocery shopping (had a few stores to go to) and was surprised to see two different people get excited about the shirt (not the obnoxious Dodger fan excited, the real Giant fan excited). The 2nd one was at Trader Joe's close to my house. He started talking about how his in-laws came from Jersey and were Giants' fans since back in the day when the team was in New York. That love of the team spread to him and his boys, who is a high school catcher and a big Buster Posey fan.
That brings me to why I'm posting about it here. He said that he heard that Posey announced that he was going to retire after this season. I was surprised because I've see or heard nothing about that kind of big news. I assumed that he heard from a guy who heard it from another guy but thought I'd throw it out here to see anyone has actually read a credible source making this statement.

 

[SFGRTB]

I was wearing my orange Giants' polo yesterday while doing some grocery shopping (had a few stores to go to) and was surprised to see two different people get excited about the shirt (not the obnoxious Dodger fan excited, the real Giant fan excited). The 2nd one was at Trader Joe's close to my house. He started talking about how his in-laws came from Jersey and were Giants' fans since back in the day when the team was in New York. That love of the team spread to him and his boys, who is a high school catcher and a big Buster Posey fan.
That brings me to why I'm posting about it here. He said that he heard that Posey announced that he was going to retire after this season. I was surprised because I've see or heard nothing about that kind of big news. I assumed that he heard from a guy who heard it from another guy but thought I'd throw it out here to see anyone has actually read a credible source making this statement.

That would make monumental news, if so. We would have heard about it by now if it was officially announced. I have my doubts this will be Posey's last season, or at least he knows he's going to retire yet. I could see him playing out this year and seeing how he feels at the end. If it's another .600 OPS no power, injury cranky season I could see him leaving. But if he hits well I could see him giving it another go.

That being said, I could see it being an open secret that the SF media are respecting and letting Buster announce himself.

 

[calsnowskier]

I was wearing my orange Giants' polo yesterday while doing some grocery shopping (had a few stores to go to) and was surprised to see two different people get excited about the shirt (not the obnoxious Dodger fan excited, the real Giant fan excited). The 2nd one was at Trader Joe's close to my house. He started talking about how his in-laws came from Jersey and were Giants' fans since back in the day when the team was in New York. That love of the team spread to him and his boys, who is a high school catcher and a big Buster Posey fan.
That brings me to why I'm posting about it here. He said that he heard that Posey announced that he was going to retire after this season. I was surprised because I've see or heard nothing about that kind of big news. I assumed that he heard from a guy who heard it from another guy but thought I'd throw it out here to see anyone has actually read a credible source making this statement.

I suspect that the guy may have confused the fact that Posey’s contract is up after this season with him retiring. A non-lunatic-fringe fan could easily misunderstand that kind of detail.

that said, I would not be shocked if he did retire. He has a big family forming and he has generational money. The only real reason for him to stay in the game at this point would be to try to solidify his HOF resume, but I fear that ship may have already sailed.

 

[SFGRTB]

I suspect that the guy may have confused the fact that Posey’s contract is up after this season with him retiring. A non-lunatic-fringe fan could easily misunderstand that kind of detail.

that said, I would not be shocked if he did retire. He has a big family forming and he has generational money. The only real reason for him to stay in the game at this point would be to try to solidify his HOF resume, but I fear that ship may have already sailed.

I like how we're considered the lunatics. Which is to say, there's just one lunatic here, tzill, and we're all of his alts.

 

[Duders]

Looks like we have enough "Spring Training 2021" threads....

 

[calsnowskier]

Looks like we have enough "Spring Training 2021" threads....

Just 1...

 

[pachyderm]

Just 1...

Isn't that enough?

 

[calsnowskier]

Isn't that enough?

Touché

 

[SFGRTB]

Free audio for today's game: LIVE: Giants Spring Training | 03/04/2021

 

[LHG]

Here's the box scores from March 1st & 2nd (the team was off yesterday):

MLB Gameday: Giants 1, Rangers 1 Final Score (03/01/2021)

Follow MLB results with FREE box scores, pitch-by-pitch strikezone info, and Statcast data for Giants vs. Rangers at Surprise Stadium

www.mlb.com

MLB Gameday: Dodgers 1, Giants 1 Final Score (03/02/2021)

Follow MLB results with FREE box scores, pitch-by-pitch strikezone info, and Statcast data for Dodgers vs. Giants at Scottsdale Stadium

www.mlb.com

I really don't like these shortened spring training games. I really feel it makes it even harder to properly evaluate guys who are battling for roster spots, especially when 40 pitchers are in camp, most of them trying to make the team (a few are here just for the experience and show off for a couple years down the road). And why would teams call the game before 7 innings? "We are just short staffed right now. We only have 70 players in camp so 6 innings is call we can do."
And will we see split squad games? With so many players in camp, off days seem strange, even more so no split squads early in camp.