With the Cactus League opener just two days away, the Giants took part in their first Intrasquad scrimmage of the spring. However, the lineups mostly consisted of minor leaguers and guys unlikely to make the big league club, though there were a few big names in there.
A lot of the Giants top prospects got put on display as Joe Panik, Ehire Adrianza, Nick Noonan, Tommy Joseph, Andrew Sussac and the Giants number one prospect, center fielder Gary Brown. Now, I haven't yet gotten all the ins and outs of the game, but The Extra Baggs blog had the team lineups and Team Dunston (coached by Shawon Dunston) beat Team Snow (headed by J.T), 7-2. Unfortunately, I'm not in Scottsdale and haven't came across a game report quite yet, so I have no idea who did what, but
Team Dunston featured more major league experienced players, in Belt, Burris, Crawford and Gregor Blanco, whereas Snow's team had just Brett Pill and Connor Gillaspie as the only MLB experienced ballplayers. Nonetheless, there really isn't much to take out of this game regardless of what people did during it. The most important thing is the Giants will enter the Cactus League opener as healthy as they were coming into Spring. No, they won't have Posey, Wilson or Sanchez for the first week or so, but that's been a plan for a long time now, so shouldn't come as a surprise. Outside of those three though, everyone, including Ryan Vogelsong, who battled back stiffness last week, seems to be progressing well. Most importantly, the Giants should get to play the majority of the spring with their projected opening day lineup (still crossing fingers on Freddy Sanchez) and that's an accomplishment in itself!
In other news today, it was brought up to Bruce Bochy whether he'd consider splitting ace Tim Lincecum and projected #2 Matt Cain up with lefty Madison Bumgarner. Now, I personally like the idea. Madison is one of the most poised 22 year-olds in the game and can handle a day 2 assignment with no problem! And, the reason their doing it, is it splits up Cain and Lincecum, who are both hard throwing right-handers and gives teams a bit of a different look. Then they'd
go to Vogey in the 4 spot who's got some power as well as some finesse, to Zito in the fifth who's pure finesse. I think it makes a ton of sense putting Bumgarner in the 2 spot, not only for breaking up Cain, but the effect it has on the rest of the rotation as well. The only back-to-back righties will be Cain and Vogey and each have such different styles that it should work out just fine! I don't make quite as much of the righty-lefty matchup thing, but Bruce Bochy obviously does. The dude lives by it, especially with his relievers and if he had his choice, he'd never allow a righty to face a lefty late in a game. Sometimes I wish he's stick with the hot hand more often rather than going by the book, but it won him the series in 2010 and I'm not one who's quite ready to start questioning Bochy's ways. But let's just wait and see how this season starts out!
I had one other thing that I found interesting today, and that was the deal that the Cardinals gave catcher Yadier Molina! The 30 year-old is a clutch hitter and a gold glover, but 5 years and $75 million! Yikes? What is Buster going to get in 2-3 years if Molina's making $15M per year? I get it in a sense that catcher is an overlooked position and is tremendously key to a baseball teams success, but $15 million for a .300 hitter with average power? Posey hasn't gotten to Molina's status with the glove yet, but blows him away with the bat, so does that make Posey a $20M a year player? Guess we'll just have to wait and see, but I think the Cardinals overpaid by about $20 million! By the way, with the season just around the corner, and your planning on getting your gambling on like I occasionally like to do, check out some of the Best sports books here. I know one thing I'd wager on if I could, and that's that the Cardinals will be kicking themselves in about 2-3 years, when he really gets his brothers legs, over this Molina deal!
A lot of the Giants top prospects got put on display as Joe Panik, Ehire Adrianza, Nick Noonan, Tommy Joseph, Andrew Sussac and the Giants number one prospect, center fielder Gary Brown. Now, I haven't yet gotten all the ins and outs of the game, but The Extra Baggs blog had the team lineups and Team Dunston (coached by Shawon Dunston) beat Team Snow (headed by J.T), 7-2. Unfortunately, I'm not in Scottsdale and haven't came across a game report quite yet, so I have no idea who did what, but
Team Dunston featured more major league experienced players, in Belt, Burris, Crawford and Gregor Blanco, whereas Snow's team had just Brett Pill and Connor Gillaspie as the only MLB experienced ballplayers. Nonetheless, there really isn't much to take out of this game regardless of what people did during it. The most important thing is the Giants will enter the Cactus League opener as healthy as they were coming into Spring. No, they won't have Posey, Wilson or Sanchez for the first week or so, but that's been a plan for a long time now, so shouldn't come as a surprise. Outside of those three though, everyone, including Ryan Vogelsong, who battled back stiffness last week, seems to be progressing well. Most importantly, the Giants should get to play the majority of the spring with their projected opening day lineup (still crossing fingers on Freddy Sanchez) and that's an accomplishment in itself!In other news today, it was brought up to Bruce Bochy whether he'd consider splitting ace Tim Lincecum and projected #2 Matt Cain up with lefty Madison Bumgarner. Now, I personally like the idea. Madison is one of the most poised 22 year-olds in the game and can handle a day 2 assignment with no problem! And, the reason their doing it, is it splits up Cain and Lincecum, who are both hard throwing right-handers and gives teams a bit of a different look. Then they'd
go to Vogey in the 4 spot who's got some power as well as some finesse, to Zito in the fifth who's pure finesse. I think it makes a ton of sense putting Bumgarner in the 2 spot, not only for breaking up Cain, but the effect it has on the rest of the rotation as well. The only back-to-back righties will be Cain and Vogey and each have such different styles that it should work out just fine! I don't make quite as much of the righty-lefty matchup thing, but Bruce Bochy obviously does. The dude lives by it, especially with his relievers and if he had his choice, he'd never allow a righty to face a lefty late in a game. Sometimes I wish he's stick with the hot hand more often rather than going by the book, but it won him the series in 2010 and I'm not one who's quite ready to start questioning Bochy's ways. But let's just wait and see how this season starts out!I had one other thing that I found interesting today, and that was the deal that the Cardinals gave catcher Yadier Molina! The 30 year-old is a clutch hitter and a gold glover, but 5 years and $75 million! Yikes? What is Buster going to get in 2-3 years if Molina's making $15M per year? I get it in a sense that catcher is an overlooked position and is tremendously key to a baseball teams success, but $15 million for a .300 hitter with average power? Posey hasn't gotten to Molina's status with the glove yet, but blows him away with the bat, so does that make Posey a $20M a year player? Guess we'll just have to wait and see, but I think the Cardinals overpaid by about $20 million! By the way, with the season just around the corner, and your planning on getting your gambling on like I occasionally like to do, check out some of the Best sports books here. I know one thing I'd wager on if I could, and that's that the Cardinals will be kicking themselves in about 2-3 years, when he really gets his brothers legs, over this Molina deal!
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