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Romo, Sandoval Starting off Strongly

Had enough speculation about who will get what roster spot and which prospect will end up where? Well, baseball has finally arrived, albeit of the exhibition variety.

The Giants, being the defending World Champs, have plenty of interest surrounding them as Cactus League has gotten underway. Ryan Vogelsong and Pablo Sandoval led the Giants in the opener over the Angels, as Vogey had a solid a solid two innings of work to get the Giants spring underway, and Pablo Sandoval drove in the first Giants' run of the spring with an RBI line-drive single over the 2nd baseman's head. Matt Cain got knocked around a bit in game two, giving up 4 runs in his inning of work, but Pablo continued raking the baseball as he went 2 for 3 and has hit safely in all 3 games this spring. Madison Bumgarner fared similarly to Vogey in game 3, looking solid in his two innings of work, and the Giants have to be pretty pleased overall with the way they've started the Cactus League. Sergio Romo has turned in a couple of scoreless performances as well as the Giants will begin to work him on back-to-back days to get him ready for the full-time closers role. Other than the late inning meltdown Monday and Matt Cain's forgettable Cactus League debut Sunday, so far so good in Giants camp.

As for the competitions for certain spots, it's still way to early to tell for the most part. Francisco Peguero had a nice game Monday going 2-3 with a double and an RBI and he looks like he's primed to make a strong run at a 5th outfield spot, especially when you consider the Giants need another righty. Gary Brown has seen action in all three games as well to start out, but hasn't done much outside of smoking a double in his first at-bat on Saturday. There's no real shot at Brown making the roster out of the gate, but with the Giants unimpressive left-field combo of Gregor Blanco and Andres Torres, I'm sure they'd be all for the youngster playing his way onto the big league squad and possibly into a significant role. If Brown's hitting .320 with a bunch of steals in Fresno by the end of May, and the Blanco/Torres platoon his hitting .220 without making much happen at the plate, then I'm sure the Giants would have no problem throwing the youngster into the fire. We saw them do it with Buster Posey and even Brandon Belt to a degree, and I think they do have those type of expectations for Brown. I really hope he gets 50+ at-bats this spring so we can see just how close he is.

Comments

campanari said…
I hope not to see Brown this year, no matter how much Blanco and Torres struggle (as I am not expecting them to do), because the Giants will already have either Peguero or Cole Gillespie on the squad. Both are defensively excellent outfielders with more seasoning than Brown.
10:21 PM
Drew said…
Sick of how everybody talks about Pablos weight... Leave him alone already. He can obviously play as a big fella. Look at the Babe, look at Tony Gwynn, guys can be good and be overweight!?
11:33 AM
Trevor said…
Gillespie is intriguing me a little bit. He's a right-handed bat that appears at least competent at the plate. By looking at his minor league history, you can tell he's been consistent, almost like a right-handed version of Nate Schierholtz. It'll be interesting to see what he does the rest of spring.
1:33 PM
Anonymous said…
G's need to trade for a rh outfielder. Why Sabes couldn't/didn't sign friggen Scott Hairston for 2.5 mill a year for 2 yrs. is a head-scratcher to me. He woulda been worth it. Better than the AAAA'ers Gillaspie and Peguero.
12:48 AM
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