UP: Lineup consistency from the Giants?
In recent years, the Giants built a lineup around versatility and platooning. Anyone could be in, anyone could be out. Sometimes it worked (2021), other times it didn’t.
It’s clear that the Giants are moving away from that direction for this season. Sure, there will be some platooning at the bottom of the lineup, but the San Francisco roster seems as inflexible as ever.
I like it.
Just look at the Giants outfield. It boasts three lefties, and all should be expected to see the vast majority of at-bats from their respective positions this season. Austin Slater might slide in at a corner spot when there’s a southpaw on the mound — Heliot Ramos or Luis Matos could do the same, though I expect them both to start the season in Sacramento — but I expect the Giants to roll out a three-man combo of Michael Conforto, Jung Hoo Lee, and Mike Yaztremski day in, day out.
It’s rather refreshing, the possible consistency of it all.
On the infield, the Giants still need to decide who their starting shortstop will be, but we know Matt Chapman is at third and Thairo Estrada is at second. The only obvious spot for a platoon is a LaMonte Wade and Wilmer Flores duo at first base. Patrick Bailey will be behind the plate most every day.
Is it good enough? We’ll find out. But at least we’ll know the formula behind success and failure.
DOWN: The J.D. Davis of it all
With Chapman’s signing, there’s no obvious place for J.D. Davis, a plus player for the team last year.
Yes, Chapman is better, both with the glove and at the plate, but now that post-signing clarity has arrived, it does seem somewhat strange that the Giants ended up upgrading at one of their better positions.
The Giants could use a lefty infield bat off the bench. Another bullpen arm would never hurt. A reliable, back-end-of-the-rotation starter would be manna from heaven. I have no idea what Davis’ trade value is. I know that no one needs to go crazy with the bidding — the Giants can’t reasonably hold onto Davis before the start of the season. The third baseman who the Mets practically gave away in August 2022 might be practically given away by the Giants in March 2024, despite a really solid run between those dates.
Farhan Zaidi and the Giants deserve credit for landing Chapman. But Davis as collateral damage isn’t a great look.
UP: Estuary Ruiz is going running
A’s outfielder Estuary Ruiz is very, very fast — fast enough to steal 67 bags last year to lead the American League.
If the Oakland outfielder was on base, he was taking another.
The issue was that Ruiz wasn’t on base enough last season.
The A’s rightly struggled to find at-bats for Ruiz late in the season — he wasn’t hitting well enough. Speed is only valuable if you can use it.
But Ruiz appears to be using it now.
Ruiz is never going to be a big-time power hitter — he weighs 170 pounds — but he did hit for more pop in the minor leagues, going for as many as 16 homers over 114 games in his age-23 season.
He has five total in 149 games in the show, all coming last year. And when Ruiz was really struggling, he looked desperate to add to that number — he was swinging out of his cleats.
Reports from Mesa say that Ruiz’s swing is much cleaner and direct this spring. The results are a mightily impressive .286/.348/.619 slash line.
Now that will play.
And while there’s little reason to think there won’t be a drop-off — particularly in the slugging percentage — even a big drop could still produce big results for Ruiz and the A’s.
Ruiz is good for a steal every time he’s on base.
Is it ridiculous to think he could steal 100 bags with the way he’s hitting this spring?
No one has done that since… you guessed it: Vince Coleman in 1987.
Wait, who did you think I was going to say? (That guy did it in 1983, ’84.)
DOWN: Vaporware stadium renderings
We live in the golden age of grift, and the A’s want in on the action.
The VagAbonds released renderings for their new ballpark in Las Vegas. Not only was the ballpark depicted far too large and totally impractical, but the renderings also had such gems as the sun setting in the East.
Las Vegas truly is a backward place.
A quick run-down of the nonsense: The ballpark, which featured no lights and had a jumbotron superimposed into (onto?) the roof, will be a permanent dome, albeit one that has a big glass wall facing north, northwest. But mostly west.
Which, of course, is where the sun actually sets.
Basically, the A’s renderings depict a greenhouse in Las Vegas. Can John Fisher afford the air conditioning?
Not only was the ballpark depicted far, far, far larger than the 9-acre ballpark the A’s are allowed to build — that’s all the free land they received — but the renderings also failed to feature any of the real development, the hotel and casino complex that will take up the other three quarters of the 36-acre plot at the corner of Las Vegas and Tropicana Avenue.
Nine acres, it should be noted, would be the most aggressive footprint in baseball. Fenway Park and Wrigley Field have both expanded beyond that small footprint. Of course those are both historic ballparks with tight seats, tighter concourses, few bathrooms, fewer luxury boxes, and both parks laugh in the face of modern ADA and fire codes.
Do all that, and you still don’t fit on nine acres.
Both the Red Sox and Cubs have renovated and expanded their footprints to add some modern amenities to their parks. The Cubs’ new(ish) clubhouse is a subterranean lair outside the Friendly Confines. The Red Sox keep building out their outfield bleachers and the area around the ballpark — which is technically part of it now. (It’s a mess.)
But I’m sure the A’s, who have never lacked for renderings but have never built a damn thing under Fisher’s leadership, can pull this miracle off.
At least the Howard Terminal renderings had lights.
UP: Giants relief pitching depth
Say what you will about Zaidi (and buddy, I’ve heard just about everything), but the man knows how to put together a bullpen.
And I don’t think the Giants will be lacking for arms on that side of the pitching equation this season, either.
The Rogers twins have been strong at camp.
Ethan Small and Tommy Romero have impressed, too.
Erik Miller, Nick Avilla? I like ’em.
Is the real Luke Jackson back? He might be. That’d be a win for the Giants.
This bullpen might seem a bit hodgepodge, but I think it has a chance to be one of the better operations in the game.
And seeing as I still (likely foolishly) believe that bullpens win divisions, that has to be good for the Giants, no?
DOWN: Watching Cactus League baseball in the afternoon
It’s 2024 and I have been able to watch only a handful of the Giants’ spring training games on MLB.TV. The games I have been able to watch are almost exclusively the opposition’s broadcast.
But most of the time, I’m listening not to the radio but to the MLB.com audio broadcast. Shout out Joe Ritzo.
It’s unacceptable for the Giants not to telecast every game—even a bare-bones one that’s only for MLB.TV.
It’s unacceptable for Major League Baseball to allow teams to cheap out and not do it. Heaven knows they need to train folks to put out broadcasts — every year a new team needs the league to take over its TV production.
And while we’re on the subject, why can’t we get solid, reliable play-by-play data from these games on MLB’s website?
No TV and no tracking stats (much less the advanced ones). It’s a bad look. Major League Baseball made more than $10 billion in revenue last year, and yet here I am, begging the league and its teams to give me more of their product.
Absence does not make the heart grow fonder. It just encourages people to leave or, worse yet, ignore the sport. Spring training is a massive enterprise, drawing in people from all around the world to see professional baseball. MLB treats these games like they’re for amateurs.
Scratch that. Amateur teams do a better job of broadcasting their games.
For a sport that’s still hemorrhaging fans, I’d like to think they’d be smarter than this. Apparently not.