The Giants will open the season with 13 pitchers. The five starters are all right-handed. Southpaw Alex Wood (#57) will likely be placed on the Injured List. There are 10-day, 15-day, and 60-day assignments. The Giants have three off-days in their first twelve games. Wood, with a 15-day stint, could come off the IL for the road series in Miami starting on April 16th.
Kevin Gausman (#34), Johnny Cueto (#47), Logan Webb (#62), Anthony DeSclafani (#26), and Aaron Sanchez (#48) make up the rotation.
That makes eight spots for relievers. Five of them are lefties: Jake McGee (#17), Jarlin Garcia (#66), Jose Alvarez (#50), Wandy Peralta (#60), and Caleb Baragar (#45).
The three remaining right-handers are Reyes Moronta (#54), Matt Wisler (#37), and Tyler Rogers (#71).
That leaves 13 position players. Lefty-hitting shortstop Brandon Crawford (#35) and lefty-hitting first baseman Brandon Belt (#9) will be back for perhaps their final seasons in orange-and-black after a decade of fine work. The same could be true for veteran backstop and franchise icon Buster Posey (#28). Curt Casali (#2) will catch when Posey sits.
Evan Longoria (#10) will man third base and be backed up by lefty-hitting FNG Tommy La Stella (#18) who will also see time at second base. Donovan "Donnie Barrels" Solano (#7) will mostly man the keystone. Versatile Mauricio Dubon (#1) will see time in the infield as well as in center field. Wilmer Flores (#41) returns in his multi-position role, mostly on the left side of the infield.
Lefties Mike Yastrzemski (#5) and Alex Dickerson (#12) will be the main corner outfielders although Yaz will man center field as well. Austin Slater (#13) will see playing time in all three spots and Darin Ruf (#33) will come off the bench to play left field and likely get starts at first base.
Like last season, expect to see platoons against lefties. Marco Gonzalez starts for Seattle tomorrow so I think we'll see Slater leading off and playing left field, followed by Yaz in right, Solano at second, and Longo at third. Flores will DH with Belt, Posey, and BCraw behind him, and Dubon in center in the ninth spot. Or something like that!
Projection systems are not kind to the 2021 Giants, calling for 74-77 wins. Bettors have the under/over pegged at 75-1/2 wins. If the starting pitchers can stay healthy I think a .500+ record (82 wins) is a real possibility, even with the stiff competition in the NL West. The Dodgers have even more talent now than before, and the Padres are the most improved team in baseball. It will be a grind for the Giants, but they have good pitching depth overall even if there aren't any superstar arms, and that will be crucial this year. The team is a little thin at key positions like SS and CF so let's hope they avoid injuries in those spots. Fielding was an issue last year and in spring training so they'll have to clean up the defense to stay competitive.
I'm of course excited for Opening Day and the possibility of a full season of baseball. The first game is in Seattle against the Mariners tomorrow night at 7:10 PDT.
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
p.s. I know it is hard to keep track of all the changes and all the new guys so I recommend FanGraph's ROSTER RESOURCE pages. I'm there almost every day. (I have a link in the sidebar.) Like I said before I'm glad they are putting the names on the home jerseys this year!
2 comments:
Being our one lefty starter is hurt, it seems odd that we have an all righty starting rotation. I wonder if the team may consider some lefty openers to face teams that may stack up a lefty lineup vs. the giants.
They added Baragar right at the end and he even though he only had one start last year he was a starter in the minors. It wouldn't surprise me if you are right, that they'll use him or another lefty in an opener role. In fact I think it might be a good idea!
Post a Comment