Cactus League Opener

SF 6  TEX 1

The Giants played a good, crisp game to start their exhibition season. It's just the kind of game we hope to see a lot of from this young team. Highlights were many today. Jung Hoo Lee smoked the first pitch he saw for a line drive single. Landen Roupp got the start and threw two scoreless with three whiffs. Catcher Sam Huff hit a homer to give the Giants an early lead (veteran non-roster invitee Jake Lamb was on base). A Luis Matos RBI hit made it 3-0 in the 5th. Four Giants pitchers (NRIs Enny Romero, Kai-Wei Teng, Joel Peguero, and Cole Waites) kept the Rangers off the board with two hits, no walks, and five strikeouts. Raymond Burgos gave up a homer in the 7th but NRI Miguel Diaz put up a zero in the bottom of the 8th.

Then the fun started. Super-prospect Bryce Eldridge hit a monster homer to center with one out and one on to make it 5-1 Giants. It was the kind of moonshot everyone was hoping to see the 20-year old launch this spring. He struck out in his first at-bat but recovered from an 0-2 hole in the second at-bat to impress the crowd. And the announcers. Jon Miller and Duane Kuiper were pretty excited. After that Grant McCray hit a homer to left! I think we all want to see the speedster "serve notice" and make the squad. NRI Justin Garza finished up.

It was good to see Brett "Maverick" Wisley get two hits. Casey Schmitt added a knock as well. These guys are already on the 40-man roster (like Roupp, Matos, McCray, and Huff). Wisley, as a lefty hitter, has a good shot at a bench spot.

Logan Webb gets his first start tomorrow (Reds, 12:05 PT). Go Giants!

--M.C.

Full-squad workout

The schedule page on the Giants website says today is the first "full-squad" workout. And that the first Spring game will be on Saturday (against the Rangers).

What am I hoping for? That the Giants Youth Movement will take a step forward. Right now we have C Patrick Bailey (25) anchoring the defense. Up the middle is 2B Tyler Fitzgerald (27) and CF Jung Hoo Lee (26). LF Heliot Ramos (25) will flank Lee, with Luis Matos (23), Marco Luciano (23), Grant McCray (24), and Wade Meckler (24) in the wings.

The biggest prospect in the system is lefty slugging 1B Bryce Eldridge who is still only 20 years of age. Perhaps we'll see him later in the season if he lights it up at AAA. The same goes for the other big prospect, lefty pitcher Carson Whisenhunt (24). He is a likely late-season call-up, too. Both are non-roster invites to this year's camp. I hope they turn some heads this spring! By the way Eric Longenhagen at FanGraphs released his Top 100 Prospects list. Eldridge came in at #26 and Whisenhunt at #95.

On the pitching side there are certainly a lot of youngsters. Logan Webb is still only 28 and in his prime but he's a seasoned veteran at this point. A big step forward from lefty starter Kyle Harrison (23) will be huge for the club. The same goes for young righty starter Hayden Birdsong (23). Big expectations are out there for another young lefty, reliever Erik Miller (27), currently the only southpaw in the 'pen. Ryan Walker is 29, but only a third-year player, and Camilo Doval is still only 27. Sean Hjelle (27), Tristan Beck (28), Keaton Winn (27), and Randy Rodriguez (25) round out the choices.

That's a lot of upside!

The Giants didn't do much in the off-season. Getting Willy Adames was a no-brainer. They really needed a real shortstop. He will make a great tandem with 3B Matt Chapman. (Team defense was a serious problem last year.) And Justin Verlander will probably deliver a solid season. Buster Posey will be fielding Farhan Zaidi's team, for the most part. We aren't going to know what kind of PoBO Posey will be for a while as he has yet to construct a roster.

The Giants have wallowed in mediocrity since their fabulous 2021 NL West title. Yaz, Wilmer, Webb, Doval, Tyler Rogers, and Wade, Jr. are the only ones left from that team. It's time for some winning ways. Let's hope the Youth Movement pays off in 2025!

--M.C.

Projections

FanGraphs has released its projected standings and playoff odds for 2025. The Giants, as you might expect, are predicted to be a .500 (81-81) team!

The NL West will be dominated by the Dodgers, again no surprise there, and the second-best team is expected to be the Diamondbacks. That's not unreasonable given their two top starters and their quality lineup. What's interesting to Giants fans is that the Padres are looking vulnerable. The Giants have a real shot at third place.

 

 

Sorry for the poor picture. Click the links above to see the whole thing. Or click on the image to enlarge it.

Going from a .500 team to a playoff team will require at least five more wins. Ten would be better. Last year it took 86 wins (Tigers and Royals) in the AL and it took 89 wins (Mets and Braves) in the NL to make the cut.

Are the 2025 Giants ten games better than the 2024 team? I don't see it. A five game improvement looks possible with the addition of Adames and (we hope) bounce back years from Doval and Ray and continued improvement from Harrison, Fitzgerald, and Ramos.

The 2025 team is relying on internal solutions. The young corps needs to step up and contribute!

--M.C.

p.s. David Pinto at Baseball Musings had a post a while back with a proposal to re-arrange the divisions so more teams have a chance at the playoffs. It's a little rough, but it's a cool idea. It at least addresses some of the things Zo mentioned in his last post.