PLAY BALL!!!

I woke up so happy today. I just can’t believe that a few hours from now, I’ll be watching Giants baseball. Now, I just have to decide if I’m muting the Angels’ announcers and telling Alexa to put on Jon Miller & crew instead. (Speaking of MLB.TV, mine auto-renewed a couple days ago, and I saw that they seamlessly applied the credit from last year.)

The return of baseball each year is always like Christmas/birthday/4th of July/Cinco de Mayo/Festivus all wrapped up for this baseball lifer. But this time it means even more. After a year with very limited baseball and very limited–well, everything–and after firmly believing that the start of this season would be delayed, I still can hardly believe it’s actually happening today. I woke up this morning and started planning: walk…blog…breakfast…watch church…Giants…Golden Globes. Realized that because I got up a bit later than usual, I couldn’t fit it all in before noon our time, so the walk will happen between the game and the Golden Globes, since the game is only seven innings today. I hope you appreciate that you all got priority!

 

This Week in Giants Camp

After months of very little Giants news, it’s been hard to even keep up this week, but let’s do a round-up.

• The Giants signed 37-year-old lefty pitcher Scott Kazmir, who hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2016. Kazmir’s been around so long that he actually broke in with the “Tampa Bay Devil Rays” in 2004, when Marco Luciano was still just two years old(!). Kazmir is a three-time All-Star who spent all of his career in the AL (Rays, Angels, Cleveland, A’s, Astros) except for 2016 with the Dodgers. Kazmir’s tenures with the A’s and Dodgers overlapped with Farhan Zaidi’s time with those two teams, so that helps explain why it’s the Giants now giving him a comeback shot.
• Trevor Gott, who was DFA’d last week to make room for Aaron Sanchez, cleared waivers and was outrighted to AAA Sacramento.
• The Giants reacquired Jordan Humphreys, a right-handed pitcher they originally obtained last season, trading Billy Hamilton to the Mets. They lost Humphreys off waivers in the offseason but had the chance to get him back. To make room on the 40-man roster, Tyler Beede was moved to the 60-day IL, which means he won’t be eligible to return to the majors before May 31.
• NBCS-BA and KNBR will broadcast the Giants-Dodgers game in Glendale on Tuesday night (6:05 p.m. Pacific time), but according to Susan Slusser, the broadcasters will not be on site and will call the game from Scottsdale Stadium. Like last year, teams’ broadcasters will not travel (at least not to begin with).
• Mauricio Dubon put on 12 pounds over the winter and seems happy about that. The Giants are alternating his camp work between infield and outfield practice each day. As the #1 CF and the primary SS backup, he’s a pretty important part of the roster right now.

 

• I enjoyed this Alex Pavlovic piece about Sean Hjelle and how last year went for him. Big year for Hjelle–if things go well, he could be making his major league debut. He sounds like he has a great attitude about everything.
• If you want to keep track of roster moves, as well as minor league options, this Fangraphs page is a great resource to bookmark.

 

Today’s game

Angels at Giants, 12:05 p.m. Willie Mays Time, Scottsdale Stadium

Jose Quintana (LHP) vs. Conner Menez (LHP)

Radio: KNBR; TV: MLB.TV (Angels broadcast)

 

Giants Lineup

 

Posey batting second is an interesting look. I definitely don’t think he’s a cleanup hitter anymore, but I’d thought maybe further down in the lineup, like sixth or seventh. We’ll see how it all evolves. Back in the Bochy era, Posey would probably not have been starting the first Cactus League game (“we’re slow-playing him”), but with him having sat out 2020, he shouldn’t need the rest. Interested to see Wade Jr. in CF and Dubon at SS. Also a bit surprised to see Dickerson in LF vs. a lefty starter…could that possibly mean he’ll be the Opening Day LF, breaking the 14-year “different guy” streak? (If I were the Giants, I’d want to end that streak. It’s not a good streak.)

Anyway, hope y’all enjoy. I intend to savor every single second. Lefty out.