Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We are a week away from Opening Day, so this seems like a good time to launch this thread.
The Giants spent a bundle of money attempting to address their starting pitching problems, but if Spring Training is any indication, they are in a great deal of trouble.
Spring ERA's for the Giants projected starters:
Samardzija 7.20
Peavy 8.30
Cueto 9.58
Bumgarner 11.11
Cain 12.14
On the other hand Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt are having terrific springs offensively. Pence is batting .517 with six home runs, Belt is at .417 with five bombs. Those two represent nearly half of all the Giants spring home runs.
I'm sure somebody has analyzed statistical correlations between spring training and regular season - are there particular things about spring training performance that stand out as legitimate concerns?
I'm sure somebody has analyzed statistical correlations between spring training and regular season - are there particular things about spring training performance that stand out as legitimate concerns?
Spring Training features about 32 games played per club and that is too small a sampling size to determine anything of predictive value. For example, in 2015 the Cactus League was "won" by the Oakland A's with a 22-11 record, while the Rangers finished last at 12-20. Texas of course won the NL West while the A's had one of the poorest records in the league.
32 games represents a bit more than a month of play, a sixth of a season. You could not construct a predictive model for a season on the basis of a how a club or player performed for one of those six months, and that is when they are going all out to win, something they are not trying to do in March.
Giants pitching will be fine in the regular season, they're just working on different pitches just like pitchers of every team do during spring, and sometimes things don't work out especially in these hitter-friendly parks in Arizona. There's no way they'll have ERA's like that when they start playing real games.
The lineup anonymity awards go this year to Tampa Bay in the AL and Philadelphia in the NL. If you removed Longoria from the former and Ryan Howard from the latter, you might have a tough time guessing what teams these were based on the starting personnel.
BATTING ORDER
Phillies
1 -- 2B Cesar Hernandez (B)
2 -- CF Odubel Herrera (L)
3 -- 3B Maikel Franco (R)
4 -- 1B Ryan Howard (L)
5 -- C Cameron Rupp (R)
6 -- RF Cedric Hunter (LF)
7 -- SS Freddy Galvis (B)
8 -- LF Peter Bourjos
Tampa Bay
1 -- 2B Logan Forsythe (R)
2 -- 1B Logan Morrison (L)
3 -- 3B Evan Longoria (R)
4 -- DH Corey Dickerson (L)
5 -- LF Desmond Jennings (R)
6 -- SS Brad Miller (L) BULLPEN
7 -- RF Steven Souza Jr. (R)
8 -- CF Kevin Kiermaier (L)
9 -- C Hank Conger (B)
Giants ace Madison Bumgarner, who struggled during the Spring, isn't looking too good so far in the regular season. Against the Brewers in the first inning it went:
Walk
Single
Blast by Braun to deep center which was caught
Four pitch walk
Walk to Chris Carter of all people to force in a run
Double play grounder to get out of inning with just the one run scoring
Bumgarner needed 26 pitches to get through the first, a pace for 264 pitches if he goes nine.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
