Tag: San Francisco Giants

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Giants president Farhan Zaidi was incredibly forthcoming in his middle-innings appearance with Dave Flemming in the broadcast booth during Thursday night’s exhibition game. While watching the Giants nearly get no-hit by Cleveland, Zaidi openly discussed several of the significant conclusions that the team had reached over six weeks of spring training. He all but revealed the composition of the opening-day roster. A day later, Zaidi joked that he didn’t know what had gotten into him. Maybe Flemming spiked his Diet Coke when he wasn’t looking. Or maybe…

Scottsdale, Arizona – Brandon Crawford is preparing to extend a great streak next week at Yankee Stadium. He’s on his way to running to the shortstop position, smoothing out dirt in the ground with pins, flicking a few warm-up throws to first base and making the Giants’ 12th consecutive Opening Day start. He would match Barry Bonds for the second-longest opening-day streak in San Francisco franchise history. Willie Mays owns the only person who is taller than that. This isn’t the only Opening Day streak the Giants expect to survive.…

Last time we were here, with the first batch of predictions for the Giants’ Opening Day roster, there was still a lot up in the air. David Villar’s picture was the main one because there was a chance he wouldn’t make the team. it was there 37 invitees not included in the list come to the camp, a mixture of prospects, organizational depth and erratic agents, and any one of them had a chance of being Ryan Vogelsong, Andres Torres, Gregor Blanco or Chadwick Tromp. There will be twists and…

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Alex Cobb’s left knee was changing colors faster than a spooked chameleon. It was red when he woke up Sunday morning. It was purplish yellow by lunchtime. The changing hues were the result of a line drive that knocked him to the dirt and left him rolling in agony while pitching in an exhibition game a day earlier. As Cobb pulled a compression sleeve over his knee, two lockers down in the Giants’ spring clubhouse, Ross Stripling entertained a group of reporters and explained his good fortune.…

Scottsdale, Arizona. – The Giants acquired Trevor Heldenberger on waivers in 2021, but this spring marks his first appearance in major league camp. This makes him a fresh young man. And like all freshmen, he had to find a partner of value – A task that could be more troubling than you might think. So it was an obvious stroke of luck: Hildenberger’s former spring training partner with the Minnesota Twins signed with the Giants as a free agent in December. There was just one hitch. Taylor Rogers preferred someone…

In the what-if multiverse, Giants fans may always wonder what would have happened if Brandon Belt, who was riding a hot streak at the end of the 2021 season, hadn’t broken his thumb on an off-the-cuff effort in Colorado. Five games to play. More than that, what would have happened if the Giants had the belt in a tight and tense 2021 League Series against the Dodgers? Here’s another one for you: What if LaMonte’s late night show was healthy for the NLDS, too? Lamonte Wade Jr.’s left knee injury…

SCOTTSDALE, AZ — A video board at the Giants’ clubhouse showed the schedule for the first Thursday practice of the spring. She listed everything from monument groups to station shifts to breakfast hours to an 8:30 a.m. meditation session on the third floor observation deck. Among the staff members overseeing the first bullpen sessions of the spring, along with pitching coach Andrew Bailey and assistant pitching coach J.B. Martinez, was director of shooting Brian Bannister. Commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed that Major League Baseball is set to raise vaccination requirements for…

So many memories will endure from Brandon Belt’s gawky, goofy, sometimes exhilarating, sometimes exasperating and yet almost always entertaining 12 seasons as the Giants’ first baseman. There was the perfect panache with which he’d drop his bat after every home run, most notably the 18th-inning tiebreaker on that frigid October night at Nationals Park. There was his stretch to receive a cross-diamond throw from Joaquin Arias to seal the first perfect game in franchise history (plus the presence of mind to immediately tuck the ball in his back pocket as…