Unfortunately, they didn't cover BABIP: Batting Average on Balls In Play is also called by Hit rate by some. This is the percent of balls hit into the field of play that fall for hits, which means that you subtract out all homeruns and strikeouts, as neither ends up as a ball hit into the field of play. Pitchers then to regress to the league average of roughly .300 while hitters tend to regress to their own historical three-year mean.
FanFest Fun Facts
Andy Baggarly hits a homerun again with his reporting, I love reading his blog.
- Biggest news: Giants are not against Buster Posey starting the season in the majors. They are talking about giving Buster opportunities to play other infield positions, mostly first base, in order to give them more opportunity to start Posey when Molina is starting at catcher. But for those wanting to start Posey elsewhere, Bochy made it clear that the Giants sees Posey as a catcher long-term. As Baggarly notes, the odds still favor Posey in AAA to start, and I would agree, as that would give him more experience starting at catcher plus allow the team to gain another year of control. Assuming he kills AAA pitching, mid-year, maybe in July, they bring him up to be the backup, starting at catcher 1-2 games a week to give Molina a rest, then in other games, he could start at 1B or other positions to get more starts (and to get his bat into the lineup).
- Also big news: the Giants are not in a position to have to cut any salary should Lincecum win the arbitration hearing, which would be $13M, $5M more than the $8M offered by the Giants.
- Lincecum noted also that he would not have any hard feelings from the arbitration hearing, as he will be attended, which is not required of players. I doubt the Giants are going to try to bring up negatives, he won 2 Cy Youngs after all and is "The Franchise", so I would expect more that the hearing will be a dry dissertation on the history of salaries in the MLB in arbitration, covering pitchers vs. hitters and Ryan Howard's biggest award. If the Giants were to bring up any negatives, then I would think that they are being pretty stupid, but I don't expect them to, because, unless many others, I don't think Sabean is that stupid.
- Unsurprisingly, Bochy noted that RF would be the biggest battle of the spring, which makes sense because it's the only position without a starter, and Bumgarner seems to remain on the fast track to the #5 starter spot. It is not clear if Bochy said this or if Baggarly is noting this, but Bowker, Schierholtz, and Velez were mentioned as the leading candidates.
- Bochy also confirmed that he's leaning towards batting Rowand lead-off and making Bumgarner the 5th starter. I am OK with Rowand starting, but I hope the Giants would re-think Bumgarner being the 5th starter. We can get another year of control by letting him prove himself in AAA for a couple of months, then if the 5th starter isn't doing the job in June/July, then bring him up. But without even semi-OK starters in camp, it looks like Bumgarner got the job unless he stinks it up or if someone really shines. I'm also worried about his late season drop in velocity and would rather he start in AAA, where they can play around with his spot in the rotation if necessary.
- Schierholtz reportedly made some adjustments while tearing up the Puerto Rican winter league. In particular, he reported that he has made strides with his pitch recognition skils, working on a lot of different approaches, and can't wait to go against big league pitching to see how much he improved. I am still rooting for Nate to win the job, he has done consistently well in the minors as he rose, and been patient in waiting for a shot at the RF starting job. Since Bowker still has another option, we can give Nate 2-3 months to show what he got, and if he doesn't perform, then we could bring up Bowker and give him 2-3 months in RF.
- Also, Baggerly tweeted that Jesus Guzman cleared waivers and the Giants outrighted him to Fresno plus gave him an invite to the big league camp.
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