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by | August 6, 2015 · 2:12 PM

And so it begins…

flickr - Jerry Reuss

flickr – Jerry Reuss

Here it comes. The meat and potatoes of the season. Starting tonight in Chicago the San Francisco Giants play 26 straight games against teams with records above .500. Every one of the teams is in contention for either the wild card game or a division championship. It’s such a rough stretch of games that LOLKNBR has dubbed it #ScheduHell.

Here’s the way this gauntlet lays out with records as of the beginning of play on Thursday the 6th.

4 @ Cubs 58-48

2 v Houston 60-49

4 v Washington 55-51

3 @ St. Louis 68-39

4 @ Pittsburgh 62-44

3 v Cubs 58-48

3 V St. Louis 68-39

3 @ Dodgers

There are 2 days off sandwiched in there. This coming Monday after the Cubs series and one after the road trip to Pittsburgh and St. Louis. I feel like they catch a break here as the final game in Pittsburgh is an ESPN Sunday night game and the Giants have to fly back west after an east coast night game. Unlike earlier this season when the team twice came home and played the next day, this time they get a day off to freshen their bodies.

There’s a light at the end of this tunnel. After the Dodgers series the Giants have what can be called an easier September/October. The farthest east they have to travel is Denver. The only time the Giants play an opponent that is over .500 is 4 games at home against LA during the final week of the season.

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The beginning is in Chicago. I’ve paid a lot of attention to the Cubs this season. As some of you may remember I’m from Chicago originally and going to Wrigley Field is how I grew up watching baseball. You can read about that over at 2outhits.com if you’d like. It’s the genesis of me joining TortureCast in the first place.

I’ve always been a Giants fan but I rooted for the Cubs as well. I wasn’t some jerk that wanted to see the team all my friends root for be a failure every year. That’s just how it worked out. While a lot of people remember 1989 because of the Loma Prieta earthquake, which is a good reason by the way, I remember that year because the Giants beat the Cubs in the NLCS. It gave me bragging rights over all my friends from the age of 10 on. No matter what my Cubs fan friends tell you, the tie-breaker in 1998 did not make up for 1989.

It’s not often that both the Cubs and Giants are good at the same time. At least not recently. So I’m a little extra pumped about this weekend. Here’s some notes I dug up about these two teams.

  • The Giants start this series a half-game ahead of the Cubs for the 2nd wild card spot and 2 games behind the Dodgers for the division.
  • The Cubs recently won 6 straight games before falling to Pittsburgh last night.
  • Four of the six wins came in a sweep at Milwaukee. We know how bad they are, the Giants swept them this year as well.
  • The Giants haven’t lost a series at Wrigley Field since 2008.
  • Kyle Schwarber is the hot phenom tearing it up for the Cubs right now. In 24 games he’s batting .342 with 5 HR and an OPS at 1.031. Nine of his twenty six hits have gone for extra bases.
  • Sunday starter Jake Arrieta has been the stud of the Cubs rotation. He’s 12-6 with a 2.50 ERA and averages just over 1 strikeout per inning. Arrieta’s WHIP is 1.002 and he’s only given up 9 home runs in 147.2 innings.
  • This is a homecoming for Angel Pagan, he broke in with the Cubs back in 2006. Don’t expect him to go crashing into the ivy to celebrate.
  • Buster Posey likes Wrigley Field. He’s hit .354 with 3 HR’s and 3 2B’s there in 14 career games.
  • The Giants are 29-12 in games Hunter Pence has appeared and 30-36 without him this season. It sure is nice to have him back and healthy.
  • If you haven’t read it yet, go check out this USA Today article on Matt Duffy. Great to see him getting some national love.

I’m sure I’ll have more through the weekend. Like I said I’m a little excited to watch these 2 teams go at it. It’s either that or I have become afflicted with KelbyMania.

-Eric Nathanson

@2outhits

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by | July 31, 2015 · 4:34 AM

Once in a Blue Moon a Giantsy trade happens

BlueMoonCartoon

Was this deal you expected? Were you like me and holding out some rare hope that the San Francisco Giants would land David Price or Cole Hamels? Trading for Mike Leake from the Cincinnati Reds was an extremely Giantsy thing to do. He’s not the splashy front end starter type. Just a good, solid pitcher in his prime pitching years entering a rotation that has its home games at one of the more pitching friendly ballparks in all of baseball.

The price for Leake was not as steep as it would have been for one of the big names out there. The Giants gave up minor league RHP Keury Mella, and corner infielder Adam Duvall. Recently Mella played in the futures game over All-Star weekend and MLB.com rated him as the top prospect in the Giants organization. Duvall is a guy that needs to find regular playing time and there is no way he’s cracking that Giants infield any time soon. If the Reds want to get him at bats it may in the outfield. Duvall had 26 home runs and 25 doubles for Sacramento this season.

I liked Duvall as a Giant. He helped the team win a title last season. I love the fun fact that Adam Duvall’s first career hit was a home run off Mike Leake. By parting with Mella the Giants proved they feel comfortable with their organizational pitching depth. Tyler Beede, Phil Bickford, and Kyle Crick are probably at the top of the list now. Beede could be a part of the 2016 rotation.

This also means that Andrew Susac stays around. It’s clear there is no other player out there the Giants feel they need to trade for at this moment. Of course I wouldn’t argue with Aroldis Chapman coming to the Bay Area, but I don’t run the Giants or Reds. This is one of the best offenses in baseball and if they need to add depth to the bench it could come sometime in August by claiming a guy off waivers.

Tim Hudson is the odd man out in all this. He’s said that he’d accept a spot in the bullpen for the Giants. That starts another set of dominos. Who goes? Is it Yusmeiro Petit? It’s sure not Ryan Vogelsong who has been lights out since going back to the pen. We’ll see sometime today if Hudson heads to the DL or the bullpen.

I don’t know about you but I’m already thinking about Madison Bumgarner, Chris Heston, and Leake at the top in a playoff series. Every time one of those guys takes the hill it feels like the Giants have a chance to win that game. We’ve learned over the last few years that chance is the most important thing. Jake Peavy did the same thing in his start Thursday.

It’s crazy to think that Matt Cain is the biggest question mark in the rotation right now. Those words are strange to type. In fact typing Matt Cain’s name at all lately has been rare. He’s been missed and I hope he picks up where he left off at some point.

Wendy Thurm shared how Leake stacks up in the Giants rotation. I peeked at Brooks Baseball and it looks like Leake is relying on his Sinker and Cutter more than any other pitches lately. He throws one of those 2/3 of the time. It indicates he’s pitching to contact and getting ground ball outs. He should continue that trend because the Giants have a good defense that knows how to handle its home park.

Each of the past 4 years Leake has started a game at AT&T Park. In those 4 starts he’s gone 9, 8, 6, and 8 innings while only allowing 3 total runs. He never allowed more than 1 run in any start at 3rd and King. There was this one time, when he was a rookie, that Leake gave up 6 runs on 6 hits in only 1/3rd of an inning at AT&T. But we don’t have to mention that. Overall he has a 2.59 ERA in San Francisco in 31.1 innings.

How’s Leake pitching lately? He’s got a 1.25 ERA over his last 5 starts. Opponents are batting .183 against him with no homers and 7 doubles. He’s averaging just over 5 strikeouts a game and walking about a batter every 9 innings. Leake’s worst start this season came in Cincinnati against the Giants back in May. That was the game Brandon Crawford hit his grand slam.

Acquiring Leake was a good trade for the Giants. He’s a free agent after this season and GM Bobby Evans has already said that Leake was going to be a guy the Giants pursued this offseason. Now they have 2, hopefully 3, months to sell him on San Francisco.

I think the largest compliment you can give a Giants move is that is was a Giantsy thing to do. This trade fits that definition perfectly.

– Eric

@2outhits

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by | July 27, 2015 · 10:23 AM

Extra SF Giants notes

Earlier today I wrote about how great the San Francisco Giants offense has been during their recent run of 11 wins in 12 games. Here’s some extra notes I picked up while digging around.

  • The Giants are in the middle of a 21 game stretch against teams below .500. The average winning percentage of the 7 teams combined is .449. That means their competition is basically playing like the Reds (.448 win pct).
  • Flip it over. The next 26 games for the Giants are against teams over .500. That equates to playing the Yankees (.567 win pct.) for the next month.
  • Out of the top 14 teams in the majors in runs scored only 4 teams are from the NL. They are all from within the Giants division. 5. Colorado 6. Giants 9. Arizona 13. Dodgers.
  • The Toronto Blue Jays have scored 528 runs, he most in baseball. The Rockies lead the NL with 436. That’s almost a 100-run differential.
  • Nori Aoki leads the team with 12 stolen bases even after he’s missed 28 games. Brandon Belt and Angel Pagan are tied for second with 5 each. Calk that up as another reason I want to see him batting 1st when he returns.
  • Every game in which the Giants have had a 3 run lead this season they have gone on to win the game.
  • I didn’t even mention the Hector Sanchez grand slam at San Diego that made all Giants fans squeal with delight.

-Eric

@2outhits

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by | July 27, 2015 · 6:09 AM

Orange Crushing

Buster Posey

It’s a lot of fun to watch the San Francisco Giants offense these days. They’ve managed to hit their way back into a race for the NL West crown. After falling to 5.5 games back of the Dodgers on July 10th the Giants now sit 1 game back of their rivals. In the race for a Wild Card spot the Giants are 2.5 games ahead of the Cubs for the final slot. Pittsburgh holds the lead by 3 games for home field in the coin flip game.

As a result of being pretty much the best offense in baseball lately the Giants have won 11 of 12 games. If you want to push it a little further they have gone 12-2 since the return of Hunter Pence.

The offense just keeps going. The Giants are 1st in hits, batting average, and on base percentage in the NL. They are second in runs scored, and have the 3rd best on base + slugging percentage. Over the last 12 games the Giants are averaging 6.3 runs a game and 12.2 hits. My dad used to tell me you should average 2 hits for every run. His story checks out.

The guy going bananas right now is Buster Posey. During this 12 game stretch he’s batting .511 with an OPS of 1.066. He’s driven in 10 runs and scored 7. It just seems like he’s always on base. Posey doesn’t have any homers over this span but he hasn’t needed them. It looks like late 2012 without the power.

Angel Pagan has been a nice surprise in the leadoff spot during this run. He’s batting .315 and has scored 10 runs. With Nori Aoki coming back he’s made a bid to stay at the top of the lineup. For my two cents, I want to see Pagan dropped back down and allow Aoki to take the top spot in the order again.

It’s not the Pagan at bats leading off an inning or game that scare me. He has been pretty good at getting on base early. It’s the ones when he comes up with 2 outs and runners on that freak me out. And so often it seems like he swings at the first pitch in those situations. When Pagan works a count he’s usually trying to get an inning going. Maybe he thinks that every pitcher wants to throw a get me over pitch to start him off. I don’t know. I just know I want Aoki batting more than Pagan. Give me the guy with a .383 OBP which is second on the team behind Posey. Pagan has just a .304 OBP and that’s the worst of any regular player the Giants send out there.

Let’s go back to Hunter Pence. The first thing that jumps out is that the Giants are 30-8 in games he’s played. In those first 18 games he played between DL stints the Giants went 12-6, in the 14 games since Pence came back this time the team is 12-2.

Over the most recent 14 games Pence has driven in 15 runs. He’s homered 3 times, the most important one was in Arizona that tied the game right after the All-Star break. Pence is batting .321 since his return with an OPS of .948. In his first 18 games that was a .282 BA and .780 OPS. He’s also managed 5 doubles and that’s come primarily from Hunter’s right field approach. He’s been looking away recently and only turning on a pitch if it drifts to the inner half.

The 2-3-4 hitters in the Giants lineup are all batting over .300. There are only 14 guys in the NL doing that and the Giants have 3 of them. Posey is 4th at .328, Joe Panik is 8th at .311, and Matt Duffy is sitting 12th with a .302 average. Panik is 3rd in hits with 113 and Posey has 110 hits which places him 5th.

There’s also length in the lineup. Brandon Belt is 2nd in the NL with 26 doubles. That surprised me a little. Let’s not forget Brandon Crawford who shares the team lead in home runs (14) with Posey. These guys help keep the line moving after the top guys are getting on base.

I know this post is all about how kick ass the Giants offense is but I can’t let 2 pitching notes go by. First, I tip my cap to Tim Hudson. With the Giants 4-3 victory over the A’s on Sunday he’s now beaten all 30 MLB teams. He’s the 15th pitcher to do it. Hudson is the 4th one of those pitchers to spend time with San Francisco. The other three are Terry Mulholland, Barry Zito, and new Hall of Famer Randy Johnson.

The other great pitching note of late is the bullpen. Over the last 14 games Giants relievers have allowed 6 runs in 45.1 innings. A miniscule 1.19 ERA. They have a 2-0 record and are 7-for-7 in save chances.

The orange and black are streaking and tearing the cover off the ball in the process. The next 3 games are at home against the Brewers, a team they swept in 3 games while scoring 17 runs back in May at Miller Park. The Brewers are not scoring runs. They managed just 5 total this past weekend in 4 games at Arizona and were shut out each of the last 2 days. Hopefully this all means the Giants can keep up their winning ways the next 3 days at AT&T Park.

Remember to follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and subscribe to our YouTube channel if you haven’t already.

-Eric

@2outhits

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by | July 20, 2015 · 6:12 PM

SF Giants thoughts and notes

Getty Images/Rob Carr

Getty Images/Rob Carr

Much like Willie has his stream of consciousness posts after we cover a game in the press box, I’m going to share some thoughts and notes about the San Francisco Giants today.

It’s been a while since I’ve (Eric) popped in for a post so let’s see what’s been going on and what’s coming up for the Giants

  • Heading in to Monday night’s game against the Padres the Giants have won 6 straight and are now 49-43. They closed out the 1st half with a sweep of the Phillies. After the break they came out swinging and swept the D-Backs in Arizona behind 35 hits and 16 runs of offense.
  • It’s not just pitching for the Giants anymore. Right now they lead the NL in hits (866) and batting average (.272). They are second in on-base pct. (.373), and third in slugging pct. (.407) and runs scored (393).
  • It extends to the road as well. The Giants rank first in the NL on the road in runs per game (4.82), batting average (.278), OBP (.334), slugging pct. (.428), and OPS (.762).
  • Buster Posey has been red-hot lately. He’s had a hit in 17 of his last 18 games and is 15-for-26 (.577) with runners in scoring position during that time. He’s driven in 24 runs in those situations during that time.
  • Hunter Pence has also been a key contributor lately. Since his most recent return from the DL, Pence is batting .333 with 2 HR and 11 RBI. He’s tied with Mike Trout for the most runs driven in during that time.
  • There’s a great piece on Fox Sports by Owen Watson exploring Matt Duffy and how he’s one of the best rookies in baseball this season.
  • If you missed it last week Jonah Keri of Grantland looked at how the Giants have the best infield in baseball with homegrown talent.
  • We’ve all seen lately that Angel Pagan has lost a step or two out in center field. There’s talk on social media about moving him to LF but Bruce Bochy has said that a move like that will not happen during the season. Personally I think the Giants are better with Gregor Blanco in center, but that won’t happen as long as Pagan is “healthy”. Maybe we’ll see a DL stint for him once Nori Aoki returns.
  • Speaking of Aoki, we heard on Twitter earlier today that he’s beginning his rehab assignment in Sacramento tomorrow. And he could be back as early as the weekend series against the A’s.
  • Looking ahead the Giants play their next 5 series against teams currently under .500. At the moment they sit 3.5 games back of the Dodgers for the division and 1 game back of the Cubs for the Wild Card.
  • I’m standing by my pick of the Giants winning the NL West. I wouldn’t be surprised if they catch them for the division lead by the first week of August.
  • Tim Hudosn is back tonight and Jean Machi has been DFA’d to clear room for him. That’s probably the end for the Giants resident fart master.

There’s probably more to get into and I’ll be back later this week during the Giants off day Thursday with some more thoughts about the boys.

You can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or check out our YouTube channel.

-Eric

@2outhits

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by | June 17, 2015 · 11:57 PM

Out of Left Field

Before I joined TortureCast in August 2011, I regularly contributed a segment on the show called, “Out of Left Field.” It was usually a short 60 seconds of me rambling on about some esoteric stat, streak, or oddity of the Giants’ season.

I’ve decided to resurrect it, and potentially in audio format once again. Because, who doesn’t like listening to themselves? Ok, I don’t, so here it is in digital print. At least most fonts aren’t embarrassing. Except for Comic Sans, of course.

  • The Giants finally broke their 9 game skid at home, which was the longest losing streak since 1940 at the Polo Grounds. I mean, that’s when gas was 18 cents a gallon and my grandmother was still in France about to hide from the Nazis.
  • Despite tonight’s 2-0 loss, MadBum pitched well and was perfect for 4 2/3 until a cleat-made divot caused a ball to bounce at Crawford’s insured face, necessitating the scorekeeper to laugh diabolically and mark it as a hit. Maybe that had a butterfly effect on the Giants’ offense. No, wait, no, that had about as much affect on their offense as I do screaming at the TV while I tear the wings off of a butterfly.
  • The Giants are 5-12 since their high-water mark of 30-20. After starting the season 4-10, that means the “meat” of the season sandwich was 26-10.
  • Giants are 8 GB of last year’s record after 67 games. In fact, they haven’t been worse at this point over the last 5 seasons: 2013: 0 GB, 2012: 2 GB, 2011: 3 GB, 2010: 2 GB
  • Marco Scutaro was symbolically re-signed by the Giants and immediately placed on the 60-day DL. He can now retire a Giant. And to think that I truly believed (last year) that he would certainly come back at some point to relive his glory days in 2012 and 2013. Sadly, he’s rehabbing his 2 fused vertebrae and hoping to “live a normal life, pain free” with his family. Egad. He might not ever play even beer league softball. I’ll stop my bitching about my injured wrist that prevents me from cleaning and jerking in my CrossFit sessions. And jerking.
  • Matt Cain and Jake Peavy are close to coming back into the rotation, but the Giants have stated that they will not go to a six man rotation, which begs the obvious, “who’s out?” I’d say take out Mike Murphy. There are no alternatives.
  • As of today, the Royals would have 8 starters in the All Star Game. If this holds, it’ll be the National League vs. the Royals, plus Mike Trout. I “kind of” want this to happen, if only to force MLB into changing this ridiculous ASG voting by the fans. Ok, well, Aoki is currently slated to start for the NL (being a former Royal), so maybe just this year…. In fact, wouldn’t it be something if Giants fans propelled 8 Giants starters to the final ballot? Man, the Royals could get their revenge…
  • Don’t look now, but Arizona is only two games back of the Giants. I thought Diamondbacks were not allowed to pray to their snake goddess.
  • Chris Heston was named NL player of the week. I wonder if anyone HASN’T been named that after a no-hitter. Glad someone else didn’t throw a perfect game that week, I suppose.
  • Maybe the Warriors can win every odd year championship.
  • Javier Lopez: 0.96 ERA, 0.64 WHIP. Dayum.
  • Giants are hitting .284 as a team on the road, which leads all MLB, 12 points higher than the next team. Can haz hitting at home? (.249)
  • Despite the last few downturns, they’re only 2.5 games back of the Bums. Could be worse. Let’s get back to that meat I mentioned earlier. Maybe it was grand salame?

Chad

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by | May 15, 2015 · 4:12 PM

Hunter Pence is back

Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

 

The long nightmare is over. Hunter Pence is returning to right field fo the San Francisco Giants. This Andrew Baggarly tweet rolled across the ol’ Twitter timeline Friday afternoon.

That is great news for all of us. The world is just a better place with Hunter Pence in the starting lineup. His hustle helps the Giants get through soe rough times. It will be great to see him charging hard through first base and sliding around the outfield.

Hunter Pence is back.

The Giants did a great job of fighting to have a .500ish record while he was injured. Having him back for 2 in Cincinnatti and then a home series with the Dodgers could be a launching point for this team. Or it could not. But he’s such a positive force on that field and in the clubhouse that it has to be a boost for the team. Hunter Pence is back. So who gets sent down to make room for Pence on the roster? John Shea says it’s going to be a catcher.

If I had a vote. It be fun to have a vote, wouldn’t it? I’d send down Hector Sanchez. The addition of Andrew Susac catching to give Buster Posey some days at first is working out just fine. There’s no need to carry 3 catchers anymore. The bullpen is set right now so shuffling around isn’t needed. The real shuffle happens when “It’s Travis Ishikawa” comes back to the team. But that’s another day.

With Pence returning to the lineup Saturday night here’s the batting order I’d love to see on a regular basis. Brandon Belt has been in a funk with a lot of the swing and miss lately. Maybe moving to 6th and lenghtening the Giants lineup will get him going again. Make it happen Boch.

Aoki LF
Panik 2B
Pagan CF
Posey C
Pence RF
Belt 1B
Duffy 3B
Crawford SS
Pitcher

On Posey first base days you can just slot Susac in for Belt. You’ll also note that I have Matt Duffy in the lineup. He should be playing everyday. But that’s a whole other post I don’t have in me right now. Today’s news is all sunshine and roses.

Hunter Pence is back.

-Eric
@2outhits

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by | April 13, 2015 · 1:21 AM

The Good, The Bad, & What’s Next?

Nori Aoki of the San Francisco Giants. TortureCast.com

Ezra Shaw/ Getty Images

Week one of the 2015 season is in the books and the San Francisco Giants are coming home after 7 games on the road to start it all up. They are limping back to AT&T Park after dropping their 3rd straight game to the San Diego Padres under the bright sunshine at Petco Park. They sit at 3-4 and are last in the division, but remember it’s early and they only sit 1.5 games back. This is no repeat of the torrid start from last season.

Each week I’m going to take a look back at the good and the not so good of the previous week. Don’t worry though, I won’t leave you with a bad taste in your mouth. I’ll always look ahead to the upcoming week ahead for the Giants. So let’s roll this baby out and bring you my new weekly look at the Giants. Continue reading →

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by | April 10, 2015 · 5:33 PM

Rivalry Renewed

(Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images)

(Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images)

This isn’t a post about gum. Well, I guess it kind of is but I’ll get to that in a minute. Last night the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres renewed acquaintances for the first of nineteen meetings between the two clubs this season. During the offseason, and right up until the day before the season opened, the Padres overhauled their roster. There’s new faces everywhere. Matt Kemp came from LA, they added Wil Myers and Justin Upton. The new catcher is Derek Norris, you may remember him from his days across the bay.

It seems the Padres have gotten tired of Giants fans invading Petco Park and turing it in to “AT&T South”. I didn’t mind, neither did you I’m guessing. They’ve decided to try and win some games for the first time since 2010. That’s what last night felt like, 2010. This first game between the clubs was a nail-biter. The Giants finally won 1-0 in the 12th inning on a Justin Maxwell pinch-hit that drove home Brandon Crawford with the winning run. Continue reading →

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by | April 5, 2015 · 2:10 PM

SF Giants preview: The other guys

Matt Duffy of the San Francisco Giants

Photo via USA TODAY Sports

Well here we are. The 2015 San Francisco Giants season is upon us. I thought I’d take this time to preview the season and throw out some predictions. I’m sure you’ve read the “big boy” publications and what they forecast for the season so I’m not going to even mention the fact that none of them are giving the Giants a chance to do big things this season.

Nope. Won’t mention it at all. That whole odd year thing? I won’t mention that either.

I’ve already previewed the starting rotation and the regulars. Here are some links.

Part 1: The rotation

Part 2: The regulars

For the part 3 I’m going to take a pass at the other guys. It’s time to take a look at the Giants bullpen and bench players.

The bullpen

It’s been reported over many Giants outlets that the team will carry 13 pitchers to start the season. If that is the case, here’s the guys that will be in the pen. Continue reading →

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