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SF Giants Press Clips

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

San Francisco Chronicle

Sports and politics intersect more frequently these days

Ron Kroichick

San Francisco Giants general manager Bobby Evans’ annual welcome-back-from-winter speech

to his team included a fresh twist this year: Be careful what you say about politics.

Evans was well aware of athletes and coaches in other sports making headlines for their

political views or alliances, from Tom Brady and Bill Belichick to Stephen Curry and Steve Kerr.

So Evans, speaking to Giants players and coaches Feb. 9 at AT&T Park, warned them they might

face similar questions.

They were free to voice their opinions, Evans said, but he reminded them they play in the

famously diverse Bay Area and should consider the possible impact.

“We just reminded everyone these are very sensitive times and very divisive issues,” Evans said

in an interview with The Chronicle during spring training. “As much as there are going to be

differing opinions in the public, there are going to be differing opinions in the clubhouse. So

let’s not let that divide us.”

This reflects the hyper-partisan climate of 2017, in which politics are an omnipresent and highly

charged part of the American landscape — and sports do not count as an escape from reality.

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The Giants are one of several Major League Baseball teams to raise the topic with their players

this spring. One National Football League team even enacted an unofficial ban last season on

talking about the presidential election, according to si.com, because some older players found

the debates “too incendiary.”

Among recent examples:

•Six New England Patriots players have said they will not attend the Super Bowl champion’s

traditional White House visit. This comes in the wake of President Trump touting the support of

Brady and Belichick, the NFL’s most decorated quarterback and head coach, during an election-

eve rally in November.

•Kerr and San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich publicly criticized Trump on issues

ranging from his comments about minorities and women to his proposed travel ban prohibiting

immigration from several Muslim-majority countries.

•Curry, a two-time MVP and one of the NBA’s most popular players, jumped into the fray last

month after Under Armour chief executive officer Kevin Plank called Trump “a real asset” to the

country. Curry has a lucrative endorsement contract with Under Armour.

“I agree with that description,” he told the San Jose Mercury News, “if you remove ‘et’” from

asset.

•St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Dexter Fowler encountered social-media backlash after calling

Trump’s travel ban “unfortunate.” Fowler’s wife is from Iran, one of the countries included in

both versions of the proposed ban, which prompted the family’s decision not to take their

young daughter to visit relatives there.

•Former Giants first baseman/outfielder Aubrey Huff mixed it up on Facebook and Twitter,

expressing his support for Trump and ripping protesters who gathered at airports in opposition

to the travel ban.

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Huff is more than four years removed from the end of his major-league career, but the

willingness of today’s marquee athletes to wade into turbulent political waters offers a new

dimension to locker-room dynamics. Could this affect the team chemistry every coach covets?

The 49ers provided a test case: When quarterback Colin Kaepernick stirred controversy last

season by taking a knee during the national anthem to protest racial injustice and police

brutality, some players initially were upset. Kaepernick later addressed his teammates as a

group, and despite whatever difference of opinion they might have had, they voted him winner

of the Len Eshmont Award for inspiration and courageous play, considered the team’s highest

honor.

The Warriors built their wild success the past few seasons, in part, on cohesiveness. Kerr also

has been especially outspoken about President Trump, a stance that probably resonates more

in the NBA, in which players — a majority of whom are African American — tend to lean to the

left politically.

Even so, Kerr insisted “it’s not like we’re coming in here and having a rally.” The Warriors

naturally devote most of their time and effort to basketball, even if Kerr encourages

conversations about larger issues. He also occasionally invites guest speakers: sociologist Harry

Edwards and author Michael Lewis are among those who have addressed the team this season.

“I think guys talk amongst themselves a lot more now about politics, just like we all do,” Kerr

said. “Even five years ago, I didn’t really talk much about politics. I read stuff and followed it,

but there wasn’t much controversy.

“Now it seems like it’s every day, because we have this assault going on in our society in terms

of a media blitz — every day it’s something spectacular. Or a blitz is coming from Trump

himself, or from media calling Trump out. Then there’s all the fallout from that, where people

are so angry on both sides.

“It’s hard not to have it be part of your day.”

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Former Giants third-base coach Tim Flannery witnessed firsthand the intersection of sports and

politics. Flannery played on the 1984 San Diego Padres team that reached the World Series with

three starting pitchers — Eric Show, Dave Dravecky and Mark Thurmond — who were members

of the ultra-conservative John Birch Society.

This became public in the middle of the season. Flannery insisted it wasn’t a big distraction in

the clubhouse, though he suspected it took a lot of the pitchers’ energy. Mostly, other players

joked with Show, Dravecky and Thurmond about their political views.

“I didn’t know enough about it to start a fight about it,” Flannery said.

More than 30 years later, the standard baseball response to political differences remains the

same: stay quiet or make jokes. Major-league players generally tilt to the right politically,

Flannery said, so he wasn’t surprised when some Giants frequently criticized President Barack

Obama during his time in office.

Then, when the team visited the White House after its World Series titles in 2010, ’12 and ’14,

Flannery couldn’t help himself. He kidded the players who routinely ripped Obama, telling

them, “Go ahead, guys, there he is. Say what you feel.” Nobody did, of course.

President Obama’s eight years in the White House, not coincidentally, sparked an increase in

political involvement among professional athletes. His administration sought high-profile

players’ support for various initiatives, according to a story last month in New York magazine.

One byproduct: Obama developed a connection with four-time NBA MVP LeBron James, who

advocated for the Affordable Care Act and also spoke out about police brutality and racial

injustice.

Still, if James led a wave of NBA activism, major-league clubhouses typically offer a more

eclectic mix of people, backgrounds and beliefs. Consider the A’s.

Pitcher Sean Doolittle and his now-fiancee, Eireann Dolan, hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for

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Syrian refugee families in November 2015. Another pitcher, Ryan Madson, has defended

President Trump and his plans to build a wall along the Mexican border. Outfielder Khris Davis,

whose mom is from Mexico, worries about Trump’s immigration policies.

“We’re built on immigration, that’s the whole idea,” Davis said. “It sucks when it comes down

to it.”

To hear A’s players, though, these hot-button issues do not interfere with the business of

baseball. Doolittle, who called himself an independent, acknowledged more political

conversations are taking place now than in previous seasons, mostly because there really were

no political conversations in previous seasons.

Doolittle suggested the discussions typically arise in the wake of situations like Fowler’s, when a

pro athlete’s comments are amplified swiftly and powerfully through social media, for better or

worse.

“Just because an athlete shares his opinion on something cultural or political doesn’t mean he’s

grandstanding in the clubhouse,” Doolittle said. “Guys aren’t actively recruiting teammates to

their cause or doing stump speeches in front of their locker trying to change guys’ opinions. …

“We recognize we may hold different beliefs and come from different backgrounds, but we are

still working toward a common goal of winning ballgames.”

Madson shares the same bullpen with Doolittle but probably not the same political views.

Madson described himself as a Constitutional conservative and praised many of Trump’s

campaign promises in a USA Today story in July.

At the same time, Madson makes a conscious effort to separate baseball and politics. If he

hears a teammate say something with which he disagrees, he usually doesn’t respond out of

concern the conversation might become “too emotional.”

As for Trump, Madson considers the barrage of splashy headlines a function of entertainment

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more than anything else.

“It’s news because he’s entertaining and not a normal president,” Madson said. “That gets

attention every day. I would just say: Be respectful of everyone and everyone’s opinion. I’m not

trying to change anyone and I’m not asking anyone to think like me.”

Giants catcher Buster Posey echoed his A’s counterparts, saying occasional political

conversations among players have created no discord. He did pay attention when Plank, the

Under Armour CEO, took heat for his pro-Trump comments; Posey, like Curry, has an

endorsement deal with the company.

Posey studied the issue in case he was asked about it, but he chose not to discuss it voluntarily.

Posey, like a handful of his teammates, grew up in the South (Georgia), where the conservative

majority stands in sharp contrast to the ever-liberal Bay Area. He appreciates those differences

and wants to expose his kids to multiple views.

“I think it’s good for them to see there are going to be disagreements,” Posey said. “That’s how

progress is made. When you disagree to the point it becomes irrational on both sides, that’s

when you get stuck.”

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San Francisco Chronicle

Fixing baseball’s pace requires a measured touch

Bruce Jenkins

The scent of paranoia, troublesome and distinct, can be detected around baseball these days.

Watch the game as always, and you’re on safe ground. Listening to Commissioner Rob Manfred,

with his obsession over the pace of play, gives one pause.

Manfred is a decent man, his heart well-situated, and he’s just trying to the right thing. But

when the players’ union balked at his suggestions for radical changes this season, Manfred took

a dangerous step forward, saying the changes would be made unilaterally next year without

rebuttal from the players. (Apparently, under a stipulation in the collective bargaining

agreement, he can do that.)

Manfred is in love with the pitch clock. He wants adjustments in the strike zone. He can’t stand

all the mound visits by catchers and managers. And let’s just say this up front: We’d all like the

game to move a little faster. There’s just no reason for a perfectly ordinary game to last three

hours and 20 minutes, or for a postseason affair to drift into four-hour territory.

But the idea of a commissioner altering baseball’s time-honored mood — for reasons not

necessarily sound — is disturbing. Surely he’d have input from his baseball-operations people,

although one of them is former player-manager Joe Torre, who somehow seems intrigued by

the idea of starting extra innings with a runner on second base. You know, to move things

along.

Here’s what I don’t get: Manfred crafting a dire portrayal when baseball is about to become a

$10 billion industry, when attendance figures shine, when the game approaches an all-time

high in popularity. In an interview with ESPN, Baltimore manager Buck Showalter made plenty

of sense.

“The things that gets me about all this,” Showalter said, “is that there are only two groups of

people I hear consistently complain about the pace of games, and that’s the umpires and the

media. People who are at the game 162 times a year. But that family of four in the stands,

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those people who come to three games a year, I don’t hear them complaining. So what are we

basing this on?”

When it comes to baseball and young fans, I’d like to think my personal experience is telling.

Here in Half Moon Bay, we might have the worst climatic setting in the world (save maybe

Scotland) for summertime youth baseball. The Smith Field complex sits hard by the Pacific

Ocean, games routinely draped in fog, brisk winds and chilly weather. But it’s a thriving, popular

scene, kids filling up the rosters at all levels while bundled-up parents cheer them on.

On off-work nights at Giants’ games, I’ve spent years in the company of these families. Most of

the kids are girls who have grown up with my daughter, now 18. They are absolutely in love

with the game: not just the food and the ballpark ambiance, but specific players (“No! Don’t tell

me they traded Duffy!”) and the team’s fortunes. Are they bored during a pitching change, or

the lengthy commercial break? You must be joking. They go straight to their phones. Best of all

worlds. And if they have time, amid social obligations, they’re watching every telecast they can.

So here are one man’s proposals:

•Don’t bring the 20-second pitch clock (currently used in the minor leagues) into play. The

majors represent an entirely different world, with reputations and big money at stake. Simply

enforce what is clearly stated in the rulebook:

When the bases are unoccupied, the pitcher shall deliver the ball to the batter within 12 seconds

after he receives the ball (otherwise, the limit is 20 seconds).

Umpires will not grant time for batters to step out of the box if to do so would unnecessarily

delay the game.

Hitters are required to keep one foot in the box throughout the at-bat (allowing for exceptions

such as a foul ball, wild pitch or pickoff play).

It would be unnecessary, and downright rude, for MLB to install a neon-illuminated clock that

everyone can watch. Just enforce the rules! Come down hard with warnings, fines and even

suspensions, but don’t interrupt the game with those sanctions. Let them be announced

overnight, or the next morning,so the players can make their adjustments in peace.

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•Umpires need to crack down on hitters — think Jose Bautista or Josh Donaldson — who skirt

the rules by fiddling incessantly with their equipment while keeping one foot in the box. “Stay

the hell in there or it comes out of your wallet.”

•Allow no more than 12 pitchers on a staff at any given time — including the September roster-

expansion period. It should be 10, truth be told, but be gentle on nervous managers. There are

way, way too many pitching changes these days, especially unacceptable when the departing

pitcher just got two outs with his best stuff.

•Under new replay rules, managers have 30 seconds to determine if a challenge is warranted.

No. Make it five seconds. You’re either challenging or not. You don’t get to check your own set

of replays, somewhere deep in the clubhouse, first.

•Leave the strike zone alone. Other “pace” matters are more pressing.

•Experiment with a limit on mound visits that do not represent a pitching change. Set a

“timeouts” number: say from three to five per game. Maybe it works, maybe not. Remember

that these aren’t always idle chats. They can be invaluable for stalling (as a reliever desperately

warms up), reminding pitchers of a delivery flaw or solving communication problems with

someone who doesn’t speak English, just to cite a few examples.

•Do nothing that actually affects how the game is played. No restrictions on shifts, the number

of batters a reliever must face, the number of pickoff throws, etc. That’s artificial nonsense,

way out of line.

•Cut down on TV commercial time, which adds 45 minutes to an hour per game. OK, like this

would ever happen — except that Manfred himself brought it up, in a Forbes interview last

week. “It’s something that we should be doing,” he said. “There are contractual limitations on

when we can do this; we have existing commitments. But, that should be we will look at.”

That’s how it looks from the peanut gallery. There are more eloquent voices to be heard, at

which point we turn to the great Hunter Pence. He said it all in just a few words: “If you’re

rushing the game, you don’t get the magnificence.”

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Tread softly, everyone.

San Francisco Chronicle

Jeffrey ‘Hac Man’ Leonard back on the Giants’ camp

Henry Schulman

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Hac is back.

Jeffrey “Hac Man” Leonard, the onetime Giants outfielder who annoyed the St. Louis Cardinals

with his “one flap down” homers 30 years ago, arrived at spring training Tuesday to begin a role

as a special instructor.

Leonard, who retired in 1990 and lives in Sacramento, said he wants to get into coaching full

time. The 61-year-old has worked as a Giants ambassador for the past four seasons.

This year, he will visit the big club occasionally, as Will Clark, Robb Nen and other former Giants

do. He also could pop over to watch Triple-A Sacramento, which plays 10 minutes from his

house.

Leonard was with the Giants from 1982 through ’88 and helped them win their first National

League West title in 16 years in 1987.

He then hit four homers against the Cardinals in the National League Championship Series,

winning MVP honors despite the Giants losing the series in seven games.

Leonard took to trotting around the bases with his left arm tucked into his body — one flap

down. Giants fans loved it. The Cardinals hated it. Leonard got a Bob Forsch pitch in the ribs in

retaliation.

The Giants traded Leonard to the Brewers for Ernest Riles the next season. Leonard hit 99 of his

144 career homers for San Francisco. He has managed and coached since his retirement,

including a stint as an A’s minor-league manager.

Second sacker: Tuesday’s game ended when second baseman Trevor Brown (not a misprint)

dived to knock down a Jose Miguel Fernandez grounder, retrieved the ball and got the out at

first.

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Manager Bruce Bochy made Brown laugh in the handshake line with three words: “ESPN

highlight play.”

Brown has taken grounders at second to make himself more versatile after the Giants

signed Nick Hundley as the backup catcher. That could improve Brown’s chances of making the

team.

He also fielded a routine grounder and flipped to second base to end the seventh.

Briefly: The Giants are expected to welcome Angel Pagan back to Scottsdale Stadium when

they host Puerto Rico’s World Baseball Classic team Wednesday. ... The starting pitchers are

tightening things. Since Friday, Jeff Samardzija, Clayton Blackburn, Madison Bumgarner, Matt

Cain, Ty Blach and Matt Moore have combined to allow four runs in 162/3 innings, a 2.16 ERA.

San Francisco Chronicle

Matt Moore finally feels like he belongs with Giants

Henry Schulman

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Fans and players think so differently.

The faithful decided that Matt Moore became a true Giant when he no-hit the Dodgers for 82/3

innings in Los Angeles on Aug. 25, then stuffed them again for eight innings in the final game of

the regular season, which secured a wild-card berth.

Moore said it look longer than that. Not until he went home for the winter to reflect on his

midseason trade to San Francisco and all he accomplished thereafter did he feel “settled in” as

a Giant.

“It rolls off my tongue easier,” Moore said after he pitched three shutout innings in Tuesday’s 4-

2 victory over the Dodgers at Camelback Ranch, his best start of the spring.

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The Giants traded popular homegrown third baseman Matt Duffy and $6 million bonus baby

Lucius Fox to the Rays to get Moore. Those outside the game do not realize how disorienting a

trade can be, especially for a player such as Moore who had spent his entire professional career

with Tampa Bay.

“Last August it was pretty quick for me,” he said. “I’m sure a lot of it was in my own head, how

fast it seemed like things were going.”

He also had to deal with the Joe Panik factor.

Moore threw the June 18 pitch at Tampa Bay that hit Panik in the head, causing a delayed-

reaction concussion that cost Panik a month of the season. When Moore reported to the Giants

in Philadelphia on Aug. 2, he had no idea how long Panik had been out. (“I need to watch more

TV.”)

Moore’s new teammates razzed him right away. He barely had dropped his gear in his locker

when he heard a voice — he cannot remember whose — saying, “Are you going to say you’re

sorry to Joe?”

Ballplayers use sarcastic humor like that to welcome players. It helps the newcomers feel like

they belong, and Moore loves it.

“That stuff, over the next three years, I hope it gets better,” he said.

Panik had no hard feelings about the beaning, which made his eyesight fuzzy for the rest of the

season. Now Panik is the only Giants regular hitting consistently. His fourth-inning single

Tuesday was his eighth hit in 15 Cactus League at-bats. Panik scored on a Brandon Belt triple

that eluded a diving Yasiel Puig.

“To see him out there executing his game plan, I wouldn’t say it surprises me, but I am happy

for him,” Moore said. “There are no more side effects. I think I probably get the worst end of

that these days, jokes and whatnot.”

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The Giants play the Dodgers twice in spring training, and it figured one game would fall on

Moore’s turn. His first partial season with the Giants thrust him into the rivalry with little time

to think.

Three of his 12 starts for the Giants were against the Los Angeles, and he found no middle

ground. Between the near no-hitter and the playoff-clinching gem, Moore had the worst start

of his career on Sept. 21, allowing six runs in one inning at Dodger Stadium.

“It was nice being injected into that, having watched their bouts together,” he said. “It’s

probably similar to when I was in Tampa. We didn’t get along too well with Boston.

“I just think there’s a little something extra there. It’s part of the history, and how many times

you’re going to square up against each other.”

That number might be very high before Moore leaves town. He has three more years with the

Giants before he can file for free agency.

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer

Email: hschulman@sfchronicle.comTwitter: hankschulman

Giants 4, Dodgers 2

Notable: Mac Williamson, Jae-gyun Hwang and Chris Marrero hit solo homers in the Giants’

second straight win after an eight-game losing streak. Williamson has homered in consecutive

games in which he has played. ... Hwang also saved two runs when he dived to stop Franklin

Gutierrez’s grounder to third to end the first inning. ... Dodgers starter Clayton

Kershaw pitched three hitless innings. He has not allowed a hit in six spring innings. ... Brandon

Belt, whose hitless streak against Kershaw has reached 37 at-bats, popped out against the lefty,

but hit an RBI triple against Josh Fields.

Quotable: “He’s having a good spring. He’s opening up some eyes. You get a guy from South

Korea, you can look at video and see reports, but until you see him firsthand you don’t

appreciate what you have. He’s a ballplayer.”

— Manager Bruce Bochy on third baseman Hwang

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Wednesday’s game: Giants vs. Puerto Rico, 12:05 p.m., at Scottsdale.

San Jose Mercury News

Is fastball mania putting young baseball arms on the brink?

Daniel Brown

Even a terrific fastball hitter like Buster Posey has a speed limit. Not long ago, the Giants

catcher quizzed a few older ballplayers about the recent invasion of flame-throwing heat

monsters.

“I’ll ask them. ‘Is it just me?’ I mean, I’m about ready to move the mound back a little bit,”

Posey cracked.

“You have middle-relief guys coming in throwing 100 mph. And I’m like, ‘Wait, I thought 100

mph was supposed to be one or two guys across the league.'”

ADVERTISING

It’s not just you, Buster. Triple-digit radar gun readings, once the sole provenance of legends

like Nolan Ryan, now make for a crowded expressway.

A record 31 big league pitchers touched 100 mph on the radar gun last season, according to

PITCHf/x data, and two pitchers — Aroldis Chapman and Mauricio Cabrera — averaged at least

100 mph for the season.

There is more heat in the forecast. Baseball America documented another 71 prospects clocked

at 100 mph in the minor leagues last year.

The fastball fixation is nothing new. You can fairly trace pitching history through baseball’s

rapidly spinning seams, from Walter Johnson to Bob Feller to Bob Gibson to Nolan Ryan to

Aroldis Chapman.

But it’s becoming increasingly clear that baseball’s best arms are cruising at dangerous speeds.

Pitchers are getting injured at record rates, and a recent wave of studies demonstrates a

relationship between increased velocity and increased risk in Tommy John surgeries.

There are apparently only so many Newton-meters of torque a human elbow can take.

“We’re seeing so many young kids coming up throwing 95-98. They throw as hard as they can

for a full season,” A’s catcher Stephen Vogt said, “and they come back the next season and their

arm is gone.

“I think it’s become the mentality of a lot of organizations: ‘Well, let’s just use this guy until he

can’t pitch anymore and next in line.’ I’m not a big fan of that.”

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Velocity has gone up or held steady in 14 of the past 15 seasons. In the bullpen, especially, it’s

as if everyone suddenly comes equipped with a Rich Gossage fastball. It’s not just Goose

anymore, it’s geese: The top 20 relievers last year averaged 96.72 with their heaters, according

to numbers collected from fangraphs.com.

Better training, more sophisticated throwing programs and advances in medicine have paved

the way for this generation of young, hard throwers. But there’s no way to strengthen an elbow

ligament, leaving the UCL to bear the brunt of this unprecedented fastball force.

Stan Conte, the former Giants and Dodgers trainer, last year was the first to report that while

shoulder injuries are on the decline in major league baseball, the number of elbow injuries

continues to rise.

The trend of mega-velocity has been described as baseball’s Faustian bargain: Throwing hard

will get you drafted and could make you a star — and then, almost certainly, it will destroy you.

“Our bodies are not designed to withstand that kind of velocity,” Vogt said. “If you can, you’re a

freak.”

* * *

It wasn’t always this way.

In its infancy, baseball deliberately tried to keep pitchers from throwing too hard. The hurler

threw underhanded, stiff-wristed pitches that borrowed from cricket’s early days.

In the first surviving rules of baseball, drafted in 1845, Article 9 states: “The ball must be

pitched, not thrown for the bat.” The goal was to maximize the interaction between the fielders

and hitters.

As John Thorn, the official historian for major league baseball, wrote “(the pitcher and batter)

were not adversaries but very nearly allies, each doing his utmost to put the ball in play for the

valiant barehand fielders.”

The dynamic changed in the 1880s as the game transitioned to overhand pitching and, soon,

flame-throwers like Amos Rusie were heating up. The National League in 1893 moved the

pitching mound back from 50 feet (where it had been since 1881) to 60 feet, 6 inches (where it

has stayed, whether Posey likes it or not).

For most of baseball history, the fastest pitcher debate has been waged through anecdotes and

one-liners. In that regard, it’s tough to top Negro Leagues catcher Biz Mackey, who suggested

that Satchel Paige’s fastball sometimes burned up upon reentry.

“They say the catcher, the umpire and the bat boys looked all over for that ball, but it was

gone,” Mackey claimed. “Now how do you account for that?”

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No balls get lost now, not with high-tech equipment monitoring not just the velocity but the

spin rate of every pitch. And it’s easy enough to settle who’s throwing the hardest.

In 2008, the PITCHf/x system was installed in all 30 ballparks, creating a generation of

rubberneckers who swivel to see the MPH on the scoreboard.

“Oh, I feel like that’s the main thing that you look for,” A’s right-hander Jharel Cotton said. “If I

throw a pitch and I think it’s hard, I’ll look back and say, ‘OK, that’s pretty cool.”’

Chapman, of course, is the reigning king of pop.

According to MLB’s Statcast, the left-hander threw the 30 fastest pitches in the majors in 2016,

with the swiftest coming on a 105.1 mph fastball on June 18 against Baltimore.

Pitchers are so reliant on stadium readings that opponents have been known to pull a fast one

(at least before MLB cracked down on the antics). Kevin Towers, the former Padres general

manager, said his team used to intentionally dial the gun down whenever Brad Penny of the Los

Angeles Dodgers took the mound in San Diego.

“He liked velocity. He’d stare at the board,” Towers told the Arizona Republic in 2011. “He was

throwing 95-96, but we’d have it at 91 and he’d get (ticked) off and throw harder and harder

and start elevating.”

Long before that, back when radar guns at the stadium were a mere novelty, teammates used

to mess with A’s right-hander Steve McCatty.

“They had me looking up at the board in Texas one day, and I said, ‘I’m throwing 101,'” McCatty

told Bleacher Report. “Then it was 103. And then I realized it was the temperature.”

That was a good gag for the old days, but those numbers no longer seem so laughable.

In 2010, the average fastball for a qualified major league starter was 90.5. Last year, it was up

to 91.76.

* * *

Why are pitchers throwing harder than ever?

“Because they’re trying to,” deadpanned one injury expert, paraphrasing the great George

Mallory.

The expert wasn’t being sarcastic. It was a perfect four-word summation for a world gone mad

for mph. From the youth leagues on up, the gun is god.

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Players recognize from an early age that velocity gets you the college scholarship. Kids know a

good heater gets you drafted. Vogt sees the cult of the radar gun every time he agrees to catch

a high school kid during the offseason.

“They’ll come out and they’re throwing as hard as they can. And I’m diving for the ball” Vogt

said, shaking his head. “I’ll ask, ‘Hey, what are you working on?’ And they’ll say, ‘I’m just trying

to throw hard.”’

When young pitchers go to a showcase where scouts are watching, they aren’t trying to paint

the outside corner. They’re trying to light up the gun.

It should be no surprise, then, the biggest rise in Tommy John surgeries is among 15- to 19-

year-olds. The surgery rate for that age range rose 9.1 percent per year between 2007-11

according to one study.

Overall, the trend among young pitchers has been enough to prompt noted sports surgeon

James Andrews to make a plea for keeping radar guns away from the youth league fields.

Good luck with that, though. For aspiring big leaguers (and, more to the point, for their aspiring

parents), velocity readings are a siren call.

The youthful yearning for more mph explains the emergence of places like Driveline Baseball, a

pitching mecca on the outskirts of Seattle. Owner and founder Kyle Boddy has created a stir

across baseball by incorporating weighted baseballs and mini-medicine balls known as PlyoCare

balls. The controversial movement has been featured in USA Today and in Jeff Passan’s

heralded book, “The Arm.”

A’s pitcher Daniel Mengden understands the lure of anyone offering a few more upward ticks

to the fastball.

“It was all about it for me growing up,” Mengden said. “Maybe there’s a guy out there who is

89-92 with good stuff, but scouts are way more excited about the kid who throws 95-97 and is

all over the place.

“You can teach someone to pitch, but you can’t teach velocity.”

Cotton, a big leaguer at 5-foot-11, knew he’d have to get the most out of his frame growing up,

so his workouts were done with an eye toward the kinetic chain. “I would kill my legs. I feel like

I had to build from the ground up,” he said. “With scouts, all they wanted to see was your radar

reading. How hard are you throwing?”

Only after he was drafted did Cotton begin to seriously address the rest of his repertoire,

refining the change-up that has become his signature pitch.

Mike Reinold, a former Boston Red Sox head trainer and current Chicago Cubs consultant, is

among those urging for cooler heads when it comes to high heat.

18

Reinold, the founder of Champion Physical Therapy and Performance in Boston, has emerged as

one of the leading voices when it comes to the care and feeding of young arms.

He’s open to new training methods but said the problem is that “the internet has gone crazy.”

Reinold said young pitchers are seeing eye-popping videos online and rushing to put their blind

faith into programs yet to be backed up by data.

To help science catch up, Reinold teamed with Andrews for a study on the effects of using

weighted baseballs to increase velocity. Their findings remain preliminary, but appear to fall in

line with baseball’s larger trend.

The good: 86 percent of Reinold’s participants added 4 percent to their mph readings.

The bad: 27 percent of the participants wound up injured. And Reinold said that was with an

extremely conservative approach over a mere six-week program.

What really raised red flags for Reinold during the study was that they found using weighted

balls yielded almost immediate physiological changes. Participants developed more external

rotation in their shoulder, which is good for velocity but also correlates with higher injury risk.

These arms were being pushed past their limit.

Troubled by the landscape, Reinold not long ago wrote a cautionary tale on his blog: “We have

enough evidence to know that weighted ball training helps to increase pitching velocity. We’ve

known this for decades. But at what cost?

“I hear this comment all the time from injured baseball players: ‘I started a weighted ball

training program this winter, gained 3-5 mph on my fastball, and then hurt my arm for the first

time during the season.’ I can’t tell you how common that is.”

* * *

As pitchers reach for anything to give their fastballs a boost, hitters are forced to keep pace. At

what point does a pitcher throw so hard it’s unhittable?

Is it 108 mph? 110? 115?

None of the above, Giants outfielder Hunter Pence said.

“No matter how hard you throw, it’s hittable,” Pence said. “There’s no one with a 0.00 ERA.

There are some tremendous pitchers out there, but there are also good hitters. It’s just the

nature of competing against the best.”

The 2016 documentary “Fastball” asked physicists to explain the difference between a good

heater and a great one. A 90 mph fastball takes 450 milliseconds to reach home plate. A 100

mph fastball takes 396 milliseconds.

19

But, impossibly, hitters still manage to get the timing just right. Even mighty Chapman can be

had. A’s outfielder Rajai Davis, who played for Cleveland last season, blasted a 97.1 mph four-

seamer from Chapman into the seats during Game 7 of the World Series last year.

Less remembered, except in the A’s clubhouse, is what Vogt did against Chapman on Aug. 7.

Vogt fell behind 0-and-2 in the count.

“Everyone in the world knows that you’re going to strike out,” Vogt recalled this spring. “In a

situation like that, you just kind of hope that he throws it in the zone. Because at 104, there’s

no way to determine if it’s a ball or a strike. And that’s the honest truth.”

So Vogt banked on getting a fastball and decided if it was anywhere near the strike zone, he’d

take a rip. The result was a single against a 103.9 mph rocket. At the time, it was the fastest

recorded pitch ever to be returned for a base hit. (Francisco Cervelli got Chapman at 104.2 a

few weeks later.)

What if Chapman had thrown Vogt a slider?

“Had it been a slider,” he said, “I would have screwed myself into the ground and laughed my

way back to the dugout.”

Such is life for hitters in this era. Batters are so accustomed to gearing up for the heat that so-

called “soft throwers” — merely in the low 90s — now find it easier to exploit the art of

pitching.

“They’re always looking to hit the fastball, and I personally think that’s helped my game,”

Giants reliever George Kontos said. “A little bit of movement — whether it’s a sink or a cut or a

good change-up — will have guys mis-hitting the ball just off the sweet spot.”

Fantasy Baseball Draft Advice: top five San Francisco Giants

Fox Sports

“The hitters have adapted. It’s just weird how it works,” Doolittle said. “It’s not about just

throwing hard anymore. It’s more, ‘Can you cut it? Can you sink it? Can you have some

deception in your delivery to make it seem harder than it is?'”

* * *

There’s a common phrase in major league clubhouses these days: “Go until you blow.” The

mentality is to throw as hard as you can for as long as you can because there is always more gas

out in the bullpen.

Pitchers used to pace themselves, or at least vary the speeds of their fastballs. Tug McGraw

called his hardest pitch a “John Jameson” fastball — that was a straight, hard one named after

20

the Irish whiskey. But McGraw also threw a Peggy Lee, a slower one in honor of her song, “Is

That All There Is?”

These days? Every pitch is a power ballad. Hunter Strickland was the hardest throwing Giants

pitcher last season. His four-seam fastball averaged 97.7 mph.

“I’ve learned very quickly that you can’t just throw a ball by somebody. But at the same time,

you can’t shy away from who you are,” Strickland said this spring. “So I still stick with my

strengths, no matter what.”

Strickland is an example of a modern medical miracle. He said he was never considered a flame-

thrower growing up. But a shoulder surgery and a Tommy John surgery put him on a new path.

He went through an extensive, closely monitored rehabilitation process and emerged throwing

harder than ever.

He isn’t throwing harder because of Tommy John surgery (that’s been repeatedly proved a

myth), but rather because strengthening the rest of his body under the guidance of a physical

therapist helped him add more mph by the time he was back on the mound.

But, perversely, robust conditioning is also part of the problem. Pitchers can strengthen the

legs, core, scapula and rotator cuff, but eventually all that increased force will be transferred to

the elbow.

The increased velocity means increased stress on the UCL, and pitchers are operating near the

breaking point on every pitch.

In Conte’s study, published last spring in the American Journal of Orthopedics, he found that

from 1998-2006, the ratio of shoulder surgeries compared to elbow surgeries was about 2-to-1.

In recent years, the number has flipped — it’s now 2-to-1 in favor of elbow surgeries.

“It suggests that the kinetic chain is breaking down in the elbow,” Conte said in an interview

this spring.

Nolan Ryan pitched for 27 seasons, keeping the fastball fire burning until his elbow gave out at

age 46. But for mere mortals, the risk of injury is real with every triple-digit pitch. The motto for

this hard-throwing generation ought to be live fast, die young, leave a beautiful radar gun

reading.

“The time of relief pitchers lasting 15-20 years is going away,” Vogt said. “It’s getting younger

and younger. And it’s, ‘Come in and throw as hard as you can.’ Because if you can’t throw it 95,

you’re not going to make it.”

21

San Jose Mercury News

Nine months after a pitch to the helmet, Joe Panik’s sizzling spring is a relief to Matt Moore

Andrew Baggarly

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Joe Panik is hitting .471 this spring. He is swinging the crispest bat in camp.

And nobody, other than Panik, is happier to see it than Giants left-hander Matt Moore.

Lest anyone forget, it was Moore who threw the pitch June 18 in Tampa Bay that struck Panik

on the helmet and ultimately sent him to the disabled list with a concussion.

Six weeks later, after the Tampa Bay Rays traded Moore to the Giants, he joined his new team

in Philadelphia and was surprised to learn that Panik had just returned to the lineup. He hadn’t

realized that the pitch he threw had such a residual impact.

You couldn’t blame Moore for his ignorance. Not only had Panik stayed in that game at

Tropicana Field, but he hit a tiebreaking, three-run home run off closer Alex Colome in the ninth

inning.

So one of the first things Moore heard when he joined the Giants was someone asking in

jest, “Well, are you gonna say sorry to Joe?”

“That’s one of the ways the ice got broken between us,” Moore said. “I felt really bad about it,

but he’d obviously moved past it.”

Except he hadn’t. Panik cleared all concussion tests before trainers and doctors cleared him to

rejoin the active roster on July 28, but he acknowledged recently that his visual acuity was not

in peak form. It helps explain why he hit just .215 after returning.

Panik needed more time before he fully regained his vestibulo-ocular reflex, which is how the

brain produces eye movements in the direction opposite to head movements. The reflex action

allows the eyes to maintain the visual field, which allows the retinas to capture stabilized

images.

Like 95 mph fastballs.

“I was symptom free, but it just took a little time to get back to normal,” Panik said. “I’m seeing

the ball well and I feel like I’m able to react. Instead of trying to pick up the ball, I’m just

reacting to it, which is what you have to do.”

Panik singled in the Giants’ 4-3 exhibition victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Camelback

Ranch on Tuesday. Then he motored home from first base on Brandon Belt’s triple. He’s the

player that everyone saw as a rookie in the 2014 postseason.

Moore is seeing that player for the first time.

22

“It’s great for Joe,” Moore said. “It does seem every time I watch his at-bat, he’s putting the

barrel on it somewhere. You talk to Joe and it sounds like he’s been playing this game a really

long time. He’s very thorough and explains himself well. To see him out there executing his

game plan, I’m happy for him that there’s no more side effects.

“Actually, I think I probably get the worst end of it these days, with the jokes and whatnot.”

Said Panik: “In the past couple springs, it took me awhile to find my approach and my stroke.

I’m just happy early on in spring I’ve been able to find it. Right now I’ve got it locked in and with

my approach, I’m not late on the fastball. I’ve been aggressive. It just feels good to feel normal,

like myself again, hitting line drives and hitting the ball hard.”

Moore struck out five and scattered five baserunners in five innings while building to 60

pitches. He received a pair of run-saving stops from third baseman Jae-gyun Hwang.

“I’ve really settled into feeling like a Giant,” he said.

San Jose Mercury News

Giants Notes

Andrew Baggarly

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Giants manager Bruce Bochy has quite the litter of right-handed job seekers

in camp. He scooped up a bunch of them and put them on a bus to Camelback Ranch on

Tuesday.

There is trial by fire. And then there is trial by Kershaw.

How did they fare against the Los Angeles Dodgers’ three-time Cy Young Award winner? Well,

Mac Williamson, Chris Marrero and Jae-gyun Hwang each hit home runs in the Giants’ 4-2

exhibition victory – and all of them came long after Clayton Kershaw had wrapped his arm

in ice.

Kershaw faced the minimum in three typically dominant innings. He struck out Williamson and

Marrero. Hwang grounded back to the mound. Justin Ruggiano rolled one to shortstop.

Gorkys Hernandez actually became the first baserunner against Kershaw all spring when he

walked to lead off the game. The Dodgers promptly threw him out trying to steal.

The Giants would love to find the new version of Joaquin Arias, the light-hitting backup infielder

who was their most dependable right-handed antidote to Kershaw over the years. Arias hit .300

in 40 at-bats against Kershaw. Among players who have seen the left-hander that often, only

Jayson Werth and Dexter Fowler own a higher average.

23

Their foil this season could be Ruggiano, who has two hits including a home run in eight regular-

season at-bats against Kershaw. The Giants already know that Ruggiano can hit lefties who

throw toxic stuff from a deceptive angle; he’s got three home runs in 14 at-bats against

Madison Bumgarner, too.

Of course, nobody was going to clinch a roster spot based on one at-bat against Kershaw in the

first week of March. But Bochy did hope to gain some meaningful intelligence from a brief

glimpse against the league’s best pitcher.

Maybe the result wasn’t so important. But seeing how his hitters carried themselves? That

could be even more valuable information to glean than bat speed or timing.

“You look at the quality of the at-bat,” Bochy said. “I don’t care if it’s lefty or righty, it’s hard to

have a great at-bat against him. But sure, hopefully it can tell you something about how well

they’re seeing the ball. It’s early in the spring to see that kind of stuff, and he had great stuff

today.”

Kershaw usually does. The three-time Cy Young Award winner is 18-8 with a 1.61 ERA in 36

career appearances against the Giants, and you probably can’t remember a time when they

missed him in a series against the Dodgers. Last season, when he was limited to 21 starts

because of back discomfort, he still managed to face the Giants five times. He didn’t start

against any other club more than twice.

Although five or six games against Kershaw is a minuscule portion of a 162-game schedule,

Bochy is spending a lot of time considering his bench options with them in mind. Each one

offers a chance to swing the NL West standings. And beating the Dodgers’ ace is almost like

handing them two losses.

Kershaw, for his part, said he never takes his success against the Giants for granted – especially

with Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey still forming the franchise pillars.

“They’re a great team,” Kershaw said. “Lot of continuity, lot of guys back. Posey and Bum are

kind of the two mainstays, the cornerstones of their team, and as long as they’ve got them, it’s

always a tough team to beat, no doubt.”

Because of the Giants’ continuity, Kershaw’s book against them has gotten quite thick. Among

current National League players, Posey (.233, two home runs in 90 at-bats), Hunter Pence (.091,

0 home runs in 66 at-bats) and Brandon Belt (.059, no home runs in 51 at-bats) have faced him

the most often. Nick Hundley, the Giants’ new backup catcher, ranks sixth (.250, no home runs

in 40 at-bats).

24

Kershaw said the Giants should have a theoretical advantage, then.

“The hitters have the advantage the more times they see you, there’s no doubt about that,” he

said. “If a guy sees you over and over again, they have a pretty good idea of how the ball’s

gonna come out or what works or how to have a good game plan, all that stuff.

“It’s up to us as pitchers to not necessarily reinvent, but think of different ways to get guys out.

You can be stubborn and stick to your strengths. That can work. So it just depends on the hitter,

depends on the situation, but I think any hitter will tell you the more times they see a pitcher,

the more comfortable they are for sure.”

Informed of those comments, Belt replied: “You’d think, right?”

Belt’s epic struggles against Kershaw are well documented. Not only is he 3 for 51 against him,

but he has struck out 27 times.

With Hundley on the team, it’s almost automatic for Bochy to spare Belt from any further

torture and start Posey at first base when Kershaw is on the mound.

But Belt made the trip to Camelback Ranch, too. Perhaps he got a small victory by making

contact, even if it ended in an infield pop-up. He is a competitor, and he wants a chance to

prove he can get the upper hand against a pitcher he has known since the Texas high school

showcase circuits.

“I just think I don’t have anything to lose at this point,” Belt said with a laugh. “Maybe I see

something here that helps me down the road. But ain’t he supposed to drop off sometime

soon? Why won’t that happen?”

Turning serious, Belt said there are times when he allowed Kershaw’s success against him to get

in his head. Once he trained himself to focus on the moment at hand last season, he said he felt

he had better at-bats against him.

“If I think too much about what happened in the last at-bat, it tends to carry over,” said Belt,

who hit an RBI triple past a diving Yasiel Puig after Kershaw left the game. “I go up there and try

to do the best I can. That’s the thing. You can put good swings on the ball, but his stuff’s so

good, you don’t barrel it up. That’s what makes him who he is. It is what it is, you know?”

Kershaw, for his part, was charitable about his Belt ownership.

“Yeah, I mean, he’s lined out some,” Kershaw said. “The numbers are misleading at times. He’s

taken some good swings, popped some balls straight up. Just like today, he was pretty close to

hitting that one pretty good. So he’s still a tough out, a good eye at the plate, and you’ve got to

make sure you make your pitches.”

25

Is there any pattern to all of those empty trips? Being late on the fastball? Not seeing the

curve? Expanding the zone?

“I think actually I’ve timed him up good here and there,” Belt said. “It just hasn’t worked out.

But yeah, there are times … he’s deceptive. He ultimately has really good stuff and that makes it

hard to put the bat on the ball, hard to time it up, hard to put good swings on it.

“The angle of his ball isn’t the same angle. It looks like his ball is going to go down in the zone

and it kind of stays up. He’s one guy I haven’t matched up extremely well with, but that doesn’t

mean I’m not going to hit him. I’m hoping that the more I’m in the league, I’ll be more

professional against him and have better at-bats against him.

“But he’ll be tough until he’s done playing. You’re facing … I mean, I wouldn’t tell him this, but

he could be the best pitcher ever to pitch, when it’s all said and done. Who knows?”

—

Belt is among the players cajoling Hwang into showing off one of his ostentatious bat flips after

hitting a home run — something the third baseman stopped doing last year in Korea.

Hwang has joked that he might flip his bat if he ever hits a home run against Kershaw.

“Oh, you’d see me do it,” Belt said. “If I ever get a hold of one, I might just run around with the

bat and never let it go.”

—

After the Dodgers sent more mortal pitchers to the mound, Hwang hit his second home run of

the spring. Williamson also hit his second, taking Luis Avilan deep. And Marrero’s tape measure

shot was his team-leading third in exhibition games.

Hwang saved two runs for Matt Moore with diving stops at third base, too.

“Mac has really turned it up a notch and Marrero, he’s had a great spring,” Bochy said. “These

decisions aren’t going to be easy.”

—

Nobody relished the challenge of facing Kershaw more than Hwang, who left a larger contract

behind in Korea for the chance to compete against the best in the major leagues.

“To be honest, it was a dream come true for me,” Hwang said through interpreter Mark Kim. “I

really wanted to face Kershaw. It was one of my big to-dos when I came to the US. I was sort of

26

disappointed that I only saw three of his pitches today. Next time, I want to make sure that I

see more pitches and have a longer at-bat.”

—

Non-roster right-hander Jose Dominguez continued to impress, striking out one in a scoreless

inning to earn the save. Dominguez hasn’t allowed a hit in 3 1/3 innings this spring, and Bochy

said the right-hander is opening eyes.

“Yeah, I really like the way he’s throwing the ball,” Bochy said. “You know, a lot of those

pitches, he’s getting called strikes. So the ball is really jumping out of his hand right now.”

—

Right-hander Tyler Beede recorded six outs and is unscored upon in six innings this spring …

Catcher Trevor Brown made his spring debut at second base and dived to stop a ground ball to

end the game. Brown is bidding to make the club as a third catcher in a super-utility role. … The

Giants will play host to Puerto Rico’s World Baseball Classic roster – including unsigned free

agent Angel Pagan — on Wednesday at Scottsdale Stadium.

MLB.com

Giants ride trio of HRs, Moore’s 5 K’s past L.A.

Ken Gurnick and Chris Haft

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Clayton Kershaw pitched three more hitless innings on Tuesday, but three

Giants homered off Dodgers relievers in a 4-2 San Francisco win.

Giants starter Matt Moore was nearly as impressive as Kershaw, striking out five in three

scoreless innings while allowing three hits.

Full Game Coverage

"That was probably as free as I've felt this spring, as far as not really thinking about mechanics

or a release point or staying at a certain effort level," Moore said. "I think today I just picked the

glove up and just [was] athletic."

Kershaw walked Gorkys Hernandez on a 3-2 pitch to lead off the game. Hernandez was thrown

out trying to steal second by catcher Yasmani Grandal and Kershaw retired the next eight

batters, striking out three. He hasn't allowed a hit in any of the six innings he's pitched this

27

spring.

"He had a little edge from that first pitch on," said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. "Today

obviously was productive for him."

The Giants scored in the fourth inning off Josh Fields, with a single by Joe Panik followed

by Brandon Belt's triple past right fielder Yasiel Puig.

The Dodgers scored twice in the fourth off Joan Gregorio, on an RBI single by Logan

Forsythe and a fielder's-choice grounder by Puig and error by Panik.

San Francisco tied the score in the fifth on a solo home run by Jae-gyun Hwang off Steve

Geltz. Mac Williamson slugged a solo homer off Luis Avilan in the sixth inning for a 3-2 Giants

lead, and Chris Marrero homered off Grant Dayton in the seventh.

Giants Up Next: San Francisco is expected to use as many projected regulars as possible,

including outfielders Jarrett Parker, Denard Span and Hunter Pence, in Wednesday's exhibition

against Puerto Rico's World Baseball Classic squad at Scottsdale, Ariz. Jeff Samardzija will start

for the Giants at 12:05 p.m. PT.

Dodgers Up Next: The Dodgers travel to Maryvale for the second time this spring to face the

Brewers, with Rich Hill starting. Hill allowed four runs on three hits and two walks in 1 1/3

innings in his last start. First pitch is at 12:05 p.m. PT.

MLB.com

Moore takes Giant steps in comfort with S.F.

Chris Haft

PHOENIX -- Matt Moore qualified for full-fledged "Gianthood" by dominating the rival Dodgers

in a pair of late-season victories last season, but he needed the offseason and the first weeks of

Spring Training to absorb the orange and black deeper into his bloodstream.

His fuller conversion has come just in time for his first full season with San Francisco.

Full Game Coverage

"I think more so this offseason I really settled into feeling like a Giant," said Moore, 27.

• Spring Training: Information | Tickets | Schedule | Gear

Moore couldn't be blamed if he felt slightly in limbo after San Francisco acquired him from

Tampa Bay at last year's Trade Deadline for third baseman Matt Duffy and two Minor Leaguers.

28

The whirlwind of joining a postseason race with a new team would knock anybody off balance.

"From last August on, it was pretty quick," he said.

But the passage of time and the immersion that comes with it helped Moore solidify his

association with the ballclub.

Moore continued preparing for his role as the Giants' No. 3 starter by working three scoreless

innings in San Francisco's 4-2 victory over the Dodgers on Tuesday. He fanned five, yielded

three hits over three shutout innings and stranded five baserunners, four of them in scoring

position.

"What I liked was he had to pitch in traffic a lot," manager Bruce Bochy said.

The Giants hope that Moore will face less adversity come April. He should succeed if he retains

the lessons of last fall.

Corey Seager's two-out single in the ninth inning denied Moore a chance at a no-hitter at

Dodger Stadium on Aug. 25. That also began an eight-game stretch that saw Moore go 6-2.

During that span, according to figures compiled by Statcast™, Moore junked his sinking two-

seam fastball, used his cutter more frequently and continued to rely on his curveball and four-

seam fastball. In this 45 1/3-inning stretch, Moore threw 49.3 percent four-seamers, 16.9

percent curves, 16.8 percent cutters, 15.4 percent changeups and 0.9 percent two-seamers.

By comparison, in his first four starts with the Giants after they obtained him, he was less

diverse. Statcast™'s pitch breakdown tabulated his four-seam fastball percentage at 65,

followed by 26.1 percent curveballs. That left only 8.9 percent for other pitches.

Moore recalled experimenting with the cutter while playing catch years ago. He mastered it

enough to distinguish it from a slider, which spins sideways, but he never used it in his starts.

"Nobody really liked it where I was at," said Moore, who has regained his arm strength after

undergoing Tommy John surgery in April 2014.

After Moore joined the Giants, catcher Buster Posey encouraged him to throw the cutter,

which has benefited numerous pitchers.

29

"Basically, we just went right into games with it," Moore said. "I think a lot of that was because

there's not a big difference in the thought process of throwing a four-seam fastball and

throwing the cut fastball. I haven't been around that long, but it does feel nice to have a pitch

that's something new, to mess around with a different look."

MLB.com

Hwang opening eyes on a daily basis

Chris Haft

PHOENIX -- Third baseman Jae-gyun Hwang already had established himself as one of the

Giants' most intriguing Spring Training performers before Tuesday. Now he bears watching

almost daily.

Hwang, the non-roster invitee who hit 53 home runs in the last two seasons with the Lotte

Giants of the Korean Baseball Organization, belted his second Cactus League homer during the

fifth inning of San Francisco's 4-2 victory over the Dodgers.

Full Game Coverage

Hwang, who connected off Steve Geltz, hiked his team-high slugging percentage to .750.

• Spring Training: Information | Tickets | Schedule | Gear

Hwang also denied the Dodgers a pair of first-inning runs with a diving backhand stop

of Franklin Gutierrez's sharp grounder. Hwang straightened and threw out Gutierrez to end the

inning.

"He had a heck of a game, didn't he?" manager Bruce Bochy said. "You get somebody from

Korea, and you can look at video or you can look at reports, but until you see him first-hand,

you don't really get to appreciate him. He's a solid player."

Hwang wasn't perfect. In the fourth inning, he made a wide relay throw toward second

baseman Joe Panik, who couldn't handle the throw and somehow was charged with the error,

which allowed a run to score. But even Hwang's mistakes are fascinating, because they reveal

his room for improvement.

"He has good instincts," Bochy said. "He has a good feel for the game. When we go over

fundamentals, he gets it right away. He's not a guy we have to spend extra time on. He's a

ballplayer."

• Mac Williamson and non-roster invitee Chris Marrero, contenders for the left-field vacancy

30

or possibly a bench role, homered in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively. Marrero leads

the team with three home runs and eight RBIs.

"Mac has really turned it up a notch, and Marrero's had a great spring," Bochy said.

Referring to the looming roster decisions, Bochy said, "It's not going to be easy."

• Backup catcher Trevor Brown, a former infielder, played the final four innings at second base

and made a slick play to end the game, diving to his left to smother Jose Miguel Fernandez's

grounder before throwing to first base for the out.

CSNbayarea.com

Matt Moore finding comfort zone in first spring with Giants

Alex Pavlovic

GLENDALE, Ariz. — At some point of the offseason, it hit Matt Moore.

“I really settled into feeling like a Giant,” he said.

Getting traded makes for a difficult transition for any player, but for Moore, it was a bit more

hectic. He was dealt in the minutes leading up to the trade deadline, crossing the country to

join a contender that was seemingly turning into a sinking ship. The Giants acquired Moore to

get one more arm for big games, and his season ended with a start in the National League

Division Series.

Over the winter, Moore finally caught his breath. He has spent this spring getting to know all

the people behind the scenes in the organization, and he smiled Tuesday when he explained

that being a Giant now simply “rolls off my tongue easier.”

For the people Moore has met this spring, the “he’s a Giant” day probably came August 25.

That was the night Moore came an out away from no-hitting the Dodgers. If you throw a no-

hitter at any point of the season, it’ll go down in the history books. If you’re a Giant and you do

it at Dodger Stadium, well, that’s a shade or two better, and Moore knows it.

“It was nice being injected into that (rivalry), having watched their battles together,” he said.

“It’s probably similar to when I was in Tampa. We didn’t really get along with the Red Sox.

There’s a little something extra there.”

The Giants hope Moore can provide that little something extra in 2017, when they’ll look to end

the Dodgers’ four-year run atop the division. The early returns were curiously mixed. Moore

followed that first start against the Dodgers by giving up six runs in one inning of work on Sept.

31

21 at Dodger Stadium. Two starts later, he gave up just one run over eight innings in a third

matchup.

“That was tough,” he said of the middle start. “That’ll happen, I suppose. That’s what they say,

right?”

The Dodgers struggled against left-handers last season and they still lean heavily that way. But

their leadoff batter Tuesday, Logan Forsythe, could help make a difference, and Moore said the

offseason addition was a good one. He praised his former teammate for his ability to fit into a

clubhouse, and the Giants saw the on-field ability when the second baseman picked up two

singles in three at-bats, raising his spring average to .462.

Forsythe, who hit 20 homers for the Rays last season, will make the rivalry games a bit more

difficult for Giants left-handers, but Moore didn’t take anything away from Tuesday’s matchups

with his teammate of three seasons. He said he has not yet reached the point of the spring

where he hides tendencies from division rivals. He’s out there getting his work in, and

Tuesday’s results showed he’s on the right track. In three scoreless innings, Moore gave up

three hits and struck out five.

“Let’s just make sure I’m healthy and in a good place heading into the season,” he said. “From

there, I think we all like our chances.”

CSNbayarea.com

Giants spring training day 23

Alex Pavlovic

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Tuesday’s lineup appeared to be an open challenge from Bruce Bochy to all

the right-handed hitters in camp trying to win an opening day job. You’re facing Clayton

Kershaw. Go make your case.

Kershaw threw three innings against the non-roster-invitee-heavy lineup and … allowed zero

hits. So, there is still no correct answer to that quiz, but the spring competition heated up

considerably once the world’s best pitcher departed.

Jae-gyun Hwang hit a solo homer in the fifth after earlier saving two runs for Matt Moore with a

diving stop down the line. Moore was appreciative, and he said a former teammate who is

currently playing in South Korea said he’s grateful that he no longer has to face Hwang.

“He’s opened up some eyes," Bochy said. "You get somebody from Korea, you can look at video

or the scouting report, but until you see them firsthand, you don’t get to appreciate the

player.”

32

Mac Williamson hit his second opposite-field homer in two games. Chris Marrero got into the

action an inning later, clearing the home bullpen with his third homer of the spring.

“Mac has really turned it up a notch,” Bochy said. “And Marrero, he’s had a great spring. It’s not

going to be easy (to make roster decisions).”

Another right-handed hitter made sure he would be front and center in Bochy’s mind on the

long ride back to Scottsdale. Trevor Brown made his Giants debut at second base, playing four

innings after Joe Panik’s departure. Brown, who was drafted as an infielder, is trying to add

some versatility in case the Giants decide to keep three catchers.

His day as a utility man started innocently, with a grounder up the middle in the seventh that

was flipped to Christian Arroyo for an inning-ending force. With two outs in the ninth, Jose

Miguel Fernandez hit a smash toward right that Brown knocked down with a diving stop. He

threw Fernandez out to end the game.

“How ‘bout that play,” Bochy said, smiling. “That’s a heck of a play by Brownie. He’s been

getting ground balls there. We’re going to take a look at it. He looks comfortable out there.”

The franchise has never lost a game when Brown gets time at second base.

GAME RECAP: The Giants have won two straight. Break up the Giants. Bochy was pleased with

a pitching staff that’s really starting to come around, and on Tuesday it was led by Moore.

You can read about him here. Tyler Beede pitched two more shutout innings, keeping his

spring ERA at a tidy 0.00.

STOCK RISING: Jose Dominguez, the former Dodger, pounded the bottom of the strike zone in a

perfect ninth. In 3 1/3 spring innings, he has given up just one hit.

“I really like the way he’s throwing the ball,” Bochy said. “He’s getting a lot of called strikes. The

ball is jumping that well out of his hand right now.”

ICYMI: I wrote a feature about Conor Gillaspie’s defense and also sat down with him for an

interview that ran on our Giants podcast. You can stream that here or download it on iTunes

here.

33

CSNbayarea.com

Postseason star Gillaspie continues to work on becoming impact defender

Alex Pavlovic

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Conor Gillaspie will forever be remembered in San Francisco for his home

run in the Wild Card Game and his ability to turn on an Aroldis Chapman fastball in the NLDS,

but the skill that might mean the most for his career going forward was on display during a far

quieter moment.

In the fifth inning of Game 2 of the NLDS, Addison Russell pulled a fastball down the line.

Gillaspie backhanded the ball as it took an awkward and high bounce, and he quickly set his

feet, one on the dirt and one on the edge of the grass in foul territory at Wrigley Field. He fired

a perfect strike across the diamond, nailing the young shortstop by half a step.

Once viewed as a potential issue at third base, Gillaspie was a steady presence when Eduardo

Nuñez went down late with a hamstring injury. Throw in the quick, clutch bat and you’ve got a

player the Giants will count on as a key member of the bench going forward.

“He played a real nice third base for us,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “That was the knock on

Conor and it got to the point where they were calling him a liability, (but last year) it got to the

point where he played a nice third base and was solid over there.”

Advanced metrics consistently showed Gillaspie as a below-average defender in his first stint

with the Giants and later years with the White Sox and Angels. According to FanGraphs,

Gillaspie entered the 2016 season with negative 30 defensive runs saved. Among the 35 big

leaguers who played at least 1,000 innings at third base in 2014 and 2015, Gillaspie ranked 34th

in defensive runs saved and UZR (ultimate zone rating). Last season, he was worth five

defensive runs saved in 304 innings, and the rest of his defensive metrics crossed over to the

positive side of the ledger, too. After making 14 errors in 2015, Gillaspie had just two last

season.

“The eye test tells the story, too,” said bench coach Ron Wotus, who works with the

organization’s infielders. “He’s using his feet better than in the past. He figured out the best

angles to throw the ball. The most important thing is confidence as a defender, and he’s

worked extremely hard and he sees the benefit of him continuing to do those things. It’s gotten

to the point this spring where I need to back him off a little. He loves to take grounders out

there.”

Wotus has a well-earned reputation for his work with infielders. He has helped develop

talented players like Brandon Crawford and Joe Panik into Gold Glove winners. His daily work

34

with Matt Duffy helped turn a shortstop into a Gold Glove finalist at third base in a matter of

months. The front office never worried about third base in the offseason in part because of a

belief that Wotus can help Nuñez grow at the position.

In Gillaspie, Wotus has found a player who is every bit the grinder he is. Gillaspie is famous for

the amount of work he puts in in the cage, and on a recent day in camp, unable to throw

because of some minor soreness, he instead spent most his time breaking in a glove with a

mallet-like instrument. Working with Wotus has been a perfect fit.

“His willingness to go out and work every day is unsurpassed by anybody that I’ve ever been

around,” Gillaspie said recently during an interview that runs in full on our Giants Insider

Podcast. “It’s almost like he’s a player. He wants to do it every day with you and to help you

and to answer questions.”

Wotus identified minor fixes when Gillaspie returned to the Giants last spring, after getting

released by both the White Sox and Angels the year before. He thought Gillaspie was often in-

between on his throws, and he didn’t have his feet lined up correctly. Gillaspie can still be

prone to an extra step or two, but he continues to get smoother over time. Basic drills are a

part of every day at the park.

“The big thing we talk about is catch, set, and throw,” Wotus said. “You don’t want to be in a

hurry. Just field the ball, use the fundamentals. He’s bought into it and you see the difference.”

Wotus and Gillaspie focus on doing the simple things right during drills. The rest is instinct, as

Gillaspie showed while tumbling over the dugout rail for a stunning catch during the final week

of the season.

Gillaspie’s natural instincts at the plate should again make him a key part of Bochy’s bench. For

all the drilling and cage work, you can’t teach a player to turn on a 102 mph fastball. Months

later, teammates still marvel at Gillaspie’s ability to pull a Chapman heater into Triples Alley for

a go-ahead triple in the eighth inning of Game 3.

“As a right-handed bat, to handle that kind of fastball is tough. But a guy from the left side, you

don’t see it very often,” Bochy said. “It takes a quick swing. It takes a guy with confidence, who

wants to go in there and mean business. He saved our skin, because we lost Nuney. As his

confidence grew, he really started to get his swing.”

35

ESPN.com

Chris Archer says political situation makes WBC more important

Jayson Stark

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- On the day Team USA assembled to begin its journey through the World

Baseball Classic, its Game 1 starter, Chris Archer, said Tuesday that the significance of the event

for this team has grown because of "what's going on in the country right now."

Archer, who will pitch against Colombia on Friday in Miami, said he has wanted to play in the

WBC since he was a senior in high school in 2006 because "I wanted to be part of something

special." But against the backdrop of an unsettled world beyond the ballparks, Archer said this

tournament now takes on even more importance, for both this team and for America.

EDITOR'S PICKS

•

With nation deeply divided, MLB's silence speaks volumes

In the NBA, coaches and stars take aim at the policies of our new president. Not in baseball.

Should the sport of Jackie Robinson, with players who make it a multicultural melting pot, say

more?

"Given the timing and the circumstances of our country," the Tampa Bay Rays ace said Tuesday

morning, "I think it's a great opportunity for us, temporarily, to show we are united, regardless

of the turmoil and things going on here and other places in the world. So it's always been a

dream. And what's going on in the country right now makes it even better."

Asked what type of statement he felt this team could make about the country, Archer replied:

"Just that we are all unified, at least in my opinion. And it is a beautiful country of diversity and

freedom and a lot of other things that other countries don't have. So for this moment in time,

for this next two weeks, we're going to put on this jersey with pride and show we're diverse,

we're united, and what USA is really all about."

Archer phrased his remarks carefully, framing them in a spirit of patriotism rather than

politicism. He told ESPN earlier this spring that he's "concerned" and "interested" in the

political divide in America, but he doesn't believe it's his place to take political positions.

Chris Archer says the United States WBC team can show that the country is diverse and

unified. Cliff McBride/Getty Images

"There are very few times that I have been asked [about politics]," he said last month. "But I'm

very careful what I say. I think it's just understanding I don't know everything. I don't know the

ins and outs of every single issue."

His WBC teammate, Giancarlo Stanton, echoed Archer's sentiments Tuesday, saying he hopes

36

this team and tournament can serve as a force to bring Americans together.

"There's a lot of things going on in the world that have people fighting, that have us in wars,

that have us not seeing eye to eye," the Miami Marlins outfielder told ESPN. "But there's a few

things, just like the Olympics every four years and the World Cup, that just kind of let people

forget about all that, for at least a couple of weeks. Which helps. It's a little relief. There's a lot

of evil people, a lot of things going on, things you can't control. So it does help. It's a little relief

that help some people find peace."

In its fourth trip to the WBC, Team USA will be attempting to advance past the second round for

the first time since 2009, when it lost to Japan in the semifinals. It will play first-round games

against Colombia on Friday, the Dominican Republic on Saturday and Team Canada on Sunday.

Despite the absence of stars like Mike Trout and Bryce Harper, Team USA's lineup is stacked

with All-Star position players such as Buster Posey, Nolan Arenado, Adam Jones, Eric

Hosmer, Paul Goldschmidt and Stanton. However, its starting rotation -- which will consist of

Archer, Toronto's Marcus Stroman, Kansas City's Danny Duffy and Washington's Tanner Roark --

won't include a single pitcher who got a Cy Young vote last season. But Archer said he isn't

focusing on the aces who aren't competing because he assumes they all have reasons they

aren't here.

"I'm happy with the guys who want to be here," he said. "If there's any doubt or any

uncertainty with somebody, it's better that they stay home because that's what this is all about.

This is about people who want to be here, who want to represent the game, who want to grow

the game and want to represent their country."