GIANTS CHANGING BATTING ORDER?

We’ve heard for a while now that Matt Duffy would hit third for the Giants ahead of Buster Posey and Hunter Pence giving him a great chance to replicate the numbers he posted last season. Well, maybe not. According to Bruce Bochy, Duffy might hit sixth and not third. Duffy went 12-75-75-12 last season while batting .295 in a truly fantastic effort given the low expectations. Honestly, there were no expectations so his season ended up being pretty special. Expecting a full repeat is asking too much. The chances of a full repeat happening hitting sixth are obviously worse than if he was sitting in the prime real estate that is the third spot.

PERCEPTION NOT ALWAYS REALITY

I’ve heard people are a bit nervous with Miguel Cabrera because of injury concerns. Yes he will be 33 in April, and he did appear in only 119 games last season. Still, do you know how many times in 12 seasons that he has failed to appeared in 148 games or more? The answer is once. Last season. That’s it. Another diddy. The last four seasons 26 year old Giancarlo Stanton has averaged 115 games played. You’re willing to look past the myriad of injuries with Stanton but not the one with Cabrera? #DontGetIt

HEALTHY – FINALLY?

Matt Wieters had elbow surgery in 2014 and continued elbow woes wrecked his 2015 campaign. He’s been slowed this spring again but it sounds like he will be able to catch on Opening Day for the Orioles. I’m still not really sure why Devin Mesoraco is being taken ahead of Wieters according to ADP, not with both men coming off injury and the track record of success clearly favoring Wieters who has hit at least 22 homers with 68 RBIs and 59 runs scored in each of his three seasons with 500 at-bats. Meanwhile, Mesoraco has never reached all three of those numbers in one season and is coming off hip surgery that has to make you concerned that he will be able to physically perform all season long.

WHO AM I?

The other day I did a whole article of WHO AM I? Today, just one entry.

I own a 3.49 ERA over the last five years.

I own a 1.18 WHIP over the last five years.

Amongst hurlers who have thrown at least 625 innings in that time only 15 men are in that group with an ERA and WHIP that are that low.

The last two seasons I’ve posted a walk rate per nine under two.

I pitch for the Diamondbacks.

I am Josh Collmenter and it’s likely that I will start the season on the DL as my shoulder remains tight so I can’t get stretched out enough to begin the season on time.

TERRIBLE SPRING

Rusney Castillo had another down day Thursday going hitless to drop his average to .179 and his OBP below .250. At this point we’re still hearing he will see some at-bats for the big league club as a depth outfielder, but a demotion to Triple-A cannot be ruled out at this point. A monumental failure he has been thus far.

Corey Dickerson is batting .158 with a homer over 44 at-bats for his new team, the Rays. Yikes. Check out my thoughts in Dickerson Dealt to Rays.

Aaron Judge went 0-for-5 Thursday to drop his spring numbers to 1-for-19 We will see him at some point with the Yankees this season, but I don’t know how much work he will get, especially since Aaron Hicks looks like a far superior option to turn to for the Yankees if Carlos Beltran or Jacoby Ellsbury goes down to injury.

Ben Paulsen has had a rough go at times this spring and according to Nick Groke there’s a chance that Mark Reynolds could swoop in and steal the Opening Day start from Paulsen. I would still favor Paulsen if choose between the two in an NL-only league but it can’t be ruled out that Reynolds could hit 25 long balls in his first season with Colorado even though he has failed to reach that mark in 4-straight seasons (in three of the years he hit 21, 22 and 23).

DALLAS KEUCHEL – THE FORGOTTEN STAR?

You can read all about Dallas Keuchel in my Player Profile of him, but check this out. DK was the hardest pitcher in baseball last year to hit a ball “hard” against.

DID YOU KNOW?

*From Lyle Spatz of SABR.

Chris Archer had three starts in a row with at least 10 strikeouts and no walks ending on June 7th. He’s the first pitcher in baseball history to do that.

On June 1stAndrew Cashner became the first hurler since 1900 to allowed 10 hits, with 10 strikeouts in less than five innings pitched (11 hits, 12 strikeouts and 4.2 IP). Two days later, if you can believe it, Noah Syndergaard allowed 11 hits with 10 strikeouts in four innings.

Evan Gattis started slowly as he struck out four times in each of his first two games last season. No one else had done that before.

Albert Pujols became the first player to hit 25 or more homers in 14 of his first 15 seasons. The only time he missed was in 2013 when he hit 17 in 99 games. That’s a 150 game pace of 26 homers.

Anthony Rizzo joined Don Baylor as the only two men to go 30/30 --- thirty homers and thirty hit by pitch.