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March 16, 2015 The Week in QuotesMarch 9-15, 2015Giants enjoy benefits of advanced metrics and scouting when determining defensive positioning “There’s so much information today, you’re crazy if you don’t look at it. It helps you learn about the opponent, so we make notes on certain things. That’s where we use more of it. You know the players in your division, and the statistical information isn’t always as important there, when you’re talking about defense. But you go outside your division, we don’t know those players as well. So I try to look at not just the statistical information and spray charts but video because even the spray charts don’t tell the whole story. You can look at where the balls are going, but you’re not reading the swings, you’re not seeing who they’re hitting the balls off of, and that’s what we do here: We dissect it a little more.” “We keep our own spray charts, so we get stuff from Baseball Info Solutions, a lot of the charts, identifying shift candidates, but we do a lot of it in-house, where we chart the hitters against our pitchers, which is totally different because Tim Lincecum and Jake Peavy are totally different guys than Clayton Kershaw, for example. So we try to blend the two. But when we go outside the division and we don’t have the history with our own people, the information gives us a good starting point. If you don’t look at it, you’re missing the boat.” “Exploiting individual player strengths — those things are built in, not into the statistics, but knowing the player’s ability, knowing the player. Going back to Pablo, his best strength wasn’t closing on a bunt quickly. So instead of keeping him back and giving people opportunities, we’d play him really close. Some people in the World Series were asking, ‘Why’s he in so close?’ Because we don’t want that guy bunting to get on base. He’s not going to hit the ball that way, but we don’t want to give him a hit. Those are things you can do. Shortstops with good arms can play deeper at times. Fast runners are going to play more shallow. There are little nuances to defending the opposition that are more baseball-related than statistic-related. But the statistics help you when you don’t know players to know what to expect from them.” “We go over a scouting report before every game during the regular season, but Ron puts something together on every hitter and kind of says where I should start,” Crawford said. “Then we’ll feed off each other. He’ll see something, and I’ll see something, and just kind of talk about it and kind of build a new scouting report based off that pretty much every day. Outside the division, that’s where Ron especially comes into play because of the scouting reports or because he’s seen the guy before. He looks at a lot of video, so that’s where he really helps me out. Inside the division, I have a feel for the hitters.” Stroman out for the season after freak injury “It’s tough. It’s more of the fact that I just feel like I let my team down. I’ve worked harder than I ever had this off-season. And to not be able to go out there and compete every day with the brothers that I have kind of developed a relationship with and camaraderie, it sucks. It’s so unfortunate. That’s the hardest part, not to be around some of my best friends in the game, to be way from them.” “I was going after a ball and just planted and it just popped. It was just one of those things. I’ve heard of people tearing their ACLs just walking. Like it’s just a freak accident. No one’s to blame. It’s not the field, it’s not anything, it wasn’t (third baseman Josh) Donaldson. Obviously he reached out to me because he felt bad but I told him ‘Listen, this isn’t your fault. It’s just something that happened.”‘ “Honestly I feel like a lot of people are more worried than I am. I know I’m going to be fine. I know I’m going to come back probably stronger from this. I know that once 2016 comes, I’ll be ready to rock and I’ll have my goals set even higher than I did this year. … We’ll get past it, we’ll move forward and we’ll be good.” Bryant continues to mash in spring training “I'm never thinking homers. When I'm thinking that, they never come. I have to stick with my approach. Nice, easy swing and get a good pitch to hit. I've done it my whole life and it's worked so far.” “He does things few other folks do. He swings up at the ball like Ted Williams used to teach. He hits the ball up in the air. He hits it with tremendous backspin. When he hits, it carries like few others.” “He’s motivated. He knows he’s really good, but he carries that very well. False humility doesn’t do anything. It’s kind of a worthless quality. But I think his humility’s sincere and he also knows he’s good. The thing that I like is how he is (as a person). That’s, to me, the difference. If he had a different personality, if he didn’t quite get it, I would be thrilled about his tools. But maybe not as thrilled about what he might be able to do in our game. But you combine how he is and who he is with that skill level, then you get really excited.” “You have to see him cope with a major league season, because it totally turns different the moment a pitch is thrown. Everything changes. People may not understand that but it’s true — the difference between spring training and the regular season is incredibly different. But this guy’s different. He’s good. He’s going to be real good.” “They had the distance. I can't hang with them in terms of distance, but I'll go right center.” The Rest “It's a combination of feeling, one, that the player is a key part to what we have going here and want to make sure we are able to have him longer than the normal six-year control period. And second, probably almost as important if not more important, is the belief that the guaranteed money wouldn't change the player's approach to their preparation for the game.” “There are fewer and fewer opportunities to gain advantages. A lot of things have been leveled out, so attention to [international] areas was definitely a reaction to that.” “I’m pretty sure in Dan [Uggla]’s mind, and I know in mine, we are still great ballplayers. We just had some bad luck. We are trying to be the best player we can be. The rest will take care of itself. We may not get back to All-Star status but maybe right under that [level].” “I feel great, I feel fine. As far as catching goes, if they were to say, 'Here, catch tomorrow,' I don't know. That's the scary part. Like I don't know if I could take one, take 40 foul tips, what it would be. … What I do know is that the longer I have between episodes, the stronger I'll be. It's letting the brain heal all the way again. You might think it's gone, you might think you are all right, but it's still there. You have to let it fully heal or else you can easily re-aggravate it.” “I think Tomas is improving at third. I think Lamb is showing us he's a possible Gold Glove-caliber third baseman. And we have pretty good outfielders. There's going to be a lot of competition down the stretch.” “The brain was something that I didn't know a lot about, but I did know this, that muscle memory was very important. And for him to be able to lift both legs with equal strength, the right leg or the left leg, depending on which arm he was throwing with, would require something to master.” “I’m really just a resource for these guys or somebody to lean on for whatever they may need — whether it’s something off the field or something on the field. I’ve been through it. I’ve got a lot of tools and mechanisms to pass down to these guys. … But I don’t report back to the hitting coach or anything like that. That’s important because sometimes as a player, you’re just not feeling well and a coach asks you, ‘Are you all right? and you say, ‘I’m hanging in there.’ You really feel like you’re dying, but if you tell them that, you’re not going to play.” “I’m really happy, are you kidding? I’ve been doing dry work off a mound for three weeks, feeling like a [fool]. It will be nice to throw a ball.” “I think everybody on the staff could make a case to be the Opening Day starter. That's the beauty of playing in Washington. There is talent everywhere. Everybody is great at what they do. It's going to be fun whoever gets it.” “He’s so big and strong that, even though I got it in on him, he still was able to get it out to the warning track. He’s making $300 million for a reason.” “Absolutely no problem. I think I feel better than last year.” “He needs to do down and get some playing time. I think everybody's aware, he got some time here but we need to get him going. He'll need regular playing time, four at-bats a day, center field every day.”
Nick Bacarella is an author of Baseball Prospectus. 0 comments have been left for this article.
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