San Francisco Giants Mailbag: New Players, Pence’s Injury, Spring Training

Mar 4, 2015; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; The San Francisco Giants look on during the National Anthem before a spring training baseball game against the Oakland Athletics at Scottsdale Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

The Giants have the worst Spring Training record in MLB so far at 4-12-1. They also have a collective 6.06 ERA in spring, which is also the worst in MLB. The starting rotation has given up 24 runs in 24 1/3 innings, and the Giants have hit .235 in spring too.

The Giants have certainly looked sluggish and don’t quite have the precision and the energy that they normally have in the regular season. In addition, many of the players involved in position battles haven’t necessarily greatly impressed so far, meaning no one has really pushed out ahead in any of the races for the couple open roster spots.

Despite the sloppiness, I’m not concerned at all about the slow start to Spring Training. Yes, Spring Training is the first glimpse that fans have into this year’s squad, but these games are meaningless. Not only do the games mean nothing in terms of record, but they also are not indicative of anything.

Some teams do extremely well during spring and do horribly in the regular season. There’s no correlation between Spring Training record and regular season record.

Here are the Giants’ recent Spring Training records: 23-12 (2010), 23-12 (2011), 18-15 (2012), 16-15 (2013), and 17-12 (2014). Were the Giants significantly better in Spring Training during the years they won World Series titles? No.

Fans have the right to be a little concerned about other Spring Training-related news, not involving the record, though. Fans could perhaps be concerned about some injuries or the team not executing as well as they should be. However, there’s still a few weeks left of games, so it’s still not quite time to be worried about those factors yet.

At the end of Spring Training and heading into the regular season, if the Giants are still having trouble with execution, if there weren’t any clear winners in the position battles, if there are any other significant injuries, or if the Giants are still underachieving, then it might be time to be at least a little concerned. A team doesn’t want to enter the regular season with lots of concerns, but the MLB season is so long that it’s still probably not enough to be overly worried.

If this slow start extends into the first few weeks of the season, then I might be a little concerned. As of now though, I’m not concerned.

Next: Pablo Sandoval: Thanks for the Memories, but Good Riddance