P.M. UPDATE: With Jonathan Sanchez on the shelf with a flambéd digit, guess who started today's final Cactus League game? It's Madison Bumgarner, and he has struck out four of the first six Dodgers, including Manny Ramirez.
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I'll start this post the way I ended the previous one: The 25-man roster is not a monolithic entity. It is fluid. It can change from day to day, from hour to hour, in the blink of an eye. Good God, it's alive....alive, I tell you! Run!
So the Sandoval-and-a-Half Strategy, expressed in scientific notation as PS:3B/C, as ill-advised as it might seem, could be over faster than you can say "Bengie's Ouchie Hammy." But with four off days in April, Pablo might not start a single game behind the plate this month.
The other jarring decision announced yesterday was Kevin Frandsen's demotion. But put aside his disappointment and the decision makes sense. Whether you agree or not with spring performance as a valid basis for winning a job, Frandsen lost the second base competition to Burriss. It's better for Frandsen to get four at bats every day, which he wouldn't do as a big-league utility guy. Better he stay sharp and, as the Giants noted, keep playing all the infield spots in Fresno than rot on the bench.
I'm going to highlight one of yesterday's comments. Frank wrote, "I would note that this 'roster' protects virtually everyone who looks to have promise."
That's a great way to look at the moves this spring. Instead of moaning about the inclusion of two old(er) guys as backup infielders, let's note that the Giants have had a lot of moving parts this spring and for now, they've kept all of them (except Jack Taschner). They've kept their options open.
I'm not ecstatic with Aurilia and Uribe in, Frandsen out, or with Velez and Torres on the same roster, but hey, the gang's still all here. If it's not working in a few weeks, at least the team hasn't limited its choices when it's time to make changes. It's fair to ask whether the first few weeks with the current roster might cost the Giants games that will come back to haunt them in September. Other than the late-game scenario in which Bochy doesn't pinch-run for Molina, there's nothing obvious. Eugenio Velez instead of Kevin Frandsen puts a damper on the local-kid-fights-back story, but are the Giants clearly a worse team?
By the way, if Joe Martinez (winner of this year's Harry S. Jordan award) as rumored becomes the long man, the average age of the 25-man roster will be just under 29.
It's always helpful this time of year to remember Billy Beane's theory of the pace of the season: The first two months you spend evaluating what you have, the second two months you spend making fixes, and the last two months you race to the finish. We haven't even begun the first two months. Let's show a little patience.
