The Giants actually made some baseball news today! From an e-mailed press release:
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - The San Francisco Giants (@SFGiants) have extended non-roster invitations for Major League Spring Training to the following 26 players, club Senior Vice President and General Manager Brian Sabean announced today:
Pitchers (16)
· RHP Jason Berken
· LHP Tyson Blach
· RHP Clayton Blackburn
· RHP Brett Bochy
· RHP Jose Casilla
· RHP Kyle Crick
· RHP Rafael Dolis
· RHP J.C. Gutierrez
· RHP Chris Heston
· RHP Derek Law
· RHP Mitch Lively
· RHP Kameron Loe
· RHP Adam Reifer
· RHP Sandy Rosario
· LHP Dan Runzler
· RHP Mason Tobin
Catchers (4)
· Jeff Arnold
· Guillermo Quiroz
· Andrew Susac
· Ben Turner
Infielders (4)
· Chris Dominguez
· Brandon Hicks
· Mark Minicozzi
· Joe Panik
Outfielders (2)
· Javier Herrera
· Mac Williamson
Giants pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to the spring training complex in Scottsdale, Arizona on February 14. After physical examinations, pitchers and catchers will work out that afternoon. Position players report February 18 and the first full squad workout is slated for February 19.
There are couple of surprises on the list:
Dan Runzler is back! I like Dan Runzler, even if he'll always be a lot older than I remember, and even though he has trouble staying in (or close to) the strike zone. Remember when he was going to be a starter? That could have been awesome. It was not awesome. But I'm glad he's back in the organization.
Jason Berken is the Ryan Sadowski of pitchers, which is like being the Brian Cooper of Eric Hackers. Which is to say, I could see him getting an emergency start if it's his day to pitch in Fresno and the Giants have a surprise injury.
Brandon Hicks has some power and he's played shortstop in his minor-league career. He hit three homers for the A's in 2012, too. You might focus on his ugly K/BB rate in Triple-A, but as some upper-level depth, he's pretty nifty to have.
J.C. Gutierrez fills the "Venezuelan with extreme platoon splits" need left by Jose Mijares's departure, except Gutierrez is right-handed. He appeared in 53 major-league games last year, and he was ... not completely awful. There's a reason he's not on a major-league deal, though.
Jose Casilla is Santiago Casilla's brother and Brett Bochy is the manager's son, in the off chance you weren't aware. Both of them have shown promise as relievers in the minors, though neither of them are flamethrowers, exactly.
There you go, the NRIs for this season. At least one of them will have the exact same season that Ryan Vogelsong did in 2011, one of them will be Andres Torres in 2010, and one of them will be Gregor Blanco in 2012. One of them will also probably come within an out or so of a perfect game, too. Make your wagers with offshore gambling sites like you usually do, and pick which one will help the Giants way more than they should next season.