Giants "Futures Game" Highlights

I'm a positive guy. So I try only to report on positive news. Makes sense, right? So I'm not going to tell you about how Kyle Crick was wildly overthrowing in front of 6,000-plus at Scottsdale Stadium, or how it resulted in him only lasting two-thirds of an inning.

Okay let's just move on.

Madison Bumgarner pitched four innings, struck out five, and gave up one hit — to Angel Villalona, no less. He struck out Gary Brown twice, once on three pitches. Fastball, fastball, slider. Below is evidence.

It was pretty much just Bumgarner letting everyone know that he's really good and that he can make minor leaguers look dumb. He slammed his glove and throwing hand together in frustration after the first inning — an inning in which he walked Jarrett Parker and allowed a single to Angel Villalona. There's clearly a lot of grit in that big, grass-fed beast.

And, of course, he just had to make that face.

Moving on to more prospect-related news, there were a few pleasant and encouraging things to discuss, like Christian Arroyo and Ehire Adrianza looking smooth at shortstop. Ty Blach pitched three innings, allowing five hits, two runs and one walk. He did throw a nasty changeup to Chris Dominguez, too. Elliott Blair made a diving catch to rob Gary Brown, who finished 0-for-3. There were only seven hits collected by the Futures, and two were courtesy of Villalona. Go figure.

Fun fact: Santiago and Jose Casilla pitched in a game opposing one another for the first time, Jose told San Francisco Chronicle reporter John Shea. The little brother did his best to mop up the Crick mess, but what's more interesting is how similar the two Dominican brothers look, and throw.

Seems like Santiago hides the ball better than his younger version. But, would you just look at those two?

More pitchers pitched, like Clayton Blackburn, who had a ho-hum one-two-three inning with no stats otherwise to mention. Kendry Flores threw one-and-a-third innings, giving up a large home run to Roger Kieschnick.

Then came in Derek Law, who just continues to dazzle. Two batters faced, two strikeouts.

A plethora of minor league hitters got their shot at the plate, too, including Brandon Bednar, Ryder Jones, Chuckie Jones and Shilo McCall, just to name a few. Seriously, there were eight pinch hitters used.

And, yeah. We're just not going to talk about Kyle Crick.