Andres Torres was a cautionary tale of sorts, in that the Giants counted on him in 2011 to provide the same spark he provided the 2010 team that ended San Francisco’s World Series drought.
He was coming off a career year so skeptics abounded, each of them eager to note the inherent danger in expecting a journeyman-turned-cult figure to recapture the magic.
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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Ryan Vogelsong has a little running joke that he is going to plunk Giants teammate Pablo Sandoval in the World Baseball Classic to keep the Panda from a three-homer game like the one he produced in Game 1 of the World Series last fall.
Sandoval plans to play nice once he pulls on the Venezuela uniform.
“He’s my teammate, I don’t want to fight,” Sandoval said with a smile.
Both know the team to beat: Two-time WBC winner Japan.
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MESA, Ariz. — Announced as the A’s Opening Day starter before the game, Brett Anderson allowed one hit in two scoreless innings Thursday in Oakland’s 5-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs.
The 25-year-old left-hander, 4-2 with a 2.57 ERA in six starts last year after he recovered from elbow surgery, will be opposed by the Seattle Mariners’ Felix Hernandez in the April 1 matchup at Oakland.
Anderson said manager Bob Melvin gave him the news a day earlier.
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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Giants outfielder Andres Torres won’t play for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic and will be sidelined for at least a week because of a strained oblique.
The Giants made the announcement Thursday, a day after he got hurt during a swing and had an MRI.
The 35-year-old Torres helped San Francisco win the World Series in 2010 and rejoined the Giants in December.
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Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum are only five months apart in age — Lincecum will be 29 in May, Cain in October — but they are worlds apart in personality.
This was obvious five years ago when the Giants hosted a media lunch at a bar/restaurant across the site from where Seals Stadium had stood in 1958 when the Giants played their first season in San Francisco.
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TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — The way Ryan Vogelsong is pitching this spring, Giants manager Bruce Bochy should have no worries when the right-hander leaves for the World Baseball Classic.
Vogelsong pitched three more scoreless innings Wednesday in San Francisco's 8-8 tie with the Los Angeles Angels.
"He really looked sharp," Bochy said.
Vogelsong, 14-9 with a 3.37 ERA with the Giants in 2012, allowed a leadoff single to Mike Trout in the first and nothing else. He struck out four.
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GLENDALE, Ariz. — Tim Lincecum’s long hair is gone. Don’t let the new image fool you.
The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner is hoping he looks like the pitcher he was before struggling last season.Lincecum gave up three runs and failed to get through two innings in his first spring training start Tuesday for the Giants, an 8-8 tie with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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By:
SportsDirect
02/19/13 9:26 PM
The South Florida clinic that has rocked the baseball world this spring reportedly has five more professional baseball players as its clients.
ESPN reported Tuesday that newly acquired documents show that the Biogenesis of America clinic, which is run by Anthony Bosch, has such clients as A’s reliever Jordan Norberto, San Diego Padres and former A’s reliever Fautino De Los Santos, Padres shortstop Everth Cabrera, Houston Astros outfielder Fernando Martinez, and New York Mets minor-league outfielder Cesar Puello.
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NEW YORK — Reserved for the better part of February for the contentious process of salary arbitration, the Ellis East Room on the second floor of the Hyatt Regency Phoenix went unused. For the first time since arbitration began in 1974, none of the players who filed wound up arguing their cases.
After peaking at 35 hearings in 1986, the number of salary arbitration cases argued hasn’t reached double digits since 2001. The total dropped to a record low of three in 2005, 2009 and 2011, and then there were none at all this year.
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PHOENIX — Bartolo Colon knew he had failed a drug test for about six weeks before he got hit with a 50-game suspension last season. He made several starts for the A’s while knowing he probably wouldn’t participate in the pennant race.
“I continued to pitch, but my mind wasn’t good,” he said.
Now that Colon is back in the clubhouse at spring training with the teammates he let down, the 39-year-old right-hander knows he can only earn peace of mind and forgiveness by getting back in top form on the mound.
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