SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - When the Giants acquired LaMonte Wade Jr., they touted him primarily as a corner outfielder. Sunday, in the team’s Cactus League opener, Wade was in center field, with incumbent center fielder Mauricio Dubón starting at shortstop.
Could the two wind up in some sort of platoon situation? Wade is a left-handed hitter, Dubón right-handed and also probably the best backup shortstop option behind Brandon Crawford. At the very least, the Giants prudently want to get a long look at Wade’s skills in center, where he made three plays without any trouble.
“He got solid jumps and got to the spots and he needed to be in,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “I thought he communicated well and did the job out there.”
“First day, first game as a Giant - it felt good,” Wade said.
Wade enjoys playing center field and would like to show the team he’s a solid option there. “You have the best view on the field, you can see everything all right in front of you, you don't have a bad angle,” Wade said.
“I like the fact that you can communicate with the left fielder and right fielder, you just have that responsibility out there. It's a lot of fun. And I enjoy covering all that ground.“Anytime I go out there, I want to show that I can play the position that I was put in that day and give myself and the team the best chance to win.”
Dubón missed a grounder at short in the second inning, leading to the Angels’ first run and also was too late to go to second on a grounder by Juan Lagares the next inning and wound up failing to get an out at any base.
“We mentioned to Maurcio, ‘Glad that it happened on the first day, the first spring training game, so we can clean those things up,’ ” Kapler said. “In large part, it's just a bit of an over-adjustment. ... In this case, it was one of those things where he just needed to speed up a little bit on both plays.”
• • Outfielder Austin Slater was limited to one at-bat because of hamstring tightness, Kapler said.
• First baseman Brandon Belt is still under the weather and not doing baseball activity.
• The lineup at Texas on Monday: La Stella 2B, Yaz RF, Ruf 1B, Vosler 3B, Bart C, Duggar CF, Ramos DH, McCarthy LF, Alcantara SS.
• Giants pitchers at Texas: RHP Nick Tropeano LHP Caleb Baragar RHP Kervin Castro RHP Dedniel Nunez LHP Anthony Banda RHP Silvino Bracho.
Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susanslusser
"center" - Google News
March 01, 2021 at 06:57AM
https://ift.tt/305yNkN
Giants spring training observations: Wade Jr. gets start in center, Dubón at short - how they fared - San Francisco Chronicle
"center" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3bUHym8
https://ift.tt/2zR6ugj
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Giants spring training observations: Wade Jr. gets start in center, Dubón at short - how they fared - San Francisco Chronicle"
Post a Comment