Justin Dowdy, who pitched for the Giants’ AA and AAA teams in 2011, has been suspended for refusing to take a test, according to Craig Calcaterra.
The Associated Press reports that Dowdy refused to take a test under the minor league drug program and will be suspended for 50 games.
Dowdy is currently a free agent and the Giants have not shown any interest in re-signing him.
(Thomas Hawk/flickr)
Former Giants catcher Bengie Molina has retired, says Andrew Baggarly. Good luck in all your future endeavors.
Alex Pavlovic reports that both Matt Cain and Pablo Sandoval took a couple of … let’s say, “hits that make people bust out the bubble wrap.”
Matt Cain and Pablo Sandoval took separate shots during BP today, but both said they are fine. Cain got smoked by a Hector Sanchez liner but doesn’t intend to start using an ‘L’ screen for protection, like some pitchers do.
But really boys, have you not listened at all? Or used the bubble wrap coupon that was provided for you in an open letter?
Now here’s some … rather interesting (for lack of a better word) trivia, brought to you by two tweets from Hank Schulman:
Got my biggest scoop of the spring today: Eli Whiteside kept his World Series ring in his underwear drawer all winter. Now, in a bank vault.
To clarify, the ring is in the bank vault, not Eli’s underwear.
Well. The more you know.
(Thomas Hawk/flickr)
Second baseman Freddy Sanchez is the first to acknowledge he will not know how his surgically repaired right shoulder will feel when he makes a long throw to first on a double play or dives for a grounder.
Based on how he feels now, though, Sanchez is optimistic that he will be in the Opening Day lineup.
Stay healthy, Freddy. Please stay healthy.
No one wants to deal with any more injuries.
Woody commands you to stay healthy.
And Alex Pavlovic wrote:
Brian Wilson threw today and looked good. But Sergio Romo didn’t need to see Wilson’s session to know the closer will be ready for Opening Day.
Okay, good. Now you stay healthy, too. No more injuries. You hear that? No injuries.
Seriously, Giants. Seriously. (Photo: Susan Sharpless Smith/flickr)
So this is the information from Hank Schulman/SF Chronicle:
Manager Bruce Bochy said Tim Lincecum’s back stiffness, which prevented him from throwing a scheduled bullpen session today, is not serious and nowhere near as concerning as Ryan Vogelsong’s strained back.
and
Meanwhile, team executive Bobby Evans said that first baseman Angel Villalona’s visa to enter the United States from the Dominican Republic has been delayed, which means Villalona will not be able to report with the rest of the position players Thursday.
Evans said the P-1 visa that allows players to work in the United States requires them to be “elite athletes” in top physical condition. The U.S. government has decided that Villalona does not meet that requirement because of a combination of excessive weight and an ongoing medical condition that the team cannot divulge due to federal health privacy laws.
It’s day three of spring training. Lincecum with a stiff back? This should not be happening. Are you trying to be Rich Harden? All of you? No.
And Villalona … what’s there to say with that? Especially with all the other injuries going on. What is exactly new at this point?
The biggest question that should be asked now is who won’t be injured during spring training?
Ryan Vogelsong, Charlie Culberson, Tim Lincecum, and Angel Villalona are out of the running.
Dear Giants,
I thought we made it clear that that it’s too early for things like these. It’s what, two days into Spring Training? Two players injured already? I don’t want to go through a thing where it’s a player a day who goes down with a crazy injury. For crying out loud, we don’t need any more frozen hamburgers.
(Photo: rocor/Flickr)
Per the Associated Press (via the Washington Post):
San Francisco Giants right-hander Ryan Vogelsong strained his back earlier this month while lifting weights and said Sunday he will miss at least the first 10 days of spring training workouts while he recovers.
[Insert great big sigh]
Boys, I understand this whole “Together, We’re Broken” slogan, but can you not get yourselves hurt before SPRING TRAINING even begins?
Am I going to have to break out the million square foot roll of bubble wrap so that you’ll be healthy by the time the season starts? Or even spring training games?
Because, please, cut it out with the injuries. The Giants don’t have an infinite fountain of starting pitchers. Nobody wants Jeff Suppan to be an option. Ever.
2nd round draft pick Andrew Susac has been receiving a lot of buzz since he was drafted. This spring, he’ll be catching more attention as a non-roster invitee.
First of all, I wanted to say congratulations on being a non-roster invitee this spring training.
Thanks. Appreciate it.
So, how has conditioning camp been?
It’s been good. It’s a little like the camp we did in November. It’s a little more high intensity, kind of thing. We do stuff like climb Mt. Camelback and a bunch of speed and agility stuff other days and lay low and get the work day done early and then we get a little baseball in for about a couple of hours a day and it’s a change from just going out to working out and going out and hitting and stuff.
Few get the potential option to actually pack up and move to New York specifically to watch baseball. That’s the case for fifty semifinalists vying for a spot in the 2012 MLB FanCave. The finalists selected will be able to live in the Fan Cave in NYC, watch every single game of the 2012 MLB season, meet and interview numerous players and celebrities, and compete in challenges to stay in the cave throughout the season. 22,000 hopefuls applied for the Fan Cave, and Ally Williams is one of the Top 50 semifinalists.
By Ally Williams
My parents raised me the right way. I’ve loved baseball since I can first remember. There were the days of Candlestick, where I have my first few recollections of the San Francisco Giants, but most of my memories come from AT&T Park. I was only ten when our team moved to Third and King but I still have my hat with the Opening Day patch sewn in. I wear it to every game, and it has yet to fail me.
I sat at my school’s own newsroom, attempting to finish a news article for my journalism class in the morning. Because I write on a computer, I did have distractions open in Chrome tabs — one of which, of course, is twitter.
I refreshed the page to see Baggs’ last blog post with the San Jose Mercury News — something that made me tear up a tiny bit when I read it.
Former top prospect Angel Villalona, whose career looked to be over following a 2009 murder charge in the Dominican Republic, had his work visa approved by the U.S. Immigration Service and the Giants expect him to be at Scottsdale Stadium when position players report Feb. 23.
The Giants have “received the appropriate approval notices” from the U.S. Immigration Service, club vice president Bobby Evans said.
Villalona, 21, has not stepped foot in the U.S. since September, 2009, when he was arrested and charged in the barroom shooting that left 25-year-old Mario Felix de Jesus Velete dead in La Romana. At the time, Villalona was on family leave from Single-A San Jose while rehabbing a quadriceps strain. After nearly two years of incarceration or house arrest, all charges against the slugging prospect were dropped. According to reports in the Dominican, Villalona also settled with the victim’s family to prevent a civil suit.
Major League Baseball removed Villalona from its restricted list late last year and the Giants added him to their 40-man roster to prevent another club from plucking him away in the Rule 5 draft. All players on the 40-man roster receive automatic invitations to big league camp in the spring.
At this point, it’s almost certain that Villalona will be playing for the Giants in some capacity this season. Most likely, he will begin in the minors, seeing as it’s been about two full seasons since he last played.
It’ll be a “wait and see” situation at this point. But the one thing that’s for certain now is that he’ll have competition for first base.
Per Andrew Baggarly
Covefficient 