Sabol’s glove work gets a boost from Posey pep talk
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The first time Blake Sabol caught Logan Webb, it didn’t go so well. Sabol had to chase down three sinkers he missed in the first inning.
Things got a little better from there that time out, and Sabol got a chance to catch the San Francisco Giants’ Opening Day starter a second time Sunday in the Giants’ 9-6 win over the Angels at Scottsdale Stadium. He also got a pep talk from former Giants catcher Buster Posey, who was in town with many of the team’s owners and investors.
“I talked to him in the hallway for awhile,” Sabol said, “and we’ve all been through similar stuff, so I asked him, ‘Hey, when you missed a ball and you’re pissed at yourself, what do you say?’
“He was like, ‘I hate passed balls, but you have to remember now your body wants to speed up and I would be like: Buster, you have really elite frickin’ hands, trust you’ll be fine, you’re not going to miss another one.’
“He said, ‘I know you’re swinging it right now, so you obviously have elite hands. That’s something I would take with you. There are going to be mistakes that happen, but the best guys are able to put that in the past.”
Sabol spent the past week preparing for Webb again. Now he knows exactly what to look for. He also caught Webb’s bullpen session last week.
Webb is tricky for anyone to catch. His sinker has the most vertical movement in the league, dropping 8.7 inches more than league average, and his changeup has the seventh-most vertical movement. Even his slider dips more than the league average.
“He’s got three elite pitches, so it’s really fun to be able to catch him,” Sabol said. “Now I have a pretty good idea of like, ‘OK, if he’s going to miss in certain spots. It’s usually this way,’ whereas traditionally, it would go the other way. That’s what makes Logan such a good pitcher. He is so different, a very unique guy.”
Always upbeat, Sabol reflected on that first inning from the previous time they were paired. “The very first pitch went to the backstop, and I thought, ‘OK, well, it can’t get worse, right? It’s only up from here!” Sabol said.
Any catcher joining a new team faces a challenge while becoming familiar with the pitching staff. Sabol has been an outfielder much of his time as a pro, complicating things, and he’s also trying to show what he can do offensively while learning the movement on all of the pitchers’ repertoires and what might be the best pitches to turn to for each if they don’t have their primo stuff on a given day.
“Part of it is anticipation,” Blake said, “and a lot of it is knowledge. The most important thing for me is to let them tell me, and to listen.”
Armed with the knowledge that, unlike many sinker-type starters, Webb tends to miss glove side, Sabol didn’t let a pitch get by him in Sunday’s 9-6 win over the Angels. Webb worked 4 1⁄3 innings and allowed six hits (including two homers), a walk and four runs with six strikeouts.
“He worked much better with Blake, they were more synced up,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “And Blake had a much better understanding of what Logan’s pitches were going to do.”
Given Sabol is a Rule 5 player trying to crack the squad as a catcher/outfielder, Sunday’s game held little significance for him. But Kapler said it wouldn’t be a deal-breaker.
“It’s important for us to be able to evaluate him with Webb since it seems like he’s been pretty comfortable with just about everybody else,” Kapler said. “I’d just say it’s a good data point.
“What he needs is more experience. It isn’t more tutelage. It’s more reps.”
Sabol also caught Tyler Rogers for the first time and one frisbee slider from the sidearmer got past Sabol, allowing men to advance to second and third. Sabol was then dinged for catcher’s interference, loading the bases, but Rogers then struck out two men to finish the inning.
“That defies gravity,” Sabol said of Rogers’ slider. “It was cool to see it. … And the last pitch of the inning was that rising slider and I was able to get on top and stick it so that’s a positive step.”
Game action: Sabol was 0-for-3 but stole a base and scored a run . ... Brett Auerbach played his sixth position of the spring and, after breaking back, raced in to make a plunging catch in left to rob Hunter Renfroe of a hit in the third. Auerbach then singled, stole two bases and scored a run . ... Casey Schmitt, back at third after a full game at shortstop, made a terrific barehanded play in the second and he had two hits, including an RBI double. Schmitt is batting .441 . ... The Giants stole five bases Sunday to increase their majors-leading total to 36.
Briefly: Kapler said that shortstop Brandon Crawford (knee) was continuing to do baseball activities and could be in a game soon. “His mind-set is fully focused on Opening Day,” Kapler said. … Camilo Doval, who returned from the Dominican Republic’s World Baseball Classic team on Saturday, will work in Tuesday’s game against the Dodgers in Glendale. … The Giants reassigned pitchers Ronald Guzman (pronator strain) and Sam Delaplane (coming back from Tommy John surgery and another small elbow cleanup) to their minor-league camp.