Giants’ pitchers using playground games to fine tune defensive skills.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — At Scottsdale Stadium, pitchers on $90 million contracts play the gradeschool playground game of four square to prepare for the session.
That is a simplistic way to describe what Jeff Samardzija and the Giants’ other pitchers were doing on a back field Sunday, but pretty accurate.
Four players each stood in a square, paired into two teams. They had to toss a baseball across the center line to an opponent, who had to field it on no more than one hop and toss it back either underhanded or with a backhand flip. First team to five points won, and the pitchers were howling with laughter as they played.
New manager Gabe Kapler and his staff are not exactly reinventing the art of pitcher fielding practice, but some of the drills are different than before. Most have a competitive element meant to keep the pitchers interested in a normally humdrum spring ritual.
Like any team, the Giants want players to practice all conceivable situations in spring training so nothing surprises them during the regular season. The foursquare drill is meant to hone pitchers’ reaction time fielding comebackers and making awkward throws.
These little things become even more important for a team that lacks an offense that can overcome mistakes by blasting balls over fences.
No team played more onerun games than the Giants last year (54) or won as many (38). Their final record (7785) was nothing to cheer, but imagine what it would have looked like had they been mediocre in the closest games.
The Giants will be challenged to replicate that in 2020 because they traded three experienced short relievers in July and their shutdown closer went to Atlanta as a free agent. Still, they can better their odds if they make fewer fundamental mistakes — and pitchers make a lot of them after the ball is hit.
“We want all of our pitchers to be good at fielding their positions for sure,” Kapler said. “I think we’re on the same page with this attention to detail being the difference between a win and a loss, and it’s not just making the routine play.
“It’s being in the right place at the right time. It’s making a firm, crisp throw. And sometimes those skills are developed through good, competitive practice, which is how all of our drills this camp are being designed.”
Another drill Sunday had coach Alyssa Nakken using a pitching machine to shoot balls high into foul ground beyond third base. Pitchers had to run off the mound to catch them, which proved challenging for some.
Samardzija, a former Notre Dame wide receiver, and Dereck Rodriguez looked like pros. Others, not so much.
“Some people just didn’t want to get hit in the face,” reliever Sam Coonrod said.
Pitchers rarely have to run into foul territory to catch popups because usually an infielder can. But what if the entire infield is shifted far to the right side and the catcher is too far away?
“Anytime you can make a play for yourself as a pitcher, it just helps you so much,” Coonrod said. “It can get you out of a jam. Doing stuff like that is very important.”
Kapler brought competition even to mundane bullpens, hiring umpires to stand behind the catchers to call balls and strikes.
Buster Posey caught a few bullpens that way and said it helped by providing more feedback the pitchers can use to refine their early work.