He’s here and he’s beautiful.
Tuesday was a fun day for the San Francisco Giants. It was their fourth preseason game, and while they’re still searching for a win — they tied the Seattle Mariners 10-10, their second tie of the spring — there was excitement to be found.
Jung Hoo Lee made his highly-anticipated Giants debut, playing center field and leading off. And while it perhaps wasn’t the most common lineup that we’ll see this year, the top of the order — for the first time this spring — was one that we’ll almost surely see many times over the 162 regular season games: Lee leading off, followed by Thairo Estrada and LaMonte Wade Jr., with Jorge Soler batting cleanup.
You can’t judge much from a Spring Training game, good or bad. Lee might be awful this year. The Giants might be awful this year. But while you can’t project performance, you can at least begin to see the vision. And that vision was crystal clear.
Lee used his supreme contact skills to pull a ball through the infield in his very first plate appearance. It’ll take more than one at-bat to prove that his skills translate to the Majors, but given that the opposing pitcher, George Kirby, is a reigning All-Star and Cy Young vote-getter with a mid-high 90s fastball, it was certainly an encouraging data point.
Lee twice tried to steal second base. On the first attempt, Estrada fouled a pitch off. On the second attempt, Estrada hit a ground ball to shortstop, and Lee’s jump and speed seemed to spook Ryan Bliss enough that he couldn’t make a play at any bag. And when Wade singled, Lee combined a perfect read with excellent speed and scored easily.
The game wasn’t televised, but the Giants thankfully have provided us with that happy sequence:
Jung Hoo Lee singles and scores a run in his first trip to the plate in an #SFGiants uniform pic.twitter.com/nTCVU4Fpe4
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) February 27, 2024
That’s the vision for the Giants. Well, that and strong center field defense. The Giants were 28th in the Majors in batting average last year, and dead last in stolen bases. They were 27th in bases taken on fly balls, passed balls, wild pitches, balks, and defensive indifference. This is the kind of activity that they’re desperate for, and it’s damn fun seeing it in action.
It also led to a crooked number, which is something the Giants rarely had last year and really rarely had early in games. A few batters after Lee scored, Patrick Bailey bopped a grand slam — the second four-run homer for the Giants in as many games.
Patty Barrels grand salami
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) February 27, 2024
And hey, guess what? More baseball today! Sadly still not televised (though you can listen to the radio, and hopefully we’ll get more highlights from the Giants).
It’s another 12:05 p.m. PT game, this time against the A’s. Here’s the scheduled lineup:
- LaMonte Wade Jr. — 1B
- Tyler Fitzgerald — SS
- Mike Yastrzemski (spring debut!) — DH
- J.D. Davis — 3B
- Tom Murphy (spring debut!) — C
- Wade Meckler — CF
- Yusniel Díaz — RF
- Donovan Walton — 2B
- Luis Matos — LF
Spencer Howard (spring debut!) — RHP
Go Giants.
How many days until Opening Day?
We’re in the 2s! Just 29 days!