The San Francisco Giants are your 2025 Cactus League champions. I’ll pause while you hug a loved one, pop champagne, and make plans to populate Market Street for a parade in a few days. Sarcasm aside, the title means next to nothing. Individual performances should be evaluated much more closely than those of teams during Spring. But, if you’re an optimist, you can find a way to hold real value in what was a red hot spring for the Giants. Because it isn’t completely meaningless.
Mike Krukow offered a take on that potential value when he joined Murph & Markus. it’s not as much about the win loss result as it is the intangible vibe surrounding a team in March. Krukow has seen a TON of spring trainings, so his words shouldn’t be taken lightly.
There was baseball at Oracle Park on Monday night, just as there will be in a few short minutes tonight. It was a sight for sore eyes to see the orange and black trotting onto the field at 3rd & King for the first time in six months.
Everyone was taking in ball at the yard, including the greatest hitter of all time.
Heliot Ramos wasted zero time giving the home crowd a taste of the long ball. The former All-Star blasted a leadoff home run to just left of center field, an impressive shot that easily cleared the wall above the Bank of America sign just left of the Giants bullpen. Ramos has been leading off when the Giants face left handed starters all spring. Expect that trend to continue into April.
Roster notes: It looks like Landen Roupp has won the fifth starter role, as manager Bob Melvin indicated that he would throw in San Francisco’s fifth game of the season. That means that Hayden Birdsong, while on the roster, will start in a bullpen role. Given that Birdsong excelled in his small sample size as a starter in 2024, this shuffle might seem odd to fans. Time will tell just how cemented the current structure is.
Two days, Giants fans.