The Triumphant Saturday Return of Camp Notes!

And there was much rejoicing!

Ah, the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings (that sun on the back of my neck is warm!…uh oh, it’s a little too warm!) of baseball. I’m back, baby! Back where I love being — Papago Park, Scottsdale, Arizona, US of A.

In today’s Camp Notes — the very first action of my personal 2025 calendar year — I got to take a look at the Triple- and Double-A squads taking on the same for the Milwaukee Brewers. I actually thought long and hard about making the drive over to Marysville to watch the A-ball squads, where I knew that Argenis Cayama was starting, and where I might have gotten to see Cayama, Jose Bello, and Ricardo Estrada all pitching in person for the very first time.

But I chose to stick with the familiar home setting and watch the older guys. In part, just because that’s a nice way to start my trip. In part, because I knew there’d be people at Papago that I wanted to say hello to. In part, because the Triple-A squad will be pulling out after today, so I had limited opportunities to see guys like Marco Luciano and Carson Seymour, and wanted to take advantage of them. AND in part because I knew ahead of time that the Triple-A squad, still missing a lot of players who were taking part in the Giants’ big league game, would be stocked with the lowest level guys, and give me my very first opportunity to see players like Jhonny Level. Which was true — as you will see shortly.

Before we get to the game action, however, let’s start by reporting a few personnel issues that are important. First, I must sadly say that Josuar de Jesus Gonzalez has not been brought up to Scottsdale for his first spring action — so no laying eyes on the latest wunderkind just yet (though I do have hopes to see him this year). Secondly, and also somewhat sadly, the team is already starting the roster management process, and has placed several players on the 60-day IL already (players on the 60-day IL are not part of the domestic reserve list, and thus don’t count against the 165-player in-season maximum).

So far, the Giants have placed the following on the 60-day IL, so we can anticipate not seeing them until the second half of the year:

• RHP Ryan Murphy

• LHP Juan Sanchez

• RHP RJ Dabovich

• LHP Reggie Crawford

• RHP Sam Bower

• RHP Spencer Miles

• C Ty Hanchey

• 2b Nate Furman

• OF Alexander Suarez

A lot of these are not surprising. Murphy and Sanchez both had TJ last year around June, and weren’t expected back until mid-season. I did catch sight of Murphy yesterday though and he looked in good shape. Crawford, of course, is out probably for the year after labrum surgery. Furman also had surgery on his shoulder — I wasn’t sure what his time frame for return was. Bower was injured when the Giants drafted him and had missed action that spring at St. Mary’s. That was four summers ago, and he has yet to take the mound in a game. Hard to keep having hope that he’ll overcome it at this point. And Miles, I am heavily suspecting might have been a surgery victim as well, after his summer ended in suddenly declining velocity and elbow pain.

There will be more of these IL guys in the coming days, weeks, and months. But for now, let’s get to the guys who were in action yesterday!

One question for the group. Substack keeps reminding me that Live Video Chats are now a feature of the site, but I haven’t really found the right time to suggest one. If I scheduled a live video during my time in Scottsdale, during one of the games, would anybody be interested in joining? It’s sort of a chaotic environment, and I’m constantly running around trying to see/record things and talk to people, but I might try it out if enough folks were interested. Let me know!