© Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports
Centerfield prospect Steven Duggar was all anybody wanted to talk about during spring training.
It might’ve come as a surprise then, that the 24-year old, who Will Clark said has Gold Glove ability right now, was left off the Giants’ opening day roster for the likes of Gorkys Hernandez.
Former Giants third base coach Tim Flannery joined Tolbert & Lund on Wednesday and clarified the decision, which he was consulted on, saying that it has nothing to do with Duggar’s ability, but rather the amount of left handed pitching San Francisco is facing in early season series’ with the Dodgers and Diamondbacks.
I think we’re going to see him real soon,” Flannery began. “I was in some of those meetings and my opinion was asked. They play the Dodgers 10 times in the first month, you play Arizona six times in the first month, and they’ve got left handers, really good left handers. Not that he can’t hit left handers, but when you come out of spring training and it’s your first time up, and I saw it with a lot of guys their first three weeks. We would go up to Houston and face Nolan Ryan, J.R. Richards, Joaquin Andujar. Then we’d go to Los Angeles and face Orel Hershiser, Fernando Valenzuela, and next thing you know those guys were in the minor leagues with their tails between their legs.”
At this point Duggar is considered a defensive specialist, but had a decent spring training at the plate, finishing with four home runs and a .797 OPS in 55 at-bats. Duggar, however, has never played in a major league game, and throwing him out there against some of the best left-handers in baseball is not how the Giants want him to start his major league career.
“This is going to give him an opportunity to get some more at-bats, and then give him an opportunity to come up and make an impact. You’d rather that happen. A lot of people think oh it’s for the arbitration. It’s not for that, the Giants are willing to pay the money. They would put him out there, but they are facing a lot of left handers where Austin Jackson is going to play center field, (Andrew) McCutchen is going to play right, and you’re going to have Hunter playing left. This will give Hunter an opportunity to get going as well which he did late in spring training.”
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Flannery on Duggar, skip to 7:45.
