Opening Day is here!
Former Giants pitcher Shawn Estes and former A’s pitcher Mark Mulder joined the latest episode of The Krueg Show Podcast on Thursday, to chat with hosts Larry Krueger and Cody Pasby about the respective outlooks of their former clubs heading into the 2018 season.
Estes talked about how the early injuries to both Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija are going to affect the Giants chances of bouncing back after a forgettable 2017, and said that he actually expected the position players to be the group with health question marks heading into the season.
“It was the position players that we were really concerned about, I guess from an age standpoint. Then it’s the pitchers that got hurt at the end of camp,” Estes said. “Bumgarner is one of the situations where you can’t control. Samardzija, I don’t think he’ll be out for long but that’s something you don’t anticipate being that he’s been the workhorse of the rotation, or any rotation for that matter for the first five or six years. Then Melancon was the guy that was the question mark coming into spring training, and to me I felt like the key to the whole pitching staff. That one is a little discouraging, not having Melancon at 100 percent and not really knowing what’s going on.
“I felt pitching staff wise they were pretty solid coming into spring training. I wasn’t really concerned about the age there, it was the position players. I thought Bochy did a great job with them. They were a little banged up coming into spring but now everybody seems to be 100 percent. I’m excited about seeing the lineup full strength, all together for more than one game. For back-to-back-to-back games. They’re going to see a bunch of lefties early in the year so you’re going to see their left handed lineup out there for a few games.”
Estes also said he expects healthto be an ongoing issue for this team all season.
“I think as the season goes on it’s still going to be a juggling act with Bruce Bochy and keeping these guys fresh, I really do. In order for this club to win, I think he’s going to have to pull the Houdini act when it comes to when do I sit guys, when do I play this guy, when do I give this guy a breather. Because the hardest thing to do is when a guy is going well is to give him a break. So you hope to have neumorous guys going well at the same time. So he’s going to have to navigate that.”
Listen to the full podcast below.
