Category: Sports News

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Logan Webb showed once again in this World Baseball Classic that the Giants’ ace is built for the biggest stages. Shame he hasn’t had more of them.

Webb will finish the tournament allowing one run over 8 ⅔ innings after he held Canada in check into the fifth inning Friday night to send Team USA into the WBC semifinals.

He pumped his fist. Slapped his glove. Displayed October emotion in March.

For Giants fans, it was a pretty cool sight to see their guy on the international stage. But the fact that he wore red, white and blue instead of orange and black also served as a stinging reminder that the only organization Webb has known hasn’t granted him many similar chances.

Although his duties are done, Webb opted to remain with Team USA for the remainder of the tournament rather than return to Giants camp. Who can blame him?

The do-or-die stakes, playing for the ultimate prize, in front of an electric atmosphere: It’s something Webb has only experienced twice before in his career.

Back in the Bay Area, a telling debate took place on the Giants’ flagship radio station. Was Webb’s outing against the Canadians the most consequential of his career?

There was arguably more at stake on a Friday night in March than any other time Webb has taken the mound. Since 2021, there’s nothing arguable about it.

Webb has proven to be the ultimate competitor despite not pitching in the postseason since he ascended to ace status. With the Giants mired in mediocrity, Webb has had to go about it through other means: The man has never missed a start.

“I mean, prior to even having any conversations with Buster (Posey) or anybody else, you’re watching him and you want to be on his team because of the way he competes,” manager Tony Vitello said. “I’ve had a lot of buddies text me and talk about how big of a fan they are of him. It’s like, yeah, I know, I saw that before I even got here.”

Vitello is tasked with leading the Giants to finally holding up their end of the bargain. He became the third manager to name Webb his Opening Day starter the morning after his last WBC start. It will be the Rocklin native’s sixth time starting the season opener — all since his two increasingly lonely playoff starts.

Webb, 29, has accomplished a relatively rare feat as a starting pitcher. He’s the face of the franchise despite only taking the field every fifth day. But the distinction comes with an asterisk: This era of Giants baseball has played just five playoff games in Webb’s seven seasons.

To no fault of his own.

Webb, then 24, flashed signs of what was to come in the second half of that 107-win season, a key reason why they became the only team since 2012 to dethrone the Dodgers in the NL West.

He took it to another level the first time the Giants ever faced their archrivals in October. Like one run over 8 ⅔? How about one in 14 ⅔? Webb walked off the mound in Game 5 to roars from 42,275 with the score tied at 1 after seven. They lost, 2-1. 

Still, more than 1,600 days later, Webb’s career postseason ERA remains a pristine 0.61.

He’s proven to be arguably more valuable in the regular season: No pitcher in baseball has recorded more outs than Webb since 2021. And isn’t that what it’s all about?

So, no, the WBC quarterfinal wasn’t the biggest start of Webb’s career. Not when he was on a strict limit of 70 pitches and exited before the fifth inning was over.

But it could use some competition for third.

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A selfless gesture by Rangers outfielder Michael Helman yielded quite the reward on Sunday.

A few months after Helman agreed to give up his No. 24 to Brandon Nimmo following Texas’ blockbuster trade for the outfielder, Nimmo gifted his new teammate a Rolex that’s worth around $25,000.

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The Rangers’ big offseason acquisition, whose in the middle an 8-year, $162 million contract, handed Helman the luxury watch in the middle of the team’s locker room, and Helman couldn’t have been more thrilled to receive it.

“Dude,” he said in a video showing him receiving the green box. “I appreciate you. You didn’t have to do that.”

Nimmo found his new number. @You_Found_Nimmo x #AllForTXpic.twitter.com/Si9PYrRcDg

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) December 4, 2025

Nimmo came over from the Mets in a swap for Marcus Semien, and following his arrival, he asked for No. 24 as a way to pay homage to his childhood hero Ken Griffey Jr., as well as his older brother, who also sported the number in high school.

Helman gave it up without any fanfare, leading Nimmo to go on a weeks-long search for the perfect thank you gift.

“Thanks to @larryflowersjewelry for helping me gift this ‘Bruce Wayne’ to @mj_helman01!” Nimmo wrote on Instagram. “Helman graciously gave me his number when I was traded, and I could not be more thankful to him

“As you can see from the video, he is an absolute gem of a human being! Enjoy buddy!”

Nimmo, 32, previously wore No. 9 with the Mets as No. 24 was retired in New York for Willie Mays.

San Francisco Giants at San Diego Padres, March 16, 2026, 1:10 p.m. PST

Watch: Padres.TV

Location: Peoria Sports Complex – Peoria, AZ

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

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For the second straight year, the ceiling for a Texas Longhorns baseball team off to a hot start is limited by a key injury in the outfield.

Last year, the loss of slugger Max Belyeu and the persistent injuries suffered by Jonah Williams left head coach Jim Schlossnagle’s team thin in the outfield.

This year, the news that Williams is undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery, combined with the shoulder injury of catcher Presley Courville sustained going through outfield drills, has left the Longhorns without ideal depth after the staff’s plans to bolster the outfield through the transfer portal suffered significant blows when commits Jack Moroknek and Kaleb Freeman signed professional contracts after the 2025 MLB Draft.

So where will Schlossnagle turn with Williams out for the season?

The long-term loss of Williams and the shorter-term loss of Courville impact more than just the outfield — those injuries also take away two options at designated hitter, where the Longhorns are in the unusual position of using that player at the bottom of the lineup, a commentary on the team’s depth situation.

In the outfield, the good news for Texas is the incredible start to season from freshman Anthony Pack Jr., who has gained almost 30 pounds of muscle since arriving on the Forty Acres, allowing his natural confidence to match up with his ability to execute in the batter’s box.

Benefiting from a swing refined by assistant coach Troy Tulowitzki, Pack has shown off unexpected power in hitting four home runs in 19 games, including a walk-off grand slam against USC Upstate. He’s also been able to use a mature whole-field approach to handle fastballs and off-speed pitches, ranking second on the team in batting average at .354 and leading the team in on-base percentage at .489.

A left-handed hitter, Pack’s bat-to-ball skills have helped him keep his strikeout rate under 17 percent and his ability to command the strike zone have allowed the California product to produce more walks than strikeouts. And he’s dangerous enough covering the plate that he’s been hit by a team-leading four pitches as opposing hurlers have struggled to find ways to get him out.

Without the remarkable start from the kid called Pack-Man, the Longhorns would be in the much worse position of needing to address two outfield spots in addition to designated hitter. Instead, calling Pack a potential future star at Texas would negate his credible argument that he’s already a star with his current level of play.

Pack switches between left and right field depending on the other outfield spot, which has developed into a platoon between senior Jayden Duplantier, who has the arm and speed to play right field, and junior Ashton Larson, who is limited to left field.

Duplantier is the right-handed batter with historic positional versatility for the Longhorns who was thrust into extended action for the first time last season and struggled, batting .166 in 30 games, including 10 starts. The Houston product did manage to post a .345 on-base percentage by drawing some speeds and impacting defense’s with his speed, but he also had a strikeout rate of almost 35 percent, looking especially overmatched against SEC pitchers in batting .125 in conference play.

This year, however, Duplantier has improved at the plate in 18 games, including four starts, as Schlossnagle and his staff have limited his at bats against right-handed pitchers, helping him hit .333 with a .441 on-base percentage. There still isn’t much power in Duplantier’s bat with only one double among his nine hits, but the start for Duplantier is far from the worst-case scenario established in 2025.

A 6’2, 210-pounder from Overland Park (Kan.) St. Thomas Aquinas, Larson was the No. 78 overall prospect and No. 13 outfielder in the 2023 recruiting class, according to Perfect Game. Selected in the 20th round of that year’s MLB Draft by the Minnesota Twins, Larson opted to honor his commitment to the Tigers.

In conference play, Larson was particularly good, batting a team-best .337 (28-for-83) in SEC regular-season games with eight doubles, three home runs, 10 RBI, and 16 runs. But injuries derailed Larson as a sophomore as he battled for playing time in a crowded outfield, receiving only five starts and hitting .256 in 39 at bats with a strikeout rate of 35.9 percent.

The torn quadriceps suffered by Larson has limited his athleticism, and he’s not exactly a slugging corner outfielder, but he is slashing .344/.463/.531 with three doubles and a home run. Like Duplantier, the left-handed hitting Larson benefits from favorable matchups against right-handed pitchers.

When Courville is able to return from his shoulder injury, he’ll factor in at designated hitter and could play in the outfield as well with fellow freshman Maddox Monsour currently serving as the fourth outfielder, typically in pinch-hitting or pinch-running opportunities. In a limited sample size, Monsour has been good at the plate, batting .429 with a triple and four RBI — high-level bat speed and a short swing should help the 5’11, 205-pounder become an effective college hitter over a larger number of at bats, but Monsour is unlikely to receive that many opportunities this year without further injuries.

As Texas tries to navigate the crucible of SEC play, the outfield looms as the team’s biggest potential weakness, one that Schlossnagle and his staff will have to manage for another season in hopes of achieving a higher ceiling and floor with the team’s 2027 outfield.

The Good Phight will be previewing the 2026 season by going over each position on the field. We’ll talk about the players that will occupy them, the players behind them, their strengths and weaknesses and give a few takes about how we think the season will shake out.

Rafael Marchan – can he hit enough to take actual playing time away from J.T. Realmuto?

One of the issues that has caused a lot of conversation with this team over the past few years is the amount of playing time J.T. Realmuto receives. Usually, his goal is the catch in 130+ games in a season. Outside of his injury marred 2024 season, he has done so each year since his arrival (if we exclude the shortened 2020 season). Being an ironman behind the plate is an attribute that Realmuto wears with honor, but is it always the best for the team?

There are three ways of looking at it: Realmuto’s offense, defense and those who are behind him. Judging by his offense, his 2025 season looked like the year where everything caught up to him. All of the stuff that we look at for hitting was down, even if just a bit. His 94 wRC+ was his lowest since his rookie season, the under the hood stuff was all bluer than the 1936 electoral college map and it all just seemed to go backwards for him.

Yet check the lineup card most nights and you’d find Realmuto’s name on it more often than not. The manager just kept playing him and playing him and playing him. The pitchers love throwing to him, probably the biggest reason why he plays so much. We talked in the other preview about the still rudimentary ways of quantifying that outside of “feel”, but that’s usually why we always saw Realmuto starting games.

However, over the years, the two catchers that the team has employed as the backups – Garrett Stubbs and Rafael Marchan – are also playing a part. They simply are not a threat at the plate enough to demand that more playing time be given to them. While the offense did score runs last year (eighth most in the league), this year, they project to take a step back from that number, meaning they’ll have to find runs somewhere. If Realmuto is continuing that downward march, it would be nice if his bat were taken out of the lineup a little more often.

That means Marchan, the likely choice to be his main backup, is going to have to hit.

Now, based on his past numbers in the minors, that is probably not in the cards too much. He has never been known as a bat first prospect, relying on sparkline defense to carry him to the major league and that was pretty much the case. He’s an excellent defender behind the plate, but anemic when hitting. His Statcast data is, frankly, scary to behold.

Granted, we’re talking about only 119 plate appearances to gather this data from, so the sample size is still small, but it tracks with scouting reports he had attached to him growing up.

Can he actually hit enough to warrant Realmuto getting more games off his feet?

That’s something to watch as the season unfolds. Maybe Realmuto does experience a bit of a rebound this year, making a lot of the talk surrounding his decline moot. However, it would be helpful if Marchan at least presses him a bit more with some offensive improvement of his own. His glove is certainly good enough to play more often.

They just need more out of the bat.

It’s been a tough road for the Brewers in spring training lately. They have dropped five of their last six games and were almost on the wrong end of a perfect game yesterday. It’s also been a streaky spring, with three four-game losing streaks (one of those including the exhibition loss to Great Britain) and two four-game winning streaks. They will have another chance to get back on the winning side this afternoon as they face the Dodgers at Camelback Ranch in Glendale.

Chad Patrick will make his third start of the spring this afternoon. In his previous two starts, he’s pitched five innings and allowed three runs, seven hits, and two walks, striking out seven. Also scheduled to pitch today are Trevor Megill, Jared Koenig, and Grant Anderson. For the Dodgers, Tyler Glasnow will get the start.

For the road game, Luis Rengifo will lead off with Andrew Vaughn behind him. Tyler Black is batting third and Gary Sánchez bats fourth, with Joey Ortiz fifth in the lineup. Brandon Lockridge is getting the start in right field and batting sixth, and Jett Williams is batting seventh at second base. Brock Wilken and Luis Lara round out the order.

First pitch is set for 3:05 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on MLB Network and will also be on the Brewers Radio Network.

Through 11.0 IP across four starts so far in Cactus League play this spring, Andrew Abbott hasn’t exactly flashed his best stuff. He’s yielded 12 earned runs on 16 hits in that span, with four of those hits leaving the yard altogether. He has struck out 14 batters in that time, which is great, and that’s come against only 4 walks, but it would be a very nice confidence boost for all parties involved if he can put up a slightly more successful line at least once before getting the ball on Opening Day.

On Monday afternoon, he’ll get yet another chance. Abbott will start for the Reds as they take on the Arizona Diamondbacks on the road at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick.

Abbott will be backed by a strong lineup, one that will feature a trio of left-handed hitters who are, in all reality, fighting with each other for the final spots on the bench for Opening Day – JJ Bleday, Will Benson, and Nate Lowe.

First pitch in this one is slated for 4:10 PM ET, though sadly there will once again be no televised coverage. For the action on the radio, you can tune in to 1360 WSAI.

Here’s Redleg Nation’s Doug Gray with the full travel roster for the day, one that includes top prospects Tyson Lewis and Carlos Jorge, former 1st round pick Austin Hendrick, and Rece Hinds – who is also firmly in the mix for one of the final bench spots on the Opening Day roster, too.