Injury woes: Did San Francisco Giants move too fast with Jake Peavy, Casey McGehee and Brandon Belt?
Apr 16, 2015; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants first baseman Brandon Belt (9) tosses the ball to starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner (40, not pictured) during the first inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports
Brandon Belt
Another day, another 0-for. So it goes for Brandon Belt since his return from a groin strain, and his entire season for that matter.
Thought by many analysts to be his breakout campaign, 2015 has been unkind to the Baby Giraffe thus far, as he’s tallied more strikeouts (8) than hits, walks, runs and runs batted in combined (6). That’s far from an advanced stat, but it does paint a picture of just how brutal this opening month has been for him.
As I touched on before, strains don’t typically require a ton of time to recover from, but they do tend to linger, which could be abetting Belt’s offensive struggles. Given, I probably wouldn’t have gone that far with my speculation were it not for an interesting update from Jimmy Durkin of the Mercury News:
"I noticed Brandon Belt didn’t seem to be walking around all that well in the clubhouse after the game. …Bochy said before the game that Belt has told him he’s fine now physically, but I’m not so sure if that’s the case."
Durkin could be on to something here, but it could also be nothing. It’s too early to tell at this point, but I’m inclined to go with the latter considering Belt had some decent at-bats on Friday and didn’t look hindered (read: look like Mr. McKnee) on the field.
Either way, the first baseman’s going to need to start producing or risk losing AB’s to Duffy or Travis Ishikawa, who has swung a hot bat in Triple-A and recently reported no setbacks in his rehab from back issues of his own, according to Chris Haft of MLB.com.
Verdict: TBD — let’s give this one another game or two