SF Giants news: Panda in camp, Harrison's heater, Birdsong's dominance

The SF Giants are less than ten days away from Opening Day in Cincinnati. There are still plenty of interesting developments with the team right now so let's go over what has been happening with the Giants the past few days.

Key SF Giants developments as spring training winds down

Panda sighting in camp

This may not be a massive development, but it was nonetheless fun to see Giants legend Pablo Sandoval in camp as a guest instructor. He was in camp as a player last year before going on to play independent ball and it seems like that is his plan again this season.

The third baseman has plenty of wisdom to impart to younger players on the Giants, and he also just seems like an incredibly fun guy to be around with his jovial personality and fun-loving spirit. The Panda did confirm that he does not plan on trash talking Justin Verlander in camp which shows he is nice enough to take the high road even though Giants fans will always remember when Sandoval got the best of Verlander in Game 1 of the 2012 World Series.

Kyle Harrison's fastball

There has been some concern this spring about the young left-handed pitcher Kyle Harrison and his fastball velocity. In his previous spring training appearances his fastball sat around 90-92 miles per hour.

Thankfully, Harrison's velocity was higher in his outing on Sunday against the Athletics. His fastball was up near the 94-95 mile per hour mark which is definitely a positive sign considering he relies on his fastball a lot to get batters out.

He did give up three earned runs in three innings pitched, but the fact that his velocity looks better is a key development as he competes for the fifth spot in the starting rotation.

Hayden Birdsong looks great

While Harrison looked better, one of the guys he is competing against for that fifth rotation spot looked superb. Hayden Birdsong started the game on Sunday and pitched five scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and no walks while striking out eight batters.

With how good Landen Roupp has looked, Birdsong has sort of flown under the radar but he has a remarkable 0.75 ERA in 12 innings pitched in the Cactus League and has struck out 18 batters.

Manager Bob Melvin is not going to have an easy decision on his hands with the fifth spot in the rotation. There is still not a clear favorite, but Birdsong certainly helped his cause with how dominant he looked on Sunday.

Those are some of the recent key developments for San Francisco. While most of the roster battles seem settled, the competition for that fifth rotation spot is looking like it will come down to the wire.