Five pressing Giants questions to answer as spring training begins originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO — At some point, Buster Posey probably will be tempted.
He’ll be watching Hayden Birdsong throw a bullpen session and get the itch to drop into the squat and frame a few fastballs. He’ll be leaning on the cage on a hot day in Scottsdale and wonder how many swings it would take to deposit a homer onto the berm. It’ll be the natural reaction for a lead executive who still is just 37 years old.
But on a daily basis, Posey will be in comfortable khakis, a quarter-zip and shoes with no spikes on them. He’ll be watching the team he now is running, wondering if he was right to have a relatively quiet offseason.
The Giants made a splash in October by turning to Posey, who quickly hired new GM Zack Minasian, and they grabbed headlines in December by signing Willy Adames. But for the most part, the group that is gathering this week at Scottsdale Stadium is a familiar one.
At the start of camp, you can make a strong argument that at least 11 of the 13 spots on the pitching staff will go to players who wore orange and black last season. It’s possible that Adames will be the only newcomer among the position players at the end of camp.
Barring injuries, there aren’t a lot of jobs up for grabs over the next six weeks, but there still are a lot of questions to be answered. Here are five to focus on as the Giants get ready for their first workout of the President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey Era:
Does It “Feel” Different?
When Gabe Kapler took over, the first day of camp immediately looked and sounded different. Kapler’s young staff used cell phones to monitor daily schedules, which could be shifted on the fly, and it was common to look out at the field those first few days and see coaches scrolling on iPhones as players took grounders or ran sprints. It wasn’t a negative at all — and it certainly made sense after decades of coaches pulling a piece of paper out of their back pocket. But it was different.
Posey likely will leave just about every part of camp to Bob Melvin and his staff, but he probably has spent some time over the past three months thinking about what he liked and didn’t like from his own playing days. Does he love scrimmages, which were more prevalent during his time as a professional? Will he urge Melvin to set some marquee live BP matchups, which Bruce Bochy often did, occasionally leading to a situation…