revealed that he will only pitch in one pool play game<\/a> before returning to the Detroit Tigers. There\u2019s also uncertainty around the availability of the fourth starter on DeRosa\u2019s staff, Minnesota Twins right-hander Joe Ryan, who missed his first exhibition start because of lower back inflammation.<\/p>\nFuture Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw is also on the roster but he\u2019s hardly expected to be a workhorse; the WBC is his final event before he rides off into retirement and his participation is likely limited to non-leveraged relief innings.<\/p>\n
So Webb\u2019s participation will be more vital than ever.<\/p>\n
At the same time, he\u2019ll have to be ready to take the baseball before anyone else. The MLB season kicks off March 25 in San Francisco, with Webb slated to start against the New York Yankees in the schedule\u2019s only game.<\/p>\n
If Team USA advances, it would play a quarterfinal game March 13. The semifinals are on March 15-16 and the final is scheduled for March 17. So Webb could start either the quarterfinal or semifinal game and have enough days on the calendar to make an additional exhibition appearance prior to the season opener.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything that the Giants had laid out for him, it\u2019s almost on par with what\u2019s going on,\u201d Giants manager Tony Vitello said. \u201cThere\u2019s one day that flips. I think it\u2019s an added day in there. Otherwise, it\u2019s the same schedule he\u2019ll be on with us. \u2026 Skubal will do his thing for an outing and I like the U.S.\u2019s chances in that one. And of course, whenever Webby\u2019s got the ball for them, we\u2019ll have it on in here and be cheering like we were for the (Olympic) hockey match.\u201d<\/p>\n
Webb didn\u2019t have anything bad to say about Skubal, who is an impending free agent and is one healthy season away from a monster contract in free agency. It\u2019s a risk-reward calculation that Webb had to make three years ago, when he declined an invitation to pitch in the WBC because he was weeks away from signing a five-year, $90 million contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, I\u2019m not in his shoes,\u201d Webb said. \u201cI\u2019ve got three years left on my contract. He doesn\u2019t. He has one year, and then he\u2019s got to be a free agent. \u2026 His team and his agents and all of them came up with this plan. It\u2019s his life, his career. He can do what he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Webb might need to have a conversation with Aaron Judge, though. His face fell when asked whether he was in the group chat with Judge and several other WBC players that pinged constantly as the USA men\u2019s hockey team took Canada to overtime in the gold medal game at the Winter Olympics in Italy.<\/p>\n
\u201cAhhh, that must be a hitter one, because I was not on that,\u201d Webb said, smiling. \u201cBut I am on a pitcher one, and yes, they were talking about how exciting it was to watch. But I was not in Aaron\u2019s. I\u2019ll have to ask him about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Webb had no plans to ask about the clearly glitchy data stream on MLB Gameday that recorded his second pitch against the Angels, a two-seam fastball, at 111.8 mph.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s legit,\u201d Webb said, smiling.<\/p>\n
\u201cAhhh,\u201d Roupp said. \u201cI saw that. He won\u2019t get that one by me, I promise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roupp confessed that he\u2019d check the pitch analytics from Tuesday to see if his changeup was getting more movement than Webb\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d Roupp said. \u201cIt\u2019s a constant conversation every day. I always tell him my changeup\u2019s going to be better than his one day. That\u2019s what I\u2019m striving for. But I think I got him on the velo today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roupp\u2019s knee is fully healed from his scary incident last season, when he hyperextended it on the mound at San Diego and was carted off the field as a precaution. He\u2019s experimenting with a cutter and increasing his four-seam fastball usage at the top of the strike zone \u2014 the same two wrinkles that Webb incorporated last year while leading the NL in strikeouts for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe tells me all the time I want to pitch just like him,\u201d Roupp said of Webb. \u201cI think it\u2019s kind of funny, because who wouldn\u2019t want to be? To throw the way he does, and throw as many innings and stay as healthy as he does? So that\u2019s the way I look at it: if I can get 30 starts, it\u2019s closer to being who I want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Webb has anything resembling a regret at leaving for the WBC, it\u2019s that he won\u2019t be in camp to watch this group of Giants pitchers continue to try to establish themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been fun to watch all these young guys come out here and really just show their stuff,\u201d Webb said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big emphasis this year with (assistant pitching coach) Christian Wonders. These guys like stuff first, and then we get to the other stuff. I keep saying stuff! But yeah, that\u2019s the goal. And then these guys are just \u2014 I\u2019m gonna say it again \u2014 showing their stuff. It\u2019s been fun to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEMPE, Ariz. \u2014 Logan Webb made tidy work of his two scheduled innings in his exhibition debut Tuesday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,512,82],"class_list":["post-498441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}