After beginning his 2011 Spring Training with some back issues, eccentric closer Brian Wilson will make his Spring Training debut on Sunday against the Seattle Mariners after he threw a live batting practice session at full strength yesterday to some hand picked Giants batters. Aubrey Huff, Freddy Sanchez, Travis Ishikawa, and Mark DeRosa were all selected to be shut down by Wilson and his devastating filth.
Here’s what Wilson told San Jose Mercury beat writter Andrew Baggerly about his choices:
“All quality hitters,” Wilson said. “Guys were getting good swings, as they usually do. I wanted to face those specific guys. DeRosa is a professional hitter, Freddy, jeez, he has a batting title, Ishi we all know gives you a great left-handed at-bat off the bench and Huff’s one of the best lefty hitters in the league.”
According to Baggerly, Wilson looked to be back to full strength:
Wilson looked great today while throwing to hitters. He was exploding off the mound, throwing with maximum effort and running it up there pretty good. Cutter and slider had plenty of movement. Fastball appeared to have life.
It doesn’t take long for Brian to get back into his top form because this guy is a flat out horse. He brings it even in Spring Training BP sessions, where he apparently gave up only a few hard hits to his teammates, and it really was only a few. Wilson’s nice showing produced a sigh of relief for the coaching staff as well as Giants fans, but it also got a different reaction from Aubrey Huff:
“I’m starting to question if he was even hurt,” Huff joked.
Me too.