Ryan Vogelsong gave fans of the San Francisco Giants a bit of scare at the start of Spring Training by injuring his lower back, rehashing up some of the painful memories from their injury-plagued 2011 campaign (pun intended). But he took to the mound Thursday, throwing his first bullpen in about a month seemingly without missing a stride.
"I was letting it go," said Vogelsong, after his 25-pitch session. "I threw everything. I don't dial back in bullpens, ever. I don't during the season. I never have, never will. I throw my bullpens like I'm pitching in a game. I want to get after it. That's the way I pitch."
Unfortunately he's way behind the rest of his battery mates in terms of game shape, and will need to stay on track the rest of the Spring if he wants to be ready for the start of the season. Any more setbacks he could be in Fresno come opening day, but Vogey isn't too worried about it:
"I wasn't too concerned about it, to be honest, after everything we've done, we've tested it [lower back] pretty good. I was more curious about how my pitches were going to come out, and it was better than I thought it would be, but not by a lot. The location was pretty good for not throwing off a mound for a month."
If somehow Vogelspong isn't ready the Giants could look to a guy like LHP Eric Surkamp to fill his position. San Francisco would need to do some rearrangement with three lefties in the 3-5 spots in the rotation, moving Madison Bumgarner into the No.2 slot between Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain to help right-left-right balance.
For more discussion and analysis of the Giants' spring thus far, head over to McCovey Chronicles to get you fix.