San Francisco Giants vs Los Angeles Dodgers Pick and Odds (Mar 1)

• The San Francisco Giants visit their bitter rivals the LA Dodgers in Glendale, AZ
• SF has won 4 of its first 6 games in the spring; LA is struggling having lost 6 of 8 as of Friday afternoon
• The Giants are rebooting under new President of Baseball Ops Buster Posey
• The Dodgers are the defending World Series champs

The Giants have changed the way they go about their business by firing the stat-centric President of Baseball Ops Farhan Zaidi and replacing him with Buster Posey. They had a moderately aggressive offseason signing shortstop Willy Adames and aging star pitcher Justin Verlander.

The Dodgers are currently on top of the baseball world. Not only did they win the World Series in 2024, but they added Blake Snell as a free agent (from the Giants) and Japanese righty Roki Sasaki.

Giants Start Big Righty Carson Seymour

San Francisco will send 6’6″, 260-pound right Carson Seymour to the mound against LA. Seymour has pitched 2 innings this spring, surrendering 2 hits and 2 runs. He hasn’t walked anyone and struck out 2. He has never pitched in MLB in the regular season.

The Giants won their previous game over the Brewers 9-2. LaMonte Wade Jr. went 2 for 4 with a home run and 3 RBI. He has a 1.018 OPS so far. Adames has started the spring scorching hot, batting .455. In addition to Wade against Milwaukee, the Giants got home runs from Matt Chapman, Wilmer Flores, and Mike Yastrzemski.

LA is Focused on the Regular Season and Spring Health

The Dodgers will start righty Matt Sauer against the Giants. So far this spring, he has a 3.00 ERA in 3 innings, allowing 1 run and 2 hits.

Given their status as the defending champs and their star-studded roster, it is understandable that LA is being judicious early in spring training. Tyler Glasnow, returning from injury, has pitched 1 inning; Dustin May is also returning from injury and has thrown 2 innings.

At the plate, the veterans are being worked in slowly. Max Muncy is hot, batting .500 with 1 homer and 4 RBI. As of Friday, Shohei Ohtani had 1 plate appearance and, of course, hit a home run.

While this is wise for the regular season, it means that they are not going to be as likely to win their spring training games as they will their regular season games.

Giants vs Dodgers Pick: SF Will Get Off Well Against Their Hated Rivals

The Giants have been hitting the ball hard this spring, their young pitchers are trying to impress, and the Dodgers are taking it easy so far. Expect the Giants to take this early-spring game over LA.