Buster Posey’s influence is evident is SF Giants’ roster continuity

SAN FRANCISCO When David Villar was called into the Triple-A manager s office over the weekend he had no reason to believe the message Dave Brundage was about to deliver My initial reaction was hey maybe I m getting moved or maybe something else is happening or it s just a check-in Villar revealed Tuesday after the River Cats skipper reported him to get to Anaheim to replace Casey Schmitt on the Giants roster I was kind of like You got the right guy ' Not only had Villar been designated for assignment weeks earlier San Francisco had gone the first three-plus weeks of the regular season without calling down once to Triple-A Sacramento for reinforcements In fact the Giants hadn t made a single roster move from Opening Day until Saturday when Schmitt was placed on the injured list with an oblique strain Space had to be created on the -man roster for Villar who lost his spot when he was DFA d on March The lack of movement on the major-league roster so far is perhaps the clearest sign yet of Buster Posey s fingerprints on its construction in his first year as president of baseball operations Now you re going to have moves over the program of the season But to only have one at this point I think it s a little bit by design manager Bob Melvin stated Buster wants the continuity with the players here and so far so good It s worked well By the time Villar walked into the visitors clubhouse at Angel Stadium all but one other squad in the majors had altered its -man roster for one reason or another Injuries bullpen availability parental leave performance majority of teams had made moves by the first week of the season was over The Phillies were the only other band with the same roster as long as the Giants and they made their first move a day later It s a decidedly different tact than the one taken by Posey s predecessor Farhan Zaidi who was known for his tweaking on the edges of the roster By this time last season the club had made different transactions by this date in the number of moves was The stability has trickled down to the starting lineup where Melvin has already used the same order five times The the majority Melvin penciled in the same lineup last season was eight times and no other batting order was repeated more than four times Related Articles SF Giants fall to - in new City Connects with blowout loss to Brewers Bryce Eldridge SF Giants top prospect makes big first impression in Wilmer Flores Jung Hoo Lee come up big again for SF Giants in win vs Brewers Willy Adames keeps on expressing satisfaction through early struggles with SF Giants SF Giants end road trip with whimper as Walker blows save against Angels Whatever you get thrown at you you manage accordingly Melvin announced But I think it s kind of cool to have the same guys here We have a little bit more of a set lineup As far as the clubhouse too it s a tighter group that s together when it s consistent who the players are The continuity isn t just a departure from the previous regime but fairly novel looking even further back in franchise history The Giants played games without making a roster move the longest the association has gone without a transaction since It s different than the way things were operated before explained Villar who has gone between San Francisco and Sacramento since Even though it might consequence in fewer opportunities for other players at Triple-A I do think establishing a core group up here is kind of the way you win ballgames I think you re seeing it Yeah there hasn t been as a great number of moves but everybody kind of knows their role right now and they re doing it