"Barry Bonds on our team would see our own pitchers tip - and you've probably heard this story - and he wouldn't tell them because he would say, 'You might be on another team next year and I'm going to face you.' So he would watch our own guys, he was the best I ever saw at it. He would be sitting out in left field and he would say, 'I got all your pitches.' And they'd be, 'Tell me,' and he'd say, 'No.'"
"Santangelo said Bonds specifically saw a tell for all of former Giants closer Robb Nen's pitches, but never told Nen. Santangelo said it was 'confrontational at times' in the Giants clubhouse."
During a Giants podcast episode, F.P. Santangelo recounted how Barry Bonds would identify when pitchers tipped their pitches but deliberately withheld this information from teammates. Bonds reasoned that players might join opposing teams in the future, making the knowledge valuable for future competition. Santangelo described Bonds as exceptionally skilled at detecting pitch tells while playing left field, even identifying all of closer Robb Nen's tells without sharing them. This competitive approach created occasional tension in the Giants clubhouse. Reliever Tristan Beck acknowledged the anecdote aligned with Bonds' reputation for seeking every possible edge.
Read at SFGATE
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