Thursday, April 15, 2010

Down on the Farm: 04-15-2010

AAA Fresno Grizzlies topped the Las Vegas 51's 7-3:

Brock Bond- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .353.
Brett Pill- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .286.
Matt Downs- 2 for 5, 3B. BA= .250.
Eric Hacker- 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 0.79.

Bond has hit in the mid .300's at every stop. So far he hasn't drawn as many walks as at previous levels. I envision him as a switch-hitting version of David Eckstein.

AA Richmond Flying Squirrels shutout the Reading Phillies 3-0:

Brandon Crawford- 1 for 4, 2B. BA= .360.
Conor Gillaspie- 1 for 4, HR(3). BA= .212.
Nick Noonan- 1 for 2, 2B, BB, SB(2). BA= .226.
Jackson Williams- 1 for 2, HR(1), BB. BA= .444!
Daryl Maday- 5.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K's, GO/AO= 10/3. ERA= 1.69.
Rafael Cova- 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, Save(2).

Conor Gillaspie has shown surprising power this spring. I had read that he went on a very strenuous conditioning program mainly to get more nimble on defense, but maybe it also made him stronger?
A busy night for Nick Noonan who is once again quite young for the level of play.
Maday looks like a fairly standard groundball pitcher who will have to prove he can do it at higher levels.
If Jackson Williams has found his hitting stroke, he could make things interesting in the organization as he is probably their best defensive catcher and that's no knock on Buster Posey's defense.

San Jose Giants came back to score a run in the bottom of the 9'th inning after the Bakersfield Blaze had scored two runs to tie in the top of the inning. Final score: 5-4:

Ehire Adrianza- 0 for 3, 2 BB, 2 SB(4). BA= .179.
Francisco Peguero- 2 for 4, BB, 3 SB's(8). BA= .370.
Brandon Belt- 1 for 3, BB, HBP, SB(5). BA= .350.
Craig Westcott- 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K's, GO/AO= 7/2.

The little Giants ran wild with Peguero leading the way. Peguero also threw out a runner at home plate from CF. Belt seems to have a busy line every night. Nice start for Westcott.

Low A Savannah Sand Gnats bit the Augusta Greenjackets 4-1:

Evan Crawford- 2 for 4, 3B. BA= .212.
Ryan Cavan- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .313.
Jorge Bucardo- 5 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 K's, GO/AO= 8/1. ERA= 4.00.
Brian Irving- 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's.

Not much to comment on here. Cavan continues to be the best hitter on the team.

5 comments:

  1. Say, DrB, about the Fred Lewis trade, do you know what it means when a deal says PTBNL or cash?

    I know at the end of the season, that often means that the player(s) have already been agreed upon, but because of the one year rule on drafted players not being tradeable. Or sometimes there is a grab bag of players the trader can select from after the end of the season.

    But I don't think this would apply to the start of the season. And now we have two of these, one with Boston too for Frandsen. Do you know what this typically means at the start of the season? Clearly no issue on trading, I would expect resolution of this before the end of the season. Perhaps it is a bucket of players to chose from, and the Giants get a couple of months to scout and select one or cash?

    And how much cash does a team typically get, or does it vary a great deal?

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  2. If I could add a comment about Lewis's departure, it would be to wish him the best in Toronto and hope that he has more prudent management there. Watching him come up gradually through the Giants' system, it always seemed to me that he was an ideal candidate for a top-of-the-order on-base guy, probably playing CF. But all the major-league management saw when they looked at him was a great athlete who looked like he was from the Bonds clan and they wanted a 3-4-5 hitter, which he just never was. And while he was an inconsistent fielder, he did have a lot of ability and I thought his skills translated better to CF than LF. So they brought him up to be one kind of player and were disappointed when he was not another kind of player. Just bad judgment, bad planning. And he seems like such a nice guy, I hope he gets a chance to put it together up north.

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  3. Hopefully Gillaspie is not trying to hit for power at the expense of plate discipline and bat control, judging by his drop in BA. AT&T Park is pretty unforgiving for RH power hitters anyway, and I would rather see him develop his gap power while maintaining good discipline and OBP. I am quite impressed with Belt, who some thought to be a possible overdraft, but whom Andy Seiler (and obviously the Giants) considered to be a sleeper.

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  4. OGC,

    I think it means that the two teams will try to agree on a player coming the other way, but if they can't agree the payment will be in cash. My gut feeling is that it usually means it's going to be cash, but we can always hope they might agree on another player like Darren Ford or Escobar, the pitcher the Giants got from Texas. Not sure about the $ amount, but I'm going to say somewhere in the neighborhood of $100K just off the top of my head.

    I think I'll write up a Fred Lewis Prospect Retro.

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  5. Jim, my understanding is that the Giants were grooming him to be the lead-off type but thought that he could eventually develop into a middle-lineup guy. When that did not happen, according to Bochy, the Giants wanted to use Lewis at lead-off but got resistance from Lewis, as he now thought of himself as a middle-lineup guy.

    The problem, ultimately, with Lewis, is that despite playing baseball his whole life, as that was his love growing up, he has shown no feel at all for fielding in the outfield and is very inconsistent. That works in LF, where most statues are stashed for offensive output, but not in CF where he's compared against top athletes who do have a feel.

    Still, I would have still kept him around as an option but a cancer in the clubhouse is a good reason to dump him, and his mid-700 OPS of 2009 is probably his normal level of output as his BABIP was too high to sustain from 2008. That is too low for a LF.

    I view both Bowker and Schierholtz above Lewis talent-wise and would start them over Lewis. Velez I still don't see the allure of him, but I probably would have let him share CF with Lewis and see what happens, and if necessary, I would bring up Ford and see what happens.

    Thanks DrB!

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