I"m currently putting the finishing touches on the 2011 Top 50 Prospect List which should be posted soon. The Hot Stove League is down to teams filling out their bullpens and a few scattered #6 starter options. Here's a few random Giants notes to ponder during the lull:
Baggs has a note about Eric Surkamps's hip injury on BA. It sounds pretty bad. It occured when he stumbled trying to field a ball off the mound just a day or two before he was to be promoted to AA. He suffered torn cartilage and labrum and underwent surgery to repair both during the season. He also underwent further arthroscopic surgery earlier this offseason. The note did say his fastball velocity was up to 90-91 MPH in San Jose. His college coaches had insisted he throw mainly curveballs so his fastball development was lagging. Hip injuries, much like shoulder injuries can be very tough to overcome. Let's hope for the best with Eric Surkamp!
More gushing about Brandon Belt by Chris Haft over on sfgiants.com. He includes a quote from none other than Will Clark saying Belt's swing is better than his own. Belt will be given a chance to win either the starting 1B or LF job in spring training with Aubrey Huff taking the other position. He won't make the team as a reserve.
There's an encouraging report on Pablo Sandoval via Rich Aurilia who apparently ran into Pablo down in Arizona land. Pablo told him he's lost 17 lbs and wants to lose more by the start of spring training, maybe up to a total of 35 lb wt loss. He's working out with former decathlonite Dan O'Brian and seems to be enthusiastic about the program. Pablo has reportedly never worked out before! In addition to his conditioning, Pablo has to solve his strike zone issues, but this all sounds very encouraging. Even a modest bounceback from Pablo would make the Giants a real juggernaut. If Brandon Belt is really ready, we could be talking about the dominant team in baseball here!
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Let's hope with Belt we have two ROY's in a row!
ReplyDeleteBummer for Surkamp. I like him. Big tall guy with some nasty pitches... I was wondering why he hadn't moved up earlier. Rather nice with K's.
ReplyDeleteYou can bet Schierholtz and Ishikawa will be keeping a kean eye on Belt's progress..I like his chances becuase of his plate discipline,..If Belt earns a starting spot, more then likely both St. nate and Travis are gone (rowand plus a healthy DeRosa take the spots)...But if they send him down for more seasoning ala Buster, one can make it...Unless something can be done with Rowand
ReplyDeleteSteveVA
I'd hate to see Nate leave.. he was born to play RF at AT&T park.
ReplyDeleteI still believe much about Sandoval is much ado about nothing. His problems was mainly to do with personal off-field issues that should not repeat in 2011.
ReplyDeleteI'm encouraged by his getting into shape because that will extend his period of usefulness and excellence on the baseball field, both year to year and over his career. But I think he would have hit similarly in 2011 whether on not he got into tip-top shape (my impression is that he did gain a lot by season's end, but that like last off-season, he would have gotten back to his previous shape by spring training).
I have no problem with his free swinging ways. It is a gift when a player can hit like that - Vlad, Sanguillen, Yogi Berra, others have been great bad ball hitters. Sure, ideally he improves his judgement of the strike zone, that is teachable. But I think people are too wound up about this.
Now, if they want to use his down season as an opportunity to convince him to improve his strike zone discipline, great, but the vitriol I've seen (not here, but elsewhere) is not warranted. They are just mad because he's fat and swing at bad pitches, forgeting that he has that skill and ability.
Just worry first about him returning to his prior (2008-2009) goodness, then we can gild the lily and work on his strike zone discipline.
The biggest reason I want the dude to lose some weight is so that he won't lead the world in Double Plays. Oh, and I would just embarrassed to have the second coming of Mo Vaughn as one of my favorite players.
ReplyDeleteSomeone should get Michael Young's take on a 300 pounder playing better 3B than him. I think Sandoval probably settles in this year, hitting right around .300 and hitting 20+ jacks.
Isn't it nice to know that after the 2012 season we will have an extra $36 million (Rowand, Huff, DeRosa, and F. Sanchez off the books except for Huff's option) and after the 2013 season an extra $20 million (Zito's bad contract except for his buyout). If we can get our prospects such as Belt, Culberson, Neal, etc. to come in and take their places we will have $50+ million to lock up out pitching staff and maybe get that legitimate 30+ HR bat we have been missing. It should be a fun couple years. Go Giants!
ReplyDeletethe non roster invitees have just been posted
ReplyDeletehttp://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110114&content_id=16442136&vkey=news_sf&c_id=sf
vogelsong is back....lol
http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110113&content_id=16435566&vkey=news_sf&c_id=sf
ReplyDeleteonly strange move in the farm system is the move of mach back to aa, as i thought his strengths were teaching and scouting...skeels headed back to sj
decker still with the org....thank the gods