Giants made an international signing today, Simon Mercedes, an 18 yo RHP from the Dominican Prospect League. Mercedes participatate in the DPL All-Star Game today recording a line of 2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 3 K's. He reportedly has a fastball that runs 90-94 MPH and a sharp curveball. Not much other info available, but it's good to see the Giants still engaged in the international market.
The Giants also signed Justin Christian to a minor league contract. Christian is a 31 year old OF who has also played SS and 2B. He has recently been in the Yankees system putting up a line of .289/.366/.435 with 22 steals mostly in AA. He played in the Mexican Pacific League this fall and winter with a line of .356/.452/.561 with 22 doubles, 10 HR, 24 SB. He has excellent plate discipline with a K/BB of approximately 1 in addition to the excellent OBP's. Sounds like he could be another Andres Torres if the Giants can find a place for him.
Check out Splashing Pumpkins linked over on the left hand side of this blog. They are doing some interviews of Giants players at a pre-fanfest event yesterday. Some interesting questions and responses from Madison Bumgarner, Darren Ford and Javier Lopez so far.
Check out a fanpost by Goofus over on mccoveychronicles.com also linked to the left. He attended a pre-fanfest event too and has some interesting notes. Most touching to me was his story about Andres Torres choking back tears when he was asked how if felt to win a World Series with the Giants after struggling on the fringes of the major leagues for so long.
Fangraphs is posting a new projection system on their site for all the players called RotoChamp. I looked through some of them and kind of liked what I saw. Much better than MARCEL which IMO is just ridiculously skewed to league averages. They seem to be closest to Bill James, although ZIPS isn't too far off for most players. I thought I would post a hypothetical lineup and roster along with RotoChamp projections for each player to give an educated guess at how the season might turn out:
Lineup:
Andres Torres: .262/.337/.483, 44 2B, 11 3B, 19 HR, 90 R, 60 RBI, 27 SB in 557 AB.
Freddy Sanchez: .286/.331/.395, 27 2B, 2 3B, 8 HR, 69 R, 54 RBI in 501 AB.
Aubrey Huff: .287/.372/.488, 35 2B, 4 3B, 23 HR, 93 R, 95 RBI in 555 AB's.
Buster Posey: .309/.361/.504, 28 2B, 2 3B, 22 HR, 79 R, 84 RBI in 502 AB.
Pat Burrell: .243/.349.450, 21 2B, 1 3B, 20 HR, 65 R, 60 RBI in 402 AB.
Pablo Sandoval: .290/.347/.457, 36 2B, 4 3B, 16 HR, 73 R, 78 RBI in 551 AB.
Miguel Tejada: .291/.331/.417, 29 2B, 1 3B, 14 HR, 70 R, 74 RBI in 581 AB.
Cody Ross: .272/.327/.445, 28 2B, 2 3B, 17 HR, 59 R, 64 RBI in 481 AB.
Reserves: ( RotoChamp not available, used Bill James for reserves).
Eli Whiteside: .229/.276/.376, 8 2B, 1 3B, 5 HR, 18 R, 20 RBI in 170 AB.
Mike Fontenot: .278/.344/.404, 23 2B, 2 3B, 6 HR, 44 R, 40 RBI in 356 AB.
Travis Ishikawa: .268/.336/.432, 12 2B, 1 3B, 7 HR, 29 R, 33 RBI in 213 AB.
Mark DeRosa: .266/.345/.424, 14 2B, 1 3B, 11 HR, 48 R, 36 RBI in 311 AB.
Nate Schierholtz: .279/.326/.438, 15 2B, 3 3B, 5 HR, 30 R, 26 RBI in 226 AB.
Aaron Rowand: .262/.319.416, 14 2B, 1 3B, 9 HR, 34 R, 36 RBI in 281 AB.
Brandon Belt(ZIPS): .266/.357/.440, 32 2B, 8 3B, 14 HR, 79 R, 80 RBI in 516 AB's.(Belt will either start or not make the team at all. I think he will most likely go to Fresno to start the season).
If the Giants keep 12 pitchers and there are no injuries in Spring Training, 1 of the reserves will have to go. I am still of the opinion that Aaron Rowand will not be on the 25 man roster as of opening day.
I don't think Fontenot gets that many AB's if Freddy Sanchez and Miggy are both healthy especially with Derosa on the team. I wouldn't be shocked to see DeRosa traded if he looks healthy this spring. That would keep the Giants from having to eat Rowand's contract. I think DeRosa is more tradeable than Rowand. If Belt makes the team, Travis is gone.
I think we would all be happy if the season turned out this way for the offense. It's amazing how balanced the team is. The projection is very optimistic for Torres and moderately optimistic for Pablo. The rest of it is close to best case scenario, but very doable for everybody.
I'll cover the pitchers in a later post.
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Thanks for posting our projections in your blog!! If you ever see anything in our SF team page that doesn't seem quite right, please email us. We appreciate any input from people like yourself that follow each team so passionately.
ReplyDeleteRotoChampMike,
ReplyDeleteI liked your projections. Even though it's quite optimistic for Torres, I think it's very doable. What a lot of people don't realize about his season last year is he was a reserve for the month of April and ill with appendicitis the whole month of September. In the middle 4 months, he was on a pace that deserved MVP discussion. If you extrapolate his numbers from the middle 4 motnhs out to include April and September, he was on a pace for 21 HR, 33 SB, 111 Runs and 85 RBI's!
The only reason I say moderatly optimistic on Pablo is his range of possibilities is so wide. He could do a whole lot better than that or he could do a whole lot worse. I think most Giants fans will be quite happy if he hits your numbers.
doc,
ReplyDeleteim hoping that you are correct about rowand, because i believe that both nate and ti have alot to give to the org.
they cant afford to cut him, but this may be one time where an interdivision trade is ok
friars need bodies....eat most of his salary and send him south
our old pal kfran was given a minor league contract with the friars...and his chances of making the big club are very good
Bacci,
ReplyDeleteThere are persistent rumors that the Phillies might be interested in getting Rowand back, but I doubt they want to take on his salary. Man, if Gamer hates AT&T Park, what would he think of Petco? That place is where flyballs go to die! Where else might we send him? Unfortunately they have a new GM in Pittsburgh so we can't hope for another Morris trade.
I'd really hate to see Nate go too. He's an absolute magician in RF. If nothing else, his late inning D in RF is valuable. I don't think I will ever forget him tracking down a drive, I think it was by Nelson Cruz, into Triples Alley right after coming into Game 2. I am quite sure Cody Ross nor anybody else would have come close to it. He just outran that ball!
Travis' pinch hits and late inning D were very valuable too, but I have to think he's toast the minute Brandon Belt is added to the 25 man roster.
its not hard choosing belt over nate or ti...belt has the bigger upside
ReplyDeleteits if the org is forced to choose rowand over either that kills me
if the phillies still wanted rowand, he wouldve been gone by now
does he have a choice of where he can be traded? please dont tell me that he has no-trade like winn...that would be insane
i know he would hate going to sd, but i was just dealing with teams that have needs...and they have serious needs
so do the snakes....how about them?
Don't know, Bacci. I just have a feeling Nate will be on the team. I have a strong feeling that either Rowand or DeRosa will not, one way or another. My only support for that feeling is Sabes seems to have constructed that team as if DeRosa and/or Rowand don't even exist.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking it might be easier to trade DeRosa than Rowand, so maybe he's the one to go. He has to prove he's healthy in ST first, and if he isn't, well there's always a trip back to the DL.
Any question about Mercedes Just Aske me!
ReplyDeleteHey Mr Santos Opina,
ReplyDeleteWhat about Mercedes?