Yusmeiro Petit showed why he has kicked around baseball since being a top prospect several years ago and the Giants failed to generate much offense as they closed out the 2012 Spring Training schedule with a loss to the Oakland A's. Key LInes:
Buster Posey- 2 for 2, 2B. BA= .325. Buster hasn't had a spectacular spring, but if he just does this it will be huge offensive upgrade from the catcher position over what the Giants had most of last year.
Hector Sanchez- 2 for 4. BA= .383. The Hector wins a roster spot!!
Ryan Theriot- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .190. Theriot should be useful against LHP's.
Yusmeiro Petit- 3.1 IP, 7 H, 6 R. 2 BB, 2 K's, 3 HR. ERA= 4.78. Petit's problem has always been the longball. Looks like it still is!
The Giants finalized their Roster with Bruce Bochy announcing that Aubrey Huff will be the starting LF and Brandon Belt will platoon 1B with Brett Pill. Hector Sanchez won the backup catcher job over a couple of light hitting, but good defensive veterans in a mild surpise. Ryan Theriot will be the reserve middle infielder with Gregor Blanco and Nate Schierholtz the OF reserves.
Eli Whiteside was optioned to Fresno and Chris Stewart was traded to the Yankees for AAA RHP George Kontos who looks like a pretty good pitcher to me.
The Giants have the day off tomorrow then open the season Friday evening in Arizona with Tim Lincecum getting opening day starting duties.
The minor league season opens tomorrow night. Ricky Oropesa will play his first professional game as the San Jose Giants play the Nuts in Modesto. We'll try to put up Down on the Farm summaries as well as Game Wraps each day.
Let's play ball!!
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really have little to say
ReplyDeletethe giants are really committed to building from within
this is an exciting time....for.....
THE LUNATIC FRINGE ARE VINDICATED
THESE AINT YOUR DADDY'S PIANO MOVERS....
LETS PLAY SOME BALL
really have little to say
DeleteThe Lunatic Fringe are NOT vindicated.
If it were up to them, Cain would have been traded for offense, Smoak would be drafted instead of Posey, Heyward would be drafted instead of MadBum, Lincecum traded for Rios, Dirty traded for Cory Hart (in 2010 no less!), or some combo of the above. Any of those moves made = no World Series title in 2010. The Fringe would have ruined that title in an alternative universe. They also did not believe in the Giants from 2009-2011, especially in 2010. Worse of all, they would have gotten rid of Sabean long ago.
Sabean IS vindicated. Young pitching rotation - check! Shutdown bullpen - check! Young lineup built through the farm mostly, especially middle of lineup - check! Look at Alex Pavlovic's list of players and ages plus the name of prospects who look likely to join in coming years. Find me another team built with so many homegrown players, there are likely very few (if any) teams so homebuilt, because most teams cannot built solely internally, it is just that hard to do via the draft, particularly once you are competing for the playoffs every season.
All the complaints about Sabean and youth are shown to be the mewing of people who don't understand when a team is turning around things (since 2007) or understand how a baseball team is rebuilt. This excitement is so 2009 for me, where have you been the past three seasons?
Oh yeah, head in the sand saying that the sky is falling, the sky is falling! You have been complaining bitterly about the Giants right and left for all these years now, and act now like you are the one who drafted all these players and developed them.
Oh yeah, that was Sabean and gang. All you guys did was sit in stands and complain about everything the Giants did.
Sabean is the one vindicated. The Giants are the one vindicated.
Time for the young guys to show us what they got. An exciting time to be sure.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I would have done different is keep Arias instead of Theriot, but that deal was sealed when the deadline for cutting him without having to pay his full salary passed. I just think Arias is the superior defensive player and not necessarily inferior on offense.
ReplyDeletelong season, lineup can an will be tweaked
Deletethink huff will actually make it through the full season in left?
Committed to the youts. I love it. I would have kept both the LSU guys and ditched Burriss, but that's gone now. Come on Handy Manny, put the lumber to em. LETS PLAY SOME BALL
ReplyDeleteAs much as I liked Fontenot and still wanted him around, I like keeping Burriss.
DeleteHe showed a lot in 2008, his first season, and then he was derailed the next couple of years because of that foot injury that recurred. 2011 was his first season without injury since then, and given that his speed is key to his success, his foot injury, just looking at the drop in BABIP he had after the injuries, appears to have greatly affected his ability to "steal" basehits with his speed. And, of course, getting on base is key to his value, so that he can use it to steal bases.
I don't know how long foot injuries take to heal, but even last season he seemed to be affected by it still, to some extent. Perhaps he didn't have the stamina, as his BABIP was much higher early in the season, but went down as the season progressed, he was stellar in April and May. He should be fully healed this season and has had time to build up strength and stamina, so he has no excuse anymore.
Plus, he can play at least 5, maybe as high as 7 positions in total, making him valuable in that super-utility role.
For those reasons I think the Giants did the right thing keeping him around, seeing what he can do for them, perhaps being a super-utility guy for them, but also he could be their starting 2B in 2013, Franchez's contract is over this season and I don't see any reason to re-sign him (thank goodness he turned down the 3rd year offered), and Panik should not be ready to start until 2014 at the earliest, he's only in the Cal League this season, though I expect a quick call-up to AA if he continues hitting there like he did all last season as a pro.
I think Crawford will prove to show that he's no 8th place hitter and not a drag on the offense, meaning the Giants could afford to put Burriss 8th and be the secondary leadoff hitter some teams like to have in the bottom of the lineup, or hey, maybe Bochy will copy his buddy, LaRussa's trick and bat the pitcher 8th and Burriss 9th, that would be good given his poor ISO/SLG but better OBP if he's hitting as well as he should, based on his high contact rate.
If he can hit enough, I'm fine with Handy Manny. I don't think pitchers respect his bat much, so until he proves out to them he won't be drawing a lot of walks. I do think he has a good eye though. And I'll give him a lot of credit for coming back from a horrid foot injury most people would have given up on. The big knock against him is his abysmal extra base hit percentage. Its almost a record how low it is. The best comp I could see (bay city ball did a study on this and I took their concept and goofed around) was pesty Jamey Carroll. Burriss and I share a birthday, I'm rooting for this guy more than you think, I'm just trying to be realistic as well.
DeleteArias, yes; but not under the circumstances in which they need to scrutinize Burris and Theriot very closely, since one of these two will be cut, I suppose, when Freddy Sanchez returns. They probably can't cut a pitcher, since they will be losing one reliever when Vogelsong comes back, and there remain serious questions about hapless Zito and Vogelsong off the DL. They aren't likely to cut an outfielder or, in the infield, Sandoval or Crawford. Belt and Pill are needed for power. It's Burris and Theriot who seem most redundant, and who are the iffiest players. But to cut either means very likely to lose him for good.
ReplyDeleteIt's prudent, then, to stash Arias where he can easily be retrieved in case of need, and to consider Burris and Theriot as carefully-evaluated competitors for one spot, with the loser of the competition to disappear as a Giant.
I think this is an excellent analysis.
DeleteI am not sure if we end up cutting Burris at some point that we lose him for good. If we end up cutting him that means he wasn't performing well and based on his past poor performance at the ML level, I am not sure he'd be that desirable to another team. I could see him passing through waivers and us resigning him to a minor league deal. Theriot would be gone though as he does have a history of performing at some points during his career.
ReplyDeleteno, I'm not sure about Burris either, but it's a risk the team needn't run if their aim is to keep the best of the three, Burris/Theriot/Arias. Also, Burris might be cut in comparison to Theriot, not because of intrinsically poor performance--in fact, I rather hope this happens, since the team might then be able to trade him, as they did Stewart.
DeleteI have to think that Washington will pick him up, if only for the PR value of having the only DC born player on their team, plus they are not happy with their current young 2B, Desmond or whatever his name is.
DeleteLet's go Giants!!
ReplyDeletehttp://deadspin.com/5899264/the-marlins-opened-their-stadium-in-the-saddest-most-awkward-way-possible
ReplyDeletethe above is wrong is too many ways to count
the entire opening ceremony was cheesy and wrong...
loria has always been bad for the game
Always and forever. Bacci you are coming correct.
DeleteSo now that we're underway here's my first improve the roster trade idea: its a pretty obvious one. DFA Barry Zito and trade for Lannan. They want bench players or prospects. And most likely want the trading team to eat the 5MM salary. There is so much win in that transaction its not even funny. All it takes is a bit of cashish. Give them a choice of Brett Pill, Chris D, Conor G and Seth Rosin. Too little and a garbage trade you say? Not when you have a guy in the minors making 5MM. The team taking salary isn't going to give up premium prospects.
ReplyDeleteShank geez, wait at least until Zito gives up his first three runs in the first inning at CO.
Deleteits been floated that nate should be traded straight up for lannan
Deletethat would be a good trade
The Giants have moved beyond Vet Love. It's hard to let go of an era/error, but no tears shed for not watching Tejnada and OCab fumble around. Homegrown youth, speed, defense, retained pitching - bring it on.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to finally put some pressure on the opposing pitcher with speed and youth taking the extra base. Giants pitchers can pitch a different game when pitching with an early 1-2 run lead.
Friday can't come soon enough. Go Giants and thanks Giants Brass.
It is more a matter of good young players vs. vet love, the Giants have shown that they are more than willing to include young players on their team, in fact, they have been purposefully keeping spots open in their lineup for their young players to realistically compete for. It is not their fault if the young players faltered in their attempt to grasp the brass ring.
DeleteThey were forced to go to OCab, at the time of the trade for OCab, Crawford had been hitting .161/.242/.196/.438 for 7 weeks already, and only .138/.206.138/.344 for 4 weeks. Nobody's defense is good enough to make up for that type of poor hitting. They had to try something. It failed but keeping Crawford there wasn't doing him any good, he needed tweaking, and not a lot, because he was able to maintain a great contact rate (low K%) even while struggling, so his issue wasn't getting the bat on the ball, but rather what the bat DID with the ball. So far, so good, looks like hethey fixed that.
Tejada, on the other hand, at that time, we had no SS, Crawford hadn't even played in AAA yet and only half a season in AA, where he hit only .241/.337/.375/.712 with 77 K in 291 AB, basically a strikeout every 4 AB, horrendous strikeout rate. Are you suggesting that we should have installed Crawford as the starting SS that off-season and not worry about such a decision?
All I know is that the key players we had on our team were Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez, Bumgarner, Sandoval, Posey, Wilson, Romo, 8 players out of 25, how many teams can boast of that many young players, period, let alone key contributors to their team? And out of our starters (8+5+1=14) 7 of 14 were young homegrown players, even fewer teams are like that. Are those clubs who are not like that also "vet lovers"?
Last year's bidness - Sabean had trade options on the table instead of grabbing Tejada. Scutaro, Hardy and Bartlett just to start. Yes I would have gladly given up arms for any of those options.
DeleteYou want a quick laugh? Only 15 errors charged all year to Tejada and Cabrera as Giants. Yup, 10 for Miggy, 5 for Ocab. Like hell I sayz.
FYI: for fantasy guys, Chris Perez blew a save for Indians and hasn't looked good for over a year while the guy following him, Vinnie Pestano, shut things down and is a huge strikeout guy, so even if he's not a closer, he'll be adding to your strikeout totals for your game, but if Perez loses it, Pestano looks like he could be next in line.
ReplyDeleteMasterson pitched a gem too. I drafted both Masterson and Jimenez in my 5X5 roto so I have to hope somebody gets it together for the tribe.
DeleteI drafted Pestano, so yes, I'm happy to see what happened to Perez today. I figure about 2 more of those and Pestano will be the closer.
Deleteanyone have a clue why monell wasnt bumped up to fresno and williams is still there?
ReplyDeletedoesnt look like whitey reported