Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Down on the Farm: 4/16/2013

AAA  Fresno Grizzlies topped the Tacoma Rainiers 3-2:

Johnny Monell(C)- 2 for 4, 2B, HR(2).  BA= .261.
Carter Jurica(SS)- 2 for 4, 2B.  BA= .390.
Heath Hembree(RHP)- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 1.50.

I think Hembree will be up in SF by mid-season provided he stays healthy.

AA  Richmond Flying Squirrels vs Altoona Curve suspended after 9 innings tied 1-1:

Joe Panik(2B)- 2 for 4, 2B.  BA= .222.
Ricky Oropesa(1B)- 3 for 3, BB.  BA= .196.
Taylor Rogers(RHP)- 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 5 K's.  ERA= 3.00.
Phil McCormick(LHP)- 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K.  ERA= 1.08.

Hopefully this game will get Panik and Ricky going.

High A  San Jose Giants edged the Stockton Ports 2-1:

Shawn Payne(DH)- 1 for 3, 2B, BB.  BA= .304.
Elliott Blair(CF)- 1 for 4, HR(2).  BA= .269.
Ryan Cavan(3B)- 2 for 3, 2B,  BA= .382.
Angel Villalona(1B)- 1 for 4, 2B.  BA= .135.
Clayton Blackburn(RHP)- 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 9 K.  ERA= 1.06.
Bryce Bandilla(LHP)- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K's.  ERA= 0.00.
Josh Osich(LHP)- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, Save(2).  ERA= 0.00.

Another dominant performance by Blackburn.  He now has 21 K's against just 2 BB in 17 IP with a GO/AO= 1.42.  Bandilla continues to be ridiculously dominant and now has 21 K's in just 9 IP.

Low A  Augusta Greenjackets downed the Lexington Legends 2-1:

Matt Duffy(DH)- 2 for 4, 3B.  BA= .320.
Mitch Delfino(3B)- 2 for 4.  BA= .250.
Martin Agosta(RHP)- 6 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 7 K's.  ERA= 1.84.
Tyler Mizenko(RHP)- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's, Save(4).  ERA= 0.00.

Better start by Agosta than his last one, but a lot of walks here.

23 comments:

  1. doc,

    its as cold in the el as it is in the mlb...im not expecting any of the hitters to get going till mid may at the earliest

    as i really hope to be going to sunday's game, really hope to see cavan getting a lot of chances at 3rd

    bacci

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    1. Bacci,

      Unfortunately, I'm working Sunday. I will try to get to at least one of the other games in the series.

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  2. Mizenko is off to another good start, that kid is the real deal when it comes to shutting things down.

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  3. Its a good day when 2 of your best pitching prospects go six each and get the Ws. The Ws feel good I bet. Blackburn said "Hey Addison Russell, I see your youth, now you can have an 0 for 4, welcome to High-A youngster!" Both Agosta and Blackburn had to pitch tight games. Should be Stratton and Escobar going tonight.

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    1. Nope, its Gregorio for the Greenjackets. They might be babying Stratton a bit to start the season.

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    2. Gregorio had another good outing going 6 innings giving up 2 runs (1 earned) on 2 hits while striking out 10. In 17 innings of work, Joan Gregorio has 23 strike outs and 1 walk. Fantastic numbers. If Blackburn gets moved up to Richmond, then Gregorio or Agosta could be elevated to San Jose.

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    3. IMO, it's a bit premature to be speculating on promotions. I don't expect anything along those lines until after the draft, at the earliest. The Giants have become significantly more conservative with promotions in the last 2-3 years.

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  4. Blackburn didn't even skip a beat from his great Cal League playoff start to this season, despite the off-season. The great news is that he's still so dominant with the strikeouts, maybe even more so.

    If he continues to be so good, then when do you think the Giants will promote him, early May or late May, to AA? Any chance of AAA this season? Do you think if he continues to pitch so very well this season, could that lean the Giants towards letting Lincecum leave in the off-season, as Clayton could be ready a la Bumgarner in 2010 by May/June, so the Giants could sign a Wellemeyer type FA in the off-season, and promote Blackburn by mid-season if/when the FA falters. (I know, I missed the AQA... :^)

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    1. A little ahead of ourselves? Yeah, he does this another 3-4 times, Richmond beckons.

      Here's the list of FAs for 2014: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/02/2014-mlb-free-agents.html

      I'd be cool with replacing one Tim with another: Tim Hudson on a one year try and win a ring deal sounds good to me. Paul Maholm? Or Zito re-upped? There's your choice on soft tossing lefties. Man there are a bunch of flawed guys in that FA class. And the Dodgers relief corps to boot!

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    2. That's why I said "if" and not that he will, I just wanted to get someone's take on that scenario.

      I think Zito will be re-upped, though now I'm leaning more towards a more team friendly cost than the $11M additional dollars the option would entail. I think the combination of him wanting to retire as a Giant, the Giants needing/wanting continuity in the rotation, and the likelihood that no team will be willing to pay him $11M for even one season will lead to a deal getting done, probably in the $6-9M range (depends on how much slack Zito wants to give the Giants given how much they overpaid him previously, given his preference to stay here - which might be driven by both his wife as well a desire for more WS ring bling).

      I would love a Tim Hudson, but he's probably going to get a bigger contract than a Wellemeyer type. That said, that would max our chances of repeating I think, up to ownership. But historically, they have gone the wild card route (like Wellemeyer) who did well previously so maybe on a cheap deal, they catch lightening, but if not, then if the prospect is ready, no reason to hold him back. So Maholm would appear a more likely type, though I recall studies showing that he regularly underperforms his FIP for some reason, so I would not expect the Giants to sign him.

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  5. That Augusta beat reporter is a good follow. On his twitter, you can see that Agosta got helped by his defense - 2 CS and a sweet grab up the middle by new scrapper Brown. He's getting his K's though...

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  6. I could see Blackburn getting to AA relatively quickly and being a late season call up, to run a test on him. If he "hits" then, Timmy is a goner (and maybe anyway. Then we'd have MadBum, Cain, Blackburn, Zito (figuring we'd pick up his option) and a replacement for Vogelsog. That could be Hudson, or even Heston (although I'd hate to have two rookies). Frankly, with the rest of the kids doing well, Blackburn being lights out and Cain and MadBum under contract for a while, I could see Heston and some of the other AAA guys being trade bait.

    PiLamBear

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    1. Writing off Vogelsong already? His K/9 and K/BB still looks good, I would not bet against him right now, he's gettin BABIPed. If he's still like this in June, then I'll say he's more of a goner. And even then, I think the Giants have a nice low cost option on him for 2014, so they might still keep him around if they think they can get him straigthened out.

      The Giants have usually only held onto their top guys who look sure for a shot at the majors (this year, Crick, Blackburn, Stratton, Hembree, Brown, Panik, Peguero, Kieschnick, Noonan), plus very inexperienced prospects who has not had enough time to show what they got yet, so I can easily see Heston and Kickham being trade bait, they were never considered THAT good, but good enough to entice one team or another to do a trade for them, when they got a vet they are going to lose for nothing anyway, I think.

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  7. I definitely see us being rather active in the trade market this year. We have a LOT of ML- ready guys that would be very note resting to teams like the Marlins, Astros, Padres or some of the fringe teams that end up becoming sellers. I can imagine Heston, Stratton, Dominguez, JCP, Tanaka, etc actually being somewhat valued and could, in a package, fetch a decent starting-level player.

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    1. I don't see this at all. The Giants rarely trade to trade, they trade for some need, whether to fill a spot, or to clear a spot, usually. The lineup is pretty set, only LF is one that maybe could need an upgrade, and they will probably bring up Peguero, Kieschnick, Brown first (and maybe even use Noonan out there) before they trade for anyone, particularly if we are winning anyway. They probably throw Gillaspie out there at some point too, if necessary.

      I don't see anything being done for the rotation either, with Heston and Kickham in AAA, plus Surkamp at some point, and perhaps Blackburn by season's end, the Giants have a lot of potential options before needing to trade for someone, though if someone big blows out, they might do another Beltran-esque trade if they are close at the time.

      Bullpen don't require such a prospect to fill out, plus we have Hembree and Bochy lined up as replacements, Runzler too. And Heston, Kickham, and Surkamp could fill that role too, if necessary. If one of our top relievers go down for the season, yeah, I can see a trade, but only if Hembree, Bochy, and Runzler fails.

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    2. If there is an injury in the rotation during this season, I think there is a 90% chance the Giants try to replace that via trade rather than inside. I think there is a high probability of trading to bring in a reliever or two also.

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    3. I was not trying to implying that they would "trade to trade". Sorry if appeared that way.

      I meant that if they had any holes due to injury are prolonged slump, the ABSOLUTELY have the goods to make a move.

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    4. OK, that makes a lot more sense, I see what you were trying to go with, but yeah, that first sentence misled me.

      But yeah, totally, absolutely have the goods to make a move, if necessary. I don't see any of our very top prospects, however, being moved, like Stratton, Blackburn, Crick, Brown, Panik, Peguero, Hembree, and the way Agosta has been pitching, I'll be adding his name soon, heck, Escobar and Gregorio too, Susac and Duvall on the hitter's side. Sabean and gang has a "Do Not Trade" list and these are the guys I think are on that list.

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  8. Dr B - We run a weekly sports podcast & are interested in having you on. Reach out to my email for more details if you have interest on your end.
    Sorry to contact you on the boards didn't see a direct contact page.
    Ray

    ray@sportinghubris.com

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  9. Does anyone know why Francisco Peguero has been out of the line-up for the last three games. I've heard that he has been placed on the 7-day DL, but it doesn't appear in the transacton page for the Pacific Coast League. Is something else going on with Peguero? Anyone have more information?

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  10. When do you think Bandilla gets a shot at a rotation job? Seems to be too good and too young to stay in the bullpen to me.

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    1. I don't have any insight into how the Giants make these decisions. The fact that Bandilla is working multiple innings at a time would indicate to me that the Giants are open minded about him returning to a starting role. The SP rotation slots are pretty crowded though.

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