Sunday, August 4, 2013

Down on the Farm: 8/4/2013

AAA  Fresno Grizzlies beat the Albuquerque Isotopes 2-1:

Juan Perez(RF)- 3 for 3, 2B, HR(10), BB.  BA= .310.
Ehire Adrianza(SS)- 1 for 2, 2 Sac.  BA= .361.
Francisco Peguero(LF)- 0 for 2, 2 BB.  BA= .309.
Eric Surkamp(LHP)- 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 8 K's, GO/AO= 8/2.  ERA= 3.38.
Heath Hembree(RHP)- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's  ERA= 4.24.

Now THAT is an Eric Surkamp line!  I wonder if the Giants might consider DFA Torres and Blanco and call up 2 out of Perez, Pegs and Adrianza?

AA  Richmond Flying Squirrels defeated the New Hampshire Fisher Cats 8-3:

Ryan Lollis(CF)- 3 for 5, 2B, SB(3).  BA= .274.
Joe Panik(SS)- 2 for 4.  BA= .261.
Angel Villalona(DH)- 1 for 2, SF.  BA= .250.
Tyler LaTorre(C)- 1 for 4, HR(1).  BA= .244.
Ryan Vogelsong(RHP)- 6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 5 K's.  ERA= 0.82.

Vogie looks like he's ready to go from this line.  Bochy was talking some nonsense about wanting to see him work with more runners on base.  I think I understand what he was trying to say, but that is just wrong!

High A  San Jose Giants extinguished the Bakersfield Blaze 7-4:

Chris Lofton(LF)- 1 for 4, HR(3), BB, SB(20).  BA= .249.
Ricky Oropesa(1B)- 2 for 5.  BA= .347.
Jason Forjet(RHP)- 6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 2 K's, GO/AO= 4/10.  ERA= 3.33.
Derek Law(RHP)- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(8).  ERA= 2.84.

Low K's and an extreme flyball tendency generally is not a good combination.  Forjet's season K/IP is 42/48.2 which is not too bad, though.  He IS a flyball pitcher, though, with a season GO/AO= 0.43.

Low A  Augusta Greenjackets edged the Charleston River Dogs 6-5:

Shawn Payne(LF)- 2 for 4, 2B, BB, SB(4).  BA= .348.
Mitch Delfino(3B)- 2 for 2, HR(10), 2 BB.  BA= .254.
Alberto Robles(2B)- 1 for 3, BB, 2 SB(8).  BA= .279.
Matt Lujan(LHP)- 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 4 BB, 8 K's.  ERA= 2.51.
Mason McVay(LHP)- 1.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 4 K's.  ERA= 4.58.

Delfino is hitting .297/.350/.541 over his last 10 games.

Short Season  Spokane Indians topped the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes 2-1:


Blake Miller(1B)- 3 for 4, HR(1).  BA= .321.
Armando Paniagua(RHP)- 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 2.70.
Cameron McVey(RHP)- 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 3.18.

Blake Miller put up some interesting number in a small college program in Oregon.  So far, so good in the pros.  I wonder how much playing in his hometown helps?

Rookie AZL  Giants were idle.

DSL  Scores not up yet.

20 comments:

  1. Lose Torres, yes. I think we keep Blanco because he has some tools as a #4 or #5 outfielder next year with some speed and defense. I'd cut Francour though because he has no future with this team. Then bring up a couple of the kids for an audition.

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    1. Francoeur was once a top 5 prospect in all of baseball and isn't all that old. I think there is a 4 WAR player inside of him somewhere. He's been working hard with Bam-Bam and accepting some mentorship from Matt Cain. I'd give him at least another 50 AB's to see if he can start to get some traction.

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    2. Agree, especially Blanco, he's still relatively inexpensive, and a handy backup should anyone goes down, there is still some value in that, and he was hitting very well until about a month ago, he either had some sort of injury that he's hiding or changed his mechanics severely for some reason at that time, almost day and night between before and after.

      I also agree with DrB that Frenchy might have some value if you give him some time to work on some things, he theoretically should be in his prime right now at age 29. He's also good backup if Pence should end up signing elsewhere, assuming we can return him to his prior OKness offensively.

      I would only give Peguero Torres' spot, I don't see any need to bring up Perez at this point, give our other, more highly rated OF prospects more ABs. If he has a good spring training or 2014, then he can get another chance.

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    3. We don't really have anything to lose seeing if Frenchy can re-build his swing, pick up a power stroke.

      One of these days we'll stumble on another RH batter with pure pull power who can light up PacBell. Its going to happen.

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    4. Look guys, the Giants don't even think Francour is part of their future, otherwise why bring up Roger K? They were hoping to catch lightening in a bottle and it didn't happen. If he is our fall back if we can't sign Pence then we need to get use to another year like this.
      I think the Giants learned their lesson and are only going to start 2014 with legit outfielders. Just say no to Francour.

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    5. They brought up Roger K because he finally started hitting again in the minors, and really well. The Giants prefer that Roger K does well and force all the vets out of the picture, but the sad story is that this is what they hoped with Peguero, Perez, and Tanaka, but none of them took (or Linden, Bowker, Schierholtz, Ellison, Lewis, etc). Roger K might not take either.

      That is why they keep Francoeur around, that is why they bring in vets, the odds are greater that they perform in the majors, but you still need to give the prospects their chances too, because you need the cheap complementary players (or better, cheap good players). but if the young fails, as most do, you need somebody around who can pick up some of the pieces as you are trying to maintain that balance of winning in the present while trying to develop your future contributors.

      If Francoeur is not a potential part of their future, then they would have DFAed him and brought up, say, Peguero, who is also right handed, to platoon with Roger K. He is a project they are working on, just like Roger K is a project they are working on, they prefer that Roger K works out, but to mitigate that high odds that he will fail, they are also working with Francoeur, who they apparently spotted some flaw that they think that they can fix.

      And maybe he doesn't work out, and that's OK, a baseball team needs to kiss a lot of frogs to find the ones who can actually help. That's not apologizing for Sabean's moves to get these players, that's just reality of baseball, nobody is perfect in finding and identifying talent, you make your best guesses and if you are successful enough, you win a lot of games, and if you have a good strategy, you win some world championships along the way too.

      That is something Sabean has done all his career, win a lot of games, as well as win some championships. That is his accomplishment and many fans, crazily in my view, seem to try every angle in the sun to avoid giving him any credit for the great work he has done for us, for the franchise.

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    6. Somebody recently pointed to the Cards as a team that has been better than the Giants, better than Sabean. And that's fine, it is no skin off my nose to acknowledge that Sabean probably isn't the best at what he does or that the Cards have been successful for a long time. But just because, to use an investing analogy, the Cards may be the Warren Buffett of baseball does not mean that there are not other good investors out there, that there are no other good GM's out there.

      I just think that Sabean is among the best at what he does, and that's good enough for me. I've never argued that anyway, my main point with all the Naysayers is that they want to fire him and I wanted him to stay, plain and simple, first because he was putting together a nice core of prospects and pitching staff, then because that core has won us two World Championships.

      And with two championships in three seasons, plus a great core set of players, they might still fulfill what I've been saying for the last 5-6 years, that the 2010's will the known as the Decade of the Giants. And if he can do that, then I think he gets his name into the conversation of best around.

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    7. Francoeur might not be legit, to your point. Based on his last two seasons, yeah, hard to see the silver lining there. But to DrB's point, he's still very young and was a top prospect, much like a lot of the reclaimation projects the Giants have taken on in recent years. His defense is outerworldly, if he can just be an average hitter, he can be a very valuable contributor to the team, he could be that LF that fans are clamoring for.

      And at this point, the season is just about over. We can't realistically think about winning the division until we reach .500 anyway and we are a long way from there, to DrB's point (though if the Dodgers collapse, I think anythings on the table). So we should be looking to the future.

      So Roger K is getting a shot and so is Francoeur. And if Roger continues to hit this well, I can see Francoeur getting to sit down and be a bench player, as I think that they will work with him until the off-season, at which point, they will make their decision. And I expect Peguero and Perez to get call-ups in September, and get some more tries too.

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  2. Although I wouldn't mind seeing Pegs, Perez, and Adrianza called up, I'd be surprised if they DFA Torres and Blanco because both were major contributors and popular players on WS championship teams. My guess is those players you mentioned get added on Sept 1. What about Heath Hembree. Should he get a Sept callup? Is he still considered a top prospect?

    LG

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    1. I don't see the Giants as being overly sentimental about players from the championship teams. They didn't exactly put the bum's rush on Wilson.

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    2. I'd have to think there's some element of it, though. I imagine Torres was considered as a reacquisition due in part to the role he once played for us. Ditto for the reason Huff was brought back for $10 mil per, and Pagan, Scoots and Affeldt given the contracts they got.

      Lucky

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    3. Lucky, Giants are sentimental about good production. Huff had a great season, $10M is cheap if he even produced half what he did in 2010. Pagan and Scoots contributions helped us win in 2012, and Affeldt has been good since he got him.

      Torres was reacquired partly for sentimental reason, but mostly because they knew what he could do, which is hit LHP really well the past few seasons. He produced very well hitting against LHP and had been good defensively, another trait the Giants like. If he happened to figure out how to return to 2010's levels, great, but their role for him was not as starter, which is what sentiment would have done, but a platoon with Blanco.

      Hembree is still considered a top prospect in my eyes, but his prospectdom took a huge beating this season. I would bring him up, given him a taste of the good life and motivate him to work harder at figuring out another pitch.

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    4. Also, while a Torres DFA is not out of the realm, I think the Giants want to continue platooning him with Blanco in CF, mainly because we have no better alternative. If Brown or Peguero had lit up the PCL, the Giants would have been more than happy to shove both aside and see what they could do instead.

      If Pagan somehow gets ready before September 1st, I think the Giants will vote either Torres or Francouer off the island at that point, but if he comes back later, then the Giants will probably keep both around, they can be useful in spots, and that is one of Bochy's strengths, putting his players in position to succeed, while also giving them opportunities to succeed, as well.

      Blanco is not getting DFAed. He's still relatively young and should stay cheap, and while not a starter, he plays great defense anywhere in the outfield, he's a good team player, and can hit RHP well enough sometimes. He's a great 4th OF, so he's not going anywhere.

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  3. I'd love to see the G's drop Frenchy and bring up Dominguez who at least has some positional flexibility.

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  4. Lose Blanco? No thanks. He's just being exposed for something he's not: he's a platoon bat, not a full time every inning player.

    Ehire has a 420 BABIP in the past day or so when I checked. If its turn a corner, great, but I think some healthy skepticism is in order on this one.

    Hembree has been putting up zero's pretty well for the past few. Just set the single season saves record for your Fresno Grizzlies to boot! 6 hits 3 BBs 12 Ks in his last 10 games, .182 BAA

    Andrew Cain and Delfino are rising their ISO's up at Augusta. Cain hit one out of the park park the other day.

    Joe Panik continues to get those 2 hits a game, like he did last year but this year he dug a bigger hole. Going to be hard to get to 300 but he's gonna fight the good fight.

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    1. Blanco is slumping against both RHP's and LHP's no? I can't remember when I last saw him try to slap the ball over the 3'rd baseman, or even go the other way at all, for that matter! He's trying to jerk everything right now and he's not a power hitter. It's good that Blanco has gap power to keep pitchers honest, but it should be used to keep pitchers honest, not to turn him into Joe Morgan. If it was just a one-time rut, it would be one thing, but he's done this every year of his career! I do like his D in CF, though. I might keep him around for that.

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    2. Yes, he's slumping, but to Shankbone's point, that's because he's a great 4th OF, platoon bat. He probably needs a break, like Belt, to work on things, but as badly as Blanco has been doing, Torres probably does just as poorly, sadly enough.

      Slapping the ball is not the proper way to be a MLB hitter. That is what Torres learned in changing the way he hits. Swinging away to hit a homer everytime is not the proper way to hit either, and Blanco, given the comments I've read here, seems to be trying to do that.

      He just needs to chillax and get back to doing what he can do, which is get on base well enough to fake being a regular on a short term basis plus provide some power to boot. It is not his fault that he don't have the skills to be a full-time starter, but the Giants are kind of forced to use him in that way. If Brown had continued hitting the way he was when he got hot, he probably would have gotten a call-up and get a chance in CF, but he's been relatively cold for a month now, he's off the rails again, striking out a storm.

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  5. So, what does this guy Matt Lujan throw? After being a S-R yo-yo, his last 4 games have 4 start, each of 7IP with 1ER each game (27.2 IP 4ER 20H/10BB 24K)...Looks good but he is old for Augusta after being drafted out of U of San Francisco..

    We talk about the pitchers the Giants have in SJ (now Richmond with Escobar), AUgusta and even below, but you gotta hand it to the Gianst pitching coaches at these levels in doing a tremendous job with most of the pitchers they come in contact with..

    SteveVA

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    1. I don't have a scouting report on Lujan, but I picture him as a 3-4 pitch lefty who tops out in the mid-high 80's and might not have the stuff to survive at higher levels.

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  6. Jacob Smith. 48th rounder out of Cambell NC. NC country boy. 6'4 190. Big ol' project. Lots of BBs so far, but lots of K's, not many H's. 33Ks in 25 IP, K/9 = 11.9 14 BBs for a 5.0 BB/9. H/9 = 5.0. He hasn't been hit too hard, no home runs, 6 doubles. Mid-inning multi-inning efforts for the most part. .161 BAA in S/S, might be a nice longshot to keep an eye on.

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