MLB teams using their AAA affiliates for roster depth is nothing new but under Farhan Zaidi's regime the Sacramento River Cats were integral to The Churn with resulting roster chaos for the affiliate. FZ did deploy more younger, rising prospects at the level but they tended to not stay long due to his peripatetic promotions over the past two seasons and if they flamed out with the Giants, well, they just got sent back down! Here are the numbers:
Batting Average(min. 100 PA's):
Jerar Encarnacion OF: .352
Donovan Walton IF: .306
Trenton Brooks 1B/OF: .302
Brett Wisely IF: .301
Heliot Ramos OF: .296.
Doubles:
David Villar IF: 26
Luis Matos OF: 22
Jakson Reetz C: 20
Triples:
Brett Auerbach UT: 4
Grant McCray OF: 4
Donovan Walton IF: 4
Home Runs:
David Villar: 16
Luis Matos: 14
Casey Schmitt IF: 13.
Stolen Bases:
Casey Schmitt: 11
Blake Sabol C/OF: 11
Hunter Bishop OF: 10
Trenton Brooks: 10
ERA(min 50 IP):
Tommy Romero RHP: 3.14
Justin Garza RHP: 3.42
Mason Black RHP: 4.59
Carson Seymour RHP: 4.82
Strikeouts:
Carson Whisenhunt LHP: 135
Carson Seymour RHP: 132
Clay Helvey RHP: 97
Summary:
Buster Posey and his new GM will have quite a task sorting through this rather motley crew deciding who are keepers and who to move on from. Hopefully they will dial back on The Churn and the frantic promotion schedule, or non-schedule, and concentrate on skill development which takes time and patience.
Well, that's one way of looking at it.
ReplyDeleteYes, it was a bad year, individually (mostly) and collectively.
Another way to see it is as a continuing search for combinations that would work.
A team that can't put very many consecutive wins will fail: management must find players that produce.
Choices were plagued by injuries and players expected to preform as they had in the past didn't.
Wade, Estrada, Flores, Murphy, Slater, & YtY were all injured and didn't play consistently when they weren't injured.
Matos and Luciano, at 22 yo, weren't ready, and may have been used unwisely by the manager.
Ramos and Fitzgerald performed well when they were called up and they stayed up.
Pitching was similarly affected by injuries and inconsistency and quite a few rookies pitched extensively.
Zaidi took the fall, much as Kapler did the year before, when the team missed expectations.
"....may have been used unwisely by the manager." Beat writers are reporting that FZ dictated lineup and in-game substitutions. And let's take Luciano as just one example. FZ did not have to essentially name him the starting SS for Opening Day, not acquire a veteran SS over the winter then acquire Nick Ahmed at the last minute. Beat writers are also reporting he was not communicating with other people in the organization. Did he ask any of the minor league managers and coaches Luciano was ready before going through the offseason with him as the presumptive starting SS? If the consensus in the organization was that Luciano was ready to step into the role, why acquire Ahmed at the last minute? Why bail out on Luciano after a few bad games? You also mentioned Murphy. FZ shipped out a former #2 overall draft pick who also was previously rushed up in favor of Murphy who has an extensive injury history then didn't have a back up plan when this oft-injured player suffered..... an injury.
DeleteAfter reading those reports on FZ as a leader, I can understand why they moved on from him . Good people throughout the Giants organization felt they were underutilized, unheard, not used correctly. . Brian Sabean leaving was always a red flag for me. Sounded like FZ had no use for him!. I think part of it is FZ is an analytics person while Sabes is a baseball person.. Buster Posey saying he wants a GM who is a servant leader who will make decisions after consulting with the group shows me that he will take the right steps to get them on the right. track.
DeleteGood luck to Buster Posey in signing Free Agents this off-season:
ReplyDeleteScott Boras controls Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes, Gerrit Cole, Pete Alonso, Alex Bregman, Blake Snell, Cody Bellinger, Tyler O’Neill, Jurickson Profar, Sean Manaea, Yusei Kikuchi, Rhys Hoskins, and Matthew Boyd.
Even if the Giants cannot compete against the NY teams for Soto, a lot of the others could be helpful.
How many will Boras hold back seeking Top Dollar?
They had to wait until March to get Chapman and Spring Training was all but over when Snell signed — we know how that worked out.
There is Adames who they might want — he's not with Boras.
The Giants have a history of signing Boras clients with mixed results so I don't think that connection makes it more difficult or less likely. There is an argument to be made that the Giants would be better off today if they had signed Chapman and Snell to contracts closer to their asking prices earlier in the offseason. I would be interested to see a study looking at how Boras clients perform vs their signing price. If anything I would guess they historically deliver positive value.
DeleteLet's 100% place the teams failings at the feet of a guy who thought himself a genius. Murphy was a vanity play that allowed him to get rid of Bart. Luciano isn't his boy. Hence, Ahmed is, somehow, a better option. And Luciano was off to a relatively hot start. Fitzgerald was a nice surprise. But can he sustain it? I have a feeling that he won't. I'm shocked that Ramos was actually given a chance to shine. He did, in the time allowed, and forced FZ's hand. I hope that we're patient in allowing Buster and company to fix the mistakes of the Zaidi regime. Many as they are.
ReplyDeleteI hope Buster will be patient with himself in the process. When I look at the obvious talent gap between the Giants and the two World Series teams and I think you can count the Padres in there too, I don't think it's possible to close it in one offseason.
DeleteI look at it as a parallel to 2010. Back then, we had superior pitching. But the developed bats were a bit behind. Hence, we had to have Renteria, Huff, and Uribe. Buster came along and took over for Molina. The next season, Crawford and Belt arrived. Again, I'm not sure how good Fitz will be in his sophomore season. Ramos proved good, once his back was against the wall. Luciano might be ready to shine, this year. I hope they make a push for retaining Snell, and get a full season out of him. See what the current pitching can do, once healthy. Then plug the gaps, strategically. Not committing to huge contracts. Allow the draft picks to develop in due time. I fear that Chapman's extension might be Zito v2. However, that ultimately worked out, in the end. I hope that they don't over commit to too many contracts of that sort. NO MORE REYNOLDS LEVEL PANIC TRADES!
DeleteJust my 2 cents.