The Giants must be very serious about their strategy of stockpiling hard throwing relief pitching prospects. After loading up on them in the last 2-3 drafts, they added Fabio Castillo off the waiver wire and Scott Shuman out of the AAA phase of the Rule 5 draft this offseason. Now they add yet another in a trade in which they unloaded Conor Gillaspie who presented a looming roster dilemma.
I'm not going to be one of those guys who proclaims that I could never figure out what the Giants saw in Conor Gillaspie. He hit well over .400 in college and well, I'm kind of a sucker for .400 hitters at any level, myself. I was happy when the Giants took him in the supplemental first round of the 2008 draft Probably the biggest mistake the Giants made with Gillaspie was agreeing to give him a September callup in 2008 which necessitated putting him on the 40 man roster. I thought that move was a slap in the face to Buster Posey who signed later, apparently without knowledge that Gillaspie had gotten what was essentially a MLB contract at his signing. The other problem with that move is it tied Gillaspie to a much shorter development timeline as he then had 4 years to stick with the MLB club or be offered to other teams on waivers. That timeline was up this year, thus pretty much forcing the trade.
Gillaspie was not a terrible hitter in the minors. In fact, he was consistently good. It's just that he did not come close to dominating any hitting category at any level. He had a good BA and a solid OBP, but only modest power and essentially no speed. Those numbers might make him a prospect at SS or 2B, but not so much at 3B which seemed to be the only position he could play besides 1B, which is even worse from a hitting perspective. I've seen several comments by people wondering why the Giants never did the obvious move to 2B with him. Well, think about it for a minute. The Giants have never been shy about asking their prospects to try new positions. Either Gillaspie was stubborn and unwilling to make the move or the Giants coaches could see that he just didn't have the tools for it. I tend to favor the latter explanation.
I saw Conor Gillaspie play several times while he was with the San Jose Giants. Now, I'm not a scout, but to my eye, he could not play 3B. It wasn't just an obviously weak throwing arm either. He had very stiff awkward movements at the position, which often seemed to leave him in unadvantageous positions to make plays. I watched one game with the dude who goes by the handle of Tacklebox, and I believe his impression was pretty much the same as mine. In very brief MLB action, Conor made some decent plays and a couple of not-so-great ones, reinforcing the impression that he is defensively challenged.
Hopefully things will work out for him in Chicago where there is a potential opening at 3B at the MLB level. Maybe the friendly confines of the ballpark there will help him hit a few more HR's than he would on the west coast.
Jeff Soptic is a fireballing RHP drafted by the White Sox in the 3'rd round of the 2011 draft. He has shown decent K rates so far in his pro career but has walked almost as many batters as he has K'd. Well, the Giants seem to really like those kinds of prospects, so he joins the likes of Ian Gardeck, Stephen Johnson, Scott Shuman and many others in a derby to see which ones Dick Tidrow and his staff can straighten out. Getting a pitcher who can throw 100 MPH, who was drafted 3 years after an out-of-options Conor Gillaspie is an excellent salvage operation by Brian Sabean.
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Mark my words, Connor is going to have a successful ML career and will hit .300 a couple of times. However there was no room for him and all things considered this was a decent trade with some upside for both parties.
ReplyDeleteI hope that is true for his sake. I've always been intrigued by his bat, but he never showed the ability to hit for the kind of average in the pros that he did in college. I'm not convinced his glove is good enough to field any position, even in the AL.
DeleteI wish Conor well with the White Sox.. Maybe the American League suits him better because he's hit pretty well in the minors.. I remember being excited that Conor was finally getting his chance last year to start at 3rd base due to the Panda's injury during a Giants vs Dodgers series in LA. If I remember correct, he played ok the 1st game, but had major fielding and throwing problems the 2nd game, and Giants sent him down like a day later. Maybe its best he go to the American League with the DH.
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It seems to me that there is going to be at least one more trade before the season starts. Dan Runzler is also out of options, but the Giants already have 3 established LH relievers on the team. There is no way they carry 4 LH relievers on the 25 man. Affeldt and Lopez aren't going anywhere. That leaves the choice between Mijares and Runzler. Look for one of them to be traded.
ReplyDeletePretty sure Runzler has one more option. He is apparently showing better control in the young spring. One advantage he has is he might be able to go long man/clean up.
DeleteWhat is the deal with minor league options? I remember Runzler having "one more option" for like the last 4 years.
DeleteThat said, I also remember Runzler being incredible in his first partial season with the Giants, and being very excited about this. However, I believe I was in my early 20's back then, and he was surrounded with lore-names like Jim Brower and Scott Munter. I think his ultimate destiny will be to have a Jeremy Accardo-type career. That is to say, he may become good, but it'll be with another team...
If that's the case with Runzler, I'll be happy for him. Seems like a good kid, and even with a good head, but rough mechanics that no one can figure out.
I could swear I saw Runzler's name on a list of out-of-options players, but he's not on the MLBTR list, so your are probably right. Yeah, it seems like Runzler has been on the 40 man forever!
DeleteA Jeremy Accardo-type career would mean one year of competence--Accardo had a 1.5 fWAR in 2007--followed by five more of bouncing and jouncing between MLB and AAA for three or four teams. If that's Gillaspie's destiny, we're certainly lucky to have been able to swap him now for a hard-throwing young reliever such as, as DrB notes, the Giants have been stockpiling. They've done it at pretty minimal cost to the organization, too, so that they need only one to pan out for the strategy to pay off well for our roster. But not only that. With teams eager for prospective 8th-inning men and closers, I suppose that one way for the Giants to beat the hex of low draft position and meager bonus funds is for them to specialize in a certain line of trade bait, pitchers that Tidrow et al. are peculiarly capable of bringing up to the point where they can tempt other, needier teams.
DeleteIn football, if you can get a franchise quarterback in the 4th roud (Montana) or the 2nd RD (Kaepernick), you have a big competitive advantange since you can save those first overall picks for something else.
DeleteIn baseball, if you can have a Tidrow, a Raghetti, a Gardner who can produce big league pitchers others can't, you can do a lot of things with that.
2008 draft - Posey does it all early, Conor G shuffled for an arm, Roger K getting some noise, Crawford breaking through. Plus Surkamp. And Verdugo and Barnes used in trades. That is a great draft.
ReplyDeleteWord is that the Sox want to use him as a platoon with Keppinger. That is actually a pretty good comp for the kind of career Conor may have.
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