If you are my age or older, you cut your teeth on a Giants lineup that included Hall of Famer Willie McCovey absolutely terrorizing opposing pitchers. If you are about 20 years younger, you grew up with a near HOF'er, Will Clark, and his sweet swing putting up MVP numbers from the position. First base is supposed to be the easiest position to find offense, but since Will Clark, Giants fans have had to watch the likes of Paul Goldschmidt, Adrian Gonzalez, Freddie Freeman, Anthony Rizzo and Pete Alonso play for other teams. Yeah, I know, the Belt Wars. Don't tell me Brandon Belt is anywhere close to the same tier as Goldy, let alone Will Clark or Willie McCovey. Brandon Belt was supposed to be that guy, and he's been very good at times, but has never quite gotten there much to the frustration of many Giants fans. He's now coming off the worst season and appears to be about done barring some serious conditioning and/or retooling of his swing and approach. Giants fans longing for the days of Will Clark and Willie Mac will not be happy with the current depth chart, at all!
MLB 40 Man Roster:
Brandon Belt
Austin Slater
Chris Shaw
Zach Green
Buster Posey
Aramis Garcia
Belt is Belt. He has two years and about $30 M left on his contract. The Giants have 3 choices with him: 1. Keep running him out there and hope for better results. 2. Trade him and eat a big part of his contract or else take a bad contract for another position, say pitcher, back. 3. Just release him and eat the contract. The biggest problem with #2 and #3 is none of the other 40 man options are appealing to take his place. Maybe create a platoon out of Slater and Shaw? To significantly improve on the meager production Belt gives, they would have to pay retail prices in free agency or trade prospects for an upgrade in addition to eating all or most of Belt's contract.
AAA:
None.
Brock Stassi is listed on the River Cats roster, but I'm pretty sure he is a free agent and not really a depth option anyway.
AA:
Gio Brusa
The Mayor of San Jose finally gave up the keys to the city and moved to Richmond. He's strictly an organizational player at this point.
A+:
None.
David Villar played some 1B but was rated the best defensive 3B in the Cal League(I think I read that somewhere) and is being developed as a 3B.
A:
Logan Wyatt
Frankie Tostado
Jacob Gonzalez
Wyatt was the Giants second round draft pick this year. His power is questionable for the position. Frankie Tostado showed nice power. Listed as an OF on the roster. Jacob Gonzalez is probably more likely to be released than promoted for 2020.
Short Season:
Connor Cannon
Beicker Mendoza
Cannon is a late round draftee who was injured a lot in college. He showed "light-tower" power in the AZL but now needs to show it at higher levels. Mendoza has been playing in the Giants system for 5 years. He carries a .281 career BA but with just a .398 SLG%.
Rookie AZL:
Garrett Frechette
Francisco Medina
Ismael Alcantara
Victor Bericoto
Frechette has a sweet swing and got an above-slot bonus in the draft so he's someone to watch going forward. Medina showed intriguing power in the DSL way back in 2015, but not a lot since. Alcantara was signed for $300 K back in 2016 but hasn't found traction in 3 rookie league seasons. Victor Bericoto is a 17 yo who raked in the DSL and got a rare late season promotion to Arizona.
DSL:
Samuel Jorge
Ronaldo Flores
Rayner Santana
Samuel Jorge has not found traction in 3 DSL seasons. Flores split time between catcher and 1B. Santana played 1 game at 1B.
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This is the position I would expect Farhan would have the easiest time upgrading. Whether its someone like Luke Voit or Matt Adams or an older infielder in his last years getting moved to 1B like Dozier or Desmond, the options have to be a plenty with just a little bit of creativity. The biggest challenge is what to do with Belt. I like the idea of trading him for another bad contract like a pitcher and then fingers crossed said pitcher has a bounce back year at Oracle Park. That would clear the way for Farhan to use his merry go round strategy of shuffling through cheap guys until he finds one that sticks. One thing is for sure and that is that Posey is no longer a viable option at 1B for his last years since he obviously forgot how to hit.
ReplyDeleteI close my eyes and imagine a 35+ home run first baseman for the Giants with the name Connor Cannon. It's just too perfect.
ReplyDeleteAt this time its just best to move Belt to Free Up a Roster spot and churn 1B's through in 2020 looking for an answer. Shaw is one I would like to see plus Slater, Green and Austin plus we have some youngsters who look interesting.
ReplyDeleteAustin is now a Milwaukee Brewer.
DeleteShaw has been waiting for his turn for a bit. He has nothing left to prove in the minors. They've never really given him a shot in the majors. Why not?
ReplyDeletePer trading Belt, I believe that he has a limited no trade clause in his contract.
Trading Belt won’t be hard, getting value back in return will be very difficult. If it frees up the position it needs to be done for this team to improve so whatever the return is I’m fine with.
ReplyDeleteShaw unfortunately is very much NOT the answer. He is regularly overwhelmed by fastballs above 95 and would have to have a miracle offseason to last more than 2 weeks with Farhan and his hot trigger finger.
Start the dumpster diving 2 step shuffle and churn out a productive first baseman or just switch Longoria there and sign Rendon maybe? They have to spend some money this offseason so who else makes more sense? They also can’t buy every piece they need in one offseason to be competitive next year so invest in one solid piece this offseason and next year get another.
I never expected to encounter fans on this site to be okay with just cutting $30 million from a sick 1B player. Our fences are finally coming in and no player on roster has suffered from this more than Belt, final week of season he nails a HR that hit top of wall or was caught in CF. There is not enough info on Shaw yet, but from guy above "they've never given him a shot" LOL. Yaz had 3K at-bats in Orioles AAA and Shaw hasn't been given chance LOL...using Slater w/ Shaw may work good if indeed Belt was traded but man I would like to see his adjustments after the walls are changed.
DeleteShaw has achieved at every single level of the minors (20+ homers EVERY season since he was drafted), including the tricky AA Richmond, this season. Yaz? Nice story this year, but he never even topped 15 homeruns before this season. As I said in a previous post, they'd do good to sell high and trade him this offseason.
DeleteI've been a huge Belt defender so I won't say I don't have a particular bias but even in a down year he was 18th in 1B fWAR, right after Joey Votto and before Eric Hosmer. His fWAR in 2017 and 2018 would put him around 10-12th. Belt was battling knee problems all year. It's quite possible Belt is in a downward trajectory as he enters age 32. But it's much more likely if he's healthy to return to his 2017-2018 level of above average 1B production.
ReplyDeleteNow I admit, he will probably never reach the .300 30 100 100 season many of us supporters thought was inevitable in his career. But he still has the skill-set to be a valuable hitter as someone who gets on base with 20+ hr power.