When the Giants Come to Town, It's Bye-Bye Baby

12.14.2007
The Kids

Back to fun stuff: The Merc’s Andrew Baggarly moonlights for Baseball America on Giants-related stuff (and cleverly disguises himself as “Andy Baggarly”). BA has posted his organizational report. Ladies and gentlemen: The future.  

For those who prefer to stay on my site — bless your pointy little heads —here’s a summary.

Top ten prospects:

1. Angel Villalona, INF
2. Tim Alderson, RHP
3. Madison Bumgarner, LHP
4. Nate Schierholtz, OF
5. Henry Sosa, RHP
6. Nick Noonan, INF
7. Eugenio Velez, INF/OF
8. Wendell Fairley, OF
9. John Bowker, OF
10. Emmanuel Burriss, SS

Five years from now, Alderson and Bumgarner are projected to be in the starting rotation, along with Zito, Cain and Lincecum. That’s something to look forward to.

The bottom line is that the Giants’ pitching should be the envy of most organizations. That’s half the battle.

Baggarly also runs through the scouting changes for the Giants. No word if they’ve made big upgrades, but there’s certainly fresh blood.

If we consider the above list the best indicator of upcoming talent, the Aaron Rowand signing isn’t blocking anyone. Schierholtz and Bowker are corner outfielders; Fred Lewis and Rajai Davis, who accumulated too many big-league at-bats to be considered prospects, are nice role players.

Besides, Bowker isn’t ready for the bigs, not without at least a trial run at Fresno next year, and Schierholtz has plenty of holes in his game. I’ve argued before that he could use more time at AAA to work on his plate discipline.

If Bowker and Schierholtz prove ready, Randy Winn and Dave Roberts will be gone by the end of 2009, if not sooner. Rowand isn’t ideal, but if he gives the Giants three or four years of top defensive play in CF with 15–20 homers a year and a .350–ish on-base percentage, well, then they’ve probably overpaid but not by much. The more I think about his contract, the more I’m OK with it.



Also on the Network:



[December 15, 2007 2:05 AM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

Glad you are coming to my side. :^)

How about Villalona!

[December 15, 2007 12:07 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Frank said

Looking back, how far back do you have to go to find a SF CF better than Rowand?

[December 15, 2007 12:10 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Frank said

Looking back, how far back do you have to go to find a SF CF better than Rowand?
BTW, there are excellent reviews of these top 10 players on a diary at McC Chrons - See "Decker to manage..."

[December 16, 2007 4:38 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Chris said

Probably Benard's 1999 season, he OPS+'d 110 from CF. Benard was never as good as Rowand was defensively.

Grissom's 2003 was also pretty good, he hit above average for a CF. Much like Benard, Grissom's D wasn't very good by the time he made it to the Giants.

[December 17, 2007 12:08 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Jonathan Bass said

Benard was an absolutely terrible CF. He took horrible angles. One of the worst defensive CFs I've ever seen.

[December 17, 2007 11:43 AM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

Rowand's probably the best full-time defensive CF the Giants have had since Darren Lewis.

[December 17, 2007 6:08 PM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

I think you would have to go back to Brett Butler for the combination of offense and defense that Rowand provides. Butler obviously stole more, but Rowand hits for a lot more power.

Oh, and I meant my side on Rowand's contract, not Villalona; I see I wasn't clear with that.

Hiatt seems a nice enough guy but I have to wonder if there's any connection with why our position prospects haven't been developing. I recall him mentioning as far back as early 2006 season the idea of getting outfielders to play 1B in order to provide more flexibility and chances to play in the majors, and it took until late 2007 for Ortmeier to do so. But I don't know enough to praise or condemn what he has done.

Barr, one can only hope he is for position players what Tidrow has been for pitching.