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

01.22.2008
Shuuto to Kill

Apparently the Giants will be more aggressive scouting players in the Far East. I know this because some guy named Lefty asked MLB.com’s Chris Haft to put the question to Giants’ executives. Here’s how it shook out in Haft’s latest mailbag:

Any thoughts on why the Giants haven't tried to sign any Japanese pitchers? I'm not talking about Dice-K. It seems the lower-profile guys, especially relievers like Akinori Otsuka, Boston's Hideki Okajima, and the Dodgers' Takashi Saito, have been great bargains. It would seem a perfect fit: Pacific Rim city, big Asian population, a constant need for bullpen help. Are the Giants getting outbid? Do they not have enough scouting in Japan?
-- Lefty, San Francisco

The Giants' commitment to international scouting has been widely questioned in recent years. Skepticism subsided somewhat in 2006 when they signed third baseman Angel Villalona out of the Dominican Republic. The Giants apparently intend to extend their reach to Japan and Korea. When I mentioned to a Giants executive that several fans had asked about the team's lack of activity in such countries, he replied, "They can expect to see us very involved in that market in the future." The hiring of international scout John Cox last year reflected the club's renewed intent to explore other markets.

Unfortunately we don’t know if “the future” means 2023, when the first bullpen replicants roll off the Tyrell Corp. assembly line (I’ve got an early order in for LOOGY25ZX with enhanced shuuto grip), or if it means Keiichi Yabu, the 39–year-old retread the team has invited to spring training.

The Giants have moved to revamp their scouting department (see here), with rumors last fall that the team would lure away one of John Schuerholz’s key guys. As far as I can tell, that hire never happened, and the effect of the changes on the team’s amateur drafts won’t play out for half a decade.

But this June the team has a chance to do something it hasn’t done since the late 1980s: draft a position player who becomes a star. The last one was Matt Williams, who played college ball in Nevada and took a few years to have a big-league impact. (We forget, but Matty looked lost at the plate his first two years.) It’s even rarer to draft a player who becomes an instant star — say, by hitting a home run to dead center off Nolan Ryan in his first major league at-bat.

There seem to be two college hitters who could conceivably reprise that role, and one of them, Vanderbilt’s Pedro Alvarez, will probably be gone when the Giants pick fifth. But according to this mock draft, the Giants could pick up South Carolina first baseman Justin Smoak, which we heartily encourage if only for the years of shameless punnery it would provide.



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[January 23, 2008 12:09 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Chris said

Nice question, but we have Yabu! what more do you want?

[January 23, 2008 12:11 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Lars said

I am a little disappointed, Lefty. I expected a rant about the new "suites" going up over the arcade in RF.

[January 23, 2008 12:25 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

I haven't heard about these new suites. Can you point me to the info?

[January 23, 2008 12:31 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Lars said

GiantFan9 made a post on the mlb.com giants board and also the Giants Virtual Forum EZBoard about a letter that was sent out to all season ticket holders regarding "the opportunity to be the first to take advantage of the new RF luxury suites".

Here is the link to the mlb.com post:

http://www.forums.mlb.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ml-giants&tid=97003

[January 23, 2008 1:25 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM replied to Lars

I'm a season ticket holder and I don't recall seeing anything about this. Maybe I missed it. But I think Giantfan9 is either wrong or pulling a fast one.

[January 23, 2008 1:31 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Lars replied to ELM

Maybe, but it doesn't sound like something he would make up. GF9 just doesn't seem like the jokester type.

http://giantsjottings.blogspot.com/

The above is his spring training blog. I have followed it for the last couple of years.

[January 23, 2008 6:22 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM replied to Lars

I've done a few searches and can't find anything on the Web. Maybe it's still a secret that only GF9 knows about.

[January 23, 2008 9:16 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Paul R. said

Love the Blade Runner reference you snuck in there.