Now that the Giants are in camp with their "My G.M. Went to Nashville and Used Up His Rollover Anytime Minutes and All I Got Was This Dumb Camouflage T-shirt" T-shirts, we can start to read comments, Kremlinology-style, to see which ambitious young thing has the incriminating photos of key Politburo members and which career apparatchik is nearly passed out at his desk with an empty bottle of vodka in the side drawer.
Let's examine the bullpen. Brian Wilson and Tyler Walker seem assured of jobs. When I wrote about the bullpen muddle in December, these were the candidates I listed:
Wilson
Walker
Hennessey
Kline
Sanchez
Chulk
Misch
Taschner
Messenger
Capellan
Barring injury, trade or horrific spring self-immolation, the top three are in. But as Andrew Baggarly reported this morning, Erick Threets is out of options, which adds a bit of intrigue: the flamethrowing lefty is finally showing a glimmer of readiness, but he'll really need to shine in spring to make the squad. If he does, do the Giants toss Kline and his guaranteed $1.75 M overboard? Perhaps Kline heard footsteps this winter, which would explain his decision to lose 14 pounds -- what's that? Forty, not fourteen? I mean, God bless baseball that it still allows room for overweight slobs among its professional ranks, but a guy who needs motivation from a reality TV show to lose a fifth of his body weight is perhaps jumping aboard the swagger-train a bit late, no?
Jack Taschner has an option left, which I didn't realize.
Another tea leaf to read: Bochy tells A-Bags that both Sanchez and Misch will stretch out their arms, with Sanchez in particular being groomed to start.
On the right side of the pen, I think Randy Messenger is most likely to be demoted (does he have options left?) or cut. Vinnie Chulk has shown durability if not exceptionality, and he seems a lot closer than Messenger to putting it all together and having a breakout year.
So the bullpen battles go like this:
IN
Wilson
Walker
LIKELY
Chulk
Hennessey
IN WITH A KNOCKOUT SPRING
Threets
Capellan
DON'T GET TOO COMFY, PAL
Messenger
Kline
EXPENDABLE
Taschner (with an option)
Sanchez (to the AAA rotation)
Misch (to the AAA rotation)
If the team really wants to go north with a nothing-to-lose bullpen -- and according to the fresh 2008 PECOTA numbers, this team has nothing to lose -- it should look like this:
Wilson
Walker
Hennessey
Chulk
Messenger
Capellan
Threets
Taschner starts in AAA and gets the first call-up if Capellan proves unable to hide under the bullpen bench for the full year or the Threets experiment is a rank failure. Misch and Sanchez get more rotation seasoning in Fresno and wait for injuries and/or the expected Noah Lowry trade.
Let's examine the bullpen. Brian Wilson and Tyler Walker seem assured of jobs. When I wrote about the bullpen muddle in December, these were the candidates I listed:
Wilson
Walker
Hennessey
Kline
Sanchez
Chulk
Misch
Taschner
Messenger
Capellan
Barring injury, trade or horrific spring self-immolation, the top three are in. But as Andrew Baggarly reported this morning, Erick Threets is out of options, which adds a bit of intrigue: the flamethrowing lefty is finally showing a glimmer of readiness, but he'll really need to shine in spring to make the squad. If he does, do the Giants toss Kline and his guaranteed $1.75 M overboard? Perhaps Kline heard footsteps this winter, which would explain his decision to lose 14 pounds -- what's that? Forty, not fourteen? I mean, God bless baseball that it still allows room for overweight slobs among its professional ranks, but a guy who needs motivation from a reality TV show to lose a fifth of his body weight is perhaps jumping aboard the swagger-train a bit late, no?
Jack Taschner has an option left, which I didn't realize.
Another tea leaf to read: Bochy tells A-Bags that both Sanchez and Misch will stretch out their arms, with Sanchez in particular being groomed to start.
On the right side of the pen, I think Randy Messenger is most likely to be demoted (does he have options left?) or cut. Vinnie Chulk has shown durability if not exceptionality, and he seems a lot closer than Messenger to putting it all together and having a breakout year.
So the bullpen battles go like this:
IN
Wilson
Walker
LIKELY
Chulk
Hennessey
IN WITH A KNOCKOUT SPRING
Threets
Capellan
DON'T GET TOO COMFY, PAL
Messenger
Kline
EXPENDABLE
Taschner (with an option)
Sanchez (to the AAA rotation)
Misch (to the AAA rotation)
If the team really wants to go north with a nothing-to-lose bullpen -- and according to the fresh 2008 PECOTA numbers, this team has nothing to lose -- it should look like this:
Wilson
Walker
Hennessey
Chulk
Messenger
Capellan
Threets
Taschner starts in AAA and gets the first call-up if Capellan proves unable to hide under the bullpen bench for the full year or the Threets experiment is a rank failure. Misch and Sanchez get more rotation seasoning in Fresno and wait for injuries and/or the expected Noah Lowry trade.
