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

02.16.2008
Hot Giant-on-Giant Action, Part 3
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.



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[February 17, 2008 10:49 AM]  |  link  |  reply
bpfastball said

Are you assuming Williamson is gonna be complete ineffective and won't factor in, or did you forget him?

[February 17, 2008 1:04 PM]  |  link  |  reply
FavoriteSpring said

I was going to ask about Williamson too - the other day he said that his understanding is that all he has to do is show he's healthy, and he's in. As for Sanchez, Bochy sounds like he wants him on the team as a reliever if he doesn't overtake Correia as 5th starter. Messenger seems to me very likely to be cut - whether its to make room for Sanchez, Williamson, Yabu or even to give Merkin (out of options)a shot. Otherwise I agree with you wholeheartedly about Kline and Taschner - Kline could be traded or released, Taschner sent down.

[February 17, 2008 1:55 PM]  |  link  |  reply
amoose said

I think all of this is moot because someone is getting shipped to Chitown for Crede. The question becomes: will it be an established big league starter (Lowry)? Or, a handful of prospects out of options (Threets et al)? I vote for neither, but Sabes has yet to count my previous angry screes as votes, so putting a pen together now is premature.
As an aside, I love the position battle posts Lefty. When do we get the in-depth look at the first base battle?

[February 17, 2008 3:23 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

D'oh -- I forgot about Williamson and the other NRIs. He'll have to show he's VERY healthy. This isn't a guy who's just had a bad year; his arm has nearly fallen off. I'll update my list a bit later.

[February 17, 2008 6:02 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Dan from NM said

Messenger does nothing for me. I'd cut him in a heartbeat.

[February 18, 2008 12:48 AM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

I think Messenger has an option but I'm not sure.

I would also mention that the Giants are thinking of going with only an 11-man pitching staff, which means only 6 relievers, so the don't get comfy guys really shouldn't because there are already 6 relievers above them (assuming the two lefties have knockout springs). However, I really don't see the Giants giving up on Capellan, though, unless he really stinks. They have made too much of a PR push on him - Felipe bragging about Boston being mad about this and how his brother had helped Boston draft this kid - to then return him back to Boston.

Then there is Merkin too, who has no options left. I have to think that relievers who cannot be optioned down will have be traded away at the end of spring training.

And unless Correia totally stinks, he's the 5th starter and I agree that both Misch and Sanchez will start in AAA because there is no starter who is potentially MLB-quality at either AAA or AA. Sosa is probably the closest and he should be starting 2008 only in San Jose.