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

03.12.2008
Hot Giant-on-Giant Action Part 5, or, Short Notice

Omar fuPM UPDATE: Capellan Gone. Hat tip to the tireless BigO for noticing this note. The Giants put Rule V pick Jose Capellan on waivers, and the Reds claimed him. That leaves three lefties competing for the bullpen, Kline, Taschner and Threets, and 38 men on the 40-man roster.

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Call it a bonus round of Hotness, because when spring training started there was no competition for shortstop. And in a sense, there still isn’t: Omar Vizquel will return from knee surgery as quickly as modern medicine will allow, and we’ll all get our Fu on. (Behold the Fu, stage right.) 

But Kevin Frandsen’s ill-fated claim to the interim job has thrown open a bit of unforeseen competition to fill Omar’s shoes for a couple weeks in April. Since only prospect nerds know the contenders, let’s have a look.

With a few differences, all three farmhands in the running will have the same expectations: make the plays on defense, don’t embarrass yourself at the plate, and be ready to head back to the minors for a few more years.

Both Brian Bocock and Manny Burriss are 23 and in A-ball. Bocock has drawn raves for his defense — Felipe Alou said his glove is ready for the bigs — while Burriss has more promise on offense even though he flunked an audition at high-A San Jose last year. Ivan Ochoa is a couple years older and had his best season at the plate at Fresno in 2007 — still not saying much.

Any of the three would be lucky to crack the Mendoza line if called up. Do their spring stats tell us anything? Only if you want them to reinforce the notion that these guys aren’t ready to hit advanced pitching. All three have also made two errors apiece, which doesn’t mean much if you haven’t seen each one play day after day. And I haven’t.

There’s been talk of not wanting to start the service-time clocks of Burriss or Bocock, but the chance of either guy ever making a meaningful impact in the big leagues is so slim, I don’t see the big deal.

My vote: Bring up Bocock. Let’s see about his fancy glove, and provide the giggling masses with endless opportunity for juvenile humor.



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[March 13, 2008 6:08 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Frank said

Shouldn't the AAA guy be there exactly for this purpose - a week here, a week there, but not counted on for months of performance?