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

03.17.2008
Rosteritis

Thirteen of the 32 games on the spring schedule remain. Jonathan Sanchez is likely to be the team’s fifth starter in Noah Lowry’s absence, but beyond that not much has cleared up. I have a few suggestions.

1) The Giants will probably break camp with seven relievers. If tomorrow were opening day, the team would lose at least a couple interesting arms from the pool of competition. The trick is to keep as many as possible and turn April, or at least the first week or two, into extended tryouts.

Send Misch to Fresno to join the rotation. With injuries and trades always looming, he’ll be needed in S.F. during the year. Even though Jack Taschner has pitched well, he has options. Send him to Fresno to start the year, too, with the promise that he’ll be the first reliever recalled. Since Vinnie Chulk has shoulder soreness, be extra careful and stash him on the DL to start the year.

Voila! Three extra bullpen spots. Come north with Merkin Valdez and Erick Threets on the roster, and let them pitch frequently. Keep a close eye on Steve Kline and hope he’s tradeable.

To start, it would be Wilson, Walker, Hennessey, Valdez, Threets, Kline, and one of the non-roster guys Yabu or Fortunato as long man. Best-case scenario: Kline throws well, becomes a useful part of a trade package, Threets takes over the LOOGY role, Taschner comes up and pitches like he did in 2005.

2) The Dan Ortmeier experiment is not going well. He’s hitting .178 / .288 / .244 in 45 at-bats this spring, which, as a point of reference, is still better than Joe Crede (3–for-33). I still advocate giving Ort the bulk of the first-base work in April and May, but it wouldn’t hurt to have options beyond Rich Aurilia. So if Dan Johnson is released by the A’s, as suggsted here, offer him a minor-league contract. He hasn’t proven his worth as a DH/1B type, but he’s only 27 and could still have a breakout year. Think Carlos Peña. Meanwhile, give Ortmeier every chance to prove his slow start wrong.

3) What to do about Eugenio Velez? The drumbeat to bring him north gets louder, but I only see it happening if the Giants can move Aurilia or Durham in a trade. He can’t play short, their most urgent need in early April, and he won’t be used much in the outfield. Better to keep him at Fresno playing full-time and working on his defense than bring him up as a bench guy. With the Giants actively seeking to move their veterans — Peter Gammons is the latest to note their eagerness — the question could be moot by mid-year.

Which guy on the bubble do you most want to see on the big-league roster to start the year? Discuss.



Also on the Network:



10 Comments

| Leave a comment
Boof | March 17, 2008 3:19 PM | Reply

Probably, Velez. In a pinch, he could play CF. Can't have enough of those.

Frank | March 17, 2008 3:42 PM | Reply

I agree, those 7 oitchers are fighting for 4 bull pen spots. Taschner, with his 1.08 ERA and .85 WHIP has certainly earned a spot, but your suggestion to send him to Fresno "because we can" is a good one. In otherwords, I think we should do as much as possible to keep as many of these 7 as we can. So, I agree, starting Chulk on the DL until he builds up his stamina is a good move. There are still 5 guys, 4 in particular who are having good STs. I think it would be great to be able to trade Kline now and start the year with Threets (3.86, 1.50) and Valdez (5.63, 1.25) and one of Fortunato (1.35, 1.35) or Yabu (3.09, 1.37). Since we have Taschner and since Yabu is 40 y.o, I think I would keep Tasch and Fortunato and cut Yabu. I'm not sure Sabeannwill do that.

ELM | March 17, 2008 5:27 PM | Reply

I agree about Yabu. I'd much rather see the Giants spend more time evaluating Fortunato. He's 33, and with a surgically repaired arm, at least he has a chance for a few good years. Think Salomon Torres as a comparable. Torres resurrected his career in his 30s and gave the Pirates three excellent seasons.

Frank | March 17, 2008 6:10 PM | Reply

The dilemma is how to respond to Kline... Do we root for him to implode and then be released (the safe route) or hope he does well enough and we trade him? To me, at a paltry 1.75 mil, I'd not be at all opposed to a simple release, thereby making Threets, and/or Fortunato more likely. I am of the persuasion we need to be looking for guys for '09'11 as well as potential trade chips. Kline is pretty far down my list, despite the fact he has been average or better most of his career, and likely will be this year. I just don't see it continuing into '09.

giantsrainman | March 17, 2008 7:37 PM | Reply

There is talk of Kline going to Philly for Helms. I think the idea is to allow Aurilia to be the stopgap SS, Velez to play everyday in Fresno, and Bocock, Burris, and Ochoa to continue to develope in the minors without starting options clocks by putting them on the roster. This would also clearly free up a bullpen spot.

ELM replied to comment from giantsrainman | March 17, 2008 9:43 PM | Reply

This doesn't quite add up. If Aurilia is the everyday SS while Omar is out, Frandsen would be the 3B and Durham the 2B. The Giants would then need a utility IF, and the most obvious option is Velez.

And if Aurilia is meant to hold SS for Omar, why hasn't he played an inning there this spring? (That's what I read earlier this morning.)

El Guapo | March 17, 2008 11:02 PM | Reply

The two most important guys right now are Threets and Valdez. Live young arms that are out of options with a REAL shot at being good pitchers for OTHER teams if we let them go. I'm ok with dumping Kline, Durham, Aurillia, and Roberts for anything we can get.

Lyle | March 19, 2008 9:40 AM | Reply

You mention guys on the bubble: I'm most concerned about Schierholtz's future. I think he's at a critical juncture in his developmental path - one that requires him to be in the big leagues, not the minors. That said, our OF glut is indefensible; I have elderly female relatives who could construct a *better roster than Sabean has recently.

*only slight hyperbole.

obsessivegiantscompulsive replied to comment from Lyle | March 19, 2008 1:42 PM | Reply

Yay, a heaping helping of hyperbole.

Nate's not that great a hitter yet. Both BP and Baseball Forecaster projects Nate as a mid-700 OPS in 2008. I don't think it would hurt him to spend another half season in AAA.

The rest of the OF rate higher in my opinion. Rowand and Winn both project as high 700 OPS hitters, and I think the projections on Roberts are wrong, he should return to his .350+ OBP rate of the previous years in 2008, I wish projection systems would account for injuries better, he had .362 OBP in the second half. Unless Nate picks up some speed and a lot more walks, he's not going to be able to take over leadoff from Roberts.

As Sabean regularly says, the roster is never set, it is always in flux. Winn or Roberts (or even Lewis or Davis) could get traded and open a spot for Nate at some point in the season. I had been pushing for Winn to be traded, but at this point, I would take anyone because I would like to see Nate get to play in the majors during the 2008 season.

But he's not totally ready for the majors yet, else he would have done even better in AAA last season, his MLEs look like he had a season in AAA equivalent to a mid-to-high 700 OPS season, nice but not even average for a corner OF in the major leagues. People forget that the competition in AAA is that much lesser than the majors, so you really have to sock the ball around a lot in AAA (much like how Lincecum dominated) to demonstrate that you are a plus prospect. Nate is not a plus prospect, yet.

That said, he's at least good enough to be an average starter, so I would like to see him get a chance, but not at the expense of just dumping a player, as some had suggested with Roberts, or trading someone just to clear a spot and accept less value in return, as some had suggested with Winn.

2008 should be about rebuilding. That means both playing more young prospects AS WELL AS getting full value when trading away the veterans. Sometimes that takes time, time for our vets to show that they can do it, time for other teams to decide they need him, time for other teams to have a critical injury and thus need him.

Rebuilding takes patience, patience that a lot of Giants fans have not been showing at all.

obsessivegiantscompulsive | March 19, 2008 1:23 PM | Reply

Think Carlos Pena? You mean the 10th pick overall in 1998? The hitter who still hit around 800 OPS all the years teams were giving up on him?

Johnson was drafted in the 7th round. His OPS hasn't sniffed 800 since his first season. He couldn't even hit RHP well last season. And his BABIP career line is pretty bad, the average hitters should be around .300, he is way down there, he's not that good a hitter. I'm thinking more like Hee Seop Choi, Damor Minor, they are more like Johnson, not Pena.

That said, if he's free, why not give him a shot. I still would like to see Ortmeier get time at 1B but given his poor spring, that doesn't look likely right now.

Leave a comment