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

05.01.2008
4/30/08: Merry Xmas, Baby, You Sure Do Treat Me Right

PM UPDATE

Two links for your afternoon delight:

– Dedicating a huge chunk of his weekly column to Barry Zito’s fall from grace, ESPN’s Jayson Stark interviews asks his anonymous sources what the Giants should do. One suggests the Giants buy out his contract and spread the payments over 30 years. Eighteen million in future dollars isn’t the same as 18 million in 2009 dollars, but Zito gets to start fresh. (The same source says the players union would never let it happen.)

– If you’re near Fresno on May 15, make sure you check out the Grizzlies ‘80s Night promotion. After all these years, The Karate Kid will be avenged! 

***

Giants 3, Rockies 2: Fred Lewis made a diving catch to prevent the tying run from scoring in the 8th, and Tyler Walker said he would put Freddie on his Christmas list. Freddie’s response: "I said, 'Oh, I wasn't before?'”

The kid is quick, and not just on the field.

PLODAG: FreddieLoo! On base twice, including a leadoff walk in the 7th that led to the tying run, and a great catch. (I should note, however, that he probably should have caught Spilborgh’s double in the 5th that gave the Rockies their second run. Looks to me like he took a terrible route.)

The team continues to, well, not exactly roll. How about surprise? The lineup yesterday sported a shortstop, an outfielder recently converted to first base, a backup catcher, and a second baseman, all of whom combined had less than 20 games experience above AA ball when the season started.

It’s a thin margin: Bengie Molina’s leg could seize up at any moment and leave the Giants with Steve Holm as the only catcher. (Eliezer Alfonzo just got whacked with a 50–day suspension for failing a drug test, and Guillermo Rodriguez is still out with concussion symptoms.) If Molina goes down, the Giants could end up with Todd Jennings backing up Holm. Or some grizzled Crash Davis-type plucked from the scrap heap. Wait a sec, Mike Piazza is still unemployed… 

Noah Lowry won’t be back anytime soon, the Merc tells us this morning. It sounds bad. They’re shutting him down for a few weeks because the odd nerve-related sensations he felt before his surgery have cropped up again. What a drag. You have to feel bad for the kid. Before long the Giants will need a fifth starter beyond Cain-Lincecum-Sanchez-Misch. It will be interesting to see if the Giants plug Zito back into the rotation more quickly than expected. That would do him little good. He needs time.

So what to do? Brad Hennessey into the rotation is one option. Another is a fill-in guy from Fresno: of their remaining starters, Victor Santos has thrown the ball best. He’s non-roster and would need space cleared, but the Giants could transfer Kevin Frandsen to the 60–day DL. Or they could grab someone off the waiver wire. Ugh.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Giants end the John Bowker experiment soon. The league is feeding him a steady diet of off-speed stuff, and he’s not adjusting. They should give him a couple more weeks and re-evaluate. Will the team give Daniel Ortmeier more at-bats at first base?

More roster shenanigans coming soon: Omar Vizquel could be back within a month. Keep Bocock? Burriss? Neither?

Put your GM hat on and discuss an upcoming roster decision: shortstop, first base, starting pitcher, catcher… 
Also on the Network:



[May 1, 2008 2:09 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Mr Lomez said

Sending Bowker down is obviously the right move. The kid is gonna lose all confidence if this keeps up.

Ortmeier just can't hit, so let's nix that idea.

What about signing the recently DFA'd Jason Botts. I've seen him personally annihilate the Giants in two consecutive Spring Trainings. Low cost, high reward. Huge power potential. Great Minor League numbers. He's the right age to break out. It just makes sense to me.

Help me get the ball rolling with this one.

[May 1, 2008 2:45 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Chris replied to Mr Lomez

I'd take Botts, why not.

Also, I would:

- Cut Aurilia, Durham, and Castillo

- Start Velez at 2B. He's not great, but he's better than Durham right now. Especially defensively.

I'll cross-post this from my site on Durham's defense, which is horrendous.

>> *Ray Durham Defense Tangent: Durham’s Revised Zone Rating of .657 is amazingly bad. That means that Durham is only converting 65.7% of balls hit into his zone into outs. Compare him to chronic bad defenders Dan Uggla (73.5%) and Jeff Kent (82.1%) and you get an idea of just how bad Durham is. Eugenio Velez is no gold-glover, but in 114 innings at 2B, his rate of (76.5%) while still poor, is much better than Durhams’. There is no reason to play Durham right now, both offensively and defensively.

- Call up Justin Leone to play 3B/UTIL. I'm a Leone fan, so sue me. Marginal upgrade, maybe, but Jose Castillo isn't the answer. Castillo is the 2nd to worst defender at 3B in the NL right now. Critics of Leone bag on his D, but it can't be any worse than Castillo's.

- When Omar comes back, send down Bocock but keep Burriss as the starter and let Omar do his "cagey veteran tutors a youngster" thing.

- When Dave Roberts is uninjured, trade or release him. Freddy has LF on lock down.

- Trade Winn for anything and let Schierholtz play RF.

Those are some my moves off the top of my head if I was wearing the GM pants.

[May 1, 2008 3:24 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM replied to Chris

Burriss looks like he has more clue at the plate than Bocock. His D probably isn't as good, but I'd keep him over Bocock, who should be the starting SS in AA or, if the Giants are feeling giddy, AAA.

Velez isn't doing well and he's showing signs of regression. Getting picked off, defensive blunders, defenseless against off-speed stuff, bad plate discipline. Keep playing him, but watch him closely.

[May 2, 2008 3:33 PM]  |  link  |  reply
nattering nabob replied to ELM

Concur- both Bocock and Velez seem to be distracted. If Bocock can't field and Velez can't steal/stretch base hits there's literally no reason for them to be up. I like Eugenio a lot, and hope that he ditches the clam chowder between his ears in the next two months.

[May 1, 2008 2:51 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM replied to Mr Lomez

Here are his career numbers through 2007. His AAA numbers haven't translated into MLB success. Can he actually play 1B?

[May 1, 2008 3:10 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Mr Lomez said

In 102 games at AAA Oklahoma last year he had a .981 OPS. Sounds pretty good to me.

Can it translate to MLB success? I guess you don't know until he's given a shot. 244 Ab's scattered over 3 seasons isn't a big enough sample size to say.

Can he play 1B? A tougher question. But we know he's a good athlete, and he's played 1B off and on throughout his career, so it's not entirely foreign territory for him.

There's also a compelling psychological element to his story. The guy has toiled in the Ranger's farm for years, played well there, but they've never given him a real chance to prove himself in Arlington. Reading articles, he seems to feel like Texas is a negative situation for him and that his poor MLB numbers are largely due to uncertainty over his status in the organization. Just an excuse? Maybe. But between Carlos Pena and Adrien Gonzalez, just off the top of my head, how many 1B have the Rangers prematurely abandoned in just the last 5 years?

[May 1, 2008 4:45 PM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive replied to Mr Lomez

Carlos Pena took how many years to break out after they gave up on him, 4-5 seasons?

And premature is all relative: unless you are saying that these players should have played ahead of Mark Teixiera, how is it pre-mature? Are you saying the Rangers should have played them instead of Teixiera?

It might be small samples, but apparently it is enough for BP to write him off as a prospect, and Texas too, who has had a front row seat to that. Plus, he played in one of the best offensive parks outside of Colorado, enough that fantasy advise columns take Rangers games at Arlington as a factor on who to play.

Even in his splits, he couldn't hit for much at home versus the road.

Seems like a waste of time on a prospect like him, I would rather see how Ortmeier does, at least he was able to hit well enough with limited playing time last season.

[May 1, 2008 5:47 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Mr Lomez replied to obsessivegiantscompulsive

The point was not to compare Botts to Pena or Gonzalez, and certainly not to compare any of them to Big Tex.

The point is that the Rangers have made a lot of really curious decisions regarding their young talent in the past - the litany of Ranger farmhands now with succesful careers elsewhere is a long one - so to simply assume that the Rangers are making the right choice with Botts is giving them way too much credit.

And while BP may have given up on Botts as a Top Prospect, no baseball people that I've read have made any insinuation that he isn't worth a waiver claim, if not by the Giants then by someone. Botts is too young and too talented to dismiss.

Frankly, the lack of power in the Giants organization is shocking. I'd rather go bust on Bott's 40 HR potential, than mess around with Orty. And it's not like the Giants have to throw any chips on the table. This is a free roll.

[May 1, 2008 4:33 PM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

Ortmeier has hit well since he stopped switch-hitting, so I would like to see him get a chance. It's not like Aurilia or Bowker are killing the baseball right now.

Here's what BP said about Botts: "classic Quadruple-A hitter". I would rather give Ortmeier a chance instead, there must be something there if Barry Bonds took the time to get a photo-op of him tutoring Ortmeier in spring training. When he got his chance last September, he took it and did well. Maybe he was rusty in spring training, who knows, but he has hit OK since stopping switch-hitting.

Nick Pereira has been touted by most fantasy advisors for the past two springs as a pitcher the Giants would turn to. He hasn't done well in AAA thus far this season, but I would rather try him out than a re-tread like Santos.

Heck, I've seen Gino Espinelli described as a filler, but he's doing well in relief this year and he started the previous two years and did OK, so, actually, I would rather go with him next, lets bring him up and see what he can do, he's only 25 years old and has done well for us in the minors.

I would also throw out the name of Adam Cowart as a long shot. He's been doing well at a higher level - again - this time in AA, so he's not that far away. Surprised they promoted Sadowski instead of him, but I guess they wanted him to prove himself in AA first, so perhaps I'm jumping the gun there, they aren't going to promote him to the majors if they wouldn't promote him to AAA when there was a chance. Eh, just a thought.

I think the Giants have proven this season that they can hold back from picking up a lot of slop to fill up roster spots when we have someone viable to play there, particularly in terms of pitching, we kept both Valdez and Threets, as well as Taschner.

Castillo was the only one, but, really, we had no real 3B anyway (not that he is either, I suppose) and perhaps they suspected that there was something bigger going on with Frandsen since he was struggling in spring training. It is not like Castillo is holding anyone back, Velez has not shown that he is a viable starter long term at any position, let alone 3B, because of his defense.

Yeah, terrible news about Lowry, lucky we didn't trade any young arms away. Too bad the Giants didn't trade him away last season, I was hoping they would do that last season.

[May 1, 2008 4:49 PM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

No way the players union would allow that to happen. They wouldn't even let A-Rod adjust his contract downward to join the Red Sox. The only way I can see it happening is if the Giants pick up his option as well, then spread out over Zito's lifetime. Then the union can point to that as a plus, then the spreading would be the concession to get option picked up.

I'm not ready to give up on him yet.

[May 2, 2008 12:38 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Matt Schiavenza said

GM hat...let's go:
-Since Velez isn't tearing it up, I'd play Durham with the hopes that he gets hot and would bring something back from a desperate trade at midseason. Ditto Randy Winn. As for Roberts, he should be released or traded as soon as he's healthy, as Fred Lewis shouldn't lose at bats to him.

Bocock belongs in the minors, but Burriss hasn't embarrassed himself yet. Keep him up, and split his time with Omar at short.