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

06.06.2008
Friday Notes

* The second day of the draft rolls on. The Giants have taken lots of pitchers. Maybe one of them will be the next Jonathan Sanchez, a 27th round pick in 2004, or Brian Wilson, a 24th-rounder in ‘03. If you’re curious, here are the other lower-round draftees by the Giants currently on the staff or nearly so:

Jack Taschner (1999–2nd)
Kevin Correia (2002–4th)
Billy Sadler (2003–6th)
Pat Misch (2003–7th)
Erick Threets (2000–7th)
Alex Hinshaw (2005, 15th)

To round things out:

Tyler Walker, Mets (1999–2nd)
Vinnie Chulk, Blue Jays (2000–12th)
Merkin Valdez and Keiichi Yabu were international free agents

Zito, Cain, Lincecum, Lowry, Hennessey: all first-rounders.

(Thanks to the Baseball Cube, which makes year-by-year team drafts easy to peruse.)

* Great quote from Krukow on his radio show this morning, about seeing the new baseball stadium this weekend in D.C.: “New yards are like new books, man, so this is going to be a new read for us tonight. I can’t wait.”

* ESPN’s Jayson Stark throws around a little Giant love in his latest column (scroll down to the “Seeing Stars” box), quoting an anonymous scout who says four Giants have a legitimate All-Star argument: Rowand, Molina, Lincecum and Wilson. The scout on Wilson: "He's the National League's Joe Nathan, except nobody knows it."

Well! Since becoming the Twins closer Nathan hasn’t had an OPS-against higher than .592, this year’s current mark. Wilson’s currently at .681 and nearly 1.5 baserunners an inning. In five years as a Twin, Nathan has had a WHIP above 1.0 once.



Also on the Network:



[June 7, 2008 12:46 PM]  |  link  |  reply
prospecthound said

Of course Wilson is 26 years old and has less than 80 MLB innings and by the time Nathan went to the twins he was 29 with hundreds of innings. At 26 Nathan was still a kid with a shoulder made out of hamburger holding on to a AAA slot by the skin on his teeth. The comp seems apt to me if you are talking about stuff, body type and approach, and in 3 years I would be surprised if Wilson had a whip over 1.

[June 7, 2008 4:23 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

>The comp seems apt to me if you are talking about stuff

Sure, absolutely. But the anonymous scout (or Stark) didn't make that distinction. LEt's hope Wilson's shoulder stays hamburger-free and within three years he truly is the Joe Nathan of the National League.