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

06.24.2008
Romocop v. The Vincredible Chulk

Vinnie Chulk’s Giant days have come to an end. The Giants have designated him for assignment and called up Sergio Romo, the Merc’s Andy Baggarly reports on his blog. (UPDATE: Chris Haft reports Chulk won’t accept a minor-league demotion if he goes unclaimed by other teams.)

Apparently I wasn’t the only one to notice Chulk’s habit of allowing other people’s runs to score. Maddening for a guy with such good stuff; let him figure it out somewhere else. And let us all note the final connection to Jeremy Accardo, traded two summers ago for Shea Hillenbrand and Chulk. In case you lost track, Accardo had a breakout year in ‘07 but has battled injury this year. He hasn’t pitched since early May.  

Romo was in AA — er, Connecticut, that is — but only a few months removed from single-A, where he had laughing-gas silly silly numbers last year:

66 IP / 35 H / 4 HR / 15 BB / 106 K

He turned 25 in March and is old for his level, thus continuing the Giants recent pattern of moving the older fringe prospects up.



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[June 24, 2008 7:55 PM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

Romo is right about the average age for the league (low 25 vs. 24.7), so he is not that old.

To me, fringe would be 26-27-28 years old. Romo is making it to the majors in almost exactly 3 years since he was drafted, not too shabby.

[June 25, 2008 12:42 AM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM replied to obsessivegiantscompulsive

Thanks for the age data, but I think my point is still valid: heralded prospects aren't in single-A at the age of 24 or double-A at the age of 25.

Where did you get the average-age data? Do you have it for each level?

[June 25, 2008 9:41 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Chris replied to ELM

Lefty,

BB-Ref's new minor league portion of their site has the average age for hitters and pitchers in each league.

http://minors.baseball-reference.com/leagues.cgi?yid=2008&lid=EAS

I agree with your larger point, heralded prospects aren't in AA when they're 25-years-old. I'd love to see a breakdown by age on prospects in the minor leagues, to separate the wheat from the chaff, if you will.

I'm a Romo fan but the Giants have moved him slow, maybe that's a indication of how they view him as a prospect. It was clear that he was ready to be moved out of the California League last year but the Giants left him there to finish the year.

[June 24, 2008 8:30 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Johnny Disaster said

Chulk is one of those Tomko-type guys. I look at their pitches and can't fathom why they aren't at least very good, if not dominant. Maybe Ned Colletti will want to trade for him...

[June 25, 2008 9:55 AM]  |  link  |  reply
reeky said

Yeah, I bet somebody picks up Chulk, which will be good for the Giants, no? His point in Haft's article about not pitching regularly is a good one, and he *can* fling the ball.

Man, 106 Ks in 66 innings...give me some of that, baby!