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

07.11.2008
Aaron Rowand, Motivational Tool

Apparently Giants CF and all-around red-ass Aaron Rowand isn’t happy about the Giants’ efforts in New York. I can’t blame him, and neither can Bruce Bochy, who held a pre-game meeting yesterday to tell his squad they’d better not mail it in just because the All-Star break is nigh.

Schulman in the Chron noted that Rowand promised the lackadaisical play “will be taken care of in-house” and that he gave a post-game stink-eye to players who, in Schulman’s words, “seemed to be having a good time” after the Giants’ fourth straight loss.

To keep the bad vibes from spreading, it’s time to kneel at the Roger Craig shrine and dust off a time-honored dauber-picker-upper, courtesy of reader BigO. If you don’t know what a dauber is and why it’s bad to have it down, it’s time for a little history lesson.

SMALL PRINT UPDATE:

Fresno SS Ivan Ochoa, who seemed a more logical candidate than Bocock to fill in for Vizquel at the start of the year, will finally come on up to the house. He’s having a nice year in AAA (.318 / .399 / .445), and he’s also new to the 40–man roster, which had a vacancy after Chulk was cut. (By the way, did you notice that no team claimed Chulk off waivers? He’s now pitching in Fresno.)

To make room on the 25–man roster, Travis Denker is going all the way down to single-A San Jose, probably because Fresno is entering their All-Star break. Denker should jump back to AAA in a week; if he doesn’t, we’ll  wonder what the hell’s going on.

Or we could wonder that now. Denker wasn’t getting regular at-bats, so no problem sending him down. But will Ochoa gather similar dust? I hope not; it’s time to find out if he’s a candidate for the job in 2009. To hope Burriss is ready next year is like hoping you can smoke three packs a day and live ‘til you’re 90. There’s always a chance, but you’d better have a Plan B.

If Ochoa can be an average ML SS, he’ll be a vast improvement over this year. As BP’s Jay Jaffe notes, Giant shortstops have the second worst combined OPS (.516) of any position on any ML team this year. He’ll also give Burriss time to play every day in the minors.



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[July 11, 2008 2:22 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Frank said

Can't but wonder if there is a connection (Rowand's observations/Denker sent down/Burriss' position crowded (by Ochoa). I say this because I thought in the final LA game, when he started, Burriss looked really lackadaisical and disinterested. He made 2 throwing errors in one inning (only one charged) and didn't even bother to chase runner back to 2b - and was the only SS in the series not to do so. I have to say I am alarmed at Rowand's observations

[July 11, 2008 2:27 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

In his post about the roster move, Andy Baggarly makes mention of Burriss' defensive lapses. But if Burriss were the guy who needed an attitude adjustment (or one of the guys), why wouldn't the Giants send him down, too? It's all very intriguing. I just hope the Giants don't get into a situation like they had in LA last year, where the vets accused the young guys of bad attitudes, then the whole thing really fell apart in the final month.

[July 11, 2008 2:45 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM replied to ELM

Oops, I forgot to include a link to Baggarly's post.

[July 11, 2008 2:29 PM]  |  link  |  reply
erikg said

So if a .516 combined OPS is only the *second* worst for any MLB team...who's number one? That's horrible.

Inquiring minds want to know.

[July 11, 2008 2:49 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM replied to erikg

Royals shortstops are worst with a .504 OPS.

Third worst are Seattle DHs -- ouch -- at .525 and fourth are SD catchers at .526.

[July 11, 2008 2:41 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Anonymous said

erik-- our pitching? lol...

What I've read from the McCoven who have seen Fresno play is that Ochoa may be worse and more clueless from a fundamentals standpoint than even Velez. Still, given a non-contending season and the underperformance at the position, it is definitely time to see what this guy can do, especially on offense. He has put up some nice numbers.

[July 11, 2008 5:08 PM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

When we got Ochoa, I read up on him from prior BP Annuals and basically the word on him is he's MLB-ready defense, the only question is whether he would ever develop the offense. He's finally doing it this season, after taking a nice leap last season.

I don't think Rowand has the power to send down anyone, so I would not tie his message of attitude adjustment to what happened with Ochoa's promotion/Denker demotion. I think anything done would have been internal and unpublicized.

Denker's move could be two-fold: 1) Durham's hitting very well, so he's not going to sit much, so send Denker down now to get some regular AB's; 2) the reason you want Denker getting his batting stroke back is because maybe the Giants think they can trade Durham before the end of the month, at which point Denker would take over 2B. Meanwhile, Burriss would continue to be backup MI, and Ochoa would get some play at SS to show what he can do.

[July 11, 2008 5:09 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

One addendum to the Rowand situation. Here's what he told the Merc yesterday:

"You really have to go up there and grind out your at-bats. . . . You need to have an idea of what you want to accomplish. You literally have to go up there and think, 'I'm going to get a base hit no matter what it takes.' Because they won't give you any cookies."

Here's what he did in his four at-bats today:

2nd inning:
Strike (swinging), Ball, Ball, Ball, Strike (looking), grounded out to second

4th inning: First pitch ground out to 2nd

7th inning: Strike (looking), flied out to right

9th inning, men on 1st and 3rd no outs:
Strike (looking), Strike (looking), Ball, struck out looking

Way to grind it out, pal.

[July 13, 2008 8:38 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Frank said

I don't know where else to put this comment, Lefty, but I would like your comment. Parenthetically, I dislike people spouting opinions when they have too little information to make an informed analysis, and that applies to me, here. So, I am asking a question, not stating an opinion:
Would you blame today's (Saturday's) loss on Bochy for bringing in Wilso in a tie game, with him facing pitching an unknown number of potential innings AND his being demonstrably poor in non-save situations? Or could Bochy be trying to put Wilson in a 'new' situation for his future development?

[July 14, 2008 4:45 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM replied to Frank

Frank, good question, and I'll try to give you a full response in tomorrow's post.