Congratulations to Scott McClain, who hit his first major league home run at the age of 36.
Here's the video clip. Now he's tied with Duane Kuiper, who nearly spit out a lung on the call. I get a little teary-eyed watching. How sweet that must feel.
McClain's feel-good homer and Barry Zito's eight sterling innings add up to perhaps the most redemptive game of the year. And yes, as you mentioned in the previous post's comments, I put the old reverse Malo psychological whammy on Zito and Aaron Cook, who got shelled. On purpose. Yeah, that's it. I meant to do it.
One quick thought about McClain: If the Giants decide they want a veteran right-handed bat and utility infielder next year and Rich Aurilia isn't available, how about McClain? Would he do any worse than Aurilia has the last two years?
I like the McClain idea, saves money over Aurilia, he won't expect to start like Aurilia would, would play the corner fielding positions and be a power bat off the bench, plus give him a nice reward for many years of organizational soldier-ship for the Giants.
The main problem, from what I would imagine is the Giants management viewoint, is that he probably won't hit as well as Aurilia does, which weakens the offense and makes it harder to win next season.
I would be OK with throwing McClain this bone, however, because I feel that while we could compete in 2009, it would take too many things to work out (and to acquire) to reach that point, so we should keep our nose to the grindstone and develop players for the 2010-2013 period where we can hopefully compete again, led by Lincecum and Cain. He would be good platooning with Ishikawa at 1B, plus spelling Sandoval at 3B (unless the Giants trade Molina and start Pedro at C).
If Ishikawa, Sandoval, Lewis, and maybe Schierholtz can come through with their bats, I think we can compete even without a free agent or trade acquisition, we just need a power bat or two to put us over the hump, I think, with our pitching.
In my daydream scenario before this season started, McClain emerged as 30 HR / 100 RBI guy in the 4 spot, pushing Rowand to 3rd and Benji to 5th and Winn to 2nd, taking care of first base and making the '08 Giants the most unlikely success story in baseball this decade. Lincecainez Lowrito represented the best rotation in baseball in my daydream. Was it really so far off? Lincecainez changed his last name to Lumpocoal in spring training and McCain got lost on I-5 on the way back from Scottsdale. That's how close we were to 90 wins.
>>he probably won't hit as well as Aurilia does
And it's not just whether McClain could hit better than Aurilia in 07/08 combined, but whether he would be better than other UT/PH options out there, the Geoff Blum type of guys floating around. I don't have time at the moment, but perhaps someone could look up McClain's Major league equivalent averages?
McClain's MLE from Minor League Splits: .251/.344/.431 OPS .775
Aurilia's line this year: .276/.325/.415 OPS .740
They are probably close to the same player defensively.
Using Dan Syzmborski's zMLE worksheet, McClain's translation is a little more favorable: .275/.340/.465 OPS .805
I've always liked him as a platoon hitter against LHP, sort of what Aurilia is doing now.
Also, I know that Syzmborski's zMLE's account for park factors, so his MLE for McClain included a AT&T PF in the translation.
I don't think MLS accounts for parks, but I can't be certain.
Strong work, Chris. Thanks. Add Aurilia's '07 numbers to this year's stats, and his second stint as a Giants looks worse.
So whether zMLE accounts for park factors or not, I think it's probable that McClain wouldn't do worse than Aurilia.
Actually, it looks like I did McClain's zMLE wrong, I used the wrong park for his numbers. The zMLE should be:
.289/.358/.484 OPS .842
That's a great translation.