Rejoice! Benitez Traded!

I heard the news from KNBR 680: Armando Benitez has been traded to the Florida Marlins for Randy Messenger (AP report). So long, don't let the door hit your fat butt!

Don't Kill the Messenger

At least the Giants got a player who can help us out now, in the bullpen, and perhaps be a fixture there for a while. It was orginally Yusimeiro Petit we were suppose to get for Benitez, in spring training, but he ended up being traded to Arizona for their ex-closer and he's still a work in progress and a finesse type starter when we are full up on starters anyway. Messenger, a right-hander reliever, is the one of the main setup men in the Marlin's bullpen this season. He is 25 years old, 26 later this season. This is his second full major league season (he came up for a cup of coffee in 2005).

This season, he has a 2.66 ERA (good) but 1.52 WHIP (bad), 1.33 K/BB (badder), 4.6 K/9 (baddest). He has 6 holds this season, thus far. Stats from sfgiants.com announcement: "The newest Giants has been unscored upon in 19 of his 23 appearances this season... the 6-6, 240-pound hurler owns a 3-8 lifetime ledger with a 4.98 ERA ... over 111 big-league relief appearances..." He is a Sparks, Nevada, native, so his family can come down and see him every once in a while, since there is never any guarantee he will pitch in any particular game.

His stats last year was not that good either but he had nice stats in the uppper minors, so there is some hope there as he's still young and show spurts of goodness. For instance, last year he had a great first half, 3.19 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 2.2 BB/9, 7.3 K/9, 3.3 K/BB, which was almost closer good, but he was totally blown away in the second half, though a large part of that was bad luck with the long ball, over 13% HR/FB when 10% is the mean pitchers regress to normally. His command comes and goes, but he showed a lot of skill in the minors so hopefully he will figure things out, particularly throwing strikes.

He is described in my prospect book from last season as having a good fastball - "dominates with a lively FB" - that he can run it up to the mid-90's, and that he can contrast with his "slurvy-type" slider in the low 80's. He shows a "resilient arm." His main problem is his control. (Descriptions from my 2006 Minor League Baseball Analyst)

Closer-Go-Round?

So who is the closer now? Brian Wilson hasn't been that great this season, though getting better, but if I recall correctly, he just came back from some injury. So I assume we are going with someone within our bullpen right now. I think Hennessey will probably get a shot at doing it but I'm hoping that Bochy will be trying out everyone in this role, including Ortiz.

I'm hoping that Hennessey and Taschner can eventually become a duo-closer much like the Giants had in the early 70's with Gary Lavelle and Randy Moffitt (trivia: brother to Billy Jean King), but it might be too early to rely on them exclusively as closers. Messenger looks like he can fill the setup role OK when he is on, but I'm hoping that Correia will get a chance to do that also. But I don't think either can be closers. Same for Chulk and Kline.

Ortiz is probably still the long man out of the bullpen as I think it is too soon to start him doing short work - from what I've read, it takes a while to adjust to relief work. But I hope that eventually he works his way up to main closer as both Hennessey and Taschner are still young and relatively inexperienced, and will have their ups and downs. And I think the two of them have done very well in the setup role this month, so it would be nice to continue that.

Giants in June

As the Chinese proverb (really more of a curse) sort of goes, "we live in interesting times." I still like the team as is - of course a better reliever and hitter would be great, as Lefty Malo is agitating for, but I'm realistic enough to know that getting one will cost us a good prospect and I would rather hold onto what we got right now.

he offense will be better once we get back Durham and if Klesko can play regularly against RHP. They are important parts of our offense, else there is only really Winn, Bonds, and Molina to count on, that's why the offense has been sputtering (oh yeah, plus Aurilia's struggles). That's why I think we should have a good month of June, Durham and Klesko will return to the lineup and we should start winning games like today when Cain struggled but then held the fort at 4 runs for 7 total innings. He should have gotten at least a no-decision.

It is still as I noted before the season, enjoy how well our pitching rotation pitches, and hope for the offense to deliver enough runs to win the well pitched games. Oh, and it wouldn't hurt to pray for our position prospects to show something this season so that we can maybe use them next season.