One of the good things his return would do is to make a good bullpen even better. Affeldt, Miller, Medders, and Valdez have been good, Howry has been on and off but OK overall, and Wilson has had some growth pains, but still good overall as the closer (his ERA is bad, at 4.72, in save situations but he's been the victim of back luck, as he has posted 13.1 IP, with 11 hits and 4 walks, striking out 14 for a 3.5 K/BB, and his HR/9 is a bad 1.35 but should go down to prior levels, his peripherals are fine when in a save situation; again, like last season, he doesn't pitch well at all in non-save situations, but hopefully he can learn to do that, but maybe he can't get the adrenaline up for those situations...).
If Romo can return to close to his performance level of last season, when he had a 2.12 ERA in 29 games, 34.0 IP, 16 hits, 8 walks, 33 strikeouts, our bullpen can basically shut down the other team for the most part, until our lineup can beat up on the other team's bullpen. Most bullpens have someone the other team can beat up on, and if our relievers can shut down the other team, we will eventually reach that bottom dweller. Plus, with him around, we should be able to close out more leads into wins, allowing Bochy to bring in relievers sooner, before the starter tires and give back some or all of the lead.
Go Romo! If he is back to last year's form, that should help the team keep winning streaks going longer, and help stop losing streaks sooner, helping to keep early leads that is lost by starters going too long. Obviously, we got a streak started with Atlanta, but once he's back starting the next series, I think his addition will get us back on the winning track we were on for a while.
Who do you think gets demoted? If Sandoval is back Friday and Romo comes back friday, would it be Whiteside?
ReplyDeleteSorry, should have given my thoughts. I think it's between Frandsen and Aurilia.
ReplyDeleteSandoval is playing 1B because he can't really throw well, which is why he isn't playing 3B and why he can't catch.
Frandsen is an emergency catcher, so they could go with him and demote Whiteside, with the idea of bringing back up Holm in the next week.
Still, I think it's between Aurilia and Frandsen, and most probably will be Frandsen, but they could decide that Aurilia is done or needs to go to AAA and get his stroke back. ANd with Sandoval at 1B and Uribe at 3B, where would Aurilia play? Whereas Frandsen could play 4-6 positions.
It should definitely be Aurillia. Why is he even on our roster this year??? He's a dinosaur who isn't capable of helping the team at all. Sabean should have cut ties with him a long time ago, his reasoning for continuing to resign Aurillia has been both baffling and maddening. Add to it that the man couldn't hit the ball off of a tee this season and you have to keep the younger player here (Frandsen) and let him get some exposure if you ever want him to grow into a real player.
ReplyDeleteHere's why he got resigned: in 2008, he hit .321/.377/.526/.903 against LHP and for his career, he is a lifetime .283/.340/.489/.830 hitter, averaging a HR every 22 AB, which if he could do over a whole season, would be a 30 HR season.
ReplyDeleteHe was insurance in case Ishikawa, Bowker, Guzman, and whoever else they try out at 1B fails.
It's the ying and yang of trying to be competitive while developing young players. Young players don't always perform when you give them the starting job (see Niekro). So you want the vet backup there to jump in when necessary, first as a platoon, then starting if necessary.
Because you don't want a position to totally suck all the time offensively, that could get to pitchers eventually. And particularly at 1B, where you normally get good offense from that position.
And while I would have put Frandsen on the MLB club, there was risk doing that because we don't really know how recovered he was from his surgery last season. His AFL hitting wasn't that good, he could have really sucked like Aurilia has too, up in the majors.
Plus, I would rather Frandsen be playing full-time for the first part of the season, because he was out so long last season, so if he's not starting up here, then he really needed to be down in the minors and starting there, no way I would use him as a bench player up here when he could be starting and playing SS, like he did at Fresno.
Apparently he acquitted himself well there, giving the Giants another position to put him in, if he's being uber-utility guy for us, and getting pretty much regular playing time, playing 2B, some SS, some 3B, I would be OK with that. But at the start of the season, the Giants were going with Burriss and Sandoval, and Ishikawa, so Frandsen would not have seen much playing time. Now, with Ishikawa and Burriss threatened with less playing time if they don't shape up, Frandsen could see more time.
However, as I've noted, both Ishikawa and Burriss have responded to the threats and been hitting for the past two weeks, so this wouldn't be a good time to give them less ABs, in which case, we sent Frandsen back down to AAA and play regularly.
I mean, it's not like Frandsen is a sure thing up here, he (and fans) will have to be patient and wait to see how the rooks pan out in the MLB. As I noted in a previous post, this upcoming road trip will be a big test for Burriss and Ishikawa, they need to keep on hitting when we move on to the road for an extended run, else I would bet that Frandsen is up for good at that point, and somebody will be gone.