Giant News: Hector Sanchez is coming up; Crick signs

Just had to write about Hector Sanchez being called up (ExtraBaggs rumor on twitter).  Crazy Crabbers has a nice rundown of his stats at his blog.  I've already opined there that I don't think it was for his offense, since he's doing OK, not great in AAA.  From what I've read, his defense is pretty good at catcher, so that could be the major factor there.  Or could it?

Here is my speculation:  what if the Giants are grooming him to be the catcher of the future (meaning 2012-13)?

Showtime's "The Franchise" series about the 2011 Giants come out the other day and one of the quotes noted from that is that Buster Posey, in a candid moment, talked about how he would emphatically tell his unborn children NOT to play catcher, if they should decide that they want to.  The show apparently also delved into his rehab, about how there was all his grinding feeling while his ankle was being treated (Kruk or Kuip noted on their KNBR show that this feeling is gone now).  What if Posey was having second thoughts about returning as catcher next season?

That could explain why Sanchez was suddenly promoted from Advanced A San Jose to AAA Fresno so suddenly, when he was not really doing all that well in San Jose.  Good for his age, but the MLE for that has to be pretty low still.  Same for his time in AAA as well.

But his batting in the minors remind me of Pablo Sandoval's rise to the majors.  The batting line is never that great, but he handled the bat fine at each level, never striking out too much, though never really walking that much either, while Hector appears to be better than Pablo in that regard.  Basically, it appears that he can hit but it is just a matter of waiting for his body to develop and grow.  Pablo reached that in 2009.  I see some people questioning Sanchez's strikeouts, but they are not accounting for the fact that he was in his late teens and early 20's facing pitchers who are much older and experienced than he is.

Breaking new:  Baggarly tweets that Pat Burrell is going on DL for foot spur to bring up Sanchez.  I guess they are not ready to give up on Chris Stewart yet, as I noted before, I like his bat up the minors, he never really struck out that much either, but he appears to be one of those catchers who figure out hitting in his 30's.  I see tweets from Naysayers asking why a C when an OF goes down, but frankly we've been carrying too many OF for a while now, we still got Cody Ross, Andres Torres, Nate Schierholtz, and Aaron Rowand, plus Emmanuel Burriss can take up the slack with Burrell out, as necessary.

More importantly, this gives the Giants an opportunity to examine how Sanchez does against major league hitting for a while, until they get tired of carrying 3 catchers.  Kind of like what they did earlier this season by bringing up Brandon Belt and seeing how he did while Ross was on the DL.  As much as the minors give a good indication of how good a hitter is, you don't really know for certain what will happen until that player actually plays in the majors.  Guys who are sure things like Andy Marte and Sean Burroughs fall to the wayside, while players like Dan Uggla become a star hitter in the majors.  Or even Pablo Sandoval, who was not even on Baseball America's Giants Top 30 prospect list for the season he made the majors (or the season before).

And there seems to be a good balance there.  The OF is set, as noted.  The infield has Sandoval, Crawford, Fontenot, Tejada, Burriss (who as noted, can also play OF), then Huff at 1B, and Tejada can play 3B while Sandoval plays 1B to give Huff a rest against LHP.  Got plenty of relievers.  The roster actually looks good like this, despite the 3 catchers.

They still need to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, and from what I recall Buster Posey was on the 15-day list still, so you can just move him to the 60-day DL and that would clear up a spot on the 40-man.  Probably could do the same to Freddy Sanchez as well.  Either way, one of them should cover Sanchez's call-up.

Anyway, I wonder if the rush to bring Hector Sanchez up is a sign that Posey wants out as catcher.   Or, even, what if the recovery is not going as well as hoped, maybe good enough that he can walk and run and play other positions but not catching?  Especially long term, say beyond 2012, where the Giants still has Freddy Sanchez signed to play 2B, but he could be gone in 2013.

That could be a nice spot to start Posey at, a la Houston's Craig Biggio, catcher turned 2B.  Let's say Posey returns to start at C in 2012, Sanchez backups, but get regular starts while Posey starts at 1B (especially against LHP, who Huff don't hit that well and he could use some more rest I think, getting old) and 2B (Sanchez needs breaks, Posey needs practice).  And should Sanchez be out on DL again (odds appear good on that, his body is falling apart), Posey could "temporarily" start at 2B while Hector starts at C, with Posey as backup catcher.

Crick Signs

Baggarly reports that Kyle Crick signed with the Giants for $900K, about 25% higher than the recommended slot bonus.   The rumor was that Selig had OKed going 5% over without getting the offer held back, as the MLB usually does, so that overslots are not reported until later, close to the deadline.  This is the earliest I can remember where such a large over-slot signing bonus is reported so early, exactly a month before the deadline.  I would love to see an expert's take on that oddity.

In any case, good for the Giants, I saw many comments that had Crick and Panik been swapped in terms of where they were selected, the experts would have had no problem with that - apparently Crick was held in higher regard than Joe Panik, which shows that experts not always right, he's been hitting great and so has Gary Brown.  So that high a bonus is not too surprising, maybe the MLB is being more lenient with guys who fell?

We need more high quality arms in the system as it has gotten a little barren.  Though I would note that perhaps Giants fans have been spoiled by having Lincecum and Bumgarner in the minors in recent seasons, as I think most farm systems would be happy to have a Zack Wheeler and Eric Surkamp as top pitching prospects, Heath Hembree too.