ogc thoughts
- Gaudin is gone, it is noted. Not surprising, as I run down the bullpen list, there might not even be a spot for Kontos if things don't roll his way (and from what I read somewhere, he appears to be behind both Machi and Hembree for the last two bullpen spots). And Petit has gotten a lot of good quotes from the Giants FO plus been anointed the long-reliever for 2014. As well as Gaudin did, carpel tunnel syndrome is bad for a pitcher, hard to recover from that, plus Petit did really well himself.
- Pablo at 245 pounds, and shrinking. Remember, the big news, I think last spring, was Pablo coming in at around 250 or so. So he still has three months to drop more weight, potentially, though I would prefer that he reaches a stasis point where the fat is being converted into muscle so that he would have more stamina. I'm hoping for another season like 2009 or 2011.
- Perez mentioned as in the mix for platoon with Blanco. Only real competitor since Peguero was DFAed and Brown need to do something first in AAA before he can sniff the majors. Somewhere I read that they hope that Perez will gain confidence from playing in the majors and do better offensively. We'll see. But his defense was amazing last season, despite getting into only 32 games (24 starts) and 218 innings (Pence had 1431.1 innings playing a full season), he basically tied for first with Blanco with 10 DRS. Had he played near what most starters did, around 1300 innings, he would have produced 6 wins just from his defense, and he was replacement level or so offensively. That's all star level of wins.
- Crick might come up first as a reliever. When a pitcher is ready, he's ready, so if he's not ready to throw a full season, the Giants might bring him up, like they did with Dirty, and have him relieve. But they view him as a starter long-term.
- They think that their big crop of pitchers in SJ and Augusta will reach the majors in the next two years, and start contributing. As noted before, they are expecting Escobar to be ready for a starting role by mid-season.
- Evans mentioned Derek Law and Mac Williamson as two minor leaguers he is excited about. Good choices, Law had an incredible season, ending with a 45.00 K/BB in SJ (45 K's and only 1 BB) and Mac just hit really well. Law by the way was named a top prospect in the AFL this year. I think Escobar, Hembree and Law are the prospects most likely to make a nice impact on the major league team this coming season. With an outside chance of Susac as backup if Hanchez screws up again with his conditioning.
- For LF, the view after signing Pence was that they did not want to take on any more long-term deals plus, on top of that, they didn't want to lose their first round pick, 14th overall. In an interview on CSN, one of the FO, Evans I think, said that they want to take advantage of this high pick since they hopefully will not be getting many of these going forward. Also, they didn't want to spend money just for the sake of getting a LF, they wanted to keep their financial structure. Nor do they want to trade away any of their pitching surplus just to get a LF.
- Interesting list of prospects playing in the major league squad in spring training: Crick (not to compete for spot though), Law (mentioned somewhere he is in the mix), Escobar (Giants said that all 5 spots are taken, so he's more auditioning for a mid-season call up if things sour for any starter), and Josh Osich, who I really like (and who don't like mid-90's left-handed relievers, they are rare creatures, though many Sabers think that they are all fungible...; I saw they don't understand basic economics). Apparently Crick is not the only prospect in demand by other teams, big time (but no names).
- Apparently the Giants see a dearth of MI, so they will try to hold onto both Abreu and Adrianza for the moment.
- The Giants want to play Belt 150+ starts at 1B, meaning the Posey at 1B for a rest is not the plan anymore. Posey already admitted last season that he wants to work on his stamina and conditioning for 2014 so that his second half batting malaise don't happen again. Sounds like they are going to try to get Posey to start 130-140 games at catcher plus another 10 or so starts at 1B.
- FYI: As noted in another post on the 40-man, both Monell and Peguero were DFAed. Both ended up going to the Orioles for cash. In addition, another of our long-time catchers, Jackson Williams left the team and I think ended up with the Rockies. He was actually drafted ahead of Noonan in the Bumgarner draft. Despite hitting well in college, his bat never blossomed, and he was just known as a strong defensive catcher.
- Health reports: Scutaro (pinky), Hudson (ankle; cast came off recently, should be starting exercise again), and Affeldt (groin, should be starting exercise soon) are looking good in their rehabs, and as noted above, Sandoval lost a LOT of weight. When he was thinner, he was an extraordinary defensive 3B, that would help out pitchers a lot, particularly Hudson, a gound ball guy, if I recall right, Vogie too.
Missed this - damn igoogle, hard to keep track of everything easily without it!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.csnbayarea.com/giants/giants-notes-latest-search-left-fielder-etc
Baggs this time. Giants finding it hard to trade, teams right now want prospects who are ready now. Which is not surprising, that is what teams are trying to do right now, set up their 25-man roster.
Apparently Hanchez is getting a lot of in interest, and I read somewhere that he is considered starting catcher capable.
LF is a nice to have, according to Bochy, as he praised Perez's play and feel that Blanco/Perez platoon is a nice fall-back option, he's comfortable with it.
Says he likes the Belt, Posey, Pence, Sandoval lineup configuration. Not surprisingly, he ended the season with that. If Sandoval is hitting like he did in 2009 or 2011, expect that to change, he'll probably go back to 3, push Belt to 5 and Pence to 6. Or if Scutaro is having problems, they might reconfigure to have these four batting 2 to 5, maybe Pence 2nd since he steals well.
Notes that drills and instructions will be emphasized. Great, they were sloppy last season.
Sabean notes that price for bench players are going through the roof. Then Davis signed for 2 years, $10M from the Tigers.
Great info on Law from Sabean: “He throws an overhand curveball you don’t see,” the GM said. “The action on it is different – almost like a split.” Sounds to me that they are leaning towards improving the bullpen from within now, there was talk about improving the bullpen, but the more they talk about our prospects, the more it sounds like it will come from within.
Also on CSN, Baggs reported (also others) that Sabean mentioned the possibility of signing Sandoval long-term in the spring, if they like what they see with his physical improvements. Makes a lot of sense and quite a change from the rumors of him being traded earlier in the off-season.
I have been saying for a while now that he's too young and too good not to put up with his ups and downs. But until he takes his weight seriously, he's too risky to sign up long-term for big bucks. He seems to be doing it, dropping to 245 pounds at home in Venezuela, where traditionally have bloated out during the off-season (too much of mom's home cooking).
Hopefully that means that part of young men brains that is missing until they turn 26 is now in place for Pablo and he'll be better with his weight going forward. Especially with his brother as the angel on his shoulder, working as his personal chef. And hitting 245 is an achievement, it is only Dec; last year, a big deal was made about him being at 250 when reporting to spring training. He could still lose more by spring training.
If we can get him for a deal like Pence, that would be great, but they might hold out for 9 figures. I think he would be worth it if he's serious about staying in shape, and he appears to be. I would want weight clauses though, annual weigh in, to get full value of contract. But I don't think they will agree to that. They should understand the team's concern and agree to some sort of process for dealing with a Fat Panda.
And while there has been no mention of Belt, I would like to see a Bumgarner-like long term contract to sign him up into his free agent years. I think his price will rise sky high if we wait for after 2014 season, because he's been improving each season, and I expect another leap in 2014, as he puts together a full season of all the lessons that held him back in 2011-2013. Heck, prices are rising sky high as we speak, but hopefully the big $$$ on the contract will keep him happy.
Side thought: I wonder if this is part of the reason why they decided to keep him at 1B. His hitting there is probably average, but much above average in LF. This helps to keep his price down right now.
Hey what do you think about the rumor that a Jeff Baker signing is near? Sounds like a nice partner for Blanco but I don't know all too much about Baker.
ReplyDeleteNo need to fear Baker: http://blogs.mercurynews.com/giants/2013/12/11/winter-meetings-notes-sabean-on-the-rotation-williams-gets-a-shot-young-brett-bochy-and-giant-bruce-bochy/
DeleteI personally would not want Baker, he's OK bat off the bench, but is not good defensively anywhere on the field. His best position is 2B where he's only slightly bad, so he would be good if the Giants were afraid of losing Scutaro for extensive periods of time. But his "ability" to play at a lot of different positions makes him valuable when you need a fielder somewhere to field a team. But I say "pass". Morse and Gutierrez appear to be more likely candidates - I don't know about the former other than lot of power but probably poor defense, love the defense of the latter but he's been very injury prone, so I would rather pass on him too.