- Brett Bochy, RHP. Obviously, the manager's son. I was hoping the Giants would do that for Brett at some point, as a reward to the manager, to be able to manage his own son and so forth. It also helps that Brett has actually done well enough in the minors to at least get a look at in the majors. His stats include two starts where he got beat like a drum. His ERA as a reliever was a sterling 3.38, though his 7.3 K/9 and 1.64 K/BB were not that great. But that is related, it appears to me, to injury mid-season, pre-injury his numbers were 8.8 K/9 and 2.00 K/BB before the two starts that appears to be the trigger to injury and decline, as he went on the DL soon after those starts and he hasn't been the same since in terms of peripherals. So I think he did earn the call-up but he hasn't been pitching well lately, so we'll see how much he'll be used. He wasn't on the 40-man.
- Gary Brown, CF/OF. I was kind of hoping for this, but his numbers have been so bad and up and down that I wasn't sure what would happen. Despite all his downs, I still think that he can add value to the team, though now it would mostly be through his defense. And I still think that the skills he showed as a hitter before should translate at some point, but that takes experience. Given his struggles, I see him as a future replacement for Blanco at some point, having a similar profile: strong defense, OK at getting on base at times, OK with power sometimes, but too inconsistent to become a regular. Not that I've given up hope that he could start someday, but right now, I'll take one step at a time, and that's getting and holding a reserve spot in order to get the opportunities to show what you got and to learn. I assume he's going to be mostly a pinch-runner in late game situations where a steal is not necessary (he's still getting caught a lot, though the Giants appear to have let him loose late this season to see what he could do) and late inning defensive replacement, particularly in CF, though Perez has basically the same profile. I assume Bochy will utilize one in a PH situation and then the other in a PR/Defensive situation in any game.
- Adam Duvall, 3B/1B. I was going to ask in my first post about call-ups why he wasn't called up but luckily let it go, as he was called up the next day. I don't recall anything happening like this before, splitting up the call-ups like this. He's going to be a power bat off the bench for Bochy, and get a start here and there, semi-platoon with Ishikawa perhaps, though Brown or Perez could play LF and push Morse to 1B against LHP plus Posey would get starts at 1B too. Might also give a rest to Sandoval at 3B. Forgot where I read it (Chronicle I think, though) but the Giants in August was the first team in a hundred years to start five players at least five games each in a month at 1B. Yeah, obscure and meaningless achievement, but thought I would share it anyway as I like that sort of stuff.
- Erik Cordier, RHP. Flamethrower like Strickland, only Hunter has shown superlative control this season and Erik has not even been close. Still, he's on the 40-man and relievers like him are becoming de rigueur, as the Giants stockpiling of guys with high-90's profile continues with picks in the draft in recent years (Shankbone has noted this trend often on his blog; Strickland hit 100 MPH twice in yesterday's game and was mostly at 98-99 MPH), so Bochy probably wants to kick the tires on him and see what he got.
- Chris Heston, RHP. Heston is put back on the 40-man after being dropped after his poor season last year. He had a really nice season, 3.38 ERA with 2.45 K/BB, though only 6.5 K/9. Still, he's one of those prospects who don't have the stuff to keep on getting chances and has to prove it at every level he gets to. The road is hard for these prospects, but sometimes they make it up to the majors and get a chance, like Charlton's descendant. I always root for these guys, as I identify with them. He's probably not going to see a lot of action, as he's probably the long relief guy (Kickham too, but he'll probably see some 6/7 inning work as well) though I expect him to get at least one appearance as a reward for doing well enough to get promoted to the majors.
As noted, two 40-man spots needed to be opened up, so Scutaro and Cain were moved to the 60-day DL list to clear up two spots. The Giants have 35 players up here out of the 40-man roster, according to reports (but I only count 4 guys not up so I guess I'm missing someone or maybe we still have one spot open, just in case).
Shows how much they think of Strickland and Cordier for the team to call both of them up while also putting them in the AFL as well (though depending on how much they get used in the majors, they might send someone else instead).
I've been hoping that Brett could make the team and stay on it, but the bullpen has been so good, it's been hard for him to break in. I've been hoping that Brown could make the team, but he just hasn't done so well, hopefully he can show off something while up here. Good luck to all the new major leaguers!
Go Giants!
Isn't the discrepancy as to roster numbers because Belt is on the 40-man, as on the 15-day DL, but not on the active roster? 35 then excludes Belt, Carbonell, Parker, Villalona, and Flores.
ReplyDeleteAh, thank you, that's it, I left him off, there we go. Much appreciated! It was bothering me, sometimes we are too close to the forest...
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