I can't believe that I didn't think of writing on this, but the Giants yesterday traded prospect RH RP Stephen Johnson (AA) for Marlon Byrd, former CF but been playing corners lately. The Giants are only paying him $500K of his contract, the Reds are handling the rest. He's happy to join the team, looking forward to contributing, as he understands that he will sit once Pence returns. Which is the right attitude to have for someone who has only been in the playoffs once in his career, in 2013 with the Pirates.
To open up a 25-man roster spot, Chris Heston was optioned to AAA today, reportedly to rest (no plans for how he'll be used or even started) and to work on his mechanics. Sinkerballs are notoriously a feel pitch that can be lost suddenly, but more likely this is just the time of the season that Heston starts to tire out, because last season, his production went down right around this same time: he has three DIS starts out of his last four. (I got into more detail about why the Giants should option Heston in the comment section of my last post) Oh, just found out Bochy noted in his comments that he saw some fatigue, sees this as a skipped start to rest him up.
This move also gives the Giants an extra position player on the bench for this game, as most probably, the OF who would have been optioned back to AAA (Lollis probably) will be optioned to bring back Leake to start the game Saturday.
ogc thoughts
I'm liking this trade. His numbers the prior 3 seasons to 2015 was .269/.315/.450/.765. While his numbers this season is down overall, a large part of that was how bad he was in the first 3 weeks of the season, when he was horrible. Since April 23: he has been hitting .257/.311/.502/.813. However, he hasn't been hitting so well in August, but perhaps being in a losing situation finally started getting to him. However, looking at his stats, it appears to be more just a coincidence of where you check on his stats (for example, his poor August looks great if you go back just two games into July, looking much like his 3-year batting line: .246/.286/.477/.763). And he started his career as a Giants great, hitting a 2-run homer in his first start with us today, so hopefully he's heating up again.
Also, he's only been in the playoffs once before in his career, with Pirates in 2013, and he was a hitting machine for them. He could be our DH should we make the World Series, as I thought we would in the pre-season. And a great bat off the bench during the playoffs. And frankly, I worry about Pence, he was reported with a "moderate" oblique strain and all I know about oblique strains is that whenever one of our guys get one, it seems to linger and last long. Having him on the team provides a lot of positives.
So a great trade, giving up a prospect who had a lot of question marks still but got potential in his high velocity arm, for a player who appears to be playing as well as he's been in recent seasons, except losing a step or two, perhaps, as his defense appears to be down (but per FG, he looks like a better RF than LF). He's also incented some because he'll be a free agent this off-season.
In addition, he might feel like he needs to win a ring this season, as he was very close to signing with the Giants before the Phillies came in with their two-year deal and stole him away before the 2014 season. Had he signed with the Giants, he would have won a ring last season, instead of Morse (assuming he helped the team as well as Morse did in the playoffs). And at his age (he's 38 in another 9 days), he might see this as his best and last chance to win a ring, he probably has a lot of regret about missing out on last season.
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