Your 2014 GIants: September Call-Ups

The Giants announced their call-ups (at least initial) today.  Congrats to:

• Juan Perez, OF, who has been yo-yo-ing all season long.  He'll get a fair number of late game substitution with Morse going out for defensive purposes.
• Chris Dominguez, 3B and 1B, his first time in the majors as he was not on the 40-man roster previously.  Ehire Adrianza was moved to the 60-day DL to make space on the 40-man.
• Guillermo Quiroz, C, got the call-up today, mainly, I think, because the Giants want to have three catchers available and Hector Sanchez is out for the season (and his future is uncertain too).  He probably would not have gotten the call if not for that, but at least he adds to his MLB pension with service days added.  Hanchez got moved to the 60-day DL to allow Quiroz onto the 40-man.
• Mike Kickham, LHP, was no surprise, he provides starting depth on roster and becomes the long relief pitcher on the team with Petit in the rotation and Lincecum focused on figuring out his kinks (not so good today, so more work to go).  If Petit should end up back at long relief, Kickham might see some regular middle relief work, and might get an appearance anyway, here and there, to stay sharp.
• Hunter Strickland, RHP, was the biggest addition for me because the Giants had previously noted that he could be a future closer.  It will be exciting to see how quickly Bochy gives him a chance to throw some leveraged outs, how much leeway he gives our possible future closer, important given that Romo will be a free agent after the season.  This could be Strickland's audition to get a role in next season's bullpen, which I frankly expect him to be in contention for in spring training, he hardly walked anyone this season (0.8 BB/9) and struck out a large amount (12.8 K/9) both of which bode well for success in the majors for him.  

Congrats and good luck to all the call-ups, hopefully they will be part of an exciting run to the playoffs.

Go Giants!

Your 2012 Giants: AFL Roster

Baseball America recently published the full rosters for the AFL teams from each MLB team, announcing final additions (mostly the pitchers, of which none were named last time) to the preliminary roster published earlier.  Here are the players who will be playing for the AFL from the Giants this fall, barring injury:

• Jacob Dunnington, RHP
• Chris Gloor, LHP
• Heath Hembree, RHP
• Dan Runzler, LHP
• Ricky Oropesa, 1B
• Joe Panik, MI
• Chris Dominguez, 3B/OF
• Gary Brown, OF

Two Down: One Wheeler to Go

The Giants have announced that they have signed second rounder Tommy Joseph and fifth rounder Brandon Belt, both potential plus power hitters, which rounds out their early draftees with an interest in power: they had already signed Chris Dominguez long ago for basically slot.

Joseph, a high school catcher, received a $712,500 bonus, which is almost $60,000 over the slot for his position. Belt, a college firstbaseman, received a $200,000 bonus, which is almost $26,300 above slot. Both are roughly what their slot was assigned last year; basically, the Giants gave them the bonus without the 10% markdown that the Commissioner decreed for this draft.

Again, was it really worth waiting two months to accept probably what the Giants offered them in the first place? Belt in particular, two months of minor league salary is probably close to that; the value of the experience, probably invaluable to making the majors sooner. Just think of it this way: assuming that missing the two months only pushed back his making the majors by two months, then he just lost about $100K.

Of course, the rub is that most players past the Top 5-10 picks overall in any draft rarely make the majors. And if you never make the majors, you never make up the $100K.

But even at minor league salaries, which I think is pretty low, let's say it's about $1,000 per week, by missing 10 weeks of pay, that's $10K.

As an example, Dominguez has already played in rookie ball then has been at Salem Keizer getting significant ABs. He's hitting .246/.297/.483/.780 with 8 HR in 118 AB. His 36 strikeouts isn't good, but that's reflected in his low BA. Still, he's showing the power he's got and started getting instructions on how to improve himself plus it gives him something to think about before next season.

Wheeler Round the Corner

I have to think that Zach Wheeler will sign with the Giants on Monday sometime for somewhere in the $2.4-2.5M range, which is what the slot was last year. They probably figured that it didn't hurt Bumgarner to wait until the last minute - it didn't stop his progress through the minors - so they may as well wait until thelast minute to see if they can squeeze the Giants out of enough money to pay for the agent, that is, let the agent try to earn his money.

The Giants don't get squeezed though in the draft, so it was pretty useless for them to wait until the last minute to get last year's slot. With him I can understand, it could mean more than $250,000 to try, but if you look at the history of the Giants, they are not going to overpay for anyone. They did with Posey, but that is because he legitimately could have gone #1 easily, it was just that the Rays decided to go with Beckham instead.

Otherwise, the most anyone got is about $200K more than the slot, though Graham this year got a lot more but that is because he could have been drafted much higher based on his talent. Wheeler was drafted about where he should have been, in fact, the commentators I saw thought that Leake and Matzek were better than Wheeler, so he could have ended up further back in the draft (though realistically, he probably would not have fallen past the Braves at #7).

And as I noted in the comments, the Giants probably wouldn't mind getting the 7th to 10th pick next year in replacement for Wheeler not signing, there are a lot of good college pitchers touted for next year already and you never know when a hitter raise their game up and push into the Top 10.

Giants Other 2009 Draftees: First Day

This draft is different in that only three rounds were done the first day. The Giants only had two other picks (did not pick up any free agent compensation picks), the 55th and the 86th.

Giants Select C Thomas Joseph With 55th Pick

The Giants 2nd round pick, the 55th pick overall, was Tommy Joseph, high school catcher. According to the MLB description, he is quite the offensive find, though positionally he's a question mark at the moment:

In a deep class of prep catchers, Joseph hasn't gotten a ton of love, though his bat has been making more than enough noise. He's got serious offensive ability with light-tower raw power. He's more of a question mark behind the plate. He's got an above-average arm, but this was the first season he's caught and he lacks overall quickness. His bat likely will play anywhere, but if a team feels he can catch, he could sneak into the first couple of rounds.

So basically he's another EME, Pablo Sandoval, or Jesus Guzman, defensively challenged and looking for a place to play. According to the description above, this means that the Giants think that he could be a catcher, but with Posey looking to hold that position for the long-term future, I have to think that he's going to play 1B or perhaps LF, he has a great arm but no speed to mention, so 1B appears to be his best position to play.
His strengths:

Excellent bat with plenty of power, both now and in the future. Above-average arm could play behind the plate.

And that seems to be his key pluses, his ability to hit and his power:

Joseph destroys below-average pitching and really turns it up a notch against better competition. He can use the entire field. Has light-tower power to the pull side and shows it off in workouts. He should have plenty of power to all fields.

But his main weakness is his inexperience behind the plate:

This year is the first he's caught full-time after DH-ing and playing first base for most of his high school career. He does have some work to do defensively. Because he hasn't spent much time behind the plate, it left some to wonder if he can stay back there, especially considering his size (6'1"; 210 lbs) and lack of quickness.

Here is an interesting sidenote: he was a former teammate of Tim Alderson. I guess that is when the Giants found him and got interested in him.

The Giants just missed on a couple of players I thought they might draft. SS Mychal Givens, who had been linked to the Giants in a few of the rumors I had read, was selected just before Joseph, with the 54th pick. I was also hoping that they might select 1B Richard Poythress, but he was grabbed with the 51st pick, who has a lot of power too, and would have been closer to the majors since he's a junior in college.

In addition, Tanner Scheppers almost fell to us, he was selected with the 44th pick. Another who I saw some speculate that perhaps the Giants might select, was CF Kentrail Davis, who was selected with the 39th pick. And the one I was hoping to fall to us, but he got selected around where people were guessing, was Matt Davidson, selected with the 35th pick by Arizona.

Giants Select 3B Christopher Dominguez With 86th Pick

The MLB has nothing on him, other than that he is a senior with the University of Louisville. My research yielded that he repeated as Big East Player of the Year in 2009, only the second player in Big East history to repeat. He led his team, Louisville U, to its best record in school history, 40-14, capturing the Big East regular season title for the first time (I like this!). He finished the season with 21 HR, 75 RBI, and 17 SB, leading his team in each category, and he led the Big East in Total Bases with 158 and was second in HR, RBI and SLG, which was .721, and he hit .345/.441/.696/1.137 in total, regular season and playoffs. However, with 23 errors, I'm not sure if 3B is in his future.

Here is some personal info from his sport bio at school:

Born 11/22/86 in Los Angeles to Lazaro and Maria Dominguez. He is considering business as his major. Has one brother, Lazaro Jr. Would like to play pro ball after college. His family is his greatest influence on him. Major League, Cinderella Man and Men of Honor are his favorite movies. Likes to watch Baseball Tonight and Cribs on the tube. His favorite athletes are Bruce Lee and A-Rod. Mariners, Marlins and Yankees are his favorite teams.

I guess he will now have a new favorite team, the Giants.

He was highly touted by Baseball America when he came out of high school, as they rated him the top prep 3B and #11 overall prospect. And he was named as one of the 30 semifinalists for the 2009 USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award (but did not make the final 5).

Like Joseph, he has special power, "light tower power" according to one site that I read.
OK, he did have a draft report on him FROM LAST SEASON, as apparently his star dimmed between the seasons, despite how well he did this season. It confirms that he got "plus raw power" but "has been very inconsistent with his overall hitting ability." According to this report, he moves pretty well in the infield and should be fine fielding at 3B, including having a plus arm. His strengths are his plus raw power and arm strength, but his weakness is that, while he's capable of doing a lot of things well, he does few of them consistently. His summary:

One of the bigger enigmas in the Draft class, Dominguez is eligible as a sophomore after red-shirting his freshman year back in 2006. Healthy now, he's been an impact player at the college level this season, but his performance has been extremely inconsistent. He'll look outclassed one moment and in a league of his own the next, leaving many a scout to scratch his head. Still, his size, strength, athleticism and potential all should pique someone's interest early enough.

Giants Thoughts

Like most prospects not drafted at the top of the draft, both are a work in progress with their main positives being their raw power and their arms. Looks like the Giants are trying to stock up with some potential middle lineup guys with these two picks.

I like both picks. Both have plus power, and look like they have a chance to develop and maybe make something out of themselves. As my draft study showed, the odds of such prospects becoming good players is slim - less than 5% of the picks studied made it - but their raw plus power is a strength that is missing from our farm system for the most part, a crying shame given the Giants history with Roger Connor, Mel Ott, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, Jeff Kent, and Barry Bonds. The main power guys in our system right now are Roger Kieschnick and Angel Villalona, though Bowker has been blasting them out in AAA this season.