Your 2016 Giants: Trade Deadline Deals: Goodbye Duffman!

(Apologies for the delay, been battling headache every afternoon since last week; I wrote most of this before it was announced that Peavy was moved to the bullpen, and finished up the Moore trade discussion today)

Wow, go on a short break and things just fall apart:  the Giants have been stumbling greatly since the ASB.  I was going to write on the decline of both Cueto and Samardzija as the season progressed, but given the trades made, to address this great decline overall for the team, I felt that took precedence.

The trades made:

• Eduardo Nunez, utility infielder for the Twins, was acquired for LHP Aldaberto Mejia
• Will Smith, LHP reliever for the Brewers, was acquired for RHP Phil Bickford and C Andrew Susac
• Matt Moore, LHP starter for the Rays, was acquired for 3B Matt Duffy (Duffman!), SS Lucius Fox (Batman!), and RHP Michael Santos 

The Giants control Nunez until 2017 (will probably sign him to a 2-3 year deal after the season, I would bet, something like the one Blanco signed before), and Smith and Moore to 2019.  Even better, Moore is signed to an extension deal giving the Giants team options of $7M, $9M, and $10M, so he's a relatively cheap SP option for us, and rounds out our rotation.

Your 2016 Giants: Big Six Top Giants Prospects

I sometimes post a Big Six Giants prospect list on my blog, but my answer to the Giants prospect chat will have to substitute for it this season.  I like to read through the books and discuss why I like the top guys, and build my arguments why I think they are the top 6, but that is going to take a lot of time, and I like to get it done before Opening Day, and I just don't have the time.  So this time, I'm just going to fan boy about the system.

Giants 2015 First Round Pick: RHP Phil Bickford

For their first pick of the 2015 draft, the Giants selected RHP Phil Bickford.  I'm going to be compiling information on him from Baggarly's BA and Merc article, CSNBA Staff report, and bits and pieces from various mocks I've been collecting (BA, FG, MLB.com).

The CSN report was nicely done, covering all the essentials (saves me the job of finding these readily available info elsewhere), so I will quote it here:

Bickford was ranked No. 27 on Baseball America's Top 500 Draft Prospects. 

Two years ago, Bickford was selected with the No. 10 pick by the Toronto Blue Jays out of Westlake Village (Calif.) Oaks Christian High School. Toronto was unable to sign him and he instead went to Cal State Fullerton for his freshman year. 

After one season at CSU Fullerton where he went 6-3 with a 2.13 ERA and posted 74 strikeouts in 76 innings pitched, Bickford transferred to the College of Southern Nevada to become draft eligible for 2015.

In his one year at Southern Nevada, Bickford went 9-1 with a 1.45 ERA and struck out 166 batters compared to only 21 walks in 86.2 innings pitched.

MLB.com ranked him #21, Minor League Ball's Garrioch ranked him #42, Fangraph's McDaniels ranked him #25 in his draftboard.

FYI, Baggarly has a great article regarding Barr's successes in filling out our infield with draft picks.   I highly recommend a read.