Thursday, February 18, 2010
Right for right
Nate "The Olympian" Schierholtz has the inside track on the RF job, or so we've been told. And I like young Nate--he should have been given more of a chance last season, but Ol' Boch's devotion to an obviously aging Randy Winn kept him out of the lineup. We all know he's a fine outfielder and has a major-league cannon. We also know he likes to swing the bat, even if the pitch is going to hit him. He's exactly the sort of guy the Giants should be helping along. We know what Mark DeRosa and Aubrey Huff can do: all of that is in the record books. We don't yet know what Schierholtz' ceiling is, and we need to figure out what this guy can contribute, even if he is a flawed or incomplete ballplayer. His minor league line is .308/.355/.516 over 7 seasons and 2600 PAs. That's a long stretch in the farm system, and it gets one thinking that he's the epitome of an "AAAA-player." CHONE projects a respectable 107 wRC+ (.286/.325/.457) for about 400 PAs. That makes him at least a useful role player, especially when compared to a guy like Aaron Rowand (2009 line .261/.319/.419, 2010 projection 96 wRC+). Another fellow who should be pushing the old guys off the field and on to the bench is John "Dirtbag" Bowker. His minor league line (.301/.369/.489) is over 6 seasons and almost 2400 PAs, and includes an impressive 1.047 OPS last year in Fresno. CHONE says he's a .276/.349/.456 guy (115 wRC+)! I like those numbers more and more everyday, and I don't give a damn who we are paying millions to. The youngsters need to be on the field. The 2010 Giants aren't going anywhere unless kids like Olympic Nate and Dirtbag Bowker force Ol' Boch to bench the greybeards.
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4 comments:
The projection systems always seem to like Nate -- calling him a league average or slightly better as a hitter. I'll say this: if he's a league average hitter with +5 or so defense in RF, he's a +2 win player and a valuable piece to the Giants.
I'm less optimistic than the projection systems are in regards to his hitting, but the Giants should start the year with him in RF. But I wouldn't be shocked if he was hitting .280/.310/.400 or something by the end of the season.
I love the progress Bowker made in AAA last year and the Giants have to find out what kind of hitter he is. The team, as its currently constructed, can't afford to turn away potential .350 wOBA hitters. The injury to Sanchez could be a blessing. In a perfect world, DeRosa shifts to 2B, and Bowker starts the year white-hot and never gives up the LF job.
I can dream, can't I?
See old media: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/17/SPCU1C379D.DTL and
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/giants/detail?&entry_id=57429
Boy, I love spring. It's almost like the reporters pull out these same stories about this guy and his new approach or this coach and his new approach and just change the names. I'm willing to bet we had the same damn stories about Carney Lansford and Daniel Ortmeier. In fact, I believe I blogged about my enthusiasm for Carney Lansford at this very point in the off-season (was that just last year? or the year before?). I'm not going to get excited about "so-and-so's in the best shape of his life" stories anymore. I'm going to get excited when Giants hitters actually are patient and selective, and I don't give a damn who gets credit for it. (And boy howdy, I can't wait for "Mark DeRosa is a veteran-gamer-clubhouse-leader-kinda-guy" puff pieces. Gag me. Didn't we get our fill of that with Aaron Rowand?)
But I can dream about Bowker getting white-hot and forcing his way into the starting lineup!
Don't forget, Aaron Rowand is 10 pounds lighter.
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