Monday, December 5, 2016

Apparently, Mark Melancon is a Giant

Mark Melancon.  I read $62 mil, 4 years, a record for closers, but probably not for long.

15 comments:

nomisnala said...

He is not the kind of pitcher that would preclude a Crawford error on a double play ball, late in a key playoff game. He does hold runners, which is good, and uncommon for most giant's righty relievers. He is not the strikeout artist that Jansen, or a few other closers are, but if we get results and field well behind him, he should be a big improvement. Control is important, and that issue has irked me a bit about some of last year's relievers. Not that as a team they walked a lot of guys, but key walks in just the wrong situations played a role in several bullpen meltdowns. If we keep Casilla I do not want to ever see him pitch to Lamb again.

campanari said...

A record for a single closer, yes, but about the same as they would be paying Casilla and Romo, who might have shared closer duty in hit or miss inefficiency and often ineffectiveness.

As to the opt out, if he pitches well enough to opt out after two years, then perhaps some of the Giants' younger pitchers will have gained enough experience3 and, partly from Melancon himself, knowledge to take over the closer's job. If he pitches at a level where he doesn't want to opt out and try the market, we will be no worse off than we would have been with a conventional contract. Chances are that Evans & Co. did something both bold and smart.

M.C. O'Connor said...

I was hoping for Jansen, but I figured Melancon as more likely. Obviously they needed a closer, and they could afford one of the top three available, and they got number three. I think it helps the team hugely in 2017 and 2018, but by 2019 and 2020 we might see a big drop off as he'll be 34 and 35 by then. It was one of those "we had to do it" kind of moves. Then again, maybe because he's not a hard thrower he'll age better. Who knows? But, like last off-season, they went out and got what they lacked. I like the decisive action.

It's not like the Giants can't afford it. Luxury tax be damned! You want to keep up with the Joneses you have to spend. The game is awash in money. Despite all the big signings of the last few years players actually take home a much smaller percentage of the pie than they used to and it has been decreasing steadily for 15 years! Player salaries, as gargantuan as they are, have not kept pace with league revenues. So the Giants can afford it.


Ron said...

I am enthused about the move. Melancon has been extremely good for several consecutive seasons. It's interesting that there's the perception that he's not a big strikeout guy - 8.2 K's per 9 IP isn't too bad. And, there's the fact that he never walks anyone. And, there's the fact that he does get the big grounders & that our infield is stellar (it's easy to remember a couple of lapses, but Crawford & Panik are Gold Glovers, Belt/Posey are virtual Gold Glovers at 1B, & Nunez is pretty slick at 3B, too). His price was steep, but will look like nothing in a few days. I expect him to pitch very effectively through the entire contract, as long as the Team around him remains competitive. If the Team slides, we may get pushed into having to deal him at some future July deadline. So ... keep the whole Team competitive & win some more titles!!!!!

Zo said...

I don't see why the doggers wouldn't do whatever they need to in order to hang onto Jansen. Regardless of the Melancon signing, they either have someone else for the role or they are resigned to handing the NL West over to the Giants. They know they can't count on the kind of skid that the Giants put together last year. I have to wonder about Chapman. First, there is the whole domestic violence / San Francisco thing, and the Giants don't need that headache. Also, he was used an awful lot, and I am wondering if there was a toll on his arm that we haven't seen yet. Guys who throw 100+ mph rarely do so for very long. So maybe Melancon was #3, but I also think he may be more like the best choice attainable.

M.C. O'Connor said...

The more I think about Melancon the more I'm coming to agree with you. I never wanted Chapman, precisely because of the off-field baggage, esp. in SF, and flamethrowers flame out. When they lose their gas they are done. A guy like Melancon, a control artist, can still be effective. He has an opt-out after two years so that makes next year a big one with Cueto's opt-out coming to the fore. I like Jansen, he showed some real grit in the playoffs with those multi-inning saves. Plus I liked the idea of hurting LA by grabbing one of their studs. But I think Melancon, as I said, makes the Giants much stronger RIGHT NOW. "All-in for 2017!!"

Ron said...

Melancon has a cut fastball AND a knuckle-curve ... what's not to like!!!!!

M.C. O'Connor said...

Buster Posey is playing in the World Baseball Classic.

Has anyone done an analysis of whether or not playing in the WBC degrades performance in the regular season? Do the Giants have any concerns about more work from their catcher?

I'm thinking maybe Spring Training is too long and a waste of time for vets like Posey who don't have to fight for a roster spot. Maybe playing "real" baseball in the spring would be better. I don't know, and I'm not going to fret about it. I'm going to assume Buster Posey is intelligent and knows how to take care of himself.

Ron said...

I might as well come right & say it: I am in favor of the Giants trying to sign Justin Turner. Why?:

- Because he is a good, gritty player, & because signing him to play 3B gives us the option of using Nunez as a super-utility player, including time in LF.

- Because after the Dodgers were supposedly interested in re-signing Turner, they are now diddling around w/ the idea of getting Todd Frazier instead. If we can sign Turner, they can have Frazier.

- Because Turner would be cheaper & require a shorter-term commitment than our recently-discussed LF options.

M.C. O'Connor said...

Turner is a very good player and I like him, too. He could get 70 or 80 million for four years on the FA market. I'll bet it would take $20M/yr to get him to SF. Even if he gets undervalued I figure $15M/yr easy. And at least three years. So I don't see the Giants getting any sort of bargain, unless you consider that Turner IS a bargain already because he's NOT Cespedes. (He might actually be a better value than Cespedes.) Frazier is still under arbitration (FA 2018) so he will cost less than Turner, that's probably why LA is thinking about him. That move would be a bit of a wash for them, I think. But I would never argue with signing a good player. I get the feeling that the Giants like Nunez, though, in part because he's cheap and has another arb-season left. (I'd like to see him hit better.) I wonder how the Christian Arroyo projections are playing into the decision-making. Will they try to convert him to a 3B or LF since SS looks "blocked" at this point?

campanari said...

I recall reading that Turner has a treacherous knee, and If so I can imagine that teams don't want to make a long-term commitment to him. If the LADdies are looking at Frazier, they may be planning to avoid that risk; and we might do well to avoid it too. But maybe the rumor about Turner's knee has been spun out by the same guys who put out the story that Hillary Clinton had epileptic seizures and was running a ring of pedophiles from a local pizzeria--now that their man has been elected, the news fakers have nothing to do, and have descended to baseball.

Zo said...

I think it would be "ascended to baseball."

M.C. O'Connor said...

Seems Boch is OK with Buster in the WBC and we may also see BCraw and JohnnyC there as well.

Ron said...

We have apparently dealt Heston to Seattle for a PTBNL. Weird.

campanari said...

Zo, I embrace your friendly amendment: "ascended," definitely.

The Giants now have newly under contract the so-far very mediocre relief pitcher Bryan Morris, who has had a negative fWAR in his MLB career, with too many walks (3.5+ per 9 innings) and too few Ks (6-something per 9). They've also signed Tim Fedorowicz, who seems to have been a quite decent defensive catcher and, all in all, an excellent AAA hitter who's been unable to bring his prowess to the majors.