The return of Giants baseball from winter hibernation is certainly exciting enough, don't you think? But there are some specific things about the 2017 Giants that I'm feeling stoked about. For one, how about Matt Moore? For another, how about Eduardo Nunez? I don't think either player has shown his full potential. Moore will be 28 in June and Nunez will be 29. These guys ought to be at their physical peaks--the Giants were smart to grab them both. Let's imagine a full season from both of them with Moore complementing the outstanding one-two MadBum-JohnnyC combo and Nunez filling out an already outstanding infield. We are going to enjoy watching these guys.
Mark Melancon was of course the obvious upgrade the bullpen needed, but I'm excited for some of the youngsters like Derek Law and Steven Okert and perhaps even Kyle Crick. "Old vets" like Hunter Strickland and Cory Gearrin will be more seasoned and I expect they'll be stalwart contributors. We didn't really get to see what Will Smith can do, I feel like Bochy did not know him well enough last season and that this year he may get a chance to be, for lack of a better term, Jeremy Affeldt Lite. The fact that Matt Cain is physically healthy (at least that's the word) is exciting. My expectations are muted, but if he can be effective as a fifth starter that will make the rotation among the best in the game.
Gorkys Hernandez and Jarrett Parker both bring some excitement to the outfield. Untested, sure, but that's part of it. The uncertainty in the outfield, what with both Pence and Span being below par last season, is a problem, but I feel good about the process. There are vets aplenty to push these guys and I have faith that they will step up. They don't have to be superstars, just solid major-leaguers, and I believe the team has the support and coaching necessary to achieve that. Then again, Mac Williamson and Chris Marrero could make some roster decisions really tough. That's good. When you cut or re-assign talented players, that means you have a deep club.
What are you guys excited about?
--M.C.
p.s. I forgot to mention Jae-gyun Hwang, Mr. Excitement. Who knows what this guy can do?
14 comments:
I also forgot to mention Jose Alguacil. The poor chap got hit in the face by a foul ball while coaching first base so he is out of action for a while. However he seems to be a rising star in the organization, getting promoted every year and now on the big league staff. I think they are grooming him to replace Bochy whenever that happens. Boch is 61 and this will be his 23rd season as a skipper, and his 3546 games managed is 14th all time, adding 2017 he'll pass Walter Alston for 11th place and be just behind Leo Durocher. Sparky Anderson quit at 61, LaRussa and Piniella quit at 66, Lasorda and Leyland at 68, Cox and Torre at 69. It's coming. We have to be prepared for Big Head stepping down. Keep an eye on Jose Alguacil, he'll be 45 in August. He could be in charge before his 50th birthday.
Chris Marrero was a 1st-rounder in 2006, 15th pick overall. Notable 1st rounders that year: Longoria (3), Kershaw (7), Lincecum (10), Scherzer (11). First-rounders usually have a very high chance of being successful major-leaguers, even if "just" journeymen.
No one else in the 2006 class for the Giants made it: Manny Burriss, Ryan Rohlinger, Brett Pill, Brian Bocock, Tyler Graham, and Matt Downs are the only others with ML time. That's out of 50 picks! Makes you appreciate how hard it is to survive in the bigs.
I hate to lose some of these guys if they do not make the team right out of Spring Training.
Hey everybody! Happy Spring Training! I'm more excited about this one than I can remember being in along time.
So did Mike Morse get a spot on the team based on that stinky dinger he hit today? I mean that was something, looked like it cleared a 30 foot fence that was 430 ft away. Bochy was gushing over after the game. It was rather amazing, and I'm not a dinger nut. I can tell you that many women I know will be very happy if Morse makes the team. I wonder why....
I think regardless of who the Giants keep or cut they will have a deeper roster than last season. You also have to figure that options matter--they'll keep Parker and send Williamson down, for example, because Mac has an option left. And Hwang signed a minor-league deal, so he could start the season at AAA and come up if someone falters or gets hurt.
Tomlinson has an option left as well, I believe. Everyone has kinda acted like his job is secured but I'm not convinced. I could see them going with Hill or even Rollins, if he can play second. But I agree, this feels like a chance at more quality depth than before.
Of course, pitching depth is really the key. Do we have that? I'm less sure.
WIth Melancon and a full season of Moore I think they will have the pitching.
A little worried about both Samardjia and Cain. For a guy fighting for a job, who will be making more money this year than most of us will make in a lifetime, he sure has not looked so great. Seems as if we may have the depth to replace Cain, but if he can finally turn it around and be Cain of old, it would go a long way to making the giants a playoff team. It is difficult to fathom why he has not been able to turn things around. Last year he seemed to have a bit of that Brent Tomko syndrome, cruise along for 3 or 4 innings, and then totally fall apart. Tomko used to throw 95, and had a good slider, I never understood why he was not better than he was. Cain's fastball used to have phenomenal movement, I have not seen that second stage retrorocket effect on his fastball in quite sometime. His old 93 MPH fastball, had the effect of a 98 MPH fastball. His newer 91 MPH fastball, seems to no longer have that retrorocket effect on the back end. He has a good curveball and slider, he just cannot put them together for enough innings to sustain consistent good starts. Lets hope that I am wrong and that Cain gives us another number 2 type pitcher this year, but I would say the odds of that happening seem lower and lower every day.
I can't say much in favor of the past few years' Matt Cain; but in response to nomisnala's worries about Samardzija, I can respond that according to a metric being put forward by The Sporting News, he was in 2016 one of the 20 best pitchers in the league. (Bumgarner and Cueto are numbers 2 and 3 on the list, beaten only by Kyle Hendricks. Samardzija is 17th.). The metric is BPO+. It's calculated by taking the total number of bases given up--hits, walks, HBP, stolen bases, successful sacrifices--and dividing that by the total number of outs achieved. You get BPO, or Bases Per Out. Adjust the raw figure for park factors and put it on a scale like ERA+, where he league norm is set at 100, and you get BPO+ to measure who's stingiest in giving up bases of any sort to the opposition. A beauty of this metric is that it can measure batters, with excellence measured by who has the highest BPO+ (who gets the most bases for his team), as well as pitchers, where the lower one's BPO+ the better one's overall pitching has been.
The teams with multiple pitchers in the top NL twenty are the Cubs (4), the Giants (3), the Nationals (2), and the Mets (2), with 162 IP as the qualifying minimum--why 162, I don't know. The Giants have one hitter, Belt, among the top 20 NL hitters in BPO+, at (fittingly) #9.
Another way to look at Samardzija is his "average" start. 203-1/3 IP, 190 H, 88 R, 24 HR, 54 W, 167 K, 829 BF over 32 starts yields 6-1/3 IP, 6 H, 2.75 R, 0.75 HR, 1.7 W, 5.2 K, 26 BF. That's a pretty solid #3/4 starter. If he can chip in 2.5 to 3.0 WAR he's delivering the goods as far as I'm concerned. His 2.6 fWAR was 45th among all ML starters, Cueto (5.5) was 4th and Bum (4.9) was 9th. With Moore at 2.2 (51st) that's a hell of a rotation and I think we'll see an uptick from Moore.
Cain may just be the placeholder until Blach is deemed ready. It's sad, and I hope it ain't so, but that #5 spot may not be his. I agree that his fastball always had that late movement that made it deceptive and hard to square up. Seems like he throws a much "flatter" ball these days. I'm still holding out hope that his good health will mean a return to better form. Not the ace of old, but a cagey vet who can still log some quality innings and get outs.
And I'm a big believer in Belt. The park suppresses his homers, he hits a lot of screaming liners to R-CF that would be dingers in other parks. I think he's hitting his stride as a player and at age 29 (and we hope past the injury bug) will be putting it all together. Good complementary LH bat to Posey in the lineup.
According to MLBTR these guys are out of options:
Strickland, Kontos, Parker, Gearrin, Gillaspie, and Gorkys Hernandez.
Bonds is back with the Giants - Now I'm excited!
I think that's good news, too!
And Team USA advanced to the finals. Posey, BCraw, Melancon are the Giants involved.
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