Friday, May 28, 2010

Down on the Farm: 05-28-2010

AAA Fresno Grizzlies blanked the Salt Lake City Bees 8-0 behind Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey:

Buster Posey- 2 for 3, 2B, BB, SF. BA= .349.
Madison Bumgarner- 7.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 2.72.
Henry Sosa- 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.30.

If the Giants are going to call up Buster Posey, I hope they are prepared to be patient with him. He's not going to save the Giants offense by himself. With the way Molina is hitting right now, they may need him to do more catching than they are currently thinking. Bumgarner probably needs more seasoning in AAA, but Giants fans have to be breathing a sigh of relief at his recent performances.

AA Bowie Baysox crunched the Richmond Flying Squirrels 10-1:

Daryl Maday- 6 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 1.68.

A QS for Maday, but the offense gave no support and then the bullpen fell apart.

High A Stockton Ports edged the San Jose Giants 6-5:

Charlie Culberson- 1 for 4, HR(6). BA= .287.
James Simmons- 1 for 2, HR(1). BA= .235.
Jose Flores- 2 for 4, HR(1). BA= .400.
Ehire Adrianza- 2 for 3, SB(11). BA= .241.
Eric Surkamp- 5 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 10 K's. ERA= 2.62.
Kyle Woodruff- 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K's. ERA= 1.93.
Jason Stoffel- 0.1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 5.74.

Charlie Culberson continued his hot hitting. Surkamp gets 10 K's despite a rough outing. Stoffel really needs to move out of the closer's role. He's not on the fast track!

Low A Augusta Greenjackets blanked the Asheville Tourists 7-0:

Nick Liles 2 for 4, BB, SB(10). BA= .289.
Ryan Cavan- 3 for 4, 2 2B. BA= .274.
Dan Cook- 3 for 4, 2B, 3B. BA= .245.
Jeremy Toole- 6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 1.04.

Liles is quietly having a good season. Leadoff may be the spot for him. Cavan's bat continues to heat up. This is the second dominant start in a row for Toole who has a mid-upper 90's heater. As unsuccessful as the Giants have been at developing hitters, they sure seem to know what to do with young pitchers!

6 comments:

  1. I am really surprise by how well Fresno is doing in the standings. I think a lot of it has to be attributed to Decker. I have not heard his name mentioned in conjunction with potential major league managerial openings. What do you think the risk of losing him to another organization is? Would you replace Bochy with Decker? and when would you do it?

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  2. if i am an owner of an org with a manager about to be fired, im on the phone with the giants asking for permission to interview decker.

    fresno has never done this well

    he has been a winner at every level, with every type of player....he gets the most out of his players and can work with the kids.

    it is apparent that the giants do have him on the fast track, but if im decker, i dont trust this org one iota.

    i can see him being a very good fit in places like florida, pittsburgh or kc

    as for posey....im not excited about his coming up.

    i have seen too many young position players destroyed by sabean.

    i would feel differently if they were going to dfa bengie....but that wont happen

    what is gonna happen is nate is gonna get benched.

    as an aside, winn was just dfa by the yankees, as he shoulda been last midseason by the giants.

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  3. I think Steve Decker would make a fine MLB manager. I wouldn't replace Bochy now. If the Giants have a disappointing finish and the players appear to lose confidence in Boch, then it certainly becomes a possibility later in the year or in the offseason.

    Decker is undoubtedly contributing to the success in Fresno, but I also think Fresno has better players than in past seasons, especially pitching.

    I would be cautious about projecting MLB success based on minor leaugue success as a manager. First of all, managers have limited ability to control the outcome of games. Secondly, it's a whole different type of managing. Managers should be mainly teachers in the minors. Player development takes a backseat to winning. In the majors, they have to manage players with huge contracts and deal with the media, in addition to game managing. Joe Altobelli and Nick Leyva are two managers who made great reputations managing in the minors and were mediocre at best in the majors.

    There is ton of competition for MLB managing jobs. There's minor league managers, former players, coaches and former managers all out there for consideration.

    Again, I think Steve Decker is a guy who deserves an opportunity at the MLB level, but he's only one of many. I would not see it as a disaster if some other organization saw something in him and gave him the opportunity.

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  4. Saying that Sabean has destroyed position players is a pretty over-the-top statement if you ask me. Yes, the organization has not been particularly patient with their young position players, but plenty of them have been given decent opportunities without taking advantage. As mediocre as the veterans have been, there have been precious few young position players who have shown that they were even as good.

    If Buster is ready to contribute now, bring him up. I have no doubt that he will be a very good, if not great, player for the Giants for years to come.

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  5. +1 DrB.

    It would be one thing if the Giants actually had talented position prospects, but they have focused their most likely to succeed draft resources on pitching - which I think was a very smart thing to do after I analyzed it afterward.

    And as DrB noted, they gave our best prospects many chances - Niekro, Ellison, Sandoval, Frandsen, Ishikawa, others - it is just that Sandoval was the only one with enough talent to take advantage of his opportunity, to make the leap.

    Buster will be different because he is different, a top 5 draft pick. That's a whole different level of prospect than any position prospect we have had since Clark/Williams.

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  6. Correction to my earlier comment. It should read "in the minors, winning takes a backseat to player development." I had it the other way around.

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