The kids made a huge statement. Bochy said these last few games would be auditions for next year. If so, the Giants offseason plans may have changed dramatically in this one. Key Lines:
Conor Gillaspie- 2 for 4, HR(1). BA= .278. Well, Conor Gillaspie sure knows a thing or two about getting in good with the manager! A day after Bochy gushed about how he thought Conor was going to make a lot of noise next year, Conor goes out and has a game like this making ol' Melonhead look like a bloomin' genius. The HR was an inside-the-park job but he did drive it to the wall in triples alley. A missed cutoff throw enabled him to circle the bases despite falling down between 3'rd and home.
Brandon Belt- 3 for 3, HR(9), BB. BA= .226. I hope Aubrey Huff and Mark DeRosa were paying attention here. Belt turned on a pitch and pulled it smartly right into McCovey Cove. Belt is hitting .256 with 4 HR's over his last 10 games. He has 9 dingers in 186 AB's on the season. The Giants don't need to look any farther for their starting LF next year. This baby giraffe is about to turn into a monster!
Brandon Crawford- 2 for 3, 2B, 3B, BB. BA= .204. Crawford continues to show excellent plate discipline and is now starting to drive the ball more confidently. He is hitting .280 over his last 10 games and .256/.333/.419 over 16 games in the September. I think we'd all agree that's more than enough offense when you factor in his defense. Again, he costs absolutely nothing for next year.
Madison Bumgarner- 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K's. ERA- 3.21. Talk about a monster in the making. MadBum is already a monster! How much is HE going to command when he's arbitration eligible to say nothing of free agency?
Eric Surkamp lasted less than an inning in his last start, so the Giants are moving him up to give him one more look while giving Matt Cain an early offseason after 2 years of yeoman work. Surkamp faces heralded rookie Drew Pomeranz in the season finale tomorrow in an afternoon game.
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Conor is a lock to make this team next year. I think he will give us some good, cheap bench strength and have some upside too. He needs to lighten up a bit though. He didn't look like he was having any fun after his home run!
ReplyDeleteI know it is off topic but who do you think will be DFA'd/released next year:
ReplyDeleteBarry Zito - 80% chance. He is done.
Aubrey Huff - 15% chance. If he plays like this year and Pill is doing well, who knows.
Eli Whiteside - 60% chance. With Buster back he might be expendable if Stewart or Sanchez do well in spring training.
Ryan Vogelsong - 5% chance. I think he can pitch well despite his August performance. But, if hell freezes over and Zito and J Sanchez catch fire, then I
guess it is possible. Hopefully he is not a one year wonder.
I agree Zito is done, but I don't believe they'll do it. There will be noise about 5th starter, then the pen. Then when that doesn't work out, it'll be an injury. When he comes back (delayed as long as possible) it'll be time to go learn a knuckleball. Instead of an honest clean break, it'll be a bunch of sorry excuses.
ReplyDeleteHuff - they'll give him 2 months. Then its Pill, then its Belt.
Whiteside won't be offered arb, totally done. Stewart has eclipsed him both sides of the plate and Hector Sanchez looms.
What happens with Dirty Sanchez should be the best drama of the offseason.
Don't assume Zito will be traded. Zito and Sanchez are up to fill in the 5th spot, and Sanchez has a better trade value. Surkamp isn't ready, and there is no guarantee that Vogelsong will repeat this year's miracle. That means we'd better have a strong 6th starter in Fresno, too. Remember that DFA ing Zito will not save any money.
ReplyDeleteI think he should have been released last year once he was left out of the post season roster. It was probably the right decision, but it is a huge hit to anyone'e ego, and it was unrealistic to expect Zito to come back and do well this year.
If they did not do it last year, I suspect they will do it this year, and I expect Zito to do better (good as in decent 5th starter) next year.
AP
I suspect Huff will have a good season next year, WS hangover worn off, contract year, history of alternating good and bad years. He may platoon with Pill, but Huffy actually hits lefties pretty good.
ReplyDeleteZito? Wow, that's a toughie. There is absolutely no reason to release him before opening day. He's gotta do something different. If he comes to spring training topping out at 85 MPH, he's done.
I think Vogey is for real, although age alone dictates he has only a small window for the rest of his career. This last game finishes the season on a really strong note. Don't know if he can turn in another sub 3 ERA, but on in he low-mid 3's would be good. Hopefully the Giants offense is better next year.
Gotta think Whiteside will be non-tendered. CStew has a better glove, better arm, calls a better game and is about as good with the bat if not better. Hector will be waiting in the wings in Fresno.
JSanchez is a toughie. If he has a bum shoulder and a bad attitude, he's not worth what he got paid this year let alone what he'll get with arbitration leverage next year, but do you non-tender the guy? If so, they almost have to sign a vet FA to compete with Zito for 5'th starter and I don't mean Jeff Suppan or Todd Wellemeyer! Problem is a veteran starter that is a sure thing to be better than Sanchez is probably going to cost at least $10 M to sign. I don't really think Sanchez is tradeable now that he's admitted his shoulder hurt all year.
Ugh, missed that bit of news, Dirty has been hurt all year? Yeah, untradeable based on that news, and why the hell did he wait until mid-season to do something about it?
ReplyDeleteDon't know if anyone remembers, but Zito was in a bone rattling car accident just days before the first game of the year. He was lucky to be alive and probably saved his life by accelerating just before the collision, avoiding a head-on. I think it was a miracle that he escaped the crash with no known or apparent injury.
I'm no doctor, but sometimes I wonder if he suffered an underlying injury in the crash that manifested itself due to the pounding a pitcher takes on his leg throwing pitches.
I know that the leg takes an ungodly hit in a crash like that, and bends unnaturally, even if there is no apparent injury, as I was in a wild collision like that once, getting blind-sided by someone running a red light. I was in a small sports car (Celica) and I'm 6 foot, so my shins are right next to under the dash, I don't know how I didn't have two broken shin bones, but I do know I did impact the car going forward.
Also, I know the body can take a lot when unaware, I recall some guy high on drugs fell down one of the ducts high up the Transamerica building but he didn't break any bones, just suffered scrapes and such, as his body was basically limp due to him being high.
So I wonder if the crash caused some structural weakness that manifested itself after Zito kept on pounding on his right leg, pitch after pitch. It would also explain why his velocity was so down at the start of the season. There was no mention of such a drastic loss of velocity during spring training that I can recall or research, seemed to come up once the season started.
I'm sure the car crash didn't help Zito. I don't remember what his velocity was in spring training but it was 83-85 out of the gate once the season started. Whatever the cause, he's got to be able to hit at least 87-88 consistently to be effective. He's shown that over and over again.
ReplyDeleteDrB, I've seen no reference to Jonathan Sanchez's shoulder being hurt all season. Where did you find the info on Dirty's shoulder? Not that I doubt you, but it is odd that it is not being mentioned in any of the season ending articles, so I just want to verify this bit of news.
ReplyDeleteI think it was in one of Baggs posts.
ReplyDeleteSorry if I'm being a pest, DrB, but is this the post you read: http://blogs.mercurynews.com/extrabaggs/2011/09/23/buster-posey-and-giants-are-100-percent-resolved-that-he-will-catch-in-2012-plus-nateschierholtz-and-jonathan-sanchez-updates/
ReplyDeleteIt is about as recent as I could find, and Dirty said his arm was OK to start spring, he just got injured. It did note that he had more arm issues than was let on, but there was no implication it was season long, just perhaps things were worse than was originally reported. Plus it is his arm, not shoulder. So according to the latest I could find, he has not been hiding a shoulder injury.
I did the search on the term "shoulder" and this was the only one to pop up about him. I also searched on "Jonathan" and again, this was the latest. "Sanchez" too.
Did anybody else see this news?