SB Nation User Blog: 3Com Park

Buster Posey = ?

3Com Park — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 04:06:24 -0000

As a Giants fan, I'm not quite sure what to think about Buster Posey. Everyone seems to like him, but he doesn't appear to have the hitting upside of some of the other top picks. I'm trying to figure out what I should expect as he makes his way to the big club. What's the conservative expectation? What's his upside?

Buster Posey = Russell Martin?
Buster Posey = Craig Biggio?
Buster Posey = BJ Surhoff?

Insights/comparables appreciated.

Hatteberg vs. Votto

3Com Park — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 22:21:39 -0000

As I feared, the Reds exercised their 2008 option on Scott Hatteberg.

I'm not sure how to read this:

It's possible they're going to deal him so that Joey Votto can play.
It's possible they're going to move Votto to the outfield, but they just exercised their option on Adam Dunn so that seems out of the question.
(My fear) Dusty Baker gives some veteran love to Hatteberg and Votto languishes on the bench or spends a good portion of next year back in AAA.

How do you interpret this?

Poll: When will Lincecum make his first start for SF?

3Com Park — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 17:17:37 -0000

Tim Lincecum was awesome for Fresno again last night. With the wind blowing out at 25mph, he threw seven innings, giving up no runs on four hits and two walks. He struck out nine, threw 87 pitches, 57 strikes, with 8 groundball outs and four flyball outs.

This followed a completely dominant first start, in which he struck out nine in five innings.

His only competition is the thoroughly spent Russ Ortiz and the Giants are going to need to drum up some fan excitement given their lackluster team.

AAA appears to be little challenge. When will they bring him up?

Poll

By what date will Tim Lincecum make his first start for San Francisco?

May 15

63 votes

The All Star Break

50 votes

September 2007

15 votes

April 2008

2 votes

After April 2008

4 votes

134 votes | Poll has closed

Time to revisit Brandon Phillips?

3Com Park — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 22:37:19 -0000

Brandon Phillips has debuted in Cincinnati with a huge splash -- 13 RBI in his last four starts.

As a result Tony Womack has become exendable, and one can imagine the Reds dealing Austin Kearns to open up an outfield spot for Ryan Freel if Phillips plays well.

At one time Phillips was a prospect rated at the top of the lists by John, BA and others. When he was in the Montreal organization he was rated their top prospect in 2002 over the likes of Brad Wilkerson and Grady Sizemore. He was traded to Cleveland along with Sizemore and Cliff Lee for Bartolo Colon and was finally given a chance to play in 2003.

He has regressed steadily since then, largely because of declining plate discipline. But he's still only 24, and he still has all the talent that led him to be considered a Top 10 prospect.

Anybody think we could be witnessing important development, or is it too late for Phillips to be anything more than a journeyman?

The pathetic state of the Giants

3Com Park — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 17:26:06 -0000

The ugly underbelly of the Giants 30-something strategy:

They have no picks in the first three rounds of today's amateur draft because of their early signings of Benitez, Vizquel and Matheny. Sabean could have waited on all three until their teams failed to offer them arbitration (none would have been offered arbitration), and retained the farm picks. And this was after they gave away their first picks the last two years so they could make similar signings of Neifi Perez and Michael Tucker.

Meanwhile the Diamondbacks, Brewers and Rockies are building farm systems to die for.

Sabean's rationale is that he wants to spend his limited budget money on the big club in an effort to win now rather than invest it in the farm system. Well, the chickens are about to come.

The sad thing about this is that attendance is going to plummet as soon as Barry is gone for good, Sabean will be long gone, and the debt repayment is going to loom larger and larger as a percent of revenues, sending the available budget for player salaries into a downward spiral. At the same time, the farm system won't be producing quality inexpensive players, reducing the leverage of their available budget.

First Round
1. Diamondbacks
2. Royals
3. Mariners
4. Nationals
5. Brewers
6. Blue Jays
7. Rockies
8. Devil Rays
9. Mets
10. Tigers
11. Pirates
12. Reds
13. Orioles
14. Indians
15. White Sox
16. Marlins
17. Yankees (from Phillies for Type B Jon Lieber)
18. Padres
19. Rangers
20. Cubs
21. Athletics
22. Marlins (from Giants for Type A Armando Benitez)
23. Red Sox (from Angels for Type A Orlando Cabrera)
24. Astros
25. Twins
26. Red Sox (from Dodgers for Type A Derek Lowe)
27. Braves
28. Cardinals (from Red Sox for Type A Edgar Renteria)
29. Marlins (from Yankees for Type A Carl Pavano)
30. Cardinals

Second Round
70. Cardinals (from Giants for Matheny)

Third Round
102. Indians (from Giants for Vizquel)