SB Nation User Blog: Hobbes2d

Potential Non-Tender FA's

Hobbes2d — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:34:59 -0000

Here's a list of potential non-tender FA's that could be made available this off-season according to MLB Trade Rumors. One guy in particular I would like for the Giants to get if he becomes available is Conor Jackson. He played pretty good defense in LF in 2008, granted in a small sample. He had some weird fungal disease that caused him to miss most of this season but he should be healthy enough for winter ball. Jackson knows how to get on base and is a guy who's expected to have developing power....In bold are players I would consider trying to acquire if they became available (not in the first intro part, that's from MLB Trade Rumors, in the list, bolded part is guys I like)

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/10/nontender-candidates.html

Below I've listed non-tender candidates for each team; it's mostly speculative. Feel free to debate or add names in the comments; I may add to the list based on that. A few of these players - Jeff Francoeur, John Maine, Mark Teahen, and Delmon Young - are unlikely, but were included anyway.

Jeremy Accardo
Garrett Atkins
Cha Seung Baek
John Bale
Denny Bautista
Jose Bautista
Matt Belisle
Wilson Betemit
Boof Bonser
Chris Bootcheck
Bill Bray
Brian Bruney
Taylor Buchholz
John Buck
Dave Bush
Daniel Cabrera
Buddy Carlyle
Ryan Church
Neal Cotts
Jack Cust
Randy Flores
Jeff Francoeur
Ryan Garko
Joey Gathright
Chad Gaudin
Jody Gerut
Jason Grilli
Gabe Gross
Craig Hansen
Aaron Heilman
Jeremy Hermida
Shawn Hill
Conor Jackson
Mike Jacobs
Bobby Jenks
Kelly Johnson
Logan Kensing
Noah Lowry
John Maine
Andy Marte
Seth McClung
Brandon Medders
Corky Miller
Justin Miller
Sergio Mitre
Dioner Navarro
Scott Olsen
Joel Peralta
Scott Proctor
Robb Quinlan
Kelly Shoppach
Tim Redding
Jeremy Reed
Jason Repko
Cory Sullivan
Jack Taschner
Mark Teahen
Marcus Thames
Josh Towers
Matt Treanor
Doug Waechter
Chien-Ming Wang
DeWayne Wise
Tyler Yates
Delmon Young

Alex Rios

Hobbes2d — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:14:31 -0000

I realize he had an AWFUL year. But given the White Sox man-love for Aaron Rowand, would you consider a swap of bad contracts? Rios has more left on his contract, but he seems like a likely candidate to have a bounce back year over Rowand. Rios is younger, a far superior defensive OF'er and I think he would hit better in SF than Rowand would. Plus he's also got 20 + SB potential, so he could improve the team as a baserunner, just because of his speed. I absolutely can't stand Rowand and see getting Rios as a great way to getting him off the team.

Just last year Rios was a 5.5 WAR player. And according to Jim Hendry the Cubs might be hanging onto Bradley, so if that potential swap isn't available, than what do you guys think about Rios?

The one thing that scares me with Rios though is his .ISO has been declining for the past 4 seasons.....So maybe it's not the best of ideas, but how else could we get rid of that sucky gamer that can't resist the outside fastball and slider?

Padres to fire Kevin Towers

Hobbes2d — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:33:34 -0000

Padres to fire Kevin Towers

SAN DIEGO -- A person familiar with the decision says Kevin Towers, the longest-tenured general manager in the major leagues, is being fired by the San Diego Padres.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity Friday night because the club hadn't made an announcement. The Padres said only that CEO Jeff Moorad will address the media on Saturday afternoon.

Towers, in his 14th season, told The Associated Press in an e-mail that he can't comment on his situation. He is under contract through next season. The Padres are 74-85.

Moorad leads a group that is buying the team from John Moores. He has spoken about making changes in the baseball operations department.

Under Towers, the Padres won four NL West titles and reached the 1998 World Series.

Nice. So going into next season, assuming Sabean's option is picked up as expected, we will have the longest tenured GM in the game. :( Honestly I like Sabean and think he gets a lot of shit for no reason sometimes, but at the same time I can't help but wonder if a new voice would be a good idea. Of course one could look at the entire way this organization does business since 93 and see that they're not the type of business to fire someone who has done valuable and extended service for the organization. Neither Dusty nor Alou were fired. Neither was Jack Hiatt. People are allowed to just "leave" here or "retire". It's nice they're so nice to each other and all, but sometimes I really wish this team cared more about winning then making money and in trying to be nice about everything.

Bochyball

Hobbes2d — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:51:47 -0000

My friend at a 49er forum just posted this in our SF Giants thread....thought it was scarily accurate. This was written I guess by some Padres fan back in 2006.

http://www.forums.mlb.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?sr=y&msg=22333.1&nav=messages&webtag=ml-padres

Bochyball is very similiar to Martyball, very unexciting
coaching and does not fully utilize the young talent on
their teams. Takes a talented team and wastes it.
Bochyball came into existence because a career bench player became a head coach and always hated warming the bench.
For those unfamiliar with Bochyball here are its basic rules.

1. Never use young talented players with dynamic defensive
skills when you can start older vets with decreased
mobility and range.

2. Never use young talented hitters with power or higher
batting average when you can start some pathetic hitting
veteran because of experience.

3. Never rest an older veteran even in a slump unless he
gives persmission. Regularly rest your young future stars
so older bench player can get regular starts.

4. If older vet gets in a slump, let him play through it even
if it gets really bad. If a younger starter has slightest dip in performance, sit him on bench or send him back to triple A.
If you really screw him up, you can then trade him for
another tired scrub veteran castoff.

5. When selecting playoff rosters, experience is more
important than talent or proven performance.

6. Make sure young talent in playoffs still gets no experience
so you can continue to play experienced vets who have
inferior skills.
Bochyball really is best for teams with aging teams with
no farm system or money to spend where it creates the
least damage. See San Francisco. Of course,
Bochyball, like Martyball, is at cross purposes with managers
trading for new young talent and growth your own
talent from the draft.

Hanley and Uggla exchange words in locker room after game....

Hobbes2d — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:05:55 -0000

Hanley and Uggla exchange words in locker room after game....

"A frustrated and injured Hanley Ramirez said Wednesday that he "got some people upset" for leaving the game early the night before with an injury, then teammate Dan Uggla openly argued with the NL batting leader in the clubhouse.

Uggla accused Ramirez of a lack of desire and effort to win. He also said Ramirez wasn't caring because he's already secured a $70 million, six-year contract.

Ramirez left the Marlins' 4-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves with a tight left hamstring. He was taken out of the lineup Wednesday about an hour before the game, and the team held a closed-door meeting."

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4441073

Class A Baseball America Tools

Hobbes2d — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:03:00 -0000

Class A Baseball America Tools

For members, but San Jose is all over the list, which is as follows:

For Cal League:

Best Batting Prospect: Thomas Neal (over Posey, which I found interesting)

Best Power Prospect: Roger Kieschnick

Fastest Baserunner: Darren Ford

Best pitching prospect: Madison Bumgarner

Best defensive catcher: Buster Posey

Best defensive SS: Brian Bocock

Best Outfield Arm: Thomas Neal

Best Managing prospect: Andy Skeels

New Yankee Stadium is a BANDBOX!!!

Hobbes2d — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:09:31 -0000

New Yankee Stadium is a BANDBOX!!!

Is anyone watching this Boston-NY game? There's already been 5 HR's combined and its only the bottom of the 4th. Jorge Posada is already 1 triple short of a cycle and none of these HR's have seemingly been crushed or well hit balls. The ball just carries from CF to RF way too easily. It's like watching a video game. This is the biggest launching pad I've seen since the opening of Coors Field.

Troy Glaus

Hobbes2d — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:39:39 -0000

I realize he is coming off an injury but he's currently rehabbing in the minors, and has been asked to play some LF as well...I really think he would be a really good low risk buy for the Giants. The Cards are trying to give him away because of the salary owed to him, and the Giants could probably get him for a bag of balls. If he is able to get healthy in the next week or so we can add a guy capable of playing LF, 1B (platoon with Garko vs RHP) or 3B (assuming he is healthy enough to handle the throws necessary). Plus Glaus immediately would upgrade our lineup yet again and provide nice protection for Pablo. And the best of all it might finally force Molina out of the cleanup hole....

Thoughts?

100 pitch count....good or bad?

Hobbes2d — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:27:41 -0000

On Monday, ESPN's baseball page had this 3 part series of articles on the magic number of 100 pitches being some sort of end point for starting pitchers in today's game. It's a long look at how things got to that point and how it might change in the future. Discusses the saber side of things and the scouting side and gets perspective from a lot of different people. There was a lot of interesting stuff in there I thought and was a good read. I figured this would make for a good discussion, and am kinda surprised this hasn't been posted about yet on here. Guess the Garko Mania was just too big!

Anyway here is links to the different articles and a few quotes I found to be interesting....the Kirkjian article is particularly long but has the most information and quotes. Crasnick's pertains to past player comments like from Tom Seaver and Don Sutton and the 3rd one is just a rundown of cautionary tales.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=kurkjian_tim&id=4359938

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=4358940

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4358917

La Russa added, "Young guys today rely on stuff. They throw 100 pitches; they don't pitch 100 pitches. They are max effort on every pitch. And in the minor leagues, they're doing whatever they can to get from Double-A to Triple-A, so the stress level is higher. They're getting to the big leagues younger, there is maximum pressure to perform, and because of that, they are letting it fly. That's how young pitchers develop arm injuries and fatigue. In the old days, pitchers spent time in D ball, C ball; they threw 500-600 innings, sometimes 700-800, on lower levels. There was no carrot out there like there is now to move up. Today's young pitchers are firing 85-90 pitches, fatigue sets in, and the next 15-20 they throw, they're still firing. A veteran at 70 pitches might have all kinds of stuff left. Clubs that have a lot of young pitchers are leery of pushing them because they know it's smart not to push them because they are throwing, not pitching."

We are now obsessed with pitch counts. "It's more mental than physical," said one NL manager. "I have pitchers who come up to me all the time when they come off the mound and ask, 'Is that it?' And I say, 'Yeah, that's it,' because I know they don't want to pitch anymore."

"We have conditioned our pitchers to go 100," Black said. "It didn't used to be that way. When I came up [1981], we pitched until we were ineffective. We would go 125, 130 pitches all the time. Now it's 100. We have pitch limits in Little League, in high school. We are so cautious of their talent, we are not encouraging them to go on. Today's athlete is bigger, stronger and faster than ever. They should be able to do more, but we don't let them."

Hershiser made his major league debut in 1983. "I could rest at certain times during the game: two outs, no one on, seventh hitter up in the National League," he said. "I didn't want to show all my bullets at that time, so I'd throw a BP sinker away and get a ground out. If the guy got a hit, no big deal; you had the eighth and ninth hitters up. But you can't do that today with these lineups. You can't throw only 80 percent of what you have. You can't get by with a get-me-over curveball. What used to not be a big deal is now a huge deal."

High-intensity pitches are often high-stress pitches. Teams all across the major leagues don't just count pitches; they count the number of pitches a pitcher makes under duress. "The philosophy in our organization is, 'How did you get there?"' said Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett. "When we have a 25-to-35-pitch inning, that's highly stressful for a pitcher. Our guys are very conscious of that. When you're in a highly stressful situation -- runner at second base, none out -- one pitch becomes a pitch and a half. We pay attention to that."

Don Sutton, who won 324 games over 23 seasons and never spent a day on the disabled list, calls the quality start a "ridiculous and absurd" statistic that rewards a 4.50 ERA. Sutton favors a new definition, with six innings and two runs or seven innings and three runs as the barometer for quality.

He also views the 100-pitch barrier as an "unsubstantiated, artificial limit" that conditions pitchers to feel fatigued based on a predetermined barrier established by others.

"We're teaching it in Class A ball," Sutton said. "We're telling kids we're not going to let them pitch, we're not going to extend them, and we're not going to see what they're capable of. We're encouraging mediocrity and being very successful at it.

How would you rank the Giants prospects now?

Hobbes2d — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:07:14 -0000

The Giants have had some impressive seasons by a number of pitchers this year, both starters and relievers at various levels. I included Joseph and Wheeler since both are expected to sign as far as I can tell. I was tempted to put a few of the first year draft pick pitchers like Stoffel and Toole in here because it wouldn't surprise me if Stoffel especially ends up in the top 30 come next February. I didn't put Joey Martinez since he made the big league team out of camp and if not for an unfortunate injury probably wouldn't be eligible anymore, plus he's older for a prospect to begin with. Sosa drops due to injury despite a good record and ERA at AA, but his periperals mainly K/9 is down, though his injury status is probably a good cause for that. Durability has to be a concern with him now as that's 2 years in a row he has missed time, this time it's his arm.

Feel free to post your own and comment on mine. Prospect talk is always fun and makes for a good debate.

1. Buster Posey

2. Madison Bumgarner

3. Tim Alderson

4. Thomas Neal

5. Zack Wheeler

8. Chris Dominguez

11. Rafeal Rodriguez