SB Nation User Blog: NeifiChicken

If we get them, will you love them?

NeifiChicken — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:02:43 -0000

I've been going over some scenario's in my head about bats the Giants might acquire and I keep landing on one scenario I find somewhat likely given the Giants needs, Sabean's tendencies, and our desire to (correctly) hold onto our top tier of prospects. The two names that keep coming to mind are a package, a package of two of the more hated players by Giants fans:

Scott Hairston and David Eckstein

Reasons why I think it makes sense:

1) They the Giants, Sabes loves to acquire Giant killers (see Steve Finley, Mark Portugal, Neifi Perez, Orel Herchiser, etc.). I was half surprised Sabes didn't make a run at Khalil Greene earlier.

2) Hairston can play CF & LF and kills LHP (.375/.451/694). Allowing for more flexibility with our lefty dominant OF options.

3) Won't be free, but clearly wouldn't require any of our top tier prospects

4) Hairston is hitting .314/.371/.559 with a .406 wOBA in the ultimate pitchers park. I don't know what that means to Sabean (especially since he's likely to regress, especially with this BABIP well above his career norms)

5) "Gamerness". Eckstein's gamerness rivals that of Aaron Rowand. Plus Eckstein is a "proven winner" and WS MVP. Veteran leadership, situational hitter (.375 BA w/ RISP), does the little things, yada yada yada

I'm not saying I'm advocating it, but it seems inevitable to me that Sabean will be in on both of these guys. The price? I'm not exactly sure, but my guess would be Fred Lewis and Scott Barnes (maybe even Pucetas), or something comparable.

I guess my question is, if we acquired two hated players like these, how would you guys feel about them? Obviously they'd win you over with success, but I just wanted to see, since I see this as a potentially likely scenario

Tony Gwynn Jr's entrance music?

NeifiChicken — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:20:30 -0000

Tony Gwynn Jr's entrance music?

Does anyone know what it is? It sounds so familiar and it's driving me nuts. Anyone know it?

Sabean needs to read this blog

NeifiChicken — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:41:03 -0000

Perhaps I just haven't been following too closely, but I have yet to see Grant pat himself on the back too hard for Ben Zobrist. That was Grant's number 1 man crush according to my memory and look at what he's done for Tampa since he's been up last year with regular PT

326 at-bats

21 homers

.273/.369/.561

He also just hit a grand slam today, so the numbers are now slightly better.

Oh yeah, and he can play middle infield, where we've pretty much been the ugliest looking offensive team there in that time frame.

So if your back is not already worn out from patting it yourself, here's one from me Grant. You identified a perfect target for the Giants who in 330 at-bats with Tampa has already been more productive than any hitter the Giants have had since Barry Bonds

2009 San Francisco Giants & Pedro Feliz

NeifiChicken — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:20:51 -0000

If Pedro Feliz were on this team he would be 3rd on this team in walks and BB% amongst our regulars.

Sad.

In truth, that speaks more to the adjustments Feliz has made this year (or more likely just flucuation that will not last throughout 160 games) than any further beriding of this offense (although it is in fact, as terrible as advertised. Probably the worst in the bigs).

If you told me that one day Feliz would have a .373 OBP, I'd have said Feliz must be hitting .340. Do you guys think Feliz is actually changing his approach, or do you believe you cannot teach an old dog new tricks? Now, I reaaaaally don't think it has anything to do with organizational philosophy (since I figure most big leaguers just do thing their way regardless) but it's an idea I'm sure some have floated around.

As for our offense, well, what really scares me is that when you look at our offense (tied for last in wOBA & 2nd to last in OPS is that we've done this with our players performing about as good as you could expect (possible exception of Renteria). Molina's avg is lower than most expected I'm sure, but he's also had a much higher HR rate than anyone could expect to help offset it. Plus, with a catcher of his age and skillset, it's a ticking time bomb waiting to expolode.

Fred Lewis, Randy Winn, Aaron Rowand are all producing about as well as you could expect. (Lewis is doing so with a .375 BABIP, so that's a tad scary). I'm sure Winn will be a tad more productive, but it's likely that Lewis and Rowand will regress a bit here on out.

Pablo - hard to tell what his ceiling is I guess, but he's exceeding most people's expectations I'm sure. What worries me with him is that guys as extremely hacktastic as him have started out well and generally crash as the league catches on (Francouer comes to mind, Feliz as well). That doesn't mean it will happen, but there is some cause for concern.

Ishikawa - really what could anyone expect here? He's done about as well as I think you could reasonably expect offensively.

Burris - he's been about as good as I think you could expect, but maybe I was just never that high on him.

I guess what I'm saying is, the players in this offense have more or less done about as well as you could reasonably expect and yet we have the worst offense in the league (and the majors as far as I'm concerned). My question is what did the Front Office really expect? I know this is a tam built around pitching, but surely no one shoots to be the worst offense in the league. Guys under perform collectively (i.e. San Diego last year w/ Bard, Greene, Iguchi) to have to do that. When your players do about as well as you could expect with little room for improvement (at least in the sense that those guys that could improve slightly are evened out by those due to regress slightly) what was the plan?

The logic? Did they just have unrealistic expectations for Sandoval, Burris, and Ishikawa? Did they think Rowand was going to bounce back to his career 2007 year?

I don't see how you could expect any better than this and in truth, I expected a tad worse. It's a good thing our guys can pitch

Has there ever been a player with less power than Manny Burris?

NeifiChicken — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:30:36 -0000

This isn't a rag on Burris post or anything, it's a serious question, can you name a major league player that has ever had LESS power than Manny Burris?

Burris career minor league isoP: .052

Burris career MLB isoP: .038

Some ideas that came to mind

Willie Bloomquist

Minors: .094

Majors: .063

Juan Pierre

Majors: .071

Minors: .062

Duane Kuiper

Majors: .045

Minors: .064

Joey Gathright

Majors: .041

Minors: .051

Gathright is about as close as it gets, and that should be a reason for concern. Gathright pretty much has all the tools of Burris, speed, contact, walk rates, etc. In fact, Gathright has a far more impressive resume to Burris through age 24 (.315/.398/.364 minor league line with tons of steals)

Yet if you look at Gathright now, he just hasn't had much of a big league career sitting at .262/.327/.303

I certainly hope Burris can exceed that (and wouldn't you know it, those numbers are comparable to his current season). Just another reason to possibly taper optimism (if you have it) on Manny Burris.

Cheap 1B solution?

NeifiChicken — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:23:01 -0000

Cheap 1B solution?

I know about Guzman, but Fox is doing better and actually has the ability to take a walk. Just a thought

Prospect Swaps and the 1B problem

NeifiChicken — Tue, 19 May 2009 06:39:46 -0000

I know prospect trades never happen, Delmon-Garza being the closest thing I can remember, but nonetheless it got me thinking about a trade that could work out for two teams and their respective interests.

The idea I had in mind was trading Tim Alderson for Klye Blanks and Cla Meredith. Blanks is 23 years old and has never posted an OBP below .380 in his minor league career. His power isn't quite where many thought it would be given his monstrous frame, but he would still have more power than anyone on this team or anyone in our system with the possible exception of Villalona (who is clearly 3+ years away).

Alderson might be the better overall talent, although that could probably be debated, but we have a plethora of pitchers and no imminent 1B option both for now and the future. Blanks would be under our control for the next 6+ years and has the added benefit of helping us this year when we might have some small chance to contend.

Alderson has a chance to be on this club next year, with MadBum close behind, but we are guaranteed 4 pitchers on this staff next year. I suppose we could trade Sanchez instead, but he wouldn't bring nearly as much as Alderson.

Add in Meredith and we can strengthen our pen a bit. No, he's not nearly as effective as he used to be, but he's still a lot better than Medders in my opinion, who is a time bomb waiting to explode.

As San Diego is even further from contending than we are, they don't need someone like Blanks who can contribute now. Yes, there are rumblings he might play LF for them, but I think if a deal like this was on the table for them, it would be more appealing as there isn't much top line pitching at the top of their system.

Overall, not too bad an idea in my opinion

Vote Lasting Milledge into the AS game

NeifiChicken — Sun, 10 May 2009 22:15:26 -0000

Vote Lasting Milledge into the AS game

do it!

Keep Waiting for Boof...

NeifiChicken — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:35:25 -0000

Keep Waiting for Boof...

Out for the season...poor guy

Michael Lewis writes a great piece for NY Times

NeifiChicken — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:24:28 -0000

Michael Lewis writes a great piece for NY Times

Okay, so it's about basketball, but it's a fantastic free read