richmond roster 012

some pitching prospects, as the other thread was noting, with Chris Gloor skipping some levels (1 game at SJ last year) which happens to 6;6" lefties. Bochy, Dunning, Kickham, Wescott, Heston, Quirarte. Not sure why Justin Fitzgerald didn't get promoted to Fresno.

No bona fide shortstop which leaves room to Panik in a few months. Minorleague journeyman 2B Daniel Mayora could play there, along with Joel Weeks and Jose Flores. Maybe Cavan goes back to short.

Offense comes from Dominguez repeating the level, Gary Brown, Light Tower Tommy Joseph, JC Perez repeating, Ryan Cavan plus Monell, the aging Wes Hodges, and Wendell Fairley who had a brief visit hear in 2011 .

012 SJG roster and probly the other levels are up too. Or real soon. By tradition, Fresno is the last to update.

Includes 3 shortstops with Panik, Haney, and Jurica. And Burg and Duvall share 3B and DH. And only 4 outfielders to rotate--Lofton, Parker again, Lollis again at age 24 and Devin Harris.

Burkhardt and Arnold play lots of gin rummy while Susac catches.

Pitchers mostly were noted on the other thread, Dunnington the youngest at 21.

I have never managed major league players and may underestimate the ego complications. But when there are question marks, why not use April and May as a trial period to find out things such us--

how spacy is Angel Pagan's defense? can Blanco hit consistently? Likewise, Scheierholz and Belt?

Let's say Pagan, Blanco, Melky, and Nate share the 3 outfield positions. This is made easier if Belt is installed at first base for a while due to Huff sore back , or if Belt gets sent down which I don't want to happen.

The simple version of all this: most weeks in April have 6 games. That's 18 spots for outfielders, could be 5 for Melky and Blanco, 4 each for Nate and Angel. I have another version involving 1B and C also, and was giving Huff about 3 starts a week. Blanco's good Spring made the outfield more crowded.

6 reserves (only 4 starting pitchers needed until April 24) would be a catcher such as Hector; Pill; 2 infielders of Theriot, Fontenot, and Burris, Blanco as 4th outfielder, and still 1 more spot which could be Huff and that sore back.

Calling Operation Carrot, Care to Convene our comments on Cormac?

In case you want to be the convener. Otherwise we can kick it off some other way. I have not been in an English or Lit class in a long time. Kind of looking forward.

A bunch of us bought or acquired the book. I actually read a quarter of it and stopped. Let's start talking about it before Spring Training overwhelms all other mental and physical activity.

In our handsome leader's excellent post today, there's gritty analysis of the 3-headed, squatting, baseball-launching prospect phenom known as Hectoandy Sansuseph. Yes we are deep in catching prospects, and amazingly shallow in power hitters, ML ready starting pitchers, and shortstops. And you always need more relief pitchers, as Grant demonstrates.

Bill Walsh said it's key to trade people too soon rather than too late. I guess he meant to trade before their value starts dropping. In this poll we don't care which guy gets traded, we just want to predict when one of Hector Sanchez, Tommy Joseph, or Andrew Susac is swapped for somebody Sabean covets more.

I only caught the last 10 minutes.  Maybe folks can add what else they remember.  

Nate is assumed to be a starting outfielder.  Hitting improved, and don't forget that right field defense.

Free agent market will be looked at but don't expect anything big.  Keppinger likely to pricey to retain, though he also could play some third and first if he stayed here.  Likewise Beltran probably too expensive, and he will be pursued heavily by AL teams.  

Team's offense needs to improve, but mostly from within.  Defense has to improve too.

Huff has been told he doesn't have a starting job guaranteed.  Some time in the outfield possible.  Pill is in the mix for first base.  Belt is too, and his defense at first would win some games.  Belt's hitting may have suffered since he was adjusting to playing the outfield.

Christian is a call up player, not in the mix to lead off.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/standings/index.jsp?tcid=mm_mlb_standings

The only team with a winning record we play from now on is those pesky Snakes, 6 times.  The DBacks, on the other hand, still must visit the Braves, starting tonight, followed by the Nationals (only 4 below .500) and later, in AZ, they play the fading Pirates (only 6 below).

Put another way, both the Giants and Dbacks mostly play western division common rivals.  Non division opponents for the Giants have a grouped record of about .394 (2 series vs Astros, one vs Cubs), Arizona's are .614.  Do we actually have to play all those games or can we phone in the projections?

yes, the DBacks play the Dodgers and Padres a whole bunch, 12 times each, compared with our Giants' 6 and 8 against those 2 non contending and often spiritless teams.  But the Giants play Houston 3 more times than Arizona does, and we have 3 against the lowly Cubbies.  

Against good teams--we have 3 more than AZ does against the Phillies, real soon at that.   Snakies play the Mets and Nationals, whom we are finished with, a total of 7 games.  Eliminated in their strong division but maybe still competing anyway.

Overall, using some math shortcuts and removing the opponents we have in common, and ignoring our single extra games against Braves and Rockies, San Francisco's opponents are about 470 overall, and Arizona's about  457.

More important than all that?  The 9 games between the Giants and the DBacks.  2 series there, 1 at home.  Plus our current 4 game lead.  Also we now have same record as Atlanta who lead for the wild card.

and we lead 9-6 in the 7th by the time I start this.  Chris Dominguez looking like he has no pitch recognition, esp. with curveballs.  3 K's already.  Brown and Parker raking, Cavan also.  Crawford has a couple of seeing-eye hits.

Brown scoring from first on a single that was bobbled by rightfielder, nice base running instincts or smarts.  Brown also made some questionable plays in outfield when I wasn't watching.  

Mixon OK for about 4, then Reichard terrible in relief.  He had been the listed starter on the website

Really I am a fan, not an employee of Comcast or the SJ Giants.
My links usually bomb, so:

hursday, April 14, vs. Visalia, 7:00 PM
Friday, April 15, vs. Visalia, 7:00 PM
Wednesday, May 11, vs. Lancaster, 7:00 PM
Friday, May 13, vs. Lancaster, 7:00 PM
Saturday, May 21, at Stockton, 7:05 PM
Sunday, May 22, at Stockton, 2:09 PM
Wednesday, June 1, vs. Visalia, 7:00 PM
Friday, June 3, vs. Visalia, 7:00 PM
Sunday, June 5, at Stockton, 2:09 PM
Monday, June 6, at Stockton, 7:05 PM
Friday, June 17, vs. Modesto, 7:00 PM
Friday, June 24, vs. Stockton, 7:00 PM
Saturday, June 25, vs. Stockton, 6:00 PM
Friday, July 1, at Stockton, 7:05 PM
Monday, July 4, vs. Modesto, 6:30 PM
Wednesday, July 6, vs. Modesto, 7:00 PM
Saturday, July 23, vs. Visalia, 6:00 PM
Monday, July 25, vs. Visalia, 7:00 PM
Wednesday, July 27, vs. Lancaster, 7:00 PM
Friday, July 29, vs. Lancaster, 7:00 PM
Sunday, August 7, vs. Bakersfield, 5:00 PM
Monday, August 8, vs. Bakersfield, 7:00 PM
Friday, August 19, vs. High Desert, 7:00 PM
Saturday, August 20, vs. High Desert, 6:00 PM
Friday, September 2, vs. Rancho Cucamonga, 7:00 PM

Link to the Gameday Audio with Doug Greenwald is on the sfgiants website.  I  did have to log in, I think that was my username when they used to have a discussion board there.

http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/mediacenter/index.jsp?ymd=20110303&c_id=sf

I am not going to moderate this.  You folks just be moderate anyway please.

Giants playing:   Ford CF; Nate RF; Pablo 3B; Posey C; Burrell LF; Belt 1B; Fontenot SS, Burriss 2B, Vogelsong

nice prospecty lineup

Sure, the link is on the right side of MCC, but I unearthed the news that prospect hound DrB adds his comments to those from Marc Hulet of Fangraphs.  And I rate a lifelong Giant fan and blogger higher than some web savvy dude with a French name.  Dr B boosts Chuck Jones and my favorite helium candidate, Carlos Willoughby.

Hulet says Thomas Neal doesn't have the arm strength or range for RF but I would like more opinions on that.  I thought he was racking up assists from LF.

Planning for the 2011 roster--a big winter event for some of us--one of the big unknowns involves Mark deRosa.  He was a big sign when we got him, and opening day leftfielder in 2010.  Right now, after 2 surgeries on the same wrist, he's a big unknown.  Then, we've signed Fontenot and Burrell to occupy some of deRosa's niches.  Has management given up on Mark?  Have you?  Let's vote, just to see how all of us add up to as predictors.

The best question really, is what will be the September surprise?  Will there be a DFA (who?) so Dontrelle Willis can have a bigleague stint?  Has Dontrelle earned it, or just a spring training invite?  Same questions apply to Brandon Belt, as Bochy thinks last Fall's visit helped Posey's development.

Then there's the Grizzlies' "stretch drive" to consider--tho the River Cats just took 4 out of 5 to pass the Griz.  Pucetas would be a nice addition up here, to give an extra rest day to the starters, but not while the Griz are contending.  They are a game back, with 4 on the road against Salt Lake, then 4 hosting Tacoma--which are both contenders, ranking 2 and 1 in their division.

You figure management  hopes Fresno loses a few more so they can raid the roster for useful players like Rohlinger; maybe Burris; could be Velez again; Waldis Joauqin, Edelfsen, Espinelli, and I'd like to see Sosa again.  Ray and Runzler return, really.

You  got a take on this?  A bombshell to propose?

Impressions from that delightful lil ballpark in Stockton.

Belt is the real deal.  Made the best defensive play of the night, fielding a hard grounder very deep along the line and tossing to the pitcher to just retire the runner, with 2 out and runners on.

And the recap may show Belt tagged out at third in the 4th inning, but it was the manager’s fault, throwing up a stop sign when Belt was halfway to home.  Manager probably couldn’t believe how fast Belt had made it from first, on a drive down the LF line by Biery.    The relay came right to third, where Belt was trying to retreat. Then the next hitter, Monell, homers to score 2 but it should have been 3.

The only time they pitched to Belt, he doubled off the right-center wall.  Also 4 walks, one fully intentional and the others just chickenshit.

Monell also had an opposite field hit for RBIs, but was overwhelmed by a tough lefty reliever at a critical point later.

Stoffel was hit hard and took the loss, coming in with a 3 run lead.  It didn’t help that Fairley clanked a sinking liner for an error.  

Fairley looked bad at the plate, uppercutting into 2 GIDPs, tho he probly beat out the 2nd.   Culberson and Ehire didn't look great either, tho Culberson bounced a hit thru a shortened infield for an RBI.

Surkamp relies on speed variation and hitting corners.  His stuff was slow and not moving much.  But mostly effective, except for a 3 run bomb by the #8 hitter, a catcher named Paramore.  

Stoffel was missing high with offspeed pitches, all over with the fastball, and not getting swingthroughs.

he doesn't have to be Panda Lite.  Just good enough to make us, and Shulman and Baggs and Haft and other pundits start re arranging starting lineups and rosters.  For Bowker and Lewis, they would have to hit their way into the starting lineup, at least as platooners.  For the others, just being among the last cuts would be enough, and generating buzz about "they have to find a way to get him on the field."  With position changes plus the Sanchez injury, a player of any position could do this.  Let's guess before games start tomorrow.   Poll below.  Probably I left people out and you will add them in.

Flexibility in the roster?  Because Sandoval, Velez,  DeRosa, and Uribe can play several positions--that is nice as far as it goes, but what about the injury prone valuable leadoff hitter and Center Fielder.   Like him or not, there is a slight chance Rowand could be out of the lineup for long periods--say, they go for a run up a mountain in Scottsdale, only Rowand decides to run INTO the mountain.  Then there are long spring training batting practice sessions.  With that stance, Rowand is doomed for many strained muscles and innards.

So my question--what do you like as a "contingency" plan for CF?  Or, as an alternative, as an alternative in CF?

Not much of a poll as I can only think of a few possibilities.   Please come up with more and better.

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