LOS ANGELES — The Giants would open the 2011 season with a two-game series in Taiwan against the Arizona Diamondbacks if players from both teams approve a proposal from Major League Baseball, sources told the Mercury News on Wednesday.

Players union executive Gene Orza met with the Giants almost two weeks ago in Washington to outline the travel schedule, which would include two exhibitions against the Chinese Taipei national team before taking on the Diamondbacks in late March.

The Giants would return to Scottsdale, Ariz., for an additional week of spring training before resuming the regular season.

Players would receive additional compensation for competing overseas, because of the travel inconvenience and the earlier spring training reporting time. They are expected to vote on the proposal next month.

If approved, it would be the Giants' first regular-season game outside of the United States, its territories or Canada. They played a series with the Montreal Expos in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2004.

Taiwan would be a new venue for Major League Baseball, which has staged three season-opening series in Tokyo and one in Monterrey, Mexico. The A's opened the 2008 season in Japan against the Boston Red Sox.

Taiwanese major leaguers include Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Hong-Chih Kuo and Washington Nationals right-hander Chien-Ming Wang.

Link

The San Francisco Giants are one of many teams in need of a bat if they are to remain competitive for the better part of the summer.

According to the Boston Globe, the Giants have had internal discussions about Cleveland Indians third baseman Mark DeRosa(notes), who may, or may not, be available depending upon which rumor is out there at the times.

The Globe reported the Giants would part with lefty Jonathan Sanchez

Link

DeRosa is hitting.263/.329/.441 with 9HR, 37RBIs, and 36 Runs.

He has played most of the games at 3B, but also has played LF, RF, and 1B this season.

Last year for the Cubs, he hit.285/.376/.481 with 21 HR, and 87RBIs.

What do you guys think?

According to ESPN, the Giants have agreed to terms with 16-year old Dominican outfielder Rafael Rodriguez.

ESPN Comment:

Comment: To many, he is a duplicate of Vladimir Guerrero because of his size and power with the bat. Rodriguez can work the entire outfield and drive the ball anywhere. He has reportedly accepted an offer from the San Francisco Giants worth $2.5 million.

Couple this with Keith Law's comment,

Kenny (Sacramento): After the last 2 drafts, which appeared to be solid, where would you rank the Giants farm system?

 Keith Law: Assuming they get these guys signed, which I assume they will, they're probably top five.

 

It seems amazing to me that the Giants, which had a very weak farm system just a few years ago, have brought their system back up this quickly.

Does anybody know anything more about Rafael Rodriguez?

Jim Callis has a mock 1-5 picks in his Ask BA column. He has Justin Smoak for us. Personally I rather have Yonder Alonso.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/askba/265478.html

Baseball America has their Giants Top Ten Prospects list up:

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/features/265340.html
Big suprise for me Erik Threets having the best changeup. Very suprised.

On the opening page of baseball america they have a picture of Big V and Felipe Alou saying that Big V reminds him of Andres Galaragga.

I don't have a BA account so no chat transcript. (Poor college student). :(

The Giants Top Ten prospects plus various other rankings will be posted this Friday. There will also be a chat (probably Andrew Baggarly) where members can pose questions. So get your questions ready. I am very interested to see what they think of our low minor prospects

John Heyman is saying that Sanchez is the one for Matsui. Yanks might take on some salary.

Reds interested in Lincecum

Cincinnati is apparently interested in San Francisco right-hander Tim Lincecum, but if the Giants insist on Reds outfield prospect Jay Bruce as part of any deal, look for the Reds to back off.

Bruce, 20, hit a combined .319 with 26 homers and 89 RBIs in 133 games at three Minor League stops in 2007. The left-handed hitting Bruce is considered one of the team's cornerstones of the future.

http://www.wintermeetings.mlblogs.com/nashvilleconfidential/

According to SNY via Metsblog as well as WFAN, the Mets have traded Lastings Milledge to the Nationals for Brian Schneider and Ryan Church.  

WOW! Nationals got him for nothing.

Brian Barton, of, Indians

A five-tool player who can play all three outfield spots, Barton has been hampered by a lingering knee injury since his breakout year in 2006 when he hit .322 with 19 homers and swiped 41 bags in 49 attempts. Even with the knee problem, Barton still turned in a .305/.402/.420 season in 2007, finishing the year in Triple-A. Quiet and leading through example through his 2006 season, some scouts expressed concerns about Barton's demeanor. "I loved him that first year in Double-A," one scout from a National League club said. "But this past year, it was almost like he'd earned this elite status and you saw him have this lackadaisical approach to the game that wasn't there before. Where he was playing with chips on both shoulders with something to prove initially, that part of his game was replaced by some sort of false bravado. He's really tough to get a handle on, but the tools are very real."

I like this kid, even with the attitude. I know we don't need an another outfielder, but this kid seems to have all the stuff.

Baseball America's has a list of players it thinks have a chance at getting picked and doing well.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/news/265252.html

Buster Olney sums up the known Troy Percival suitors thusly: Yankees, Brewers, Giants, Astros, and Rays.  He obviously wouldn't close for the Yankees, but might be able to pitch the ninth for the other clubs Olney named.

The 38 year-old Percival is a fascinating story.  He missed all of 2006 and joined the Cardinals this year and posted phenomenal numbers - 1.80 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, 3.6 K/BB.  Suddenly he's primed to snag a closer gig again, if he wants it.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/san_francisco_giants/index.html

What do you guys think? I am okay with it, if he comes cheap and is willing to be a set-up man to Wilson. I don't think he will be willing to be a set-up man, so I think he goes to the Brewers.

Hey, I don't know if you guys saw this or not, but hiding between all the Bonds stuff are some real Giants news.

Third Base

Will not be trading for Miguel Cabrera as all converstations start with Lincecum.

Not interested in Scott Rolen.

Other free agents - Morgan Ensberg, Mike Lamb
Trade market - Miguel Tejada

Relief Pitchers
Not interested in Francisco Cordero
Not interested in Bochy's boy Scott Linebrink
Not interested in Japanese relief pithcers

Closer job - Competition between Tyler Walker and Brian Wilson.

Rick  Ragazzo leaves his job as verseeing the international scouting program to becomee the special assistant to Dodgers G.M. Ned Colletti.

Sabean was not at the GM meetings at Orlando, but we knew that already per Baron.

http://www.mercurynews.com/sportsheadlines/ci_7479444?nclick_check=1

Giants: The Giants will draw from their perceived surplus of pitching to attempt to make trades, with a third baseman being their primary target. Other teams have asked for Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain, but the Giants are unlikely to part with either right-hander unless they receive a top-flight player in return, such as Miguel Cabrera. San Francisco is more willing to part with the likes of Noah Lowry or Jonathan Sanchez, and there's a host of Minor League prospects the Giants can use to sweeten a deal.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071113&content_id=2299388&vkey=hotstove2007&fe xt=.jsp

Sergio Romo, RHP, Giants: San Francisco's lone Class A entry for the AFL, Romo was off-the-charts impressive in relief at San Jose in 2007. He posted a 1.36 ERA in 41 games, striking out 106 and walking just 15 over 66 innings. A 28th-round pick in 2005 out of Mesa State, he posted a 7-1 record and 2.75 ERA at short-season Salem-Keizer that summer as a starter and a 10-2 record and 2.53 ERA at Class A Augusta in 2006 in both starting and relief roles. So how is he performing against higher-level hitters? The results are very positive, as his 0.75 ERA in eight games for the Scottsdale Scorpions shows. He's walked three and fanned 13 in 12 innings of work.

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071112&content_id=321642&vkey=news _milb&fext=.jsp

There are five Giant minor leaguers on this list.

C Justin Knoedler
Knoedler was drafted as a pitcher--he caught in college, too--and the Giants quickly moved him behind the plate for his second season.

RF Justin Leone
Leone went 20-20 in the PCL in 2007, chipping in 30 doubles as well.

SP Matt Kinney
Kinney has made 58 big league starts. Though he's the best strikeout pitcher of the group, Kinney also was the most homer-prone, giving up 25 and posting just a .63 groundout-to-flyout mark.

SP Sun-Woo Kim
Kim has made 38 big league starts.

RP Dan Giese

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/?p=648

Out of all of these minor league players,
I like:

2B Jason Bourgeois
Bourgeois also plays the outfield, including center, and might have a ceiling as a big league utilityman. He's a very good runner, too, having twice finished among the Texas League leaders in both stolen bases and triples, in 2004 and 2006.

His numbers .311 AVG, .396 OBP, .444 SLG, 23SB, 4HR, 25 years old.

Seabol and Pascucci have good numbers too, but in a highly friendly hitting enviroment.

Keep RF Justin Leone
Keep Justin Knoedler

SP Jorge Campillo, had a good 3.07 ERA and is 28 years old.

RP Brian Bass, had a 3.48 ERA in 103 IP, with 1.87 G/F ratio and is 25 years old. Can't hurt to take a flyer on him.

See anybody that you guys like?

I found this brief Angel Villalona video on Youtube. Phil over the Giantsrunboard website posted it. Villalona looks a bit skinnier than I thought he would be.

What do you guys think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haUgt88XgAE

It seems to me that various websites keep mentioning that Giants are interested in signing Fukudome. Mlbtraderumors.com placed him as going to the Giants.

Here are the stats for those who are not familiar with him.

In 2007, he batted .294, with 13 HR, and 48 RBI's with a .443 OBP and .520 SLG. That seemed to be a down year and he was also injured and played in only 81 games. His defense in right field is pretty decent, and has a cannon for an arm. He might be moved to third base.

It would probably take 3yrs/24mil to get him in a Giants uniform.

What do you guys think?

Bill James uses some weird stats and numbers, while factoring in age to rank this top fifty young players. He says the talent level in young players is the highest since 1964.

He rankes Matt Cain #8

8. Matt Cain, San Francisco starting pitcher (22).
His 7-16 record disguises one of the league's best pitchers; his slider is probably his best pitch. He had the same number of quality starts last year as Brandon Webb (22), but whereas Webb was 17-2 with three no-decisions in those games, Cain was 6-8 with eight no-decisions.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/11/02/billjames.talent/index.html

Hey, so you guys see any potential good players, who are currently free agents?

There are usually one or two suprises every year maybe this year we get lucky.

NBC11 and the Giants agreed to a deal, which switches the Giants broadcast from KTVU, Kruk, Kuip, and Jon Miller will still be there.

What do you guys think?

What is your assessment of outfielder John Bowker in the Giants system? Double-A Connecticut has been a graveyard for San Francisco's hitting prospects, yet he seemed to get his prospect status back there. Should we give him extra credit for not only jump-starting his minor league career, but doing so in an extreme pitcher's park? And given that the Pacific Coast League is a hitter's league, what kind of numbers will Bowker have to generate in Triple-A Fresno next summer to be consider a legit major league prospect? What is his ultimate major league potential?

Lyle Bontrager
Memphis

A third-round pick out of Long Beach State in 2004, Bowker is one of the better position prospects in the Giants system. But that speaks more to San Francisco's inventory of up-and-coming hitters than it does to Bowker's true worth.

Bowker had the best season of his pro career in 2007, hitting .307/.363/.523 with 22 homers and 90 RBIs in 139 games at Double-A Connecticut. Though he played mostly right field and saw some time in center, he's a below-average arm who's best suited for left field. His bat will have to carry him and the jury is still out on whether it can, because he doesn't control the strike zone very well (103 strikeouts vs. 41 walks) and at 24 he wasn't young for his level.

As Lyle noted, Bowker deserves credit for performing in a tough pitcher's park. The Defenders posted a .639 OPS and 2.84 ERA at Dodd Memorial Stadium, compared to a .766 OPS and 4.61 ERA on the road. He could put up even bigger numbers in Triple-A, and if he does, the Giants almost assuredly will give him a big league chance in 2008. Like Moore, Bowker is more of a reserve on a good club and not a player of great long-term value.

I saw this on Real GM. He didn't seem very enthuastic, but who knows. http://www.realgmbaseball.com/src_wiretap_archives/7881/20071014/will_clark_a_hitting_coach_candidat e_for_giants/

Who else do you guys think could be the coach?

Henry Sosa and Brian Bocock made the Futures Game.

Bocock
In an organization stockpiled with middle-infield speedsters, Bocock has emerged as perhaps the best this season. A solid defender with above-average range and a strong arm, he earned a promotion to the California League after stealing 26 bases in 34 attempts for low Class A Augusta. He's remained solid in the field, going 23 games without an error between the two levels, while getting comfortable at the plate.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/features/264334.html

Sosa
The latest power arm in a Giants system that specializes in producing pitchers, Sosa emerged this season by dominating the South Atlantic League with a fastball that reaches 97-98 mph and a hard curveball that he has learned to throw for strikes. His 0.73 ERA led the minors in late June, and he registered 61 strikeouts in 62 innings before being promoted to San Jose.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/features/264335.html

I am going to the game today, hoping to get a look at Paul Oseguera. The little Giants can clinch the division this weekend. Anybody else I should keep a close eye on? Brian Bocock?

I saw on BA that Clay Timpner has been placed on the DL, is it serious or what? Is the injury the reason for his recent slump?