We know that the three late inning guys don’t have much to worry about in terms of their roles, but everything is up in the air for the rest of the pitchers.
List of pitchers who have a chance of earning a spot:
Alex HinshawA few disclaimers before we move on: Pichardo and Yabu were optioned down to AAA today, and Romo is sidelined for at least another week with an elbow sprain. Ortiz, whom the Giants signed from the Orix Blue Wave in Japan, has not impressed at all. Hinshaw and Taschner have been erratic so far, and Valdez is still recovering from his offseason surgery and hasn’t thrown off a mound yet.
Osiris Matos
Luis PerdomoKelvin Pichardo
Sergio Romo
Billy Sadler
Jack Taschner
Merkin Valdez
Justin Miller
Brandon MeddersKeiichi Yabu
Ramon Ortiz
Considering Romo’s successful bullpen stint in 2008, he was probably next in line for a spot this season. Now that he’s out for a while, this opens up the competition for the remaining pitchers. NRI Justin Miller has a good chance of winning that spot, as CHONE’s predictions make him one of the Giants’ top-tier relievers this season. Additionally, he has some control, something that most of the bullpen lacks. If Rule 5 draftee Perdomo continues his nice outings for the rest of spring, he’ll earn a spot on the 25-man roster as will. Matos also has a good chance considering a clean couple of spring outings and a decent performance in 2008 as a call-up from AA, but he still has an option and would be better off pitching in AAA.
So, my Opening Day bullpen lineup:
Wilson
Affeldt
Howry
Romo (I’m banking on his coming back)
Miller
Hinshaw (You could put Sadler here, seeing as he’s a hard thrower with no control, too)
Perdomo
Bring up Yabu in the event that Hinshaw or Perdomo implodes.
---
Update: I forgot to mention that the Giants released Dave Roberts so that, according to Sabean, they can take longer looks at Nate Schierholtz and Eugenio Velez. Plus, since he's been released this early in spring, Roberts has a chance to join another club. The Giants will have to eat the $6.5 million he would have made this season.
I thought Roberts was a cool and likeable guy, and he was effective when he wasn't battling injuries like he was the majority of last season, but it was clear that he didn't really have a place on the team anymore. I hope he gets picked up by another team.
In more exciting news, Merkin Valdez is available to pitch on Friday! He's not going to look as sharp as he was when he started in place of Lincecum in that funky rain-delayed game last season, but here's hoping he's recovered fully from his surgeries. If he pitches well, I'm going to have to shuffle my predictions a bit.
13 comments:
:) As I pointed out to Cody, Sergei Romo and Bob Howry do not make for a fantastic bullpen. I platonically followed the Cubbies last season, post Harden trade, and there were a ton of comments about how Howry had lost control and was basically throwing heat down the middle..which ends badly.
Says David Cameron of Fangraphs "However, Howry posted a 5.35 ERA last year for two reasons - his home run skyrocketed to 1.66 HR/9 and his BABIP was .354. Both of these are more about bad luck than any drop in Howry’s skills - his FB% was the same as always, but more of those flyballs just went over the wall. In 70 innings, that kind of variance is going to happen. That doesn’t mean we should expect it to continue, though."
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/gl.cgi?n1=howrybo01&t=p&year=2008
I'm high on Hinshaw. The few Giants games I caught when my A's were blacked out, his stuff looked really good. Helped that he completely owned our lineup when he faced it.
Yabu. Really. Ah, the Giants.
:) A's! Devine! Ziegler! Blevine! Springer! According to Sickels, a shitton of AAA relievers who will make the jump this year! OC! Nomar!
To end, a comment pasted from BBTF about Jenkin's Giants-Dodgers preview.
""The idea of making a category called "intangibles" and then actually measuring and comparing where two teams rank in "intangibles" is hilarious on many, many levels.""
By the way, didn't the Giants sign Jeremy Affeldt? 2yrs, 8 mil if I recall.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/a/affelje01.shtml
Was he injured?
Romo and Howry >>>> Walker, Chulk, etc.
Last season's Howry was just a fluke, really. He's posted solid FIP's over the last few years: 3.73, 3.07, 3.43, 3.52, and his relevant peripherals have stayed pretty much the same. I think the underlying cause for his bad 2008 was that he lost about 1 mph off his fastball, and outright bad luck with the HR, like Cameron says. Pitching in Phone Company Park should reduce his FB% and cut down on the HR. Besides, in a bullpen where almost nobody can throw strikes on a consistent basis, Howry is a welcome and needed relief. And if 2008 was a sign of things to come, hey, we've only signed him for one year for a middling salary, so no harm, no foul.
Romo should bolster the bullpen as well. I don't know how much you saw of him last season (30 IP), but in those 30 IP, he was great. CHONE predicts an FIP of 3.76, which makes him one of the Giants' better relievers.
I'm a fan of Hinshaw, too. In between walking guys, he's got nasty stuff for a lefty. I hope he figures out how to throw strikes.
Yabu is cool for an old dude. Upside is that he can go 2 innings or so when Zito gets knocked around. Plus he induced the Giants first triple play since the 19'somethings. =P I think that Sabean might try to engineer a trade or something involving Yabu, though.
Hm, seems like the A's will have the call-up phenomenon the Giants went through last season, albeit with pitchers. That's always fun. Ziegler's closer now that Street's on the Rockies, right?
God, how I hate Bruce Jenkins (along with Ray Ratto and Gwen Knapp, and all the other hacks on the Chronicle. Schulman is cool, though). I wish Fire Joe Morgan revives sometime in the near future, just to rip him a new one.
Yes, the Giants did sign Affeldt. He's not injured, though he has been sort of erratic this spring and the projection systems have him regressing a bit this season. He'll be set-up man for Brian Wilson.
BTW, quien es Cody?
Mssr Cody Crosby, ridiculously smart sophomore. In Robotics if you care to ask Hume or Toy about him. He's a Giants fan who's amusingly ridiculous. "Zito had a strikeout in his third batter faced of the spring! Last year, it took 63! He's throwing 90s now!"
He's also bullish on Ishikawa.. to quote his email "giants are looking pretty good...schierholtz, bowker, ishikawa, ZITO (two shutout innings, a couple Ks), Fred Lewis (a home run already), RJ, LINCECUM = CY again, Posey"
/would like to gush and point out that talking to a kid from school about baseball sabermetrics is fantastic.
Re: Howry. Starting to convert to this line of thought, I think he'll be a decent option in a fairly run-of-the-mill bullpen. I love that Wilson is throwing 98 in his first few spring training games. /s No potential for that to end badly, eh?
XD The deal can't be worse than Seattle and Jeff Weaver...or Johjima... or Sexton... or the Dodgers - gots to love Pierre and Matthews, Jr.
"I think that Sabean might try to engineer a trade or something involving Yabu, though."
Is this before or after he swings Zito for a C prospect and cash? XD Nothing against Yabu but if the A's can't swing Street for anything decent, can't see Yabu doing so.
"Hm, seems like the A's will have the call-up phenomenon the Giants went through last season, albeit with pitchers."
http://www.minorleagueball.com/2008/12/12/690649/oakland-athletics-top-20-p
No clue about Ziegler, I'd honest prefer to leverage him in two-inning stints rather than restrict him to "Closer Innings" (no baserunners, 9th).
I think Jared Burton is definitely up.
"God, how I hate Bruce Jenkins (along with Ray Ratto and Gwen Knapp, and all the other hacks on the Chronicle. Schulman is cool, though). I wish Fire Joe Morgan revives sometime in the near future, just to rip him a new one."
Speaking of local newswriters, I am greatly amused by Andrew Baggarly. It seemed everytime I read a Giants recap in the Merc, he was slipping in some otherworldly metaphor or comparison.. bloody love him for it. At least we don't have Plaschke, no?
In one at-bat, a boy selfishly took pitches rather than helping his team.
In another at-bat, a man bunted and sacrificed his well-being for the benefit of the team.
In one corner, a GM stewed.
In the other, a grizzled scout smiled.
And so on! You can win awards too! You just have to write like that!
Matt Holliday! GO! Hit! HIT! HIT!
Is this before or after he swings Zito for a C prospect and cash?
OMG TRAED ZITO FOR A BIG HITTER THROW IN CASH GIT'ER DUN SAEBZ /typical sfgiants.com comment
No clue about Ziegler, I'd honest prefer to leverage him in two-inning stints rather than restrict him to "Closer Innings" (no baserunners, 9th)
I see. There was a discussion about the "high leverage" vs "closer innings" situations regarding Brian Wilson last season, as well. He pitched really well when he was thrown into a high-stress inning with runners on base already, but struggled when he took a clean 9th, so there were fans advocating for him to be a "roving closer" rather than a traditional one. I think Ziegler is one of the better arms in the A's bullpen, so I agree with you there.
Anyways, isn't Jared Burton on the Reds now?
Andy Baggarly is awesome. His writing appeals to both the casual and the more knowledgeable fan.
:P I have never ventured onto sfgate.com, and it's unlikely that I ever will now.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, I love Athletics Nation occasionally.
"OMG WHY IS *insert random Athletics C+ prospect - CRAIG ITALANIO* NOT ON THE BA TOP 100? LOOK AT HIS OBP/ ERA! BILLY BEANE IS TEH SHITS!"
Is he? ... He is. Thinking of another guy... Jared Lansford. A kid in my Graphic Arts class always hypes him up for me. He went to our school apparently.
Athletics Nation is pretty knowledgeable, though I guess you always have that minority of unintelligible posters in any informed fanbase. I love McCovey Chronicles, however. It’s my go-to site for Giants discussion.
Hey, Jared Lansford, that makes sense now. He’s the kid of Giants hitting coach Carney Lansford.
Goodness, it’s fun talking baseball with someone I actually somewhat know.
XD That it is! The 10 comments on this post amusingly smashes the previous record of two (possibly more, I'm too lazy to check).
Anyhow, I've run out of things to say. So, I will reccomend baseball authors to try.
Joe Posnanski. It kind of starts here. I've read all but one or two articles off his blog.
http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/
Basically, everything he writes is golden for moi. /will reccomend three article, though there are probably closer to 20.
http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/04/16/why-duane-kuiper-is-my-hero/
The Giants announcer Duane Kiper, yes. He hit one home run in his whole career.
http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/01/24/royals-leading-santana-race/
Great humor, albeit somewhat dated.
http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/07/07/view-from-the-press-box/
This article teared me up. It's just so utterly fantastic.
/are you one of them anonymous posters on whatever-giants-fans-call-blogs?
Yeah, the most comments I've ever received was 2. =P I do get a fair number of visits, but the comments are few and far between.
I'll make sure to read Posnanski's stuff. I think I read the Kuiper article before, but I'ma read it again.
I do have usernames on several blogs, but I'm more of a lurker than a poster. My SFG lurks are McCovey Chronicles (imovermyhead) and Bay City Ball (Cat), mainly. You probably already know Fangraphs, though I don't have an account on that.
^__^ Why not read it now? You're not the one with 600 pages to read in a Critical Research essay, ne?
Mssr Crosby.
"20 homers, Zito and Johnson pitching well,,,i could be good
>>> Wawert 03/08/09 7:31 PM >>>
Congrats. XD The champions of spring trainging, 'dem Giants!
On Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:35:59 -0700, Cody Crosby wrote:
> http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap;_ylt=AsyhZ_ZUlxYngdDuyJKZhbzbzYd4?gid=290308126
"
XD I remember last spring Todd Walker was hitting .400. Still, impressive. Favorite A's-Giants game of all time.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK200506260.shtml
^__^ Not even my favorite Rich Harden (somewhat of an absurd fanboy of his) moment.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK200507140.shtml
81 pitch complete game. Not having cable at the time, I listened to the game on a radio. At a certain point in the game, I stopped moving at all during Harden's innings, for fear of karma.
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