The Giants have designated infielder Jesus Guzman for assignment, tweets Andrew Baggarly of The San Jose Mercury News. The move frees up a 40-man roster spot for Bengie Molina.
The 25-year-old Guzman hit a clean .250/.250/.250 in 20 big league plate appearances last season, his first taste of the show. He's a career .299/.368/.470 hitter in the minors (.344/.368/.491 in 565 Triple-A plate appearances), and has spent considerable time at first, second, and third base while dabbling in the corner outfield spots. Sounds like a pretty decent player.
Meh…
He was VERY impatient at the plate in his chances with the Giants.
It was his first MLB experience, a lot of guys end up pressing at the plate and struggling. He would have been a much more affordable and sensible option at 1B than Huff. Giants are being mismanaged badly right now.
this is one of the dumbest thing they could have done. make room by letting one of out 900 outfielders like lewis.
I don’t think that he was just hacktacular while in SF. That AAA slash line of .344/.368 indicates that he does not walk much at all. I would say that with 500+ pa at AAA, that’s the type of player you are going to get.
Another player the Giants give ZERO chances to.
AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!
That’s what happens when you’re only talent is hitting. I wouldn’t even call what he does in the field defense. Even at 1B, he was lost. One thing is to lack range or a good glove, but you need to know the fundamentals of the position and he just doesn’t. He’s best fit for the AL as a DH but i have my doubts there because he’s not a big power guy, or at least not typical power for a DH.
unfortunate move. there were other options as Guzman really wasn’t given a proper chance. this sort of reminds me of Sabean and Bochy deeming Garko a complete failure after a 100 plate appearance sample. Oh well.
What? 20 at bats not enough for you? Small sample size? What’s that? Bruce Bochy and Brian Sabean do not know what that means.
My frustration/hatred for Sabean grows larger each day.
They didn’t deem Garko a failure. Him and Bochy didn’t get along.
Seems like teams are DFAing the wrong guys lately. This is at least the 3rd post where the fan’s comments have been angry that a certain player is DFA’d
damn that kid had poetential. shotty defense though
25 years old and still a minor leaguer is considered a diminishing prospect. The giants probably have younger guys further along who are better prospects and they wanted to make room. The dodgers did the same with Jason Werth but they did not sign him after a rash of injurys he is looking at a 100 million contract if he has another year like last year. The point is you never know maybe Guzman will get picked up by another orginization and have some big league success.
This is exactly the type of player the Cardinals should take a flier on.
I’m not going to lose sleep over this the guy can’t play defense at all and had no value for the Giants
he has a better shot at becoming a DH on the AL
same can be said for Fred Lewis, no? I would have DFA’d him rather than designating Guzman for assignment and hoping to trade Lewis.. unless the Giants know something I dont know about Lewis’ potential suitors, I dont think they are going to get much, if any, for him.
he makes Fred Lewis look like the next Carl Crawford
lol I wouldnt go that far but yeah I know his defense is atrocious, but so is Lewis’.. they are planning on TRYING to trade Lewis before the start of the season, and if they arent able to they will just waive him.. I dont think they will get anything for Lewis and will end up releasing him, so I would have just done that right now and kept Guzman since we need as many players that resemble major league hitters as possible.
Actually no… Lewis as bad as he SEEMS is actually above average in LF. Not great and doesnt make pretty plays but he’s not as bad as your eyes tell you. His problem is when he makes a bad play, he makes a BAD play. But at the end of the day he’ll record more outs in LF and cover more ground than most other LFers.
Guzman on the other hand doesn’t even have the fundamentals down at any position. Some guys can make that up with raw athletic ability but Guzman doesnt possess such talents, in the field at least. I think he will find success given the chance on an AL team that wont mind a pure hitter that has lots of gap power and is good with men in scoring position. I just dont see the point of fretting over a guy that would only serve us as a pinch hitter.
Also Lewis is actually a solid player at the plate. He will never be a huge power guy but he knows how to work the count and has tons of speed. I see him getting a shot in ST to prove he belongs on the team and could share time with DeRosa in LF… with him starting we actually have a legit leadoff hitter.
My point was just that from what I have heard so far, the Giants have no plans for him on their roster.. only plan is to try and trade him by the time the season starts, and if they are unsuccessful, they will release him.. if that is the case, I do think it’d be better to just DFA Lewis rather than Guzman, who still has minor league options.. and unlike Lewis (who is like 29), Guzman is only 25, so like I said before, for a team that needs players that resemble major league hitters, Guzman would have been a good guy to keep at the AAA level since he still has plenty of time to improve his glove.I am just not in favor of giving up on a young guy like Guzman, who has tremendous upside, offensively speaking, because his glove isnt there yet.. if he was 30 I could understand but he is very young.. but again, this is all contingent on the “rumor” (since I havent heard it come out of Sabeans mouth) that they are going to try and trade Lewis and then release him if they cant.. if that ends up being the case, they should have held on to this guy.
There has to something more to this, right? I mean, I know this is somewhat of a pattern with the Giants, but they were really impressed with him last spring. Apparently his defense even at 1B is really terrible, which is why they didn’t bring him up last May and leave him there. Maybe he’s a DH, but there’s still upside there. The dude can hit.
Apparently it’s only okay to have bad defense if your offensive skills are also questionable at this point, a la Aubrey Huff and Bengie Molina. Of course, I’m sure Sabean thinks Molina’s defense is great.
You honestly think they would cut him if his defense was at the very least bad? He’s a great hitter but he doesnt belong anywhere near a baseball diamond unless he’s at the plate or running the bases.
What about the Freddy Sanchez story? Biggest Giants story in months, and there’s no mention of it here for almost 24 hours?
It’s called “denial.” After giving up our #2 pitching prospect and tossing aside Garko for nothing after we traded another top 10 prospect for him, we’re just at a loss for words, that’s all.
What happened?
He had surgery on his shoulder..
His surgery isn’t even that big of a deal. Get over it. POST meant for OP.
LOL I can care less about Freddy and his overrated style of play.
You’re probably not that big of a deal, too. Should I get over you?
With Sanchez out, the question is who takes second: so many dominoes fall that now a rookie — or a FA LF — could break camp with the team or be added.
Probably its only going to be Uribe till Sanchez gets back…
Hah… He got arthroscopic surgery. It isn’t a major surgery, so it wont take him long to get back.
I smell a Pirate’s pick up.
They should have sent tim lincecum down instead..I think he needs a little polish work before he is a contributor…
The Padres need infield depth. They lack middle infield depth in the minors.
However is appears he is more suited for a corner pos. or even the outfield.
Defense may suck, but the Giants have no offense and Huff’s defense at 1B isn’t exactly stellar. Should have given him a chance and used Ishikawa as a late inning defensive replacement if he’s really that bad.
1B is one of the least defensively oriented position in baseball. You should be able to get away with having a good hitter and poor fielder there, especially if your defense is solid every where else, which is what the Giants have.
Whaddya mean they didn’t give him a chance? 20 at bats not enough for you? Wait, small sample size? Impossible to declare him a minor league careerist at this point? That’s not what Bruce Bochy told me.
My hatred for Sabean grows more each day. Jesus Guzman for Bengie Molina? Guarantee Guzman does not clear waivers.
even if he doesn’t clear waivers he had no future with the Giants he’s better off in the AL
Seems that a lot of Giants fans want the team to give these unproven kids a shot, how long do you want team to wait for things to pan out? I mean you have one of the best pitching staffs in baseball, Timmy has won two straight CY Youngs, he can’t have two better seasons. If you consider that, they have wasted two years of Timmy. Cain had a great season and even Zito looked OK. Your pitching staff is peaking now, try to win now. I think the youth movement was short lived because of this. The Giants probably didn’t think their pitching was going to mature/grow like it did. So, change of plans.
AAA BA s/b .311
The guy couldn’t catch a cold! A slow roller to first was an adventure. I’d put even money on the ball hitting his chin or his glove. Why do you THINK they cut him? Because they like to cut good players? Sheesh.
His OBP is impeccable in the minors. Sounds like a guy the Z Man will pickup for the minors, and a future callup.
Ionno how I feel about letting him go, but someone had to go. Wish him luck though…
He has no where to play on the Giants… There is no reason to keep him.
do want
At this point it was Guzman, Fransen, or Lewis. With F. Sanchez’s shoulder surgery Fransen probably makes the team out of spring. I’d rather have Lewis than Guzman.
Agreed.
I would have preferred kicking Frandsen to the curb. He has no future with this team and his attitude does not help. He was given a shot at 2B and did not impress. He had an unfortunate injury that delayed his progress further. Such is life. He will be insignificant this season should he make the club. I would have much rather seen Guzman’s bat off the bench.
Between Huff, Ishikawa, and Pill, Guzman just doesn’t have a niche to fill in. If you’re subbing in for Huff, it’s gonna be Ishikawa (preferably during home games), and Pill looks more like the real deal for the team’s next home-grown first baseman. Guzman isn’t a first baseman, he was playing first base because he was terrible everywhere else. From the start, Guzman was a poor solution to a messy problem.
Why does Sanchez wait till late January to have surgery, when he could have easily had it done one or two months ago? man, Alderson was my fav pitching prospect…
Brian
He had the surgery on Dec 23rd. He’s the link.
blogs.mercurynews.com/extrabaggs/2010/01/22/freddy…
A day before Christmas!?!?! His kids must have been pretty pissed.. haha
Sanchez has made 14M in his career. I seriously doubt his children had any problems with there Christmas.
He still has a shot at opening day, at least it is not as bad as Ned Coletti knowingly signing Jason Schmidt to a hugh three year contract knowing he had a small tear in the rotar cuff.
it will be interesting to see who gets the nod at 2B if Sanchez isnt ready to go on opening day.. I would let Uribe start there because I want to see his bat in the lineup on opening day, hoping that if he picks up where he left off last year and Renteria gets off to a slow start, Boch would consider replacing Rent with Uribe at SS since I do believe he is our best option at short.. that would be the day.
he didnt wait till January, he had the surgery last month…the Giants just withheld the information for whatever reason…
thanks, I didn´t know that…
seriously the pirates should pick him up and DFA Pearce or Raynor which u could work out a trade with the Marlins to keep Raynor in the system
I completely agree with you. It seems like the Pirates are getting some great chances to get good players. They may want to consider picking up Golsen or Guzman and work out a deal with the Marlins for Raynor. I’m sure the Marlins would be game. The only issue with Golsen is that the Pirates don’t need another outfielder. However, they could use his fielding and hitting capabilities. As for Guzman, he can hit, play all infield positions, but plays them horribly. Hands of concrete. In the minors, they even tried him in the outfield with little success. If he doesn’t work on fielding, he’ll be in the minors the rest of his career. I wonder if he’s ever tried catching?
this move should tell you something about this guys defensive ability. the giants are in need of a bat with promise like this guy, but he can not field enough to warrent a 25 man roster spot. look at his 2009 spring training numbers…that is the story. Jesus Guzman needs to go to an AL team and focus on hitting. This guy can can flat out rake. he has the ability to be a big time power hitter in a DH role. i wish him the best, but it was obvious after last season that he was not an option for the giants or any NL team for that matter. I still with Fred Lewis was let go instead of Guzman because I think Guzman could have had some trade value to a team willing to give the guy a chance.
I think Sabean wants in on the Dayton Moore vs. Omar Minaya storyline.
To Brian Sabean, Please you must sign Johnny Damon, no matter if you go over the budget a little bit or not. What is the big deal? We have come this close.Imagine, If we had one more bat, we will almost for sure win our division and maybe the pennant and world championship!!!!!!! I hope we get the one more bat so we wont have to see the best pitching staff in baseball looosing all of those one run games.It is just the biggest waste of talented pitching. All because we dont have enough hitting.It is not just a guess, but we kwow this from last year so come on Mr. Sabean, just do it. In this life you must sacrifice something to get something and then you will see the dividents. It all will be worth it in the long run, you will see. Also,We should have traded Guzman with a pitching prospect or any combonations, with all the talent that we have , in one of the best farmclubs in baseball,to an american team to be a DH. We could have gotten a pretty good bat, someone like Hector Cruz.So Brian, please dont stop here, whatever it takes, just do it.So far you have done a pretty good job this off season, so go out there and get that one more piece of the puzzle and if you do, watch all of the money that you will get back at the end ofthe year. GO GIANTS, I WILL SEE YOU AT SPRING TRAINING IN MARCH!
I completely agree the Giants needed to add power this offseason. Whether they improved enough in the offseason is yet to be seen given the uncertain health of Derosa and Sanchez as well as Huff’s ability to regain his old form. Our biggest hole in the lineup right now is a leadoff hitter. Rowand is not the answer. My focus would have been to go after Chone Figgins this winter. He could have been the difference maker in this otherwise slow lineup.
Amen.. Chone Figgins should have been our top priority if we werent going to be in the Bay or Holliday sweepstakes.. if you dont add either of the two best power hitters, and they were by far the two best FA power hitters, you gotta go after the guy who compliments your lineup and ballpark the best, that guy being Figgins.. he is the high average, high OBP, speed guy at the top of the lineup that this team desperately needs, capable of stealing 40+ bases and scoring 100+ runs.. I was SHOCKED his name wasnt mentioned in the same sentence as the Giants this entire offseason.. he woulda been an ideal pick up.
Lets do the math… the Giants spent just about $18 MM this year on FAs. Chone got what 10 per? So Chone $10 MM which moves Panda to 1B and no need for Huff. Say they still sign DeRosa, Uribe and Molina, that would be $25 MM. Now granted if thye landed Figgins, maybe they would not have gone after DeRosa because of the lack of funds and may have “kicked the tires” on Nady for LF or could have been a catalyst to pull the trigger on the Uggla trade.
But at the end of the day Chone would have been awesome in SF and would have gave us a legit leadoff guy. I think it came down to having too many holes in the lineup with not being able to grab someone out of the Huff/Branyan/LaRoche to bolster the middle of the order due to 1B not being open. With the current signing you have a solid 2-3-4-5, rather than a solid 1-2-3 which we would have had with Chone.
Makes perfect sense, but I think you are getting a sure thing in Figgins (who got $9M per– 4 years @ $36M if I am not mistaken), SURE thing meaning you know what you are going to get.. the Giants are a small ball team and he is the perfect catalyst for that kind of team.. he thrived the last couple of seasons with the Angels since they played a similar way, they were a station to station team who played fundamental baseball.. they get guys on base, either steal their way to 2B or the next guy advances him over.. they go 1st to 3rd better than any team which is how they manufacture runs..with our ball park we need to be able to do the same so we need the right personnel, and he woulda been a step in the right direction.. he is going to hit .300 while drawing a ton of walks (drew 101 last season which was nearly twice as much as the Giants leader in walks had- Pablo @ 52 BB’s).. not only does he always seem to get on base, but he stole 40+ bases in four outta the last five years which is how you generate offense, something this team is starving for. while Huff and DeRosa are nice pieces IF they live up to expectations (which shouldnt be too high, career averages will suffice), we are still lacking a high average, high OBP, speed guy at the top of the lineup.. unless Schierholtz, who would be the fastest guy in Bochys projected starting lineup since he should start at RF, leads off, we will have a tough time getting our leadoff man on and in scoring position making it more difficult to manufacture runs.. there is definitely a problem if you think Rowand (.319 OBP, 30 BB’s to 125 K’s in 2009) is a leadoff guy let alone a guy that belongs at the top half of the lineup.