The Giants held a perfect 5-0 record since the All-Star break before dropping a 3-2 result this afternoon against the Braves. San Francisco's lead in the NL West drops to 2.5 games ahead of the idle Dodgers. Here's the latest Giants hot stove news, courtesy of CSN Bay Area's Andrew Baggarly…
- The team isn't close to any trades, Baggarly writes, as they are completing their evaluations of their minor league prospects and figuring out who they want amongst the available players on the trade market.
- Pablo Sandoval made an appearance at first base today, causing Baggarly to wonder if the Giants could move Sandoval to first and look to acquire a third baseman. Giants GM Brian Sabean "is known to value an experienced player such as the Phillies’ Placido Polanco" and the club could go big and make a move for someone like Hanley Ramirez, though Baggarly considers a Ramirez deal to be "highly unlikely."
- The Giants have "heavily scouted" the Cubs' and Royals' Triple-A teams. The latter could be related to a possible move for Jonathan Broxton, who Baggarly says the Giants would be interested in "if the price drops." The Mets are one of several teams who are reportedly interested in acquiring Broxton.
- The Giants are looking for bullpen help but aren't willing to move major prospects for a first-rate closer.
why are the giants scouting the cubs AAA?
Vitters. They think that, just because we have Stewart and Valbuena on our roster, that means Vitters is an extraneous player at that position. I believe we need to get Vitters up now to improve our ability at third and get some more pop in the lineup.
I really doubt that’s what they think..
Or, being the notorious trash heap collectors they are, are looking for some RP arms they can spit shine and throw in the pen. Worked with Kontos.
I doubt they want your average, borderline has been, 3B prospect that’s worse than Belt, and not worth moving Panda over to first for
Vitters is only 22. I don’t think he qualifies as borderline hasbeen,
Blake DeWitt?
They had Blake Dewitt 2x already. His name is Fontenot and Theriot.
Could have (and should have) gotten him 2 years ago and passed.
Yea, they definitely shouldn’t have let Fontenot go. I was surprised they didnt try for DeWitt when he was DFA’d a couple months ago, his career line is better than what Theriot is very likely gonna post over the second half, plus you could platoon them. He’s definitely an upgrade over Burriss.
Yeah, I didn’t think it was a big thing at the time, but the 2nd base situation was the Giants’ worst set of moves this off-season. Sanchez was never coming back. Fontenot and Keppinger would have made a good platoon, with Fontenot getting most of the playing time, Kepp starting against lefties and serving as their RH pinch hitting option. Theriot has been pleasantly not awful, but he’s not good, and giving 138 plate appearances to Burris is simply bizarre.
Ichiro ?
Pablo also made the E that allowed the 1 unearned run today but I’m not in the bash Pablo’s D category. The one knock on him playing first is that he’s a natural lefty converted righty. The Giants won’t let him change mid-season. Putting Arias in at 3rd is definitely an upgrade defensively, but he’s not the ideal offensive player that you want on the corner IF spot.
The long term solution if Belt doesn’t make it is Posey, like it or not he could become the necessary one to move with Hector Sanchez already proving to be a hitter and a pair of C in the minors also highly touted. Joseph lit it up both on offense and D in the ASF game.
Hector is barely an ML catcher defensively, and for all the hype about his hitting ability he holds a .281/.286/.383. Not bad for a backup catcher, but it’s not like Pablo in 2008 where they just had to find a way to get him into the lineup.
Sandoval isn’t a great defensive 3B, but he’s okay. Moving a guy like him across the diamond doesn’t make any sense, especially when it’s not like there’s some top prospect he’s blocking.
Belt’s been disappointing, but he’s still been an above average hitter on the year, by wRC+. There’s simply no reason not to play him, given the alternative is Arias or Sanchez.
I believe that statistical argument lacks for small sample size. Yet in still I don’t believe giving up on Belt is the right move. However, what the individual stat argument lacks further is the depth chart of the organization.
1B is and has been a weakness since JT through Lance Niekro and now into an as yet unproven Belt who also doesn’t have a full sample size of mlb ABs so judgement is premature.
So until we see for example: Belt taking a pitch to let Pagan steal 3B and get the RBI by flying out on the NEXT pitch, instead of forcing Pagan to go back. Or not getting so caught up in trying to identify strikes that he K’s on 4 outside corner changeups when he needs to pull a ball to advance Crawford to third. What the stat argument fails to consider is instinct, those are 2 gross instinctual errors in Belt’s judgement.
C is a great strength in the organization. So as yet Belt’s unproven, but I am not convinced that the strength in the C position isn’t better suited to move one of them to 1B for the long term health of the org.
Those are reasonable points. Belt has looked truly awful the last few days. Still, even if the organization would be better served by eventually moving one of their catchers to 1B, that’s not an upgrade today. Moving Posey to 1B and playing Sanchez every day means they take a major hit defensively and a smaller one offensively. Whiteside is terrible. Tommy Joseph and Susac are interesting prospects, but neither one of them is lighting up the minors with the bat. If one of the catchers really forces the issue (like Pablo did 4 years ago), then it’s worth considering, but as much as Belt has been struggling, you don’t bump him for a guy with a .286 OBP.
Which is why my original post was “IF Belt doesn’t make it” as in the long term. I’m rooting for him, I’m for giving him the entire year to make it ala Jason Heyward who finished 400 ABs last year .227/.319/.389. But Belt is older already so they don’t have the same kind of time to evaluate. And if you saw Joseph in the AS futures game you saw the above avg C he’s prospected to be. In an admittedly SSS vs LHP (71 ABs .338/.368/.479).
So the bottom line is they have to secure a GOOD 1B man. I am of the opinion that Posey’s offense would increase at 1B. Granted that’s not yet the right move, if it is, with Hector and Joseph vs LHP splitting time behind the plate I’m more than happy with that. Also MLB now is a 2 C league, not that Posey and Hector aren’t fine, but that requires Belt to be at least as patient as his OBP was, if he can’t do that his numbers will plummet way worse than Hector.
Polanco? Really? At least playing Belt gives him experience and a chance to blossom into a really good player. Polanco’s already in the middle of wilting towards the end of his career.
3b is weak all over the league. Very few even average ones on teams who even think they can make the PO.
Are they one of the teams maybe looking at Hanley Ramirez perhaps? Just curious.
They could have gotten Youk for nothing (like the Chisox) from Boston. Let him split time between 1b/3b. youk still plays top of the line 1b and average “D” at 3rd.
Youk was traded just after Belt had a 11 game hot streak. The Giants were hoping Belt had turned a corner on his hitting.
Giants looking for some insurance in the pitching department when they should look for help at the corners or up the middle. They are fine in terms of pitching ( although you can never have to much pitching) and should instead focus on becoming more well-rounded offensively.
Good take. Pitching will be their first priority especially given Casilla’s recent failures. Great setup guy, not great closer.
Or…..the Giants can just leave Belt at first!
Hanley would be nice. My guess it wouldn’t take as much as one might think to get him, given the money/years left on his contract, his apparent issues with management, and the Marlins current record…
Then again, maybe I’m wrong and it would take a boat load…
Not sure why G’s would be scouting Cubs’ AAA team, but if we’re talking Cubs trades, then I think Jeff Baker might be a useful pickup from the Cubs – hitting .297/.337/.519 against LHP this year – can play corner OF and all IF except SS. A definite bench upgrade over Burriss.
Reed Johnson – .338/.378/.558 would be an upgrade over Christian too – I’d also take him over Schierholtz.
I’ve been high on Baker since last year. But the Cubs probably have a fairly high asking price since he’s a low $ guy, otherwise I think they would’ve gone after him by now.
As a lifelong Giants fan and big fan of Lincecum, I think the time has come for the giants to part ways with him. We have two solid starters locked in for 5 years, and Timmy’s stock is still high despite his performance this season. Analysists suggest its a psychological issue with his location, meaning that he could significantly help bolster any teams starting rotation. Its a shame Victor Martinez is hurt, because a straight trade between the tigers and giants would help both clubs make their teams better seeing as how detroit has fielder at first everyday anyways. Either way, we could acquire a long term heavy bat for Timmy and Scheirholtz.
No dice- the growing theory about Lincecum espoused outside the close watch of the organization is that Lincecum has thrown too many pitches. What the Giants know isn’t being made public which doesn’t quell that suspicion. What is known is that Lincecum was pitched endlessly in college, and at all levels being a strikeout pitcher makes him throw more pitches. Right now there’s probably not a team out there that would take on the 30 mil the Giants owe him. Furthermore the Giants are much better off allowing Lincecum to try to reinvent himself in the offseason. They could then evaluate him outside of the view of the league and potentially sign him much cheaper than the 5/100 they offered him this offseason. I don’t think Lincecum wants to leave the only real cool weather city with a good chance of winning deep into PS for years to come, and I think he can reinvent himself to being an effective control type pitcher.
I heard from an insider for the giants they’re trying to trade for ichiro..? for schierholtz any thoughts?