Friday Links: NRIs, Randy Winn has skills, and Tim Lincecum is good. « Bay City Ball – A Giants Blog

Friday Links: NRIs, Randy Winn has skills, and Tim Lincecum is good.

Happy Friday, have some links to go with your day.

  • I recently noticed the Giants’ motherpage has a neat non-roster invitee section that lists all the NRIs for the coming camp. It’s your normal mix of prospects with journeymen-type players looking for another shot at the majors.
  • The always interesting Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times has an article up on Randy Winn and his half-court shooting skills. Randy Winn, so classy.
  • I really enjoyed this giganto-list-post from Bill James at Grantland titled ‘The 100 Best Pitchers’ Duels of 2011’. The Giants make the list at spots #3, #5, #6, #11, #14, #18, #27, #32, #41, #44, #50, #53, #80, #88, #93, #94, and #96. Tim Lincecum made the list nine times; Matt Cain four times; Madison Bumgarner two times; and, Ryan Vogelsong once. Hmm, that’s weird. I wonder if Mr. James knows that he left out Barry Zito? Surely a mistake was made. I’ll go ahead and email him.
  • David Schoenfield, our Sweet Spot Blog master, has a new blog post up on the five best rotations in baseball – shockingly, the Giants fail to make the cut; though, Dave does make mention of the Giants’ rotation. If I had to quibble, and this is the Internet so why not, I’d move the Giants into the top five while bumping out the D-Backs. I love Kennedy and Hudson, but Cahill is good, not great, and the back-end of Collmenter and Saunders isn’t terrible, but it’s also not very good, either. Though, as Dave notes, the D-Backs have the Giants beat on depth, I’m just not sure about talent.

UPDATE: I’ll go ahead and tack this on: Andrew Baggardly tweets that the Giants and Sergio Romo have agreed to a one-year deal. Hooray for more sliders!

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nice that the giants got 17 of the top 100 until you consider the fact that they lost 11 of them (assuming I counted right)

Remember it's Top-Bottom-Back Up--right now we have a very good Rotation--The BEST in our Division--with the AZ's on our tail. I re-looked the Rangers--I would have faith in Yu succeeding being new to the league while Feliz as your Five Guy is pretty Bad Azz! If Nathan fails as the closer, Feliz can slip back into that role and Ogando is a pretty stellar Five Guy. I'm biting on the Ranger Donut--for now! 29 Days til Pitchers and Catchers Report!

It takes real cajones to put the giants below the 5th best rotation, but I guess one to 4 is fine, Zito is the knock down and drag out guy.

I LOLed at that SweetSpot post when I saw it. Really, the Rangers' projected rotation will be better than the Giants even though it contains two guys who have ever made a single MLB start?

That 100 Best Pitcher Duals was GREAT--thanks for sharing. As for the Best Staffs, I think the issue is when you get to Four and Five as well as Depth--and that is where the Giants falls short and where their season may fall short as well. "I'm not sure I believe in Vogelsong, I definitely don't believe in Zito, and soft-tosser Eric Surkamp is the only insurance depth." I think Schoenfeld read my mind--or I've been reading his. I could not quickly rank the Top Five, but my gut says AZ's OUT and TB IN!!! Top-Bottom-Depth, I really don't think the Giants have a Top Five Staff--Top Ten--probably--maybe even Definitely!! Proof will be in the games--30 days until Pitchers and Catcher Report and Real Life takes over! Enjoy it ALL!

Seems like he's taking quite a bit on faith with the Rangers. They're most likely really really good. But they've got two huge adjustments that I need to see before crowning as instant brilliance. I'd knock both them and the Diamondbacks (who I don't really like; I mean Ian Kennedy has a career FIP of nearly 4, and as recently as 2010 it was 4.33) out and put the Giants and the Rays in. Whatever you want to say about Hellickson, Matt Moore could pretty easily be the best left-handed starter in the AL this year and I may be shorting him some in making that prediction.

I read that post by Schoenfield yesterday and thought the same thing. Not to mention he is quite high on the Yanks staff. Are there any non roster invites that stand out to you?

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