The Giants have signed Josh Banks to minor league contract. He is, like most guys signed to minor league contracts, not very good. Which is to say that he was capable of doing this: Pitching IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA BF Pit Str Ctct StS StL GB FB LD Unk GSc WPA aLI RE24 Josh Banks, W… Read more →
So Chris Ray is gone to the Mariners. That, in and of itself, is unremarkable. Ray gave the Giants 24 innings of forgettable, yet competent work, mostly in low leverage situations. His on-field impact on the Giants pennant run was closer to Lou Seal’s than Buster Posey’s. And yet! Chris Ray did play an important part by not being Bengie… Read more →
The Giants probably signed their most interesting minor league contract of the winter, in the person of 38 year old reliever Marc Kroon. Kroon started out as a flame-throwing prospect for the Mets, and ran all the gamut of flame-throwing prospect problems: home runs, walks and Tommy John surgery. He has spent the last few years in Japan, where he… Read more →
The top five prospects in the Giants system are probably the least controversial part of our list. The top three, in particular, are a whole level above the other prospects in this system. That said, I think there is at least one ranking that may surprise the minor league gurus. 5. Thomas Neal, OF 24 years old in 2011 Otis… Read more →
According to Andrew Baggerly’s twitter feed the Giants are close to a deal with Jeff Suppan. “Jeff Suppan’s deal w/Giants, once finalized, includes $1 million if he makes club. He has an out clause in late March if not added to roster” I would assume that the roster in question is the 40-man roster, and that Suppan would be the insurance starter stashed… Read more →
Our favorite writer and projection machine Dan Szymborski has an ESPN insider article that a lot of Giants fans probably won’t like. The whole article is available to insiders, but the gist is that the Giants have some obstacles to repeating, mainly lack of starting pitching depth, injury risk, and regression from key offensive players. There’s more, but I think… Read more →
In an otherwise slow couple of weeks, there is one nugget that I thought would pass along. On the KNBR Hot Stove show last week, Bobby Evans said something to the effect that the Giants didn’t really think that Mike Fontenot was the ideal backup for SS. This is probably because Fontenot – otherwise a fine player- is kind of… Read more →
As you’ve no doubt heard, Zack Grienke was traded to the Brewers over the weekend for Alicides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain, Jake Odorizzi, and Jeremy Jeffress. I like Odorizzi and Escobar seems like a decent enough player, but that price tag certainly makes you want to go “wait, why can’t we have a Zack Grienke? Sabeeeeeaaaaannnn” in a whiny little kid voice…. Read more →
I do hate to contribute to one more piece to the internet’s glut of Cliff Lee chatter, but I’ve been somewhat baffled by some Giant fans’ response to the Cliff Lee signing. There’s a vocal minority (or perhaps even a majority) that seem to think that even after the Cliff Lee signing the Giants have a better rotation than the… Read more →