Today we break down the Triple-A Fresno Grizzlies roster. There are a few prospects to watch, including key guys like Gary Brown, and rising stars like Mike Kickham. It’s definitely a different Grizzlies roster from previous years, somewhere between the minor league fodder-laden seasons and the 2010 season, when Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner were both there. I think that… Read more →
All stats are from the period between November 11 and 24. The Arizona Fall League ended last week and a few other Giants, new and established, joined the fray in the Caribbean leagues. The AFL section includes a final wrap of the stats for each player. In the Dominican League, a pair of minor league journeymen got their start in… Read more →
All stats are from the period between November 4 and 10. Trying a new format for the Winter Leagues Digest, plus peep the additional reporting on the Puerto Rican League, the Nicaraguan League, and notes about the Colombian League. As always, let’s start with the Dominican League. Name Position League Team 2012 club Acquired Edward Concepcion RHP DWL Cibao San… Read more →
All stats are from the period between October 24 and November 3. Last week, something sorta big happened. Please forgive the long layoff between these posts. The magnitude of a Giants World Series sweep delayed us, but only a bit. Let’s get started with what the Giants are doing in the Dominican League. Name Position League Team 2012 club Acquired… Read more →
I am going to piggyback on Chris’ – and Crazy Crabbers’ – earlier post on Bochy’s confounding bullpen usage. (For now, I’ll leave his perplexingly slow hook during Tim Lincecum’s Monday start alone.) Instead of making Chris’ graph more complex, I’ll make it even simpler. I’m going to focus on four pitchers: Sergio Romo, Dan Runzler, Jeremy Affeldt and Javier… Read more →
Eli Whiteside vs Chris Stewart Eli Whiteside got hurt early this spring, and Chris Stewart has taken advantage of his opportunity, thumping out a .318/.400/.545 line in a handful of at-bats. His minor league track record indicates that he might actually be a bit better of a hitter than Whiteside, but not so much that you’d actually notice. Other things equal,… Read more →
The bullpen was a major reason why the Giants were able to play better than .500 baseball this past season. When your team collectively fails at the plate, every little bit of run prevention, be it defense or pitching, can be a huge difference between wins and loses. Fortunately for the Giants, their bullpen did an outstanding job of preventing… Read more →
In today’s post, I’m catching up to a few random thoughts that I’ve had over the past week, but haven’t had the time to get to. Brad Penny’s Velocity Before the Giants signed Brad Penny, one of the positive indicators that he had going for him was that his velocity was still regularly in the mid-90′s. Penny ended up throwing… Read more →