January is a slow baseball month. Last January, the Giants signed Brian Burres, Todd Linden, Wilmin Rodriguez, and Gregor Blanco. Obviously the Blanco signing turned out to be pretty important in regards to how the season went, but the point is that the major signings are over. Sorry folks, the Giants aren’t trading for Justin Upton or Giancarlo Stanton and they are going to sign Michael Bourn. The time for major roster moves has come and gone.

As I laid out in a series of posts last week, the Giants have up to three roster spots still available. There’s a spot in the bullpen, a spot for a sixth infielder, and a fifth outfielder available. Let’s run down the candidates for each spot. » Continue reading “Those Last Roster Spots”

I’ve taken a look at the position players, now it’s time to take a look at the pitchers.

Starting Pitchers: Tim Lincecum (probably), Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, Ryan Vogelsong, Barry Zito

WARNING: CONTROVERSIAL AND POSSIBLY UNPOPULAR OPINIONS AHEAD

About a week ago, Buster Olney created a bit of a hubbub amongst Giants fandom when he ranked the Giants’ rotation only the ninth-best in baseball. Here’s the thing – I’m not sure I disagree with him. » Continue reading “A Look At The Giants Roster: The Pitchers”

So. This happened.

#SFGiants Guillermo Mota suspended again by MLB after testing positive for PEDs. This time, 100 games. Drug was Clenbuterol.

— John Shea (@JohnSheaHey) May 7, 2012

Yeah.

Again.

I can’t say this news was expected. I also can’t say that I’m not confused by it, mainly because, as Grant at McCovey Chronicles mentioned, “If whatever he was taking was performance-enhancing, I sure as hell hope he saved the receipt.”

Of course, this means that the Giants don’t really have a long reliever at the moment and they’re down to 11 pitchers. It’s possible they’ll just use this space to activate Aubrey Huff from the DL today, but I wouldn’t put all my money on it.

There are three options in Fresno who are on the 40-man roster: Dan Otero, George Kontos, and Eric Hacker.

Otero and Hacker have already seen big league time this season and both are definitely reasonable to have in the bullpen. Kontos’ numbers, though, are solid bullpen numbers. 6.14 K/9, 1.84 BB/9, 0.61 HR/9, 3.34 FIP in AAA this season. And in a hitter’s league like the PCL, those are very reasonable.

I’m not saying that Kontos will become bullpen hero or anything, but if he can get those numbers to translate in the big leagues, it’s a good option to have available if Zito is Zitonian.

This isn’t a situation I’d like to see Heath Hembree called up in. He’s a late inning guy and the late inning roles are already covered by Sergio Romo and Santiago Casilla. As much as I would love to see Hembree in the bigs, it’s not worth it to rush him and have him be a middle of the game guy or do some long relief. And with Otero, Kontos, and Hacker being options to fill in the long relief role, no need to even consider Hembree right now.

Giants make it official: Purchased contract of Eric Hacker from Triple-A. Optioned Dan Otero to AAA. Transferred Brian Wilson to 60-day DL

— Alex Pavlovic (@AlexPavlovic) April 27, 2012

Not really surprising, honestly. It’ll be interesting to see how the journeyman does in his first start with the Giants. Hacker previously pitched for Fresno in 2010 before pitching in the Minnesota Twins’ organization. Following his stint with Minnesota, he pitched in the Giants’ organization again, starting the year off in AAA Fresno.

(SD Dirk/flickr)

Let’s start with the good news! Pablo Sandoval is now the owner of a shiny new seventeen game hit streak, which also happens to the be the longest hit streak to open a season by a Giant. The Panda passed Willie Mays on the list with his ninth inning single off Reds reliever Sam LeCure. Pretty snazzy company if you ask me.

Now that we’re done with the good news, on to everything else!

Remember that series against the Reds late last July? Remember how we collectively cursed the souls of every inhabitant of Great American Ballpark? Add Mat Latos’ smug, Children of the Corn looking face to the scenario. Nightmare fuel, yes? That was pretty much today.

A few high (err… low?) lights to illustrate the point.

First, the most distressingly 2011-y of all, Brandon Crawford went down hard diving out of the way of Drew Stubbs sliding hard into second base and was moving pretty gingerly afterwards. Word on the Twitter machine is that he hyper-extended his elbow bracing his fall, but that they believe he’s fine. We better damn well hope that’s the case, because otherwise the middle infield options are quickly approaching “reanimated zombie 1977 vintage Johnnie LeMaster” territory. » Continue reading “Post-game Recap: Mat Latos Loses “T”, Alas Does Not Lose Game”

Giants, left, is defeated by baseball, right. (Illustration by Mac)

Back when I first started drafting a recap for this game, here’s how it started:

Ryan Vogelsong went a solid six innings, giving up one run on three hits and a walk, and striking out eight, including a fantastic mow-down of the Mets 3-4-5 after a leadoff double to Daniel Murphy. With the game tied at 1-1 in the seventh, Manny Burriss (somehow!) on second, and Mets sinkerballer Mike Pelfrey beginning to reach the upper bounds of his pitch count, Vogelsong was removed from the game for Brandon Belt. Belt fought off a couple of tough pitches and came through with a single to score Burriss. A bullpen conglomeration of Daniel Otero, Javier Lopez, and an extremely well-rested Santiago Casilla closed out the game, giving the Giants a hard-fought 2-1 win against a resurgent Mets squad.

At least, that’s how things went in my own private universe. » Continue reading “Post-game Recap: Baseball Baseballs All Over The Giants”

Let’s start here:

Roster at 26. Theriot, Burriss, Hensley on the club. Whiteside optioned. Sanchez made club. Edlefsen optioned

— Andrew Baggarly (@CSNBaggs) April 4, 2012

Okay, sounds good. Not bad, not great, but good. Decent. Eli Whiteside being sent down to AAA Fresno makes sense. Having Hector Sanchez up is a bit iffy, though. Mainly because it seems like he could use a little more time in AAA. » Continue reading “The Giants Announce 25 Man Roster: It Actually Makes Sense!”

According to a series tweets from Andrew Baggarly, the list of players added to the 40-man roster has been released.

More to come when there’s some sort of explanation to Angel Villalona’s apparent return to the Giants organization.