Today is Opening Day for all of the Giants’ full-season minor league affiliates, so I wanted to run through the rosters of each of the teams and highlight a few players to watch on each team. The four full-season affiliates are: AAA Fresno Grizzlies, AA Richmond Flying Squirrels, high-A San Jose Giants, A Augusta Greenjackets. We’ll start with Fresno.

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Fresno Grizzlies:

Last year’s record: 74-70, 3rd in South Division

Manager: Bob Mariano

Roster: Click here.

Players to watch: P Chris Heston, P Mike Kickham, P Heath Hembree, OF Gary Brown, OF Francisco Peguero, OF Roger Kieschnick » Continue reading “Giants Minor League Preview”

(Flickr/sjsharktank)

A week ago, I tackled the hitters. Now it’s the pitchers’ turn. For the pitching staff I’ll be guessing whether they’ll be UNDER or OVER their projected ERA+.

Matt Cain: 125 ERA+ in 2012, projected 121 ERA+ in 2013. What is there to say about Matt Cain? He’s the rock of the staff, the unquestioned team ace. He’s the Opening Day starter. He’s gotten better each of the last three seasons, and in 2012 posted a career high in strikeouts and a career low in walks. He’s never made fewer than 31 starts in any full season, or thrown less than 190 innings. I’ll confidently predict the OVER on his projection. » Continue reading “2013 Giants ZiPS Projections – Pitchers”

Yesterday, the Giants announced the full list of non-roster invitees (NRIs) to major league training camp. NRIs are players who aren’t on the 40-man roster who nevertheless will start spring training with the major league squad.

Spring Training at Scottsdale Stadium

This may not sound like big news, and it isn’t, for the most part. However, every year one of these guys sneaks on to the roster and ends up contributing in a big way. » Continue reading “Giants Non-Roster Invitees And An Interesting Development”

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”

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.

(Thomas Hawk/flickr)

Andrew Baggarly reports that closer Brian Wilson is experiencing some arm soreness.

The Giants adjusted the pitching schedule for Brian Wilson due to some mild soreness in his right arm, manager Bruce Bochy said.

Bubble wrap, you guys! Use it!

Alex Pavlovic tweets that Heath Hembree has been reassigned.

Heath Hembree was just reassigned to minor league camp. Had a great month with the big league club.

Pavlovic also blogs that Nate Schierholtz was a late scratch yesterday due to a strain.

Nate Schierholtz was a late scratch from the lineup because of what he called “a light strain” in his right forearm. Schierholtz first felt the strain a little more than a week ago, and said swinging the bat has been problematic at times.

Again, bubble wrap.

» Continue reading “Woody’s News Roundup Mar 21, 2012″

(Thomas Hawk/flickr)

The Giants are currently 2-2 in Cactus League play, so feel free to be pleased or horrified by that as you see fit. No one has blown up yet, so I’m calling it a success so far. More importantly, they beat the Dodgers today, and I don’t care if it’s a meaningless Spring Training game or not, that always feels good.

A few tidbits from that victory over the Dodgers from this afternoon:

• Barry Zito made his first start of the spring, throwing two innings with reportedly good location and command, at least enough to strike out Matt Kemp on three pitches. His velocity was clocked at 81-83mph, but there seem to be some questions about how accurate that reading was, so it may have been more like 84-86mph.
• Melky Cabrera’s bid to endear himself to Giants fans certainly got a big boost. Cabrera hit a home run from both sides of the plate today, his first time facing the Dodgers in a Giants uniform.
• Potential closer of the future Heath Hembree saw some action today, and apparently did a good job of inducing some Cody Ross style bat tosses. Bay City Ball has some gifs.

In other news, Dan Runzler apparently got reassuring news from Dr. James Andrews. Runzler will likely not be ready until sometime the second half of April, but will not require surgery to repair the re-aggravated injury to his left lat.

And, because no news update would be complete without Buster Posey, San Francisco’s most beloved son was running the bases today, at about 60-70% of normal, including touching the bases and taking the curves going first to third and second to home. Progress, if nothing else, is always a good sign.