(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”

Sergio Romo is pretty good at this baseball thing. (image: flickr/Dinur Blum)

According to the usual suspects, the Giants have avoided arbitration with everyone’s favorite pocket-sized frisbee slider machine with a two year deal for an as yet undisclosed amount. Henry Schulman is predicting a 2013 salary in the neighborhood of $3.5M, about the midpoint of the arbitration numbers submitted by both sides, with a 2014 salary in the $5M range, plus incentives. That guess seems reasonable to me, and I’d certainly expect to see incentives both for games finished that would push Romo’s salary closer to comparables for full-time closers (closer to the $10M range) and potentially for innings pitched/games available as well, considering the lingering concerns over his durability.

This post will be updated with specifics of the contract if they become available shortly.

Update: Numbers are now being reported and salary will be $9M over the two years, with $3.5M in 2013 and $5.5M in 2014. No word on any incentives or escalators.

Last Friday was the deadline for teams and players eligible for arbitration to exchange salary figures for their arbitration hearings, and as with every year, there was a flurry of signings on that date in order to avoid the hearings. The Giants had seven arb-eligible players this year: Joaquin Arias, Gregor Blanco, Santiago Casilla, Jose Mijares, Hunter Pence, Buster Posey, and Sergio Romo.

The team has, so far, come to agreements with four of them, and Sergio Romo and Joaquin Arias exchanged figures with the team. It’s worth pointing out that both Arias and Romo will almost certainly sign contracts before their hearings. The Giants almost never let arbitration cases go all the way to hearing – they’ve only gone to six hearings since the arbitration process started in the mid-’70s. » Continue reading “Hunter Pence, Buster Posey, Others Avoid Arbitration”

(Flickr/cseeman)

Earlier this week Benevolent Overlord Mac wrote up a post about Ryan Vogelsong’s appearance on the USA roster for the World Baseball Classic. Today, the complete rosters for all sixteen teams were announced, and there are nine Giants littered across the rosters of teams from around the world. Joining Vogelsong on the U.S. roster is Jeremy Affeldt. Pablo Sandoval, Jose Mijares, and Marco Scutaro will all play for the Venezuelan team, Angel Pagan and Javier Lopez will play for Puerto Rico, and Sergio Romo will play for Mexico. In addition to those eight, Giants minor leaguer Clayton Tanner will play for the Australian team.

Here’s the thing: I love the WBC. Love, love, love it. I understand why most people don’t, and I understand why many of the best players from around the world avoid it. It doesn’t matter to me. Few things get me going like athletic competition mixed with blind, fervent patriotism. Many fans out there would rather their team’s players not participate in this event, and while I understand the sentiment, I disagree. If, say, Sergio Romo tweaks his knee or his elbow pitching for Mexico, will I be upset? Of course. But I understand that that’s the sort of thing that comes with the territory of being an elite talent in a globally popular sport.

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Andrew Baggarly posted a story today that states that the Giants are in serious negotiations with Brandon Lyon, the right-handed reliever who pitched for Toronto and Houston last season. Lyon had a fantastic year last year, pitching 61 innings in his two stops last year, striking out a career high 9.3 batters per nine innings while only walking fewer than three. » Continue reading “Assorted Thoughts On The World Baseball Classic And Brandon Lyon”

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”

HAIL TO THE BUSTER, THE BUSTER POSEY. (Flickr/John Pastor)

I hate to bring it up, but, man. That last inning was torture. Oh, there’s a chance for the Reds to come back? I’m going to throw up.

But Scott Rolen struck out on a Sergio Romo no dot slider and everyone takes a deep sigh of relief.

And the Giants are moving on to the NLCS.

Wow.

Wow.

Are there any words for this?

I mean, aside from composing an aria about the wonderful, amazing majesty of Buster Posey. That’s a given.

Go celebrate, Giants fans. Then Sunday, the whole process starts all over again.

What Giants baseball does to fans. (MS Paint illustration by Mac)

This was a game in which both teams tried to hand the game to each other, but no one took it.

This was a game in which both teams tried to be worse than the other team, and it kept going on.

Sergio Romo was not his best, but that’s no reason to panic. But people will.

Santiago Casilla was still himself, so that’s nothing new.

The Giants offense proved themselves to be somehow competent enough to score seven runs, but they still lost. They also left 15 men on base, which is not entirely encouraging.

And also, Scott Hairston. Man, what does a gal have to do to never see this guy face the Giants again? Those two home runs were downright annoying.

But in the end, this game is up there in frustrating levels like the one against the Braves. That a game equally, if not more, that frustrating occurred again in the same season — let alone the same month — is complete and utter clownshoes.

At least the Giants are good at that*.

Hey, the trade deadline’s in a little more than 12 hours from now. That’s gonna be swell**.

*stocking up on Excedrin Migraine and Headache and ice cream
**more Excedrin Migraine and Headache will be necessary

So. I can’t entirely explain what happened today in Philadelphia. I know that Matt Cain hit a home run off of Cole Hamels. Then Cole Hamels hit a home run off of Matt Cain. And the MLB on FOX broadcast was terrible, just terrible — Sergio Romo apparently uses a changeup as his go-to out pitch and what is a slider I don’t even.

And the game was tied in the later innings. It wasn’t exactly a pitchers’ duel, contrary to what FOX announcers kept saying. I mean, it was practically a homer fest at Citizen’s Bank Park today.

So the tied game went into extra innings and. They won on a bunt single. Hit by Gregor Blanco.

Clownshoes.

(Photo: artolog/Flickr)

Like many sabermetrics-oriented folks, I believe that the closer’s role  is fairly overrated. Premium, expensive closers get injured, forget how to throw strikes, or simply get slapped around like all pitchers do; no-name, late-round prospects get converted to relievers and turn into shutdown 9th inning guys. If there’s a mysterious Closer Mentality – an ineffable thing that lets pitchers grit their teeth against the pressure, glare lasers into home plate, and get the job done – then I think it’s something a pitcher has to have to succeed at the big-league level, period. Every player in baseball will be on one side or the other of clutch situations, and not all of them come in the ninth inning.

But I’m willing to admit that some of that closer-agnosticism might be a result of having been a fairly spoiled fan over the last few years. It’s easy to forget, but before the face-dwelling monstrosity and on-camera antics and injuries to his arm bits and strike-zone-finding organs, Brian Wilson was a really, really good closer. Like, crazy good. The rest of the bullpen has spend the past three seasons being above-average to unbelievable. I haven’t had to spend a lot of time carving tiny wooden fetishes to the God of Closers because if he exists he has already blessed me and all Giants fans with his beneficence (mostly in the form of Sergio Romo, obviously.) » Continue reading “Giants Recap: Let Us Never Speak Of This Terrible Place Again”