Here's what baseball prospectus says about the Giants' 2008 draft. You need to be a member to see all of it. I hope this doesn't alert the fair-use police.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7823

A Giant Mess?

San Francisco's draft received nearly universal praise in June, but their top four picks remain unsigned, and there is little positive to report on where the negotiations are concerned. Catcher Buster Posey, the fifth overall pick and recent Golden Spikes award winner, has had few discussions with the Giants, and there's no reason to believe that he's backed off from pre-draft talk that had him looking for a big-league deal worth over $10 million. The problems don't end there. Supplemental first-round pick Conor Gillaspie slipped a bit in the draft when he told teams how much money he'd need, which one team categorized as "delusional." In addition, third-round pick Roger Kieschnick and fourth-rounder Brandon Crawford remain well apart from the team in negotiations.

Here's the link:

http://itmightbedangerous.blogspot.com/2008/06/calling-up-headley.html

The money quotes?

"My only answer is that in a perfect world (which rarely, if ever, occurs), I prefer bringing guys up when you have the reasonable hope that they'll never go back down to the minors. That is strictly my opinion, not anyone else's. This was the case with guys like Khalil and Jake. All too often, though, you see guys come up, struggle, then go back down. That roundtrip ticket can do a lot of damage to a player's confidence, and that confidence is a key ingredient to success at the highest levels. Along those lines, think about what it did for Kouz last year when Buddy stuck with him and kept putting him out there. We all expected Kouz would hit, but I'm confident that the decision to keep him in the big leagues throughout his struggles was an element in his eventual success, even if just a sliver.

There are examples at nearly every level. During spring training of 2003, Nick Swisher was having a monster camp. After being drafted in 2002 he had finished the season in High-A ball, and the plan all winter was to start him back there. Due to his great spring, some people starting pushing for Nick to go to AA even though he didn't even have a year's worth of minor league at-bats yet (I'm sure I was one of them). I specifically remember Keith Lieppman, the Farm Director of the A's, saying, "If he goes to AA and struggles to the point where we have to send him back to A ball, I won't even know where to begin to pick up the pieces." Nick Swisher was not a guy who lacked for confidence, by the way. So, Nick started back in A ball, killed it, moved to AA, and so on."

After Angel Villalona made a diving catch of a line drive in tonight's game, Greenjackets play-by-play announcer Nick Barrale made a comment about how AV's defense is pretty amazing, and said that when the team takes infield practice, Villalona regularly plays third base, and "picks it clean out there."  I don't know how much of this is just home announcer bias, but I found it of interest that the Giants haven't totally given up on him playing at third, even though *many* scouting reports say he can't stick there.

Also, Barrale explicitly welcomed listeners from the Bay Area tonight. I wonder if he gets any listeners from Georgia.

Anybody else on the McCoven listening to this guy? I think he's pretty good. Not Dave Flemming good, but since it's only a matter of time before some team steals Dave Flemming from us, I like Barrale as a back-up.

But hey, I only listen for the commercials. Life happens one dream at a time.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7429 April 26, 2008 Prospectus Today Lincecum and Lefty by Joe Sheehan   Remember the 1972 Phillies? I don’t, either. I was a year old, and unlike Rany Jazayerli, I was not already in third grade at that age. The '72 Phils, however, get talked about quite a bit because of one very special pitcher. Left-hander Steve Carlton joined the team near the end of February, traded away from the Cardinals to resolve a contract dispute. The tall southpaw had been a good, but not great pitcher in his career to date, making three All-Star teams and winning 20 games in 1971, but struggling enough with his command—207 walks in two seasons—to keep his ERAs in '70 and '71 relatively high.   (Sheehan ties this all in to Tim Lincecum here.)

JT is breaking him in:

http://www.mercurynews.com/giantsheadlines/ci_8929302

 

Special instructor J.T. Snow is excited to see John Bowker in the major leagues, and not just because the 24-year-old outfielder hit home runs in the first two games of his career.

Snow's commute got a whole lot shorter, too.

Giants General Manager Brian Sabean had asked Snow to make a trip to Triple-A Fresno this week, to help teach Bowker the finer points of playing first base. They began that process in earnest Monday, with Snow standing watch as Bowker took groundballs.

Snow liked Bowker's hands, his footwork and the way he snapped short throws to second base. "You can usually tell after a few groundballs if a guy has some athletic ability," Snow said.

And?

"He didn't let any go between his legs," Snow said.

Daniel Ortmeier might have gotten an entire spring to practice at first base, but Bowker is taking the crash course. The Giants are desperate for a left-handed bat at the position now that Ortmeier has abandoned switch-hitting to focus on the right side.

Bowker said he played first base at Rio Americano High School in Sacramento and has taken groundballs in instructional league play. He doesn't have any game experience as a pro, unless you count a half-dozen minor league scrimmages at the end of camp this spring.

"I don't know if it's natural for me, but I can handle it," he said.

• Injured shortstop Omar Vizquel took groundballs and tried jogging on his sore left knee, but pulled the plug after

a few minutes. He was scheduled to be re-examined by a doctor Monday night.

When he returns, Vizquel acknowledged that he probably will not have the same range.

"It will be hard to be the same as I was last year, for sure," the 11-time Gold Glove winner said. "With that brace, I don't think you can move the same way. You'll probably be limited or restrained."

Trainer Dave Groeschner said Vizquel might be overly pessimistic. "Clearly he's frustrated by this, and I can't blame him," Groeschner said. "But I think he'll work out of this. I think you will see the same guy. It's hard for him to envision that, the way he's feeling right now."

Some scouts believe Vizquel lost a step last season, especially to his right, but that Pedro Feliz's exceptional defense at third base helped to obscure the issue.

Vizquel was clear on one matter: shortstop is his only position. "I don't have any business at second base."

• With his banner game Sunday, Bowker became the first Giants player to drive in at least four runs in a game before his 25th birthday since Jay Canizaro on Aug. 21. 1996, according to the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat. The Giants had seven RBIs by players younger than 25 Sunday, the most in a game since Will Clark drove in seven runs all by himself on June 22, 1988.

McCovey Chronicles, I give you Vasili Spanos! Who?

Continue reading this post »