SFGiantsGuy

So it looks like the Giants have sewed up their rotation by re-signing Ryan Vogelsong to a one year deal for 5 million.  I don't love it, I don't hate it.  If the Giants were not going to seriously upgrade that spot in the rotation, then why not gamble on a Vogey comeback?  Like I mentioned previously, I'd rather have an incentivized and angry Vogey for one year than an Arroyo or Nolasco or Phil Hughes for 3 years.  And given that Hughes received 3 years and Nolasco received 4 years, both from Minnesota, it's a good bet Arroyo will get his 3 years.  The Giants seem to have a plan for their rotation and that is to wait for Kyle Crick and Edwin Escobar and maybe a couple of the other guys that had breakthrough 2013 minor league seasons to augment Bumgarner and Cain in the near future.  In the meantime, they're getting capable place holders (Lincecum, Hudson, and Vogelsong) on short term deals to keep the spots warm.  I can't argue with the strategy.  The Giants of

The Giants have had a pretty solid offseason so far and it's not even December yet.  They have checked the boxes that needed checking and still have a couple boxes left unchecked.  If I had my druthers, I don't think I would have done anything differently than Sabean and the gang has done thus far. First came the Pence signing.  That HAD to happen.  And it did.  We haven't seen the other big ticket outfielders sign yet but when Jhonny Peralta is getting 4yrs/53M and a platoon outfielder (Chris Young) receives over 7M then Pence's contract starts looking like at least market value. The next priority after Pence was deciding on what to do with Lincecum.  The Giants decided he was worth an expensive 2 year gamble and re-signed Timmy before he had a chance to test free agency. Again, this is a win.  Lincecum is not what he was in his Cy Young days but he still has great secondary pitches. He can still be a consistent winner and a plus in the rotation, he just needs to f

I've been a bad Giants blogger.  I haven't written since mid-season, since the All-Star break after Tim Lincecum threw his no-hitter.  Honestly, I was just depressed.  The 2013 season went down the tubes shortly after that and the Dodgers caught fire.  I just couldn't find the time to write in between all the tears.  That being said, it's funny how looking at that last post now leads somewhat nicely into this one. Why?  Because the Giants just re-signed Lincecum to a 2 year 35 MEELION dollar contract. Prior to Timmy's no-hitter, he was on the trading block.  Teams were nibbling and Sabean wasn't exactly saying he was off limits.  Then the no-no came and fans went wild and all of a sudden Timmy was not just untradeable from a marketing perspective, but he became a re-sign candidate.  Fast forward through the end of the season and Lincecum pitched well enough to make the Giants believers that he was evolving into an actual pitcher and not just a ridiculously

So the All Star break is here.  The Giants are sending 4 players to New York for tomorrow's game.  Buster Posey, well deserved, making his 2nd consecutive appearance in the midsummer classic.  Madison Bumgarner with his first of what I predict to be many All Star game appearances (hope I didn't just jinx you Big Country).  Sergio Romo with a well deserved spot even if he had to "sneak" in via the crazy pitching rules.  And Mar-co Scu-ta-ro gets to see his first All Star action in what has been a solid if unspectacular career.  3 out of the 4 players are first timers.  Pence lost out on the final vote, but honestly he wasn't deserving over the other guys on the ballot.  Ian Desmond is the one that really got the shaft, not Puig or Pence though Freddie Freeman also earned his All Star credentials.   Pablo missed the original fan vote in and didn't deserve to go either  Hopefully he doesn't gain more weight between now and the resume of play on Friday.  When

With the trade deadline at the end of this month, it's a good time to check on the Giants most marketable assets.  I've reiterated that I would not want to give up Kyle Crick for almost anyone though I think I'd do it for a controllable starting pitcher like Gallardo.  But aside from that, Crick stays put.  Especially with his output of late.  Here is the Top 10 Prospect Round Up for July: Kyle Crick (1-1, 1.46 ERA, 1.38 WHIP in Single-A) Notes:  Crick has come back from his DL stint and has quite simply dominated.  He has struck out 28 batters in 15 innings pitched since being activated and overall he's pitched 24.2 innings and struck out 40.  He remains the Giants top prospect and his value is only increasing. Gary Brown (.246 AVG, .306 OBP, .733 OPS in AAA) Notes:  Gary Brown turned it on a bit in June.  He started hitting homers in bunches and lifted his OPS over 100 points.  Overall his numbers still don't look great but his hot June at least put him in

So this season is quickly starting to resemble 2011.  And that is not a good thing.  The only silver lining is Buster Posey is healthy and hitting.  Otherwise, this looks a whole lot like 2011 except our pitching sucks.  With Posey out in 2011, the Giants pitching was phenomenal to keep the Giants afloat even though the line-up couldn't crack a pinata.  Then Sabean dealt Zack Wheeler for Carlos Beltran and we all know how that turned out. Are we going to have a redux in 2013?  The Giants have seen many important contributors hit the DL throughout the season.  Vogelsong, Casilla, and Pagan are missing major time.  And we've had Pablo's annual DL stint and subsequent grumblings about his fitness.  Scutaro is playing with bendy fingers as is Brandon Crawford.  Andres Torres is starting pretty much every game, which in 2010 was a great thing.  In 2013, it's not so good. So what does Sabean do?  This team has fallen under .500 (unbelievable) and looks like it's about

I am going to start a new addition to SF Giants Guy wherein I will quickly post the numbers of our top 10 prospects at the beginning of every month. It is based on the Top 20 Prospects found on the San Francisco Giants website (link here ). Here is the June roundup: Kyle Crick (0-1, 0.93 ERA, 1.97 WHIP in Single A) Notes: Crick was just recently activated from the DL.  He has only thrown 9.2 innings thus far in 2013.  Gary Brown (.213 AVG, .278 OBP, .608 OPS in AAA) Notes: No way around it, Brown has been a disappointment this year. Some Giants fans were hoping that Brown would be a midseason call up this year. Not going to be the case with these numbers.  Chris Stratton (6-3, 3.77 ERA, 1.22 WHIP in Single A) Notes: Nothing flashy here about Stratton. He's doing well but not really opening eyes. At least not based on the stat lines.  Joe Panik (.290 AVG, .378 OBP, .765 OPS in AA) Notes: Panik was an underrated pick when the Giants drafted him. He'

The Giants just finished up the first 50 games of the season and there's a lot to like, a lot to improve upon, and a lot of important questions.   San Francisco's record stands at 28-22 and they're tied for first place with Arizona.  After losing 3 of 4 to the Rockies in Curse Field, the Giants rebounded by taking 2 of 3 against Colorado at home and knocking Denver into 2nd place.  They improved to 18-10 against the NL West and have the best intradivision record in the National League.   However, the starting rotation remains unstable.  The Giants starters stats after a third of their season looks like this: Cain           (4-2, 5.00 ERA, 1.19 WHIP) Bumgarner (4-2, 2.90 ERA, 1.01 WHIP) Lincecum   (3-4, 4.75 ERA, 1.40 WHIP) Zito            (3-3, 4.13 ERA, 1.52 WHIP)   Vogelsong  (2-4, 7.19 ERA, 1.73 WHIP)  That's not pretty.  Cain has been getting better and his WHIP is fine but he had a short outing today; throwing a lot of pitches in the first two innings o

So we're 6 weeks into the season and the Giants stand alone in first place with a 23-15 record.  They've done it with some amazing timely hitting and solid bullpen work.  But they sure as shit haven't done it with their strength - starting pitching. In fact, it's pretty impressive what the Giants have done thus far given the fact that Ryan Vogelsong has an ERA in the high 7's, Matt Cain has only recently gotten his ERA below 6, and that Tim Lincecum remains an enigma.  Barry Zito has been nearly untouchable at home (33 IP, 2 ER) but has been clobbered in his only 2 road starts (6.1 IP, 15 R, 10 ER).  Hopefully he can figure out how to pitch in the road grays.  And then there's our other lefty, Madison Bumgarner, who is shaping up to be the staff ace in 2013. (Side note:  The Giants rotation is so eerily similar to that Braves rotation of the 90's, wherein each season a different ace stood above the rest.  Cain is our Maddux.  Bumgarner our Glavine.  And

It's that time of year where predictions are due.  With that in mind, I'll present my non-scientific and most likely completely wrong picks for 2013.  However, my predictions were not terrible last year (view them  here ), I nailed 3 of 6 division winners, 6 of 10 playoff teams, the AL Cy Young, the ALCS, and the WS NL representative.  So overall, not terrible.  Here they are for the '13 season (Bold = Division Winners, Italics = Wildcards): AL East:   Blue Jays , Rays , Yankees, Orioles, Red Sox AL Central:   Tigers , White Sox, Indians, Royals, Twins AL West:   Angels,  A's , Rangers, Mariners, Astros NL East:   Nationals , Phillies , Braves, Mets, Marlins NL Central:   Cardinals , Reds , Pirates, Brewers, Cubs NL West:   Giants , Dbacks, Dodgers, Rockies, Padres ALDS:  Rays vs Tigers, Jays vs Angels NLDS:  Phillies vs Nationals, Cardinals vs Giants ALCS:  Jays vs Tigers NLCS:  Giants vs Nationals World Series:  Tigers vs Nationals W

It's the 1st day of 2013 so why not look back on the Giants magical season of 2012? I again disappointed myself by not actively blogging during the Giants unbelievable championship run but hey, when you're SFGiantsGuy you are actually going to the games and not blogging about them, amirite?  I went to 4 playoff games this season.  2 devastating losses and 2 glorious wins.  I was a bear witness to both NLDS home losses.  Monstrously deflating.  I followed that up with front row seats to both the NLCS Game 2 evener and the World Series Game 1 shocking beatdown of Verlander.  The postseason World Series championship run was so overwhelmingly thrilling that after each game, I was too exhausted to write about what I had just seen.  Next thing I know it's 2013 and I haven't updated this blog since the conclusion of Game 4 of the NLDS. I can't really say (or type) anything hasn't been said or written before about the Giants October magic.  It was a crazy ride and i